sure. dagen? >> nbc news teamed up with google, a monopoly, to de-platform, de-monetize and ultimately shut down two news organizations, conservative. it's unethical, likely illegal and it's election interference. maria: there you go. bottom line. that does it for us. "varney & company" begins right now. stu, take it away. stuart: you're dead right. good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. actually, real estate starts our show today. we will get to the market in a moment, but the developments in housing are very promising. looks like a sharp rebound for some people, property might make a good alternate investment to stocks. here we go. first thing this morning, we heard about a big jump in mortgage and refinancing applications. that includes a sharp increase in the number of people looking for a mortgage on a first-time home purchase. also, first thing this morning, a significant rise in housing

starts. that means demand up for mortgage applications, supply going up in the future. that follows a remarkable improvement in the outlook for home builders. they are much more optimistic. the housing rebound would give the overall economy a real boost just when it really needs it. now let's get to the market. again, look at this. we are going up again, not much, going up at least at the opening bell. the rally continues. the dow up maybe 70. s&p, maybe 10. nasdaq, better gain, up nearly a half percentage point. that's a 46-point gain for the nasdaq. okay. the fed is printing money. there's a new stimulus plan in the works. retail sales saw a huge increase, a positive news development on virus treatment plus real estate and you add it all up, you've got a continuing stock market rally. we've got a big show for you today. the president's re-election hangs on the economy which is coming back strong. so why is he trailing joe biden in the polls?

we will address that. social distancing is the big holdup for going back to school, going back to the office, going back on public transportation or even making a profit if you run a restaurant. how do we get back to anything like normal if we have to keep six feet apart? we will address that, too. the "new york times" and the democrats, they have a woke problem. free speech, not allowed. i've got an opinion on that. "varney & company" is about to begin. we will soon be in a stronger position than we were before the plague came in from chi china. when the numbers reach the point and i know they will, we will again be a great unity and great spirit in our country. people will have that job back they might have lost.

they will be making even more money than they did before. you'll see next year will be one of the best economic years this country has ever had. stuart: that's the president, bullish as ever about our economic recovery. now more numbers to back him up as we were saying from the housing sector. there are signs of life. lauren simonetti, this is mostly positive developments. why don't you start with mortgage applications. lauren: they rose last week, the most in 11 years, up 4% on the week, up more than 20% on the year. talk about refinancing. they have doubled in the past year, up 106% thanks to ultra-low rates that are here to stay through 2021, according to fannie mae. but there are challenges in the market. a big challenge right now is supply is not meeting the demand to move, the demand for new homes. as such, we saw may construction of new homes rise 4.3%. a decent number but not enough.

keep in mind two things here. number one, it's may. some workers in some states are just getting back to work. construction was just restarting. also keep in mind the red tape. it takes a lot of permitting, a lot of costs to build a home. you have to work with local and state regulators. so positive signs but they need to add more supply to this market to keep up with this raging demand. stuart: i see permits were up 1.2 million i believe in the latest month. that's a good sign for the future, i would guess. thanks very much indeed. positive stuff on real estate there. come in, d.r. barton. if we've got a comeback for housing market, surely that means opportunity for investors. i take it that's why you like home depot. >> you're right, stuart. you have hit those numbers really well. one of the things they're showing us is an up and coming trend. we will see people staying at home to work, working from home, saying i don't need to live in

the city anymore, i can move out to the suburbs. that migration is going to give a big boost to companies like home depot, who are already killing it during the crisis. home depot's same store sales up 6.4% year over year. that's just unheard of for an established company like them. so they are already doing really well. good trend coming and lots of new permits, everything happening in the construction business. home depot is one you've got to have in your portfolio. stuart: today, home depot is at $252 a share. does it go to where? where does it go to? if i buy it now, where's it going? >> i think we have upside based on those comp numbers, based on these trends. we've got upside for 20% more on this stock in the next 12 months. stuart: that's about $300 a share within 12 months. all right, d.r. we will leave it there for now. i will get back to you shortly. i want to stay on the economic recovery. for a start, look at the number of new jobs created in the month

of may. a surprising, a huge 2.5 million. then we have that retail sales number, another big winner. sales at what, 17.7% in may. david avella is with us, republican guy, go pac chair. david, you say the economy will be president trump's biggest re-election draw and we are indeed expanding the economy. but democrat-run states, they are reopening slowly. i don't want to be a conspiracy theorist here but do you think the democrats are going slow on the reopening deliberately? >> no. they just are misguided in how to bring about the economy, which is no surprise, if you look at their history. what we do know, though, is consumers are going to drive and are driving this economy. think about five months ago, when we were having very good economic times.

you had a race that was at 1%, 2% between trump and biden. now, if this economy continues in the direction it's heading, you are going to see a very close election this november, but as long as the president and republicans continue an economic message and talking about what we're doing to help revive the economy, we are on message. every day we're not talking about that, republicans are off message. stuart: all right, david. one more for you. new polling, it comes from realclear politics, the average of all polls, they show biden with an eight-point lead over the president. biden has been on the upswing lately. president trump has been sinking. you can't just dismiss these polls. >> rubbish, to use a word you know well. what we just said. if this economy is back strong or showing good signs of recovery, that's republicans' best message because what is

capital one? capital one is certainty. it is the policies that have been put in place by this president and the congress that have put tax rates where they are, that encourages more businesses to bring jobs back to america, which goes to the message of we need to have more of our supply created here in the united states, which will create more jobs, which will have more paychecks returning which will give people more money to put in their retirement account. a strong economy is the republicans' best message going into the fall election. stuart: david, thanks for joining us. see you again real soon. next case. i'm going to get to the latest on the virus. i'm going to put a map on your screen showing the states that have seen increases in new cases as they reopen. ashley, take me through the numbers. ashley: well, there you can see the map, stu. as you notice, they are all in the southeast, states that really got the reopening process under way first, in the first

round. they were very eager to get going. now we have seen cases rise in oregon, they are trying to contain an outbreak in oregon linked to a church. also health officials say the reopening of the businesses, memorial day weekend, protests gathering, testing, increased testing, all have contributed to a rise or spike, if you like, of cases. they hit record highs in six states, including those there. nevada saw its highest number of daily infections since going all the way back to march of -- march 22nd. all in all, there are those that say look, we are opening too quickly but these states say yes, but it is being contained. yes, there is more testing, yes, there will be more positive results but some -- in some cases, certainly in texas, some of the icu units are being put to the test, as in tucson, arizona.

a report there that they are quickly running again out of icu beds. so all in all, yes, we have seen some higher single day tallies. yes, these are in the states that opened the fastest but health officials in these states say so far, they do have it under control. stuart: got it. ashley, thank you very much indeed. back to d.r. barton. you say we're not going to see new highs on the market until the virus is contained. are you talking about a vaccine? >> not at all, stuart. i think that we have to see some of these numbers that ash was just giving us start to -- we have seen them flatten out, start to drop a little bit. we have seen that in europe. there's a bright light of hope that they have the message that they give us is that if we do the right things with distancing and use the tools, that they are going down but we've got another huge piece out yesterday that you hinted to early in the show. the dexamethasone, we have a

steroid that is helping people who are having trouble getting their blood oxygen levels up, helping them a lot, reducing death rates in a 6,000 person trial at oxford university and stuart, that is good news. i think that's one of the reasons the market picked up again yesterday afternoon. stuart: we will get it. thank you, d.r. see you again real soon. check boeing real fast. let's have a look at this. this morning it's down four bucks, $194 is the quote. they are the subject of testimony on capitol hill this morning about the max jet. and qatar airways says they won't buy any more max jets. the stock is down. how about futures again, please. a modest gain at the opening bell. pretty much across the board. nice gain for the nasdaq, though. up maybe a half percentage point. conservative website the federalist forced to shut down temporarily its comment section because google deemed it dangerous and derogatory towards black lives matter movement. and get this. nbc news is now under fire over

their reported involvement in it. we will explain it. chop protesters say they have the right to take over part of seattle. what about the law-abiding citizens and business owners who are trapped inside? we are on that story. we will deal with it next. >> dial 911 asking for the police to come. police didn't come. we design and engineer in america. and assemble more vehicles here than anyone else. it's why at moment's notice we can take american ingenuity and our manufacturing capability and put it to work. building respirators, ventilators and face shields. building what we've been building for over a century. an unbreakable connection

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de [ chanting ] stuart: fox business alert. you're looking at hundreds of protesters who shut down the important fremont bridge in portland, oregon overnight. they were calling to defund the police. today, the portland city council will decide whether to slash $27 million from the portland police

budget. meanwhile, in seattle, some business owners are caught inside the so-called chop zone and they have had enough. watch this. >> i dialed 911, i'm asking for the police to come. police didn't come. we're not trying to escalate this. we're trying to protect our property. we're trying to just maintain our business and function as a business, family business that has families that work here. it's the police department's job. there is no police presence that i've seen. stuart: ashley, come into this, please. seattle building a wall? ashley: well, what they have done actually by taking down temporary barriers and putting up concrete ones is reduce the area of this area on capitol hill from six or seven blocks down to three blocks. it's the first time in weeks the traffic, as you're looking at this video, you can have pedestrian traffic on one other. the first time as i say in weeks that traffic will be able to

move past that shut-down police precinct. it's been blamed for severely hampering emergency services. this will free that up. it's now capitol hill organized protest, chop. it used to be called chaz, as we know. whatever you want to call it, i would call this a sign of progress because as we say, the main area that's been locked down has now shrunk and also traffic and pedestrian traffic is able to move more clearly. by the way, the seattle city council voted unanimously to ban the police using chokeholds, also from using tear gas and pepper spray to control crowds. so seattle police no longer allowed to do that. but the occupation, if you like, goes on but on a perhaps smaller basis. stuart: okay. i don't know what they are going to do with it in the long term but it goes on for now. thanks, ash. on capitol hill, congressional leaders are quote, deep in discussion with the white house about a fourth stimulus plan

costing, according to fox business, around $2 trillion. andy biggs, arizona republican, with us now. sir, are you in favor of spending another $2 trillion or $1 trillion or whatever it is, are you in favor of more spending? >> no, sir. i'm not in favor of more spending. i think there are other ways to stimulate the economy such as tax policy, regulatory policy, reducing red tape and here's a number to remember, stuart. $26 trillion. that's the size of the national debt today. throw another $2 trillion in by the end of this fiscal year, we will be sitting between $28 trillion and $30 trillion in national debt. stuart: let me make this case to you. the president needs a vibrant economy by november to win the election. a vibrant economy might need more government spending in the next few months. would you be in favor of it to get him re-elected? >> stuart, i don't think we need to spend more money to get him re-elected. i think the economy -- the fundamentals of the economy are

right there. you saw it in the job creation in may, those numbers. you see it when the states that are opening up, you are seeing people coming back to work. nou wh you know what you need to do. you need to get rid of that incentive pay to stay unemployed. that's what you need to get rid of so people will come back. i just talked to people yesterday in my state. they said we can't get people to come back to work for entry level jobs because they are getting that bonus payment. i think we can do this without spending a whole lot more money. stuart: in your state, arizona, the number of virus cases increased over the past week after arizona lifted a lot of restrictions. would you consider a new lockdown? i know it's not your call, but would you consider a new lockdown for the state or for parts of the state? >> no, i don't think that's necessary, either. i'll tell you why. we do have more detected cases of the virus but here's some metrics that you need to be aware of. the same percentage of testing

positive is what we had during the lockdown so you had the range between 5.5% to 7% positive. that's where we are during the open period. that's an important metric. why? because it tells you that we are testing more people and we are still getting basically the same rate of positive cases that we had during the lockdown. but people don't take into account the other problems. people like getting chemotherapy, increased domestic violence, increased child abuse, increased drug and alcohol abuse. all those things that were going on during the lockdown that are going to be eased because people can get back to work and restore their lives. this is a tradeoff people don't even want to talk about. stuart: congressman, thanks for joining us, sir. be seeing you again soon, i'm sure. thank you, sir. all right. staying on the virus subject, susan, you've got an update on -- or renewed lockdown in beijing? susan: we have 1,000 domestic flights being canceled in and out of beijing. schools have been closed, people living in high risk districts are prohibited from leaving

their homes. total cases now, 137 after a record number were found in beijing. this stems from one of the largest fruit and vegetable markets, in fact, it supplies around 80% of the food and vegetables that beijingers in the capital use. there are concerns that it might be spreading. in fact, if you look at some other provinces, four of them have now prevented those from beijing traveling there. talking about provinces across the country in different regions across the country. so there are concerns of a second flareup and how this might impact the economy. so we have 356,000 so far tested in beijing but you know, if you listen to the head of the de facto beijing mayor, he said it's a very grave condition in his words. when he says something like that, obviously that sounds pretty dire, don't you think? stuart: i do, but it's interesting that a second wave, you might call it that in beijing, has not hurt our market here.

in fact, investors here don't seem to be paying much attention to it at all. that's an interesting movement there. susan, thank you. look at futures. we are still on the upside but only just. 50 up for the dow, 33 for the nasdaq. holding right there at 10,000. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ that's why i've got the power

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as of now, since we have temporarily removed our comments section, i can assure you they will be back, we are back in google's good graces but this is a pretty terrifying example of the power that you have between the unholy union of corrupt media and monopolistic tech oligarchs. to see this come from actual journalists who claim to believe in the first amendment, that was remarkable. we were able to stop this. now, most people, 99.99% of people who get canceled or de-platformed by these marxists they don't have any recourse. it's what's happening to them that's the real crime. stuart: that's pretty strong stuff coming from the federalist co-founder, sean davis. google threatened their comment section. did google object to the federalist and its opinion, any opinion on black lives matter? susan: not the federalist's opinion on black lives matter but in the comments section of those that subscribe to the federalist. it's a back-and-forth story,

very complicated. i read the nbc news article, then i read the fox news article as well to try to put them together to show both sides. initially, from what i understand, google was notified by nbc news of research that was conducted by a british nonprofit that found that ten u.s. web sites including the federalist was actually posting these racist articles. google actually looked into this and they found the comments section of the federalist and they say it actually violated their policies, according to nbc news reporting, and that they were de-monetized. after fox news inquiries, we had google say actually, that's not true. we never de-monetized the federalist, it was never de-platformed from google and they are backtracking saying that after the comments section was removed, everything has been remedied and it looks like the federalist is back up and running. here you go. never de-monetized, continuing to run as intended. we have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads that run on which includes comments on the site. as for zero hedge as well, which is some would say a far right

group, some see it as financially based, but zero hedge was actually de-platformed and de-monetized last week, suspended because of some of the conspiracy theories that they say violates -- some of the conspiracy theories are published in some of the articles they post, they violate google's policies. stuart: it looks to me like another example of conservative opinion being censored by google and other platforms. that's the way i see it. censorship of conservative free speech opinion. staying on that, we have facebook putting labels on political ads. what's that all about, lauren? lauren: they are going to keep that label on the political ads so you know this is from the trump campaign, this was from the biden campaign. they will keep that label for when people share an ad. they are also giving users the option in the next couple weeks to turn off all political ads so you can ban seeing them, you can block them. let me tell you how much this is costing facebook. the trump campaign this year

spent $34 million on facebook ads and the biden campaign spent $24 million on such ads. in a sense, biting the hand that feeds them but opposite what twitter is doing which is banning all political ads completely. stuart: thanks, lauren. they are ringing that bell. you know what that means. the market is about to open this wednesday morning. here we go. it is 9:30 eastern. we are off and running. right from the start, we've got some green, certainly for the dow industrials, a gain of, what, 50 odd points right there, a fraction of 1%. we are at 26,300. how about the s&p 500? where is that in the early going? that's up .25%. nicely green. the nasdaq is showing a much better gain. the nasdaq composite, home of the techs, up about half a percentage point. let's have a look at the big tech names from the get-go. looks like they are doing well. yes, they are. amazon, microsoft, apple, google on the upstiide. facebook down just a buck. that's all it is. the airlines, all over the place recently. this morning, they are in the

red on the down side. tangent to that story, boeing, there's a hearing on capitol hill this morning about the max jet. that's the subject of testimony. i don't think that's affecting the airlines generally but it is affecting boeing's stock. the winners on your screen. take me through them, susan. start with roku. susan: yesterday roku bounced some 13%. talk about a big rally. this is on hopes and rumors and speculation that maybe alphabet might be buying roku which is a set-top box maker. they have 40% market share growth rates that are huge. as you see, we are still trading below the 52-week high. some investors see value in this stock. as for what we saw with beyond meat, one of my other picks as well, beyond meat is offering now a pack for your weekend grill, in case you wanted to look at that. i know you like meatless meat. beyond meat trading below its 52-week high. people have seen tremendous growth in this. there's a big market share or first mover advantage for beyond meat. we know mcdonald's is getting into the game as are others and

this meatless meat market should be going ten times over the next five to six years, and so people see, you know, these winners right now that people haven't really paid that much attention to, but should since they really performed well for a lot of portfolios over the year. stuart: got it. thank you, susan. let's move on to the real estate story which we have been putting out strongly this morning. real estate appears to be on the upside. there are some winners in the real estate market. go through them, lauren. lauren: d.r. says that home depot will hit $300 in a year and he might be on to something. i was just looking at realtor.com data for the month of may. people searching for a suburban zip code, up 13% that month. more than doubling the rate of cities, for instance. people are buying homes with space, they need to fix them up. also want to show you wayfair here. very close to an all-time high. sales volume has been so big for this company, as you know, you are sitting home looking around your home office and saying i need a new desk, they actually

increased the number of customer service representatives to answer the phones to handle the returns by about 27%. so they are adding workers. stuart: i just remember when wayfair was way, way down and people wondered if it would survive. look at it now. all-time high or very close to it because of the lockdown. we are ordering furniture at home. got it. now, i understand that there's a lot of cash coming into the stock market from the sidelines. ashley, you have been covering this. how much is coming in? ashley: i have. a ton. let me give you a number. 20.4 billion. this was the money inflow into the market, into mutual funds, equity focused mutual funds. that was the largest one-week inflow since 2007. there you go. that money on the sidelines getting into equities, despite the fact investors have been calling this market overvalued. apparently not. now take a look at hedge funds. in may, their exposure to net

equity was up 52% in may from 34%. this is the exposure the hedge funds have in equities. there's just a little sense of where the money's coming from and by the way, a survey of cash levels among fund managers which was done by the bank of america showed the biggest drop in more than ten years. they didn't have the cash on hand. they were actually investing it in equities. just gives you a sense where's the money coming from for these markets. that gives you an idea. stuart: it also brings up the idea of tina, t-i-n-a. there is no alternative to stocks. you want to put your money somewhere with a rate of return, stocks are the place to be. tina, tina. check that market right now. we have been open for three, four and a half minutes and the dow is up about 80, 90 points. that is .33%. where is the yield on the ten-year treasury? this morning it's down slightly at .74%. the price of gold this morning,

still around $1730 per ounce. right at that level. the price of oil, $37 a barrel this morning. oracle, they took a hit, a big hit, from revenue declining last quarter. new deals slowed. the stock is only down a buck at $53. that's oracle for you. now, apple reopening a lot of stores. i think that's a very good idea. the stock is up today, susan. susan: well, we know fifth avenue is among the stores, also new jersey and new york. our executive producer justin is very happy. wil willowbrook, is that the one you're going to? i don't want to give out too much information. he might have some people trailing him. yesterday we saw an advance of 3% as you said, that's huge for the largest company in america since it's already $1.5 trillion worth. according to a lot of analysts, look, we have a street high target price of $400 apiece and every time you have seen an apple stock break out which is

what we are looking at right now, $354, it's actually rallied 170%. so extrapolate that, we have 40% to go from here and analysts see maybe apple going to $490 with a 40% increase. then it drops by a third, then breaks out again to a new high. you have to take the ups with the downs but for a company of this size, it's pretty impressive. stuart: you know, i think that apple hits a new high if it hits $355.40. susan: correct. stuart: you are looking at about 80 cents away from an all-time new high for apple this morning. susan: don't forget, that represents 5% of the s&p in total, 20% of the s&p if you include microsoft and amazon. so as these technology companies go, that helps lift the benchmarks. stuart: extraordinary stuff. thanks, susan. let me move on to amazon. testing a new device that monitors social distancing at warehouses. got any more on this, ash? ashley: yeah. they are testing it at one

warehouse in washington state today. it's essentially a plastic sleeve and you get too close the a co-worker, it starts to beep and give you -- and lights up, telling you you're too close to a fellow worker. amazon says the employees at this warehouse are not being told they have to wear it. it's purely by choice. if they do, they just return it at the end of the day. also using a camera hooked up to a monitor that also sounds an alert if you get too close to your co-workers. let's not forget, amazon was under a bit of pressure early on in the epidemic by claims of some employees who protested saying they weren't doing enough to protect their workers, and they also by the way are using humans to monitor workers at their warehouses who will keep track of people and if they are getting too close to each other, they will sound the alarm. there you go. plastic sleeve that lights up and beeps. i want one of those. stuart: keep away from me, ash. all right. thank you, ashley. all right. by the way, we just turned south, just a moment ago. the dow turned negative.

we had been up, what, 70 or 80 points, something like that. now we turned negative. now we just turned positive again. all right. dead flat. shall i call it that? yes, i can. still ahead, big show for you. still to come, fox news anchor martha maccallum on president -- on the president calling to restore law and order across the country. indiana senator mike braun, his state is seeing a spike in new cases. what does he think about that? former acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney is here as well. i will ask him about the letter that top conservative leaders sent to president trump demanding no more spending in the wake of the virus. what does he think about that? first, though, check overstock.com. the place where you can buy discount home goods. they are a huge pandemic winner and the ceo of the company joins me next.

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stuart: all right. 12 minutes in, where are we now? ever so slightly higher for the dow and the s&p 500, solid gain for the nasdaq. that's up half a percentage point. can you show me, please, norwegian cruise lines? i think -- yes, it is, way down. lauren, why are they down so much? lauren: yeah. they are taking down the entire cruise sector because they say they are not going to resume sailing until at least october. they keep pushing this timeline back. i've got to tell you, i don't think it even matters because the cdc has the no sail order that goes through july 24th and they said on monday they have no idea when they are going to update that. they don't know when it will be safe to cruise again. while royal caribbean is hoping for august and carnival is looking to august as well, it doesn't really matter what any of them say if the cdc says you can't sail. stuart: that's right. all of them go down. you're right, carnival, norwegian, royal caribbean, all of them on the down side big-time today. how about cine-world?

they own regal entertainment. ashley, i believe they are reopening their theaters this summer but tell me, what are they doing about social distancing? ashley: yeah. it's an awkward one, isn't it. they say they are going to update their booking system so you can make sure you are, you know, spread out appropriately. also, if you go to the cinema, they reduce capacity. they haven't given a capacity number but it has to be reduced if you are going to spread people out across the theater. they say they are also going to adapt their schedule of daily screenings, putting on more movies which is also going to cost more money to stop or avoid crowds and also, of course, they will be doing enhanced cleaning. it's been a desperate time for cinemas. all the cinemas across the globe and of course, here in the u.s., have been shut down. some have been close to bankruptcy. they are desperate to reopen. by the way, they have big movies, wonder woman, 1984, the latest bond movie and let's not forget top gun maverick. there are some movies that will attract people, but expected to look a little different inside

the cinema. stuart: i wonder if you can cover your cough if you cansts fill the theater. i don't think you can. that's what the market is telling us anyway. thanks, ash. i want to talk about overstock.com. that company is a huge lockdown winner. their sales rose 120% in april and may compared to last year. and new customer growth rose 100% since the start of this year. overstock.com's ceo is jonathan johnson and he's with us now. sir, congratulations. you are a huge winner but the obvious question is, as the lockdown eases and we are all getting out and about again, can you keep this up? >> well, that's the big question. historically, online home furnishing business has kind of grown 2% year over year. it was at 23% at the beginning of this year. we think it's up closer to 50%

now. we think a lot of that will stick. people still aren't ready to go to the malls, to go to the furniture stores, to sit on couches, lie down on beds testing them. we really think online is the place for home furnishing. stuart: honestly, i entirely agree with you. i think people's shopping habits changed profoundly during the lockdown and i don't think they are going back to the old style of shopping. i'm with you, sir. i'm with you. i think you're on to something here. so what do you think is your growth rate in -- now that the lockdown is winding down, you've had this terrific growth rate over the last couple of months. give me a growth rate in july and august and september. you got a target? >> well, those are always hard to predict and we are in unknown territory. i will say that halfway through june, we are still seeing really, really nice growth in our top line sales. look, i think this is here to stick.

i think shopping habits have changed. you know, we're going to see strong, i would think, strong double digit, high double digit growth through the summer. but always hard to predict, you know. this is unprecedented times. stuart: congratulations on your stock price performance. i know you are the ceo and probably can't comment on it but as i understand it, your stock is around $2 and spare change in the middle of march and this morning, you are at $23. i'm sorry i missed your stock. i wish i could have jumped on board and bought. i didn't, but man, that's done really well. you got a piece of it? >> i do. i bought some in march. it was way undervalued. i will tell you this. we are benefiting from the tail wind of stay-at-home mandates but i do think over the last nine months, our increased focus on execution has really helped. we are a better business now than we were a year ago, than we

were before the pandemic. i think there's a lot of growth potential here. stuart: well, i will leave it at that, jonathan, because i just want to say congratulations. great performance and terrific stock performance to boot. come back and see us again and give us an update in the summer, please. >> will do. thanks, stuart. stuart: see you again soon. thank you very much. all right. the biggest hit -- i want to ask this. want i want to ask this question, see if we can get the answer. who took the biggest hit during the pandemic lockdown? was it clothing stores, for example, or restaurants and bars? i think lauren's got that look on her face. she knows the answer. what is it? lauren: it was clothing stores. stuart: really? lauren: sales went down by 66%. because you can't do takeout and delivery and just recently, you can do curbside pickup when it comes to buying clothes. restaurant and bars fell lby 40. i know you want to know, will we ever wear real pants again, with buttons and the answer is yes. you saw the retail sales data

yesterday for may and clothing sales were up 188% from april to may. this sector will recover. we will have to lose weight but it will recover. stuart: it's pennt-up demand. count you couldn't do that kind of shopping before and now you can. lauren: i went to do a return yesterday afternoon at nordstrom rack in new jersey, a discount store. the line inside, there were markers but it wrapped twice around. that's how many people were buying stuff. i just left. i said i will return it by mail. stuart: good lord. ever heard of online shopping? we will pursue that later. i'm going to show you, ladies and gentlemen, a live look in the middle of new york city, sixth avenue. that is sixth avenue at 9:49 eastern. fairly empty. experts predict a surge in traffic as states ease the lockdown. are people who work in big cities going to ditch public transport and drive themselves to work?

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stuart: here it comes. today, the hit video game fortnite launches season three. people like me need to understand how big this is, so let's bring in our gaming expert. always good to see you. you know what you're talking about and i don't. how big will this be? i ask the question because i understand there was a launch of some sort on youtube and a streaming service. how big was it? >> okay. so these numbers were actually pretty massive. at the end of fortnite chapter 2, season two, there was a device in the game that destroyed one of the buildings, the island, and 12 million people actually watched this within the game itself. there would have been more people had it not been for server capacity issues. and another eight million people watched it on livestreaming platforms like twitch and

youtube. stuart: that's extraordinary. that's huge. that is absolutely huge. again, i don't think a lot of people like myself, we don't understand how big this is. is it something, this fortnite, is it just growing and growing and growing? >> yeah, well, it is, in the sense that if you take a look at fortnite, to call this game a battle royale game really belies the ambitions of epic games. they are actually trying to transform fortnite into sort of the next facebook. it's going to be a social space. they have had concerts with huge musicians like travis scott, dead mouse, et cetera, even christopher nolan debuted his movie "tenet" on fortnite. stuart: that's from epic games, correct? >> yes. stuart: one more for you. there's a video game, a new one, i believe, that can help people with adhd. i think you play it for 25 minutes a day, five days a week. does it work? >> yeah, it actually does. this was a really fascinating

discovery. so this game called endeavor rx is the first fda approved video game treatment for a medical condition ever. apparently this was, the research for this was done, it's like a multi-center randomized clinical trial published in the lancet, a very prestigious medical journal. if you play every day for about half an hour it can help improve the symptoms of adhd in kids age 8 to 12. stuart: that is extraordinary. tian, thanks for sharing all this interesting information with us. we will see you again real soon. thank you, sir. all right. >> my pleasure, stu. stuart: let's go to the "new york times." i say they have a woke problem. free speech, not allowed. that's my take. it's next. . . .

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stuart: half hour in on a wednesday morning and we got a mixed bag to report for you. down 20 on the dow. down one on the s&p. up 37 on the nasdaq composite. all pretty much break even across the board except big tech is doing well. a couple of market movers, what may move the market to tell you about, the top guy at the faa will testify on capitol hill discussing recertification of boeing 737 max jet. item two, there will be robert lighthizer, he will speak to the trade committee on china trade. either of those testimonies

could move the market. if and when it does we'll tell you about it. all right. now this. what is going on at "the new york times"? it is very similar to what is going on within the democrat party. the older folks who run thinks are under attack from the younger newcomers. old line liberals, trying to hold on against the new woke generation. you don't hear much about it. they don't publicize their grit divide but "the new york times," start there, that is still reeling from the forced resignation of a very senior guy, james bennett. he ran "the times" editorial page. he dared to run senator cotton's article on using the military to quell urban unrest. young staffers revolted saying black reporters fear for their lives. sulzberger says he regrets forcing bennett out but it was necessary. so the woke generation at

"the times" dictates what opinions may or may not be printed at liable of liberalism, "new york times." same for the democrats. speaker pelosi most senior democrat in the land always has to run policy ideas past the squad the four member far left group which includes alexandria ocasio-cortez. they don't quite have veto power but they certainly pulled the property to the left. not all democrats are happy with this what is going on here is the suppression of what may be called moderate opinion. it is the suppression of what used to be called the silent majority. express an opinion at "the times" their woke crowd doesn't agree with you can lose your job. you do lose your job. express an opinion among democrats that aoc doesn't like, you will get a primary challenge. aoc will raise money to get you thrown out of congress. it is all about free speech. it is fading away. beaten down by the radicals who just can't handle any opinion

but their own. liz peek is with us. she has something to say about this. liz, to me this is a crisis of free speech. do you see it that way? >> i absolutely do, stuart. i think it is incredibly frightening. our country was founded on the principle of free speech, seeing dissent suppressed which we're seeing not just by democrats, not just in the democratic party but across the country is absolutely terrifying to me. this is the way totalitarian states get started. they shut down dissent. by the way we're all complicit in this. across the country universities allowed young people to set the agenda, to determine who can and cannot come to speak on campus. this has been going on for decade. most of us looked the other way. so you know what? democrats are sort of trying to suppress this now and good luck to them because this is a generation raised to think they were in control because they

were right. they don't know, they don't know about the other opinion. they have never heard it. so shame on us for letting this happen on our schools. stuart: okay. you wrote a piece yesterday i think it was for foxnews.com. it was about the silent majority. it was a huge hit, i hate to use that word, you got extraordinary readership. half million people read it in the first two hours. that is unheard of. what exactly were you talking about? >> i was talking about, what you were talking about, people are afraid to speak out. they are afraid they will be shamed and bullied on social media. that they will lose their jobs. look the way the whole country is basically silent on the looting and pillaging of black neighborhoods that too took place after the terrible death of george floyd. no one is a, everyone afraid to speak up about that because you will be pilloried as racist. anybody who is basically disagrees with defunding the

police, tearing down our statues and monuments in public squares, you're a racist. if you stand up to those things but guess what? polling shows that majority of americans really do oppose defunding police. they oppose taking down these statues. yet everyone is silent, stuart. they're afraid. stuart: they're afraid. liz, you should submit your piece to the "new york times" editorial page just to have some fun. okay? >> yeah. stuart: liz peek, you're all right. come to see us again real soon, liz. thank you very much. >> thanks. stuart: now, we got some positive news on the housing market earlier today. a huge jump in mortgage applications and refinancing applications, that has not worked towards moving up the stock market at all. but it really has helped some of the homebuilders, again. mortgage applications, refi applications, moving straight up. lauren, you've been covering this for us. what is this about more people moving to the suburbs?

is this fleeing the cities? lauren: yeah it really is. realtor.com says people are searching for listings in the suburbs. that number in may versus last may up 13%. in rural areas up 16%. so what do we want? we want space, a backyard and we want privacy. you know this concept of open floor homes, well that is not working anymore. people are literally putting up walls so they can create a study. no vaulted ceilings. i love them. they're beautiful. we don't need the extra useless space. we can make that a media room or game room. we're reconsidering how and where we live. stuart: the impact of the virus lock done is extraordinary. it goes on and on to all sectors of life. i find that fascinating. the economics of this is fascinating too. what it does for the overall economy. john lonski is with us, he is an

economist. john, i want to know am i right, a, there is resurgence in the housing industry and b, if i'm right does that really add to the overall growth rate of the economy going forward? >> you are correct on both points, stuart. the first one there is resurgence of housing demand. we just had the highest weekly reading for homebuyer mortgage applications since the mortgage bankers association changed their estimation methodology back in 2011. that is great news. applications are up 20% from a year ago. for the overall economy, more home sales mean more spending on furniture, appliance, building materials, et cetera. that will help the overall economy. and it will deliver, help deliver a v-shaped recovery. yes. if covid-19 is contained. stuart: that is what i i want to get to. do we need to contain the virus

before we see a sharp v, a sharp upturn in the economy? is containing the virus vital? >> i think what's vital we don't have another resurgence of hospitalizations associated with the virus. it is reasonable to expect as we reopen the economy, we're going to have more covid-19 cases. what matters is that the severity of the new illnesses. my hope is that those that are most vulnerable to covid-19 are protecting themselves. they're wearing masks. staying away from crowded situations and so on. young people get it. be sick for a while. they will get over it, no big problem. let's face it we got to move on f we can manage any upturn by covid-19, positive for the economy. stuart: okay. suppose we can manage the virus, there is not a huge surge in

hospitalizations. suppose that the housing market really is improving, green shoots are going to flower, what kind of growth rate can we have for the economy by the end of the year? >> i think by the end of the year, we're going to be looking at a growth rate, perhaps of approximately 10%. i think in the second half there is a good chance that the average annualized growth rate for the economy will be well in excess of 10%. right now the consensus thinks that the u.s. economy will shrink by nearly 6% in 2020. i think they're wrong. i think the shrinkage will be something under 5%. for next year the consensus says growth of 4%, that too is probably going to be wrong. you're going to have growth betweenan 7%. so you're on board with president trump we're getting much better towards end of this year and ex-er in yield be an outstanding year, you're on board with that.

>> he is exactly right because you're building upon a very low base. it is reasonable to expect that you are going to see relatively rapid growth rates later this year and into 2021. stuart: okay. john lonski, you've been right in the past and we hope you're right in the future. thank you, john. >> thank you. stuart: i'm putting netflix up on the board. it has got a 7-dollar gain at 443. bank of america merrill lynch has a target price. susan, is it what, 525 for netflix? susan: yes, that is up more than 20% from these current levels. the reason bank of america, merrill lynch reiterating bullish out look, no one is canceling it, they had record number of subscribers first three months of year. they are expected to continue for rest of the year. there is metric call churn, from subscribers viewers, it has been less than past two years.

netflix is the best performing stock for the last decade since nasdaq hit 10,000. that is one of the main reasons why. owner reed hastings announcing he is donating $120 million to educational institutions for people of color. stuart: is that accurate, susan, netflix is the best performing stock on the nasdaq the last 10 years? susan: yep. that is absolutely correct. we're talking about a few thousand percentage point gains. if you put four bucks into this it would be worth a lot more. i would say close to $1000 i guess. stuart: i can't do the math. susan: one dollar. 2 to 3,000 percentage gains. so the percentage gains. not in terms of time. that is still a lot of money, 2 to 3,000%? where do you find that these days? stuart: i did not see it coming. i certainly did not. netflix at 443. we have a big show lined up

here. martha mack mag -- martha maccallum to talk about the sea at that time he will anarchy. what about mick mulvaney talking to conservatives about spending more money. what does he think about that. baseball players don't want the 2020 season to be played. what is up with that? we'll tell you. hospitalizations on the rise in texas. does that state need a second shutdown? texas congressman lance gooden says no way. he makes his case next where will you go first? wherever you make go, lexus will welcome you back with exceptional offers. get zero percent financing and make no payments for up to 90 days

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♪ stuart: we're all in the green but not by much. up 26 on the dow, up four on the s&p but that nasdaq is doing okay. that is a 46 point gain.

half a percentage point. big tech is okay. look at uner and lyft. they're holding up pretty well. not that great. as people return to work maybe we'll see more cars on the road because commuters might not want to use public transportation. they might drive themselves in anyway. kristina partsinevelos, what have you got on this? reporter: stew, it might be a distant memory for you because you go in really early in the morning, remember sound of honking, your car moving at a snail's pace? for a lot of people once they start going back into work, we could start to see more cars on the road. there is one expert i spoke to that said your morning commute could get a lot worse. listen in. >> traffic is surging back but not transit and what we suspect is happening a number of people who previously rode transit are now in fact driving.

reporter: to add to his point, across the country we're starting to see subway users down, more specifically here in new york city. the mta said there is literally 80% fewer people taking the subway compared to last year at this time. so definitely a massive drop. so in order to insure safety here they're testing out real-time air filtration systems. but overall, if you're watching right now, you're wondering is my city going to be bad? who gets bragging rights? we have a list of some of the worst congested cities across the united states, boston making the top. last year people lost 149 hours stuck in traffic. that could get worse if people, commuters change the way they travel. they no longer take public transit and opt to get in the car. you have got chicago, philly a close second and third over there. stew, on with this, more cars,

more news, more traffic that could fuel a lot of city dwellers to get out of the metropolitan cities post-pandemic. so the onus is on local governments to come up with new strategies to stop the congestion and avoid a coronavirus armageddon. stuart: exodus from the cities, a lot of people will want to work from home to avoid the kind of traffic you're talking about. i can see it coming a mile off. kristina, a great report. thank you very much indeed. now this, the justice department following the president's lead on soes media. susan, this is about liability, isn't it? susan: they're trying to roll back lee protection as lot of tech companies enjoy, under section 232 communications act passed in 1996, under that law tech platforms are not generally legally liable for actions of their users in very narrow circumstances. department of justice not only curbs when it comes to bias in

conservative speech, they want to make this more sweeping as well. some of the legal protections they want to remove, they want these tech firms to be liable for federal criminal laws, online scams, trafficking, illicit drugs. they also want the tech platforms to be i guess, to not have these defenses when it comes to antitrust claims. so they can say we removed it already. the doj actually wants the you had this on your platform. you should be liable for this. this doj proposal needs congressional approval. we know democrats have been hesitant on this topic side along the republican line. so we'll see if this actually gets any further from here. stuart: it is a lobbiest paradise, isn't it? you start making a move like that, the lobbyists will be out in force. you can see it coming a mile off. all right. thanks, susan. get to texas where virus hospitalizations are on the rise. in total they have 2326 confirmed hospitalizations.

that is since the pandemic started but there has been a big rise just in the last few days. texas congressman lance gooden joins us now. do you think that any part of texas or the state as a whole needs a second lockdown? >> absolutely not, and those numbers you cited are a result of increased testing. it stands reason more people you test, the more positives will be identified. our prisons have been infected for months now. they're finally gets tested. so those numbers are going up. the hospitalization number you cited, we're not even approaching halfway or a quarter of capacity. there is absolutely no reason to go backward. really the whole purpose of this shutdown originally was to slow it down, make sure the hospitals could cope. our hospitals are coping just fine. we have plenty of capacity and we're not opening back up because we think the virus is gone or perhaps it is safer. we're opening up because we can't afford to stay shut town anymore.

there is no appetite to move back to close things down across the state of texas. people are sick at being at home. they can't afford being at home. businesses are struggling. this really hurt people that have to physically be at their work place. yesterday i spoke with someone who borks at a salon. she hasn't made any money the last two months. not like some people who can take their laptop home and still be productive. there are people who really suffered and we can't afford to close back down. stuart: no going back says congressman gooden. how about this? the house and, congress is talking about with the white house maybe a two trillion dollar new stimulus plan. here is what arizona congressman andy biggs had to say about it last hour. bear with me, congressman. roll that tape, please. >> you need to get rid of that incentive pay to stay unemployed. that is what you need to get rid of so people will come back. i talked with people yesterday in my state. they said our biggest problem we can't get people to come back to

work for entry level jobs we're paying 15, 16 bucks an hour for because they're getting a bonus payment. i think we can do this without spending a whole lot more money. you heard this, congressman, think they can do this without spending a whole lot more money. are you in agreement? >> absolutely 100%. it is absolutely crazy now that economies are opening back up we are paying people, encouraging people not to work. small is abouts are struggling. they can't get people back to work. interesting proposal came out, was floated by the white house this week of incentivizing people to go back to work that have jobs. i would be much more inclined to vote for something invent size people going back to work rather than incentivizing them staying at home. stuart: you don't object to any and all new spending you object to spending which might keep people at home for longer, can i summarize it like that? >> you absolutely can. that is a job well-done. stuart: thank you very much but the objective from your point of view is to get the president reelected and for that you might

need to spend some money, right? >> yes. and to be clear, my objective to do what is best for the country. i think combined with all the other things that will help our economy, reelecting the president is at the top of that list, yes. stuart: congressman lance gooden you always answer questions directly. we like that. >> thank you. stuart: thank you very much indeed. i have to have a quick check on the stock price of tesla. it is moving recently. it is on the upside now as the overall market goes down and yet, susan, i am told that new registrations for tesla cars are down in california. why is that? >> susan: not just in california but across the entire country. for the month of april, may, if we bring up the graphic, they were down 16% in april. so in total 37% dropping in april and may. as for california itself down 16% in the mon of april, down 70% in the month of may. so it sounds pretty bad. actually they outperformed the

rest of the car sector. most other cars recorded something like 50% on average in both those months combined. nationwide, yes we're looking down 43%, because fremont was closed only car producing plant in california. people were stuck at home. they weren't in the mood to buy new cars. analysts think tesla might miss the 500,000 sales delivery target for this year. something elon musk prided himself on. they will get to something like 430,000. look at china, china is holding up better. china went through coronavirus two to three months in advance of the u.s. you can see the restart, reopening lifted car sales of tesla over there. they recorded a record in the month of may for model 3 deliveries. stuart: tesla stock at 986 as we speak. pay attention to the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. this is the low of the day. we're down 120 points and falling as we speak. this will end, if we close like this, this will end a three-day

winning streak. the dow is back to 26,100. then we have indiana, they have got a spike in virus cases since they started phase iv of the recovery. 440 cases reported on tuesday alone. that's indiana. do they have to shut down again? i will ask the question. first i'm talking to the ceo of the national restaurant association. he says you operate at 25% of capacity, and you're going to go bust. more on that in a moment. there seems to be a massive disconnect between... ...what's going on in corporate america and what investors are believing is going on in corporate america. the message to you: don't trade because you think you're gonna to get rich quick. because you...

stuart: well we have come off the low of the day but we're right back to it now. we're down 122 points for the dow industrials. a small gain though still being eked out by the tech companies on the nasdaq. quick check of apple please. earlier today they were at 354. now they're at 353. they will reopen more stores especially high population areas like new york city, the big one on fifth avenue. it is going to reopen. investors like it. facebook, they're putting labels on political ads. no impact on the stock that i can figure out. it is an overall down market and facebook is down three bucks. let's get to gasoline a favorite subject of mine.

the national average is, $2.10. if you're in mississippi that has the cheapest gas, you pay a buck 74 for a regular gallon of gas. that is mississippi for you. i wonder if we're using more oil, drawing down our supplies because we will turn it into gasoline and we're driving more? we have latest numbers on oil in storage, taken out on storage. what have you got for me, ash. ashley: in a word to that question, no. we had a build of 1.215 million barrels. we're expecting a very small drawdown, stu. so a build in inventories. but as also pointed out the gasoline stocks were expected to go down a little bit. they are down 1.6 million barrels. that is a lot more than expected which suggests that the more people are driving than taking public transportation. stuart: yeah. so we're driving more. using more gas. so there is a drawdown there. ashley: right. stuart: but the frackers are

pumping more gas, and more oil. they're producing it and it is going into storage? that is what is going on here. it's a split story. thanks, ash. all good. retail sales as we told you yesterday, a real surge there, up 1.7%. what about -- 17.7%. what about the struggling mauls, what happens to them in this environment? jeff flock in the middle of it for me. what have you got, jeff? reporter: your favorite topic, the retail ice age but this pandemic turned down the degrees a few. a lot of malls are like this one. this is place called river oaks center outside of chicago. much of it is shut down. the malice open. jcpenney announced that it is going to close its store here as well. it is one of two anchor stores left. look at number on closings, store closings. 2018, less than 6,000 stores closed. it was already a retail chill. last year we were at 9500, 9500.

this year, latest report says it could be 25,000 additional stores close. biggest losers are pier one. goardmama and bealls. victor why secret, gap, jcpenney, 200 stores. those places are huge. children's place another 200 stores. the list goes on and on. 25,000. there is just not going to be many stores left in malls and this could be a scene that you see in a lot of places. empty shopping, parking places and shopping centers that, i don't know, maybe plow them down and raise corn or something. stuart: this was a trend before the pandemic. before the lockdown. reporter: exactly. stuart: lockdown is much, much worse. we all go to do online shopping. the malls take the pain for it

all. reporter: even i had been on loon shopping and that is crazy, i hate that. i like to go pick something up and feel it. take it home with me. you can't do it. stuart: i think people have changed and shifted almost permanently. i think that is the way it is. jeff, great report as usual. we'll see you soon. thank you, sir. restaurants around the country, they're starting to reopen, we got that, but my next guest says they will struggle to survive with social distancing, restricting capacity to 25 or even 50%. tom benet is with us, national restaurant association ceo. tom, are you telling me if i've got a restaurant and i can only open at 25% capacity i'm going bust? >> well, good morning. thanks for having me. look i think the capacity topic is an important one because it depends on the restaurant type obviously. 25% many restaurants cannot just operate in a profitable rate.

50% you start to see some, you know, able to do some things especially with outdoor seating but reality we need to get all restaurants open. stuart: what do you want? a change in social distancing rules or more money from the government to tide you over? >> i think it's a combination of things. the social distance something really about creating an environment where both employees and guests can feel safe and comfortable. we work very closely with the states and health departments on what the right social distancing is. i think that, it is important that we start with being safe first and foremost. related to the industry -- stuart: social distancing is keeping your restaurants unoccupied and unprofitable. that's the real problem here, isn't it? >> well the reality is we need to be safe and if they have another outbreak or, you know, a second wave, that will be more problematic for the industry. so we need to do right things now, following those guidelines are very important for all restaurants, quite honestly all businesses to insure we don't

have a further outbreak. stuart: tom, forgive me, of you have almost got to say that haven't you? if you don't say that, say come back on to my restaurant, i will give you a great meal, sit down, enjoy it, if you say, that you will get a lawsuit because somebody will come in, you didn't maintain social distance, you are sued. that, you have got to say this, haven't you? >> well, not that at all, stu. reality we're trying to create the right environment. there are people that want to get out. everyone is dying to get out, with their favorite restaurants with friends and family. they want to feel safe and comfortable. the great news about the industry they have the best certification and training already in place because of all the food safety requirements. we partner with the fda and cdc for years. fda food code is in place. a lot of grade things are already in place. social distance something about citing environment so we don't have a repeat of what we've already had that would be devastating to this industry. much more so than we've already had. as you know the numbers are pretty devastating already.

stuart: they are indeed. tom i think you're between a rock and a hard place but we wish you well. we wish you could come back strong because you're part of the fabric of life in america. we wish you the best of luck. tom bene, national restaurant association. >> thank you. stuart: now for something -- see left-hand side of your screen, this is something completely different. i am told i can buy a robot dog like that one. is that true, ashley? ashley: it is. it is very monty python, isn't it. now for something completely different. spot the robot dog. we've seen video of this. the creepy video of this for quite sometime now. first introduced about five years ago but now you can buy it. to get to the real point, it costs $74,500. for that you don't need to house train it, don't need to feed it, or walk it. it is actually use the on construction sites and for areas that are more hazardous for

humans to go. it can run five feet per second. it has cameras with eyes with 360-degree range ever division. yes, it is dust proof, waterproof. boston dynamics if you want one of these, it is in business. you can preorder. rain and dust protected that is spot, mere 74,500 bucks you can have one. stuart: thank you very much. thank you very much undeed. ashley: yes indeed, yes. stuart: not sure what i would use it for. sure looks interesting. shall we put it like that? all right, thanks, ash. it is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. it is even more dangerous with the pandemic and the riots. here is what many truck drivers say they need right now to keep them safe. we've got the story for you. portland, oregon will vote to defund its police today after a night where hundreds of protesters shut down a key bridge, fremont bridge near portland. race will be no doubt one of the biggest eschews heading into the

election. more "varney" after this. >> go down a list of criminal justice reform, all of the things we've done, opportunity zones, best unemployment rate in the history, just before the playing came in. when you look at economics nobody has done anything like we've done ♪

♪ yeah ♪ ♪ y-yeah ♪ ♪ yeah ♪ hey, hey

stuart: both president trump and joe biden are fighting for the black christian vote. so let's bring in lieutenant colonel allen west who happens also to be, welcome back, allen. good to see you again. he happens to be the chairman of the texas republican party i did not know but i've just been told. sir, welcome back to the program. good to see you again. i hope you're well? >> yeah. good to be out of varney timeout and to be back with you. i'm not the chairman yet. the election for chairman of the republican party of texas will take place on july the 17th. so i'm a candidate for that and, thank you for your thoughts and your prayers.

just three weeks ago i was in a catastrophic motorcycle accident. i'm a walking miracle. stuart: yes you are. many ways actually. now then, if you're an african-american and you are a christian, who gets your vote in november? >> well, if you listen to joe biden, if i were to say donald trump, i'm not black and that's very condescending and offensive. because i think it is important for the black community to look at their principles and their values. they have to look at the hit of the democrat party. when you look of the failure of the great society programs and government overreach programs you have seen in our urban senters that have been run by democrats for the past 60, 70, years it is a no-brainer. you think about the policies of president trump such as the economic opportunity zones, the education opportunity scholarships, support to historical black colleges and universities, criminal justice reform, it's a no-brainer. so i think that what the left is trying to do is insert this

issue about racism because they know the president has done very well in the black community, especially, and they want to try to undermine his success. stuart: now in the last election, 2016, i believe that then candidate trump got about 8% of the black vote nationwide. now, do you think he will get 8% or more this time around? i know you say he should but bearing in mind what has been happening in the last few weeks, do you think he will get more than 8%? >> i do believe that he will get more than 8%. the president's approval rating in the black community has been hovering anywhere from 25 to a high of 34%. stuart: now i have not seen that. i have not seen that, allen. i did not know that. which poll showed that? is it reputable poll? >> yeah. very reputable polls. as a matter of fact van jones after the state of the union address this year he said that the democrats need to be put on

notice because of all the things that president trump showed in that state of the union address. think about it. offering an opportunity scholarship on the spot to a nine-year-old girl from a single parent household from philadelphia. the congressional black caucus members sat there with scouring faces. you're seeing an incredible impact in the black community. now covid-19 has had an adverse effect on some of those economic advancements but when you look at the health effect the of covid-19 in the black community, we've always known that the black community has suffered from hypertension, diabetes, type-2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity is a problem. so we have the underlying medical conditions again these are cities run by the democrats for 60 to 70 years. i think the president will get 15% or even higher going into this election. stuart: if he did, then the democrat would lose because unless the democrat candidate gets 90, 95% of the

african-american vote they can't win. allen, really good to see you back on the show. i'm glad to see you're looking like a walking miracle. great to see you again. >> appreciate it. stuart: yes, sir, see you again soon. better check the market. we've come back nicely. the low was a minus 120. now we're a minus 63. the nasdaq still holding to a nice gain. 1/3 of 1%. the airlines have been all over the place recently and i noticed that southwest airlines today is down like the other airlines but, lauren, aren't they putting out a report saying that things are looking up at southwest? lauren: yeah. well, southwest is down today. it is performing much better than the rest of the airline stocks and it is up 13% this month. this is what southwest had to say. they increased their outlook for june for capacity and revenue. the rate of change might sound great, you still have to realize they're expecting june revenue to be down between 70, 75% versus last year.

where is the profitability in an equation like that? also they're keeping their middle seat open through the end of september, which means for the airlines, the way out of this, it will be long because social distancing is going to be here for quite some time. stuart: and that is the big factor here in the comeback. i will have more on that a little later on. but let's move on from the airlines. let's go to the truck drivers. they want expanded gun rights, ashley? tell me more. ashley: they do, because carrying guns, concealed weapons across state lines is a no-no. as lawmakers say, criminals, all they have to do is look for out-of-state license plates for the truck stop, they know they're not going to face any problem with weapons. a bill that was introduced last year is now getting a lot more attention. it would allow carry of concealed weapon, or possession one across another state that also allows concealed weapons. the problem there is a patchwork of different laws regarding guns across the country. bottom line, these drivers,

they're out there. they often drive alone. they have valuable merchandise. they feel very vulnerable, especially with unrest in certain cities and cities that are looking to defund their police departments. all of this combined, truck drivers feel very exposed. they want the ability to be able to carry concealed weapons as a matter of defense and for their own safety. stuart: all right. we will follow it. ashley, thank you. ashley: yep. stuart: here is a story i can barely believe. major league baseball, the stadiums not reopening anytime soon. we got a new report now that says some team owners do not want to play at all this year. extraordinary stuff. we'll tell you all abow it after this. ♪ you say that customers make their own rules.

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stuart: well, retailers were already struggling from months of lockdown. the situation made worse by riots and the looting. rob all man is with us, ceo of nest. this his nest has nothing to do with the google nest. let's make that point real clear rob and thanks for joining us. you're the guys, you bought up

stores and you take the boarding down after the rioting has gone past. that is part of what you do, right? >> correct, yeah. we're more of integrated facilities management company that takes care of multisite retailers across the country. roughly 59,000 sites across the united states and canada. stuart: you're helping retailers return to something called normal, that is what you do, that is what your company does and you work with the big name retailers? >> that is exactly right, yes, correct. stuart: what do you advise the big-name retailers who get burned down, burned out? do you tell them to go back or tell them to back off to wait for a better time? >> more importantly they know what to do. it is all about employee safety. we're fortunate enough to have great retail partners make sure their employees are the number one priority. they're going back, right? some of the sites took a hit during the unfortunate incidents last month were in downtown locations.

we saw fifth avenue boarded up top to bottom, downtown nashville. they will come back. we have to learn what took place hire. how they handle it to prevent any further damage with the board-ups and clean-ups afterward is a thing to make sure they take it seriously. stuart: you basically, may i say this, i think your biggest problem getting back to normal in a retail operation is social distancing, am i right? >> one of them, yes and consumer confidence. i think are the two things, yes. stuart: so what do you do about social distancing? i mean you have got to limit capacity. you have got to keep people apart. how do you do that? >> you do. retail is beginning to reopen. it is exciting. we're seeing just sales increase with all of our clients. we're hearing record breaking numbers. people want to get back out to shop. there are some that don't want to wait in line. folks like my wife who sat in line for 2:00 hours to shop at lululemon last weekend. people want to get out and there is going to be, we'll have to

deal with the new norm. i live in new jersey, right? you showed my local town and pictures with the restaurants reopened on monday. there was not a empty seat. people were willing to wait because we've all done our part, now 14 weeks for folks in new jersey literally stayed at home to make sure we prevent this thing from peaking again. so it is going to be different. then of course, with the retail set-up, there is the layout, right? we have to limit foot traffic. you've seen the signs with the hours, which way to walk down and up the aisle. but we're going to go back and shop. stuart: i got to cut it short, rob. thanks for joining us. we wish you the best of luck. let's get back to normal as fast as possible. thank you, sir. let's get to more "varney" after this tirement is protected. tirement is protected. protected lifetime income from an annuity can help your retirement plan ride out turbulent times. learn more at protectedincome.org. wherever you may go, lexus will welcome you back

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trust aag for the best reverse mortgage solutions. so you can... retire better. stuart: precisely 11:00 eastern time as of right now. the markets have turned around a little but not much. we are up .41, two points higher on the dow industrials, little bit of green, especially for the nasdaq. i've got some good news on the real estate market. mortgage applications absolutely surging to an 11-year high. up 4% from the previous week and up 21% from a year ago. good news for realtors. four states ease restrictions today, including connecticut, where indoor dining, gyms, museums, libraries, movie theaters, they can reopen in connecticut. clearly, though, they have got some capacity restrictions. west virginia, many nursing

homes will resume visitation as of right now. the market just turned around. we are up all of six, seven, eight points. bottom right-hand corner of the screen. nine points. 13 points. 12 points. okay. now this. we are told that keeping social distance is the key to controlling the spread of the virus. i got it. but social distancing also prevents a return to normal, and it slows down the economic comeback. as we ease the lockdown, stay-at-home rules, many industries are confronted with the stay six feet apart restriction. you can't return to normal like that. how do you manage a school classroom that used to have 30 children but now can only hold ten? you can't. getting youngsters back to school is vital for so many parents, but if kids have to stay apart, there will be no more five days a week in-class education. social distancing means some parents will have to find child

care. same with office workers. especially those in jam-packed office buildings. you can put out the hand sanitizers, insist on masks and temperature checks, but if your staff has to stay apart at all times, you can't bring everyone back to the office. there's no room. there will always be someone who sues because a co-worker got too close. commuting by bus or subway, that's obviously a problem. public transportation is geared to packing them in at rush hour. you can't do that. how do you get workers to work when a bus that used to hold 50 is now limited to 20? restaurants and bars, a big part of the fabric of our lives. it's how many of us socialize. fine. but if social distancing rules mean you can only operate at vastly reduced capacity, you don't make much, if any, profit. and you don't stay in business. on the other side of the coin, schools and businesses want to be seen as keeping people safe. they want to play their part in

stopping the spread. good. they have an interest in reassuring the public. so they are in a very difficult position and the difficulty is social distancing. but i think things are changing. look at the crowds who have been out and about enjoying the summer weather recently. many do not keep their distance. whether it's at the beach or dining outside, the rule is beginning to break down. after all, if the authorities say nothing about close contact crowds at protests, why should they crack down on restaurants just trying to stay in business? look, i'm not advocating a complete abandoning of social distancing but i am saying that the authorities will have a very hard time policing the distance we keep between ourselves and it's going to get much harder to be always six feet apart as the weather improves, the new school year gets closer and businesses go bankrupt. brian brenberg is with us. he is a college professor, a fox

news contributor. i ask you, brian, how do you maintain the college experience if you've got to understand and keep social distancing? >> well, pretty hard to do when you are packing 500 people noin a lecture lhall. i think those days are gone. that's okay. that model wasn't serving us very well. we got a lot of complaints about higher education if recent years, whether people are getting their value for their money. i think the answer in a lot of cases is no. frankly, i think it's okay we will help bend that model a little. you can still bring people together in a classroom but you can't pack them in and deliver the kind of education a lot of people have come to expect and frankly, they are starting to reject from a lot of colleges and universities right now. stuart: what do you make of my basic premise, which is getting the economy going again, getting people back to work again, will be made extremely difficult if all of us have to stay six feet apart? it slows down the economy.

you agree with that? >> totally agree. here's the problem, stuart. a lot of people look at the six feet number and say wait a second, what's magic about six feet? why is it six and not three? does that have to be the case in every environment. they will look at the world and say you know what, you are letting a lot of people get a lot closer than six feet together when they are out protesting but you won't let my diners do that. i don't buy it. that's why you are seeing people start to not obey those rules. again, i think social distancing might matter but people want to know what's magic about this number and do we really need to be dogmatic about it door or do need to ask tougher questions why it has to happen everywhere. i saw it in the faces of restaurant owners on your show talking about how difficult it is and you asked point-blank, what do you think about social distancing. they can't even answer that question openly because they're afraid. that's a problem, stuart. stuart: they are. they are afraid of the lawsuit and afraid of putting people in danger as they would put it. that's a huge problem for

industry after industry. let me, while i've got the time, i want to move on to this idea of a fourth stimulus package. lot of people on this show are against it. they just don't want any more spending. where do you stand on this? >> i'm against it, stuart. i'm certainly against rushing into it. look who wants to rush into stimulus right now. it's house democrats. ask the question why. i think the answer is because they can see that this economy is poised for a bounce back and politically, they want to put their stamp on it but i don't want to do that. i don't want to give bailout money to states. i don't want to extend unemployment benefits that pay people to stay home. let's save america a couple trillion dollars or at least only spend it when we know we really need it but not when we are seeing two and a half million new jobs, not when we are seeing 18% growth in consumer spending. we are getting the kind of bounce you want to see from stimulus. let's save the money if we need it. stuart: wouldn't it help the president's re-election campaign? chuck in a bunch of money, juice

up the economy? no? it wouldn't help the president? >> people don't vote for president trump because he chucks money around. they vote for him because he gets results. right now the results are happening without having to throw around trillions more dollars. he doesn't need to spend money willy-nilly. he needs to deliver an economy that works for people and we are seeing that right now. let's not get in front of ourselves by spending money we don't have. house democrats might want to do it. the president should not be eager to get on that train. stuart: all right. i want to know what an economist like you thinks about defunding the police. >> stuart, you know, the only way you are going to get justice and equality in communities that desperately need it is to have a vibrant economic environment where people can work, where they can fund their churches, they can fund charities, they can, you know, they can help their neighbors. that all comes down to being able to do business, stuart. when businesses look at slogans like defund police and that's what they see, a slogan, they say you know what, this

community's not serious about protecting what we do every day to serve our customers and to serve the people around us, why am i going to invest in that. if people don't invest, you can forget about jobs. if you don't have economic activity, it's very very hard to empower people in a way that gives them true justice. it's all about policing. you've got to do it right but defunding is not the answer. stuart: all right. that's the economist for you. brian brenberg, thanks for joining us. see you again soon. thank you, sir. look at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. you see the dow is fractionally lower. we are off, what, 14 points. that's all we've got. i'm looking at hilton hotels. they have announced they are going to lay off 22% of their worldwide work force. over 2,000 people let go. obviously this is more fallout from the virus and the lockdown. the stock, though, has already been pummeled, down a buck today at $77. take a look at boeing. the chief guy at the faa is going to be on the hill

testifying about the boeing max jet today. that's after the senate introduced a bill that would grant the faa more oversight of plane certification. boeing's stock down 2% right now, back to $193. how about those cruise lines. they are docked until at least the fall. lauren, norwegian, norwegian air, is that right? are we talking about norwegian air here or cruise lines? lauren: air, yes. well, we can talk about both. norwegian the cruise line is extending their suspension of stlie voyages until october at the earliest. as for the airline, a discount carrier in europe, as europe starts to reopen, they are adding flights. currently, norwegian air flies 13 domestic flights hit by the coronavirus pandemic. they want to up that to 76 starting july 1. that is a big increase, 13 to 76 by next month. stuart: i was confusing

norwegian cruise lines and norwegian air. thanks for straightening me out. lauren: very easy to do. stuart: actually, it is. now, staying on airlines, ashley, what's this i hear about some airlines banning alcohol? tell me more. ashley: just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, right? yes. delta and american say they are going to ban booze to help stop the spread of the virus, so-called contact points. when you order drinks. delta has banned the sale and consumption of alcohol on all domestic flights as well as flights to mexico, canada, the caribbean and central america. also, american is also limiting alcohol and food service. depends on the length of the journey, too. there may be some exceptions. if you are in first class you get alcohol whether -- there's no problem there on american. jetblue will no longer pour drinks or take food orders. you get a plastic baggy with a couple of snacks and a bottle of water and that's it.

just when you thought it was not that great to fly, it gets even more fun. stuart: whatever you say, ashley. whatever you say. all right. okay. look, lots of talk about a second wave of the virus. how about the mask makers? if we get a second wave, presumably mask makers are doing pretty well. grady trimble is with us. some airlines are requiring masks for passengers. is that right? go. reporter: and they have been for awhile. now they are dropping the hammer. if you don't have a mask on, you will not be on board any of the major airlines' flights and some airlines including united, delta and american, say they could actually revoke your future flying privileges if you refuse to wear a mask. look, when you look around the airport here at o'hare, you see a lot of people already wearing masks. i would say most people wearing masks. i talked to one gentleman who said yes, i will wear my face covering when i board my flight but not going to keep it on long after that. listen. >> as soon as the airplane goes up in the air i'm going to pull

it down. what are they going to do, turn around and land? i'm not going to be miserable. reporter: so we will see how that goes for him. so far, the federal government is not mandating that airlines require you to wear a mask while you're flying. the flight attendants union is calling for some sort of federal mandate. as i said, though, so far there is none. stu? stuart: i can see big disagreements on board planes about whether you keep the mask on or you drop it. i can just see it coming a mile off. i have used that expression a lot. grady, thanks for joining us. appreciate it, sir. robert lighthizer, trade representative, has been testifying on capitol hill. i don't believe he's moved the market. i may be wrong about that. edward lawrence, you have been listening. what's he had to say? reporter: yeah, interesting things about first the u.s./uk trade negotiations which are going on right now. he says that it is possible but unlikely to have a deal announced with united kingdom by november.

he says it will be almost impossible, actually will be impossible to have anything before congress related to a trade deal between the two countries this year. however, he does say that exports, all exports in the united states are down 30% give or take, because of the coronavirus pandemic. in return, he believes that there will be a record snapback when the economy opens up a little bit more by the end of the year. some good, some bad news in there. but uk agreement and the record snapback in trade, he believes. stuart: got it. didn't move the market. thank you, edward. the white house reportedly preparing a trillion dollar infrastructure plan. some conservative leaders say they are already spending too much money to boost the economy. they don't like that plan. we have got a discussion going on that one. senator tim scott unveils a new police reform bill. he doubts the democrats will get behind real change. watch this. >> if they are more interested

in having the issue than the solution, that tells me that partisan politics and november is more important than solving the issues. stuart: we are breaking down the senator's proposals. that is coming up for you. first, though, the city of seattle reaches a deal with protesters to reduce the size of the so-called chop area. will that make any difference in controlling the chaos? we'll deal with it. ♪ at mercedes-benz, nothing less than world-class service will do. that's why we're expanding your range of choices. many dealers now offer optional pick-up & delivery and at-home maintenance, as well as online shopping

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seattle. we are willing to help anywhere you want. violence and destruction will not be tolerated. we cannot do that. the looters have no cause that they're fighting for, just trouble. stuart: all right. that was clean-cut. the president calls for law and order in seattle. by the way, city officials have reached a deal with the protesters. removing their roadblocks, replacing them with big concrete barriers. martha maccallum is with us, anchor of "the story" on fox news channel. martha, this seems to solidify the area. it ensures that you put concrete blocks up, you're ensuring chaos within the blocks. >> we have seen those concrete barriers in new york city for a very long time. a lot of them went up after 9/11 for totally different reasons but they are still there. and it is likely that this area will exist for a very long time. it was moved back to allow emergency vehicles to get in,

also to get a little bit closer to the police precinct, but you have already had one instance of a person who owns an auto parts store right on the border of this area who called 911 for fire and a burglary and he said the police did not show up. the police chief says it is their intention to help people if they are in dire need in situations that -- where life is at risk. she said they will come in, she said there's no such thing as a cop-free zone anywhere in seattle, but this is a situation which is fairly peaceful for right now. we certainly hope it stays that way, stuart. but there's a lot of tension with the people who live and work in that area. stuart: i think it's extraordinary that we allow anarchists to take over the center of a big american city and that's part of what's going on with this new poll i got from a.p. it shows we are the unhappiest now that we have been in half a century. 14% of us are very happy. it was 31% who are very happy back in 2018. this is all part of the negative

news background. i think people are turning off the news because it's so negative. >> we had a heck of a run here with coronavirus, obviously, very depressing and very sad for many families across the country, and then on top of that, you have these racial divisions that are discussed across the country and in some cases, you have violence in some of these cities and protests in many cities, and now a battle over what to do about it in terms of police reform that's playing out on capitol hill. i would say it has not been a particularly happy spring. i'm not surprised to see those numbers where they are, stuart. stuart: this is an opinion show. i have an opinion. i have an opinion on everything. you are a straightforward class act journalist. how do you stay neutral in all of this? >> you know, we cover both sides of the story as we always do and it's been very interesting. last night we had on a city councilman from maryland and we

brought on shelby steele as we discuss how to find the way forward. the councilman was arguing that racism is a public health risk in this country and needs to be treated as such. shelby takes a different perspective on that. we try to bring all the voices to the table. i think that's what's so desperately needed right now is for both sides to try to understand each other. i think senator tim scott is trying to convince people that there is so much more common ground than we recognize among us in all of these issues, and to try to move forward on some reform that people can agree on, because there is a tremendous amount of overlap on so many of these issues. stuart: he was on your show last night, i think, tim scott. >> he was. stuart: saying look, i have come up with three proposals, all of which the democrats want but he still thinks it's going to get stalled, his police reform bill is going to get stalled in the senate because the democrats won't allow it to be taken up. >> that really smacks of political agendas because if

it's true that we are all unhappy and torn apart by what's going on in this country and we should accept that there are areas, you know, some people are not going to think these measures go far enough, some people are going to think they go too far, but there is as i said overlap and tim scott said something that i think we need to hear a lot more of in this country. we are all americans. we are all in this together. tim scott said you know, he's recounted his own situations where he felt like he was dealt with in a racist way, even on capitol hill, but he says you know what, this is not a racist nation. we are not a racist people. is there racism in this country, yes, but it is not an overwhelming plague to the entire country. i think these are issues that we all need to continue to come together and talk about, stuart. stuart: all right, martha. i will change the subject, you will be pleased to hear. you knew this was coming. >> talk about unhappiness. stuart: no, no. on the left-hand side of the screen, ladies and gentlemen, we see tom brady in a new uniform.

you know this is coming. you are a patriots fan. what do you think about this? >> you know, we have all been through enough, stuart. we didn't need to see this. this uniform, seeing him in that uniform is completely incongruous to me. he's been a patriot his entire career. the fact he took rob gronkowski with him to tampa adds insult to injury. this is not a situation where i can put my happy face on, to be perfectly honest with you, and i'm not alone. there's a lot of comments on this instagram that say we are just not ready for this. it's been too rough a spring. that's all i have to say about that. stuart: did i say you were neutral on all these things? you are a class act -- >> not where this is concerned. stuart: exactly. i can tell. you have won enough super bowls with tom brady as quarterback. >> well, very proud of him for all he brought to that -- to the franchise, to the patriots. he's an amazing quarterback. tampa bay is very fortunate to

have him and rob gronkowski, but the uniform's a little bit of bitter pill to swallow this morning. stuart: opinions from martha on "varney & company" but straight down the middle tonight at 7:00 on fox news. "the story." thank you. >> great to see you. stuart: sure thing. thanks a lot. okay. senate republicans laying out their police reform plan a day after the president made his case. watch this. >> i'm signing an executive order encouraging police departments nationwide to adopt the highest professional standards to serve their communities. these standards will be as high and as strong as there is on earth. stuart: senator mike braun, he calls this a watershed moment in history. we will ask limb abohim about t just a moment. a new report says several baseball team owners do not want a 2020 season. extraordinary. meanwhi meanwhile, a potential deal heating up with a celebrity

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stuart: looks like the low of -- no, it's not the low of the day but we're down, 90 points lower, right about 26,200. okay. the nasdaq still nicely higher, up over .33%. indiana is in stage four of reopening. they can have gatherings of up to 250 people. retail can open at full capacity. restaurants, well, look at that, they can open for in-house dining at 75% capacity. however, indiana is seeing a spike in new cases, 2800 in the last week. there's the number on your screen. indiana senator, republican, mike braun, with us now. good morning, mr. senator. is there a chance here of a second shutdown anywhere in your state? >> i would hope not. what is happening across any of these economies that are opening, you are going to see a certain flareup in general because of course, we are testing more, too.

the key is look at the hospitalization rates and the fatality rates. you can see in most cases those are not rising with the number of cases so that's good. that's because we know a lot more about the disease. the hospitals are prepared now. i think we have got plenty of capacity. the other thing is that we are going to have to do both things at once because we have seen how close it's taken the economy to the edge, especially in the states that did a one size fit all approach and shut down early, opened up late. they are going to have some difficulty in recovering. everything i'm getting from my connections with the real world, it's a robust recovery. thank goodness for it. we are smart enough to do both things. i got a wedding i would like to go to i think in july that had to get postponed because of what you said. stuart: you can't have a wedding without a crowd.

you can, but it's not the same. all right. today, south carolina senator tim scott revealed his police reform bill. hold on, senator. just watch this, audience. roll it. >> too often we're having a discussion in this nation about are you supporting the law enforcement community or are you supporting communities of color. this is a false binary choice. if the answer to the question of which side do you support, it's i support america and if you support america, you support restoring the confidence that communities of color have in institutions of authority. stuart: mr. senator, i think you like tim scott's bill, but i put it to you, it's not going to go very far because it needs 60 votes in the senate to proceed and it won't get them. >> i think tim is right on, and all i can tell you, in the year and a half that i have been here, nothing has moved as quickly as an executive order from the president, a bill from

the house, the booker/harris bill and now what we rolled out today. i am a co-sponsor of it. i'm a republican that doesn't come from the normal route to get here. in other words, i was in the real world for 37 years. i see an issue, i wish we were doing a little more with it, but we should all agree on parts of all of this because it's the same in the executive order. the democrats' bill and ours, three issues. qualified immunity, no-knock entries and chokeholds. all three are looking at chokeholds and when this all gets fleshed out, i hope that's part of it, banning them. there's no need for it, once somebody is subdued. i'm going to roll out a bill on not eliminating qualified immunity, but reforming it, because that and no-knock entries will be the sticking points for republicans. democrats, republicans, we need to get rid of this hatfield and

mccoy way we do business here. it's a watershed moment. police unions, the reform that's needed has to happen. it's the hardest job out there. your life is at risk every time you suit up. you need to eliminate, hold accountable those that violate civil rights and actually take a life, that's the exception, not the rule. that's why i would like to reform qualified immunity to boot. i don't know if i will get many supporters on my side to come along but i'm going to try it. stuart: we are certainly making fast progress on key issues. >> we are doing that. yes. stuart: senator mike braun, thanks very much for joining us. always a pleasure. yes, sir. thank you. i'm going to move on to sports. can't believe this story. we have new reports which say several major league baseball team owners don't want a 2020 season. i can't believe that. why are they saying this, ash? ashley: it's all about money, stu. you know, it's interesting, the major league baseball commissioner rob manfred said look, the 2020 season will go

ahead. we just need to come to some sort of agreement. it hasn't happened. reports that six, maybe up to eight major league baseball owners now are not even confident there is going to be a 2020 season. manfred is calling it a disaster. he did an interview with espn earlier this week and said look, he was on that interview, he said he was disgusted by, you know, the way the situation is. he says he calls it a disaster. in response to that, the major league baseball players association, tony clark, the executive director, said this. he said players are disgusted that rob manfred unequivocally told players and fans that there would be 100% a 2020 season. he has decided to go back on his word and is now threatening to cancel the entire season. it's all about the money and how to split it up, how much money do the players get, how much of a pay cut, how many games, and so on and so on. you know what, you said it before. what about the july fourth start on a shortened season, you've

just got to get on the field. it's america's pasttime. get out there and play. stuart: just a perfect opportunity. it's gone. ashley: yes. stuart: by the way, i take it you will watch man city play arsenal this afternoon. i know you will. ashley: i will indeed. and you. stuart: you're all right. i will stay on sports. okay. no, not soccer. we are talking about a celebrity couple. we are told closing in on a deal to buy the mets, the new york mets. who are they? lauren? lauren: j-lo and a-rod. the "new york post" is reporting that an investment bank, they might have two investors lined up to add $250 million to j-lo and a-rod's bid and the wilpons, the current owner of the mets, which is valued at $2.6 billion, are going to need to act fast because they have a $250 million loan that expires at the end of july.

at the same time, when will this baseball season start? moody's downgraded the owner of citi field where the mets play to one notch above junk status, citing delayed start to the season and the inability of the owners and players to come to some sort of deal. stuart: yeah. shooting your own sport in the foot, if you ask me. all right. next one, google facing criticism after deeming the comments section of a conservative website to be dangerous and derogatory towards the black lives matter movement. we've got the story for you. and conservative leaders send a letter to president trump demanding an end to government spending. i will ask former white house chief of staff mick mulvaney what he thinks about that. he's next. ♪

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any bailout so-called stimulus package, spending government money doesn't stimulate anything, it just moves it around from one person to another. nancy pelosi will not allow out of the house a bill that does any good. negotiating with her again is a mistake. stuart: there you have it, grover norquist on the show yesterday. he's among a group of conservatives who say look, no more spending. don't want it, doesn't work. look who's here. mick mulvaney, former chief of staff to the president. big smile on his face. mick, sir, you were a no big spender. you didn't like spending. before you went to the white house. what's your take now? >> i still don't, and i think that mr. norquist is probably right. face it that the roughly $3 trillion that has already been approved by congress hasn't even filtered through the system yet and furthermore, any money that

might be approved in july won't get into the system for several months, if not longer than that. now is not the time for additional stimulus. it's time to sort of sit back and say wait a second, let's see what happens with the money that we've already approved a couple months back. you run the risk right now, stuart, if you overstimulate the economy, go back, you and i are both old enough to remember what inflation is in the simplest definition of that is too much money chasing too few goods, if you pump the system full of money, without a corresponding increase in production, you get inflation which is the worst kind of tax on the middle class and elderly. i think mr. norquist is right to urge caution. i think a lot of republicans, fiscal conservatives on the hill are right to urge caution at this point about additional fiscal stimulus. stuart: but it would, or would it, you tell me, wouldn't it help the president's re-election chances if you are going to spend a lot more -- you are shaking your head. it goes out to the people, goes

out to voters and they will like it. >> you can't buy elections. if you are going to do a stimulus plan, you do it because it's economically necessary. are we in a circumstance, an unusual circumstance now where you are going to need extraordinary government activity, probably, which is why i approved of what we did several months back. but you can't sort of do it forever and expect people to reward you with re-election. keep in mind, it takes time to get through the system. the worst kind of stimulus they could be considering right now is infrastructure, which could take months if not years to actually have an impact. so no, i think those who are urging caution are probably doing the right thing economically and politically. stuart: what we want is for the economy to open up and expand rapidly, get past this chasm we have been in in april and may. to do that, you've got to open up, you've got to relax the restrictions on going out of the house and going back to work, but i notice that a lot of

democrat-run states, big population states, are very slow to open up. do you think that's deliberate? do you think that the democrat governors of these states want to keep the economy in check to make sure that a democrat is elected in november? >> certainly you could make the argument that's the case. it would be different for different democratic governors, obviously. you never know what someone else is actually thinking or feeling in their own soul. stuart: but there is this coincidence that it's all the big population democrat states, illinois, california, new york, new jersey, they are holding back. >> but here's the calculus. here's what i think is driving it in addition to politics, probably more so than politics. they have figured out, especially the big blue state governors, that they will be blamed for any health emergency, the deaths, the crisis there, but the president will get blamed for the economic crisis and when that's the alignment of your interests, if you are going to get blamed for a health crisis but not for an economic

crisis, then it's in your best interest as a democrat governor to go ahead and run the risk of that economic crisis. i think that's what you are seeing in california, illinois, and new york. certainly do they have an axe to grind against the presidents. yes. would they like joe biden to be president, yes. i think it's just in their self-interest right now to do t the same thing they would do if they were simply motivated by politics. stuart: if there's one thing the president can do now to keep the economy and expansion going, what would it be? >> push folks -- push folks to be reasonable. i was on an airplane flying up to washington, d.c. last week. everybody had the mask on in the airports. excuse me, on the planes, but not in the airports. what have we learned in the last two weeks? it hasn't gotten much attention. cdc came out and said well, it's not really that easy to get this disease from touching a hard surface, like we thought that it was when we closed the economy several months ago. they also came out and said it's not as easy to get it from folks who aren't showing symptoms like we thought several months ago, when we closed the economy. so i think now that we have got

better information, if the president can drive that out and say look, if you wear a mask, you can go to church, if you wear a mask, you can go to work, if you are careful and cautious, we can get the economy back open on its own and the american economy left to its own devices will grow. we just need to, in this case, i know republicans say it all the time, get the government out of the way. this is the classic example of getting the government out of the way. the government is what is preventing the economy from being healthy right now. if the president could drive that information to people and say look, do what you do, go to restaurants, travel, go to work, go to conventions, just wear masks and be responsible, i think that's probably the best message he could convey. stuart: now that you are no longer the president's chief of staff and working 24/7/365, are you a happy guy? >> i was happy before. i'm happy now. listen, you choose to be happy. i'm having a great time. i get a chance to see my parents are older and at high risk for covid. i had a chance to spend time with them and family which is great but i do miss working for

the president and the team in the white house. i miss seeing you but it's good to be back here today. stuart: welcome back, sir. it was always good to see you. mick mulvaney. hope we see you again real soon. thank you, sir. i'm going to take a look at some groups of stocks which are moving. first of all, the big banks. all of them on the down side today. i don't specifically have an explanation for that. they go up and down. lot of volatility in that sector. hsbc, europe's biggest bank, reviving their huge layoff plan to cut, wait for it, 35,000 jobs. that plan was on pause but the pandemic is pushing them to actually do it. 35,000 jobs. the stock is at $23 a share. i've got some decent good news on jobs. the army hiring 10,000 people for 150 different positions. new soldiers can get a $2,000 bonus and free college. how about that. next, new censorship questions as google threatens to pull the federalist from its ad

network. google is now giving the conservative news site three days to take action. we will speak to a senior editor at the federalist after this break. ♪ robinhood believes now is the time to do money.

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stuart: let's talk google, please. because they have stirred up a controversy, a censorship controversy, with the federalist. now, that is a conservative website. we have with us today chris bedford, the senior editor at the federalist. okay, chris. let's simplify this. what did you do that google didn't like and does it amount to censorship of conservatives? >> well, it's hard to say in the end exactly what we did, because google and nbc's stories keep on changing. what we know is that a reporter for nbc news in england, in their verification unit, worked with a left wing think tank to target us as an organization which correctly reported that white supremacists were not the agitators responsible for rioting in this country, and then brought that to google, which then told nbc news that we would be taken off of their ad revenue stream. google ad revenue is basically

what runs most of the internet. it gets a huge amount of revenue for companies. it's why your internet browser runs slowly in most places if you don't see crisp, clean ads. that's all google ads have taken over. doing that would be massive. we found out from the story but we said there might be a mistake so we got in touch with google, quickly began to backtrack, then saying the problem with our website was not any of its content but the comments section, which we don't regulate, we don't monitor, and that was what was causing trouble. but of course, if you go to google-owned youtube or anyplace and read the comments section, often there's a lot of viciousness in there that's not moderated. it's breaking their own code that protects google and it's just a big -- it's a big back step for them now. they are basically fleeing. it was a clumsy hit to begin with. i'm at least very happy it's been unraveled so quickly. hopefully we will get to the bottom of this. we had the ability to push back

but most people will not have that ability to push back. stuart: hold on a second, chris. i want to read the statement from google. they delivered it to fox news. i will read it for you. the federalist was never de-monetized and their ads are continuing to run as intended. we have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on which includes comments on sites and we worked with the federalist to address the situation. your response to that, chris? >> well, that's wonderful. we are working with them now. we temporarily disabled our comments section. we intend to bring it back when we get the opportunity to do so. just like with any other websites that google moderates, we will try to figure out a way to not have to devote constant attention to comments section and let people speak freely and post freely on that part of the site. it doesn't fit with how they hold anyone else accountable. stuart: you are doing something very valuable here. free speech has to be defended and defended vigorously.

it's under attack at the moment and it's real good to see guys like you coming on strong and defending the right to free speech. it's so important. mr. bedford, thanks for joining us, sir. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: got it. more "varney" after this. . . ♪

♪ yeah ♪ ♪ y-yeah ♪ ♪ yeah ♪ hey, hey stuart: governor cuomo said that new york city is on track to enter phase two of its reopening this monday, this coming monday.

so a slight relaxation coming for new york city even though the governor had said previously, watch out, you've not been obeying the social distancing rules. we might have to lock you down again. apparently not so phase two coming next monday. my time's up. neil cavuto is standing by. it is yours, neil. neil: thank you very much we're following that. we're following new messages we're getting from the new york governor where he is talking about hospitalizations infection rates all going that way, speeding up reopening of the state, particularly down state in the new york metropolitan region. we'll have more on that. it's a tug-of-war on corner of wall and broad, a lot has to do with spike of cases abroad. we'll get to that in a second. you're looking at times square area. we show you, avenue of the americas there is a little bit more traffic than it used to be. this isn't like anything in the good ol' days before the virus