thanks so much for your insights, we hear what you're saying. come back soon. i'm elizabeth donald, you've been watching "the evening edit." thank you so much for watching. we hope you have a good weekend. ♪ >> from the fox studios in new york city, this is maria bartiromo's "wall street." maria: happy weekend, everyone. welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was and helps position you for the week ahead. i'm maria bartiromo. thanks for being here. keeping china in check, i sat town with former secretary of state mike pompeo as president biden makes his first speech on foreign policy this week. pompeo's message to the biden administration coming up. and then later, it is super bowl weekend. a record number of americans are expected to place online bets for the big game. i'll be speaking with the cofounder and ceo of draftkings coming up, jason robbins.

but first, 49,000 jobs were added to the economy in the month of january in line with expectations as the unemployment rate fell all the way down to 6.3%. stocks having their best week in months on the heels of this report in hopes that congress will push through even more money, more stimulus, that nearly $2 trillion stimulus package looking like it is going to go through. joining me right now to talk about the impact is guggenheim investments chief investment officer scott minor, guggenheim with $300 billion in assets under management. scott, it's great of to have you this weekend, thanks so much for being here. where do you see the u.s. in terms of our economic recovery? let's start there after these jobs numbers on friday. >> well, you know, maria, i think while we still have a lot of ground to cover to get back to where we were before the pandemic, i think things are in pretty sold shape. -- solid shape. and against the backdrop of all the stimulus that is coming, plus all the stimulus that we

already got in the december stimulus package, i think, you know, the federal spending is going to keep pushing the economy ahead while the federal reserve is committed to keeping interest rates low, and we're seeing pretty strong indications for growth in 2021 which will obviously be good for stocks. maria: yeah, it's a great point, especially as we continue to have more stimulus thrown at this economiment but look at the -- economy. but look at the jobs numbers. we lost jobs in leisure and hospitality, in retail trade. even though the unemployment rate went all the way down to 6.3%, what's the impact of all of this stimulus? we are now up to $5 trillion in stimulus just in a year with this latest $1.9 trillion package going into effect. that has a real impact on growth, it has a real impact on where interest rates are, or right? >> well, for sure, maria. and let's face it, the reason that we have been able to

maintain interest rates at these low levels is largely because the federal reserve has accommodated the treasury and the congress by -- [inaudible] and so, you know, there is a limit to all this eventually, and, you know, it's going to be very interesting. as the economy natural wily starts to recover -- naturally starts to recover, as we start to see lodging come back, we start to see air traffic come back and things normalize, you know, we're going to have to do something to reduce the amount of stimulus in the system. and that's going to be a very difficult exercise to pull off for both the federal reserve and congress. maria: yeah. which brings me to the inflationary story, right? because we're look at commodities trading up in terms of price for orange juice, price of iron ore, copper, really whatever commodity you look at.

if it's in the food arena, even industrial metals, we're seeing a big spike. does that worry you, that inflation is starting to show itself, and does that also become a catalyst for the federal reserve to take the foot off the gas? >> well, i mean, certainly, you know, as milton friedman famously said, inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon subject to long and variable lags. so, yes, this accommodation by the fed when you see money growth in excess of 30% year-over-year, you do start to get worried about inflation. now, you know, it's really interesting, i'm old enough to remember this, back in the 19 1960s we didn't see a broad-based inflation, but we used to get these unusual spikes in prices of things like sugar and coffee and all kinds of other things. sort of, you know, anecdotally

what we're seeing today. but, you know, it took until the early 1970s when the oil shock hit to really get inflation to take off. so i think we're in a point here, maria, where it's a bit of a sweet spot. we're going to see these asset bubbles for lack of a better phrase whether it's in commodities or in real estate or in stocks or even, you know, isolated stocks where people basically see an opportunity to strive the prices up. but eventually -- to drive the prices up. but eventually this will cascade over into the broad economy. i think given how high unemployment is, we still have some time. maria: by the way, scott, what are your thoughts on what took place in the last two weeks with regard to the short squeezes, talking about people having the ability to push things up, we saw gamestop and the others in a massive volatile situation, and now we know that robinhood says it's going to remove any

restrictions for anybody in terms of some of these heavily shorted stocks. what's your take on what took place last week? >> well, first off, i would say that, you know, the short base under gamestop, 130% of its float, you know, it was not exactly the most responsible short to have. it made you vulnerable to somebody squeezing it by buying up the stock. but when you look at what's gone on with robinhood and these basically trading services where you have no visible transaction costs because they don't charge you any fees, you know, it's encouraging more and more speculative activity by people who are sitting at home and maybe don't have the real understanding of what's going on. and so, you know, there's a debate here, maria, which is is this the democratization of the

markets because we're allowing the small guy to get in and do a lot of stuff, or are we, are we essentially destabilizing the markets by allowing people to participate who basically are not informed and that basically can run speculative campaigns on individual assets whether it be silver or gamestop. maria: right. and is it, at the end of the day, manipulation? all right. real quick, scott, before you go, how are you allocating capital right now having said all of that? you talked about a brit -- a pretty good backdrop in terms of the economy. do you want to stay with companies tied to the cyclical environment? are you looking away from equities? what are you doing now, scott? >> certainly, given where we are in the cycle, stocks should continue to perform pretty well over the next few years, and i certainly think they're going to perform well, you know, through the first half of this year. you know, maria, a lot of tech

companies have had phenomenal runs, and, you know, we're starting to see the erosion in the room for continued appreciation there. so we're turning our attention more to things like value, small cap, places which haven't participated as much and looking overseas. so i think that that for the small investor out there it's a good time to maybe rebalance away from the growth in technology story and get into value in small cap stocks. maria: well, there certainly was a big difference between those groups in 2020. scott, it's great to talk with you this weekend, thanks so much. >> maria, always a pleasure. thank you. maria: and to you. scott minerd from bag guggenheim investments. quick break, and then the chinese communist party putting sanctions on former trump officials. i spoke with former secretary

pompeo, his response coming up. ♪ ♪♪ [ engines revving ] ♪♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. [ engine revs ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

♪ ♪ maria: welcome back. president biden calling china the u.s.' most serious competitor in his first foreign policy speech this week. he is vowing to take action. i spoke with former secretary of state mike pompeo to discuss the real threat from china. he was among the trump officials who were sanctioned by the communist party just one day after president biden was inaugurated. pompeo told me this was really a message sent to the new administration from china. >> it was to send a message to the next administration, the biden administration, that says if you're serious about protecting america, american sovereignty, american jobs, american wealth, all the things that matter most to the people that are listening to your show and watching, you will be punished. and so they were trying to send a message to the secretary of

state, the national security adviser saying, careful, don't do the right thing for america, don't protect america. if you do, you will personally e be punished. that was the message. it's kind of a badge of honor in some ways. we took seriously 50 years of failed policy from america flipped on its head, and we put a real premium on protecting americans from the threat that the chinese communist party presents to each and every one of us. maria: yes, you did, and you were the first administration, the first secretary of state to actually change the approach to china in this 40 years of engagement, because ever since nixon first went to china, we were under this impression that china was going to open its market, that china was going to see democracy, see what's happening in hong kong and say, okay, we'll move to the middle. that is exactly the opposite, what has actually taken place. and you and your colleagues in the trump administration recognized that. is that a fair statement? >> it is, maria. we recognize that the strategy that had been in place -- this

is democrats and republicans both -- the tragedy that had been in place for decades was one of appeasement, of tolerance, it was about chasing the dollar for some cheap labor inside of china. it was a huge detriment to the ordinary citizens across america. tens of millions of jobs lost because the united states refused to tell the chinese you can't dump your products here, you can't steal our intellectual property. president trump and our administration turned this on its head. we allowed them to grow and build out their military on the backs of american wealth that was transferred to them over all of these 40 years. they now have a gigantic military capacity, the people 's liberation army. and then, maria, we did one of the worst things, we let them inside the gates. we let them come lobby here, influence here, we gave them the capacity to build on chinese technology inside of our country to that they could spy on us here in the united states of america. these were things that the american leadership failed the american people on for decades and decades. this policy with china matters to every one of the people who is out there seeking employment.

if we get this wrong, maria, we will live in a world that is so deeply different. we will see these sanctions on our leaders pale in comparison to the pain and the absence of prosperity that will be here in the united states of america if we don't get this right. maria: president biden's nominee for commerce says that she sees, quote: no reason to lift trading curbs on chinese company like huawei or zte, but it seems this decision keeps going back and forth. will you make the case why your administration put in these limitations in terms of investing in chinese companies tied to the military and how important this issue is? so far it doesn't look like they're going to lift the restrictions. >> i'm counting on that. i think the american people need to be counting on the fact they won't lift these restrictions either. there's two things, maria. first, the money, the wealth. these companies are tie ld to the people's liberation army, the a military that wants to control the east china sea,

south china sea and, ultimately, support china's effort to become a hegemonic global power that controls -- we're looking at you are to kids and grandkids living in a different world. the flip side is these technologies that infiltrate the united states and europe are things that our kids use, that we use, that are in our cars, our television sets, in our handsets and phones. this information also, american information whether it's our personal information about where we live and who we hang out with or information about our medical conditions and our dna, that information goes back to the chinese national security state. it will be used for bad intent, it will be used to harm the united states of america and those sanctions were put in place by our administration to protect the american people from these twin evils. maria: so they're using it as leverage to try to blackmail people. is that one way they use our data? >> yeah. absolutely. maria: yeah. >> they are use that information. they will use artificial intelligence to gather it up, and then they will turn around to tell us that if we don't act in a way that's consistent with

what the chinese communist party wants, they will impose real costs on the united states. maria: the biden administration is planning to reopen a holding center in texas for migrant kids detained at the border. it's going to house up to 700 people over the next two weeks, and it comes just days after president bidenen signed a number of executive orders aimed at reversing trump era immigration policies including a task force to reunify families separated at the border. what are your thoughts on these executive orders relating to immigration? >> i worked hard on immigration issues, maria. the american national security depends on a sovereign united states of america. we have to know who's coming in and out of our country. we're a compassionate people. everyone all across the world wants to come by here in america, but we have -- be here in america, but we have a responsibility to the people here in the united states to make sure that we have secure borders, that we know who's coming in and out of our country and that a we regulate our immigration in a way that

preserves jobs and prosperity and wages for the people who are here in the united states. maria: my thanks to former secretary of state mike pompeo. it is super bowl weekend, and there is a lot of money on the line. with a record number of americans placing their bets online, the ceo of draftkings is here. jason robins will join me next.

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♪ maria: well, are you ready for the big game? a record 7.6 million americans are expected to make online bets for the super bowl this year, up 63% from last year, according to the american gambling association as more states adopt legal betting. joining me now to tell us about it is the cofounder and ceo of draftkings, jason robins. thank you so much for being

here. first up, what are you seeing on your site going into the big game? >> well, we're seeing an absolutely enormous explosion of traffic right now. you know, if we look back, a lot's happened in the last few years since the supreme court overturned the federal ban. we were in one state two year ago for online sports betting, new jersey, last year we were in five, now we're in twelve which is more than any ore online operator -- other online operator. so lots of new customers being able to bet on the super bowl legally for the first time. maria: that is incredible. you've got a pretty exciting super bowl, too, right? the kansas city chiefs facing off with the tampa a bay buccaneers if, arguely the best quarterback of all time versus the best up and coming quarterback of all time, right? >> this is the dream matchup, you know? the greatest of all time against the heir apparent. and, you know, it's in the tampa home stadium, it's the first time ever there's been a super bowl where the team was playing in their home stadium.

it's going to be an in. incredible game, really looking forward to watching it and seeing how this all turns out. either way, i think it's going to be a great game. maria: so what does this mean for draftkings? you've got 23.25 million americans expected to place bets on the final nfl game of the year, and you're seeing all of this traffic on draftkings. this, obviously, results in a lot more awareness for people, a lot more business for draftkings. i know you're in a quiet period, but things are -- it looks like game-changer because you're in so many more states. >> well, it's been really great to see how quickly states are adopting, but, you know, the thing that's amazing is when you cite those numbers betting, the majority of that by far is still being placed in the illegal market. so there's still a lot of work to do to, hopefully, get more states onboard with taking this out of the illegal market and bringing it into the light where you can have strong consumer protections, great experiences

for customers and yen rate real, meaningful tax revenue for states. hopefully, we'll see more and more over the coming years decide that this is something that they should do in their state. maria: yeah. i think that's such a great point because for years and years so many have been, you know, relying on underground bookies or going overseas in order to make that. but that's changing as we see more legalization. tell me about this year's game and what draftkings is doing, some of the engagement that you're seeing with fans. >> well, what we're trying to do knowing what i just mentioned, that there's still so many states that you can't legally bet in, is we're trying to have something for everybody. we have a really big promotion, a $55 million free to play pool where you make predictions about the game. top prize in that is a million dollars, and everybody who enters, even if you finish last place, gets a free prize, up to $that -- $25,000.

and you can play that 50 states, canada, really anywhere, so you don't have to have legal betting in your state. and then for states that do have legal betting, we have what we call a no-brainer promotion where if either team scores a touchdown, doesn't matter which, you can double your money on a bet. i don't know if there's been any super bowl without a touchdown scores. if so, i can't imagine there's been many, so i think that's a great bet for customers who are looking to try something out that's relatively low risk and double their money. maria: yeah, that's very cool. i mean, i think the whole industry is looking better and better. not just your company, but you've got, you know, more lucrative situations because of the states that are legalizing operations. there's a report this month saying that the industry could be worth $7.3-10 billion in total revenue by 2025. when you look at the overall industry, jason, from 30,000 feet, do those numbers sound believable, or is that doable in

your view for the industry? >> well, the real question is how many states adopt this and how quickly. i think if the states go faster than expected, you could see an even bigger number. maria: pretty incredible stuff. jason, it's great to have you this weekend. thank you, sir. we'll be watching. >> thank you for having me. maria: jason robins from draft kings. don't go anywhere, more "wall street" right aftersa this. plan? muck muck

♪ maria: welcome back. i hope you'll tune in every friday night at 9 p.m. eastern for another edition of "wall street," we are planning another big show next friday night, so be here at 9 p.m. friday x. this weekend, i'll see you over on fox news on "sunday morning futures," 10 a.m. eastern live on the fox news channel, exclusive interviews with former chief of staff mark meadows at the white house, ken paxton, a.g. of texas, senator ron john and peter navarro. all coming up this sunday, 10 a.m. eastern live on fox news. and right here on fox business

start smart every weekday morning from 6-9 a.m. eastern for "mornings with maria" on fox business. i hope you will join us every weekday. that'll do it for us. thank you so much for being with us this weekend. have a fabulous rest of the weekend, and i'll see you again next time. ♪ ♪ ♪ gerry: hello and welcome to the "wall street journal at large." two weeks into the joe biden presidency, the political dynamic of our times seems to be clear. we have a democratic administration that's intent on ramming through its radical progressive agenda on the slimmest of majorities while the republican party descends into conflict about its everyone direction. joe biden promised to work for unity. he told people that in his five decades in washington, he'd learned the value of working with the opposing party. but this week we got the clearest indication that he

leads a democratic party that really plans to govern alone. on monday a group of ten republican senators held out an olive branch to the new president. they offered a counterproposal to his $3.9 trillion covid -- 1.9 trillion covid relief bill. now, the offer seemed to present the potential for a classic example of washington bipartisanship, a serious basis for a deal that would pass the senate without the need for reconciliation, that's the process that allows the body to avoid the filibuster. but instead of seizing it, the white house promptly shoved it back in the republicans' faces, essentially said they plan to press ahead with their own bill, and indeed they did in the senate. with the senate split 50-50, the democrats have just enough votes with the tie vote of vice president kamala harris, and on friday they kicked out the minimum wage increase in the covid relief bill but left the rest of the $1.9 trillion package essentially intact. president biden insisted that there would be no compromise. >> if i have to choose between

getting help right now to americans who are hurting so badly and getting bogged down in a lengthy negotiation or compromising on a bill that's, that's up to the crisis, that's an easy choice. i'm going to help the american people who are hurting now. gerry: this despite real fears even among the some prominent democrats such as former obama top economic policymaker larry summers that the scale of the package may just be too large. now, all of this fits with the clear signals that biden has sent that he mans govern as though he has a mandate for a significantly hard-left turn for the country. how is this happening? well, the answer lies in part with the condition of the republican party. in the wake of president donald trump's electoral defeat and the loss of senate control, the gop's in a state of civil war. the divisions were on full disthrough play this -- display this week. on wednesday the caucus voted to

keep liz cheney as the party's number three official in the white house despite an effort to oust her after she had supported the president's impeachment. the next day 31 republicans -- 11 republicans joined all the democrats in voting to oust managerially taylor greene -- marjorie taylor greene for delusional conspiracy theories including the idea, for example, that the u.s. is run by a cabal of satanist pedophiles. now, the congresswoman herself told colleagues shah that she had changed her mind about some of the beliefs. >> these were words of the past, and these things do not represent me, they do not represent my district, and they do not represent my values. gerry: but the divisions in the party were underscored by a poll this week for ax quotes that show -- axios that shows far more republicans support ms. taylor greene than ms. cheney. and on thursday, ben sasse, or

who faces censure for what he said in the runup to the january 6th capitol riots, senator sasse summed up the problem that now divides the party. it's east a party -- either a party built around president trump or a party committed to principles and parties. >> the anger in the party has never been about me violating principle or abandoning conservative policy. i'm one of the most conservative voters in the senate. the anger has always been simply about me not bending the knee to one guy. gerry: later we'll discuss the challenge for the gop with a big republican backer and a political commentator, ceo of canary, dan eberhardt. but let's start with the biden administration's strategy. here to take it up, senior national political columnist, josh, thanks very much for joining me. >> good to be here. gerry: so, josh, we did have an example this week where, again,

what i said, what looked like an opportunity for president biden to show what many of us thought he stood for, which is a kind of bipartisan approach. he's a longstand ising member of the -- longstanding member of the senate, he'sed had good relationships across the aisle. republicans go to him for negotiation, and the white house simply rejects it, and those democrats give every impression they intend to press on because they've got 50 votes plus 1 in the senate. what's going on here in we all thought president biden was, you know, was someone who was about building consensus, and he talked all about unity. what's he doing? >> yeah. this is an administration whose actions are belying the bipartisan rhetoric that president biden campaigns on and the very rhetoric he talked about in his very unifying inauguration speech. that was why a lot of moderate voters supported joe biden in the last election, the notion that there would be some return to normalcy or at least a return

to a time when republicans and democrats can at least talk about compromise and reaching across the aisle. and you've got this opportunity, and, you know, republicans and democrat, even if they may disagree on the ways to get there, there is a common view there needs to be more money to help disadvantaged americans that have taken a hit because of the pandemic. so there is room for compromise on a non-ideological issue like this. and what we've seen in the last couple weeks though, gerry, is that the biden -- biden himself has essentially rejected any efforts at compromise. he did have a meeting with ten republican senators that offered their own proposal but didn't offer any counterproposal, didn't start any negotiation. pretty much said it's just my way or the highway. and, look, if you can't win over mitt romney, if you can't win over susan collins and you've logged a moderate democrat like joe manchin, maybe they get this through with 50 votes, but that shows how partisan these initial efforts have been. gerry: why do you think he's doing this?

some people detect the hand of ron klain, his chief of staff, the prime minister inside the white house and, you know, he's in favor of a pretty progressive agenda, maybe kamala harris. why is biden apparently turning his back on the moderates and on the people who want a bipartisan approach? >> there is a lot to be said about democratic staff often being more progressive than the actual principal himself. but i also think this is party that's been, number one, burn in the past by -- burned in the past by relationships and negotiations with republicans. these are a lot of obama administration alums who looked at the first year of the obama administration and felt that they could have gotten a bigger stimulus, but they backed down at the last minute, concern they don't want to relive that lesson. but, gerry, the biggest difference now from 2009 to currently in 2021 is that joe biden has a 50-democratic seat majority, the narrowest of majorities. obama had nearly 60 seats in the

senate. so, you know, joe biden talks a lot about building back better. you know, it's in his political interest to get more political capital the as he governs, as he tries to, you know, advance his agenda on other issues. instead he's burning a whole lot of bridges that didn't have to be burned, and he risks incleesing the degree -- increasing the degree of partisanship. and if you overheat the economy too much, everything's on his shoulders. he owns the economy now, and it could cause hum some political backlash if he's not careful in the future. gerry: we've got to take a short break, but we'll talk more about that, more about the stimulus plan and also impeachment and the other political issues when we come back. stay with us. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's something you shouldn't try at home... look, liberty mutual customizes home insurance so we only pay for what we need. it's pretty cool. that is cool!

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♪ ♪ gerry: i'm back with national journal daily's josh, you mentioned before the break that some democrats felt a little burned back in 2009 when they, when the obama -- in the early days of the obama administration when they were putting forward

their own stimulus plan, reached tout republicans, didn't get any results. i'm skeptical about how serious the outreach was, but that's what they said. interestingly, this week there was an op-ed by larry summers in "the washington post" who actually gave a warning to president biden and his team that this was maybe, you know, this plan, this $1.9 trillion plan is risky both in terms that it might stoke inflation. the economy's had a huge amount of stimulus. the government's taken on a lot of debt in the past year, but it might threaten their own big plans for an even larger project later in the year when they want to do their build back better, big infrastructure plan. how much do you think there is going to be internal debate within the democratic party about the merits of this plan, of what it might -- how it might impact their ability to do stuff in the future? >> gerry, i don't think there's a whole lot of divisions because they want to help joe biden pass his first big initiative. but i think there's concern,

private worry that if biden doesn't reach out to republicans, doesn't get any republican support and then the economy, you do see some long-term inflation or you do see, you know, the eshoo of not being able to spend on priorities that biden has been talking about in the future, that's going to be a big problem for the democratic party heading into a midterm election where they're already exposed, and they already face the prospect of losing seats in the house, losing perhaps the senate. so this is a political issue as much as an economic one. it's good politics to want to get the other side to buy into your agenda because it shows not only you're looking to get bipartisanship, but it gives some ownership on the other side of the aisle. if biden goes through with it, it shows a certain level of cocky hns. it's -- cockiness. you have those like summers who are saying there's a real risk that there could be inflation, there could be less money for real spending on top democratic priorities that could come back

to bite democrats in the long run. gerry: for the next two weeks, we're going to be treated to the big theater of impeachment. some democrats are concerned and think it's maybe not the way to go in terms of establishing bipartisanship in terms of trying to convict the former president, especially a trial that we know is almost certain to end in his acquittal. how to you expect, just briefly, how do you think this trial that we're going to see in the senate the next couple of weeks, how is that going to impact the way in which our political scene is going to operate over the next few? >> one name you don't hear a whole lott from the biden administration is the name of the former president, donald trump. they don't want to be involved. they want to be engaged in what's going to be a big partisan fight in the trial coming up this month. so, you know, i think it's sort of a wash politically. we know where most senators stand. it's going to be very anti-climactic. maybe you get five republican senators, at most, who vote for

conviction, but, you know, it's not good politically when you put all your eggs in a basket to try to get the president convicted, and you can't get to that 67-vote threshold. so i think you're going to see schumer and pelosi and the democratic managers, you know, be talking a lot about impeachment and conviction, but it's not one that the white house wants to own and really be distracted by. gerry: josh, thank you so much, indeed, for joining me. coming up, it seems to be civil war at the gop. how bad could it get? stay with us, we'll talk about that next. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is hard. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette ♪♪

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polls suggest gop if voters back donald trump and figures like marjorie taylor greene. with me now to take it all up is political commentator, and canary chief executive officer, dan eberhart. thanks for joining me. >> thank you for having me. gerry: we've seen the beginnings of a full-scale civil war this week in the gop party, some republicans unhappy with marjorie taylor greene and some of the extreme things she said, but more seem to be unhappy with those like liz cheney and ben sasse, critical, indeed, of a post-president trump. ben sasse said this week, you know, the choice of the party is it led by a cult figure like donald trump, or is it a party of principles and policies. where do you think the party's going here? >> well, i think right now what's going on with the party, and i think the kind of pre-civil war was what happened in georgia between trump trying to pour a lot of cold water on

these senate races and distract everyone in the georgia gop. that was the start of the civil war in the republican party. but, you know, we've got a situation right now where the idea is the ice cube of donald trump, is that going to melt or not? so far it seems to have not melted. i was really surprised with the capitol riot and this announcement of a second impeachment. support has only fallen from 85% to 79% based on the polls. it's really holding pretty strong. a lot of people that thought trump was going to fade rather quickly given what happened with the capitol hill riots, they're sorely mistaken. right now we've got a lot of serious issues. ininstead of focusing on being loyal opposition to joe biden and pushing back on democratic overreach and an administration that seems to be lurching to the left, we have a bunch of circular firing squads going on with donald trump jr. and matt gaetz attacking liz cheney. then you've got leader mccarthy going to kiss the

ring at mar-a-lago with donald trump while at the same time a lot of republicans are really furious with what marjorie taylor greene is espousing and saying and even her mea culpa yesterday, a lot of people think she's just extremely divisive. to me, the path back to the majority, the path out of the wilderness for the republican party is to win in the suburbs. those are the voters we ultimately need to be focused on. we focus too much on rural voters and too much on, you know, the kind of rhetoric that feeds them and their causes at the expense of voters in the suburbs, and we're basically choosing to be the party of barry goldwater, not the party of ronald reagan in terms of are we going to be a big tent approach to winning elections, or are we going to be more purist minority party. gerry: it is worrying, as you say, exactly as you say at the time when you have a democratic administration with a razor thin majority in congress is nonetheless with that razor thin majority pushing through a really radical set of policies.

but let me ask you, dan, because i think one of the concerns is, you know, this is going to go on, right? we're going to see primary channels, presumably, to some of those -- possibly all of those house members. how does the party get -- we could see, this could consume the party for at least the next couple of years, couldn't it? >> well, absolutely. i think we need to figure out how to keep president trump and his pop lists onboard and energized, but we also need to take a step back. and, again, we need to look a little more ronald reagan, a little bit less donald trump in terms of focus on being lessties vicive, more big picture. what we really need to do to change policy is we need to be able to win in 2022. we need to get kevin mccarthy the speaker's gavel, mitch mcconnell back in the senate majority leader position. i think we need to be, you know, more -- we need to be less divisive, and we need to be a little bit more open.

gerry: but, dan, this is what's so challenging, because this doesn't really seem to be about policies. i think most people in the republican party would probably agree that what donald trump introduced to the party, populist policies on things like trade and inch gration and -- and immigration and foreign policy, getting america out of wars and all those things, and standing up people who feel understandably rejected and disdained by the establishment, trump did all of those things very, very well. republicans are ready to unite around that. so it's not even as though there's a big constituency in the party wanting to push the party back to the bush and romney and mccain days. it just seems to be about the perralties. >> yeah, no, look, i think we look at a world of performative politics. look at aoc and the drama around the capitol hill riots, look at marjorie taylor greene. they're both on opposite ends of the spectrum, reality tv show

politics, and to me, i would rather focus on the policy, the conservative policy that, you know, how are we going to win rex -- elections, how are we going to be more effective. i want us to win, we have to win to govern, and we came up a little bit shy last time. and donald trump, look, you know, was an awful, awful, awful lot of our success. we can't run for that. he brought a lot of energy to the party. the small donor database is the vast majority his. we can't run from that, but at the same time we've got to figure out why we lost, have have a little bit of soul searching. we've got to tone down the rhetoric and the divisiveness. gerry: dan eberhart, thank you so much for joining us. how do you like the sound bites from the reality czar telling us what's true and what's false in i'll have some thoughts on that next.

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♪ ♪ gerry: the promotion of conspiracy theories has long been an unfortunate feature of american politics on both the left and the right. fears of domination by religious groups, foreign powers or business owners, stories are among the most absurd theories out there, the qanon conspiracy, the idea that the space race is financed by -- [inaudible] now, conspiracies well abond i in an finish abound in an open society. truth-seeking media, simply

debunking is not enough. an opinion writer in "the new york times" called on the biden administration to appoint something called a reality or czar to enforce the truth in public decision, the media and on social media platforms and elsewhere. we do know many of the progressives in and around the administration think something needs to be done to stop the spread of what they call misinformation. now, we can guess exactly what kind of reality will be enforced by these people. it would no doubt be directed at people like congressman greene and other republicans. but what are the chances do you think who spread the story that president trump was a russian agent? or that police forces are committing general side against black people? -- genocide? the truth is it would be exactly what the left and the media tells the. anything that dissents from that will be a candidate for truth enforcement. history has demonstrated the best way to deal with falsehood is to expose it to reason and ridicule.

but for our new masters of reality, it seems that won't be enough. for the latest show updates, be sure to follow me on twitter, facebook and instagram, and i'll be back next week for more in-depth interviews right here on "the wall street journal at large." thank you very much for joining us. ♪ ♪ jack: welcome to "barron's roundtable" where we get behind the headlines and prepare you for the week ahead. i'm jack otter. congress is one step closer to passing president biden's $1.9 trillion covid relief plan. jared bernstein on the economic impact of the stimulus, the jobs report and more. and later, new cdc data shows a rise in covid-19 deaths among alzheimer's patients. the outlook for medical treatments and which companies are on the cutting edge. but we begin with what we think are the three most important