first time under this administration that a presidential transcript was placed into a code word level system solely for the purpose of protecting political sensitive information. so they are really taking issue with the process. >> we don't impeach presidents based upon defects in the process. in any event, whatever you may think the defects to have been, at the end of the day, what happened here, the president released everything. that's still not enough. maria: let's pass it to stuart varney. stu, it is your time. i know you will delve into this and all the voices you want will be with you. "varney & company" begins right now. stuart: good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. yes, indeed, the whistleblower complaint is out. we are of course going through it as we speak. the headlines so far, the whistleblower received information from u.s. officials that the president used his office to solicit interference in the 2020 election from a foreign country. the complaint was lodged by someone who was not a direct witness to the now famous phone call between president trump and ukraine's leader.

while futures are off their highs following the release of that complaint but we will still be up about 50 points on the dow, up maybe 4 on the s&p, 4.5 on the nasdaq. we were higher than that before the whistleblower complaint was released. we have come down a little bit but not that much. look, this is going to be a very big day for politics and of course, for your money. you are going to see speaker pelosi's news conference. that's in our 10:00 hour. the speaker owns the impeachment process. she favors quote, a quick, narrow impeachment probe focused on ukraine. hold on. there's a great deal happening on the corporate front as well. first off, peloton goes public at $29 a share. this is another big name ipo which is losing money and it's facing lawsuits from music stars who want more money for appearing on the peloton workout screen. we will show you the first peloton trade. how about this.

an about-face for mcdonald's. yes, they are planning a meatless burger. watch beyond meat's stock go up significantly, 15% right now. we've got a big guest coming up for you later. that would be larry kudlow, top economic adviser to the president. he joins us live from the white house in our 11:00 hour. yes, indeed. "varney & company" is about to begin. stuart: you're looking live at the white house -- i'm sorry, at the house intelligence committee hearing room. the acting director of national intelligence, joe maguire, he's set to testify on the whistleblower's complaint against president trump and as we said, that complaint has just been made public. hillary vaughn standing by at the capitol with more on this. bullet points, please, hillary? reporter: the whistleblower does admit they did not have a

first-hand account of a lot of events that they then went on to describe in this complaint but they do say that at least half a dozen u.s. officials voiced concerns to the whistleblower about the president trying to use the advantage of his office to try to entice foreign governments to interfere in the 2020 election. one of those at the center of this is of course this phone call with the ukrainian president and obviously, president trump, but the whistleblower says that after that phone call transpired, there were several white house officials that were quote, deeply disturbed by what had taken place, and then the white house took efforts allegedly to lock down any records of this call being made of any transcript coming out of this phone call. the whistleblower says again that they do not have firsthand knowledge of a lot of this but they believe that the u.s. officials that talked to this whistleblower are credible, that their reports are credible. essentially, it's a lot of what

we heard yesterday in the call that described the president used the remainder of the phone call with the ukrainian president to urge him to not only investigate a part of this issue with the former vice president joe biden's son hunter biden and his business dealings in ukraine, but also dig deeper into what happened in the 2016 election with alleged interference there. so really, this complaint being declassified now means we're expecting to hear a lot more details openly during the dni's director joe maguire's testimony today. there was concern if this remained classified, his open remarks publicly would be limited. now essentially what's in this complaint allows him a long leash to really dig into the details of this complaint. stuart: got it. thank you very much indeed. i would add that the algorithms which read the headlines have read the headlines and they have not taken down the market very

much at all. we were going to be up maybe 50, 60, 70 points at the open. now it looks like we are going to be up about 40. by the way, president trump just tweeting this. i'm going to show it to you now. the democrats are trying to destroy the republican party and all that it stands for. stick together, play their game and fight hard, republicans. our country is at stake. all right. impeachment talk obviously in the air but so far, you know, we haven't seen much, certainly not negative market reaction. in fact, the market has gone up. gary kaltbaum with us. impeachment has moved the market up, if i'm not mistaken. >> look, without shrugging off what i think we are going to see this year, and that is the president will be impeached by a democratic house, i think the markets could move on the news as we move forward. i just don't think they move in a very big way. there are much bigger things from markets going on and that's the direction of interest rates, earnings and all that and if the market wants to drop 10%, it's

going to do it because of that, not impeachment. if the market wants to go up 10%, it's going to be -- to do it because of that, not impeachment. i really don't think it is a big market mover no matter what happens. stuart: stay there for a second. i want to keep on the impeachment thing, theme here. economist john lonski is with us. let me bring up one potential negative for the economy and the market. that is usmca. the new nafta. i don't see how you can get that passed in a house of representatives obsessed with impeachment and if you don't get it this year, i think that's a negative for the market and the economy. >> oh, definitely. i think you're right on target with that assessment. we're not going to see that get passed. there's going to be lingering uncertainty regarding investment spending and that's going to subtract from economic growth and jobs creation. stuart: if i'm right, if they are obsessed with impeachment and you can't get usmca -- >> why do they want to do anything that might benefit trump in the 2020 election?

it makes no sense. so they will just sit on their hands and do absolutely nothing and focus on impeachment. stuart: we got the latest read on economic growth this morning. second quarter still right there at 2% annual growth. how do we get to 3% for the whole year which is what the administration has been aiming for? how do you get to 3% for 2019 like this? >> i did the calculations and it ain't going to happen. actually, quarter to quarter annualized real gdp growth, that was just 2% in the second quarter, would have to go up to about 5.5% for the third and final quarters of this year. it ain't going to happen. i think the important story here is consumer spending remains strong, better than 4% in the second quarter, should be at least 3% in the third quarter, and now we have an upturn by housing activity. home sales are rising, housing starts are rising and that could provide an important lift to the economy towards the end of this year and going into next year.

stuart: but not enough to get 3% for the whole year. i don't mean to quibble about a tenth of a point. >> why do we have 3% growth? because we have a slight contraction of business investment spending, a running down of inventories and a trade deficit. those are the reasons why. otherwise, domestic spending is doing quite well. the consumer's in a good mood. the u.s. consumer, in my opinion, if it wasn't for the u.s. consumer the world's economy would be in shambles right now. stuart: so keep spending, lad. hold on. more for you in a second. let's talk peloton. they start trading this morning probably. you never know exactly when they will start trading. they make the pricey exercise bikes, treadmills. they're not profitable still. they face a $300 million copyright infringement lawsuit over the music that comes on your peloton screen. susan, tell me about that. susan: yeah. big risk for this ipo. adele, the beetles, taylor

swift, have increased the lawsuit because they found an additional 1300 songs that peloton hasn't paid for. this lawsuit is $300 million and so we to have this peloton ipo going at $29 apiece. top end of the price range. they lost $245 million last year, four times what they lost the year before. in this case, they are saying you are paying for actual growth in revenue. sales went up 110% over the past 12 months. you didn't get that with uber or lyft and even wework. stuart: find it fascinating. let me bring back gary kaltbaum into this. look, peloton losing money. another ipo going public, losing money. would you buy it? >> no. it's not just money, it's $245 million on $910 million in sales last year. i sent you and everybody else out a little ipo report earlier this week on how many ipos have been destroyed in price because

of valuations too high as they come public and big losses, including uber and lyft and there's some not famous names down 70% or 80%. again, investment banks foisting an unwary public, companies that lose too much money at ridiculous valuation. they are going to grow but they also sell treadmills for $4200 when the best-selling one on amazon sells for $800. just food for thought for everybody who is looking at this. stuart: i expect -- well, that would be pejorative on my part, but a couple years from now, if i go to a few garage sales, i expect to see treadmills and bikes hanging around for 60 bucks. am i way out of line, mr. kaltbaum? >> no. listen, price matters. just remember, one of the first things to go if we do have a downturn is high-priced stuff that people don't necessarily need. i can promise you a $4200

treadmill will be the first to go. stuart: i just don't want to be negative about a great company. it is a great company with a great product. but i just don't see the financials there to make me buy this thing. that's where i'm from. gary, thank you very much indeed. big day. glad you're part of it. thank you. mcdonald's jumping on the vegan bandwagon, testing a beyond meat burger in canada. susan? susan: 28 restaurants called the plt, plant, lettuce, tomato. it sells for less than $5 u.s. a burger. this goes against what steve easterbrook said. he said he didn't think there was a sustainable trend and it wouldn't drive traffic for mcdonald's. but let's see how it goes for 12 weeks. if it does work, maybe let's bring it here to the u.s. stuart: it's an about-face. mcdonald's stock is at $213. susan: up 450% since its ipo. stuart: i missed it. okay. let's move on. we've got the dow industrials, the futures showing a gain of 21

points. there we go. it had been higher. i'm sticking on the news of the day, and that is -- well, okay, first of all, pier one lost more money. look at that. down 19%. ouch. kb homes, their revenue fell short. how are they doing in the early going before the market opens? can we get that up there? maybe not. i don't know. higher profit at conagra? there was kb homes. they are up 2 percentage points. how about conagra? have you got it? we have a new graphic system. up 3.6%. okay. let's get to the serious stuff. big news of the day. the whistleblower complaint about that infamous phone call with the president and the leader of ukraine, that report has been released. robert ray is with me right now. i don't know whether you have seen and gone through this report. what do you make of what you know so far? >> i think what i make of it is what andy mccarthy said to one

of your colleagues already earlier this week, laura ingraham. once you have the transcript or the summary of the president's call, that dispenses with the need to deal any further with the whistleblower. there's nothing more that the whistleblower can add. the whistleblower's information was indirect and secondhand only. we now have the direct evidence. the president has released everything. we have the phone call. so what are democrats left to argue? nothing else other than oh, wait a second, are we sure that that's an accurate transcript of the phone call. when you hear that, you know that this is over. and they are left to basically argue this is now a process violation. well, what about that process. everything now is transparently been disclosed. the whistleblower complaint has been disclosed. the transcript of the phone call has been disclosed. the deliberations at the department of justice through the office of legal counsel, the criminal division and the public integrity section, have all been revealed for the entire country to see that this last 48 hours

has amounted to nothing. stuart: is it correct to say there is no smoking gun and there is no quid pro quo? >> correct. stuart: that's it? >> done. stuart: okay. so -- >> so is there a basis for impeachment? absolutely not. why? history has shown that well-founded articles of impeachment require two things. one, a showing of high crimes or misdemeanors. there is not here. they have tried out everything. there's no treason, there's no bribery, the federal bribery statute doesn't apply to foreign government officials, there's no extortion because there's no quid pro quo to answer your question and at the department of justice is now held, there is no illegal foreign campaign contribution because asking for an investigation does not constitute a thing of value. therefore, 0 for 4, no crime. with regard to, you know, abuse of power, i think the most that can be said is you could question the president's judgment about referencing vice president biden in this phone call but there's certainly not an illegal quid pro quo. stuart: that's negative, isn't

it? the president should not have pressured, if indeed he did pressure ukraine's leader, to look into joe biden or anything else for that matter. >> well, look, also, let's be practical, can we, please, about this for a moment. the president of ukraine has said he wasn't pressured. so i don't know who your principal witness would be in connection with an argument there would be a quid pro quo. the other side of the phone conversation is the president of a sovereign nation or at least we hope to be a sovereign nation, you know, in the ukraine and an ally, and they are -- he's saying and the government is saying there was no untoward pressure and at the end of the day, can we further be practical, the money that was temporarily withheld has been released and no one is really claiming there was an untoward investigation of the vice president as a result of president trump's conduct. so let's please leave well enough alone and get on with the country's business. this is over. stuart: but it's not over in congress.

it's not going to go away. >> it may not go away but i question i think it's still open to question whether nancy pelosi truly has the votes. stuart: really. nbc has a tally of the house and said they got 218 votes to proceed. >> i trust nancy pelosi's judgment that she wouldn't go this far unless she thought she might have the votes, but she's left herself an exit ramp. the question will be whether this ever results in a vote. she's not going to call for a vote unless she intends to win that vote and so far, there's not been a calling for a vote. so we'll see. they don't have much time, because the country's patience with this is not unlimited. you got jerry nadler saying well, get back to us at the end of december. country's not going to wait until the end of december. i got news for the democratic party. they are not going to wait until december for this. it will be over well before then unless there's more to be disclosed. it looks like now there's nothing more to come of this. stuart: we really appreciate you scrambling to be on this morning.

thank you very much indeed. >> very pleased to be with you. stuart: i want to turn to now mike huckabee, former governor of arkansas, for more on the release of that whistleblower report. governor, does middle america want impeachment? will middle america remove this president on the basis of that phone call? what do you think? >> i would say pull the rope, start the motor. let's just go ahead and see. let nancy pelosi put that on the house floor. let her run with it. let's just see where this goes. i'm of the view that the best thing that can happen right now is for the democrats to put up or shut up. i want to say something. i agree with everything that robert just said. it was a brilliant analysis except he's only 99% right. there's one issue i take exception to, and that is when he said there's no smoking gun. actually, there is. there's a smoking gun and it's the one in nancy pelosi's hand when she shot her foot off by announcing this whole thing just before the actual facts showed up and disputed everything and

completely ruined the party that the democrats were planning and already had the balloons blown up for that they borrowed from hillary because she had a bunch of those left over from her election night. stuart: you're right, governor. why on earth would speaker pelosi at 5:00 p.m. eastern on tuesday afternoon launch impeachment before she had seen the transcript of that infamous phone call? why would she do that? she's an experienced politician. she must have believed that she's got the votes. >> i think it's different than that. i think it's because she's trying to placate the far left looneys in her party who put so much pressure on her to pursue the impeachment, if you look at what she did substantively she did nothing. because what she said they were going to do, they have already been doing. nadler's committee has already been on it. schiff's committee's already been on it. cummings' committee is already on it. they are all trying to find a way to impeach the president. so basically, she kind of maybe

crystalized rhetorically what they have all been doing but it didn't change anything. i think it was just a calculated political move on her part to make it appear that now she's come on board with this impeachment inquiry and it gave her some gravitas in the situation but to use another phrase, it's balloon juice. that's all in the world this is. stuart: i never heard that expression before. is that native to arkansas? i didn't know that one. balloon juice. i'm going to steal it right off you and that's a fact. okay. governor huckabee, thank you very much for joining us this morning. again, on short notice. we really appreciate that. thank you, sir. all right. take another look at futures. we have now had this whistleblower complaint public for about 30 minutes, roughly speaking. the market was going to go up maybe 40, 50, 60 points on the dow. now it's going to go up maybe 20. and there's a fractional loss on the s&p and nasdaq.

my judgment of this, kind of a shrug again about all this impeachment talk and transcripts and whistleblower report. i think the market is shrugging. take a look at the stock price of disney. why not. let's change the subject, go to disney. they are getting ready to debut the streaming service called disney plus. it happens on november 12th. stock analyst ivan feincepp is with us in new york. great to change the subject here for a second. you say that disney is a big winner in the streaming wars. make your case. >> i think they will out-netflix, netflix. in media, content is king. disney is the king of content. they have such a tremendous library of existing content and a character library to create future content that i think disney plus will become the number one streaming service. it's a tremendous value, it launches on november 12th at $7 and gives you all of disney, all

of national geographic, all of pixar, all of "star wars" and all of marvel and there's a new show coming up, a "star wars" original about an interactive bounty hunter -- intergalactic bounty hunter. if you watch the trailer, look on google or youtube for the trailer, that alone will get you to sign up. stuart: that's not to say netflix disappears, obviously, but the stock price growth of netflix which has already been cut back -- >> yes. what happened is disney will eventually be the dominant streaming service. they also offer a package, i guess disney plus package which will include disney plus, espn plus and an advertising supported version of hulu for $13 and that's a lot of content at a really good deal. stuart: when i watch, i like to see the news, i go to cable tv for that, or live sports. i go to cable tv for that.

which streaming service is going to give me that? >> well, espn does have live sports. you also have to balance entertainment with live news like fox news and fox business news, of course. you want to be up on what's going on. but as far as pure entertainment, the offering from disney is powerful. stuart: i have disney stock on the screen now. $133 per share before the market opens this morning. where is it going? >> well, i don't use price targets but i think the stock is going a lot higher. i said for the past year when disney plus would launch that the stock would go up. i was at the launch event in april in burbank and i was blown away by the presentation and the stock jumped significantly right that day. it has moved up slowly ever since. netflix of course has moved down. there's also a number of other streaming services coming to market, including apple tv plus which is launching on november 1st and then at & t's hbo max and then the new peacock

streaming service from comcast. there will be a lot of choices for the consumer. disney will be the clear front-runner. probably netflix will be number two. but the growth and subscriber growth on netflix most likely will show -- slow and they may lose subscribers to some of the other services depending on what your taste in programs is. stuart: just out of interest, if you look beyond that camera, that's middle america. >> yes. stuart: how many middle american households do you think or how many streaming services, i should say, will middle america pay for? >> right now, surveys show two to three. with a budget of up to $40 a month. stuart: $40 a month for streaming. okay. you think that's enough to keep the top three going? >> yes. stuart: okay. all right. i just want to segue to harley davidson. that's a difference, isn't it. okay. there's a big difference there. but it's down, the stock is down i think 20% since september.

but you say harley is going to be a big winner. why? >> well, first of all, they are the world's most iconic brand and the ultimate symbol of freedom and individuality. they dominate the heavy bike market, bikes with engine displacement of 600ccs and more. what they are going into, the smaller and mid-displacement market of 250 to 500 with some incredible new products along with the recently introduced live wire which goes on sales. i got to drive -- stuart: that the electric bike? >> it's like riding the bike of the future. stuart: really? >> yes. stuart: what makes you say that? >> the pickup, the handling, the ease of riding. traditional motorcycles you have a clutch and transmission. this, you twist the throttle to go. stuart: you have to be careful when you twist the throttle on electric. >> yes, you do. stuart: the handlebars go straight up, don't they? >> not that bad.

it has incredible pickup. you have to get used to it. but they are going to penetrate the mid and small displacement market, which is a potentially 50 million global bike market. stuart: that's a lot. >> yes. you know, they sell around 240,000, 250,000 traditional harleys a year now but they have huge opportunity in the mid and small displacement market driven by the powerful harley brand. stuart: i know you don't have price targets but i'm showing harley at $35 a share. >> unbelievable buy. very cheap. they also have a 4% dividend yield which is incredible. stuart: 4%? i'm a dividend investor. ivan, thank you very much for being with us. big day. appreciate you being here. now, president trump just tweeted this. quoting our last guest, robert ray, and here's the president quoting him.

quote, is there a case for impeachment, question mark. absolutely not. that's an exclamation point right there. there is no high crimes or misdemeanors, no treason, no extortion, no treason, robert ray. so the president was watching the show and is quoting our last guest who was indeed robert ray. i believe he's the former federal prosecutor if i'm not mistaken. there you have it. we have a couple minutes to go before we get to the opening of the market. it is a very very active day. we have the whistleblower report. it has been released. we've got bullet points out of that. it has not really moved the market that much. we have got mcdonald's doing an about-face. they are going towards the meatless burger. and we've got peloton coming to market today and then we've got softbank. they are in talks to add $1 billion in funding to wework. susan: so we know softbank turned against adam neumann, the ceo and founder, now moved into

the non-executive chairman, but at this cash burn rate, wework will run out of money in 13 months. softbank thinking we already plowed $9 billion into this company, this ipo has been a disaster. in fact, not many people think it's going to go public this year, 2020 looks skeptical. they are going to contribute $1 billion on top of the $1.5 billion they have already committed and this is so softbank -- so wework can unlock $6 billion in loans just to survive at this point. they are losing $1.6 billion each year. they are thinking of firing half their staff. is this a scenario you want to invest in? stuart: not me personally but i take the point. softbank really has to do something. they put an enormous amount of money in already. it's sinking. they've got to get it back up again. they've got to put survival money in it. quite right. that's what it is. survival money. but that still doesn't mean people will buy the ipo if and when it eventually goes public.

susan: not at the $47 billion valuation softbank bought into. so wework also losing money on uber as well. $100 billion vision fund, you know, some say the money, easy money coming from there might be over. stuart: fascinating. by the way, would you buy peloton if you were an investor? susan: with the churn rate at less than 1% since 2017, that means people don't actually quit when they buy a $2,000 bike or $4,000 treadmill, with sales at 110% growth, as least you are buying into something instead of nothing, compared to some other ipos. stuart: do you have a peloton machine? susan: it would be imbedded in my ear in my apartment. otherwise i might. stuart: how about this. the average total cost of health care coverage provided by your employer has hit a new high. how much? ashley: 20,576 a year.

that's the total cost. it's like buying a new car every year. employers, let me just say employers cover 71% of that. stuart: 71% so 29% -- ashley: picked up by the employee. stuart: that's an enormous amount of money. on average per year for your employer to provide you with health care. ashley: their costs are going up, the individuals' costs are going up. it's a huge issue. stuart: this goes right back to the beginnings of obamacare. we went into obamacare to bring down the cost of health care and health care coverage. it did not happen. costs kept going up. ashley: average deductible for single coverage, $1655. stuart: your insurance doesn't even kick in until you spend 1600 bucks. ashley: exactly. stuart: okay. takes your breath away. maybe the opening of the market will take your breath away. we are going to see it in about 20 seconds' time. it is thursday morning. there is an enormous amount of

stuff going on in politics and there's a great deal of stuff going on in corporate america, and certainly on the stock market. the impeachment drive started 5:00 p.m. tuesday afternoon and since then, the market has gone up. we are likely to see the dow go up right now because this is the opening bell. we are now trading this thursday morning. we are up 30 points in the very very early going. i see a great deal of green on the left-hand side of your screen. let's summarize. the dow has opened with a gain of 40 points, .16%. show me the s&p as well, please. that is -- let's see the s&p -- that is down a tiny fraction, about as small a fraction as you can get. it's just turned higher. as for the nasdaq composite, where is that? it is down eight points, .1%. mixed bag at the opening bell today. kind of not much of a trend so far. however, we do have a trend at mcdonald's and beyond meat.

mcdonald's is going to test a plant-based burger at about two dozen restaurants in canada starting next week. we will have more on that in a moment. look at the stock price. beyond meat is up 15%. mcdonald's up as well. scott martin is with us, john lonski is staying with us, susan li, ashley webster, of course. markets moving ever so slightly higher after impeachment broke two days ago. scott martin, open question. do investors really care about impeachment? >> not at this point, stuart. but i think as we get further down the road, as pelosi and company refuse to give up, apparently, and blank other legislative agendas, i think the market will start to care. i would give investors a word of caution and hope in the same sentence. if we get a sell-off after say a house vote, i would use that as one of the best opportunities of the year or early next year to buy in because we know the senate's not going to confirm it. stuart: john lonski, you are an

economist. you're not a market watcher. you are an economist. you told us earlier on this show that if we don't get usmca, because of the impeachment drive, that's bad for the economy. spell it out. >> that is bad because that means companies will probably engage in less investment spending, hire fewer people because of uncertainty regarding our trade relations with canada and mexico. i might add if impeachment backfires on the democrats, in a way that might be good for the economy. that might lessen the likelihood of the democrats taking the 2020 presidential election and i can't help but think that if we go into a lot of detail about this impeachment process, the reasoning for it, it could only hurt joe biden. it's not going to help him, with the average american voter. they are going to see a family member benefiting from his office. stuart: let's remember about 20 years ago, the impeachment of president clinton backfired on republicans and the market went up.

it went up big-time. >> dropped first, stuart, then went back up. stuart: yes. >> you had russia, long-term capital management -- stuart: but at the end of the day there was no impeachment -- well, he was impeached but he wasn't kicked out of office and if the same thing happens again, can we expect a market rally? ashley: depends how long it drags out. stuart: that's the big picture this morning. let's get precise. peloton, for example, they go public as of this morning. other ipos of late have not been very successful. here's how some have done since their ipo dates. start with uber. they are still below their ipo price. can we show that on the screen, please? love to see it. thank you. we've got $31 a share on uber. susan: it went out at $45. stuart: how about lyft? they are way under water. susan: $72. stuart: we have lyft at $41. $41 a share.

how about that. pinterest, i believe they are up since their debut. trying to squint at this. we are up about 12% since the debut. okay. pinterest was a winner. red arrows for business software maker slack, down $15 bucks, 41% since the ipo. green arrows for zoom video. that went up, what, 28%. got that. all right. scott, are we overvaluing some of these ipos? >> i think clearly we are. and the ones that are overvalued are painful. i think that's the weird one about peloton. i would throw beyond meat in there, too, which obviously went beyond expectations and rocketed up a few hundred percent. but peloton is a weird one because they call themselves a fitness company but also a technology company, a media company. it feels a little if i dare say, wework-y to me. it makes me concerned about valuations here and what the

company is really all about. that's why it's going to be trading too high today, i think. stuart: careful, scott, comparing peloton to wework. it's a dangerous game. >> i know. i know. susan: look, valuations, even at $29 which is the high end of the price range, you are only at eight times trailing sales. compare that to so let's say zoom communications, they went out at closer to 30 times sales, right? you have recurring revenue. we talked about this. people that are paying $39 a month, you are accessing 45 million americans, yeah, that's right, with these expensive machines. some would say it's underpriced, you still have 110% growth. at least you are paying for something. stuart: the dow just turned negative, just turned positive, ever such a fraction here. this is a wait-and-see market. we don't have serious losses anywhere. nasdaq a third of one percent. john? >> i'm thinking of the year 2000 after march 2000, the bursting of the dot-com bubble. we have something like that in

the future, maybe not right away, but once liquidity begins to dry up, a lot of these companies will be exposed as being totally incapable of producing adequate returns at any point in the future. everything collapses and unfortunately, with that, of course, a lot of jobs are going to be lost. stuart: careful about use of the word collapse. >> it's a big word. okay. stuart: this story just fascinates me. i'm talking mcdonald's. they have done an about-face. they are now jumping on the vegan bandwagon. they are going to test the beyond meat burger in canada. mcdonald's is the biggest player of them all in the burger business, and now they are getting into this meatless meat kind of deal. susan: okay. given that easterbrook was so negative about it when he was asked about the plant-based burgers, he says i don't think it will drive traffic, i'm not sure this trend is sustainable, but look, they are going to test for 12 weeks, 28 restaurants

across canada in ontario. it's being called the protein -- the plt, protein, lettuce, tomato. less than five bucks. don't forget what happened with burger king when they had the impossible burger. that drove traffic seven times so you know it's a trend. people want to wait in line to get it. stuart: scott, what do you make of mcdonald's as a stock, forget the vegan bit, just what about mcdonald's? it's done extraordinarily well. >> it's done great. i'll tell you a great test for mcdonald's is one unfortunately i guess for my waistline that we have right down in the lobby of my building, where i work. i'll tell you, just about around the clock, that place is full, either people are using the kiosks or the lovely people at the counter. i would own mcdonald's here. stuart: mcdonald's is still fast food. you don't have to wait around all day to get what you want. everybody knows the menu before you even walk in the door. come on. isn't that what you want? susan: that is what you want. that's why the stock hit a record.

if you invested $1,000 into mcdonald's back in 2009, do you know how much it would be worth today? stuart: tell me. susan: $5,000. stuart: a five-fold increase in your money in ten years? susan: in ten years. stuart: i did not see that coming. i am a firm mcdonald's customer. susan: it's a dividend play. they are giving back 3% as well. big dividend yield buy-back. the stock has done very well. stuart: check the big board, please. it looks to me like it's been kind of a wait-and-see market. we are down two points on the dow industrials. there you have it. the justice department is probing facebook over antitrust concerns and the stock is down 1.5%. now, we have covered this extensively. we often say that facebook's teflon because nothing really happens with these probes but today, down 1.5%. what have we got there? facebook at $180. show me rite-aid. better profit. how about that. that's good enough for a 16% gain. all right. carnival cruise lines, the

stock is down. it lowered its forecast. whenever you do that, you lower your forecast, you get taken to the cleaners. they are down 8%. profit at conagra went up and the stock is up nearly 2%. kb homes, the revenue fell short of expectations and they are down one cent. check out the price of gold. $1500 an ounce. $1518, to be precise, up $5 today. oil, i can never tell where this thing's going to be. it's at $56. no, it's at $55 per barrel. left-hand side of your screen, the dow just turned positive. the share price of pier one down today. it lost more money than expected. the company seems to me, the retail is being divided these days. there are clear winners and clear losers. looks like pier one is a loser. walmart's a winner. >> i think you're exactly right. walmart is dapti ingadapting to

tiements, times, doing a fwrat job with e-commerce. ashley: there was not one good thing in this pier one report. not one. i can't find one. comp sales down 12%. operating loss up 49% from a year ago. the loss per share was so much greater, 93% more year over year. abysmal report. stuart: is it because of the content in the stores? susan: lots -- stuart: something to do with tariffs? ashley: other cheaper options online that can get it to you right away. susan: they don't have an e-commerce strategy. you need specialization when you sell furniture these days. stuart: look at this. 9:40 eastern time. sorry, time's up. gentlemen, we thank you very much for being with us. very big day although the market is not doing much for us. check that market. we are down 28 points. 26,942 as we speak. all right.

we have the latest read on gdp, already came out this morning. 2% annual growth. that's what we've got. the white house wants 3% for the year. it's going to be very tough to get to a 3% gain. i will ask larry kudlow about it in our 11:00 hour this morning. he's on the show. with the house focused on impeachment, doesn't look to me like we are going to get usmca passed any time soon. that's the new nafta. south dakota senator mike rounds is coming up on that one. i want to know how bad it gets for farmers and south dakota is a big farm state, how bad it is for them if that deal, the new nafta, does not get done. big corporate story of the day is peloton. expected to start trading a bit later on this morning. next, we have an analyst who says the company makes great products but it's still not a good investment. ♪

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stuart: we are down a little bit, 24 points off for the dow industrials but that is ju just .09%. now, we have some headlines breaking from the acting director of national intelligence. he is testifying on capitol hill right now. we are getting the headlines. ashley? ashley: we are. this is from mr. maguire, joseph maguire, who says early on in the testimony that he consulted with the justice department because the complaint did not meet the legal definition of urgent concern. i think that's the big headline. did not meet the legal definition of urgent concern. he said he was told by white house counsel that much of the information in the complaint was subject to executive privilege and he said look, i am not partisan, i am not political. stuart: can you repeat that? it did not meet the definition -- ashley: of urgent concern. stuart: urgent concern. ashley: that's what the

whistleblower said because it was of urgent concern in his view. that's why he filed the complaint. stuart: and the complaint was filed by someone who was not privy to the immediate conversation? ashley: not first-hand. no. stuart: it was second-hand. interesting. we will keep getting headlines out of that testimony that's going on right now on capitol hill. let's change the subject. why not. we have reports that say millenials are leaving big cities. cognizant of those reports is lauren simonetti. lauren: census data. millenials are leaving. stuart: where are they going? lauren: they are going towards the sun. they are going to los angeles. stuart: it's a big city. i thought they were leaving big cities? lauren: no, no, some big cities they're leaving. we are only talking about big cities. here we go. i will tell you where they are leaving. they are leaving new york city. new york city lost 38,000 millenials last year in one year. they are leaving chicago. that's had an exodus for a long

time now. houston, san francisco, vegas. the cities that have gained in population, los angeles is one of the big ones here. i have no idea why and i'm trying to find out. san antonio, san diego, austin, denver. they all make sense. ashley: are they homeless? lauren: i was thinking maybe san francisco residents are moving to los angeles for a better quality of life. i'm not sure. the biggest reason we are seeing millenials leave these expensive cities for the most part is because of that, rent and taxes, starting families, especially the older millenials in their 30s, better schools and guess what, you can work from home so you don't have to be close to where you work. in my opinion that's probably one of the bigger reasons, especially lately. stuart: you are staying in new york city, susan? susan: i can't work from home. i can't wear my bunny slippers around the studio, unfortunately. stuart: it would be good for ratings, actually. susan: no, it wouldn't be. stuart: thank you very much

indeed. very interesting. all right. peloton start trading this morning. theoretically. could be later, i don't know. theoretically this morning. remember, they are still losing a lot of money and remember also, they've got this lawsuit they are facing over music copyright. tech watcher gene munster with us now. okay. great product but what do you think, would you buy it as an investment today, gene munster? >> unfortunately, stuart, i wouldn't. the simple reason is the addressable market. before i quickly jump into that, i think it is important to give the company credit for this incredible product. a million really loyal users. the churn rate on peloton is 1% per quarter. that's about one-tenth, a typical churn on subscription. it's almost like they are endorphin dealers and have retention that is reminiscent of that. ultimately, the challenge for

investors, this has been a great outcome for venture investors, this is a nine-year-old company that will have about a $7 billion valuation. the last valuation was about half of that a year or so ago. this is a great outcome so far. to your question, going forward, the simple take is that the addressable market when you are selling a $2,000 bike is relatively small. they will probably come out with a cheaper version, $1,000 but that's still a pretty big dro downstroke. the fitness market has been historically fad driven. i think slide boards, for example, are going to become the rave in the next five, ten years. something most people haven't heard a lot about. stuart: wait. let me stop you right there. what did you say? flight boards? what's that? >> slide boards. essentially these are relatively inexpensive, think of like a skating type of motion. a lot of people who would be doing this live in relatively small homes, apartments and the

slide boards are easy to move around, lightweight. you get incredible workouts. but that's just an example of how i think the fitness market kind of changes. so the last piece is around something you talked about there, i think those issues around like some of the compliance on the music and -- will get worked out but ultimately this is an addressable market story. the growth rate's 100%. it will decline dramatically, i think, in the next couple years and probably not be a great outcome for equity investors that are buying today. stuart: gene, thanks very much for being with us. we will certainly watch it. got it. thank you. check the dow 30. and the rest of the market. look, we've got mostly losers among the dow 30 stocks, but let me see, there's about 11 winners and about 19 losers. i'm trying to do the math here looking at that board. have i got it right? yes, i have got it right. don't contradict me. the dow industrials down 12 points at this point.

we'll be right back.

stuart: this is breaking right now and it's coming to us from the white house. the white house is responding to the release of the whistleblower complaint. what are they saying? susan: this comes from stephanie

grisham, press secretary. she says nothing has changed with the release of this complaint which is nothing more than a collection of third-hand accounts of events and cobbled together press clippings, all of which shows nothing improper and also, she goes on to say the president took extraordinary steps, he released the full unredacted transcript, also allowing testimony as well, so the white house says we have nothing to worry about. stuart: there you have it. thank you very much indeed. fox news reports that the cdc, centers for disease control, expected to announce hundreds of new cases of an illness linked to vaping. congressman michael cloud is with us, republican from texas who sits on the oversight committee which deals with vaping. congressman, seems to me that we've got to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater, because vaping devices are very important if you want to quit smoking tobacco. you go to a vape and, you know, maybe you get off the smoking bit. we don't want to throw that out,

do we? >> well, that's the case, you know. unfortunately, we do have a number of cases in the hospital, i think ten people are confirmed dead. the big troubling issue, the thing we have agreement on across the board is the need to ensure that teens aren't vaping. we have 20% to 27% now teens are vaping. that's a problem. but the data is early and it is important that we let it develop and that we do the research needed to make sure that we're really following the real issues here. stuart: in massachusetts, you can't buy a vaping device. they are off the markets. do you think all states should follow that example? or what? >> yeah, each state needs to look at it and deal with the situation as is best for their community. i mean, this really is how federalism is supposed to work. at the federal level, we can look at what's working, what's not working, and make the best decisions from there. stuart: i think that the real question here is, is there danger in vaping?

vaping anything, including ordinary nicotine? is there a danger in doing that? we want to know that. >> yeah. well, and that's the thing, is the data is so early. this is kind of a new phenomenon and there's really not, you know, as we begin to weigh these issues, there's not good data. the thing we do know, especially that teens need to know, is vaping is not healthy. and there's been misnomers about that, especially among young people. it may be healthier than smoking and again, that data is inconclusive at this time but the things teens need to know, you should not start vaping, certainly as a teen while your body is still developing. stuart: if you vape nicotine, you are addicted to nicotine. that's not a good start. congressman, i'm sorry to cut this short. it is a big day. look, thanks very much for being with us. michael cloud, republican, texas. appreciate you being here. thank you, sir. >> thank you. stuart: we are getting our first update on pricing for peloton. now expected to open at $32 a

share. it was priced at $29. that is a very early indication. all right. we have to take a short break. you will get my take on impeachment after this. at fidelity, we believe your money should always be working harder. that's why your cash automatically goes into a money market fund when you open a new account. just another reminder of the value you'll find at fidelity. open an account today. . .

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and if you have the wrong home insurance coverage, you could be coughing up the cash for this. so get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like me-ow. stuart: you know what happens at 10:00 eastern time on a thursday morning? we get the latest read on, mortgage rates. ashley: the reason i got into the business right here right now. 30-year freddie mac coming in at 3.64% this week. that is down from 3.73%. unemployment rate is under 4%. mortgage rates under 4%. housing at, home sales or construction at or near decade highs. stuart: i was expecting it to go up a little bit this week because of all the bouncing -- 3.65? ashley: 3.64%. stuart: still a bargain. still a bargain. shall we tell our viewers your first mortgage rate? ashley: 16, 18%.

stuart: mine was 12 1/2. susan just wait. susan: oh, wow. stuart: the dow industrials are down 11 points when all kinds of stuff going on in court america and politics. now this. >> >> speaker pelosi launched impeachment of president trump. regardless of the outcome there will be consequences and they're not good. with 13 months to go before a presidential election, impeachment already dominates congress. consequence number one, congress gets nothing done. that is the real bad news for america. the trade deal with mexico and canada known as oomph up that would be great value and to our manufacturers and our farmers -- usmca. how do you get a vote when house democrats detest all things trump? the same true for legislation on prescription drug prices and infrastructure. impeachment is a legislation killer. second consequence, or perhaps i should say, casualty?

joe biden. that now famous ukraine call sucked him right back into the scandal mill. as vice president he was demanding the firing of a ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating his son, hunter biden. the only reason hunter biden was involved with business and ukraine in china was the fact his dad was vice president. he is what the chinese call a princeling. this does not help joe biden it hurts him and hurts the democrats, because without joe they are left with socialists warren and sanders to carry the democrat flag in 2020. perhaps the worst consequence what impeachment will do to this country. we're already bitterly divided. we're asking to remove the president on the basis after phone call. that is throwing gasoline on a raging political fire. it is not good. this impeachment drive is the result of unbridled hatred and contempt. it started the day donald trump was elected president and has not let up for a single day ever

since. we've gone through russia, russia, that died. there was obstruction of justice. that is either stalled or dead. it is the phone call to ukraine officially launched the impeachment of donald j. trump. congress does nothing. joe biden sucked into yet more scandal. a country even more about it early divided. such are the consequences much hate and contempt! the second hour of "varney & company" is just getting started. ♪ monica crowley, assistant secretary of the treasury. great to see you. >> it is great to be back in my new role. it is honor to support the president and his agenda especially at treasury under

effective leadership of secretary mnuchin. stuart: you're at treasury. address economic issues. that is your bailiwick. i said congress does nothing while congress is absorbed with impeachment, am i right? >> yes. i think that is unfortunately going to be true. it's a truism markets detest uncertainly. this latest impeachment hysteria will feed into that. that being said i think that the markets factored in this idea that the president's opponents will stop and nothing to try to undermine and ultimately destroy him because he poses such an extension threat. we are seeing market resilience with this latest round. that is true. if it proceeds down a more serious road, the democrats are playing a very dangerous game here. this has serious economic and national security implications. you might see effects into the market. the markets realize that the president's opponents are relentless. that the biggest strength this president brings into his re-election is the strength of

the u.s. economy through his very powerful pro-growth economic policies. he is delivering a booming economy. stuart: hold on. can we get a booming economy, can it continue if there is no usmca? that is extremely important for the economy, not just for the market but for the economy and for all americans. >> it is. stuart: can we keep growing if we don't get usmca? >> i think we can because the, look, given the fact we're seeing substantial weakness in china and europe it is a testament to the strength of the u.s. economy to the power of the president's pro-growth economic policies, frankly to the american worker that the u.s. economy remains as strong as it is. so i do think we'll see strength going forward because the fundamentals are so strong and because the economic stewardship of this president is so steady but i do think that it could be somewhat stronger with the passage of usmca which is so vital for american manufacturing, our farmers, our

fishermen, the american worker. stuart: you report directly to the treasury secretary. >> i do. stuart: steve mnuchin. >> i do. stuart: are you going to do a full-court press on those members of congress who understand that usmca is very important to us? >> well i think now given this latest impeachment move by the speaker i think that you will see the white house and economic principles start to differentiate among democrats. a lot of democrats elected in swing districts for which usmca would be critical and perhaps now it is important less to target the speaker and more important to target those democrats to get usmca passed for the country. we're not talking about political wins here. we're talking about economic wins for america and the american worker. stuart: we need a lane separate from all the other stuff, a lane for usmca, down which politicians on both sides can go ahead and say yes, we want this thing. >> look at economic reality.

since this president was elected 6.3 million new jobs were created. what we're also see something tremendous wage growth but the bulk of the wage growth is happening among lowest wage earners. they have been seeing and continue to see the fastest and greatest wage growth. add to that over 500,000 new manufacturing jobs. what we're seeing is a blue-collar boom. stuart: that is how you narrow the inequality gap. that is what is going on. >> what has not been reported which is so critical, this president gets no credit for but should, is that this year we're actually seeing the first constriction in income inequality. stuart: that is true. that is accurate. yes. >> that is a dynamite development thanks to his economic policies. stuart: we're glad you're back, monica. good to see you again on a very important day. the democrat impeachment push turning into a fund-raising blitz for the president of the

united states. how much has he raised, sues ashley. ashley: that's okay. since the impeachment inquiry pulled in $5 million. 24 hours, they talk about that. they talk about backlash and firing up the trillion trump base. this is borne out in donations. by the way just yesterday there was a tweet from the rnc just in the past week they have raised a combined, with the campaign itself, $30 million in just a week. that 24 hour period, donations came in from all 50 states. be careful what you do, a democrat going down that rabbit hole it fires up donald trump supporters. stuart: most certainly does. thanks. check the big board. we're what, 38 minutes into the trading session. it is thursday morning. we're down just 30 points. that is just a fraction of 1%. how about gap? they're kicking off seasonal hiring. they plan to hire 5,000 people during a one-day event. not doing that much for the stock.

it is down -- ashley: get a job for a day? stuart: one day event for hiring as opposed to a one-day job i'm pretty sure of that. apologies to gap. mcdonald's partnering with beyond meat. if you're watching the show i think that is really big news. susan: it is, especially in canada. 12-week test. 28 restaurants in the province of ontario nearby here. it is called the plt. plant, tomato and lettuce, less than five bucks. that might entice you. they have been poo-pooing this. ceo of easterbrook, why don't you get plant-based burgers. he said i'm not sure the trend will sustain, that it will drive traffic. it did drive traffic for burger king which introduced the impossible burger up 18% of foot traffic, where other restaurants not offering it were down 2%. they have to get into this game. tim horton, dunkin', carl's, jr., they have meat substitute burgers or offerings.

stuart: you know what i paid for a jalapeno "baconator" at wendy's the other day? 7.99. i paid it willingly. two miles in one. value for money. ashley: varney special. stuart: what is wrong with that? let's get serious. protesters in hong kong have blocked some roads. i think this is going on now. susan: right. stuart: this is earlier today. this is 10 past 10 at night in hong kong. do you have more details? susan: this is at a stadium, where carrie lam, the embattled chief executive introduced the highly controversial and extra digs bill was holding a speech. 16th straight week of protests in hong kong. carrie lam op-ed in "new york times." stuart: when is october the 1st? susan: next week. the 70th anniversary of the founding of the people's party. they canceled fireworks. they usually have big celebration in anticipation of this. because of this year's protests,

on going violence in hong kong, that is off the table. stuart: this weekend is one to watch. tuesday of next week, october the 1st. this saturday, sunday will be a runup to the big celebration of the 70th founding of the communist party. that will be a big deal this weekend. susan: they're expecting more clashes, yes. stuart: susan, thank you very much. later this hour we expect to hear from speaker pelosi. she is holding her weekly news conference. we'll monitor it for any comments on impeachment which i suspect will be the substance of that news conference. we want to know what she is going to say, when it happens, you will see it right here. also coming up, climate expert who says exaggeration about global warming is worse than ever. we will hear what he has got to say. we're speaking to the mayor of austin, texas. his city teamed up with ford motor company to get driverless cars on his street by 2021.

is he concerned about lawsuits, jurisprudence all that? we'll ask him. big guest at 11:00. larry kudlow, economic advisor to the president. he joins us live this morning. we're not stopping. we're keeping on rolling. more "varney" after this. ♪ you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else.

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stuart: slipped a little. now we're down nearly 50 point on the dow industrials. that is .19%. how about peloton? the exercise machine people so to speak. that is a very bad description, i'm very sorry, peloton. they're going public today. susan do you have information on the pricing? susan: looking at $32. the ipo top of the range was

$29. it has been a mixed ipo market this year. let's look how other ipos fared. we'll start off with crowdstrike. mentioned in the transcript yesterday. stuart: it was. susan: successful ipo this year. if we can bring up the chart, up 82%, 82% so far since it went public. smile direct club the last ipo we covered. wasn't great on day one, down 36% since the first trade. beyond meat, has to be the stock of the year, ipo for the year, 450% since its listing. a little bit slower here. talk about uber and lyft, these are big dispointments. talked about buying into uber, down 29% from its offer price. i don't know if it is tempting with a lot of regulatory hurdles to get over. stuart: beyond meat, huge

winner. uber and lyft, not so much. susan: not so much. crowdstrike did well. stuart: uber is down there. ashley: almost 47. stuart: here is a story which intrigues a lot of us. ford, driverless cars from ford are coming to austin, texas, in 2021. they are going to help with deliveries and also moving people. austin's mayor steve adler is with us again this morning. your honor, welcome back, great to see you ben, sir. >> great to be back. stuart: the first question, hey, congratulations they're coming to your city in 2021, what will you do if they get involved in some kind of an accident? who is liable if a driverless car hits somebody? >> driverless car is at fault, then the driverless car is responsible. you know the rules with respect to these cars and things we'll is to work out at the same time the technology is proven. we're concerned about all those issues but we also recognize it

is the wave of the future. those cars will start testing with two drivers in the cars as they map out the city here shortly. it's a two-year process to work through that. they will be working with our city and our public safety folks but a lot of the questions that are being asked about liability and how this works on our streets are things that austin and other cities now are working with the technologies to figure out. stuart: i always think of austin, texas as a high-tech center. that is indeed what it is. so it is a pretty good fit, isn't it? driverless cars, although slightly experimental coming to your city in two-years time. what intrigues me, not just deliveries, you have to move people around. are we coming to the day i stand on a street corner with my little phone and app, order up a driverless ford motor company car, up it comes, takes me where i want to go? is that going to happen here?

>> it will happen sooner than you think. in fact it is happening that way in some places around the world and in our country right now. yes, the technology is coming. by and large these are safer than people drivers. the cars don't go to sleep. they follow the traffic regulations. the incidents of actions are much lower. david: who would have thought. i want to congratulate you again, you were on the show when this was announced your city is chosen to build the mac pro, soup-to-nuts. i want to define that. everything that goes into the mac pro comes from america and more particularly getting together in austin, do i got that right? >> it does. it is manufactured here. some of the parts are coming into austin of the it is all put together from here. shipped out from here. we're excited about that.

it is a great time to be in austin. this is cutting edge, early adopter city and we're excited. stuart: you have to do something about those democrats. that is all i have got to say. i'm not going anywhere closer than that with a 10-foot pole. your honor, a great privilege to have you on the show. we really appreciate it. >> it is good to be back, thank you. stuart: next case, iran's leader has blamed america for terrorism in the middle east. he said, he said it in an exclusive interview with fox news. we have the tape of what he said and we're going to show it to you. general jack keane will comment coming up. next police in california forced to end a high-speed chase after battery in a tesla patrol vehicle they were driving ran out of juice. what a story. we've got it for you next. ♪

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stuart: dow industrials now down 59 points. 26,900. now the story about the tesla police car. yes indeed it ran out of power while pursuing in a chase of another car. they had to call off the chase? ashley: they had to call off the chase this was in fremont in the bay area. the police officer picked up his tesla to start his shift early afternoon. we need to point out it was not fully charged. this chase after suspect's vehicle began at 11:00 at night. the battery was definitely run down. he had to call in on dispatch. i have only six miles of battery life left. i have to pull out of the chase. there were other combustion cars in the race. they found the car abandoned.

despite that the fremont police department piloting this, giving it a go. they love the car, meeting or exceeding expectations. in other words should have had the car fully charged when he began his shift. there you go. suspect got away. stuart: now we are indeed waiting to hear from speaker pelosi. she is holding her weekly press conference very shortly. we expect her to talk, impeachment. we will bring it to you as soon as she begins to speak. we'll have it for you here. a new poll shows a majority of americans do not think president trump should be impeached. we have the numbers for you. we have reaction from brian kilmeade. there is more "varney" coming at you, after this. ♪

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♪ i'm the egg man, i'm the egg man, i am the walrus ♪ stuart: can you imagine how revolutionary it was when it came out 50 years ago? can you imagine -- ashley: psychedelic era. susan: 50 years ago. stuart: i hope if he doesn't mind if i put him on the spot. general jack keane is with me. he is four-star general. have you heard of i am the walrus, i am the egg man? i'm very sorry, very, very sorry. you should have heard about it. we're the same vintage. >> i know about the beatles. stuart: i will move on. i will move on. i didn't get much out of you from the egg man. we're coming back. we were down0 point a couple minutes ago. now we're down about 40. okay. listen to what iran's president said about america and our role in the middle east. roll that tape please.

>> translator: today america unfortunately is a supporter of terrorism in our region and wherever america has gone terrorism has expanded in their wake. stuart: all right, so america's responsible for terrorism. general yak -- jack keane aforementioned what do you think what rouhani had to say there? >> watching rouhani over the years he is prolific and consistent liar. here are the facts, stuart. when they took over in the early '80s. right after taking over they bombed the u.s. embassy in lebanon, they bombed the u.s. embassy in kuwait. that killed hundred of americans. they bombed a at a air force base, khobar towers. they had a hostage campaign. government officials, europeans, business people, they killed our cia station chief doing that. and they are the sponsor, the exclusive sponsor of hamas and

hezbollah. they provide pretty much all of the resources for them to conduct terrorist operations against israel on a regular basis. this is iran. and the gall that he has to say the united states is sponsoring terrorism is not even close to anything in reality. stuart: i do get the impression though that president trump does not want to go to war with iran, does not want to confront them militarily. what do you say to that? >> the president doesn't want to go with iran and iran does not want to go to war with the united states, however, we're on very different but parallel paths. we are using sanctions and we're increasing those sanctions but those sanctions will not stop what the iranians are doing. that is escalating kinetically. using military force to create a crisis in the middle east. now attacking the world economy by attacking one of the largest oil fields in the world, trying to force a global recession. they will continue to escalate kinetically. sanctions will not stop that.

at some point we will have to conduct a limited military retaliation to stop that. much as reagan did in the late 1980s. stuart: we're pushed into it? >> it's a necessity to stop iranians from threatening the global economy, yes. stuart: you can't describe what kind of military action we would take until you know what provoked that military action? >> yes but likely would be something dealing with the revolutionary guard force, their capability. reagan struck their navy base and six naval frigates. it would be a economic target like reagan struck oil platforms. the crisis ended in 1988 after we took that action. we don't know if that would be the case, i know for a fact sanctions will not stop the kinetic escalation that iranians are doing. stuart: meanwhile their country economically is really, really taking many, many, many steps backwards. so, the steps backwards, the poverty, the, hunger in iran,

that's not forcing them to stop challenge to america. >> yeah. one of the problems they have, when we look at it through the prism of our values, they have blind ambition to dominate and control the middle east. they're obsessed about it. number two they're paranoid. they don't want to appear weak to the adversaries in the region and they don't want to appear weak to the iranian people. that is why they're not coming in here to negotiate with us. because in their minds that's weakness. i think they eventually will negotiate but they're not going to negotiate until they finish their playbook of all the options they have in front of them. they still have a number of options. stuart: that is a pretty ugly circumstance. >> it is most definitely. stuart: because they're not going to back off. general jack keane, always a pleasure. appreciate it. even if you don't know the beatles and ""i am the walrus"."

>> i do know the beatles. stuart: scott bank likely to more money into wework. hold on a second, susan. they have already but nine billion in. how much more do they want to put in? susan: nine billion already. they're committing another 1 1/2 billion. they're adding another billion on top of that. wework has intense cash burn. ad this rate of care burn they have enough mon to hold them over for 13 months. they need to raise this to unlock $6 billion in loans. this is meant to be collateral for more debt in order to hold the company over. softbank doesn't have confidence in founder, adam newman, ceo, they moved him aside, non-executive chairman. softbank has put so much money into the company, they want it back at some point. they couldn't go into ipo. especially after valuation was

$46 billion. if you don't go to the equity markets you need to raise debt. this is softbank saying we have to protect our investment at this point. stuart: kind of a gamble. you chuck in another billion. susan: what are you going to do? you have to -- when you put in 47 billion to a company not making any money. a huge loss at one point, 6 billion equal to sales, i think this is the peak how you value these unicorns. stuart: that is interesting, a peak valuation on unicorns. susan, thank you very much. a story that generates as much email as just about anything. the ftc suing match.com for fake love interest ads to get people to pay for a subscription. i think we'll turn to ashley webster as the expert in the field. ashley: thank you very much. normally alcohol but i'll take it. okay, yes, the ftc is suing match.com saying they knew these were scammers trying to lure people to join match.com in the

name of love. you knew they were doing that. they also claim that match.com made false promises of guaranties. did not serve consumers who disputed charges. made it very difficult for users to cancel subscriptions. all in all not a nice picture painted by the ftc of the business practices of match.com. they deny this they say they will fight it but the ftc on the warpath. stuart: taken the stock from 80 to about 71. that is what it has done. ashley: yep. stuart: got it. coming up we'll talk to an environmentalist who says exaggeration about global warming greater than ever. he will tell us all about it. by the way this environmentalist does believe that human activity is at least partly to blame for climate change. he is on the way into the studio. the vaping industry taking a big hit this week. juul's ceo out. a total ban on the sale of all vaping products in massachusetts. what is the endgame here? destroy an industry legal and

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stuart: all right. the big board shows a loss of 38 points. we're coming back a little bit here. but the big news right now is peloton. this is their first day of trading. they're not open yet. they were priced to go out at $29 a share. now the initial price is going all over the place but what is the latest reading? susan: $25 is the indication we have. it is moving a lot in last 40 minutes. started at 31.50. went above the offer price. went as low as $20.003.

stuart: now we're looking at 25. changes all the time. in other words what we're looking at the moment peloton does not get the $29 is was asking for. susan: top end of the price range by the way. stuart: we'll keep you in touch with this because these ipos are very important to the general climate of investing in america and if you go below your offering price, doesn't say much about the ipo market. let me get to climate change. you saw these protests around the world just a few days ago. our next guest says exaggeration about global warming is a big part of the whole picture here. look who is with us, bjorn lond boring. you're a global warmer, acknowledge climate change. >> absolutely. stuart: you say human beings are partially responsible for it. what is the exaggeration? >> people are telling you, we

will end, 38% of all americans now believe that because of global warming humanity is going to go extinct. that is absurd. stuart: it is absurd. >> if you look across the world 48% of everyone on the planet believes that according to a survey by ugov this is absurd. global warming is a problem but not the end of the world. if we think this is the end ever the world, if we're panicking we're likely to make very bad decisions. stuart: yes. because you're scared to death. so you jump into things like the "green new deal." what do you think of the "green new deal"? >> fundamentally the "green new deal" is, it has good intentions. it wants to fix climate but basically says we want to fix it right now because we're very, very scared. it could end up spending $2.1 trillion per year to not actually achieve very much. remember if everyone in the rich world, not just the u.s., but everyone, uk, the european union, australia, japan, all the

other rich countries stopped emitting any co 2. tomorrow, the net impact would reduce temperatures by end of the century by about .07 degrees fahrenheit. stuart: that's it? >> this is not about cutting emissions in rich world, it is about making sure everyone eventually gets there. the only way we do that, not by telling everyone can you do with a lot less? it is by going through technological innovation. if we innovate green new energy cheaper than fossil fuels everyone will buy it. stuart: we're not even there yet, we're not close. >> the point why we're panicking spending all our resources on policies that don't do good, we're not ramping up the investment in green energy r&d. over the last three decades the world has seen a decline from 0.06, to 0.063% of gdp on green energy. we're only spending $15 billion.

we should spend a lot nor. that would incredibly be much cheaper way to fix climate. stuart: where should that research money be going? solar, wind, nuclear? >> all of the above. stuart: you don't discount nuclear? you're okay with nuclear? the rest of the greens are not. >> a lot of greens also recognize if you're actually going to fix this problem you probably have to look at nuclear. my concern with nuclear is not safety because we know that it is one of the safest things, it is cost. we unfortunately also know that the third generation nuclear has not been cheap. the fourth generation nuclear is promising to be incredibly safe and incredibly cheap. they promised us that with the other three generations. let's look into it. we can look at all the technologies. the beautiful thing about research and development is, that is so much cheaper than anything else. why if we spent on order of $100 billion globally, so that is much, much less than what we're spending on climate change right now, we could fix this problem in the next couple

decades. stuart: what do you make of some, on the hard left, the way out there on the left, they want to reduce the world's population? bernie sanders has even gone so far to say american taxpayers should pay for abortions in the third world to cut down on population. now frankly that horrifies me. how about you? >> fundamentally i don't think you get to tell people how many kids they have. there is good argument kids being spaced better, offering contraception, means poor women in the third world can space kids better. they can have them when it fits into their lives. it means they will have slightly fewer and survive much more. that is a good argument. you can't go around and tell people you can't have kids. just enough of me, too many of you. stuart: would you like to reduce the world's population growth? >> well look, the way you do that is by making people rich. once they become wealthy and prosperous, they stop having five or 10 kids. they start having less than two.

stuart: that's right. once you get a large middle class access to birth control and an educated female workforce you get all of those three, and your population starts to go down. it is true all over the world, no matter what race, geographic place, that is it. how you do it. welcome back, bjorn. got the trademark navy blue t-shirt. thank you very much. appreciate it always. >> thank you. stuart: i say the impeachment of the president will backfire on the democrats and a new poll finds that most americans are not in favor of impeachment. let's see what brian kilmeade has to say about that because he joins us after this. ♪

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stuart: look, it is a very ney row loss on the markets. we are in fact waiting to hear from speaker pelosi. she will hold her weekly press conference very shortly and of course we expect her to talk impeachment and we're going to follow it for you and see if there is any market impact. what we do have now a look at peloton. they are going public today. they are supposed to go out at $29 a share. the price has been moving all over the place. the indicated price, but it is still below that $29 a share. what have we got, susan? susan: $26 at this point.

it went as low as 20.03 and high as 31. looks like we're going at 26. stuart: might be below the offering price. live on the radio. we wait a couple seconds. there he is, brian kilmeade of the "brian kilmeade show." brian, i want to bring to your attention if you have not seen it already the new poll from quinnepiac. found 57% of americans do not think president trump should be impeached. what is your take on that? >> well, let's see. this is going to be unfolding throughout the day. i'm also intrigued by the fact seems a though money is flowing into the coffers of the trump campaign since it started. according to brad parscale he gotten donations from all 50 states. five million the first day since the impeachment inquiry. the "q-poll," 37% say go for it. "q-poll" has given no more than

43%. he has 54% disapproval. most of the people don't like president trump say this shouldn't be happening but now we're looking at today's nine-page drop of the whistleblower complaint. which has a lot of news reports in it. a lot of conjecture what the president said to george stephanopoulos. he didn't or she didn't directly hear anything. we know it is not a person in the intelligence community. we know they have a political bent. we're not saying they're compromised but have a political proclivity not pro-trump. we're watching this take place. we saw what happened yesterday with the release of the five-page summary. so there is a lot of ongoing events. it's a moving target. we have yet to see who it is going to hurt. stuart: i would say this, that the word impeachment, when it was first raised at 5:00 eastern time on tuesday afternoon, that moment that really fired up mr. trump's base. because they will not stand for the removal of this president because of a phone call made to

ukraine. that is where i'm coming from. it is really rebounding against the democrats at this point. what do you say? >> don't know. i don't know yet. i mean keep in mind they could not land a blow on corey lewandoski. with john dean it didn't work. can't get don mcgahn to show up. hope hicks to talk about the president. they're trying to relitigate the russia situation. the whistleblower coming forward to give them this. at the same time, you know this stuart, we talk about it on television, radio, sometimes off, the president is cracking down on what is happening at the border through executive branches in cooperation with other countries. we have other countries behind us. our eu allies behind us when it comes to cracking down on iran. we also now beginning to make movement on the trade deal with japan. and we're also fining, sanctioning china, private companies that are dealing with iran. our enemies are in our cross-hairs. venezuela is going to be hell to

pay shortly. the president's moving on all fronts. but none of it is getting any attention because of what i think a colossal distraction. i also think the president has to be more careful. have a lawyer next to you at all times. you got enough of them in washington. make sure rudy giuliani is somewhat controlled, not going by his prosecutorial instincts, so many people out there looking for the smallest mistake. the slightest error. stuart: let me chuck this at you. this whole i imbroglio has dragd joe biden into the scandal mill all over again. i think he is fading. he is in second place in some states. now this, i think this works to the advantage of the far, far left. who have you got left if it is not joe biden it is elizabeth warren or bernie sanders. both neosocialists at the very least. that is not good impact.

i don't think that is good for the democrat party. >> good for elizabeth warren. she was asked, would you let your son do investments in another country you consider vital to national interests? she said no. that is the beginning. if i'm tulsi gabbard who took out kamala harris, she is on the stage next what qualified your son to join this investment firm maybe not 50, $83,000 according to peter schweizer who broke this story two years ago, 83,000-dollar. a month. how did the small boutique firm get this billion dollar investment from the chinese government while all the other established environments goldman sachs and others would be much more safe bet for the chinese government? might it be because your dad was vice president? and this is all going to work itself out. which makes you wonder in the beg picture, why the president even brought it up to begin with because he doesn't even have

joe biden as an opponent yet. if you do, you want that when you're squaring off with him. not in the background by the time you're ready to take him on? stuart: you made too much sense, brian but you're good. brian kilmeade. everyone. he is all right. we'll see you next week. brian kilmeade. coming up my take on the democrats impeachment push. i say speaker pelosi owns this one. she is ultimately responsible for the consequences. you will hear what she has got to say, what i have got to say. reaction from pete hegseth as well. consequences from impeachment means nothing gets done in congress. that is my opinion. the usmca, new nafta, could be in jeopardy. who is to blame here? we'll ask larry kudlow. does vape having a chance in america? ceo of juul is out after reported of vaping illnesses and crackdown of vaping products in several states.

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just to help you improve your skills. boom! mad skills. education to take your trading to the next level. only with td ameritrade. stuart: any moment now, we expect to hear from speaker pelosi giving her weekly press conference. no doubt we'll hear the latest on the impeachment push. when we see her, you will see her. when we hear her, you will hear her and that is a promise. first, this. i was surprised on tuesday when speaker pelosi at 5:00 p.m. eastern went before the cameras and reading from a prompter, launched the impeachment investigation. that's when it started. the speaker had committed even though at that time, she had not seen the transcript of the phone call that the investigation was based on. next morning, 10:00 eastern, the transcript was released and we went through it. my opinion, no smoking gun, no quid pro quo and certainly

nothing that could justify the removal of a sitting president. by then, speaker pelosi was indeed committed. she owned it. she was locked in. so the speaker had to rally the troops and assail the president as some kind of mafia boss. yes, those were the kind of words that were being used. if the speaker owns impeachment, the speaker is responsible for all that happens as a result. as i suggested last hour, that includes the blocking of legislation valuable to us all, the extreme difficulty for joe biden who is being sucked into another major league scandal, and a country that will be even more bitterly divided. the speaker has taken a very big risk. she has now sided with the radicals in her caucus. she has given a shot in the arm to the hysterical left. her calculation is that there are enough people who hate the president to remove him from office, or to slime him so badly that he loses to a socialist in 2020.

all right. the speaker owns the impeachment deal and i believe the speaker is speaking. let's go. >> in trying to balance our responsibility to protect and defend the constitution of the united states in a way that was not divisive in our country, but uniting in our country, we wanted to have a fuller understanding of the facts. last week, we saw something that removed all doubt as to whether we should move forward, distinct change in the body of knowledge that we had on which to make a decision. so when people say to me what made you change my mind, i didn't change my mind. i have always been on the course of finding the facts as we honor our constitution. and the facts are these, that the president of the united states and his actions in a

telephone call with a head of state betrayed his oath of office, our national security and the integrity of our elections. this is about the facts, this is about the constitution of the united states, and we have to make judgment in an inquiry as we go forward. there are some in our caucus who think let's just have an impeachment. no. we have to have an inquiry to further establish the facts. there is no rush to judgment. in some ways, we are a jury, open to what might be exculpatory or not. but every day, the sadness grows because the disregard for our constitution that the president has becomes more clear. i'll just read from the

complaint which is now public but which i saw yesterday when it wasn't. the complaint states that the white house tried to lock down all records of the call, especially the word-for-word transcript. that gave the whistleblower reason to believe that they, the white house, understood the gravity of what transpired in that call. the complaint reports a quote, repeated abuse of an electronics records system designed to store classified, sensitive national security information which the white house used to hide information of a political nature. this is a cover-up. this is a cover-up. let me just say a word about whistleblowers. first let me say how proud i am of our members in our caucus for the thoughtfulness that they have brought to this, some with their own timing, others like our freshman democratic defense

members with their beautiful statements earlier in the week, after seeing what the letter alleged about the president. i also want to salute our six chairmen. they have done a remarkable job. adam schiff is holding forth now. chairman cummings, let me say a word about him. chairman cummings is an expert on inspectors general and on whistleblowers. so in addition to all of the other oversight responsibility that his committee has over all of government, in this particular case, he has been a great intellectual resource. whistleblowers play an important role in our government in revealing wrongdoing that they see. an important part of writing bills to protect whistleblowers from retaliation. that's what we hope to do in this case as well, protect the

whistleblower reporting wrongdoing from retaliation. mr. nadler is a master of the constitution. congresswoman waters, a strategic thinker and has her case before the courts now in the deutsche bank case along with mr. schiff in that case. chairman neal on the president's taxes. mr. engel, the foreign affairs committee which has jurisdiction in terms of this telephone call as well. but it is an intelligence matter, and it is focused in the intelligence committee. i just want to say again on whistleblowers, whistleblowers are important and intelligence committee specifically, i use their words, has publicly recognized the importance of whistleblowing in pointing out wrongdoing and the importance of protection of whistleblowers.

so here we are with another example of violations of the constitution on the part of the president. a continuing discussion that we have been having with him and i was very pleased that the senate voted to reverse their decision to take $3.6 billion from military construction and spending it on his wall. we will have that vote today in our caucus for the reversal of that decision. so as we go forward and still continue with our day-to-day work, yesterday we had a big rally. we all wore black to mourn those lost to gun violence. stuart: we are going to stay monitoring what speaker pelosi has to say. i believe she's finished her comments about impeachment and the whistleblower and i want to bring in pete hegseth for some commentary on what we just heard. welcome back to the show.

i just heard speaker pelosi say the whistleblowers are good, especially in the intelligence community. i don't think you approve of that. >> no, i don't. listen, whistleblowers serve an important function. we saw it at the va when something is gone wrong you want somebody to talk about it. in this case, big question whether that fits whistleblower. one man's whistleblower is another man's political leaker who has an agenda as we have heard based on hearsay. now she sees the words remove all doubt, she says they're doing more investigation and inquiry but in her mind there's no doubt that this is an impeachable offense. i don't know how she walks back from this. it feels like groundhog day. the same stuff, different story. in this case they latched on to this phone call. stuart: the speaker opened with the president has betrayed his oath of office, he's betrayed national security and the integrity of our elections. that's a pretty broad statement. in my personal opinion, i don't think that you can infer that

from that conversation with ukraine's leader or from the whistleblower's memo that was put out. >> of course you can't. stuart: you can't say that. >> of course you can't, just like after two years of the russia hoax, you can't infer that they ultimately -- there was collusion or obstruction there. she also said every day the sadness grows, as if that was part of what she said. i mean, every day the sadness grows amongst the american people who realize an entire legislative body in our country is obsessed with impeaching a duly electhelected president. she said the legislation continues. really? they are totally distracted by whatever rabbit jumps out in the road, in this case, the phone call that landed in their lap or did it? where is this stuff coming and why do they continue to pursue it? they know they can't defeat him on the policies. his approval rating is stays strong, he's effective. i think this will boomerang back. joe and hunter biden will be the big losers in this. stuart: the questioning has

begun. speaker pelosi is answering questions as we speak. we are monitoring what's being said. if she adds to her comments about impeachment, we will certainly bring them to you immediately. we are also monitoring the market which is holding steady with a loss of about 100 points. back to you, pete. it seems to me that the democrats in the house and speaker pelosi are now all in with sliming the president, impeaching the president and forgetting about anything to do with legislation or the president's record on the economy. >> i think they have been all in this entire time. she's tried to be coy about it, hold her members at bay. if you think about it, it's almost like you had a strategy that you were half in on and then you finally decided it's our only strategy so let's go all in. what have the democrats been running on for the last three years other than hating this president and impugning everything he's done? there is no clear agenda other than socialism and the far left which if you are a party leader, you realize that's not a winner

either. i think nancy pelosi, it's the only hand she has and she's going too far down the road. now she's investing in this. stuart: there are consequences as we have been discussing all morning. you mentioned one of the consequences. i don't think joe biden comes out of this looking real good. i just don't think so. what was his son doing? >> well, we know what his son was doing now. a great point was made earlier by another host on this network who basically said the minute president trump took office, he stopped his sons from doing international business. the minute joe biden took office, his sons started doing international business. think about that idea. it is cronyism at its highest levels. he's shielded by the so-called mainstream media that wants to be in the tank for joe biden and as a result, it's being exposed now but it took this president to stand up and release the transcripts and take on the elite class to actually expose it because they never would. it's so one-sided anti-trump that it takes accusations of him for the other stuff to be exposed. stuart: you know what really

saddens me? that is we are already a divided contentious country. what are you laughing at? i am sad about this. i hate to see my country divided as it is and i hate to see that division get even worse. that's what will happen with impeachment. because trump's supporters will not stand for this president to be removed or slimed by anybody and removed from office on the basis of a phone call. i don't think middle america stands still for that. >> nancy pelosi made that decision after waiting this long before she even saw the transcript. a foolish move. this remains white noise to middle america. they have heard the word impeachment for two years. now the fact that they're doing it doesn't change their impression of this president. to hang it on this phone call based on what we saw, it will pick that apart and the president will turn it back on joe biden who is no longer the front-runner, by the way. that's a second or third tier story here. it's going to be a warren or bernie and biden fades away and trump's not affected by this.

stuart: pete hegseth, always good. thanks for joining us. always appreciate it. thank you. during speaker pelosi's remarks, we of course have been following the market and we are down 90 points now. we have actually come back a bit. we were down 110, 115, come back a bit. ashley: there's a report out there that the u.s. is unlikely to extend the temporary waiver to supply huawei, supply china's huawei, which suggests a souring in the trade issues. stuart: a little bit, yes. if huawei is connected to the trade talks, i do believe it is -- ashley: i think it is. stuart: that's a negative there. that accounts for the leg down on the market. i honestly think the market is ignoring this impeachment talk. totally ignoring it. if it holds up, usmca or it fails to pass because of impeachment, i think the market will have something to say about that. at this moment, let's bring in heather zumarraga. i don't think the market cares or really is reacting very much to the impeachment talk.

what say you? >> i saw you shrug your shoulders earlier, stuart, so yeah, i'd say the same. judging based on the market's only down about 90 points right now on the dow, i think the bigger issue or risk for investors other than impeachment is that senator warren would be the frontrunner of the 2020 presidential race for the democratic party and joe biden is actually, whether you like him or not, is seen as a much more moderate democratic candidate than senator warren and bernie sanders. so i think from a market standpoint, they would rather have joe biden than elizabeth warren or a socialist agenda. stuart: refresh my memory, please, because i remember back in the late 1990s during the impeachment of president clinton that the market actually went up about 30% when the impeachment effort had failed.

what do you make of that? >> yeah, the impeachment of president clinton would be the most similar situation we could look at today, and the markets actually rallied 28% on the s&p 500 since the beginning of 1998, when the initial lewinski rumors came out there was an engagement and affair with her. when president clinton was acquitted by the senate in february of '99, almost immediately markets were fine. the initial drop back in early '98 in the nasdaq, the tech-heavy nasdaq declined almost 5%, that was seen as one of the biggest buying opportunities of that time and that you could have ever thought. so if history is to repeat itself, it might not be such a bad thing for the market. stuart: can i ask you about peloton? i don't know whether you have looked into this very closely. i don't know whether you've got a bike or not. i don't know that. >> yeah. stuart: you do?

you have a peloton bike? >> i do not have a peloton but of course i have many friends that do. stuart: it was supposed to go out at $29 a share. we are getting all kinds of indications that it will go out at a price below that. in fact, the latest price we are looking at, it's all over the place, is $22 a share. $7 below the $29. now, the price has been moving backwards and forwards all the time. but recently, consistently below $29. what do you think that says about, a, peloton and b, the ipo market? >> look, i don't own peloton stock but i would look into getting one of the bikes. i'm an avid exercise person, now down on the beach all the time so you got to work out. the point is peloton is being impacted by the broader overall market and the volatility that we're having. it's just an unfortunate i guess timing situation that they have their ipo when all of these impeachment hearings or this narrative that's being pushed by the democratic party is

advancing. it should have no bearing on peloton or price-to-earnings ratio of nike or other stocks and companies like apple in the market, but unfortunately, it does. i think maybe congress should all get a peloton and get their minds on something else. they would be better off. stuart: that's the best idea today. heather zumarraga, thank you very much for joining us. appreciate that. thank you. as everybody knows by now, this is a very big day in washington. you bet we've got our eyes on everything. happening now, i.c.e. acting direct director, and other immigration officials, speaking to reporters at the white house. this is about sanctuary policies and how they affect public safety. any news from that, you will hear it real fast. we have this on the opioid crisis. hhs, health and human services, giving the national institute of health nearly $1 billion for research, trying to curb overdose deaths.

coming up, alex azar is with us, health and human services secretary. i want to know where exactly that money is going. we are also asking him about, of course, vaping. big guest coming up as well later on. larry kudlow, top economic adviser to the president, joins us live from the white house. we are talking usmca, the new nafta. we are talking china trade. and what will get done with all this impeachment stuff? first, an iconic actor becoming the new voice of amazon's alexa. we will tell you who it is in a moment. ♪ so ...how are you feeling?

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what does marcellas wallace look like? >> what? >> where are you from? >> what? >> that ain't no country i ever heard from. assist that was samuel l. jackson. wait for it. his voice is making its way to your living room. wait a minute. deirdre, is he amazon's new voice for alexa? deirdre: he is. stuart: wait, wait, wait, wait. deirdre: first celebrity voice. stuart: even i know he's famous

for bad language. deirdre: he certainly is. you can turn the cursing on or off so if you have little kids in the room, it's a little thing you can tweak there with your alexa. otherwise, he can tell you jokes, he can read your news to you, he can give you a weather repo report. actually, he said he gets demands weekly for a famous line or famous couple lines from "pulp fiction," that ezekiel from the bible quote, people come up to him in restaurants and ask him. anyway, he's the first celebrity voice. amazon says more to come. i like that you can turn the cursing on or off. stuart: hold on. i just want to break in. speaker pelosi is now talking about usmca. that's important to us. let's listen. >> -- lower prescription drug costs now legislation which is receiving rave reviews from everyone except the pharmaceutical industry which is spending millions of dollars misrepresenting what it is, but it's very important, it's going to be transformative, it's going to lower costs not only for our

seniors by giving negotiating power to the secretary to negotiate for lower prices for medicare, but that those prices would apply in the private sector as well. it has provisions that would stop the abuse of our paying four, five, six times as much for the same prescription drugs as are sold in other countries. it puts a cap on what seniors will be required to pay for prescription drugs that is much less than where it is now, less than what the senate is proposing, so it will be transformative and it will be acted upon by the committees of jurisdiction, richard neal in ways and means, frank colon doing a great job in energy and commerce and bobby scott in the education and labor committee. this is very, very important. some of you have heard me say on the campaign trail i have seen grown men cry because of -- stuart: we are hearing speaker

pelosi talk about two very important issues. as you know, the impeachment drive continues in congress and we have been saying that there won't be time, certainly not opportunity, to push two very important issues, that would be the new nafta, usmca, and legislation on prescription drug pricing. speaker pelosi has just addressed that. she's speaking very favorably in terms of the prescription drug pricing legislation. sounds like she wants to address it in congress and move it. what did she say about usmca? ashley: she just says we're moving ahead on the trade deal with mexico to replace nafta. that was the headline there. what does moving ahead mean, you are actually going to do it, put it to the vote? stuart: are you going to put it to the vote. that's not clear. moving ahead is unclear at this point. okay. let's wrap that up. that's good stuff. i want to get back to what i think is the big corporate story of the day which is peloton going public. it's about to open for trading. ash, what's the latest -- ashley: this price has been all

over place. the latest price was at $22. the offering price was $29. that's considerably under. it went down to $20.03 at one point. but $22 is the last number we have. deirdre: the ceo said i feel like we left something on the table, we weren't even that greedy. ashley: now up to $25. deirdre: okay. ashley: it's going all over the place. stuart: for the last hour it's consistently been below -- deirdre: about $7 below which is not great. stuart: no. that's certainly not great. deirdre: we also know the company actually is not profitable. they have been very clear about it saying we will be profitable in 2023 but it begs kind of allusions to uber and lyft. that is to say tons of sales and not quite turning profitable. it may seem investors have soured on that deal. on the flipside, a lot of people say i can't live without this bike. that's what they're banking on. stuart: look at the markets. it's not quite the low of the day but the dow industrials are down 160 at this point. there's a big drop for the nasdaq, down over 1% at $81.

two factors involved here. we understand about china trade that there may be limits on the exemptions offered to huawei. ashley: temporary waiver. stuart: that touches on to the china trade talks. they did have a temporary waiver. that may now be limited. that's considered a negative on china trade. that hurts the markets. the other one is what's been going on with this whistleblower complaint and the testimony in washington. i've got a "washington post" headline which says whistleblower claimed trump abused office and white house officials tried to cover it up. that is a negative indeed and that has helped push the market down a little more. let's not say that the market is shrugging off impeachment talk. it hasn't paid that close attention to it. but it is down 150 points as of right now. let's bring you up to date on what's going on in the markets and with the impeachment stuff, and with the intelligence stuff in congress. sorry, i'm using that word

rather a lot. a lot of stuff. i have no scripts. our next guest, new piece in the "wall street journal," it is after all thursday and he writes every thursday. the piece is called "trump's fight with the globalists" all about how a deadlocked congress can give way to soft authoritarianism. that sounds kind of ominous. dan henninger is the man who wrote it. he's with us now. "wall street journal" editorial board guy. explain yourself. >> well, you know, the president did give that big talk at the united nations the other day and among the many things he said was that the future does not belong to the globalists but belongs to the peoples of independent and sovereign nations. this is a theme of president trump's. i think it's a legitimate theme, stuart. but if you look at what's going on in the united states and in the world, i think the more imminent threat comes from the crisis inside the sovereign democratic states. it's a governing crisis that's going on. look at the united states. congress cannot even pass a budget anymore.

entitlement reform cannot do it. immigration reform, impossible. infrastructure, too complicated. now with this anti-trump obsession of the democrats, governance has essentially stopped in washington. should they be passing the canadian mexican deal? certainly. instead they pull over the side of the road to fight over impeachment. look at the united kingdom. the parliament there simply cannot execute brexit. it can't get it done. in 2015, you had this huge refugee crisis coming out of syria and north africa into europe. european nations proved themselves simply incapable of fashioning a response. democracies derive their legitimacy from their ability to handle complex problems, however difficult, and at the moment, many major democracies are failing at that function. stuart: so do you think that president trump is being pushed towards sort of a soft authoritarianism because you can't get anything done in

congres congress. >> well, both president obama and president trump as a result have ruled largely by executive authority, which i'm calling a kind of soft authoritarianism. i might point out as well, consider elizabeth warren's plans. many are based on prosecution and intense oversight of the private sector. this is the kind of soft authoritari authoritarianism which i liken to the chinese model. command and control. mass surveillance, prosecutions that can't be appealed. that's what's at stake in what's going on in hong kong right now. hong kong people are trying to become, as trump described it, sovereign and independent and they are battling against the chinese model that says no, no, no, we will tell you what to do. i think people get frustrated and default to that option where you just have government by fiat, whether presidential executive order or the chinese government saying this is what you're supposed to do. stuart: this is not good.

>> it's not good. stuart: clearly not good at all. >> it's important that our governments begin to function. i think what's going on here with this impeachment matter and president trump has most of the country sitting out there looking at washington saying aren't you supposed to be governing, doing the people's business, rather than spending two years consumed with these anti-trump obsessions? stuart: exactly right. >> it's very frustrating. stuart: it is frustrating. i think you put your finger right on it. that's exactly what's happening. dan henninger, thank you very much. our next guest needs no introduction whatsoever. he is larry kudlow, national economic council director. larry, i know you're there. thanks for joining us again. i've got to start with usmca, the new nafta. it really doesn't look like it's going to get passed any time soon in our congress. i think that's a big problem for the administration. it's a big problem for america. what can you do about it? >> well, look, i'm not so pessimistic. you are very bearish this

morning, stuart. stuart: every reason, larry. every reason. a congress that is consumed with impeachment and it is consumed with impeachment. i don't think you can create a special lane to get usmca through and ignore all the rest. >> well, let's hold back for a minute on the forecast. i have talked to bob lighthizer, ambassador lighthizer, about this yesterday up in new york at the u.n. meetings, and he's holding out for some optimism. look, i understand the impeachment thing is going to be a big thing. i guess, i'm not really sure, they are making inquiries, they haven't voted yet. we'll see how that plays out, okay? we'll see how that plays out. frankly, judging from the release of the letter which explains a lot of good things and all the second, third and fourth-hand stuff from this alleged whistleblower, i don't know, okay. i'm going to leave that aside. what i will say, though, is you've still got, what, 50, 60

house democratic members who came from republican and trump districts who understand the power of usmca and to some extent, if they're going to go off the ledge on some crazy idea of impeachment which is doomed to failure, they might even be more inclined to do something constructive on the u.s. canada mexico trade deal and it is a great deal and as you and i have spoken, for economic growth in this country, it will add half a percentage point of gdp, maybe a couple hundred thousand jobs per year, domestic content protection, wage protection, i.p. theft protection, currency stability, all kinds of things, dairy farmers. it's a terrific deal. so i wouldn't be so fast to predict that. we are still thinking sometime this autumn, speaker pelosi will

give us a vote and we have a very good chance of getting there. so i'm not going to write that off. stuart: update us, please, on china trade. i believe yesterday, the president says we are getting a deal sooner than we think. our own kristina partsinevelos pushed back on that. i want to roll that tape just for a moment. roll the tape, please. >> markets reacted positively after you spoke about china and that it would happen sooner rather than unexpectedly, yet you have the foreign minister of china saying that they have no intention of, you know, unseating the united states. they are investing heavily in infrastructure -- >> not anymore. maybe they just say that. >> what is different this time, though? the fact you're saying it's progressing? >> oh, i just think it's progressing. i think they want the make a deal. they're losing their supply chain. stuart: well, he just thinks it's progressing. can he give us an update on this? >> you know, i was just sitting a few seats away when all that transpired. look, let me add this point. as you may know, in recent days,

just recent days, china is in the commodity markets buying a huge volume of soybeans. i think their soybean imports in the united states have now increased by over 80% against last year, and furthermore, they are looking to buy large amounts of pork to cover their domestic problems there. so i would say that mood music, if you will, is very positive going into the negotiations. now, the principals, secretary mnuchin, ambassador lighthizer, will meet the week after next with the china team, liu he, vice premier liu he. the deputies meeting was fine, it was constructive, it set out an agenda. if anything, i would say the mood music on china, especially now that china is coming into the commodity market, i'm told soybean prices have been up a

bit, this is a very, very good beginning. we haven't seen this kind of thing. so again, let's not project, what president trump was trying to say is i think he says this consistently, if it is a good deal for the united states after all the president is protecting and defending our economy against a number of unfair trading practices that we can discuss, if it's a good deal, he would make a good deal and his own hunch, his own hunches, because of the deterioration in china's economy, they may be much more willing now to come to the negotiating table and deal with i.p. theft and tariff barriers and forced transfers of technology and all the rest. having said that, stuart, i know you're dying to ask me about the japanese trade deal which is so very important. stuart: you telling me which question to ask? >> i would never do that. i would never do that. never. stuart: here's the question. you've got a trade deal with japan. does it have to be ratified by

congress? >> it does not, actually. under trade promotion authority, it does not require ratification. we do, the executive branch has the authority to change tariffs. stuart: what about with china? >> same would apply to the chinese deal. the chinese deal is a so-called 301 action. that would not require congressional approval. stuart: what about the brits? sorry to keep interrupting you. the brits. >> i love the brits. before i get to my love for the brits, i just have to say to you on this japanese deal, if we can just pause for a minute, these negotiations started a year ago. i was in the room with prime minister abe and president trump a year ago in 2018 at the u.n. i was in the room yesterday when the deal was finalized. it's a first agreement. it covers a lot of important stuff. over 90% of japanese markets for

u.s. agriculture exports will be open. 90%. we have never had that. down through the years it's always been a sticking point. in return for that, we are going to open up a lot of our industrial commodity markets, excluding the auto issue, we are going to open it up to japan and maybe most importantly, here's a sleeper, digital services will be open, e-commerce will be open. japan is opening up their digital service market for the first time and this, by the way, got to give lighthizer a lot of credit here, this is exactly the same idea as in usmca where digital services and i.p. were put into that agreement. so it's become a template. this afrfords enormous opportunity for u.s. tech companies. so this is a big winner. i'm so grateful you asked me about it. stuart: you know how to direct a tv interview since you have done

so many of them. look, i do want to talk to you about the growth rate of our economy this year. you have been a frequent guest on the program and a very valuable guest. you have often said, in fact you said it almost every time you have been on the show that you're looking for 3% growth in the calendar year 2019. now, we got news this morning that second quarter, we are only growing at 2%. to get to 3% for the whole year means an enormous growth rate in the third and fourth quarter, something like 4.5%, 5%. will you now accept that we're not going to get to 3% growth in 2019? >> well, i'm not giving up the flag. by the way, if you measure these things from year end to year end, so-called fourth over fourth, we may still be hanging in there. look, stu, you are quite right about the first quarter was, what, 3.0%, second quarter 2.0%. third quarter's going to be better than the second quarter which is something we talked about before. i think the fourth quarter

similarly. here's just a thought. the president did mention this at his presser yesterday. we are seeing a big move up now, a big revival of the housing sector, okay? new home starts, big up number in july and especially august. new and existing home sales, new sales came out yesterday, big move up in july and august. i noticed this morning pending home sales, big move up. lower interest rates and strong jobs and wages are helping to boost this vital sector and we had good news on the pmi manufacturing number. i think we're in a turning zone up and whatever number you give me in terms of the second half of the year, with the greatest respect, love, affection and all the rest, i'm taking the over. stuart: that's the money quote. we will use it. larry kudlow, next time you

better interview me. i think it would work out better. thank you for joining us, sir. appreciate it. next case, the vaping industry, is it taking a hit. this week juul's chief out. a total ban on vaping products in massachusetts for four months. what's the goal? what's the end game? we will destroy an industry that's legal? we will ask alex azar next. ♪ orlando isn't just the theme park capital of the world, it also has the highest growth in manufacturing jobs in the us. it's a competition for the talent. employees need more than just a paycheck. you definitely want to take advantage of all the benefits you can get. 2/3 of employees said that the workplace is an important source for personal savings and protection solutions. the workplace should be a source of financial security. keeping your people happy is what keeps your people. that's financial wellness. put your employees on a path to financial wellness with prudential.

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what do you look for i want free access to research. yep, td ameritrade's got that. free access to every platform. yeah, that too. i don't want any trade minimums. yeah, i totally agree, they don't have any of those. i want to know what i'm paying upfront. yes, absolutely. do you just say yes to everything? hm. well i say no to kale. mm. yeah, they say if you blanch it it's better, but that seems like a lot of work. no hidden fees. no platform fees. no trade minimums. and yes, it's all at one low price. td ameritrade. ♪ stuart: to say it's been a tough week for the vaping industry is a classic understatement. juul, the principal vaping company, their ceo stepped down. he's out. fox news now reports that the centers for disease control is set to release details of hundreds more cases of vaping-linked illnesses across the country. come in, please, alex azar,

health and human services secretary. mr. secretary, this seems to be almost the killing of a legal industry which is valuable in getting smokers of tobacco off it. are we killing an industry here? >> well, stuart, no, we're not. but it's important to remember the e-cigarettes that are on the market right now are on the market illegally. under the tobacco control act, e-cigarette products have to be approved before marketing by the fda as being in the public health interest. these products have not been. the obama administration and then we continued what's called enforcement discretion, saying let's let the market build up, let's let combustible cigarette smokers have access to these products while they prepare their applications to the fda, but we always said if we find that kids become the users of these products, we are going to have to stop that and you are going to have to go through regular order and submit your applications to us in order to

be on the market. twha that's what we're doing. stuart: the thing is we don't actually know about the safety of vaping, anything, whether it's nicotine or whether it's cannabis, we don't know whether it's safe and we've got all these reports of illnesses. so it's the vaping itself that's under pressure here. >> well, i think it's important to separate the two issues. we have the e-cigarette question which is the one that we were just talking about which is the attractiveness and availability of e-cigarette products, especially through flavors, to children. that's caused really an epidemic of youth use of e-cigarettes and nicotine addiction in our country. there is the separate but somewhat related issue broadly of vaping of any substance and that's the public health crisis that the cdc and fda are fully engaged on which is trying to get to the bottom, why are people getting this mystery lung illness. what is it about the products that they're using about perhaps the oils or the mixes going into the vaping equipment that they're using or how they are

adultering the vaping equipment that is causing this very very dangerous harm to their lungs. stuart: yes, sir. now, the national institutes for health, funneling almost $1 billion into research on opioids. tell me more about that, please, mr. secretary, because you often come on the show to update what you're doing and this is what you're doing. tell us more. >> you bet. we are making tremendous progress under president trump's leadership on the opioid crisis, overdose deaths are down for the first time in 20 years. we have got reductions in opioid use, we have increased the amount of medication-assisted treatment and recovery services available for people. but we need more tools. that's why today, the national institutes of health are announcing almost $1 billion of grants and funding out there to help develop alternative treatments for pain, for the tens of millions of people who suffer from chronic pain, but also alternative ways in which to treat people suffering from opioid overdose to get -- and opioid use disorder, and help

people get off of that addiction, deal with neonatal abstinence syndrome for babies born with opioid addiction. it's the single largest grant funding of any single program in the history of nih. stuart: alternative for chronic pain relief, that's exactly what we need. mr. secretary, thank you very much for being with us, sir. always appreciate it. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: yes, sir. we have breaking news. it's all happening today. this is from the fed's vice chair, richard clarida. speaking in san francisco, edward lawrence is with us. edward, give me the headlines, please. reporter: yeah, he's speaking in san francisco at a federal reserve event there. richard clarida is saying that we are at or near maximum employment in this economy. he says that with the rising wages, there is no evidence that there is inflation pressures going on the upward side. he says that the inflation -- wages are growing in line with production growth as well as the underlying inflation in the economy. now, his one concern is that the neutral rate has fallen.

the neutral federal funds rate has fallen which is why they are bringing with these rate cuts, bringing it down. he says that with that, it increases the chance we will hit the zero lower bound in an economic downturn again. but again, he's saying the economy is strong right now, 3.7% unemployment is at or near maximum employment for this economy. stuart: edward lawrence on top of it all, as usual. you're a good man, edward. see you soon. now this. speaker pelosi this hour said despite the impeachment push, the house is hoping to move ahead with usmca. that's the new nafta. south dakota senator mike rounds coming up on that one. i want to know, does he think they can actually get this done because it would do south dakota a lot of good. we'll be right back. ♪ devices are like doorways

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stuart: you know, the usmca, the new nafta, is extremely important for america's economy, but you know, with impeachment tying up congress and that's the way it looks, it's going to be real hard to get usmca through. come on in, senator mike rounds, south dakota republican. mr. senator, south dakota, i'm

pretty sure, is a farm state. how bad is it in your state if usmca does not make it? >> usmca has the ability to actually help with commodity prices in south dakota. you are correct, ag is our largest industry. our producers are looking at low commodity prices for soybeans and for corn and right now, for cattle as well. mexico is one of our biggest demands for corn and right now, canada is one of our biggest trading partners, so usmca, if we can get it done, would definitely improve the economy in my part of the country, along with the entire upper midwest. but this is something that the house should have done already. this is one republicans and democrats should be agreeing on. if they would focus on it we could get something good done for the country. stuart: now we have impeachment hanging over us. can you handicap it? what are the odds we get the usmca? >> until this morning when our leader, leader mcconnell,

actually kind of challenged them to get something done, we understand speaker pelosi has said she's still going to be working on it, i think we ought to just get it done. yeah, as long as we are going to continue to focus on it and bring attention to the fact that usmca needs to get done, there's hope that the house might get it out. i predict that the senate within just a couple of weeks would move it through our processes fairly quickly. i think republicans and democrats alike want to see usmca get completed in the senate. i think the votes are there right now in the house, recognize that speaker pelosi has some other concerns in terms of trying to keep her more liberal part of the party happy but this is one that's good for america and needs to get done and that should be on the top of the burner. stuart: i guess i have to say that the japan trade deal and/or a possible china trade deal does not need congressional approval, according to larry kudlow, who we had on a moment ago. so that's a plus for you, mr. senator. >> that will be, we understand that the japanese parliament has to approve the deal that has now been cut as of yesterday. this is a huge part of it because that would have been a

large part of tpp which many of us were supporting. but if we can get the japanese deal back in, that's a real, real healthy move in the right direction for getting south dakota beef and beef from across the united states back into japan. they want our beef. right now, they are kind of settling for australian beef and while those are good friends of ours and competitors, we just want to give our producers an opportunity for an even playing field, get back into that market and start selling some really good united states beef across the pacific. stuart: mr. senator, thanks as always for joining us. mike rounds, south dakota. thank you, sir. appreciate it. lots of breaking news. peloton didn't even open yet. more "varney" after this. ♪ imagine traveling hassle-free with your golf clubs.

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stuart: broke out of the commercial to tell you this. peloton has started to trade. on your screen is the price. i believe the first trade was 27. the trade now is 26.46. that's down 2.54 from the intended opening price which was $29 per share. >> it is not fabulous, right? the ceo specifically said i think we left something on the table. i'm not being greedy. so they anticipated momentum higher. ashley: from 29 up. >> not from 27. stuart: this is the danger here of valuing any ipo when the company going public is losing money. ashley: correct. stuart: there is a serious problem. that happened with lyft. it happened with uber. it did not happen beyond meat which i don't think was making money at the time of the ipo and now up 4 or 500%. it is happening again with peloton, a closely watched, high interest ipo. the quote now, 26.49, down over

two bucks from the expected opening price of $29 a share. it has been extraordinarily big day. politics, money. we've been all over it. i know my colleague neil cavuto will carry on in that vein. it is yours, my friend. neil: we'll see what larry kudlow meant by sweet music to his years and improvement on the trade front. peloton may be a knee-jerk response to the underwriters getting a little greedy in the final moments. they should have stuck to the original price. we'll get to the bottom of it. it is taking a bit of beating from $29 a share. we'll look at larry kudlow's comments with stuart, what he meant by progress on the trade front. stocks meanwhile were falling on something else having to do with trade. that they will not extend this temporary huawei waiver. the