you as well, courtney dominguez. thank you so much, i hope you have a great new year, and we will see you very soon in 2021. that does it for us. "varney & company" is up right now. david asman is in for stuart. david, take it away. david: dagen, thank you very much. happy new year if i don't see you. good morning, everyone, i'm in for stuart varney, and here is the big story today. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell blocking the democrats' quick vote on the $2,000 stimulus checkings. a lot of details to come, we'll explain. but there is good news. treasury secretary steve mnuchin says you could see your $600 relief checks in your account as soon as tonight. we're on it. quick check of the futures, right now all in the green. the dow, the s&p and the nasdaq trading up from modest to about a half percent on the nasdaq. meanwhile, colorado has confirmed now the first case of the new mutant strain of covid from the u.k.

now, we've got a doctor who says don't panic about this. he'll explain, that's coming up. and the media just couldn't hide their hatred for the president over the past four years, well, they are back at it again even as he's about to leave. bigtime. we're going to show you their latest meltdown and get some reaction from somebody who is working with president trump. plus, mac's pub, this is the bar in staten island, declared itself an autonomous zone? well, they just claimed a huge victory after being mounded by local authorities -- hounded by local authorities. they are reopening soon, and their lawyer joins us momentarily. steve cortes, liz peek, alicia farrah are all here. "varney & company" begins right now. ♪ ♪

♪ oh, listen to the music all the time ♪ david: doobie brothers. and gloria gaynor, i will survive, she is going to be with us at the end of the show, so you want to stick around. she's going to be performing on times square. maybe not in front of a huge audience. now this, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell blocking a quick vote on $2,000 stimulus checks, instead asking the senate to bring president trump's other requests into focus. susan li is here for details. susan, what is he asking for, and when could people see those $600 checks? >> starting last night for direct deposit, this will take place this week and physical checks are being mailed out today. right now these are just $600 checkings. the $2,000 checks are being held up in the senate with majority

leader mitch mcconnell refusing a vote to pass a stand-alone $2,000 check, but instead he's coupling it in a bill that would rescind section 230 and couple that with investigations into election fraud. these are items the democrats likely don't want to pass, the $2,000 checks probably won't get passed this year. americans will probably need to wait until next year. but, hey, in the meantime, gloria gaynor in times square, don't we? [laughter] david: that's right. we have her right here on "varney & company." thank you very much, susan. joining us now is shah ghailani, happy new year, my friend. will the covid relief bill itself, the whole thing, make that much of a difference in the economy and particularly in markets in. >> it'll definitely make a big deal difference in markets, for sure. as far as the economy, that remains to be seen. but in terms of the markets, david -- and and happy new year to you, by the way -- in terms of markets, the last stimulus bill in march, going back to

march of last year or this year was the imwe e discuss for investors, retail investors to jump into the market. that's what lifted us off of the lows, the march 23rd lows. and i think another round of stimulus, million copter money, if you will, is going to go into the -- helicopter money, if you will, is going to go into the market. david: but with regard to the checks, as much as they are needed by americans who are in tough shape and they do need that relief, but in terms of a stimulus, we've seen these checks passed out before and afterthe financial i crisis in 2009. they were saved, not penalty. same thing with the bush administration, they were passed occupant and saved, not spent. and people are saving a lot of money right now, so i'm just wondering if it will actually stimulate the retail sector if people are saving the money. >> no, i think we're going to see spending, you know, i think on this round of stimulus we're going to see people start to

reach into their savings accounts and start to spend. there's a lot of spent-up demand for a lot of -- pent-up demand, and i think as people feel more comfortable with more money in the bank, they're going to start to spend. and i think going into the first quarter with the new administration, we're going to see a lot of spending coming out of this new administration, and i think investors are going to be very, i think, proactive in their purchasing and getting caught up on the demand side of the i equation. and i think that that is going to do very well for investors because that's going to create a lot of profits, a lot of revenues, and i think the markets are going to continue to go higher because of this. this administration, the new administration is going to do what everybody expects it to do which is spend, spend, spend. and however long that lasts, the economy's going to continue to climb out of this recession and investors are going to continue to bid up equities. david: now, shaw, are you -- shah, are you putting your money where your mouth is here?

>> yes. not so much retail because a lot of those stocks are, i think, a little beaten up. they've been gathering momentum, they're doing well, but they're not the types of investments i rush into. i'm more in technology stocks, stay at home, work from home stocks, industrial materials, a lot of the so-called cyclical stocks that have already done well, will continue to do well as the economy recovery coffers. -- recovers. but as far as retail stocks, i'm somewhat clear of those, david. those are just, those are not my value stocks, those aren't the areas that i invest in. david: well, shah, have a wonderful 2021. it's been a tough year, but i'm sheer we'll all do better next year. >> thank you. david: thank you very much. on your screen are the senate republicans who support the $2,000 stimulus checks. georgia senators kelly loeffler and david bear due are included in that group. come in steve cortes. you know, one poll shows that

80% of americans support the $2,000 checks that the president wants as opposed to the $600 checkings. so it may be expensive, but politically it seems like a no-brainer, right in. >> absolutely, david. you know, listen, the populist, nationalist economic agenda is a winner politically, it's also a winner in terms of policy, and the american people know that. thankfully, these two republican senators and candidates from the state of georgia recognize that as well. i think, by the way, this is a smart move for their electoral chances because the best way for them to get reelected is to fight for donald trump. and that's not just my opinion. if you look at the rally that occurred when president trump was last in georgia, he's going to go to georgia again next week, but when he was last there rallying for those two candidates, what did the crowd roar? fight for trump, fight for trump. so there's a lot of disillusionment with establishment republicans particularly in the state of georgia where the governor and

some other statewide officials have shown them to be feckless. they're doing enormous damage to the republican brand. they are harming the chances of these senate candidates, unfortunately. the path to victory for them, for both of them, i believe, is by rallying to the side of president trump and the america first agenda as much as possible. and you would also encourage them, by the way, to be explicit that if they are, indeed, elected when the new senate convenes, they will not certify the tainted vote of georgia -- david: so that's what they, that's what they are going to say. what are we going to hear from the president on monday, the day before the election? >> well, listen, i think the president is going to say that it's important we keep the senate, and no matter how mad you are at governor. governor kemp and, again, other people around the country, people like governor doocy, he showed himself, unfortunately, to be a feckless establishment republican who doesn't

understand that pop list, nationalist -- populist, nationalist, america first movement, handing the keys over to chuck schumer is not remotely the answer. to continue the america first agenda, we need control of the senate. and it is imperative given that reality that both loeffler and perdue be reelected. david: by the way, do you think he may announce the beginning of trump 2024? >> you know, we'll see. i obviously can't get in front of the boss regarding announcements, but look, i know this or i believe this, donald trump is going to serve a second term whether it begins on january 20th in just a few weeks or whether it begins in 2025, remains to be seen. we, of course, believe and we have strong backing from trump voters that this election was stolen from us, so we're going to continue to fight both in actual court as well as the court of public opinion. this is not yet settled, but no

matter who is sworn in on high noon, this america first movement is still very young, and trump is still the dominant player within that movement. david: i want to focus for a second more on georgia now. the two democrats, warnock and ossoff, both are kind of claiming that they're middle of the road democrats. kind of hard to do with their welcomed, isn't it? -- with their background, isn't it? >> it certainly is. these are two extremely radical candidates. for example, we look at second amendment rights, and that's a key issue, you know, first-time gun buyers exploded in this country, by come estimates as many as 5 million new gun buyers in the year of 2020, both of these candidates would do great harm to the second amendment. and in the case of warnock specifically, he also said of his many radical positions, perhaps to me the most offensive was for him to say that you cannot both serve god and the united states military. these are positions that are

totally out of step the even in liberal blue statements. david: we only have ten seconds, but there's some personal stuff about warnock, his involvement with a summer camp in which kids were mistreated. is that being blared on all the ads now? >> you know, listen, unfortunately, a lot of the conventional media has shown its bias in failing to fully vet and investigate these very valid claims. they need to be fully -- and there are still days to go, which in politics is plenty of time. besides his policy problems, yes, there are a lot of personal problems both regarding his ex-wife as well as his church camp. warnock is a poisoned candidate and one who could not possibly properly represent the citizens of georgia. david: steve cortes, have a wonderful new year, all right? >> thanks, david. david: thank you very much. let's check the futures right now. they are in the green. the biggest gain in premarket activity, we should say, is the nasdaq. the tech-heavy nasdaq, that's up almost half a percent.

here we go again, a new york democrat is skating on thin ice, literally. he's now having to explain why he was caught skating at an ice rink that was closed down by his very own health department. just another example of rules for thee but not for me. but first, joe biden is promising that his administration's going to distribute 100 million vaccine doses in 100 days. what does dr. matt mccarthy think of that? i'll ask him coming next. ♪ ♪ when you switch to xfinity mobile,

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starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. david: and we are back with a fox busis

alert. very sad news, 41 is-year-old louisiana congressman-elect luke led low has died from the coronavirus. the news confirmed by his family overnight just ten days after he tested positive. it's unclear if he he suffered any pre-existing conditions. it was heart failure that actually led to his death. the republican was set to be confirmed this sunday, there will be another special election to decide who will be the successor after very sad news. our condolences. meanwhile, health officials in the u.k. are giving the green regular refrigerator works. the first batches, david, were released last night.

inoculations start january 4th. and one more thing, u.k. officials are trying to protect more people. so what they're recommending is spreading out the two doses. so whether you're getting the pfizer advantage seen or the astrazeneca one, instead of getting the first one and three or four weeks later the second, they want to spread that out to 12 weeks, therefore, more people can get protected. david: yeah. this is a two-jab vaccine. they're not all that way, but that's what this one is. joe biden wasted no time on tuesday to criticize the trump administration's efforts to distribute vaccines. roll tape. >> the trump administration's plan to distribute vaccines is falling behind. the biden/harris administration will spare no effort to make sure people get vaccinated. i've laid out three challenges in our first hundred days. one of them is insuring that 100 million shots have been administered by the end of the

first hundred days. david: joining me now is infectious disease doctor matt mccarthy. first of all, we wouldn't have a vaccine if it wasn't for operation warp speed, would we? >> that's right. the only reason we're in this position is because of operation warp speed and the tremendous collaboration, public/private partnership that can even have us talking about vaccinating people in 2020. david: so that's the biggest thing, what biden was saying, that i would push back on. but there were specifics. i just have to mention a couple because he wasn't fact-checked by the mainstream media. he criticized trump for not getting the vaccine. now, in fact, the president was sick, obviously. he had covid. there was a night -- as i understand it, because of the medications he took, there's a 90-day period after he recovered from covid that he can't take the vaccine, is that right? >> that's right. so he was diagnosed in early october. he's considered immune until early january. so from a safety profile, he

doesn't need to get the vaccine to be immune. but from a public health messaging standpoint, we could argue that it would be good for him to get vaccinated. you know, a lot of politicians got vaccinated before i did, and i actually thought it was a good thing, it was a good example for peoplement either -- for people. either way, you know, it would be a good role model thing to get done. david: again, he's going with the doctors. by the way, biden also said that he would make vaccines free. aren't they already free? >> yeah. so right now nobody should be paying for a vaccine. this was part of operation warp speed. the goal is to get as many shots into as many arms as possible, and we don't need people fiddling for their credit card to make that happen. david: all right. enough fact-checking on biden, but i had to get that out there. you actually took a vaccine, you took the moderna vaccine. what was your experience like? >> yeah. i got vaccinated this week. i honestly didn't feel a thing.

i was all built up for something to happen, nothing happened. the next day i did wake up with just a little bit of soreness in my arm. i'm a former baseball player, and the way i described it to my friends was it was like i had played catch with my dad for half an hour. it was a soreness, but it was a good soreness, and it quickly went away. david: now, i'm told that the second shot with moderna is the one that does most often lead to some consequences, right? >> that's right. so what we see is that the vaccine can cause a little bit of a swelling in your armpit because the advantage seen working -- vaccine is working, and some people have a fever. it's the really incredible, my body, right now, the muscle sells are making the spiked proteins of coronavirus, and my immune system is recognizing it and creating these t-cells and antibodies that will product me if and when i come in contact with the virus. the fact that i may get a low grade fever or swelling in the armpit is a sign that it's

working. i haven't had any of that so far, but seeing the news about the congressman-elect who just passed away, he and i are about the same age. i'll tell you what, whatever side effects, i will take the trade-off, because this is terrifying. david: absolutely. what else terrifying is the new strain that's very infectious. of course, the u.k., it's caused a shutdown in the u.k., other countries keeping their people away from the u.k. because of it. now we have a case it was confirmed in colorado, but the person who has it apparently had no travel in the u.k., so how did he get it? >> well, look, we've known about this mutant strain for months. this thing was discovered over the summer. and the only reason it hasn't been detected in the united states is because we aren't she sequencing most viruses. if you contracted coronavirus today, we wouldn't send it to a laboratory to find out what mutations it has. we're going to be finding more and more of this as we sequence

more. there are mutant strains all over the united states right now. nothing to worry about it, we're sequencing it, just want to offer some reassurancement. david: dr. matt mccarthy, always a pleasure to talk to you, thank you very much. >> thank you. david: markets are up in premarket activity. the opening bell's about six minutes away. that's next. ♪ ♪ we are family, i've got all my sisters with me. ♪ we are family are you frustrated with your weight and health?

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♪ david: a check of the markets, and they are trading up in premarket activity. look at the nasdaq, it looks like it could be up about half a percentage point when we open with the markets. let's bring in david bonnson. let's look at the overall situation because we tend to focus on the negative stories, the bad stories, the lockdowns, all of the bad news about the pandemic, but there is a great story of 2020, and that is the american spirit came through. despite all of the stuff, i can say it, all the crap that we had to deal with, the american

entrepreneurial spirit came through. of course, some companies, tragically, didn't. but tell us about the untold story of our economic recovery in 2020 and in the year to come. >> well, when you look at that stuff the that you referred to, and i think both of us could use a different word off air to describe what we've gone through with these lockdowns, what you don't see is the record number of new business license applications taken out. for all these failed buzzes basically being -- businesses basically being forced into failure by the tragedy of the pandemic and the policy decisions preif marely from governors and mayors, but yet there are new businesses that are starting to take their place. this entrepreneurial spirit that is embedded in the dna of americans has not gone anywhere, and i think it will end up being the major story of 2021. david: and there's a lot of cash to fuel it. there's not only cash in people's pockets, people are saving more -- about double what they were last year -- but in

s&p companies alone there's $2 trillion in cash right now. >> that's right. which is $500 billion more than it was a year ago. and so you have an incredible amount of retained earnings, you have an incredible amount of cash that's been generated throughout the year and, of course, they've raised money through debt offerings because of the very low cost of capital thanks to the federal reserve. either way that cash has to get deployed somewhere, it has to be put into dividends, stock buybacks or, hopefully, business investment, capital expenditures to help drive productive growth into the future. david: now, i don't want to rain on the parade, but there will be more regulations in a biden administration, maybe more taxes particularly if they take over the senate. won't that be a pushback to all this? >> yeah, i don't think they're going to be able to get higher taxes. even if they were to win both georgia seats, which i don't think they're going to do, but even if that were to happen, i think there's one vote out there that doesn't want to commit

political suicide. and raising taxes in the middle of a pandemic-induced recession would be political suicide for them. i don't think that the taxes are the issue, but the regulations are what you have to watch. david: david, thank you so much. by the way, your picks, kris sew coe and intel -- cisco and intel, we're going to talk about that in just a moment. the dow futures are up about 89, 90 points, nasdaq up bigtime as well. we do see some red on the screen, the bottom level of the dow stocks, ibm, home depot, boeing is down a bit, but there's a lot more green than red, and it looks like the dow pay pop above 100, it's close to that. let's look at the s&p, david was just talking about it, it's up about a third of a percentage point right now as we chug along. this, of course, the last trading week of the year. nasdaq was doing quite well in premarket activity, up about half a percentage point. it's maintained that, up about 57 points right now trading just

below 13,000 level, 12,906. all right, let's -- we were just talking with david a little bit about intel. susan, it rallied yesterday after an activist hedge fund made a bet on it. who was it? >> dan loeb, he's pushing for changes of intel, as we know, lagging this year and at risk of slipping even further bemind. they're facing tough -- behind. they're facing tough competition and being dumped by apple after 15 years. so intel's down 18% so far in 2020, a big underpoint. and third point wants what they call strategic they weres like selling off some of their bad acquisitions over recent years. and the stock actually rallied. remember dan loeb pushing disney to suspend dividends? disney listened in this case, and the reason why the stock is trading at these record or levels, and most of those gains, by the way, just in the last few months.

david: and, again, david bahnsen, who was just on with us, a big fan of that, they have a dividend of about 3% on intel. >> looked at you, yeah. david: take a look aters-commerce retailer -- e-commerce retailer jd.com. >> it's another chinese amazon, second after alibaba in china, they're looking to spin off their cloud and artificial intelligence units, and just like amazon and alibaba, we know jd has been pushing into the more lucrative fields of cloud computing and a.i., and they're trying to spin out these faster-growing, money-making units x this is something that amazon analysts have been pushing jeff bezos to do. new but this might be a smart move for jd. i want to show you alibaba today. look at this recovery that we've seen in the stock from those historic losses last week, and the journal reporting a deal might have been struck with beijing that doesn't break up alibaba, but the chinese

government can own more. david: jack ma knows how to make deals. susan, thank you very much. let's move over to travel. american airlines saying they expect to cut flights from their schedule through at least february. so, lauren, how much revenue are they going to miss out on? >> well, they're flying less than half, 45% of their 2019 schedule. and, david, that's for this month. the holidays when people are flying more. so it's really not looking good at all. and american is warning of these cuts that could go into spring. they have called back furloughed workers because, yes, they did get money from the new federal relief bill, but guess what? that assistance device up in march. so, you know, hopefully come april the advantage seen, you know, we start that mass vaccination. david: yeah. i think by then we'll see the light at the end of the tunnel. hopefully, we'll be there. all right, some good news, lauren, caterpillar getting a price hike from plume and about

what? >> it's to $220 from the 179 that it's trading at now. they listed it from their prior target which was 206, but they also added caterpillar to their top picks list for the new year with. a bet on the global economic recovery and with it retail demand coming in to caterpillar, they make heavy machinery. it is a cyclical stock, but cat's working on connecting more of their machines, think a.i., and also adding more services, and the stock's up 19%. david: not bad at all. 2020, it was a great year for streamers, susan. 2021 is looking good too, right? >> yeah, hbo max and disney plus up big for the holidays. wonder woman a reason for the bump, the reviews were bad, but more than half a million signing up on friday to sunday, half of that number coming on sunday

alone. disney plus, mean timings has nearly meantime, had nearly two and a half million sign up other christmas. the big draw was the animated film soul, and that was released on christmas day. i haven't seen it, but it looks pretty good. analysts expect this streaming momentum to carry through next year, disney plus reporting nearly 90 million subscribers during its first year. that's half of what netflix has, but it took them 12 years to amass that number. david: they built that up in a new york minute if. susan, thank you very much. lauren, amc may be selling more shares? how many? >> 50 million. they have to. they need to stave off bankruptcy. they need to help keep their equity investors whole. the stock is down 4.5%. it is down 70% this year. the reasons are obvious. many theaters are closed, and the ones that are open, they're capping attendance. and you were just talking about wonder woman: 1984. if you liked it or not, it was the best grossing movie since

the pandemic, and even that wasn't a lot of money. so amc is struggling. david: $16.7 million, you know, to think that's a record for 2020. it shows you how bad the year was for entertainment. thank you very much. check the big board, we are up across the field, all the indexes. the dow is up about 95 points right now. nasdaq is up as well. bitcoin, susan, it hit a new record? >> oh, yes, $28,500 plus, record-breaking rally are. david: wow. >> the biggest monthly rally since last year. it's up 40% in december alone, that's just incredible. more than 200% on the year and the most popular -- probably the most convenient and easiest ways to buy bitcoin are the bit wise and also the cryptofund. bitcoin is trading like a hedge right now because of all that stimulus and money printing, $600 checks, and people are buying bitcoin against government policy, also more mainstream adoption has been a

huge catalyst. but think of paypal, square, robin hood, i know a lot of people are using their account on these platforms, and most expect 30,000 just around the corner. once we get there, do you think we'll stay there? david: that's the big question. when gold pulls back, it doesn't pull back as much. that's another hedge against the dollar, but when gold pulls back, it doesn't pull back as much as bitcoin does. bitcoin has these huge rises and falls. >> well, you have to imagine those who buy into bitcoin have to be able to stomach that volatility. david: of course. and the people who bought it at pennies compared to what it is now. thank you very much, susan. we are less than 48 hours away from a brand new year, just days away from a brand new administration. but there is still not -- that's still not stopping the media from its continuous meltdown on donald trump. just watch. >> he is the worst president we have ever seen.

period. >> he's no longer just one of the worst presidents in american history, but the worst. david: extraordinary. just really extraordinary. it continues. former white house communications director alyssa fair is here with her reaction coming next. and remember mac's pub in staten high land? if -- island? they are reopening soon. their lawyer is going to join me on that huge victory they had in court during the 11:00 hour. you don't want to miss him. ♪ ♪ robinhood believes now is the time to do money.

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david: we have a fun promotion to tell you about, tesla ceo elon musk says all cars delivered in the last three days of this year

come with something special. >> self-driving for free the next few months, and that's a $10,000 option that tesla drivers actually have to pay up for. so you get it for free for a few months. self-drives and self-parks the car for you. the subscription model isn't available just yet, that will be available early next year, but if you think about it, this is a great marketing tool. elon musk does this very well, it's a way to get people to buy more teslas in order to push the delivery numbers closer to the 500,000 that musk promised for this full year. despite a record third quarter in delivery, tesla still needs a huge, blowout, record fourth quarter to get to that milestone. so i guess if you offer self-driving, maybe more people will be enticed to buy. even if musk miss that 500,000 mark delivery, it's still a banner year with, tesla's up over 600%, it's in the s&p 500 finally and, yes, elon musk is the world's second richest

person. david: what a marketer. >> he is. very good at it. david: in the world, i would say right now. susan, thank you very much. come in ray wong, our tech guy. ray, let's start with tesla. i know you have some pandemic stocks you want to talk about, but there is, i think that elon musk is the best marketer in the whole world right now. what do you think? >> you know, it's not just the marketing. i mean, this is not a car company. if you value this stock as a car company, you've got it completely wrong. this is a digital business. we're talking about self-driving, electric grid, batteries and the whole battery market. and that's what changes the equation, but he is an awesome marketer having bought four of them. david: four teslas? [laughter] >> i had four. david: oh, my goodness, that's incredible. dvd move on because -- let's move on because it has been a horrible year. the pandemic has killed millions world wild, but it is just a

tragedy. however, there have been some stocks that have been able to take advantage of the situation. let's start with zoom. why do you like zoom, and why do you think it will continue even after we get out of our cubbyholes? >> one of the big transformations we've seen is the work from home movement, and we're going to see hybrid openings for at least the next 2-3 years. they've won 432,000 businesses, and that number keeps growing. they're changing the way people work from home, and they're about to add e-mail and some other tools that they're going to put into the market. and it's not just the business enterprise, it's also consumers. they've turned zoom from a noun into a verb, and that's made them very powerful. david: and, of course, a lot of focus on medications, particularly on vaccines. moderna leading the way. are they still a buy? >> moderna's a great buy especially after the dip. there's an allergy issue that went on with polyethylene

glycol, a substance used for delivery of the vaccine, but moderna has a better model because the cold supply chain is less risky, and that means you can put it in normal refrigeration where phaser requires extreatment -- pfizer requires extreme cold supply chains which are complicated. and moderna's done a good job in terms of having 200 million vaccines available by 2021. david: we just had a doctor who had a moderna vaccine shot, and he said there was of no harm to him at all. z scaler, tell us what that does, first of all, and why you still like them. >> z scaler is one of the cybersecurity stocks, and what's important about them is because everyone's working from home, that means you're accessing your mobile device, you're accessing the internet from all different places, and what z scaler has is a series of software that the protects people from getting hacked during the access points. they've been growing at a massive double-digit pace.

they're one of the fastest growing stocks in terms of cyber security. david: and it's very important when you you look at what china's doing, russia's doing, it's very important. peloton, by the way, i just want to switch to peloton because that's, again, one of those stocks people are wondering whether as we get out of the pandemic because of the vaccines, as we get out of these lockdowns whether they will still hold their own, hold their market share. what do you think? >> i like pell done because -- pell done because they've gone to -- peloton because they've gone to becoming a lifestyle stock. what's happened over the past 3-4 weeks even though you've seen signs of opening up, closing down, peloton sales have still gone up. they've created a series of programming -- treat them like a streaming stock, and it becomes very interesting. and i think that's where some people are putting the valuation against that. david: the next one is one i use quite a bit, etsy. in fact, i think i got some face masks the other day, as a matter of fact. [laughter]

they're still going to hold their own as we get out of the lockdowns? >> etsy, definitely. we've seen a category of stocks that have been winnerrers in the pandemic which are commerce stocks like etsy, shopify and others, and what etsy has done a great job is the craft market being brought to the availability of everyone else. you see more artists, creatives in the etsy market, and we've seen them do really well especially in post-pandemic both for buyers and sellers. david: ipos, a lot of talk about how 2020 surprised everybody for the record numbers of ipos, particularly during a pandemic year. did you buy into any of them? >> i did. i bought into airbnb, doordash, palantir and also i think i bought into snowflake. i've got to double check. yes, i did -- david: and how are you doing? are you satisfied? do you think there's room for more in 2021? >> yeah, there definitely is room, and we're going to see more ipos coming into play.

we see roadblocks which is the gaming platform, that's going to be popping up, the other ipos that we see coming that are going to be in place, there's cybersecurity ipos and also a bunch of enterprise software ipos in the early quarter of q1. david: thank you so much, ray wong. have a fantastic 2021. >> happy new year. david: happy new year to you. we're going to show you a viral video that is equal parts impressive and kind of creepy. just watch and you can judge. ♪ ♪ do you love me? ♪ do you love me? ♪ do you love me? ♪ now do you love me now -- david: it's cute, but is this just the beginning of them taking over? it's like a science fiction movie, we have to admit it. we'll is -- have more coming up. that's a real shot. and covid pass poverties, is

this get -- patports, is this getting too intrusive into our lives as a result of moving around during the pandemic? we'll explain in a live report coming next. ♪ fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me. ♪ i want to fly like an eagle til i'm free. ♪ oh yeah, you going to place it? not until i'm sure. why don't you call td ameritrade for a strategy gut check? what's that? you run it by an expert, you talk about the risk and potential profit and loss. could've used that before i hired my interior decorator. voila! maybe a couple throw pillows would help. get a strategy gut check from our trade desk. ♪

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david: take a look at this, the tsa jut tweeting that airports have screened over a million people nationwide yesterday. that's the fourth consecutive day that more than a million people have gone through the tsa checkpoints. big number. and now this, a group of tech companies are developing coronavirus passports that will have airport travelers show proof that they've tested negative or have been vaccinated. jeff flock is at o'hare airport in chicago. jeff, is this going to be required? a lot of people are concerned about this. >> reporter: a lot of people are asking that question, and we don't are have an answer, david, but the passports seem to be coming, as you point out. multiple companies working on this. and it's not just airports, by the way, its potential use would be, you know, a football game or some other kind of live venue where you want to make sure everybody is good. the question is do you have to do it or is it an option.

take a look at what this app may look like. there's one company called common pass, or at least that's what their passport is called, and it would link to your, you know, your vaccine record, and it would affirm that you got it. as you know, a lot of employers -- including fox -- screen their employees every day. they ask do you have a fever, what's your temperature, have you had any symptoms, that sort of thing. but that's all, you know, you providing that data and, of course, some people could provide data that's not correct. this would affirm that you had the vaccine or that you've tested negative. so we'll see. the is it going to be mandatory? i don't know. as you point out, it's been busy at the airport lately. doesn't look at it at the moment, we're in a lull, but could be a second passport required for travel. david: you know what a lot of people fear, jeff, as you know, is it could be also a back channel for hackers to get into our personal information. >> reporter: right. the companies say they are

working hard to make sure it's just those two pieces of data, did you get a vaccine, do you have a, you know, symptoms or whatever, but who knows? david: the way hackers can get into things. jeff, thank you very much. good stuff, appreciate it. still ahead, liz peek, james freeman, alyssa farah and georgia congressman barry loudermilk. the second hour of "varney" coming next. ♪ keep it coming up, keep it coming up. ♪ don't stop it now, don't stop it, no, don't stop. ♪ keep it coming up, keep it comes up. ♪ don't stop it now, don't stop it, no -- ♪ don't stop it

. . .

♪. david: i remember that. i can't remember, if i was around when it first came out but i certainly remember it from the movie, queen, with don't stop me now. good morning. it is 10:00 a.m. eastern. this show we john lonski, liz peek, steve adler. the mayor of austin, texas, a lot of people moving to austin. james freeman from the "wall street journal" as well. we have alyssa farah, mark tepper, georgia congressman barry loudermilk, ed rensi joining me in a very big two

hours to come. let's look at markets. dow and s&p on pace for a record close. we wish the nasdaq the best. it was up at record territory earlier. it may get there as well. breaking news on the latest read about pending home sales. lawyer inare, the number. lauren: fell to 2.6% weaker than a 125.7 for the month of move. look, these are contracts that are signed for homes, pending home sales. future indicator of the market. we had three months of declines in a row. the reason is it obvious. there is no supply out there. demand is huge, price come up in a big way. there is -- mousing market has been a green shoot this year. david: it has been extraordinary. we expect it to pull down a little bit. come in john lonski, moody's

chief economist. those were a little disappointing the home sales. we had the chicago pmi number was pretty good, wasn't it? >> it was well above expectations t was higher than it was in the month of november. this tell us despite resurgent covid-19, manufacturing activity is performing very well. it is performing above trend. regarding pending home sales, let's not forget, pending home sales were down for the month of november, they were still up by 16% from a year ago. or from november 2019. that is good news. david: it is good news. that was largely because of the interest rates continue to day solo. you can get a mortgage well under 3% now, a 30-year mortgage. you have now fiscal stimulus in the bill signed by the president, it may go up, the amount of money that we receive individual checks being sent out. but most important i think is

the vaccine stimulus. to have the world economy and these lockdowns is one of the biggest boosts that the world economy has ever seen. >> that is precisely right. this latest slowdown is entirely the consequence of covid-19 and once you get covid-19 out of the way, i think it is off to the races for the u.s. economy and the world economy. in that case we might well exceed expectations in terms of economic growth for the new year. david: how long do you think the party lasts in terms of reacting to the end of the lockdowns? >> i think the party could go into 2022 but come 2023 underlying trends as they relate to demographics, aging economy, aging population, aging workforce, on top of that we want to add less than stellar

productivity growth begin to pull the underlying rate of economic growth back down towards 2%. david: of course markets forecast all of this, presumably they worked in. the one thing that concerns me, i think the markets are forecasting a republican win, at least one win in georgia next tuesday. if in fact the democrats end up winning both of those senate seats, you could have a guarranty of higher taxes that might send shivers to the markets. >> that is indeed a possibility. oddly enough it hasn't been receiving much mention in the press for reasons i don't really understand. but if it turns out that democrats effectively gain control of the senate after next tuesday's elections i would look for a market sell-off not only because of fear of higher taxes but the fear of increased

regulars, new regulatory framework in addition to a new tax framework. david: of course a lot of those regulations could happen even without a democrat senate through executive order. we saw the reverse of that happen with trump and all the deregulations. john lonski. very happy new year. >> thank you, david. david: we're preparing to say good-bye to 2020 ring in new year. bring in liz peak. it has been a horrible year in many ways with covid, with the riots et cetera. i want to throw out some of my honorable, dishonorable mentions for some of the losers. i would have to put among all others mt. xi of china. he is the one released this menace to the rest of the world lied about how all sorts of things could have prepared for it. >> yes, david. i think you're totally on market. china is the biggest loser this year.

it isn't just the covid virus. i think the sort of gloves are off in terms of the entire world recognizing that china is a threat to democracies everywhere. also to freedoms everywhere. i really credit donald trump with sort of putting a spotlight on china and in particular president xi. you're totally right but the covid virus, look at polling. all across the world people distrust china. they understand really that china has not the world's best interests at heart. there are other losers too. freedom of speech, david, in this country took a major body blow this year as the liberal media and social media combined to squelch commentary on covid and the on the 2020 election. the two biggest topics of the year, americans were not allowed to see the facts, senting

opinions on covid treatments and therapies. they were not allowed to see information on hunter biden's laptop. a major scandal could have impacted the vote. to me that is absolutely appalling. other losers abraham lincoln and other famous american heroes who were taken down in public squares across the country in an absolute tsunami of ignorance, flooding public discourse. david: cancel culture is horrible, related to the first point. one way of canceling is to just ignore or censor the material. a lot of that has been done too. what about the lockdown, about the lockdown fanatics like governor cuomo or governor of california? >> i think democrat governors and mayors who acted like mini czars in this period really sullied their reputations. i think more damaging, people question authority, when

authority turns out to be, a, not very well-informed and be, jury is out whether these lockdowns worked or didn't work. that is part of the suppression of opinion. we're not allowed to talk about that but also this sort of flagrant what i say goes for you, not for me, the violations almost all of these governors have been found guilty of including nancy pelosi, obviously not a governor but newsom is dining out. that undermines faith in our leaders. david: it undermines the rule of law itself. that's really critical. particularly as we have another one of the losers i would mention, are the defund the police movement. all of the blm rallies that turned into riots focusing on defunding the blitz. the more we defund the police the worse crime gets that is happening in cities all across the america. who would have thunk it. >> let criminals out of jail. you don't charge criminals with

crimes. guess what they go on to create more havoc. i don't want to end the segment without mentioning the teachers union. they get an honorable mention with not allowing schools to open. david: liz, we're running out of time. i don't want to end on a sour note. one of our previous guests said the best thing that happened in 2020, the site of resilience of american entrepreneurs. throughout all the stuff they had to deal with, willingness to stick to it, stay up 24/7, figure out a way to get something done. >> emt, health care workers who put their lives on the line. we can't ignore them. they are truly the heroes of 2020. david: they are indeed. liz peak, thank you very much. good to see you. happy new year. all right. let's take a look at the markets. they're trading up nicely today. follow the big movers. >> talk about bitcoin. i could talk about bitcoin all day long.

records 28,500. that is rallying early adopters, square, other jock dorsey company. bitcoin market with hundred of millions of accounts, scooping up 95% of the daily bitcoin supply. intel is the biggest loser on the dow giving back some of yesterday's rally after activist hedge fund activist dan loeb buying in saying they want changes. disney rallying after signing up 2 1/2 million new accounts over christmas. pixar's quote soul" was a big draw. alibaba coming back from historic lows on reports that jack ma has now orchestrate ad deal with beijing to avoid any breakup and a company i haven't showed you, pinduo dust. o. this rallied big on baba's

problems. a more smaller nimble competent are to alibaba. david: alibaba is down a percentage point. susan: it was up 2, 3%, coming back from 13% losses last week. david: susan we can't talk about 2020 without talking about ipos, in the midst of a pandemic, last thing we would have huge numbers of ipos. more coming. susan: big ones to watch be robinhood, poshmark. they are delaying until 2021. they have a tailwind to ride into next year. 2020 has been a record-breaking year for fund-raising. almost $170 billion raised going back to the dot-com bubble. block with us terse debuts of doordash. also rise of spacs. we didn't know what a spac was at the start of this year. 50% of money raised went into the blank check vehicles.

a frenzy something we haven't seen since 1999, first day debuts the stock is up 30%. can you remember this type of euphoria in the last 20 years? >> everybody is waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel. we keep thinking we're they're but there are setbacks. i think it is this time with the vaccine. susan, thank you very much. trump derangement syndrome. the mainstream media having another melt down trashing trump's final days in office. roll tape. >> he is the worst president we have ever seen, period. >> he no longer just one of the worst presidents in american history but the worst. david: alyssa farah is going to be talking that on coming right up. you doesn't want to miss it. new york governor cuomo says addicts in rehab next in line to get the covid vaccine. really? we'll give you details on that. big tech moving to texas.

the mayor of austin, steve adler, tells me what makes his state so attractive right now. steve adler coming next. ♪. save hundreds on your wireless bill

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switch and save hundreds. xfinity mobile. david: we got new records on the dow. it is up 124 points. s&p up 13. and the nasdaq pulling back from its highs earlier in the morning but still a nice healthy gain about a third of a percentage point, up 37, 38 points to

12,888. hollywood facing another shutdown. lauren tell us more. lauren: l.a. county is center after shutdown. they're registering nine to 10 positive test as minute. the health department is urging hollywood to stop production. it it not a mandate but a recommendation. when california was shut down two months it is trying to recover. much of california completely shut down but the infections keep going up. david: almost zero transmission rate, covid transmission rate in outdoor restaurants, they're still closed. lauren: baffling. david: just gets me. lauren, thank you very much. tech companies are paying workers the same regardless where they live. susan, tell us more. susan: if you want to attract to keep the best talent that is what cillo and reddit are doing.

big tech companies like facebook salaries will be cut if staff move out of expensive cities like san francisco and new york. stripe also offering one time bonus for workers that move out of san francisco or new york. here is big but. you have to take a 10% pay cut. depending where you live and how cheap that city is. some companies found renot work really hasn't hurt productivity. you found that with reddit who says yes, you can work where you want from the same pay. actually remote work didn't riley hurt its business or productivity. the question where are people going from these expensive cities. guess were? linked in says austin, texas is the number one city people are flocking toe. david: thank you for that wonderful segue, susan. major companies like oracle, hewlett-packard, announce they are ditching silicon valley in favor of the lone star state.

let's bring in steve adler, the mayor of austin. mayor, great to see you. we mentioned tesla. we've been talking about it all day today. elon musk mentioned he is moving some of his operations out of california including himself and his foundation. i believe his foundation will be located in your city now, right? >> it is looking that way. we're pleased to see that. david: what would you say the single biggest selling point of texas, and in particular austin is? >> i think companies are coming here because people that they want to have work for them, want to live in this city. it is a beautiful city. people are warm and friendly. it is on thal and innovative. pro-business, low tax. but most importantly i think it has really high tolerance for taking risks. it is act to be different here and i think that is what leads to innovation. david: it is okay to be different in california as long as you are politically correct but there is, there is more

tolerance in texas for all views, is there not? >> i think that there is. we struggle as do cities across the country but there is a wide sense of views here, certainly in the state. i think that is important. david: now there is also question whether too many people maybe moving into austin these days. we remember that happening in north carolina and charlotte when it became a banking center in the south and it got so big that it overwhelmed the freeways, it overwhelmed the transportation system. are you having a problem, it is not a bad problem but is it a problem for you? >> it's a problem. challenges with mobility and traffic and affordability. the community past november we approved a measure citywide with near live 60% vote to really revolutionize how we do mobility in the stiff. affordability a big challenge.

we're doing everything we can to increase the supply of housing, affordable housing but that is the, the associated challenge with being a popular city. david: then i have to deal with covid because your city is going through a spike right now. a bad spike. i saw some hospitals are really overwhelmed where they have a more than a 100% increase in the use of the icus. so how do you handle that? >> it's hard you know. we're appealing to the community to help. here in austin we've seen almost a 60% increase in icu covid patients in the last eight days. so we're asking people to help. we're asking people to do everything they cannot to mitt the virus. david: is the vaccine getting around now? are emergency workers receiving the shots that they need? >> the emergency workers are receiving the shots.

the front line workers in our, in our hospitals. we then turned to nursing homes. the people that, workers, people most susceptible, in danger of diving if they, if they get the virus. i hear the governor indicate that around the state there are a lot of places where the virus isn't getting used quickly enough but here in austin we have a virus we're putting in somebody's arm. david: a vaccine that is. >> yeah. david: final question, some people say that texas may have a problem because people moved there in order to escape taxes might bring some of their mentality about taxes to the state that eventually there will be call to start a state income tax et cetera. what would you tell the doubters who say that. >> i'm not looking that far into the future at all. we have a formula that is working here right now in austin but you know affordability is our big issue associated with that.

we'll just work through the ups and downs of this but right now we're not on a good trajectory. david: don't mess with what works that is sound advice. mayor, continued good fortune to you. >> thank you. take care. david: it is official. the media admitting that they will treat joe biden better than they treated president trump. is anyone surprised? cnn's jim acosta, quote, covering trump might merit hazard pay. poor guy. we'll get into that. a judge in georgia happens to be stacy abram as sister made a crucial ruling against a voter purge a week before the senate runoffs. james freeman's take on "the wall street journal." that is coming next. ♪

david: check the markets. we're still on respectable gains on all the various indices. the dow close to half a percentage point ahead. nasdaq, s&p, about a third of a point ahead. now this, if you're looking to travel in 2021. this is concerning a lot of folks. you have to have a covid passport or you may be required.

lauren we still don't know if it will be required or not. lauren: correct. we don't know if it is just for travel. if you want to go to a concert or crowded event, you may need something like this. this is a file. it generates a qr code showing the covid test history and your vaccination record. so if you were vaccinated and you have protection against covid-19 you're allowed into the concert, on the plane. one company working on this they call it the common pass app. they're partnering with several airlines to use the technology at the airport. ibm is working on a digital health pass. so the future could, it is futuristic, i see this stuff in movies. you need two forms of identification, your regular passport to say you're lauren simonetti and your common pass with she tested negative for the virus. oh, she got the moderna vaccine. david: of course if you want to vote you don't need anything at all. that is whole another story.

congressional staff members, keeping on vaccines are eligible to receive the covid vaccine. susan, tell us. susan: every house and senate member's personal office can get two staffers vaccinated, up to four staffers in the office for every committee chairperson or ranking member. congressman and women have been receiving their own doses in the past two weeks along with the executive branch and also the supreme court. now some in congress have been turning down getting vaccinated since there are limited doses available. there has been controversy when you saw for instance, aoc shown getting the jab on social media. some younger members should not be first in line ahead of the elderly and most vulnerable in the country. david: i would agree with that. grandmothers are worth are more at risk any way than the young folks are. susan, thank you very much. weekly oil inventories are breaking right now. lauren, give us the numbers. lauren: a huge decline for the

week, down by 6.07 million, david. the expect was about 6.2 million. this is three times more than expected. the price of oil is up just a little bit. half of one percent. david: this is good news when inventories down there is more work being done in the world, more use for oil and energy. so that is why oil is up about little more than half a percentage point right now. $48. holiday travel as well. lauren, thank you very much. new op-ed in the "wall street journal" asking a very important question, who gets to vote in georgia? let's bring in author james freeman. you say there is reason for concern about accuracy of the vote. to your point we just had a court decision made by a judge who is the sister of stacey abrams who of course is a big supporter of biden. this decision goes against republicans. >> well, what we have here is a debate about how to maintain the

voter rolls and the two counties in georgia basically responding to voter concerns brought forward. they voted to purge very the voter rolls names of people who had been identified on postal service change of address forms moving out of counties, muscogee county and ben hill county. the county board said fair enough, those people will not be allowed anymore to vote here. federal judge, sister of stacey abrams who is basically on the other side of these arguments said no, they didn't give enough notice to the voters and, this is too close to an election to change the names but, i think it raises, i'm not making a claim about the overall vote or accuracy but it does raise a question here. we heard a lot of claims but if

we're talking about someone whose name is appearing in public databases such as postal service change of address forms i think that is something that should be looked into. i think all voters would want people who have, if they have moved out of the state not to be able to vote in the state. david: you can almost guarranty that president trump will talk about this on monday the day before the election, right? >> i think that is likely. i think beyond this election i think there is an interests for all of us in making sure the voter rolls are accurate. that people are voting where they should be, not where they shouldn't be. so i think this case is interesting. the counties that wanted to remove these names from the voter lists argued that the judge should recuse herself since her sister is on the other side. david: one would think. >> may be further litigation about that. we'll see. david: you have another op-ed by the way, james, fun piece about whether or not bernie sanders can find happiness.

that is the title. by the way he does seem always to be sort of sour, doesn't he? >> yeah. he has got a very sour outlook right now considering that his, his desire for much bigger government is really largely being fulfilled. certainly spending has exploded this year on the federal level. joe biden promising another 10 trillion or so if he has a -- david: but like any, like any card-carrying socialist he wants more and he is dissatisfied with the number of people in his camp that are in the cabinet. he doesn't think enough of the biden cabinet picks have been from the far left. >> yeah. it's odd because if you look at the biden cabinet, i think it is fair to say that this is a group that is well to the left of the average american. so the fact that they're not completely in line with bernie sanders, i don't think he should be so grumpy about this because

they share his view that much more government is needed and is appropriate and so i think he ought to be turning that frown upside down given, given the biden again day, james, the last one here, some of the 600-dollar stimulus checks have been sent out but the senate is still debating president trump's request to increase the checks to $2000. i saw one poll said 80% of americans are in favor of bringing it up to two thousand dollars. it will be tough to counsel prudence here when 80% of americans want it? >> well i think we have to realize that we long term cannot get richer and more productive by redistributing wealth from washington. i think we also have to realize that the economy has rebounded very strongly. if we can just remove those existing lockdowns and limits that are still hitting the

retail, hospitality industries very hard, this economy is really ready to roll. you look at the stock market, a lot of money has been pushed into the system. that is not the problem right now. what, i also think just getting back to sanders and biden, you're seeing in their comments over the last 48 hours a kind of a message that we're in a deep crisis and that bernie sanders comparing where we are to the great depression, it is really absurd if you look at the numbers. so i think part of the argument against this additional federal spending is that the economy is in pretty good shape. it has been adding back jobs, more than 12 million since the spring shutdowns. david: we could do better. no amount of money from washington is going to equal the effect much ending the lockouts. that is the only thing that will turn this economy around completely. james, great to see you. thank you very much. happy new year. >> happy new year. david: did you see this? a california restaurant owner

confronting health officials after they issued a fine. roll tape. >> i'm desperate. who is going to pay for parking? who is going to pay my cook's rent? >> [inaudible] >> my people don't. i bet you got a paycheck, didn't you? david: there is a real revolt going on in california. we'll tell you how much it is growing. by what amount. you remember the staten island bar, mac's public house, claiming autonomous zone. they claimed a victory, announcing grand reopening plans right before knew years eve. we have the owner's attorney. first a live report outside of the bar. that is coming next. ♪ (announcer) need to lose weight?

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david: checking the markets nasdaq come off their highs but the dow is close to session highs after the weekly oil inventories number was released. inventories down mean more economic activity and that is good for the dow. the owners of mac's public house are declaring victory in the courts against new york's covid restrictions. let's go to fox news's bryan llenas. he is outside of bar. bryan what is the latest? reporter: about an hour ago there was a press conference with the owner of mac's public house, which has become the defiant face of resistance of business owners throughout all of new york city and new york state against governor andrew cuomo's restrictions on them because of the coronavirus. they came out and they said all 25 criminal summons that were given out by the new york city sheriff's department to patrons and owners of this bar on

december 2nd. they were thrown out. they declare this is a big victory and stepping stone. take a listen. >> december 26th all the fines, all the criminal summons, all the penalties that were served on mac's pun, full admission that the governor's edict has no teeth. reporter: mac's pub basically saying this shows regardless restrictions on restaurants panned businesses, despite the criminal summons it doesn't hold in court. now they are imploring businesses to keep moving forward, restaurants to keep fighting back as they put it but ultimately you know, their big issue here is the fact that they believe the science here, contact tracing data does not show restaurants and bars are responsible for majority of the spread, less than 1%. they will continue the fight. the owner, danny press at this

was arrested and he is dealing with other legal trouble. remember he hit a new york city sheriff. that is the accusation during an arrest on him for leaving the bar open despeed the fact that they were ordered closed. so he is dealing with that. but bottom line is mac's public house will not be opening anytime soon until they fight the civil battle in supreme court here in new york. there is a case on february 2nd in which new york city is trying to declare mac's public house, a public nuisance which would shut down this bar for an entire year, force them to pay 1000-dollar fine for every single day they did not follow the restrictions but as of right now, they say they have the momentum and they believe that ultimately they will win that case and they will reopen but they do not have a liquor license. it has been suspended. they have been shut down by the health department for health violations and building violations. so the fight goes on. david? david: we'll have their lawyer

in the next hour right here on "varney." stick by for that. bryan llenas appreciate it. astrazeneca getting big news today. lauren what is it. lauren: the vaccine developed with oxford university is shown overall to be 70% effective. the shot is cheaper. doesn't need ton frozen. the first jabs start next year. the u.s. has not green-lighted astrazeneca's shot yet. the reason is this, the trial came out, results showed if you got a half dose had better debate -- david: if you got less it worked better. >> exactly. that is what the fda is now studying before we decide to approve it. david: interesting story. by the way that is good news. you have a little little bit ofd news to say the least. the u.s. just confirmed of the new case of this fast-spreading covid strain they see in the uk. where did they find it?

lauren: colorado in a young man with no history of traveling. i'm not sure it is a surprise. it is confirmed in the u.s. but the cdc said weeks ago they thought it would be. it is in at least a dozen countries right now. the worry is, it might not be more deadly but it is more contagious, as much as 70%. it is believed vaccines do protect against it. you herd dr. mccarthy in the 9:00 hour. we thought it would be here because we're only testing a small sequencing of all the infections out there. the more you test the better you test. david: right. lauren: you will find other strains. david: again there is no reason to think that the vaccine won't work against the new strain as well. so there's that. lauren, thank you very much. governor cuomo right in the middle of another controversy this time about who gets the covid vaccine. susan, who does he say is next in line? susan: recovering addicts in rehab next in line this week for

vaccine according to governor cuomo. after nursing homes, front line medical workers according to governor cuomo, staffers and members in rehab. there are only 250,000 of vaccines available. you can decide if that is the best choice where vaccines should go. david: i made my decision. another case of rules for thee, not for me. a new york democrat was caught playing ice hockey at a rink his health department closed because of covid. we'll get to that in a moment. goldman sachs is playing a big bet on one at-home fitness company investing millions in echelon fitness. echelon's ceo will be here right after this. ♪.

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david: goldman sachs is leading a 65 million-dollar financing of echelon fitness. the ceo of echelon fitness joins us now. congratulations, lou. what is the money going to be used for? >> well we're going to be

expanding international markets and also developing additional products but our big investment is in our app. we want to create the best fitness experience out there. so expanding our app, hiring additional tech individuals and expanding from 50 class as day that we're filming to over 100 to give a very wide variety of classes for our members. david: where are these classes? are they all over the country? where do they originate from? >> we film from studios in tennessee and also in miami. we're opening in france, germany and colombia in the next three months as well for filming classes in other languages. david: wow. what about asia? >> asia is in our hopes, in our plans in 2021, to hit asia pass well. japan is ripe mark ready for a brand to come in there like echelon. david: i would think japan would be ideal for this. what happens as the vaccine gets

out, as lockdowns end, are you expecting a slowdown? >> we are not. people made a commitment to home gyms in their, in their basements, in their garages. whatever room they could turn into a home gym. so we don't see the change. we also make equipment for the gym as well, bringing that connected fitness experience in your gym, in an apartment complexes and other fitness centers. we don't think it will slow down at all. we're ramping up for it. high hopes of doubling our business again in 2021. david: so the equipment that you're now getting into, some of it goes beyond what is done by the virtual workout sessions, right? >> yeah. we also, we do our bike. we do a rower. we do a treadmill. we have reflect mirror as well. you can find us on samsung television. we're expanding into the commercial. we have a commercial bike coming out, rower and treadmill. you can find us in your gyms, hopefully in your home as well.

david: the mirror is a little spooky. i got to tell you, i haven't seen it first-hand but it looks fascinating s that the biggest seller now. >> the biggest seller is the bike. treadmill does well and rower does well. unfortunately the reflect mirror is not the biggest seller yet. we expect it to grow as we additional fitness classes. we're launching a partnership with mario lopez working out. we have a lot of exciting developments with goldman sachs. david: how did goldman sachs get involved? did they seek you out are did you seek them out? >> we asked piper six months ago to help us out in the investment. we have north castle partners you may know from barry's fitness. we had 15 different proposals that came to us. we selected after working with goldman that we thought they

were the best partners for us. david: finally i got to ask about your competition, peloton. it's a better known name at this point. may not be that way if you continue to grow but what is your selling point? why would you advise, you personal interest but what do you provide that peloton does not? >> i think, peloton is a great product. i think we give a great program which people are going to lob our instructors. our instructors are real people. they really bond with our membership, which is, i think something that is unique in the market right now. we also have rowers. we have other variety of different products that they don't have. so one membership with us, 39-dollar membership, you're getting access to all the different levels of modality and they don't have that. you can find us in dick's sporting goods, costco, walmart. you can get in with us at $500. you don't have to spend $2,000

to get to the platform. david: cheaper around provide as similar service. lou, congrats to you. and the goldman sachs funding that is great news. >> appreciate it, david. david: still a ahead, alyssa farah, mark tepper, georgia congressman barry loudermilk and ed rensi. two-time grammy winner gloria gaynor will ring in the new year with her incredible song, i will survive. what a fitting song for the year we just had. the great gloria gaynorwill be here coming up.

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>> to continue the america first agenda we need control of the senate and it is imperative, given that reality, that both leffler and purdue be reelected. >> the democrats governors and mayors who have acted like many czars in this time have really sullied the reputations and undermined faith in our leaders. >> we've known about this mutant strain for months. this thing was discovered over the summer. there are mutant strains all over the united states, nothing to worry about. >> the new administration will do what everybody expects them to do witches spend, spend, spend and however long it lasts and it will continue to climb out of this recession and

investors will continue to bid up. >> for all the failed businesses that are basically been forced into failure of course by the tragedies of pandemic and the policy decisions, there are new businesses that are starting to take their place. the entrepreneurial spirit that is embedded in the dna in america has not gone anywhere and will end up being being the major story of 2021. ♪ david: yeah, it's alright. those are the impressions. i like that song. 11:00 a.m. here in new york, 8:00 a.m. in california and i'm david asman in for stuart varney. two more days left of 2020. we have a big show still ahead. alyssa farah, congressman barry loudermilk and staten island mac's bar lawyer and that was bar shut down over indoor dining violation and right now they are seen grand reopening plans and

they claim to have a huge victory in courts. we have the owner's attorney lou gelormino coming up. you don't want to miss him and you don't want to miss the great gloria gaynor appeared she will ring in the new year in time square tomorrow singing i will survive, her classic song but first, she is on varney right here. and now to your money and we are having a good time right here with the money. the dow jones is very close to the session highs and i guess that was 30,507 and now about 30,500 so we are close to session highs in the dow, little pulldown on the nasdaq but all of the indexes are in the green. it's a good day for the markets. left-wing media having a complete meltdown in the final days of the trump presidency. watch this. >> he is the worst president we have ever seen. but he is indeed truly inhumane.

>> as the covid death toll continues to rise he no longer is one of the worst presidents in american history but the worst. >> i mean, has he just stop being president? >> in many ways, casey, he has prayed he's been all consumed with his efforts to overturn the selection. david: one word, deranged. that's the first word that comes into my mind for it come in alyssa farah, former white house medications director. alyssa, you can run off in any number of things, getting rid of the isis caliphate, having these extraordinary middle east peace deals between israel and arab countries that john kerry among others said could never be done. yet the economy, amazing growth in the economy up until covid and then you have after covid the results of operation warp speed. many people say that's the finest achievement of this administration and now they're acting as though it never existed. >> oh, absolutely.

this president from the outset, even before he was inaugurated was never going to get a fair shake from this press. there was no semblance of trying to set partisanship aside. but what has been funny is that were already seen a narrative take hold in the media which is the restoring normality in press coverage with the biden administration but he will be normal and boring and transparent but it somehow ignoring the obama administration which obviously joe biden observed in cracking down on press and prosecuting leakers under the espionage act. you're one of of the worst records when it came to freedoms of the press of any modern president yet they demonized donald trump like he was the one that they should be after. it is interesting and they're already covering for the next person. david: and they are not fact checking or doing anything about fact checking. biden came out yesterday and talked about the vaccine as though it was his project as opposed to operation warp speed saying things that just one

trooper and he said for example, criticized trump for not getting a vaccine himself and not recognizing the fact that since trump was treated for his own covid you are not supposed to get a vaccine within 90 days of the end of that treatment so that was wrong and biden said he made the vaccine free and it is free so wake up and smell the coffee. he is clearly trying to downplay any successive warp speed in order to try to own and for his administration. >> absolutely pay he announced his hundred day, 100 million doses starting in january after his inauguration but that will only be possible because of the work that the trump administration started back in may of this year. of course, we will get there because we took these efforts under operation warp speed to mass-produce the vaccine and to scale up dissipation and to work with military and the private sector to do that so hopefully we can reach that where the goal but of course there is no credit

being given to the current administration for getting it there. david: sense we are clearly not going to hear many negative words, if any, from the media about what joe biden does does this mean that the hunter biden story is buried for good? >> that's a great question. i say one of the reasons we have to keep the senate and hold the seats in georgia is because the story, the investigation into hunter biden, will effectively be over if democrats get control of the senate. you will have a house that will cover for biden, senate that will abide in a ministration that will refuse to look into it so if you care about transparency and getting to the bottom of this issue and finding out if there is in fact any sort of biden family being comp revised by china we got to have republicans keeping control of the senate. david: we will continue to follow the story, just so you know alyssa. alyssa farah, thank you for being here. have a wonderful new year. next case, bitcoin rally continues hitting another record

high. susan, how close is it to 30,000? susan: 28,000 was a new record so pretty close. biggest monthly rally that we seen since last year and up 40% in december alone. how incredible is that? more than 200% up so far in 2020 and by the way i want to show you the most popular and easiest way to play bitcoin. if you can't buy bitcoin itself or get slices of a crypto currency there are indexed funds you can buy. these are trading way above their actual bitcoin holding so that shows you how much interest there is and where people think bitcoin will trade in the future but also paypal and square are beneficiaries of the bitcoin rally as well because they allow their hundreds of millions accounts to sell, buy and trade bitcoin and the fact they account for 95% of the daily bitcoin supply up there so these are what we call whale traders in the market but it's been pretty incredible this year. david: it sure has, 30,000 could be right around the corner,

would not take much. susan, thank you very much. come in at lauren pitt what's this about an nfl player being paid in bitcoin? lauren: the panthers russell okun is receiving six and half million dollars, half of his 2020 salary in bitcoin. it is what he wanted. he's a vocal proponent of digital currency and leaves the u.s. dollar is losing its value and i don't think the nfl actually paid him in bitcoin but he converted his salary into crypto afterwards but nonetheless, it's very popular right now, many people especially with this star appeal may think just give me my paycheck in crypto currency. david: with a salary like that he can afford to take a loss. lauren, thank you. let's bring in market tepper. mark, would you get paid in bitcoin? >> i wish i got all my paychecks this year in bitcoin and i bet you do as well. would have, should have, could have. i thought one of russell's

tweets yesterday and basically said if you think elections are rigged look at the u.s. dollar or something like that. i would assume his position is that the dollar would begin, therefore bitcoin goes up and it's quite possible given the trillions of dollars of stimulus but what i'm most interested in is adoption. back in mid-october when paypal and square added this to their platforms bitcoin went from 13,000 a coin until 28,000 a coin so that's pretty substantial over the course of two months and you got coin -based ipo next year and here's my biggest question and this is a huge catalyst. what if amazon were to begin accepting payments in bitcoin. bitcoin would go from 28,000 to 100,000 overnight just like that. as you see more and more adoption and as you see more vendors and mergers abrasive thing this guy is a limit. david: what a scenario. amazon allowed for bitcoin. on the other side of the ledger there are these good performing

stocks that are undervalued and you take one, wwe, world wrestling entertainment so why are they won of them? >> first things first, this has not performed well in second thing for disclosure david, i don't watch wwe and i'm not a wwe guy so i'm more of a usc got it myself but yeah, price matters when buying a stock. wwe is mispriced. it's down 25% for no good reason so the evaluation is very attractive and getting lots of growth with this company at a very reasonable valuation. if you think about it in all major sports, football, bass pulp, baseball leagues and teams are so banged up this year because they can't fill the seats in the stadium but here is the thing. wwe lose money filling the seats so it's a good thing for them and they make nearly all their money from the media, broadcast, pay-per-view, streaming, that's up 30% this year. look, they've got a cult following of super fans that is very, very sticky and they got

no distractions and content throughout this entire covid situation and engagement increasing so this is one where you can get a lot of growth at a reasonable price. david: good performing companies, i should say, not stocks. >> yes, there you go. david: market tepper, good to see you my friend but happy new year's. >> happy new year, david. david: amazon attracting millions of viewers for its nfl streaming debut. lauren, how many people tuned in to watch saturday's game between san francisco and arizona? lauren: 11 .9 million viewers but this was the time amazon was the primary carrier and yesterday we told you if you're looking at the prime video and the twitch platform it was record 4.8 million but this is 11.2 is a total viewership because the game aired on the nfl and the teams app as well. david: lauren, thank you. it is official and it was a record year for ipos, 2020. susan, how much money did these listed companies raise? susan: $167 billion so yeah, a

lot. record-breaking as you mention for fundraising this year and that's more than the .com bubble back in 1999, blockbuster, air b&b, door dash, snowflake they helped as well but also the rise of fact. or letter word that we know use in our everyday financial vocabulary, 50% of the fundraising went into these blank check companies in terms of debut for state was a frenzy, something we've not seen since 1999 for it on average stock in its first day will usually go up by over 30%. next year it will not be a bad one either any of the big ones to watch for with robin hood, posh mark, insta cart, coin base and along with the other unicorns that were supposed to ipo this month but put it off. roadblocks and affirmed elaine until 2021 and have a tailwind to ride but let me tell you, wall street doesn't expect that euphoria to end next year with more stimulus, low rates and hopefully more government spending.

david: susan, thank you. bloomberg releasing its list of the highest paid ceos in 2019. coming up, we tell you who took the top spots. we are also showing you a very creepy but somehow attractive video, something you can to stop watching. boston dynamic robotics taking to the dance floor. we play the folk clip later this hour paid as california extended stay at home orders efforts to recall gavin newsom are gaining steam and now there is a new donor for that because paired we tell you who it is. more than 2.5 million people already have voted ahead of tuesday's georgia runoff. president trump heading there on monday, the day before the election. coming up we talked to congressman barry loudermilk who says if the democrats win they could wreak havoc on our economy. ♪ ♪

david: federal judge in georgia making a critical ruling days before the states runoff election but the ruling has a disturbing tide to bidens supporter stacy abrams. lauren, what is it? lauren: the judge is leslie abrams gardner soaked the sister of stacy abrams for democratic politician with close ties to biden and once ran for governor of georgia. so the judge's ruling it's a blow to republicans and they have tried to remove voters from the records sends to counties in georgia where they said those voters moved. the judge said yeah, you failed to do that and they didn't necessarily give up their

georgia residences even if they did move and by law they need to provide written confirmation of a change of address. if you look at the polling so far it's razor thin in georgia so this ruling affects 4,000 voters and it's a big deal. if democrats take both of the senate seats then you have a blue senate, blue house and a democrat in the oval office. david: it is such a clear case in my eyes and in my opinion of conflict of interest and i don't know how she could not recuse herself. lauren: she wouldn't do it. david: lauren, thank you. more than 2.5 million people have already voted head of the upcoming georgia runoffs. common georgia kurtzman barry loudermilk. congressman, great to see you and thank you for being here. what you make of this legal decision by stacy abrams sister. >> i'm not surprised we are having issues with the court systems and they are slow walking law salutes to run out

the time. we can't even get hearings on some of them and then when you do get one obviously there is nepotism involved here and there is incredible what they are throwing in two steel and election in this runoff because the eyes of the entire world are watching georgia right now. david: is there any chance in the very limited time that we are talking about tuesday, higher court could overturn state that judge have should have recused yourself? >> i would hope so but it depends on the appeal process but as we speak the georgia senate is doing a second round of hearings on irregularities in the general election and i've got over 200 affidavits by people from state employees to volunteer and issues that happened in that election that could repeat themselves in this election. david: let's talk specifically about the candidates here. democratic candidate is first. warnock and also off trying to

betray themselves as moderates but they have this history and you guys have been playing off ads focusing on their historical support for radical causes. had they had any effect these ads? >> i hope so. the ads are using their own words and there is something about political ads today that people don't believe any of them unless you actually have the person saying it themselves paired we have ads of raffaella warnock saying he can't serve god and be in the military at the same time and that's how radical these folks are and their anti- law-enforcement and antimilitary and big government, leftists. look, the progressive left socialists have effectively taken over the national democratic party and they fit right into that agenda. david: president trump will be speaking the day before the election on monday and what do you hope he says to georgia voters? >> what i want to see is for president trump to rally his base supporters to come out in droves on election day, like

they did in early november. there are some voices out there saying the election was stolen and we have no confidence in george's election system and that is across-the-board. people don't have confidence in our election system right now but if you don't go and vote you are handing the entire system over to those who manipulated this from two years ago. nancy pelosi's number one agenda in the 100 16th congress which is coming to an end now but the first vote they introduced was a federal takeover of the election system to implement the inks that we are seeing right now that have caused so much problems such as mass mail in voting and opening up the voting rolls to anybody. this was their big issue and you are going to hand this over to those who want to make sure the republicans never win another election, that is not the way to go. david: finally, you have a poll of the states of harmony people, how many republicans are thinking what is the difference

this system is rigged or why should i bother to go out and vote so what would you tell them? >> look, you're just going to hand it over to those who rigged it if you don't come out and vote. we have to come out en masse in the selection. understand this, as a person before me just pointed out you could potentially have far left progressive administration, a house and a senate effectively in their control. keep this in mind, if kelly loeffler and david produced lose this election kamala harris will be the deciding vote in the senate and kamala harris has the most liberal voting record of any senator, that's more liberal or progressive than bernie sanders prayed that is what you will be facing and that is why our economy, our safety and security and military will all be in jeopardy. david: it is hard to get to the left of bernie sanders but somehow she managed barry loudermilk congressman from georgia, best of luck from the election.

staying in georgia, the runoffs could dictate what happens to key education reforms moving forward. hilary vann is with us now. hillary, what policies are democrats hoping to implement if they clinched victory in next week's runoff? >> david, this is putting the focus like student loan forgiveness because the runoff candidates in georgia john ossoff and raffaella warnock have indicated student loan relief is on the ballot for them and that's a voting issue that they want people to consider and when they're considering whether to hand over control to democrats but president-elect biden has also been pressured by some in his party to use executive action to take action on this issue instead of deferring to congress. senators bernie sanders and lisbeth worn a push to get him to forgive $50,000 of debt but biden wants to be more targeted with his student debt relief and he is open to making college tuition free and public college tuition free for families making

less then 125,000 and is open to her giving $10,000 in debt by executive order for every american with federal student loans but isn't sure whether or not he needs to use executive power to do it. biden told the washington post this last week, it's arguable that the president may have the executive power to forgive up to $50,000 in his student debt. i think that's pretty questionable and i'm unsure of that and i would be unlikely to do that. instead, biden may rely on congress to act and that flips the balance in the senate in focus. raffaella warnock and john ossoff has campaigned on the idea that they want student loan forgiveness and earlier this month john tweeted this to his followers. i'm going to vote for student loan debt relief a lot of it so there is an interesting contrast here david. if democrats were to take control of the senate there clearly is pressure and support among those in the democratic party to do more than

president-elect biden is open to doing on student loan relief. david: hillary, thank you. very important election no doubt. a restaurant owner in los angeles confronting health inspectors over the shutdown. roll this. >> i'm desperate. who will pay her car bill or pay my cooks rent? i bet you each got a paycheck. >> that's a short clip and we will pay the full sound coming next. as indoor dining remains instructed many restaurants are we imagining how they can serve their customers and were visiting and rv restaurants coming up. ♪ ♪ now is the time for a new bath from bath fitter.

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david: a sign of the times, dining experience inside a rv. grady trimble joining us from grove, illinois. reporter: there is no indoor dining in illinois and as you can see with a fresh bit of snow on the ground it's not the most pleasant time to be eating outside either so this restaurant, the chatterbox in long grove, is trying to find a way to serve guests.

they set up these little rvs in what used to be the patio area obviously you can't eat outside right now in the chicago area. mike is the owner here at the chatterbox so tell me how this idea came about? >> well, me and my wife go out a lot and we love to eat so we have an rv and worry are avid are beers and we would go to restaurants and even the parking lot in restaurants and we just had to find a way where our customers could enjoy what we enjoy or find a way to keep our employees working and find a way to also do this for everybody and they can enjoy it. reporter: it's fantastic. oh little seating area with their own parties you don't have to be interacting with other guests and worry about the virus spreading and what's the reception been like so far? you've only been up and running for a couple weeks. >> it's been great. people come in, they feel safe, they love our food at two and we are happy to offer it to

everybody. >> keep those employees on the payroll which is important as well paid david, i want to show you one other part of the experience. they tried to make it as contact free as possible. this is how you place your order. buzz up the server server auto like walkie-talkie and they bring out your food in your own private rv. david: i think they got extraordinary spirit and i wish them the best. it will be tough. grady, thank you. former president ceo of mcdonald's usa, ed, i've got to tell you there's only so much these entrepreneurs can take and it's particularly the small guys. i wonder how they have to spend so much money on all these renovations every day, every week it's a new regulation that they have to deal with with the new load of plexiglass or whatever. they can't afford this much longer? >> not at all. it's a classic example of imagination overcoming an impossible situation but you look at governor in illinois and

cuomo in new york and if you look at the guy in california and then compare that to florida where governor desantis has used a lot of common sense and social distance, wash her hands and all the things we know how to do in the restaurant industry. you've got to think about this for a minute, is eating in an rv any different than eating in a restaurant? the answer is yes except for one thing. in restaurants we have very, very strong systems and exhaust systems that we turn the restaurant air over in those restaurants every three or five minutes. there is no place more safe than a restaurant, particularly if he followed the social distancing and things like that. this government is out of control. david: it's worse than that because that restauranteur in california showed us with her video outside if you are all connected to the people in power you can have outdoor dining as that nbc or i think it was nbc that had the outdoor dining

facility for its workers right next door to where they forbade this woman from setting up outdoor facilities for her restaurant. it's all connections and that is what makes people so sick of the hypocrisy of all of this. david: they have bought. >> the hypocrisy is starting to cause good, moral citizens to be calm disrespectful of government, disrespectful of authority and we are headed for a crisis if we don't do something. we got over 700,000 restaurants in the united states, 3 million employees and almost a trillion dollars in business absolutely feeling across the board. we cannot keep this up and we got people that are in desperate conditions and the government is fighting over $600 or 2,000 and they will forgive hundreds of thousands of college loans of people who went to ev to schools? i did not pay anywhere near that tuition and i went to ohio state university and got a great education. david: and you did work, very

quickly, only 20 seconds ed. is there a light at the end of the tunnel? >> not hardly the way were going right now in the if i didn't get selected ultimately i think he will we are in deep trouble if we lose the senate because we will see socialism like we've never seen before. i think it's an awful situation. david: at least we have the vaccines, ed. to meet that is the light at the end of the tunnel because it will be spread around. ed rezzi, thank you for being here. best of 2021. a restaurant owner in los angeles confronting a health inspector over california's dining band. lauren, tell us more. lauren: it's an emotional one print the owner of bread and barley and la sided with noncompliance and find a thousand dollars. when people were seen eating outside his restaurants he says i did not serve them, they were on a public bench and when he got emotional the health inspector did not seem to care. watch. >> i'm desperate. who will pay her car payment and who will pay my cooks rent?

i bet you got a paycheck. when i go to the bank and tell the bank that i will have to pay the health department and -- >> sir. lauren: they bands outdoor dining december 6 but and we seen this a lot the local sheriff says he's not going to enforce any new orders coming down from the health department so, you know. david: we have seen that spirit a lot of law-enforcement saying they will not do it. it's not or it wasn't approved by the legislator and this was an edict, not a law. lauren, thank you. the recall for gavin newsom has a new donor. who is that? lauren: half a million dollars coming in from a consulting firm called crop 39 and partner thomas lu had this to say "-right-double-quote -- we have our beliefs in terms of the direction the state needs to go. meaning, they don't like the

lockdowns and that is where they are putting their money. it signals a seriousness of this recall and could bring on other donors so far about 800,000 people have signed this petition to recall governor newsom and they need about one and a half million. david: about halfway there. do you remember mac's bar? they may news when they push back against indoor dining restrictions but they announce reopening plans despite the new york dining band. coming up we talk the restaurants attorney. in the latest example of rules for the v but not for me a democrat lawmaker caught ice skating at a was closed due to covid. you can't make this stuff up. more varney coming up next. ♪

david: democrat official in new york slammed for ice-skating. susan, real question is why? susan: health department shut down a nearby ice rink is so rules for the but not for me, video showing the executive played hockey with a handful of people at the rink even though he said he was by himself first and then joined by the group but you can imagine the hypocrisy followed with kids and youth leagues can't go out to state and enjoy the rink but it's okay for politicians who are shutting down the ranks next door to go out and enjoy their skate. david: the worst. absolute worst. hypocrisy. thank you for pointing that out. mac's bar will reopen in defiance of new york's dining band. come in lou gelormino who is attorney for daniel, co-owner of max public house. will it reopen? >> they will be reopening hopefully shortly and sometime in january.

they are very excited and want to do it legally and we still have some civil issues to clear but we hope to be heard in january and they will be opening legally shortly after. david: will they have their liquor license? for a pub that's an important question. >> well, i think that will be the big issue and we are dealing with that now. hopefully the governor and the state liquor authority can see that a place like mac's bar just wanted to open into business and hopefully they will give their liquor license back. david: have charges against danny been dismissed? the court case scheduled for january 11 after he allegedly hit a sheriff with a car and there's a lot of misinformation about that but have those charges been dismissed? >> let me clear that up. danny, myself and three other people received 20 criminal

court summonses on the night the sheriff deputy came barging in to mac's public house. we have now gotten no criminal court summons dismissed. those cases all have been dismissed, all 20 of them. the legal matter against the sheriff still remains open and we are hopeful to have that resolved sometime in the next couple months. david: alright, let's talk about the court decision that was set up upstate that may have a bearing, i think definitely has a bearing on the case of opening which is a judge decided that governor cuomo and probably other governors in the country but particularly governor cuomo has to provide scientific evidence to prove why he is shutting down restaurants which, for example, have a transference rate of covid of about 1.4% one over 70% of the people who get

covid these days are getting it at home. >> david, great question. i'm glad you asked. i'm so excited. when my colleagues up in erie county who brought the issue to court and we brought the issue to court down here also but my colleagues in erie county have been heard and we have a judge that has used common sense and now is demanding that new york state showed the science while these restaurants cannot be opened. it's either that or they have to offer a compromised position which they already offered, david. you know, we were open at 25% and that seems reasonable to everybody. at least let that make that a starting point. were excited about the ruling in erie county. david: but i know of restaurants in manhattan in itself that have been told they can't have any indoor dining despite the very low occurrence of covid cases emanating from restaurants.

have they been offered the same sort of compromise as you have that 25%? >> no, i'm sorry if i confused anybody. all restaurants, all restaurants in new york city right now are completely shut down for indoor dining. what we are saying as previously the shutdown they were open for 25% per hopefully, the case in erie county would get to at least a compromised position of allowing them in erie county and new york city to open at 25%. david: have you heard anything from the governor's office about a willingness to move as a result of that court decision upstate? >> not a word, david. obviously, not a word. david: it's so sad, they think they are above the law. what is going on? >> they need to answer by monday. from what i understand and from what i'm reading about the erie county decision they need to answer and be in court by monday. so, we are excited to see what

they will bring to the table and either see if they will offer that compromise position or show us science that says every restaurant in new york city should be closed down but you can go to nassau county, westchester county, new jersey and connecticut and go dine indoors so if they have the science, let see it. david: they say they're all for science unless it contradicts one of their opinions and then they are against it. one more question. lou, we've got to rap but just have to ask, how strapped are your clients here? they had to spend so much time on court cases, unchanging the definition of what a restaurant is with plexiglass et cetera so how much longer can they go on without customers? >> straps. david, they are broke. they are going out of business. they are almost completely out of business. they each -- two of my clients

have three children and they can put food on their tables and they are going broke. that's the reason they came to this decision to stand up and fight. they can't go any further. my partners and i are doing this pro bono to represent them but what happens if they didn't have lawyers to stand up and fight? what happens if they couldn't fight the government and many restaurants owners are in that situation. david: a lot of them are looking to you for answers. we wish you the best, lou. thank you for joining us. lou gelormino we appreciate it. what a difference a year makes on the left. new year's eve last year and on the right you can see times square it looks a lot different but there will be a special guest same on the most fitting songs for 2020. gloria gaynor singing, i will survive. she joins us next. ♪ ♪ (announcer) do you want to reduce stress?

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interestingly i read the history of i will survive and that was the song on that album or the 45, right? you do not expect that to be as big as it was? >> well, i did but the record company didn't. i played it for them or i try to play it for them but they refused to listen because the president had chosen the other side. david: it turned out to be just something that everybody knows and there are a lot of new yorkers from new work and i know you're not far from here and a lot of new yorkers are wondering will new york survive so what is your best guess? >> absolutely new york will survive. we can do this. david: i hope you are right. there are a lot of life clubs that i love to go to and jazz clubs et cetera. they were already having tough times before covid and have been down for a year and a been close

for a year probably another few months so how did they get back on their feet? >> it will be a struggle. i'm not going to say it'll be easy. it will be hard but we can put together and make it happen. i just know we can. david: it is interesting that you had an interview right at the beginning of this year where you were talking about gospel music and how your preference began to move into that area and express it with your talents. is gospel music, i will survive has a gospel element to it. do you reach and introduce the spirit within yourself and live it out so it is kind of an interesting turn that you took to gospel. >> well, you know, it was something i've been wanting to do for many years but had management that did not agree but now i have management that respects me and my designs and tires for my own life and career

so they were able to do it i'm very happy about it. people have told me that it's uplifting and encouraging and empowering them and that is bent my purpose and that's why i will survive is the core of my purpose. it was given to me by god. david: wonderful. happy to hear it. clearly you can see the spirit inside of yourself is emanating out of you. you won't have a lot of people there and we are used to times square celebration and new year's and hundreds of people so do not many people will be there in person? >> very, very few. very few but you know what? i would imagine you and all the other people what we used to call tv land and i will sing for you. i will just do that. david: we will be listening and we are inspired by your story and buy your music and we wish you the very best. have the best concert of your life, gloria.

>> thank you, thank you so much. i'm so looking forward to seeing you for the front line workers and the essential workers and the first responders. david: and some of them will be there in person so there will be front-line workers. gloria gaynor, great to have you here and what an honor paid more varney right after this. ♪ ♪ . .

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♪. david: well on this new year's eve eve we had to show you boston dynamic shot of the robots dancing to the beatles. too much. a little creepy but worth watching. jackie deangelis i hope you weren't creeped out by that? jackie: i loved it. a great way to start the session. david, thank you for that. welcome to you, i'm jackie deangelis in for neil cavuto. we have a jam-packed two hours ahead of us. we'll go coast to coast starting with georgia where the race to serve the peach state entering the senate is in its final days. whether back and forth over boost of the stimulus checks could make a difference with voters. over to california where the push to recall gavin newsom is even seeing bigger financieral push. we have the latest where those six figure donations stand. pop star