stuart: good morning, everyone, welcome to varney and company. it is an investor's dream, a massive stock buyback that boosts the value of the shares you own. it's happening now with meta, formerly known as facebook. they announced a $40 billion

buyback, one of the largest in history, and that did the trick. meta's stock is zooming. they gave an upbeat outlook, and that did not hurt either. at the moment, it's $184 a share, up $31, that is 20%. later today apple, amazon, google, all three of them report, and all three are moving higher in premarket trading. i wonder if they'll announce a buyback? popular with investors, hated by the left. no surprise, the nasdaq is powering ahead this morning. that's big tech's stomping ground. the nasdaq at the moment is up 240 points, almost 2% again. s&p up nearly 1%, and the dow just a fraction higher. here's more help for big tech, interest rates are falling after the fed talked about inflation improving. the 10-year treasury yield all the way down to #.35 -- 3.35%, that's a big drop can. the 2-year just above 4%. interest rates down. of politics. at the first hearing on the

border crisis, jim jordan pulled no punches. he says biden's border crisis is intentional. texas senator ted cruz joins us shortly on that. there will be a vote today on whether representative ilhan omar stays on the house foreign affairs committee. she has compared america to terror groups like the taliban. she's also been accused of anti-semitism. the vote is today. on the show later, the university of north carolina setting up a brand new school specifically to encourage free speech and open debate on cam pause. they're hiring new professors from across the political spectrum. who would have thought? in los angeless they have extended the eviction motherrer the -- moratorium. you don't have to pay your rent. you can't get kickeded out. there are people in l.a. who haven't paid rent in three years. it is february the 2nd, 2023, and it's groundhog day. punxsutawney phil forecasts six more weeks of winter. "varney & company" is about to

begin. ♪ ♪ ♪ it's not over ♪ stuart: oh, it's not over. that's it, that's the name of this song. the producers put this song on because it's not over with the fed raising interest rates. [laughter] that's a stretch, producers, that is a stretch. but look at the market as we go into the opening bell in about half an hour. dow's up 40, nasdaq is up over 2%. yes, indeed, the fed did raise interest rates 25 basis points yesterday. good morning, lauren. what did powell have to say about the state of the economy? lauren: inflation is coming down, good thing. bad thing, still has a long way to go. he doesn't see the fed cutting rates, but investors don't believe him. stocks rallied yesterday, and they're rallyingen again this morning. and then he said something that

not a lot of people are talking about. he said the fed is no longer making their inflation calls based on covid. >> we understand, i personally understand well that covid is still out there, that it's no longer playing an important role in our economy, and people are handling it better, and the economy and the society are handling it better now. it doesn't really need to be, you know, in the fed's monthly or, you know, post-meeting statement as an ongoing economic risk as opposed to, you know, a health issue. lauren: china reopened, and he kind of had to change the language a little bit. back to normal, right? it feels like back to normal? stuart: i think you did a great job of making the fed sound exciting. that's a very, very difficult thing too old, but you pulled it off brilliantly -- to do. i don't know how you do it. lauren: thank you very much, i guess. [laughter] stuart: look, this is exciting, that's called a rally on wall street, nasdaq up better than 250 points.

well done. mike lee is our market watcher of the morning -- lauren: top that, mike. stuart: i went off real strong at the top of the show about meta and its $40 billion stock buyback program. i thought that was extremely important, what say you? >> i say you're absolutely right, stuart. facebook beat on the top and bottom line which is lowered expectations but still a beat, and this $40 billion buyback is massive. that is a big number of money coming into the market. facebook, or how now meta, is one of the most widely held names, it's a big component of the nasdaq, of the s&p 500, it's going to lift all boats. more importantly, what we're seeing is a lot of of the unloved stocks of 2022 are the loved stocks of 2023. facebook just hit a low in november of $88 a share, it's going to open up near 188. so it's a massive reversal, and that's been the story of markets this year. lauren: do you know what i think mark zuckerberg did in calling this year the year of

efficiency? 2023, the year that, you know, facebook and other companies become efficient, i think that's the rationalization for all of corporate america to cut costs and lay off workers. stuart stuart yeah. lauren: you do it, it's popular again. stuart: mike lee, do you think the interest rate hike cycle is coming to an end, winding down? >> i do think we'll see a pause, but if you remember in the last inflationary cycle, there was a double top. so the fed's mouthpiece in the "wall street journal" was saying this disinflation or deflation is transitory, that the fed is worried that inflation will drop off and then rear its ugly head again. so i believe jay powell when he said he's going to keep rates higher for longer, and he may go until may and not raise again for a long period of time, but i don't see cuts this year. i believe him, and you have a divergence of price action, and the market disagrees with me. stuart: okay. no big rally this year from mike lee.

>> well, look, the market could be taking this stuff in styled. the economy's not the stock market, the stock market's not the economy. what was an a unknown was how aggressive the fed was going to get is almost a known now, and the market is comfortable with higher rates, with the slowing economy, and there's still $5 trillion in money markets. that's a lot of cash sloshing concern sloshing around, and it's pushing stocks higher. stuart: mike lee, thank you. i've got a new fox poll and it shows what the average person thinks of president biden's leadership. they don't think much to it, i believe. lauren: no, they don't think much, and it's actually getting worse. 54% disapprove of biden's job performance, but that that number went up, in april of 2021, it was 42%: as for his leadership, 64% say it's not strong, is and the retired navy seal told us why yesterday. >> being able to communicate as a leader, being able to express your ideas and articulate them in a simple, clear, concise

manner a that people can actually understand is extremely important when you're in a leadership position, and i think it's pretty clear that biden has a very difficult time. i think afghanistan definitely, he didn't communicate well, taking ownership of the mistakes that you make is something you have to do in order to earn trust with people. and when there's no trust, there's no leadership. lauren: also a lack of humility -- stuart: that was jocko willink on the show yesterday. thanks, lauren. congressman jim jordan accuses the administration of intentionally causing the migrant crisis at the border. senator ted cruz, republican from the border state texas, joins me now. mr. senator, great to see you back again. do you agree with congressman jordan that this is intentional? deliberate? >> i think it's indisputable. if you look at what this administration has done, it takes a series of steps that have deliberately caused this border crisis. we're now looking at more than 5.4 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border under

joe biden. it's the worst illegal immigration in the history of our nation. just last month, in december, we had the highest rate of illegal immigration that has ever been recorded in a single month in the history of our country. and the biden administration wants this, they intend this. in fact, if you look at the job alejandro mayorkas is doing as secretary of homeland security, i believe the house of representatives is going to impeach mayorkas, and i think they should impeach him. and the reason is he's not just derelict in his duty, he's not just refusing to follow federal law, he's doing that, but it's even worse. he is actively flouting federal law and instructing his political appointees not only not to secure the border, not only not to deport people as federal law requires when they cross here illegally, but instead to facilitate and to speed up the process of their coming here illegally. he's focused on there's process them more quickly, let's pick them up at the border, let's put

them on a plane, on a bus and send them to every city in america. and alejandro mayorkas is right now literally the largest human trafficker on the face of the earth. 5.4 million people, and he is the last mile in the human trafficking network that is making the mexican cartels billions of collars, and -- dollars, and he doesn't intend to change, joe biden doesn't intend to change. they keep making the problem worse. stuart: well, democrat congressman jerry nadler, he says the gop is racist for focusing on surge at the border. [laughter] do you want to respond to that, senator? >> well, sure. you know, nadler is welcome to come down to texas. i'm from texas, i spend a lot of time on the southern border. i'll tell you, anyone who sees it firsthand, do you know what's racist? what's racist is the democrats not giving a damn about a bunch of children being sexually molested, physically abused by traffic ors. i've seen the little girls who were assaulted by these traffickers. i've seen the little boys who were assaulted. i've seen the women who were

raped by these traffickers, and the democrats don't give a damn. and many of them are hispanic. my dad the was an immigrant from cuba. jerry nadler, joe biden and the other democrats don't give a damn about these hispanic immigrants being left to die on texas farms and ranches in the sun and the heat. 54 illegal immigrants cooked, they died in a tractor-trailer outside of san tone know, and the democrats don't give a damn, and they're willing to let it happen tomorrow and the next day and the next day. i'm tired of the cheap accusations of racism from the democrats when they're the ones who are turning a racist, blind eye to the people who are pieing. and you know what they're also turning a blind eye to? the over 2100,000 -- 100,000 deaths from overdoses. again, the democrats don't give a damn, and it's time that they actually secure the border. i'll tell you, you go to south texas which is overwhelmingly hispanic, and everyone agrees this is a crisis, and it's a

crisis the democrats have cause canned. stuart: mr. senator, great to have you back on the show. good stuff. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: see you later. check those futures, please. it's the day after the fed meeting, ask we've got a rally especially in the nasdaq. that's got a lot to do with meta. tell you about that later. well up over nearly 2% for the nasdaq. coming up, tiktok, attention over privacy concerns, but experts warn wechat might be the the bigger security risk. south carolina congresswoman nancy mace says protecting our cyber structure, more important than ever. speaker mccarthy met the president on the debt limit. so did they agree on anything? we have the latest on the spending fight after this. ♪ ♪

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stuart: speaker mccarthy says no agreements or promises have been made with the9 white house to cut back on spending. the administration still wants to raise the debt ceiling, no conditions. edward lawrence at the white house. where does the debt ceiling battle go from here, edward? >> reporter: right now deadlock and more discussions are going to happen. the president this morning at the national prayer breakfast on capitol hill, his prayers not answered today because there was no conclusion out of that first face to face meeting between the president and house speaker kevin mccarthy. >> so now is a moment in time, we've got five more months. i just walked out having an hour conversation with this president that i tell you in perspective was a good conversation.

no agreements, no promises except we will continue this conversation. >> reporter: so republicans continue to say they want some guard recalls for the spending the democrats have pushed over the past two years. democrats and the president have to, say we have to raise the debt ceiling no matter what to pay for the spending that's already passed. we have 73% of registered voters now dissatisfied with how things are going in the u.s., and 74% see a recession this year. 80 of registered voters seeing the economy as only fair or poor, and now you add into the mix this debt ceiling deadline over the summer. yesterday the fed chairman weighed in on that debate for the first time. listen. >> there's only one way forward here, and that is for congress to raise the debt ceiling so that the united states government can pay all of its obligations when due. and any deviationses from that path would be highly risky and that no one should assume that the fed can protect the economy from the consequences of failing to act in a timely manner.

>> reporter: he also says the budget's on an unsustainable path. again, the treasury secretary, if it runs out of money, it's unclear if the federal reserve is able to step in with the current regulations. that's never been tested. back to you. stuart: got it. edwardward -- edward, thank you very much. the federal reserve raised interest rates an additional 25 basis points. that came out about 4:00 -- no, earlier than that, 2:00 yesterday afternoon. now, as highlighted in edward's report, we've got a new fox poll, and it says 80% of the voters think the economy is only fair or poor, 80. economist john lonski joins us now. it seems to me that inflation is improving. is the economy going in for a soft landing? >> i don't think so. you know, and on the inflation front, one of the reasons inflation has declined is because with we had this deepen drop by emergency prices. and -- energy prices. if you look at the average price of gasoline for january, it was up 4%. after dropping by 12% in the

month of december. so we're going to see an increase by the cpi of maybe three-tenths of a percent in january, a lot different from the dip that we had in december. let's not get ahead of ourselves. we have a way to go before we can declare victory over inflation. stuart: so you think the stock market's got ahead of itself? >> i think it has. and i'm looking at some of these forecasts for s&p 500 revenues. this is crazy. after growing more than 10% annually in 2022 the, ec equity analysts believe that s&p 500 revenues or business sales will slow to only a 2.6% increase in 2023? my goodness, that's less than the rate of inflation. and with so slow a rate of growth for sales, businesses are going to lay people off, they're going to be tighter with their costs. i think you mentioned that earlier in this program. and as a result, you're going to

get less spending in the econom- stuart: so that poll, 80% of voters think the economy's only fair or poor. that's an accurate reflection -- >> yeah. and i think they're absolutely right. i mean, we have all of these layoffs being announced by high-tech companies, by industrials, by banks. you know, the only sector that seems to be increasing employment right now is fast food. chipotle is going to add 15,000 workers, you know, in 2023. so if you would rather work at chipotle than maybe microsoft or something like that, everything's great, everything's rosy. but the average person doesn't think that way. stuart: you capped it off nicely there. thanks, john. all right. we have cathie wood making a bold prediction on the future of amazon's work force. is this about robots? lauren: in seven years there will be more robots working at amazon than human beings. in our lifetimes we could very well be competing with a robot for a job. you can say, yes, she's

exaggerating. this is her lane, right? investing in disruption. but the a.i. revolution is taking off. i mean, there was a leaked amazon memo over the summer, vox leaked it, and it said amazon feared literally running out of being able to find workers to hire next year, by 2024. well, this is their solution, a robot to lift the goods in the warehouse, right in and it saves money in the end, and they have fewer headaches. i'm not saying i completely agree, but this is where we're headed especially with the advances in a.i.6789. stuart: major cities in america, only 50 of workers are back in the office -- 50%. that's an extremely low number. lauren: it is! stuart: after three years? lauren: i know. and we can brag about 50.4% of people coming back. this is the first line of the news article: more than half of workers in major u.s. cities went to the office last week. i was laughing as i read that concern the. stuart: yeah. lauren: congratulations, you

went to work for the first time in three years. castle systems puts out the data, they look at badges swiped in buildings, and they looked at ten big cities. 50.4% of staff reported the last week of january, first time since to covid that more than half the people commuted. austin had the highest rate, 68% there. here in new york, 47. silicon valley, 41. i have that prediction is going to grow because of all of these layoffs. people are are getting scared. stuart: that'll get 'em back. [laughter] all right. lauren, thank you. check futures again, please. all eyes on the nasdaq can for the rest of the day. look at it go, up better than 2% on the back of meta's stock buyback and strong performance. of we'll be back too. ♪ ♪ money, money, money make us smile ♪

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stuart: all eyes on the nasdaq, it is up better than 2% in premarket trading. the standout index right there, nasdaq, up 258. d.r. barton with me now. t.r., look, i thought that powell's comments were dovish, and that's why the market rallied. do you agree with me, and will the rally continue? >> i do agree with you, stuart. i think we get the rally until

we get the next piece of bad news. but i think dovish is maybe even a little bit mild for what he said. the word, the disinflationary process has started. that's some pretty strong stuff, stuart, and i think the market is responding to that as well as getting some big money dumped in by meta yesterday after the close. stuart: throughout the time that i've been covering the stock market, and that's about 50 years now, whenever the fed starts to raise rates, the stock market goes down. and as soon as they've stopped raising rates and they plateau and maybe start to come down, that's when the market goes up. are we not in that situation right now where it was about to be a turn in fed policy? >> i believe the turn in fed policy is very near, stuart, and having it drop down so drastically as we've seen

ratchet down other the past -- over the past two meetings, you know, we went from 75 basis points down to 25, that's a pretty big jump. but just a month ago a third of the market participants thought we were going to get 50 basis points. so the things are moderating a bit as we see those inflationary forces slow down, and that is a good thing. stuart: one last one. i made a big deal this morning about meta and their $40 billion stock buyback. i think that had a lot to do with meta's rally this morning. are you with me? >> oh, absolutely, stuart. you know, when you throw that much money at anything, the price is going to be affected. and socially what they did is say -- essentially, what they did is say we're going to create a lot of demand for our own stock by buying it. that punched it up. that's helped a lot, across the board a lot of nasdaq stocks. and i think we're going to see

more people following that sort of financial engineering tack as we go through some other earnings coming up in the big, mega techs. stuart: i just have a feeling that the market wants to go up, and that's a nice feeling to have. we've not had it in quite a while. d.r. barton, thanks for being here today. okay, the opening bell will ring in about 15 seconds or 5 seconds. they're clapping, they're cheering. this is going to be a very big day on the nasdaq, okay? i don't know about the dow and the s&p, they'll do their own thing, but the nasdaq is looking very interesting. you've got meta going straight up, and you've got apple and google and amazon also moving higher. that's premarket even though they report after the bell this afternoon. so here we go. the dow has opened with a small gain, 45, 50 points. that's what we've got. there are some winners on the big board. check net -- them out right there. how about the s&p 500? no huge rally.

i i take that back, it's up over 1%. now look at the nasdaq. there you go, 2.1% higher. i presume that all the big tech stocks are up. yes, they are. look at met a go, 18.9% higher, $28 up. amazon is up 6%. it reports later. google up nearly 6%, it reports later. microsoft at 2.7%, don't you love it? susan: incredible. [laughter] stuart: thank you, susan. and apple is up 2.65%, almost at $150 a share. let's get started with meta. reported late yesterday. susan, i've been going on all morning about that huge buyback -- susan: i've heard that, yes. stuart: you've been hearing that, and i think that's one of the reasons why the stock is up. susan: it's a major reason, i don't think it's the only reason. yeah, $40 billion more in stock buybacks, but you also have a reining in of costs which is, obviously, very vital to wall street, and they loved it. you had three full upgrades this morning, bank of america, rosen

blat, piper raising their outlook, and you had 18 price target hikes going all the way up to 260 now at barclays. costs are coming down a lot faster than wall street had anticipated after they laid off around # 1,000. you also had zuckerberg on the other thankings -- earnings call saying layoffs may actually continue. they actually grew users in the u.s. is and canada, hard to do in a sitrated market -- saturated market, and they crossed 2 billion daily users, better than anticipated, for the very first time. sales will go up this quarter compared to last year, so they're over those applics os privacy -- apple, ios privacy changes. they're not cutting any costs there, but i would say this is a massive short squeeze. people were really tilted to the oh side, and when -- other side, and when you have the fed saying we're talking about disinflation and a slowing down in interest rate hikes, that's positive. stuart: can you show me the other social media platforms,

whatever you want to call them -- susan: by the way, meta is up 40% this year. stuart: and it's only february the 2nd. susan: that's right. five weeks in. so pinterest, this is what we call the meta tailwind. pinterest is cutting around 150 jobs, so they're reducing costs. ad revenue not falling off a cliff, positive, as you know. and the fed says, you know, we're going to possibly talk about disinflation. did you see those jobless claims this morning? one of the lowest we've seen since the pandemic, right? pretty much, i would call this a risk-on trade, and people that have been shorting into this year continuing that bear market from last year, i think everyone is trying to run to the other side right now. stuart: the big deal this afternoon is the three big tech companies. will you give us a preview on amazon, alphabet and apple? stuart: $4 trillion -- susan: $4 trillion reporting tonight. we are expecting the sales drop

for apple tonight, and that mostly, of course, owes to china's covid lockdowns, production snags. analysts say that this quarter, you know, that means that also this quarter that we're in to start this year will get a tailwind from that. the delayed sales, because they couldn't make those high-end iphones to get them in the hands. apple should tell the us where the u.s. consumer is as well, right? with higher rates. and i'll be speaking to the management team later on today. amazon, if we could bring up ap amazon, there you go, expected to report slowest sales growth in decades after they laid off 18,000, so they are cutting down on costs. i think aws, which is their profit driver, will be key since we know that growth rates have slowed with competition intensifying. and the same thing about alphabet, it's a cloud story, i think. we know, look, everyone knows 'tissing -- advertising revenue is growing -- slowing down. i'll ask the cfo later on today. stuart huge gains for huge

companies even before they report. susan: yeah. and amazon's up 25 percent in the first five weeks of this year -- the. stuart: to 25%? susan: alphabet's up 13, so there's a definite recovery here. stuart: i want to talk tesla -- susan: you don't want to talk about the fed? i feel like we've been talking about the fed all morning, your favorite topic. [laughter] stuart: you know me. you're just pressing my buttons. susan: so surprising that the markets are just saying we don't believe what you're saying. [laughter] you heard jay powell say we're not going to cut rates in the back half of this year, people are pricing in rate cuts by the end of this year. stuart: i'm not a fed watcher, never have been, never will be. susan: i know. stuart: talk to me about tesla. 186. susan: yeah. best month since october of 2021, up 47% so far in five weeks. you heard yesterday that they're putting on more shifts because there's more demand because they cut prices back to september levels. however, there is signs of a slowdown taking place in china,

so warren buffett invested, by the way, selling off a little money of -- more of that byd stock that he has, there's maybe saturation. you saw panasonic cutting their full-year outlook, tesla's battery partner. stuart: a lot of people are going to be looking at their 401(k)s this morning. tell me about fedex. >> two upgrades, a buy at citi, also bank of america, both of them increase their outlook because of cost controls. yesterday they talked ab a 10% of their office -- layoff of their office and directors, the more of a white collar -- stuart: it's all a go. susan: there were some great earnings i wanted to get throug- stuart: next hour. coming up, a border county in arizona sounding the alarm on the border crisis. watch this. >> i have personallying experienced the good, the bad and the ugly of being a border county.

currently, this is the ugliest i've experienced. when i look at public safety, national security and humanitarian on our southern border, this is the largest crime scene in this country. stuart: that sheriff, mark daniels, is going to be the here to tell us what it's like on the border later in the show. speaker mccarthy pledged last year to bar ilhan omar from the house foreign affairs committee. does he have the votes to get her off that committee? the vote comes later today. house majority leader steve scalise will be here, i'll ask him. he's next. ♪ ♪ the point of no return ♪ ♪ inner voice (kombucha brewer): if i just stare at these payroll forms...

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the votes to get her off that committee? >> reporter: that's what we're told the, stuart. republicans promised they'd block ilhan omar from stating -- sitting on the foreign affairs committee. house speaker kevin mccarthy says he has the votes. >> i'm not saying she can't have committees. she's more than will have committees. but to sit on foreign affairs, i'm worried about the other members getting the same -- so, look, there are many committees she can serve on. it's the same thing about adam schiff of and swalwell. >> reporter: it was thought that some democrats could vote to exclude omar. democrats nixed marjorie taylor green and paul go star from their committees in 2021. republicans say democrats open opened the door, democrats cry foul. >> this is about vengeance, this is about spite, this is about politics. i didn't expect much from this new majority, but i'll tell ya, i mean, you're much worse than i

thought you were going to be. and this is proof process. proof positive. >> reporter: the gop vowed to bounce omar after she made anti-semitic remarks and controversial comments about 9/11. >> in february of 2019, representative omar tweeted and i quote: it's all about the benjamins, baby, in reference to american support for israel. house speaker nancy pelosi and the entire democratic leadership actually con chemmed representative omar for these anti-semitic comments. >> reporter: democrats submitted a list of names for committee assignments to the entire house last night. it was accepted, so she's on the committee right now but perhaps not for long. finish stuart? stuart: chad pergram in washington, thank you. house majority leader steve scalise joins our program now. welcome back, congressman. always good to see you. >> good to be with you. stuart: some criticism there of trying to get omar off the committee. one democrat says dwhriewr being

spiteful, and this is just political vengeance. do you want to answer that? >> well, i think they must have been looking in the mirror when they said that, because if you look what they did last congress, they removed multiple members from every single one of their committees. marjorie taylor green, paul go star, they removed jim banks and jim jordan, with no reason and in some cases for things they might have said before they were members of congress. and by the way, ilhan omar voted to remove those members from all of their committees. today we're only talking about foreign affairs and intelligence, committees that actually get briefings on national security. and so those members, all three of them -- ilhan omar, adam schiff and eric swalwell -- still be able to serve on other committee, but the vote today just deals omar on the foreign affairs committee. by the way, she's already on the education and work force committee, and that won't change. so, you know, you might want to ask ilhan omar why she voted to

remove republican members from every single committee, she'll be able to serve on other committees after this vote. stuart: okay. we got that one straightened out. speaker mccarthy and the president sat down for a meeting yesterday all about the debt ceiling. can you tell us anything that actually went on? it's been kind of, we don't really know what happened, whether any kind of agreements or suggestions made. can you bring us into that meeting and tell us more about what happened? >> well, stuart, it was the start of a very important conversation about how to get control over spending in washington, because that's really what the debt ceiling are is. when you max out the nation's credit card, as president biden kid over the last two years, recklessly spending there trillions, $5-10 trillion depending on how accountants look at it, on things in many cases that had nothing to do with covid or getting the economy moving again, and it created inflation. it created massive debt. and so we maxed out the credit card. it's time that we focus now as we talk about the debt ceiling how we get control over spending

in washington again. both speaker mccarthy and president biden said that it was a good beginning, and this is going to be ongoing. this is going to be a conversation we're going to have for the next few weeks and months to work on how we can come together to control spending in washington. stuart: i picked up on this one, congressman. i think it's 205 democrats voted not to force federal workers to go back to the office. not gonna force them to go back. so i take it you are in favor of forcing federal workers to go back to the office. is that accurate? >> yeah. stuart, it seems like all across america people are going back to work, and they're showing up at their jobs. why is it that only in washington do they still want the pandemic to go on and hide behind that to spend billions on unrelated things? if i get calls every day from military veterans, from people who have been waiting over two years for their irs returns, people that are missing important honeymoons and other things because they can't get a passport processed for six

months because federal workers that do those jobs are not showing up for work. that's not something you can do remotely. there's no reason that someone who served our country serving in the military, they showed up to protect our freedoms, the least that somebody that's collecting their full paycheck by the taxpayers should be able to show up to make sure they're taking care of those veterans and other people who rely on the services that need to be provided, and they're only provided if they're showing up in person. it's long past due to get this done. stuart: congressman, several years ago you were wounded in an attack, a political attack, actually, in washington. and i know that you were injured, and i've asked you every time you've come on the show, are you now well? i'll ask that question again. you okay, sir? >> well, thank you. and i still get prayers from people. i do physical therapy once aing week, still working on, you know, whether it's, you know, building up strength again and balance, but i'm lucky to be alive. god has performed miracles, and i appreciate the prayers very

much. stuart: god bless you, congressman. i think he did. >> god bless you. stuart: see you later, sir. thanks a lot. now this: what was meant to be a routine house judiciary meeting quickly turned, shall we say, fiery, lauren? lauren: and the reason will just blow your mind. so matt gaetz proposed an amendment to the committee rules to require the pledge of allegiance at the start of meetings. seems like no big deal, these are elected lawmakers who are serving their committee. it was a huge deal. here's criticism from one democrat. >> i think if we continue this amendment, then we will be truthful in representing that stating this pledge is an affirmation of your defense of democracy and the constitution. it's hard to take that claim seriously if, in fact, an individual who in any way supported an insurrection against the government of the united states is allowed to lead the pledge. >> there would be many democrats on the committee that wouldn't be eligible to lead the pledge. lauren: they're just going back and forth.

what the democrat there was talking about were committee members who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election, just to give you some context. but this debate lasted an hour. it ended up being approved unanimously, 39-0. but still, over the pledge of allegiance? and which lawmaker has the right to say it and who doesn't? stuart: i think that gives the whole congress a bad name, actually. lauren: i think so too. stuart: waste of time. coming up, aoc questioned the motives of republicans leading an investigation into covid relief programs. watch this. >> i cannot for the life of me understand why the majority would send these three letters just to these three states. there needs to be some rank partisanship in this investigation. stuart: all right. we're going to bring you the response from the house oversight chairman, that would be james comer. then to the crime spike in chicago. did to you know 20% of the retail space in that city is closed up, boarded up? amazing. full report on that coming up.

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♪ stuart: go figure this one, 20% of retail stores in chicago are vacant, boarded up, empty. why? rampant theft. grady trimble is in chicago. all right, what are businesses doing about this? more to the point, what's the city doing about it? >> reporter: well, stu, the city has beefed up the police presence here on chicago's mag enough seventh mile, though mayor lori lightfoot's critics say she's not doing enough, and that's why some of the retailers here have added their own security and added their own cameras to stores. you've also probably noticed not just here in chicago, but across the country at target, walmart, cvs, wall greens -- walgreens, items with anti-theft devices attached to them.

home depot and lowe's are testing new technology so power tools don't work until the customer pays for them. >> we wanted a technology solution which will be frictionless for our customers and the same time it'll deter theft. >> they're spending an awful lot of money in order to secure those goods. they can't do this alone. >> reporter: so the national retail federation wants lawmakers to help out, and some lawmakers in various states and in congress have introduced legislation to try to crack down on the crime like what you're seeing on your screen right now. that video shows one of the latest incidents here, a smash and grab at a luxury store that's been hit at least three times already. organizedded retail crime has increased 26.5% from 2020 to 2021. experts say a big reason for the spike is the rise in online reselling, but they also blame high inflation making everything

more ec expensive and soft-on-crime prosecutors. stu? stuart: we hear you. grady, thank you very much. get back to that market, please, because you'll see a discrepancy here between the dow, which is down 230 points, and the nasdaq which is up 252. why is the dow down so much? well, there are three dow stock, travelers and honeywell -- they are dow stocks, all of them down sharply. that's shaving 200 points off the dow. so without those three stocks, the dow would be kind of neutral, but you'd still have the nasdaq up over 2%. still ahead, arizona sheriff mark daniels, chris bedford will join us, south carolina congresswoman nancy mace and brian brenberg. the 10:00 hour is next. ♪ oh, i want some more. ♪ what are you waiting for? ♪ take a bite of my heart tonight ♪

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