sure say someone is stupid but i kind of applaud this guy for being out there and really talking about what he wants and he's not afraid to say it so good for him. maria: and after all, brandon, we're talking about it aren't we >> yeah, absolutely. some great press for this pizza company i'm sure they are going to do a ton of business but it's just ridiculous. people get offended by absolutely everything these days let it go. it was a silly little banner and the labor market is so tough they have to do everything they can to bring in good employees to take care of their customers. maria: great to be with you, liz peek, brandon arnold, thank you so much for being here. look at this market as we were chatting the market is rallying at the highs, dow industrials up 242, s&p up 35, nasdaq up 142, 30 minutes before the opening bell. right to "varney" & company we go, stu take it away. stuart: good morning, maria, good morning, everyone. we have a lot to deal with. covid, the lab leak, musk, real change at twitter, inflation bites and you feel it, but you

know, it's monday morning and you want to know how your money is doing after last weeks stock market selling. that's a pretty good gain you're looking at right now going up for the last half hour specifically. we're up 250 on the dow, and up 150 on the nasdaq. i'll call that a modest rally after last week's big losses. interest rates though keep going up. that's what the fed wants and that's happening. the 10-year treasury yield at 3.91% this morning, still pretty close to 4% and the two-year getting very close, otherwise backed off a bit. it was close to the 5% level. you're still low at 4.77 right now. as for politics we've got a blockbuster report in the "wall street journal." it says the energy department has started the origins of covid and concludes it most likely came from a lab leak from wuhan, china. when the pandemic began, many politicians and media insisted it started in the so-called wet market. there was name calling, if you

said otherwise. we're into this one. a new fox poll shows how we are all reacting to inflation. 57% of it say we have less money 78% say the economy is only fair or poor. president biden way under water on the economy among democrat republicans, and independents. and there are several elon musk headlines. pick the one you like. today, the most important one is more layoffs. now not just any old layoffs. 200 of them among project managers and data scientists. there is speculation that musk will bring in an entirely new team. monday, february 27, 2023 "varney" & company is about to begin. ♪

stuart: all right, um, that's " space cowboy" and there is a reason for that this monday morning. a planned spacex launch has been scrapped. good morning, lauren. why they call it off? lauren: it was called off two minutes before lift off imagine that. nasa and spacex are blaming tech any call issues "a ground system issue" basically they weren't sure the engine ignition fluid was fully loaded. four astronauts would have been the sixth crew transported to the iss by a spacex rocket. no word on when they try again. stuart: it was the sixth true of astronauts that would have gone up there? lauren: yes. stuart: i've lost track of all of this. real genuine human beings are going up there. lauren: a russian, american, all nationalities going up over and over again. stuart: we've got a new fox poll , dramatic stuff. among republican voters donald trump still holds a commanding lead as the top pick for the nomination in 2024. charlie hurt joining us.

you surprised to see donald trump way in front of ron desantis despite all of the good pr florida has been getting? >> no, i'm not and i think it's largely because the vast majority of american voters, republican voters, are not paying quite as close attention as you and i are and a lot of us in our business. we sort of go through all of these details, all the time, and but i think what that poll really does show is that, you know, ron desantis is a very bright future for the republican party, but voters are not done with donald trump. donald trump remains far and away the guy that commands the republican field by double-digits. stuart: do you think if donald trump were nominated by the republican party he could win? >> absolutely. i think without a doubt. i think that again, going back to the point i just made, which is that, you know, we have a tendency to get so caught up in our debates about donald trump

and our debates about the field and obviously, because it's our job. it's what we do, but the large majority of americans do other things. they have other important serious jobs keeping the country running and doing the things that they do, and so they aren't sort of in the weeds of all of this stuff the way we are, and when they look back and they look at the past two years versus the four years before that, and if you take the political mailstrom that went on in terms of their daily lives and how things, how the country worked for them, america's standing in the world. all these things, it was much better in that four years donald trump was there. grocery prices were lower. gas prices were lower. we had four years without him starting another war, without getting into another war. all of those things are the things that most people remember, and when you look at the last two years, people, you know, and it's reflected in joe biden's approval numbers.

they're not very happy with the last two years. stuart: let's talk the issue of age. president biden says concerns over his age are legitimate. roll tape. >> let me ask you about a conversation that people are having at home. both your supporters and your critics, they know that if you're re-elected you be 82 when you're sworn in. you be 86 at the end of your term. is your age part of your own calculation into whether to run again? >> no, but it's a legitimate for people to raise issues about my age. it's totally legitimate to do that, and only thing i can say is watch me. stuart: all right, charlie. may i just put my opinion in here. i don't think he can run and if he did get the nomination he wouldn't win. that's my opinion. what's yours? >> i couldn't agree with you more. i think without a doubt, you know, unfortunately for him, people are watching and they don't like what they see. it's reflected in the poll numbers and obviously, you know, the 2022 americans didn't turn

out the way a lot of us expected but that doesn't mean the dissatisfaction isn't out there. the dissatisfaction is out there , and it's going to come out in an election and i think it's going to come out in the next election. the voters clearly blame joe biden for a lot of the problems that are going on in the country and you can't separate age from it and again, the number to look at there is if you think he's having trouble now, what about when he's 86? not when he's 82. when he's four years shy of being 90 years old and i love old, wise people, but do you think he's going to be better at this then? stuart: charlie, i think you've made your point. thank you very much for being with us this monday morning, charlie hurt. there are three republicans who have formally officially announced their candidacies. have we heard from anybody else at a possible 2024 run? lauren: south carolina senator tim scott dropping hints he's focusing on a message of

positive it. >> my focus is still on the mission of making sure that every single person believes that the american dream is achievable for them. the fact is that the left is trying to sell a drug of victim hood and the narcotic of despair. the truth is that we have so much to celebrate and yet, today , in many parts of the country, you feel like you're in quicksand. lauren: drug of victimhood. he wants to stop the cancel culture. former vice president mike pence says he'll make a decision by spring about whether he will run , and then nikki haley. she's hammering home, she is running of course that americans want a generation change. she says biden's last days are ahead of him because americans are fed up with high debt and high crime and poor education, and then she spoke extensively on foreign policy to maria bartiromo, and she says look, we have our enemies and it's time we stop giving aid to our enemies. we just keep funding them. no strings attached no questions

asked. stuart: we still talk about it but 2024 the election is a very long away. lauren: we have cpac this week, with a lot of potential candidates. stuart: we better get to the markets lots of green. it's a modest rally in the early going this monday morning. do investors see a chance for a rally in the second half? lauren: yes, i think it gets pushed back a little bit, now maybe to june. that's when the fed is expected to stop hiking rates. the terminal or the peak rate is seen at about 5.4%. the question is can an economy handle 5.4%? i've heard even higher. larry summers was speaking friday and over the weekend. he says the chances of a soft landing are starting to recede a bit. stuart: all right i want to bring jeff sica into the show this monday morning because he bought tesla. he said he was going to buy tesla and i believe he did buy it at $103 a share. that was four weeks ago, five weeks ago? >> yeah, end of december, yup. stuart: okay, you still own it

or have you sold it? >> and again, i promised you and lauren a fruit basket because i only bought it because i said i was going to buy it on the show and i haven't gotten you a fruit basket so that's coming, but because the stock has gone up higher, the fruit basket has to be bigger, or i might have to buy you a tesla. stuart: so you're still holding it? >> i'm still holding it but things like elon musk jumping into every political controversy is a concern, and we have coming up what i consider the most important day for tesla which on march 1 they have their investor meeting which they are live streaming from the gigafactory in texas. we're going to hear about the future of tesla, and we're especially going to hear what they are going to do with this third generation, whether or not they are going to produce a more affordable electric vehicle, which is what everybody wants to hear, so it is a big day coming up. stuart: you're not selling yet?

>> i'm not selling yet but i'm going to listen very closely. stuart: you doubled your money. don't be greedy, jeff. >> i know and it's very hard to let it go and i saw it come down a little bit, but we'll see what they have to say. stuart: create or of the news papillary ore comic strip dilber t, his name is scott adams, he said that black americans were a hate group and white people should stay away from them. his comic strip has been dropped by most major newspapers because of that, however, elon musk, and he's coming into this conversation coming to his defense saying the reaction to adam's comments is because the media is racist against white people. this is a very difficult subject but you're talking about mr. musk. what's your opinion here? >> well he keeps jumping into these controversies and the fact that he's jumped -- this shouldn't be the hill that elon musk chooses to die on. as much as he loves free speech and i love that about him, he has to realize that he does hurt shareholders when he does this and it could affect the

stock. now, whether or not he continues to do this going forward, that remains to be seen but the fact that he does this right before this crucial meeting is surprising to me. stuart: we'll watch it for you. thanks very much indeed jeff sic a. good stuff. president biden seemed confused when asked if he had spoken to the mayor of east palestine. roll it. >> do you plan to travel there and have you talked with the mayor? >> i can't recall, i don't think i've talked to the mayor. i've talked to everyone else. i've talked to everyone there is to talk to and we made it clear that everything is available. stuart: all right we'll be following up on that and the energy department says the covid pandemic likely originated from a lab leak in china. covid is again a political issue and look at this , want peace with china? win the war before it begins. the offer of that peace is here to tell us how to do that, next.

♪ inner voice (kombucha brewer): if i just stare at these payroll forms... my business' payroll taxes will calculate themselves. right? uhh...nope. intuit quickbooks helps you manage your payroll taxes, cheers! with 100% accurate tax calculations guaranteed. your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel- nothing beats it. new pronamel active shield actively shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a gamechanger for my patients- it really works. (vo) verizon has the epic new phone your business needs on the 5g network it deserves. boost your team's productivity with samsung's fastest processor yet. switch and save up to $1000 on the new galaxy s23 ultra. now that's epic. on the network america relies on. born in 1847, formally enslaved, started buying land, was in the house of representatives. finding out this family history, these things become anchors for your soul.

say goodbye to multiple daily insulin injections with the new omnipod 5. the only tubeless automated insulin delivery system... that integrates with dexcom g6. automatically adjusting your insulin to help protect against highs and lows day or night. don't wait to simplify life with diabetes. get started today with no contract, and no commitment. go to omnipod.com for risk information and instructions for use. consult your healthcare provider before starting on omnipod. simplify diabetes. simplify life. omnipod.

stuart: the energy department is now supporting the theory that the covid-19 pandemic was the result of a laboratory leak in china. grady trimble on capitol hill. big tech tried to censor this story when it first came out. what happens now? reporter: stu, i'm not sure we'll get a mea culpa from those social media companies though most of them no longer consider the lab leak theory as misinformation. from the start of the pandemic until november of last year when twitter stopped policing covid misinformation, the social media company suspended 11,000 accounts and removed around 100,000 pieces of content. of course that changed when elon musk took over.

in response to the "wall street journal" report that the energy department now supports the lab leak theory with low confidence, musk tweeted sarcastically, " what, no way." >> the energy department conclusion is correct. clearly, this was a lab leak. the issue is whether sars co-v 2 the pathogen which causes covid-19 was engineered but i'm sure it was engineered as well. reporter: the jury is still out on that. senator tom cotton, though, who critics labeled as a conspiracy theorist for entertaining the lab leak theory early in the pandemic says being proven right doesn't matter. rather what matters is holding the chinese communist party accountable so this doesn't happen again. to that end, republicans in congress, particularly in the house, stu, are still digging into the origins of covid-19. stuart: grady trimble, thank you very much. despite the report from the energy department, the administration still claims there is no definitive answer on

covid origins. >> president biden has directed repeatedly every element of our intelligence community to put effort and resources behind getting to the bottom of this question. president biden specifically requested the national labs, which are part of the department of energy, be brought into this assessment because he wants to put every tool at use to be able to figure out what happened here, but right now, there is not a definitive answer that has emerged from the intelligence community on this question. stuart: let's bring in lee stein hour, a policy expert on china american relations. lee, do you agree with jake sullivan's assessment that there is no definitive answer? >> well you know, appreciate you having me on first of all. just a short while ago, even discussing this lab leak theory would have been considered a dangerous conspiracy theory and as you noted would have gotten you banned from social media but i think from the beginning,

anyone who looked at this objectively, anyone with common sense, you didn't have to be a china expert or an intelligence officer to see that the most likely origin was from a lab in wuhan, china. the epicenter of covid was in wuhan, right down the street was the wuhan institute of virgin galacticcology and other laboratories doing gain of function experimentation on coronaviruses. these labs also had a well- documented history of not following biosafety procedures so you don't have to be sherlock holmes to put the theses together to say this is a tremendous coincidence now is china ever going to give us definitive proof? no of course. they have buried the evidence. they have hidden the evidence and they will always deny but at this point the baseline assumption, the most obvious assumption really the only theory that makes any sense is that it came from the lab in wuhan, china. stuart: real fast here. you've wrote an op-ed.

want peace with china, win the war before it begins. all right, lee, how do you win a war before it begins? >> sure. so, art of war sends you famous ly said that all wars are won and lost before they are ever fought, so what we do today or don't do today as it relates to china will determine whether we win or lose in a potential conflict with china, and i'll give you one example where we are woefully unprepared is our defense industrial base. we can see this in ukraine, currently. we are running out of ammunition we're running out of weapons just from supplying ukraine. in war against china and say the taiwan straight, the studies have shown we would run out under our current industrial base in a week. many of our weaponry -- stuart: let me interrupt lee, for a second. what you're talking about is presumably a huge buildup in military spending which we aren't going to do certainly for the next two years. >> yeah, i mean, we absolutely,

it's not just the spending. i think it's how we procure our weaponry. how we work with our private sector. how we prepare, because right now, we have kind of a just in time manufacturing model with our defense industrial base, so we don't have stockpiles of weaponry. we have weaponry as needed for really peacetime production. it's just a matter of getting serious about the fact that we could be in a war with china in the very near future. stuart: won't be popular increasing military spending at this point probably won't happen lee steinhauer, hope to see you again. >> i appreciate it. thank you for having me on. stuart: china and russia, two nations cozying up to each other lauren, here is my question. what is the white house saying about china, maybe offering lethal help to russia? lauren: maybe, and the white house is continuing to warn china not to supply russia with lethal support.

here is national security advisor jake sullivan. >> we have not seen china yet provide military equipment to russia for purposes of fighting in the war in ukraine. we haven't seen it yet. we're continuing to watch. we'll stay vigilant as president biden said, but so far, we haven't seen it. i don't think it is in china's interest to do this. their weapons would in effect be used for the slaughter of people in ukraine, so i think it be ill -advised for china to move forward but of course that's a decision beijing is going to have to make for itself. lauren: sullivan did not specify what the consequences be if they did do that and then he was asked at one point. well if secretary of state anthony blinken communicated when he met with the counterpart in munich just a few days ago did he communicate what the consequences be privately? sullivan didn't answer that either, so we've been told china 's been warned but have they been warned? stuart: good question, thanks very much. check futures, please monday

morning. here is how we're starting out the week on the upside 200 up for the dow, 130 up for the nasdaq. the opening bell is next. ♪

a ballet studio, an architecture firm... and homemade barbeque sauce. they're called 'small businesses.' but to the people who build them there's nothing 'small' about them. that's why at t-mobile for business... you'll save more than $1,000 versus verizon. and with price lock guarantee, we'll never raise your rate plan. so you can keep your focus on toe-turns and making sure the sauce is extra spicy. at t-mobile, there are no small businesses. ♪

- "best thing i've ever done." that's what freddie told me. - it was the best thing i've ever done, and- - really? - yes, without a doubt! - i don't have any anxiety about money anymore. - great people. different people, that's for sure, and all of them had different reasons for getting a reverse mortgage, but you know what, they all felt the same about two things: they all loved their home, and they all wanted to stay in that home. - [announcer] if you're 62 or older and own your home, you could access your equity to improve your lifestyle. a reverse mortgage loan eliminates your monthly mortgage payments and puts tax-free cash in your pocket. call the number on your screen. - why don't you call aag... and find out what a reverse mortgage can mean for you? - [announcer] call right now to receive your free no-obligation info kit. call the number on your screen.

stuart: the futures paint a nice picture this monday morning. up, not a huge rally, but we'll take it what we got, 200 up for the dow, 130 up for the nasdaq. keith fitz-gerald with us now. keith, i want to talk microsoft and apple. now i know you've got your eyes on these two. let's start with apple. what's the word? >> well i think this is one of the most significant companies that ever was on the face of the earth, stuart, and people continually underestimate. you're talking about 2 billion installed devices something like $2,000 a second. how can you afford not to own this thing? stuart: yeah, but i mean, that's -- can you get , can they milk this for even more than they are milking now to increase their profit margin? you see what i mean? the stock goes up if you can produce the profit level and the

margin. >> i agree 100% and that is the crux of the issue but this is also exactly what people have underestimated, stuart, in my humble ppe. i might be completely wrong, there's always that but this is one of the companies people is simply bet against because they can't accept the reality of how much it's transforming our world they could not produce another iphone out there. they still already got 2 billion devices installed, licensing revenue, ai, big data. it's all coming. stuart: all right, what about microsoft? i see it's up three bucks this morning at 252. you like it, you buying it? >> yes, absolutely. i own it. hope to own more. same kind of thing here but this is on the corporate side talking about 91% or so of the fortune 500 using this company's products. you're talking about sticky contracts, same thing. medical data, big data, ai. they just unleashed chatgpt, which of course is a google killer so this is another one of the transformative companies people are underestimating. stuart: so should all small

investors have a piece of apple and a piece of microsoft in their portfolios? sit on it, hold it, and away you go. should everybody do that? >> well i tell you what. everybody is obviously different but in my advice be to ask yourself a question. is this a company are either one of the companies you'll kick yourself five years ago and say i had the chance to buy it and you didn't? stuart: [laughter] you could say that about a lot of stocks now couldn't you? >> yeah, that's very true. very true. stuart: all right keith keep it coming, please. we've got microsoft at 252 right now, apple still shy of 150, both of them up slightly. keith we'll see you again real soon. the opening bell is about to ring. >> [opening bell ringing] stuart: it's going to be i'm going to call it a modest-to- solid rally pretty much across-the-board. i'll see how susan will characterize it. >> yeah, i think that's about right. modest is a good word. stuart: to solid right? >> correct. stuart: we're off and running it's 9:30 eastern time on this monday morning. the dow has opened with a gain

of over 200 points that's a better than almost three-quarter s of 1% to the upside. can we see the dow 30? yes, we can. they are all up 29 of them are up. american express the other one is not yet open, so that's a very broad based rally you're seeing right there. s&p 500 is up .82%. right there, at 4,000. the nasdaq composite up better than 1% at 11, 500 and let's have a look at big tech all of them up this morning microsoft, meta, amazon, apple, alphabet to the upside, best gain is microsoft, i'm sorry meta has come back to 1.3% on the upside. >> there's a reason for that we'll get to it in just a bit. stuart: start with berkshire hathaway please. did they report a whopping great loss over the weekend? >> look at the stock it's a $463,000 stock but warren buffett, berkshire hathaway lost almost $23 billion but he says, in his annual letter, that that is 100% misleading, because these are paper losses because

of the worst stock market we've seen since the financial crisis, also throw in higher rates and inflation hurting some of the bottom line at some of the companies, but, he says, if you look at the operating earnings, which is the actual income that these companies make from running their businesses, selling stock, berkshire earned a record $31 billion last year, and that means that buffett grew his cash pile to almost $125 billion in cold, hard cash so he has dry powder to buy more companies if he thinks it's cheap. now berkshire bought back around $8 billion in stock and uses letters to take aim at democratic lawmakers for instance elizabeth warren and president biden, and he says that those have been critical of companies using their cash to buyback stocks, when you're told all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or the country or particularly beneficial to ceo 's listening to an economic i

lliterate or silver tongue demagog. stuart: i like buffett. >> well berkshire may buyback, although they have never paid out a dividend so not for you, but also musk would love to get some of that berkshire buffett money. did you see the tweet over the weekend? berkshire should buy tesla with $125 billion cash pile and it was interesting he revealed he had musk had a launch back in 2008 when tesla was only valued at $200 million. not $600 billion. so imagine if charlie monger and buffett and berkshire bought into tesla back in 2008. stuart: yeah, and charlie monger was in his 80s then. >> yeah, could have understood electric cars. stuart: tesla this morning, i think, is on the upside. can you show me, please? yes it is nice 3% gain there. we've got an update on the gigafactory in berlin and got this big investor meeting

march 1 on wednesday. >> that's right so that's going to be exciting, investor day so news i think is actually bumping up the stock today it's that berlin ramping up now to produce 4,000 cars a week. that's three weeks ahead of schedule and also quadruple what they were making in may, positive. we know the gigaberlin can make 5,000 a year so that's 10,000 a week, add to shanghai, freemont, austin, i think tesla is kicking on full cylinders there and this is part of tesla's trillion dollar run so shanghai came up faster than expected and investor day march 1 we're expecting more self-driving, autopilot, maybe more updates on the robot. stuart: he will say something for sure. what about the other electric car makers? >> these are the chinese competitors, lee auto reporting a doubling in profit, double the profit that wall street expected to end lath year, they lost for two straight quarters

but also upbeat guidance, delivery, sales selling high end premium electric cars and you've heard that elon musk say chinese ev makers will work harder, they work smarter and likely, if anybody is going to compete with tesla in the futurist going to be them. stuart: pfizer reported looking to buy a cancer drugmaker segan. that's a lot of money. >> yeah, so the journal is reporting this is obviously going to be $30 billion plus because it's already worth 30 billion they are a biotech that develops cancer treatments that targets hodgkin's and lymphomas. they also could possibly help, you know, pfizer the reason why they are on the hunt for some sort of acquisition is they are looking to offset a drop in $17 billion in sales from the covid vaccines, right? they are losing those patents and expirations by the end of this decade so you need to find another money maker there. stuart: i've got to get to meta because that's a big gainer this morning, up a nice 1.4% for a very big stock. is the ftc giving up their challenge? >> yeah, so you know meta the reason why they change their name is because they want to get

into the virtual world, right? the metaverse, so the ftc will let this purchase, this acquisition of a virtual reality start-up called within unlimited go through. so within unlimited wasn't a huge acquisition but they do make a popular fitness app in the meta world and virtual world with those goggles. stuart: does this app in the met a world you wear your goggles? >> i don't know if you actually get the calorie burn but anyway, so the point about the stock is up because look, meta we know has been up against the ftc, going up against tech companies making acquisitions you know that? microsoft, activision blizzard, so the fact they are letting this go amazon one medical went through that $4 billion acquisition last week that's positive. stuart: can i just ask one quick question. do you really see a future for this when you have to wear these goggles? if you have to wear goggles to get into the metaverse how many people will do that? >> we know adoption has been very slow and returning customer s. however, i think it all depends

on the user experience, and you know that apple's getting into the virtual reality world with their headsets $3,000 later on this year. they have to make it a more elegant, easy experience, possibly with glasses. stuart: you really do have to make it easier. not looking so ridiculous as walking along with goggles on >> can we talk about costco? that's my favorite story to talk to you about today. that 9.99 roast beef item that everyone is complaining, but 9.99 would you buy that if you went to cost o? stuart: probably. it's huge. i saw it. costco stock is down a fraction as of this morning. good stuff, susan. thank you very much indeed. coming up, prince harry, and meghan markle's popularity has hit an all-time low and camilla could soon be queen, not queen consort. i suspect that's a promotion. nigel farage is here with the royal roundup later. a new fox poll 57% of us have less money in our pockets than a year ago. can you hear steve moore yelling

i can. steve is here and he's 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. this isn't just freight. these aren't just shipments. they're promises. promises of all shapes and sizes. each, with a time and a place they've been promised to be. a promise is everything to old dominion, because it means everything to you.

hey guys, detect this: living with hiv, i learned that i can stay undetectable with fewer medicines. that's why i switched to dovato. dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment or replacing their current hiv-1 regimen. detect this: no other complete hiv pill uses fewer medicines to help keep you undetectable than dovato. detect this: most hiv pills contain 3 or 4 medicines. dovato is as effective with just 2. research shows people who take hiv treatment as prescribed and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit hiv through sex. don't take dovato if you're allergic to its ingredients, or if you take dofetilide. taking dovato with dofetilide can cause serious or life-threatening side effects. hepatitis b can become harder to treat while on dovato. don't stop dovato without talking to your doctor, as your hepatitis b may worsen or become life-threatening. serious or life-threatening side effects can occur, including allergic reactions, lactic acid buildup, and liver problems...

if you have a rash or other allergic reaction symptoms, stop dovato and get medical help right away. tell your doctor if you have kidney or liver problems, or if you are, may be, or plan to be pregnant. dovato may harm your unborn baby. use effective birth control while on dovato. do not breastfeed while taking dovato. most common side effects are headache, nausea, diarrhea, trouble sleeping, tiredness, and anxiety. detect this: i stay undetectable with fewer medicines. ask your doctor about switching to dovato.

whoa. okay. easy does it. we switched to liberty mutual and saved $652. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. with the money we saved, we thought we'd try electric unicycles. whoa! careful, babe! saving was definitely easier. hey babe, i think i got it! it's actually... whooooa! ok, show-off! help! oh! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

stuart: a new fox poll 57% of voters say they have less money in their pocket now than they did a year ago. edward lawrence joins us. these polls also show inflation and economy are clearly the top issues. that looks -- that's bad news for the president isn't it? reporter: yeah, exactly and also showing he's having tangible impact on american lives. right now americans more and more are under water when it comes to their finances, so are the poll numbers for the president at least on the economy. now, president joe biden and the white house sticking with the line that this president's in charge of a booming economy where the unemployment rate is at 50 year lows and workers are making more money.

now both of these are true, but what it doesn't tell you is that inflation not only eats up all of the wage gains, but americans are paying an extra about $3,000 to $4,000 a year for the same goods. >> despite the narrative that the democrats in washington and the media are trying to spin that president biden has been a huge success. his policies are successful and the economy is strong. the reality is that average working american is struggling and the average american who keeps up with things realizes that biden's policies are a disaster so i'm not surprised by this polling. reporter: the latest fox news poll is showing the lowest approval rating on the economy and inflation, 36% and 31% respectively. president biden polling a little bit better on ukraine but still under 50%. as far as the condition of the economy, 78% of registered voters say it's only fair or poor, so now president biden and everyone in his cabinet trying to remessage the economy.

>> in the united states, our economy remains resilient. year-on-year headline inflation has moderated over the past few months as supply chain pressures have eased and global imbalances have subsided, and at the same time, our labor market remains strong. reporter: so registered voters clearly from these polls are not buying what the administration is selling related to the economy, stu? stuart: edward, thank you very much indeed. stephen moore joins us this monday morning. steve, the top issue for voters is the economy and 78% say it's just not in good shape. bad news for president biden. bad news politically for president biden. do you agree with that? >> hey, stuart, good to be with you. by the way i'm not going to yell i don't yell, stuart. stuart: yeah you do. >> [laughter] but looking at those numbers those are really bad numbers for a president to have 78% only rating the economy as fair or poor. i mean, those are numbers that

are almost the flip reverse, stuart, of what we had under trump whereabouts 70% of americans rated the economy as good or great. ed lawrence put it better than i can that whatever biden is selling in his state of the union and the speeches by janet yellen, the american people aren't buying it because they aren't feeling the love, stuart. they aren't feeling it in their wallet. i said many times on your show over the last year that the average family is down about $3,000 in purchasing power. that's the reason, stuart, you've been reporting on this. the record credit card debt of americans. they have to dig deeper into debt to just maintain their standard of living. stuart: you wrote the following. when it comes to debt, joe biden is the $6 trillion man. has he actually accumulated $6 trillion in our national debt under his watch? >> so if you look over the next 10 years, so what i did is look at what the forecast was for the debt over the next 10 years when trump left office and where we are today, and yes,

unfortunately, the answer to that is about # $6.5 trillion has been added to the debt over that time span in just the two years that joe biden has been president. that's a pretty lousy record and for him to be running around the country saying that he is, you've heard him say this. he said i've cut the debt more than any other president. it's like what galaxy is he in? not even close to the truth. this means that it doubles down the importance of these budget negotiations that are going to happen, i don't know, sometime in the next few months on the debt ceiling and getting some kind of budget balancing plan. republicans have to hold firm on that. we need some way out of this debt crisis. stuart: what happens to the deficit in future years? is it going to run at a trillion a year for the foreseeable future? >> that's what the congressional budget office is saying. in fact, more than that. $1.5 trillion a year. now here is the problem in my

opinion and i'm kind of borrowing this line from our buddy larry kudlow. you know you need to cut the budget for sure but you need growth. you need growth in the economy, stuart. if you look at the 10-year forecast for economic growth it's about 1.5%. this is america. we can do better than that. we should get 3%, or 3.5%. we could do that with the right set of policies which by the way i'd say we start with producing $200 billion more american energy every year something we could do in a snap. stuart: yes, we could. steve moore always good. thanks for joining us sir and i'll listen to you yelling later do you remember these comments from dr. fauci? roll it. >> the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of the species from an animal to a human. stuart: well, now, the energy department says the pandemic most likely started from a chinese lab leak. mark will be here on that later

and tiktok create or outraged the left with her anti-woke twitter accounts and now she wants to spot predatory behavior at schools and she's here and she's next. ♪ i want candy, i want candy ♪

say goodbye to multiple daily insulin injections with the new omnipod 5. the only tubeless automated insulin delivery system... that integrates with dexcom g6. automatically adjusting your insulin to help protect against highs and lows day or night.

don't wait to simplify life with diabetes. get started today with no contract, and no commitment. go to omnipod.com for risk information and instructions for use. consult your healthcare provider before starting on omnipod. simplify diabetes. simplify life. omnipod.

municipal bonds don't usually get the media coverage the stock market does. in fact, most people don't find them all that exciting. but, if you're looking for the potential for consistent income that's federally tax-free, now is an excellent time to consider municipal bonds from hennion & walsh. if you have at least 10,000 dollars to invest, call and talk with one of our bond specialists at 1-800-217-3217. we'll send you our exclusive bond guide, free. with details about how bonds can be an important part of your portfolio. hennion & walsh has specialized in fixed income and growth solutions for 30 years, and offers high-quality municipal bonds from across the country. they provide the potential for regular income... are federally tax-free... and have historically low risk.

call today to request your free bond guide. 1-800-217-3217. that's 1-800-217-3217. stuart: florida governor ron desantis shedding a little more light on his feud with disney. what's he saying about his relationship with the former ceo , bob chapek? lauren: lines of communication were open, but they didn't quite see eye to eye. this is from ron desantis' memoire which is out tomorrow. he wrotes, we'll pull it up, as the controversy over the parental rights in education bill was coming to a head, chape k called me. he did not want disany to get involved but he was getting a lot of pressure to weigh in against the bill. desantis says he then told chape k, people like me will say how come disney has never said anything about china, where they make a fortune? but, valid point, he didn't back

down. desantis says he caved to the activist employees at the company, and then doubled down by adding some of the agenda that the activists wanted to the kid's programming. but ron desantis is also a father of three. his kids are all five and under. that was, he did not think that that was right, and then he moved to strip disney of its special tax district arrangement in florida because of it. stuart: okay, moving on from there. my next guest was the face behind the viral twitter account , of tiktok. that account raised awareness about the goings on inside america's classrooms and it sent left wide ideologs into a real tailwin, chaya raichik ran that account until she was docked by a reporter at the washington post. chaya joins me now. first of all you have a new children's book to help families spot what you call predatory behavior. tell us what is predatory woke behavior in the classroom? >> hi. it's great to be here.

so, one of the first thoughts of predatory behavior by activists or bad actors who want to sexualize children, turn down childhood innocence and confuse children about their identity is they have to cut out the parent so they circuit vent the parent and server the parent-child relationship so my book discusses that topic and it's a tool to teach parents and children how to spot that behavior and to be proactive to nip that before it can actually affect a child negative ly. stuart: it's really all about sexualizing children, isn't it? as a total outsider that's what it seems like to me. yeah, exactly so there are activists and in every institution. not just in the classrooms and they target children, their goal is to sexualize kids and that's what i've been calling out on my account over the past two years so the next step really was to write this book to give parents that tool, to counteract that. stuart: is governor desantis in florida, he's out front of this

more than most any other governor in the nation? >> yes, i would say yes. he passed the parental rights and education bill, curriculum transparency bill and he's seeking to those bills basically eradicate gender ideology from k -3 classrooms and passed the bill for surgeries and hormones which are really obviously harmful for children, and he's really been at the forefront of this. stuart: you're part of the pushback. are you winning? are you beginning to make an impact? >> yes. i believe so, yeah. we have seen similar bills being passed to ban gender firming care which is surgeries and hormones and in so many states in utah, texas, tennessee, oklahoma and there's only going to be more. the pushback is just starting and it'll pick-up a lot of steam over the next year or two. stuart: chaya raichik thank you very much for being with us today. >> of course. stuart: all good stuff. thanks for the book you'll use it. still ahead, miranda devine, california congressman darrel

issa, nigel farage and steve forbes. the 10:00 hour of "varney" & company is next. ♪ ♪ thinkorswim® by td ameritrade is more than a trading platform. it's an entire trading experience. with innovation that lets you customize interfaces, charts and orders to your style of trading. personalized education to expand your perspective. and a dedicated trade desk of expert-level support. . .

(vo) verizon has the epic new phone your business needs on the 5g network it deserves. boost your team's productivity with samsung's fastest processor yet. switch and save up to $1000 on the new galaxy s23 ultra. now that's epic. on the network america relies on. 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.

♪. stuart: good morning, everyone, boogie shoes, kc and the sunshine band. isn't that a beautiful picture, where is it? that is new york, of course it is. empire state building. i can see. i'm old but i can see it. it is a beautiful day. it will snow later on tonight. first snow of the year. lauren: finally. stuart: 10:00 eastern, straight to the money. the dow is up 285 points and rising slightly. the nasdaq is up 136. not bad. modest rally? i would say a pretty good rally this monday morning. how about the 10-year treasury