maria: welcome back. final thoughts now about 30 minutes away from the open, dow industrials up 58, nasdaq the down 120. the cbo says we're going to have interest rate payments of $10 trillion in the coming 10 years. >> interest rates keep going to the new highs, the cbo's estimates are we're going to see the economy elevating, likely underestimating, which is typical concern the. maria: big story. >> -- to push rates much higher and cost of debts much higher. it's. maria: it's been a great story. >> put down the tiktok, not just mrs. borelli. maria: thank you so much, joe, todd and we appreciate you joining us. we'll see you tomorrow. "varney & company" begins now. stu, take it away. stuart: good morning, everyone. a win for republicans in the senate. with john fetterman hospitalized and joe manchin and jon tester voting with the gop, the

republicans challenge the rule that your pension investments musten conform to leftist politics. the president is expected to veto it, but the point's been made, the government should not be telling any of us where we can invest our money. a win for america. the senate voted unanimously to declassify intelligence on the origins of covid. that means we'll find out what our spies know about the wuhan lab leak. it was senator josh hawley's bill, and he says, quote, let the people see the truth, end quote. to the markets. a first look at interest rates, rising yields on treasuries. that upset the stock market. look at this today, the yield on the 10-year treasury moving up to 4.07%, firmly above 4%. the 2 the-year getting real close to 5%, you're now at 4.95. investors, especially big tech investors, do not like that. the nasdaq, home of the big techs, down again this morning. not helped by a selloff in tesla, of course.

nasdaq down about 170 -- about 1% before the market opens. and tesla doing a number on nasdaq as well, get to that in a second. the dow up is the morning, just, 71 points. but that's mainly because of one stock, and that's salesforce. let me show you those two stocks. first off, tesla are. it's down at this point 7.7%. elon musk's investor day yesterday considered long on vision, short on specifics. down it goes. salesforce came in with a strong performance. maybe that will make the activist investors who piled into the company back off. salesforce up 16% today, and it is a cow stock. dow stock. on the show later, where to for america's troubled cities in the aftermath of lori lightfoot's loss in chicago's mayoral election? she was incompetent and lost big. will that be the case in other democrat-run, identity-obsessed cities elsewhere? we live in hope, don't we?

a politicized department of justice faces the wrath of senator ted the cruz. why didn't the attorney general take action against the illegal protesters in front of the supreme court justices' homes? senator cruz is on the show. and so is jim jordan. senator rick scott, how coyou save social security without raising taxes and cutting benefits? and, yes, we do have a royal update. harry and meghan booted from frogmore college and, guess what? prince andrew may move in. thursday, march the 2nd, 2023. "varney & company," the all-star edition, is about to begin. ♪ ♪ i feel good today ♪

stuart: i feel good. not the james brown version. thomas rett's version. a look at sixth avenue, new york. kind of miserable weather today, but it's winter, isn't it? let's get to tesla. they held their big investor day in austin. elon musk presented his master plan part three. the stock is down 7%. [laughter] why is the stock down? lauren: are well, long on sincation -- inspiration, short on detail. it's a lofty pitch for a green world. how do we get there? musk said tesla's goal so to produce 20 million cars a year by 2030 and cut assembly costs in half. how do we get there? stuart: how do you do that? >> one analyst asks how many models does it take to get to 20 the million vehicles? elon musk said, oh, 10. but they only have 4, and that does not include the cyber truck. we don't know when that's going to be produced, maybe next summer.

and then no announcement of the clash 25,000 model. -- $25,000. stuart: that was discuss appointing. david bahnsen, what's the problem? >> put it into perspective, tesla's down to $187, so it's up big on the year. tesla has never in the history of the company given us details. they always promise big things, like you said, short on detail, and sometimes they execute and sometimes they don't, and you're just -- it's a buy on elon musk. you're just trusting him -- stuart: it's the true. lauren: they have more competition. >> yeah, but that the competition isn't producing, they're not meeting their own goals either. that's something tesla that's benefited from, the competition has underwhelmed so far. stuart: i'm moving on. pro-choice protest theres gathered outside the homes of supreme court justices after the roe v. wade decision was leaked. attorney general merrick garland was questioned about why no legal action has been taken against them. roll that tape. >> have you brought a single

case against any of these protesters threatening the justices? >> senator, you asked me whether i sat on my hands, and quite the opposite. i sent 70 united states marshaly again. have you, has the department of justice brought even a single case? it's a yes/no question. i recognize you want to give a separate speech -- >> no, i don't want to -- >> how do how you side which ones you enforce and which ones you don't? >> the marshals on scene -- >> the marshals do not make a determination whether the prosecute. you, the attorney general, make a determination. stuart: senator ted the cruz, republican from the state of texas, joins me now. mr. senator, if the justice department has been politicized as you suggest, what can we do about it? >> well, unfortunately, there are consequences to elections, and in this case there are enormous if consequences to joe biden being president, one of which is we have today in merrick garland the most

political, the most partisan attorney general we have ever seen. under joe biden the department of justice and the fbi have been weaponized, they've been politicized. you know, i just wrote a new book called "justice corrupted: how the left has weaponized our legal system." and it goes through chapter and verse, it explains how the politicization of the department of justice started in earnest under barack obama, and we saw the machinery of the federal government used as a weapon to target the enemies of the obama white house. under donald trump much of that machinery burrowed in as hard partisans want to senior career positions and waged war against with president trump. and now with joe biden they're out in the open, they're brazen. you know, yesterday the attorney general spent all morning testifying before the senate judiciary committee, and he refused to give any straight answers to anything. what you just played there, there's a federal criminal statute, it makes it a crime to

protest outside a judge's house with the intention of influencing a case. it's like jury tampering. you can't go outside of jurors' house either. night after night after night hundreds of protesters, hundreds of threatening protesters went to the home of six supreme court justices threatening their families, and this department of justice kid the nothing. and the -- did nothing. and the reason they did nothing, the reason they haven't brought even a single case, a single prosecution is joe biden and merrick garland agree with the protesters and disagree with the justices. and they're perfectly happy to have violent protesters threaten judges to try to get the rulingsings they want. senator. stuart: mr. senator, the senate voted unanimously to reject president biden's woke investing rules. that's a huge challenge now to the president, isn't it? >> yes. stuart: i mean, that's a huge challenge. >> so it is. and this is a rule that the biden administration put out that would allow 401(k) plans and retirement plans to invest

not based on where you get the best return, but invest based on esg, based on political objectives. and the consequences of that, i mean, look, let's bring it home to folks at home. roughly 152 million americans that have retirement plans that are affected by this. let me give you bloomberg's analysis on the difference between an esg retirement fun and a non-esg retirement fund. according to bloomberg, quote, globally esg funds have underperformed the broad or market in the past 5 years returning an average of 6.3% a year compared with 8.9% for broader funds. which means an investor who put $10,000 into an average global esg fund in 2017 would have $13,573 today. roughly 1,720 less than if they had put it into a non-esg portfolio. so you want to talk about

impacting folks at home, this is your retirement that joe biden has said his politics matters more than your retirement, and he's perfectly happy for you to take the hit. the senate stood together with a bipartisan vote yesterday and reversed this and said you ought to be able to save for your retirement without politicians impacting and hurting your savings. stuart: senator cruz, thank you very much for being with us this morning. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: we should enforce the principles that the government has no right to tell me or anybody elsewhere we can invest our pension money. >> amen. stuart: senator, thanks for being with us. david bahnsen sitting right to me, the rejection of these esg rules, how does that affect investors? >> you know,st it's funny, the senator talked about a 2.5% difference in return per year over the last five years. but you've got to remember, it's actually much worse than that if you look at last year and the year before. of last year tech was down 40%, and energy was up 50, 60%. so on a risk-adjusted basis, it's even worse.

you go out over the next ten years, does anyone think that this big tech stuff that esg people love is going to do as well in the next ten years as it did in the last ten? stuart: the government has no right to tell me where i can put my money. >> we have to make the argument as the senator does, it's a philosophical disagreement. stuart: it is. bahnsen, you're all right. thanks for being here. [laughter] china's population declining. china expert gordon chang says xi jinping, china's leader, is in a panic about it. gordon is here. the senate unanimously passed a bill to declass classify the intelligence on the origins of covid. why is the president reluctant to get the truth out? i'll ask ohio congressman jim jordan right after this. ♪ this is what the truth looks like. ♪ this is more of what i had in mind. ♪ yeah, this is what the truth is like. ♪ and i'm feeling it, i'm feeling it ♪

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to receive $1000 off your kohler® walk-in bath. and take advantage of our low monthly payment financing. ♪ ♪ stuart: president biden says he plans to speak with china's xi jinping after new reports say covid likely originated at that lab in wuhan. peter doocy at the white house. peter, does the administration have any plan to address china's role in covid beyond this phone call? >> reporter: not at the moment, stu, and we checked. why is president biden afraid of china? >> the president is not afraid of china. >> reporter: if we now know, according to the fbi director, who is most likely responsible for all those empty chairs at all those kitchen tables, why not try to hold them accountable? >> so i'm going to flip that on its head for a second. it was because of this president that took action, by the way, the last administration did not,

they did not have a comprehensive plan to concern. >> reporter: so administration prefers talk about their effort to flatten the curve of covid rather than the covid origin. but there is a new effort to shine a light on whatever it is hat the knows -- that the u.s. knows so far. >> we just passed tonight, just a few minutes ago, unanimously in the senate my bill which will declassify all of the information the federal government has on covid origins. we need the house to pass it, jessie, and we can get this thing done. the american people, it's past time. let's let everybody see for themselves and let everybody read it. >> reporter: and president biden's going on the at the senate later on today, but we expect him just to meet with democrats there. stu? stuart: peter, thanks very much, indeed. now, the senate, as you just heard, the senate unanimously passed a bill to decan classify the intelligence if on -- declassify the intelligence on the origins of covid. congressman jim georgeen can, republican from ohio, joins me now -- jordan. in the really puts president

biden on the spot. why is he reluctant9 to get the truth out about covid? >> i don't know. stuart, go back and ask why did they lie to us about gain of function research, why kid they lie to us about the origin of the virus, why did they lie to us about natural immunity? i think senator hawley's bill is right on target. i don't know why they won't answer those fundamental questions and why they misled the american people for so long about those three critical things, where this thing started, natural immunity and the whole gain of function research that looks like was taking place in this lab. let's hope that we get that information as senate unanimously agrees that we should. stuart: now, attorney general merrick garland refuses to appoint a special counsel to investigate hunter biden. is that the reason why president biden is soft on china? do they have something on our president? >> i don't know, but i would -- look, i'm not calling messily for a special counsel -- necessarily for a special counsel, but if you're going to the appoint them in all these

other situations, this would seem to be a situation that warrants one. i just want to know what was the decision process in deciding not to do it, how that, how that was handled. that's why we sent the letter we did a few days ago. we'll see. look, we're looking at all kinds of things where we think the government is not functioning in the way it should be and targeting the very people it's supposed to serve. we have posted those kinds of examples. why is the fbi, the richmond field office, for example, if saying if you're a traditional catholic, you're somehow a domestic extremistsome on and on it goes. we have all kinds of concerns with decisions that have been made by the justice county. stuart: now, the president's, president biden, e has plans to make a phone call to she jinping. nothing -- xi jinping, nothing beyond that. given your druthers, what would you have our president do versus china? >> well, you've got to project strength like president trump did. president trump was willing to sand up to china, he was willing to call this virus out when it

first happen and call out china on this virus when it first happened and, frankly, was willing to use the tariff issue to deal with china and other countries as well, something we haven't really seen from this administration. so i think it's just more of an overall projecting strength from the oval office which we haven't seen in the administration. i never forget when secretary pompeo was asked a question about a year ago right after putin went into ukraine, they asked him would this happened in a trump administration. and i thought secretary pompeo gave the best answer, he said the short answer is i don't know, but i do know this: it didn't happen in a trump administration. and i think that's the key distinction here. so i would just like to see this administration actually project some strength and stand up to china and push back in a number of ways that we just haven't seen like we saw from president trump. stuart: real fast, congressman, you're from ohio. it's been a month or more since biden was, you know, since the train accident. i don't think president biden will ever visit. it's not in his political

interest to go to east palestine. what say you? >> no, i think you're, unfortunately, i think you're right. the president of the united states should go to east palestine when there's something this terrible that's happened, but i do think, again, it just shows the difference. president trump was there last week, president trump was there meeting with the people, talking with the with people, but for some reason joe biden won't to go. i don't get it, but that's just, you know, one more sense to me. but it was good to the see president trump there. i mean, i thought it was so president trump going into mcdonald's, buying people big macs, talking with people, relating to them when they're struggling and dealing with this tragedy that's happened in their community. stuart: can you imagine joe biden going into a mcdonald's? maybe he has, but it seems incongruous to me. i remember president donald trump, candidate, feasting on wendy's and sending hit teaz ou. [laughter] those were the days. jim jordan, it's always a pleasure. come back soon. thank you, sir. >> we will. talk care.

stuart: school reform, school choice. march on. 32 states have moved towards some form of school choice. now republicans in ohio want to overhaul the state's education system. are they going to -- many ohio, lauren. are they going to put parents in control? lauren: you better believe it. three big points here. they're going to notify parents before health class, so if you with don't like the way that sex lesson is being taught, alternate programming. they will notify parents of any physical or mental change in the their child's well-being as displayed at school and an easier path for home schooling with more funding for it. so the bill stripped the ohio -- it stripped the ohio is the sate education board and ultimately gives power to the republican governor mike dewine. it just passed one statehouse chamber, and it could go to the full house as soon as next wednesday. stuart: okay. david, you're a bigtime investor. don't you also run a schoolsome. >> yeah. i was a founder of a private high school in newport beach, california, and i'm a huge advocate for school choice and

have been preaching the melters of this for a long time the -- merits of this for a long time the. i support private schools, parochial, charter schools, home school. i believe this gives more control to the parents, which is a wonderful thing, to soften this indoctrination. that's the biggest problem. people may not be happy with the quality of education going on, but even apart from the quality of education, it's the ideology. they're teaching things the parents have no idea are being taught to their kids, and that's what they have to address. stuart: i'd love to deunionize -- >> the unions are the biggest problems especially in blue states like california. lauren: get rid of the department of education. >> we don't need it. lauren: what because it do the? stuart: hands out billions of collars. lauren: if you ask a teacher how are you teaching this critical concern they'restaired -- stair thed to teach -- scared to teach. stuart: we've got six and a half minutes to go before the market opens, and we're looking at a gain for the dow can. there's one stock that's really

taken off, and the nasdaq is sharply lower, one stock on the nasdaq, tesla, in that's sharply lower. we'll take you to wall street for the opening bell next. ♪ yeah, we're laughing all th b. ♪ 'cuz it all jus like us in a g tour bus -- ♪ making that easy money ♪ -that's it? -yeah. progressive's homequote explorer makes it easy to compare home insurance options. man...i told my wife i'd be in here for hours. what do we do now? we live... ♪ save time and money with progressive's homequote explorer. what you do afterwards, is up to you. oh, whoa, i was actually just thinking i would take a nap. pretty tired.

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stuart: here you go, three and a half minutes before the opening of the market. a nasdaq's down 108, david nicholas with me now. is in any reason i should not be buying treasury yields at 5% right now? >> you know, stuart, no, i think there's really not. i think that's the challenge. what i think most investors are missing is we saw the data that came out this morning, unit labor costs were up, jobless claims down to 1990,000. -- 190,000. it's not the economy that's going to the spell trouble for stocks, it's just that rates are so high that investors have all these other options. so so we think treasuries are a good bet, and there's a lot of cool and unique funds that can really take advantage of the high yields in treasury markets. stuart: it seems like it's $look at that, the 1-year gives you

5.1. very attractive. i keep saying it's kind of a go-nowhere market. which stocks, and be specific, which stocks could i buy now and make money on. >> yep. you're right, stuart, i think it's a nowhere market into 2024. so i'll give you a fund, fiax, this is our treasury income fund. you just mentioned treasuries. what i like about it is investors don't have to choose between treasuries or stocks. what fiax does is99 -- 98% of the portfolio is in treasuries, but if the market goes up, investors get another quarter percent each month. so you could end up getting about 3% on top of your 4.5% for the treasury. also acls is a semiconductor company. we think the market is not -- or we think the economic market is not going to fall off a cliff later this year. that is really good news for semiconductors. a name like acls doesn't produce the chips, but they produce the equipment that chipmakers need to produce the chips, so we

think -- it's down this morning, we think it's a great bargain to get in so that you can have treasuries in a fund like fiax, balance that with names like acls that are elative -- relatively undervalued, and those two names will do well. stuart: you wouldn't touch microsoft, amazon, etc., etc., big tech, you're not going to teach thumb? -- touch them? >> facebook is the one i like. if you just look from a valuation perspective, the stock just got destroyed. i think that ceo of facebook is, i think, coming to his senses. so if you're looking for value in this environment, i think facebook is the way to play it in the tech sector. stuart: mark zuckerberg coming to his senses, that's quite a statement. david, we always appreciate it, and we'll see you again soon. all right, we're off, we're running. the market has opened. stocks mixed as big tech the retreats. there's a head headline for you. the dow is up, what, 67 points, a few of the stocks have opened

but not that many. i see a lot of losers on the big board right now. i do see five winners. six winners. all right. the s&p 500, where has that opened? it's on the downside, nearly half a percent lore. the nasdaq composite, where's that? nearly 1% lower. and as for big tech, well, let's have a look at that. we are up on microsoft, meta, alphabet, apple, amazon all are down. microsoft is up all of 3 cents. i gotta talk to you about tesla. the stock has opened, i think, sharply lower. yeah, 8% lower. super's with us. were you -- susan's with us. were you underwhelmed by investor day? [laughter] susan: well, i watched all four hours of it. i love this, to be honest. yes, underwhelming with actual announcements. you saw tons of renderings, future hype of future products but no new car announcements, no cyber truck updates which they are still expected to deliver sometime this year. they did announce a new $30 a

month supercharger subscription service if, the, and that's going to be tested in texas. you can imagine if it's successful, goes across the rest of the country. they're restating their 20 million annual car sales by 2030. i think that's a bit lofty since they're only selling 1.8 million this year. and remember, volkswagen only sold 10 million before covid in 2019, so 0 to the million's a bit far off, wouldn't you say? they kid say they crossed a milestone, making the 4 millionth car, and robot has optimism at some form, at some point. apparently, op miss doesn't do part four, but he says we're getting there. and the stock usually runs up into investor day. clash 310 billion in market cap in the first two months of this year, there's optimus for you. 70% rally. i guess it's buy on the hype, sell on the news type of stock today. stuart: that's the robot? >> susan zune there you go. --

susan: there you go. it's actually doing something. [laughter] stuart: [inaudible] susan: it's the future. stuart: all right. tesla is down 6.9% now. maybe you brought them back from an 8% loss. ford plus pollstar. susan: ford just said that sales went up by a quarter, also they're recalling 98,000 rainer vehicles with airbags being installed incorrectly. pollstar, i would say kind of outperforming rivian and lucid when it comes to competing with tesla. they cut their annual losses by 50%, they also exceeded their 50,000-car delivery target, they're expecting deliveries to increase to 80,000 cars this year. remember yesterday we were talking about rivian, how they came in short of production targets? i think polestar is showing them there's a way to compete with tesla. stuart: i don't know anybody who invests in ford. never goes anywhere. [laughter] susan: have you ever invested in a car company? as i mentioned to you, only two

car companies have never gone bankrupt, that's ford and tesla. stuart: well, that's nice to know. [laughter] all right. let's get to salesforce. susan: stock of the day. stuart: huge boost to the dow. they've got a lot of changes there. i i guess the changes are working? susan: okay. so they were pretty much already priced in since we knew that they were going to cut 7,000 jobs, so 10% of their work force. it was a great report card to end last year, better sales, better profits, and guidance for this year also did better. and they're counseling, and this is why the activist -- doubling their stock buybacks to $20 billion, and that's a way to placate the five activist are investors that want change. that includes elliott, they kicked out jack dorsey of twitter, they forced him out. wall street loved the results. i counted at least 23 price target hikes going up to 250 for the stock. salesforce coming off its worst sales growth in history last year. you know that, right? they also had their co-president

leave, second one in three years. and, you know, i think some controversy this week when you read that "wall street journal" report that they're cutting 7,000 jobs, but they're paying matthew mcconaughey, the famous actor, oscar winner, clash 10 million a year as a marketing consultant and endorses doerer. stuart: is he worth every penny in. susan: you dell concern tell me. [laughter] obviously not president stock is underperforming the nasdaq over the last 12 months. stuart: retailers, start with macy's. they've done well. susan: yeah. macy's owns bloom aring dales and blue mercury, and those two names helped pick up the slack for macy's. they didn't have concern macy's didn't have the same inventory issues that cogged other retailers which helped their bottom line because they didn't need to discount to get rid of the extra stock. they're still guiding for sales to drop this year, and they're thinking it's a choppy year ahead but still better than expected toened ebb last year. stuart: krogers.

susan: yeah, profits did better, walmart is the largest by volume, they expect to keep paying a dave end, in fact, they say we'll increase our dividend over time but we have to pause the share repurchases because of the acquisition of albertsons, i think, for $28 billion. stuart: best buy. >> sales did better than expected, but the problem is they're saying we're going to see sales drop by 3w-6%. it's because of that remote work boom where where you had to get your pcs and laptops to work. stuart: okay. let me turn to david bahnsen. you're the dividend guy. you like apollo. first of all, what does apollo do and what do they pay? >> apollo is an asset manager. they're investing in private equity and debt and real estate, and they grow -- similar to blackstone, which you and i have talked about many times on the show. apolo apollo's really -- apollo's really good at what they do. everyone knows who goldman sachs is, everything they said was on

how we want to become basically more like apollo and blackstone. stuart: really? >> we want to be an asset manager, we want more consistent earnings, we don't want to do all these up and down the things. stuart: what's it yield? >> on a whole-year basis, about 5%, but the dave the end the goes up and down each question reader -- dividend. stuart: franklin resources, what do they do and what do they pay? >> more consistent, it's about 45%, they are grow -- 4.5%. i love the ticker, ben for ben franklin, and they're very, very good at managing money, getting fees to do so concern. stuart: did you say what they pay? i can't remember. >> 4.5%. i say it almost 5 seconds ago. stuart: i have no short-term memory. you understand the, david. david, thank you very much, indeed. susan, a thanks also. attorney general merrick garland testified before the senate on the fentanyl crisis. watch this. >> how would you describe the fentanyl problem in america?

>> it's a horrible epidemic, but it's an epidemic that's been unleashed on purpose by the sinaloa and the new generation jalisco cartels. stuart: interesting. we have former drug czar bill bennett on the show. he says we should go after the cartel leaders and kill them. i'm going to ask house homeland security chair mark green, does he agree with that? the house approved a bill to give president biden the power to ban tiktok. will he do it? cpac 2023 kicks off today. florida's governor desantis will not be there, but congressman byron donalds will. i'm boeing to ask him, what message because he take to cpac this year? we'll be back. ♪ darling, let's give 'em something to talk about. ♪ a -- can let's give 'em something to talk about. ♪ let's give 'em something to talk about -- ♪

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stuart: all right. we are 12 the minutes into the session. the dow is up 46, but the nasdaq's down 86. mixed market this morning. let's have a look at the 10-year treasury yield, that really moved the nasdaq market yesterday. it's moving it again. we're at 4.06% on the 10-year treasury yield, and that yield is going up again. not good for the nasdaq. cpac begins today. conservatives gathering if in maryland with. mark meredith is there. a few big names we'll be missing this year, like who? >> reporter: oh, stu, there is men concern plenty of names missing. c spac's holding its first event in about 30 minuteses from now. this background may look forward -- familiar, but as you mentioned, the event is back in maryland after spending the last few years in florida. the pandemic restrictions forced organizers to go down there, but this year it is back. some notable names at this year's congress including congressman jim jordan, he's the

first speaker out of the gate today. we're going to hear from texas senator ted cruz, senator rick scott, nikki haley and former president trump. he's going to the wrap up the conference on saturday. for years c cpac has generated buzz as the place to be for politics and grassroots organizers, but this year's conference also features a bit of controversy. in january a former campaign aide to herschel walk's senate bid filed a lawsuit against the cpac organizer matt schlapp, accusing him of groping him after a night of drinking down in the atlanta. c pac as a whole is standing by schlapp. the second vice chair of the conference telling the media, quote, our grassroots activists are fed up with the tactics of intimidation and harassment with the singular purpose of destroying conservatives. they're standing by him for now. unclear how much the allegations may impact this year's gathering, but it's important to note, there are some notable names skipping the conference including florida governor ron

desantis. the event was being held in florida last year, house speaker ken mccarthy as well as -- kevin mccarthy as well as mike pence also not attending. as is tradition, we're going to have a lot of speeches, events, parties, but there's also going to be a straw poll at the end of this event which will give us an idea how attendees feel going into the 2024 presidential race. it's expected that donald trump is going to do very well in that straw poll, he's certainly done well the last few years, and this is a very trump-friendly crowd. stu? is. stuart: mark, thanks very much, indeed. congressman byron donalds, republican from florida, joins me now. you're going to cpac. what's your message this year? >> you know, typically i like talking about what's going wrong but really what our solutions are, what's the focus, where are conservatives going, where are republicans on capitol hill either going or should go in really providing solutions for what ails the country. you know, i think it's a really good time for activists, conservatives, people, you know, on the right side of politics to start talking about what comes

next, how we're going to accomplish the mission not just here on capitol hill, but through the country. stuart: okay. what comes next. i've got to tell you that it seems to me that cpac is looking backyards this year. kari lake will be there, donald trump will be there. they're looking backwards. do you think that's the right way to go? >> i don't think so. listen, donald trump is a party of our party -- part of our party still today, he will be tomorrow. that's what's happening right now. carly lake is still a formidabll a formidable portion, that's right now. the mission is about saving the country, and so you need all hands on deck. you can't really go and say, well, that person shouldn't be here or this person can't be here. everybody's got to work together. stuart: what would you say is the big conservative issue right now. >> oh, twofold. one is the border, second is overpending here -- overspending here in washington d.c. we cannot have a stabilized country if our border continues to be a mess. you have "the new york times" story a couple days ago about

rampant child lay wore° labor. those are conditions that joe biden has dropped on the united states with his reckless border policy. second is spending. we're about to hit the debt ceiling. joe biden's got his hands in his pockets acting like he didn't do anything to crypt, can contribute to the massive overspending. the man's only been in this town for 40 years, almost 50 years. he's been a part of in the entire time, but he's acting like he just showed up. those are major issues facing the country. that's what conservatives are concerned about. stuart: got it. congressman byron donalds, thanks for joining us. see you soon. former vice president mike pence, he's being questioned on whether he will support former president trump if trump gets the nomination in 2024. all right, lauren, is pence standing with trump or not? lauren: two times given the opportunity, will you stand with him if he's the nominee, and two times mike pence didn't answer. here's the latest. >> different times call for

different leadership. >> that's not a yes in terms of supporting trump if he's the nominee. >> i'm very confident we'll have better choices come 2024, and i'm confident our standard bearer will win the day in november of that year. stuart: that's telling a lot. lauren: yep, that answer says a lot. he doesn't think it's going to be trump. but, you know, trump also refused to support whoever the nominee is also. stuart: all right. here is a good question for you, and i know you study this. what do californians think of governor newsom running for governor -- running for president in '24? >> quinnipiac poll, 44% approve of the job he's doing right now as their governor. 70% don't want him to run for president in '24, that includes 54% of democratic voters. [laughter] but is this like florida where they selfishly say, no, desantis, don't run for president because we want to keep you? stuart: no, i don't think --

lauren: okay. when you ask them, what cocalifornians disapprove of so much about his job performance in the i didn't expect this, 22% say homelessness is the most pressing issue followed by affordable housing. inflation there at 10%. stuart: david bahnsen lives and works in california except when he's with us in new york city. what do you think? here's my question: i can't believing that the rest of the country would ever accept gavin newsom as the president of the united states. >> well, that's interesting, because i'm going to go on air and predict that imaive newsom will be the democrat nominee in 2024. i do not believe it'll be president biden, and i most certainly do not believe it'll be vice president harris. and that's not because i believe gavin newsom will be a popular choice. he's a talented politician, he's a god awful governor -- [laughter] he whupped that recall by 25 points, and he's very well heeled. he's playing his cards right. the problem with the poll is that people responding to the

issues, homelessness is a disaster. crime is a disaster. education, his covid things were a disaster. yet when they get to go vote, they reelected that mayor in l.a -- lauren: or they vote with their feet and leave. >> that's the thing, it's red state people leaving. stuart: and if nominated, he will not win, said stuart varney on march the 2nd -- >> depends who he runs against. stuart: coming up, florida governor rick scott criticized pieden for being soft on china -- president biden. >> all that biden does is pacify china. i mean, i don't know why he does this. i don't know if he's compromised, i don't know what it is, but this is a guy that won't stand up to dick today tores -- dictators around the world. stuart: that's interesting. senator scott will be here moments from now. and hen there's this, the environmental protection agency considering tougher regulations on livestock farms all because of pressure from the greens, of course. jeff flock has the report from a

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stuart: the epa wants to put tighter restrictions on livestock farms, methane emissions are the problem. there is pressure from environmentalist groups. jeff flock has the story from illinois. how do farmers think about this, jeff?

>> reporter: what do you think they feel about it? they're not too thrilled. i don't think the pigs much care for it either. they have a soft spot in their heart for pork barrel legislation but not this sort of thing. i love those pigs. i don't love the -- stuart said the ep if a wants to put regulations, they got sued, right? >> yes. >> reporter: that's why they're looking at it. >> they are taking a looked at adding new regulations but, jeff, we're already covered by the clean water act. and so more regulations just means more expense and more complications. >> reporter: stuart's going to love this. you talk about regulations, these are the regulations already in place. this is both state regulations and the federal clean water act, and they go for pages and pages and pages. they're concerned with the -- stuart said the, forget how he put it, but the emissions. >> emissions. >> reporter: well, you get emissions -- >> and those emissions are very valuable, and we take very good care of them for our crops.

>> reporter: you spread that on your crops -- >> we actually inject it into the ground as nutrients for our crop production. >> reporter: so this is not -- i mean, you don't want to pollute the water, right. >> well, a, we can't pollute the water under the clean water act and, b, it's a valuable nutrient and, c, i live here. why would i want to pollute the water where i live? >> reporter: stuart, i tell ya, in fairness, the epa said last year that they didn't want to change the regulations, they thought they were strong enough, and then they got a lawsuit. if it's not one thing, it's the another. >> and that's how rules seem to get written, in the courts these days. >> reporter: back to you, mr. varney. stuart: jeff, thank you very much, indeed. i want to say thank you to david bahnsen for joining us for the hour. still ahead, senate minority whip john thune, florida senator rick scott, former acting khs secretary chad wolf -- d the hs secretary -- the governor of alaska, mike dunleavy. this is the star-studded 10:00 hour of "varney," which is next.

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