down 200 points on the dow. up slightly. same story on the s&p at 3150. the nasdaq continues to push higher up 77 points at 10,421. some headlines about more coronavirus cases perhaps hurting confidence a little bit. my time's up. neil cavuto. take it away. neil: thank you, ashley, very much. the administration is doing everything to mitigate damage from comments about the fierce of spiking cases. vice president himself and coronavirus task force is saying there is peaking seems to be going on in some of the hardest hit states, texas, arizona, a couple others here. in other words the number of positive cases is also trending in the right direction. in other words, still moving up but not as up as it was before. i think that is a good way to explain it, i don't know. dr. birx is talking about promising developments this

could be a full-court press at least on the administration's part working through the coronavirus folks saying look, the worst of this could be behind us. that is one of the reasons why the president has been stipulating, he thinks all kids in this country should go back to school in the fall. that has earned him the wrath of governor andrew cuomo who is also addressing reporters right now saying what about the kids, are you thinking of the welfare of the kids? the back and forth goes on and on. speaking of governor cuomo, sometimes around august 1st, august 7th, he will have a financial decision on status of schools, whether they reopen in the empire state or do it on a tiered basis. some do, some don't. could add likely to parents confusion to all of this. edward lawrence is monitoring all of these developments. edward, what do you have right now? reporter: neil, the coronavirus task force is still briefing at this hour. in fact right now. what the vice has come out and said he is encouraged by the low death rates he is seeing in the

data. they're going state by state, county by county, looking at this data saying, vice president now that there is a peak that they're seeing, a flattening. so the early flattening of the curve in the states of arizona, texas and florida at the moment. now the white house pushing in one voice. you still have to follow cdc rules. listen. >> we know how to deal with this. best practices. you must get tested if you're in a hot spot, must, must. you have to social distance, physical distance. you have got to wear face masks. reporter: the task force is sending more than 1000 doctors to california, arizona, texas and florida as we speak trying to help the surge that those areas are seeing in these case. now the briefing was at the department of education for a reason. this is the second day in a row the white house now is going to make a major push to reopen schools. now the president sort of raised the anti-on that. he tweeted out this morning saying other countries have done

it successfully without issue. he adds he may cut off funding if not open. here is the president of the national education association responding to that tweet. >> that is socallous of him, socallous. when we do it wrong, people die. little people can get sick. you have asthma, you have got bad allergyies and you're six years old, you could die if we do this wrong. reporter: now the secretary of education is in that briefing right now. we do expect to hear an answer from her related to this tweet. it is important to show, neil, exactly what the vice president said about the cases going forward. just listen to this. >> we're actually seeing early indications of a percent of positive testing flattening in arizona, florida, and texas. governors in each of those states have taken strong steps to flatten the curve and again,

as dr. birx will describe, we're beginning to see early indications that positivity is flattening. reporter: the bottom line for the white house is getting kids back to school is link towed the economic momentum and positive results of retail sales. they believe in kids go back to school, parents and work and more spending of money on school supplies. neil: edward, they're mentioning things stablizing, number of positive cases i don't see that. doctors i talked saying too bumpy to discern a pattern. i find it interesting, the president talking a good deal how schools are opening up in europe, in places like europe and france and some of these places that he talked about, they're doing a much better job of this. not blaming him or celebrating them. they have reason to move the way they have been moving because

they have been moving very promisingly. again and again one of the reasons why they're in the position they are to reopen, right? reporter: some of those countries do have fewer numbers in population. denmark, one of those. social distance, the social distancing is going to come into effect here and i've heard from a number of folks within the administration that you know, school might not look like normal school. you're still going to have the social distancing. you will still have maybe afternoon split schedules in hot spot areas or some distance learning, maybe staggering days of weeks. so it will not be traditional school. they're pushing at white house. they're not saying one size fits all but they are pushing for schools to reopen. neil: thank you my friend, very, very much. edward lawrence on all of that. i want to go to casey stegall. he is monitoring uptick in cases in so-called hot states. casey, where do we stand. reporter: one important metric

they're discussing in the ongoing white house coronavirus task briefing right now is the number of hospitalizations and that what has a lot of communities worried there is some relief pap apparently, doctors, nurses, medical personnel deployed to some hard hit states but city leaders in austin, texas, for example, say, if this current trend continues they will run out of bed space in that community in about two weeks time. so, a lot of the city officials have put together this contingency plan, essentially, that they may have to shut the city and the county back down for another 35 days in order to get the numbers where they need to be. similar to what phase one of governor abbott's reopening plan looked like. now austin's mayor says that would be done only as a last resort but it's still on the table. the news comes on the same day texas reported more than 10,000 new cases in a 24 hour period.

here is where we talk about the hospitalizations. more than 9200 people are hospitalized with covid in texas. compare that to almost 2,000 a month ago. a growing number of medical facilities now in surge mode, forced to get creative where they're housing patients. listen. >> we have seen exponential increase in the number of cases we've had of covid. the hospital has had to expand -- we there are 46 beds. then we went to 58. 88 beds. even though it sounds like a lot of beds, it is not enough. reporter: arizona hospitals are also filling up. more than 3300 coronavirus patients, according to the health data one month ago, that number was 1200. officials say ventilator usage is also on the rise there which correlates with the a spike in number. icu beds okay paid. the icu bed capacity in arizona

about 94%. in florida, they say 55 hospitals in that state have already reached icu bed capacity. 55 hospitals and another 33 more say that they have less than 10% of space remaining in their icus as the number of cases and positivity rates appear to be leveling off a little bit in some places but it is hospitalization numbers that have so many people worried, neil. neil: casey, thank you very much. scott shellady, i want to get to the so-called cow guy. scott, easy to say people against opening their schools, they're all democrats and they're trying to stick it to the president. it is all politically motivated. the president wants to hold off on financial aid and support for them, the fact of the matter is, it is republican mayors and governors in some of these areas

that are increasingly concerned about the spike in cases and can't commit to anything right now because of that. is the president risking complicating this or getting people more frightened about this, taking such a hard stance? >> you know what? you touched on it right there, neil. the american psyche is so bruised that people are afraid. regardless about common sense, i could have come on here tell all the reasons why we should go back to school, they far outweigh, common senseally, and statis quickly outweigh why you should open schools, but it doesn't matter. people's psyche are bruised. we have where we are right now, people mixing up fear with danger. those two things are getting up. we're afraid of something we shouldn't be that afraid of. every day we do dangerous things not afraid of them home. children have likely higher

likelihood dying in a car crash going to school and contracting coronavirus that way. right now the psyche is bruised. we're mixing up fear with the feeling of danger. the president has to do something about that, that is very difficult that is psychological. common senseally, statistically they should be going back to school however, the american psyche feels otherwise. neil: betsy devos, education secretary is speaking right now, she has been talking about following up on the president's theme better for kids to get back school this fall. in most of the country that is likely indeed the case. i'm wondering how do you think it falls out on the markets? it remains the number one concern of americans right now about the timing of all of this. it is also a issue for wall street about how anything that delays the reopening of states will delay an economic recovery. so it's a double-edged sword, isn't it? >> yeah. you know, me, i'm a positive person, neil, i tell you right

now, can throw v-shaped recovery out of the window. we can't fill a stadium or theater. can't fill restaurant or hotel or retail establishments. we can't fill buses or trains. we can't fill the economy. so as long as that is going to be the case, we'll putting brakes on everything all the time we'll not see this v-shaped recovery. it will be lower for longer, slower for longer. you throw in the fact people are thinking about -- neil, not to be political about it, the biggest push back are sending kids to school is teachers union, and they should be for the children. this is politicized. this is big market problem. v-shaped recovery if we can't fill schools, that will slow things down and people have to stay home, knock-on effects of. that best thing we have to live with the virus, get back to what we do normally, be safe. if you want to take care of people vulnerable, sick, old. that is called quarantine, lock

them down. if you want to lock everything down, that is called tyranny. i think that is what the american people feel like. neil: yeah. the flipside of that is, if you force the issue on them, and withhold aid, then you have -- that is a danger zone. so we'll see what happens, scott. finish that thought. >> if, yeah, if he wanted to fill schools tomorrow, all he would have to do, say i want all schools closed, everybody would rush and fill them up. he has to do the opposite. he has to do a "seinfeld" thing and all the schools would be filled. neil: i know you're a half full glass guy because look the way you dress. >> there you go. neil: that is how smart you are. that is how good you are, scott, thank you very, very much, scott shellady on all of that. go to james freeman, "wall street journal" maestro here. james this back and forth whether schools open or not, betsy devos essentially saying, echoing the theme combing out of the administration, they better

open, and it is all political if they don't. they're trying to hurt me and re-election chances in the fall if that were the case. what do you make of this? >> well, i think the data is very clear. the spring lockdowns were not good for children. that's why the american academy of pediatrics is saying we need to reopen schools in the fall, not with distance learning but with kids in the classroom. kids should be at school. they continuing through all of this issue and months of the virus we have seen very low mortality and it is basically zero or very close to it with children. so, there is, there is not really a good scientific argument for keeping schools closed. there is certainly not an economic argument in terms of cost and benefits. i would remind you, we go back to that senate testimony in may

from dr. fauci, he basically admitted he hadn't, at least to that point really been even studying the question of the side-effects, unintended consequences of school lockdown lockdowns. neil: so when we look at some of the latest numbers that are out, three million confirmed virus cases in the country, coming from johns hopkins university. by the way this tweet from the president saying germany, denmark, norway, sweden, they're reopening schools. i could point out with all of them they have not had the problems we had. they're smaller countries as well but having said that, the u.s. accounts for more than at that 25% of the 11.8 million infections worldwide. could you make the argument here you could be rushing back to business as usual. for those states that have, that is criticism, they're regretting it now, what do you say? >> well, a couple things.

one i just again, this very low mortality rate, especially lately, i either it suggests that a lot more people have it earlier, or it suggests that we have gotten a lot better treating it. either one of which is excellent news. but, i think the argument really has been, sort of misdirected the whole time through this virus. the people who want radical changes to society, who want schools closed, who want societies locked down, i think burden of proof is on them to show the data, show the cost benefit analysis, show the economic, medical arguments why it's necessary. i don't think the burden of proof is on people who don't want to tear up normal life and close schools and set fire to the economy again to show that we shouldn't do those things.

neil: so what you're saying is, if there are some hot areas in the country, parts of around phoenix in arizona and southern florida, parts of texas, where you have a lot of the, you know these icu beds quickly being spoken for, local officials in those locales might decide the better part is to delay. the administration seems to be saying don't, don't even think of that because you could argue over hot areas and all but the fact of the matter is, all kids, across the country, in every area, hot areas included, go back to school, no ifs, ands, or buts, what do you think? >> yeah, again we're not talking about -- to be clear everyone agrees on the common sense measures in terms of hand washing an very safe things we've been discussing. neil: right. >> but if we're talking about closing down schools, there is, there is not an argument and it

doesn't depend on regions of the country. the american academy of pediatrics is not saying only some parts of the country. they are saying, kids should be in school. i think there are opinions should matter here because they are not people who, who have just designed a model for a disease that we're still learning a lot about and are guessing about what will happen. these are people who treat kids, diagnose kids, treat them, have been observing their patients for months and have come to the opinion, i think based on data, that the lockdowns are not good for children. neil: all right. still not all of them, and in all areas, i just want to distinguish that, but we're watching it very closely. you're right, james, it is going to be a raging debate and on that point we're just learning i that secretary d.v. voss said education and community leaders

are in the best position right now to determine how to reopen schools but she quickly added but they must reopen. so you can debate all you want but you damn well better reopen. i will be pursuing that with the secretary on my 4:00 p.m. "your world" show as we wait to hear from the labor secretary ever the united states. on the jock situation in this country, picking up steam if we delay a lot of things. we'll have more after this oh, we love our new home. neighborhood's great. amazing school district. the hoa has been very involved. these shrubs aren't board approved. you need to break down your cardboard. thank you. violation. violation.

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♪. neil: all right. it was supposed to be a peaceful powwow at facebook where anyone and everyone in charge, including mark zuckerberg would hear it out from advertisers wanting to bolt from the company and number of groups concerned that hate speech is accepted and indeed encouraged at the company. so you wouldn't expect the reaction that zuckerberg or those in power facebook got, the collective were not impressed. the stock itself has barely budged. why is that?

shana glenzer is with us. what is remarkable how well the stock holds up throughout all of this and continues to. what is going on? >> yeah, so, feedback loud and clear from those groups participating yesterday was that they are not pleased with facebook's lack of action but, to your point, it's not having significant impact in these boycotts, these ad boycotts that will last for some through july, and others until facebook makes significant changes, also don't seem to be budging the stock price much. neil: right. >> what is interesting, the beginning of july if these boycotts continue through mid, end of july, and start really impacting the numbers, and, more of those top 100 advertisers join in, i think that is when you will start seeing some movement in the stock price. neil: yeah, because up to now, big names, and we're showing just a few of them, including coca-cola, ben & jerry's, on and on, but in the vast scheme of things, it still represents

about eight or 9% of revenue for the company. now that might change to your point but in the scheme of things, obviously you're running a company like facebook, you want to mitigate that damage but what do you see happening? >> well, if mark zuckerberg's own words are any indication he said in a employee-only meeting last week that he is not concerned. the advertisers will come back. and that, you know, that they're not going to change any policies because of this advertising. i think that the pressure, the continued pressure here from advertisers and also very vocally from these anti-defamation league and anti-discrimination groups will put some pressure to take more action but, again, i don't believe there is, clearly was not communicated yesterday, a definitive action plan to take

steps. i think they're hedging their bets a little bit what exactly they do, specifically around that all-important political advertising. neil: yeah, you know, i don't know what happened, what went down at that meeting. some anecdotal reports from those that were there that zuckerberg was condescending to their views? what is the big deal? i don't know that is true, but a sentiment that built, frustration from attendees, that he was dismissive of their concerns. what do you think? >> well certainly some of the specific language that was reported back out of the meeting from a few different sources, were that some of the language he used did downplay their, the importance of the issue. for example, using words like being, i'm trying to understand the nuance here. for these organizations, you know, in their own words, white

nationalism is not a nuance. you know, this racism and hate speech is not pa nuance. it is something that needs to be addressed specifically for the upcoming election, it, facebook needs to take action to insure voters are not discouraged from showing up to the polls, we have a repeat we saw from russia during the last election. neil: shana glenzer, thank you very, very much. it is weirdest of all things. it goes to your point, so far, so far, facebook is dodging the real financial impact of this, but that could change. shana, thank you very, very much. harvard is furious, not just because the president targeted harvard having the gall to go to online classes and charging full freight charging 50,000-dollar tuition, the angry at the

president getting those in this country, out of this country, including those who study at harvard and including those who study at mit. both schools are taking this to court. after this. introducing stocks by the slice from fidelity. now you can trade stocks and etfs for any amount you choose instead of buying by the share. all with no commissions. stocks by the slice from fidelity. get your slice today.

♪. neil: all right. someone just went off script here. the vice president, some states local communities, may not be able to reopen schools in the fall. he said those states should take steps to get kids back into the classroom the fullest degree possible. you might recall, the president said they have no choice, everybody back in school this fall, or he would withhold aid before them. there is argument back and forth whether the president can do that. that is saying there are situations in some areas where that might be a little difficult to do. the so the confusion abound.

we'll keep eye on it for you. keeping an eye on other developments that bear watching, the market, how it is holding up even under all of these polls show joe biden holding up very well in the polls, normally, normally the thought someone coming in already said he is going to rescind a lot of trump tax cuts, minimum taxes will go up. that would not be greated favorably by wall street. but there has been reporting there is still too early to tie a ribbon on this election. that's true. or it could be people examining this more closely. depends who you talk to. hillary vaughn has been dissect the data and what various firms are saying about that right now. hey, hillary. reporter: hey, neil. wall street really isn't sure what to expect if joe biden were to become president. in fact long-time biden allies in the finance world are reassuring wall street he will be a middle of the road

moderate. but other people are worried he will be pushed to the left by progressive wing of the democratic party. >> do you think there is a concern that the socialist wing of the democratic party may very well be in charge. reporter: one thing biden has been up front about, the white house is warning about, taxes under biden will go up. white house economic advisor larry kudlow telling fox news this morning, a president biden would go on a quote, tax-hiking orgy. that would do major damage to u.s. investment. wall street is already forecasting what the impact of these tax likes might be. goldman sachs says biden plan to hike taxes from 20 one to 28%. could cut into earnings by 12%. saving we estimate the biden tax plan would reduce s&p 500 earnings estimates for 2021 by roughly 20 buck as per share, from 170 to 150. but long time biden friend and

megadonor patrick who have, says wall street will incur a little pain but do it with a smile. think like a republican, vote like a democrat, win by a lot, so progressive don't have the power to run the agenda. >> i'm not selling my stocks in anticipation much a biden victory and i'm hopeful that the victory is significant enough that it will give joe even more book bone to resist any force from either side. reporter: investors keep an eye on what happens in senate and house races in november. if democrats take control of the senate and keep control of the house, there is then a real concern these major left-wing policies could become reality. neil? neil: all right. we'll watch it way too early as you said, hillary, but the possibilities are endless. hillary vaughn on all of that. the dow is up about 42 points

right now. there is a battle back and forth the president is waging on places of higher learning especially when it comes to their plans to have online classes in the fall. harvard comes to mind. but there is a stipulation where he is looking at those foreign students taking only online courses that they skedaddle. that they will not be wanted in the united states. that got the likes of harvard, mit, other schools very big with a large foreign student population, saying no, no, you can't do that. there are legal grounds we could challenge that. so they are. katy. jaw koski, a former constitutional law attorney. so you do not mess with katy. the schools are saying you do not mess with the standard, foreign students who are here, learning here and just because they might be learning via online, can't, shouldn't kick them out. what are the legal grounds here?

>> well i do think it is really unfortunate situation. the visa programs are always subject to the government's discretion. i think legally can they pull these visas? they can. i don't know, i think this is the focus that should be had at the moment. perhaps it's a way to try to encourage these universities to reopen to have in-person classes because if the students are in some in-person classes they can remain in the country. unfortunately the visa environments can be changed at whim of the government. legally i don't know what legal grounds the school has but there is a lot of sympathy that comes along with that. neil: normally when you get to the point where you have a visa or entry into the united states it is hard to call that back. there have been attempts over the years where they have tried to do so but how likely would it be, if push came to shove, i know you can say administrations

have wide latitude how things are interpreted, that this would lead to an exodus of foreign students? >> practically speaking i don't see that happening. i think that there is going to be ways to work around this and i think to a great extent, even if these universities could theoretically reopen, there is a lot of considerations that go into that. perhaps there will be some way to negotiate a manner for students already here, already admitted to these universities to remain. certainly not their fault these schools are not holding in-person classes so i don't think that practically speaking there is going to be people actually being forced to leave but i believe that the government theoretically could do that if they want to push hard enough. i don't think that should be the focus from my personal opinion. i think there are ways that we could try to do a workaround. neil: you know, while i have you hear, katy, you help me with this. the president trying to force the point on states making sure all students return toe class

this fall, even threatening aid to those states to force the point. can he do that? >> well, it is an interesting question as well. to the extent that there is support that shows it's safe enough to do so i think he would have a better argument. before there is vaccine, there is uphill battle that the states don't have compelling interest to protect the safety and interests of their citizens and students there is possibility he can move forward with that. he will be challenged. to the, extent the safety issues are high as they are in the moment i think that will make his chances less successful. neil: what about businesses, salons, all the way to gyms, restaurants, suing governors who have taken back reopening phases in light of a spike in cases? they claim it's their livelihood

and the governors are trampling on that, so they're suing and it's happening in democratic states, republican states. what chances do they have? >> well it is an interesting issue. there is a lot of businesses from gyms, salons, even movie theaters who are suing these governors and it really comes down to whether there has been fair treatment, whether it has been, even treatment across the board. when you have a movie theater, for example, a movie theater, unlike a gym or salon is protected under the first amendment. that puts them in a very high category for when the government can essentially shut them down. so they have maybe a stronger argument than a gym or a salon owner but these people, all, of course their livelihoods are all on the line. so if the state shows they're treating businesses equally, kind of situated equally, they will have a better chance of winning. but fit is arbitrary or unfair to some businesses they will probably have a harder time to

defend those choices. neil: katie, you're the best. you know your stuff. i appreciate. that you endure these idiotic questions. i had a lot to hit you with, i appreciate it. katie cherkasky. we have a lot more coming up, how walmart is trying to invade amazon's tump. you heard of amazon prime, that is a good deal. our prime which is not called prime, is better than their prime we're including stuff they're not including. so prime time you pay attention to us. after this. technologies advisor. me too. me too. and if you're a small business, we're with you. standing by you every step of the way. bye bye.

♪. neil: okay, we are still monitoring the vice president right now. he is updating on how they stand really on this, keeping the schools open this fall or reopening them because much of the country they have been closed, closed down for the year, never reopening. he is making the case in some districts, some areas, where there have been a hike in cases, that local officials will

obviously have to decide how to weigh that. that flies in the face what the president says, everybody should go back and if they don't go back, states are playing politics in his opinion, he will stop aid to them. you heard comment from a widely respected attorney saying she is not so sure he can do that but the threat is out there. we're monitoring the corner of wall and broad, still advancing back and forth by this, still buoyed by with all this anxiety. people are buying a lot of stuff. amazon is a big beneficiary of that. walmart is a big beneficiary of that. walmart is upping the ante, talking about prime online ante. jeff flock following all of that closely. jeff. reporter: neil, don't you hate it when somebody does try to invade your space? i guess there much be a lot of hate between walmart and amazon these days. i'm in front of a amazon grocery

store that will open in september in the nick go suburbs. this used to be a baberies r us grocery. this has actually cashiers. not a grab-n-go deal. walmart trying to fire back to get in the space of amazon, with, what they call, walmart plus. sounds a lot like amazon prime and sure enough, that is kind of what it is. take a look at the numbers. it is cheaper than prime, $98 a year. same sort of thing. same-day delivery of groceries or whatever else you purchased. the thing that they offer, amazon prime does not offer is discounts at their goose stations pause they have all these bricks and mortar gas stations so they can give you a discount there. amazon can't do it. they give you access toe early deals which prime does as well. prime costs $119. compared to $98. 150 million? that is lott lot of people.

you can't get 150 million people to agree on anything these days. they have express delivery. they will give you video. at this point walmart is not offering. according to reports. walmart has not confirmed any of this. it is expected to launch this month. it is good news for walmart in terms of e-commerce these days. in may, walmart e-commerce sales up 74%. that's great news except when you look at the big picture. here's the big picture. when you look at e-commerce sales, the market, in 2020 so far, amazon has 40% of that market, almost 40% of that market. walmart has 5%. so they're hoping and by the way, ebay and apple also in the top four. they're hoping that, you know, we offer this sort of amazon prime for walmart, it will bring a lot more people into the tent. i leave you with the stocks, neil. yesterday, walmart, this news broke yesterday. walmart's stock up 7% yesterday.

down a little bit today. amazon, which was down yesterday, back up a little today. you know, the only good news in this. you have got two players, fighting it out. usually means better deals for guys like you and me. neil? neil: yeah. and i forgot, you're right about the gas thing. that's a big, you know, feather in walmart's cap. reporter: big deal for walmart customers and big deal for people in general i think. neil: absolutely. i love your line about 150 million that amazon has. hard to find 150 million people that agree on anything. that's a very good point. jeff, thank you. you're the best my friend. jeff flock in the middle of all of that. finish that thought, i'm sorry. reporter: sadly. neil: yes, thank you very, very, very much. scaring my producers and the whole control room. what is he doing now? popeye's going off script. we have a lot more coming right

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neil: all right, coronavirus group, now standing up finishing up to come back to meet with the president but the message was very clear. they were all reading from the same choir book to what the president said, all schools should try to open up this fall. the vice president was sort of dancing on the head of a pin distinguishing with those states easy to make that call, and other areas and regions where it might be more problematic. areas around phoenix, arizona, for example, and texas. you heard of other spikes in case, southern florida, where that could be a tough call to say black and white now, do it or else. even allowing for that they did see the urgency for the president's decision to open schools, but the president complicated this by saying he would threat aid to state has ignore that or don't do that.

i wonder what the next guest feels about that, talking about the governor of beautiful state of connecticut, governor ned lamont. thank you for taking the time. >> hi, neil. neil: let me ask you, first off, as you're looking at delaying a phase three reopening because of similar quirks in your state, not as severe in other states, but the president is saying come hell or high water you better open up the schools, he seems to be threatening aid to your state, not just yours, governor, if you don't. what do you think of that? >> well, first of all we've got about 95% of our state open. the only thing we'll put off for now is bars and nightclubs and big indoor entertainment venues because they are much more likely to have a super spreader event. we're fortunate to be in a state that has a positivity rate, percentage of people who test

positive of less than 1%. so, neil, we are ready to open our schools in the fall subject to the metrics. make sure the metrics keep going in the right direction. but what surprised me the cdc was very clear about reopening, said you have to have two to four weeks of declining infections before you could open stores or businesses. now why are they saying open up your school whatever? that seems wrong thome. neil: do you think the president can withhold aid to your state, if you even, even some parts of your state where there might be a spike where local officials come to you, governor, say, sir, we don't think it's a good time to reopen? >> yeah, i don't think this is anytime to play politics with school aid. i think that the president was right early on when he said, i'm going to leave this up to the governors. they are the ones who ought to make the decisions, making the

decisions on the ground. every state is in a very different circumstance. fortunately connecticut has a very low infection rate and i believe we'll get our schools open on time for the regular school day. neil: in your state, this delay in getting everything reopened up, is that a serious delay? do you know when it will be back on track? >> no. but i listened to governors abbott and desantis. they sort of regret they opened the bars when they did. they said it was something sort of uncontrolled and not natural to social distancing. i think what our pause could go on for a while. especially as i see the flareups going on around the rest of the country. neil: governor ned lamont, thank you very much. i always enjoy your opportunities to talk, get an update from you, your beautiful state. the connecticut governor, ned lamont. we'll have more after this. the dow up about 20 points. stay with us. ♪

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neil: hey, welcome back. i'm neil cavuto. there are other things going on in the world today that are moving stocks than just the back-and-forth between the president of the united states and some states that might hold off reopening their schools. we will be getting into that again, but suffice to say we continue to get good economic

news throughout all of this. the latest indication on the mortgage front, where home buyer mortgage demand was jumping 33% in the latest month. that follows on the heels of refinancings that are already up about 111% year over year. we are separately hearing that home builder taylor morrison just reported record june sales. that's lifting home builder stocks but it's part of a trend here that shows the underlying economy is doing just fine, thank you. add that with some optimism about some of these vaccines and trials that are progressing along the way, a lot of time with the help of the united states government. talking about novavax, regeneron. i could go on and on. but there's a lot of good developments here that get over the angst one way or the other about the virus, issues to treat it, maybe cure it, and some companies that are moving nicely

ahead all through it. connell mcshane here to pick it apart along with jackie deangelis. guys, thank you for joining me. first off, on the data front. jackie, you have been reporting on it a good deal. that is the trend that remains, the economy trend, it keeps coming out in most cases, not all, better than expected. what are you hearing? jackie: well, absolutely, right. on the jobs front we have seen better than expected news. you are talking about home buying and mortgages, definitely the housing market is seeing some positive signs here and that's because of the coronavirus itself, i would say. a lot of people are moving. you are going to see a shift in demographics across the country, a lot of people leaving the cities, going to the suburbs. that's where a lot of demand is high right now. there will be some valuation issues as realtors and clients try to figure out what the right prices are to pay, and the lending standards are going to be a little bit more stringent but there are definitely people that are changing things around, changing their lives and their

structure, especially if they are working from home. so housing is going to be strong. there's still a couple of things i worry about, neil. i worry about the retailers. i worry about how slow the economic recovery is going to be. i worry about the fact that we may be looking at a picture that seems better than it is, it just takes longer time for the bad news to come out. obviously nobody really has the answer to that part of the equation but it's something to think about. neil: you're right to be worried about retailers. connell, as you have been reporting, brooks brothers the latest to file for bankruptcy. lane bryant and ann taylor's parent saying it's ready to do the same. we have seen quite a bit of that activity from pier 1 to gamestop, gap, jc penney. there is that trend, too, isn't there? connell: well, i think one of the things that stands out with these companies that are filing for bankruptcy protection, you see a number on the screen right now, is that for the most part, there are exceptions to this

rule, but many of them are not just impacted by the virus shutdowns, but they are also impacted by trends that weren't necessarily their friend in the industry that they are in to begin with. brooks brothers speaks to that. i guess you and i are exceptions that we have to get dressed up like we are going to a wedding every day when we come to work because of what we do, but most people don't, right, and that -- neil: i dress this way casually. i'm actually wearing my pajamas. this is how i go every day. i don't know about you, mcshane. connell: we don't want that camera going any lower than it has. the point is the trends have changed, right, in normal quote unquote, work environments if we ever get back to that where people are dressing more casually and it hurts a company like brooks brothers. it's pushing, i guess, the point is, some companies that were already in trouble over that edge, unfortunately, because they have had to be locked down for so long and they were already maybe on the edge to

begin with. neil: i'm wondering, too, guys, i don't know what your thoughts are on this back-and-forth over whether stocks look attractive in this environment, if they are getting ahead of themselves. i'm noticing gold racing away. i haven't checked it going into this hour here but the fact of the matter is, it's in and out of eight-year highs. it's proven a good flight to quality for a lot of folks. i'm wondering, jackie, first to you on this, about what could have stocks rising and gold rising at the same time? it's usually one or the other. jackie: well, the gold trade i think is moving on the fact that there is some fear in the market, and you are seeing a flight to safety in gold at $1822. this is pretty staggering. there is a lot of fear and we talk about it every day. we don't know how fast things are going to move or if we are going to hit another roadblock. back to the point on retail, i will sort of bring this all together, i was reading an article this morning talking about the fact that this may be the end to black friday. how can you have hundreds of people rushing into stores

trying to find deals, for example, when the retail industry is in such a state and we just don't know how things will look by thanksgiving, for example. that's why you are seeing gold move up. on the other side of it, i think you are seeing stocks move up because the fed and the government has basically said we are going to backstop this market and with interest rates so low, there's really nowhere else to put your money right now. so you've got a lot of investors bargain hunting or buying the names they think are the strongest right now to try to procure some kind of return, neil. neil: connell, we are hearing about a lot of colleges that are weighing whether to go online this fall or just do it in person. harvard, you know, ignited the president's wrath by saying it's going to be online and furthermore, we are going to charge you the full 60 grand for the privilege. but leaving that aside, there are a number of colleges wrestling with that and i'm wondering with our focus on, you know, grade schools, middle schools, high schools, and

whether they return to business as usual or education as usual this fall, forgetting about the colleges, aren't we? connell: well, one of the things that makes the high school and especially the elementary school returns more important is the economic impact of not having the child care for those students if they don't return. that's something states like new york with the announcement today are going to have to grapple with, whereas you don't necessarily have that issue with colleges. harvard, to some extent, is a unique case. i guess at least they feel like they are and they probably are, always ranked as the number one school in the world and all the rest so that you can come out if you are harvard and say listen, we are harvard, you got to pay what you got to pay and we are going to do what we are going to do and live with it. for schools that don't have that ranking, this will be a test. if you are charging somebody 60 or $70,000 to go to a private school that's not harvard, will people pay? if the students aren't on campus, if the students aren't,

you know, given the chance to learn in person. i think that's a bigger question. the answer may not be the same for harvard as some, you know, some other school. st. bonaventure, other schools you might be thinking of. neil: i told my kids i'm not going to pay a penny more for that community college so you are on your own, guys. on your own. guys, thank you very very much. hope to get back to you a little lat later. in the meantime, we are looking at what's going to be kind of a confusing year going forward when we need more stimulus in the middle of this, because things are humming along nicely but who wants to hold back on providing aid to americans in an election year? edward lawrence going through all of that and what could be the next stimulus measure. i'm losing count of these stimulus measures. edward? reporter: we are on number four. yeah. there's a consensus, general consensus something needs to be done. i'm told here the discussions have started on this cares 4 but

the negotiations won't start until july 20th when the senate gets back into session. a senior administration official tells me the target size is $1 trillion or less. i'm told that it's because of several republicans who are balking, senators who are balking at the debt level and the prospect of spending more money. there's concern at the white house that the votes may not be there if the senate package is more than $1 trillion. in the package, the only red line, according to a senior administration official, is what senate majority leader mitch mcconnell wants, a limited liability protection for businesses, as the economy reopens. mcconnell says it should be retroactive, back to december 2019. other things the administration wants, payroll tax relief, direct payments to americans, and targeted relief for the hardest hit sectors, restaurants and hotels. a senior administration official says that relief could come in the form of tax credits. white house economic adviser larry kudlow says the next step should be a stimulus to push the v-shaped recovery, saying the

sales numbers are good and unemployment data is positive. listen. >> new business applications, you know, it's like a v recovery. i don't want to criticize, i used to be in the forecasting business when i was a wall street economist. but i don't see it. we may see some spots and i won't deny that, so let's play this a day at a time. reporter: one program being looked at for the next step, the payroll protection program. it runs out of money or stops again on august 8th. whatever money's left over, senator marco rubio wants companies to have a second shot at getting a second ppp loan and there's some support at the white house for that. also, on the table, it could be used as maybe a bailout for those sectors, hotels or restaurants. have to see how it shakes out. neil? neil: it's only money. you keep telling us, it's only money. thank you. reporter: somebody else's money. somebody else's money. neil: always somebody else's money which means it is our money. edward lawrence, outside the white house.

in the meantime, to open or not to open schools this fall? >> we are beginning to see early indications that positivity is flattening and in arizona and florida, we are beginning to see declining numbers of emergency room visits as well. it's time. it's time for us to get our kids back to school. >> you're really asking the american people in those counties and in those states, to not only use the face coverings, not going to bars, not going to indoor dining, but really not gathering in homes either. it's not a matter of if school should reopen. it's simply a matter of how. they must fully open and they must be fully operational and how that happens is best left to education and community leaders. neil: not everyone is quite on the same page. not if or how. they hear betsy devos, the education secretary, discuss it

right now about schools reopening. by the way, she will be my special guest at 4:00 p.m. on fox news. but enough about me and my guests. i want to focus again on what the significance of this and how they balance it out, because the president's already threatened aid to those states and schools if they do not reopen. dr. roger kline with us right now, health policy expert, parkland institute policy adviser, much, much more. doctor, always good to have you. what do you think about the idea of forcing the issue, that they should reopen, there are dangers if not everyone does reopen, and kids have proven largely immune to this so what's the worry? that seems to be the message. what do you say? >> hi, neil. thank you for having me. i think that the concern would really be because children tend not to be seriously affected by this, would be that they would spread it to others. i think it's a legitimate concern. we don't -- we are operating in an area with limited data. they don't appear to be worse at

spreading than adults but i think it's safe to assume or reasonable to assume that children, they get together, they are going to get infected and there's a chance they are going to bring the virus back home. so i mean, i'm very much in favor of opening schools but i think we have to be aware that there's a very good likelihood that infections will spread because of it. i think most important, as sad as it is, is to keep our children, especially the small children, away from vulnerable adul adults, especially grandparents, et cetera, who could get seriously ill where they contract the covid-19 disease. neil: among that group, to your point, doctor, are teachers and school officials who tend to be older, not everyone, obviously, but that they would be vulnerable to this and no one is thinking of them. the republicans say that's just

the teachers' union, you know, trying to stop this. i don't think it's that black and white. but what do you make of those concerns, the possibility that the ones teaching the kids are the ones who could get it from the kids? >> yeah, i think that's a realistic and reasonable possibility. the truth is the odds of death, for example, for a normal person under 70 years old is very slim. so for most people it really doesn't represent a mortality risk. it pains me to say it because there are wonderful teachers out there but i think if you are a highly at-risk person, for this disease, i think for the time being, it may be a good idea to refrain from working in a setting in which you are putting yourself at risk. i think it's a legitimate concern but it should not stop going forward and opening schools. the risks of that are too high and it's too damaging for young

children and the economic consequences as suggested by a previous guest are great. neil: so even in those cities and districts where there have been spikes in cases or they are worried about the number of positive cases, what do you recommend there? >> i still think they should open the schools. in the end, we are going to have to -- this epidemic will not burn out until enough people get infected or enough people get immune, either probably most likely through infection, but possibly through a vaccine, in order to create an immune -- you know, some level of immunity in the population. we are going to have to do that. i think that's apparent. it's to direct those infections towards people at lowest risk. children and parents of small children are lowest at risk. i think some people are going to be seriously affected, some

people are going to die from this. we have to accept that. i think what we need to do is go on, learn to live with it and minimize those deaths, protect the people who are at highest risk and some of that's going to involve avoidance which is really the best way to not get infected is to avoid contact with others. minimize contact with others. neil: all right. i got it. doctor, thank you very much. good catching up with you, my friend. appreciate all your guidance on this and helping a lot of folks out. in the meantime, we told you a little about how the administration is moving to kick out those foreign students who are already here if they are subject to taking only online courses. how one college is finding a way around that to make sure those students stay here. after this.

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neil: all right. welcome back, everyone. [ inaudible ] getting a lot of buzz right now but a promising treatment for alzheimer's is giving the stock a big old boost of about 5%. a little bit early right now but some promising reaction to the

drug and the fact it could slow the progression of alzheimer's. little too early to tell the significance of this outside of the fact that wall street clearly thinks it's on to something and they are buying a lot more of the stock as a result. we will keep an eye on that. also keeping an eye on baseball. i think we are only, what, a week or two away from an abbreviated season. in the middle of that, you have the mets and what seems to be a for sale sign outside shea stadium. where does that all stand now, charlie gasparino? charlie: it's coming down to the wire in some respects. tomorrow, as we were first to report on fox business, is the first round bids for the mets are due. there's a number of interesting -- interested players as we have been reporting. j-lo and a-rod, i think you know who they are, ira harris, the private equity billionaire, also sniffing around. he's said to be possibly putting a bid in. the ruben brothers, a uk real

estate firm is interested. hanging around the hoops as we have always said, still interested, is steve cohen. as we reported the other day, steve cohen appears to be in the lead position. now, that is further reinforced by what i'm going to report right now. from what we understand, steve cohen, the hedge fund billionaire, got into some trouble with insider trading, never was personally charged. his first firm was shut down. he set up another one which is doing very well, managing his own money and outside money. he's worth about $15 billion. we understand that cohen is now in direct talks with the wilpons, the controlling wilpon family of the mets, for possible purchase. here's what's interesting about that. cohen is an 8% owner of the mets. earlier in the year, he was thought to be ready to buy the mets for 2.6 billion. they got very close, there was some implosion in the talks between he and the wilpons. there was a lot of bad blood

from what i understand. but for some reason, that bad blood has dissipated. they are now in direct talks from what i understand about a purchase. i can't tell you he's going to go for it. i can't tell you the wilpons are going to give up control. but if you are looking at all the bidders, and from what we understand, the bidders i mentioned, the early indications for them was that they were pretty weak. what does weak mean? below $2 billion. i think wilpons have to sell for $2 billion given the debt that they hold. remember, they got messed up in that bernie madoff scheme where they actually had to pay back money they were giving to madoff over the years because madoff obviously made up his returns so they were left in the hole. the mets have a lot of debt. it looks like cohen is in the best position to buy the team. now, bids come in tomorrow. we should point out that cohen really doesn't have to bid tomorrow. there's been some talks that he will. i have my doubts. here's why. all the bids will come in, because he's a limited owner, he

sees all the bids. he gets to know so he can really just wait there, see what they bid, and then decide how much more he wants, you know, decide if he wants to top that bid and to make -- and to make his -- and to make his dream come true, from what i understand he's a long-time met fan and he will own the mets. that's what we are laterihearin. nothing is a done deal until it's a done deal. cohen and the wilpons have been down this road before. you got to imagine that steve is going to have the is dotted and ts crossed before he agrees to go another round with it, but clearly, there's something happening here. there are direct talks between the two sides. that usually means they are talking about a deal. back to you. neil: thank you, my friend, very very much. charlie gasparino following the mets here. boy, people pounced on me for saying shea stadium. i should have known it's citi field now. it was like an adjacent, right,

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neil: out of the country is the new edict for the administration, seemingly hinting that foreign students here, if all they are doing is taking online courses at swanky schools in this country, they might as well be back in their own country. a number of schools are coming up with alternative plans to make sure those students that stay here, but coming up with novel means by which they could force the issue. william lajeunesse has a lot more. reporter: first students tried to create a fake one-hour in-person class, taught by students to skirt the i.c.e. rules that require foreign students to physically attend

classes to keep their student visa. now, the rule has long existed because of fraud. many foreign nationals who couldn't get into the u.s. legally got a student visa from online colleges, then worked under the table. well, the problem now is major universities go to online classes only, because of the coronavirus. more than a million foreign students could be forced to go home. >> a lot of students are not able to get flight tickets back to their home country just because the travel ban from every country. yeah, this definitely has me anxiety. >> -- to the international students in the country, i think that this is sending a very strong message that we don't want to have them here. reporter: this is a big deal for universities. foreign enrollment down 20%. they paid billions in foreign money which explains why harvard and m.i.t. sued the administration, calling the

rules quote, impossible, expensive and dangerous to send students home or force them to attend classes during a pandemic. >> in this case, they are talking about people who are right here legally, who had to wait to get a visa, paid all the fines and fees to get into a university, and they are coming for a valid reason to get an education. reporter: so no comment today from i.c.e. but the harvard complaint says the effect if not the goal of this policy is to create as much chaos as possible. that's a quote. it is now up to a district court judge in boston to decide the case or grant this restraining order. back to you. neil: william lajeunesse, thank you very very much, my friend. william lajeunesse following all of that in california. in the meantime, just want to update you on a couple of things that are sort of getting some steam. that is more stimulus coming as edward lawrence was telling us, in washington. we don't know the form of that stimulus. we do know there's a push for more stimulus checks. let's get the read from

pennsylvania republican congressman and physician, i might point out, john joyce. congressman, very good to have you again. where are we going with this stimulus, do you know? >> neil, thank you for having me here today. i'll tell you, it's very important that we get americans safely back to work. it is our responsibility as members of congress that we face what we know to be so important to our citizens, to our constituents, that we have to be responsible stewards of the taxpayers' dollars. so facing what the next stimulus package is, we have to look at what we can do effectively to allow americans to safely return to work. now, leader mcconnell mentioned something that i feel is incredibly important. that is that we have to include in any additional stimulus package, we have to include protection and that is liability

protection. liability protection for the front line workers, for the small businesses, for those who are working in grocery stores, in convenience stores. this has to be an integral part of any additional stimulus package. we know that we had a booming economy and we know it's going to take the right resources to get us back there and we are on that right path. but we need to work together. it has to be a bipartisan solution to move forward and effectively resume the great economy that we saw right before the introduction of this novel coronavirus. neil: you know, democrats are charging republicans, i'm sure you're aware, that by wanting to stop these generous $600 a week unemployment benefits, you are really sticking it to the average american that's really been hurt by all of this. i know the republican argument has been you want to incentivize people returning to work. hard to do that whether they are getting on top of state

benefits, $600 a week from uncle sam. how do you counter that? what do you offer in exchange to incentivize these folks to come back? >> we need to' sto stop incentg people for not working. our economy has great opportunities and those opportunities require a dedicated work force. incentivizing people to stay at home is not the answer. neil: so when we talk about stimulus checks, something else that's come up, are you for that? >> i think it had its place and we are going to look at any additional stimulus that's going to come forth. but right now, i think we need to motivate and see what's happened with the existing cares package. we have to work together, both parties, democrats and republicans alike have to see what has been effective and what can continue to be effective. most important, we need to allow the american workers to safely return to work and we need to see that our economy stays on

that path to recovery. neil: all right. congressman, thank you very very much. we will see where all this goes. time's a'wasting. be well, be safe, be healthy. in the meantime, you can see the dow dipping a little bit here. goeld gold is not, though. it's been moving smartly. it's been moving in and out of nine-year highs right now. you think about gold's progress, it has really come up through the comeback in the stock market. when the stock market was down. so there's something funky going on here. we are on that after this. how they gonna pay for this? they will, but with accident forgiveness allstate won't raise your rates just because of an accident. cut! is that good? no you were talking about allstate and... i just... when i... accident forgiveness from allstate. click or call for a quote today. [(vo)stinct radio chatter] audi e-tron. the next frontier of electric. accident forgiveness from allstate.

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♪ neil: but it better be american because if it's foreign, there will be tariffs and it will be a nightmare.

grab what you can but right now, we are looking at a lot of people in that particular industry whining about pricier grapes. see what i did there? it's all basic cable for you. kristina partsinevelos on all of these developments. wlaps goi what's going on here? reporter: slow clap, neil. slow clap. for some of us, you may feel like you are drinking a lot more wine throughout the pandemic but that boost in sales is still not enough to offset the catastrophic drop in purchases from restaurants and bars. i'm at a vineyards in long island in new york state. this is a multi-generational vineyard, i spoke to the wine maker here who said that despite the increase in retail sales, restaurant sales have been hit dramatically. listen in. >> we are very seasonal business. if the restaurants aren't reopening at this time of year, the restaurant business, the wholesale business we do with restaurants is something that helps keep us going and if

that's not there, that presents a new challenge. reporter: this is a new challenge for the entire industry. the u.s. wine industry is anticipated to lose almost $6 billion this year in 2020 alone. last year, talking about a trend, we have actually seen a drop in wine consumption in the united states for the first time in 25 years. overall, big picture because of covid primarily, we are expecting a drop of almost 10% in alcohol sales around the globe. but we've got to talk about why some of these wineries are whining. that's t.a.r.p. back in october, the administration put a 25% tariff on european goods, including wine imported into the united states. now the administration is possibly considering a 100% tariff. so that means that prices could increase but it could be a benefit for domestic producers like this one where i am because people will switch to local. the vines are growing, the wine

is flowing but somebody's got to buy it. i will later. back to you. neil: i even like you got the names right with the accent. thanks. great job as always. amazing. you never know where a good business story will crop up. all right. a lot more coming up at the corner of wall and broad. barely budging right now. again, focused stimulus, lot of other developments we are following. stay with us. just over a year ago, i was drowning in credit card debt. sofi helped me pay off twenty-three thousand dollars of credit card debt. they helped me consolidate all of that into one low monthly payment. they make you feel like it's an honor for them to help you out. i went from sleepless nights to getting my money right. so thank you. ♪

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i don't see it. only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ neil: all right. everyone wants to go back to school, the president trying to force the issue. if it doesn't work out, he's going to be one upset guy. a lot of other folks will be upset depending on who you talk to but retailers will be the most upset because they count on that back-to-school spending. lauren simonetti, they count on it a lot, don't they? lauren: they sure do, neil. both president trump and vice president pence making the push to get kids back in the classroom this fall. vice president pence even saying that perhaps federal funding could be an incentive for states that do decide to reopen the classrooms. listen. >> yesterday, president trump convened a summit of education leaders and health officials at

the white house, and as the president made clear yesterday, it's time. it's time for us to get our kids back to school. lauren: believe it or not, kids being home does not save mom and dad any money whatsoever. deloitt is predicting that back to school spending for kindergarten through twelfth grade will hit $28.1 billion this year. essentially the same as last year. it works out to about $529 per family. there will be a jump in technology purchases, think personal computers, even supplemental learning materials, because parents are complaining hey, junior is home with me, they're just not learning as much so they are going to spend more to boost what the kids are actually able to learn while home. they are going to spend less on traditional school supplies, less on pens and paper, less on backpacks, less on clothing. you can see right here, apparel and the other spending is down 17% and 18% respectively.

here's a fun tidbit. how much are we going to spend per child on wipes and sanitizing? 46 bucks. i actually thought was a little light. i guess it's not that expensive in the end. as to where we plan to shop, it will be a lot of last minute decisions based on what schools intend to do but mass merchants will do the best. i'm showing you two of them. walmart, it's up this year, as of yesterday. take big pop that they got. also depot, down 23%. they can certainly use a boost. we will see if the schools reopen and how they are going to do it. neil: all those details that their futures could hang on. thank you very much. lauren simonetti. president is, to lauren's point, trying to force that issue and tell schools they should reopen but maybe withholding aid unless they do. the fallout from that after this.

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neil: a.b. stoddard joins us right now from realclear politics, much much more, good writer and purveyor of the social scene. couple things i want to get into with you. first is the president's push to reopen schools this fall, force the point with states that don't do so, withholding aid presumably educational aid to get his way. what do you make of it? >> well, neil, i think we are a long way from the start of school. i think that, you know, it's

july 8th and there's no plan to control the spread of the virus. there never has been. all through the winter and all through the spring and summer, it's to live with the virus. now it is rampaging across the country and it's not under control, the idea of worrying about what goes on in the classroom, where the lunchbox is put, where the chairs are when there's community spread unabated, is kind of a waste of time, it's going to take an incredible amount of resources for schools to open so that kids do not bring this virus back into their homes and their parents' community, and what the president essentially said in his statements today was you better open or else, i will withhold funding and we are not looking at public health guidelines designed to do it safely so that we keep infections down. we ignore the cdc and full speed ahead. we know what happened when we did that with the economy, indoor spaces like bars are

super spreaders, schools are going to be very dangerous places and i don't see right now a plan to mitigate the spread of the virus to keep schools safe. neil: the vice president did seem to tip his hand about those that live in these so-called hot spots, leave it up to local officials, but in the end, he made it very clear we would like to see schools open. but some of those hot spots are controlled by republicans, so i mean, they're not going to do anything too cavalier, right? >> well, they all have to make a choice about the safety of their community. if you look at florida and arizona and texas, you know, i think their leaders are beginning to be very worried about the icu capacity of their hospitals and the rate of positivity and the fact that the infections are surging and it's not just a result of increased testing. so i think that, you know, they will have to take a long hard

look at whether their teachers can come back, the janitors, the bus drivers, whether or not they have the resources to space the kids apart, to have separate buses, to have them come in different shifts. it's really, it's a threat to the community at large even if kids do better when they get infected, and the surges that we are seeing that are so out of control now, a week into july, makes people really doubtful about whether schools can stay open. they can try opening just like these businesses did, but it looks like they might end up closing like a lot of businesses had to. neil: yeah. it's going to be problematic. you know, there's also the criticism of the left from some on the left, especially when it comes to congresswoman ilhan omar and her plan not only to guarantee homes for all but to redo the thought of police departments and law enforcement and actually, the system we have today. i'm just thinking the timing is a little weird, right. i mean, we have had all this

violence in so many cities over the weekend where a couple hundred folks were shot, many many killed, including an 8-year-old girl in georgia that prompted the georgia governor to bring on the national guard, sort of to calm things down. so i'm more faulting the congresswoman and others who support this total societal revamping, the timing of it. what do you think? >> i think the timing is intentional to put pressure on joe biden from the progressive left and what's so fascinating is to see the people who wanted to reorder society didn't win the democratic prime arkansaapr. neither sanders nor warren won the primary. joe biden did because they believe the best path back to power is with a moderate. especially as recently as yesterday, 50 times defunding the police. that's crazy talks. there's this push for free stuff no matter what from the ill

liberal left is the kind of thing we see, if biden becomes captured by it, he might lose the election that he's very well poised to win right now. what's interesting [ inaudible ] the radicals is they have been isolated by the democratic leadership. that's why when she said anti-semitic things in the past, you saw the speaker kind of throw her under the bus. if they give in to pressure trying to mobilize the far left, that's going to be hazardous to joe biden's chance of winning a means much trying to weigh in on the vp pick and other picks and messaging that he is going to choose as they head closer to election day. neil: i know a lot of wall street pros, i always said gotten into with you in the

past, wall street community, they're not red or blue. they're green. they love making money. they made money with barack obama. they made a ton of it with donald trump. they don't want that change is specially when they get this drifting far left approach joe biden is taking or message he is sending that they're treating him like mr. magoo and pulling the strings to make him a hard progressive to endorse some of these things. he has not come out with the exception of defunding police departments to really chastise them. maybe he will, but what do you make of that? well, any joe biden is walking, it's a tightrope. so he is trying not to chastise them and not directly denounce them that the house speaker nancy pelosi certainly did in 2019. she made herself very clear several times. joe biden is not trying to

denounce them, saying i don't want to take down statues of george washington. he is trying not to indulge them but not castigate them. that is a line he is trying to walk. he has to rally the party to support him. he is trying to both persuade and mobilize. neil, we talked about this, president is only interested in mobilization where you can see joe biden is trying to both mobilize his party and persuade voters from the republican and independent parts of the electorate. so i don't think you will see him castigate but does he give in to the pressure to pick someone who speaks that way or indulges the progressive left? that will be the challenge ahead in his vp pick and messaging up to election day. why, i think the reason you see all the support from strong majorities of different parts, even trump coalition he is losing some part of his own electorate, because joe biden is not seen as radical but seen as

rational. if he changes that, it to a point -- that is why where he is. he is not seen as a far left democrat. he is seen more reasonable than president trump. neil: we shall see. thank you very much. now to charles payne. hey, charles. charles: hey, neil. thank you very much. good afternoon, everyone, i'm charles payne. this is "making money." breaking at this moment after one of the most volatile six months in the history of the stock market we've been on more pedestrian approach last couple days. investors have a lot to pause on, including unknowns from covid to congress. there are big winners. tech is a big winner. goldman through the roof and housing stocks are big with record jump in demand. gary kaltbaum, he will tell you what will happen in zimbabwe that should have the federal reserve shaking in his boot. president trump