in there. the galapagos trip was the best part of the bag. great show today. >> always awesome with you, maria bartiromo. maria: have a great day. seize the day. "varney & company" begins now. stuart: good morning, everyone. how much did amazon founder jeff bezos pay for "the washington post"? $250 million. how much is "the washington post" being sued for? $250 million. yes, folks, this is the covington case. attorneys for one of the students, nicholas sandman, says the young man was smeared by false and defamatory articles published by the "post." the president is tweeting about it this morning, saying in part covington students suing wapo. go get 'em, nick. fake news. all right. things are a little more calm on the china trade front. the talks still going on in d.c. president trump hinting that the march 1st deadline might shift.

any headline, leak or statement will move this market. so until something breaks, it's fairly steady as she goes. the market as in the dow gained just eight points tuesday, down maybe a couple of points at the opening bell today. watch the federal reserve. interest rates, they are talking about interest rates this afternoon. that could have some impact. you've got to say, though, this has been a terrific 2019 so far. every sector of the market is up. if that keeps up through this month, it will be the first time that's ever happened. got it. stay there, please. you are about to see bernie versus schultz. the socialist versus the billionaire. "varney & company" is about to begin. why is howard schultz on every television station in this country? why are you quoting howard schultz? because he's a billionaire,

right? there are a lot of people i know personally who work hard for a living and make $40,000, $50,000 a year who know a lot more about politics than with all due respect, does mr. schultz, but because we have a corrupt political system, anybody who is a billionaire who can throw a lot of tv ads on television suddenly becomes very, very credible. stuart: maybe the man has a good point there. after all, money does talk in politics. that was mr. sanders, senator sanders, talking about starbucks founder howard schultz. okay. ash, how did mr. schultz respond? ashley: he goes on and says senator sanders already has had such a profound impact on the democrat party, but many presidential candidates hold up his self-described socialist views as their standard, but his camp goes on to say howard is proud to have built one of the most admired companies in america. he helped grow it from a small business into an organization that has directly created more than three million jobs here and around the world. that's a very good point. it wasn't like he just was, you

know, bequeathed this money. he started a small business and to his credit, has created this global behemoth. stuart: let's bring in brad blakeman. he's with me on the set in new york. i know, i'm absolutely convinced you want howard schultz to run. you really want him to run, don't you? >> run, howard, run. look, stack up his record against bernie sanders'. i think the guy has been in the senate probably one of the longest terms to date. he's passed three bills. i think they were all naming post offices. the guy is not a giant of legislation. what has his accomplishments been other than to be re-elected and have socialist dreams that can never be -- stuart: i think he's had a big accomplishment, if you want to call it that, which is to drag the democrat party way out there to the left, especially this medicare for all. he was the only guy proposing it back in 2016. now everybody's jumped on board. >> right.

this is the tragic effect of bernie sanders, dragging the party that was -- you could term progressive but i remember a time if you called a democrat a socialist, you were defaming them. now they get angry if you don't call them that. good luck to the democrats. stuart: what do you make of kamala harris, declared presidential candidate? looks like she was trying to move towards the center when she told business people success should not be vilified. >> well, strange that she says that in one breath, and the next breath she says we've got to get rid of commercial health care. we just have to get over it and have socialized health care. not in america. if she's trying to distance herself from the really far left of the party, she's not done a very good job of it. she needs to do it but i think her statements are not consistent. stuart: okay. brad, stay there, please. got a lot more for you in a second. want to bring in market watcher jim awod, jim is a money guy but

what do you think about democrats vilifying the rich? >> it has some political appeal. i was reading a survey today that most americans actually do want to increase taxes on the rich. i think they are staking out a position. the risk they run is that they go too left of the population and lose credibility. but it's in the early stages, it's not something i personally agree with but it does have political appeal and it's a pitch against trump and the tax law. stuart: there is strong sentiment in this country that the very, very, very rich, the tippy-top, whatever you want to call them, should be taxed more. >> i think it's fair to say they will be taxed more. the question is how will it be? will it be sensible? i don't think you will get anything through congress that's more than just a little bit incremental where they can say, you know, we did do the rich but we didn't destroy the capitalist system or the incentives in the country. stuart: quick check of futures, please. right now, we are down 13 points for the dow industrials. wait, let me go back to jim for

a second. it's been a terrific 2019. >> certainly. stuart: are we going to keep going up? >> more than any of us expected. i think in the short term, it will. the risk is you accomplish all the gains for the year in the very early part. with the fed right now on your side, there's going to be a china deal -- stuart: wait, wait, wait, that was a definitive statement. there is going to be a china deal. >> i think it would only be an accident if it didn't. the chinese want it, trump is in re-election campaign, he wants a good stock market, wants a good economy. a trade war would be destructive. whatever you think in the long term, in the short term it would be destructive. i think both sides are going to declare victory and they are going to hug each other and this will be the first round. i think it will be the first round. in two years we will have another negotiation. stuart: i think you're right, both sides will come together, hug each other. am i right? >> you are absolutely right. here's why. we have president xi who is president for life and we have

president trump who has to re-elect. trump needs a deliverable within his term to run on. stuart: yes. i think it will possibly be cosmetic as opposed to a deep change in the relationship between china and america. >> they hope to wait trump out. the problem is they can't. liz: i think he'll get something. i think he will. stuart: sure he will. >> it will be better than what we have. stuart: i'm sure the market will say that's great. off we go. >> those are ingredients for a new high in the market. stuart: i have some individual stocks that are moving this morning. you will know them. how about laz-e-boy. better profits and the stock is up 4%, hitting 33. however, cvs, there's one on every corner in florida, they didn't come out with a very rosy forecast. in fact, they were downbeat for their forecast and that stock is down 9%. that's premarket. big drop. attorneys representing the family of one of the covington high students announced they

were suing "the washington post" for $250 million. brad blakeman still with us. reaction to that? >> i think the kid is the goliath taker. i think this kid is going to have a lawsuit that is going to be maintained past an order that the oppositional "washington post" would terminate the lawsuit for summary judgment. i think the kid has been defamed and has been injured and "the washington post" and others are responsible and i wouldn't be surprised if there was some settlements, if not a trial. stuart: this is another example of the rush to judgment. >> absolutely. stuart: by the media, which really wanted to associate president trump with racial violence. >> absolutely. stuart: it's like the snart cmae or even the cavanaugh case. that was a different relationship trying to be established but again, it was an early rush to judgment that really backfired horribly. liz: by democrat con continueders, too. stuart: absolutely. i don't think we are seeing the

last of this. >> the standard against a publication is a lot lower, ordinary negligence versus malice. this kid probably has some college money coming. stuart: let's see about that. brad, thank you very much. good to see you again. one last question to jim awad while we have you. still pretty bullish, aren't you? >> yes. stuart: you still think if we get any kind of china trade deal, we go to what, 27,000, 28,000? >> some new high. but the risk is that everybody gets bullish and that new high is the high for the year. because you are getting to a valuation level here that's sensible but stocks aren't as cheap as they were in december. stuart: we are less than 1,000 points away from the all-time high for the dow as we speak. liz: we retraced $4.9 trillion since the december 24th low. stuart: is that right? liz: into the market. yes. stuart: i think president trump should use that. $4.9 trillion. >> wait for the tweet. stuart: check futures again.

we will open up in 20 minutes' time. we will be down 16 points for the dow but up on the nasdaq. nasdaq has been on a roll recently. huge winter storm, 200 million people in its path. it caused big problems already in the midwest. now it's heading east. new york, philadelphia, d.c., all getting hit this morning. big one. new threat from russia. putin says if america deploys missiles to europe, they will point their new supersonic missiles at us. that is a threat. venezuela's disputed president maduro closing borders to prevent aid from the country -- from coming into the country. maduro refusing to accept aid from countries that have recognized the opposition leader juan guaido as president. guaido spoke to fox business' trish regan last night. he says the aid could help pull his country out of the crisis. roll tape. >> we will have a fantastic opportunity this saturday to accept important humanitarian

aid that the government in venezuela has forbidden and we have a fantastic example to pull our country out of this crisis. thanks to the announcement by president trump, who has announced this operation by a coalition of countries from the world over. than anyone else in the world. on average, we'll live in eleven homes. and every time we move, things change. apartments become houses, cars become mini vans. as we upgrade and downsize, an allstate agent will do the same for our protection. now that you know the truth, are you in good hands?

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talk to your doctor about xarelto®. stuart: venezuela closing its border just as aid arrives. we've got breaking news just

coming to us about venezuela. what have you got? liz: coming from reuters, guaido's government is talking about a transition government with ranking socialists in maduro's government to join it. all opposition parties in venezuela support this. they like the idea of unity. it's in the law, do an interim transition government with members of maduro's government but not the top brass. this as saturday is the potential clash as 600,000 volunteers on the guaido side are lining up to get that food and aid across the border as they shut that. flights have been grounded, too. stuart: i will stay on venezuela. mary o'grady from this program yesterday. roll tape. >> he's holed up in there. we have cut off the electricity, we have cut off the water, we have cut off the financing, but i'll tell you, i think he's

still there because the cubans have told him if you step down, we kill you. and so -- stuart: really? >> yes. the cubans want him to hold on. stuart: that's dramatic stuff, isn't it? the cubans will shoot him if he tries to leave, maduro. joining us, lindsey singleton, former foreign service officer. you heard that, the cubans might shoot him if he tries to leave? what do you make of that? >> thanks for having me on again. thanks for the opportunity to respond to that. i'm a little skeptical about that claim and i'm not sure what it's based on. for a couple of reasons. cuba's sole currency in the region with its allies is loyalty, and by threatening maduro or even acting upon an assassination threat, it completely erodes that loyalty which is their sole currency. also, cuba doesn't have anything to gain by sowing increased instability in the country. they are focused on economic

stability for their own people. they are a rational actor so threatening maduro, threatening increased instability in venezuela does nothing for them and their ultimate goals. stuart: doesn't cuba get oil from venezuela? >> that's right. stuart: in return, don't the unions supp cubans supply doctors and security people? it seems like the cubans are almost running the place. >> that's not inaccurate. cuba has supplied doctors in exchange for oil as well as military and security personnel for years. this has caused a lot of resentment within the military which is one reason why there could be increased defections within the military which will ultimately help speed up maduro's fall. they have received an enormous amount of oil in exchange and they have been completely reliant on venezuela for decades. so it should come as no surprise

that cuba -- stuart: that's a pretty good reason for them to make sure maduro stays in power. i mean, that's a pretty good reason because your own country depends on maduro. but what happened to the special relationship with president obama established with cuba? i thought they were all pals and friendly. >> well, thanks for that question. it's a good one. i think it goes exactly back to cuba's goal of maintaining economic stability for themselves. you will recall that in 2012 and 2013, when chavez was dying of cancer, that's exactly the same time when cuba started negotiating with the obama administration and opening up a dialogue with the united states. they are looking for their own stability and they are hedging their bets. they hedged their bets in 2013 by seeing the writing on the wall with the fall of the chavez regime and now with the maduro regime, they could be doing the same thing. stuart: waiting for this

saturday deadline, 600,000 volunteers on guaido's side getting the aid into the country. much needed. lindsey, thank you very much for being with us again. always appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. stuart: we are now 11 minutes away from the opening of the market this wednesday morning. it's going to be a pretty flat opening. everybody's waiting for some kind of news out of the china trade talks, or something from the federal reserve this afternoon. right now, steady as she goes. the latest on the measles outbreak. 127 cases this year. washington state has declared a state of emergency because of it. health officials scrambling to get more people vaccinated all across the country. big story. it's coming up.

stuart: president trump's taken to the twitter account to talk about the canceled high speed bullet train in california. here we go. california now wants to scale back their already failed fast train project by substantially shortening the distance so that it no longer goes from l.a. to san francisco. a different deal and record cost overruns. send the federal government back the billions of dollars wasted. that just in from the president. then we have the measles outbreak. health officials are looking at new ways to vaccinate people. what have we got? ashley: ten states now are reporting measles, 127 cases at

least. many of them in washington, local areas in washington state have declared local emergencies. 94% of parents have their children vaccinated, which means how do we get to the remaining 6%? the cdc says they are looking at options making shots available to students and their families at schools, maybe examining whether drugstores can play a bigger role in doling out the routine vaccinations. the cdc does think that social media and other information on the internet have set a resistance among parents about the hostile side effects of vaccination. stuart: that's why facebook is going to crack down on anti-vacs posts. okay, i get the point. but does facebook know what's good information on vaccinations or what's bad information? do they know? liz: we don't know how they will make that decision, right? they are going to reduce and remove and demote certain

information of the anti-vaccine movement. facebook and google have been accused of spreading misinformation, causing misinformation to go viral that vaccines are connected to autism, that's been a disputed theory out there. adam schiff is the democrat who sent letters to both facebook and google about this. facebook now. it raises the question who's calling the shots at facebook to remove or demote this information, and what is quality information? who is the arbiter? stuart: who is going to decide, who's the gatekeeper, who decides what is good information on vaccination or what is bad information? facebook is going to do this? sorry, not so sure about that. are they going to pass judgment on my views of tax reform or tax cuts? liz: it raises that -- stuart: demote my views because they don't think i'm right? liz: it's the algorithm doing it. well, it's the people behind the algorithm. stuart: thank you, good stuff. where are we now? oh, it's not exactly a huge turn-around but we are looking to the positive side of the ledger, up about five points for

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stuart: today is, what, february 20th. so far this year, it has been a

terrific year for the stock market. every single sector of the market has gone up. every single one of them. if that keeps up until the end of this month, it will be the first time every single sector of the market has gone up two months in a row. never happened before. all right. we're off and running. it's 9:30 on wednesday morning. we open on the downside but not by much. look at that. five points lower, now two points higher. looks to me like this is a market on pause, on hold. i think it's waiting for news on china trade and/or the federal reserve. not going far thus far, up four. this is dead flat. how about the s&p? dead flat, down .03%. the nasdaq, it is up .04%. i can confidently say this is a flat market open. ashley: very confidently. stuart: gold on a tear, $1347 is

your number. look at walmart, nice gain yesterday. this morning, it backed up but not much, 30 cents lower. how about tesla? there's news on the company. it's down a buck at $304. we will bring you that news momentarily. who's with us? shah galanni on remote. he's having trouble getting to new york. elizabeth, you have a new name. "evening edit" liz. the dow is 1,000 points away from the all-time high. my feeling is this market just wants to go up. where am i going wrong? >> you're not going wrong. it's been acting that way, acting as if it's going to try and make new highs. it has a pretty good shot at it. everything is lining up. earnings are coming in very well. i think with the fed on the sidelines, there's no reason, no great impediment in the market's way other than china.

i have said on your show we will get some kind of deal, i think it will be a superficial deal, i don't think it will be a deep deal, but enough to move the market higher. if we don't get that, who knows what happens. the bottom could drop out. we should get something. stuart: we should get something. liz: goldman sachs and bank of america are saying wow, that government shutdown freakout in the media was a buy on the dip strategy. they are finding that consumer sentiment, retail spending were hit when people saw the shutdown and what media were saying about the effect on the stock market. why? because more middle class people own stocks. the freakout happened, people shut down on spending temporarily, then it bounced back. stuart: market just wants to go up? >> right now i think the fed getting out of the way has allowed the market to go into more fundamental mode, earnings, the overall economic growth. to your point, i think the other piece we didn't really think about was consumer spending, it was the first year in nine years people are getting their 401(k) statement on the year and it was

down. so for that middle class investor, there's more democratization of stock ownership. liz: that's the point. it hits spending. it was all connected with retail sales. stuart: we bounced back nicely in 2019. okay. i have got to find out why gold is on such a tear. shah, got any good ideas? >> well, there's a couple reasons. number one, it's cyclical. gold is a very cyclical asset class. what's happened now, we are coming up on five-year cycle, this is -- we are coming back to $1350 which is where there's tremendous resistance. it had a pretty free hand to go up and recently had an extra push with the fact the dollar dipped a little on account of the fact the federal reserve no longer destined to guarantee it's going to raise rates. weaker dollar is better for the price of gold. it makes it cheaper than foreign currencies. how high it can go, i don't know. 1350, it will see a lot of resistance. it has to break out from there. stuart: hold on.

i have head shaking going on to my left here. >> i agree with shah so emphatically on his first answer when we started the segment. that one, i'm totally off. i don't believe anyone can tell you why gold does what it does ever, because the dollar goes up, gold goes up, dollar goes up, gold goes down and vice versa. it hasn't traded with rhyme or reason for ten years. stuart: i'll tell you why it's going up. it is the chaos in british politics. >> that's certainly a factor. stuart: seven labour party members left, eight. utter chaos in a major economy. liz: interesting. stuart: deafening silence. i have to move on. i can't mess around with gold too long. i have got gold coins for the grandkids. walmart, okay. very strong earnings yesterday. only pulling back a little on the market this morning. i say that's a great economic

indicator. >> i think it's a great thing for those of us who own walmart but you have to remember, walmart generally does very well when the economy's not good. only stock in the dow up in 2008, walmart. ashley: interesting. stuart: sales were terrific. >> e-commerce is on fire. this is a real threat to amazon. i don't understand why people don't see that. it's a real threat to amazon. stuart: i will leave it at that. i think as an economic indicator, in the fourth quarter last year, this economy was doing very well. thank you very much. >> they can do well in both economies. i agree with you, it's all weather. i think they can do well when the economy is not doing well. stuart: we are on the same page. so far, so good. british regulators may block a proposed deal between walmart and a grocery rival. what's the problem? >> because they would be too big, the biggest grocery chain out there in the uk. they say prices will go up, quality will go down. they will have 27% of market share. the brits don't like that. stuart: at the moment, the

market is on pause. let's see, we are seven points higher for the dow industrials. just a tad below 25,900. better profit, higher profit at laz-e-boy. the stock up 7%. cvs, not so rosy forecast. when you do that, the market takes you to the cleaners. down 8% on cvs. big company, big stock, down eight. different story at oil and gas producer devin energy. they gave a rosy forecast and consequently are up 11%. the price of oil, where are we, 53, 54, $55.81 per barrel. look at the price of gal. ouch. now it's $2. -- i cashed in when it was $2.25. haven't driven since. the commodities company used to be a big backer of coal, now they plan to put a cap on their

coal output. they want to go greener. is that a good strategy? liz: the market analysts are saying watch what's going on in germany. it's not a good strategy. germany was going to cancel all its nuclear power plants. it was left stranded, empty-handed. it needs fuel, it needs coal to support people's electricity needs in germany. coal-fired utility plants. germany is still relying on coal. that is a warning shot to the green movement. stuart: stock's up. liz: if you are trying to get rid of nuclear power, you have to have something to replace it pretty quickly. now they are turning to coal. >> it's interesting if germany could buy natural gas from the united states. stuart: i didn't think about that. wouldn't it be great if we could ship the natural gas by pipeline from pennsylvania through new york state to the ports and then send it over to germany? we can't do that. liz: who brought that up? stuart: can't have a pipeline with natural gas going across new york. what a shame.

liz: remember the president brought that up with angela merkel? ashley: they will get it from russia. stuart: elon musk hits send on hi his twitter account too soon, had to walk back his production estimates. they are also talking about employees at tesla might be able to lease model 3. it's all minor league stuff. the stock is still at $300 a share. it's teflon. >> it is teflon. it's what we call a cult stock that people that believe in it, believe in it so much, they are not in it for it to go from 300 to 350. they are in it to go from 300 to 1,000. the problem with tesla is that it is a very binary outcome. it will either win spectacularly at some point or lose spectacularly. the risk, in my opinion, as a company that doesn't make any money and all these other issues, questionable management maturity, is that an okay term, i think nothing we would ever

touch. i talked about it a lot. but those holders in the equity are not worried about anything i just said. all they know is if this thing goes and tesla sort of reconstitutes the way we get batteries and all that, it's a $1,000 stock. stuart: they are true believers. here's a good story. amazon turning to the lord of the rings, trying to turn it into a tv series. the hollywood reporter says security is extremely tight. the show's writers are being kept in a secure room, no natural light to prevent leaks. that's a bit dramatic. liz: they have a story board for the whole season up there on the wall. with the lengths they are going to, it's really interesting, they are putting tape over the windows, they have a security guard outside. you have to have a fingerprint security entrance to get in. they are really protective. lord of the rings is a really exciting series and has a huge fan base around the world. >> wonder what would make amazon worried about something leaking to the media, like a tabloid or something. kind of interesting. >> it is.

i didn't think about that. stuart: good one. that was good. that was smooth. got right in there, lad. you have an opinion on this, shah? i kind of left you out because you are in baltimore, not in front of me. >> i think it's a great move for amazon. i think it's a big deal. i think if this is successful, i think it will set the stage for more production. this is a big production deal. it's really setting the tone. i like what they're doing. they don't want to have any leaks. little tough on the writers but this is a big deal for amazon. stuart: i'm sure they're well paid. it's that time. gentlemen, thank you very much indeed. all good stuff. check the big board. we just hit 25,900. okay. 902. we are up 11 points. kind of a go nowhere day, waiting for something on china trade and/or from the federal reserve. here's your big brother story of the day. google's nest security system came equipped with hidden microphones. problem is, they didn't tell their customers about them.

the microphones, that is. google says that was an error. judge napolitano coming up on that one. still no trade deal with china announced at this point. the march 1st deadline is approaching. coming up next, we have somebody who says that deadline will be moved back. there will be a deal this spring, so says our guest. but it's not happening by march 1st. extend the deadline, our guest says. he will make his case, next. did you know with vanishing deductible, you can earn $100 off your deductible for every year of safe driving? sing that. ♪ vanishing deductible, you can... ♪ ♪ earn $100... ♪ earn $100 off... ♪ off your deductible. ♪ deductible. ♪ for every year of safe driving. ♪ ♪ for every-- for every-- ♪

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and bleeding or bruising. blood clots that can lead to death have occurred. tell your doctor if you have pain or swelling in your arms or legs, shortness of breath, chest pain, rapid breathing or heart rate, or if you are pregnant, nursing, or plan to be pregnant. common side effects include nausea, infections, low blood cells and platelets, decreased appetite, headache, abdominal pain, tiredness, vomiting, and hair thinning or loss. i'm relentless. and my doctor and i choose to treat my metastatic breast cancer with verzenio. ask your doctor about everyday verzenio. stuart: just in from the bernie sanders presidential campaign. they raised $6 million in just the first 24 hours after his announcement that he was running. about 225,000 individual donors

and 10% of them say those donations will recur every month. give them the credit card and say charge me every month. bernie sanders off to a pretty hot start on the fund-raising side of things. right now, the dow industrials not off to a hot start at all. it's a go nowhere day. we are up .73. now we are down -- okay. 25,880 is where we are. british lawmakers, chaos in british politics. more british lawmakers have quit because of brexit. ashley: yeah. we had eight resignations on the labour party side, the opposition party. now we have three resignations from the ruling conservative party. theresa may's government has become even more of a minority. they quit, three female lawmakers quitting, giving a very dramatic press conference today basically saying the far right of the party has taken over and they just want to get out of the eu with no deal, and they can't do that. so they have quit.

they join the eight labour lawmakers to form an independent group with the possibility of more defections, if you like, on both parties. i don't think it's going to change the brexit in the short term because they wouldn't vote for the theresa may plan anyway but there's a real fundamental change going on. i think all this signals is a general election sooner rather than later. stuart: it's utter chaos and a general election will settle it. let's get to the china trade talks, deal, whatever you want to call it. greg, what's this march 1st deadline? you think it might be pushed back? why do you say that? >> because they don't have an agreement. they're not close to an agreement. i think that the markets have gotten ahead of themselves. there's now an overwhelming consensus that we will get a deal and maybe soon. we will get a deal but not soon. i think it's still months away. there certainly won't be a deal until you schedule a meeting between trump and xi. this is going to be a very high

profile ceremony. so getting a deal by march 1 is i think just about totally out of the question. stuart: do you have any -- i'm not suggesting you have inside information on this, but why do you say they don't have a deal yet? i mean, necessity are tathey ar it now. it gets to a high level this weekend. isn't that sort of progress? the president is saying that the march 1st deadline is not a magical date. >> right. it's not. it will get pushed back. but you look at some of the key issues like the monopoly of state-owned companies in china, you look at the issue of how do you actually enforce this thing, you look at still intellectual property theft. i think there are several big things that still will remain to be resolved. while i'm at it, we haven't approved the successor to nafta. that is languishing in the house. i think that's not going to go anywhere. and there's a threat of auto tariffs that i think is a very real threat in the next few weeks. stuart: here's one thing i have been saying a lot on this show.

if there is any kind of meeting between xi jinping and president trump, a handshake -- there would have to be a handshake and smiles. any kind of agreement reached in that summit situation puts the markets straight up. what do you say? >> yeah, i think that's right. but again, we're not there yet. i think it's going to come in may or june or sometime in that time frame. i think since the president likes the drama, who's up, who's down, i think between now and may and june, there will be a few days where it's not going to look too good. you've got people like navarro and other trade hawks who may say things indicating that we're not quite there yet. so this idea in the markets that we're just going to sail through, that a deal is a done deal, it's a pretty safe bet down the road. it's not a safe bet imminently. stuart: got it. want to talk to you about the socialists and the run they're making. there's constant talk of higher taxes on the rich, the green new deal.

do you think any of it will actually be passed into legislation and actually affect our economy? >> that's the key. obviously this is a story that the democrats have gift-wrapped for the republicans in the upcoming election, but the key is after the 2020 election, could the senate which will still be very narrowly divided, could the senate possibly pass any of this stuff? you would need 60 votes. i think the answer quite clearly is no. so all of this talk of a socialist agenda and higher taxes runs into the hard reality of who has the votes in congress. i would argue the votes aren't there to do any of this stuff. stuart: forget congress for a second. do you think a socialist could win a presidential election in america? >> highly unlikely. maybe a few states where that could be popular. but i watched trump in miami a couple days ago. he has the perfect foil. you give donald trump a foil and he runs with it. i think that is going to be a real problem for the democrats. stuart: got it.

good stuff. thank you, greg. see you soon. check the dow. this is a go nowhere day thus far. 18 minutes into the trading session, we've gone nowhere. we are up two points on the dow. that's it. a topic we cover frequently on this show, lots of jobs out there, not enough qualified workers to fill them. just yesterday, the head of the nfib, small business people, told me that job applicants are not qualified, can't pass background checks and fail drug tests. you will hear more about that, after this. trade? i want free access to research. yep, td ameritrade's got that. free access to every platform. yeah, that too. i don't want any trade minimums. yeah, i totally agree, they don't have any of those. i want to know what i'm paying upfront. yes, absolutely. do you just say yes to everything? hm. well i say no to kale. mm. yeah, they say if you blanch it it's better, but that seems like a lot of work. no hidden fees. no platform fees. no trade minimums. and yes, it's all at one low price.

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stuart: to the job market. listen to small business spokesperson juanita duggan. roll tape. >> sometimes we see that it's a skills gap, but many times, it is appearance, showing up on time, ability to pass drug tests or inability to pass a background check, things that don't necessarily require massive retraining. stuart: that's an interesting point, isn't it? come on in, becky frankowitz with the manpower group. you heard the problem as opined there. there's very poor quality applicants at the low end of the labor market. do you agree with that? >> yeah, what i would say, stuart, is i agree there's a

spectrum of reskilling required. some of it is hard skill, some of it is soft skill like appearance, communication skills. with seven million open jobs in our country, make no mistake, it is a workers' market. we are seeing employers start to respond. stuart: it is extraordinary, isn't it, that they should pick on that. people late to the job interview, they don't look good, they may be hung over. that's really poor quality labor, to be perfectly honest, isn't it? >> yeah, i would say we're really not seeing as much of that. what we're seeing is people come into the work force, companies are starting to relax the requirements around education and experience. we are seeing them tap into new talent pools and we are seeing them commit to upskill. so yes, i think we do have a small percentage of the work force that needs some training, new to the work force around how to show up for work, but much more prevalent, we are seeing the need for more workers in our economy. stuart: okay. are employers relaxing their

requirements? are they? >> yes. yes. we have about 30% of u.s. employers who are telling us today that they are relaxing the requirement on education and experience. let me tell you what that means. there's a difference between what is desired in a role and what is required in a job. for example, you might say for a computer science degree or computer science job they need a four-year degree. however, with a six-month coding boot camp, you can come out as a java programmer. around experience, we are seeing tremendous relaxation around what we call below the line. so below the line on a resume, five-year degree or four-year degree, five-year requirement around engineering. instead of five years in engineering, perhaps it's an adjacent role that you worked in for a year and with a little upskilling you are ready to be an engineer. stuart: so there's some wiggle room here. shift the requirements a little bit, you might get the job. that's good stuff. becky, i'm sorry i'm out of time. that's a very good point you raise. very intriguing to a lot of our viewers. thanks very much. the covington student who is

suing "the washington post" for $250 million, well, this is just the latest example of the media's rush to judgment, because they have such contempt for president trump. that's what underlies all of this. that's the nature of my take. we will spell it out, next. during the fall, everyone who . . you answer 'yes' to any of these questions: are you turning 65? do you have both medicare and medicaid? do you have medicare? and are you losing employer health coverage? if you answered yes just once, you may be able to choose a new medicare health plan right now. call humana at the number on your screen to see

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having to wait for it.

stuart: what do the names, seminole let, covington, kavanaugh, have in common?

rush to judgment. who is heart a logan? answer? the lone voice of reason. there is a deep hatred of president trump by the media and some politicians. hate is a very strong word. i think it is justified. the actor jussie smollett said he had been attacked. he is black and openly gay. the attackers he said shouted, this is maga country. the media in the left and linked it to president trump and racial violence t was a rush to judgment. smollett's story doesn't hold up. students at covington catholic high were in a faceoff during a march for life in washington, d.c. the world saw the video. the media concluded that the students had insulted minorities. a rush to judgment. the full video showed no such thing. the media was clearly eager to link maga hat wearing white students to racism.

"the washington post" face as 250 million-dollar lawsuit. judge kavanaugh faced extraordinary accusations of sexual assault during his supreme court nomination hearings. democrats engaged flat-out in character assassination. they rushed to judgment, thinking they could keep him off the high court. some of the charges against him lacked any proof. others were walked back. this is ugly. hatred sirred up for political ends. enter lara logan, much admired foreign correspondent who worked extensively at cpbs she pulled the plug on mainstream media. she said 85% of media are registered democrats f they. precisely, miss logan. there you have it. three examples after rush to judgment, driven by the media's hatred of president trump. and they're all saying the same

thing. so the country thinks it's true. that is a very sad commentary. but i will end this with question. what do you think they will do when he win as second term? the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ stuart: very modest movement to the upside for the dow industrials after 32 minutes worth of business. we're up 16 points. look at that, we're above 25,900. 900 points away from the all-time record high. check tesla. its top lawyer is leaving after only two months on the job. that is another negative headline that is not affecting the stock of the it is still up above 300 bucks a share. how about walmart. big move up on strong numbers. down today, dropping 2%, back to

$100 a share. big tech names, you have to check them all the time. look at them. all on the upside. apple at 172, amazon 1633, facebook, 163. alphabet is up and microsoft is up one cent, ladies and gentlemen. okay. you heard my editorial. at least i hope you did. the media rushed to judge students from covington high and the rest of them because basically the media hates the president. liz peek with us, foxnews.com columnist. liz where am i going wrong. >> you are not going wrong. stuart: if i was you can tell me. >> not just you. the country is aware of incredible bias, approval ratings for the media hit all-time low in 2016. have barely recovered. only 45% of the country trusts the mainstream media. that is pretty disgraceful standing for a group not long ago actually had the trust of the country. so why is that happening? because of this rush to judgment you're talking about. confirmation bias is what it is

called. they basically see a story that confirms their own bias about the president or about supporters of the president they will rush to put it out there and also, stuart, it is a heads up to the country that with the cutbacks we've seen in newsrooms, every organization has had them, there is less fact-checking, there is less actual reporting going on. it is cnn comes out with something, abc thinks maybe cnn is actually verified the story, so they rush in with it. it is really horrifying. i hope the standards begin to improve. i have to say, someone like lara, what is her name. stuart: lara logan. >> lara logan came out andwell exposed the bias, she is doing the country a service. she is not doing the republican as service. doing the whole industry a service. jill abramson, formerly at "the new york times." did the same thing. calling out these people saying hey, you're not being truthful, you're not being accurate. this is not what we need from

our media. what they're confirming president trump's attacks on media over the top as they may be, there is some justification for them. stuart: interesting, that the very end of lara logan's interview on the podcast, she said, i guess i've just committed professional suicide. >> she probably has. we'll see what the response is. stuart: we shall indeed. stay there for a second. more stuff to do here. be back in a moment. despite strong news from the consumer, we did have strong news from the consumer, the potential trade deal, that is a potential trade deal out there somewhere in the future, despite that, our next guest is cautious. he has turned cautious. his name is marc chandler. he is from, what is it -- >> global forex. stuart: all i got is a scott connection. why are have you turned cautious? you were the bull of the whole team here? >> getting to some levels that

are important technically where we stopped the last couple rallies, near 2800 in the s&p 500 and we've seen weaker economic data because we saw, we talk about the strength of the consumer, but last week we had a horrible retail sales number, industrial production number and what happened many people revised down q4 gdp before we get to q1. stuart: you're not a technician, you don't follow the charts? >> a little bit of a closet one. stuart: really? the charts are showing you we will go down. >> back in december, it was hard towards fair, that would make me greedy. pendulum swung back to the greed side. makes me afraid. stuart: there is tons of cash on the side here. >> that is what it seems like. in financial times an article said american households have record amount exposure to the stock market. earnings are high and expectations falling. take a little bit of money off the table. wait for a pullback to get in

again. stuart: should i sell my microsoft? >> i can't tell you what to do with your money. stuart: yeah, you can. >> i don't know how close you are to retirement. that is the key. stuart: say i'm almost certainly within six years of retirement. >> i think -- stuart: [laughter] >> six years. liz: you're not retiring. you will be sitting there. stuart: you might have to carry me out. that is another story. you will not answer the question, should i sell my microsoft? >> i like not a question what do you sell. how do you protect yourself. stops in the market. prudent risk manager than -- stuart: you're hedging and waffling. >> i am hedging. stuart: you're waffling too you amid it. >> i am. exposure to the stock market after 10% rally, first half of the first quarter. that is 80% for the whole year. that's a lot. stuart: studio audience there, you realize that, they're all laughing at you. i have you in a corner lad. >> you do. stuart: you're cautious.

i leave it at that. >> thank you. stuart: we'll see you again soon, marc chandler. >> thank you. stuart: all right, let's see now, liz peek still with me. she has a headline on foxnews.com and it reads "alexandria ocasio-cortez' amazon takedown shows progressive programs can do real harm." harm to who, liz? >> well harm mainly to people, low income people in america. these are people who now won't have a chance to get these jobs that amazon promised. i'm not talking about the 150,000-dollar a year jobs. i'm talking about the jobs amazon promised to train and hire people in the local housing projects for. those are the people who are the biggest losers in this defeat, certainly what it was, of amazon. let's take this broader. all these people out there with these progressive policies, it is astounding to me, they don't look to see where they have been actually implemented, and what the impact has been. as an example, california, lots

of environmentally friendly policies. electricity there costs 60% more than the rest of the country. they have driven last 10 years a million people out of the state. six million have left. five million come in. a net loss of a million. who are the people? they're low income people. they can't afford the cost of living in california which is a direct result of progressive policies. the tremendous zoning problems. i mean, you know, you could go on and on. i know i can't but the truth is it is really a, there are real life laboratories around this country including new york, where basically the very liberal policies really hurt not just high income people who are worried about their taxes going up but low income people whose cost of living is going up. stuart: if you're a municipal government of detroit or st. louis or a city in real trouble how do you attract big business to your area if you don't give them a tax break to

come on in? >> not a big tax break. you basically accommodate, you do just exactly what president trump has done for the country. you lower taxes and lighten the regulatory load. that is what every successful state has done. look at texas. where are the businesses -- i think california lost 1800 businesses last year. they went to texas mainly. why? because they have low taxes. abundant natural resources obviously and a low cost of living. honestly, i think i was on the show the day that amazon announced they were coming to new york. i said short the stock. it was a crazy idea to me, with all the country, with all the cities out there vying for their second headquarters, that they would choose one where there is this push for unionization, paid leave, all these things that basically raise the cost of doing business and make it harder to be successful in new york. i really was astonished. >> progressives sometimes hurt the people they claim to help. >> that is exactly right. stuart: liz, thank you.

>> thank you. stuart: big hour coming up here on "varney." senator bernie sanders raising a record 6 million bucks in the first 24 hours after announcing his presidential run. i say the election will be a fight between socialism and capitalism. waiting on the moderates, will they enter the fray? good question to ask. google rolling out an update of the nest system. part of that update was the voice assistant, except users didn't know there was a microphone on the device to begin with. didn't know that. sounds like big brother to me. mcdonald's got a boost from uber eats delivery. the franchisees are not happy. they say uber is taking too much of a cut. a lot to cover this wednesday. it is the second hour of "varney & company." ♪ what if numbers tell only half the story? at t. rowe price, hundreds of our experts go beyond the

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by going to righttobeforgotten.org. vo: if you have search results that are wrong or unfair, call reputation defender at 1-877-492-6705. stuart: ten minutes ago we were up 10 points. now we're down five. right around break even all day long. ashley: yep, not so rosy forecast from cbs. look what happens when you do that. your stock goes down, 8% on cbs. better profits la-z-boy, look what happens there, up 5%. la-z-boy up a buck 75. putin, as in vladmir, warns that russia will target america with new weapons if america deploys missiles to europe. tell me more.

ashley: part of his annual state of the nation address. he was full of fire today. indeed he made that threat. he said these new xircon missiles can fly the speed of sound and range of 620 miles. if the u.s. deploys intermedia range missiles in europe he will target not only the host countries that have those weapons but also target u.s. decision-making centers. he was full of blood and thunder today, putin. he is upset that the u.s. pull out of the 1987 intermediate range nuclear force treaty. he is putting the u.s. on notice. stuart: i believe he makes an annual presentation to the media and takes questions. ashley: yes he does. stuart: that is coming up real soon. ashley: yes. stuart: he is dropping in popularity. ashley: the economy is not great in russia, right now. let's be honest. stuart: venezuela, troops, venezuelan troops, that is, not letting humanitarian aid into the country.

plus a government representative said they're closing maritime borders with aruba and curacao. here is the country's opposition leader speaking to trish riege an on this network. roll tape. >> we will have a fantastic opportunity this saturday to except important humanitarian aid that the government in venezuela has forbidden and we have fantastic example to pull our country out of this crisis. thanks to the announcement by president trump who has announced this operation by a coalition of countries from the world over. stuart: by the way, there is late-breaking news on venezuela. what have we got? liz: interim president juan guaido talking about a transition with the shah not with the top brass with the maduro government. he is putting wedge between the socialists in the chavez era and

ma row era. the opposition parties are for unity in government, for what guide dough -- guaido is talking to the some of the socialists for interim government. stuart: maybe that would help. we talk about this all the time, content is king when it comes to streaming. how far do you go to keep your next streaming project secret? amazon is going to great lengths, they have a streaming series coming up on "lord of the rings." they have been secretive bit. we'll tell you about it. more headlines on tesla. this is the latest. the top lawyer is leaving. only been on the job two months. doesn't hurt the stock. it is teflon. it stays above $300 a share. ♪ - my family and i did a fundraiser walk

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stuart: look at this. gold is now at $1345 per ounce and i don't know why. it's a 10-month high. why it has gone up recently i don't know. maybe chaos in british politics, chaos around the world, slowing growth, i really don't know but it is interesting. very close to $1350 per ounce. we hadn't seen that in a long, long time. the price of oil making no difference to the stock market today but we are at 5$6 a barrel -- $56 a barrel. price of gas is going up. 2.36 a gallon. it is cheap but on the rise. gone up for six straight days right now.

candy technologies, a rival to tesla. the stock is soaring after its electric vehicles were cleared for the u.s. market. this is a chinese electric vehicle maker. the stock is up 32% because those vehicles may come here. more on tesla. they're replacing their top lawyer. he has only been on the job two months and look who is here to comment, our own jeff flock. we dragged him to new york away from freezing chicago and he's going to tell me why tesla's stock is still at $300 a share, when their top lauer left after two months on the job? >> it's a tough place to work. like working on the varney show. stuart: paradise. >> last time i sat here somebody called me a communist. i said anybody sitting next to varney looks like a communist. stuart: very good. >> the lawyer -- stuart: answer the question. >> he left after, big-time lawyer, williams and connelly. he had been working for tesla, outside counsel.

apparently not a cultural fit is what they said. stuart: not a cultural fit. >> it's a tough place to work. liz: 40 people, top managers left last couple years. >> over two years. senior executives. stuart: not affecting the stock. still over $300 a share. there are true believers who own tesla. ashley: it's a cult stock. stuart: a cult stock, going to the moon. >> market cap, the same as gm, almost exactly the same as gm. stuart: that is interesting, isn't it? >> with all the assets general motors have. stuart: more from you, tesla is big on self-driving cars. got it. eelon musk says the self-driving cars will happen this year. >> by end of the year, will find you in the parking lot, pick you up, take you to the destination without you doing anything. by the end of this year, he says. stuart: the insurance industry

hasn't happy, because they haven't worked out the jurisprudence. >> the lidar didn't work, car didn't work, maybe you didn't maintain the car well enough. so that is why there was an accident. but yeah, there will be a few accidents i think. stuart: do you think we'll be jumping into self-driving cars? to be serious, do you think we're going to be buying self-driving cars for ourselves, not as taxes, not as car services, but for ourselves? i just can't see it? >> i think we'll be dead by the time that happens. stuart: i think so. >> i think that may happen. these things go away, like insurance industry may change. when you were driving the buggies, with the buggy whip -- ashley: careful, jeff. >> buggy whips were a huge business. you can't buy a buggy whip. stuart: yes you can. >> i think it is in a sex store though. forgot this is family show. stuart: done wonders for the ratings, son. come back anytime, lad.

stuart: thank you, jeff. welcome to new york by the way. the biggest deal, a free agent in baseball has ever signed. we're going to tell you how much manny machado is getting to play in san diego. mcdonald's got a boost in the business when it teamed up with uber eats for delivery. the franchisees are really unhappy about it though. we'll tell you about it after this. ♪ ♪

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♪ stuart: eventually got around to it, "twist and shout." i've been calling for this a long time. finally we get it. ashley: that will cheer you up.

stuart: this is a song you never wanted your parents to hear you listening to. liz: did you dance to it? stuart: i have no comment. except i do like the song. john was always hoarse. check the big board. i see movement. this is a bit of movement. look at this, we're 30 points up on the dow industrials. 29, we'll take it. big tech all of them up, exempt, microsoft. apple is at 173. amazon 1629. facebook, 162. alphabet up a buck at 1127. microsoft down a couple cents. 107, the level there. how about this, the partnership between uber eats and mcdonald's is putting a strain on the franchisee owners because uber eats takes 20% of each food delivery transaction. the owner, the franchisee, pays that jon taffer with us,

"bar rescue" host. great to see you again, jon. >> good to be here, stuart. stuart: delivery is absolutely everything. mcdonald's needs delivery. is that true of the restaurant business today? >> they determined a delivery business doesn't erode in store business. they identify them as different customer groups. mcdonald's corporate is trying to say the to the franchisee business, it doesn't erode what happens inside of your restaurant, you shouldn't complain. but the corporate franchiser, mcdonald's, makes it off the top, stuart. franchisee makes it off the bottom. 20% is a big hit on the bottom. stuart: if you're making 20% off the check. >> absolutely. can cause backups in the kitchen, make people wait for food already in the restaurant. there is operational implications but other companies like subway, has issue with the

5-dollar-foot long. again corporate makes the same money but franchisee is eating that expense. there is this push and pull between the franchisers, placing promotions and franchisee sometimes not liking them. stuart: a number from mcdonald's, $3 billion worth of mcdonald's food delivered in one year, $3 billion. that is how big this delivery thing is. i'm really shocked at that, jon? >> it's a huge number, stuart, but if you're not making enough money on it what's the point? it still has to be a profitable three billion. stuart: we had on our program recently, the president of the nfib, small business operation, juanita duggan. small businesses are having trouble finding workers, qualified workers. they show up. they can't pass a background test. can't pass a drug test. they don't look good, arrive late. she says there is real problem

with entry level labor. do you see the real problems? >> i do. this is sort of a consequence of the trump economy. some people were working, job opportunity is great. i remember several months ago, stuart, 3.1 million people left jobs to get better jobs. so there is a confidence in the work place. everybody that is really confident and really wants to work is working now. if they're not, then there is a reason why. and we're starting to hire, what i call, the reasons why. they're not the same as the no reasons why. that is what we're seeing. it is a result of a robust economy and, low unemployment. stuart: jon, you're a tough guy. i watch your show. i mean, you have a whole channel these days. you're a tough guy. so what do you say if you're interviewing for an entry level job, somebody fronts up and they're late or don't look good, they do something wrong, what do you say? do you throw them out? >> i do. in almost every case, stuart. there are certain things that must exist for to us have a

working relationship together. you know being on time is one of the first ones. integrity, honesty. if those things break down there is no basis of going forward. so you bet, once you allow them to them to come in late, allow the things to get loose, it is difficult to real them back in. you have to hold your ground from day one, really create a policy. stuart: would you rather throw somebody out or, and leave the job open, or hire somebody who ain't that good but fill the job? >> years ago i owned a big restaurant, stuart. if i didn't hire somebody, the next day to be a busboy i was going to be washing dishes myself. i never found that right person that next day. i did wash dishes myself that weekend, until i found the right person. so the question, the answer really is, do you lower your standards for convenience, or not? a great business operator will never lower their standards for convenience. stuart: well i was a dishwasher in london right after i left

college. i was a pretty good dishwasher, i got to say. i never arrived late. >> back in the horse and buggy days you were talking about. stuart: very funny, tapper, very funny. [laughter]. you may or may not appear on the show again. i don't know. >> oh. stuart: you'll be back. we love having you, jon. you're a good man. >> great to be here, stuart. stuart: amazon, going to great lengths to keep its "lord of the rings" series under wraps. the writers are kept in a locked, guarded, windowless room, how about that? john layfield come in please. fox news contributor. john, content is king. is "lord of the rings" that big of a deal for amazon? >> absolutely because it is their first foray into original content. like house of cards with netflix. disney getting into streaming

business. they will have their own original content. big three, amazon, apple, netflix, they have to up their game. sports is the next domino to fall but i think "lord of the rings" will be big. stuart: if i'm an investor, i look into the streaming business, i want to pick a winner, who should i pick? >> apple. apple to me is not baked into the price of apple's stock right now. they have so much money right now, they can buy the nfl rights, buy the epl rights, nba rights. apple's services business will get to $50 billion in two years. i don't think that is priced into the stock. they're looking at the lagging sales of iphone but apple is a buy because of streaming. stuart: cheap on earnings per share basis, 172 at the moment for apple. you're a sports guy, john, i have a sports question for you. the baseball player manny machado signed to the san diego padres, reportedly agreeing to a

10-year deal with the team guarantying him $300 million. how do you justify that? if you own the padres, how do you justify, guaranteed $300 million for one player? >> because manny machado is probably the biggest latino star out there. san diego has huge hispanic fan base. manny machado born in florida of dominican descent. san diego will not go to the playoffs. they won 66 games last year. they have no starting pitching. their farm club is good. manny machado going into the basically the witness protection program. it is building up the farm system to put people in seats. manny machado 15-66 last year in the dodgers. 22 world series at bats, had no extra basehits. he is not good under pressure. san diego he doesn't have to play under pressure because they will not make the playoffs. this is great deal for san diego and good deal for manny machado. stuart: while we're on the

subject. i know you invested in a professional rugby team. you did that. how is the investment is going? >> i did. it is going great. i ended up getting out of it. i think spring league is, major league rugby. i got out of investment. i think that is the crown jewel of the rugby league. alliance, american federation by dick ebersol's kid is doing quite well on cbs. stuart: you move fast, john. why do you live in bermuda of all places? >> great weather. i get to play golf all the time. stuart: there you go. what is your handicap. >> 7 1/2 right now. so i putt very well. my back is bad. i don't hit the ball well off the tee. stuart: john, you're all right. see you again soon. >> thank you. stuart: how about another strange -- let's call it a strange, crazy tax. ashley: all right. stuart: potentially coming from california. they are considering a new tax on oil production.

ashley: what? stuart: why not? we'll tackle it. first though it sure seems like 2020 will be a fight between capitalism and socialism, unless somebody jumps in who gets us back to the center. we're on that story. interesting. more "varney" after this. ♪ obvious. sometimes, they just drop in. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group - how the world advances. ♪

♪ ashley: market watcher greg valliere says u.s. china trade talks will miss the march 1st deadline but he says markets shouldn't overreact. roll tape. >> we're not there yet. i think it will come in may, june, sometime in that time frame. and i think, since the president likes the drama of who is up, who is down, i think between now an may and june there will be a few days it will not look too good and you've got people like navarro and other trade hawks who may say things indicating we're not quite there yet. this idea in the markets that we'll just sail through, that a deal is a done deal, it's a pretty safe bet down the road. it is not a safe bet imminently. ♪ ♪ hoo - want to take your next vacation to new heights?

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stuart: you know, penny see movement here, not much but a little bit of movement. we're up 35 points on the dow. 25,926. got it. now this. google nest security system ships with hidden microphones, do you know that? google says it can be used as a voice assistant like google home or the amazon echo. the problem is, they did not tell customers that their security system might be listening to every word they say. google says it was an error.

let's see what judge napolitano has to say about this because he is with us right now. legally -- >> big brother is here. how many times do you and i talk about the loss of privacy and we take it for granted? here is what the law would say. we're in the united states. we're not in the eu. it is different in the eu this would clearly violate statutes. in the united states it would depend on what was done with that recording. did it just sit there? was anybody harmed by it? no harm, no foul. there really wouldn't be a basis for a lawsuit. in the eu the very existence, because they're more protective of privacy, the very existence of that microphone and some entity capturing the conversation with the owner of it, or user of it, or purchaser of it unaware would create a cause of action. stuart: what troubles me, it is not the legal aspect of this. it is the idea that there could be a microphone in everybody's house listening. can you imagine what power that conveys to the person who runs

that microphone? >> when your country man george orwell put that in 1984, it seemed so absurd in 1948. jim comey once said, every time he sat at his desktop in his home or the fbi building, put a piece of tape across the top because he knew somebody, maybe another fbi agent, might be watching him. here is the head of the fbi fearful that his own hardware on his own desk is going to be used as a surveillance instrument. you can imagine how the rest of us should be wary of this? stuart: i just don't like it. >> i don't like it either, stuart. stuart: what can we do about it. >> i'm not saying this because i'm your friend and colleague, you're doing a profound public service by exposing it. can i crystallize it? where is the outrage? is it just you and me? where is the outrage? the public should be outraged over the fact this follows me

and listens to me and god knows who is following with it. stuart: it is really awful. it is just awful. but i'm going to move on to the covington case. >> all right. stuart: the family, of the students, nicholas, young man. >> sandmann. stuart: the young man on the screen right there. suing "the washington post" for $250 million defamed him they say. what is the legalism? >> not going to get a nickel. the reputation of a 16-year-old, possibly worth 250 million? there is no, under the common law a child could not sue for defamation because defamation is the loss of reputation. question, what reputation does a child have? none. if he was a professional, he lost standing, he lost income, he lost clients, he lost customers, it's a different story. stuart: he was exposed to danger because of what "the washington post" and others immuted about him. >> that is another cause of action but to suggest the loss of reputation is worth

250 million, the case will be thrown out. stuart: but it really messes up "the washington post," doesn't it? that is extremely bad publicity. >> that is bad publicity for the post. they're insured for this. stuart: no big deal? walk away from isn't. >> when you file a document with the court as a lawyer, you're asserting that the document is accurate. if you make allegations in there you're telling the court you can prove them. how will the kid prove the kid lost 250 million? it is inconceivable. i'm on the naysayer side of this, you should be too, mr. plaintiffs laura too rich ruining the system varney. stuart: why? >> that is the way you are. you think plaintiffs lawyers are ruining the system, don't you? no. stuart: no they're not ruining system. but gaming system. >> should loser pays? stuart: yes. >> should young sandmann lawyers reimburse jeff bezos if they lose? >> you got my. unless cause of action based on defaming the young man put him

at risk because you defamed him. that would be the basis of my case. >> i think litigation will be harmful for the young man than the two or three minutes on television. stuart: time's up. i think you lost. i think you won. >> you're the best, varney. stuart: i think you won. get out of here. thank you, judge. [laughter]. we have fun here, don't we? sure seems like 2020 will be a fight between capitalism and socialism, unless somebody jumps in who pulls the democrats back more towards the center. joe biden, where are you? we'll deal with that next. ♪ my experience with usaa has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're

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stuart: well, we're up, not much, but we're up. we're at 25,900. and that, ladies and gentlemen, we will take. >> then there is this. senator bernie sanders announced his run for 2020 into the presidential election. in a matter of hours his campaign raised $6 million. joining us now, martha maccallum, host of "the story" with martha maccallum. i think 2020 is shaping up to be

capitalism versus socialism. >> i do too. i think you're right about that. i think one of the most interesting things to watch in this coming campaign the possibility, the real possibility you could end up with more than two candidates in this race. stuart: a third party? >> absolutely. when you see what is happening on the democrat side, you see the division, i think sampson is sort of a perfect demonstration where those lines are being drawn, when you look at this pat he will between alexandria ocasio-cortez and democrats who are very upset about what she did in her alien nation of amazon and all the jobs they were going to bring. i think there is piece this morning by tom friedman from the "new york times" which is interesting, this is something i've been thinking about, talking about for a while. if you think 2016 was interesting, i think 2020 will be more so because of this divide over socialism. when the president uses his powers to do things like the national emergency, you also have republicans and

conservatives pull apart from a number of things on president's side. i think this interesting to watch how this breaks down. stuart: all depends on joe biden, doesn't he? in many ways he is moderate. >> when howard schultz came on the scene, most people laughed it off, i think howard schultz is a interesting character to watch in this dynamic. joe biden, we have no idea whether or not he gets in. based on absolutely nothing my hundred etch he down end up running. if he doesn't run you will likely get somebody in the middle. stuart: mike bloomberg will run. >> mike bloomberg will be a big factor. it can only be one person. who is the more dynamic character in this tableau? is it howard schultz. he has familiarity, name recognition that donald trump had but he does have a store on every single american's corner, right? he has his story his compelling. he has a reach that i think some

of these other candidates don't have. i think it is very -- the other thing is, students are not taught in american schools about the economy. they're not raised, we're not raised anymore with an understanding of the difference between socialism and capitalism and communism. right? you know, generation of us grew up understanding these things that a gut level. we saw communism. we grew up during the cold war. we understood the dynamic. kids don't understand this dynamic. they're not taught it. not surprising that it's a great idea everyone should go to college for free. stuart: president trump versus a socialist, no matter who that socialist is, i think president trump wins? >> i think you're probably right about that. stuart: if howard schultz runs as an independent, regardless of who is the democrat, president trump wins. because the democrat vote is split. >> that could be. one of the things i think is really interesting if you do get a split of three candidates, which i think is more likely, or even four, which is what thomas

friedman is writing about this morning, what impact does that have on the electoral college? you have people winning states who have won a very small percentage of the population in that state. so you could get to 270 and win a small slice of these states that decide elections. and that would force a very interesting conversation about the electoral college, if we end up like england where you have this split in the labour party, where you have got the picture that you have, in germany, we've seen across all of modern history, where there is three, four parties at work. stuart: i hate it. i want two major party. >> i think it worked quite well for us so far. i think you're right about that. stuart: we'll be watching 7:00 tonight, martha. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: much obliged. where are you? you're there. more "varney" after this. i thins to help keep you on track. and closer to home. edward jones grew to a trillion dollars in assets under care, by thinking about your goals as much as you do.

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would you mind passing my book there. once again, that's... and financing is available for qualified purchasers. stuart: what you think is the epicenter to opposition to president trump your the upper westside of manhattan, that's true. elite university campuses, absolutely. bernie sanders campaign headquarters? of course. for sheer scale and impact, there is no place like california appeared to formerly golden state now leads the anti-charm charge. it is california deadly the anti-emergency court challenge. it's california that removes national guard troops from the border. it is california that now proposes a new oil production tax, even though residents pay more for gas than anywhere else in the country, including

hawaii. it's california that resist the president deregulation program. that's why rules and regulations make up 40% of the cost of building a new home in california. it is california that proposes to cover the medical bills of all illegals. and it's california that refuses to return to the feds to $3 billion they receive for the now canceled boondoggle. just about everything california does goes contrary to president trump policies and ideas. sign, that's politics. nothing wrong with opposing policies and points of view except that everyday californians are paying a very big price. the state has the highest poverty rate in the country. the highest income inequality. the largest number of illegals. the biggest unfunded government worker pension problem. among the highest taxes, among the worst voices to do business. among the highest electricity prices and as we said, definitely the highest gas

price. i guess irrational hatred produces irrational policies. california cop would've voted for. good luck. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. stuart: all right, all of those of you in california heard what i had to say about your lovelies day. let's see what nationalist have to say about it. trade for your absolutely right. california has showed a real crisis is how we govern ourselves. if you want to look what is somewhat california, politicians should look in the near appeared a great coastline with high-tech industry. it's got natural resources. they should be like texas or north dakota right now, but it's an absolute basket case because the sacramento, because of how the politicians have rented into the the ground. they mistake a dvd for achievement there. they mistake roles in taxes and regulations to it.

they're not talking my service packs or hairdressers or lawyers because it so insolvent and his gobbler pensions in 22 states. it's how they govern themselves. stuart: i think they're motivated now and in the future which borders on hatred. >> you and i both lived in california. i was in l.a. for a number of years. it's a beautiful state. it has everything going for it, but it has terrible policies. it's bankrupted the state. the bullet train another example of something they just can't. if california was an example of how wonderful an economy can be, there was a budget surplus pared everything worked great everything was making lots of money. maybe they've got something. they don't. and it's a classic real-life example of what not to do. liz: people are leaving.

stuart: they have a surplus. >> temporarily. the long-term they do not. as they move further labs, they want the rest of the country to pay for it. president trump said hey, give us that federal bullet train money back. stuart: yes dear they're not going to give it back. they don't want to. i think we've done enough. check the big board and the dow 30. up six points and we've got an even split between the winners and losers. seems to me the market has done extremely well this calendar year. it's gone straight up. i think it might be poised to do even better if there is some kind a deal on china trade. i think my next guest agrees. heather zuma rogge is back. can't get enough of "varney & company." >> no, i can't. tree into vision for fun distributors. heather, you are singing get back into the market before everything takes off. that is wildly bullish.

>> it is wildly bullish, but the market is firing on all cylinders. if you're an investor and you sold in december because of fear of the market, you are thinking my gosh i need to get back in now. two things are occurring. the federal reserve is going to hold a bigger balance sheet $4 trillion, but not going back to pre-crisis levels. and like you said, if we get a china deal, some sort of deal by march 1st that might not address all of china's structural issues, but something that gives president trump away and come of the markets will have higher in a china deal. stuart: do you expect some kind of china deal? doesn't have to be by march the first, but some kind of china deal you expect it? >> i do. it doesn't have to be by march 1st. even if there is a 30 day extension or 60 day extension, says talks are in progress in negotiations are going well.

i do think we'll have more confessions on narrowing our deficit with china. they're going to buy more stuff from us, stuart. that's one of president trump's grievances that he wants china to buy more from us because we buy a lot from them. they've already agreed to that in some more clarity on protecting our intellectual property. that will send the market higher. sure into very bullish, heather zumarraga. please stay there. i get back to you in a moment. but first, alexandria ocasio-cortez defending herself over the amazon deal. amazon no longer coming to new york city. aoc got part of the blame. ashley: she says that's not fair. one of the biggest giveaways and take history that would've price people out of the local community. she has a couple of treats about this, too. not sure how many pundits talking about amazon even read the deal and where was going. $500 million of the deal with capital ground.

$2.5 billion in tax breaks. it is fair to ask why we don't invest the capital and why we don't give working people a tax break. frankly, the knee-jerk reaction assuming that i don't understand how tax giveaways to corporations work is disappointing. no, it is not possible that i could come to a different conclusion. my intelligence and understanding instead of the merits of the deal and the reason why they question it, $3 billion doesn't exist. it's a tax break given to someone who's going to invest and create tax revenue of $27 billion over the next course of years. she was saying why do we take a $3 billion in its own infrastructure, affordable housing and fixing the subway. someone says it's not there. stuart: and it's given out when amazon has job targets. so to concentrate on her lack of unders handing because she doesn't know what she's talking about.

stuart: $3 billion worth of tax breaks in the future when you come up with the jobs in return for $27 billion of extra economic activity and revenue to new york city. that is to die for deal. stuart: local long island city dwellers say watch this. the same agency, the housing agent the she wanted to help, she purported to defend us. you got it wrong. it's a new york city housing authority saying you're grandstanding politician. you have no idea what you're talking about can you never reached out to ask him and never talk to us. politicians like you are on train wreck enough for us. stuart: i called her aoc, that is alexandria ocasio-cortez. heather, comeback kid. i think you're saying she gets an awful lot of attention and media coverage and it's going to end up badly for her. tell us about that. the mac i really do. she loves to be famous and she

comes out with these outrageous ideas bashing amazon. 25,000 jobs long island city loss. the biggest mistakes are upset for new york city ever. now we have the green new deal. you know, i think this will break her in the end. she loves the attention pitch it comes out with outrageous ideas of missile breaker. stuart: when you say breaker, what you mean? >> because it's not rational. she said the unemployment rate is low. in what way is she broken? >> even those on the left, even those far left at some point in time if they haven't already will distance themselves. it would be smart in a prudent idea to distance themselves from her because these are not logical ideas to driving amazon out of new york to agree new deal that no one can pay for. there is no way the u.s. can pay

for that. stuart: you are absolutely right on that one. thanks for joining us but we appreciate you being here. come see us again. russia's president vladimir threatening america with hypersonic missiles if we move new missiles into europe. putin says he's not seeking confrontation, but warning that he will respond to weapons that deployment. high-level talks continue in d.c. and we have a guest who's warning that we can't get too complacent. she says the chinese threat to our technology is real and it's already resulted in property being stolen. bank accounts hacked and companies being put out of business. good story. major utility warning about natural gas shortages in new york state coming up here and talk to someone who says that is just a taste of what we can expect of the green new deal is implemented. you are watching the third hour of "varney & company."

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today. area close to $1350 per ounce. the price of oil is about 56 -- look at that. another new high for the year that is. fifty-seven dollars per barrel as we speak. that means gas prices are going to keep on going now. currently, they're up to a national average of 236 but with oil at $57 a barrel you can expect that number to go north again. now this. our next guest, the title gas shortages give new york an early taste of the green new deal. this is my favorite subject. robert price, senior fellow at the manhattan institute is with us. you're talking about new york state where you can't crack and you can build a pipeline to supply natural gas. that's what you're talking about here, isn't it? >> it is, stuart. let me briefly divert talk to the recent history. 10 years ago the united states was looking up being a

significant national gas importer. that is liquefied natural gas coming in. now the united states is in fact producing so much gas things to shell revolution that we are exporting lng and a lot of it, china, chile, all over the world come but you can't get that gas into yonkers. it's really just an amazing situation where regulations in new york have created what's really a government imposed shortage. stuart: you can't crack. that is you can drill down into the marcella shale, even though the deposit is under new york state territory. but you can't go get it. people upstate want to drill. they want to frack, but if the greenies in manhattan and westchester who say you can't do that. if the environmentalists stopping us. >> well, it's remarkable to

compare a tale of two states. look at pennsylvania. the marcella sunder pennsylvania with a southern tier of new york state. in 2000 may 2008, new york issued a moratorium be permanent in 2015 under the cuomo administration. today, pennsylvania is producing 18 billion feet of natural gas per day. pennsylvania producing more gas than canada and meanwhile in new york, gas production which was relatively modest in 2008 has fallen so low that the energy information administration no longer publishes data for gas production in new york. you have it next to what is arguably one of the greatest gas lines in the history of the natural gas business globally and they are running short of gas in new york. stuart: does that mean higher electricity prices, energy prices for new york state president? >> supply and demand. supply is constrained and demand

discounts them. prices go up. a few days after the announcement they were going to issue a moratorium on new gas connections and westchester county. con ed announced an 11% rate hike and a 6% rate hike for electricity customers. those haven't been approved yet, but the state appears uninterested in providing new pipeline capacity despite what are clearly economic impacts in the city of yonkers and the city sticking to whether anti-hydrocarbon policies. stuart: robber, and you expect any change because new york state is suffering because of this and there's great pressure on the government to change. will we? >> well, stuart, we can always hope. but what is the realist in looking at what the governor's already said he wants to take new york's greenhouse gas emissions down to the state's

greenhouse gas emissions be met zero by 2050. co2 emissions on a per capita basis are among the lowest in the entire united dates. driving slower will be very difficult and expensive and consumers are going to be the ones who pay the price. stuart: just wait until the green new deal hits us over again. robert bryce, thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. a group of 23 workers winning the largest mega millions hot in new york history employees at a company in long island bought the ticket worth 400 dirty 7 million bucks. after taxes, they get a lump sum of $176 million, evenly divided that means all those folks get $8 million apiece. not quite the same. powerful jet stream winds with the virgin atlantic plane sets new speed records. the boeing 787 dream liner

indicates 801 miles an hour while flying over pennsylvania monday. it was heading from los angeles to london and no surprise that arrived at 48 minutes early. ticket prices, but one college basketball game cost nearly as much as going to the super bowl. we will tell you how much you've got to fork out two seed north carolina and duke tonight. a lot. ♪ ♪

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stuart: maybe the retail i say claim another brick done. charlotte ruse, a women's clothing chain they're trying to court potential buyers are nobody seems to be biting at the moment. the whole company auctioned off in early march, but they're going to be forced to close all of the charlotte ruse locations. some tax professionals going the extra mile. at h&r block summer getting empathy trading. dealing with mars who are angry about their smaller than expected refund or surprise tax bills. the irs says average refund down a .7% this year.

the going rate per ticket to the duke matchup is almost as much as the cheapest ticket to this year's super bowl. $2500 for a seat at a college basketball game. thanks alan williamson for that. talented as the next big superstar. a massive deal for 26 are of superstar third manny machado signed 310 year contract with the padres. that was a great deal of money. how about this. forgive the te. our guess as the technological threat from china goes much deeper than just goes to china tech companies. they say it's already causing damage to her property, bank accounts and businesses. we will spell it all out for you. time to check a big word for you and go to go nowhere wednesday.

25,896. market watchers said by infrastructure stocks because congress may actually be able to work together on that issue. by the way, he will tell us what infrastructure stocks he likes. he named them.

stuart: i wish i could report a great deal of stock market activity and action for you, but it really can't. up just 19 points with two hours into the session, 19 points higher the dow at 25,900. how about the s&p 500. a very similar story up .1%. how about the nasdaq. any movement there? yes, but not much. a quarter percentage point. that we will take. that is movement of the nasdaq at 7500. our next guest has been picked on infrastructure stocks. and phillips is with us as cio of the ventures. first of all, we constantly have people on the show who say you've got to by infrastructure

stocks. what are infrastructure stocks? name them for me, please. >> we have a handful. policy playbook on infrastructure that is 25 different names. some of the ones they been buying the policy have been a convert example. green energy they are in bipartisan support for different projects. granite construction. jacobs engineering. then we have u.s. steel in there as well. we started adding to that back in october based on our view of midterm elections and congress. stuart: there as possible bipartisan agreement on infrastructures bending and developing america's infrastructure. you think there is bipartisan agreement on that? that's why you like stocks, correct? >> that's right. one of the few bipartisan bills that could pass congress and so we've been adding to infrastructure stocks. it's about 10% overall of the portfolio.

if we saw the federal government was going to start pushing more there you can see is increasing. right now we're looking at it and locals driving that demand. the infrastructure in the u.s. needs to be badly integrated. stuart: is got back, but who's going to pay for it? >> pedestal the question. state and local governments are starting to pick up spending initiatives and that is where we see initial movement and dickens or give on infrastructure. if you look at the look at these stocks they've really gone nowhere in the past two years since trump's been elected. stuart: what is the timing here? when you think there might be a bipartisan agreement on infrastructure? >> we think it's actually a potential 29th team could in the worst-case 2020. a stock investors we like to position six to 12 months ahead of the new fare to get ahead of the market. we think policy is a leading indicator for changes which when you watch the policy can position their portfolios out of the policy change. stuart: let's suppose you're right and there's a deal on

infrastructure. i've got jacobs engineering on the screen at the moment. seventy-three dollars a share. if we didn't infrastructure deal where does jacobs engineering go? >> stuart, i can't give you a specific price target internally , but the stocks have underperformed over the past year about 20%. the s&p kept rallying up a really since trump's election overall s&p is up well over 30%. infrastructures docs are effectively flat. you can see them catch up and give you some guidance for potential there. stuart: we'll keep a close eye on it. ben phillips come and see you soon. the china trade talks going on right now in washington. our next guest says the chinese are already ripping into our country, going after our property, bank accounts and businesses. this is a dramatic headline. roslyn layton is with us. aei visiting scholar. rosalind, have american citizens

and bake accounts already rated by chinese hackers? has that happened? >> yes, it has happened. the federal trade commission the chinese company logo, largest maker that didn't happen number of bank accounts. stuart: okay, hacked bank accounts. taken out of ordinary people's bank accounts. that happened? >> i'll have to get back to you on, but at least from what i have read in the ftc indictment, those were the sort of hacks that went on. stuart: what other areas have they successfully hacked into? >> well, when you talk about the threats of china, what we need to understand is the sort of system for how they do business. this has gone on for 20 years an american companies in other countries want to do business in china, they have to set up a

joint venture and they need to turn over their property and ways of doing business to the chinese. this has gone on for quite a while. we've allowed it because of companies wanting to get into work in china. take a company like microsoft. 99% of their licenses they don't get paid for, but 1% they do. that has been the trade-off for companies because they want to get into the market. stuart: just for a second, back to the hacking and spying, we associate back to the public associated with huawei and dte. are you telling me it goes across a broad spectrum of chinese companies having a go at it? >> absolutely. i don't know if you can see this, but i will show you a knock off it it, sort of a smart watch. these watches are being recalled in the european union and other

places he cuts for example children may have such a smart watch. there is one called the smart kid one watch, which the data from that watch is good. it's collect dead. it has location. information -- vital information about the whereabouts, vital signs and so on. they can be intercepted in the process by a child predator, by some kind of faith cybercriminal or such. it is very unsafe and you can buy these things on amazon for $10. stuart: what can we do about it? >> it's amazing because her 20 years we haven't done very much, but in the last two we've made a lot of progress. obviously the president who's willing to put on the table when we have an agreement with the country they need to abide by the agreement. obviously, the first step is to be aware of the threat that are there. it is also to understand that security may make a price -- may make a product marks and says.

security needs to be built into products. and also -- stuart: it just seems like such an extensive problem. and it's really ratcheted right into all kinds of technology. it would seem very difficult to fix the problem in trade talks and trade deals with china. >> well, you're absolutely right. we have to look at the supply chain, but we can prioritize by looking at the largest players. we have that now with our government has looked at huawei and dte. we need to look at one note though. these are where the largest risks are given their scale. that's the right place to start. stuart: this is fascinating way of thank you for bringing it to our attention. i didn't realize it was as pervasive and dangerous as this. we appreciate you being here. >> anytime. stuart: southwest developing

quite a few with the mechanics union. they blamed the spike in flight cancellations on maintenance issues. southwest says the unions caused frequent for life disruptions. the union says southwest using them as a scapegoat. just get me to the destination. the stock is down 5%. a big drop for southwest. his forecast for the future from cvs and they are down 7%. we do have higher profit at la-z-boy and that stock goes up about 6% last time i checked. it is up 10% doing even better. apex legend, the new free game is operating online. it's been downloaded 25 million times in its first week. by comparison, fortnight was downloaded 10 million times its first two weeks when it launched in 2017. this looks like a really big hit. check shares at ea.

they are down. 2.5% down. wall street may be overstating how much money the game could make. ea is down. now this. big winter storm through half the country. hundreds of flights canceled. snow, i.c.e., sleet, rain across 39 states. in new york city is surely going to cause a messy evening commute. supposed to drop up to four inches when all is said and done. it is about to start snowing right outside of ours duty is here. carlos cohen's new lawyer said the arrest was the result of a can very see. he's dismissing the case as an internal company matter saying it should have been resolved inside nissan. he's been a tokyo jail since being arrested last november and allegations of financial misconduct. a trial date has not been set. someone who says president trump selection was fueled by social

decay and real suffering. he says those albums are not going away. i want to know what does he mean by social decay and how it affects 2020. ♪ ilt the nation's largest gig-speed network. then went beyond. beyond chasing down network problems. to knowing when and where there's an issue. beyond network complexity. to a zero-touch, one-box world. optimizing performance and budget. beyond having questions. to getting answers. "activecore, how's my network?" "all sites are green." all of which helps you do more than your customers thought possible. comcast business. beyond fast.

liz: nfib president said small businesses are having trouble finding qualified workers. our rescue hope john tapper told us he is not surprised. roll tape. >> this is sort of a consequence of the trump economy. so many people are working job opportunities. a room for several months ago three by 1 million people left jobs to get better jobs. there is a confidence in the work place. everybody that's really confident in really wants to work is working now. if they are not, there's a reason why and we are starting to hire what i call the reasons why. saying there's no reasons why. it's it's a result of the robust economy and low unemployment.

stuart: fans like we were like we report on a new california story every hour here this time the state is trying to get rid of those they gulp drinks. they say it's cracking down on sugary drinks to curb obesity and diabetes. the american beverage association spent $8 million to prevent this kind of band. we will see how it shakes out. middle america is being disenfranchised. the american dream he says is deteriorating. alienated america which just

came out yesterday. i want to hear your case. you say that middle america is being disenfranchised. make a case. >> when donald trump said the american dream is dead, the elites didn't buy it. the suffering of the working class, particularly middle america is real. the blue-collar guy doesn't make as much. i try to find sort of the nature and causes of it in this or is more complicated than you might think. it is not just about economics. it's about the things we used to have that bring us together. help people raise families. you've got local organizations, most importantly church. these things are disappearing in middle america, so people don't have the ability. they don't have institutions that help them when they cannot doesn't help though their communities. the result is you get a lot of these bad outcomes and it's what i call alienation. they don't have the ability to shape the world around them.

stuart: social decay is the expression you use. the next social decay. economics are bad. that's the first domino. the reason is not just a shutter fact areas when the factory shuts down the rest of the tom things that we rely on, that is what is really causing the bad outcome economically and socially for a lot of middle america. stuart: that's an analysis i can get behind. >> the problem is there's no big government solution. the government can solve this problem. they are part of the problem. they chased the churches out and say you guys get out of the public square. the crowd of local government. a crowd of charity. the solution has to be first but donald trump has done. stop waging a war in churches. once that is done, once the federal government is making a worse come in the solution has to be on a local level, sort of this renaissance of people going back and doing what they do in a

lot of strong religious communities and really building institutions, helping take care of their neighbors and connect themselves to others. stuart: that is calling for a complete reversal. the whole cultural trend of the last three generations. you're right. technology changes the way people interact. facebook, twitter. does take people out of a personal thing. stuart: i don't see how you get back on track. you can sort of urge people to go to church. >> in urging people to get irate, that is also when this date. if communities are stronger and want to argue is you can't make more places the elite communities. they do have strong institutions. >> the money has to come first. you can't restore a tana must've got jobs in the town and monies coming into the town. >> could be goaded the towns i write about, some of them don't have that much money.

middle-class places its median income is the same as the rest of the country. but they've got such strong communities because they have such involvement in their neighbors. the key is really strong churches and that is not true in a lot of america. and a lot of america you can without being rich have this tightknit communities. stuart: are you a religious conservative? >> i'm a catholic conservative. stuart: that's why the church appears on the front cover. you can be totally secular and my sites and secular liberals in there who say for the working class and the middle class, the most important is to tuition has always been church in america. the wealthy have their country clubs. they have their alumni associations, professional associations are the main institution on which the middle-class and working class in america has always relied has been church and other things

that spin out of it. stuart: the rich of course have the episcopalian church. very interesting -- stop laughing. very interesting book and an interesting premise. thank you for sharing. >> thank you good stuart: the leading leading democratic candidate says he know where moving way out to the left. free college, green new deal, tax the rich. millennial support those ideas. next, a millennial who does not want a handout. he says don't punish success. he's our kind of guy and he's next. ♪ uh, well, this will be the kitchen. and we'd like to put a fire pit out there, and a dock with a boat, maybe. why haven't you started building? well, tyler's off to college... and mom's getting older... and eventually we would like to retire. yeah, it's a lot. but td ameritrade can help you build a plan for today

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- [narrator] custom ink has hundreds of products and free shipping. upload your logo or start your design today at customink.com. >> would you be willing to stand in my generation and the student debt crisis by supporting free college for all and would you include undocumented and are well incarcerated people in that program? stuart: does a pretty good question i would say asked to senator amy klobuchar to announce she's running for the president be. here's the kicker. she said no to free college tuition. i want to bring and the author of the book uncensored, my life and uncomfortable conversations at the intersection of

black-and-white america. i'll come back to the show. you've been away for too long. do you favor free college? >> i understand tuition costs and students are worried. i recently graduated, but the thing is that i think about possibly refinancing and consolidation, ways of extending polygram. stuart: milan ales love the idea. >> exactly. bumper sticker material. stuart: and they're going to do it. >> if they can. stuart: would you say to them? some youngsters commit 30, 40, 50,000 bucks. you surely understand that they will say yeah, and he's all right. he gets my vote. >> they see a number calculated your bernie sanders has to actually do some calculating. a lot of things i admire his

equality. if you look at them themselves, they will not work. especially not with gridlock and especially not when you consider the importance of economic growth, job growth, then devising hard work. stuart: bernie sanders says tax the rich, especially the estate, 77%. >> no, that's not going to work. i believe in a mixed economy. i believe you can create opportunity for those who don't have it. you can find ways to incentivize hard work and responsibility. if you think about it, how do you extend opportunities for federal work study. that's an opportunity for them to also earn more. >> you've got some ideas here, but they're kind of soft ideas when confronted by bernie sanders. free college, though for me. >> that's pie in the sky. stuart: you've got to be forceful going after. >> i think howard schultz brings that the table.

joe biden could bring that to the table. stuart: cera centrists. >> i'm centerleft. stuart: are you anti-trump? >> i am anti-tram. unlike with other presidents i can get a sense of what his values are. stuart: he's created a booming economy with the lowest unemployment rate for minorities >> i think that is attributable to policies of the past. stuart: i wish we had more time. difficult conversation. >> absolutely. you got it. stuart: thanks very much, zachary. more "varney" after this.

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stuart: looks like the people of vietnam are enthusiastic over next week's summit between president trump and kim jong-un. it will be held in hanoi. there's a barber there doling out free haircuts in the style of the two world leaders. younger customers, apparently they go for the kim. while older folks go for the trump. >> the donald. stuart: president trump and kim jong-un meet for second time. >> that is quite clever. very, you know -- stuart: sign me up for a kim, i just don't have the hair. >> sign me up nor neither. >> neither.

stuart: the dow is up 28 points. it has been like this all morning long. not much serious movement. waiting for news on china trade. waiting for the fed this afternoon. go nowhere wednesday. connell mcshane in for neil. connell: i would pay huge money if someone on the internet would create a kim jong-un haircut on your face. somebody could get it done. could handle it. stuart: get on with your show, son. connell: thank you, stuart and company. welcome to "cavuto: coast to coast" for one more day. i'm connell mcshane filling in for neil. the dow on pace for third straight day of gains. trying to make it nine weeks of gains in a row, president trump sending a signal out as he has done a number of times, really drove it home yesterday, that he is, if anything, maybe likely to extend that china deadline on the first of march saying that the date is not a magical date by