maria big show, great show, mitch. >> retail earnings were mix bag, consumers are still driving the economy. maria: they are. dagen: qualcomm up 54%. >> some have had hard time 5%. maria: have a great day. sti, take it away. stuart: good morning, everyone. it's a real tough time to be a retailer. sector is taking on the chin. bad weather did not help sales nor millennials, the amazons are this world are making difficult but look of future, threat of more tariffs on chinese products, that's really hurting stock prices, just take a look at nordstrom, they are down a whopping 10%. this is a gigantic department store chain.

lowes, dragging down home depot as well. lowes down 8%. it's a dow stock and that's hurting overall market. check the dow, it's going to open lower this morning, we will be off about 80 points. s&p down about a third of 1%, a bigger loss for tech-heavy nasdaq, down about half percentage point. nasdaq heading south. i do, however, have one exception to the retailer story, that's target, that stock this morning up, up 6 and a half percent. the main point here is it's e-comeers, online sales up 42%, they are take on amazon, they are doing very well. now, this happening now, speaker pelosi holding closed-door meeting on impeachment, great pressure from radicals to get

impeachment. it's hard to get anything done. happening at 11:15, speaker pelosi and senator schumer head to the white house for oval meeting on infrastructure, the president has said they'll be no deal on roads and bridges unless the usmca is passed first, again, hard to see anything getting done. it's going to be quite a day on this program, you will meet the man who earned $246 million last year, what was that about, executive pay, varney & company is about to begin. ♪ ♪ stuart: the president fired up twitter account. democrats are getting zero work done in congress. i just said that.

all they are focused on trying to prove the mueller report wrong, the witch hunt. house democrats as we said meeting in capitol hill to discuss differing views on impeachment. brad blakeman, former assistance to george w. bush, i think i heard what i had to say f it's impeachment, nothing gets done. >> if impeachment is the crisis that democrats allege it is, why are they going on break for the summer. the country is in crisis, wouldn't they stay and investigate and bring charges against the president, the fact is nancy pelosi has no control over her caucus. the inmates running the asylum. stuart: meeting started at 9:00 o'clock. >> the house is out of the barn, has been out of the barn for a long time. stuart: i would maintain if nothing is done, you have crisis on the border. no usmca, no infrastructure deal.

you don't do anything. i think the democrats pay the political price because voters are going to blame them, no doubt, congress, democrats are using constitutional principle of impeachment as a sword against the president instead of shield against constitutional crisis and departure, so the american people get it, they're sick of this. you go outside the beltway, they are concerned about the economy, they are concerned about their jobs and health care and infrastructure, they're not concerned about what's happening within the beltway and that's what democrats don't get. this is so inside baseball against the president, delusion that's been solved by mueller. stuart: nation of lawyers concentrated in congress picking minuscule hair as shakespeare would say, i just don't see this working for american voters, i just don't see this. >> well, democrats said they wanted independent counsel, they

got it. we trust in whatever mueller comes back, we will accept his conclusions, they won't. so they can investigate all they want, but the fact of the matter is there is no impeachable offense, the president did nothing wrong, he's cleared, time to move on. stuart: got it, hold on a second, brad. ly get back to you in a moment. we have breaking news from treasury secretary steven mnuchin, testifying on capitol hill, hillary vaughn is there, what is he saying, anything to do with china trade, please hillary? >> a lot to do with china trade. he said a decision would be made on round 4 tariffs from 30 to 45 days from now. they'll be exclusion process built into that, he also say that is he talk today wal-mart cfo and he said that they will be sensitive to consumer prices, he said they're also going to be monitoring items that particularly affect people with fixed income, he's going to work with companies to make sure that they know the treasury knows

before tariffs are put in place, what items companies can source from other countries and what items companies have to get from china. he also doubled down saying that he does think china is taking bigger hit than u.s. when that happens it's cheaper for companies to buy things in other places, stuart. stuart: right in the middle, hillary vaughn. take a look at stock futures, there was a little movement just in last few minutes as hillary reporting from steven mnuchin, 30 to 40 days on next round of tariffs and he's going to be sensitive to price rises, i call that fairly positive on china trade, mildly so, now down about 70 points on the dow. let me bring back that one exception to the general rule on retailers, target, way up this morning in part because their online sales surged 42% and curb-side delivery business, by the way, that's booming, you

place the order online and drive to target, somebody puts your stuff in trunk and away you go. that's the service amazon cannot offer. market watcher dori wiley with us now, before we got results from target, you said buy the thing, what's so good about it? >> people are afraid of retail given what's going on in the economy and with china, previously people were watching wal-mart and amazon as online competitors and now target has turned out to be formidable foe here. it's really pretty exciting. stuart: get up in line and someone drops it off in your car, unique, on scale they are doing it auto. >> absolutely and in a hurry r. stuart: what about the rest of retailing because they are really suffering? >> well, as a whole you have to be guarded on retail but at the same time you see the guys still trading pretty low even values, macy's is still pretty low,

above 6%. stuart: i'm interrupting you, we are laughing, susan and i are laughing because normally if you use expression you get the buzzard. [laughter] stuart: english language translation with what you just said. >> with english accent? basically a lower and adjust for the company and macy's have lower and even nordstrom. still no buzzard. very mild. >> got it. stuart: bottom line is retailers are not looking great in this age of today. >> well, i think you have to be patient because you don't know what supply chains are going to do. you have to look at some of these retailers and say, hey, have they had foresight and said, we have risk in our

communist supply chain in china and they should diversify, india and others, if they haven't, they will do so regardless of what happens in trade situation because it's ongoing risk. stuart: i take it you saw news on tesla, fresh news on tesla, cutting prices on two models, they are cutting the x and the s basic prices, you're not a fan of tesla, are you? >> i'm a fan of the technology. i'm a fan of the cutting-edge technology and what they've done to the industry, i'm not a fan of the leadership, i'm not a fan of how the sec has not enforced rules against them, i'm not a fan of the debt, i'm not a fan of the cash flow and i'm certainly not a fan of how they misled on the production side and i think they will have trouble going forward. stuart: you wouldn't buy it? >> i'm not a buyer. stuart: ever? >> not right now. [laughter]

[laughter] >> stauch, sir, futures, we are still down about 70, 80 points despite the mildly reassuring from secretary mnuchin on china trade. president trump, he's disputing a report that claims only 1.7 miles of wall has been built at the border, here is the tweet. much of the wall being built at the southern border is a complete demolition and rebuilding of old and worthless barriers with brand-new wall and footings, problem is, the haters say that is not a new wall, but rather a renovation, wrong, and we must build where most needed. okay, got that. san francisco wants to make your next uber and lyft ride more expensive, city leaders are going to hold those companies and make them pay a tax, that's what we understand. we will have the story. the white house getting ready to release middle east peace plan, some young palestinians with good governance that israel

offers, what a story. look at this, ships arrive in new york harbor for fleet week and memorial day tradition, great american scene right outside our doors, right back after this. i'm working to keep the fire going

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>> more coming from the mnuchin hearing, treasury secretary said he never talked to anyone at the white house or to the president himself about handing over tax returns to congress. more headlines as they come. treasury secretary mnuchin has said in 30 to 40 days they'll make decision on imposing the next round of tariffs on china. he says he will be sensitive to any price rises. how about qualcomm stock, it is way down at 10%, federal judge has ruled against them in patent suit, can you explain it, please? >> i need to explain model t

first, the judge ruled it's unfair, almost antitrust, killing competitors, how qualcomm charges for their chips is not only do they charge for chips you put in smartphone which is pretty much used by every smart maker in the world but charge underlying technology behind it and licensing fees and only give you chip ifs you agree to licensing fees which basically gives it a monopoly position for smartphones and they charge, 5% on wholesale value of a smartphone which in apple's case could be up to $55 a phone, now, apple and qualcomm did settle disagreements, they are paying 8 to $9 but ruling is upheld and will probably go to ninth internal revenue cute -- circuit changes the landscape. stuart: that i understand, susan li, thank you very much. now this, the white house says that its peace plan is coming

soon, i should also look at this, op-ed in the wall street journal, quote, fa lest -- palestinians are giving up on having state of their own, the solution with no palestinian state is to give palestinians full voting and citizenship rights in the state that matters most in the neighborhood and that is israel. jeff back with us this morning. let me get this straight u some young palestinians are saying, we have to state of our own, we would rather be in israel because they have good governance. >> they already know that the arab citizens of the state of israel who are there ethnic kin, of course, they want to be citizens of israel. here is the thing, israel will not turn itself into lebanon, israel is not going to allow to be carved up in endless civil war but absorbing and creating a

huge ethnic minority that hostile to its existence. stuart: not going to be one state, single state, if it was a single state, palestinians would swamp -- muslim palestinians would swamp jewish israelis and would no longer be jewish state basically. >> we got caught in whole language two-state and one-state. here is the reality, it is impossible to imagine donald trump and his team trying to force israel into stopping -- no longer being the jewish state. israel to be the nation state of jewish people in indigenous home state. well before us, well before paradigm, we are going back to previous paradigm. stuart: if one of those young palestinians would stay up the government of israel would be much, much better, what would happen to the person.

if they would be killed and never heard of again. it's terrorist group, never proven to be powerful peace and it's about time that we are getting other responsible actors, donald trump has led the way by doing one thing simply, focusing on the reality from jerusalem to golan and now to this. other arab nations are. stuart: i know that you have been on the inside of peace plan and i know you can't tell us that much, i understand these things, can you give us anything on how this new peace plan is going to look? >> well, let met say this, first of all, the peace plan is extraordinary, no leaks that are accurate, a lot of methodology and stories told, i haven't seen the peace plan. i have some insight into what is going on and i know things that are written have generally seen to comport with what i'm seeing

come out of the white house, i think that the parameters are again reality base, donald trump is not afraid to explore the methodologies. stuart: come and tell us what you can tell us later. appreciate it. take a look at futures again, please, we are going to be down, moderate loss 90 points on the dow, bigger loz for the tech-heavy nasdaq, down two-thirds of 1%, house democrats tried to trip up ben carson during hearing yesterday, wait till you hear how carson responded and what it has got to do with oreo cookies, yes, indeed. can't wait. [laughter]

stuart: democrats grilled secretary ben carson, trying to trap him while asking with obscure acronyms. >> i would like for you to explain the disparity rao -- not an oreo, an reo. what does it stand for? real estate owned, that's what

happens when a property goes to foreclosure. stuart: that bothers me talking down to one of the world's great brain surgeons. >> he was classy about it, in fact, funny on twitter afterwards ben carson tweeted representative katie porter, oh, reo, yes, thanks representative katie porter, enjoying post hearing snacks, sending some your way. i would say the winner probably is nabisco cookie maker that makes the oreo cookie, representative says it's a basic term not everyone knows what reo is, this is not general knowledge, this is a brilliant surgeon that's obviously not an idiot. stuart:i really hated to see that, talking down to ben carson for heaven's sake. >> it was a got-you question, disrespectful, let me say in

fairness when you mess up you have to fess up and ben carson is untreated. he needs to answer question, the substantive part of her question was never answered and never expected to be answered because -- stuart: trip him up. >> ben carson should do op-ed, explain why or what the effect of reo foreclosures are on the market. stuart: instead of op-ed secretary ben carson will be on the program today at 10:00 o'clock hour. by the way, another example of democrats trying to embarrass him, we will play that for you and we will get ben carson's response. 10:15 this morning, this program. futures show a loss of about 80 points for the dow industrials, we will take you to wall street for the opening bell after this.

stuart: right before the market opens we have breaking news, adam schiff, chairs house intelligence committee, he says a deal has been reach today get some of the underlying documents from the mueller report. schiff says it does not mean that they don't want mueller to appear but they will get some underlying documents, 20 minutes

-- 20 seconds, we will see how it goes this morning. i get confused, it's wednesday. okay. my name is stuart varney. [bell] [laughter] stuart: here we go 9:30 eastern time, we are off and running, by the way the ceo of exxon, he rang the opening bologna the nasdaq, he's in the news because he earned stock worth $246 million and he will be on our show at 11:00 o'clock this morning, we have opened lower as expected, down 70, 80 points in very early going, about a third of 1%, how about s&p 500, where is that? it's down about a third of 1%, that's 10 points and the nasdaq, down more than that, yes, it is, down half percentage point. again, technology under pressure. the retailers, many of them reporting today, first of all, look at target, online sales up 42% and the stock is up 7%, nice

gains. look at the rest of them. lowes, cut forecast, when you that the stock goes down, lowes down 8%. nordstrom, lower forecast, you that and the stock goes down, in nordstrom, same thing. urban outfitters down 9 and a half percent. shaw galani, we told you about retailers getting hit, john, is this all about china tariffs? >> not completely, not, has to do with chinese tariffs and black cloud, has to do with retail itself. stores have been closing since the recession of 2008, has a lot to do with amazon and wal-mart, also look at what target is doing, you want to be able to compete with retail right now, you have to have online presence and you need to have stores all

over the country and that's where target has an advantage right here, same as wal-mart over amazon that's great for the companies, great for the consumer, bad for retail stores. stuart: what do you say about china tariffs and impact to retailers. >> knocking the guidance and anticipating some chinese impact, i think that's the problem that investors are having right now, unknown of what's going to happen with the tariffs, tariff trade war and could getting usuallyier and retails could get hit hard and that's what investors are focusing on primarily of forward guidance. stuart: we should tell everyone that stuifn mnuchin testifying in capitol hill this morning, in 30 to 40 days they'll make decision on whether to impose extra tariffs on chinese goods but will be sensitive to price rises this morning. he said that this morning. >> target with forecast mid to single low sale increases, they are anticipating the higher prices to come because of the chinese trade war and we heard

wal-mart also on earning calls, they have to raise prices as well, don't forget stock-piling inventories, this is setting stage for pretty low expectation and as you know with low expectations what happens in earning reports. >> we are starting to see great companies go on sale because of trade war. >> okay. a week ago or 10 days ago you were on the show saying this market could go down 10 fer -- 10% if there's no china trade deal. >> i standby and could be a lot worse, could be easily 20%, this war can go for several quarters if not a year before we get into next year. we will maybe see some resolution. this is not to me a trade war battle, this is a geopolitical battle of two super powers and deeper than just trade.

>> well, mnuchin was speaking on capitol hill, also the chinese foreign ministry speaking as well, sounding defiant,xi jinping of china, basically they are saying, we will endure this pain, we are in this for the long run and we will not agree to a deal that's not equal from their point of view. stuart: move onioned china trade for a second. look at two items from am, first off, apple lost $130 billion worth of market value just this month, may 2019. and it's changing its mac book chi -- keyboard after users complaining not used properly. is it back up to 200 any time soon? >> contingency on -- it depends on chinese trade war. this market can go up 10% or down 10% in the next few months

based on what happens with chinese trade war. apple is moving from hardware company to software company. this is to be expected. this is not a big deal as if the service part of their business was having problems. i've owned apple for some time. ill not be a buyer until we find out what will happen with global supply chain. >> our guest shahn and john says maybe go down 20%. i will leave it at that. 5 minutes in, we are down 55 points on the dow industrials. avon, remember them? >> yeah. stuart: close to being sold to brazilian firm, that's why the stock is up 9%. advanced auto parts, better profit, better revenue, stocks up 3 and a half percent.

tow brothers, not so rosy forecast, home builders, stock is down 4%, more legal troubles for boeing, new lawsuit, claims max jets suffered from faulty design, boeing concealed the max jet's problems and refused to ground them on their own. stock is down again. only a buck but 356 on boeing. the price of oil, $62 a barrel. the price of gold this morning, 12-something, 12.74 an ounce. ashley: there you go. stuart: san francisco trying to tax -- >> well, you're paying a few dollars more already. stuart: already. >> uber and lyft rides. stuart: do you see that as bad news for the ride-hailing companies? >> i see it as terrible news, yes, the taxi drivers have a great union, you have to buy a medallion to buy taxi.

most cities around the world, i think it's a real problem for uber and lyft as far as regulation and taxes that are potentially coming on them. stuart: okay, we deal with them almost every day, tesla, they come under a lot of pressure lately, they are now cutting prices on two most expensive models, the x and the s. you've always bet against tesla, as i recall, you wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole, would it disappear? >> no, i don't think it would disappear, unfortunately i'm shorted, i got 150 call on it. stuart: so you've made money out of tesla. >> finally. got beaten up, made money once and now making money again. i've got taken to the cleaners. it's a matter of timing, i don't believe that the model is

sustainable given cash burn, given the fact that end of subsidies for electric vehicles, et cetera, et cetera. a lot of things working against them. stuart: worst case, they said worst case from tesla with jpmorgan $10 a share. hey, john, you want to come into this? would you touch tes whrea 10-foot pole? >> absolutely not. i think if anybody like elon musk it would have been bankrupt. they can't produce cars, they can't produce the old-school stuff. i wouldn't touch it because of the numbers. the only hope is elon musk, elon musk magic. stuart: we shall see. time will tell. okay. have another look at qualcomm, federal judge ruled against it in patent suit. can you give me 20 seconds

again? >> he always gives me 20 seconds. as i mentioned to you qualcomm has unique position not only do they charge with chip but underlying technology and patents as well and only give you chip ifs you agree to pay licensing fees, it's very lucrative for them and stamp out competitors like intel which say they will kill their 5g, next generation chip business because of agreement with apple and qualcomm, so if they're able to stamp up competitors, sec says that's antitrust especially when you dominates trillion dollar smartphone market and make a lot of money for every cell phone that's made, yeah. stuart: the judge says you can't do that. >> no. stuart: right now down 9%, that's $70 a share. >> up 50% in the last month as well. stuart: 30 seconds left, i want to get this in. hold on. [laughter] stuart: we will call it blast from the past. dow component, coca-cola bringing the disaster known as new coke.

netflix hit show stranger things, limited time, remember the new coke. i couldn't see the difference. i did the taste test? >> biggest disaster. ashley: awful. >> just for netflix series. stuart: coke stock is up 30 cents. netflix 9 bucks at 364, sorry, everybody. there it is, john, shah, thank you for joining us. check the big board, we are down 60 points on the dow industrials. philip morris moving away from traditional tobacco smoking, it's got a new tool that gives you vapor but not smoke from tobacco, ceo of philip morris international joins us in 11:00 o'clock hour. amazon holds annual shareholder meeting today, facing pressure on several fronts from facial recognition to climate change.

we have the story. another sign that salt is hurting high-taxed cities and states, the latest example, the luxury markets, the homes down big, prices falling, you can't sell them with salt around your neck, more varney after this. openturning 50 opens theuard. door to a lot of new things... like now your doctor may be talking to you about screening for colon cancer. luckily there's me, cologuard. the noninvasive test you use at home.

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we're on the move. hey rick, all good? oh yeah, we're good. we're good. terminix. defenders of home. stuart: dow jones industrial down, ladies and gentlemen. [laughter] stuart: i will save it, i promise you. that's the second low by the way. amazon, annual shareholder meeting today, variety of proposals being put forward by shareholders from issues there, list the issues for me.

>> look, this is key because amazon is not used to taking direction from other people, right, usually takes profits, reinvest them and focuses on the business, but the issues that we are looking at today that are going to be proposed at shareholder meeting, everything from food ways to hate speech, to facial recognition, 12 resolutions in all and they're not necessarily welcomed, shall we say. amazon asking sec actually to get rid of a couple of the proposals, sec turned around and said, no, we are not doing that. amazon is opposing all of these resolutions and the one most controversial right now is facial recognition, a lot of folks out there are saying that the software programs, they violate people's human rights and they want amazon to do something about it, amazon is saying, look, we heard all of the grievances out there, we are working on the problems internally, we don't need the external pressure, s, the u. -- stu.

>> got it. real estate in hamp tons taking a hit i think because of trump tax law, joining me now someone who disapproves with me. >> thanks for having me back. >> sales down, takes a whole lot longer to sell the luxury properties and that is because of salt. >> i disagree. i think salt certainly not helping. stuart: what's the reason? >> the market traditionally follows the manhattan market, started slowing down 6 quarters ago. you have a lot of things that work in hamptons similar to manhattan. stuart: come on, why should i or anybody else buy a house in the hamptons or in new york city when i'm faced with great big increase tax bill, why would i do it? >> your taxes will be higher because of salt in the hamptons. stuart: hugely higher.

>> taxes are not that higher in first place. stuart: if you're a resident in hamptons, resident of new york state, you will not get federal deduction for new york state taxes. >> correct, most of the people that buy in hamptons are not primary residents to have hamptons, people that are buying second homes, people in the city or frankly a lot of people of west coast or international. as hamptons as you probably know people that people go all of the time. stuart: you know that i i have never been to hamptons, not my kind of place, i prefer the woods in up state new york. let me tell you something and you know already, if i were to move to the hamptons even as a second home, just a weekend place, the tax people of new york state will come right after me. they would make me create a paper chain to show that i've spent less than 180 days in that hampton's house and i don't feel like doing that with the tax people.

>> i would push a little back on that, that's probably not the case, certainly not everyone buying, maybe for you, a higher profile but for most people that's not the case. if you're spending less than 180 days -- >> i live in new jersey, you should see what the 1 percenters are doing in new jersey. >> that's a story different. taxes in new jersey are higher than the hamptons. stuart: you're talking real estate taxes and i'm talking income taxes. >> are not necessarily primary residents of new york state. so if you're in la and flying in for 12 weeks of the summer to spend of hamptons which is what a lot of people, do right, that's the people that are there, they are not primary residents of new york for those purposes, those sales are slow as well. i don't think that's just because of salt. stuart: let's suppose that i'm a senior executive at large corporation and i currently make my home in the midwest. >> okay. stuart: let's suppose.

big increase in pay, why on earth, why on earth would i move to new york city? >> that's a totally different and valid concern. i think salt is having an effect for just those people, people that had a choice whether to be in new york state versus somewhere else, i think that there is -- it's definitely less attractive than what it was. i don't think it's so effective for the hamptons, new york city and new york state in general that's something that we will we will work out. >> finally, i got it out of you. >> you had to work for it. >> i still -- let's hope. [laughter] stuart: sir, welcome back to the show, we will see you again. >> thank you. stuart: jeopardy update. james won again last night, 24 games in a row. he won another 87 bucks, total is close to $1.9 million.

he's still not popular. [laughter] stuart: he's a professional. he approach it is game in a professional sense to win. ashley: he could care less. stuart: he goes right to the doubles. >> ratings are 14-year high. 12 to 13 million watch every night. stuart: case close. the dow is down 86 points. we will soon be able to buy stock at fast-growing cannabis as in marijuana company. i want to know why are they going public now and if they are word about cbd bubble, let's hear what he has to say.

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stuart: i will call it modest loss for the dow, 70 points to the downside. now this, cannabis company plans to go public and lifted shares on the nasdaq, president and ceo vertical wellness. you're also merging with somebody else, aren't you? >> in cannabis business which is separate from cbd business, we are actually in the midst of acquisition which would put it in top 5 in whole industry. stuart: in terms of --

>> distribution. >> it's really about brand and distribution. i mentioned on the break, we met at family association, the whole game is there i there i could deliver 350 cases on a truck or 150 cases on the truck and still hit the same number of stops, the driver between things. all about scale and filling up your trucks. stuart: you are going public very soon? >> we will complete the transaction and that will put us in the top of thc brands and businesses and do rto, reverse takeover in canadian factor chain. on the cannabis side we can only enlist in canada. >> vertically integrated company as your name suggest. thc which gets you high and cbd which is medicinal. i put it to you the cbd -- [laughter]

stuart: cbd is a bubble, doesn't do much for you, does it and as soon as thc comes along, recreationally comes nice wide, who will go for cbd which does nothing for you? >> i disagree with you, this is cbd, no thc, i've been taking these for the last year and i used -- i'm old wrestler and use today take advil and ibuprofen and eliminated from doing that, it's extremely promising and lots of studies now and big part of growth. you have a lot of people on the show and they are all managing slow-growth business or declining business n this case it's explosive growth and it's one to have most exciting things i've ever seen and since prohibition repealed, never been bigger growth opportunity and that was a long time ago. stuart: you are going public in the future and people will have another to buy yet another

cannabis company and you're merging with another brand-name leader? >> absolutely, two big companies together and give us a lot of scale and the biggest market in the world, california, fifth largest economy. stuart: wait a second, back in the 90's you were in liquor business. yes. stuart: fast-forward 20 years, you're in marijuana business? >> i wasn't around when prohibition was repealed. [laughter] >> this time i get to be -- have a seat at the table. stuart: we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. stuart: sure thing. speaker pelosi, i think the meeting is still going on -- meeting with democrats all about impeachment, yes or no, the radicals in the party pushing for impeachment. i say the politics are destroying and nonof the pressing issues are going to be dealt with, legislative inaction, impeachment,

investigated forever, nothing gets done. my take on that coming up next. and democrats grilling hud secretary ben carson over obscure acronyms, they were trying to trap him, secretary carson joins us on this program 10:15 this morning. we will be back.

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stuart: if democrats decides to impeach the president, nothing gets done. that is my opinion. if they decide to investigate, subpoena, charge everyone and his brother with contempt, nothing gets done. that is my opinion. in other words, the politics of destroying the trump presidency means no legislative action on the pressing issues that face our country. immigration, border security, infrastructure, the usmca, even china trade. all go on to the backburner while the democrat try to get rid of or at least slime the president they detest. speaker pelosi is struggling

with this she knows that if contempt for trump brings government to a halt, there is a political price to be paid. voters will not sit idly by as our country is invaded and nothing is done because new york politician jerrold nadler has a beef with new york developer donald trump. their enmity goes way back, decades. why should we all suffer? what excuse is there for irresponsible legislative inaction? voters will not be happy. hold on a second. politics is about to shift and it will put the democrats on defense. very soon we'll get reports, testimony, and declassified documents about what really went on in 2016. you will be hearing a lot more about hillary, brennan, comb any, clapper, mccabe, strzok, maybe president obama. so as the left holds up government with their pursuit of the president voters will be hearing the other side of the story and it will be

fascinating. i think damaging for democrats. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ as i said we have a modest loss for the dow industrials in the early going. we're down 50 points. there you have it, 25,825. want to get back to my editorial at the top of the hour. marc lotter joins us trump 2020 advisory board member. fundamentally am i right here if it is impeachment or investigate forever, nothing gets done? is that accurate? could we get something on infrastructure or immigration? >> well i think the history shows that it's not because this congress has been in session for five months already and what has gotten done? very little if anything because house is more focused on

relitigating the last two years. they want a do-over on the mueller report because it didn't come out the way they wanted. now nancy pelosi is still struggling to keep control of her radical democrat caucus. meanwhile the president is trying to get something done on immigration, trying to get something done on infrastructure, trying to get something done on trade. all he is met with is no, no, no, by a do-nothing congress. stuart: am i right saying it will rebound badly on the democrats? it could go in their favor, voters could say yes, he is a bad guy, get him out, they could say that? >> the polls show most people don't believe that they believe this situation is over with, it has been decided no obstruction, no collusion. what will happen, the president will go to the american people. he will talk about the benefits of the usmca, how presidents of both parties campaigned to fix the flawed nafta. meanwhile he has a deal in front of congress, congress is not doing anything about it. to your point earlier, dealing

with the immigration crisis after months of denials, democrats are starting to admit it's a crisis but where are they on a solution? these are things the american people want fixed. the president is promising to do something, unfortunately democrat controlled house by socialists and radicals don't want anything except investigations. stuart: i will get back to you. i believe the pelosi caucus meeting is still going on. as soon as we get some news from it, you will get the news, they're discussing impeachment, yes or no. target, that is certainly the standout retailing stock of the day. it is up 8.6%. that is a whopping gain. ash, you better tell me why it is up so much. ainsley: the e-commerce side of the business, it has been terrific, up 42% this quarter. a lot is fueled by curbside pickup service target offers. you go in line. pick out what you want. drive down to the store. park in designated space, they

come out and load up your car, you take off. this is proving popular. keep this in mind. what is interesting, the actual sales for target originate online is only 7% of their revenue. they have a long way to grow on that side of things. that is encouraging to them. same-store sales were up nearly 5%. let's not forget, all of this comes when retailers struggled in the first quarter, lowered their guidance for the rest of the year. target didn't do that. they maintained their guidance. stuart: if you look across the retail sector and the stock market almost all of them are down today. nordstrom is taking it on the chin. susan: there are obvious winners and losers. walmart is doing the same thing with curbside pickup especially groceries. people buying milk and eggs, picking something else up as well. brick and mortars offer pickup, curbside delivery, walk in. stuart: wall mart and target,

curbside delivery both up. the rest way down. ainsley: something amazon cannot offer is curbside delivery, plays to their advantage. stuart: amazon can't do curbside delivery. ainsley: they can't. they haven't got a curbside. stuart: yet. big retailers down. look at the list, loews, their problem, they looked into the future said china tariffs could hurt the business. loews is down 10%. that's a big drop! look at nordstrom, same thing. they looked at future. doubtful forecast, down goes the stock, 10%. urban outfitters expect as rough sales environment ahead in part i think because of maybe china tariffs. i want to bring in michael o'keefe, stifle chief investment officer. i'm going out on a limb here saying china tariffs are the big, big problem for retailers across the board, am i right? >> we don't think so it is a natural thing -- stuart: you're telling me i'm

wrong? >> you're kind of right. it is natural when you have this kind of news, the tensions in the trade negotiations and tariffs laid on to quickly sort of react. i think the market in general, individual names in general are sensitive right now. we're seeing this movement. really tariffs if they're permanent it's a longer-term problem. stuart: that is the threat, isn't it? >> it is. stuart: even though steven mnuchin said this morning, treasury secretary, they will decide in 30 or 40 days to impose the extra tariffs and he will be sensitive to price increases. that sounds like he is not gung-ho for a new round of tariffs. >> they want be careful about it. we have two strong willed parties president, china, fighting it out wanting to be strong against one another. it is all about getting back to the table at this point. stuart: you've been a guest of ours many times over the past year. you have usually said the market is on its way up.

>> yes. stuart: there will be plateaus, there will be dips, basically it is an upside move for the market? >> yes. stuart: for the benefit of our viewers who are thinking should i buy anymore stock now, what is your answer? >> our answer we think the market is modestly higher from here, off 3% from its high. s&p 500, off 3%. we called for volatility. this volatility is actually pretty natural. it feels emotional because of topics in the news. all in all we think modestly higher from here. stuart: modestly higher from here? >> yes. stuart: i think we'll take that, after what we've seen so far. we'll take it. mr. o'keefe, thanks for joining us. >> you're welcome. stuart: i have got breaking news. speaker pelosi just left the meeting with house democrats. she says house democrats believe president trump is engaged in a coverup, her words. she also says, quote, it is not an issue of persuasion. it is more about a point of view. ainsley: what does that mean? stuart: yeah.

ainsley: very vague. stuart: what does that mean? if he is involved in coverup you impeach him. i don't know. i have no idea. come back in marc lotter. do you have a comment on this please? we just heard, speaker pelosi says he is engaged in a coverup. what does that mean? >> it just ludicrous, laughable. let's remember. this was a president who turned over a million documents. there were 500 subpoenas. there were people that were subpoenaed and spoke to the special counsel and for some reason democrats don't like the answers that will make up a new one. if there was any coverup it is what happened in the justice department under the obama administration when they were wiretapping members of the trump campaign. they were using opposition research to get secret court orders for wiretaps and things like that. that's the real coverup, if they're trying to hide. it is going to be exposed by bill barr and others. i think that is where their real fear lies right now. stuart: i figuring out whether

they go ahead with impeachment, keep going with investigate, investigate. no clear answer on that one at this point. marc lotter, thanks for being with us at a very important moment. we appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: sure thing. hud secretary ben carson was grilled at a committee hearing over the meaning of what i would think of obscure acronyms. democrats were trying to trip him up. secretary carson responds to all of this. he joins us in a moment. nigel farage, he is on the show. his brexit party could emerge as a big winner in europe's elections this week. i want to know if, and how he plans to disrupt the european union parliament if he? will he disrupt? farmers in illinois say they're losing confidence in trade negotiations between the u.s. and china. jeff flock has the numbers for us. he is coming up on the show as well. we'll be back. ♪

stuart: now speaker pelosi has just emerged from a meeting she was holding with her caucus about impeaching the president. she is speaking now. listen in, please. >> oversight of the activities of the trump administration presented to the caucus. mr. cummings talked about a major decision which was very favorable for us. a court ruled in favor of the house democrats. maxine waters talked about the deutsche bank decision, case, which is in the court today in new york, 10:30. that case will come up. mr., mr. schiff of the intelligence committee talked about the documents that now the justice department

. and the last one we have, is more positive. that is to change. 20% said it would be a worse deal. i will leave you with one quote,

stuart. lynn will be with us later today on the fox business network. i want to leave you with a quote from one farmer. we asked him, you want to say something, write down what you think. one of them said, hold their feet to the fire, if we give in after taking this hit, i will be pissed. i like it when i can say the word pissed on the air. stuart: just quoting, jeff, that is okay. mr. flock, thank you very much indeed. i'm sure you're on air all day long. we do have secretary ben carson, in the chair, waiting to go. he will respond to the taunting i think was the best word to use, taunting him yesterday. he will respond after this.

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stuart: we're almost an hour into the trading session. still the same story. a very modest loss for the dow industrials. we're down 50 points. now this, housing and urban development secretary, ben carson, whoa, he was grilled, he was goaded i should say on the hill yesterday. watch this. >> omwi. >> amway? >> come on, mr. secretary, i asked you this last year. you asked me to be nice to you and you turned to your staff. omwe. you have a omwe director. we wrote you a letter about it and, omwe. office of minority women and inclusion. stuart: hold on a second. we'll get to the secretary in a moment. that wasn't all from yesterday. check out this exchange. >> i would also like you to get back to me if you don't mind to explain the disparity in reo

rates. do you know what an reo is? >> an oreo? >> not an oreo. reo. r-eo. >> real estate. >> what does o stand for. that is when a property goes into foreclosure. stuart: ben carson was before he went into politics one of if not the best brain surgeon in the world. and they were talking down to him. ben carson himself is with us now. would you respond to all of this, please sir? >> yes. it was, first of all, it was 3 1/2 hours of testimony. so you can see that some of the networks are only interested those kinds of sound bites that they can use to ridicule. you know the fact of the matter is, i was having difficulty hearing her. of course i'm very familiar with foreclosed properties.

and with reos. i have read extensively about them. new about them, even as a teenager. there was a lot of blighted areas in detroit where i grew up but what is interesting, you know, that we, when a family gets into a problem with their mortgage and it is backed by our agency be we go through a lot of procedures with the banks to make sure that they don't get foreclosed upon. in a few cases where they do, obviously we're able to sell those properties very quickly. and the, reo portfolio, just over the last 10 years, has dramatically decreased by tenfold. you know, 65,000 down to 6500. so i suspect when katy porter was an expert in this area things were very different. that is why i invited her to speak with our staff that deals with these so they can bring her

up to date. maybe she would then be able to understand what is going on. >> i think they were having a go at you, mr. secretary. also at the hearing yesterdayer accused of favoring americans over illegals in public housing. i just want the audience to see this. roll that tape please. >> the d in hud does not stand for deportation. i'm afraid that a recent proposal of yours will bring nothing but despair. i find it despicable, this is a horrible plan. you will rip apart families and be throwing children on to the street. what is your plan to take care of them? >> if you read the rule carefully you will see that it provides a six-month deferral on request if they have not found another place to live. and that can be renewed two times for a total of 18 month, which is plenty of time for

congress to engage in comprehensive immigration reform. stuart: again, mr. secretary, your response? >> well, you know, we have obligation to follow the law and, section 214 of the housing and community development act of 1980 says specifically that the hud secretary may not support housing for people who are not here legally. so, what they're asking me to do is violate the law. they have the ability to change the law. but what is really interesting is how they try to make this emotional argument about children. these are the same people who are for late-term abortions. who take a child who is viable outside of the womb and willing to slaughter them. now tell me how is that consistent? stuart: i can't answer your question. i'm just appalled that this attempt to just get at you and

talk down to a man of such accomplishment of view, as you. i'm almost out of time, mr. secretary, but i'm glad you're on the show to refute that rudeness that i saw so obviously yesterday. last word to you, sir. >> if you read saul alinsky rules for radicals, that is exactly what they're doing. look at rule 5, rule 13. they don't even know they're being used. stuart: fascinating, mr. secretary, thanks very much for being on the show. always appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: whoa. hard to contain myself. i really do. apple is making changes to its keyboard after complaints from users. jackie deangelis, come back in again please, what was the problem with the keyboard in the first place? reporter: they're the butterfly keyboard found on mac books. sometimes users are typing they missed keystrokes or doubled keystrokes. apple will work on this. change the materials to try to

remedy the problem. it is also saying it will expand the service eligibility so that users can get help. they will make it faster. they will make it a four-year sort of warranty, they will make the repair time faster. so you get the keyboard back with the problem fixed. it is not clear if the company stops making the keyboard all together. apple doesn't comment on the pipeline, what is coming into the future. they're looking into it. the question, stuart, is it going to work and will it be satisfactory to the people having the problems? stuart: one more problem for apple you could say. jack didjackie deangelis with t. the market is kind of going nowhere. we're an hour into the situation. we're down 20 points. that is where it is. weekly oil inventories i think we get the number in about 20, 30 seconds. >> we are, yes. stuart: at the moment the price of oil is $62 per barrel, the

numbers we get how much oil we put into storage or taken out. ainsley: estimatefor for today, draw down of 600,000 barrels. but the forecast have been so off. interesting what we get. we're expecting what you would call a small draw down. stuart: 10:30, precisely. the numbers should break at exactly 10:30. we'll see if it does. wait a minute. no number the. ashley: it is up, 4.7 million. stuart: that means 4.7 million barrels of oil were added to our storage. ashley: we have a lot more in storage than we thought we did. stuart: which means the price should be coming down a little. ashley: correct. stuart: doesn't make that much difference to the price. it is interesting how much oil we're using. ashley: everything going on in iran, oil hasn't reacted way we thought it would. it has hung in the same range. stuart: 20 years ago, with this trouble in the mid-east you

would have 120-dollar a barrel oil. ashley: american oil independence. stuart: that's right. fracking changes a lot. well-said, susan li. susan: thank you. stuart: european parliament elections this week, joining you on the phone, nigel farage, a european parliament member, a fox news contributor and standing for re-election to the european parliament. nigel, before we go any further, you tried to get into this european parliament so you can end the european parliament and do away with it. is that what is going on here? >> you're right. i thought i succeeded because i managed to force david cameron, then prime minister to give us a referendum. we won the referendum. and guess what? three years on our political class in westminster have not given us brexit. we're fighting another set of elections for the european parliament. so what i did just six weeks ago was to set up a brand new party called the party.

pleased to say polls are polls. pleased to say at moment we're in the lead. stuart: that there are other populist or conservative parties running for election to the european parliament? they're likely to do very well. you're likely to do very well. are you going to use this literally to end the european union? is that your goal here? >> yes. i don't want a full political union in europe run by an unelected bureaucracy called the european commission. i want a europe of individual nation states, sovereign states, democratic states. let's trade together. let's be friends with each other. do things neighbors should do. but the idea that france and germany and italy and united kingdom should surrender all sovereignty to these international bureaucrats, to me is absolutely abhorrent. stuart: theresa may, the prime minister, has submitted another, one more time a brexit plan. this is the fourth time she's done it.

it is not likely to pass. how long can she last and who replaces her? >> if i'm right, if the brexit party that i'm leading has success tomorrow, if the conservatives do very badly because a lot of their voters defected to me. she will be gone within a couple weeks. they will then be a contest over the course of the summer. the favorite at the moment, he is known to american viewers is boris johnson, the blonde bombshell. the trouble is, history says the favorite never wins. so we'll have to see. stuart: would boris johnson meet your approval, nigel? >> well i, i like boris but the problem is the third time theresa may brought this terrible new deal, the worst deal in history back to the house of commons boris voted for it, having twice before voted against it. so if boris will get any approve from me, to be frank, if the "brexit" party will be as big as

the polls suggest, he county win without my support, i would need, i would need to believe him. at the moment i'm struggling. stuart: i will leave you with this, nigel. don't let the elites grind you down, lad. you have a -- >> thank you very much. stuart: thank you, mr. farage. good luck in the elections. >> thank you. stuart: i have this for you. take a look at this headline from the "wall street journal" i'm going to quote it. here we go. many more students, especially the affluent get extra time to take the s.a.t. lawrence jones with us, fox news contributor. lawrences i think this is absolutely outrageous. the elites are gaming the system all over again. that is my opinion. what do you say? >> well, it is not fair, okay? you got kids all over the country freaking about these tests, this one test that is such a big portion how you get into college and the rich once again are playing by different rules, look, i'm all for people

making good on their promises to their kids, making sure they get the best tools in front of them, but that is not cheating. so the fact that they're playing by different rules is a big problem for me. stuart: what are we going to do about this? the elites, some, bribing their kids into college. they got extra time on exams. the colleges are so politically-correct that you have to have a safe space to protect yourself from other people's opinions. this is the decline of the american campus. i don't see anything being done about it? >> well, stuart, if i'm honest, we have to get to the root of the problem. and this is, when it comes to college, there has been this emphasis on college when, you got a lot of people that are graduating that can't even get a job, okay? we have to start attacking this with all -- this has become a money-making scheme, right? it is not about educating the next generation to go out there to be productive members of

society. so you got to crack down. throw their tails in jail, that is one. if we find out they're cheating, i guarranty you the parents are behind this, we saw in the hollywood scandal as well, we have to start getting to the bottom of why is everything about the money getting in college? why not about the merit of students getting in college? by the way all the people that are part of this corruption scheme need to be thrown in jail as well. i don't think no one want to really have that conversation because the money players are behind this. we saw this with recent change in this diversity, affluent, this s.a.t. score, this adversity score, where we don't even know what the score is, stuart, right? they're going to give these kids, this extra little score because of their backgrounds. what happens when they fail school, stuart? stuart: right. >> not judged by the merit, get in, fail, colleges don't care they get their check, it clears.

yet these students go into debt. stuart: there is something rotten in the state of the campus. that is correct. lawrence, i'm sure you saw hud secretary carson grilled by members of congress yesterday. i think he was, i think he was essentially harassed, because, he couldn't get hold of some obscure acronyms. have you seen it, lawrence? >> i saw it. i looked at the secretary's response he said, quite frankly did not understand what she was saying. i was outraged, this man, ben carson, one of the world's great brain surgeons, before he came into politics. and now, looking down on him, they're condescending to him. i was outraged at this. >> here's the deal, stuart. this is the same party that praises aoc. this is someone that can't even

understand basic breathing and we're going to criticize a brain surgeon. i will take ben carson at his word he didn't understand what the congresswoman was saying. but again,'s be clear. they're doing this because he is a black man that is the hayest ranking black official in the trump administration, all right? if this was done to president obama or anyone in their administration, everybody would be calling everybody to resign, send out apology letters. this is what you experience on the right. but again, stuart, it is up to black conservatives to swing back because they will continue to discredit -- especially people like ben carson that made an impact in black america. they want to destroy these people. they don't like what we stand for. they want group think. they want to keep blacks impoverished. at the same hearing they were protecting illegals getting funds from the government, not the people in the community.

americans that actually need it. by the way, again i will not be lectured by a party that champions aoc and some of the freshman class who are so illiterate when they are in these briefings. stuart: i have to keep on this, msnbc, the radical left is discussing ben carson right now and they're banner reads, ben carson does not understand real estate term. i mean, isn't that rubbing salt in the wound? just nonsense. keep going wit. >> the secretary made it very clear, he did not understand what she was saying. stuart: right. misheard. >> everybody knows ben carson. he will ask you to repeat yourself a couple times. he is getting up there in age. but to make this about his intelligence, i think it is kind of not only is it condescending but kind of narcissistic. this is guy separated conjoined twins. stuart: he did. he was the guy, conjoined twins

in south africa, joined at the head, i have seen the pictures, it was ben carson who separated them. those young men are now teenagers, they have seen the pictures. they're doing just fine. ben carson did that. you impugn his intelligence? i'm astonished by it. i'm out of time, lawrence. >> they loved them before they knew his political ideology. everybody loves them. now they know his politics. they are trying to destroy this man. i'm glad he is swinging back at them. stuart: good. i want to see more of it. lawrence i'm getting carried away. our time is up. kwamme down, brother. >> i can't, brother. stuart: trouble at the border. flu-like illness outbreak at a processing center in mcallen, texas. one person has died. border agents no longer sending migrants to that facility. martha maccallum has visited the border. i want to know how bad is it down there now? she is next.

philip morris i.q. os, it's a device coming to the u.s. heats up tobacco, releases nicotine vapors. no harmful smoke. philip morris international, coo on the show next hour. check out "wise guys" on "fox nation." i got into it with my friend brian kilmeade. >> i love robert lighthizer leading it i know we're tough. when i see steve mnuchin i know we're not. he is in for a quick deal, wall street deal, everybody continues for today. stuart: how do you know that? >> we know that. stuart: we do? >> you do your research. ♪ see that's funny, i thought you traded options. i'm not really a wall street guy. what's the hesitation? eh, it just feels too complicated, you know?

well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman? hey, ian. you know, at td ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until you're comfortable. i could be up for that. that's taking options trading from wall st. to main st. hey guys, wanna play some pool? eh, i'm not really a pool guy. what's the hesitation? it's just complicated. step-by-step options trading support from td ameritrade

stuart: stocks down, not that much, we're down about 1/3 of 1% on the dow. that is eightpy points lower. border agents have stopped taking people at the very big migrant processing facility in mcallen, texas. there has been an outbreak of flew-like symptoms. they closed it. they're taking people elsewhere. martha maccallum, host of the story on the fox news channel. you've been to the border. tell us how bad it is. it looks like it is collapsing. >> i was there a few months ago. it looked pretty organized. once the message that families need to come as groups, you saw the numbers skyrocketing. some instances, people not members of the family are being brought through. the tragic death of 16-year-old guatemalan boy which likely did not need to happen. these facilities cannot take care of numbers of people they have coming through there. you have customs, border patrol, obviously the ire, focus of some

of this it is their fault. when you bring, the message has been for some time, it is not safe to put your family through this process. now we're learning the tragic consequences of that. stuart: this collapse, i'm calling it a collapse, breakdown of order. >> accurate word. stuart: we'll get nothing done in congress, they're busy with impeachment or investigating the president. this is appalling situation. >> most americans look at it agree with you 100% on that, stuart. this is a very manageable problem. even as the president said, if i could get everybody in a room, we could solve of the problem in 45 minutes, coming up with new laws, new rules for asylum, how the process has to work, a wall or secure fencing area that makes sure that people funnel through certain ports of entry, and you know, rules that everybody can live by, in terms of an orderly of getting into the country. when you look everywhere except that border, there are strict rules how you can enter this country. people have to abide by them. people wait months and years,

they spend money they don't have on lawyers to get through the proper way. what is happening here is a human tragedy. it's a crisis that could, could develop into even much larger proportions. a million people crossing the border. over the course of a year. it is absolutely untenable. stuart: you cannot deny, that is a crisis. >> i don't think anybody is denying it now. everybody on both sides. admit it's a crisis. jeh johnson. it's a crisis. stuart: talk politics for a second. bernie sanders, joe biden, according to a new poll in iowa, amongst iowa democrats, they are tied. beto o'rourke, bill de blasio, have brutally low numbers. looks to me like the front-runners are beginning to emerge. what say you? >> it is interesting. bernie sanders won in iowa last time around but when you look on the republican side, ted cruz won in iowa. iowa is very persnickety, as an indicator what comes after that. it is interesting, not that surprising to me that biden and

sanders are at this point, nine months out, duking it out little bit in the state of iowa. you look at new hampshire, elizabeth warren is rising. she doesn't have the bernie-like baggage but a candidate speaks to voters in new hampshire. i actually didn't think joe biden would get into the race. at this point i'm not sure he is going to stay in the race. stuart: whoa, that is news, martha maccallum. >> just based on experience of covering him and covering elections for the past five now presidential cycles, counting this one. i just don't, often at this stage of the game the front-runner does not turn out to be the person who gets the nomination. look what rudy giuliani, his position at the same point in the race. he just appeared to be the absolute inevitable republican candidate. i'm not speaking specifically to biden's strengths or weaknesses, i'm saying with this kind of field it is way too early to say he is the guy. stuart: i think you're right on that one. a long time ago.

martha maccallum. we'll be watching. >> look forward to it. stuart: thank you. juan guaido, venezuela's opposition leader considering negotiating with the disputed socialist president maduro. is guaido caving? we'll ask our top venezuela watcher that question after this. ♪

ashley: we'll break in now. treasury secretary steve mnuchin talking to reporters after the

hearing. let's listen in. >> weaponizing the irs is a dangerous thing. the third branch of government, the courts will ultimately decide the constitutional issue here. when the courts decide, we will abide by that decision. reporter: [inaudible]. why not other industries as well? >> we'll have a 301 process and look at exceptions that impact certain consumers. people talked about diapers and other things, that they can't be sourced other ways. we'll be very careful on this. but the farmers are being personally retaliated for political reasons. reporter: [inaudible] non-tariff retaliation from now? >> no, i haven't heard yet. i have been in touch with people that have not heard that. reporter: [inaudible] >> i spoke to the cfo of walmart. they're obviously the largest. i've spoken to others. i will not comment on all of them. we're working closely with them to understand where they can resource things and what the consumer payment pack is.

reporter: is there anything that huawei could do to restructure or what not? >> i'm not going to comment on any of the specifics. reporter: have you asked the president of the united states about the tax return fight? >> i have said multiple times, i don't know how much clearer i can be, i have had no conversations with the president or other people at white house about the issue of delivering are the president's tax returns. i don't know how more clear i can be on that? reporter: [inaudible] >> what's that? reporter: do you have any plans to -- >> we're not doing anything. that is something the president is interested in. that would require legislation. we'll see. during a technical corrections bill if we ever get something through congress we can contemplate about that? reporter: [inaudible] >> we had productive conversations yesterday with the big four on spending and on debt limit. it's a big priority of mine to make sure that the debt limit is

raised. if we can get an appropriate caps deal the president said he considered that. if not we'll go down the path of a cr. and, on, today on infrastructure, it is president objective to do infrastructure. i look forward to a productive conversation. reporter: [inaudible]. >> thank you, secretary. >> thank you very much. stuart: that was treasury secretary steve mnuchin emerging from a congressional hearing or certainly congressal meeting there. he didn't say anything on china trade which is going to move the market. he simply said he is most likely, that he will meet, president trump will meet with xi xinping at the end of june at the g20 meeting. most likely they will meet. he also said he had no conversation with the president about his tax returns. that is not something which will move the market. what he said about china was not going to move the market because it wasn't that dramatic. treasury secretary steve mnuchin, you just saw him, got it. get to venezuela. this is difficult story because

the country's opposition leader juan guaido said he may now negotiate with disputed president nicolas maduro. joining us mary anastasia o'grady, "wall street journal" columnist. he lost. he surrendered. >> he hasn't said that himself. he has some people negotiating apparently in oslo. basically i have said from the beginning that the cubans and the russians are not going to leave venezuela because people are starving, because there is no water, because there is no electricity, because you know, there are no elevators. that doesn't matter to them. they have this piece of real estate on the south american continent and they are going to stay. i think one of the strategies all along, basically wear down the opposition. you beat them in the streets. stuart: that is success. how do we -- >> that is where we are right now. stuart: how do we get rid of him? >> well the administration thinks we can do it by basically squeezing them but that takes time. so we haven't had enough time

yet. and they're adding sanctions little by little. now they're talking about adding sanctions on people involved with the food distribution program in, in venezuela. stuart: just been dragging on forever, hasn't it? how many times have you and spoken, oh, this is endgame. when is endgame? they're still there. the russians, cubans are still. there they have got the power, they have bottom the guns and this will go on forever. >> history has a lot of bearing here. i think one of the best ways we could get involved in this would be to arm the venezuela opposition. you know we did that during, during, when contras were trying to fight in nicaragua. what happened? the democrats took everybody who was involved in that, you know, ran them into the ground. that was iran-contra affair. in cuba, in, when there was the bay of pigs and the cubans trained in guatemala, what happened, kennedy pulled the air cover in the operation.

so this, history is built into the way they're behaving. they know, they feel secure that the u.s. is not going to do anything. the u.s. is not going to arm the opposition. the u.s. is not going to get involved in some kind of air war. because of that they feel safe. and i continue to say that what we need to do is intervene ships that are going to cuba with oil, get more aggressively involved without putting boots on the ground. i'm not in favor of that. stuart: okay. thanks for joining us, mary owe grady. have a lot to cover today. far left politicians want the government to tell companies what they should pay their executives. i think that's a rotten idea. we have the perfect guest on to address that. rick smith, he just got a massive 246 million-dollar compensation package. is that too much? we'll have him on the show. he is on shortly. he is going to justify that massive paycheck. there you go.

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a visual snapshot of your investments. key portfolio events. all in one place. because when it's decision time... you need decision tech. only from fidelity. stuart: who should control executive pay? in my opinion, it should be the shareholders of a company. they are its owners. they should say who gets what. it should not be politicians. but that's where the left is heading. the democrats want legislation. they will politicize pay. next month bernie sanders will attend walmart's annual meeting to brandstand for limits on -- grandstand for limits on what executives are allowed to earn. it's part of his campaign platform, same with elizabeth warren. bob iger, who now runs disney, makes too much money. oh, slap him down.

alexandria ocasio-cortez objected to amazon coming to new york city in part because amazon's founder is the richest person in the world. don't bring your ill-gotten gains here, is what she's saying. now, it is true that ceos now make a lot more relative to average employee. it's the income inequality story. we are told that this is bad for the country, bad for the economy. i'm not buying that argument. it's just an excuse for politicians to grind the jealousy axe. they want to step in and legislate what they think e is fair pay. in principle, i object. it's not your company, it's the shareholders' company. they e own it. their money is at risk. and if they want to pay their chief executive a fortune, it comes out of their pocket, doesn't it? i also object on practical grounds. politicians have no clue how to run businesses. this is going to be one of the big debates in the 2020 election. you will hear a lot about it.

in a moment you'll hear from rick smith. he runs a big company, and he could make as much as $246 million for just 2018 alone. now, that's a big pay package. we'll discuss. he will justify it. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ if. stuart: i promised, we deliver. rick smith is with us. now, he is the ceo and founder of axon, that's the former taser company, have i got that right? >> that's right. stuart: and your total compensation package for 2018 -- big smile, rick, go ahead -- [laughter] $246 million. justify it. >> yeah. well, it's a little bit misleading because so far i've earned zero. it is a ten-year performance package where i have the opportunity to earn 1% of the company for every billion dollars of market cap that we add.

stuart: so where did the $246 million come from? >> that is the black shoals accounting for the value of the options. and it sort of got out of control because, candidly, once the board announced the package, the stock nearly tripled before the shareholders had the chance to approve it, so it went to north of $200 -- stuart: $246 million over a ten-year period. >> yeah. and that's only if we take the market cap from 1.3 million, we have to 10x it to 13 billion. stuart: it's directly related to the value of the company which you run. >> yep. stuart: so do you think you are worth -- i'm trying to divide it by ten, $24 million a year when some of your employees are making 30 grand? >> well, one thing i'm particularly proud of is we took the same plan, and we modified it, and i rolled it out to every employee in the company, so we'll take over a hundred people millionaires if they help us meet these goals. stuart: how many employees have

you got? >> about 1300. and the rest will get a minimum of $17,000. so it feels good to make this pretty inclusive so it's not just me. stuart: so i take it you agree with me that politicians should not be setting your pay, that your shareholders should do it. >> well, especially, you know, in cases where i'm earning back chunks of the company i started in a garage 26 years ago and, you know, the shareholders thought it was a good deal. i tell you what, it reenergized me as an entrepreneur. stuart: axon has moved on -- well, you're the taser guys -- >> of course. stuart: don't you have that new product, it's a rope, you throw it around somebody, is that you? >> nope. that's actually my brother over at that company. it runs in the family. stuart: i'm sorry. [laughter] >> no, no, it's okay. the reason we changed the name is the biggest part of the company that's growing right now is our software business. so we started body cameras, and now we manage over 50 million

gigabytes of video from lapd to nypd and our a.i. division is the fastest growing. the name taser just didn't fit with software. stuart: so is it possible over the next ten years you'll actually make more than a mere $246 million? >> if we hit it out of the park, there's no limit to upside. the optimistic capitalist in me says, that's great. i can create jobs, and i can make a bunch of money -- [laughter] and helping other people start great companies. you know that's what i'll do with it. stuart: they're going to hate you with a passion, you know that. [laughter] rick smith, what a guy. thank you very much for joining us this morning. >> thanks for having me on, stuart. stuart: good luck, sir. [laughter] all right, let's check the big board. now we're down 108 points. the late on china trade, secretary of -- treasury secretary mnuchin says there are plans being made for trump and xi jinping to meet at the end of june. i would have thought that was

fairly positive. maybe the markets not taking it that way because we're now down 100 points after the treasury secretary said that. check out target, please, big win for them. they're bucking the retail trend. online sales went up 42%. they're betting on curbside pick-up instead of delivery, which is something that amazon can't do. the stock is up the best part of 10%. going the other way, lowe's, the hardware guys. stock's tickling down, 10% down there. sales numbers were higher, but their costs are skyrocketing, and they look to future and they say, look, china tariffs are going to trouble us. down goes the stock. urban outfitters, they see a rough sales path ahead of them, but they're doing something different. what is this, jackie deangelis, what are they doing, renting clothes? tell me more. >> reporter: report in. what investors are worried about is why would i buy the clothes

if i can rent them? it's a diversification process in a way. we all have heard of rent the runway, urban is the latest to get into it. you pay $88 a month, they're going to launch sometime in the summer. you get six items for that $88, you get to use them for a month as much as you want. and then you put them in a bag, prepaid postage, and you send them back. the company washes them, launders them, whatever, and rents them out again. this is a great boon for the consumer because per item it's less than $20, right? you get to recycle and always change your wardrobe in the digital age with instagram, people want new outfits all the time, so it's great. but again, from the investor standpoint, urban outfitters, anthropology, those are some of the grands included, and they're saying -- brands included, and they're saying people aren't going to invest in the outfits when they can recycle like this. runway didn't have their own brand to cannibalize, stuart. stuart: got it. doesn't seem hike that idea is

working too well with investors, the stock is down this morning. jackie, thank you very much, indeed. now, just a few moments ago, this happened: speaker pelosi and senator schumer went to white house for an oval office meeting on infrastructure. but that picture, by the way, is taken from one of their previous meetings. we believe that they're close to going to the white house for another meeting right now. the president's already said there'll be no deal on roads and bridges unless the usmca is passed first. hard to see anything really getting done legislatively. and remember, speaker pelosi just held a closed door meeting on impeachment where she accused the president of a cover-up. stay with us, please, this is the third hour of "varney," and we're just getting started. ♪ ♪

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stuart: the happening now at the white house, top democrats meeting with president trump. it's all about infrastructure. the president's already playing hardball. he says, look, if you want -- there's nothing -- there'll be no infrastructure deal until, first, you pass the usmca, you know, the old nafta deal. anything comes from that meeting, we'll bring it right to you. but right now we want to bring in congressman barry loudermilk, congressman, republican. will impeachment be present in the room? >> i haven't seen a meeting yet where impeachment wasn't an issue at some point or some level of investigation. that's just the world we live in in congress nowadays. it's just a continuous flow of talk of impeachment, of investigation. they just can't let bygones be bygones. stuart: i just don't see how you can get anything done in

congress when the democrats are, a, pushing for impeachment and, b, pushing investigations into every conceivable aspect of president trump. that will hold everything up, won't it? >> it does. and, in fact, we -- i was meeting with steven mnuchin just before i came over here. we were in the financial services committee, and we're trying to engage some issues that are very important; more deregulation, stimulating the economy. what the democrats were talking about the is tax returns, we need the president's tax returns. and then i did commend him on an accomplishment that they have made, is they have actually made free trade advocates out of the democrats because every one of them were change about the high cost of tariffs and what it's going to do to american people and increase their costs. so i think we paved the way to get usmca done, because the democrats have switched over to be free trade advocates. stuart: amazing. congressman, you're an astonishing guy. federal gas tax, i believe that is on the table as one way of part payment for the

infrastructure plan. are you, sir, are you in favor of raising the federal gas tax? >> look, stuart, you know, the democrats are in charge. any tax increase that's going to be on the table right now in the house. look, we have to figure out a way of funding the infrastructure bill. we're $22 trillion of debt s something we need to get out of this continuous to cycle of tax and spend, tax and spend. we need to pull in some bids models, look at -- business models before we raise taxes on the american people. i think we need to look for public/private partnerships, we need to look at block grants, long-term low interest loans instead of just funding. stuart: sir, i've got to press this. i said are you in favor of raising the federal gas tax? >> i am -- stuart: that is a yes or no. >> no, i am not, because i think there are better ways of doing this before you resort to that. stuart: congressman, i hear you're taking part in a big run tomorrow raising awareness for veteran suicides. this is in d.c. tomorrow morning? >> yes, it is. this is a group i've been working with for the last five

years. i'm a veteran, and it's highly concerning the me that we have 22 veterans a day committing suicide because of ptsd. so they are running across country, they the run 22 kilometers a day to raise awareness, they wear 22 pounds of body armor. they're coming through d.c. as they do every year, so i'm going to do part of the run with them to show our support and continue to support their efforts to provide treatment for these american heroes are still suffering, they bring the battlefield wounds back home with them. stuart: i haven't googled with you, so i don't know whether you're army, navy, air force, marines or coast guard. which is it? >> proudly air force. stuart: are you a pilot? >> i am a pilot, but i worked on the intelligence side. stuart: how many years did you serve, may i ask? >> eight years. stuart: may i ask where with you were stationed? >> well, it was -- of course, if you're in the air force, you're going to spend time in texas, but i was also in hawaii and alaska. stuart: oh, tough life. [laughter] congressman, we really support your efforts on veteran suicide,

it's a very serious thing, and we're glad to have you on the show. congressman loudermilk from georgia. >> thank you, stuart, always a pleasure. stuart: a quick check of the markets. we're down 68 points, but look at uber and lyft. mixed bag there. uber's down, lyft is up a fraction. the reason we put them on the screen is this: san francisco is proposing a new tax on all ride-hailing rides. 3.25%. now, new york city already does this. if this goes national on a true basis, looks like uber and lyft might have a problem with new taxes. we'll see. news out of the postal service, they're testing self-driving trucks for their cross-country fleet. they'll custom modify these trucks by too simple, a self-driving start-up from san diego. they're running on one route already, i believe, they're out there. phoenix to dallas. i didn't know that, but i believe it's on the road.

it's aimed at cutting down the costs of contracted drivers, of course -- elizabeth: well, they're going to have two people in there, though. hopefully, the union will be happy about that. [laughter] there will be a driver and engineer -- stuart: if i'm going to phoenix to dallas and i look up and see a postal service truck with nobody in the cab -- [laughter] i'm getting off the road. the indy 500 hits the track for the 103rd year this weekend. later this hour we have the indy car ceo. everybody knows i'm a soccer guy. i want him to tell me why i should switch over to watching cars racing round circles. let's see if he can convince me. [laughter] it's an uphill crime climb. if race cars aren't your theme, what about vertical theme parks? some of lion's gait most popular movies will be featured in the rides at the new park. of in a moment, we'll tell you when it will open, where it will be and how you have a vertical theme park. first, though, nostalgia. coca-cola bringing back new coke

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stuart: new tweet from the president, i shall read it. as i have long been saying and has now been proven out, this is a witch hunt against the republican party and myself. and it was the other side that caused this problem, not us. we should mention that he's tweeting this just as speaker pelosi and senator schumer arrive for a meeting on trade and infrastructure, i should say, at the white house. okay. you remember new coke? of course you don't. it was a resounding failure back in the '80s, but it's making a comeback for the new season of netflix's "stranger things," they're shipping out a half million cans of it. you can get them online starting tomorrow. coca-cola's stock not responding to that particular news, but it is up 1%. we're going to try e to get some new coke and try it on the set. you up for this? elizabeth: sure, yeah, i would

try it, absolutely. ashley: i remember trying it back in the day, and it was the much sweeter, and they were trying to match pepsi, and they felt they were losing ground. turns out, massive mistake. elizabeth: yeah. and it only lasted for 77 days, and pepsi's ceo dubbed it the edsel of coca-cola. [laughter] they're trying to make a flop a viral hit right now. "stranger things" this season is set in 1985, that's why they're linking -- stuart: i tried it and couldn't tell the difference. i have no taste anyway -- [laughter] jackie deangelis, come on in, from the new york stock exchange. you're watching netflix. i see the stock up. i don't believe it's connected to new coke, so what's going on? >> reporter: not exactly. it is a big mover that investor are focused on. it's all about original content, stuart. you know, in the streaming wars people who are consumers who are buying the content want to see good programming. netflix last year announced a solid new lineup when it came to comedy originals. and "the new york times" just

did a review of it saying these are seven must-sees, and it includes specials from adam sandler and ellen degeneres and amy schumer. of so really big, marquee names there. and kind of getting this endorsement of you've good to watch this -- got to watch this. at the same time, morgan stanley issued a report that talked about consumer satisfaction with netflix. 40% of the people that they sur say v.a.d -- surveyed said that netflix does have the best original contact, that it is, in fact, winning the war. remember, they're competing with disney and also, at&t. in that same report just about a third of people surveyed said they weren't really sure who's got the best. so that's really important because it means there's still a market to tap into, guys. stuart: got it. thank you very much, indeed, jackie. all right, if you're a fan of movies like twilight, hunger game, you know, lionsgate, they made those movies, they're opening up their own vertical

theme park, 25 plus rides in a 10-story building. it's in china and set to open later this summer. tesla's under pressure, and the company is cutting prices on the x and the s. up next, our market watcher says, hold steady. disrupting the auto industry's not something that happens overnight and musk remains the right person to lead tesla. you'll hear it next. listen to this, the nfl looking at marijuana for pain if management. right now players could be suspended for using it. if the rules change, this could be a win for the pot stocks. check big tobacco companies. many of them are moving towards vaping devices instead of traditional smoke cigarettes, tobacco. next we're talking to phillip morris. they want to cut out tobacco altogether, would you believe that? yes. on the show, next. ♪ ♪ my experience with usaa

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where we are now. how about checking tesla's stock? it's down again today, down 3.3%. that puts it below $200 a share. they've just cut the price on two of their models, and they're at 198 as we speak. come on in, our tech guy, tommy stadlin. tesla is obviously floundering, but you are bullish on it. do you think the stock goes back up above $200 a share? >> hi, stuart. well, it might sound crazy when you've got some of the most trusted analysts on wall street saying their worst case scenario is a $10 per-share price, but e just think with tesla when you're trying to disrupt a 150-year-old auto industry with trillions of dollars of investment that's been poured into competitors, it's just not something you can do when you're managing by e the quarter. and if they can pull through this difficult phase, if they can pull through the trade war which is really harming them, they are the pioneer in electric vehicles, and they do have an

advantage. so the long-term prospects, if they can pull through, i still believe are very strong. stuart: it's a big if though, isn't it? they need to raise literally billions of dollars. they need to sell the model 3, and the selling is not going well. so you would acknowledge that those are two very big ifs on tesla. >> very big ifs. and the trade war stuff is really not helping. you know, part of the reason that we're seeing further slides in the stock in the last couple of days is that the demand in china is obviously predicated on tesla's ability to continue to sell to china. and we are seeing, because of some of the statements that have been made, you know, it is going to be increasingly difficult for investors to be certain that that china demand will stand up. so lots of headwinds, and, you know, tesla is one of the most shorted stocks on the market. it has a very rough time with investors. but i do remain bullish in the

long run if it can pull through. stuart: okay. your heart on huawei, the chinese technology company. just out of interest, can i buy huawei's stock in america? >> you should be -- if you have a, you know, decent financial adviser, people should be able to get hold of that stock. but you can't buy huawei phones in america. of. stuart: right. >> you can throughout the rest of the world, and huawei's consumer division is one of its biggest revenue streams. and it's funny, as a corollary of tesla in a way with, tesla really struggling because of the trade war and selling into china, and huawei really struggling the last few days as google has announced that it is pulling its android apps from huawei devices. so in both cases, china and u.s. tech giants, you're seeing the intervention of government really, really driving down potential value there. stuart: okay. we keep coming back to china

tariffs imposed now and maybe more later. what about amazon? are they going to be hit because of tariffs? >> well, it's a really interesting question. obviously, the domestic market that they're serving in the u.s. should be fine. it's their supply chain, of course, which is the issue there. but they so far don't seem to have been hit too badly by talk of trade war. and on the country, some of the retail stocks, traditional retail stocks really struggling this week, and there, you know, only 15% of retail, sorry, in the is e-commerce. so there's still so much they can do just in the u.s. stuart: it's about time you came over here to new york and really lived the good life. you've got to do that sooner or later, andwell we'll welcome you -- we'll welcome you to sit next to me. waiting for his arrival in new york -- [laughter] we'll see you soon. >> see you there soon, stuart. stuart: oh, excellent. okay, we got im. now this, interesting story

here. the rapper ice t, he's calling out amazon. he says he almost shot a delivery driver. take me through this. elizabeth: yeah. he tweeted out a message to amazon: now that you have regular people making your home deliveries, maybe they should wear a vest with the words amazon delivery upon it. i almost shot a mf creeping up to my crib last night. just saying. so what happened was people tweeting back saying, do they ware a uniform? -- wear a uniform? no, just regular people working. amazon hires independent contractors that don't wear any uniforms, don't have any signage on their vans. so then amazon found out about it, and here's amazon's response to ice t, tweeting: just saying that we, basically, have lots of innovations coming on this. you can track your package and delivery on a map. so just not concerned, making a joke about it. this is a safety issue for the

workers and the delivery people working for amazon. stuart: okay. uniforms for everyone. elizabeth: yeah, i mean -- stuart: okay. a growing trend among tobacco companies, switching over to vaping devices instead of traditional smoke cigarettes. we have the chief operating officer of philip morris international. good to have you with us, sir. >> good to be here. stuart: i think you've got a new product. it's called iqos. i don't know how you pronounce it. that gives vapor for tobacco, gets you vapor from tobacco but not smoke. is this part of your switch away from smokeabling tobacco entirely? -- spoke bl tobacco entirely? >> yes. it took us a while to come up with, finally, the formula, the product which offers the customers don't quit much better -- [inaudible]

than a combustible cigarette. the issue is about the combustion and the smoke that is generated and inhaled by the smokers. we know today based on our science that this product is vastly better, vastly better than, you know, conventional cigarettes. so our advice to population at large is very simple. if you don't smoke, you know, don't start. if you smoke, quit. but if you don't quit, switch to this product. it's much better alternative -- stuart: is philip morris international moving completely away from smoke tobacco? in other words, you know, you set the tobacco on fire, and you inhale the spoke, combustible. are you getting away from that completely? >> yes, yes. stuart: 100%? >> absolutely, yes. absolutely, 100% move away from combustible product. the way we see it is with we try the, the objective is is move philip morris out of combustion to alternatives, also other product platforms which does not contain tobacco, and i think also based on scientific

capability which can move philip morris one day even beyond -- [inaudible] so it's beyond combustion, beyond tobacco, beyond -- [inaudible] stuart: how long will it take from this complete switch away from combustibles? >> i wish before i retire, so i still have a few years to go. but we're gearing up. we have located most of the resources. there's a full alignment of employees, our board, is so i think we have the right -- [inaudible] into our sales to achieve something which, you know, 15 or so years ago would be just a dream. so the dream is coming true. we can unsmoke customers, we can unsmoke philip morris. stuart: fascinating. thank you very much for joining us, sir. thank you very much, indeed. >> you're welcome. stuart: now, momentarily we're going to see the president of the united states appear in the rose garden. what we're told is an impromptu press conference. remember, please, the president has just finished up a meeting

supposedly on infrastructure with speaker pelosi and minority leader chuck schumer from the united states senate. moments from now he's going to -- we're told it's within a minute -- he's going to appear at that podium. and, again, it's an impromptu post conference. ashley: according to justin, the sign on the podium there is to do with the mueller investigation. stuart: is that right? here's the president. he's approaching -- this is the rose garden. he's walking up to podium. we've got to listen to this. >> good morning. so i came here to a meeting -- to do a meeting on infrastructure with democrats not really thinking they wanted to do infrastructure or anything else other than investigate. and i just saw that nancy pelosi, just before our meeting, made a statement that we believe that the president of the united states is engaged in a cover-up. well, it turns out i'm the most -- and i think most of you would agree to this -- i'm the most transparent president probably in the history of this

country. we have given, on a witch hunt, on a hoax, the whole thing with russia was a hoax as it relates to trump administration and myself. it was a total horrible thing that happened to our country. it hurt us in so many ways. despite that, we're setting records with the economy, with jobs, with the most people employed today that we've ever had in the history of our country. we have the best unemployment numbers that we've had in the history of our country. in some cases 51 years, but generally, in the history of our country. companies are moving back in. things are going well. and i said let's have the meeting on infrastructure. we'll get that done easily. that's one of the easy ones. and instead of walking in happily into a meeting, i walk into look at people that have just said that i was doing a

cover-up. i don't do cover-ups. you people know that probably better than anybody. and i was just looking at a list of some of the things that we just did, more than 2,500 subpoenas qualified for. and i let everybody talk. i let the white house counsel speak for 30 hours, 30 hours. i have 19 special come -- special counsel lawyers, 40 fbi agents. i said, open it all up. let them have whatever they want. nearly 500 search warrants. think of that. kid you ever see a search warrant before? neither did i. this was over 500 search warrants. and of the 19 people that were heading up this investigation or whatever you want to call it with bob mueller, they were contributors to the democrat party, most of them, and to hillary clinton.

they hated president trump, they hated him with a passion. they went to her big party after the election that turned out to be a wake, not a party. it was a wake. and they were very angry. these are the people that after two years and $40 million or $35 million -- it'll end up being a lot more than that by the time all the bills are paid -- this is what happened. no collusion, no obstruction, no nothing. they issued 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers. think of that though, 500 witnesses x. then i have nancy pelosi go out and say that the president of the united states engaged in a cover-up. now, we've had a house investigation, we have senate

investigations, we have investigations like nobody's ever had before, and there's nothing -- we did nothing wrong. they would have loved to have said we colluded. they would have loved it. these people were out to get us. the republican party and president trump. they were out to get us. this was a one-sided, horrible thing. the bottom line is they said there's no collusion, no collusion with russia. you heard so much talk about phone calls that my son made to me from this meeting that was set up by gps fusion, it looks like. which is the other side, for those that don't know. and for years i heard about phone calls went to a special number, unauthorized. and it would have been my son, don, who's a a good young man who's gone through hell. and they were calls that must have been made by him before and after the meeting, three calls.

after massive study and work, they actually found who made the calls. one was a friend of ours, a reality -- real estate developer. great gee. most of you know 'em. loves our cup. and the other one was the head of nascar, two of them. so of the three calls that were so horrible that he had a meeting that he called me and then he had the meeting after and he made two more calls, and they were written about like this little, little lines, couple of lines. nobody wanted to admit it. even last night we had a great election. i went there on monday. we had a, an election for fred keller who was a 50/50 shot, and he won in landslide. we went and we did a rally. hardly mentioned today.

and yet if he lost, it would have been the biggest story in the country, even bigger than this witch hunt stuff that you guys keep writing about. so here's the bottom line: there was no collusion, there was no obstruction. we've been doing this since i've been president and, actually, the crime was committed on the other side. we'll see how that all turns out. i hope it turns out well. but to my way of thinking and i know a lot of you agree with me, the crime was committedded on the other side. this whole thing was a takedown attempt at the president of the united states. and honestly, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves for the way you report it so dishonestly. not all of you, but many of you. the way you report it. so i've said from the beginning, right from the beginning that you probably can't go down two

tracks. you can go down the investigation track, and you can go down the investment track or the track of let's get things done for the american people. i love the american people. drug prices are coming down, first time in 51 years, because of my administration. but we can get 'em down way lower working with the democrats. we can solve the problem on the border in 15 minutes if the democrats would give us a few votes. so i just wanted to let you know that i walked into the room, and i told senator schumer, speaker pelosi i want to do infrastructure. i want to do it more than you want to do it. i'd be really good at that. that's what i do. but you know what? you can't do it under these circumstances. so get these phony

investigations over with. "the wall street journal" just wrote today, just a little while ago i saw it, mr. mueller wasn't obstructed in any way. this is a "wall street journal" editorial today. mr. mueller wasn't obstructed in any way. his copious report -- copious, 434 pages, now they want to interview all of the same people again. they want to interview jerry nadler who's been an enemy of mine for many years. he fought me in new york. unsuccess any, by the way. i've had great success against jerry. but he was representing manhattan, and he would fight me all the time on the west side railroad yards, many times, very unsuccessfully. he failed. i come to washington, i become president and i say, oh, no, i have jerry nadler again? so "wall street journal", mr. mueller wasn't obstructed in any way. his copious report was released for all to see, and there was no

collusion. this is "the wall street journal." and this was no collusion -- there was no collusion between russia and the trump campaign. that's it. but they want to make this a big deal. whether or not they carry the big i-word out, i can't imagine that the, but they probably would because they do they have to do. i'll tell you, there's a danger here. if someday a democrat becomes president and you have a republican house, they can impeach him for any reason -- or her. any reason. we can't allow that to happen. we can't allow it to happen. so when you look at all of the transparency, when you look at all i've done -- and i tell you, my lawyers say you don't have to do this. you can use presidential privilege. you don't have to let your lawyers and and all of your staff testify. you can use presidential

privilege. would you recommend it? well, you can be transthe parent or you can be tight -- transparent or you can be tight. if you've done nothing wrong, being transparent is better. so i said, i did nothing wrong. let's be transparent. so that's what you have, all of these things. look at that, all of these things, 500 witnesses that the i allowed to testify. it's a disgrace. so when they get everything done, i'm all set to let's get infrastructure, let's get drug prices down. in the meantime, we're doing tremendous work without them. we're doing tremendous executive orders, a lot of work. we've had a great success. most successful economy perhaps in our country's history. we've cut regulations at a level that nobody else has cut 'em before. the largest tax cut in the history of the country. so we're doing a lot of work.

steve, yeah. >> nancy pelosi give you any assurances that they won't, the house won't -- >> this is very sad, because this meeting was set up a number of days ago at 11:00. all of a sudden i hear last night they're going to have a meeting right before this meeting to talk about the i-word. the i-word. can you imagine? i don't speak to russians about campaigns. when i went to wisconsin and michigan and pennsylvania, i don't say, oh, let's call russia. maybe they -- it's a hoax. the greatest hoax in history. yeah, go ahead. >> thank you, mr. president. do you view congress as a coequal branch of government, and do you respect their power of oversight? >> i respect the courts, i respect congress, i respect right here where we're standing. but what they've done is abuse. this is investigation number four of the same thing. probably five.

and it really started, i think, pretty much from the time we came down the escalator in trump tower. so i say to you that we're going to get everything done. we're doing a lot without them. let them play their games. we're going to go the down one track at a time. let them finish up, and we'll be all set. thank you, everybody. [inaudible conversations] >> have you read the full mueller report? stuart: some drama in politics this morning. i'm going to give you the timeline. first thing this morning, speaker pelosi puts out a statement saying that the president of the united states is involved in a cover-up. she just a attended a meeting, she just held a meeting of the democrat caucus of the house. they decided that the president was engaged in a cover-up. they discussed impeachment. they went ahead with all kinds of investigations into everything that the president's ever done in his entire life and charged him with a cover-up.

then speaker pelosi and minority leader schumer walked across to white house, walked into the oval office supposedly to untalk about infrastructure. the president was having none of it. he said you can't do that under these circumstances. you can't do infrastructure under these circumstances, meaning he's just been accused of a cover-up. he's not going to sit down there and talk to somebody who wants to impeach him. so he walks outside, and there you have the press conference that he just delivered. the man is angry, right? elizabeth: yeah. and he said, listen, 500 search warrants, 500 witnesses, 2800 subpoenas under the mueller report. there are seven committees probing the president right now, and he said there's a precedent issue here. if a democrat becomes president, then you could have republicans seeking to impeach on any grounds. he's effectively saying this probably started when i came down the escalator and announced that i was running for the presidency. it should be pointed out that

the congress is one to have worst ever right now. itit has only enacted and passed 16 laws versus 440 in the last congress. stuart: blake burman, i believe he was in the rose garden listening to this and watching it all go down. i think the president was angry about what happened here. am i right? >> reporter: i think that's a pretty good interpretation, stuart. the cynic in me, on one part, but also the political reality of what we are dealing with here in the washington is the other part is that it was one of the surest bets in this city that infrastructure was going to be going absolutely nowhere. they tried this in the first year of the trump administration, they were going to try to go at it in this second and a half and third year of the trump administration. but the big story is how all of this went down, with nancy pelosi saying today that the president is involved in a cover-up, and the president then saying that when he met with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer here at the white house, the meeting essentially ended. we are trying to piece the timeline together, stuart.

i don't actually have it tick for tick the, but i am confident in saying we don't think it lastedded very long when you look at when schumer and pelosi walked into the white house and when the president came out here into the rose garden. it leaves a real question going forward, how might a major policy initiative like infrastructure which so many people across this country would rely on if it were to eventually be passed, how that moves forward and then other initiatives. immigration, dead on arrival, i think you you could say, if it wasn't already. and when you look at the next 18 months or so of the president's guaranteed first term, you've got to wonder how anything of substance is going to get done in this city. stuart: blake, we're thinking here that this was, that the president and his team were ready for this. because they knew last night that they were going to be talking impeachment, the democrats, this morning. >> i think what changed everything is what nancy pelosi

said. stuart: what on that placard in front of the podium, what's on that? that implies to me that they were ready for this -- >> reporter: it's the president's talking points, some of his notes, talking about no collusion, no obstruction, how much money was spent, the witnesses, etc. so, yes, they have been waiting for a moment like this think it's safe to say, but what really changed everything is when chad pill rum on capitol hill asked nancy pelosi said what was in the meeting, and she said we believe the president was involved in a cover-up, that changed the whole dynamic here in washington. stuart: you are right. now, hold on for a second, blake. ash? ashley: yeah. stuart: it seems seems to me, iu walk out of a meeting you're angry about impeachment and being accused of a cover-up, i don't see what you're going to get done in congress -- ashley: what you see now is what

you're going to get for week and month and month and month. apparently, dick durbin says that the president came into the room, complained about the congressional investigations, canceled it right on the spot and walked right back out of the room. he was very upset. he was fiery, and he was upset, and he couldn't wait to get in front of that microphone and lay out his case. of. elizabeth: infrastructure is thought to be a bipartisan no the-brainer. now the democrats risk going into 2020 with getting nothing done. this is truly the do-nothing, go-nowhere house democrats. stuart: right. elizabeth: there's nothing getting done. stuart: blake, think you heard what we've been saying here. this, what the president just said seems to rule out virtually anything getting done in congress by the democrats over the next 20 months. i mean, are we going too far with this? >> reporter: two tracks the president laid out. one track is investigations and nothing getting done. the other track is working with

the president and getting something done. at the end of the day, both tracks end in november of 2020. and the political calculus might be for democrats, they think their best chance of overturning the current dynamic is getting this president out of the building behind me come november of 2020, is going down that impeachment track. what we saw -- and, by the way, stuart, we heard the president sort of outline this back in the state of the union address saying he doesn't think he can go down this line. then he kind of opened up and had the democrats over here to talk about infrastructure. there was some good vibes, some good talk coming out of that. but a full 180 today. stuart: now, hold on a second. we want to bring in who we often call the voice of reason from california, his name is larry elder. you were listening to all of this. your reaction please, larry. >> well, i agree with you, the president was furious about the press conference that nancy pelosi had right before this meeting. but i'll tell you something, i think the president's playing

with a very strong hand. two reasons. as you pointed out, the economy is rocking and rolling, 3.2% the first quarter, 3% last year. but also he knows the history, and nancy pelosi knows the history. when bill clinton was impeached, his popularity went up. his numbers for trustworthiness and for honesty went down, but his popularity for approval ratings went up largely because of the economy. nancy pelosi knows this, and she feels this probably is the only scenario under which she was trying to stop them. as you can see, she couldn't hold them back. the aoc wing of the party is now the base of that party, they're pushing pelosi around. stuart: the president made a point saying i do not do coverups. that is what really made him angry. liz: he is saying, he has been completely open. when you're investigated it is your cell phones, it is your bank accounts. his family has gone through this they are showing a lot of information.

larry makes a important part of the base of democratic party. you know what base of the democratic party, the builders unions, so they can get work being building bridges, roads, tunnels. stuart: okay. the spending deal, the budget, infrastructure, all in jeopardy right now. what have i missed, justin? the debt limit debate all in jeopardy. ashley: pushed aside. stuart: pushed aside. we face the prospect of nothing getting done. larry real fast, give me the 20 seconds i think the democrats get the political blame? what say you? >> absolutely they will. majority of the polls show the americans don't want the president impeached. his approval rates 24 points higher among blacks. about 45% among hispanics, despite the allegation he is

racest against hispanics. he is in a very strong position as i mentioned. these numbers are higher than obama's were in the same juncture of obama's presidency. obama as you know was overwhelmingly reelected. stuart: larry, thank you very much for joining us. when the president started to speak at the impromptu news conference at the rose garden the dow industrials were down 69 points. as he finished speaking we are down 63 points. the market, investors took no umbrage at -- ashley: or prospect of getting nothing done. stuart: majority of people on wall street say we don't want to do anything. although the infrastructure package was supposed to be a market boost. ashley: like a stimulus package. stuart: probably not going to happen. there you have it. a remarkable day in washington. speaker pelosi, senator schumer

will hold their own news conference, 12 noon, 15 seconds from now. what you're looking at, left-hand side of your screen is the podium from which speaker pelosi an senator schumer will be speaking. ash, liz, thanks for joining us. all great stuff. neil, it is yours. neil: stuart, thank you very much. the dow is down 66 points as stuart indicated. all this on growing friction between two clear branches of government, the executive branch and the legislative branch, they're not talking to each other. they will not be dealing with each other. the president walking out earlier with infrastructure meeting where same democrats thought he was covering up. he thought it was not worth his time. blake burman from the rose garden with the latest from white house. hi, blake. reporter: this all came together very, very quick. give you color what happened last 45 minutes or so the meeting between president trump, nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, other members of administration was scheduled at 11:15. shortly after that