pleasure. i really appreciate y'all coming in today. markets are closed but so much to talk about, right, charles payne? he's in for stuart varney today. i don't mean to get a jump on you, but i want you to have as much time as you need. charles: thank you very much. you had a fantastic show. we will take it from here. thanks a lot. good morning, everyone. we have a lot to go over in the next three hours and we don't take a lot of three-day weekends at fox business. i will tell you why. here's a list of it. americans from the quarantined cruise ships docked off japan, well, they are back on u.s. soil. 14 of them have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. we will have the latest on that. meanwhile, president trump begins a very busy week with a historic trip to the daytona 500. presidential limo also known as the beast, even led the drivers around the oval for a lap before the race. the president is a true man of the people. meanwhile, on the other hand, wait until you hear what mike bloomberg said about farmers in the recent past.

i'm charles payne in for stuart varney. "varney & company" starts right now. >> while cnbc is on break, we are open for business. charles: hundreds of americans back in the u.s. this morning after being evacuated from the coronavirus affected "diamond princess" cruise ship. lauren, we know some have tested positive for the virus right now. lauren: yes. so the u.s. chartered the two flights that arrived early this morning, one in california and one in texas. as they were going from that cruise ship docked in japan to the charter plane, 14 tested positive for the coronavirus. that essentially doubles the number of infections right here in the u.s. we had 15, now you have 14 coming in. they will be in quarantine. they were already in quarantine for about two weeks but they will be in quarantine at those two air force bases for another 14 days. charles: thank you very much. mean meanwhile, macao says the

casinos can reopen. susan: it's a big deal especially for casino shares that trade in the u.s., mgm, las vegas sands and the like. don't forget, we have macao has been closed for a few weeks because of concerns of the coronavirus, reopening this thursday and this is going to be a big deal because this is the equivalent to three times las vegas strip when it comes to gaming. the fact they are reopening finally is a big reprieve and relief for a lot of big casino names. charles: absolutely. thank you very much. hey, i want to bring in market watcher keith fitz-gerald. keith, macao's going to reopen but wall street kind of saw this coming last week, i think it was wednesday, major firm upgrading their rating on wynn and las vegas sands and also, we are starting to hear other names, apple opening up a few stores in beijing and singapore, toyota, sony, some of these other names, even tesla. what does it all mean? >> i tell you what, charles. they are trying to get ahead of what they believe will be a solid recovery because if you cut off demand and all that stuff is pent up, customers are

still going to come to the store. i remain extraordinarily concerned that this is the calm before the storm. so i will take it, but i don't think investors should jump in by any stretch of the imagination. charles: you mean jump in in the markets, or jump in on these particular stocks that have a more direct correlation with the coronavirus? >> the latter. the latter. don't jump in on anything that directly correlated to the wuhan situation. charles: you know, it's also interesting, keith, in the sense that, you know, european markets are fractionally higher this morning. of course, nasdaq and s&p closed at an all-time high and it feels like, you know, we are worried but by the same token, there's other drivers that seem to be winning out day to day in the markets. >> that's the cool part about capitalism, right, because no matter what the headlines are, you've still got strong fundamentals, strong unemployment, you've got a president who is very much liked, you have an economy that is still firing on all cylinders, pardon the pun with the daytona situation. to me, that is why you invest. it's always a forward-looking

mechanism. i'm very, very very happy to see the markets shake this off. charles: the markets closed today but we have been in a heck of a roll here, and some parts because we are the only game in town, but even with that in mind, what will be the next catalyst here? we've got the latest jobs report, we are almost done with earnings season, maybe some people putting the coronavirus behind us. what's the catalyst that keeps this rally going? >> well, i tell you what, i think there's going to be more news out of china that possibly if it's good news, sets the market off. anybody who develops a workable vaccine and brings it to market is going to set things off. anybody who has good trade data out of europe is going to set things off. and of course, anything that shows the president continuing in the polls the way he is with a stronger showing sets traders off. charles: in many ways, we say a lot on the network that the u.s. is the only game in town, but ironically, the bond market has been a much bigger beneficiary of that, hence why we always see the yields go lower. a record amount of money went

into bonds last week and now some are saying that we've got a bond bubble, a trillion dollar bond bubble on our hands. if that's the case, do you believe it's the case and if so, what does it mean? >> i would take issue with that statement. here's why. institutions buy bonds and they never sell them, charles. it don't matter what the yield is, because they have all these huge pension funds, they have defined benefits, they have all these other things. they are concerned about the return of their capital, not the return on their capital. if you want growth, you've still got to be in the stock market. i think a bubble is overrated. charles: one person who is not, is you. that's why we appreciate you kicking off the show. thanks a lot, buddy. meanwhile, president trump and first lady melania trump making history at the daytona 500. just watch. >> are you jealous of those competitors out there today, right now? >> i am. i would love to be in this daytona 500 field out there competing today. this is just so special. >> daytona international speedway, we love our country and it's truly an honor to be with all of you at the great

american race. gentlemen, start your engines. charles: to fox news chief meteorologist live at the race, which is set to resume later today after the rain delays. rick? >> hey, charles, yeah, there will have to be a drivers, restart your engines today because of big rain delays. we are out here this morning, incredible experience to be able to be out here in the daytona international speedway. this right here, pit row, we've got an empty house right now. it's a ghost town. i see one guy way down there who looks like he's painting the grass back up a little bit from one little disturbance, looks like it caused some of the grass, at least some of the painting to be gone. overall, things looking good this morning. not the case yesterday, because there was rain. in fact, all the morning was beautiful, we saw air force one flying over the stadium here, over the stands, and over 100,000 people in here getting an incredible view of air force

one. it was flying really low so it was a pretty intimate experience for the crowd here with air force one as it went over before landing, then the president coming in here and having that -- starting the race. after he started the race, the limousine went around the track here with all the drivers behind it. right after that, started to rain a little bit. from the very beginning, it was a rain delay. they got the track dried, they got about 20 laps in before the rain came back and that rain this time stuck around for the remainder of the evening. that's why the race was canceled. the race will be back on today at 4:00. 180 of the 200 laps still remaining to go, starting at 4:00 right here on fox. so a lot of people will be very excited to be able to see that today but there's a lot of people who were here in the stands who didn't get to see their daytona race right here yesterday, have to settle for it today maybe on tv. charles: seeing air force one being there in person had to be something. that's something you can tell

everyone about for the rest of your life. rick, i'm always jealous, but especially today. see you soon, buddy. we got a big week ahead for the president. he's holding three rallies, first in phoenix on wednesday. also happening wednesday, the democrats, they take the debate stage in vegas. meanwhile, mike bloomberg has yet to qualify for that debate, but that hasn't stopped him from moving up in the polls. his rivals do not like that and they are sharpening their attacks on him. >> remember this, the tarmac meeting between bill clinton and then attorney general loretta lynch? the journalist who broke that story is out with a book detailing explosive new information about that meeting. he's on the show later in the hour. everyone is talking about this video of an american airlines passenger repeatedly punching another passenger's seat because she reclined in it. she's not happy and now she wants to take legal action. "varney & company" are just getting started. hey there! i'm lonnie from lonnie's lumber. if you need lumber wood, lonnie's is better than good.

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are you better off than you were four years ago? is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? is america as respected throughout the world as it was? do you feel that our security is as safe, that we are as strong as we were four years ago? and if you answer all of those questions yes, why then i think your choice is very obvious as to who you vote for. charles: that was then candidate ronald reagan challenging president jimmy carter in 1980 with one of the most important campaign questions ever. are you better off now than you were four years ago. as we head into november, a new series of gallup polls show that americans are saying yes, 61% say that america is better off than they were just three years ago. turning now to -- you can see that there. turning to your money, i want to

bring back market watcher keith fitz-gerald. we talk about the maga stocks, microsoft, apple, google, amazon, and many are saying they are going to continue to help drive this market higher. you agree? >> absolutely, because these are companies that are truly changing the way we live and they are must-haves and finally they have a clear path to profit. all three of which are critical. charles: you know, listening to ronald reagan back then, candidate reagan, it's interesting because gallup has put out a series of polls in the last couple weeks and americans do feel overwhelmingly that next year is going to be better than it was this year, they feel overwhelmingly that this has been a great year for them, they feel like america is more respected, in fact, more respected than we have been in 20 years in that poll. how much does that play into sort of providing a sort of foundation for not just stock market success but overall economic success? >> well, i tell you what, if you study history and i know you are a fan of history like i am, hope is the fundamental foundation

stone upon which all great economies and civilizations are built. so people are able to think positively about their lives and move forward, that counts for an awful lot and not just from a financial standpoint, either. charles: know what i love is on friday, when the university of michigan sentiment numbers came out, it's a really great study. most people just read the headlines. a couple things. first of all, democrats since september, they are feeling so much better about what's going to happen in six months, i would be worried if i'm a democratic candidate but also, individuals are saying that their household stock market value now is near $200,000, by far the highest it's ever been. if americans can get into the stock market, it's really phenomenal, isn't it? >> oh, absolutely. because again, you know, money has to move in order to make more money and if you sit on it, that's great, we need a high savings rate, we need to save for rainy days but we also need to invest. we need to send our kids to school. we need to buy our medicine. we need to pay for education. all of which benefits the economy. charles: all right, keith, thank you very much. i want to get back to politics and the 2020 presidential race.

candidate tulsi gabbard actually joined the show on friday and she said that she's the candidate of unifying the country. roll tape. >> i am the candidate that's bringing this unifying message, that's not based on hate, not based on hate for trump or hate for the other party or hate for any one group or another, but is building this coalition of support that centers around love of country and the recognition that when we treat each other with respect as americans, bringing our different ideas and perspectives to the forefront, to solve these problems. charles: joining me, fox news contributor lisa booth. lisa, tulsi's message not getting through the democrats certainly, the idea of -- because of unifying all americans because they have focused on trump hatred. >> right. charles: i think it's really backfiring on them, this idea of anyone but trump, because when they say anyone or any record, they may have to live up to some

embarrassing stuff. >> the question is going to be not about unifying the country but can they unify the party. you look right mou -- charles: that's what elizabeth warren is saying she wants to do. >> that's not happening right now. look, you have bernie sanders who is essentially the frontrunner of the democratic primary so far, and the establishment democrats are desperately trying to search for who is going to be the alternative. we see that with bloomberg, who recently got some congressional endorsements, he's being talked up right now because democrats are terrified of the prospect of bernie sanders being their nominee. charles: they are also terrified, for instance, if you look through like this week, i'm toggling around the channels and i stopped at msnbc for a moment. >> why would you do that? charles: because i like to know what everyone's thinking and they seem to be in a pretzel over bloomberg's presidential candidacy because how can you say that donald trump, you know, has done things that are intimidating to black people and then contrast bloomberg's actual

record, not rhetoric, then his articles about the women that have come out, this tape today with the farmers. this is what they said they stood for coming into this election, they were the party of youth, blacks, hispanics and the future. right now it's a bunch of old white guys that they say they don't like, that they say that, you know, they have evolved beyond that, espousing messages that any republican espoused them they would go crazy, they would be on a soapbox screaming racist. >> that's typically how it works, at least on the race questions. what would be interesting, you have joe biden, who helped write the 1994 federal crime bill. that was an issue for hillary clinton in the 2016 race. you've got pete buttigieg which has his own issues in south bend. amy klobuchar has come under fire recently for her record as a prosecutor. it will be interesting if bloomberg ends up on debate stage on the 19th this week, if they raise, you know, those issues and his stop-and-frisk --

charles: but they have painted president trump and his supporters as racist, and the things they are saying that, you know, based on a tweet, based on comments, which you know, listen, comments have hurt people's feelings, comments can bother people, versus actual records of actual -- the things they say they are afraid could happen, have happened and they are going to elect someone who did them and they are in a pretzel over that. what i love what tulsi gabbard is saying is why can't the president of the united states run on a message that all americans should be embraced? >> that's what president trump has done. he's pushed policies that have lifted up all americans. it doesn't matter if you are a woman, an african-american, asian, he's helped all americans. every single group of voters are essentially doing better under this president. that's going to be his message heading into the election. but you know, about bloomberg, one thing that i have been saying that i think will be interesting, we really haven't seen bloomberg and you look at the comment about farmers, you kind of get a glimpse of how terrible as a candidate he truly is.

if he actually ends up on the debate stage, we will see him for who he is regardless of where he's been recently of just standing behind these manufactured version of hundreds of millions of dollars in paid advertising that he's done so far. charles: in fact, although he's yet to qualify for the debate stage in vegas -- >> probably will, though. charles: that's not stopping his fellow democrats. they have been building an attack on him. take a listen. >> billionaires are going to have more shoes, more cars, more houses, but they don't get a bigger say in our democracy. >> democracy to me means one person, one vote. mike bloomberg or anybody else spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to buy an election. >> $60 billion can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can't erase your record. there's a lot to talk about with michael bloomberg. charles: what do you make of it? if he doesn't make the debate stage this week, he's got to be

there one day to face all of this. >> potentially, south carolina. i think it's interesting to hear from bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, because they so often attack the rich, yet they are millionaires themselves which sounds great, but so they are a little bit hypocrite on that. the attention has shifted to bloomberg because he does have so much resources. typically what happens, if you lose the early primary states which he hasn't played in yet but he will for super tuesday, you are out. that's typically the end of your candidacy which is something joe biden is going to be struggling with, considering his poor performances in iowa and new hampshire but bloomberg, since he's worth tens of balances of dolla -- billions of dollars, can stay in this thing because he's not reliant on outside donors. he can still finance. charles: the plot thickens. >> it sure does. going to be awhile. charles: while we are showing this viral video again taken by an american airlines passenger. the woman spoke out on "fox & friends" this morning. we have some of what she said. and we've got presidential trivia for you.

please play along. the question is who was the oldest president to be elected? the answer is right after this. some people say "dress your age."

that's ridiculous. i dress how i feel. yesterday i felt bold with boundless energy. this morning i woke up calm and unbreakable. tomorrow? who knows. age is just an illusion. how you show up for the world, that's what's real. what's your idea? i put it out there with a godaddy website. make the world you want.

charles: before the break, i was asking you, i did ask the oldest president to be elected. the oldest is president donald trump. he was 70 years old. you put down reagan and i can understand why. but no, it was trump. another record. okay. hey, by the way, the video has everyone talking. now the woman who reclined in her seat on this american airlines flight, well, she wants to press charges. lauren, does she have a strong case? lauren: well, you know, there she is, taking video of the guy behind her just punching her seat. he asked her to move it up while he ate dinner and she did, and then she reclined again. she got annoyed he was punching it so she started taking this video. now she wants to press charges against him for assault and she wants the flight attendants fired. listen. >> she said delete the video and i said why, and she said it's -- she said it's against faa regulations for you to be

video'ing on a plane. i said i never heard of that in my life and i have seen tons of videos on planes, i have taken videos on planes. lauren: she does not like that the flight attendant reprimanded her and offered the man who was punching her seat [ inaudible ]. what happens after this? do seats get bigger? charles: no, but maybe we will have new ways of handling it because it's not going to end there. every american can identify with that video. meanwhile, 14 americans evacuated from the cruise ship off the coast of japan, they are back in the u.s. after testing positive for the coronavirus. i will be asking dr. marc siegel later on, doesn't this just bring the virus here? should they be here? more "varney" after this. at fidelity, online u.s. stocks and etfs are commission-free. and when you open a new brokerage account, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate.

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already gotten sick with the coronavirus on that ship. over 450 total. and these americans were not known to have the virus, and as they were evacuated from the ship, and as they got ready to be returned, their coronavirus tests came back positive. they are asymptomatic, not showing any symptoms. they have been separated from the rest of the group. the chances of them transmitting it right now when they are not symptomatic is much lower. what's going to happen is as soon as they get here, they are going to be taken to our air force bases, travis air force base, and lockland air force base in texas, and they will be quarantined and overseen by cdc. all of that should keep them from spreading it anywhere. charles: on friday, i think one of the things that actually helped the market was a report out from morning consult that 61% of americans felt that the government, u.s. government, was doing the right thing in the way they have been handling this coronavirus. only 23% did not. contrasting that with the ebola

virus, where 62% thought the government mishandled that. are you happy with the way the government's handled this, the way the cdc has handled everything? >> charles, i have been following contagious outbreaks as you know for 15 or more years. i can't believe how well they are handling this. the proof is in the pudding. we have 15 people in the united states with it. that's it. no one has died. the case in washington got an experimental drug, recovered. i mean, the travel advisories and restrictions, so far everything is working. cdc has a very patented plan, isolate people, identify the problem and look at contacts of everyone that's been in contact with a person that gets coronavirus. this us wois working so far. our biggest problem is the burgeoning number of cases in china. charles: what about outside of china? singapore got high marks for transparency but now some people toward the end of the week were concerned, we don't have travel restrictions with other countries so perhaps someone left the wuhan area or other

areas with large risk, high risk, went to their home country, then come from their home country to this country. are you concerned about that at all? >> that's a very important point, charles. i am concerned about that. there's three million travelers from china to singapore every year, as you say. we don't know for sure if we are getting the right numbers. north korea says they have zero cases. nobody believes that. they share a border with china. i think that the idea of getting really -- look, a virus does not obey political separation. it's an international problem from the get-go here, and it has to be treated like that. it's one of the reasons we want to get cdc boots on the ground in china. charles: doc siegel, thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> thank you, charles. charles: want to turn to your money and bring in jeff sica. jeff, the virus so far has had a limited impact on the overall market, obviously certain areas, cruise ships and things like that. what do you make of it all? >> i think the most important thing to focus on is the consumer, and my concern is that

what it's looking like is about two-thirds of the economy in china seems to have ground to a halt. that is a big consumer market and i'm looking at how that's spilling over into the rest of the world. i think u.s. companies that do business in china, whether they are factories, i talked to a client that has seven factories in china that they have been paralyzed and he is going to start to feel the pain of that very soon. that's something to look at. i don't think we can ignore that, when that starts to hit our shores, then will it affect our consumer and -- charles: do you think, i mean, we had the michigan university consumer number out, sentiment on friday, only 7% mentioned the coronavirus. in the meantime, we had records, records, expectations for democrats over the next six months, record numbers where people think our economy is going to be over the next six months. >> i think there's the insulation effect in the u.s. market.

i think the consumer, the u.s. consumer has been extremely healthy. a little bit overleveraged but where my real concern is, those companies that do so much business in china and rely on china for growth, those are the ones that are going to feel it. charles: some of them are going back to business, right. wynn, some of these others. we will see if it's too early. i want to ask you about cathay pacific because they are expecting a significant drop in the first half due to the coronavirus. susan li has the details. susan: this is one of the biggest airlines in the asia pacific, basically the premier airline that flies out of hong kong, owns a stake in chinese airlines as well. they say they will see a big drop in first half profits, capacity cuts, they are cutting around 40% in terms of the number of flights and seats available in february and march because there isn't that much demand given the coronavirus fears. no one wants to fly to china. that's actually more than anticipated. and if you look at the stock prices, it's trading at six hong kong dollars now. five years ago, the trade hit $12. this airline has faced a lot of concerns, whether it's the hong kong protests and now

coronavirus and also overcapacity in the region with budget airlines coming in. it's tough going to be a travel company right now. charles: well, so on that, jeff, i look at the cruise ships as being one of the ultimate consumer discretionary things. we do it because we simply want to. you can almost argue that airlines themselves, though, are consumer staple because we do ultimately have to travel for business and other things. how long do you think this will impact u.s. airlines? >> i think -- so the airline industry is so fragile to begin with, and travel was really accelerating up to this point. i think it's going to have a dramatic impact because a lot of them, a lot of the airlines had anticipated that excuse the pun, the sky was wide open for them, and now this is going to really, really set earnings back. susan: i just want to note that china is actually adding a lot of stimulus to the economy to backstop the economic pain from coronavirus so they cut a key funding rate overnight which means companies have more access

to cheaper loans if they need it. i think china's gdp will fall two percentage points. will that have a big reverberation around the world? china is trying to make sure there's enough money with $300 billion that was injected the first few months of this year that there isn't that much damage. charles: next case here, folks, fast food companies in china, they are coming up with new ways to keep their customers safe. lauren, what are they doing? lauren: order online, pick up outside the store or order online and some sort of robot delivers you that food, or if it is a human being delivering the food, fully masked and they have an identification card in some instances saying i was just cleared, i don't have a temperature and the people who prepared this food, they also don't have temperatures. we are seeing this from mcdonald's and starbucks. the use of technology essentially. charles: know what's interesting here, starbucks is another name

that got an upgrade last week in anticipation of this being a short-lived event but maybe this is where we are going anyway. we know that these restaurants delivering food, door dash and these other, uber eats, but it's interesting that they are going to accelerate it in china. it might be an experiment to see just what the demand is for this. >> i think it's time, you know, i like the fact these companies employ so many people, it's obvious that they are trying to reduce their head count dramatically. i think we've got to be really careful with this in removing the human component and not creating jobs. charles: you see that happening? >> all over. everywhere. everywhere. charles: use the kiosk, the robots are flipping the burgers. it's a difficult thing. that's a whole different discussion about -- i'm a luddite, admittedly, so i'm very afraid of where we are going with technology, robots and a.i. every industrial -- every revolution, industrial revolution, has netted more jobs. i'm just not sure this one will.

lauren: if you have been to china recently, it's a futuristic world. you can't pay with cash anymore. you use your qr code on wechat. it's almost common knowledge and a common theme, you don't see people, you don't go out anymore to eat. >> i boycott all those kiosks. i go to people, i will wait online. charles: a man of the people. it's not too late for you to join the democrat race for the white house, my man. they are looking for a man of the people. the man of the people. lauren: the virus is preventing that from happening. i thought we might see this acceleration of technology. charles: thanks a lot. jeff, appreciate it. not too late, my man. get in that debate. i'm telling you, they're looking for you. meantime, mike bloomberg is in and is under fire for some old comments he made about farmers. take a listen to this. >> if i could teach anybody, even people in this room, no

offense intended, to be a farmer, it's a process. you dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. charles: bloomberg said that in 2016 and now it's coming back to haunt him. we have more on what he said later in the show and it is presidents day. we are looking back at some of the most memorable presidential moments like george w. bush making his 9/11 bullhorn speech down at ground zero. brad blakeman served under bush 43 when this happened. we will ask him all about it. did you know presidents day is one of the best days for auto sales? we scooped out the best deals for you and will have them for you, next. ♪

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the first-ever glb. lease the glb 250 suv for just $419 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. charles: did you know presidents day is one of the biggest auto sales days of the year? let's go to grady trimble live in elmhurst, illinois. grady? reporter: charles, i will go down the list for you. according to "consumer reports"

some of the best cars to buy, the chevy bolt and the toyota avalon and toyota corolla. you know, auto sales have been down in the past few years so the dealerships are really offering great incentives right now to get people in to buy new cars and also, interest rates are really low. couple other cars that "u.s. news" says are good deals today, the ram 1500 and charles, i think i have a good one for you. you have to let me know about the 2019 mazda miata. little two-seater. what do you think? charles: if i get two of them i can use them for roller skates. thanks a lot, grady. appreciate it. my next guest says that presidents day weekend is a big one for tech. want to bring in michael za zakkour. what do you mean? >> mattresses are so 20th century. really the focus this year is on big tech and technologies and

gadgets. that's where the great deals are. we are looking at apple is offering some great deals on the apple watch, on iphones. we are seeing the big carriers, at & t, verizon, sprint, are all offering discounts on plans. you see some of the best buys on tvs and other electronics at best buy and other retailers. it's become a very big event for online retail. amazon running a lot of great deals. this is really the presidents day technology sale. charles: it's interesting because as grady was talking about things like the volt, i would imagine it's down 24% because they must have a few in inventory, right? after the super bowl, i would imagine tvs, does they get cheaper? is it sort of like after christmas certain items that were in high demand before christmas start to get cheaper because they have a lot left? >> for sure. you got to remember the tvs that are bought for super bowl have a super high return rate. charles: i think that's cold. >> it is cold.

charles: i know a lot of people do that. they wear the clothes, take them back. they watch the super bowl, take the tv back. it's part of the game, huh? >> yeah, it is. but this is inventories clearing out. charles: overall, how are you feeling? i look at it through the lens of the stock market. you know, i saw some great, great stuff this week. the names that have been in trouble have been in trouble for a long time like bed bath & beyond. then look at shopify which is a $60 billion market cap versus bed bath & beyond, $2 billion. it feels like there are winners emerging even among the brick and mortar world. >> i think again, a lot of of the companies i been high on, walmart earnings are coming up, i believe tomorrow, we are looking at some good growth numbers there year on year, up about 1.7% and 2.7% respectively. charles: it feels like wall street has set the bar higher for walmart digital than others,

even target. when i see walmart, the number feels to me like 40%. if they do 40% growth in digital, the stock explodes. if they do less, there are some question marks. is their digital game up knowing they just closed down jet black as an experiment last week? >> i think that's a really unfair assessment. in fact, last week i wrote about the shutdown of jet black and my take on it is look, walmart is doing what they are supposed to be doing. they are supposed to be flexing and stretching out, getting into digital, you know, experimenting with new retail. there's nothing wrong with that. they have the muscle power and they have the finances to do it. so this experiment didn't work, fine. you move on. they are taking that on, that kind of silicon valley is which is go for it, fail fast and move on. charles: overall, retail, you know, the holiday season was built up pretty good, the numbers were pretty strong. what do you think we will hear from walmart with respect to holiday sales? >> i think walmart's facing the same issue a lot of other retailers have in reporting

their fourth quarter earnings, which is that shorter holiday season, where -- charles: [ inaudible ]. >> fewer shopping days certainly trimmed a little bit. we saw that effect, walmart's earnings, but overall, i like where walmart's going. i think they are on the right track. charles: you know, we use a lot of what i'm starting to consider antiquated methodologies for a lot of things. it moves markets, whether it's judging productivity or inflation. i think the same with retail sales. we had the retail sales number on friday. it was okay. but you know, my son and his girlfriend went ballooning over the weekend, it wouldn't be in there. we spend money as a consumer in so many different ways, it's hard to capture that now, isn't it? >> yeah. i think you are spot-on with the kpis we use, key performance indicators are antiquated. today it's not about how many dollars per square foot you produce in a store. it's what kind of an experience you are providing your consumer,

how does your store, which is the media as my friend doug stevens likes to say, the store is the media and it's going to drive sales. you have traditional direct-to-consumer digital first company that every time they open a new store, it drives online sales in a 50-mile radius by 40%. we really need to rethink the metrics of retail for this new era. charles: fantastic. appreciate it. you are always spot-on. we brought you this story about the american airlines passenger controversy early, and susan now has details from delta's ceo. because he is speaking out about this controversy. what did he say? susan: he was asked about it because this took place on an american airlines flight but the ceo of delta, when he was asked about this on friday, he said look, you have to ask if it's okay first. there is some seat etiquette when it comes to economy class, tight seating, and when he does fly in his own economy class, he says i don't recline, actually,

during that time and you should ask first. in the future, he also points out that delta will be reconfiguring their economy class, there might be less recline available on the seat. as you know, there's this controversy with wendy williams, do you need to ask the passenger first before you actually recline and move back your seat. charles: if you have to recline as an option and someone paid for the ticket, right, it's like what are they going to do? i think there's going to be an excuse for those less reclining seats, jam more of them in there and you know what, it's going to be like we are all getting ready to parachute over normandy or something. they will pack us in there. bring your own lunch. lauren: it's a domino effect. once the person in front of you reclines, you kind of have to recline so you have more room, then it just goes back. like a row of dominoes falling. susan: this passenger in this case, she actually moved her seat back up during his meal and then moved it down afterwards. so there was a bit of etiquette, manners involved. if you are giving up the option

to recline the seat, are we not supposed to do this? i don't understand. charles: i think we have all seen the videos or maybe been victimized by the little kid behind us. it's really awkward, can you tell your kid to stop kicking my seat? what do you think? lauren: kids are the worst on flights. i want to know if the seat in front of wendy williams was reclined also. charles: great question. thank you very much. folks, remember this tarmac meeting between bill clinton and then attorney general loretta lynch? the journalist who broke that story is out with a new book with explosive new details. he's on the show next. also, we got another presidential trivia question for you here. who was the practical joker who liked to ring the white house doorbell and then hide? that answer coming up. as a struggling actor, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchumal- cut. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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over the handling of classified materials that she sent from her private server. well, the journalist who broke that story is out with a new book revealing explosive new information called "secret on the tarmac." he joins me now. first of all, congratulations on the book. walk us through this. because it takes us back in time where we just, everyone was dumbfounded this even occurred. >> it was shocking. my jaw dropped when i got word from my source, who watched this unfold. i actually had to go back into work and talk to my bosses about it. we actually tried to make sense of how all of this happened but the bottom line is, the story, it's the meeting that they did not want you to know about. if it hadn't been for my source who i revisit and we walk through the entire meeting step by step on how this unfolded, nobody would have known about this secret conversation on the tarmac. charles: well, we were told the conversation was just about old times, you know, grandkids and golf and no one, i mean, really no one believed that. >> well, it doesn't add up.

i'm going to be frank with you, golf and grandkids has been the narrative. there has been talking points and those talking points are e-mails that still have not been revealed. james comey received the talking points as well. these talking points have been the key points. golf, grandkids, what many people don't know is loretta lynch also testified behind closed doors with the house oversight committee in december of '18. during that time, she said that the name eric holder came up, that justice came up, that they talked about almost the work that she's been doing and at the same time, said that bill clinton flattered her. charles: i know the book is about the fallout, how football, your football team sort of rallied around, your college team. there's a lot of stuff we need to know about. congratulations on the book. >> i appreciate it. charles: folks, february has been a great month for president trump. he had a successful state of the union speech, he was acquitted after the impeachment trial. coming up, we've got a guest who says this month is going down in history. more "varney" after this.

. .

♪ charles: change our clothes. all right, folks. we were tracking about mr. rogers. i'm charles payne. stuart varney is out today. it is presidents' day. the markets are closed. it is a huge weekend. that's why we're playing let's get the party started. big week for politics. particularly for president trump. he kicked it off with the daytona 500 yesterday. he is holding rallies in phoenix, vegas, and colorado springs. democratic caucus this saturday. the democrats will have a debate this wednesday. michael bloomberg still hasn't been to a debate. he is surging in the polls.

we're asking the question could this be good for the markets? the second hour of "varney & company" is just getting started. let's get started with wrap blakeman, former assistant to president george w. bush. he is amazing at stealing the thunder from the democrats not only in the news cycle, but particularly since the presidential campaign begun. >> democrats thought they could get rid of him with impeachment and removal. that didn't happen. they thought they could wound him that he would be a hurt candidate going into the summer and eventually the election. that hasn't happened. he is enjoying the best popularity polls he ever had. country feels good about the economy. feels like we're going in the right direction. president appears at at. he appears as a rock star. he is talking about american values at one of the greatest iconic sporting events.

the president to the consternation of democrats is not having a good week. he is having a good run. charles: he is having a food run. "the new yorker" saying more or less, 11 months trump will start his second term. when you see the progressive publications admit he is going to win, this is something to behold, isn't it? >> the president. snows this should not take anything for granted. it will be a tough election no matter what socialists the democrat put up. he is working hard. delivering for the american people on policy. i'm can confident that the president understands exactly what he needs to do to get to that electoral vote of 270. charles: brad, of course it is presidents' day and you served under president bush 43. let's take a look at one of his most famous moments as president. >> i can hear you. [cheering]

i can hear you, the rest of the world hears you and the -- [cheering] and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. [cheering] charles: i got to tell you, brad, i still get chills when i see that. what are your thoughts? >> i was there on that day, evacuated on 9/11. my nephew was killed, a first responder. america always seems to have the right leaders at the right time. president george w. bush was the right leader after 9/11 and during the crisis. he brought the nation together. he took it to our enemies. whether it is president bush or whether fdr after the attack on pearl harbor, we're blessed in our government to have had great leaders rise to the occasion at the time we needed them most. charles: absolutely. brad, thank you very much. appreciate it. >> pleasure. charles: our next guest says the only democrat who could be good

for the market is mike bloomberg. we have george see, annandale capital. make your case there, buddy. >> it is an interesting fork in the road we have for the democrats. bernie is surging like crazy and people are looking to bloomberg as savior of a more moderate rational candidate on the left. i'm wondering if it is a kinard. bloomberg are liberal on social issues. i'm not sure he is quite as strong as he looks. on the economy he is by far the best candidate. he is pro markets, pro wall street, pro-business. that would be good for the country. on the democratic side i would rather see him. charles: he is runninging a as democrat. all the democrats are pulled to the left. one spending plan is multitrillion of dollars. they want wage hikes. he understands markets that he

would not govern like a businessman in the markets. i think that is the rub there. maybe he knows what markets want and need but he is not running for the stock market vote right now. >> it would be a little bit of both. he is the best house in a terrible neighborhood. that is the way you look at it. obviously a lot better off for the economy and the country from a business standpoint of trump gets reelected. if you have to pick your poison he is the least deadly poison on the other side. charles: what do you make of that? there is such a lack of appreciation for what markets do? almost every democrat candidate regurgitated the same thing. that the stock market. most americans don't own stocks, in fact most americans do. most americans are not impacted by a strong stock market, not realizing the correlation between the stock market and economy. they put down the stock market. almost make it a bad thing when it does well? >> there is tremendous level of ignorance and anger out there. we saw that at bernie's rally in

nevada. we saw the hijinks of ladies taking control until they get them off the stage. the left is pretty unhinged. they don't care about the general prosperity of american people. what they want is to redistribute wealth to people that don't have it for no good reason. that is what they're focused. that and social change for all their pet causes would seem to change on very regular basis. it is a bit of a scary time in america in terms of traditional values and priorities being cast aside by the left or attempted to be cast aside. charles: redistribution suggests they don't believe people can do it on their own. which should insult the folks out there who don't just want to make minimum wage. hold on a second. concerns about the global economy has investors looking to the u.s. i want to bring in susan li because we benefited from this. haven't we? susan: american exceptionalism alive and well. some see the u.s. is safest place to put money.

only place you put money back if you put it in. charles: thanks to president trump. susan: reference the university of michigan consumer sentiment showest highest number of americans stocks will go up. second highest read since 2003. there is lot of bullishness and money. u.s. fixed income saw largest weekly influx of cash into the economy. we've seen some big techs rally, right? record stock markets. look what is happening in the u.s. stock markets they're seen as a safe haven long duration play. charles: right. susan: where else do you find companies making this type of money. charles: they represent the future. thank you very much, susan. happening at this moment, spacex is launching the next falcon 9 rocket from cape canaveral space station in florida. elon musk, say what you will, he has done a phenomenal job with

spacex. mike bloomberg is moving up in the polls. poll from "real clear politics" has him in third place. we'll break it down next. new york city mayor is under fire again. endorsing bernie sanders for president. he is getting heat for the lead of mta. we'll break that down later in the hour. we're celebrating presidents' day. a presidential historian, we have got one for you, did president reagan, ronald reagan see such division that president trump now deals with? ♪ i'm your mother in law. and i like to question your every move. like this left turn. it's the next one. you always drive this slow? how did you make someone i love? that must be why you're always so late. i do not speed. and that's saving me cash with drivewise. my son, he did say that you were the safe option. and that's the nicest thing you ever said to me. so get allstate.

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was four years ago? i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. [laughter]. charles: even mondale got a kick out of that. looking back at some of president ronald reagan's performances and debates. author of, rising reagan, craig shirley. help us draw parallels like trump, reagan, both great debaters, but reagan's experience was knitting like trump as far as you see this deep-seeded animosity, hatred and division in this country? >> charles, the answer is yes and no. there was a lot of hate aimed at ronald reagan before, during and after his presidency. terrible things were written, like "the washington post" about things, the week of his funeral. they devoted the entire style section ripping apart him and his career. individuals, everybody from bette midler, everybody in between. as far as the hatred, can't go

any further than the assassination itself when john hinckley tried to kill ronald reagan, killed jim brady and wounded two other secret service agents, a police officer. john hinckley's legal counsel was filled with bunch of liberals including craig craig, later ted kennedy's chief counsel and president obama's chief counsel. and john hinckley walking around free even though the coroner said he murdered jim brady. the velocity of communications is more intense. you didn't have social media in the '80s. didn't have much of a cable television presence. we notice these things more now than we did. the hatred and venom aimed at ronald reagan was very, very intense. charles: craig, i look at things, every poll, i go into them, go into them deep or surveys, right? >> sure. charles: you will get the headline number. when they break it down by party

affiliation, it is mind-boggling. there was one out by gallop on satisfaction with the country. something like 87% gap between the democrats and republicans, just numbers you can't even fathom that we can be that far apart on how things economy is doing. irony, when you measure like things like age or we don't see that. >> that's right. charles: when you ask specifically along party lines you see that division? >> yeah. i agree with you. but the difference is, the reason is, neither party is static. both parties are dynamic. the republican party of today of 2020 is not the republican party of 1980. the very term reagan democrat isn't even used much anymore because most reagan democrats have become republicans. the republican party is virtually all a conservative populist party. the democrat party is virtually all liberal pro-government party. there is no overlap anymore. that explains the difference in polling of say republicans and independents and democrats in the 1980s, versus polling of

republicans today. charles: craig, what do you make of the notion that the animosity towards trump is so deep and so animated to your point, that there is anyone but trump thing going on over in the democratic side? that they're saying out loud, they're willing to accept candidates who have done things to their constituents that they would scream bloody murder if there was anyone else. they're willing to accept those things in order to beat trump. anyone but trump. that he is just that bad for the country in the eyes of progress serves and liberals? >> there is historical precedent here, charles. in 1972, the left hated, hated richard nixon. the left took over the democratic party and they nominated george mcgovern. the worst candidate they could have nominated instead of somebody more mainstream like hubert humphrey. in 1984, the left hated, hated ronald reagan. instead of nominating john glenn who may have stood a chance against reagan they nominated

walter mondale. both mcgovern and mondale lost in historic landslides. the left is taking over the democratic party. they will nominate the most left-wing candidate that guaranties trump's re-election. i'm not sure a guarranty. the party is a one-trick pony. the party of impeachment. donald trump has got the con could my. the american people pay not like donald trump but they love their 401(k)s. this will all help his re-election this year. charles: really appreciate it. thank you very much. >> thanks, charles. charles: mike bloomberg unveiled his social security plan. lauren, what's in it? lauren: automatic contributions for everyone. as well as a government match for low-income workers. a new minimum benefit so that all recipients are above the poverty line. a cost of living adjustment. it is more in line what senior citizens, elderly really need. how does he pay for all of this? higher taxes. increasing payroll taxes and increasing income cap.

charles: increasing payroll tax? >> i believe that was one -- charles: that is interesting. we'll keep digging into that one. bloomberg is moving up in the polls. where is he now, susan? susan: number three, believe it or not. "real clear politics" sanders leads. sappers with 26.6% lead. biden still number two believe it or not. with 19. bloomberg comes in at 14.2%. then you have elizabeth warren, pete buttigieg. people are speculation, is swirling. people will michael bloomberg make an appearance on the las vegas debate stage? all he needs is one more state or national poll putting him over 10%. because they scrapped grassroots donors. he might make his first appearance. amy klobuchar wants to see. she wants to hammer him on a few things. charles: has great momentum. raised 12 million since the debate thing online. a lot of people think she won the debate. look at individual state polls, good chance bernie will win

nevada, texas and come second south carolina. you wonder how they steal it from him. susan: super tuesday. charles: california and texas, two biggest states. he is blowing them away in early polls. if he were to win how could they take it from him? susan: that is a tough call. give him a chance to run forfeit he earned it. i think bloomberg would have something to say about california. charles: dems should listen to craig shirley. no, he may be a disaster. it is presidents' day. we're celebrating with he trivia. here is a question for you. name two presidents who have been in movies? the president coming up after the break. tweet me, cvpayne. don't cheat. mayor bill de blasio endorsed bernie sanders for president. the de blasio's new pick to head the mta doesn't even take the subway. we're all over that story next. ♪.

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and snoring? no problem. ... and done. so, you can really promise better sleep? not promise... prove. and now, during the ultimate sleep number event, save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus 0% interest for 36 months. ends monday charles: before the break, we did ask, can you name two presidents who standard in a movie? the answer is ronald reagan -- starred. the answer was ronald reagan who was actor in early life. donald trump made several cameos. although sever of them you can't see in canada. don't start with me, media matters. he is endorsing a candidate. lauren: take a guess. charles: drum roll, fellow comrade. lauren: he is campaigning for him already in nevada. listen to why in vegas yesterday. >> there is onely one candidate, brothers and sisters, i feel this in my heart there is only

one candidate who can bring together the coalition of working people, races, young and old, everyone. lauren: number one you have seen the state of new york city. does bernie sanders want mayor de blasio campaigning for him? that is one question. but number two, in some ways this makes sense because de blasio came after bloomberg. he can paint the income inequality picture best. he has a biracial marriage. he can talk a lot about things that base for bernie sanders wants to hear. charles: their pockets of the country might be interested in that. what about his pick for this subway chief? lauren: he nominate ad woman named lorraine cortez vazquez. she would be the head of the mta yet she doesn't take the subway. takes a private car to work. in her defense, city hall says this, her face is familiar. she takes the six train.

she is familiar with the bus lines as well. but, i mean, look, arguably, mayor mayor de blasio takes a lot of private cars to the gym. charles: she has eaten at subway. no? lauren: good one, charles. i'm sure she has. charles: speaking of out of touch. speaking of new york city subways there is serial thief thanking democrats. share this one, susan. it is crazy. susan: it is crazy. his name is charles berry. he is 56 years old. arrested 139 times. already the six times since the start of this year. we're only in february. guess what? he is released each and every time, there is new york bail reform law gone into effect. nor non-violent misdemeanor crimes you do not have to post bail, you get out of jail. this man, charles berry, has been known for swiping money out of commuters hand. been known to go up to them, hey, i pay for subway ticket,

take their money as well. he has been doing a lot of crime for a long, long time. he says bail reform, it is lit, yelling at reporters. it is easy for people like him. democrats no me. republicans fear me. you can't touch me. i can't be stopped. this is the results of these new changes in laws that have gone into effect here. remember this picture. charles: we will, unfortunately. we may unfortunately have to revisit this topic. thanks a lot, susan. february has been a good month for president trump, from successful state of the union and acquittal and impeachment trial. coming up a guest says it is going down in history. it is that good. people in new york city have been lining up to buy milkshakes for $18. that's right, a milkshake for $18. is this ultimate sign of a good economy? we'll break it all down for you, next. ♪.

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♪ yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away ♪ charles: i read trivia the other day, most recorded song by any of any song in history. susan: really? i believe it. one of the classics. charles: didn't know it would be yesterday? susan: we all heard it. charles: all right, folks, "yesterday quod beatles classic, some say the ultimate beatles classic, most recorded song in

history, all in honor of stuart varney. we told you about president trump's big week. the month of february worked out pretty well for him already. listen to what tammy bruce told stuart on this show last week. >> it was a perfect storm. things came together completely. everything ranging from the iowa debacle. a great state of the union address, the economy still was moving forward. you have the other problems of course with the democrats and their candidacies in general, some general chaos. then you also had interestingly, the collapse of the oscar ratings. charles: with us now, robert moran, brunswick group partner. robert, you have your own list of key events for this month. what are they? >> sure. i call them the february five. the five big things that happened in the first week of february that i think will go down in the history books. number one is trump's acquittal. number two, is the result in the iowa caucuses, and the meltdown there and very open questions about where we go next in the

democratic primary. number three trump's state of the union message which was a strong re-election message. four is the economy, and the great jobs report data, 3.6% unemployment. and five, which is the big question mark, the sort of black swan event which is coronavirus. charles: robert, let me go with five. i glad you brought this up. i saw is a survey out of morning cult, 61% approve the way government is handling this. only 23% did not. of the contrast with ebola, only 27% thought the government did a good job and 62% did not. this is something initially joe biden brought it up on one of the am pain stumps. since then i haven't heard a lot of democrats talking about this. americans feel like particularly the government and the cdc have done a good job? >> there are a couple things going on here. at least first, right now the

coronavirus appears to be mostly contained to hebei province and mainland china with number of growing cases outside. in the united states we have only 15 cases as of today. that i think number one is still a very small number relative to the population. i think the second is that the administration did very quickly start to shut down flights as a reaction which is what people worry about and what people were concerned about during the ebola outbreak. the question is not just, so, the first question is, does it continue to spread? that is a big health and economic question but there is another basic economic question, even if it is contained in hebei, what does that do to the growth rate coming out of china and asia and impact the u.s. economy? charles: with respect to president trump and the idea, the commander-in-chief, how they have handled this so far, dovetails nicely with your list. real quick, only time for one

more though, the economy, we have this university of michigan sentiment number out. the democrats, their expectations for the next six months have gone through the roof. nowhere near republicans or independents but significantly higher since september when this impeachment began. could this be though an area where people expect so much that it could be tough to deliver? success begets success, and we start to take that stuff for granted? >> no. if you look at all the underlying data in the economy it is really strong and the biggest predictor of a president's re-election is the economy and what is going on with jobs and economic growth and that is really trump's strength. i think only fear would be if the coronavirus virus slows us down and or impacts that growth. some of that is out of our hand? charles: some of it is. it will in fact be some impact in the first and second quarter no matter what. robert, thank you very much.

appreciate it. >> thank you. charles: two planes carrying cruise ship passengers stranded in japan have landed in this country. what is the latest, lauren? lauren: two planes landed and 14 have the coronavirus. that doubles the number of americans with the coronavirus. they were diagnosed as they wept from the diamond princess cruise ship in japan to get on two charter flights on the american air force bases where they are now and under quarantine for 14 days. there is lot of nervousness, should they leave the ship to get on the planes? as dr. siegel told you moments ago, in the past hour, they were not showing signs. that could be promising to the other what, 300 or so passengers around them on the charter planes. charles: you can't pass it on -- it is more communicable if you're showing signs. we'll see what happens there. thanks a lot. business is slowly starting to reopen in the region there after shutting down amid the coronavirus fears. susan, you have a list? susan: i would say macau casinos

are the big ones to watch when market reopens on tuesday. wynn, las vegas sands mgm have been hurt because macau largest gaming hub in the world. three times what you get on the las vegas strip. unprecedented 15-day closure because of coronavirus since lunar new year. this is something that will definitely impact a lot of these gaming stocks when markets reopen on tuesday. charles: we had the charts. they all rallied into wednesday, wynn and las vegas sands both got up grades as wall street anticipate anticipated this happening. we have the first deaths reported outside of asia there? susan: that's right t took place in europe. talking about the first chinese tourist who unfortunately died tragically of coronavirus in france and this is something that people have been talking about these, these quarantines for travelers that have been to china and maybe quarantining them for two weeks. charles: she was 80 years old? susan: 83. very sad though. it had impact on luxury

spending. most of the chinese tourists because of tax benefits and tax back, tax rebates. this affected the life of lvmh and gucci. already reeling by the hong kong protests. tourist arrivals in hong kong down 50%. one of the worst long stretches. the coronavirus doesn't help their business. they are already planning to take a hit from coronavirus. lauren: look at canada goose before all this, said sales could rise 25% this year. now they're saying they could fall over 2%. so up 25 to now 2. charles: they can't afford it. bernard arnault was scheduled to become the richest man in the world. probably will be delayed. thank you both, very much. one proof consumer confidence is strong. some people willing to pay $18, that's right, 18 bucks for a milkshake. jackie deangelis is here with the details. jackie, 18 bucks?

>> special all vegan shake. charles: does it have filet mignon in it? all vegan? >> no dairy in it. no eggs in it. not anything animal related so what is special about this shake it was in development for about two years. they have a creative director at black tap. you have scene the shakes on instagram. they taste it. they tried. tried it all different ways to get this right. this is testament to the trend towards plant-based foods, right? you can't be a restaurant or food provider in this city or a lot of other cities not provide this option to your consumers. actually a lot of consumers were asking them to make a shake like this because they didn't want to be left out in terms of the black tap experience. they wanted to go to the restaurant to be able to have it. black tap has other vegan burgers, other things you can have. they wanted to throw the dessert in. there is picture of me eating it. charles: that is a monstrosity. >> that is the price.

feeds whole table for dessert, $18 is not a lot. plant-based foods association expect the market to grow to $24 billion. is the trend here to stay? charles: bottom line, was it good? >> it is delicious. charles: let me know next time you go. >> i will. we'll share one. charles: absolutely. the president's celebration continues. up next we'll be joined by former president reagan associate deputy attorney general and we're going to ask him was there any unity during reagan's press dency? highly popular trivia app hq has been shut down. the investor went bankrupt. during the last game the host drunkenly asked for a new job. we'll tell all of it, asked for a job.

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♪. >> if you leak liberalization come here to this gate. mr. gorbachev, open this gate. mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall! [cheering] [cheers and applause] charles: president reagan delivering what could arguably be considered the greatest presidential quote ever. want to bring in bruce fine, former u.s. associate deputy attorney general to president reagan. bruce, ronald reagan was president during the cold war. was there a unity issue in this country back then? i got to tell you right now, seems no matter what happens under president trump, democrats

won't give them credit. in fact they continue to make him the central point of their running? >> they're certainly greater consensus then than now. even when you consider mr. reagan's willingness to deal with mr. gorbachev, the intermediate nuclear forces treaty is one example. he basically ended upsetting the stage for winning the cold war without fighting a single battle but there were perhaps the majority in the reagan admin who never believed gorbachev in fact was a reformer. they thought he would turn into just another brezhnev. you had the internal disputes but i think president reagan is to be commended for his calmness. he stayed steadfast with regard to the united states position in europe and basically the basically the soviet union under gorbachev just disintegrated by internal fighting and kay. charles: no doubt all%s have to make decisions to push back

within their administration. traditional lifts say it won't work because it hasn't worked in the past. american public is generally tasked to see something in the certain person running for office that can change the dynamics a little bit in washington, d.c., but we're talking about a president now under president trump who does not get any credit for anything that goes well. in fact, he gets criticism and even more. now we have, we have democratic presidential candidates who are saying that they would not have killed soleimani despite his track record for killing americans and the notion that he certainly had to be plotting to kill more americans? >> well you're certainly correct that the polarization, the automatic instinctive partisanship is vastly greater today than under president reagan. he had, even a swimming relationship with house speaker at time, tip o'neill. you certainly cannot say that between president trump and house speaker nancy pelosi. and there were situations where

the democrats and the republicans especially in foreign affairs came to a huge degree of unity. there was some dispute when he pulled our marines out of beirut after the iranian attack on the marine barracks that killed many but there was ultimate consensus as a country we needed to stand together rather than apart when it came to international affairs. that's what you're not seeing today. charles: right. >> even with regard to the iran-contra affair, it was a debacle, there was internal disputes whether you believe mr. khomeni, ayatollah in iran could be a moderate. still there wasn't any effort to tear the country apart. we moved forward, we got over it, and continued and the soviet union dissent greated. today it is inconvenable that you would have that level of harmony? charles: maybe one day we all learn more about presidential history, meantime, that is why we have people like you on the show, we appreciate it, bruce.

we thank you very much. >> thank you. >> susan what is it by mark zuckerberg wanting more regulation? susan: he has been noting this for a while. in "the financial times," zuckerberg says government should set principles and rules for how tech companies should operate especially in the four specific categories, elections, content, privacy, transportability. how much should tech company be given in terms of data. also political ads. what is considered a political ad? how do you engage it and determine the outlines and rules surrounding them as well. charles: right. susan: privacy. data portability. how much should information should a tech company be he extracting from a user. there are different guidelines for different companies. they're setting their own rules for their own company and should the government decide that? charles: cynics point out, he said this before, this op-ed,

not necessarily new per se, all he is trying to do is create a moat around the industry, because you will set the bar so high, no new companies would be able to have the lawyers or where with all to meet those rigid, more rigorous standards, it would cost them money short term means they would have the industry to himself? susan: he says this in the op-ed piece, regulations have unintended consequences. smaller companies that don't have the resources to adhere to the new rules. they will be caught up in this, the big companies will be the winners. the government has to decide how they balance whether you're promoting competition or you're trying to protect the user with the so-called new regulations. charles: susan, thank you. there is this. was all the buzz when first came out, that couple years ago, talking about this hq trivia. lauren: hq trivia. quiz show app. charles: people say what happened? it imploded.

lauren: it was so popular. had two million daily active users. what happened the lead investor backed out. the app completely ceased operations. 25 employees, all the company employees are without a job. the problem, comes from a former host, and i quote. management was incompetent and sociopathic delusions. so, there you go. really harsh words coming out of, coming at former -- i'm not sure who wrote that, what we're showing. that is what some of the former hosts are saying about the quiz show app. charles: the last episode they let them have it though, right? lauren: oh, yeah. the last episode they went off on the, on the app and investors. ownership and management. charles: oh, boy. thanks a lot. our presidents' day celebrations continue. i have got another trivia question for you. who was the president only two serve more than two terms?

the answer right after the break. the nba all-star game was held last night. it featured a big tribute to nba star kobe bryant. a basketball play they're has cancer will join us next. ♪. where we get to know the people that drive a company's growth and gain new perspectives. that's why we go beyond the numbers. t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

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charles: all right. before the break i asked which u.s. president was the only one to serve more than two terms and the answer is franklin delano roosevelt who served four terms before and during world war ii. nba last night, honoring kobe bryant by awarding the winning, the win to the team who got to 24 points first, in the fourth quarter. a whole lot of other things. i want to bring in boston celtics center emes kanter how much did kobe mean to the league? >> kobe was a hero, a icon and legend. what the nba did to him, honor his name in the all-star game it definitely meant the whole world. charles: i have to agree with you, but i have to tell you, obviously was a shocking tragedy. >> right. charles: but the response, but

the global response was overwhelmingly. just the love, the outpouring, the appreciation and, you know, there have been a lot of talented people who came through the nba and other sports. what do you think sort of distinguishes or sets, set kobe bryant apart? >> i think kobe was bigger than basketball. what he did off the court, built his legacy because he was all about giving back to the community. he was all about charity work. he was all about inspiring others especially when you're, especially where i'm from, turkey, if you were a kid you want to be like kobe. you make a shot you scream and say kobe. he was way bigger than basketball and the sport. that is why i think he was, that is why he was huge. charles: his drive to win and ability or his commitment to be the best. >> right. charles: i think one of the quotes that he gave in his last interview with jim grey, i'm

pair phrasing he wanted to be someone who excelled, who had great talent but excelled because of great work effort. >> he fav it every night, his heart. he cared about making his teammates better. that is what made his teammates special. obviously one of the best basketball players that ever played the game. what made himself better and he made everyone else better around him. that is what made him special. charles: we appreciate it, thank you very much. appreciate you sharing the thousand. >> appreciate it. charles: they call the daytona 500 the great american race this race reaching new heights with president trump at the track. lauren, it was quite a scene. lauren: it was rare and cool president trump the second president ever to say, gentlemen, rev engines. first to take a lap in what they call the beast. charles: the beast. lauren: armored limousine that is very heavy. grand marshal of the race.

the crowd you could hear them saying at time, four more years. the trump campaign took the pedal to the metal here because florida is the president east new home state. they put out some re-election ads. charles: we hear about the nascar moms and dads, great voting bloc, get you over the top. lauren: a lot of red hat as the race. charles: president trump was acquitted in impeachment trial earlier this month but has it had any impact on u.s. foreign policy? i will ask kurt volcker, former ambassador to nato coming up. we have a guest who says bernie sanders and alexandria ocasio-cortez are wrong. socialism is the cause of poverty, not the cure. plus president trump attending the daytona 500. he was the grand marshall. combing up in the next hour we'll talk to country music star john rich. buckle up. ♪.

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and so my fellow americans, ask not what your country can do for you. ask what you can do for your country. charles: it's presidents day and the man who wants to be your next president, bernie sanders, is asking for the exact opposite of what you just heard. he wants to know what more the country can give you. want to bring in justin haskins. jfk we know was a democrat and it makes people say golly, just how far left has the democratic party moved. can you explain it? >> yeah. there's no question that if jfk were alive today, he would have absolutely no chance in this democratic field of being named

the nominee in the primaries. he would be considered a moderate republican, in fact. i think he's rolling over in his grave listening to democrats embrace socialism while he was so ardently speaking against socialism. this is a guy who rejected advice from the far left to embrace more new deal policies while he was in the middle of an economic recession, and instead, embraced tax cuts which is something that you can't even begin to imagine the democratic party calling for now, including tax cuts for corporations and the top marginal tax rate from 91% down to -- he wanted it to go down to 65%. it ended up at 70%. these are ideas that would never be embraced today by the democratic party. charles: where does this come from, this sort of thing that if you are born in this country, the country is obligated to fund you cradle to grave? >> yeah. i mean, i think this idea has been growing within the democratic party for a very, very long time. it's a marxist concept, a

marxist idea. i believe the marxist socialist left in the united states has taken over the democratic party and they have been teaching in our public education system both at the k through 12 level and of course at the collegiate level for many, many years now these ideas that frankly, the society should be providing for you, you should not be taking care of yourself, and i think there are a lot of reasons why people believe this, but i think fundamentally, it's because the academic elite believe that they should be controlling your life, that regular folks are too stupid to control their lives, and that they know better than you do. charles: of course, you wrote an op-ed entitled sanders, aoc and other socialists are wrong, socialism is a cause of poverty, not the cure. so the faustian deal we are involved in now, make the case for those who believe the exact opposite. >> right. well, i think that the first thing you have to do is look at the history of the world. this is not a theoretical

debate. socialism has been tried for the past 100 years in every continent, among all sorts of different cultures, religious beliefs, demographics of every kind you can possibly imagine, and it's failed everywhere it's ever been tried, no matter who has been put in charge, no matter how intelligent those people have been. it has always failed because it's completely in contradiction to human nature and that's why it never works anywhere it's ever been tried. we don't need to have a theoretical debate about it. there are people who say look at scandinavia. there's an example of socialism working but the truth is, that is not socialism. if many respects, those countries have freer markets than we do. they have fewer regulations, their tax code that they have very high taxes but their tax code is not nearly as socialistic as many other countries in the world and they are not socialist countries by any stretch of the imagination. they have balanced budgets. these are not socialist countries. charles: yet bernie sanders is on fire, he's sizzling, you know, he looks like he's going

to win some big contests in the next couple of weeks. is it one of these things you think where some americans would have to live through socialism before they really understood the meth negative impacts? >> absolutely. i think unless we teach younger people, including many people who are my age, the truth about socialism, the history of socialism, unless we are teaching them the truth about that, the only way they are going to learn this lesson is by living through it, unfortunately. because our school systems are tilted so far to the left, i just don't see that happening. i think you are going to have a certain segment of society that embraces socialism until they see it with their own eyes fail. charles: you know, i keep saying that we are the only game in town. in fact, i want to share a chart with the audience. it's household value of stock holdings. take a look at this. you see the white part there, the spike? that's this year. investors have been flocking to the market from all around the world because of international concerns and now the average

household saying their stock investment's worth almost $200,000. it's absolutely remarkable, and still, the democrats are saying, you know, well, we should, you know, i think it's tough because they make us feel like losers, right, and the paradox is frightening, to me even un-american that people can be doing well and they will say well, you are doing okay but someone is doing better. >> yeah. that's true. i think the democrat party is openly rooting for the u.s. economy to fail because they know at this point in time, that's the only chance they have probably of winning in 2020. i think that -- charles: when you think about it, i agree with you that you are rooting secretly or not so secretly rooting for a recession, the last recession gutted america, that you would want this to happen, or someone who is making more money than they have ever made in their lives, you tell them they are not doing anything because someone else is richer. >> yeah. well, that's their only hope of gaining more power and that's ultimately for many of these

politicians, not your regular joe walking down the street but for many politicians, that's all that really matters, is getting more power, putting more power in the hands of the administrative state in washington, d.c. that's all they really care about. so yeah, they are rooting for america to fail because that's the only hope they have for being successful. charles: it's a shame. we have covered a wide variety of topics. you responded on them all. we appreciate it. thank you very much. >> thanks. charles: hundreds of americans are back in the u.s. this morning after being evacuated from the coronavirus infected "diamond princess" cruise ship. lauren, we know now some have tested positive for the virus, right? lauren: 14 of them. that cruise ship that was docked in japan was the largest concentration of coronavirus outside of china. as these americans, over 300 of them, were boarding these two charter flights to come back to the u.s. after the quarantine period in japan, 14 of them, additional cases of coronavirus, back here in the u.s. charles: wonder how many

contacted this during the quarantine process. keeping them cooped up on the ship would increase the likelihood more of them would contract the coronavirus. lauren: that's what a lot of them were complaining about. now we have the second part of their punishment, if you will, another quarantine of two weeks long in texas at one of the air force bases and at the other in california. charles: meanwhile, china pumping money into the markets to help stock the economic bleeding. susan: to protect against the economic damage stemming from the coronavirus. last night they cut the key funding rate which basically makes loans cheaper for companies that want to borrow in china. they have been spending billions of dollars, $300 billion in the first few days of february alone in order to i guess contain the spread of the economic fallout and that also has helped u.s. markets as well, since we hit record highs last week. that's thanks to a lot of the billions of dollars that china is pumping into its economy to make sure it doesn't seize up, because first of all, we know that businesses are closed, we know consumers are not buying,

most people expected a 2% decline in growth. it will have ripple effects around the rest of the world. but they are hoping when they open up the signatupigots, you sure the financial markets are working and don't seize up. hopefully that will be a short term decline. charles: the peoples bank of china and others in china suggesting hey, our goal, china 2025 and others, are still intact. susan: yes. let's spend the money first, make sure this doesn't get out of control. charles: next case, new polling from real clear politics shows that mike bloomberg is beginning to skyrocket. he's now in third. you can see it right there, ahead of elizabeth warren. while the other democrats on the screen, well, they are not happy about it. they tore into him over the weekend. you bet we will show you everything. and president trump took a lap in the beast at the daytona 500 yesterday. i say this president is a man of the people. i want to know what john rich has to say about that. speaking of the president, it's

a giant week for him. three rallies, phoenix, colorado springs and vegas, where the democrats are. i've got the trump campaign on that and is the president following the democrats to take press away from them? some would call it trolling. it's presidents day so we have trivia for you. who was the shortest president? susan: oh, come on. does it matter? charles: the third hour of "varney & company" rolls on. president trump warned the drug companies. it's unacceptable that americans pay vastly more than people in other countries, for the exact same drugs. but they aren't listening. they've just raised the prices of over five hundred drugs. president trump supports a bipartisan plan, that would force drug companies to lower prices. but the senate won't act.

tell senate leaders to stop drug company price gouging and lower drug prices now.

♪

if i get elected president, i will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and we will make america great again. charles: june 16, 2015, the day president trump rode that golden escalator at trump tower to announce his presidency and he changed the landscape of american politics forever. now, before the break, we asked who was the shortest president. any guess? it was the fourth president, james madison. he was 5'4". we have a tweet from another president, by the way, just came in moments ago. barack obama. we want to share it with you. 11 years ago today, near the bottom of the worst recession in generations, i signed the recovery act, paving the way for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in american

history. erin, president obama picking an interesting moment to take credit for this economic expansion. your thoughts? >> well, this economy, this booming economy, is a reflection of president trump's policies and not president obama's. president trump's historic deregulatory agenda, cutting back government bureaucracy to allow business and entrepreneurship to grow, historic tax cuts, the tax cuts and jobs act is helping lift this economy to soar into new heights. it's really rich to hear president obama say hey, i get credit for the economy but i don't get credit for -- he can't pick what lane he wants to be in but let me tell you, this economy is because of president trump, not because of president obama. charles: there's no doubt the economy began to recover under president obama but this is -- there are two distinct economies, i would suggest. even unemployment which was driven lower by americans leaving the work force, you know, that's often brought up as a key indicator but there's a

distinct difference, isn't there, when people are coming back to the labor force, when wages are rising faster than they have in almost two decades? there's a difference between rebounding and the kind of acceleration we are seeing, isn't there? >> that's 100% correct. we are seeing an acceleration of the american economy because of president trump. you mentioned it, we are talking record low unemployment for large demographics and for the entire country. we are talking about rising wages and for those in the lower quartile, rising at even faster rates than generations. that's not because of president obama. that's because of president trump doing big, bold policy initiatives like the tax cuts, the largest in american history, to put some fuel into this economy. this is a president who has also pursued trade deals that are fair for the american worker, that put the american worker and american business first. you c we are talking about usmca being on top, one that is opening up further markets for american traders and businesses here with

our top two trading partners, canada and mexico. this is a booming economy because of president trump. charles: it was a big week for president trump. on sunday he attended the daytona 500. next, he's going to go out west. he's going to larry ellison's fund-raiser, he holds his first rally of the week in phoenix. this while the democrats debate, then rallies in colorado springs and las vegas before wrapping it all up with the nevada caucuses. you know, what is it with president trump, is it just his instincts or as many people say, he's the best troller in the world? he follows the democrats to all of these states, iowa, new hampshire, now nevada. >> look, president trump certainly knows how to draw a crowd when he comes into town with a rally. rallies serve multiple purposes for this campaign. when we look at these three states, we are talking about protecting the '16 map and expanding upon it. we want to make sure we are competitive across the country. historically speaking, the data we get at rallies shows about a quarter of our registrants are

generally democrats. in new hampshire, the recent rally we just had, we saw that about 17% of registrants had not voted before. so when president trump comes to town, not only are we firing up the base, not only are we having the best party in town and right where democrats are, so they can see what we are doing so they get a little taste of what's to come, but we are also there to make sure we are bringing more people into the fold to win historic landslide for president trump. charles: tulsi gabbard was on this show friday and made her case for why she should become president. roll tape. >> i am the candidate that's bringing this unifying message, that's not based on hate, not based on hate for trump or hate for the other party or hate for any one group or another, but is building this coalition of support that's centered around love of country and the recognition that when we treat each other with respect as americans, bringing our different ideas and perspectives to the forefront, to solve these problems and to bring about this systemic change, then we can

accomplish anything. charles: what do you make of it, that many say tulsi has not been treated fairly throughout the democratic process, in part because she's not running on a hate trump platform? >> well, tulsi gabbard has her own problems with the democrat establishment and the democrat establishment has made it clear who they would prefer, but when she talks about a message, the actual message she puts forward includes medicare for all, includes kicking millions of americans off their private health insurance and forcing them on to one size fits all government health care. that's not a unifying message in this country. americans like their health care and they want to keep it. they don't want government to tell them what works best for them. with president trump, you see that not only did he remove the individual mandate, forcing people to buy health insurance they don't want or couldn't afford, but you also see short-term strategies that are working like limited duration health care plans to allow americans to have access to the health care that they need. tulsi gabbard has never had a

winning message. president trump does. charles: erin, thank you very much. appreciate it. folks, i want to talk about michael avenatti, the disgraced former attorney for stormy daniels. he was just found guilty of extorting nike for $25 million. we will break it down for you next and what will happen with him next. also, take a deeper look into how the media portrayed a criminal who just happened to be anti-trump. watch this. >> i'm going to say it again. mr. trump will not serve out his term, no way, no how, he will be forced to ultimately resign. ♪ hi! we're glad you came in, what's on your mind?

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charles: michael avenatti, the lawyer who represented stormy daniels, is convicted for attempting to shake down nike for $25 million, claiming nike illegally paid college basketball players. you've got the details? susan: he was found guilty of attempted extortion on services fraud and related use of interstate communications so he's set to go to jail for as long as 42 years with sentencing taking place on june 17th. this is not the only court case

that avenatti will be facing. on april 21st, he will be facing a court case where he's allegedly -- where he's alleged to have stolen $300,000 from stormy daniels, his former client, then he's also part, by the way, of another trial in california, a federal trial as well where he's accused of ripping off five other clients, one of whom is a paraplegic. so classy guy, as some people have said. maybe he wasn't the presidential candidate that he hoped to be. charles: the mainstream media did love him. lauren: twhaehey wanted him to for president in 2020. he was a fixture on late night tv, cnn, for instance. let's take a look at some of that. >> he's donald trump's worst nightmare. michael avenatti. >> mueller's not going to take trump down. i think avenatti is going to take trump down. >> donald trump is terrified of michael avenatti. >> michael avenatti for president in 2020? looking ahead to 2020, one of the reasons i'm taking you seriously as a contender is because of your presence on cable news.

lauren: the tables have turned, haven't they? charles: they have. golly, again, it was one of the recurring themes of today, sort of this hatred for president trump. certainly they took off their blinders, right, because there were some warning signs, i think? susan: a lot of warning signs. they do have egg on their face and that they should actually do more research than backing a candidate because of pure trump hatred in the future. do your homework would be a great thing. charles: i haven't heard any mea culpas yet. maybe i haven't been paying attention. you bring someone every single day, they've got the goods on trump, even stormy daniels is saying this guy ripped me off. that's an amazing turnaround. it's mind-boggling. all right. thank you both very much. next case, folks. we know mike bloomberg is raising or rising, rather, in the polls big-time. he's in third place nationwide. the rank and file, though, 2020 democrats, they are starting to take notice as well and setting their sights on him. they made their rounds on the

weekend talk shows and they simply brought the fire. we will show it to you. first, of course, we have to get to more presidential trivia. who said he was never going to eat broccoli again? now that he's president? well, we have the answer for you. you might know it already. ♪ what i love most about being a scientist at 3m is that i'm part of a community of problem solvers. we make ideas grow. from an everyday solution...

to one that can take on a bigger challenge. we are solving problems that improve lives.

i never liked broccoli. now that i was president of the united states, i was never eating it again. it caused a huge stir and i still hear about it today. >> there are truckloads of broccoli at this very minute descending on washington. >> the donation and delivery to the white house were prompted by a statement recently made by president bush that he dislikes the vegetable. >> my family is divided. i do not like broccoli. charles: i guess we can call it broccoli-gate. we did ask you before the break which president said he would never eat broccoli again. well, there you have it.

it was president george h.w. bush. now there's this. billionaires can have more shoes, they can have more cars, they can have bigger houses but they don't get a bigger say in our democracy. >> democracy to me means one person, one vote, not bloomberg or anybody else spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to buy an election. >> $60 billion can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can't erase your record. there's a lot to talk about with michael bloomberg. charles: the 2020 democrats now have their sights set on mike bloomberg, this as he is rising in the polls, but new comments from bloomberg have also resurfaced of him slamming democrats. susan, one thing the democrats love, apparently bloomberg, maybe not. susan: health care. obamacare. in fact, in 2010, mayor

bloomberg was not a big fan. he said he would do -- it would do absolutely nothing, he says, to fix the big health care problem. listen, shall we? are we taking a look? here we go. we passed a health care bill that does absolutely nothing to fix the big health care problems in this country. it's just a disgrace, the president in all fairness started out by pointing out what the big problems were, but then turned it over to congress which didn't pay any attention to any of those big problems and just created another program that's going to cost a lot of money. well, things have changed, as you know. in 2020, since he's just one national poll away from being on that big stage in the democratic debate, now he loves obamacare. in fact, he's proposing his own option, a medicare-like public option as well to offer up to those that can't afford it. so things have changed. he's fully embracing affordable care act as you see, mike bloomberg's support for president obama's aca couldn't be clearer. he lobbied for obamacare but wanted congress to go further than they did and declare that our health care system is broken and that's why mike has a plan

to expand, to build on the aca and provide universal health coverage while substantially reducing health care costs and extending access to health services. a lot of these quotes, i'm sure a lot of his past stances will be brought up at some point, whether it's this, whether it's stri stop-and-frisk -- charles: over the weekend, the article about how women were treated at his company. there's a whole lot of stuff that is fair game. want to stay on bloomberg. again, some of these past remarks sparking outrage. there's one this morning about farmers that really has people -- lauren: here's the thing. you can flip-flop on policy. you can evolve as a politician. but the way you approach, your demeanor, that's kind of sticking with you. speaking of demeanor, listen to what he said about factory workers and farmers. i can teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer. it's a process. you dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. you could learn that. the information economy is

fundamentally different because it's built around replacing people with technology, and the skill sets that you have to learn are how to think and analyze, and that is a whole degree level different. you have to have a different skill set. you have to have a lot more gray matter. lauren: he's being seen as being out of touch with americans who value their jobs of being a farmer, of being a factory worker. that can be paralleled and it is being paralleled particularly on social media with the hillary clinton deplorables comment. charles: right. right. all right. well, we actually had a guest on earlier, who had to say this about bloomberg. roll tape. >> he's the best house in a terrible neighborhood. that's the way you look at it. obviously we would be a lot better off in the economy and the country from a business standpoint in trump gets re-elected but if you have to pick your poison, he's the least deadly poison on the other side.

charles: want to bring in david avela. david, the left wing of the democratic party hating on bloomberg right now, does it actually help his campaign? >> keep in mind that the only time michael bloomberg has been on the ballot as a democrat is as a presidential candidate. he was a republican mayor of new york city. he was an independent mayor of new york city. he's never been a democrat until now. but this presidential race has been in the works for quite some time. the single biggest donor to the democratic party since he was mayor is michael bloomberg. as a party that continues to get outraised, for many of the establishment, the fact that he is willing to keep his operation up and running through november, whether he's the nominee or not, is very appealing, as they don't have any way to fund it otherwise. charles: i know we were getting to 195 state and local causes, there's a prestigious course at harvard run by bloomberg folks. a lot of these mayors,

particularly black mayors who have come out to support him, have all gone through the program. people saying these are investments on his part, others saying he's simply buying the election or attempting to. >> he is breaking all the norms of running for a presidential campaign, given the amount of money he's spending. think about the fact that no one got to be in the debate unless they met the rules. michael bloomberg comes along with a pot of money and all of a sudden the rules are changed. klobuchar and buttigieg would give their right arm to get the ability to communicate a message the way bloomberg is in that he has unlimited money. he doesn't have to do the debates. he doesn't have to do any of this. charles: we will see, because the strategy or the thinking is there will be a brokered convention, he will come out as the moderate candidate in part because of all the quote, unquote, investments he's made around the country and favors that may be owed to him. i want to ask about joe biden, though. he is banking on south carolina to win. he left new hampshire even before they finished counting the tally. but you know, his closest allies are predicting disaster for him,

you know, that he's just not going to -- he's not going to make it here and still he's in there. what do you make of that? >> joe biden happened to joe biden. his best day was the day he announced for president and that campaign has been on a decline ever since. in fact, the more voters focus on joe biden, the less percentage of the vote that he gets. we are in the final days of joe biden's third presidential bid. charles: apparently joe biden dropped 4% in one day in south carolina. so you know, it's this thing where if he doesn't win there, big, big, and i'm thinking if bernie sanders comes in second big, he might win nevada, he looks like right now he's leading in california and texas, how do they take this away from bernie sanders? it would be grand larceny in plain sight, political grand larceny as the world watches. >> he is the people's choice, if you count the popular vote.

he won the most votes in iowa, he won the most votes in new hampshire, but it is the rules the democrats set up known as the electoral college, if you are comparing it to the general election, that buttigieg is up there with him. to your question, they will ultimately defeat bernie sanders at the convention with their automatic delegates, the old super delegates that get to vote in the second ballot. bernie sanders needs to win it out or the establishment will take it from him at the convention. charles: amazing. we are watching grand larceny in real-time, political grand larceny. always a pleasure. thanks a lot. new york city mayor and failed presidential candidate bill de blasio has endorsed a candidate so who's this lucky candidate? lauren: he's back on the campaign trail, endorsing i think it took awhile, but bernie sanders. charles: comrade, mind if i join you on the campaign trail. lauren: he was campaigning for him in vegas over the weekend.

this is -- we discussed this before. you can look at this two ways. number one, i mean, should de blasio, does bernie want de blasio really stumping for him? but the second point would be in many ways, mayor de blasio does represent the hard left. you see what he's done here in new york city and a lot of his stances are similar to that of bernie sanders. charles: all right. there's a subway thief who has been arrested 139 times. yes, he was released after his latest arrest. well, he's crediting the democrats. tell us all about it. susan: this man on the screen is charles berry. he's been arrested 139 times, already six times since the start of this year. he's thanking the democrats because of bail reform. he says bail reform, it's the democrats know me and republicans fear me, you can't touch me, i can't be stopped. i thought we were going to bring it up, that full -- that full quote. but basically, bail reform has been changed since the start of this year, meaning if you have a

non-violent crime, just a misdemeanor, you don't face bail. this gentleman who has been known to rip off people in the subways like literally rip money out of passengers' hands and to steal and jump over turnstiles, he's basically feeling like it's a holiday for him. charles: it's a joke. it's a scary joke. thank you very much, susan. appreciate it. now coming up next, i've got kurt voelker on the show, special representative for ukraine. his first u.s. interview since testifying on the president's phone call with ukraine. now he's saying that it was a mistake for the president to withhold aid from ukraine. i will let him make his case, next. ♪ ♪

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[ cheering ] at this defining moment, change has come to america. charles: that was november 4th, 2008, the night president barack obama became the first black american to become president of the united states. now there's this. our next guest was involved in the trump ukraine impeachment circus. he says it was a mistake for president trump to withhold aid to ukraine. want to bring in former u.s. ambassador to nato, kurt volcker. mr. ambassador, does this need to be an impeachment effort because of the phone call that we all saw and did it lead up to

a crime and misdemeanor to the level that the democrats in the congress said it did? >> well, i think impeachment is now behind us. we have seen both the house and the senate perform their roles under the constitution and we know the result. what's important in this, though, is that as a result of impeachment, i believe that the u.s. ability to support ukraine and to be present in the diplomatic discussions has really been damaged. charles: to what degree the damage, because what became clear to the american people is that ukraine, you know, which relies on american support, obviously financial support, military aid and anything else it can get, you know, was in receipt of blankets and things like that under the prior administration and then we were talking about missile systems or weapons systems that could give them a more distinct advantage to push back against russian aggression. >> that's exactly right. as you said, under the previous administration, there was a ban

on sales or provision of u.s. lethal defensive equipment to ukraine. remember, this is a country that's being attacked by russia, 14,000 people have been killed in ukraine by the russian-led forces that are there. russia has seized two pieces of ukrainian territory and ukraine's armed forces were in desperate need of help and they were not getting that help from the u.s. in the current administration, the trump administration, that was turned around. we provided lethal defensive equipment, javelin missile, anti-tank systems, and have really helped train and equip the ukrainian military so they are in much better position to defend themselves. charles: overall on the world stage, this whole impeachment fiasco, it is over but it reverberates around the world. has it hurt our standing or you know, i heard the ambassador to germany actually saying, for instance, he likes president trumps strong stance on things and even his tweeting, that it makes his job easier. what do you think? >> i think that some of our

adversaries see the u.s. as being consumed by impeachment domestically. they see a lot of domestic turmoil here. they see some distraction. so they try to take advantage of that. i also think specifically in the case of ukraine, the team of people who have been working together to lead u.s. policy and support that on ukraine, all got sucked out of that as a result of impeachment and we are only now in a position to begin rebuilding that level of u.s. engagement and leadership, as we had throughout the earlier days of the administration. charles: ambassador volcker, thank you for sharing that with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. charles: now there's this. take a look at this video, folks. president trump taking to the track in the now-postponed daytona 500. i say this president is the man of the people. he's going straight for his supporters there, no politics, no fluff. what you see is just trump. then take a look at this. a trump maga car at the race yesterday. coming up, we have the driver on

the show. i want to know what kind of response did he get to that. also, we've got country superstar john rich on that as well. i want to get his take on trump, man of the people. he's also got a new show on the way, taking a look the aamericans and the hardships they face every day. in pursuit of the american dream. let's take a look at some. >> when we were deploying and getting ready to go over there, what did you feel like? >> it was very confusing. i didn't know what to feel. you know, you didn't want your nerves to take control so you would try to hold that back. for the second deployment, i would get hit by a roadside bomb and wake up six days later in the hospital unaware of what happened and two of my limbs were gone. injuries to my right leg, right hand, my jaw was shattered, my mouth was wired shut. i was prepared to die. i wasn't prepared for the in between. ♪

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that we've been hearing about for so many years. the tens of thousands of patriots here today have come for the fast cars and the world class motor sports but nascar fans never forget that no matter who wins the race, what matters most is god, family and country. charles: that was president trump at the daytona 500, the first time a president has attended the race since president george w. bush back in 2004. it was the first ever to give the start your engines command. want to bring in country music superstar john rich. john, you know how president trump, you have known him from your time on "celebrity apprentice." i'm thinking, i'm saying i believe he is a man of the people. i think people picked up on that from the cheeseburgers on the trump plane during the campaign, just the way he speaks, he feels more authentic than so many other quote unquote, politicians. >> i think you're right about that. when i was on "celebrity apprentice" back in the day, i

remember i was on an elevator with mr. trump and melania, it was the three of us on this elevator, we were going down and the elevator attendant at trump tower is standing with his back to us and mr. trump touched him on the shoulder and goes how's everything going, everybody being nice, you need anything, like he was checking in on his employees. i was like right on, you know. that was impressive thing about him. charles: yeah. and that show, we got a glimpse of this, you know, these tasks would be given out, he would come, he would evaluate things, but evaluate, it's not just -- wasn't just the money stuff. the people, the process and how people connected, he i wouldn't say instinctively knows this but he certainly understands in the way that i think has blown the political world up. they just don't understand it. >> i think he understands people's different skill sets, you know. if you want a team, you don't need ten running backs. you need one really good running back, you need everybody to do their part. and i think he's done a good job of identifying people like ben carson. let's get a guy like that in here who really understands what

he's talking about and wants to really help people. i think that is part of the equation of the success he's having right now. charles: stay there for one second. i want to bring in the man who actually drove the trump/pence 2020 truck in daytona. tim, you have it on right now. did you catch any flack for what you were wearing? >> no, not really. you know, nascar fans, they are excited, they were excited to have the president here and people were really receptive to what we are doing with this movement. charles: yeah. i got to tell you, it's certainly resonating. people still talking about it. it must have been good for you guys. >> it was amazing. it was a great -- it's a great opportunity and we're just proud to be able to do this for the president and put these cars and trucks on the track, and we are hoping to keep the program alive, especially in the battleground states as we move forward through the season. charles: thank you very much. we appreciate you coming on the show. want to bring back john for a

moment here. you've got a new show on fox nation called "the pursuit." tell us about it. >> it stems from something i've said a lot on stages and in conversations with people, and that is this country doesn't guarantee us the right to be happy, it guarantees us the right to pursue happiness. the fact that we are allowed to pursue happiness should inherently make us happy. you think about all the people around the world that have just as much talent, drive, intellect as anybody in america does, but they're not allowed to exhaust their potential because of where they live. in this country, we are allowed to go for it. doesn't matter where you start. dream big and work hard. so the pursuit, my show on fox nation, i sit down really incredible americans who have exhausted their potential, who have really pursued happiness, and overcome a lot of things to get there. you know, it's not easy to pursue happiness, to do something big. nobody's had it easy. charles: but it is an amazing thing to be able to do. in fact, we want to share one clip. this is with wynona judd. roll tape.

>> happy is an overmedicated person at the thanksgiving table. right? that's how i see it. because i was medicated, i know what it looks like to be sort of dormant, if you will, but still operating. to me, happiness almost feels like someone who is about to transition. they have peace, they have surrender, they have acceptance. don't be defined again by your circumstance. charles: the pursuit. can't wait to see it. congratulations. >> thank you, sir. charles: really appreciate you. >> appreciate you. charles: more "varney" right after this. ♪ . .

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is flying somewhere over america on a well-deserved vacation. lauren: rub it in why don't you. i know where that person is going. charles: where? lauren: i can't say. charles: do they serve the vegan 13-dollar milkshakes? neil cavuto, over to you. neil: but they serve alcohol. markets are closed. we're open for business. something that could affect markets gripping much of the world. coronavirus you know the drill. for latest on that, that could influence trading tomorrow, get to jonathan serrie in @atlanta. reporter: two flights that is righterred by the u.s. state department came back to the u.s. they were carrying 300 americans evacuated from the diamond princess that cruise ship under quarantine at a japanese port. during the evacuation process from the ship to the airport in