really interesting points that kelly makes, dagen and mark. final thoughts on this twitter story. dagen: you don't need to have synergies if you're looking at this acquisition as if you're a new age warren buffett. you just buy it because you're ready to unlock value and stand up for what this country was built on, and that's freedom of speech. maria: that's all it's about -- >> if you're a twitter user, you're not going to leave the platform if elon takes over the platform. [laughter] maria: good to be with you, mark and dagen. "varney & company" begins right now. ashley webster in for for stu this morning, over to you. ashley: good morning, maria. good morning, everybody, indeed. i'm ashley websterster in for stuart varney. he's back. elon musk offering to buy 100% of twitter. he says twitter needs to be taken private in order to make the necessary if changes. twitter shares jumping on the news, up 31% or -- 11% or so in

the premarket but still up nearly 7%, 58.97 -- 48.97. meantime, the manhunt for the shooting suspect, frank james, has been taken into custody. he'll be arraigned later today on terror-related charges. meantime, take a look at this, another busload of illegal migrants a arriving in washington, d.c. all the way from texas. we'll have more on that report. meanwhile, overseas russia is threatening nuclear escalation if sweden and finland join nato. this comes as ukraine says it has severely damaged one of russia's warships in the black sea. lots to talk about. meanwhile, the white house is defending the president's comments calling russia's actions genocide. this as biden's poll numbers hit a new all-time low. we'll get into all of that as well. meanwhile, travelers beware. the cdc has extended the mask

mandate again, oh, my. and some in the media are up in arms, because it's only been extended for two weeks. it's getting crazy again, folks. the dow, s&p and maas a damage, where are they in the premark? if -- premarket? all flat or slightly lower. nasdaq down about a quarter of a percent. let's take a look at the 10-year yield if we can, see where that is moving. always has such a big impact especially on the big tech stocks. the treasury yield up 2 basis points at the -- 2.72. oil holding above $100 a barrel but down a couple of bucks for crude. oh, yeah, and by the way, we have a very big show ahead. congressman jim jordan, lieutenant general keith kellogg and congressman mike waltz. it is thursday, april 14, 2022. starny and company about to begin -- "varney & company" about to begin. ♪ if.

♪ ♪ ♪ ashley: all right, the weekend, take my breath, as the statue of liberty looks out over new york harbor if the sunshine this morning. the top story today, let's take another look at twitter with, jumping after elon musk offers to buy 100% of the company. if oh, great stuff, right in good morning, lauren. take us through the details of the offer. lauren: i guess it's go big or go home. he's going big. [laughter] 54.20 a share, 18% more than just yesterday, ashley. this is the letter he wrote to the chair of the board, i'm going to quote it for you. i invested in twitter as i believe its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and i believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.

however, since making my investment i now if realize the company will neither thrive, nor if serve this societal imper pertive in its current form. my offer is my best and final offer, and if it's not accepted, ill need to reconsider my position as a shareholder. twitter has extraordinary potential. i will unlock it. ashley, here we are. does best and final mean he walks if twitter delays or shops this bid around thinking maybe they can get a higher bid in what does transformation mean? does that mean all the higher-ups are fired if they do go along and let him take it private in and where the heck does he get $43 billion? he could sell some tesla, but he reduces his stake there or he brings in a consortium. i'm thinking peter thiel off the top of my head. the stock might be volatile because i think investors are waiting to see how this plan to

unlock the potential of twitter actually comes together. elon musk hasn't said that. ashley: i know -- thank you, lauren. is he serious about all of this? we know he likes to put the cat among the pigeons. lauren, thank you. let's bring in michael lee. michael -- [laughter] when it comes to elon musk, i guess you're never surprised what's around the corner, but are you surprised by move? >> no. when you get involved to the degree that he did, it's a serious move. and for a guy who, you know, makes jokes and does things that can have -- makes jokes that have far-reaching consequences that people take him far too literally on some things and don't take him seriously enough on others. this is a very serious move when you take just under a 10% position. that's real money. and, basically, this is a battle with the establishment9 and the left of america, right? there is all this talk about these people who are so rich and

they haven't paid any taxes. so, lo and behold, elon sells a bunch of tesla stock, he writes the biggest check to the u.s. treasury that any individual has ever written and maybe pays the most tax, well, now he's flush with cash, and this is probably the largest cash position he's ever had. he famously talked about when he started tesla and sold paypal, he add had to ask his brother for money, i think this is a good offer for twitter. i suspect the board will try to say their company's worth more. i don't know how you get there. tent poles are on their way down. i'd say mid 50s that the stock got to when he's buying with it will probably be the high water mark for twitter for some time. i'd imagine he would have to pay some more to get this done, but he can personally finance, you know, 70-80 of this number just from the cash he's sitting on right now.

ashley: fascinating. >> this is a real offer, and twitter's board should take this very seriously because they do have a fiduciary responsibility not to their liberal echo chamber, but to the share hollers. ashley: michael, you took up all your time and gave us a lot of information, so thank you. it certainly can be said that twitter can be better manged. a part-time manager in jack dorsey. this is a loud wake-up call for twitter. it'll be interesting the see how it plays out, michael, i'm sorry, we've got so much news, we have the move on. we have the latest read on retail sales. lauren, what are the numbers? lauren: in march, or up 6.9% from last year. that is inflation. but if you look at the month over month number, february to march, it rose by .5. and that's the consumer starting to pull back because inflation is at a four-decade high. the other thing i noticed was non-store retail sales, that's online shopping, they fell 6.4%

in the month. it could be because, you know, things take longer to get to you or because you feel comfortable going back to the store, but online shopping down again. ashley: tightening the pursestrings as the prices rise. lauren, thank you. very much. yahoo! the white house, by the way, no longer just blame vladimir putin for rising prices, they're blaming, of course, the above of texas. watch this -- the governor of texas. >> is the white house blaming greg abbott for inflation? >> well, i think we're trying to state the fact what we're seeing right now, factually, there's over $1 million in trade crossing over the u.s.-mexico worder every minute. these actions are impacting the livelihoods of people across the country. ashley: well, what's going on here? good morning, professor brian brenberg. >> hey, ashley. ashley: good to see you this morning. look, will the administration if take any responsibility for its role in rising costs? because it doesn't seem like it. >> well, if it did, it would be

the first time ever that they did that, ashley. [laughter] obviously, they've looked abroad for people to blame, they've looked at home for people to blame, now they're blaming the governor of texas who, by the way, is trying to do something about a border crisis that the biden administration doesn't want to touch. the problem is all they're doing is finding companies or people to blame instead of solving the problem. they have no solutions for what we're facing, and we're getting to the point -- and i think the retail sales numbers show it -- where people say i can't keep spending like this. groceries, gas are expensive. i've got to pull back. if people start pulling back, this is not about inflation anymore, it's about recession. ashley: it is. and the border crisis the biden administration created in the first place from, but we won't go down that road right now. another issue, brian, senate majority leader chuck schumer said progress is being made on canceling student debt. listen to mr. schumer. >> student department is one of

the very -- debt is one of the very biggest thing holding our economy back. when people have to pay that a check every month to a student -- to a loan, i told the president this is one of the most important things he can do to help our economy grow. we all want the economy to grow. we're making progress, folks. we are making progress. the white house seems more open to it than ever before. ashley: well, there you go. brian, as a professor, what do you make of this? >> well, you know, you think about the people who paid off those loans and how stupid they must feel if somebody else is going to pick up their check. most americans, actually, who don't go to college, they don't get the benefit of a college education, but all of that unpaid debt is going to be stuck on them, ashley. this is a giveaway, actually, to those at higher ends of the income scale. you're not helping those primarily at the low end, so it's no good. and by the way, as a professor, the more you start to make education an entitlement, the

more you ruin the classroom. you don't want students thinking about the classroom as an entitlement. it's an investment. invest yourself. sacrifice. we're ruining that every time we talk about this debt forgiveness. ashley: amen. well said, brian brenberg. and great news, you're with us for the hour, so you can't get out the studio, the door is locked. [laughter] let's check the futures, if welcome. rather muted, slightly lower. oh, look at that, the dow just up 11 points. meanwhile, the s&p and nasdaq down about a tenth or two. well, guess what? this is nothing new, the ladies of "the view" hi today know the answer to the brooklyn subway shooting. take away all the guns, they say. roll it. >> this was a tragic and uniquely american problem, it seems to me. i don't understand why we can't solve the problem. >> when you take away guns, you take away violence. >> i agree with that. >> right. ashley: well, they've all aagreed on that. also, take a look at video, a second bus of illegal migrants

arriving in washington overnight from texas. but florida's governor is warning them to stay away from his state. we'll have that story next. ♪ ♪ don't show up, don't come out. ♪ don't start caring about me now. ♪ walk away, you know how. ♪ don't start caring about me now ♪♪ because we were created for officers. but as we've evolved with the military we've grown to serve all, who've honorably served. no matter their rank or when they were in. a marine just out of boot camp or a petty officer from '73 and even his kids and their kids. usaa is made for all who've honorably served and their eligible family members. are we still exclusive? absolutely. and that's exactly - why, you should join. your record label is taking off. but so is your sound engineer. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do.

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psoriasis really messes with you. try. hope. fail. no one should suffer like that. i started cosentyx®. five years clear. real people with psoriasis look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infection, some serious and a lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reaction may occur. best move i've ever made. ask your dermatologist ashley: we are still awaiting the border apprehension numbers for march. casey stegall is in eagle pass, texas. casey, i suspect we're going to see another massive influx of migrantses, right? >> reporter: yeah. that's what officials here on the ground are telling us, and it's certainly something we are seeing as another border patrol van pulls up live right here.

we're under one of the international bridges, and we've seen a lot of activity out here this morning. officials say they're anticipating 18,000 my grants -- knew grants every single day encountered here at the southern border when title 42 expulses go away next month, and so texas governor greg abbott says that he is preparing now. commercial traffic is flowing more smoothly today into texas from one of the six mexican states sharing a border with texas. the governor there has sign an agreement with the lone star state saying they'll beef up security on their side of the river among other things. in exchange, governor abbott agreed to drop the secondary vps commercial truck screenings for imports coming in through laredo, but they will remain at the other international crossings until those mexican governors make similar agreements. >> i understand the concerns that businesses have trying to

move products across the border. but i also know well the frustration of my fellow texans and my fellow americans caused by the biden administration not securing our border. >> reporter: meantime, as we said, we continue to see large groups apprehended down here in eagle pass all day long are. agents tell us they're definitely seeing an uptick in the number of migrants that are traveling together. this is video the that we shot late yesterday, and then this morning, as i said back out here live, with we've seen about 15 or so that are currently out here awaiting processing. i've seen one woman who is very, very pregnant and another man is carrying what appears to be an infant. ashley? ashley: all right. chris -- casey, thank you very much, bringing home pretty much what we see every day. by the way, the second busful of illegal migrants in a-- arrived

in d.c. this morning. some of them have said they plan to make their way to miami, but florida's governor, ron desantis, has a warning for those migrants. do not come to florida, he says, life will not be easy for you. what a mess if. congressman jim jordan, rewill palin from ohio, joins me now -- republican. what do you make of sending buses, yeah, what do you headache of these buses full of migrants being sent to d.c.? some. >> well, the governors are at their wits' end because the citizens have said, you know, we just can't take it anymore if. this is intentionally, ashley. there is no other, no other conclusion a rational, common sense person can reach when month after month after month the numbers keep going up, so much so that in 14 months it's been 2 million if all legal immigrants have entered the country. president trump's administration, they were detained and returned. the biden administration if is catch and release. and so the governors say if you're going to do that, we're

going to make this part of your problem too and send them to d.c. so god bless governor abbott for doing it. i understand the frustration they face. we're going to have secretary mayorkas in front of the judiciary committee in a few weeks. we'll have some tough questions for him there. this has got to come to some kind of resolution. they just can't keep going this way, but that's exactly where the biden administration wants it to be. ashley: e yeah, they just ignore it. it's very frustrating. i want to move on, if we can. not at all. nancy pelosi up for re-election this year. her constituents in san francisco saying they are ready for a change. i think they've been ready for a while, but could this be the end of pelosi's time on capitol hill? we say it a lot and he somehow manages to survive and move on. -- she somehow mansion to survive and move on. >> yeah, i think she's probably safe in her district, but what i hope happens is she's no longer going to be speaker of thehouse.

-- the house. it's going to be speaker mccarthy, and we're going to be back in the majority. they've been wrong on every single issue. we went from a secure border to chaos, we just talk about that. stable prices to 41-year high inflation. we went from energy independence to the president begging iran and venezuela to increase production, and we went from relatively safe streets to record levels of crime in every major urban area. that doesn't even get into the foreign policy messes that this administration's created, democrats in control of government. and, of course, there's been the i attacks on our first amendment liberties that you see all the time as well. every policy area they've screwed up, so i do think this is a darn good chance she will no longer be speaker. ashley: well, talking of first amendment, i want to get your reaction to elon musk offering to buy twitter. would you like twitter to accept it? >> i would. you know, look, this is public square today, the social -- these big tech platforms, this

is where we have debate in our culture and in our country today. so let's have someone in charge who actually respects the first amendment and free speech. i think it's great. we'll see how it all shakes out. but, yeah, the left today basically says if you don't agree with them, you're not allowed to speak. and if you try, they're going to call you names and try to cancel you. that has not worked. that's not how it's supposed to work in america. elon musk understands that. let's hope goes through and we have free speech on twitter again. ashley: you couldn't have said it better. that is not democracy. congressman jim jordan, thank you for joining us this morning. i appreciate it. let's bring brian back into this, if we can. brian, i want to talk about the president's approval dropping. nancy pelosi's constituents want a change in leadership. could we see a turning point? what do you make of all of that. >> >> well, i would be shocked if nancy pelosi's constituents actually threw her9 out of office. it's been, what, three decades

since they've had to make the choice otherwise. but they need it. i mean, san francisco is a mess. that part of california is a mess. and at the federal level, it's a mess. i don't know what her leadership has gotten us except for more of the problems that everybody's complaining about. yes, it would be nice to see a change in that seat, more fundamentally a change in the leadership of congress, but that's going to take a bigger movement than just the people many san francisco. ashley: yeah. couldn't agree more. thank you very much. let's get a quick check of the futures as we head to the break. the opening bell's coming up next. the dow positive, s&p and nasdaq slightly lower. we'll be right back for the opening bell. ♪ i need someone who needs me. ♪ ♪

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ashley: it is the big news of the morning, no doubt. elon musk offering an all-cash deal to buy 100% of twitter. we're toll that twitter's board is now expected to meet at 10 a.m. eastern, about a half hour from now, to look at that offer. let's bring in our good friend gary kaltbaum. gary, good morning to you. let's begin there. were you surprised by mr. musk's

announcement? >> not at all. on this great network on friday night, i stated that i thought he would go after it and i'd be surprised if he didn't. that's the reason he would back off the board, and now the game is on. the question is, is twitter's board going to try and get a white knight, or are they going to tell mr. musk to take a flying leap or say good-bye to their company and hand it over to musk. i have no bet on that. all i can tell you is the man is quite news city. news item y -- newsy. ashley: who knows, but should -- does twitter accept this offer? >> my guess is they don't. you know, i heard somebody say earlier that twitter has to act on this, on the best interest of shareholders and the price, but they also have to act a based on who they believe can run the show best. and, look, elon musk is brilliant, he's made himself a

be sal their -- be zillionaire, he's got tesla and other things, but he's never been involved in social media, so i think they have a lot to go on. i don't think they're going to make any decisions today, and i suspect they're going to start making some calls to other people that are in the social networking business about potentially coming on and being a part of the company. ashley: fascinating to watch, isn't it? all right. let's move on to the broader markets, gary. if i have some money on the sidelines, where should i be putting it? or should is i just keep it on the sidelines? >> well, after this latest leg down, a thousand points on the dow, i thought yesterday we put in what i would call a good low, so i think we'll rally up here. how much, i don't know. we're now in the midst of earnings season where all bets are off, you don't know what's going to gap up or gap down. all i can tell you is the big bull markets remain in the commodities, in energy, and i think they probably have some more to go.

the one thing i did like yesterday for the first time in a while i was able to say that the consumer-oriented areas that have been dead money and in bear market looked like they mitt the lows. so i'm watching them closely like hotels look strong here. and if that continues, we're going higher. ashley: very good, gary. perfectly done, right to the opening bell. gary kaltbaum, great stuff, as always. everyone smiling and clapping, as always. so there you go, we are off and running. let's take a look at the big board. the dow 30 stocks just getting going. goldman, ibm at the top there. very quickly out of the gate up about 90 points on the dow, up about a quarter of a percent. s&p up about a tenth of a percent, modest gain, 5 points at 4452. and let's take a look at nasdaq, slightly lower, down -- well, essentially flat, we'll call it, 13,631. we're also taking a look at big tech, of course. let's see where those numbers

are. as you can see, all in the red but modestly, modestly so. i have a hard time saying that. meta platforms the biggest loser right now, down a little more than half a percent, down nearly $1.50. all right, let's take a look at twitter. let's do it. up 5.33% at 48.30. good morning, susan -- susan: good morning, ashley. ashley: i was wondering where you were when the news broke. he's offering 54.20. you remember the 4.20, of cours- [laughter] susan: of course. ashley: am i just conspiracy mad? 54.20, just playing with numbers or could this be a musk twist? susan: it's part of his play because that is in the filing, and i read it this morning in the offer price. look, trying to predict the future and what a mercurial ceo like elon musk is going to do, it's pretty difficult. investment banks on wall street -- we got two twitter downgrades this morning,

oppenheimer and cfr are a both downgrading twitter after this offer came through, and both suspect that musk will walk away. this is a $43 billion offer, right? musk says it's his best, his final offer, and he's going to rethink his current 9 stake if twitter d9% stake if twitter walks away and says no. musk isn't all that liquid with, three-quarters, ill even say 99% of his wealth is tied up in tesla stock options, stock and options, and then at spacex. so he said he's not going to sell any of his tesla holdings. yes, you could borrow and would borrow to avoid capital gains in order to raise the funding so you don't have to sell the stock, but where are you going to get this money from? why not put that in the bid itself? everyone's curious as to where this liquidity of $43 billion in cash is going to come from, right, ashley? i'll tell you this, tesla's stock is down because there is this concern about capital, fund raising, and it's not really a

huge premium, when you think about it. from from what i saw, this offer's only 18% up from yesterday. i know elon musk in his filing said it's 50% up from when he started buying the stock in january, 40% premium from when he made his stake public, but does the board get on with elon musk, an outsider stepping into the country, and does he have the ability to turn it around? yes, he has 83 million follower, probably the most consequential ceo on the planet right now, but twitter is a social media with company. it's an advertising model right now. i know he wants to change it to a subscription model. 2.99 for twitter blue pine too much a month, but how many of those do you think will stick around if you had to stick -- pay $2 a month? i don't think 217 million will pay $2 a month. ashley: i do not believe so either. he's such an i anything ma. could he just be making a point about free speech?

it's always questionable how serious he is about things. certainly, he's laid out the offer, susan, but it'll be interesting to see what twitter responds to when that board meets in about 27 minutes from now. susan susan yeah. and i was listening to gary kaltbaum. does twitter start making calls? because if you walk away from deal and this offer, as a board member you do have a fiduciary responsibility, in the best interests of the company to evaluate and look at all offers, so if you're saying no to 54.20, are you going to call somebody else up? if salesforce tried to buy twitter a few years ago, so did disney, but i don't think there are that many suitors out there. and twitter's board would likelf people in the markets -- could say 54.20 doesn't really value the company because we were trading at high as $70, and we're still growing. we're looking to double our revenue and increase our daily users to 300 million plus. so they could give that reasoning, but you really have

to back it up with either, yes, business growth or come up with a better offer somewhere. ashley: stay tuned, as they say. fascinating. we've got some big banks -- susan: you know, we can't talk about elon musk and twitter the whole time? if we have so much more to cover? ashley: i know -- [laughter] i know, we could spend all day. goldman sachs, they reported. what are the highlights? susan: so, look, this is the first pure play wall street investment bank with earning, i thought it was pretty good. expenses went down, and despite the stock market volatility, one of the worst starts to the market in years, goldman came out ahead. but today did warn that russia and ukraine and risk of recession is now causing a lot of clients the pause on introducing more money to the markets and also cutting down and cutting back on risk. morgan stanley, another investment bank, i call it more of a wealth manager these days because they look after the high net worth individuals, volatility meant more trading

for clients from morgan, and they say there is a noticeable slowdown, that's where they're -- what they're warning, because of ukraine and russia. and that took place in the back half of the first quarter. citigroup, a lot of earnings. citigroup dropped, the profit dropped by almost 50%. sales also fell in this quarter as well. but, you know, with wall street it's kind of an expectations game, so they came out ahead of what wall street had priced in for them. expenses, credit costs, lower e sales, not great. it's not going the right direction for citigroup right now. and i also want to check in on wells fargo because that is a bank that was not able to grow their balance sheet because of the fake accounts scandal, and it looks like they didn't correlate in the quarter, and they're saying rising rates is not helping them out at all. but, you know, musk and twitter more next hour or in the next few hours. [laughter] ashley: it's a date. all right, susan, we will. so much news, so little time. susan, great run-through on the

banks. thank you very much. let's take a look at the dow winners if we can right now. what, 6 minutes and 39 seconds into the day. ibm, goldman sachs, amgen, caterpillar all among the big dow winners, all of them up more than 1%. the winners on the s&p 500, huntington engel, delta, norwegian. the travel stocks, how about that? goldman and ibm too on the s&p 500. and then on the nasdaq we have some names maybe not so familiar to you, fox corp., hey, how about that? up 1%. cdw corp.. as for the dow itself, well, how about this? up 318 points right out of the back. if not bad at all. the yield on the 10-year up 4 basis points. the yield going up on the 10-year, now at 2.74%. let's take a look at gold, if we can, down $10 at 1974 per troy ounce. take a look at bitcoin, why

don't we. that is up marginally for bitcoin, up $120 at 41 is,240. -- 41,240. oil still above $100, down 1 is.25, down 1.25 at 102.98, just under $103 a gallon. nat gas, marginally up, i'd say by about half a percent, just over $7. and the average price for a regular gallon of gas, $4.07. that is the national average. ah, but we like to keep a check on california, $5.71. some people have to take a mortgage out to fill up their big cars. all right -- in california. well, that was quick. the governor of new jersey now distancing himself are from plans to teach second graders about jenld or identity. former education secretary bill bennett has something to say about that, that is for sure. he'll be right here. what do the governor of

california and world of warcraft have in common? we'll tell you about that connection coming up. but first, democrats love to bash big oil executives for high gas prices. roll it. >> we're here to get answers from the big oil companies about why they're ripping off the american people. >> on your salaries, do any of you have trouble affording the gas to get to your job? >> it's troubling that you place profits over people and over our planet. ashley: well, i'll be talking to one of those big oil executives. canary ceo dan eberhardt will be here after this. ♪ ♪ and and would you cry if i told you that i i lied? ♪ would you say good-bye, would you let it ride shmuck. ♪

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ashley: des moines, iowa, nice and sunny but, ooh, just a little chilly. 33 degrees right now in des moines. what is life? if george harrison. that one is for stu. all right, amazon is adding on a new surcharge for sellers who use its fulfillment services. lauren, what are we talking about? lauren: oh, yes. hmm, inflation. amazon is slapping more than 2 million of its sellers with a 5% surcharge. so, translation are, it costs them 24 cents per unit each time they use an amazon fulfillment service to ship their items. they're already paying a fee to store their products in the warehouses, now a fee to ship them. so this is the thinking, the sellers are going to pass that added cost on to you, me and amazon customers. ashley: right. >> it's a tipping they consider preferable to a fee change, but even amazon is getting bitten by inflation right now. they're no longer just absorbing the higher costs. ashley: no one can avoid it,

that's for sure. lauren, thank you. take a look at this, the price for a gallon of regular gas will cost to $4.07. that is up over $1.20 from last year. let's bring in dan eberhardt, the ceo of canary. dan, great to have you to talk about this this morning. the democrats have blamed big oil ceos like you for price gouging. how would you respond? is. >> well, i don't think that's true at all. look, the folks i know are very hard working. we're a local are service company, we're bidding work against our competitors and other companies. and, look, you know, we've got a lot of the same issues. you were just talking about amazon and inflation. we've got all kinds of supply chain issues and inflation in our supply chain as well. so i think that this is, you know, washington keeps working against us not with us in terms of increasing supply. we've got a good economy, demand is strong, we need more supply to bring the price down, and the

administration just keeps putting roadblocks in our way to do that. ashley: you say, dan, that president biden. en's response to the energy if crisis has been a series of horrible, terrible decisions. so what should he do? >> well, absolutely. look, he just needs to reverse, you know, the sec compliance issue on climate disclosure is an additional regulatory the burden. moratorium on drilling on federal lands is an additional burden. canceling the pipelines, keystone, dakota access and six others, is a regulatory burden. the biden administration has sat on through ferc six lng export terminals that could help us with natural gas, bringing it to russia -- to europe, sorry, instead of them buying russian gas. the problem is not enough supply, and the administration keeps doing things around that not working with the industry to increase supply. to me, it doesn't -- i think the decisions are bum -- dumb can, and don't take my word for it.

ask voters in november. i think we're going to see the answer. [laughter] ashley: i think you're exactly right, dan. we should be energy independent. we have all the energy we need, and it's frustrating when we're not allowed to get to it. dan, thank you so much for taking the time to join us this morning. we do appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: california -- thank you. california's looking to ban gas-fueled cars. all right, lauren, what are the details of this? lauren: okay. ashley, right now 12% of cars sold in california are electric, 12%. today want to triple that to 35% in five years and then take it to 100% in 2035. translation, all new cars sold in the state of california would be electric by 2035. it is aggressive, and it assumes that the price of ev iss comes down. -- evs comes down. what has governor somehow in -- somehow done to bring the cost down? and the last thing here is that

other states typically follow vehicle standards that california introduces, so this very well could set the rest debit for what other states do -- precedent. and then you have a real affordability problem. can the average person afford one? ashley: no, i think is the answer to that. grady trimble's been at the auto show, and he asked the automakers how can we bring down the price of these evs so more people can afford to actually buy them. brian, you're in on this. you know, it all sounds wise and wonderful, but there's no infrastructure in place. that's the feeling i get. and i'm not so sure people have bought in totally and the timelines and deadlines that are provided by california are just not realistic, are they? >> i think california is our most self-destructive state. i mean, to impose this kind of thing on people, yeah, 12% of cars sold last year were evs, but that was to the small sliver of people if in california who can afford that. when you keep going down the

ladder and you're trying to sell those to 50% of californians or 75%, you're going to get people who can't afford it, and the costs aren't coming down fast must have to make this sustain. which means people say -- yesterday's announcement california was going to make it a 4-day workweek, now you've got to buy an ev? [laughter] people in business are going to say, i can't afford this, i'm out. there's texas, there's florida. it's like california is intending to drive half the population out of the state. this is just with another example of a utopian idea that cannot work for working people in reality. ashley: exactly. we'll have to leave it right there. very frontally, brian. thank you.. -- appropriator ily. jack dorsey's first tweet hit the nft at $48 million, but the top bid? just $24. the united states football league launching in alabama. we'll take you there for a preview after this.

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ashley: the united states football league kicks off this weekend in birmingham, alabama. madison alworth is there. good morning. how much of an economic boost will this be for local businesses? >> reporter: good morning, ashley. they're expecting a huge impact. with just the coaches and the teams and the production if staff, they're expecting 15-20 million will be spent on hotels as well as restaurants. and that's because the entire regular season is being played right here in birmingham so is, obviously, they're so excited to welcome not just their own home team, but all of the teams in the usfl. players are getting ready for big opening weekend, practicing, getting prepared for the first few games, expect businesses are also getting ready. we walked over to eugene's, just 5 minutes away, and the owner there has already seen human impact. the first week of practice they catered for all 450 players and coaches three times in one week. the owner telling us he's so

excite to now also have fans coming to the area soon, he expects a big bump for his business. take a listen. >> there's been a huge impact on our restaurant in a positive way. usfl teams are here, and they do a lot of catering with us, so it's been great. we catered to all the teams lee days in a row the first week. that was a huge impact to both our restaurants. that was great. >> reporter: yeah. so that huge impact, i have a cool piece of tech here, this is one of the exciting parts, they have all this amazing technology. this is a hat cam. i'm going to put it on, all this amazing chicken in front of us, switching to the hat cam. i know you're out -- you know, you're not here in birmingham ham, but i wanted to give you a visual of what it's like to eat some of eugene's hot chicken. it's delicious. [laughter] you can understand why they catered so many meals. i'm going to put the cam back down. this is just a bit of the taste,

quite literally, of birmingham, and the city's so excitedded to get this new if football league off to a great start, ashley. ashley: you can't go wrong with chicken vision, madison. and by the way, madison requires cheerleaders every time she does a live shot. >> reporter: yes, that's right. ashley: madison, thank you very much. and why notsome brian, very quickly, are you excitedded to watch the usfl or not in. >> i am, i love it. i think there's going to be some undiscovered athletes in that league, i think it could be exciting, and i love chicken wings, ashley, and that's what i'm really -- [laughter] ashley: duly noted. catch the usfl kickoff on fox sports this saturday. gotta love the competition. all right. thanks for sticking around this hour, brian brenberg, who loves chicken wings. still ahead florida congressman mike waltz, pete hegseth, what a rundown. the ten o'clock hour of "varney & company" is next.

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for the dow, the s&p and nasdaq down just over half of one person. the 10 year treasury up 5 basis points. as that goes up we tend to see tech stocks go down. crude oil down another one person, around $103 per barrel. bitcoin which was up slightly higher earlier is down $476 at $40,650. we got the latest read on mortgage rates. the number? lauren: 5%. this is freddie mac's commentary on the closing, that% of home ownership is the most expensive in a generation. the price of homes that includes the price of materials. a lot of data, one on import

prices importing materials you need to build a home at an 11 year high. inflation is the story. ashley: write. it has been. what about consumer sentiment? lauren: a strong rise to 65.7. the reason it rose so much is the strong job market bolstering wage expectations among younger workers so they think they can earn more money. may be we think wages are going up. countering the cost of living and most people are underwater. ashley: that is fascinating. let's get back to the story of the day. elon musk offering to buy 100% of twitter in an all-cash deal. let's get david barnes's thoughts. will twitter accept the offer?

what do you think happens? >> they are not going to accept that offer. it is low enough relative to the current stock price. the board will say it undervalues the potential, but there's an offer that can be made vote will put the board in a precarious position as fiduciaries. a lot don't know how this works but legally board members can be sued when a are not in the best interest of shareholders. there is some number which their lawyers will not be able to sign off on rejecting, 54 is low enough that it is safe to say twitter will try to pass this on. ashley: musk says that is it, final offer, take it or leave it. he has indicated that he's not going higher than 5420 so you think this just goes away. >> i don't believe it is the final offer because i don't believe anything is ever the final offer.

ashley: listen, we love your dividend pics. stew loves to hear these. what are your top dividend pics? >> across a lot of sectors you want a diversified portfolio and we talk a lot on the show about energy needs and everyone is looking at distress in the market. dividend has done well but some areas that have not done well are dividend growers. i am looking at healthcare because i don't believe some of these names had any impact from russia, ukraine or the fed and stories. gsk is a name that has troubles as a company. it has performed well the last couple years. ashley: you like jpmorgan. jpmorgan, very quickly, you like that?

>> the yield curve will be steepening the future. ashley: thank you so much. appreciate your time. let's begin with right aid. lauren: they are surging because they expect to lose left money. they gave right aid the kiss of death, one dollar price target, that is a good things surging. there defense company, they will raise to outperform, the price target $270. it was a political statement, bipartisan political support because the war in ukraine and the prospect for further aggression not only by russia but china and this analyst says that is amplified in the midterm election years, they expect more money for defense spending. a new high for united health,

better than expected profits, raised the forecast for the are looking to cut cost by selling more virtual care plans because it is cheaper. stocks earlier had a high of 553. ashley: great stuff. thank you very much. the cdc extended the federal travel mask mandate until may 3rd despite scrapping title 42 for migrants. jason schaefer to joins me now. good morning. is the covid pandemic over or not? >> the cdc and the federal government can't decide. the cleanest air on the planet is the air on an airplane, it cycles every two minutes. they extended the mandate. they can gather for the state of the union for people from all over the country and hug and kiss and be together but you can't do that on an airplane and it is just ridiculous.

we don't need title 42, it is an incoherent and contradictory statement from the government? ashley: it would be funny if it wasn't true. amazing how covid magically disappears, to eat and drink, i find that fascinating. the federal judge, michael sussman denied his motion to dismiss the case allowing durham to move forward with prosecution. this is the case of sussman going to the fbi saying i have documents that prove donald trump's inclusion with russia, he told the fbi, he says, he never divulged the clinton campaign among others in that situation.

it is the whole collusion things come back and haunt me but what do you make of this? >> these cases almost never get prosecuted. he scratching his head saying everybody gets away with this but i'm glad to see them pursuing this. not just that he didn't disclose it. he represented that he didn't represent anybody but he was representing hillary clinton and he lied to the evidently the general counsel of the fbi. the fact those two people are meeting is troublesome because not everybody has access to the prosecutors at the department of justice and they had a huge motivation that put into motion years, we heard was trump trump trump russia russia russia. all of it was fiction paid for and perpetuated by hillary

clinton and the democrats. i' m glad somebody is being held accountable. may 16th starts the trial. ashley: do anyone higher up get held accountable? i doubt it very much. >> this is the problem. mark elias, senior to michael sussman but hopefully the web will expand and there will be more because durham has been working a long time. one of the initial shot across the bow to say there are more people involved in michael sussman. ashley: a tangled web we weave. jason chaffetz, appreciate it this morning. texas gubernatorial candidate beto o'rourke is going after the biden administration over the border. what is he saying? lauren: title 42 needs to stay because it is effective and if you lift it you need plan b. this is what he told a local

newspaper, quote, it does not make sense to end this until there's a real plan and capacity to handle those and dress those that come over. i have yet to hear plan from the biden administration to address the dynamic we will have on the border. dynamic is an understatement, it could swell to 18,000 a day. some migrants dropped off in washington dc, but what about this? if you look closely you will see migrants taking selfys when they cross the border. i think they feel emboldened. this is their right, they can do this, we are going to let them in and they take a selfy to celebrate. ashley: well, there is no -- lauren: we have a new poll that shows president biden's

approval rating has dropped -- dropped to 33%, the lowest level of his presidency. pete hags will deal with that in the next hour of this show. top democrats say the president is more open than ever to using his executive power to wipe out student loans but with record high inflation can we afford this? we will take that question to hilary vann who has a report from capitol hill and the governor of new jersey walking back plans to teach second graders gender identity. he is calling for age appropriate education. dave rubin will take on the governor's reversal after this. ♪♪ indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today.

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ashley: the markets have been open for 45 minutes. the dow is up one hundred 7 points, the s&p down half of one%, the nasdaq down half of 1% as we see the 10 year yield start to climb higher. now this. top democrats say president biden is more open than ever to using executive power to enact widespread student loan forgiveness. hilary vann is on capitol hill. can we afford to do this with record inflation? >> good question. the congressional budget office is this pause on student loan payments because the federal government $100 billion. and the white house is openly admitting by keeping this pause in place and they are delaying the inevitable. white house press secretary jen psaki says these payments have to restart at some point but progressive democrats on

capitol hill want the president to follow through on his campaign promise to cancel part of student loan debt comparing the payments to punishment. >> wire they stick with student debt? what did they do to get this punishment? did they blow their money on gambling and drugs? what did they do? they went to get a higher education. not exactly a crime. something which their parents and all of a sudden do. >> reporter: republicans say doing something like that would be unfair to the millions of people that successfully paid off their student debts. canceling student debt out right does not have immediate impact on the national debt because that money has gone out the door but the debt will eventually be higher because the student loans get paid back, $1.5 trillion the government was counting on what ultimately never get repaid. >> a flick of a pen can do it

so we must get this done so we are working on it. we are making progress. the white house seems more open to it than ever before. >> reporter: there's the question whether the president has the legal right or ability to cancel all the student debt but still progressive democrats make the point he needs to take action on this before november because alexandria ocasio cortez told me he's not polling well with young people and this would be a way to get their vote in november for democrats. ashley: always a vote effort in their. may be those who paid off their loans should get that money back, make it fair but i digress. the governor of new jersey, phil murphy is walking back his defense of second grade gender identity education. in a statement he said our learning standards have been

intentionally misrepresented by some politicians seeking to divide and score political points. we've seen a handful of sample lesson plans being circulated that have not been adopted in our school district and do not accurately reflect the spirit of the standards. any proposed educational content that is not age-appropriate should be immediately revised. dave rubin joins me. what is your reaction? >> can't believe it. 1/2 sane democrat, actually rather extraordinary. in essence all he is saying really is ron desantis is right and everyone watching knows the don't say gay bill in florida has nothing to do with being gay. if they want to the meme name they were could have called it don't say straight. we all know in our hearts that

a state employee should not be talking about gender or sexuality or sex with a 7-year-old and not relay that information to the parents. this is about transparency in education. i'm shocked a democrat is taking a somewhat sane position on this. we will see how the media treats him. we know how they treated ron desantis, saying the same thing. i wonder if he will get the same treatment. ashley: ben schapiro got into a heated exchange with a student that a men cannot be women event. i will get your thoughts. >> the western colonialist framework of gender. >> men and women don't exist in any other culture. >> thing of native americans and other places that are not white dominated. nonwhite people, i am a mathematician at a physicist.

>> what do you know about human biology? >> what do you know about biology? ashley: that was entertaining. what do you make of it? >> it is just enough of this stuff. enough of this 2 plus 2 equals 5. enough of boys or girls coming up of non-racism is racism. i would like to on fox business that i've not heard before. i would like to officially declare today day one of a post-woke world. i think there's a chance we can start moving past this was what elon musk is doing with twitter, people have had enough and we must enter a world where the basic truths we all knew, the founding documents, the history of america, were all relayed we stop letting the inmates run the asylum. it is time. as usual, ben schapiro is quite

correct on this one. ashley: this and leads nicely into having a new book out called don't burn this country, surviving and thriving in a woke dystopia. what is the bottom line? >> bottom line is we know the woke thing is here for all the reasons we discussed for the first few minutes, it has destroyed many cultural institutions, our financial institutions, political institutions, time to fight back and i think there are many ways to fight back, it is a how-to on how to do that, separate from these people, build new products, new tech, move to states that are more in line with your views. i left california after twee 8 years, i live in a free state of florida and it is like living in a different country, don't send your kid to a four year school to get a degree in lesbian dance theory at not have any skills in the real world, there are ways we can

just not do these things, cancel your disney plus subscription, take the power back for yourself. ashley: you said it all, got a lot in and appreciate your time. donald trump is ramping up efforts to help republicans win during the midterms. what is he doing? lauren: he will rally in ohio on april 23rd ahead of the state's senate republican primary which is may 3rd. who will succeed senator rob portman who is retiring? it is a heated 7 way primary but in georgia the former president is using half $1 million of his pack money to defeat georgia's republican governor of which trump has been critical, brian kemp, at the end of may, trump is back in dave perdue, this is the

first time trump has opened his warchest and is using money for a midterm race happening in georgia. ashley: thank you. now this. could president biden or vice president harris be getting into the war zone? the white house is looking at options to set a top level official to ukraine. ukraine says it significant a damaged one of russia's most important warships carrying 500 russian soldiers come ukraine calling it the largest defeat of the russian fleet since world war ii. trey yingst is on the ground with the latest report next. you can't buy love. happiness. or confidence.

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ashley: take a look at the markets, and our underway, the dow up 107 points, the nasdaq down one%. one%. you have been looking at some other movers. in the us and everywhere else it is called nike. lauren: we say adidas. back to nike, they are bullish.

one of the analysts had a good conversation, demand is stronger, online sales are strong, less discounting, that is 4%. their profits for the first quarter fell because of higher provisions for credit losses in the event people can't repay their loans but better-than-expected. so is revenue, stock is up. tesla, $991, below 1000 after the 3% selloff. their ceo, elon musk, making the bid for twitter. cfr research says we think musk could fund the transaction. of approved through a combination of debt, financing and potentially tesla shares. they don't want tesla because that is synonymous with elon musk to lose their leadership,

might be distracted by twitter. ashley: very interesting. it is nike. ukraine said its forces hit and seriously damaged one of russia's most important warships. trey yingst is in kyiv. what is the latest? >> reporter: a major development overnight, as ukraine hit the russian missile cruiser, the flagship vessel of the fleet. we are looking at a situation where the russians lost a major vessel, ship in the black sea fleet. there are massive amounts of ammunition including torpedoes and antiaircraft missiles, there are mixed reports that if the ship sank or not, russian state media says it was evacuated confirming the incident did take place. here's what the ukrainian military says happened. >> translator: in the black sea region, it was hit by anti-ship

missiles, it sustained substantial damages, a fire started. other ships tried to provide assistance but a powerful explosion of munition turned the ship over and it started sinking. >> reporter: this comes as intense russian shelling continues in the second largest ukrainian city of kharkiv. ukrainian forces blue upper bridge in that area destroying an entire russian military column. the casualties continue to rise in kharkiv as officials and key of tell residents not to return fearing further russian military attacks. it is the fiftieth day of the war and us metairie 8 will be critical for ukrainian civilians and military officials like to say they plan to stay in ukraine and defend their country. ashley: thank you for your great reporting. the us is considering attending

an official to meet zelenskyy in kyiv. let's bring in lieutenant general keith kellogg. good morning to you. do you think it could be president biden? we saw boris johnson striding through the streets. could president biden be making a trip? >> thanks for having me. it should be but should have been weeks ago and even when vice president harris was there. we are late to the game, sending a low level functionary, lloyd austin or tony blinken, we are late to the game. boris johnson walked the streets of kyiv, you have the 3 baltic presidents. we are late to the game. better late than never but if you are leading you are in front and if you are in front, you should be the first to go. would have been a dramatic statement, vice president harris had gone earlier, better

late than never but a little too late i believe to show leadership. ashley: next one for you, the us is sending $800 million worth more and military aid to ukraine. it does include and 117 helicopters. is that a good delivery so to speak? >> the key to that delivery is the howitzers, the 155 km howitzers they plan on sending because the fight has changed dramatically. it has gone from a light and agile to cumbersome fight the russians had going into kyiv. it will be an attrition fight like congressional warfare. that is the reason they need the heavy howitzers to match up with the russian howitzers they are facing. this will level the playing field considerably. the russians are getting to be at a real disadvantage because we can supply more weaponry to

ukrainians than the russians can deliver on the battlefield. those are the keys plus the counter battery radar, this will help a lot. it will turn into a conventional fight. i wish president biden would say give them the mix. doesn't sound like a lot but 29 megs is a lot and you look at more t 72s out of slovakia, more armored vehicles, this is turning into a different fight. if you are a betting person i put the money on ukraine right now. ashley: do you think russia is just concentrating on the eastern part of ukraine having looked its wounds a little bit as they tried to stray further into ukraine? >> they are actually. the flagship over the black sea fleet is like losing an aircraft carrier. what is more important,

ukrainians can use the neptune, a shore to ship missile system, and any naval invasion into odessa and puts them at risk out there, and that was a mobile air defense system, meant they were able to control the skies. with that ship gone the ukrainians can have parity in the skies. this is a significant blow to the russians. it has been affecting them on land as well. when you look around it, russians are countered by smart, agile and good ukrainian military -- this is not good for the russians at all. ashley: it is not. fascinating stuff, thank you for joining us this morning with your expertise. we appreciate it.

despite sanctions against russia the kremlin is looking to prop up their main source of revenue. what are they doing? lauren: selling energy at any price point to friendly nations, think, china, india, turkey or those who haven't sanctioned them. what does that do? continues to fund putin's war machine. russia and 33% more from selling oil and gas this year than last year. put that number at $320 billion. that is 40% of their annual revenue so that is why there is a call for embargo on russian energy the comes with the cost. if you look at the major economic institutions in germany, the powerhouse of europe, they say their economy will contract by 2.2% next year if there is an energy embargo of russian oil and gas. ashley: next one for you. authorities in jersey off the uk coast have frozen assets that may be connected to roman

abramovich. >> he poured money and assets into jersey but the island is taking action in line with the uk. the uk provides military protection and we see the uk freezing assets of friends of putin and he would be one of them. ashley: he is sitting there with his head in his hands. interesting stuff. he lost everything, at least frozen. california's governor, gavin newsom, is accused of pedaling in a sexual harassment lawsuit against gaming giant activision blizzard. we have the details on that. elon musk making his best and final offer to buy twitter for $43 billion, we have the latest on his plans to unlock twitter's potential and defend free-speech right after this. ♪♪

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ashley: look at the markets, the dow remaining strong up 143 points, s&p up half of one%, nasdaq suffering 157 or more than one person. elon musk is offering to buy one hundred% of twitter, we talked about all morning. kelly o'grady is salivating over this story. he wants and all-out takeover. >> he does. the soap opera is coming to a crescendo. and filing with in filing with the sec the billionaire argues twitter no longer serves the social imperative of

free-speech and needed to be transformed and promised to unlock the platform's potential and warned this is his final offer. musk hired morgan stanley to advise on the deal and is offering $54.20 a share which would value the transaction at $43 billion representing a 33% premium over the day before he disclosed he would be the biggest shareholder. that were board starts meeting roughly 40 minutes ago according to reports and in a statement they said, quote, the twitter board of directors will review the proposal to determine the cause of action it believes is in the best interest of the company and all twitter stockholders. the last piece is important. the board has a fiduciary responsibly do what is best from a financial standpoint but some financial expert say this nice meal with twitter accepting the bid but the board may push back on the $54.20 price, trading at $47, not that far off. two big questions i want to highlight, how will he finance it? he may be the richest man in

the world but his assets are tied up in tesla stock, and does it make sense for him to own it? he may have a vision for free-speech but that doesn't translate into execution and he will face pressure from the government in a big tech crackdown. all this as they scrutinize a number of transactions, he is the target of a class-action lawsuit for not disclosing his initial stake in twitter and twitter employees are threatening to walk out when he becomes the biggest shareholder. the biggest point is we don't wait long for developers, he will be speaking at the conference this afternoon. i'm excited for that. ashley: thank you very much. staying on elon musk a federal judge ruled in favor of an elevator operator who claimed tesla ignored racial abuse at the factory where he works. how much was he awarded? >> $15 million which is a large sum for single plaintiff in a

racial discover nation case and also rare that tesla defend themselves publicly, it wasn't settled in arbitration but also rare the jury verdict was $137 million taken down to $15 million. we will see if there is an appeal. one person, $15 million. ashley: a top california lawyer just quit over governor newsom. >> reporter: the handling of the activision case, two attorneys quit. the first one said this had to do with the way the state handled the sexual determination harassment case, one attorney said the governor was intervening asking information as if he were counsel for activevision which microsoft bought, $69 million and the other top lawyer quit in sympathy so you have two top attorneys in california

accusing governor newsom of california of meddling in this case. ashley: interesting. i want to get back to elon musk. the talker of the day. if i am not mistaken i think there is a on how many shares he can cash in or borrow against. there are some issues there which suggest he had to get financing elsewhere in the question is he has burned a lot of bridges with the big banks, jpmorgan may work with him but it's not a done deal to get the financing. ben: may be wide is not up as much as it was because big investors say he made his proposal but how do you follow through with it financially? where do you get the money from? i called his main business, tesla, those shares are below to reduce your stake in that, or bring in outside investors,

which bank can back you up and the question of the plan to fix twitter and turn it around, what do you do to do that? ashley: knowing elon he doesn't have one, just believes it needs to be done but it is fascinating. we will follow it closely like everybody else. the cdc extending travel guidelines by two weeks, doctor fauci is saying it is not enough. will have a disk -- ditch the masks cute the world health organization says covid is still a global health emergency but covid death drop to the lowest level in two years. when it will become an endemic? i will ask doctor mark siegel next. ♪♪

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ashley: let's take a look at the markets, the dow moves nicely over one hundred points come up one third of one% but the s&p continues to struggle down half of one% but the

nasdaq down one and one third% down one hundred 80 points as we've seen a 10 year yield increase which hurts the big tech stocks which in turn hurts. now this, two new oma cron sub variants burning fast in new york state and responsible for the uptick in cases for the past few weeks. officials say the new viruses do not appear to cause more severe disease than previous variants. that is the good news. the world health organization says covid is still a global health emergency even as deaths as we said have fallen to the lowest level in two years, time to bring in doctor mark siegel. when do we go from pandemic to an endemic? something we learn to live with? >> i think we are there in the united states because i think we have a lot of vaccine available. i think we have a swath of immunity from omicron.

omicron has infected 2 thirds of americans, that provides immunity. these sub variants coming, omicron you are protect against them, if you had the vaccine, the world health organization is talking about the world. in sub-saharan africa there's a lot of emerging disease, not a lot of vaccination, resistance to vaccination it in china and other parts of asia they had the 0 covid strategy which never made sense. now virgin populations are getting hit hard with omicron when we've already seen it and at least partially immunity. the united states i think it is becoming endemic. what the who is focusing on the rest of the world. ashley: these sub variants, the affects from them are not severe at all. do you expect that to be the case? we will see more variants. is it likely they are going to be not as severe as the earlier ones? >> excellent question.

if they end up being omicron offshoots they are going to be mild because omicron itself, this is proven by doctor group the's lab, they affect the upper airways, you don't get as severely ill, doesn't go as deep into the lungs and we have all this immunity from prior infection to vaccines. if these are the variants we get we are prepared and we could see a mutation to another variant we are not expecting but as more time passes that is less likely. look at the tools we have, the antiviral drug from pfizer is useful against all the variants. ashley: next one. the cdc extending a travel mask mandate 15 more days to assess its impact. it it is supposed to end on may 3rd. is this necessary? what do you think? >> doesn't fit with their prior

policy where they finally got around to saying severe disease only, hospitalization only. so many mild cases and look like other respiratory viruses. this doesn't fit with that. they will never attract claims closely enough to know if wearing those flimsy cloth masks on a plane and eating peanuts when it is hanging off your face whether that impacts hospitalization. they will never be able to determine that. the only rationale for this that makes sense, surgeon general saying we want to protect people who have to travel on their way to work but i don't think this adds much protection. if you are at a high-risk group you wear a mask. time to rollback all mandates. we've been saying that for many weeks now. ashley: i hope from someone paying attention to what you have to say, thank you as always for your information. we appreciate it. still had florida congressman, great to see you, florida

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>> the twitter board, or tell mr. musk to take a flying leap. >> this is a serious move, in the left of america. and the tour board says the company is worth more, i don't believe it is the final offer because i don't believe anything is ever the final offer. >> aspect the first amendment and free-speech and helpless go through and we have free-speech on twitter go through. ashley: lady liberty, beautiful day in new york city, the jackson 5 belt out rocking robin.

on april 14th, hello to everybody. i am ashley webster. let's look at the markets, we see the dow plow ahead 100 points. the s&p down half of 1% and the nasdaq down more than one% as the 10 year yield continues to climb. elon musk wanting to buy the company, that is the big news and twitter will hold an all hands meeting with employees at 5:00 pm eastern time to discuss musk's offer. the stock itself is up 2% but it was up 11% in the premarket but fading a little bit. could oil down one dollar, at $103 a barrel. the 10 year treasury is on the rise, that hurt the nasdaq up basis points, 2.8% on the 10

year treasury yield. a new quinnipiac poll shows president biden's approval rating plummeting to 33%, the lowest level of his presidency so far. pete hegseth joins me now. are we surprised by this? what is your reaction? >> 33% overall, 26% among independents, the same percentage among hispanics. this is amidst a war in ukraine, between ukraine and russia that no one knows where it is going, hasn't been deterred and there's no real american leadership on the scene. you cover the inflation, the border, crime. find me one, and then covid which seems to not go away. here it comes back. they don't know what to do

about it, vaccines which they got us which they didn't do they work do they not work, nobody really knows, it is a malaise like the 1970s in that there doesn't feel like a way this administration could go to get out of it absent a different administration. people, 2 and half years of this and who might the democrats run in 2024. that is on top of giant leadership void top not just the democrat party but our country. if there's anything we need in a time of crisis it is leadership and a lot of that has to do not just with not liking policies but not believing in the efficacy of the leadership in washington dc. ashley: it has been incredibly uninspiring. talking at the border a second busload of migrants arrived in washington. greg abbott sent them after the

white house announced he is sending title 42. i can't believe this is happening. >> i love this not because it will tip the scale of where these illegals are going, it is because drop offs like this are happening every night off of planes and buses, in towns we never heard of that our viewers live in and they don't know that these illegals are being dropped off, don't know who they are or what public benefits they will seek or if they are good people are bad people or what their health condition is. we know nothing yet this invasion is happening quietly and silently. good for governor abbott for dropping this busload off in front of fox news headquarters in dc. it will be derided as a gimmick because sometimes you have to shine sunlight on it.

you don't ask these pesky questions. common sense or actual leadership factors into this. either it is one way or the other and frankly people like myself and others who are willing to be intellectually inconsistent on this who believe we need to move past covid, believe we should keep title 42 because it is the only finger in the dike as pertains to actual border enforcement. we long since jumped the shark on intellectual consistency. ashley: i want to point out you have a new fox nation special

called modern warriors, cold warriors, let's roll the tape. >> if you wants to make russia great again reestablish the soviet union, this is a give me my stuff back grab, how bad was his intelligence or how high was his who burst to believe he would sees kyiv in 2 or 3 days and be greeted as a liberator? >> the ukrainians are not a normal nation. the breadbasket -- he's learning the hard way that assessment was incorrect. >> so much of what we are trying to figure out, the calculations of vladimir putin, these are former us spies in moscow, others were involved in foreign policy in the cold war, trained ukrainian troops, get a better sense what the end game

could look like in ukraine, talking to cold warriors is a good place to start. ashley: got to get your thoughts on elon musk. would you like to see him by twitter? >> of course. i didn't have this on my bingo card a week ago. i thought the governor was gone and we would have an alternative system. it is heartening to believe if he can survive the onslaught coming his way we could recapture a space, not for conservatives, just for freethinking. ashley: does donald trump get back on twitter? >> great question, has his own competing entity. at the end it was made private and they did clean house, he just might. it was quite a platform for him. ashley: it certainly was. we covered a lot of ground.

barry joins me now, let's begin as we have with in 312 elon musk's offer to buy twitter. >> not only for twitter but other businesses elon musk, tesla and space x going public at some point so potentially exciting, the next moment in time they are taking off very quickly. let's get out the popcorn. this will be a roller coaster for a while. ashley: almost certainly twitter will say that is not enough, think again. musk says this is his one and final offer and when it comes to elon musk, he always likes to put the cat among the pigeons. interesting to follow what happens. will twitter reject? >> i think so.

the corporate board to accept, meant to be real negotiation and taking seriously fiduciary looking at alternative offers making sure other folks pay more for the business but the other thing, the 52-week high is above $73 so to good premium that they are trading in, the board has to get comfortable so this is a tough one. ashley: let's talk about other things than elon musk. let's talk about travel. the airlines, the cruise lines, the kind of experience events prior to covid, the younger generations, are we seeing any comeback in those areas? >> we are.

very strong cash bookings in march up significantly in february. if you look at american allies and those cruz stocks, i went too early. even in a recession, taking their hard earned dollars and going on vacation that provides real value. irrespective of what macro is looking like. ashley: very last question. have we reached peak inflation or is there more pain to come? >> every single time at the level we see, this is peak and the supply chains ease up and we will see stocks come down.

ashley: thank you for joining us, great stuff. all right let's bring you an. in. looking at movers, let's begin with bed, bath and beyond. lauren: my daughter's favorite store, my too because every thing is always 50% to 70% off and that might be the problem. stock is down 11%. many brokerages slashing their price target, goldman cut there is to $7 so stock is trading at levels, they have four straight quarters of on profitability and wears the plan to turn the company around? what is selling off today. delta reported investors liked what they said and stock continues to go up to the upside. jpmorgan took their price target to 69 so there's that story and our final stock is several, the big tech companies. several companies like meta are

direct competitors in twitter. do they think twitter might accept musk's bid and that increases their competition? we will pop it up for you. every major tech company is on the phone with antitrust lawyers asking if they can buy twitter and it will be interesting, but we saw pinterest and all of these fall on this news. it is the sole green arrow. ashley: fascinating to follow the sub stories that are going on. lauren: the drama of elon musk. and ft, jack dorsey's first we went to auction for $48 million. he didn't get that, not even close. the story on that. california considering a plan

to ban all gas powered cars, could happen sooner than you think. the russian navy evacuate from a damaged warship, ukraine claims they hit the ship with a missile but russia says it just caught on fire. trey yingst has the report next. for investors who can navigate this landscape, leveraging gold, a strategic and sustainable asset... the path is gilded with the potential for rich returns.

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because the singer, john legend, announced a benefit concert for military heroes. he will be joined by jason right on memorial day weekend. good stuff. and for and for a very good cause. ukraine claims they had a russian warship with a missile but russia says it just caught on fire. trey yingst has the report from kyiv. what is the latest on this story? >> a major development, ukraine says it hit the russian missile cruiser, the flexion vessel of the black sea fleet the normally has 500 sailors on board, massive amounts of ammunition and torpedoes, antiaircraft missiles on board the ship and reports about the vessel sank or not but russian state media confirming the incident took place.

here's what they say happened. >> in the black sea region, hit by anti-ship missile, flagship of the russian black sea fleet, some stained substantial damages. a fire started. other ships tried to provide assistance. powerful explosion turned the ship over and it started sinking. >> reporter: this comes as intense russian shelling continues in the second largest ukrainian city of kharkiv. ukrainian forces say they are up a bridge in that area destroying russian military, and officials in the capital of kyiv telling residents not to return fearing further russian military attacks. it is the 50th day of the war and there are major concerns for the civilian population. we spoke to david beasley of the world food program and he is concerned about food shortages in certain parts of the country. ashley: thank you for the

latest. the biden administration, they will send 11 soviet era helicopters to ukraine, congressman michael walz joins me now. what can you tell us about those helicopters and other weapons we are sending to ukraine. >> reporter: these helicopters were intended for the afghan military. my question is why weren't they shipped last fall after the debacle from afghanistan. we see the biden administration belatedly starting to send weapons like howitzers, artillery rounds, even some anti-ship capabilities but we are two months into this war, why the ukrainians were asking

for them before the invasion, perhaps a greater deterrent effect, and the joint chiefs agreed ukrainians had anti-ship missiles on day one, they would be in a better position. we should be sinking more russian ships and this activity can develop within the black see is tremendous because they have owned the black see for the duration. ukrainians are asking for antiship missiles. we didn't send them, they were too provocative. these neptune missiles developed domestically. we've got to send them everything they need to win. we should help him play for open, not for a tie in negotiations. we 5 next one, the leaders of four nato countries just visited kyiv in a show of

solidarity just days after boris johnson was walking around the streets with president zelenskyy. meanwhile president biden has been sitting at the white house or traveling home to delaware. what message is that sending? >> i thought it was an incredible move on the port of boris johnson and a great show of leadership there to do that. i would strongly, don't know about the president of the united states going, but having a senior american leader standing shoulder to shoulder with biden, with zelenskyy, would be incredible. ashley: not a very strong leadership role, we seem to be in the background, and lead

from the front? >> the lenski himself called on biden, and this is one instance, republican and democrat, we've been demanding to put sanctions in place to send heavy weapons than to drag this administration along, trade relation status, banning russian oil or sending the bigs and heavy weapons. congress has taken leadership role for a change. and fear of escalation drive its policy. putin is afraid of us too, making him afraid of our action, but we will continue to push. this administration is taking the wrong approach from a foreign-policy standpoint.

ashley: thank you so much for joining us with your input today. we will appreciate it. thank you. let's check the markets, the dow has been motoring along this morning, still up 100 points, the nasdaq starting to gain momentum on the downside, off 1%, the nasdaq is continuing down 1%, 155 points, $4.07 for a gallon of regular, down $0.08 from a year ago. you can see oil above $100 a barrel in this story, california considering a plan to ban new gas fueled cars. how soon could happen? lauren: 2035. and aggressive rollout. and five years, 2026, california wants to triple

sales to 35% of our -- all cars sold. that has to assume the price comes down and the national applications of this because other states swallow vehicle standards set by california. it might be approved in august, you might see more states day the same pushing consumers into expensive evs. ashley: right now are expensive. i'm interested in evs, they look kind of cool but haven't even gotten close to kicking the tires on one. lauren: i have range anxiety. i can't room ever to charge my phone at night. i'm not against the idea. ashley: so true. lauren: right now it doesn't make sense, slow walk it a little bit. ashley: didn't plug in the car. lauren: i am late for work again. ashley: senator chuck schumer says we are closer than ever to

canceling student debt. we have an update on that. the president authorized $800 million in military aid to ukraine but is that enough to defeat the russians? we ask a member of the ukrainian parliament next.

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ashley: lucky people on the beach. looking at north myrtle beach, 72 degrees, a little cloudy but who cares? you are enjoying the beach, enjoying a day off of school, work, whatever. the nasdaq moving lower by more than 100 points, and twitter in the on musk's offer and susan lee all over the story. what's the latest you q susan: >> twitter says they will hold on all hands meeting at 5:00 pm eastern time.

a $40 billion cash bid. there are numerous reports, many staff, and this might give twitter app leadership and management and offramp, a $54.20 a share bid but the original shark himself, and not to sell the company. there are distractions, and you have 3 analyst downgrades, and

oppenheimer, and and it undervalues the company, and jpmorgan being the latest investment bank saying they don't think twitter will say yes to this. under pressure on concerns might be forced to sell cash for this offer. to the stock and options make up 95% of the on musk's net worth. he can borrow against those shares but not clear if he's going to or where he will get this money from. and overseas two big companies, $100 billion, one trillion dollars in total a, wall street says he doubts there's a bandwidth, to run a third company here, total is under pressure right now. ashley: absolutely.

i am sure, someone tries to sell an nft of jack dorsey's first we, $48 million. how much did they get? lauren: $280 billion, that is it. it was on may 21, 2006. just setting up my twitter which is a symbol of the stock. he has two ts, that is wrong. the seller pays $2.9 million and he could get $48 million, he got 7 offers ranging from $6 to $280. the nft market is in a slump. ashley: that is embarrassing. ukraine reportedly fired two cruise missiles at the flagship of the black sea fleet causing serious damage to the warship. keira runic is a member of the

parliament, we are happy to have you. how significant is that shooting of the main flagship of the russian fleet? could that be a turning point? >> thank you for having me. a fantastic opportunity for our army because the missiles on the ship, to the east and south of my country, killing people. and ability to make those damages to the russian flagship already shows what we can do. if you give us the weapons we will fight so hard that we can win this war so i would like to say to all the countries, as of

today, the 50th day of war, the we would be able, actually with retails. you see the retails. ashley: tremendous bravery. the biden administration authorized $800 million in military help to ukraine. >> over the last month european countries, $35 billion, over $1 billion, this can be used to continue war in ukraine from russia's side and to pay russian soldiers. $800 million is significant and we are grateful for it. we need to remember, one of the largest armies in the world and one of the most well-funded countries.

we will need continuing support to continue fighting and winning. ashley: last one for you. russia says it is unacceptable for president biden to accuse putin of genocide in ukraine. what putin is doing is clear. i will follow-up with you. >> i call it genocide. it has become clearer and clearer that putin is trying to wipe up the idea. of ukraine. ashley: that's what he says, trying to wipe out the idea of being ukrainian. i would say that is genocide. would you? >> i totally see genocide. talking to you, where we voted to say what is happening to ukraine is genocide. that this is genocide, i have

been to bucha where people were killed, tortured and raped and you know what russian soldiers -- that you are the dirt and we are cleaning this land from the dirt. they want -- don't want to take our land, they want to destroy us, so we would the existing. this is why it is genocide. ashley: we have to leave it but thank you so much. we wish you the best. your english is terrific. thank you for taking the time to talk to us today. we appreciate it. >> thank you and glory to ukraine. ashley: thank you very much. now this was the hosts of the view are blaming the brooklyn subway shooting on the second amendment. role that tape. >> this is a tragic and uniquely american problem. if you take away guns you take away gun violence. ashley: really?

media guy brent bozell will have fun with that. teen overdose deaths are on the rise but not because more teens are using drugs but because of fentanyl. bill bennett joins me next on that and more. (fisher investments) in this market, you'll find fisher investments is different than other money managers. (other money manager) different how? aren't we all just looking for the hottest stocks? (fisher investments) nope. we use diversified strategies to position our client's portfolios for their long-term goals. (other money manager) but you still sell investments that generate high commissions for you, right?

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ashley: senate majority leader chuck schumer says the white house is closer than ever to canceling student loan debt. lauren: they have to ease the burden of inflation on americans, that is popular

especially for young people and could drive them to vote. we will play sound from senate minor leader schumer who wants to cancel $50,000 in student debt. >> i talked personally to the present on this issue a bunch of times. i told him this is more important than anything else that he can do on his own. we are making progress. we are making progress. the white house seems more open to it than ever before. lauren: borrowers haven't paid their bills for over two years now. if i were a consumer i would flip this, we have a strong job market, get a job, you will get paid more money. inflation bites but you can pay off your debt. ashley: that is very true which is what so many other people did. maybe they can get a refund for doing the right thing, we could talk about it all day. it is popular. the governor of new jersey,

phil murphy, director the department of education to review standards for sex education and provide clarification of what age-appropriate guidelines look like for young students. bill bennett joins us now. there are those out there who believe it is appropriate for first graders, second graders to talk about sexual orientation and gender identity. that is outrageous. how about you? >> there aren't many people who believe this is a politically driven agenda not based on science. it is nonsense. talk to the parent, the question of what age, what grade, throw the whole thing out. it is crazy, has no place in schools which ask parents what schools are for. they want schools to teach children how to read and write

and count and think and to know the history of their country. that is what they want schools to do. are they doing this in china? they are not. they are teaching math and science. may be elon musk after rocketship send electric cars and buying twitter can buy the american public schools for a mere $800 billion and give them back to parents and let them follow the parental agenda. ashley: not a bad idea. >> interesting reason for the pause by governor murphy and this is because of the youngkin election in virginia-based on parental outrage and what governor desantis has done in florida, parents are coming to the floor and this is important in november. ashley: yes it will indeed. i want to get to the issue of a new study that found teen drug use is at an all-time low but

fentanyl involved drug overdoses more than doubled between 2,010, and 2,020 one. you were the former drug czar, fentanyl is like a ticking time bomb coming across the southern border freely and it is deadly. >> let's start with the last thing you said, coming across freely, the president should declare the cartels terrorist organizations and we should go after them. it is where american power should be. let me give you a stat no one has talked about. 18 to 45, ages 18 to 45, more deaths from fentanyl than suicide, car accidents and covid combined, the leading cause of death for people 18 to 45 and it is the stuff people are buying on the street that comes across from mexico. ashley: hopefully someone somewhere will do something about it.

>> thank you. good to see you. elon musk wants to buy twitter for $43 billion, could be a huge win for free-speech if the deal goes through. brent bozell is here to react next. ♪♪ so you can quickly check the markets? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard before we board. excellent. and you have thinkorswim mobile- -so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. you two are all set. have a great flight. thanks. we'll see ya. ah, they're getting so smart. choose the app that fits your investing style.

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ashley: let's get back to this. elon musk offering to buy one hundred% of twitter in an all cash deal. he says twitter should go private. let's bring in brent bozell to talk about this. this is about free speech. >> reporter: it is. i will suggest this is the biggest story since the 2020 elections. it might be bigger than the 2,020 elections and i'm happy to explain that if you like. consider donald trump won the presidency of the united states in 2016 because he was able to

use twitter. in 2020, one reason, a major reason he lost the presidential campaign is because twitter censored him and wouldn't allow him. since then there have been hundreds of instances where conservatives have been shut out of a public square on twitter which is the new site for the world today. it is not just, this is important, not just in the united states. it is worldwide where this censorship is taking place. what is the signature of elon musk? he said he will return free-speech. if he does, the entire dynamics of politics changes in the united states and worldwide. think about that. ashley: i am now. you laid it out very well. get to this issue if we can. the cohosts of the view who give us so much content every day are railing against the second amendment following the horrific shooting in a new york

city subway. listen to the tape and i will get your reaction. >> this is a tragic and uniquely american problem. i don't understand why we can't solve the problem. look at the uk there's almost no gun violence, look at new zealand, australia. when you take away guns you take away gun violence. >> i agree with that. ashley: take away the guns there is no gun violence. your reaction. >> it is the up enemy of deflection and hypocrisy, what the viewers just watched right now. what do we know about the shooter, he is a black nationalist, black racist to his videos of making the most hate filled comments about whites. this was a crime of hate. this was a race-based crime. the only problem is the opposite of what the view has been talking about all these

years. what do you do? deflection, blame it on guns. ashley: there are 300 million guns conservatively out there. if you ban guns, the bad guys get the guns anyway, they are already there but taking away the rights of people who thanks to the constitution have the right to defend themselves and according to the view that is outrageous, we shouldn't have that ability. that is right. >> anybody who -- any terrorist who commits murder by stabbing somebody in the neck we need to ban knives, knives cause death. ashley: run someone down in a car we should ban people allowed to drive cars. >> i am telling you the country is getting sick and tired of this. ms nbc did a story showing the man appetite and weight and the clothes he was wearing, never mentioned he was black. why not?

why? ashley: giving all the details. >> if you reverse it you reverse it, if this was a white on black deliberate racist white on black they would report it correctly. ashley: i can't even find the word. a human being doing a horrible crime on other human beings is all it is, give the proper description. i could talk to you all day. thank you for being here. let's get to our first trivia question or we will be outraged all day long. according to the national retail federation how much will the average consumer spend on easter this year? the answer after the break. maybe $200. let you know right after this. like the time she spotted the neighbor kid, an approaching car, a puddle, and knew there was going to be a situation.

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♪. happy birthday to you ♪ ashley: we're playing that music for a very good reason. it is lauren simonetti's birthday today. lauren, happy birthday to you. >> thank you. you would think anybody would notice actually. what? oh, my good, ashley. thank you. i'm so touched. >> that's great. blew the budget on the graphics

too but it was worth it, lauren. you are worth it. super mom, super business journalist. i don't know how you do it all. have a great day. we asked how much the average consumer spends on pizza. what will be the estimate? the answer. have a guess. it is going to be $170. i would have gone for 200. i like chocolate. according to the national retail federation. neil cavuto, take it away. neil: happy birthday, lauren. i have ties older than lauren. i wish younger people could speed up on the older thing. we're looking at twitter stock, not so tax -- tank againstly, elon musk wants to buy it. $54 a share. the stock is not anywhere close to that. it had a enormous run up when