maria: welcome back. bit of a reversal of fortune, market was up about 900 year -- 100 earlier, now we're down 70. >> focus on timing. maria: final thoughts here. ann. >> i think it's those bonds we heard about them earlier today. maria: sean? >> i say i think we are stronger than china, and it'll be an opportunity to come together in a bipartisan way. i'm hopeful. maria: are you a boy scout? [laughter] >> no, i'm not. i was never a boy scout. >> i was. maria: okay. so was my brother. i was a girl scout. thank you so much. have a good day, everybody. "varney & company" begins now. stu, take it away. stuart: good morning, everyone. it is march the 1st, and there is a lot going on. first off, lori lightfoot has resoundingly lost her bid for a second is term as mayor of chicago. she came in third.

the top candidate is backed by the police union, he wants to hire a lot of cops and, better yet, he supports school choice. that election could have repercussions for other troubled cities. another government agency says the wuhan lab are was the likely source of covid-19. fbi chief christopher wray told fox's bret baier the chinese government has been doing its best to cover it up. separately, a house panel last night labeled china a major threat. the committee's chair says america is in an existential struggle with china. to the markets, a lackluster day for stocks so far. the dow might be down about 80, nasdaq down maybe 30 points. little change for interest rates. we have the 10-year coming in, let me read it, it's at 3.95. again, pretty close to 4%. the 2-year getting closer to 5% at 4.83. as for the 6-month, 5.14. not a bad deal yielding over 5.

a big eventer for tesla, it's -- event for tesla. it's investor day in austin, texas. elon musk expected to reveal his master plan which will include a new plant in mexico and possibly an update on his robo-taxi project. who knows what he's going to say. the stock is up again this morning, up around 60% since january 1st. supreme court justices sounding skeptical about biden's $400 billion student loan giveaway. odds are they'll turn it down. union chief randi weingarten let loose a screaming rant. you will see it. is that what parents want from teachers? now we're learning what strings are attached to the government help for chipmakers. biden is turning the chip companies into woke social welfare operations. it's being attacked from all sides. government-run companies do not have a good track record. last one. prince harry wants an apology from the royal family, and this weekend he will live stream a session with his therapist.

the man who demands privacy sure spends a lot of time going public. [laughter] yes, it is march the 1st already, 2023. "varney & company," believe it or not, is about to begin. [laughter] ♪ ♪ ♪ hey, hey, hey, good-bye ♪ stuart: oh, good-bye. you know why we've got that song playing. good-bye, larry lightfoot -- lori lightfoot, which is where we have to start. lori lightfoot has lost her bid for a second term as mayor of chicago. lauren: it was bad, she came in third place, 17% of the vote. trailing paul valas and brendan johnson. so no second term for mayor lightfoot. 83% of chicagoans voted against her. that's unbelievable.

crime, that was the number one issue. paul valas made public safety the centerpiece of his campaign, he called it a civil right, and he said he wants to hire more police and create a case review department to review progressive prosecutor kim fox's decisions about disregarding misdemeanors over and over again. the guy who came in second, brandon johnson, he's the progressive candidate, a former teacher, he formally called for defunding the police, but he walked that back while campaigning. that sends a message to other democrat cities with high crime that liberals feel unsafe too. so this race will go to a runoff, and that is april 4th. stuart: implications for other big cities, i suspect. lauren, thank you. we've got to get this in, teachers union president randi weingarten just melting down over the supreme court student loan hearing. you've got to watch this. roll it, please. >> during the pandemic we understood that small businesses were hurting, and we helped

them, and they didn't go to the supreme court to challenge it. could when it's about our students, they challenge it -- all of a sudden when it's about our students, they challenge it, the corporations challenge it, that is not right, that is not fair! [laughter] lauren: like i yell at my kids. [laughter] stuart: do you want to see, do parents want to see teachers behaving like that? this is my opinion, she wrecked the public school system. >> yeah. she basically stands the up for the union, she does not stand up for students or parents. and i agree with you, she was one of the loudest voices calling for schools to be shut down. probably nothing has ever happened to our children in this country worsen than shutting down our schools for almost a year in some places. huge learning losses and everything else. look, this student loan forgiveness thing is unfair to the 63 percent of americans who didn't go to college, unfair to

people who did and paid off their student loans. i'm quite sure that this supreme court will take the same approach they did in west virginia v. epa which is the executive branch has limits. you can't just dole out $400 billion to get votes, which is basically what this is all about, and randi weingarten has no say in this. it is an inmed bl -- incredible moral hazard, i think, to forgive people's loans. we're seeing a ramping up of credit card debt. six months from now are we going to say, wait a minute, we should be forgetting credit card debt? some activist was calling economic enslavement. this was debt that people knowingly went into. a penn-wharton model, study showed that i think 72% of the debt, student debt held is people in the top 60% of our income -- it's wealthier americans. it's absurd to have this woman

ranting and raving like a banshee about this. stuart: but it's an opportunity for republicans to point at randi weingarten, point at the failure of the public schools and make exa major issue. -- education a major issue. >> i totally agree. and we've seen it work. glenn youngkin, obviously, rode that horse very successfully to become governor of virginia. i think it's going to be a big, big issue in 2024, and republicans own this issue. stuart: it ought to be. >> exactly right. stuart: liz, you brought the fire, and we appreciate it. [laughter] another important government agency supports the theory that covid originated in the wuhan lab in china. the head of the fbi is saying this, right? lauren: yeah. christopher wray. he pointed the finger right at china, and it's the first public confirmation of the fbi's classified assessment. listen. >> the fbi has, for quite some time now, assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in wuhan.

here you're talking about a potential leak from a chinese government-controlled lab that killed millions of americans, and can that's precisely what that capability was designed for. the chinese government seems to me has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here. lauren: okay. so the fbi says they have moderate can have of the lab leak transmission. the energy department says they have low confidence. either way, the findings expose the obfuscation of china in helping to root out and prevent transmission. so who can say that this isn't going to happen again? stuart: they're covering it up. lauren: there's information that could have saved the lives of millions of people around the world if it was addressed early on in the proper way. stuart: i think we've got at least one democrat congressman calling out the administration -- lauren: yep. stuart: -- about their response to covid. who is it in. lauren: not only a democrat, a democrat from california,

congressman sherman, and he completely rips the administration and the state department. watch here. >> state department has done almost nothing to tell the world how china's responsible not maybe for the virus, but certainly for their obfuscation and failure to cooperate afterwards. lauren: like i said, lives could have been saved. so you have this glowing chorus of officials -- growing chorus of officials saying china is bad, and then you have the administration that appeases china. we heard from the state department spokesperson, ned price, and he won't even say when asked if there will be consequences for china repeatedly refusing to work with covid investigators. stuart: biden constantly plays down china. lauren: i understand not wanting to ruffle feathers, but everybody's feathers have been ruffled, and there's bipartisan agreement that something needs to be done. stuart: for the last nine minute, we've done politics. we're going to do markets.

futures on the downside, not a huge loss. down 90 for the dow, 40 for the nasdaq of leo kelly back with us this morning. all right, leo, how long do you think 6% consumer price inflation will last? because that's what the market wants to know, i think. >> i think it's going to last a lot longer than people are giving it credit for. there seems to be this swelling group of investors that are rooting for inflation to come down, but i don't think that's realistic. at the end of the day, the fed is pushing rates higher, and they have made progress, finally woke up to the fact that this isn't transitory. but i think this is stickier than people believe. i think inflation's going to be persistent, gonna stay higher for longer. because what we still haven't done is reduced the supply of money in the system. we've raised rates, but we just threw all this money in the system in covid, and that money is still there. as long as it's there, inflation's going to be trouble. stuart: it's -- i keep calling it a sort of go-nowhere market with an emphasis on the downside

at the moment. in that kind of market, tell we how i can make some money. >> well -- [laughter] stuart: that's what you're here for. >> you make money with volatility. this is a more volatile market than we've seen in the past, and we are at the beginning of a secular change in the market, a multi-decade change. and that is interest rates consistently moving higher for an extended period of time. the last secular move was 40 years, stuart. and long before that, 40 years. stuart: i remember. >> so now we have in a rising interest rate environment more volatility, a more active buyer's market. and here's the key for investors if you want to make money, don't just hope it's going to go back to the way it was. it's time to look for new leadership in a rising interest rate environment. stuart: all right. leo, thank you very much for being here this morning, we appreciate it. looked at that, the yield on the 10-year treasury getting real close to 4%. coming up, chicago mayor lori lightfoot lost her bid for a second term. she's calling out "time" magazine for not featuring her

on the cover. senator graham says the administration's decision to withhold x-16s from -- f-16s from ukraine is, quote, beyond disappointing. if we do give them what they want, could they win? georgia congressman mike collins' family has run a trucking family for 30 years. he wants transportation secretary pete buttigieg to resign, next. ♪ yeah, it falls apart, you can count on that, you can count on that ♪

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edward laurent are has the story. -- edward lawrence has the story. what are the complaints about julie suh? >> reporter: first, the in about 15 minutes we will introduce or the president will introduce julie suh as his new pick for the labor secretary, currently the number two in the labor department and the head of the sei union say, quote, her background as a passionate civil rights attorney, proud daughter of immigrants and deep understanding of the department of labor perfect arely positions her to meet the moment. the leader of the senate also praising this pick. enter she's been on the front lines protecting workers as a veteran litigator for years from keeping -- from helping place workers in good high paying jobs to fighting doggedly to combat wage theft. julie learned the ins and outs of labor firsthand. i look forward to working with her on key issues for american workers. >> reporter: but there are more than one side to every story. republicans, specifically from the state of california, pushed

back against this pick. in a letter on friday, seven california republicans urged the president not to make this pick because julie suh oversaw the largest unemployment insurance fraud in california history. she was the state's labor secretary during the covid pandemic. investigations uncovered between $20-32 billion went to fraudsters. in suh's confirmation hearing for the deputy labor secretary in 2021, she argued it wasn't her fault because the fraud was part of a larger criminal conspiracy beyond california. meanwhile, 5 million people in california had legitimate claims delayed and 1 million had claims wrongly canceled. republicans are saying that alone disqualifies her for the top job at the labor department. stuart: edward, thank you very much. pete buttigieg is defending the president's decision not to visit east palestine. watch this. >> well, what i know is he's been very concerned throughout this process about what the people of east palestine are going through. i think also a visit at that

level can sometimes have a lot of disruptive effects, so they need to be thought of carefully. but i'm certainly glad that i want. stuart: that was pete buttigieg with don lemon, how about that? the gentleman on the right-hand side of the screen is congressman mike if collins, republican from georgia. is pete buttigieg the fall guy for president biden? >> well, i think it's a combination of a couple things, stuart. he is the fall guy, but he's also in a predicament where you have a president that actually put someone in place of the department of transportation who was instilled there on identity politics, not due to the fact that he actually knew what the job entailed is how to do the job. stuart: is impeachment on the table, congressman? >> well, if he doesn't resign, everything' on the table. -- everything's on the table. you can tell after two and a half years of a culture of wokism in this department, you see the results of it. i know people are out there saying things like, well, you

know, you'ved had a person that deleted a file or you've got a train that dederailed because of wheel bearing, but that's just the underlying cause. the actual cause is that you have got a culture being cultivate ared through the department of transportation from a head guy that is just there for wokeness and identity politics. and you are seeing the results. stuart: okay. let's look at the other side of the coin. we're looking at the government's performance in dealing with this. what about norfolk southern? are they going to have to pay for all the damage? >> well, you know, i would think that they are liable to an extent. i'm not a lawyer. i know that when you, you know, in my former private business in the transportation industry if we're liable for things, we have to fix those. but, you know, that's just another, a good example right there. you've got a ceo that in his esg report late 2022 made the point of putting in that that report that they were going to increase

their dei and that woke culture x that is just a way to appease this administration and garner favor. instead of putting this there that we're going to hire people that grease wheel bearings, no, we're going to grease that fourth rail of this government up here, these bureaucracies. and that's what's got to stop. you know, whether it be -- yes, sir. stuart: no, i understand your family has a trucking business. you've run a trucking business for 30 years, is that correct? >> that's exactly right, yes, sir. stuart: so you know what you're talking about when it comes to the transportation department. >> well, yes, sir. and i tell you what, i would not hire people based on their identity. i'm going to hire people based on whether or not they can do the job. when you talk about the department of transportation, in particular the transportation side, our office is not inside four walls. our office is out there with the motoring public just like those trains. and we have an obligation to hire people that understand how to do the job and are the best at doing that job. otherwise, yes, sir, you're liable.

stuart: okay. i don't think president biden will ever visit east palestine. last word to you, do you think he will? >> no, sir, he won't. he has a different leadership quality. you take someone like me that is a business person, when we see a problem, by god, we're going to be there as soon as we can to find out what the problem is and what the solution is. they're not interested in finding that out. because when the american people figure out they're more focused on a woke culture throughout this country instead of hiring the right people to do the job, people are going to demand change. stuart: congressman mike collins, thank you very much for joining us this morning. we need more business people in congress. of thank you, sir. the faa investigating yet another near crash between two planes. all right, what happened this time? lauren: yeah. this was monday night at logan in boston. a jetblue passenger flight was landing when a learjet took off, look at that, without clearance. those two planes came within 530 feet of one another. the faa says the pilot of the

learjet did not have clearance but took off anyway, and the jetblue was forced to take an evasive action, initiating a climb-out to avert a crash. stuart: that would be frightening -- lauren: can you imagine? fourth incident in recent months. i don't ever remember this happening. stuart: no, no, i agree. it's just poppedded all all of a sudden. lauren: yes. stuart: check the markets, please. we're just a few minutes away from the opening bell, and we're seeing some red. not a lot of it. we'll take you to wall street for the opening bell next. ♪ come on, who says you're not perfect? ♪ who says you're not worth it? ♪ who says you're the only one that's hurting? ♪ trust me --

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stuart: futures suggest a downside move at the opening bell, but it will not be severe. down 70 maybe for the dow at the opening bell. don't know how we're going to close. eddie ghabour is back. uh-oh. you've been telling us for a year and a half you're not in the market. any change? >> look, stuart, right now, no. we have a lot of cash. we haven't been buying this bear market bounce that we had in january, as you know, because we've told our clients we believe the recession's

officially underway. and it's not based on a gut feeling, it's based on data. look at the yield curve today. the 2s and 10s are inverted by nearly 90 basis points. that's a major signal that people should not ignore along with the strength of the dollar. these retailers are coming out with earnings, and they're revising down as we shared with clients, as we expected, and they're revising down forward looking with full employment. what's going to happen when unemployment starts to tick up? usually their first revision down is not going to be their last, so it's going to be interesting to see what happens. and look what's happening now. we've talked about commercial real estate concerns with your viewers. we're starting to see the faults in that space, and we're also seeing some major reits that are now freezing redemptions. these are signs of a recession that's accelerating at a much faster pace than i believe the market is pricing in. and i think that that it's going to be a very, very tough, hard landing, not a soft landing. and by summer, it'll be crystal

clear that we're in a recession, in my opinion. stuart: so you have not changed your outlook at all. t still the same -- it's still the same. now, is there anything that you would buy, i'm talking about stocks now, is there any stock that you would buy right now or in the near future? >> right now the answer is, no. if we get a selloff and get a vix spike into the 30s, we would look to add a little bit to health care. but we're going to be very, very patient on the equities side. we think the best opportunities here in the near term is on the fixed income side, and we are taking advantage of the volatility and interest rates. but on the equity side, we're going to continue to be patient because we still believe we're going to hit new lows before we hit new highs in the coming months. stuart: so you take control of your clients' money, and you tell 'em where to put it. and as i understand it, your clients at the moment are 80% in cash. is that right? you're almost all in cash, is that correct? >> a majority are in that position.

every client situation is different but, yes, we have an extremely high cash position. one of the our strategies at 70% because we deployed 10% into fixed income in the last week. but we're probably at 8-9% equities. and hook are, as a fiduciary, when i see these warning signs the east yesterday thing is to say, okay, just stay the course, it'll come back. you can't do that. every once in a while it pays to do nothing, sit on the sidelines, be patient, because the best opportunities almost always come in a recession. stuart: then you've got to be confident that you time your reentry into the market just right. come back soon, eddie ghabour. >> thank you. stuart: the market is now open. yeah, it's 9:30 eastern. let's see where we're going here. down is the operate e word. not that much -- operative word. the dow has opened with a loss of about a quarter percent, rough toly 80-odd points. -- roughly. that's the -- have we got the 30

dow stocks? there are some winners. i would i say one-third winners, two-thirds losers. the s&p 500 opening a little bit lower, down about 3-7b9 22%. -- .22%. let's have a look at big tech this morning. meta, alphabet, microsoft up, apple and amazon down. apple shy of 150 bigtime. let's see now, susan's with us. you are with us, i believe. tesla, it's investor day. what are you doing? susan: yeah, so i'm excited. look, there is a lot of promises, we'll see if any of them come come to to fruition and that includes that new possible $25,000 car, maybe. we've heard elon musk talk about a cheaper car if a while. model 3s were supposed to be the every-person car costing around $30,000. nobody gets them at that price. analysts say we'll likely get a model y redesign, an updayton on battery tech since tesla still

uses batteries by pan son panasonicing and catl. and investor day is being held in austin. you can imagine, i imagine he'll roll out the cyber truck. but it's been, it's been delayed. we saw the cyber truck introduced three years ago, so we're debehind schedule here. same thing for the electric semis, a few years behind schedule. only deliveries to pepsico in december, and you've heard elon musk talking about robo-taxis, self-driving cars, revenue per robo-taxi, i don't think that's to happening anytime soon. we'll also get an update on self-driving, and i'm personally hoping for an update on optimus and that robot. stuart: i'm looking at the prompter -- susan: yes, it has run up $310 billion heading into master plan in two months' time this year. tesla's up 70%.

and, you know, there's a pretty high expectation out there, and we'll see if elon musk delivers. also we're looking for updates on that new mexican tesla plant, confirmed yesterday, an initial $1 billion investment, up to $10 billion over the next few years. so that'll be mexico, berlin, shanghai, austin, fremont. that is why they are set to produce at least 1.8 million vehicles this year, and that's tough to do. we'll learn about that with rivian's case. stuart: and elon is the presenter today. susan: well, he is the star, isn't he? stuart: you never know what he's going to say. susan: that's the point. that's why he's the world's richest man and he has no communications or marketing department whereas everybody else spends $2 billion a year. his own best salesperson, it's remarkable and incredible. stuart: he's different, this guy. some companies reported before the bell this morning, start with kohl's, ouch -- susan: not good. when holiday sales dropped 7%

and that's your strongest period of the year, that's obviously not great. huge losses, weak outlook for 2023. way below wall street forecasts. survival in question, and activist investors are swirling. also why it's become a meme stockal though it's heavily shorted -- although it's heavily shorted. however, it's only up 7% or so this year. stuart: any stock that's heavily shorted is a meme stock -- susan: you have them jumping in -- stuart: what have we got on dollar tree? susan: profit fell short in the wear, but guidance is light are. however, i would say discounters like walmart has been saying you do have higher foot traffic because people are trading down because of high inflation. we have wealthier clients coming in. stuart: show me wendy's, please. i know that they beat -- susan: so what they said is they expect global systemwide sales to be up 6%, higher than last year. restructuring is going to cost $13 billion with, but they're

going to bring down their costs. lowe's, since we talked about home depot last week, same thing. it wasn't horrific. you did have wall street or -- sales, pardon me, falling short. ill say wall street was a little bit do disappointed. stuart: i saw a report this morning on rivian, electric car people. are they cutting production? because they cut the stock 10%. susan: i think they just offered a disappointing production forecast. so they're only making and producing 50,000 cars whereas wall streeted had expected 60,000. so that's 10,000 less than estimates. and i think they're learning that tough lesson that elon musk are teach them about that making cars -- will teach them about that making cars is a tough thing to do. also i saw loss ares were smaller than anticipated, sales up less than expected and we're a long ways off from that $100 billion valuation in 2021. they're the pickup trucks. stuart: all right, good enough.

[laughter] i'm entered in this news out of eli lilly. susan: i know you're a pickup truck kind of guy -- [laughter] stuart: when i'm in the country, i am. not in new york city. lilly is up a fraction -- susan: yeah, that's surprising, don't you think? if we're cutting insulin prices by 70% in the fourth quarter of this year, what does that mean for their bottom line? stuart: you would think it would not be good. susan: yeah. so they're going to cap the out of pocket cost at $35 per month at some participating retail pharmacies, we expected that, but that's federal pressure, right? you've heard this from the government saying, pointing the finger at these pharmaceuticals saying it's up to you to not try to, i guess, make money -- stuart: gouge. susan: -- the off people with disease. stuart: general motors are cutting jobs? susan: corporate jobs. it was only 500, so i didn't think it was that much. cutting jobs elsewhere in

europe, so 500 compared to 11,000 at meta if or 8,000 at salesforce, which is a story i really wanted to talk about because salesforce cut 8,000 jobs, but they're paying matthew mcconaughey $10 million a year as their marketing adviser. stuart: i wonder how that goes down. have we got time for novavax? the i know they used to be a $25 the 0 a share stock and now they're -- 250 a share and now they're $6. susan: i saw that they still had a billion dollars in cash on hand, but if people are not getting boosters, that's a problem for their -- stuart: a drop of 260 to 6, that's a selloff. susan, thanks. coming up, the former white house covid response coordinate a nateer, that would be dr. deborah birx, she says we're not doing enough to prevent another pandemic. roll tape. >> very clear that what we have done to date has failed. and i worry that we haven't put the new things in place that are

keep us and protect us from the next pandemic. stuart: we'll get into that, that's a promise. researchers have discovered toxic air pollutants from the derailment in ohio. it could cause long-term health effects. doc siegel was just there, and i'll ask him about this new report right after this. ♪ ♪ 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. (vo) verizon has the epic new phone your business needs on the 5g network it deserves.

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stuart: nearly 12 minutes into the trading session, we're mostly in the red. nasdaq down 14, s&p down 8. not much change there. the dow eking out -- no, it just turnedout. down a fraction. governor mike dewine is visiting east palestine today. he's going to get a report from the epa. alexis mcadams is in boardman, ohio. the latest, alexis, please. >> reporter: hi, stu. as the governor is back here on

the ground this in east palestine to try to survey the damage, we're learning new information from a brand new report that was just released here in the past week or so. it was an independent study that found there are possibly carcinogenic chemicals at low levels in the air. this is the video of exactly how big a disaster that was, you can see the train derailment at the site. it was those large flames that left this town in a panic. now an independent analysis of epa data has found at least nine pollutants at levels that could raise long-term health concerns in this community here. researchers with texas a&m university found elevated levels of chemicals that they say trucker lung and eye irritation -- trigger lung and eye irritation, headaches and more. it would take months and even years for people to have serious health effects, but people waking up here want real answers. federal and state regulators say the air in and around the crash site is safe but are now offering to go and clean inside

and outside of people's homes. listen. >> -- is an in-home or in-business thorough cleaning service as well as an external cleaning service for homes and businesses. just to help the community understand that in addition to the air quality monitoring and all of the protective measures we're taking, we want to go that extra mile so that people feel comfortable living in their communities. >> reporter: yeah, feel comfortable but still lots of questions here. residents can request information on that ongoing response from the epa. they're fielding concerns at a local welcome center. that cleanup is still underway here, the epa handed norfolk southern that hefty clean-up bill saying they will charge them triple if they don't do the work. officials have been sending soil full of chemicals to what they say are e -- epa-approved dump sites in and around ohio. including one near end annapolis, indiana. the golf of indiana concern --

the governor of indiana is pushing back on that. >> i think it's really been very eye-opening for individuals to just truly see the amount of chemicals that get carted across the country on an any given day. >> reporter: and right now ohio senators are working on a rail safety bill after this fiery crash. stu? stuart: alexis, thank you very much. new research has revealed higher than normal levels of toxicity in the air around the train derailment. the residents there voicing their concern over medical issues. watch this. >> this is your pulmonary fibrosis, but it looks like it's gotten worse, right in. >> yes. since i've come back, i've had some kind of reaction. >> because i was having such really strong nausea, vomiting, rash and had blood work and everything done -- >> we've been renting hotel rooms on weekends to see our kids because we don't feel safe bringing them home. my daughter had been here,

unfortunately. >> do you have underlying lung conditions or -- >> yeah, i do. i get all con to jested in my chest, and i i cough and cough and cough. >> so we're just not getting the same care, and we -- nobody knows why. >> i think the real problem's going to be 5-10 years from now. and who's going to be here then? stuart: all right. dr. siegel is with us now, you were the one interviewing those residents. what is your biggest medical concern after your visit going forward? >> well, i have concerns that the residents there that you just heard from are not being listened to, that the government comes in, the epa comes in, the governor comes in, the chief medical officer comes in and says we're testing the air, it's fine, we'll go inside your home and test and it's fine. those tests don't mean anything. stuart, when i showed up there the first day at 4:00 in the morning, i stuck my head out the

window, and i said, what am i smelling? this place is not passing the smell test yet. you could mel the smoke, you could smell the chemicals in the air. it's there. and then when i interviewed people, they didn't feel well. a lot of them didn't feel well. one, you know, said that they had gotten bronchitis from the stream where the cleanup was occurring. they call this in town the uncontrolled burn with, not the controlled burn. and they don't feel that the government is taking them seriously enough. but i'll tell you who is taking them seriously enough, because i kept asking them why are you staying here? why are you staying here? well, some of them can't afford to leave, right? but there's a community spirit and, stuart, there's people coming from all over the country with water9, with food. we interviewed this guy matt from texas that loaded up these huge trucks with water, and i said to him how much water are you bringing? he says i'm bringing water until no more is needed. that's what we need there. we don't need this hand waving. and, you know, i see pete

buttigieg is in trouble in the house of representatives now. we don't need this hand waving, we need -- this is a huge disaster, and it's spreading out from east palestine to neighboring areas and long-term effects, we don't know yet, but they're real. stuart: dr. marc siegel on the spot. good stuff, doctor. come and see us again real soon. thank you, marc. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: tiktok will now limit how much time teens can spend on the app. all right, lauren, what's the limit and for who? lauren: it's one hour for those under the age of 18. you get to 60 minutes you said and then you have -- and then you have an opportunity to enter a passcode, and then you can continue to go on tiktok. stuart: does everybody get the passcode? lauren: yeah. this is the new default setting, so you can bypass the default setting -- the. stuart: so it's meaningless. lauren: yeah. [laughter] look, every family is different though, and some parents might be able to enforce this with their children and also some teens might actually be concerned i'm on tiktok too much.

the other thing i'm doing is a family pairing feature where families can facilitier the field of -- filter the feed of their child to make sure they can't see certain things. i don't think this is that spinach version that tiktok is teens in can china. this is more like, i don't know, this is more like candy. stuart: we've got china state media warning elon musk. lauren: oh, yeah. stuart: what's this about? lauren: so musk commented on a tweet that verified the lab leak theory, right? and then he criticized dr. fauci for funding gain of function research at the wuhan lab and lying about it. stuart: uh-oh. lauren: musk says fauci did in the vie -- via a pass-through organization. well, in an op-ed they said don't bite the hand that feeds you. tesla, biggest factory is in shanghai where china is their second biggest sales market after the u.s. elon musk is not going to just take that sitting down, if you ask me. he hasn't responded yet. stuart: i think he might say

nothing because he doesn't want to stir up the chinese. they've got a big fact arely in shanghai. don't forget to send in your friday feedback, e-mail your questions, comments and what have you to varneyviewersfox.com. the embattled residents of chicago will get a new mayor. lori lightfoot is the first one-term mayor in chicago in 40 years. we have the latest on the race after this. ♪ may your sorrows all be small. ♪ here's to the losers, bless 'em all ♪ ♪ we all have a purpose in life - a “why.” maybe it's perfecting that special place that you want to keep in the family... ...or passing down the family business... ...or giving back to the places that inspire you.

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followed by brandon johnson who got 20% just ahead of lori lightfoot with 17. johnson is endorsed by politically-powerful teachers union. he wants to raise taxes, and as you mentioned, has supported defunding the police. he has stopped using that term on the campaign trail, but his strategy for addressing the city's rampant crime is to target its root causes by redirecting money from the police and putting it towards social services. here he is last night. >> -- we deserve a chicago that is better, stronger, safer for everyone. [cheers and applause] no matter where you live, no matter what you look like. you deserve to have a better, stronger, safer chicago. >> reporter: paul vallas, on the other hand, who is endorsed by the police union wants to hire -- [audio difficulty] and reverse policies that he argues restricts them from doing their jobs. johnson and others have tried to paint vallas as conservative, and relative to johnson, he may be when it comes to crime and fiscal issues. but last night he made clear he

is a lifelong democrat who is pro-choice and supports gay marriage, and he said making the city safer is going to be his top priority. >> i want to thank the voters of chicago for making this campaign about the issues and nothing but the issues. [cheers and applause] public safety is the the fundamental right of every american. s it is a civil right. it is a civil right. we will make chicago the safest city this america! >> reporter: yeah, much easier said than done. but between now and april 4th when this runoff happens, both candidates are going to be making their arguments for vastly different approaches for turning the city around. stu the? stuart: garrett tenney, thank you very much, sir. still ahead on this program, katie pavlich, lee zeldin, will cain. the 10:00 hour of "varney & company" is next. ♪ ♪

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