>> good morning, everyone, i'm ashley webster in today for

stuart varney, and let's begin with disney. maybe not the happiest place on earth, slashing 7,000 jobs and billions in costs in an effort to restructure. it is the most significant move since bob iger grabbed the reins back from bob chapek. we finished lower yesterday, odd the maybe a small rally. the cow up 235 -- the dow up 235 point, the s&p and nasdaq also up 1% or more. president biden, mean i'm the, says the house gop hearing into hunter biden's finances, quote, won't go very far because the public's not going to pay attention. well, we've got a few guests on the show today who are challenging the president on that. in just a few hours, president biden will take his social security/medicare pitch to the land of trump. governor desantis and senator reduction scott, that's right, florida. senator scott has a response for the president, and he'll be here to tell us. senator josh hawley says it looks like congressman aoc was

auditioning to be the next chair of joe biden's disinformation war. she called the hunter biden laptop story, quote, half-fake. whatever that is. we'll take it on. and watch out, netflix has expanded efforts to stop password sharing. sorry. we're going to tell you what you need to know. it is thursday, february the 9th, 2023. "varney & company" about to given. ♪ ♪ ♪ i'm falling in love ♪ ashley: ah, a little flock of seagulls for you on this thursday morning looking down sixth avenue. the trucks and the cars head towards wherever they're going. anyway, let's move on. the house oversight committee grilled twitter exi haves -- executives about censoring the

hunter biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election. good morning, lauren simonetti. i imagine, yeah, i would imagine the white house, not pretty happy about this hearing, right? lauren: they called it bizarre, and then they framed it as a maga effort to relitigate 200. here's the quote: house republicans are making it their top priority to stage a bizarre political stunt. this appears to be the latest efforts by the house republican majority's most extreme maga members to question and relitigate the outcome of the 2020 election. that spokesperson, ian sands, also said the republican party is out of touch with what the public wants. the public might want free speech, fair treatment, less censorship. just saying. ashley: yeah, i think you're right. nothing wrong with that. all right, lauren, thank you. and, by the way, during those hearings congressman jim jordan pressed ex-twitter officials about their communications with the fbi, but he didn't get very

many answers. roll it. >> simple question, did you talk to the fbi about the hunter biden story? >> to the best of my recollection, i did not talk to the fbi about the hunter biden story before that day. >> talk to them after? you said -- >> i don't recall -- >> your response is real specific to the chairman, you said i did not talk to the fbi about the hunter biden laptop story that day, i assume that was october 14th. i want to know if you talked to him on the 3th or before or 15th or after. >> siting -- sitting here today, i don't recall talking about if at all. ashley: mollie hemingway, question is, why are they denying it now? >> well, james baker's making these claims about how he didn't talk to the fbi on a certain cay. we already know from e-mails that were released as part of twitter files that he arranged conversations between fbi officials and twitter

executives, that he was one of the leading voices to the suppress this very legitimate news story9 from the new york post about the biden family business, and he really didn't need to talk to them at all because he is the fbi. this guy was the, you know, general counsel at the fbi. he participated in that horrific russia collusion hoax that was run in large part by the fbi. whether he's talking to the fbi is not -- doesn't matter so much because he represents them so fully and completely, and he was such a major partner in suppressing this very important news for the election. ashley: and, you know, mollie, the white house taking all of this, i guessst the not -- i guess it's the not surprising taking the angle that the general public just doesn't care. does that gain any traction? are they right? >> no, i saw that there were quite a few democrats saying that censorship is not important, that the first amendment is not important, that whether the fbi was colluding with big tech to suppress news

and information that was important to the an election, that this isn't important. and i think that, you know, obviously, republicans care about it because they are the victims of so much of this big tech suppression, but all americans should care. the government should not be in the role of suppressing the free flow of information, marley information concern particularly information that is so important. americans had every right to know details about the biden family business particularly in light of all the problems that we're seeing with china where the business is very active, ukraine, russia. and so it was important for all americans regardless of political persuasion. ashley: absolutely. we need to know is the president compromised, is anyone compromiseed. that's the question. mollie, thank you so much. really appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you. ashley: we'll follow that story. take a look at the futures now, showing some positivity. maybe investors liking some of these corporate earnings we are seeing. 9 the dow up 230 points. as you can see, the nasdaq up

1.33%. let's bring in grey kaltbaum. good morning -- gary kaltbaum. good morning, gary. hey, listen, is the bear market oversome. >> i think a lot of things are definitely out of the bear market. you have a lot of stocks at new yearly highs, the london ftse at new yearly highs. there's still some things not so great, but i think for the most part the lows of october -- for me, the real story is january 6th when the nasdaq put a real good low, and it seems to get better by the day. and, you know, simple rules of bull and bear phases, in bear phases when you buy, your sock the keeps going down, and bull phase is when you sell, your stock keeps going back up. and i think we're in one of those moments right now. we just drifted lower for five days, and we're going to get a bunch of it back on the open today as world markets seem to be -- [inaudible] ashley: yeah. you know, you say you don't think any recession as of now. you say follow the market because the market is smarter

than the rest of us, right? >> i've never seen recessions when, as i mentioned, london new yearly highs, stocks like parker, caterpillar there, and i think the market's pretty smart. i think down the road we're going to have a big recession. we cannot continue to grow government, debt and deficits like we're doing, and the people in d.c. are just taunting markets and the economy. i deal in the here and now, and that's what i have to worry about with my money as well as what i manage. and right now the market's saying otherwise. anybody thinking recession are not following the market at this juncture. if things change, i'll change with them, but right now markets are telling a different story. ashley: and quickly, gary, i know you -- i i say this every time, you're a huge fan of fed, tongue in cheek. >> yeah. ashley: do they keep rates higher for longer, which is what some people suspect? >> i think they do. they've been wrong on everything, but i'm not -- i've been saying it now for a couple of months, i'm not worried about

them right now. just watch yields. if yields come down, real yields, not the fake market, them. if yields stay down, that's good news. that's cost of capital going down, cost of everything going down, and that's good news. ashley:s the, indeed. all right. we'll have to leave it there. gary kaltbaum, thank you, my friend, for joining us. great to see you. all right, super bowl lvii is this weekend. it's nearly upon us. the philadelphia eagles and the kansas city chiefs facing off at state farm stadium in glendale, arizona. and guess what? lawrence jones is at chickies and pete's in philadelphia. lawrence, i can imagine they're pretty excited there, just don't wear a chiefs hat. >> reporter: yeah, they're pretty excited here in philadelphia. [cheers and applause] last week we went to kansas city, and this week we're in philadelphia for the big game.

ashley are, i've got to tell you, they're so excited because it's been five years since they've been back to the super bowl, and they really feel like their superstar, jalen hunter, is -- jalen hurt, is going to the lead them all the way to victory. ashley: well, you know what, lawrence? i think philadelphia eagles are going to win. i think they're the better team. no offense ott the kansas city chiefs, but i would imagine that everyone there is pretty super confident. they've had a great season. >> reporter: that's exactly right. you know how much the network must think of me sending a dallas cowboys fan all the way to philly -- [laughter] to cover this. ashley: oh, my goodness. that was very brave of you to admit, lawrence jones. enjoy yourself. [laughter] by the way, you can watch the super bowl on fox, coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. eastern. can't wait for the game. i hope it's a great game. obviously, people watch for a good game, but also the great

commercials and everything else. begins at 6:30 p.m. eastern on fox. all right. coming up, vice president harris was pressed over president biden's low poll numbers. roll tape. >> the president spoke about this, and it's the on his mind every day. people are still hurting in america. a lot of good work has happened, but more work needs to be done, no doubt about that. ashley: more needs to be cone. is president biden making american lives worse? we'll get into that. then there's this, president biden went after florida senator rick scott other funding for -- over funding for social security and medicare, but now the senator's pushing back. he's here to sound off next. ♪ you make me want to shout ♪ you'll always remember buying your first car. but the things that last a lifetime

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ashley: let's ache a look at the market for you. the futures implying that we're going to have a positive start to the raid thing day this thursday. -- trading day the thursday. the dow up 209 points after losing 207 yesterday so, essentially, getting everything we lost yesterday back. the s&p up three-quarters of a percent, the nasdaq ooh that lost 1.7% up in the premarket up 1.2 percent, so a reversal from yesterday. now this, president biden heading to florida today. he's going to speak about strengthening social security anded medicare. edward lawrence is at the white house this morning and, edward, the president has been accusing republicans of wanting to cut spending for social services in, change for raising the debt ceiling, but haven't republicans promised that's not on the table? >> reporter: yeah. and we heard it publicly in the

state of the union address and the rebuttal to the president there. in about 30 minutes, president biden will leave to go the tampa, florida. while he's there, he'll highlight a plan from senator rick scott which asks for all federal programs to be sunsetted every five years so they can renegotiate those plans. now, since that plan was released, about every republican distanced themselves from the medicare and social security part, but you'll hear in a few minutes senator scott says he wants to make sure social security and medicare last with his plan. that didn't stop the president last night. >> when i pointed out that some republicans are talking about eliminating medicare, they said, no, no, no. i said, okay, that means all of you for supporting medicare? everybody raise your hand. i think all raised their hand. so, guess what? we accomplished something. >> reporter: the president trying to take a win there. the president references republican senators many his accusations and and that they want to cut the entitlement programs but not members of the house, even though he lumps them

in. the congressional budget office says social security will run out of money in ten years if nothing changed. benefits would automatically be cut by 23%. >> we want to make sure it's there. we know that some of the burdens on social security, as people are coming of age, need to be sustainable. and we want to make it better, we want to improve it. >> reporter: house speaker kevin mccarthy i says president goaded republicans into a response during the state of the union address so he could use that response in his events he has this week. back to you with. ashley: all right, ward, thank you very much. well, despite president biden's claim, republicans want to cut back on social services, he himself, by the way, tried to end spending on all federal programs back when he was a senator. watch the. >> when i argued that we should freeze federal spending, i meant if social security as well. i meant medicare and medicaid. i meant veterans benefits. i meant every single solitary

thing in the government. and i not only tried it once, i tried it twice, i tried it a third time, and i tried it a forty time. fourth time. ashley: a pretty interesting, isn't it? senator rick scott, republican from florida, joins me now. respond to that, senator. >> well, what a hypocrite. if he a accuses republicans that they want to cut medicare and social security. i've never suggesterred that. i said we've got to preserve them, right? my plan i said we ought to chill how we're going to the preserve them, but he wants to accuse us of something he's done, he tried. he had a bill that would do it, and he's fought and fought and fought to cut medicare and social security. so, i mean, what a hypocrite. he's coming to my state right now. i put an ad up. i mean, the guy ought to resign. he's a complete failure, and he's lied about these things. ashley: you know, he's going to be the on this campaign trail today. he continues to the hammer away despite your response and the

response of other republicans. and to ward lawrence -- edward lawrence's report, service the all federal programs to be sunset every five years to kind of reevaluate where it was. it wasn't just medicare, medicaid or social security. right? they're just taking a section of that proposal and then exploiting it. >> yeah. and i said it was worth keeping, which, you know, it's clearly worth keeping. think about this, we don't -- would you say that anybody, republican or democrat, want to shut down our military? guess what? we do that every year. we don't fund that for five years, we don't have a permanent military. every year we go through, and every year the national defense authorization act, we pass it every year. we've cone it for 62 years. would you say everybody in congress wants to shut that down? no. he's a hypocrite. and, by the way, you know, he didn't pay his own taxes that should have gone in to preserve the medicare program. he used a loophole, all right? and now he wants --

[inaudible conversations] ashley: sorry, senator. that's my next question, and you allude ared to the it. you have a new ad running in florida, and it says president biden should resign. you say he cheated on his taxes. it's a strong axis. ab sayings -- accusation, is it notsome. >> well, he did. he usedded a loophole to not take the income in that would require him to pay medicare tax on that. and then now he's trying to change that loophole. i mean, people don't -- can i don't know anybody else that's doing that. he did it just to not pay the additional medicare taxes. finish. ashley: that's interesting. you know, listen, we hear a lot from this administration. we have a strong economy, never been stronger, i'm creating 12 million jobs. do the american people buy it, senator? >> no, they don't buy it. i mean, look at the numbers. i mean, we're adding part-time jobs, not that many full-time jobs. on top of that our wages are

1259 not staying with inflation. if you look at what americans care about, inflation, no plan on that. care about gas price, no plan on that. border security, he has no plan on that. care about getting rid of fentanyl, he has no plan on that. holding dictators accountable especially in latin america, he appeases all of them. for floridians, he is a complete nail your -- failure. ashley: well, and also he's driven a lot of people from blue states into your state, into florida. did he ever address that? >> no, think about how many people are moving there. when i got elected back in 2010, people were leaving the state because the economy was so bad. we've fixed the economy, we've kept our axes low, our government is smaller than most other states per capita, and guess what? people are going to continue to move to our state because they know they can make a living there. it's a better place to live, work and play. ashley: it certainly is. we'll have to leave it there. senator rick scott, as always, thanks for talking with us today. >> thanks, ashley. have a great day.

ashley: you too. and by the way, it's not just wealthy individuals who are fleeing new york and other democrat-led cities in droves, it's companies as well. lauren, i bet they're all heading, a lot of them, to florida, right? lauren: you can get a new job, ashley. i'm kidding. [laughter] ashley: why, what do you know? lauren lauren just kidding. [laughter] the founder of the related company, which is a real estate developer, he'sing -- 82. he says florida isn't for retirement anymore, it's for jobs, and companies need offices so he says he is building them. that's stephen steven -- steven ross. west palm right now attracts many of wall street, goldman sachs, and related is also developing one flagler, it's going to be finished next year. highest rented in the history of south florida. translation, there's big interest by business to migrate south, ashley. ashley: it is the already happening. lauren, thank you very much.

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these things become anchors for your soul. ashley: all right, let's take a look at the futures with about three minutes before the opening bell. the dow up 217 points, potentially gaining back -- essentially gaining back everything that we lost yesterday. d.r. barton is here, good morning to you. before i get to individual stocks, how do you -- it's very volatile right now. every piece of data, ever piece of verbiage that comes from a fed official we go up and down. it's difficult to navigate, isn't it? >> i think you're spot on, ashley. you know, every time we get something now it's good news is bad news and bad news is good news. ask what i mean by that, anything that's good news, that looks like a strong employment number like we got last week, is going to have traders and nervous on tinder hooks because

they believe the fed is then going to not get more dovish more quickly. [laughter] and so that negative pattern is going to the keep that volatility, those cycles of ups and downs that you're talking about in the markets for the foreseeable future, i'm afraid. ashley: well, okay. that said, individual stocks, you like procter & gamble. why? >> well, there is a very simple reason for this one, ashley, and it gets back to those cycles. things go down, things go up. the consumer staples were strong the relative to the market last year. buying i'd the, buying crest, people are -- tide, buying crest, people are going to keep doing that, those big procter & gamble products. and they've gotten beaten could be the first of this year in the first 5-6 weeks of 2023. consumer staples have fallen out of favor while everyone jumped back in on the risk-on type of names. procter & gamble got knocked

could be 10% along with the rest of sector. i think this is more of a sector the play, but p&g throws off a nice 2.6% dividend. we can buy in at the bottom of its cycle while some of the other things are peaking and look for it to gain maybe 8-10% by the middle of the year. i think that's a pretty good plan for a really strong stock with great management. ashley: got 15 seconds, d.r., nasdaq could have six winning weeks many a row. haven't done that in nearly three years. well, just over three years. do you like big tech? >> i like big ec the, but big tech has blown higher real quickly. i like it on the next pullback, ash, but i think there are some bargains in apple and others. [cheers and applause] ashley: fantastic, you kid it. 15 seconds, a real professional. d.r., thank you so much for joining us as we head towards the opening on this thursday's session. and there we go, we are off and running. let's see if the premarket was

right, absolutely. the dow shooting out of the gates up 250 points. again, we lost, what, 20 the 7 points yesterday -- 207 points yesterday, so we've wiped that out. there's a look at dow 30, green across the screen. check out disney. with all the cost cutting going on, investors like that. the restructuring announced by bob iger. we have some in the red, 3m, verizon, laggards but certainly almost all green on the dow 30. let's take a look at the s&p 500. also up nearly 1%, up 37 points. the s&p lost 1% yesterday. and then a look at the nasdaq, losing yesterday 1.7%, upped today right out of the chute 1.3%, up 155 points. and talking of big tech, let's take a look at those names for you. almost all in the green. microsoft, apple, meta, amazon, only alphabet down half a percent. all right. as we look at these stocks, gotta begin with disney. they're cutting 7,000 jobs, all

part of their restructure thing plan. pretty interesting earnings call, right, susan, from bob iger. susan: well, first one back. and the reason why his predecessor, bob chapek, was kicked out was because of the last earnings call in november last year. 7,000 jobs, it sounds like a lot but really it's just 3% of disney's work force, because they employ 220,000 around the world. it's mostly about cost savings, as we know that these job cuts will cost them and will cut down on costs by clash 5.5 billion. -- $5.5 billion. as for the earnings, yes, they beat, reinstated their dividend so paying out shareholders once again, which i think is important, and then restructuring their company into three divisions of entertainment, parks and espn on its own. disney+ if actually lost over 2.4 million subscribers in the final three months of 2022, the first crop since its launch three years ago. now, they're blaming that loss of 2 million and a half, 2.5

million on losing india subs because of the loss of the premier cricket league rights. i wouldn't say that's a big loss, those aren't high paying customers that you had in india. parks division was strong. no one on the earnings call, which i thought was surprising, asked about nelson peltz who wants a seat on the board, but iger did admitted they did consider spinning out espn, but he said he prefers to keep it as a great asset for disney. several wall street price target hikes this morning, 120 to 140 for the sock. and i would say if you lose 2.1 million subscribers for anybody else, the stock would be down. ashley: that's probably very true. all right, let's move on. affirm. that's the buy now, pay later people. they also announced job cuts. the stock down 12%. susan: yeah. st the pretty terrible. this earnings was, shall we say,

not great? [laughter] they're cutting 500 jobs, 19% of the work force. and i think this goes to show that buy now, pay later does the not work in a higher rate environment. when you're paying 0%, yeah, that might be profitable. while they haven't made a profit in a long time the, i think throughout the entire company's history, but they're growing their users. in this environment it is not working, and earnings missed badly. they lost more than 20% in loss ares. losses ballooned by 20% more than wall street estimates. and then the i want to show you canopy. i think this is a company you visited in the past, correct me if you're wrong. ashley: yes. susan: they're cutting 800 jobs and closing the smith balls headquarters. they lost more money than expected despite the fact that you had more states legalizing marijuana use, and they're trying to drive themselves to profitability by cutting down on costs. ashley: yeah. they were operating i out of a building that used to be a chocolate factory.

and the local residents were very happy that, you know, canopy had taken it over, and now here we go again, another bust. susan: business changes quickly are. ashley: it sure does. companies reporting before the bell, let's begin with pepsi. susan: well, this company's been around for a long, long time, and they know how to do and keep up with the times. so they raised prices in line with inflation. we call this pricing power in the market, and that helped drive can their earnings to top wall street forecasts. volumes did go down, volume sales fell because they raised prices, but they're still looking at counsel-digit growth for doritos, cheetos and other grands, and the stock market, obviously, rewards it if you can make more money and raise prices in a higher inflation environment. tapestry, which is the owner of coach and other luxury goods, they beat on top and bottom lines, raising their earnings outlook for the year. if you can raise prices and people continue to the pay the high prices for those luxury items, you win in this type of market. hilton, which is the hotel

operator, beating on both sales and profit. and speaking of travel, i just want to show you wynn and mgm because they're both up significantly on a positive macao outlook. mgm missed on earnings, bigger losses, but they're saying vegas and macao are picking back up, and wall street's giving them the benefit of the doubt. ashley: chinese market so vital. let's talk about alphabet, susan. finishing down more than 7% yesterday after that, what, a.i. faux pas -- [laughter] any update to this? susan: i think there's more to that than just the faux pas. at its losses, at the bottom yesterday it was down $100 billion. now, alphabet can afford that since they're worth $1. 3 trillion, but some bad pr on that much-hyped chat bot called bard, and it's meant to compete with chatgpt which we know microsoft is incorporating in their new bing search engine. bard gave the wrong answer when

asked a question. bard said the telescope took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system. astronomers say that's wrong, it was europe's southern telescope that took the first photos in 2004. i can tell you most of the losses -- that didn't help, obviously, but it's an existential threat right now when you have microsoft, which is a bigger company than alphabet, being able to incorporate chatgpt, open a.i. and artificial intelligence into their search engine. bing may not be a large search player since we know that google has 90% of the market, but if they have the deep pockets against apple to replace google and chrome instead with bing in the future, that's pretty existential, i'd say. ashley: right. it could be a game-changer, for sure. susan: yeah. ashley: susan, just an update on this story, the ntsb releasing its final report involving a tesla in houston. there was speculation that the self-driving feature member

involved. was that the case? susan: yeah. this goes back to 2021, that case in texas where you had two fayal is in that -- fatalities. looks like the ntsb says it was because of alcohol and not because of the self-driving feature, so that's a win for tesla. and i'll talk about lucid which just offered $7500 rebates back to the their customers. ashley: very good. susan, fantastic stuff, as always. thank you. coming up, during his state of the union address it sure sounded like president biden was going to run for re-election. roll it. >> it sounds like you're running. >> i haven't made that decision. that's my intention, i think, but i haven't made that decision firmly yet. ashley: it's my intention. he'll be 82 if he runs in the 2024 election. and take a look at this op-ed. it reads: biden's middle class squeeze is hurting west virginiament. republican senator shelley moore capito wrote that and, guess what? she's here to tell us how right

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ashley: we are just over 12 minutes into odd the's session, and it's the all very positive, isn't it? the dow up 230 point, the nasdaq up nearly 1%, the s&p up more than half a percent. now this: pride president biden was questions about the presidential for a recession in the near future, so what did he have to say, lauren? lauren: he said it's not going to happen. watch here. >> reporter: so when people, gallup poll saying most americans think next year the economy's going to be bad, do you think there's going to be a recession? >> no. >> reporter: the year? >> no. or next year.

from the moment i got elected, how many of the pension permits -- experts were saying within the next six months there's going to be a recession. lauren: you know, he brushes away all the doubts, all the anxiety that come up in the polls, and he brushes it away with confidence, right? a muted voice but with confidence there. and, you know, he's cob convinced his legislative victories have delivered the benefits he promised. so stop caughting ming but americans say -- doubting me, but americans say you're so out of touch with what we're experiencing. ashley: yes, i think that's right. lauren, thank you very much. meantime the, vice president harris was questioned about the administration's low polling numbers. listen to her response. >> reporter: the president also facing a skeptical public. the majority don't think they're better off since he look the office. >> there's no question -- and, again, the president spoke about this, and it's the on his mind every day -- people are still hurting in america. a lot of good work has happened, but more work needs to be done.

>> reporter: we know the laundry list of what's been accomplished, but for many people the message isn't translating. what cocan you say to that and what are you doing about it? >> well, listen, i think that we have to the really understand that we went through an historic pandemic, and the effects of all that linger. ashley: hmm, interesting, isn't it? senator shelley moore capito, republican from west virginia, joins me now. the vp deflects and blames the pandemic again, but you know somewhat? poll after poll shows a majority of the american people not happy with the direction this country is taking. so is the administration in denial? >> oh, absolutely. i think the administration's in denial. you just have to go to the grocery store a few times and see how people are feeling about grocery prices that are up over 13%. go to the gas station and watch that the ability to fill your tank. obviously, you know, the president and vice president

aren't to doing that, nor would we expect them to, but that's what the american people are feeling every single day. their opening up their bill -- they're opening up their bill for the heat for the month, it's up 10, 20%. and, you know, it just takes away and it becomes the mying class squeeze -- the middle class squeeze which is what we see reflected in these polls of folks that are dissatisfied that direction the country's going and lack the confidence that they need to make those expenditures. ashley: i'm glad you used that expression because you have a new op-ed that says biden's middle class squeeze is hurting west virginia. you specifically call out inflation in this article. what are your constituents telling you? >> well, they're telling me the that they're feeling it, they're feeling and they're constraining buying, they're constraining their activities. and if you look, they're making choices between, you know, purchasing medicines and purchasing foods. they're taking on extra jobs.

they're staying up late at night worried about how they're going to meet these obligations. i mean, this is a real strain on many, many families. and i feel like listening to the's speech and listening to the vice president that they want to slough it off on the pandemic and, certainly, that was a devastating event, but we're living in the here and now, and i don't think that's where they are. ashley: yeah. it's such a tremendous disconnect. and when you listen to that speech from the president, you believe to his point we are strong, the state of the union is strong, but, you know, i speak to the people all the time, people come to me and ask questions and say, look, this is tough. everything is expensive, and this administration just keeps wanting to spend, and they're not seeing relief from inflation. and i'm sure you're hearing the same thing. >> absolutely. and they're tired of the spending. the regular, you know, constituents that i see every day, they're tired of the spending, and they're sort of

tired of the denial. you can't convince people that things are really great when they look at the bottom line at the end of the month and see they're either in the red or they're barely making it. and that's what's happening right now. so we need to unleash our american energy, we need to secure our borders so that we don't have to worry about hose issues as a lot of people are worried about. and we need to make sure that we have supply chains moving. i mean, the price of eggs is way up, the price of butter, you know, just staples. ashley: yeah. >> and i think that's where people are really, really hurting. even the price of food if you go out to eat hasp gone up between 8-10%. so at every turn there's no releaf. ashley: yeah. you're absolutely right, and i hear about it almost every cay. >> right. ashley: have to pay for it every cay when you go to the grocery store. senator, thank you so much for taking the time out to chat with us this morning. we coappreciate it. >> my pleasure. thank you. ash. ashley: thank you. by the way, a new study shows

which cities in the united states are the most rent-burdenedded. lauren, who tops the list? if. lauren:ed moody's says it's new york. 68.5% of household earnings go towards paying rent, that's more than double the 30% of your income that should go toward your housing. but look here, miami, fort lauderdale, palm beach all making the top five as being really expensive. let's show you the top ten. northern new jersey, boston the, tampa, san fran and orlando being expensive and, therefore, burden many on families trying to get by. how many households -- ashley: yeah. lauren: it's a big portion of housing, rent. lauren: 68% in new york -- lauren: i know, nothing's left e over at the end of the day, so you swipe your credit card. ashley: yes. lauren, thank you. coming up, kansas city chiefs' quarterback patrick mahomes fell

for a question about the game's halftime store, rihanna. roll tape. >> rihanna came out and said that you are the best quarterback ever. hearing that, how does that make you feel? >> makes you feel great. whatever rihanna says the like the gospel, so i'm glad she went with me for that honor. ashley: uh-huh. well, we're going to tell you what happened next, so stick around for that. meantime, sam bankman-fried is back in court. a federal judge says the ftx founder might be trying to influence the witness. we've got the very latest from the courtroom next. ♪ ♪

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ashley: sam bankman-fried back in federal court today after a judge rejected his request to modify bail conditions. star reporter connell mcchain outside the courthouse this morning. connell, what can we expect to hear today?

reporter: well, witness tampering is the term floating around but to be honest, we don't know exactly what to expect today, both sides the prosecutors and defense, agreed to skip this hearing all together, but the judge had other ideas so just moments ago, we saw sam bankman-fried arriving back here in new york today, walking in and going through security at the federal courthouse and he will be in judge lewis kaplan's courtroom for a short time after kaplan declined to accept a proposal that would have modified his bail condition and sbf has been living with his mom and dad out in california but he'd been in contact with employees from his companies, including a top lawyer for ftx and said he's said to have asked that company lawyer with the two could have a constructive relationship. the judge said that's dee signed to make sure they're dc sensorineural signed -- designed to make sure they're singing from the same hymn book and they stopped that contact by cutting off access to encrypted access

like signal but the judge said that agreement wasn't enough and wanted to see him in person and said the hearing was still on today and essentially that's why we're all hear today. the other issue that's come up ises sbf team appealed a different ruling from jumped kaplan that granted a request from a number of news organizations to reveal the names of two other people, other than his parents to guarantee his bail. the public has an interest to know who provided mr. bankman-fried with financial banking and particularly given his close relationship with leaders of the financial industry, investors and elected represent tyes. sot sbf team argued his parents have been harassed and these other people would be as well. that'll work it is way through the appeal process and we'll see how it turns out. today the main focus seems to be whether bankman-fried may have tampered, ashley, with one of the witnesses in the case against him.

we'll be following throughout the day. ashley: right. should be fascinating as always. connell, thank you. still ahead, ben domenech, georgia congresswoman barylaudermilk, sh sean duffy ad more. the 10:00 a.m. of "varney & co." is next. ♪ you'll always remember buying your first car. but the things that last a lifetime like happiness, love and confidence... you can't buy those. but you can invest in them. at t. rowe price, our strategic investing approach can help you build the future you imagine. we got the house! you did! pods handles the driving. pack at your pace. store your things until you're ready. then we deliver to your new home - across town or across the country. pods, your personal moving and storage team.

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