last four quarters. it continues to go higher, and i think that shows there's some trouble ahead for all consumers. high end as well. maria: people are stressed. >> yeah, that's true. and, mark, to your point, a lot of people carrying these cards will just default and walk away. they don't care. they've tapped out. they'll go get a card somewhere else. maria: unfortunately, this all goes back to policy, kaylee. bad policy creates bad outcomes. >> and i said earlier that i would not be surprised if biden a's new mortgage executive order is the hammer that finally falls and breaks the market, because it's going to affect the entire housing industry. maria: yeah. and commercial real estate, we've been worried about. mark, bob, kaylee, thank you so much. we will see you origin, same time, same place, everybody. have a good day. "varney & company" picks it up from here. stuart: good morning, everyone. biden gets another challenger, the republican mayor of miami lines up against trump, a breakthrough mt. hunter biden

case. where do you start? all right, try this: tesla, way down. they reported a 24% drop in profits. those price cuts hurt. the stock is selling off to the tune of 8.5% on the downside. big drop. stocks down across the board. shaky regional banks are hurting this market. check out the dow, the s&p and the nasdaq, red ink all over the place. dow's off 160, nasdaq down just over 100 points. the cryptos are down as well. bitcoin at, what, $28,800. etherium at $1972. both -- well, e three yum -- etherium's a little higher this morning. interest rates, 3.55% is the level on the 10-year, and the 2-year coming in right around 4.25%. 4.19%, to be precise. i've got to show you the 6-month treasury. it yields more than 5% just in a six month period. that's an annual yield, by the

way. rooks like a bargain to me. robert f. kennedy jr. has jumped into the presidential race, challenging president biden. he's already grabbed 14% support. that as democrat donors head to the white house today. my question is, when will the president actually declare? a whistleblower prosecute if irs says -- from the irs says federal prosecutors are giving preferential treatment to the biden pa family. he says he has the receipts to prove a cover. -up. he's been on the case for three years. as yet another conservative speaker is thrown the off a san francisco campus, we'll ask if college is worth it these days. my answer for many student, no, it's not worth it. it's april 20th, that would be 4/20, marijuana day. and we have a marijuana chef on the show. he is not cooking our lunch. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪

♪ you're gone and i gotta stay high all the time to keep you off my mind ♪ stuart:9 what's this song? stay high -- has that got anything to do with april 20th? lauren: i think so. >> maybe. stuart: all right, producers, you scored a good one. i'll give you that. all right, tesla. they've really been on a tear this year. record deliveries and the stock's gone up big withtime, but they cut -- bigtime, but hay cut prices. lauren, it's showing up in the stock price. lauren: sure is. it's a race to the bottom, right? musk is looking to win on price, build market share at expense of profit. so, yeah, sales rose 24 the %, but profits fell 24% in the quarter. the average tesla about $6,000 less than last year, so customers might be waiting for another price cut, even keeper prices.

dan ives, friend of the program, lowering his price target on tesla to $215. he cites margin worries. they're still the best in the business, but they are the softening. next catalyst, if you believe many in tesla, cyber truck deliveries on track for the fall, and musk is eyeing that moonshot goal of 2 the million cars produced next year. stuart: not good enough, stock's down nearly 9% -- lauren: not today, but i think we're going to turn it around later. started start hard-hearted market, isn't it? we've got to get to politics. it's already 9:03. we're behind schedule this morning. lauer lauren sorry. stuart: it's not your fault. [laughter] only 39% of voters approve of the job performance that president biden is giving right now. that's very low score for this time many his presidency. todd piro with us this morning. lauren: you're up. stuart: he now has a second challenger, robert f. kennedy jr. >> obviously not all 65% with the percentage that he holds in

terms of support for the primary, but enough to sort of open up some eyes. and what robert f. kennedy jr. provides is a more conscript path, if you will. he's not doing the far left stuff. he wants smaller government, and he wants corporations to stop being the number one power player in our country. that's his main focus. and when you look at joe biden, you look at where the democratic party is right now, these woke corporations are running the show. that's who's providing the campaign donations, pulling the levers when it comes to things like esg. so the rpk jr. thing the, is he going to be the nominee? is he going to cause them to think? i think, yes. stuart: the mayor of miami, francis suarez, he said on fox this morning, he was speaking on fox, and it sure sounds like he's going to enter the republican race. watch this. >> close to making a decision, because, you know, august 20th is the first debate i think any

candidate who wants to run for president needs to be on that stage. in joe biden's america when you con last the it to francis suarez's miami, it couldn't be any different. i just came back from new hampshire, before that i was in iowa and nevada, and these are states that are approximately the size of miami-dade county. i think this terms of the former president, i really believe in generational leadership. stuart: whoa. is he saying that trump is too old? >> notice when i'm on your show i never use phrase generational leadership because i don't want to tick stu off. [laughter] look, i think that was a slight dig at trump, or and i just finished watching "fox & friends," and their whole focus was how suarez was attacking desantis that interview. you think he was attacking trump, the other show thought he was attacking desantis, he may be running. and i think it's the all for that vp slot because i don't think he has enough name recognition save for fox news. is he saying trump's too old?

maybe. that's not the line of attack on trump. trump sleeps, like, one hour a day. age is not the one. stuart: i hope i'm in the same shape as mr. trump -- lauren: you are. stuart: when i'm his age. he's a couple years older tanning me, i think. stay there, todd. i want to talk to lauren. the white house was told one minutely yesterday that voters -- bluntly yesterday that voters do not have an optimistic view of the economy. i want you to tell us how the white house responded. lauren: this is classic peter doocy asking karine jean-pierre good questions that she doesn't have the answers for, and he said why aren't americans buying what the president is selling? >> reporter: 69% of people polled by cnbc say they have a negative view of the economy. president biden talks about the economy all the time. >> he talks about -- >> reporter: why aren't people buying it? >> he wants the american people to know he's doing everything that he can to make sure that he's -- that his policies that he's put forward that has shown that he's building an economy

that doesn't leave anybody behind. lauren: it leaves everybody behind. everybody is left behind when real wages have fallen for two years straight. you have more calls for recession, i can add to that the new york fed. recession probability is at 80%, and credit suisse agrees with that 80%. and that 69% number that peter was asking about, the people who have a negative if view on the economy, that's a record are high in the 17 years that the folks over at cnbc have been doing this survey. stuart:. ouch. we better check the futures and turn to the stock market morning. futures all pointing south bigtime. nasdaq's down about 125 points. adam johnson with me the morning. i'm going to jump right in, adam. >> please. [laughter] stuart: i don't think the federal reserve is going to the raise rates again. i think they'll leave them dead flat. what do you think? >> you know what? i agree with you, and i've actually got data to prove it. stuart: ooh, tell me more. >> every the fed puts out its

view on the economy,st called the beige book because literally the cover of the book is beige. in the april beige book, they mentioned the word inflation 19 times. that may sound like a lot, but in the january beige book, 30 times. right? so they're talking about inflation less. recession in yesterday's book, they mentioned it four times. in january, twelve times. in other words, the fed is worried less about inflation and recession now which, i think, yes, you're right, argues for not raising rates. stuart: if there is no raising rates the next time they report, i think it's next month, actually -- >> yeah, yeah. stuart: -- the market should do very well, shouldn't it? >> it should do well, but it's this ghost of covid that we keep wrestling with. we were so conditioned to look for the next variant and, oh, my gosh, we're going to get locked many again. so we've hopscotched from worries about inflation, to worries about recession, now worries about taiwan. there's always something because're so conditioned to it.

we need to get over that that hump. we will eventually, but as winston churchill said, americans always get it right after they've tried everything else first. so we'll get there, but it's a work in progress. stuart: before we close, just put on the screen, please, the 6-month treasury bill yield. 5.05%. what is wrong with that? >> well, if you're an informser, there's -- investor, there's nothing wrong with that. that's probably where you want to put some money. you're only tied up for six months, that's a wonderful place to sit out some of this uncertainty, and it's good for pensioners -- stuart: that reminds me, senior citizens like myself. >> i didn't say that. >> we're dancing around you, stu. we don't want to upset e the boss. stuart: trying to be very mice, that's fine with me. thanks, adam. a whistleblower from the irs is accusing the administration of improperly handling the probe into hunter biden. todd is still with us. the whistleblower says he's got receipts, he's got him cold, that's what he's saying. >> i was saying all morning long

i think this could be the biggest development that we've had so far, and you wondered why the doj was taking so absolutely hong to look into this hunter biden probe. i think we could have an answer. now admittedly, a tax the review like this involves a lot of privacy concerns, and it is a very complex process that by no means am i going to try to explain right now. but you touch on the most important thing. regardless of what you think of this whistleblower, there are documents, communications between the irs and the doj that this lawyer said exists, they're real, and they could really blow the whistle, no pun intended, off of the the extricep ration by this white house of this the investigation. i don't care what you're doing, it's not that big a deal to investigate hunter. it should have been done by now. there's a reason it budget, and it appears that it was blocked by the white house. stuart: thank you, todd. 19 minutes to go before this market opens, and we're looking at red ink across the board. dow's down 170, nasdaq down 120.

coming up, after the disastrous afghan exit, could we be funding the taliban? one watchdog seem es to think so. roll tape. >> unfortunately, as i sit here today, i cannot assure this committee or the american taxpayer we are not currently funding the taliban. stuart: okay florida congressman mike waltz will be here on that subject a little later. president biden promised to veto the bill protecting women's sports. he called it discrimination against transgender students. kentucky congressman andy barr can cosponsored that bill. he's on the show. he's next. ♪ ♪ i'm every woman, it's all in me. ♪ anything you want done, baby, i'll do it naturally ♪ the chase ink business premier card is made for people like sam who make...? ...everyday products...

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♪ it was the heat of the moment, the heat of the moment ♪ stuart: i think of that song, yeah, heat of the moment by asia. i like it. i like the harmony. lauren: trying to figure out where that is. stuart: that's louisville, kentucky. s the 66 degrees. nice spring weather. there's not been that much contact between china's xi jinping and president biden. and the white house is being challenged on that. what's the white house saying? lauren: biden intends -- that's like the new keyword, he intending to run for president concern he intends to call xi. i don't think xi intends to pick up the phone because the message the white house keeps sending him,st the okay to take advantage of us. here's another peter coosey question to karine jean-pierre. >> reporter: china is setting up police stations in the u.s.,

there's more proof now today -- that they created covid, there's reason to think that there were more spy balloons than white house has said. why is it taking so long for president biden to the call, and i and tell him to cut it out? >> we have said over and over again that the president intends to call xi. we it's important to the maintain open lines of communication with china. we believe that it is an important bilateral relationship. lauren: janet yellen is speaking in the next hour, and she will say that national security is a paramount importance even when that forces trade-offs with our economic interests. i think that is the strongest statement we've gotten from the administration about how we're going to handle china, because there is no phone call scheduled between the president and the president of china. secretary of state was supposed to go there. that trip was canceled, not rejected. defense secretary austin tried to get china on the phone after the spy balloon, unsuccessful.

and now janet yellen, that comment that comes from these prepared remarks, that has the most teeth out of anything that i've seen. stuart: and it relates to the trade, essentially. lauren: yeah. stuart: it's trade, that's the whole deal. good stuff. thanks very much, lauren. congressman andy barr is a member of the house select china committee, and he joins me now. sir, can we just take the big picture for a second? do you want to suspend trade with china or any part of trade with china so we can combat hem? -- them? >> stuart, part of the competition with china is economic competition. that is a major dimension of this. if when china doesn't follow the rules of of the international order to, when they routinely violate basic standards even though they have most favored nation status, when they rip off our intellectual property, when they engage in unfair trade practices, engage in dumping, when hay steal our intellectual

property, of course we need strength in response to that. and what you see from this administration is a projection of weakness. we really don't need words. what we need are tough actions to hold china accountable on the economic front and then, of course, with we need deterrence. stuart: if we take a tough stand with china on trade, we're going. to get hurt to some degree. are we prepared to pay a price for being tough on china? >> well, what we need to do to mitigate any mowback, economic blowback so the deepen our economic ties with allies. and we can open up market access in other places, replacing china as a primary partner. so there's near shoring, there's onshoring legislation that we need to be focused on. we also need to deepen our economic ties with the quad in the pacific, other bilateral agreements. we certainly need a better bilateral trade agreement with taiwan to decrease their overdependence on china.

so there are things we can coas we decouple from china that mitigate the economic ram by occasions for us at home -- ramifications. stuart: congressman, i'm going to change the subject completely. president biden wants transgender athletes to join in women's sports. do you oppose that? >> of course i oppose that. i think ignoring biological differences in athletics is a catastrophe for women's sports. i'm the father of who two young girl athletes, and what we want is common sense. we want recognition of basic biology in sports. you know, since title ix was enacted 50 years ago, stuart, women's athlete athletics -- athletics has exploded, and opportunities for women and girls many sports has been a tremendous, wonderful benefit for women in their confidence, in their development, in their achievements. and i represent riley gaines an all-american swimmer, athlete are at university of kentucky who was unfairly denied her championship because she was

forced to compete against a biological male. this is shul unfair -- absolutely unfair. and so i'll be proudly voting for legislation that would clarify that title ix prohibits colleges and universities and other schools from discriminating on women and forcing them to the compete against biological males. stuart: congressman andy barr, thank you very much for joining us, sir. much appreciate ited. >> great to be with you. stuart: what's this about radical feminist groups now siding with are republicansesome is have you got that story? lauren: two liberal women's groups say democrats these to support women's rights in sports. the president of one of those groups says i'm a registered democrat and always have been, and i think it's the height of hypocrisy for democratic leadership, including president, to champion the rights of women and girls to the abortion while simultaneously denying the rights of women and girls to single-sex spaces. president biden says he will veto greg steube's legislation

right now that would prevent biological males in women's sports, but now you have democrat women speaking up and dads speaking up. stuart: sure. lauren: you go to a soccer field for girls, it's all dads cheering on their daughters. how would they feel their son was allowed to the play against their daughter? stuart: good question. it's not fair. that's the whole point. thanks, lauren. check futures, please. we're looking at red ink, down 150 on the dow, 120 on the nasdaq. back after this. ♪ ♪ when the bones are good, the rest don't matter. ♪ yeah, the paint could peel, the glass could shatter. ♪ let it rain because you and i remain the same ♪ - double check that. eh, pretty good!

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every day, more dog people are deciding it's time for a fresh approach to pet food. developed with vets. made from real meat and veggies. portioned for your dog. and delivered right to your door. it's smarter, healthier pet food. stuart: spacex is about to launch their starship rocket. now, you may are remember it was delayed earlier this week because of a frozen valve, but it's all teed up to go today. we're going to leave it on the screen and turn to the markets whilst they get ready for the launch which should be coming very soon. d.r. barton with us this morning. i've been putting up 6-month treasury yield all morning, 5%. can you tell me what's wrong

with that? >> there is nothing wrong with that for six months, stuart. that's a great place to put some new money, and i think it's a perfect place to hit and have some money every now and again, of it in some fixed income like that, for sure. stuart: okay. the market just wants to go up. that's my opinion. how about you? >> yeah. i i sent you some numbers about how bull you should a but indicators are looking -- bullish. since the beginning of march, 18 days we've closed at or near daily high, the intraday high. that means people are buying at the end of the day when the pros, the hedge funds buy. a that is a good sign, stuart. stuart: by the way, congratulations on lockheed martin. months ago you were telling us how wonderful it is, and it went almost straight up. congratulations, d.r. [laughter] >> thank you. stuart: okay. i've got to break away from you, d.r. are, because i've just got the word it's about 15 seconds to go to the launch of the

spacex rocket. now it's at 30 seconds to the launch of the spacex rocket. they took the timer away -- [laughter] okay, we're in trouble here. i do hope it goes off on time because i've got to sit here and tap dance otherwise. that can be difficult. susan: it's the largest rocket ever launched -- stuart: susan is with us contributing commentary, that's very good. what is it again? stuart: the -- susan: the largest rocket ever sent into space, and this will take humans eventually, hopefully in the next few decades -- stuart: susan, you surprise me, i didn't know you were a space fan. susan: i just have a breadth of knowledge, how about that? we're t the-minus now 15 seconds or so. stuart: how do you know that? they've taken the clock off the screen, and they're not helping me at all. by the way with, it's the largest rocket ever launched, i believe, and ultimately it's going to take astronauts to the moon and then on to mars at some point in the distant future.

i don't know when the target is to go the mars with astronauts, but -- it's on -- did you say -- susan: [inaudible] stuart: okay. the count todown is on hold to the final launch. okay. and i've got to tap dance another 40 seconds, because the market isn't is open for another 40 seconds, so i've got to get commentary on that. right-hand side of the screen, the spacex rocket. the countdown to launch is on hold. we're looking for the opening of the market in literally 20 seconds. dow's down about 160. that's premarket. and the nasdaq's down 130 points. tesla's results not helping anybody. but also the yield on the 10 and the 2-year and the 6-month treasury securities going up again. those high levels, that's not good for stocks. and regional banks have not been having a great time either. susan's going to be with us to cover all of this in a moment. the market has just opened, and as suspected, we're off about

160-outside points. the vast majority of the dow 30 are in the red. they're down. so the dow is down 150, the s&p has opened with a small loss, also down to the tune of three-quarters of 1%. nothing small about that. the s&p 500 is down, the nasdaq is down. how much? it is down almost 1%. okay. let's have a look at big tech. we always do that at this time. big they can this -- big tech down. apple's down three-quarters of 1%, the biggest loser is meta, which is down over 1%. let's get back to the action, and that would be tesla. the aforementioned susan -- susan: good morning. stuart: what surprised you most about the tesla results? susan: i was on the earnings call. profit was down by 24%, and automotive margins is a key metric. but guess what? 's the la declined, didn't give that number, so that was not a good sign to the markets. analysts did math and excluding

those tax rebates, they say that automotive margins were sub-20%, so that was below estimates. and also musk on the call said he might even sell cars in the future at a loss in order to gain market share. that's a -- those were the last two comments on that earnings call. we know he's cut prices six times this year with 29 discounted off the best selling model y in just three months' time. base models now sub-$40,000, and here's an indication of why he's cutting prices. you know they have a 15-day supply of cars now compared to 3 last year. so that means he has more supply, so he has to cut prices to drive demand. and that's not a good sign for profitability. you had at least nine analysts on wall street cutting their price targets this morning. bank of america is the only one to raise it to $225. cyber truck coming this summer though, there's some good news there. stuart: i guess so. and i'm prized, i thought thingt things were going elon's way.

susan: i mean, 20% is still the best in class among all carmakers, but i think you have lofty expectations when tesla's worth more than virtually every car company combined. here's manager for a history buff like you, best question came from adam jonas last night. he compared elon musk, tesla to ford and the model t back in 1913. ford started the production line, and that killed off hundreds of their competitors at the time. so morgan stanley asked elon musk, are you trying to kill off your competition by cutting prices and driving it to zero that only you can survive? stuart: and he saidsome. susan: well, i don't believe him, he just said i don't look at competition. [laughter] of course he does. stuart: okay. this is another one for you. why is elon musk threatening to sue microsoft? susan: well, he claims that microsoft used twitter's data to train its artificial intelligence and bing which is now infused with chatgpt, tweeting that they trained

illegally using twitter data and it's lawsuit time. this is also in reaction to reports that microsoft's going to drop twitter from its his thing platforms which means -- advertising platform the toes which means less revenue for musk. stuart: okay. hold on a second, everybody. we've ott got 10 seconds to the launch. here we go. listen in, folks. if. [background sounds] [cheers and applause] [inaudible conversations] stuart: that's a very good rocket, and i guess i'm used to things shooting -- susan: we should watch this, because a few of these test flights have not turned out well, so i would love to see the trajectory, whether or not it hits orbit. stuart: 10 million pounds of propellant from our other space

expert. it's up, it's launched, it's moving. [inaudible conversations] >> what a sight -- stuart: there's an excited commentator right there. all indicators are positive. susan: all systems go. stuart: all systems go, and as that is an impressive sight. the earth rumbles if you ever go to one of these big space launches. you can actually peel the rumble. -- feel rumble. this is the spacex launch. that is elon musk's company. susan, does success of this this liftoff have any if impact on tesla's sock? if. susan: i would say no. stuart: no. susan: although i would imagine that spacex add adds to his value. so it's a $100 billion space company. we know he recently raised money last year, and this is entertaining stuff, right? stuart: it's good stuff, it's. i like to hear the crowd in the background. that's musk's people, obviously, in texas.

that's where the space launch was from, in texas. they're cheering this thing on, and so they should. that's a wild success. biggest rocket ever launched. ultimately, that will take human beings to the moon and to mars. susan: and it's also notable, by the way, that spacex is the first private space company that has driven space travel successfully. stuart: yeah, that's true. sir richard branson's company -- susan: that's tourism. but it only drives you to the edge of orbit. stuart: and they're bankrupt. susan: ono. you're thinking of virgin galactic. susan: stuart: let me get that straightened out, sir richard branson's company is under a great deal of pressure -- susan: virgin orbit is the one that's gone bankrupt, which they were trying to -- and they were trying to send satellites into space. this is a high degree of difficulty that spacex is executing on. stuart: okay.

they're taking us back to the liftoff, the engines, i guess we're about to see them fire up so you can see what it looks like when things fire up. right-hand side of the screen, that thing is off and running, way up there now. i can't hear the commentary, so i don't know -- susan: it has cleared the path and found its nominal flight path. stuart: i believe it's only going up into the, into space about 150 miles up, something like that? susan: it's a test flight, so as you see, there are the some dramatic moves. i think they're probably testing the a agility of the rocket to the maneuver. stuart: yes, it's pa maneuvering, that's true. never see -- seen that before. look at that, that's extraordinary. maneuvering in space. i'm so glad with us, susan. i know nothing about this. susan: i love -- do you know space could be a trillion dollar opportunity in the next decade according to morgan stanley? and guess who's on top of that -- stuart: elon musk. susan: he could be the world's

first trillionaire. stuart: the man's breadth of success is still stunning. susan: it is. stuart: tesla, spacex -- susan: neurolink, also the drilling, boring company, and don't forget, he wants to get into artificial intelligence -- stuart: man is the most compelling ceo in america today, and he does remind me of steve jobs. susan: does he? oh, there you go. that's dramatic. i don't think that was supposed to happen. stuart: well, the crowd's cheering, so i guess it's the supposed to happen. [cheers and applause] >> [inaudible] integrated test flight. [cheers and applause] susan: that's a dramatic end right there. stuart: a very enthusiastic crowd. that implies bigtime success. the rocket has launched, it has maneuveredded, and elon's people are a very happy bunch.

that is texas, that is where the launch took off from. there's the control room. they're all happy. oh, there's musk. right there just next to the guy with the strange helmet. [laughter] >> as you said before, obviously, you wanted to make it all the way through, but to get this far, honestly, is amazing. stuart: commentator is saying to get the far is amazing. [laughter] >> -- what we call a rapid unscheduled disassembly, but now this was a development test. this is the first test fight of the starship, and the goal was to gather the data and, as we said, clear the pad and get ready to go again. you never know exactly what's going to happen. but as we promised, excitement is guaranteed. the starship gave us a rather spectacular end to what was truly an incredible test thus far. >> as we mentioned at the start of today's program, any and all of the data that we collected

during thest is going to help us with further development of starship, and it's going to improve the vehicle 's reliability as spacex seeks to make life multiplanetary. st the really worth noting that the flight path was designed to be other water, and all the air and sea space along with that flight path and those surrounding areas clear ared in advance of the test and, of course, we're going to be coordinating with local authorities for the recovery operation. >> but honestly, what an exciting morning. oh, my gosh. [laughter] we had a successful liftoff from texas at 8:28 a.m. central time. stuart: okay. we have some very enthusiastic commentators there. no doubt elon musk's people, and they should be enthusiastic. that looked like, to me, a very successful launch. florida congressman brian mast is with us. this rocket kid not take off from florida, it took off from the texas, but noneless, it's a musk product. what do you think of the launch, brian? >> you can't win them all, but this was so all-american, right?

from the apollo program right up til now, we love it. we cheer for it. bigger, faster, farther, further out there exploring space, it's what we love in america. stuart: it's very american, isn't it? reminds me of 1969, it really does. i saw that too. congressman, i'm going to change the subject. i hope you don't mind. today is 4 $20, it's marijuana day, i'm sure you know, and i bereave you've introduced a bill that's called the gun rights and marijuana act, the graham act. have i got this right? you want legal weed users to be able to buy a gun anywhere? am i accurate here? >> you're accurate. well, let's step back. you said a space was very 1969. i guess you could say this is very 1969 also, but we're dealing with it today. but, yeah, you look at the second amendment right, a well-regulated militia, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be unfringed. that is infringed if somebody is a user of a controlled substance. so we're saying if marijuana or

cannabis use is legal in your state, then you shouldn't be losing your second amendment rights, and that's what's taking place. stuart: okay. so you're going to correct that. you have no problem with a legal weed user owning a gun. you have no problem with that at all. >> i have no problem with that whatsoever. and i think furthermore, you know, legal cannabis users, they're being treated like second class citizens whether it's with gun ownership, the banking system or a host of different things. we need to move past this era of prohibition just like what happened with alcohol previously in our country's history. that has to be the point we get to with cannabis use in america. stuart: there is no recreational marijuana in florida. all you've got in florida is medicinal marijuana dispensaries. you happy with that? do you want to see recreational marijuana introduced many your sate? >> yeah, i'm comfortable with that happening, but i'm comfortable being it being a states' rights issue. this is the way our government has to work, that the states work for the people and the federal government works for the people and the states, not the other way around. and this is something, again,

widely accepted across the united states of america. we've got to stop treating them like second class citizens whether that's recreational or medicinal. stuart: are you having any second thoughts on legalization? i ask because i see an awful lot of kids coming out of high school at lunch and just getting stoned on the sidewalk, and i really don't like to see. that i'm in favor of legalization, but i don't like to see this happening. >> i'm in favor of states' rights and legalization -- and full disclosure, i've never smoked a joint in my life or had a pot brownie or any type of cannabis use. i have a lot of veteran friends that benefit from cannabis use in a lot of ways. i don't want to see anybody, you know, be addicted or have their life run by anything, but as a medicinal or recreational use, people demand that this be an option, and that's a states' rights issue, and a has to be what we stand up for. what do the states want, what to do the people want, that's what

america's all about. stuart: we really covered some topics, space, marijuana -- >> 1969. stuart: thank you very much, indeed. congressman, you're i all right. thanks for joining us, we coappreciate it. >> good -- good to see you, sir. stuart: you got it. ashley, there's a new bill, rain it could let marijuana businesses claim federal tax deductions. what would that do? lauren: it puts the marijuana industry on par with other industries. because the thing is if you allow business to deduct more, they will declare more, therefore, bring in more tax revenue to federal coffers. it's a bill being pushed by congressman earl blumenauer, democrat, oregon, and he wants to legalize interstate commerce as well. stuart: okay. i'm a supporter of legalization, but i don't like to see what i am seeing almost every day on the streets of new york. lauren: well, that's a consequence of legalizing. stuart: you can't stop it. lauren: one of the big issues especially here in new york is few people go into the legal pot

shops. they're still buying their marijuana off the black market. stuart: you can go to any smoke shop and buy -- lauren: and that revenue is not going to new york city, state or the government. stuart: but you can't reverse this. if you said, okay, it's not legal anymore, that makes no difference whatsoever. lauren: right. so a patchwork of rules state by state. so i'm assuming you're in the camp of just legalize it everywhere. stuart: i am. but i've got my reservations having seen how it worked out. that's what i've got to say. president biden touted his economic agenda in a speech in maryland yesterday. tell us what he said. lauren: he said inflation is a result of two things, covid and the war in ukraine. but it's down 45% from the highs. >> folks, my economic plan is a blue collar blueprint to rebuild america. i get how folks are struggling with inflation. inflation's been a global problem because of two things, a pandemic that disrupted the supply chains around the world, putin's war in ukraine which disrupted energy supplies and

food supplies causing the price of everything from eggs to wheat to go up. we have a lot more to do, but inflation has been coming down nine months in a row. lauren: and that's the cherry-picked number, it's down 45%. i cherry-picked some numbers. it's the up 257% since he took the office of. i also love the split screen that we're seeing. so yesterday biden was speaking to a union shop in maryland. and he said, well, my dad never went to college. he did take some classes, apparently, at johns hopkins. that's another story. but biden is saying i want to spend money, causing inflation, to help folks like my father who didn't go to college. ironically, that spending juices inflation -- the union employees that he was speaking to. but the split screen of kevin mccarthy the, the speaker of the house, speaking at the new york stock exchange, right? very different look. and mccarthy saying we are spending way too much. that's why we only want to

increase the debt ceiling with spending cuts. stuart: that's good. that was good. lauren: to reduce inflation. stuart: split screen shows the division between the two. lauren: yeah. but i think republicans are speaking more to the unions than president biden thinks he is. stuart: good one. very good. a lot of insight morning. where were you on space? [laughter] okay. coming up. lauren: i was in space. [laughter] stuart: is college worth it? my answer these days for many students is, no, and i'll tell you who i'm blaming. has my take coming up at the top of the hour. america's biggest retailer is closing up shops in some cities because of surging crimes. now there are warnings that organized retail theft is growing. we have a report outside a rite-aid that has been shut down. we'll be back. ♪ when i want something and i don't want to pay for it -- ♪ then i walk right through the door. ♪ i walk right through i the

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stuart: i'm going to show you this again, this is the successful launch of the starship rocket. but, lauren, i understand there

were some problems after liftoff. lauren: it had a disassembly before stage separation. translation, it failed to reach orbit. it exploded shortly after launch. stuart: and that was the primary mission, was to achieve orbit. lauren: yes. stuart: so it failed in that primary mission. we saw them cheering as it launched, but they were cheering prematurely perhaps. okay, now this: new report from the national retail federation says organized retail crime is growing in scope and complexity. madison alworth with us. how much are these stores losing from theft, madison? >> reporter: stuart, last year stores lost $95 billion in retail shrink. that is shoplifting. and the issue is when it is consistent and violent, you run into problems like this right here. this rite aid closed down many recent months because of issues like that. it's not just a problem for them, it's a problem for the community as well because, as you can see, people that relied

on this pharmacy are now being directed to go to another pharmacy, creating a gap in the community for those residents who rely on a location like this to get, you know, life-saving drugs. we reached out for a response, they said, quote: we are seeing a higher level of brazen shoplift aring and organized retail crime. our organization retail crime team has partnered with local police precincts to mitigate this criminal activity and help make arrests. but the issue is even when arrests are made, the problem doesn't always disappear. last year in new york city there were over 22,000 shoplifting arrests and just 327 individuals accounted for 30% of those arrests. what that means is they get arrested, they're released, and then they feel again. it's forcing multiple companies to close down stores in cities where crime is high. rei announcing this week they will be closing their portland store. walmart announcing they will be closing some stores in the chicago leaving gaps in the

community and higher prices on the shelves. >> it's a crime with real victims whether it's store employees or store owners. and, frankly, consumers, because when you're talking about9 -- 95 billion in shrink losses per year which was our latest numbers, that's a lot of money, and that is the kind of thing that is going to increase prices for everyone eventually. >> reporter: and, stuart, that organized retail crime part is a huge part of the problem because of the resale market. so people can steal beauty items, electronics, you name it, and then turn around and sell it online. so there is a marketplace for this crime to continue. i'll send it back to you, stu. stuart: we'll take it. madison, thank you very much, indeed. back to the markets. let me start with tesla. it is still down, but it's down -- the stock is down because of its performance in the earnings report yesterday. it's not down because the rocket launch this morning, spacex, it

launched okay, but it got -- it did not achieve its most ambitious goals. so that was something of a failure in the test flight, not reflected in tesla's stock. elsewhere pretty much stocks are down all across the board today. the dow is off a half percentage point, 170 points. but again, look at the level, it's still at the 33,000 level. dow winners, there are some. walgreens, ibm, procter & gamble, home depot. we have some s&p 500 winners on the screen, dr hour horton, snap, las vegas sands doing very well and macau is doing well. the nasdaq is headed by with lam research, up 5%, and so on down the list there. constellation energy up 1.3%. the yield on 10-year treasury coming in at 3.54%. the price of gold, we haven't checked that for a while, it's still above $2,000, $2,015 per ounce. bitcoin, $28,800. oil, where's that? well below $80, you're back to

77 now. and nat gas did not take off this wasn't, still the around there at $2.22 per million british thermal units. gasoline, unchanged overnight, $3.68 for regular. diesel, we now have it at $4.19, and that is down one cent. still ahead, senate minority whip john thune, tennessee senator marsha blackburn, rob smith, florida congressman mike waltz. the 10:00 hour is next. ♪ ♪ evacuate the dance floor, i'm infected by the sound. ♪ stop, this beat is killing me. ♪ hey, mr. dj, let the music take me underground ♪

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stuart: good morning. it is 10:00 eastern. straight to the money. the dow is off 200 points, the nasdaq has come up a bit