tariff. maria: he does. >> that's right. it's a big number. maria: guys, great show today. >> good to be with you. maria: have a great day, everybody. "varney & company" begins right now. stuart, take it away. stuart: good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. notre dame is still standing. the wooden interior is gone. the iconic spire is gone. but the stone structure remains and in the midst of this dreadful loss, that is at least something. paris has taken a blow to its very heart and the people came out by the tens of thousands to mourn its loss. this morning, the very rich of france are pledging hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild, and look at this. this is what paris woke up to today. an ugly scene, but the structure still there. now to talk about money back here at home, yes, we are at the start of the profit reporting season and so far, it looks really good.

this morning, bank of america, johnson & johnson and united heal health, two of the last two showed good sales, top line, good earnings, bottom line. the profit earnings expectation bar was set very low. so far, most of these companies reporting have jumped right over it and easily so. that is helping the overall market really big-time. look at the dow, going to be up about, what, 160 points at the opening bell. in a half hour, we should be less than 1% away from the dow's all-time closing high. solid gain for the s&p this morning and for the nasdaq, up about 29, 30 points. it is a tuesday morning profits rally. wait until you hear from the millionaire one percenter, socialist bernie sanders. "varney & company" is about to begin. so would you be willing to pay 52% on the money that you

made? you can volunteer, you can send a check. >> you could volunteer, too. >> but you suggested -- you suggested that -- >> hey, martha -- >> -- everybody should do. >> why don't you give? you make more money than i do. >> i didn't suggest the wealth tax. >> she's not running for president. >> we are going to fight for a wealth tax. stuart: oh, dear. that was bernie sanders from last night's fox news town hall. he admitted we will all pay more in taxes. joining us now, economist peter morici. as an economist, what did you make of bernie sanders' socialist economics? >> he's a demagogue. it's that simple. a demagogue purposely obfuscates and distorts the facts. the reality is medicaid for all would be terribly expensive, would probably cost the country somewhere between $3 trillion and $5 trillion a year additional to what we're paying, okay? medicaid already charges middle

class people very high premiums. what would happen is because we can't afford to pay that big bill, if he put in medicaid for all, lots of people who get health insurance where they work, like mr. varney at fox, would instead be paying those very high premiums so if you want to pay $1,000, $1500 a month for family coverage, vote for bernie sanders. stuart: but what concerned me more was the issue of fairness. bernie sanders thinks it's fair to take more money off wealthy people, more money out of their estate, tax their income well above 50%. i say that is grossly unfair. i want to lay down this rule. no government should take more than half of anyone's income, regardless of what they make. what say you? >> well, new york city's out of business then, isn't it, because they are taking more than half the people's income there, between the federal, state and local tax. my feeling is i'm with you on that. what bernie sanders doesn't tell

people, and i would love to g get -- i was going to run for president, raise $50 and register in new hampshire so i could do it. what he doesn't tell you is the school teacher in amsterdam, not an anchor at fox or an entrepreneur like myself, pays 50% of their income in taxes. they pay a good deal of what they earn in taxes. you look at ordinary working people in holland or in england, they don't dress very well, they don't go to restaurants and so forth, because most of their income goes in taxes to pay for that welfare state. you can't possibly raise enough taxes off the wealthy to have free tuition, free medical care, free this, free this, and income for life, on and on the agenda goes. stuart: run in new hampshire, please. >> i bet you bernie sanders doesn't have the courage to debate peter morici. i bet you -- you know what scares the living hell out of

bernie sanders? someone with substance to challenge him. he's like barack obama. he will always speak to crowds where he has lots of supporters. stuart: sorry, got to run, out of time. big day in money. let's get to that. we'll have more on the bernie town hall later on this morning. i think the man's going backwards toward a dark and failed socialist past but that's my opinion. you will hear more about that at the top of the hour, 11:00 this morning. look at futures. you will love this one. we are up 160 points for the dow industrials. by the way, dow component j & j and united health, they reported their profits before the bell this morning. both of them looked good and both of those stocks are going up and that helps the dow industrials. however, bank of america, we've got their numbers earlier this morning, they missed on i think it was revenue, coming in a little short on revenue. and the stock is down close to 2%. down goes bank of america.

trader scott shellady joins us now. we will be up 160 at the opening bell. i say that's all about earnings. we set a low bar and are jumping right over it. this is a profit reporting rally, right? >> are yyou are exactly right. these earnings reports coming out beating on both revenue and earnings will continue to be the case because of the bar you said has been set so low. here's another thing. we are not really talking about this, this wall of worry we are going to see the equity markets, and i'm not a big fan of the equity markets but we will see these things slowly but surely grind higher because of this. this is the biggest news nobody is talking about. after december 24th of last year, no matter where you are in that investment community, depending on where you are, you are only participating in this rally since december 24th to either save 15% to 35%. a ton of people are missing out on it. that's why it will continue to do what it's doing, we will continue to have earnings reports come in better than expected, we will climb that wall of worry because we don't have everybody back in the boat and that's why it's going to do

what it's going to do. stuart: i heard a big investment banker this morning saying we will get a melt up. how about that. you are a commodity guy. i want to talk about elizabeth warren, senator elizabeth warren, presidential candidate, she says she would ban -- stop laughing -- would ban oil and gas drilling on federal lands if she's elected. you are an oil and gas kind of guy. what would that do to our energy independence? >> it's going to weaken it. things will go up in price. you have to sit around and actually think to yourself how can i hurt the american consumer the most and the quickest. that's raise gas prices. what is she thinking? i can tell you what she's thinking. she's thinking she knows better than you and i and i have one word for you. how about solyndra? if you let them continue down this road of thinking better than you and i and that's what they want to do, stuart, they will try to turn our economic landscape into chernobyl. here's what i have to say to her. there's a lot of unintended consequences that come out of letting the american investor and innovator do what he's going to do. we have a lot of great things

coming from an economy that's firing on all cylinders. it might not answer your question today but it might help down the road. if you have an economic landscape like chernobyl, nothing getsing do ingetting do. stuart: we like it when you tell us how you really feel. we'll take it. thanks for joining us. appreciate it. good stuff. a great start, i would say. now this to add to a great start. congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez says america should consider cutting aid to israel. first of all, susan, how much money does israel get per year from us? susan: on an annual basis, around $3.2 billion. most of that is from a ten-year deal, military aid since 2016 that's worth around $38 billion over the next ten years. you want to add in maybe $8 billion in loan aid as well. ocasio-cortez says let's cut military economic aid to israel. they are a long-standing ally in the middle east and she made these remarks during a podcast

on yahoo! skullduggery on sunday, adding this is certainly on the table. she talks about benjamin netanyahu, who recently won a fifth term in office. he will be the longest serving israeli prime minister. he's overseen israel for more than a fifth of its existence. she's called him, netanyahu, the trump-like figure and it's disturbing of the authoritarianism that's sweeping around the world. stuart: i just wonder what the rest of the democratic party has to say about cutting aid to israel. i wonder if we have heard from them yet. susan: i'm not sure they will be in agreement given the long-standing relationship between the two countries and also the need for israeli support especially in the middle east policy. stuart: split party. there you have it. thank you. check futures again. i keep saying you are going to like this. it is tuesday morning, we are going up at least triple digits when we open this morning. now we have democrats on two house committees issuing subpoenas to several banks.

they want to get their hands on president trump's tax returns. next, a republican on one of those committees. i want to know what he thinks about these endless investigations into the president. later this morning, larry kudlow is on the show. the white house touting the success of the president's tax law. lot of people disappointed with their tax refunds this year. i'll ask him about that. "varney & company" just getting started. hi i'm joan lunden.

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stuart: the story we are still talking about, devastating fire at notre dame in paris. greg palkott is with us from paris. the mood this morning? what have you got? reporter: stuart, it's a somb somber -- do you have me? stuart: are we there? okay, sorry. let me move on to what you're looking at is the scene in paris during that devastating fire.

this morning, they are waking up to a somber mood in paris but they are also waking up to the pledge of hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild. ash, i want to know who's pledging the money and -- ashley: a ton of money already being pledged. a billionaire, chairman and ceo of the group that owns gucci, yves st. laurent, are pledging $113 million u.s. the family of lvmh, the empire that includes sephora, $220 million something. between those two alone, $339 million u.s. i just saw that the french energy giant totale is also pledging $113 million u.s. or 100 million euros. just between those three, close to $500 million. i have a feeling this is just going to continue to grow with more people putting in money. i have not seen an estimate how

much it's going to cost because i don't think they have a clue at this point, how much will it cost to restore all the damage that's been done. stuart: there is no good news from this. ashley: the only good news is the whole thing could have collapsed and i guess you have to look at it from that point of view but a lot of invaluable artifacts have been lost. stuart: we will have more on this throughout the program. everyone is talking about it this morning and the mood in paris is indeed somber. moving on, house democrats have subpoenaed deutsche bank to get president trump's tax records. joining us is congressman mike turner, republican from ohio. why are these investigating committees, why are they going after president trump's records before he was president of the united states? >> they are saying they need to see these tax returns to see who the president is being influenced by. we have been through this with the mueller investigation, the mueller report. they came back and found no collusion, yet they are continuing to pursue these investigations. what's interesting is the hypocrisy, really, in their saying they want transparency to have the president release his

tax returns. nancy pelosi has not released her tax returns. stuart: she has not? >> she has not. she's in succession to the line to the presidency. she is often telling us she's equal to the president. she says on television the constitution says she's equal. she certainly should be rushing as an example. i actually [ inaudible ] to release her tax returns. clearly we won't see her tax returns any time soon. stuart: wait a second. you asked to see speaker pelosi's tax returns. she wouldn't even allow a vote on it, wouldn't even let it go before the committee. >> we put it to the rules committ committee. they blocked it to go to the house floor and it would have said she's in succession, we should know just as much who she's influenced by. if she's so transparency, let's start with hers. stuart: i will move on, if i may. we will get the mueller report redacted, released thursday morning. listen to what house judiciary

committee chair jerrold nadler had to say. >> -- at the same time and we're not going to get any information. stuart: he's not happy congress gets it at the same time as the public gets it. >> that's pretty obvious for their game. as you know, when the barr report came out that specifically quoted from the mueller report, it said there had been -- they had not found any evidence of -- stuart: no collusion. >> correct. yet the democrats ran on the television and said actually, they just found no criminal collusion, they found no probable cause, but they did find collusion. we all can read the sentence ourselves. it said there was no collusion. the reason why they don't want us to have the same thing is they don't want the general public to read what they're reading. they want to be able to go on television and tell us what it says and in that, they get to spin it. i'm for if congress sees it, everybody should see it.

that way the american public who are very very smart can decide for themselves. stuart: it has to be heavily redacted because you can't put out there grand jury testimony. can't do that. >> and other things, because the mueller report, the mueller team had access to intelligence that would have included means, methods and techniques, all of those things we need to keep secret. stuart: what we're saying is essentially that there will always be questions, there will always be the minuscule amounts of dirt which they think they will find and put a headline out of it and the media will play that game, too. i think we are in for that. >> they will say it no matter what the mueller report says. absolutely correct. stuart: congressman mike turner, republican, ohio, thanks for being with us in new york today. welcome to the big apple. socialist paradise. >> thank you. stuart: check futures again. we are up about 160 points right there at the opening bell. how about this one. seattle seahawks star russell wilson about to become the highest paid player in football. he just signed a major contract. we will tell you how much money he's going to be making. hint, a lot.

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stuart: now this was a truly inspiring moment. you're looking at it. this is the boston marathon. a marine crawls across the finish line. susan, i think the man was suffering from chronic cramps. susan: it was hot. the temperature was in the 60s,

it was rainy in boston for the marathon on monday but as you see there, he proved you should never give up. on his hands, on his knees crawling across the finish line and he says it was in a tribute to the memories of the three men he served with while serving as a marine in afghanistan. he's the only survivor of that unit. it proves, i would say, that he crossed the finish line three hours, 38 minutes. you do it on your hands, you do it on your knees, you never give up. stuart: three hours and 38 minutes? remarkable. susan: good time. anything below four hours is a great time for 26 hours plus, especially the boston marathon which is considered the preeminent marathon in the world. you have to qualify with great timing or donate a lot of money to get in. stuart: hats off to the marine corps. semper fi. i'm going to turn to football, about which i know very little but i do know this. russell wilson is about to sign a huge deal with the seahawks which would make him the highest paid nfl player ever.

hold on a second. his signing bonus is guaranteed. how much? ashley: $65 million signing bonus. thank you very much. that is an expensive signature. that's, by the way, a record for the nfl. it's $140 million extension, will take him through to the 2023 season. he will be aged 35 at that point. he will be the highest paid quarterback in the nfl, averaging $35 million per season. he's gone past packers quarterback aaron rodgers with these kind of numbers. he's a rich man and he loves seattle, and seattle loves him. they really wanted him and they paid some big bucks. stuart: thread that bonus out over as many years as you can because that is the lump sum, you will lose more than half of it. ashley: call him in the break. stuart: quickly, we are going to have -- this is an earnings-based rally you are about to see on the stock market. earnings of j & j and also at united health, very good. both of them are dow stocks. both of them helping the dow get

to a triple digit gain at the opening bell. big day this tuesday morning. we will be within 1% of the all-time closing high of the dow. big day. we'll be back to cover it. don't tell your mother.

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stuart: two items on at & t.

number one, record ratings for "game of thrones" on hbo which they own. secondly, they are selling their stake in the streaming service hulu. susan, let's start with "game of thrones." susan: 17.4 million watched the premiere, final season. only six episodes. who's going to win? that's up around 8% from the july, 2017 premiere. if you want to look at the linear television, 11 million. huge money-maker, huge draw when it comes to the audience. let's move through to hulu. stuart: yes. at & t had a 10% stake in hulu. they are selling the stake for $1.3 billion, i think it is. susan: i think it depends on comcast. comcast and disney are the two majority stake holders right now in hulu. they will divvy that stake up and decide how to split it

between the two. just a few years ago, two years ago, it was worth a third and right now they are losing to netflix. stuart: i'm a little disappointed. i own at & t stock because of the dividend but it's not doing that much this morning. here we go. it is tuesday morning. we are off and running and from the get-go, up triple digits. look at that. now up 121. about a half percentage point in literally the first seconds of business. we've gone straight up. this is an earnings-based rally. how about the s&p 500? let me see that, please. yeah, that's up about a quarter of one percent. not quite as good as the dow. the nasdaq composite up a third of one percent. solid -- look at that, 8,000 on the nasdaq. solid gains across the board. j & j and united health, they are both dow stocks, reported this morning, did well. both stocks up, that's helping the dow. how about bank of america, where revenue went down. the opening trade looks at a

1.25% loss, just 40 cents down for b of a. we need help. mike murphy is here, d.r. is here, susan is back and ashley webster. thank you very much for all that hard work. all great stuff. this is all about earnings. this is the strength of earnings that's propelling this market up. am i right or am i right? >> you are correct. the bar was set very low, companies are coming in with very strong earnings so people want to put money off the sidelines coming into the market, people are buying the market. new highs are in sight and we will make them very soon. stuart: lots of money on the sidelines to come back in, you think? >> there is. mike is dead on there. i think that bar was set low but by analysts who get paid to do this work. we were at minus 4.2% on average for the s&p to go down in earnings year over year. now it's up to 2.3%. so much stronger than we anticipated. that's a good thing.

stuart: sure is. if you set the bar low -- [ speaking simultaneously ] stuart: the dow is at 26,500, couple hundred points away from the all-time high. attention, parents. walmart will drop kids clothing off at your door through a new subscription service. you choose what you want and send the rest back. susan: how about the kids? do they get to choose? stuart: wait a minute. wait a minute. let me ask the man. you have the same number of children as i have. >> six children. stuart: what do you make of it? >> it's a great move for walmart. kid box is a venture capital backed company based in new york city. they are doing not only providing clothes to kids but also, there's an environmentally friendly or positive move for the environment. the walmart is saying we are going to partner with them because we want to be hip and cool and get into these homes with young children, then drive

them into our stores. it's a great move for both sides. stuart: you don't have any money in this -- >> i do not have any money but it's another example where technology is making people's lives better, easier and great opportunity. susan: consumer trends, i feel like consumers these days want to delegate to the likes of walmart which also offers a beauty box with samples as well, monthly subscription. that's kind of like the meals kit services and other package delivery and i would say take selection to the consumer. stuart: you don't have to wander through a store with kids in tow wondering what they want to buy. ashley: and getting them into the car, finding the parking place. stuart: and bundle them up to get them in the car seat. >> walmart understands it. stuart: d.r., i want your comment on amazon. they are in talks to launch a free music streaming service. this will be through the alexa thing. free. >> it's free, it will be ad supported.

much like spotify and pandora that have ads in their free service. but the big deal here is they've got so many amazon devices, the echo devices that are going to be advertising the service, you will be able to get this service on your phone, on your computer, wherever you would like, just like spotify and pandora. it's a big deal because spotify is the big dog. 96 million paid subscribers in the world. apple is second at 56 million. spotify's stock dropped 4% when amazon announced this yesterday. it's again, content, content, content is king. stuart: there you go. spotify down. just one cent, i believe. certainly took a hit. the big drop was yesterday, as you can see. we are now four and a half minutes in, up 125 points for the dow. almost a half percentage point. black rock's profit and revenue down but it's managing more assets. the stock is up. by the way, black rock's chief said this morning he's expecting on the market a melt up. the overall market.

that's quite a statement. dow component ibm, they report after the bell this afternoon. ibm struggled back from a low about $120, now at $144. report this afternoon. here's another big name you know. netflix, they report after the bell. the stock is up 30% in 2019. more gains on the way? what do you think? >> i think yes, but the real problem for netflix i think is going to be disney. disney came out and underpriced them on their new streaming service. it will be interesting. they are announcing today, obviously their last three months. i think it will be a great quarter for netflix. i think people are going to want to know what does the competition look like, what does the landscape look like going forward. stuart: little cautious on netflix. is that correct? >> very cautious. it's very expensive. i would much rather own disney. stuart: interesting. we'll take that. susan: also, the subscriber growth. they have 139 paid subscribers around the world -- stuart: million. susan: yes, million. they need to see double digit

million gains in the quarter in order to i guess continue to pump up that stock. stuart: i love disney but there are a lot of adult programs i would like to watch. gritty dramas i love which disney is not going to put on there. those two can live together quite well. stuart: thank you for revealing your taste in entertainment. lyft, l-y-f-t, $57 a share. three weeks ago they went out at $72. d.r., the last time you were on the show, the stock was down and you said it had more room to fall, then you would buy it. all right. are you buying at $57? >> i am not. you will recall that you looked straight at me and said you are on videotape, young man. i said no, i'm not going to touch it at $68. $68.50. i said it's going to drop substantially. two simple reasons. they are much smaller than uber so you tup cypically get a disc when you are the small player. the second reason is they are

still struggling to bring on the new things they are doing, the capital they are going to use for scooters and bikes and everything else. to compete with uber, i think you can pick it up around 50, then are maybe into a good deal, about two-thirds of where it came in as an ipo. stuart: 50 is your buying price but not until then? >> no, sir. stuart: would you buy at 57? >> $16 billion market cap currently, down over 20% from where it came public, getting back towards the last private money level where they raised private money. yes, it sets up, i'm not a buyer yet but it sets up very interesting. i think lyft has a very long road ahead of them. it will be a good company to own but you have to get it at the right price. we are getting very close. stuart: now this. new worries about snap. could run out of money soon. tell me more. ashley: yeah, the "financial times" did a deep dive in their books to get a real sense of where snap is at. basically, a lot more going out money-wise than coming in. how much? $68 million burning in cash every month.

that's a ton of cash they are losing every month. a big problem, they went public in 2017, they had problems, no one liked their redesign. they took a long time in getting out there, update for android users. it's still 186 million but it's been at that number, talking about active users, stayed at that number quite some time. in fact, it dropped a million in the last quarter, fourth quarter. there's the problem. can they continue at this pace if they are burning through $68 million? susan: the redesign was not popular, especially with young users. that was their main catch. they recently launched a gaming service as well. not sure how popular that has caught on. they had some bad forays into hardware, glasses, so snap trading way below that ipo. stuart: 11 bucks a share. got it. starbucks making changes to its loyalty program. they are going into effect today. what's the change? susan: basically, they have done

some analysis on this. before it was for stars and your stars will disappear. now they are going to a dollar per dollar spend basis. an estimate on this said that okay, if you are an old customer willing to spend $62.50 to get a free drink or food item that yields you a 9% return. not bad. but less in line with the previous loyalty program. you're looking like you are skeptical. you aren't a starbucks drinker, i know, but if you want to get into specialized drinks, that yield is better at 11%. ashley: 16.3 million subscribers to their loyalty program. 14,000 stores in the u.s. that means there's 1150 users per store on this app. this is kind of a big deal. if they mess it up, it could impact the stock. stuart: know what everybody is going to? this was explained by my son-in-law. you get an app for some kind of

restaurant chain, it's on your phone, punch in the app. before you get to the store, tell them what you want and it's ready and waiting for you when you walk in the store and you walk out. susan: mobile ordering. yes. ashley: made for stuart varney, who refuses to wait for anything. it's perfect for you. >> breaking news there. you can order a meal on your phone. stuart: listen, murphy, sarcasm is a low form of wit. >> but very effective. stuart: i agree. it's that time, 9:40 eastern time. d.r., murphy, thank you very much indeed. good stuff indeed. check that big board. we didn't go up 160 but we are up about 125. that's a half percentage point. a rally from the get-go this tuesday morning. president trump is going to present tiger woods with the medal of freedom following his big victory in the masters. what does brian kilmeade think about the medal of freedom for a golfer? we will certainly ask him next hour. a new biography of tim cook

is out, the author saying he's taken apple to the next level. i want to know what that next level is and is he a visionary like steve jobs? next, though, the 2020 democrat candidate for president continues to push big money proposals. senator cory booker out with a new plan to expand dramatically the earned income tax credit. ouch. we're on it. 2,000 fence posts. 900 acres. 48 bales. all before lunch, which we caught last saturday.

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stuart: all right. the dow industrials, we are now 13 minutes in and we're up 113 points on the dow. little shy of a half percentage point gain but we'll take it. 26,500 is where we are. now this. democrat presidential candidate cory booker announcing an ambitious plan to expand

dramatically eligibility for that earned income tax credit. he wants to expand it to more working and middle class families. you get a check in the mail in january from the treasury under this scheme, as i would like to call it. by the way, ed carnaday is with us, author of "upside of inequality." he's a former bain capital managing director. welcome back to the program. this is cory booker's attempt to even out income inequality. you raise the earned income tax credit, make more people eligib eligible. what do you think? will it work? >> i don't think so. there's a lot of research on the earned income tax credit. i think it works for single mothers who have a very high disincentive not to work because as they earn more they have their benefits taken away. i think it works for that segment but for everybody else, research says it doesn't work. so for men, they have not worked more, it's very small amounts so we are talking about expanding it to single men and for married women, they actually work less

as their family earns more. so the very people he's talking about expanding it to are the very people who are unlikely to actually work more because of it. the whole point of this is to get people to work more by paying them more to work. stuart: exactly. it's kind of a free money scheme. it's like andrew yang. now he is a candidate for the presidency and he's pushing this universal income -- universal basic income scheme. everybody gets $1,000 a month. he says that that, a, reduces inequality and b, creates several million jobs. break that down for us. >> well, this is crazy stuff. at least cory is kind of in the realm of reasonableness. andrew yang is out there in crazy land. he cites a study where the cost of his program is $3 trillion. to put that in perspective, the economy is $20 trillion. we pay retyrirees about $1.5 trillion. this is a gigantic transformation of the u.s. economy. the study he cites says it will increase jobs, borrows the $3

trillion in spending. we are already borrowing as much as we possibly can. imagine increasing the borrowing by $3 trillion and spending it. stuart: it's the concept of free money, isn't it? vote for me, you get this. >> he's taking it to extremes. stuart: i just can't get along with that. i can't live with that. i can live with it, but i don't like it. >> two amazing facts. one, he's paying people about what they would get on social security when they are 18 years old. how many people on social security work? none, okay? second is when president obama passed obamacare, the congressional budget office estimated that that would reduce employment by 2 trillion full-time workers. imagine what this would do which is much, much bigger of free money to workers for not working. this would do major damage to our economy. and everybody who has tried it in small little experiments has basically backed off and said that it doesn't work. stuart: i hate free money. this is america. you should work for what you

earn, my personal opinion. one more. senator elizabeth warren, presidential candidate, she wants an added corporate tax, 7%, i believe it is, if you make more than $100 million in profit. she wants a wealth tax. and she is also saying if she's elected, no more drilling for oil and gas on federal lands. what's the total result of all those policies, if she was elected? >> you have to wonder if she's anti-american with the proposals she's coming up with. everything she does slows down the economy, especially the oil and gas proposal. since we started fracking in the united states, we have driven the price of oil from $100 a barrel to $60. we reduced co2 emissions because we shifted to natural gas and neutered germany by cutting their income from oil, and almost all of their income comes from oil. she is talking about doing exactly the opposite. stuart: you shake your head.

just the idea these programs are good for america, the idea that these programs increase fairness, that's my problem. it's not fair to confiscate money, just take it off you like this. >> my problem is really this, which is the united states earns, the median family in the united states earns about 30% more than the median middle class family in germany and we have been growing substantially faster since mid-1990s. so today, we went from about 20% more to almost 30% more today. so all of these programs that roll back growth, redistribute money, reduce incentives to invest, we are the only country producing the innovation that's growing the economy. without our innovation, their economies would be even slower growing and their middle class would be even poorer. so all of these things, what they don't tell you is yeah, they might be helping the poor so the poor doesn't work. they are largely taking the money from the middle class. stuart: didn't know that, but ed

conard, thanks for pointing it out. thank you. come back soon. check the dow 30. we are still up 100 points, lost a little bit at the gain. but you can see, 26 of the dow 30 are on the upside. britain going after our big tech companies. why lawmakers there want to remove facebook's like button. they do, you know. new york's mayor bill de blasio vows to stop president trump from sending illegals to sanctuary cities. he says he will go to court if he has to. i thought de blasio was proud that new york is a sanctuary city. of course we are on that one. we will deal with it next. on. i've done all sorts of research, read earnings reports, looked at chart patterns. i've even built my own historic trading model. and you're still not sure if you want to make the trade? exactly. sounds like a case of analysis paralysis. is there a cure? td ameritrade's trade desk. they can help gut check your strategies and answer all your toughest questions. sounds perfect. see, your stress level was here and i got you down to here, i've done my job. call for a strategy gut check with td ameritrade.

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stuart: all right. happening now, eric trump responding to congressional demands for the family's financial records. susan? susan: the panel subpoenaing db and other financial institutions. eric trump saying the subpoena is an unprecedented abuse of power and simply the latest attempt by house democrats to attack the president and our family for political gain, instead of legislating the committee is obsessed he says with harassing and undermining my father's administration, doing everything they can to distract from his incredible accomplishments and this incompetence is the exact reason why the american people have such disdain for politicians and

why my father was elected president. today's actions by the committee set a horrible precedent for all taxpayers. the white house and the president has called this presidential harassment. stuart: i think that says it all. that's wrapped it all up in one go. thank you, susan. new york city's mayor bill de blasio opposes president trump's sanctuary city plan. watch this. >> in a recent tweet by president trump, he doubled down on sending undocumented immigrants to sanctuary cities like new york. what are your plans to prepare new york city and new yorkers? >> it's illegal. it's just illegal. we will meet him in court and beat him in court. this is patently illegal. we'll stop it. stuart: joining us, congressman andy biggs from arizona, border state. congressman, what do you say to mayor bill de blasio in new york? >> there is so much to say but the first one is show me the statute that makes this illegal. he can't show you a single legal precedent to support his claim, and you know the hypocrisy here is just unbelievable to me.

it's people like de blasio that have sued this administration so that mexico can't keep asylum applicants in mexico any longer. we can't hold these people, places like phoenix are being overrun by these folks. where does de blasio want them to go? apparently anywhere but his sanctuary city. stuart: basically, you have a sanctuary city, you are a sanctuary state, it's an invitation. come on here, and we will protect you. you're safe. so all of a sudden, the president wants to send them there, oh, no, you can't come. it's illegal. it really doesn't follow. i wonder if you would give us, though, an update on the border. i know you just toured it. the last time you were on, we were talking about phoenix being overrun, for example, and tent cities all over the place. what's the latest? >> well, we are heading down there today with six congressmen but i'll tell you where we are, stuart. we are releasing 100,000 people, more than 120,000, actually, in the last few months, and it's still going on.

and so the problem is we're still being overrun and that's why i'm bringing people down so they can see that, because the magnitude is so great, it's hard to just appreciate it. stuart: will any democrats come with you? >> oh, heavens, no, stuart. they've not goth a narrative. you can't come down and see the reality because it might upset your narrative. stuart: that's just outrageous. we have an invasion here. that's my characterization. that's me saying that. >> mine, too. stuart: i think we should do something about it. congressman, i'm sorry i'm so short on time. thanks very much for being with us today. good luck on your border trip this morning. see you later. >> thank you, sir. stuart: all right. now we've got notre dame still stands, at least the exterior still stands. it's going to be a restoration job, not a rebuild. now, we all watched, i watched in sadness as notre dame burned yesterday. i've got a special my take on that coming up at the top of the hour. then we have president trump

touting the tax cuts. is his message getting through? larry kudlow joins us at 11:30. i'm going to ask him about trade and the tax cuts, all in one. 11:30, larry kudlow. now i'm thinking...i'd like to retire early. let's talk about this when we meet next week. edward jones came to manage a trillion dollars in assets under care by focusing our mind on whatever's on yours. . . i knew about the tremors.

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stuart: we got some real estate numbers. big board shows a 60 point gain for the dow after half hour's worth of business. housing market, what numbers are they? ashley: the housing market index the number which means nothing to anybody is 63. i'll tell you why that is booed. anything above 50 tells you a more favorable out look for the housing market. it basically rates the level of current and future house sales. it was 63. 62 in march, 58 in january. we're heading in the right direction. there has been signs there is traction being gained in the housing markets. we're getting more houses in the

market we're off to the races. stuart: that is very important number. the dow responding with a modest up tick but modest indeed. by the way coming up in the next hour, jerry howard, national association of homebuilders ceo, he is on the show. now this. like much of the world i watched notre dame cathedral burn yesterday and like some others i watched in shock and sorrow. i'm used to following the news as it unfolds. you try to keep your emotions in check and cover events objective as you can. i must confess to getting emotionally involved as i watched flames engulf a church that i had visited many times in the last 50 years. my first reaction was shock. i had heard the initial reports of smoke drifting over paris but the first video of the flames, that was a real emotional punch. it was ablaze. a blaze that was going to clearly destroy interior made

from tinder dry wood hundreds of years old. when the spire collapsed you knew it was the end. a conflagration, shocking to see because it was so vivid, the video was so horribly compelling i couldn't look away. nor could parisians who poured out by 10 of thousands to see this dreadful site. i heard some in the crowd sanking ava maria. i saw tears in many an eye. paris lost something central to it is character, central to its history. notre dame is on an island in the middle of the river seine. its spire is iconic. it is gone. shep smith said memorably on fox news during its coverage, paris is disfigured. i'm sure in the future there will be fingerpointing, the a blame game, financial repercussions that is in the future n the here and now, the day after, there is a sad a wakening to a tragic loss.

paris has taken a blow to its heart. those of us who knew notre dame are keenly away we have all lost something that cannot be replaced. just look at this. [people singing] stuart: largely secular country that was the sound of parisians singing "ave maria" outside notre dame as it was burning. doug wead, i watched your commentary yesterday. you sir, were in tears. >> very sad the history in our lifetime we saw charles de gaulle's funeral, 1970. mary queen of scots was married there to to the dauphin.

great coronations, napoleon took the crown off the pillow. he wouldn't let the pope crown him, he crowned himself. emperor. hitler tried to call it, called back the german commander, said is paris burning? dresden had been leveled. coventry been leveled. it was paris's turn, all the bridges, notre dame cathedral was rigged with explosives. hitler couldn't destroy it, but we saw it burn yesterday. stuart: the good news, doug, if there is any good news here, the exterior has been maintained and the rich people of france are contributing literally hundreds of millions of dollars to restoration. last word to you. >> yes, stuart. the good news is the archbishop of paris, michelle arpetite the marble, cement, even the

stained-glass is secure. he said we'll not have to rebuild notre dame. we'll be able to restore notre dame. stuart: doug wead, thank you for coming on our program. it was moving stuff you came through yesterday. we appreciate it it doug. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: get to your money, tuesday morning, 35 minutes in. the dow industrials lost much of their gain, we're still up 58 points. 26,400 where we are. new this hour, speaker pelosi tried to downplay the rice -- rise of alexandria ocasio-cortez and far left democrats. just listen to this. >> when we won this election it wasn't in districts like mine or alexandria's, however, she is a wonderful member of congress. i think all of our colleagues will attest but those are districts that are solidly democratic, this glass the water would win with a d next to it in that district. stuart: i read that as a put-down of aoc and her progressive colleagues in the

house. kristin tate is with us. she is a columnist for "the hill." looks like a split in the party and big one, very important one too. >> i think you're right, stuart. nancy pelosi has been around long enough to understand if the democrats want to win back the white house they are going to have to bring moderates, working class voters underneath the blue tent. right now the democratic party is fractured between the moderates and more progress sis. the far left crazies like aoc who are currently sucking up all the oxygen in the room. this created a real branding problem for the democrats basically seen at this point socialists, spendthrift social justice warriors. while this brand may be rivetting to naive college kids and voters in deep blue parts of country, it is very alienating former blue dog democrats many of whom voted for trump in 2016. stuart: as you know, kristen, the mueller report will be

released on thursday, thursday morning i believe. did you think that there is any chance this will, when you release it, you see it is this going to put the issue to bed? >> i wouldn't bet on that. the mueller report will likely be heavily redacted. there probably won't be much for the democrats to sink their teeth into. when they realize there is nothing there, they will demand an unredacted version of the report. for the last two years, stuart the only thing uniting the democrat is hatred of donald trump and their staunch belief that mueller would find something impeachable. this obsession with the investigation pretty much lessened the need for democrats to come up with unifying policy principles. now that the russian collusion narrative has crumbled apart, i see the left doubling down on their trump hatred. but, you know, whining and complaining about trump every day is hardly a motivating platform to run ons especially in light of the mueller report, assuming there is nothing new in

the released version. stuart: thank you very much for joining us this morning. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: live coverage of the release of mueller report begins this thursday on "varney & company," 9:00 eastern. that will be big stuff. >> >> johnson & johnson, united health, are pushing the dow higher, they're both dow stocks. they both did well. unitedhealth turned south. it opened with a 2 1/2 percentage point gain. now it is down a couple of bucks at 227. market watcher jim awad with us this morning. i think this is all, the market this morning is really all about corporate profits. >> absolutely and the evidence that we're getting on balance profits are beating reduced expectations. economy is doing better than the pessimists predicted at the end of last year. stilts are going up in terms of growth. europe seems to be stablizing. china seems to be stablizing. interest rates stablized at

lower stimulus levels. we're talking about the housing market. the china talks look like they're concluding. we're stalking again to europe and japan. i think risks diminished a lot. we still have to get through earnings season. we have to get the china deal done. the out look is positive for new highs in the markets. stuart: positive for new highs in the markets. we're at 26,400, a few points away from the all-time high. you said many times we're going past them. >> you're 15, 16% this year. you're likely not going to be up another 15, 16%. i think we can make moderate new highs unless the china talks break down or there is something in the mueller report that really shocks everybody. left to the economic devices the trends are positive, risks diminished, the runway seems reasonably clear. stuart: you've been right. you've been on the program frequently in the last six months and you've been right. >> they say, if you sit by the river long enough you will see the bodies of friends and

enemies go by? i will be wrong at some point. i will be wrong at some point. i think we're okay here. stuart: okay. we like to hear that with the dow up 43. jim awad, you're all right. thanks for dropping by. >> my pleasure. stuart: we just had our first tax day under the president's tax cuts. i want to know is the administration getting geared up for another round of cuts? they may be geared up. i don't think they will get it from this house. they may be gearing up. we'll ask larry kudlow about that. he is on the show next hour. how about this, growing trend for restaurants, adding a health care surcharge to the bill? helps cover added expense of employee health coverage. how would you feel if you saw that line on your next check? andy puzder coming up. tim cook had big shoes to fill. hard not to compare him to steve jobs. how dot two leaders stack up?

we'll ask the author of a new book about tim cook. he says cook has taken apple to the next level. second hour of "varney & company." here it comes. ♪ ♪ when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. it neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪tum tum tum tum smoothies. also available tums sugar-free.

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stuart: we opened with a gain of 110, 120. we cut it in half. we're up 60. 26,400 on the dow as we speak. now this, there is a book on the screen, there it is, tim cook, the full title, the genius who took apple to the next level. the author joins us this morning. tim cook took apple to the next level. what is the next level he took it to? >> the trillion dollar valuation apple achieved earlier last year. the size of the company now, it is three times the size it was when steve jobs was in charge.

it is a much more powerful company than it used to be. stuart: it is financial thing, power of the company thing as opposed to a technological revolution which is what steve jobs did? >> right. it's maintaining the momentum that jobs began with the iphone, keeping that going. stuart: is it fair to make comparison between jobs and cook? i mean, inevitably, that comparison will be made. but is it fair? >> they're fair. they're leaders of this iconic company. you want to see how they are doing things. the interesting thing about cook he is doing it his own way. he is not trying to be a mini steve jobs. he is not asking what steve would do. he is following his own instincts. stuart: bus he rise to the genius level as you imply? >> definitely so, yeah. he was the one who built, was one of the primary architects building apple under steve jobs to become the monster it is. he hasn't gotten credit for that. steve has got all the credit.

he was one of the primary architects of apple building that giant machine. this is 20 years of his work. this is what he is working on the last 20 years. stuart: from what you know about tim cook, the way he runs the company, where do you think he is taking it? >> he is taking it, he is maintaining what apple has done, intersection between technology and the liberal arts. making technology friendly, accessible, democratic, so anyone can use it. that is in apple's dna he is maintaining that. technology is always changing. it is always developing. we'll see all kind of new products from apple. perhaps an autonomous car. ar glasses. augmented reality glasses that will project things into the real world for you. so a lot of exciting things they're working on. stuart: as you were writing the book did you get help from tim cook? >> i bottom help from apple.

they made four executives to talk to me. stuart: what about the glasses? >> no, they keep it all tightly under wraps. look at technology they're putting into iphones and ipads. stuart: tim, look, steve jobs brought out the iphone. that was in and of itself a absolute revolution. >> absolutely. stuart: do you see the autonomous car or the a.i. glasses as an absolute technological revolution? >> yeah. even the apple watch here. this is in a lot of ways technological revolution too. it just hasn't fully developed. we'll see in the next five, 10 years, this is turning into a very important device that will monitor your health and wellness. personal, attached to you. it may save your life. it already saved a few people's lives. people think jobs products were successful right out of the gate. iphone, no one paid attention for first three years. ipod didn't take off for several years. macintosh was almost a huge disaster when it first came out. a lot of these things take time. people are unfairly judging

cook. they're not giving him the time he needs to see what these things turn into. stuart: but he is not going anywhere, is he? >> no, definitely not, as far as the eye can see this man runs apple. >> absolutely. stuart: there is no successor in sight? >> i think they're thinking about that maybe. jeff williams, his right-hand man, he was the right-hand man to steve jobs, he may a potential successor. no, i don't think that is discussion we'll have in a long time. stuart: thank you for joining us. the book, the genius that took apple to the next level. it will sell yell well, young m. >> i hope so. stuart: thank you. brits want facebook to get rid of the like button for some users. they are concerned about privacy. not i understand that. samsung galaxy phone, looks like a normal phone until you turn it into a tablet. would you pay 2,000 bucks for

that one? we have one on set, actually after this. ♪ was ahead of its time. still, we never stopped making it stronger.

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stuart: it's a rally but it is not as good as it was. we're up 60 points. the dow is up one quarter of 1%. electronic arts on the downside almost 3% down. there is a report that a secure flaw exposed gamers to hackers. down goes the stock. not much but it is down. samsung new foldable phone goes on sale this month. price is nearly $2,000 a pop. we have one live on the set.

we have tom's guide editor-in-chief. consumer report for tech products right? >> yeah. stuart: show me the foldable phone. >> this is the galaxy fold. it is world's first phone that goes from phone sized display to a tablet. this is 4.6-inch display. i open this, you get a 7.3-inch display. this is like having a tablet and phone in one. this took about eight years of development work on samsung's part where they showed it off back in 2011. it is really here. we're kicking the tires to see if it is works the money. stuart: is it real technical innovation. is it that big of a deal? >> i think it is, in the sense, good point. not just gimmicky, it is more what you can do with it. let me show you a couple things. for example you can run three applications on screen. when it comes to multitasking this is really great. i want to look at a restaurant, i want to slide in from the

right, look it up on google maps. it fills in right there. i look up the address and directions. if i wanted to run a third app message it to my friend i could do that right here in the third app. i can move applications around. so gives you a lot of flexibility how you use your device. stuart: susan who has been looking over your shoulder is impressed, nodding vigorously. susan: i'm very impressed. ashley: is it worth it? >> anytime there is whole new category of product a lot of people will wait to see if they work out the kinks. you have to remember, this will be the start of a revolution. we will see all sorts of foldable designs. not just ones that go this way but foldables that go this way. susan: the knock on apple how far ahead samsung and huawei have been in foldable technology they're almost two years ahead in display technology ahead of apple. >> that's true. a lot of people don't even know apple uses samsung displays for i tone 10s, 10s max.

there are behind the scenes that apple is working on a foldable phone. i think it is fair to say they're a little bit behind to the just on foldable phones but what is happening with the 5g revolution. there is rumor they will sit out this year entirely while new phones from samsung and others this is premium, early adopters. people on the cutting-edge. there is definitely novelty factor. there is practicality in terms of multitasking. you get the same great cameras on the galaxy s10 plus. ashley: beautiful. stuart: i believe you. susan: that wasn't enough to excite you. stuart: i'm on the fence. susan: come on. what does it take? stuart: i'm on the fence. not going to answer that one. thank you very much indeed. i got world war ii story. we brought it to you before but you may not have heard it. did you know that actor audrey hepburn was actually a spy for the dutch resistance during the war, world war ii?

next hour we're talking to the author of a new book about help burn. he will tell us her amazing store, what she did during the war. amazing story. president trump so impressed with tiger woods win, he will award him the presidential medal of freedom. for a golfer? brian kilmeade is coming up next on that. ♪ my dream car. it turns out, they want me to start next month. she can stay with you to finish her senior year. things will be tight but, we can make this work. ♪ now...

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♪ ♪ she's got a ticket to ride stuart: the harmony is good, it is solid. doesn't inspire me. ashley: you weren't here

yesterday. you know what we played yesterday? "taxman." stuart: in my absence. moving along, listen to this. it says it has been hit 40 million times with cyberattacks since julian assange since he was removed from ecuador embassy. ashley: they basically tried to through volume overwhelm the systems within ecuador. they attacked ecuadorian government computers, coming in from u.s., brazil, holland, germany, romania, austria and the uk. upset that assange was taken out of the embassy, arrested he is now sitting in a jail of course in the uk or staying in a holding cell. the big question now where does he go next? the u.s. wants him for hacking. there is sexual assault charge in sweden. he also ran out on bail in the

uk. so pick your choice. stuart: is that the thanks he gets from the ecuadorians. ashley: let's not forget he was in the residence for seven years. stuart: that is the thanks they get. he they are attacked. those leftists. check the big board. we're not up 48 points, 49 points. .19%. we lost much of the morning rally. >> let's get to the border crisis. yes it's a crisis. president trump's plan for migrants coming here? send them to sanctuary cities. that is not sitting well with some of the leaders of those sanctuary cities. texas congressman roger williams joins us now. congressman, isn't that what sanctuary cities, sanctuary states are all about? come on in, we love you? >> that is how they're started. they are to the legal but they want everybody to come in, they will take care of them. we're getting pressed tremendously down in texas. we ought to take these folks. the president has a good idea

put them where they are protected. stuart: would you have a message for the mayor of new york city, bill de blasio, who rejects these illegals on the grounds that the trump idea is illegal? what would you say to him, the mayor of new york? >> that is coming from somebody that promotes illegal behavior. i would also like to have the mayor come down to texas, at the border where i have been the last couple days see about this so-called made-up crisis. it is serious down here. he should be willing to take on some of the pressure we've got here since he is so interested in taking care of those creating illegal behavior. stuart: would you bring us up to date what exactly is happening at the border? in the last week we see 1000 a day people coming across, people sleeping in the streets in phoenix and other cities. you've been down there recently. update please. >> i was down in mcallen and went to the rio grande sector. the border patrol is being

overwhelmed. these men and women are doing unbelievable job. i was down there, we saw the border patrol taking care of numerous amount of people that over stretch the buildings. we need larger facilities. we need more people in court. we need more judges. we need more border patrol. we need 300, 400 border patrol in the sector than what we have now. stuart: i'm sorry, congressman, interrupting, forgive me. wasn't the money for more border patrol people allocated by congress, wasn't it? >> there was. we feed to begin to hire those folks but we just, what we allocated for is really not enough. the number of 5000 is what everybody talks about. we need more border patrol, 5000 to take care of these folks. we're actually taking care of them. i saw the children. i saw the grown ups. i saw men, women, they're getting clothes washed. getting three square meals. getting showered it is best they

have had since they left, so forth. we need help. we need to begin to process these folk. many cases when they do get out with a court date, they don't show up. when they do they ask for change venue extend it 10, 15 years. stuart: did you see any kids in cages? >> i saw no kids in cages. there are fenced off rooms, separate younger kids from older kids from the men and women. they're not in cages. they're eating, they're sleeping. frankly in many cases this is the best they have had in probably in their whole life being taken care of. stuart: as a humanitarian, we are a humanitarian country, should we not admit them on humanitarian grounds, what do you say? >> well we are compassionate nation but we're also a land of laws, we have to adhere to the laws. many cases we want to do that, but that is why we need help in moving the process even further. you go down to where i was in

mcallen and brownsville, not only immigration issue but commerce issue. people on bridges take six hours to get across the bridge. it could be a situation where you have a truckload of fruits and vegetables and they spoil. so it is not only immigration. it is also commerce. we need to help the border patrol. we need more people down. there we need more judges. we need more facilities. it's a real crisis. it is not made up. i would love to see the democrats come down there to see what i saw. stuart: yes, sir. congressman williams, thanks for joining us. much obliged. >> you bet. stuart: i want to deal with this real fast. the brits want facebook to remove the like button for some of the users. the stock is down a fraction. what is going on? susan: under 18. the tools, uk contends that young people submit personal data, spend way too much time on apps. the uk is staunch regulating internet. last week proposing an independent regulator fine

companies like facebook and like in the future of the as you know looks like the uk is very staunch protecting user data, you name it. stuart: sounds like draconian intrusion into facebook's method of doing business. now 10:36 eastern time. let's join brian kilmeade. host of the brian kilmeade radio show. welcome back to the show. always good to see you. i want to talk to you about president trump what he tweeted after tiger's masters win. spoke to tiger woods. congratulated him on the great victory at the masters. informed him because of comeback in sports, golf, and more importantly in life, i will be presenting him with presidential medal of freedom. brian i thought it was one of the great moments of sports in all time, what is the judgment of president giving a medal of freedom? >> a lot of great athletes

gotten the medal freedom. michael jordan. barack obama lined up a whole bunch of them. to me it is perfect. this is something donald trump predicted, earlier tweet where the president played golf with jack nicklaus and tiger woods a month ago, people ask me, how did tiger look. he looks great. him and jack get along great. tiger woods couldn't care less. after what he has been through inside the community, golden state warriors, problems with teams showing up to the white house with the president polarizing to some. he couldn't care less. i liked him before. i like him now. i like his golf courses. i came to play. stuart: case closed. >> by the way, stuart you and i talked in the break yesterday, today, this morning after "fox & friends." america likes come back stories. we know none of russ perfect. stuart: yes. >> when you're a genius at something, the einstein of golf is tiger woods. he was great at three.

he was great at 10, 12, 16. his dad thought he would be bigger than nelson mandela, martin luther king. think about that type of pressure. obviously he didn't handle it well. we know he hurt himself and his family. that was him. stuart: you can be redeemed and can reclaim your life in america. that's a fact. before we close i got to get to this, russell wilson highest paid play another nfl with the seahawks, four year contract extension, 140 million. what got to me, brian, the 65 million-dollar signing bonus is guaranteed. that's huge. >> football the contracts are not guaranteed. they get around it making signing bonuses guaranteed. a sport which you don't last more than two years. i like the fact you can get guaranteed money especially knowing the risk you're taking. i love the story, stuart. he wasn't suppose the to be good enough. he wasn't supposed to be a starter right away. he has been to two super bowls.

won one of them. reminds me the derek jeter of football, if he was bigger market, would get bigger accolades and more attention. he is a classy guy. if you're not jealous of him now, be jealous of the fact he could probably be a major league baseball player. stuart: well-said. give him the money. before we close, brian, i want your reaction to the fire at notre dame. you and i were watching it at at same same time. your reaction please. >> i love history. i can't get you have in of it. i know i'm boring. showing me something been around 800 years i'm not leaving. to know the history there. that napoleon walked it. took 150 years to build it. watch it go up in flames i'm astounded. i'm over the devastation behalf happened, now i'm saying what happened? we know how quick the fdny works in new york city. we watching around the country are constantly in awe of the fire departments how quickly

they get to your house. my goodness, where was your fire plan? don't tell me the streets were crowded. we gave you a siren for reason. you're surrounded by water. what was the plan? that will be the focus. the vatican paid for the up keep. paris owned it. france own the it. was that part of it, they weren't concerned with the up keep, no one had the emergency plan? that has to be focus. no one is talking about arson. stuart: shep smith's coverage on fox news was absolutely terrific, outstanding. >> unbelievable. stuart: thank you, brian. see you soon. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: next time you eat out you might want to double-check your bill. ashley: yeah? stuart: new trend in the restaurant business. slapping a surcharge on the check to help cover the cost of employee health insurance. how about that? hasn't happened yet but i'm waiting for it. andy puzder will deal with it in just a moment. ♪

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stuart: we slipped. the rally is still there, but very, very small. 30 points higher for the dow. some disappointing industrial production numbers came out at the top of the hour. ashley: slipped down a little bit. stuart: good numbers on real estate. not so good with production. market reacting not a selloff by any means but we're up 30 points. tesla is looking for a new way to recycle batteries that could save it a lot of money. gerri willis, at new york stock exchange. what are they doing. reporter: they will recycle lithium batteries to pull lithium, cobalt, aluminum out of the batteries. expectations they will save money. other companies are not doing

this. they're putting batteries into energy storage, not recycling them. something new and different for tesla. even so, mr. varney, don't take one of lithium batteries on the plane. faa banned lithium batteries as storage on passenger planes because they can burst into fire. stuart: i will never forget to do that. that is a promise. gerri, thank you very much indeed. has this happened to you? have you seen it yet? more restaurants are adding a surcharge to the patron's checks to help cover the cost of health insurance for their employees. andy puzder, former cke restaurant ceo is with us. this is not a big surcharge, 2% but it is there, right? >> it is actually a pretty good marketing technique if you're in the right city, austin, san francisco, chicago where this is mostly happening, you have a liberal, left-leaning social justice warrior clientele, they come in instead

of paying higher price, looks like it is increasing the restaurant profits, they go, aren't we good people, we're paying for health care for the poor employees. if you're a restaurant owner it helps diverge attention away from higher cost, and makes you feel good about something, but all goes to the bottom line. it is increasing profitability and reducing expenses. can you imagine doing this with rent? my rent went up, pay extra dollar to help pay my rent? nobody would go into that. to naive, left-leaning clientele it con appealing. stuart: okay i have another one for you. president trump symptom nated stephen moore to the federal reserve. you say that is terrifying liberals? make the case. >> yes. the left is very, very afraid that the president trump will succeed economically. the economy is doing so well as we discussed many times on your show. that is the biggest threat they

face in 2020. the biggest threat to the economic recovery over the past year has been the federal reserve. by raising interest rates, increasing the strength of the dollar they have decreased exports which add to gdp so it kind of held growth down. if we get some pro-growth individuals on the federal reserve, at least get their input on the federal reserve board, we could have tremendous, tremendous, long length economic recovery. president's policies would continue to add to the quality of life for all americans. democrats are scared to death of that particularly when people compare it to the obama years when things were so, not very good. growth was terrible. people didn't have jobs . is, andy, if you have super cheap money and rate cuts mr. moore is in favor of, with super cheap money, doesn't that do long-term damage to the economy? >> right now the dollar is strong for a number of reasons. one we have terrific growth in

the second and third quarters of last year. 4.2 and 3.4%. the rest of the world is staggering. that makes the dollar even stronger because the dollar is, it is viewed as a safe haven in economically distressing times. there are two things making it stronger. third, the fed is cutting back on the money supply. they're cutting back on quantitative easing. so you have fewer dollars which increases demand. we have three things already strengthening the dollar. we didn't need, we don't need increased interest rates on top of that. the dollar will not weaken significantly but if it weakens enough we encourage more exports we're going to be way ahead. stuart: okay, got it, andy puzder, thank you very much, sir. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: now this, the food delivery trend making waves in the restaurant business, ordering delivery is the new dining out. that is interesting, isn't it? ordering in is like dining out. it is. next we'll talk to firehouse

subs, a sandwich chain. they're designing their restaurants with focus on food deliveries. the guys are with us after this. ♪ you wouldn't accept an incomplete job

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stuart: we're holding on to a very modest gain. a 30 point gain for the does industrials. a bit of a reversal. we'll take a modest gain over nothing. this stock is up 17% after delivery of the company's ex-sew skeletal system to cigna. rewalk let's patients with spinal cord injuries stand up and walk. you have seen them on this program. the stock is up 17% today. delivering the system to cigna. good stuff. new trend in the restaurant business, ordering food delivery through a service like uber eats or grubhub. our guest is the ceo of firehouse subs. his company is adapting to the new way of eating out. don fox is with us. welcome to the program. >> glad to be here, thanks. stuart: let me get this straight. you order in advance. then it is delivered to you or

is it waiting for you in the store, the sandwich. >> we offer both types of services. stuart: okay. >> when it comes to the third party delivery services customers order through their apps, we prepare the food, they come to pick it up, we have a program called rapid rescue, people order online directly. people pick it up, right there waiting for them. stuart: how much of the business is delivered or waiting for the customer to pick up? >> right now the online ordering directly with us, apartments to 7% of our business and growing. the delivery portion is just a little bit less than that. overall 6% in our system and growing. both growing. it is definitely a change in consumer behavior. a few factors causing that but it is not abating. stuart: is this new way of eating out? actually you're eating in your own home but delivered to you or pick it up? >> true. signaling change of behavior. not majority of the traffic. it is not the way but a growing way. affecting economic model of

restaurants for sure. if there is a bit of canary on the coal mine, despite growth of in delivery services, not increasing in restaurant visits. see a sheet decline in traffic. stuart: that is problem for you? >> it's a problem for everybody. fit is incremental, but not a sign of incremental. on macro scale for industry thatting is we need to be worried of. stuart: you have how many stores. >> 1062. stuart: how come i have never been to firehouse? >> too much time in the desk. we're in northeast. newer markets in the northeast. we started in jacksonville, florida, 1994. grown continuously from there. pretty good presence in the most of the country. stuart: upscale from subway? >> absolutely. stuart: you can't get a five dollar foot long at firehouse. >> we have great value. stuart: i notice you said you did not -- >> we have 5.55 line of sandwiches more meat than you

find on a foot long at subway. stuart: privately owned. >> two firefighter brothers robert and chris sorenson began in 1994. stuart: no chance going public? >> no need to. debt-free. franchise system. we're in very healthy position. stuart: i was going to invest. don, pleasure having you on the show. i promise i get to the firehouse store. >> we'll get you connected. stuart: thanks, don, good stuff. a few minutes ago we said steve moore was nominated to the federal reserve. that is incorrect. he is under consideration but not formally nominated. we're talking to president trump's top economic guy. that is larry kudlow. what does he make of the demands to release the president's tax returns. we'll ask him that and whole lot more. 11:30 for larry kudlow. bernie sanders big fox news town hall. he is a millionaire, demanding a

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stuart: well, well, bernie reveals all. perhaps more than he would have liked. yes, he's in the top 1% of income earners, he's a socialist and he's a one percenter. he's been earning millions but giving very little to charity. he demands a wealth tax but won't say if he would pay it. he opposes the president's tax cuts but still took advantage of them and won't voluntarily give it back. he admits we will pay more in taxes, but that will not pay for medicare for all. in front of a bernie-friendly town hall audience, senator sander made an emotional argument what he thinks is fairness. he's wrong about this. there's nothing fair about seizing more than half of your

or anyone's income. there's nothing fair about confiscating the wealth you have spent a lifetime saving for, and which you want to pass on to your family, and it is hypocrisy to stick it to the rest of us where at the age of 77 you have already made your pile. he gets to keep it. we have to cough it up. he rails against the president, calls him names. he's a racist, he's dangerous. conveniently ignoring the booming economy, rapidly rising wages and historically low unemployment rates among minorities. as i have said many times, i have seen this before. we all have. the rich, the elite, telling us what we should sacrifice, what we have to give up, and how nasty we are if we don't just hand it over. it is the deliberate drumming up of jealousy, the deliberate appeal to resentment. bernie is a throwback. he's not taking us to a bright future. he's going backwards towards a dark and failed socialist past.

one last point. notice the change in bernie's language? he used to rail against millionaires and billionaires. now it's just billionaires. but then, having made his million in both 2016 and 2017, he is perhaps understandably reluctant to rail against himself. that town hall revealed a lot. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. stuart: 11:02 in the east, 8:02 in the west. let's get a check of the big board. up 18 points now, not as good as it was an hour and a half ago. it's been a big day for earnings, and we have four dow stocks that are hitting all-time highs. those four are microsoft, visa, procter & gamble and mcdonald's.

visa backed off a little but the other three, all-time highs. president trump touting his tax cuts on a trip to burnsville, minnesota. that wasn't the only thing on his mind, though. listen to what he said about trade talks with china. roll tape. >> we are in the throes and really pretty final stages. we'll see what happens. look, we're going to win either way. we're either going to win by getting a deal and we also win if we don't get a deal because we do other things. stuart: later this hour, larry kudlow joins us. i want to know, are we actually going to get a deal. i will certainly ask that question, bearing in mind the president's statement last night. back to my editorial. bernie sanders, the socialist, one percenter, sounds like a super hero, right? come in, katie pavlic, fox news contributor matt schlapp, american conservative union chair. katie, you first. bernie supports a wealth tax to appeal to his base. he's reluctant to pay it. what do you say to that? >> well, bernie sanders releasing his tax returns only

further exposes him as a hypocrite. we have known for a long time he's a wealthy man with multiple homes, he wrote a book and sold it to capitalist institutions like barnes & noble and here we are showing he not only didn't pay much to charity but voluntarily didn't write a check to the federal government to make sure all the excess that he had went to fairness and social justice. this just goes to prove that the socialist policies that border on communism, quite frankly, that bernie sanders and other democrats have been pushing are not about fairness at all. they are about government control. you know that because they are willing to become millionaires themselves in a system that helped anybody who wants to do well make it in america, but this is about government control, them taking their money and telling you what they are going to do with it rather than giving people individual freedom to do what they want to do. stuart: matt schlapp, if you have been watching me, you know i'm pounding the table here about fairness. i think it is grossly unfair to take more than half of anyone's income and i don't care how much

you make, and i think it's grossly unfair to confiscate just like that, confiscate the wealth that you spent a lifetime building up and you want to pass it on to the kids. where am i going wrong here? should i be pounding the table like this? >> yeah, i think you should pound harder, stuart. why is that such a problem? well, it's a problem because who will spend that money more efficiently? will it be someone like yourself or will it be bureaucrats in washington, d.c.? when government, when big federal government grabs and has this wealth tax and takes 50% of your money, they are putting it in an inefficient system that actually isn't solving many of our problems and actually making many of them worse. if you were able to hold on to this money and we know this as investors and entrepreneurs across this country, when you allow them to hold on to more of their money, they actually do smart things with it, like they invest it wisely and they invest in businesses, which creates more employment opportunities for americans. and this is why america is unique on the globe. this is why the bernie sanders

philosophy is so against what made america great, and you know the other hypocrisy is that bernie sanders became a millionaire when donald trump became the president. remember maggie's millionaires in the uk? we have trump's millionaires and the first one might be bernie sanders. stuart: bernie sanders is the lead candidate amongst the democrats. i can't believe, i can't believe that if he is the candidate, that he would win. surely america has not gone that far left, has it? >> i don't think so. even if you look at the 2018 midterm election results, democrats try to say they are moderate and maybe some of them are, they are not as far left as bernie sanders but many of the people running for president are as far left as bernie sanders. you have people like nancy pelosi trying to say well, i'm a progressive but i'm not a socialist. if you look at the voting record, it's pretty socialist. one thing i want to say about bernie sanders is that he comes off as this guy who is all about the people, the little guy, he wants to make sure blue collar

workers have jobs again. the fact is that bernie sanders is an elitist. he has made all this money in a free market system that he always talks about in a very demeaning, poor way and he wants to pull up the ladder of success behind him so that other people can't do the same, and in the meantime, he wants to gain power through the government and make decisions for individuals who may want to do it themselves. stuart: matt schlapp, last word to you. >> look, the reason why the democrats have turned to socialism is because if you look at polls, stuart, over 50% or right around 50% of democrats around this country are comfortable with socialist policies. this is no accident. the reason why these dantcandid are running towards socialism is because democrats in america are starting to embrace it. that's a sad thing. stuart: yes, sir. thank you both very much for joining. appreciate it. thank you very much. quick stock check. we are still sitting on a very modest gain, 30 points up. johnson & johnson, good sales numbers. the stock is up 3% -- $3, i

should say, 2.25%. profits a little shaky at j & j because of their recent legal troubles. united health care is down this morning, very significantly, 4% down. even though revenue was a big win, up $6 billion from this time last year. there's something going on there as to why it is down 4%. we will find out for you. how about snap. an analysis shows they are just tearing through their cash. $68 million per month, they are burning through. they could be out of money in a couple years if they don't start turning a profit soon. the stock is only down nine cents, $11 a share on snap. home ownership is on an uptrend. millenials are part of that uptick despite what you may have heard. next, we will talk to the head of the national association of home builders. one are what are millenials up to now? the trump 2020 campaign announcing a major fund-raising

haul, claiming to have 20 times more money than president obama did at this point. money doesn't necessarily mean victory, though, does it? soon we talk to larry kudlow. president trump touting his tax cut bill. is the message getting through? stay with us. the third hour of "varney" just getting started.

stuart: i want to show you some scenes from the dreadful fire that tore through the notre dame cathedral in paris. on your screen, the cathedral's cross in the midst of the smoke and smog from the flames. that's inspiring to me. perhaps the most shocking moment of the entire ordeal, the cathedral's spire collapsing. its structure weakened from the

flames. the building's roof also collapsed. as of this morning, the fire has been extinguished. the cause was likely an accident from renovation efforts but it was a harrowing day for people worldwide. a group of bystanders outside the cathedral came together in song. listen to this. [ singing in french ] stuart: remarkable in a largely secular country. support for the cathedral's rebuilding has been pouring in since late yesterday. france's president macron reassured the people of france that the landmark will rise again. francois pinot pledged $113 million to the cathedral's rebuilding. millions of dollars in

donations, hundreds of millions from individual families coming in from france's richest families. heartwarming indeed. let's get back to the breaking housing numbers from the national association of home builders and what do you know, we have the man himself here with us again. jerry howard, national association of home builders ceo. welcome bavenlck. >> good to be back. stuart: we received the numbers at 10:00 eastern time. it suggests we are on the cusp of a nice resurgence for housing in the spring. what do you say? >> we are hopeful. i think that the sort of dovish attitude the fed is taking with interest rates has been very, very helpful. we are coming into a spring buying season. the economy is still growing. we are hopeful that things will look good. the concern we still have is the availability of land, availability of financing, and the cost of regulation. but the fact that it went up a point to 63 shows our builders are showing some confidence. stuart: i'm looking at 30-year fixed rate mortgage rates of

just over, tad over 4%. are home buyers that sensitive? is it that low 30-year fixed rate that's bringing them back? >> obviously the lower the mortgage rate, the better, but what's really bringing people into the marketplace right now is the first time home buyers, millenials are having jobs, are leaving their parents' basements, forming families and despite what all the naysayers said during the recession, the dream of owning your home is still one of the basic core values in american society. stuart: i think that's one of the most welcome pieces of news i have heard, because that is the american dream. you buy a house, you own a house, you get a tax break on the house, you start your family, you start relationships in your home. what i'm surprised at is the millenials have now taken up that dream because we were always told they were weighed down with student debt and couldn't afford to get out of their parents' basement, as you say. >> when we talk to people and poll people constantly, the millenials are saying the same

thing that people have said since the end of world war ii, when they get married and start forming a family, their dream is to own their own home, a single family home, in a neighborhood with backyards and a good school. that's what americans want. that's the american value. it's holding strong today. stuart: i was always brought up to imagine and believe that your first home, or the home that you buy as a young adult in america, was the best investment and the biggest investment you would ever make. is that accurate? >> for most people, it's definitely the biggest investment you will ever make, and study after study shows that over time, investing in a home, investing in real estate is as stable an investment as there is. absolutely. stuart: you mentioned the high cost of construction. last time you were with us, you gave us a number about how much it adds to the cost of a brand new home, what is it again? >> the average nationwide is between 25% and 27%.

at the extreme you have san diego, california, 40% of the cost of a new house is regulatory compliance. stuart: wait a minute. you've got to be kidding me. >> about 40%. stuart: if i, in the unlikely event i buy a home in san diego for a half million dollars, you are telling me $200,000 of that is construction and regulatory costs? >> absolutely. highest in the nation. san francisco, not far behind. stuart: no chance that comes down? >> i understand that the governor is starting to acknowledge that it's kind of crazy out there, but so far, the builders are not telling me they have seen any improvement on the ground. stuart: you are lobbying, i suspect, for change, are you not? >> we certainly are. stuart: spending some of your money on this? >> yes, sir. stuart: glad to hear it. not that i'm going to buy in san diego. they don't want me in california. jerry, thanks for that positive note. >> good to see you again. stuart: it would be great to see a resurgence of real estate this spring. we are all hoping for that. it would do the economy a lot of good. >> from your lips to god's ears. stuart: or to president trump's.

on dangerous ground here. thanks for joining us, as usual. there you have it. if buying a home isn't up your alley, how about italy? one small town is selling abandoned homes for $1. haven't we seen that story before? ashley: yeah, we have. there's a catch. stuart: there is. how about this. aston martin unveiling its first all electric car? if you want one, act fast. we will tell you why, next. and this famous street in san francisco, lombard street, the crookedest street in the world. tourists may have to pay to drive on it. we will tell you what that's all about. and we will be joined shortly by larry kudlow. we are talking taxes, talking trade. we are not even close to being done. there's still so much more to come.

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but here's my car. that on your screen, that is the all electric aston martin. it's called the rapid e. going to be unveiled in the shanghai motor show starting today. this thing's got legs. 604 horse power. gives off that throaty roar. that's more than the gas powered version. they are only making 155 of them. get your order in soon. another one for you. vw doesn't come to mind when you think pickups. they are trying to change that. this is their new concept truck. designed to be more compact than our usual pickup. no plans for release just yet. they want to gauge the market's reaction to that. if you purchased one of those electric aston martins, what better place to show it off than san francisco's lombard street, crookedest street in the world, but you might have to shell out big bucks to drive it.

another california tax, here it comes. nearby residents want something done about the jams and the crowds. the city is floating an online reservation system to drive it. five bucks per car, ten bucks on the weekends and holidays. ashley: it's like living next to the airport and complaining about the noise. stuart: one of the most expensive cities in the world, san francisco, to the cheapest. how about this one. owning an abandoned sicilian home for one euro. the town is giving -- putting 100 houses on the market for dirt cheap. their population has been sinking for years. they want more people to move in. here's the caveat. you've got to fix the place up within three years or you lose your $5,600 security deposit. ashley: good deal. i would take that. stuart: right on the volcano. that's the bad part. president trump says we are in the final stages of a trade deal

with china, but i thought he was hedging a little. up next, i ask larry kudlow if we are actually going to get a deal. let's see what he says. we are going to talk about the president's tax returns. should he just get it over with and release them? what does larry say? we will find out. he's next. - as the original host of wheel of fortune,

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stuart: we lost the big opening bell rally but are still holding on to a 40-point gain. the dow is about 4400 points awy from the all time closing high. look at united health care. something went very wrong this morning. they had a strong earnings report but the stock is now down ten bucks. it's at a 52-week low. they say medicare, is it medicare or medicaid? medicaid is underperforming for them and it will take until 2020 to get that fixed. i think that's the problem for the stock. it is down 4.5%. that's hurting the dow, by the way. you can chalk this one up to the booming economy. booming trump economy. a surplus of jobs, 7.1 million

unfilled positions. come on in, our next guest who has got a solution. rich is the forbes publisher and resident of silicon valley. i don't hold that against him. you say late bloomers should take these positions. what's a late bloomer? >> well, late bloomer is someone, stuart, who found their deepest passions and deepest talents not when school said they should, but when they do, they go out there and explore, they may come into their own in their late 20s or 40s, 50s and 60s, and emerging neurological research shows that in each decade of our life, we have new unfolding gifts. so this idea that in a technology-driven economy that only the young are any good, which everybody believes in silicon valley, is not true at all. stuart: unfolding neurological research. in other words, research into your brain and how it develops

and when it develops suggests that these late bloomers are great for the work force. is that your point? >> absolutely. that's my point. when you're young, you're really good at technical things. your synaptic processing speed and working memory will never be better than in your teens and 20s but executive functioning, the ability to lead teams and communicate and rally people around a cause tends to get better for most people at 30, 40, 50, then in your 60s and 70s, you get wise. stuart: so i'm employable in my 70s. >> as a wise man. yeah. stuart: i'm not so sure you're right there. i have larry kudlow waiting to go here so rich, thanks for being with us. come back again. >> can i show the cover of the book? stuart: why not. >> say hello to larry. stuart: he's listening to you right now. thanks very much indeed. okay. now, yesterday as you know, april 15th, tax day, the first under president trump's new tax plan but lot of people ended up

with smaller refunds than they used to. larry kudlow waiting in the wings. here he is. national economic council director. larry, welcome to the program. good to see you. >> thank you, stu. thank you. by the way, rich is a great american. how about that. stuart: all three of us together. great americans, okay. wait a minute. lot of people, very disappointed with their refund. is your message just not getting through? is the word not getting out, we have a nice tax cut here? >> well, remember, we are lowering tax rates, marginal tax rates. there's no rebate effect here. that may have something to do with it. although i think refunds are going to wind up running about the same as last year. i wouldn't fret about that because all these polls show, president trump and his new policies to rebuild the economy, right, tax cuts, deregulation, trade reform, energy openings,

he's running at 58% economic approval rating because of the excellent story on the economy and jobs and blue collar wages. stuart: that's huge. that is good. >> 58%. so i'm just saying, the tax cuts are a means to an end. the end is the new prosperity. i think the president's score card there is absolutely terrific. stuart: here's the problem. here's the problem, as i see it. those people in the 1%, and they live in new jersey, new york, new york city, connecticut, illinois, california, those people are not going to get the huge refunds that they are used to, and i think that has some economic impact. now, i have not seen the numbers and maybe you have, but i think there's economic impact here. >> well, look, let me just add to this. remember, we took the salt deduction is down $10,000. that's true. i read that all the time. however, we basically did away with the amt, the alternative

minimum tax. many of those upper end payers would have not gotten any deduction because they would have been thrown into the amt system. now that amt is essentially gone, they do get something, they get $10,000. not nothing. stuart: the end result is still less money going out there from the treasury to people who would have spent and invested that money. >> no, i don't agree with that. i'm sorry, with all due respect. what's happening is more money is going to the private sector for this reason. we lowered business tax rates, we have given full expensing for new investment and equipment. by the way, today's industrial production report, let me put it in a quick factoid, you saw a big gain in business equipment. that's great for capx and direct investment in factories and tech and so forth. we cut personal income tax rates. we have basically doubled the standard deduction. we increased the child care tax credit. that's money that is going from

uncle sam back into the private sector for healthy spending and healthy investment both on the demand side and the supply side of the economy. so i just have to argue it's not true. now, wait a second, the tax revenues from the better 3% growth and more people working, 3.8% unemployment rate, tax revenues are coming in february, march, looks like a good 8%, 9%. i dare say we have already paid for the corporate tax cut. i just think this is a great package but the key point is growth. growth, growth, growth. we are at three, not two or one and a half. wages are rising above three and productivity is rising, and business investment is rising. it doesn't get any better than that. stuart: larry, i admit it, i'm whining about salt because i live in new jersey. okay? i admit it. i admit it. >> look, there's a simple solution to salt. stuart: i know what you're going to say.

lower taxes in new jersey. they are never going to do it. >> the blue states could consider some income tax relief, income tax relief wouldn't be such a bad thing, you know. maybe not all of them would move to florida or texas. some of them might hang around. that's all. just sayin'. stuart: you sound like my teenaged kids there. what about the president's tax returns? one week from today, the irs is going to, the ways and means committee is knocking at the irs's door. they want the tax returns. will he ever release them? >> it will be what it will be. i will refer all this to treasury secretary mnuchin and the treasury department and the irs. they make a case. i think mr. mnuchin has said pretty clearly he doesn't see a legislative purpose for this release of taxes. the president has given hundreds and hundreds of pages. he is still under audit. there are a lot of things going on here. i'm going to leave this to the treasury department and the irs. i don't have anything to add to

what they have already said. stuart: earlier, we played a clip from the president. he said we are in the final stages of trade talks with china. he kind of left the door open, seemed to be hedging a little, maybe we won't get a deal but that's still a win, maybe we will get a deal, that's still a win. can you tell us categorically, if you can, yes, we are going to get a deal of some sort? >> no, i can't say categorically. look, what i will say is we continue to make very good progress across the board. these are the broadest, largest in scope negotiations in u.s./china trade relations history. good progress on enforcement, on all the key points, whether it's enforcement, whether it's i.p. theft, whether it's forced transfer of technology and ownership and cyberspace and cloud and of course, the issue regarding tariff and non-tariff barriers for agriculture and industrial commodities. lots of progress, stu. i'm not here to predict that.

ambassador lighthizer, secretary mnuchin are working hard. they are on the phone. there will be more talks this week. let's just take this one day at a time, one step at a time. we like what we see but i'm not here to make a forecast. stuart: when it comes to the 2020 campaign, will the president be pushing a big tax cut, more tax cuts as part of his campaign plank? >> i don't know for sure. i will say we have discussed internally what additional tax cuts and tax reforms make some sense. we are always in a period progressing on more deregulation across the board in every single area. we just had a big energy executive order that would free up permitting for pipelines and lng terminals and so forth. there would be lots more of that. we are looking at the tax issue for the campaign. thus far we haven't made any final decisions. it's all out there. the key word here, you heard the

president say this, growth. growth, growth, growth. that's been his plan. we are getting the results in. he continues to talk about the need for growth and as he said i guess yesterday in minnesota, the economy is taking off like a rocket ship because of the tax cuts and deregulation. that's a very important message. you and i have talked about this. i know critics like to talk about oh, it all goes to rich people. that's completely wrong. the biggest gainers have been the best blue collar employment in 50 some odd years, the wages, the wages of blue collar workers are rising faster than the wages of white collar workers. that's a terrific thing. but all wages are rising. people coming out of the woodwork who are not even on the unemployment rolls are now coming back to work. stuart: got it. >> with better wages and training. this is all good stuff. this is rocket ship stuff. stuart: here comes the hard break. i'm still whining about salt. because i live in new jersey.

i'm sorry, larry. i hate to be a downer. larry kudlow, everyone. always a pleasure. we thank you very much for being here today, sir. thank you. >> thank you, stu. appreciate it. stuart: the trump 2020 campaign set to announce a massive fund-raising haul. they claim to have 21 times more money than president obama did at this same point. money doesn't necessarily mean victory, of course. we are talking to trump 2020 campaign, next. 2,000 fence posts. 900 acres. 48 bales.

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stuart: whoa, look at lyft. nasty 20% dip over the past week. they are a little bit of a gain today, up a buck, but still below 60 bucks a share. $57, to be precise. remember, they went public at $72 two and a half weeks ago. how about this.

sony taking on uber in japan. they have launched a new taxi hailing app in tokyo. they have a combined fleet of over 10,000 cabs and are making them into a kind of uber. interesting. turning to the 2020 campaign, some huge fund-raising numbers from the trump campaign. $30 million coming in just in the first quarter of 2019. $30 million in 12 weeks. pretty good. that beat out sanders and other top democrat contenders. kayleigh mcenany, trump 2020 national press secretary with us now. who is making these donations? who is giving? >> i can tell you exactly who. 99% of those donations were from small donors. $200 or less. it was approximately 99% when you round up. that's beating much of the democratic 2020 field, if not all of them. it shows once again president trump is a prolific fund-raiser among small donors. that's really abnormal for the republican party but there is

grassroots support here. stuart: hold on, was that 99% of the $30 million came from small depositors or was it 99% of all contributors? >> of all contributors. stuart: so not the money, it's the number of contributors. >> exactly. average donation, $34, by the way. pretty good. stuart: that's good. bernie sanders, we were told, he had a lock on small donors but apparently mr. trump's in there as well. any idea where that money came from? was it midwest, west coast, east coast? don't tell me it was from manhattan's upper west side. >> yeah. well, what i will tell you, i can't speak for this quarter's numbers but what i will tell you is historically, a lot of our small donations come from california which is not that hard to believe when you consider how radical california has become. there are some conservatives within who say we support this president, not the liberal blue state of california. stuart: bernie sanders was in pennsylvania i think, then michigan and wisconsin over the

weekend. he's going after mr. trump's base, isn't he? >> oh, he is, but he's not going to have much success and here's why. it used to be in 2016 both president trump and bernie making promises to these states. now there is one person who can say i don't just have promises for you, i have deliverables and that's president trump. he can say i delivered on wages, i delivered on jobs, manufacturing is coming back, farming in wisconsin, open dairy markets to canada if the usmca passes through congress. president trump has deliverables. bernie sanders has false promises. stuart: kayleigh mcenany, you have a good message. got to get it out there, of course. thanks for joining us this morning. see you again soon. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: sure thing. we broke this news for you yesterday. the mueller report goes public thursday morning. house democrats are not too pleased with that. they wanted to see the report before the public saw it but it's coming out for everybody thursday morning. you can be sure we will be covering every word of it for you when it's released. keep it on "varney" this thursday, 9:00 a.m. eastern time. full coverage, mueller report.

we revealed on this program that audrey hepburn in addition to her hollywood stardom was a world war ii spy. it all came out in a new book. we have the author on the show, next. when you rent from national... it's kind of like playing your own version of best ball. because here, you can choose any car in the aisle, even if it's a better car class than the one you reserved. so no matter what, you're guaranteed to have a perfect drive. [laughter] (vo) go national. go like a pro. see what i did there?

stuart: we always like to bring you something a little different as we close out the show. last week, we let you in on hollywood legend audrey hepburn's little known past. she was a spy. look who's with us, the author of the book "dutch girl." all right, robert, tell us as fast as you can, what did she do in the dutch resistance? >> i can tell you what she didn't do. she did not slit the throats of german soldiers or seduce german officers. that wasn't the kind of spying she did. she was a member of the resistance who, at age 14 and 15, ran messages to downed allied airmen who had been shot down over holland. she took them food, she delivered the underground, the

resistance newspaper, she would stuff it in her socks and take it around. a lot of activities by young people in the resistance involved messages, getting messages from here to there, and like i say, taking food to people who were in hiding. stuart: presumably, there would be great danger in doing that, and i guess she took that great danger at a very early age. she couldn't have been, what, more than a teenager, maybe? >> she was 14 when she joined the resistance movement. probably the most dangerous time for her was after the battle of arnem when british paratroopers who had been defeated scattered to the local area and the resistance located some of these soldiers into the homes of people where she was living, and her family took in a british paratrooper and hid that man in their cellar for more than a week. she thought that was thrilling, that she got to be doing

something so important. it became a big lesson that she taught her son luca about her time in the war. stuart: when did this come out? because i never heard it until we reported it a couple of -- a week or so ago when it came out in your book. but this wasn't known until many, many years after the war, was it? >> some of it was known because she would tell little bits and pieces of her time in the war. never in any great detail. but it wasn't until i was working with her son that he revealed that she told him this story about the british paratrooper. no one had ever heard that before. i was blown away when he told me that. another thing she did was dance. she was the most famous ballerina and raised money for the resistance by dancing in secret performances called black evenings. that was a thing she was most proud of about her resistance activities. stuart: she wasn't a star when she did all of this in world war ii. there was no there's audrey

hepburn. she was just an ordinary person, extraordinary dancer, maybe, but ordinary person doing an extraordinary thing. >> the quietest, most unassuming girl in the town, yes, absolutely. stuart: i'm trying to remember, but i believe she died at a young age. i think she was 63 when she passed. is that accurate? >> yes, she was 63 and she died of abdominal cancer, which i maintain was related to the war. i call it a war wound that never healed because she went through the hunger winter of 1944 into '45 when the germans cut off food to the netherlands and like 20,000 civilians died. she suffered edema to the point that she almost died, too. stuart: wait a minute. that's another something which i wasn't aware of. i didn't know that the germans in 1944 had cut off food supplies to the netherlands. i wasn't aware that so many people literally died of starvation, and i certainly wasn't aware that audrey hepburn suffered in that way.

that's a remarkable revelation. >> well, yeah. i talked to many people in her town who suffered through that winter with her, and they just told horrifying stories of what it was like, you know, surviving on the dust from harvesting machines for days on end. she talked about going without food for three days at a time. nothing at all to eat. so she never quite regulated herself and got used to being able to eat again, and she developed eating disorders because of it. stuart: there is so much we didn't know, and so much that you have revealed. that's terrific, sir. "the dutch girl." there's something i'm going to read. sir, we appreciate your appearance today. thank you very much indeed for all that you have written. thank you, sir. >> thank you. stuart: sure thing. remarkable story. all this before she became such an iconic actress, "breakfast at tiffany's." ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

that's what we do on this show. reveal such things. more after this. . . .

stuart: modest gain for the dow, 2 1/2 hours in. we're up about 60 points now. united health still a drag on the dow. that stock ace dow stock. it is way down. now this. larry kudlow made news on trade a few minutes ago on this program. listen to this. >> we continue to make very good progress across the board. these are the broadest, largest in scope negotiations in u.s.-china trade relations history. good progress on enforcement, all the key points, whether enforcement, whether i.p. theft, whether it is forced transfer of technology and ownership of

cyberspace and cloud, of course the issue, regarding tariff and non-tariff barriers for agriculture and industrial commodities. lots of progress. stuart: okay, repeat, lots of progress on all the key points. ashley: he says more talks this week. that is always encouraging. we like what we see, unquote. just a matter of sealing the deal obviously. we haven't gotten to the finish line but they're talking. that is what we like to see. stuart: one stock we'll bring to your attention. netflix report earnings profits later this afternoon around 4:00. look at it go. this is before you get their results and they're up nearly 3%. a 10-dollar gain. ashley: before earnings deutsche bank coming out raising it to a buy from a hold. upping its price target from 360 to 400. deutsche bank very impressed apparently with netflix that has helped sentiment on the stock. stuart: by the way i see ibm

they reveal earnings later on this afternoon. that stock is up $1.39. so there is variety of companies going up in advance of the earnings expecting a good profit report. neil, sir, it's yours. neil: stuart, thank you very much. we meanwhile are falling the fallout from the fire at notre dame cathedral. you might recall that it was in the middle after 6 million-dollar renovation. after the fire better than $600 million worth of pledges to rebuild it to its original grand glory. it is coming from a host of key players including apple, l'oreal, lvmh ceo and host of others all pledging to do everything they possibly can to return this 850-year-old architectural diamond to its original glory. but they still want to find out what happened to that glory and how close it came to being