decreases in hours proceed actual outright falls in payroll employment. but on the other hand, that payroll employment number was kind of an outlier in january because you look at the ad the p survey -- d -- adp survey, when you look at the household survey and account for the fact that the household survey job gains were almost entirely driven the by -- the household suffer say actually showed really weak job growth. maria: okay. >> and i think with the payroll employment number, that was flat or by the fact that an earlier point of stephanie's -- maria: it's a good point. >> in december we didn't have as much -- maria: we gotta jump. thanks, everybody. market down 274. right to "varney & company" we go, take it away, ashley. ashley: thank you, maria. good morning, everybody, i'm ashley web interin -- webster in

for stuart varney. hundreds of angry residents of east palestine, ohio, gathered last night for a town hall meeting. they wanted answers over concerns of toxic chemicals, but they're saying they can't get any answers. not surprisingly, pete buttigieg was m. if i.a., apparently he was busy on twitter blaming the trump administration. senator ted cruz is calling for an investigation into the train derailment. he will be here in 15 minutes to talk about that and other issues. now, let's take a look at the markets, dropping in the premarket after another hot inflation report, this time the producer price index coming in higher than expected. and, oh, yes, fears about the fed and raising rates. the dow up -- down, it is down 282 points, down across the board 1% or more. bitcoin, meanwhile, surging this morning, hitting its highest level since august. all of this despite off ther talk of regulation from the government up to $24 the,400 on

bitcoin. meantime, residents in chicago ripping into mayor lori lightfoot for allowing homeless encampments inside chicago's o'hare airport. you won't believe the pictures. the mayor seems to, well, too busy to get reelected rather than confront this issue as well as surging crime. we'll get into that. as always, we've got a jam-packed show. guy benson, stephen moore, congresswoman claudia entheny and celebrity the chef robert irvine among many more. it is thursday, february the 16th, 2023. "varney & company" about to given. ♪ ♪ there's no time for the -- ♪ i just gotta get a message to you ♪ ashley: just gotta get a message to you from the bee gees.

sixth avenue, avenue of the americas, midtown manhattan as people go about their business this thursday morning. president biden may finally get that message out, he may address the nation about the flying objects that we have recently seen shot down. he's expected to speak sometime odd. that's all we know. it's all very vague. guy benson joins me now. guy, why has it taken joe biden so long to address the people about this ongoing issue? >> well, i think they're probably trying to figure out what to say, because according to the official story we have shot down now four objects, three of which the, the most recent three of which, we don't the know what they were. we blew things out of sky, we don't know what they are, we can't find them. today's thursday, the first one was shot down over alaska almost a week ago, still can't a find i. this is the story that they're telling us, so it would make sense they wouldn't put the president out there to update the american people if there are no con crease details to

update -- con concrete details. however, there's a growing number of americans who are really wondering are they telling us the whole story. i'm not a tinfoil hat guy at all, but it's a little bit hard to believe -- look, i understand the excuse, it's cold up there, the weather's bad, lake huron is very deep. we've gone through all the reasons why they say they have nothing for us, but we're also the most powerful military in the world9. we spend huge amounts of money on our military whats i the every year, and you're telling me that we have absolutely no idea what we were blowing out of the sky three separate i'ms? it's just a little bit hard to believe. so look, i welcome a message from the president. i just want it to be a truthful message that updates us with actual new, gleaned information rather than just, like, a rehash of what we've been hearing from john kirby from the podium for a couple days in a row now. ashley: right. you know, the longer you leave it, the more the conspiracy theories grow in number and

size. but i want to move on to this one, guy. nikki haley held her first rally and now, apparently, the media's flipping out over her presidential bid. watch this, i'll get your comments. >> she talk thes about her indian-american heritage, but she focuses on her con version to christian i. she's definitely trying to fit in. in the end, everything she tries to say about being an alternative the trump, no, she's not. >> you'll see the inconsistencies, you'll see that these statements and many of her positions ring hollow. >> she's alienated the hard core trump supporters by running, and yet she has flip-flopped so many times on donald trump. ashley: you know, among the most outrageous comments there, guy, was the fact that she's turning her back on her indian heritage by using her name nikki and that she's just trying to fit in. why is there such angry and vitriolic response to nikki haley's candidate -- candidacy?

>> i think republicans are used to vitriol. i think republicans and conservatives who aren't supposed to be republicans or conservatives based on left-wing identity orthodoxy have a special form of orthodoxy reserved for them. talk to any of them, frankly, any of us, about that, it gets extra nas i. nikki is on her birth certificate, okay? she goes by her middle name. even if it wasn't one of her given names, who cares? assimilation is fine. getting along with people and trying to fit in, what's what human being -- that's what human beings generally do. i think she should be judged on her record and a couple of very important positions, how she performs out there on the stump as a candidate. the notion she's exactly donald trump is obviously ludicrous. i think there are some fair questions about her flip-flopping positions about the former prime minister. let her stand on her own feet and make the case for herself. some of this stuff is low but

unexpected. ashley: exactly. yeah, you know, if that's all they've got, her name, that speaks volumes. guy benson, thank you so much for joining us this morning, good stuff. >> good to see you. ashley: good to see you. former new jersey governor chris christie is throwing cold water, apparently, on a potential ron desantis candidacy. good morning to you, lauren. lauren: hey, ashley. ashley: how is mr. christie trying to criticize desantis? >> he says nobody knows who he is nationally. i'm quoting, none of us really know what he'll be like on the national stage. i'm sure as heck not going to worry about what ron desantis is going to do or not do because none of us really know who he is outside of tallahassee. i differ. look at what dethe sanities is doing. everyone's talking about. he's setting his legislate i depriorities in his state, anti-wokeness, pro-school choice. he's aiming for more abortion restrictions, so he's shaping a narrative for a potential

candidacy. the florida legislative session is over in may. i would say at that point he could put his name in the ring for 2024 which chris christie is also thinking about running. ashley: maybe a little bit of jealousy about mr. desantis there, we'll see. another one for you, lauren. congressman jim jordan is taking on big tech. he wants answers about how these companies colluded with the biden administration. who's he targeting in particular? lauren: he's chair of the house judiciary, and he sent subpoenas to the ceos of alphabet, apple, meta, amazon and microsoft. he wants answers on their communications with the executive branch from january 2020 to now. those answers are due march 23rd. two points i'm going to make here. i don't know if you remember in the, but back in december jim jordan also requested documents. then it was voluntary. this is a subpoena. it marks an escalation in how house republicans are going after big tech for free speech

collusion. and the second point is who's not on that list? elon musk and twitter because jim jordan says, well, musk just released the twitter files, and he says those are, and i'm quoting, a benchmark for transparency. ashley: that is true. all right, lauren, thank you very much. want to get back to the markets and the futures suggesting we're going to have a lower open in about, what, 22 minutes from now. there you have it, the dow off 281 points in the premarket. let's bring in adam johnson. adam, great to see you this morning. >> hi, ashley. ashley: you say inflation, we're over it, but i say back to you, adam, cpi, ppi, fyi are all very high. >> yes, they are. admittedly, ashley, there's no way to sugar coat odd the's ppi in-- today's ppi prices. it was a lot worse than expected. you can't sugar coat that. however, the previous month, december, was actually the largest decline in two years.

so you average the two, and it tells a very different story. and that's why economists tend to to look at a 3-month moving average. also i think it's important to note that while we're showing futures down anywhere from 1-1.5%, if you look at the bond market, ashley, the 10-year -- yield has only risen 2 the or 3 basis points. and if there it is, 2.3 basis points. so if the bond market actually thought that inflationing really were going to reverse and start trend thing up again, the bond market would be behaving very differently. so i think that's an important perspective. ashley: want to talk about the earnings too, adam. you know, you would say, what, better than expected? maybe not all the doom and gloom was overaccentuated perhaps? >> well, actually, i'm going to change that slightly, ashley. instead of better than expected, what i'm going to say is better than feared. which is kind of a curious way to think about it. but here is what what we've

learned thus far, about 80 percent of the companies in the s&p 500 have reported earnings. and while earnings are down about 1-2%, sales, revenues are actually up by a percent. now, that tells you you've got margin compression in there which isn't ideal, but we can live with that if sales, the money coming through the front door up 5%, i think that tells a very different story if you average all of what we've seen together. what we've found is that companies are beating both the earnings and sales estimates by about 1%. and that's why ist the actually better than -- it's actually better than feared, and i think that's one of the reasons why stocks have actually been rallying. if you drill deeper, you have to take a longer view of inflation and realizes the trending down as wages stop going up as much and as home prices come down. there's some things that we need to sort of dig down a little bit, and i know it can be confusing for people who don't do this every cay as you and i

do, but we're getting through it. ashley: right. we are, indeed. and and you always leave me feeling just a little bit more optimistic, so i thank you for that, adam johnson. thanks for joining us this morning. all right, coming up, president biden ache thing aim -- taking aim at republican plans to cut spending. listen. >> let's be crystal clear about what's happening. if you add up the proposals of my republican friends, it would add more than $3 trillion to the debt over 10 years. ashley: crystal clear? we're going to the need an economist on that one and, guess what? stephen moore is here to talk about it. senator ted cruz has found rare common ground with congresswoman ilhan omar. what? i'm not joking. the pair are calling for an investigation into the train derailment in ohio. we're going to hear from senator cruz next. ♪

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de-stress and feel your best with aerotrainer. ♪ ashley: lawmakers looking for answers after a train derailed in ohio and spilled tons of toxic material in the area. grady trimble is on capitol hill this morning. grady, what's the latest on? >> reporter: well, ash, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling for an investigation into the derailment. there are concerns about what the train was carrying, who knew as well as whether regulations on railroad companies are stringent enough. those train cars that derailed were carrying multiple cancer-causing chem chemicals and other skin and respiratorier e about thes, but the train didn't have to be classified as high hazardous. that designation would have required the train to reduce its speed and for the state to be alerted that it was passing

through. ohio governor mike dewine wants congress to investigate. >> governor dewine's exactly right, this train was not labeled as high hazardous. we're looking into why that was. that's likely a screw-up on the department of transportation side, and we're investigating that as we speak. >> reporter: senators j.d. vance and marco rubio are among a growing number of lawmakers calling out transportation secretary pete buttigieg for not going the east palestine personally and for not doing more to help the people there. buttigieg, on the other hand, tweeted he's constrained on some areas, seemingly placing some of the blame on the trump administration if for a rule change to train braking systems from back in 2018. either way, experts say the law needs to change. >> at some point in time, the excuses have to end, and people have to be safe. what happened in east palestine, it happened in youngstown the, it could happen in washington, d.c., it could happen anywhere.

and we've got to realize that, yeah, we've got to make some laws. >> reporter: the company who operated the rain the, norfolk southern, is facing several lawsuits filed on behalf of the people in east palestine. ohio's attorney general is also considering taking legal action against norfolk southern. ash? ashley: all right, grade key, thank you very much. grady trimble on capitol hill. senator ted cruz, republican from texas, joins us now this morning. good morning to you, senator. you have found some common ground with squad member ilhan omar. [laughter] that's a headline in itself. but both of you say there needs to be an investigation into this derailment. will you be able to get answers from secretary buttigieg? >> look, i certainly hope so, and we need to hear answers. what happened in east palestine is unacceptable. we should not have american cities that are hut on fire wita disaster. and for the residents there

dealing with the health hazards that have come from this, that's unacceptable as well. and so my staff is in close consultation with the ntsb that is doing an investigation into the accident can. i'm the ranking member on the senate commerce committee that has jurisdiction, among other things, over transportation. and i gotta say, secretary buttigieg has been nowhere to be found on this issue. i, you know, it really is a remarkable thing that he hasn't gone to east palestine to see what happened there, he hasn't come to to congress to explain what happened. for whatever reason, the secretary seems to fill his days with politics. i know he's got aspirations, but he actually has a day job. he has a job that he's been appointed to do that is incredibly important, and we need serious leadership focused on why the derailment happened and what common sense steps can be taken to prevent it from happening begun. ashley: i want to switch the conversation now if we can, senator, and talk about the

social media. you recently spoke with elon musk about the future of twitter. i'm fascinated to know, what kid he tell you? >> well, listen, he's come in and taken over twitter, and it is consuming much of his day. he's practically living at the office. and i've got to say the fact elon musk spent $48 billion to the acquire twitter is a big, big deal, and it's a big deal for free speech. because i have long believed the single greatest threat to free speech in america is big tech censorship. and the giant silicon valley companies have been moving further and further left, and they've been using -- abusing their power. they've been silencing the views of those who disagree with them, and i think we need to return to an environment that allows free speech, that allows everyone to speak. if you disagree with someone, great, stand up and say why you think the they're wrong. don't just use monopoly power to silence the views you don't like. and elon's coming into twitter

changed the terrain fundamentally because with the twitter files he's making public the internal e-mails, the communications from the biden white house, from democrat members of congress, from the fbi, from the cia, and it becomes clear, number one, how flimsy a basis these big tech companies have for banning someone, for dropping their posts, for shadow banning them. st the on flimsy political ground. and number two, just how in bed big tech is with big government, how eager they were to do, to be the heavy, to be the censor on behalf of democrat politicians. and the fact that elon has gone open key mow know at twitter -- kimono at twitter, it's changed the other players because there's the every reason to believe all of them are doing the exact same thing. and so i've launched an investigation as the ranking member of the senate commerce

committee into big tech censorship where we are going to be devoting realtime energy and resources to examining, to documenting the abuses, the censoring, the silencing, to bringing sunshine and transparent city and hopefully to bring real accountability to this attack on our free speech. ashley: right. sunshine is always the best disinfectant, as they say. senator ted cruz, pleasure to speak with you this morning, senator. thank you so much. >> thank you, ashley. ashley: let's take a look at concern the thank you. let's take a look at the futures. we know that inflation on the wholesale level is also running hot. that's got investors pushing the sell button in the premarket. the dow off 304 points. let's see how it all works out, because the opening bell is coming up next. ♪ go on, take the money and run ♪ good luck.

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of raw goods in the open market. the biggest jump since last june. i mean, okay, it's just one report, but how concerning is this? >> bad news because if the traject9ly is back higher -- trajectory is back higher, that means yields will probably go to 4%, that's real yields, and it'll force the hand of fed even more who, by the way, keeps talking tough. of i've been calling them on that the, and they may just be who they are at this juncture, and that's probably bad news for the market. i have to tell you coming in european markets have been yearly high, some at all-time highs. the nasdaq's been doing better, this may put a pork in it right now because -- fork in it right now because the bond market yields have been a correct correlation -- district correlation -- direct correlation the way the market's been going. ashley: yesterday the markets actually managed to eke out some

small gains which led some analysts to say, you know what? this rally still has legs. but because in the latest report or -- this latest report kind of pop the balloon a little bit in. >> it definitely could. as i said, yields, yields, yields. but on the economic front, they just came out with a manufacturing number that's not e registration concern recessionary, but it's depression. you get strong numbers on gdp, you get great job numbers and then you get manufacturing and service numbers that have been pretty bad. so i don't know which way it's going on the economy, but i'm a big believer just watch the markets. they've been acting pretty darn well as of recent. today and the next couple of days could be very important for a rally. i think risk on started just on january 6th. ashley: that all said, gary,s the confusing, it's difficult to interpret. what in this market do you like as a buy? >> before today i was loving how the nasdaq was acting, and if we

would break above the last couple of weeks, we would get another leg up. but as i said, this type of news concern and, yeah, news will move things -- could stick a fork in it pretty quickly, and i urge everybody just keep watching the 10-year yield. we're above 3.8 again, if we head into the 4s, i gotta believe that's headwinds. ashley: well, we'll have to wait and see. a recession? >> not yet, but eventually. too much debt and deficits, it's a guarantee down the road. ashley: yeah. there you go. managed to get that in. gary kaltbaum, thank you so much. great to talk to you this morning. and here we go, the thursday session just about to get underway as they smile and wave. take their pictures on their phone and, boom, we are off and running. we're expecting to be down from the very get go, and how about that? down 283 on the dow, about eight-tenths of a percent.

and this is, of course, on the back of this very strong ppi number. the wholesale inflation up 0.7%. that was above estimates and the biggest jump since june, as we were saying. taking a look at the dow the 30 board, it's basically all red except i think that's easies coe in the top -- that easies coe in the top left-hand corner. premarket suggested the s&p would be down # %, and that's exactly what we are. 4102. and let's take a look at the nasdaq, more sensitive perhaps, this index, to rates especially on the 10-year yield. that is down, the nasdaq down nearly 1.5, down 171 points. and talking of big tech, let's take a look and, oh, yes, down across the board. apple down 1%. alphabet, microsoft, amazon, meta all down. in fact, meta down 2.3 3%. all right. lots to digest. susan li is here to help us. let's begin with tesla, susan.

model y being sold out in the u.s.? susan: yeah, surprising because tesla was actually up in the premarket before those producer prices hit the tape. model ys have sold out for this quarter already according to one report. now, if you want the crossover and these suvs, you have to wait from april to june to get your hands on a model y. remember that tesla cut their global prices for these models by 20% here in the u.s., 13% in china, its two biggest markets. they have since raised prices back up by $1,000, and this is after the treasury raised the cap on evs that are eligible for that $. 7500 tax break up to 80 grand. you have reports that tesla has now fired a few dozen of of the employees in that buffalo autopilot plant that's trying to unionize. the stock is up 70% so far this year with, doubling your money since the lows in december and

you have elon musk killing those shorts. he's tried to short this stock so far this year. we're only eight weeks in. ashley: ouch. that's true. let's get to cisco, i think that was the lone gainer on the dow 30 and, yes, it's the up nearly 4%. solid earnings,tive end hike, right? if. susan: raising by a penny, is not a huge increase. still a dave the tend yield, and this is what stu and others look at. a dividend yield by 3% which is almost double the s&p 500 average, right? cisco was the apple of its day 20 years ago, the biggest stock during the dot.com bubble days before it burst. they're still network equipment making, sales before better to end last year, and they raised their guidance. twilio, the cloud communications company that helps you make the calls to find your with uber driver on the app if you're lost, billion dollar stock buyback here which, of course,

is financial engineering that usually lifts the stock price. twilio seeing a 17%, 1500-person layoff earlier this week. ashley: very good. let's take a look at roku, the streaming company. big rally apparently. yes, look at that, up 11%. what's behind that? susan: so narrower losses at the streaming set-top box maker. sales did better, and you have 100 million u.s. citizens using roku's set-top box to stream whether it's the netflix, disney+ if or whatever. that's up 20 million from a year ago, so these are staggering numbers. 87 billion hours that were streamedded of television last year. incredible. you know, roku's spending content in the streaming wars, they actually spent more so you have costs going up which might be the negative, but they are also cutting jobs or around 200, 7% of their work force announced earlier as well. on the flipside, paramount global, if you're the con end

the maker, you're going down. streaming not enough to overcome linear television declines and falling ad sales. paramount missing on profit and sales to end last year, but streaming kid well for them. we're talking about 787 million streaming d -- 77 million streaming subscribers. top gun: maverick helped drive sign i-up, but streaming losses widened to almost $600348, so you're losing -- 600 million. and every run car -- linear television the operator is facing falling fees in this changing environment. ashley: ouch. to down nearly 6%. let's talk about shopping. shopify, i think that's a big loser this morning, is it not? yes, down nearly 13. what's going on with them? what did the latest report say? susan: disappointing guidance for the number two e-commerce player here in the u.s. or north america, it's based in canada. much smaller losses, better

holiday shopping period sales, but you still had sales slowing overall last year. that's never a good sign for a growth company. prices had to go up, and that actually helped buoy stock price or at least put a floor to it. and if they're trying to compete with amazon's buy with prime if service, and we know amazon has about 40% of the e-commerce market here in north america. went through a layoff round of 10 percent in the summer last year, and that's trying to preserve cash, but every tech company is going through that right now. ashley: we talked about bitcoin at the temperature of the show, hitting -- top of the show, hitting its highest level since august 1st. e guess you can say all the talk about regulation not exactly frightening investors. susan: so there are two reasons for this bitcoin rally, it was an $85 billion rally so far during that period. also the best monthly rally that you've seen in two years. you know bitcoin's up 49% year, outperforming even the nasdaq

benchmark which is up 16%. of course, you have the naysayers, charlie munger who says he's embarrassed that lives in a country that still hasn't banned bitcoin. cryptocurrency is for idiots, as he says. [laughter] but the reason why bitcoin and cryptocurrency is up, this translates into these growth technology plays. there's a short positioning, first of all, short squeeze. people were so negative at the end of last year, so now they're playing catch-up with all these gains. also tax loss harvesting which stu will tell you about. so they capped their has ares to bring down their tax obligations last year, and then they're buying it back, back into their portfolio. so that's the same thing with tech and growth stocks as well, why the nasdaq can and the broader markets have outperformed. ashley: fascinating as always. susan, thank you so much. appreciate the summarizing all of that in such quick a amount of time. lots to talk about there. coming up, nikki haley kicked off her presidential campaign, and she's taking aim

at the, quote, permanent politician. listen. >> the permanent politician will finally retire. we'll have term limits for congress and mandatory mental we end ten city tests for politicians over 75 years old. [cheers and applause] ashley: ah. is it time for the country to see a new generation of leaders? we'll get into it. four congressional farmers all agree about what ease raising prices on their farms, but they all have a different idea on exactly how to fix it. so what because one california congressman want to see happen? we're going to find out, because he's here next. ♪ muck. ♪ ♪

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ashley: all right, president biden -- despite the country nearly going bankrupt or at least the debt suggests that -- he's trying to tout the success of his economic policies. all right, lauren, come in here. what is he saying? lauren: he is saying that the everything is fantastic. watch here. >> here's the bottom line. my economic plan is working. it's reduced the deficit. it's fiscally responsible. we got more work to do, but we're making a lot of progress. families across the country are starting to breathe again. a. lauren: well, the deficit did drop to $1.4 trillion because the government covid benefits expired. the cbo predicts the deficit will nearly double to clash 2.9 trillion in 10 years' time, by 20 to 33. and with that, the interest we pay as a country on investing that will equal 3.6% of our entire economy also by 2033.

so i would say, ashley, we do have more work to do. and that's part of the argument right now, right, between kevin mccarthy and republicans are saying we're not going to just increases the debt limit clean without seeing spending cuts accompany it. ashley: right. and i think that sounds very reasonable. all right, lauren, thank you very much. let's take a look at this headline, if we can, from "politico." four of congress' farmers weigh in on how to solve high food prices. one of those congressmen, doug lamalfa, joins me right now. good morning to you, congressman. as a farmer, what's driving up costs for you and then, ultimately, for the consumer? >> well, it really started a little over a year ago, year and a half ago with fuel prices going through the roof like it's affecting everybody else, families, businesses, what have you. when the cost of keyes el, for example, for my farm more than counseled, then you've got to the make up for that somewhere.

and so that also not just for the diesel i use in my tractors, combines and trucks, but everything that's delivered to you, your seed, your fertilizer and then taking it to the mill, taking it to the store shelves. those prices all skyrocket as well as inputs such as making fertilizer. a lot of times it uses energy as well. so that's one. second we have a regulatory the problem where they just keep adding more and more on the backs of they're taking our trucks away, they want to take our vehicles away. california, they want to get rid of the trucks starting january 1 because they want cleaner vehicles and such, and they're going to keep forcing in the electric vehicle mandate, and electric vehicles don't work. i just came from the ag expo in central california, and they're messing around starting to try to figure out how to electrify tractors and things like that. that's not going to the fly on what you see there. so these costs drive up, they want to take what's called waters of the united states,

they want to control every drop of water that falls on the ground, and it goes in my irrigation kitsches that my grand parents before -- ditches that my grandparents before me created. ashley: what's the fix here? way you're talking, it seems we're not going to see prices come down anytime soon. >> it's the getting agriculture production back underway, because here in california, flex, we grow -- for example, we grow semi of the crops that americans consume, 90%, almonds, tomatoes, so many crops, i can't even list them. i'm i'm constantly doing it on floor speeches in the house in order to show people on the east coast, why because water in california matter to you? because if we don't have it, we're not going to grow these crops. if we don't the grow it this year, you're not going to eat it next year after this crop year's over, last -- [no audio] ashley: oh, we lost him. we lost him.

it was just right in the mud ifing of that, but anyway, we got the bulk of that, ask we know consumer prices are high because farmers are having to pay high prices as well. thank you very much, congressman, even though you can't hear me. now this: clean areup efforts in ohio still underway. you know, lauren, what's the governor dewine there saying about it? lauren: well, he says that the latest air and water tests show everything is safe. here is governor dewine. >> -- brought the people in who test the air throughout in the air has been good -- this, the air has been good. you know, initially we told people within a mile radius that they should leave. then after we had the controlled emission that took place, we waited until that air was, again, clear before we announced that people could go back. lauren: yeah. martha grilled him yesterday,

ashley. this is about trust. you know, they're saying everything's safe, but you feel sick. so circle the square. ashley: yeah, exactly. i don't know whether it fills me exactly with a lot of, well, confidence, let's put it that way. we'd like to see mr. buttigieg come in. anyway, lauren, thank you. coming up, congressman derek van orderren is heading to the southern border in the morning, he's here to talk about it. new york city is considering allowing some city employees to work remotely again, i guess. mayor eric adams is flipping his strong sans on concern stance on making sure people weren't just staying home in their pajamas. new york congresswoman claudia tenney will react to that. stay with us. ♪ new york, new york. ♪ i want to the wake up in that city that doesn't sleep ♪

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how quickly and how easily it came off, how much better i felt, what a change it made so fast. i feel like anything is possible after accomplishing what i've done with golo. ashley: all right. now let's take a moment to celebrate diversity. our very own christina coleman

takes a look at the life of thur good marshall, the first black justice on the u.s. supreme court. take a look. >> reporter: thurgood marshall was the first black justice on the supreme court. but in 1930 he was rejected from the university of maryland school of law because he was black, and then he attended howard university law school. as a practicing attorney the, mar hall worked on brown v. board of education of topeka, the landmark case that integrated public schools n. 1934 he began a 25-year affiliation with the naacp, later serving on the national staff and representing the organization in many cases. in 1967 president lynn con b. johnson successfully nominated marshall as associate justice to the supreme court. marshall retired during the administration of president george h.w. bush and was succeeded by clarence thomas. thurgood marshall argued 32 the cases before the high court,

more than anyone in history. he ultimately won 29 of them. america together celebrating supreme court justice thurgood marshall. ♪ ashley: and fox, by the way, will continue to highlight the achievements of influential black americans throughout the entire month of february in celebration of black history month. all right. now on to this issue, as chatgpt continues to the explode in popularity, questions are being raised over exactly who is behind this a.i. platform. lydia hu has been doing the background, the research and tells us who it is. who is it, lydia? >> reporter: hi there, ashley. chatgpt was developed by a san francisco-based company called open a.i., it formed in 2015 when sam altman teamed up with elon musk and linkedin cofounder reid hoffman. their goal, to develop artificial intelligence that benefits humanity. but now there are accusations of

left-leaning political bias. for example, according to the daily mail when chatgpt was asked to write a poem praising former president donald trump, the chat bot refused. but it was able to generate a poem of admiration for president joe biden. then here's another example if for you. when asked to write ten paragraphs in support of fossil fuels, the chat bot said, quote: i'm sorry, but i cannot fulfill this request as it goes against my programming to generate con end tent that proconcern contents that promotes the use of fossil fuels. now altman recently acknowledged problems with the a.i. technology tweeting, quote: we know that chatgpt has shortcomings around bias and are working to improvement -- improve it. but the statement comes, ashley, as evidence comes to life about altman's own history of political donations supporting democratic candidates both nationally and locally. according to public filings, altman has donated more than a million dollars to democratic

candidates and organizations. now, those donations fall in line with the trend in silicon valley. you can see here political donations of employees of the most influential tech firms overwhelmingly supported democratic candidateses for congress in the midterms. now, all of these findings, they are concerning as microsoft recently acquires chatgpt to incorporate the a.i. technology into its search function, taking this potential bias from generating an essay on demand to now possibly weaving it into our internet search results. ashley. ashley: i don't think the bias is that surprising. lydia, fascinating stuff, thank you. still ahead in the show, new york congresswoman claudia tenney, ben domenech will be here and celebrity chef robert irvine. the 10 a.m. hour of "varney & company" is next. ♪ girl you amaze me. ♪ see all i want you to do is be

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