dagen: better software than any other automaker in the world. >> that's why somebody would buy it, because it is light years ahead of the rest. dagen: thank you all so much. it was a big pleasure. right now, mr. varney, take it away. stuart: dagen, thank you very much indeed. good morning to you. good morning, everyone. venezuela dictator is still there. he's going to have a hard time, an uphill struggle, to stay there. late developments. president trump told trish regan he would quote, help a little, maybe a lot, to get juan guaido into the presidential palace. he's keeping the world guessing about the use of force. today, venezuelans will be hit with a round of strikes from public sector workers and more street demonstrations. we should also tell you that minnesota democrat ilhan omar says the collapse of venezuela is our fault. it's america's economic sanctions that did it, she says. in d.c. right about now, the

house judiciary committee will convene to interrogate attorney general william barr. they may be talking to an empty chair because mr. barr will not be there. after yesterday's circus, who could blame him? he was harangued by democrats. hawaii's maize horono called him a liar to his face and called for him to resign. my opinion? the left is really upset about the mueller no collusion report and are desperate to keep it going. meanwhile, in the real world, we have a rip-roaring economy. 3% growth, falling inflation, low interest rates, seven million jobs going begging and this morning, another very low reading on the firing rate, as i call it. just 230,000 layoffs last week. that is a low number. the market, well, we will open flat to slightly lower this morning. stocks did take a hit late yesterday after the fed signaled it may not be lowering interest rates any time soon. that's it. as usual, we have a big show. it is the national day of

prayer, and president trump addresses that in the rose garden this morning. you will see it. late news about a china/u.s. summit on trade. "varney & company" is about to begin. a lot of the policies that we've put in place has kind of helped lead the devastation in venezuela, and we've sort of set the stage for where we are arriving today, this particular bullying and the use of sanctions to eventually intervene and make regime change really does not help the people of countries like venezuela. stuart: you heard her correctly. congresswoman ilhan omar pointing the finger at us, america, for the collapse in venezuela.

art laffer is with us. all right, sanctions, our sanctions on them, is that what's really to blame in venezuela? >> no, i don't think so. but i really do, i mean, i will defend her right to say what she believes. stuart: of course. >> that's what's wonderful about america. but she is wrong. the problem in venezuela is the venezuelan government. socialism doesn't work and whenever you try to do the stuff they do, it's a collapse. i remember i was in germany in august 13th, 1961, in berlin, when they started building the wall. you knew very well back then, if you had any sense at all that this stuff doesn't ultimately work, and when the wall fell down, that was a classic sign that socialism is a failure. it's not trump that's doing it. trump thank goodness is trying to accelerate it so more people don't die, so more people don't suffer. i support his policies 100% when it's trying to get rid of socialism, bring free market democratic capitalism back. stuart: i want to bring in market watcher gary kaltbaum

this morning. he's often had strong reaction to what's going on in venezuela. what's your reaction to omar's comments, gary? >> i find it interesting that she's against sanctions in venezuela, but for sanctions in israel, a great democracy. kind of leaves you breathless. but look, all you have to do, stuart, get a chart of the date that hugo chavez expropriated the oil industry and what's happened over there. oil production has crashed since then. you've got people, the state, who couldn't even know how to run a lemonade stand taking over a $300 billion to $400 billion potential barrels of oil and that's what happened. look, all this is about is dummies taking over all the industry, blaming everything on the wealthy, telling the poor that they are going to be taken care of, and guess what happens over time? industry dies, people die, hope dies and you see exactly what's

going on right now. an intervention will be eventually needed. stuart: gary, i know that you are comparing bernie sanders to hugo chavez and aoc to nicholas maduro. i think you are going too far, because the kind of socialism suggested by bernie sanders is not like the socialism and dictatorship in venezuela. >> all i can tell you is every proposal coming out of bernie sanders is how venezuelan downfall started. that is taking over the state taking over large swaths of the economy. it is by no accident they are going after health care. it is no accident that climate change slash energy. it is no accident they are going after education with free college. they want to control. i must tell you, i get into conversations with a lot of people that love bernie and i ask them two simple questions. a, why do you want to give up

more control, more choice and more of your money to them? that's number one. number two is what in bernie sanders's resume says he knows how to run these large swaths of the economy? i must tell you, they all turn into ralph cramden because they don't have an answer to those simple questions. the greatness of this country is the people and their hard work, not the government. to think that you can put all these industries in the hands of a government that's taken up to $22 trillion of debt and trillion dollar deficit, quite amazing to me. stuart: well said, mr. kaltbaum. i don't really have an answer for that but i like what you had to say. thank you. see you soon. i've got to report new developments on china. xi jinping plans to visit the white house in june ahead of the g-20 summit. we are told they are looking at several dates in the second or third week of june. meanwhile, joe biden playing down the economic threat from china. watch this.

>> china is going to [ inaudible ]. come on, man. they can't figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the china sea and the mountains in the east -- i mean, in the west. i mean, you know, they're not bad folks, but guess what? they're not competition for us. stuart: whoa. strong stuff. art laffer, you were listening to that. you heard it. china is not competition for us. your response? >> china of course is competition for us. what i want it to be is peaceful competition. china makes us a lot stronger and we make china a lot stronger. competition is not bad, it's wonderful, as long as they don't cheat, as long as it doesn't happen and as long as it doesn't go into big military stuff. if china starts into the military stuff, that's a different game all together. right now, we need china. without walmart, there is no -- i mean, without china, there is no walmart and without walmart,

there's no middle class or lower class prosperity. we need china, they need us, and i want to get a good deal with china so that both of us can prosper really, really well and i am hoping steve mnuchin, lighthizer and larry kudlow and the others are all doing it, the president i think would like to have free trade, too. stuart: what do you make of the leading presidential candidate among democrats, now in the latest polls he's way out in front, way out in front of everybody, what do you make of that candidate saying that kind of thing about china? to be honest with you, i find it extremely ill-informed at the very least. >> it's ill-advised to be talking like that. if he were to be elected president, he should keep his own counsel and this is something he should look at very seriously. he shouldn't come at these situations with prejudicial previews of how he thinks. he should look at the issue and figure it out. i'm sure there's lots of intelligence, lots of other material to show us whether, in fact, china is trying to quote,

eat our lunch or whether china is trying to play fair and want to be productive with us. he should not be -- he should not be talking like that. stuart: no, he shouldn't. i just can't figure out why he is, quite frankly. >> it's to get votes, obviously. stuart: are there votes in that? >> i don't know. he probably thinks there are. liz: what about the union workers who lost jobs? stuart: thank you, liz. there you go. what about the union workers? >> it's crazy, isn't it. he shouldn't be talking like that and i don't think that's a good campaign strategy. stuart: disastrous. that's a disaster. okay. we're done, out of time. sorry. we are always happy to have you on the show. >> thank you, everybody. stuart: let's get serious. we have news on tesla. it's up 10 or 11 bucks this morning. i think they're raising cash. ashley: they want to raise about $2 billion or just over. they are going to be offering about 1.3 billion in convertible notes, in debt, also $650

million worth in shares. we understand ceo elon musk has also signaled intent to buy about $10 million of the company stock in this new offering. this comes after, you know, musk said several times we do not need to raise any more capital. he was pushed on this by equity analysts and deferred those questions, saying well, maybe it is a good idea. apparently it is. they have filed to raise a little above $2 billion. stuart: hold on a second. i know you have something to say. liz: that's okay. that's fine. stuart: i just want to switch, because on capitol hill, jerrold nadler is beginning his opening statement. he was supposed -- the panel was supposed to be interviewing attorney general william barr this morning, but mr. barr has refused to appear. i think mr. nadler right there, i think he's talking to an empty chair. that's the way it is. it's not on camera. i'm told that yes, he is. it's an empty chair. whatever transpires, anything

serious and dramatic, you will find out real fast. i do want to go back real fast to liz. we just reported that tesla is trying to raise $2 billion. you have always been big on their debt situation, right? liz: yeah, i've been watching because i'm a corporate accounting geek which i covered for the "wall street journal." their off-balance sheet and on-balance debt sheet swamping shareholder equity. that's what happens when a company turns upside down. they've got another big bond payment coming due, $1.7 billion coming in coming months. stuart: so he's raising money for that. the stock up 13 bucks. that's a bit of a recovery. check futures, please, thursday morning, how do we open today? we're opening flat to slightly lower for the dow and s&p. looks like we've got a four-point gain for the nasdaq. no big moves either way in the early going. now this. the measles outbreak spreading to the open seas. hundreds quarantined on board a cruise ship in the caribbean. a measles case was confirmed so now the ship's in quarantine.

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stuart: attorney general barr will not testify before the house judiciary committee today. right-hand side of your screen, that is an empty chair. the congresspeople are speaking to an empty chair. now, yesterday, barr was truly grilled on capitol hill over the mueller report. just take a look at this. >> we knew robert mueller's concerns were valid and that your version of events was

false. you told senator chris van hollen that you didn't know if bob mueller supported your conclusions, but you knew you lied. but i wasn't surprised. you did exactly what i thought you'd do. it's why i voted against your confirmation. but now we know more about your deep involvement in trying to cover up for donald trump. being attorney general of the united states is a sacred trust. you have betrayed that trust. america deserves better. you should resign. stuart: okay. joining us, herman cain. mr. barr is not going to testify today and frankly, herman, i guess you can't blame him after sitting through that yesterday. what do you say? >> i don't blame him at all. the empty chair is consistent with their empty lives. mr. mueller finished his report. mr. barr's job was to write a summary. he did. there was no collusion and no obstruction. what's happening here, stuart,

is that the democrats want to keep the lie alive. that's all they have between now and the election in 2020. here's the other thing that this senator knows along with a lot of the others. the more outrageous of a statement that they make, the more likely it is to be picked up by the media on tv, sometimes in print. that's what she's doing. there is absolutely no basis for attorney general barr to resign because there is no shame in his game and i love it that he did not back down to these accusations and lies. stuart: frankly, herman, looking at what's going on right now on capitol hill, the empty chair and congressmen railing to an empty chair, i think they have lowered the tone to the level of farce. that's my opinion. here we go. a new cnn poll about the president's approval rating, best level in two years, 43% approve.

okay, that's not high, but it's higher than it has been in two years. question for you, herman, do polls matter at this point? >> no. they do not matter at this point and here's the reason why, stuart. you have reported on this on your show. when over 90% of the legacy media outlets, abc, cbs, nbc, msnbc, do negative reporting, over 90% do negative reporting on this president and his administration, what do you expect? you get 43% approval. what it also says is that enough people are not buying the fake news, they're not buying the malarkey and are looking at the results of this president. i happen to think 43% approval is very respectable when you have these other stations attacking you constantly and it's usually with fake news and even to the point of lies. it doesn't mean a thing at this point. stuart: i've got to tell you, i scanned the establishment media

this morning. i looked at some tv shows. nowhere were they talking about the stellar growth economy, which we have right now. i mean, it really is the best economy i've seen in a long, long time. gets no mention at all. it's ridiculous. last word to you. >> it is ridiculous that this president doesn't get cited on some of these other stations for this booming economy. the gdp growth rate, they didn't expect it to be over 3% in the first quarter but it was. we also have historically low unemployment rates. we have regulatory rollback. they don't want to talk about that. they don't want to try to do trump hate and negative attacks but the good news is most american people are not abandoning trump because they know the truth, and i got to tell you, stuart, we are going to have to mobilize the foot soldiers of the truth which is why we prepared this little truth card that people can order

at truthcardcain.com. stuart: you got it. herman, i've got to run. thank you very much. see you again real soon, that's a promise. the luxury housing market, it had its worst first quarter in about a decade. sales plunging, especially in high tax states across the country. oh, gee, do you think salt might have something to do with that? ashley: you think? stuart: we'll be right back.

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stuart: listen to this. luxury home sales suffered their biggest drop in almost a decade. that's a fact. joining us now is the author of this book, "sell it like s sirhant." ryan sirhant is with us. i have to believe this decline is almost entirely the result of the removal of the state and local tax deduction. am i right or am i right? >> you're partly right. i don't point just to tax change and tax law as a reason for people buying or not buying homes. i think currently, in high tax

states, the salt deduction does play a big role in it. for me personally in new york city, we are selling a lot of homes for people moving to texas, moving to florida, for people, especially small business owners who are looking to -- who don't need to be in high tax states, they can be anywhere, they can work from home, they can work from the beach in miami and save on those taxes, it's a big deal. i think that's playing into it. stuart: wasn't the sales drop really big in greenwich, connecticut, and the sales drop was really big in newport beach, california, a very wealthy area in a high tax state? >> yes. if you have really, really, really high real estate taxes and really high income tax, people now are second-guessing their moves to those locations. previously, you would justify it by saying yes, but the purchase price is offset by those costs and i'm just looking at my monthly payments, or yes, but

the schools in those locations are really good, so i don't have to pay for private schools in manhattan, let's say. now -- stuart: sorry, i'm out of time. i've got to run. i'm sorry. i'm glad you confirmed that i'm at least partially right on salt. >> partly right. stuart: i'll take it all. thanks very much, ryan. see you again later. check the market, please. we are opening up in four minutes' time. we will be flat to slightly lower for the dow and s&p, slightly higher, the nasdaq. back in a moment.

stuart: well, left-hand side of your screen, the farce is over. that judiciary committee hearing where william barr did not show up, they have abandoned it. good-bye. on the right-hand side of your screen, the market is now open and it is open a little bit lower. the dow is off just 20 points, a fractional loss. check the s&p, please. how about that one? is that also down? yes, it is, a fractional loss. less than 1% down. the nasdaq composite, maybe a fractional gain. let's see. okay. we'll get there. we're down a tiny fraction. go with that. michelle mckinnon, joel shulman, elizabeth macdonald and ashley webster with us this morning. my point is this. this economy is firing on all cylinders. strong growth, low unemployment,

declining inflation, low interest rates, and this morning, news that productivity is on the rise. very nicely, too. ashley: five-year high. stuart: five-year high. that's extraordinary. that equals surely more growth with low inflation in the future. liz: july can mark the longest expansion in u.s. history this period. stuart: we'll take it. is that, michelle, why you are always bullish on the market and are still bullish? >> i'm definitely still bullish, particularly with the fact that we've got low inflation, we've got the fed on pause, we have low unemployment and like you said, again, again, it's about low inflation. i hate to say this is a perfect environment but it kind of is. stuart: kind of is. goldilocks. that rings a bell. ashley: not too hot, not too cold. stuart: yesterday the market sold off a little when we found out the fed is unlikely to lower rates this year. does that matter? >> the word transitory seemed to

set the market off, that one word, transitory. i don't think it matters. liz: inflation is transitory. it could go up. >> yeah. it's 1.7%. market seemed a little nervous about that one word, about the fed maybe not cutting interest rates. i agree with michelle. i think these are very good markets but today's news mentioned there were concerns that the market might have a melt up. i never heard this term before. melt up. they are saying to people you should buy stock options and take advantage of it. i don't agree with that. >> there's a melt up. there is definitely a melt up on hand. absolutely. yeah. i think you have a bigger melt up than melt down. liz: where's the earnings recession? they were talking about a 4% drop in s&p 500 earnings. it's now 2% drop year over year. stuart: that's what they were expecting. liz: they were expecting 4%. >> earnings are expected to increase in the back half of the year. stuart: the s&p 500, the earnings of those companies are up 1.8%.

not down 2.3%. okay. let's take a look at tesla. i think that stock is way up this morning. not that great. $9 higher. they are planning on raising $2 billion cash. that's why the market is up 3%, nearly 4%. what's the big deal here, joel? >> lot of people won't know this, but cash is down 50% since the end of december so they are down from $4 billion to $2 billion. what a lot of people also don't know is they stretched their payables by $2.4 billion in the same quarter. plus, they have about $2 billion coming due in debt. they've got short term debt obligations about $2 billion. in the absence of raising some money in the marketplace, they could have a financial squeeze. this $2 billion is critical for them to see through their initiatives. stuart: they have to raise that. >> they have to raise the money. stuart: the market thinks they will because it's up nine bucks. what do you think? >> i think they will raise the money. i think there are people out there. stuart: would you give them any money? not you personally, but you run a financial -- >> no, no, i'm not investing in

stock now because i think the risk of distress is still reasonably high. i don't think it's 50%, 60%, but i think there's a chance, a decent chance about 20% they will have some cash flow problems. when you stretch payables by $2.4 billion in the quarter and cut your cash by half, that's saying a lot of things behind the scenes. they still don't make automobiles efficiently. stuart: got it. look at qualcomm, please. they had a big payday after settling with apple over the patent licensing fees. they've got to get $4.5 billion. my question is, ash, did apple cave? ashley: pretty much. i think they got this thing resolved. this had been going on for years. qualcomm was arguing you owe us patent fees and royalties. it could have gone on forever and ever. bottom line, qualcomm is providing the silicon chips to the iphones, so they might as well settle and they ended up doing that which was a smart move. by the way, qualcomm got an even bigger surprise because intel got out of the race to make 5g

mod modems. qualcomm is like seriously? we're in. it's been a good period of time for qualcomm to get this dispute behind them, get more money and more business. stuart: joel buys only entrepreneurial companies. >> 20 years ago would have had qualcomm. now i wouldn't. this is second, third generation coming in. today's market, they are down on earnings guidance so this is not a stock i would own. stuart: michelle, too young to remember this. literally, 20 years ago, i remember the quillionaires. i remember it distinctly, on one day they paid $200 per share. up it went. you don't remember. >> who could forget. stuart: check the big board. not that big a decline. minus 48 points as we speak. now, individual stocks. here we go. the dow component, it is dow inc., okay, down just a fraction, sales are down at that company. more money coming in at the

parent of the discovery channel. i think that stock is up, yes, it is. discovery communications are up nearly 2%. pg & e, california utility, had a rough time of it with those wildfires. it's come back a little, not that much. $22 a share, up 2% today. rosy forecast from the health insurer cigna, despite that the stock is down $1.40. look at the share price of met life and prudential. met life profit up, prudential profit down. the stocks correspond. met life up, prudential is down. got to go back to facebook. i know you are going to love this one. as part of the settlement with the government, they are reportedly going to create positions, employees, focused on privacy. >> oh, yeah? stuart: oh, yeah. ashley: really? >> will they actually get it right this time? stuart: who cares? >> who cares? the stock keeps going higher, exactly. liz: i thought the board and top executives were supposed to oversee privacy. what is this about?

they need even more outside committees or individuals to oversee it? this is very odd. ashley: sounds like the government, doesn't it? governmental. >> his presentation a few days ago, that joke he tried to play about how they definitely don't know privacy very well. stuart: you guys are all laughing here. join the club, laugh away. but joel is sitting here. is facebook an entrepreneurial company? >> it is an entrepreneurial company. we own it. stuart: you own it? >> we own it. stuart: the thing's going up. oh, this is my story. beyond meat. they make plant-based meat alternatives. it's going public today. would you buy it? >> no. it is an entrepreneurial company. it is entrepreneurial. so you've got two founder ceos running this thing. it's got $80 million in revenues. high growth, love the company, but i also said we wouldn't buy lyft when it came out ipo a few weeks ago. so we don't buy ipos as a

general rule, we wait until six months to a year. 17 times revenues right now, i think the market's a little hot. liz: well, let me back up. the trend is here, burger king is doing it. we are seeing mcdonald's putting its toes into this space of vegan burgers. the trend is here toward meatless hamburgers. it's interesting. stuart: i'm interested. i'll try it. i would eat that stuff. liz: i tried it. >> it's delicious. stuart: when it settles down, i agree, i'm not going to buy it on day one or two. i will be interested. >> the only issue, there's a lot of competition. stuart: i will buy a piece of each of them. one of them's going to win big. >> probably. stuart: i think this is related to the previous story. burger king taking aim at happy meals from mcdonald's with meal boxes. this is burger king. let the customer choose how they feel. ashley: what do you mean?

liz: happy days. to the next story. stuart: let's move. the maker of oreo's and a whole bunch more may start making cbd, the cannabis oil, in some of their products. another example of going mainstream. liz: cbd snacks for when you have the munchies. all in one. brilliant. stuart: it doesn't get you high. >> it's more about relaxing. >> this company had $40 billion in revenue about four years ago. today it's $25 billion. i think it's a gimmick. what's next? we will have it in chips, in our cereal? stuart: they brought in $40 billion in revenue a couple years ago. >> today it's $25 billion. stuart: what happened? >> they have $8 billion in profits. today it's about $4 billion. they have come down. people just aren't buying crackers and cookies and these other things.

liz: they make ritz crackers, oreos. stuart: they think cbd oil will bail them out. do you agree? >> no. stuart: this man gets straight to the point. on television sometimes we like t you to spin things out. >> okay. i think it's very unlikely. stuart: okay, sports fans. it's 9:40. michelle, you're all right. joel, you really performed today. thank you. check that big board. we are down just 30 points. that's it. we were expecting to open flat to slightly lower and that's exactly what we've got. new developments in the college admissions scandal. a family from china paid millions, plural, millions of dollars to get their child into stanford. we are on that story. president trump will hold a national day of prayer service at the white house rose garden later this morning and you're going to see it. he starts to speak around 11:00. you will see it.

the president telling fbn's trish regan that he would quote, help a little, maybe a lot, to get juan guaido into venezuela's presidential palace. does that mean we're going to send troops to get maduro out? we'll deal with it next. hmm. exactly. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

stuart: happening moments ago, jeff bezos' blue origin just launched a rocket from the company's testing site in texas, unmanned. it will carry research equipment to suborbital space and it comes back, that's the point. successful launch there. check the big board. as we were expecting a flat to slightly lower market this morning, the dow is down 30 points. that's it. 26,400 on the nose right there.

how about dunkin'. better sales there. i have switched to dunkin''s coffee. ashley: from mcdonald's? this is a big move. stuart: up $1.35, 2% higher. i did that. kello kellogg's profit down, $56 a share, down $2.50. let's get to venezuela. just listen to what the president had to say about juan guaido's situation. roll tape. >> i've been watching him and watching the moves, and you know, there's a lot of stir for him and it's from a constitutional standpoint where it's supposed to be. he was elected. they should be running it. now, at least we could go in and help him a little bit and maybe a lot. stuart: maybe a lot. interesting phrase there. joining us, charles shapiro, former u.s. ambassador to venezuela.

mr. ambassador, it sounded a bit there like the president was contemplating at least the use of force. if he did it, would it be a mistake? >> in my view, yes. stuart: okay. how else do we get this guy out? >> look, we have been working on this for years. maduro is lucky, he's uncharismatic but he's a survivor. he's managed to stay in office despite the miserable economy, million percent inflation, huge humanitarian disaster going on in that country. how do we get him out. the people of venezuela got to work at it. international communities, latin american countries need to pressure. it's going to be tough. stuart: but we can't give any forceful help? >> well, that's the challenge and there's a lot of people working on that right now, the national security council. look, we are putting increased sanctions on venezuelan individuals, on venezuelan companies, on cuban individuals,

on cuban companies. but this guy's a survivor. stuart: okay. look, if he stays, if he survives, as you put it, that's extremely bad news for latin american politics, because it gives communism, socialism, it gives it a foothold in latin america, which the cubans and russians will make sure he keeps. you can't let him stay. >> even worse is that the flow of refugees from venezuela, three million people, 10% of the population are stressing the economies and the social networks in the neighboring countries. not just neighboring countries, as far away as argentina and chile which are thousands of miles from venezuela. there is over a million venezuelans in colombia. stuart: isn't there something we could do to nudge him out? we were told he was on the verge of leaving until the russians stepped in and said no, you don't. can't we do anything? what's our cia for, mr. ambassador? >> we shut our embassy there,

pulled out all of our diplomats. venezuelans themselves, the people, i mean, they are so oppressed, so frustrated that i think they are a little overly optimistic about what they can accomplish. stuart: they've got to do it, the venezuelans have got to do it. we can't. is that your position? >> that's my position. we can help, we can encourage, we can help martial support. going into a country is a lot easier than getting out. stuart: i think we took you off your vacation to come speak to us. >> on my way to the airport. it's a pleasure. thank you, stuart. stuart: thank you very much indeed. interesting story here. a cruise ship has been quarantined in the caribbean. liz, why, and whose ship is it? liz: measles outbreak. reports are now crossing right now it's happening now, owned by the church of scientology, off of st. lucia. 300 passengers and crew have been told by officials in st.

lucia, the caribbean island, do not leave because a female passenger has measles. measles can be contracted via coughing, it can go airborne via sneezing. one person can infect up to 18 other people. this boat was supposed to leave on thursday. the passenger and crew are told you are not allowed to disembark but the boat can leave port. it is not being prevented from leaving port if it wants to leave. so that's the issue right now. highly contagious. the virus can go airborne. it stays in the air one hour after somebody coughs and you can catch it as the droplets hang in the air. stuart: the ship is owned by the church of scientology. got it. check those dow 30 stocks. probably a pretty even split. yes, it is. there's more winners than losers among the dow 30. now we've got a tiny fractional loss for the dow. we are off just nine points. the business of cannabis, getting much bigger.

ca canopy growth going to acquire acreage holdings. the ceo joins us 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?

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listen to this. canopy growth will acquire a marijuana growing operation called acreage holdings, and they will pay close to $4 billion for it. joining us now, a guest on the show, he's been here frequently before, bruce linton, ceo of canopy growth. there is a condition to this. you will only go through with that purchase if the feds say yeah, legal nationwide. >> yeah. well, you know, you don't want to disagree, but almost. we are paying the shareholders about $300 million for the right to buy them in the future. that right is triggered when it's federally permissible meaning that maybe the state rights happen, maybe they put through safe banking -- stuart: it's an option. >> a forced option. as soon as it's permissible the deal happens. stuart: just seems like a very large amount of money. if the deal eventually goes through. you're close to $4 billion. >> yeah. so -- so what acreage has, they call it franchise rights.

they won licenses or bought licenses in 20 states. what's going to happen is when you've got the position, when it becomes federally permissible, because they will be able to borrow some of our brands, borrow some of our know-how, they should do better than they would have on their own. which means they will have a bigger market share and we roll it up, because we're running international. we are in 16 countries, we've got clinical trials, we've got a lot of stuff going. all that advantage will go to the shareholders of acreage. it's a lot of money but people like marijuana. stuart: when you roll it up. >> look at you. stuart: you, if i'm not mistaken, you are the biggest legal pot grower in the world. >> so canopy is in 16 countries. we produce more marijuana -- the other way we put it, we are the biggest marijuana producer that actually publishes their address. there might be a lot of bigger ones. but we have really focused our skills. stuart: do you really think the

feds, like in the immediate future, you think the feds are going to make this okay nationwide? before an election? we are 20 months away. >> i think they're not going to make it federally okay everywhere but a good way to get elected is to not ignore it and say whatever a state has said. if the state has said we want to have medical, the state's made the choice. the feds can say whatever the states say, goes. they wouldn't have had to push it on to anybody but made a decision not to ignore it. stuart: did you just pay cash and buy a german pot operation? was it $350 million? >> yeah. stuart: how much cash have you got? >> we've got about $4 billion in constellation in november. in cash. so when you get the cash, the point is to use it to create value. so the german purchase is a company that over the last 20 years has been both using synthetic thc and a plant-based product to do research and studies. they've gotten far enough that you can actually get reinsurance or get a prescription and

someone else pays for the product. it's at that stage. so this is what people want. they want science, they want certainty, and medical is huge in europe. stuart: pot king, bruce linton with us this morning. thanks very much. >> it's great to be here. stuart: total eye-opener. okay. as opposed to fazing out. now, tiger woods is going to visit the white house next week. wait a minute, ash. lexi thompson, lady golfer, she played one round of golf with the president and gets -- catches hell on social media. ashley: she did. she had to shut down her social media accounts. but tiger doesn't care. he's golf supremo. he just won his fifth masters and the day after that, the president tweeted saying what an amazing accomplishment, he's going to invite him to the white house and give him the presidential medal of freedom which is the highest civil honor a president can bestow. rumor is tiger could be in the white house on monday. stuart: okay. we'll see.

good stuff. the economy growing, unemployment lowest rate in a generation, stock market record highs. that in my opinion is a big problem for the democrats. my take on that, coming up next. 2,000 fence posts. 900 acres. 48 bales. all before lunch, which we caught last saturday. we earn our scars. we wear our work ethic. we work until the work's done. and when it is, a few hours of shuteye to rest up for tomorrow, the day we'll finally get something done. ( ♪ )

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stuart: the democrats have one huge problem. it is called the rip-roaring trump economy. they don't understand it. they can't explain it. they don't want to talk about it. when they do, they mislead. 20 months to the election the democrats are struggling with prosperity. several times president trump has called it the best economy ever. well maybe there is a little exaggeration there, but if anybody doubts how good it is consider this. we're growing faster than any other industrial democracy, yet inflation is falling. that is not supposed to happen. mortgage rates are around 4%, that is historically very low. unemployment 3.8%. that is a generational low.

7 million unfilled jobs. wages rising at the best rate in a decade. i could to on. you get the gist of it. if you're a democrat it is tough to argue against this. front-runner joe biden doesn't even bother. he just gets it flat-out wrong. he talks staffingnant wages. what? he is actually denying the success of the trump growth agenda. he is denying prosperity. other front-runners, notably bernie sanders and senator elizabeth warren argue for policies that would destroy our prosperity. raise taxes, confiscate wealth, regulate business to death? all in the name of what they think is fairness? we're going to debate fairness all day long. don't tell me socialism brings prosperity. it does not. the left has no answer to the prosperity we now enjoy. in fact, if they were in power they would kill it. so how do think explain our economic success? how did it happen? they don't want to go there. heaven forbid they have to admit

that tax cuts and deregulation bring going and jobs. now if you're a glutton for punishment and you watch cnn, you will hear pundits claim president obama started it. i got a big lol on that one. the economy is losing issue for democrats. they hope that trump hatred will pull them through in 2020. i think they're wrong. if president stands up and says, for example, are you better off now than you were four years ago? the answer from most people will be yes. an trump wins. do remember james carville. it's the economy, stupid! the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ no i'm not running for-offs. check the big board. we're up 11, 12 points on the dow.

we turned it around a little bit. fractional gain. we have latest on mortgage rates. liz: liz: 4.1% versus 4.2% a year earlier. refis are down. mortgage applications are down, each of those around four or 5%. what's happening? what's the trend? realtor.com, their data showing median list price, 300,000 right now. so there is an anecdotal evidence that people in high luxury markets are unloading their houses. we don't know if it is salt, loss of state and property tax reduction. driving mortgage rates lower. freddie mac said the mortgage rate could stay 4.3% for rest of the year. stuart: that would be high of the year? >> liz: that is historic lows. stuart: 30 year fixed-rate mortgage is priced at 4.1%. ashley: amazing. stuart: sure is. who would have thought. let's get back to my take at the top of the hour. the economy is booming i think

that is bad news for the democrats. sean spicer is with us. all right, shaun, the democrats hang their hat on trump hatred panned nothing else. i don't think that is going to work. what say you? >> i agree. all the last modern elections, economy and jobs are the number one issues that voters vote on. that is issue president can say this is what i came in with. these are the policies i implemented. these are the results that i got. one point i need to look up overlooked in your monologue there the democrats, a lot of folks on the left, and prognosticators made it very clear that trump election would doom into the economy, would send it into a tailspin. as you point out. only because of obama we're here. if it went into a tailspin it was because of trump. if it did well, it was because of obama. you correctly pointed out because of the regulations and his team have cut, because of tax cuts, all of the other

policies that he has implemented across the board, that has helped the economy continue to push forward, not just overall, but on an individual basis. whether you're hispanic, black, veteran, women, all sectors of the economy in terms of job creation are firing on all cylinders. stuart: okay. one quick point. i look at the media every day. i scan everything. "new york times," washington post, "wall street journal," financial times, abc, you name it, i look at it. today we have the stellar economic news and i just don't see it on the front page or at the top of a news broadcast. i don't see it in the news broadcast period. the one big asset democrats do have, sean, is the media, they will never let go of democrats. they will always push them forward. they will always ignore the economy. >> oh, absolutely. i mean look, i've been dealing with this my entire career. i think you're absolutely right. the idea we saw productivity numbers come in well above expectations today, no one will

talk about it. with trump it is always yeah, but, but he can't claim credit. there is always an excuse why it can't be him. under obama it was because of obama, because of his policies, this is where we are. none of the bad can happen on him. the difference, stuart, i believe the economy in terms of a political reality is much more of something that is felt. so people don't go and vote on productivity numbers or wage sag nation or what have you. do i feel better? do i feel the economy is better? am i putting more money away for child's education or family vacation? am i able to go out to din ear few more times. by and large americans can answer that question affirmatively. that is what will matter. no matter how many statistics are kept from them in the media, at end of the day people see more in the paycheck, feel more confident in the economy, thriving job market or they didn't. under this administration they

are. stuart: are you better off more than four years ago, i think a lot of people will say yes. sean spicer thanks for joining us. see you again soon. >> you bet, stuart. stuart: come in market watcher jim awad. you and i go back a long way. have you ever seen a economy humming along like this before? we have, but not a long time. >> in the '60s and '90s which is a long time ago. if you talk to the brightest, most successful minds in america there are no grounds to recession or change to the current circumstances. i suspect we'll continue to grow. wages will continue to grow. china seems to be stablizing. europe seems to be stablizing. this can go on a long time. getting back to the election depends on how the economy is doing in september and october of 2020. based on what you see now, the prognosis is really pretty good. inflation is remaining low due to secular reasons. so it could be accompanied by low inflation, low interest rates, which means rising real

wages. so this is a pretty good picture. stuart: there is one item of news which i think is positive for the market and certainly for the economy. it is not helping the market at this point, but we learned this morning that xi xinping, china's leader, working on a white house meeting summit sometime in early june. if any kind of deal, we're back to this story, any kind of deal, we look good for the market and economy. >> absolutely. it will help business confidence. it will help capital spending. it will help people plan, supply chain management. the risk if it falls apart for some reason at the last minute, i think that is a very low risk. everybody wins, the chinese, americans, president in his re-election campaign. i think everybody will bend over backwards to make this deal happen. it has to have credibility in terms of enforcement. that is what they're town to, the fine lines on that agreement but i think it gets done and really if you look out all the risks are diminishing for now

which is why stocks should continue to do well. the only negative stocks are up a lot. valuations are full if not overvalued but full. so basically any increase in stock prices in here should parallel the increase this corporate profits but estimates for the year have started to keep back up and remember we said a few months ago to get the market to make new highs you need to have earnings estimates for the back half of the year to start to increase and that is happening so i expect further progress. stuart: i ain't selling. >> not yet. stuart: jim awad, thank you, sir. >> pleasure. stuart: this is intriguing because i'm, this is alien to me but it is intriguing. the world of pro videogaming. epic games buying the maker of a game called, "rocket league." is this, looks to me -- ashley: you're watching it right now. stuart: soccer played with cars. ashley: exactly what it is. vehicular soccer. anything else? hugely popular, more than 57 million players play that

game. so what happens is the maker the "fortnite" is emof epically studio. epic games is buying company that makes the game. buying for undisclosed money. that means epic will have two of most popular leagues, the "rocket league" is basically available on on epic's storefront. the numbers when we talk about e-sports, really boggle the mind. millions and millions. liz: soccer with cars? what is next, soccer with shopping carts? stuart: if it sells. liz: that is hilarious. i love it. stuart: live look at the white house, please. president trump will hold a national day of prayer event in the rose garden. that will be in our next hour. you will see it live right here when it happens.

nick sandmann, remember him the covington catholic student that was falsely accused of confronting a native-american protester. now he is suing nbc for defamation. we'll tell you how much he is asking for. guess how college students feel about bernie sanders being a millionaire. wait for it, some millenials are calling him a hypocrite. cabot phillips has the video. good time to be a bartender why. i can't imagine why but there is a reason. "varney & company" just getting started. here we go. ♪ t's going 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

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stuart: nick sandmann is the catholic student who was wrongly accused of confronting a native-american. he is suing nbc for defamation.

ashley: for a lot of money. 275 million. suing washington post for 250 million and cnn for 250 million. his lawyer says he was easy target for nbc universal to advance his anti-trump agenda. he is 16-year-old white catholic student who attended right-to-life march and bought a maga hat for a souvenir. stuart: stuart: cabot phillips, from campus reform went to university of new hampshire. watch this. >> talking about recent revelations showing senator bernie sanders is a millionaire. after years of ranting against one percent against millionaires and billionaires. will students find it hypocritical that he is millionaire. >> that definitely sounds hypocritical to be advocating for those type of things but also be a millionaire. >> constantly preaching about

the billionaires, millionaires being the problem but you know himself is one. so i can definitely sympathize with that view. stuart: cabot phillips, man on the right-hand side. he is there with us now. okay, so they didn't know that he was a millionaire but when they found out -- did they like him being a socialist? >> yeah they absolutely did. they kept going on and on how they feel like he is authentic. he practices what he preaches. when they find out he is millionaire instantsly say that is kind of hypocritical. this is what socialism is. government bureaucrats demonizing wealth for anyone else, but have no problem amassing him for himself. bernie sanders said it was quote, immoral for a u.s. senator to be millionaire. now he is firmly planted in that 1%. he doesn't want people to know it. when young people more likely to support him than other age groups see these things, they see the hypocrisy i think it will play a long term role in

his success on the campaign. stuart: bernie used to rant against millionaires and billionaires. now it is just billionaires because he is a millionaire. let's move on. new developments in the college admissions scandal. a family from china paid six 1/2 million to get their child into stanford. what do you make of that? sounds like gross overpayment to me? >> it absolutely does. i want to see how the student expects to get a return on investment from this thing. as we covered in the leadership of campus reform degrees are no longer what they used to be. many cases it's a dime a dozen. p parents and students are convinced only path to success is college degree. it can lead to good job but by no means a guarranty. how will this impact the student in the future. stuart: it is not getting into a good job. you're buying status. that is what the people want, status of an elite university. if you have to buy their way into it so be it this is about

to explode. we already hat first batch of parents accused. i think there is another batch coming on pretty soon. is that right? >> i think we're absolutely going to see more people. accountability should be a good thing where it is a merit-based system. students are not being helped when their parents do this. these parents are crippling young people when they buy them positions at high universities because a student is not actually learning how to succeed on their own. if they didn't get into the school they're not learning how to fail on their own that is an important lesson to learn. paints might think they're helping their students but in the end you're crippling them. you want write a 6 1/2 million dollar check to get a promotion at work. i wonder if you have that money, why are you going to college in the first place. surprised they don't want lounge on their parents yacht. stuart: cabot phillips, see you real soon. president trump and the democrats agreed on a 2 trillion-dollar price tag for the infrastructure plan. here is the question. how do you pay for that? could it be a gas tax?

could a gas tax increase be in your future? we'll ask a congressman who is on the tax writing committee. google has a plan to help with a special voice assistant. we'll be back with that as well. ♪ i can't tell you who i am or what i witnessed, but i can tell you liberty mutual customized my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no... only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

stuart: all right. now we're up 11 points. not much change in stock prices thus far today but we'll take what we got. that is a 10 point gain. glass door, that is a website that tracks what people get paid in different jobs. they have a new survey and guess what it finds? wages for bartenders grew faster

than any other job in the country. so, give me the number. how much did they make? >> make 35,000 a year, that is median. it is up 10%. they're the fastest in terms of wayne hikes going up. bartenders are seeing pay spike dramatically. pharmacy technicians, truck drivers, seeing pay to up dramatically. a tight labor market. tightest labor mark net in half a century. lower wages, the lowest paid are seeing fastest wage growth ever. so that is what we're seeing right now happening in the economy. stuart: i wonder how many bartenders declare the full 35,000 income for taxes? liz: they act as marriage counselors and they're doing double and triple duty. stuart: aoc, no, no. google is developing a special, special voice assistant for small businesses. ash, i don't know much about this, but it sounds like a

virtual phone operation. ashley: exactly what it is. phone agent in the cloud if you like. they say roughly 400 million calls come into small businesses on any given day. a lot of spam calls. what this system does from google, called call joy, basically filter out all the spam calls. you could either speak to a virtual assistant or a real one. but bottom line, it helps businesses measure, automate, essentially improve customer service. so there you go. all for 39 bucks a month. stuart: google's stock fell out of bed day before yesterday. went down yesterday. down again this morning. there is a retreat from google as we speak. mr. trump, our president, he got america out of the paris climate accords. democrats just can't let it go. they want to get us back in again. we've got the story for you. snap, that is the messaging app, snapchat making its debut in videogaming. we'll tell you about their first

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around. we're up ever so slightly. now we're down ever so slightly. of. dead flat the way i call it. big tech, where is that? pretty much a mixed bag. yes it is much apple, amazon are up. facebook, alphabet, microsoft are down. no huge moves for any of them. want to get back to my i had tomorrow at the top of the hour. the economy, in my opinion it is booming under president trump, i want to bring in a real economist. his name is john lonski, frequent guest on the program. good to see you. i don't think we're going to deny that the economy is booming on all cylinders. one thing i editorial was the debt. $22 trillion. it is going up to the tune of 800, 900 billion a year. is that the fly in the economic ointment? >> eventually that might be the fly in the ointment. props not a problem anytime soon if only because interest rates should remain low. you can take on more debt as long as the borrowing costs

don't cripple you and more importantly in the private sector as long as profits continue to grow and incomes continue to grow so you can easily repay these obligations. stuart: no big deal in the immediate future but down the line a problem? >> when profitability inevitably shrinks and businesses lay off people, government has less in terms of tax revenues. at the same time of course, companies have less cash flow with which to repay debt. stuart: i was watching that fed meeting closely yesterday. i don't normally do that, but i was watching it. seems to me like we're holding some ammunition in reserve. if the economy starts to head south a little bit or slows down a bit, the federal reserve has ample room to cut interest rates when needed. i think that was a terrific situation to be in. >> exactly. much stronger situation to be in compared to the central banks of europe and japan and other advanced economies where their

overnight lending rate, fed funds rate is close to 0%, if not negative. nevertheless, inflation is very much well-contained. did you see today's productivity report? stuart: i want to talk about that. >> it is great. huge. consensus productivity growing 2.2%. that is after the good gdp report. instead it grew by 3.6%. year-over-year increase, productivity the best since 2010. at that time you benefited from the low base of the great recession. stuart: let's explain this for everyone's benefit. productivity up strong, what does that mean? >> you're getting more output per unit of labor. that is great. that justifies faster wage growth. and despite the fact that wages are growing more rapidly, unit labor costs, what it really costs companies to hire workers went down from quarter to quarter. they are basically unchanged from a year ago. the time to get worried about a recession, the time to get

worried about interest rates rising too high, when unit labor costs from a year ago are at 3% or higher. you know where they are in the first quarter? .1 of 1%. you can't call that growth. stuart: that's it? >> .1 of 1% year to year despite faster wage growth. stuart: is this productivity growth the result of all technology shoving into businesses? >> it is technology and i think it is also the result of companies getting more out of a workforce given the fact that we have fewer eligible people to go ahead and employ. this late-stage of the cycle we are squeezing more out of individuals. that is a positive. i think it also tells us that we are relying more on the private sector under the trump administration. so the businesses feel more inclined to invest in capital, spending to do what's necessary to improve productivity. faster productivity growth is often the consequence of stepped up capital spending and that is

what we got in response to corporate tax reform. stuart: as an economist you're as happy as a clam, aren't you? >> this is just great news. the doomsayers, are left speechless. stuart: let me ask you about china trade because there is a little bit of news on that this morning. we understand xi xinping,'s china leader and president trump are trying to organize a white house meeting in early june before the g20 summit. that sounds very promising to me. you don't organize a summit in the white house unless you have something to declare. >> that sounds very good. china has stronger incentive to come forward with a trade deal than the united states. stuart: why? >> because they're doing worse. their economy has slowed down significantly, partly because of trade and in part because perhaps their government-planned economy is not run as expected. stuart: so there is a pretty goldilocks scenario?

>> icing on the cake if this trade deal is done. stuart: i see on the goldilocks cake already. >> lower rates, higher share prices. stuart: is there anything, i'm just looking for dark clouds, before we leave you, is there anything out there in the next 20 months that would really slow this economy down and hurt our economy? >> here is one possibility. we're probably going to have a lower unemployment rate. i wouldn't be surprised if the unemployment rate breaks down to 3 1/2% or lower. here's the problem. in response you suddenly find that the bond market or the federal reserve becomes very nervous about much faster price inflation. and as a result we have interest rates move up to levels that choke off business activity. stuart: if we did get to 3 1/2%, i know that is kind of speculation, i've never seen that rate. i'm 70 years old. in all my time i have never seen a 3.5% unemployment rate in

america. >> we haven't seen it but you know right now we have an employment rate 2 1/2% in japan, just over 3% in germany. in neither country do we have a problem with price inflation. so let's see how low we can take this unemployment rate before we really begin to have a recurring problem with price inflation. i think we might be surprised. stuart: but you have to bring a lot of people out of retirement. they're on the sidelines. some people out there, you have got to bring them back if you want to get unemployment down. >> you have to keep them working to say the least. i think that very well might be the case. stuart: john, we don't have often such good news. stuart: plethora of good news, do we? >> hopefully it stays that way. stuart: keep that smile going, son. john lonski, economist. thank you, sir. >> my pleasure. stuart: i want to bring you a story, we brought it to you next week. snap the messaging snap, they're getting into videogames. they are announcing the first or

original game. tell me about it,. liz. liz: you can go on snap, a play yourself a videogame inside of snap. maybe have an ashley avatar, maybe you can play soccer together. ashley: in a car. liz: or shopping cart. ashley: why not. liz: this could potentially be transformational for the first time people are playing as themselves inside of games. snap has different faces that you can put on. kind of exciting. 330 million downloads for bit moji. they can pick up advertising information as well. stuart: i have a bitmoji with my face on it. i don't play games. i entertain the grand children. not a very good likeness but they don't care. speaker pelosi, senator schumer, president trump agreed on 2 billion-dollar price tag for infrastructure. one thing we keep hearing is,

maybe they will increase the gas tax to pay for it? jason smith, republican from state of missouri. he is a member of the tax writing ways and means committee. sir, do republicans, would the gop get line a gas tax? >> stuart, let's just think about this. if they want a 2 trillion-dollar infrastructure package, in order to pay for it by a gas tax you're looking at every american is going to have $1.50, to $2 added on per gallon for everything they're doing just to hit the price tag. if we want to be reasonable about funding infrastructure package we need to look at different aspects of waste in the system. of people who are not paying the gas tax. for example, people who drive electric cars. they don't pay for driving on the road of course because they don't pay the gas tax. stuart: so would you oppose any and all tax increases to pay for infrastructure? >> let me tell you $20 billion i

can find, stuart. my legislation to eliminate the subsidy for electric tax, electric cars. if we eliminate the 7500-dollar subsidy we give people that purchase electric cars who don't pay a gas tax, that will bring some money in. in order to fund an infrastructure package we'll have to look at all different aspects. you can't just look at a gas tax. you can't just look at eliminating subsidies for electric cars, we have to look at everything and our roads and bridges are definitely crumbling. we'll have to do something about infrastructure but just a gas tax that will raise every american's gas 1.50 to $2 a gallon is ridiculous. stuart: let me push this one at you. the democrats are pushing legislation that would force president trump to get back into the paris climate agreement. what are you doing about that? look the house is controlled by the democrats. they will probably go for this? >> i will tell you what i'm about to do. i'm about to walk over to the house floor to vote against it. it is absolutely ridiculous. the president withdrew us from

the paris agreement 10 months after obama did it at the very end of his presidency. think about this. china and india, the two largest affecttores of climate change in the world in fact are exempt from the paris agreement until 2030. in fact, they have been increasing their carbon emissions. this does nothing for it. in fact the united states has already been the leader in the world by itself in reducing carbon emissions. this is ridiculous. where was nancy pelosi asking for whether, whether president obama should have to ask congress to enter into the agreement? she wasn't anywhere. but she wants to make sure donald trump can't say we can't be part of it? stuart: congressman, i think it's a nonstarter. certainly politically. i can't see america boeing back into the paris climate accord. sir, thanks very much for being with us today. always appreciate it. see you soon. >> thanks, stuart. have a good day. stuart: let me take you, show

you the white house. later on president trump hosts a national day of prayer event. it will be held in the rose garden. scheduled to start in our next hour. the 11:00 hour. we'll take you there live when the president begins to speak. attorney general william barr a no-show for the house hearing. yesterday the democrats were not happy for him. some calling for him to resign. others calling him a liar to his face. you will hear how president trump is responding to all of this next. ♪

♪lean on me, when you're not strong.♪ ♪and i'll be your friend.♪ ♪i'll help you carry on.♪ ♪lean on me.

stuart: we turned south but not by much. for our radio listeners we're down 14 points, 26,416 on the dow. attorney general william barr did not show up for a house judiciary committee hearing this morning. let's go back to yesterday. the democrats were not happy with him. look at this tweet from 2020 candidate senator kamala harris. what i just saw from the attorney general is unacceptable. barr must resign now. okay, here is how president trump responded to that when interviewed by trish regan last night on fbn. roll tape. >> resignation now for the attorney general? that is what the democrats want? what is your reaction. >> i haven't even heard that, that is so ridiculous. he is on outstanding man. he is on outstanding legal mind. i heard he performed incredibly well today. >> kamala harris. >> well she was probably very nasty. stuart: okay. joining us senator bill cassidy, republican louisiana. senator the democrats are not

letting go of this. what's your take? >> yeah. trump derangement syndrome 2.0. kamala harris is running for president. would we expect her to say anything else that which is most indicting if you will. it is absurd. the fact that is that barr is going to release the report. he has released report. people can make their own judgments. whatever the phone call took place between he and mueller, that is phone call between he and mueller. look for the report and decide you for yourself. stuart: it drives me crazy looks like a whole bunch of lawyers arguing among themselves, parsing words here or there coming to know conclusion. i don't think the country doesn't want it. that is my opinion. what's yours? >> the country wants us to lower drug costs take care of illegal immigration, do something on infrastructure i could to down the list. that is what democrats should be focusing on. instead they're focusing on running for president in 2020. stuart: let's focus on this, we heard a lot from the democrats

and we've had hearings, a hearing on capitol hill about medicare for all. that is their plan, medical plan. what is the gop's? can you give me a nutshell plan outline? >> i will give you this republican's plan. it is called the chip 2.0. patterned after the very successful childrens health insurance program which everybody likes, democrats republicans. i call it 2.0. it takes the same principles where you give a certain amount of predefined money to the state they can distribute directly to the people in the state who they insure or state can set up their own mechanism. acknowledges that alaska is different than rhode island t would weight it on hello status of the state. if it takes more money to take care of the folks you get a little more money t judges outcomes. it is not just money going down a rat hole. it is money that you judge this worked we'll give you a little ex-a interest. this didn't work. we'll bring it up to snuff. it's a doctor's approach how we

should do health care reform. stuart: it's a form of block grant so the feds get a chunk of money and give it to states and they do what they want to do with it? >> it is patterned after the children's health insurance program which is form of a block grant. but i would structure on the number you insure. if you just give money, there is no incentive to make sure the money goes to insuring people. the way i would structure it, the way your employer structures your plan. they go to the insurance company. they have a 1000 employees. i give a certain amount per employee you decide how to insure. not here is a chunk of money, do what you want. this would be per person insured. stuart: are you actively working on a republican plan which the president will use as he goes into 2020? >> i am working on a plan. i can't guarranty the president will use it but i will say that i think it is going to have a lot of appeal. it is going to be a pushback on

medicare nor none which is what the democratic plan is. it's a way to give certainty to states and certainty to patients about things they wish to be certain about. stuart: senator cassidy, you're really good at speaking in sound bites we all understand and we just love it. senator bill cassidy, republican, louisiana, thank you, sir. great to have you with us again. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: venezuela, the latest government workers planning on a strike today. day three of what i'm calling the uprising. president trump says maybe the u.s. will send help. maybe a lot. not sure what the help will be. we'll straighten it out with general jack keane who is next. ♪

stuart: developments in venezuela. maduro is still in power. more protests expected today. public sector workers planning to strike and president trump told fox business that he would quote, help a little, maybe a lot. to get juan guaido into the presidential palace. general jack keane is with us now. general, i'm not sure what the president meant by that. it sounded like he was

considering the use of force. what do you say? >> i think for the time-being they're still trying to work on a peaceful transition. obviously the administration thought they were pretty close to that as ambassador bolton told us a couple days ago on international television when he said three key actors were willing to turn against maduro and changed their mind and called them out on tv. quite remarkable. never seen anything quite like that. here i think the options that the president has in front of him. not suggesting i know, i don't ask questions like that. i'm just speculating based on my own experience. he can bring some u.s. forces, stage them in colombia, and, with the implication obviously that they're going to be used inside of venezuela. that may in of itself change the minds of some of their leaders who they want to support. number two, he can actually move into venezuela with some of our forces but with a coalition of

forces, particularly colombia and brazil, to provide humanitarian relief. it would be non-permissive. in a sense anybody that tried to interfere of it, interfered with it would have to be dealt with. similar to what we did back in somalia back in the '90s. that was a humanitarian relief operation initially. the other option on the table, go in there with an invasion with the purpose of conducting a regime change. that option is not there. here's the problem, stuart, that the administration really has. the humanitarian crisis certainly is real and it is unfolding right before our eyes but the strategic issues here are significant because we've had putin with his leaders in venezuela, advising maduro every single day on what to do. so he is conducting a military intervention. he has put a private company force in there that he has used in crimea. he used also in sorry i can't.

the wagner group. 400 in january. why? to protect maduro. two, he has his own advisors there with maduro every single day. that is a military intervention in our hemisphere. owe obviously have 20,000 cubans doing that. to let that stand if maduro survives, it would diminish the united states influence in the hemisphere and increase the russian and cuban influence in the hemisphere. the administration doesn't want that. that is challenge set for them. stuart: so he has got to go. general, i will show everybody a headline from the "wall street journal" by defense secretary patrick shanahan. he said, quote, time to create an american space force. he is arguing that china's beating us when it comes to space. what say you? >> well i absolutely think that we have got to do something to, organize our space effort. a number of things will be done. there has got to be a new agency

formed to get advanced technology into space. our concern it is a matter of time before space is weaponized, stuart. clearly everything we do in our country in the private sector as well as in the military sector is dependent on space technology. it is indisputable. so that is one thing. let's get the right technology. let's get advanced technology. we also need a space command that takes control of the operational forces across the services, much as we did with the special operations command, and brought all the army special-ops, navy, air force in one place. got to do that. stuart: sounds like it is coming. >> a spares force inside of the air force. we're moving in right direction consolidating our efforts of what has to be done. stuart: general keane. good to see you. more after this.

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stuart: moments from now, president trump will lead our national day of prayer from the rose garden. good. if ever there was a time to bring us all together, this is it. the slaughter of muslims in new zealand, the slaughter of christians on easter sunday in sri lanka, the killing of jews in two synagogues in america, appalling. chilling in the extreme. in america, we have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion, as some would have it. no. we have the freedom to worship as we please. thats means freedom to worship in safety and security. that's what's in question. it's not who committed these dreadful atrocities as much as it's our ability to worship in peace. i don't believe this is a political moment. it is a spiritual moment, of great importance to those of faith and those of no faith. today, our president will speak to the unity of all people of

faith, and he will speak to the freedom of worship without fear. moments from now, you are going to see it. we are now waiting for the president to appear in the rose garden. you can see the camera shot is up there. we are waiting for the president to approach the microphone. when he starts to speak, i promise, you will hear it all. while we wait, jeff balabon is with us, ceo of b2 strategic and creator of the jexodus movement. welcome to the program. good to have you back. what would you like to hear from the president this morning? >> i think what you just said was wonderful. i really want to focus on the word unity that you used. my first job in washington was for senator danforth of missouri, also an episcopal priest. first time i heard him speak was to a group of christians and he made the point the word religion and ligament share a root, that which binds us together. i thought it was a beautiful point and i have never forgotten it. if you think america, the notion

of unity, our strength is in our unity. you're right, it's not freedom from religion, it's freedom of religion. we're not separated by the fact we worship differently. we are united in the fact of sort of a higher power, that life has consequence, life has meaning and if people don't particularly themselves find religion the way they connect with morality and goodness, moments of unity, moments of prayer, those will bind us together. stuart: ash, liz, we are about to hear from the president on this national day of prayer. what, liz, what do you want to hear? liz: it is about religious liberty. the founding fathers, the first amendment, said it's about freedom of expression of our religion. it's about religious freedom, at a time when we have around the world persecution of different people of different walks of life and different faiths. it's also about preventing the establishment of religion inside the government. that's what the founding fathers are about, too. that's what keeps us free, that's what keeps us -- people

of conscience and moving forward in compassion and humility. stuart: it's an opportunity for the president to rail against hatred and bigotry. ashley: in washington, d.c., the level of anger and divisiveness is so high these days. any moment people can come together and reflect on that is a good thing. that's why it's important. stuart: but do you feel that sense of unity? i sense that that unity is frayed. how about you? you're jewish. you are orthodox. do you feel that that unity has frayed and maybe the president can bring it back together? >> united states of america, i often say, it's the greatest country ever devised by man. i like to think people of israel, the nation of israel, may be the greatest. i'm perfectly comfortable with people who don't believe this. america's greatness is in the idea of unity. i believe freedom of religion, religion can and should be a force for good.

i disagree with those who no matter what the president says will automatically try to find a way to misinterpret, to twist it negatively. if he delivers a message of unity, accept it. i know how comforting his words were to the rabbis both in pittsburgh and poway afterwards. they both thought it was comforting. we have a sayings, words that emanate from the heart flow to the heart. they heard his true feelings of unity for their pain and suffering and it's a moment where we can all decide to take him at his word and be bound together in a message of unity and we will all be better for it. stuart: was there an outflowing of this sense of unity and this sense of concern after the two synagogue shootings? again, you are orthodox jewish. did you feel that coming from the larger christian community? or anybody else? >> so you mentioned i wear a yarmulke. by being visibly jewish on the street, in washington or in the media, people will comment as if you are a representative of all the jewish people.

that's what happens. it's mixed. some people came up with truly, tear-provoking expressions of unity. and some, the opposite. some people will come to you in the streets, in the green room, i remember, especially after pittsburgh, people expressed warmth and sympathy which i take very much to the heart. on the other hand, there are people who will take advantage and do the exact opposite, express venom and hate. listen, like most other big ideas, there's almost no idea bigger than faith, it tends to be a filter through which people express themselves and find themselves. it's an expression of who you are. if you find it's something which binds you together with other people, even amongst your differences, that speaks to who you are. if you find it as an excuse to use, to separate people, divide people, that's a reflection of who you are. america speaks to our greatest hopes. i think the president often speaks to our greatest hopes. i know his message at the state of the union, for example, was

incredibly unifying, when he chose very consciously a jewish war veteran who landed on the beaches of normandy on d-day, and to wrap the american flag around someone like that, i know as a jew who has been feeling embattled in this country politically by certain people and obviously physically targeted, that was something which gave me hope for the future. i think the president's messages are hopeful. people have to get past the bias and listen to what he's saying. those of us who do feel embattled find his message warm and unifying. stuart: i want to bring that up. ashley, liz, i'm sure you noticed this. ashley in particular, europe and britain in particular, and australia, and new zealand, are secular societies. ashley: very much. stuart: you don't hear spiritual conversations. ashley: i remember it more as a child but now, not at all.

not at all. stuart: i can't explain that. why is europe so secular? britain in particular, so secular? ashley: church attendance in the uk is down to historic lows. stuart: absolutely it is. why is it so strong here? i don't get that. liz: i don't know. stuart: i don't understand it. liz: the lovely gentleman over there just hits right to the heart, what the president did was bring us -- i'm sorry, i get teary-eyed because my mother didn't know her father growing up. he was killed from complications of mustard gas in world war i. so this is about a nation searching for unity via our heroes. what the president did when he pointed out during the state of the union those soldiers who liberated dachau, i think the nation came together. this nation is hurting right now. the personal attacks in d.c. have to stop. i think the polls show that. people want it to end. when you have unifying moments like that, grab it and hold on to it and stop with the personal attacks. stuart: from the heart, liz. you're all right. ashley: the problem is, whatever

the president says, whatever he does, is never enough, never good enough, no matter what the issue. he will be the one who is going to get blamed for the divisiveness and anger. liz: but his tweets, too, have suppressed his approval ratings. we have to point that out. when the president acts presidential, it's golden. right? the personal attacks on both sides need to end. stuart: i tell you one moment of unity which stuck out for me was the rabbi who was injured in the poway shooting. what he said afterwards was the most articulate statement of what happened and his feelings about it. that was a moment of bringing people together. right? >> i couldn't agree more. i tweeted out that i'm proud to feel a sense of real kinship with this man because i feel like he exemplified the best for me at least of a jewish response and american response and a human response. really, it was the unifying message that you fight hate with love, not more hate.

liz: there's a prayer, not by words but by example. who we are as human beings. it's not what we are on the outside. it's who we are on the inside. stuart: this is a fine discussion. i'm going to delay it. we are waiting for the president. i'm going to just briefly check the market. bottom right-hand corner of your screen, you see, okay, there's the big board there, we are down 38 points. there's not that much movement for your money today. i see the audience rising there in the rose garden. people are standing. that often implies the president is about to walk out. hold the shot for just a moment. the vice president and the second lady, they are walking in. that's why everyone stood. that implies that the president is about to appear. ashley: imminent. stuart: waiting for the president as we speak. i want to hold this shot. let's not go to break just yet. let's listen in to the vice president, please. >> it is an honor for karen and me to be with president trump, our first lady and all of you

here in the rose garden as we mark this national day of prayer for the third year in a row here at the white house. the bible tells us to be faithful in prayer, that the effective and fervent prayers of a righteous people avail us much. since the founding of this nation, the american people have believed in prayer. it is the thread that runs through every era of american history. in 1775, the second continental congress established a day of fasting and prayer. in 1863, president abraham lincoln from these very grounds urged americans to pray so that in his words, the united cry of the nation would be heard on high, and answered with blessing.

in 1952, president harry truman and the congress formally established this national day of prayer and set aside each year for the american people to turn to god in prayer and meditation. ever since then, every president has issued a proclamation in honor of this great tradition and president donald trump continues that tradition today. as president trump said just two years ago, in this rose garden, in his words, we are a nation of faith and i can assure you at a time when religious belief is often marginalized and even ridiculed, in this white house, under this president, we believe in prayer.

in fact, the president has made a practice of opening every cabinet meeting in prayer. in fact, he is at this moment in time one of only four presidents in american history who have issued multiple proclamations calling the american people to prayer in a single year. we believe we always do well to go to the lord in prayer. but it seems especially important these days. no one should ever fear for their safety in a house of worship in america or anywhere in the world. and yet we live in a time when we have witnessed unspeakable attacks on people of faith, at a synagogue in california just a few short days ago, at mosques in new zealand, at historically

black churches in louisiana that we'll be visiting tomorrow. as americans, we mourn with those who mourn and grieve with those who grieve and we condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms. but on this national day of prayer, the american people and people of every faith in this country can be confident they have a champion and a defender of faith and religious liberty in president donald trump. from early in this administration, president trump has taken steps to ensure that the federal government will never, ever penalize anyone for their religious beliefs ever again. today, the president will

announce even more steps, to acknowledge the vital role that people of faith and faith-based organizations play in our national life. so on behalf of our family and as you will soon hear from the first family, thank you for your prayers for our president, for all those who serve in authority at every level. thank you for your prayers for our armed forces and those who serve in law enforcement and our first responders. thank you for our teachers and religious leaders and all who lead in business and private sector across this country. and thank you for your prayers for all of the american people. today, we pray for america and as we pray, let's pray with confiden confidence. this was inscribed in those ancient words, that if his people who are called by his name will humble themselves and pray, that he will do like he's

always done, with a long and storied history of this nation. he will hear from heaven and he will heal this land, this one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. thank you for joining us for this national day of prayer. god bless you all and god bless america. stuart: a most articulate speech there or presentation, i should prefer to call it, by the vice president. one thing stood out to me, jeff. i want you to comment on this, too. the vice president said that president trump begins cabinet meetings now with a prayer. i didn't know that. >> nor did i. i think it's extraordinary that it's not known, meaning this isn't for public consumption. this is obviously a very personal and real decision. stuart: we didn't know that our president is -- i'm not sure how

to word this -- is not an overtly religious man. i did not know he would start a meeting with a prayer. liz: that surprised me, too. you know, whatever you say about the president, and there has been hyper criticism of him and we understand it, we're not naive here on the "varney" show or on "the evening edit." we understand what the issues are. he's a passionate man, a patriotic man, he cares very much about this country and for him to start cabinet meetings with a prayer, he's trying to focus everybody, right? when you are praying together, what happens? you are on the same track and you are focused. so that was an interesting choice that the vice president made right now, without a teleprompter, to bring that up. stuart: i do want to make the point that i and our production team made the conscious decision to stay with vice president pence and listen to what he had to say. ashley: yes. stuart: my opinion is very clear. this is a tv news operation and rarely do you have religion or

spirituality on television during a news program. but we thought you wanted to see it. the vice president was articulate, spoke from the heart. jeff, elizabeth, ashley, we have been speaking from the heart. we thought this was a good thing to do, to walk away from the secular aspects of the stock market and money and the economy and politics and just dwell for a moment on this special time in the rose garden at the white house in the united states of america. now, i don't propose to take the music. i am waiting for the president to appear and we are told that will be happening momentarily. so are we going to take a quick commercial break? shall we do that? no, we're not going to do that. we are not going to be secular and make money. we're not looking to make profit. certainly not. any other thoughts? jeff, you have been very articulate so far. >> first of all, i appreciate what you just said which is i don't think there's any contradiction by the way between being focused on doing well in

this world and doing good in this world, and i think there was news broken just now which was fascinating to get a little insight we don't normally get into what drives the president, what kind of person he is. there is a public persona but privately, i will add to what liz said, he's driven by morality in a way that in terms of policies and in terms of focusing on what's right that i think a lot of people of faith in this country get. i think it was very important in the last election, before we really knew him well. i think it will be even more important in the next election that people of traditional faith and by the way, after we talk about the state of the union address, forget about the sides, independen independents, 82% i believe it's because of this, because of unity. we want to be brought together in this country. what this vice president just did was also bringing us together. stuart: as we wait for the president, i am going to break away and bring you a couple other news items. first of all, attorney general william barr did not show up for the scheduled hearing before the house judiciary committee.

the hearing went on anyway in front of an empty chair. it ended in just 20 minutes. here's what speaker pelosi said moments ago about attorney general barr. roll tape, please. >> what possible motivation could the attorney general of the united states have to dishonor the office that he holds by right there for the whole world to see, to misrepresent the facts to the congress of the united states? stuart: that's pure politics right there. he lied to congress. ashley: she said if anybody else did it it would be considered a crime, according to speaker pelosi. you know, strong words but why should he have to be put under that kind of scrutiny, being, you know, weighed in on by a bunch of lawyers when he doesn't have to be there in the first place. everything he said yesterday to the senate was clear, even though of course, those democrats on the senate judiciary committee lambasted him. wouldn't have mattered what he

said, they had already made their mind up. stuart: what a contrast between the circus we saw yesterday, the comment from speaker pelosi there, liar, liar, liar, and what we just saw. liz: remember that moment, when in the future politicians ask for unity, because you know, it's do what i say, not as i do kind of a thing. we know what the mueller report says, that the president says to don mcgahn, you know, fabricate a story, it was at a time when he was in crisis. we understand what the issues are. right now, we are talking about unity. stuart: we are indeed. yes, we are going to take a short commercial break, as i keep telling you. we have to make money somewhere. we will do it now. by the way, the dow at this moment is down 106 points. there's something going on in the oil market. that may account for this decline. right now we are down 110. we will take that break and be back with the president after this.

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stuart: financial developments we want to tell you about. the price of oil sharply lower, $61 a barrel. bottom line, we are swimming in oil despite the fact that we're no longer allowing iran to export any oil at all. oil's at $61 a barrel.

oil stocks, part of the dow industrials, way, way down. that's why it's down 147. ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> good morning. welcome to the white house. please bow your heads for prayer. the lord bless you and keep you. the lord makes his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. the lord give you peace. amen. the president? >> thank you very much. thank you. please, thank you very much. and thank you, melania, for the

great job you do as first lady. people love you. no matter where i go, they love you. on this national day of prayer, the first lady and i are absolutely delighted to welcome all of you to the white house. a very special occasion for us. i know it is for you, too. the white house is a very, very special place. i'd like to begin by sending our prayers to the people of venezuela, in their righteous struggle for freedom. the brutal repression of the venezuelan people must end and it must end soon. people are starving. they have no food, they have no water, and this was once one of the wealthiest countries in the world, so we wish them well. we'll be there to help and we are there to help. thank you. very importantly this morning,

we're grateful to be joined by so many of our representatives and great representatives they are. i want to start with somebody who's very special to the success of our administration. we're doing things that haven't been done in a long time, including an economy that may be the best ever, and he's been a big, big help. you'll never guess who that is. mike pence, vice president. and also a wonderful lady and a real friend of the trump family and a tremendous wife, i can say that, karen pence. thank you, karen. we're also glad to have with us secretary sonny purdue. where's sonny? agriculture. secretary of housing, ben carson. great job, ben. great job.

deputy secretary eric harigan and ambassador sam brownback. thank you both very much. thank you. thank you very much. i'm looking at that beautiful red hair. will you please stand up? what a voice. what a voice. huh? so great. you better come up here. great to have you. thanks also to the many faith leaders from across the country with us today. special, special people. one of the things i'm most proud of is the johnson amendment. you can now speak your mind and speak it freely. i said i was going to do that, i told paula white, who i want to thank so much for everything she's done, paula. that was one of the things i said. they took away your voice politically and these are the people i want to listen to politically, but you weren't

allowed to speak. they would lose their tax-exempt status. that's not happening anymore. so we got rid of the johnson amendment. that's a big thing. and also, i want to very much thank somebody who's done a fantastic job, president of the national day of prayer, dr. ronnie floyd, and along with reverend rivera. thank you, ronny. great job. i saw you this morning. thank you very much. father trulos. where are you? stand up, please, father. thank you very much, father. mrs. bachu, thank you very much. thank you very much. chaplain ogberra. great having dinner with you last night. great job. thank you very much. rabbi cohen. thank you, rabbi. great being with you. and the preston wood baptist

church choir. wow. great job. on this special day, we join communities and congregations across our country in continuing a great tradition that helped build our nation and we have built it now stronger than ever before. they're starting to find out. in march of 1776, as the founders prepared to draft the declaration of independence, the continental congress asked everyone to join in a day of prayer and fasting for the cause of freedom. they go hand in hand. it's a beautiful thing to watch. today, we give thanks for this magnificent country and we proudly come together as one nation under god. and one of the things that mike and i were discussing just a

little while ago, people are so proud to be using that beautiful word, god, and they're using the word god again, and they're not hiding from it and they're not being told to take it down, and they're not saying we can't honor god. in god we trust. so important. a little thing on the campaign but it wasn't such a little thing to me when i first started four years ago, haven't been doing this so long. we did a good job. but when i first started campaigning, people were not allowed or in some cases foolishly ashamed to be using merry christmas, happy christmas. they would say happy holidays. they would have red walls and you would never see christmas. that was four years ago. take a look at your stores nowadays. it's all merry christmas again. merry christmas again.

they're proud of it. i always said you're going to be saying merry christmas again and that's what's happened. as we unite on this day of prayer, we renew our resolve to protect communities of faith and to ensure that all people and all of our people can live and pray and worship in peace. in recent months, it's been pretty tough. we've seen evil and hate-filled attacks on religious communities in the united states and all around the world. one month ago, three historically black churches were burned tragically in louisiana. in sri lanka, and new zealand, hundreds of christians and muslims were brutally murdered at their places of worship. in october, an anti-semitic killer attacked the tree of life

synagogue in pittsburgh. that was a horrible event. the first lady and i went to see, that was not even believable. last week, a gunman opened fire at a synagogue in poway, california while jewish families celebrated the last day of passover. we mourn for the loss of one extraordinary member of that congregation, lori gilbert kaye who stood in front of the shooter and gave her life to protect her rabbi. an incredible man, an incredible person. this morning, we are privileged to be in the presence of heroes who raced after the murderer and helped disrupt the attack at the poway synagogue. army veteran oscar stewart and border patrol agent jonathan morales. please stand.

please stand. say a few words, please. >> this is incredible. i just want to say everything that the president has said, i echo. we need to be strong as a group of people that love god. whether you call him shiva, whether you call him yaway, whatever you call him, don't be afraid to be who you are, be proud and lift yourself up. thank you, mr. president.

>> that's beautiful. >> good morning. we're assigned to el centro section in california. like president trump said, we are celebrating our last day of passover. supposed to be a joyous, festive event. we were attacked with our backs turned. you know, brave people stood up and confronted this person and we ended the situation the best we could with the resources we h had. like i said, i would like to use a quote. in order to fight these random acts of violence, we must continue to do random acts of kind ne kindness, all of us keep doing good deeds and we will overcome this evilness.

>> thank you both. incredible job, both of you have done. your bravery is an inspiration to us all. we're also profoundly honored to be joined by somebody that i've gotten to know a little bit by telephone. i had a -- what was going to be about a one-minute conversation just to express my sorrow and gratitude and everything else you could express, and it ended up being about 25 minutes, and it was a very warm -- he's a very warm, incredible man. rabbi goldstein. i'll tell you, it wasn't in the schedule, but rabbi, i would love to bring you up because there was nobody that expressed the horror and the beauty of what you represent better than you did. i very much appreciate it,

rabbi. i know you're here with your son and your brother. i very much appreciate it. please come up and say a few words. >> just five days ago, saturday morning, i faced evil and the worst darkness of all time right in our own house of worship. i faced him and i had to make a decision, do i run and hide or do i stand tall and fight and protect all those that are there.

we cannot control what others do, but we can control how we react. my dear rabbi taught me the way we react to darkness is with light. it was that moment that i made a decision, no matter what happens to me, i'm going to save as many people as possible. i should have been dead by now based on the rule of statistics. i was in the line of fire, bullets flying all the way. my fingers got blown off. but i did not stop. the rabbi taught me as a jew, you are a soldier of god, you need to stand tall and stand fast and do whatever it takes to change the world. my life has changed forever but it changed so i could make change, and i could help others

learn how to be strong, how to be mighty and tall. many have asked me rabbi, where do we go from here, how do we prevent this? and my response is, when president ronald reagan was shot, the rabbi said we need to go back to the basics and introduce a moment of silence in all public schools so that -- [ applause ] so that children from early childhood on could recognize that there's more good to the world, that they are valuable, that there is accountability and every human being is created in god's image. if something good can come out of this terrible, terrible, horrific event, let us bring back a moment of silence to our public school system. i also want to thank the united

states of america. i would like to thank our dear honorable mr. president for being as they say in yiddish, a mensch, par excellence. mr. president, when you called me, i was not home weeping. you were the first person who began my healing. you healed people in the worst of times and i'm so grateful for that. >> so beautiful. thank you so much. >> you have helped me bring great honor to mrs. kaye blessed memory. a 60-year-old dear friend of our congregation. i have known her for 25 years. a staunch volunteer. she works for the friendship circle, an organization that helps children with special needs. this year, on june 2nd, we are doing a march in her memory to show that nothing is going to

stop us. we are going to march with victory and you helped us bring her great honor. god bless you and god bless america. >> thank you very much. thank you very much. such beautiful words. a great man. he said this is my greatest moment in life, to go from darkness to the white house, right? that's great. beautiful. thank you very much, rabbi. appreciate it. anything we can do, you know that. and truly, your courage and your grace and devotion touches every heart and soul in america. we're blessed by having you and your family here with us today. thank you, rabbi. please give our regards to

everybody. that was a tough, tough period of time. we will fight with all our strength and everything that we have in our bodies to defeat anti-semitism, to end the attacks on the jewish people and to conquer all forms of persecution, intolerance and hate. you know that. you know that, rabbi. every citizen has the absolute right to live according to the teachings of their faith and the convictions of their heart. this is the bedrock of american life, to protect this heritage, my administration has strongly defended religious liberty. two words you haven't heard too much about for a long period of time, but now you're hearing it all the time. religious liberty. earlier this week i took action to ensure that federal employees

can take paid time off to observe religious holy days, and just today, we finalized new protections of conscience rights for physicians, pharmacists, nurses, teachers, students and faith-based charities. they have been wanting to do that for a long time, right, mike? they have been wanting to do that for a long time. happened today. together we are building a culture that cherishes the dignity and worth of human life. every child born and unborn is a sacred gift from god. [ applause ] thank you. thank you very much.

in addition, i am committing to you today that my administration will preserve the central role of faith-based adoption at foster care agencies to care for vulnerable children while following their deeply held beliefs. and those are words you probably never thought you'd ever hear. to give former inmates a second chance at life, we passed criminal justice reform. ivanka, stand up. ivanka trump and jared. ivanka and jared worked so hard. now for the first time, faith-based organizations can serve federal prisoners, they can take care of the people in and they can take care of

prisoners as they get out, and we've had the greatest success because of the economy being so strong, where people leaving prison now on a much more fair basis, but people leaving prison can get jobs and they've done incredibly well. employers who would never have done that before because there was a stigma, obviously. there was a pretty tough stigma. so they wouldn't go that route, and people would end up back in prison, but now employers that would not have done that before are doing it, and they're so happy. i know somebody who has put on seven prisoners, former prisoners, and he told me you have no idea how really great they are, how good they are. they actually said they're better than most of the other people working there so that's a tremendous thing. that's probably the first time in -- since the beginning of this great nation where they're

doing so well. so we hope they keep it up. the economy is helping. the economy is helping. but now they're helping themselves and they're doing a fantastic job. and we're also supporting faith-based addiction recovery programs, because we understand the power of prayer, and i will say our first lady has taken to this. it's incredible what she's done. and we're down 16% with opioid, 16% is a lot. melania, please stand up. that's a fantastic job you've done. please. incredible. i heard that number the first time the other day and i said that's a lot. that really is. it's not there but we hope to get there and we're also trying very hard through the tremendous amounts of billions and billions of dollars that we give out to

hospitals and pharmaceutical companies and everybody to come up with painkillers that are non-addictive. so you don't go into the hospital with a broken arm and come out a drug addict which is what happens in many cases. so we are trying to come up and we're getting very close to come up with a powerful painkiller that at the same time is non-addictive. wouldn't that be nice, right? wouldn't that be nice. here with us today is ashley evans from dayton, ohio, who was melania's guest at the state of the union. two years ago, ashley was suffering from the grip of heroin addiction, when she found out that she was pregnant. she returned to a recovery center and was welcomed by her mentor, angie dennis, who was waiting at the door.

ashley and angie developed a great relationship and angie said to her i'm so glad you made it back, i've been praying for you. today, angie is sitting right next to ashley and as ashley says, prayer is what got me clean. beautiful words. next week, ashley will celebrate 16 months free from addiction and she's earned back -- [ applause ] -- the custody of her beautiful daughter, olivia, who is here also right now with mom. and ashley, olivia, i had a feeling that was olivia. i have been listening to olivia the entire time. olivia has dominated the service and that's okay. ashley, come on up, say a few

words, please. >> i would just like to say that finding god saved my life. it's been incredible. it's been a journey but without him, i could not do this, and i would like to say thank you, angie, for helping me find him. it's been -- it's been a crazy experience but incredible. god has been with me every step of the way and everything has worked out perfectly. i have reunited with olivia. i have an amazing support system back home and in columbus, ohio, and i've gotten to do some amazing things and that's by the grace of god. so thank you. >> how is she doing? doing great? >> she is. >> how is she doing?

go ahead. >> she is so awesome. you know, the biggest honor that i could have was to pass along to ashley, it's a relationship with jesus. it's a relationship. it's not a religion. it's not a bunch of rules. it's just that personal relationship. you know, if you'll trust him and you do your part, you do your part, then trust him and ask for help for the rest, he'll make doors open that no man can close, you know. so i'm just honored to be a part of this. >> beautiful. i'm glad i asked you to do that. thank you. thank you very much for those beautiful words. ashley, olivia and angie, thank you for being with us and for reminding us that prayer works miracles and prayer saves lives.

as god promises in the bible, those who hope in the lord will renew their strength, they will soar on the wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary and they will walk and not be faint, and that's something that mike and i think about all the time, right, mike? on this prayer day, what do you think, mike? i think so. hey, we deserve it. people say how do you get through that whole stuff. how do you go through those witch hunts and everything else. you know what we do, mike, we just do it, right? and we think about god. that's true. so thank you all very much. on this day of prayer, we once again place our hopes in the hands of our creator and we give

thanks for those wondrous lands of liberty and this is truly the greatest of all lands of liberty, our country, our country is special. it will always be special. it will be greater than ever before. we're doing things that will make it better than ever before. and especially for churches and synagogues and mosques and everyone else. people of faith. we pray that this nation, our home, these united states, will forever be strengthened by the goodness and the grace and the eternal glory of god. thank you very much. thank you. thank you very much. [ applause ] so it's an honor to once again host so many believers in the rose garden and now i'd like to ask those who are leading us in prayer to please come up.

please come up. some of the great leaders. please come up. you know who i'm talking about. don't be shy. stuart: we are going to break away from this for just a moment. i just want to recap what you're seeing. i want to make the point that throughout this extraordinary presentation by our president, no other news channel except the fox news channel, nobody else covered it. nobody else ran it. what their viewers missed was an extraordinary, joyous statement of unity and support. it wasn't somber. it wasn't formal. it was joyous in the president's spirituality. remarkable. if i may say that the highlight for me was rabbi goldstein, the rabbi of the synagogue in poway, california, who stood up to the killer in his midst and gave an emotional testimony for president trump and moving

towards the light, seeing the light in a dreadful situation. my friend and colleague jeff balabon is with us. jeff is jewish, he's orthodox, and i believe he has a close connection to rabbi goldstein, certainly spiritually you do. your response, sir? >> well, my connection to rabbi goldstein is simply that we belong to the same faith, but i'm so honored to belong to the faith that this man belongs to because of the way he articulates it and also as an american, i also feel that we are bound together with a certain view of what this country can be, what this country was built to be, was meant to be. i thought what the president did, first of all, stuart, thank you, thanks to fox for carrying this. anyone who was privileged to watch this not filtered, not cut, something that truly could be what rabbi goldstein described a moment of healing which our country so desperately

needs. sorry. stuart: it was. >> when he said it began his healing, that was so powerful. what the president just did now was so powerful. he didn't dominate the podium. he gave it up to people of various faiths with various experiences who are finding hope, who are finding connection, finding positivity, because of their personal faith. that's what unifies it all together, this moment of unity. i will say one more thing. shalom means peace, it means unity, wholeness. if we can be bound together as a nation through faith, no matter how different it is, we will be better. this could be a moment of healing for us. stuart: you said that very well. >> thank you. stuart: brought tears to my eyes, too. thank you. thank you very much indeed. liz and ash together, thanks so much. i have to break away, because there's big goings-on in the world of money. i will do this briefly. look at the price of oil, down very, very sharply today. you're off nearly 4%. our ban on iranian oil exports

goes into effect today. saudi arabia says they will step up production to keep the market stable. we in america have a massive supply of oil already in storage. that's why the price is going down so much. that's why the stock market is down, because you've got a 200-point loss for the dow, largely because of this drop in the price of oil. i want to bring in market watcher heather zumaraga. heather, am i right here, i'm saying the sharp selloff in oil has created this sharp selloff in stocks. what do you say? >> it really has. today at least, stuart. so when i look back at yesterday's data showing that u.s. fracking is causing supplies to go up. it's working in this country and that is where we are getting this overhang despite removing these sanction waivers. we are still seeing the price of

oil drop down because the u.s. is not producing a record 12.3 million barrels per day. stuart: we are producing 12.3 million barrels a day. i didn't know it was that high already. >> yep. as of wednesday, as of yesterday, u.s. oil production reached a record 12.3 million barrels per day. that's why you are seeing crude decline. it's a lot. stuart: that is a lot indeed. yes, it is. that's saudi arabian levels and then some. i have to raise one other issue. china's leader xi jinping coming to the white house, we understand, there are reports early in june. that could signal that we are on the verge of a trade deal. i would have thought that would have put a shot in the arm for the stock market but it hasn't. is it a shot in the arm for a trade deal? >> well, you could also mention china when you talk about oil, that they still may buy oil from iran so we have a lot of moving parts and market-moving headlines regarding china right now. but look, i think this is a positive for the market. this is what the markets have

been waiting for, they are moving on the fed which is now on the back burner. yesterday the federal reserve confirmed their wait and see approach. as well as chinese trade deal. vice premier, the vice premier of china is set to come to washington next wednesday. they will wrap up talks, announce something on friday. hopefully we get a deal that markets like and i'm pretty optimistic. stuart: okay. i would like to see the market reflect that. heather, thanks for joining us. i'm sorry it's so short. you know it's a big day in the news business. thank you, heather. i want to bring in madison gesiotto, trump 2020 advisory board member. i want you to comment on what we saw from the president today. i thought it was an outstanding and spiritual presentation about unity and support in the united states. how did you take it? >> what an incredible moment of leadership, of unity. today is not only the national day of prayer but also holocaust remembrance day. after we have seen the recent attacks here in the united states and across the world,

easter attacks, passover attacks, we realize our fight for religious freedom is not over. there is still hate alive and well in this world. to see our president stand up and bring people of various faiths together on this important day was incredible for us to watch. we will continue to fight. i know the president will continue to fight for the religious freedom of people in the united states. we do this through strength, through love and through unity. i thought today was just stuart: sorry to cut this short. you know how it is. madison, thanks for being with us. >> of course. stuart: your response here? liz: great idea from the rabbi to have a moment of silence for schoolchildren. stuart: hold on a second. i wasn't aware of that. ashley: no. stuart: after president reagan was shot, there was proposal, i believe it became law for a while, there would be a moment of silence in schools. do you know who wrote that rule or law a moment of silence? the gentleman on my right jeff.

>> it was actually, it started the rabbi quoted, he thought a moment of silence would be good, because it unifies people without being sectarian. he spoke about it. later on when i was working in the senate in the '90s. there was debate over school prayer. passed into law. got lost afterwards. he called for it to come back which i didn't know he was going to do. ashley: put in place and fades away. >> i like the answer to the question and i don't think you know either, jeff. >> i think it might have been challenged constitutionally. stuart: by the way price of oil is dropped a little more. we're down to $60 a barrel. the only up side i can see in this, cheap cast will come back. i do want to say last word to liz, you are emotionally involved in what the president had to say, run up to it. last word.

go. if you can get it out. liz: back to you. >> okay. what a present takes -- presentation by our president in the rose garden. neil, it is yours. neil: we're trying to see what happens in the dow as it melts down. not as bad things were a little bit earlier. down 270 points on the news, the president wants to update with iran not only going after the oil, who buys it on the global markets, even in the so-called black markets. petrochemicals. anything that touches on and needs oil as part of that rational. so you're hearing a lot of petrochemical related commodities are getting hit on the chin very hard here. that affects the price of metals how they're finished, petrochemical process