stuart: phil collins. didn't he fade dramatically all

of a sudden? he was king of the hill for a while. lauren: his daughters, emily and paris. stuart: i don't like is that shot of new york, that's an ugly building on the left and an ugly building on the right. that the empire state building in the middle. 10:00 eastern to your money. dow industrials opening with a tiny loss at this point. we are down a point, 33,500. big tech includes microsoft which is up $19, 7%. amazon is up 3%, meta, 2%, alphabet, 1%. big tech is leading the market rallied. as for the 10 year treasury yield we are down to 3.39%. bitcoin, up 29,873. that is a rally. that's the market. now this.

the republicans won control of the house, they run the committees, they run the investigations. today two hearings which delve into two of biden's biggest failures, border, education. the house judiciary committee will hear from tara lee road us --rodis she warned the kids were being picked up by sponsors who took them to work in factories. she says the government has become the middle of a multimillion dollar -- today at long last we get the other side of the story. we will hear from teachers union president randi weingarten. this will be a fight. she testified about the effects of covid school closures. she was advising the cdc and a major close friend of the president and first lady, the

republicans charge she kept schools close longer than necessary and academic standards plunged. weingarten says they are exaggerating. biden can hide behind his handlers, avoiding questions, campaigning from his basement but cannot hide the disasters, the border and education policies have created. second hour of varney just getting started. the gentleman on the right side of the screen is ben domenech. biden's policies on the border have been a disaster. will he be held accountable? >> i think the point that is key to what you said is president biden is approaching the next campaign the way he approached the last one which is he's dodging interviews,

questions, any accountability on his own response, his own policies as relates to anything that matters to americans. that is something that is unacceptable. last time he used the excuse of covid to campaign in his basement, this time we deserve to have the kind of answers on these different policy decisions that he and he as commander-in-chief deserve to deliver to us. we deserve to hear from him, not karine jean-pierre, not his surrogates. we want to hear from the president himself. when it comes to education, not sure he be in a position he has to answer for the policies he has used and deployed in terms of his approach. that is something we continue to see the democratic party avoid and make this something completely different, namely donald trump and the threat of threats to democracy and the

like but what we can see on capitol hill in the form of these hearings is some kind of ramification the democrats need to address in terms of responding to the reality of ramifications of their policies. stuart: president biden went after himaga extremists when speaking to a union crowd. >> president biden: the speaker, former president, maga extremists cut from a different cloth. they think they are a threat and somehow we will go back. the threat amaga republicans pose is to take us to a place we have never been, where the last guy tried to take us. stuart: he said these republicans are cut from a different cloth. is looking at the union crowd and says they are from a different cloth. that is class warfare.

>> i love the way he does that high level voice, then he does that whisper, to deliver how serious he is. it is ridiculous to hear this from president biden, he's in charge of the coalition that increasingly wealthy coalition, one that is designed to pretend to be in touch with the kind of workers across the country, very diverse coalition that's moving steadily into the republican camp. we will see in this next election a real test for him. this is a coalition that needs put together by fear mongering, getting into these issues that don't reflect reality, scaring people that there democracy is at risk when instead i think what people actually see particularly from the republican house majority is something that is essentially

normal republicanism, fiscal conservatism, responsibility, taking things seriously and that's the kind of thing republicans want to run on. stuart: did you see the washington post? they say democrats are reluctantly standing behind biden because they feel they have no choice. >> they don't. tell me more. >> it is telling you see poll numbers that say 70% of democrats, 70% of americans don't want president biden to run again. enormous numbers of democrats and that number and that is why you will see someone like rfk junior over perform in terms of poll data. people understand this guy can't do this job, they don't have confidence in him. even though they put kamala harris in the opening add 12 or 13 times in terms of the imagery that won't convince anybody she's ready for the job should president biden not finish out.

stuart: thanks for joining us, see you again soon. 2,024 democrat candidate robert f kennedy junior wants to debate president biden. elon musk is getting into this conversation. lauren: debate on twitter. rfk says we need dialogue in these times but the dnc has no plan to host primary debates. critics say it is a power grab. the biden administration making the party fall behind and fall in line behind their guy. here's what rfk says. i've known and liked joe for many years but we differ profoundly on such issues. i look forward to engaging him in the debate. elon musk is chiming in saying that is clearly not going to happen but i welcome you to discuss how you feel. on twitter we give all candidates a voice so the public may make the most

informed choice, too much backroom dealing seems to be happening. stuart: he can never get through a 3 hour show without mentioning elon musk at least once. lauren: on the rnc side, trump doesn't want to debate the leading candidate and the leading candidate on the democratic side -- how are you supposed to make your decision? stuart: good luck with that. back to the markets, a big day. david dietz is with me and he's coming from an unusual position here. why should i avoid ai oriented stocks? >> as a general concept we are very leery of concept fads. it was 6 months ago we were talking about meta. what happened to augmented reality? what happened to cannabis? you need to be careful. stuart: do you have any doubt that ai is going to be a big thing in the future and be

everywhere? >> the future, i've seen reports $1.4 trillion by the end of the decade and as investors it matters what you pay. i'm not a big fan of chinese state media but even in february, investors beware, stocks are doubling, and had no real ai related revenue. in a short period of time off about lost $100 billion of its market because chat gpt competitor flubbed an answer and the investor made instant decision, the website with news media and so forth, with ai, stock tripled but we've seen no magical content out of bo's feed and this is not continued. investors need to be cautious. stuart: earnings report.

so far this season 75% of companies reported to have beaten these expectations. that's pretty good. >> you have to remember expectations have been low and expectations have been low as a result. companies are being 5% which is more than 3% of the past 5 years, seeing a better pop when companies beat versus downbeat movement when they fall short. having said that look at the bigger picture. this is the second quarter in a year earnings are down year over year, they are down 6%. what is inflation over the past 12 months? any number is 5%. that means 11% less real earnings in the last 12 months. that's not a recipe for great results. investors need to look forward. it is not what you did last quarter but what you do in the next for 5/4. stuart: you are an economist,

look at microsoft, ai stock up $20 a share. ai stocks rallying on microsoft earnings. lauren: sound hound, voice, these are smaller stocks we never heard of but we are hearing about now. bullfrog ai and biotech, healthcare. artificial intelligence playing it. look at the rally. stuart: bullfrog ai holding, it goes up. activision blizzard. lauren: we are rejecting the microsoft deal, with competition in the cloud gaming market. the ftc in the us in august. stuart: in phase energy, the

solar panel folks. >> down 24%. they reported earnings and it warns sales for the solar panels will slow in the united states, ominous signs for the administered can the green push. this is from the ceo. i interest rates making the solar panel system really expensive. all these regulations, slowing the solar supply-chain. you want to be green, the fed and california are in your way. stuart: one more for you. this is specific to you. employers amp explore why jonesy is the hardest generation to work with. reveal for me please. lauren: they are so not professional lantern titles, says folks at resume builder. this is why 74% of bosses don't want to hire a twentysomething.

they are easily triggered, other employees seem like they have to be very pc and watch what they see. they don't know how to act professional, they are distracted on their phones or address people. this is 26 under generation. likely in the first job, went through covid addicted to their phones. stuart: half the people who put the show on the air are jens the folks. these are fantastic. they work real hard, very good at meetings. lauren: i think we let them talk about stuff at work. put up the memo, this sign, an anonymous boss at an anonymous company told staff work is not meant to be fun. don't make friends at work, don't discuss nonwork topics. can you imagine a company in

this job environment saying that to workers? stuart: what fun it is to go to work. lauren: our staff, a lot to talk about. stuart: now this. snapchat forcing and intrusive ai chat on users. some are calling it a creepy invasion of their privacy. we will tell you about it and try to explain it. that caliban took out the isis terrorist behind the attack on the kabul airport that killed 13 us trumps, troops. that caliban did that? we have details. ukrainian forces gearing up for the spring offensive. president biden gives ukraine enough so they don't lose, not enough so they can win. foreign policy expert james califano next. the chase ink business premier card is made for people like sam who make...? ...everyday products... ...designed smarter. like a smart coffee grinder - that orders fresh beans for you.

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stuart: ukraine forces are gearing up for their spring offensive. we are learning ukraine's president zelenskyy held call with china's xi jinping. do we know what they talked about? >> we do know they held this phone call and we will hear what took place later on today. ukrainian president vladimir zelenskyy says his conversation will help the diplomatic relationship between the countries. china is taking it as a moment to declare is a peacemaker saying it will not benefit from this conflict or make money off of it. this is the first known covid for -- phone call since the start of the russian invasion into comes a month after

chinese president xi jinping met with russian president vladimir putin. this was a stance of neutrality and will not make decisions which country to support but never formally condemned russia's invasion. as far as the latest on the battlefield as we talk about this counteroffensive look at this map. ukrainian officials are tolerating the recent advancements in the eastern town of camino which is not far from the contested town where the fighting has been for months. russia is refuting those claims saying it's forces held ground assaults in crimina. russia is financially incentivizing prisoners in order to fight. at the same time the countries are constantly negotiating the exchange of prisoners of war, ukraine welcoming 44 new prisoners of war on top of the 2200 ukrainian pows who have

been retrieved. one of them is alelexolexandr s detain they were medics and civilians crammed together in harsh living conditions. >> translator: it was very poor quality food. difficult to collect food. we were fed with water from the river. they didn't give us hygiene at all. just toilet paper and soap. >> reporter: he says in his time there, he lost more than a hundred pounds because of the conditions and lack of food, he mainly lived on oatmeal until he returned to his family with a optimistic outlook, he was able to compartmentalize that hope you would be free. stuart: thank you very much indeed. lieutenant colonel james ca carafano joins us now.

ukraine is about to start their spring offensive. they have new weapons in the west including america. can they win? >> reporter: i can answer the question if i knew what the ukraine war plan wasn't i don't. i know what the ukrainians would like to do, recapture crimea, the land bridge and all their territory. that's what they would like to do. here's what i think they have to do. they have to make the defense of ukraine more credible. they have to have defensible territory. the russians will stop. pruden can fight for a long time. what is important for our interests is there is a free and independent ukraine. depending how much territory they recapture the creek will thing is you need to defend the territory you have and be able to defend it for a long time. if the offensive contributes to that, that would be success. stuart: is that why president

biden is giving the ukrainians enough to help them not lose but not enough help to help them win? >> no. biden is doing it because he is a yahoo. he has been afraid that if we help the ukrainians the russians will escalate which is utter nonsense. the war rapidly and appropriately, as soon as the war will come to a end. the ukrainians said they wanted to attack in moscow. in many ways it would be similar to the doolittle raid after pearl harbor when we flew over japan. the reason we did that is to show we could get back at the japanese, mostly psychological. that's what an attack on moscow would have been. i would say don't do it not because the russians will escalate but because that's not

going to help, ukraine doesn't need that. ukraine is already in the more. ukraine needs to focus on one thing, the defense of ukrainian territory convincing the russians they can never win. biden has never understood that from day one. is thing is about how do i not get blamed for this and how to why not get blamed for this? i am afraid of my shadow. stuart: that is dramatic stuff. i've not heard our president described as a yahoo for some time but that was a breakthrough. thanks for joining us. we will see you again soon. do you remember in 2020 one a suicide bomber killed 13 servicemembers in afghanistan. the mastermind behind the bombing has been killed. ashley webster, who killed him? ashley: isis k terrorist was eliminated in a caliban operation.

's name has not been disclosed but intelligence analysts and the us government say he was the mastermind of the attack that took the lives of american marines, navy soldier and one army soldier and 18 other servicemembers who were also wounded. the us was not notified of the caliban operation but known of it through intelligence streams. father one of those marines says the biden administration still needs to be held accountable for the chaotic withdrawal, the death of the isis terrorist doesn't mean the investigation into that attack. stuart: democrats came for your life bulbs, gas powered cars and now your food. the mayor of new york city wants to crackdown on meat production in the name of climate change. we will deal with the mayor's plan based push next. ♪ ♪ we got to get out of this

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industrials are down one hundred 44 points despite a big day for microsoft and boeing which are both dow stocks. they are up, the dow is down one hundred 46 points. we will see if there's a couple stocks on the downside within a dow 30. first republic handed out billions of dollars in ultra low mortgage rates some of the wealthiest people in the country, including mark zuckerberg and now the federal government might step in to help that bank. is biden going to bail out the rich? lauren: don't think they want to but they might have to. first republic is a bank that wined and dined the rich. branches in palm beach, manhattan recruited mister zuckerberg with a starting mortgage weight of 6% and also got caught up in silicon valley and signature bank failures. in the bank's first earnings report, management took no questions and said customers pooled $100 billion.

>> the situation at first republic, so much is concentrated on ultrahigh net worth people, they take the money elsewhere. most regional banks don't have the same dynamic at play. lauren: they are exploit strategic options to plug a big hole. they could be bought or taken over by fdic but will the government also guarantee the deposits over $250,000 like they did with the other banks? for rich clients, the biden team is boxed in about what to do. stock is down 95%. stuart: rock and a hard place. the mayor of new york city, eric adams, pushing to change the way we eat. she wants to replace meat options with plant-based meals.

to boost the climate change agenda and you are a food guy, you used to run restaurant chains. what do you think of this? we appear to have -- got an audio problem. i'm hearing several echoes right there. i will move on. look at the market please. we are down 110 points on the dow industrials and i want to move on to snapchat. the dow was down a hundred points. despite big gains for microsoft and boeing. snapchat on the downside down one cent. they added a new artificial intelligence feature. some users are outraged. what the new feature and why are people outraged? ashley: i think andy pudzner is a i. the feature runs on gpt technology and designs to reply

to your message like a friend but many users complain the future is a way -- in the way of them chatting with her actual friends. if you don't subscribe to snapchat plus for $3.99 a month, there's no way to remove my ai from the top of your feed, that may users threaten to leave the platform entirely if snapchat continues to allow only paid users to hide the bot. there are security issues as well. some posts claim the ai was able to figure out there location and details and there's concern the apps could spread incorrect or harmful information to its many users who are under 18 years old. it is not proving to be a big hit. stuart: thanks, ashley. is andy pudzner back with us? what do you think of mayor eric

adams's plan to go towards plant-based food? >> it is another blow to new york city. not just in the city schools or hospitals but they are encouraging the private sector to get involved in this and cut methane emissions by 25%. you are taking the city of new york where the blasé a and adams have made it so if you are riding the subway, difficult to run a business because people think shoplifting is illegal now because they're not prosecuting anybody for these crimes. he really got a city with some black eyes here and you will make it, you can go to new york and get a great meal. they have incredible restaurants. i can't get crispy beef or meatballs and sausage, i come to new york, cities like miami, dallas, probably salivating at

the potential of pulling some of this business away from new york and even san francisco which is having its own difficulty. stuart: i will change the subject and talk about the banks. i want your thoughts on the first republic, they dropped 40% yesterday, they are down 36%, down $5 a share. they reported a massive deposit drop, but let's go back to the spd bank collapse. you blame it on woke bankers. is this the same situation at republic? >> this is a problem, the deer and woke management, something that has spread across the country. ceos go on and commit to following these deer policies, american ceos signed up, some of that is just woke washing,

probably trying to look like they are doing something but it's not all woke and vote problem is if you've got somebody was hired for these deer qualifications based on race or sex and you are a young executive and you see this person is making a mistake, if you get these lectures about micro-aggression and not offending people, some people are oppressors and some people are oppressed you're unlikely to point out to these people they are making a mistake, just sit back and watch and see what happens. you cut off the employee communication that is essential to running a business and always banks of experienced this and that is why we've seen the failure at s pb and the problems. we one when you see one hundred billion walk out the door you better raise your voice. see you again soon. donald trump threatening to skip the republican primary debates.

he says that works and networks are trump maga haters. new york governor hochul's plan to crackdown on illegal potshot slipping through the cracks because they are hiding behind legal loopholes. madison alworth breaks it down next. ♪ ♪

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stuart: stock of the day affecting the whole market. spectacular earnings report late yesterday. stock is up $20 a share, 7. 4% higher, microsoft close to $300 a share. i have a series of marijuana stories for you. speaker of the house in michigan pleaded guilty to bribery.

what does this have to do with marijuana? ashley: he handed out the licenses to sell it. johnson pled guilty to accepting $110,000 in exchange for approving applications for marijuana licenses. the investigation has centered on corruption the marijuana board before it was disbanded in 2019. the panel reviewed applications to grow and sell marijuana for medical purposes. total four suspects pleaded guilty, cooperating with the fbi, including a detroit businessman who provided cash and other benefits to johnson including two flights to canada. investigation is continuing. stuart: the governor of new york, kathy hochul looking to crack down on illegal potshot in new york city, many using legal loopholes to hide marijuana sales. madison alworth in the city. what legal loopholes are we

talking about? >> reporter: these shops will be run by an llc or corporation. if they are hit with a fine, they dissolve. in the case of a corporation it is difficult to find the person responsible. kind of just disappears. legal set up for illegal activity. that's why hochul is trying to address this. it nearly a month late, the latest it has been in a decade. a big focus on cracking down on illegal weed shops. the proposal hits two things, to charge $10,000 a day for illegally selling marijuana, $200,000 if they are found to sell products from outside of new york with those in the industry are not convinced this proposal would do much of anything. >> never find all the shops. in terms of a widespread crackdown you will not be able to. secondly, most of the holdings, the assets are held by these companies in cash.

you won't be able to put a lien on real estate or a bank account. >> reporter: the estimate of how many smoke shops needs to be investigated are not clear. the governor puts it at 2500 shops. an attorney on many of these stores says it is closer to 5000 smoke shops. without marijuana being federally regulated, many businesses operate in cash because it is hard for them to pay. the state struggling to enforce this even with these new rules. as a result there's a ton of money left on the table. we asked collins how much they are making each month and if they are operating legally how much would that mean in tax revenue for the states? take a listen. >> if only 10% of the shops that i think are in existence i would say quarterly we are

missing out on $200 million of revenue per quarter. >> that's just 10% lose the challenge is it's really slow to roll out licensing for marijuana. marijuana was legalized in new york two years ago. in new york city we have four legal dispensaries. and two years. over my shoulder are two smoke shops on this one block. the demand is there, supply cannot keep up. businesses are going about it legally, selling illegal product. stuart: just about anywhere. we have another state legalizing recreational marijuana. which state? ashley: that would be minnesota. the gopher state which will be the refer state. state lawmakers passed a bill that would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and sell and use marijuana. the senate will now begin debate, governor tim waltz will

sign it. minnesotans will be able to apply state licenses to grow, it will also allow a person to keep one. 5 pounds of flour in their homes, grow up to 8 ounces in a public place and automatically expunge low-level cannabis convictions and sets up a board to consider felony offenses. definitely going the way of marijuana. stuart: congressman jackson, trump's doctor in the white house, demanding president biden take a cognitive test or drop out of the 24 race. jackson says the president needs to prove he's up to the job. that story is next. ♪ ♪

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doctor who chairs the republican doctors caucus. welcome to the show. do you think biden should have to take a cognitive test? >> absolutely. as a surgeon i have to take a cognitive and mechanic's test when i'm 70 just to continue to operate but we have a gentleman who's literally the leader of the free world and there have been op-eds about this especially the last four months that have shown great doubt in the eyes of the american people in his cognitive ability so he, more than ever, needs, if he has, to demonstrate to the american people that he's cognitively able for the job. stuart: he doesn't have to do this. >> he doesn't but he should. i think he owes it to the american people and the fact he doesn't want to honestly displace a bit of arrogance. stuart: it sets up a difficult situation. supposing the cognitive test results come in and he's not doing very well, who says to him mr. president, step aside, it is now president harris?

>> that would be a scary thing is it is but if he had any integrity, if he had any honor he could admit that what happens to many of us as we get older, we lose cognitive ability. if he had any honor he would say the tests are what they are, for the sake of the country, should back down and step off the ledge and sadly enough, banish the thought, would say kamala would be the president of the united states. we when i will leave it right there. next one is this. i know you're worried about china infiltrating college campuses. i want to know what they are doing the you don't like and what do you do to stop it? >> if you look at the propaganda manuals russia came out with this years ago with the kgb. the way to overthrow a country without a ballistic fight is through the educational system. in the young ages, we see on college campuses. if you look at what happens in

college campuses, confucius institutes, ccp propaganda director has said one of the best ways to push their communist propaganda. if you look what happens with chinese students that are brought in, they pay full tuition, colleges and universities where tuition start love these individuals, don't give them financial later any of the other things and the other thing that is really crucial is something i worked on a year ago, to try to get college endowments to divest out of china. the great plight year ago was for colleges, i knew this when i was on the board of trustees, to divest fossil fuels. today we are enabling a country which blatantly said they are our greatest adversary and want to take over the world. why are colleges and universities investing in that country that promotes communist ideas? we are attacking it on many different fronts. we have to win this war, get

american investments out of china. colleges and universities should not be on the vanguard with this. stuart: thanks for joining us. see you again soon. doctor fauci defending the way he handled lockdowns during the covid pandemic. what is he saying now? ashley: the good doctor absolved himself of any blame for the lockdowns. somewhat defensive interview with the new york times saying in part show me a school i shut it down and show me a factory i shut down, i never did. i gave public health recommendation that echoed the cdc recommendation, people made a decision based on that but i never criticize the people who had to make the decisions one way or the other. that was one of several in which fauci defended his guidance during the pandemic, pushing back against critics who accused him of being wrong about everything from masks to how effective vaccines would

be. he argued the ever-changing nature of the evidence meant it was impossible to get everything right. he also defended his views on the origins of the pandemic arguing he was open to the idea the virus could have leaked from a chinese lab despite still believing more evidence exists to support the theory that the virus came from a wuhan west market. stuart: still had, house majority whip steve scalise, mark mccallum and deroy murdock. karin karine jean-pierre klain republicans are, quote, fighting to put fentanyl on the street. my opinion, that is an appalling degradation of our political discussion. it is "my take" next. ♪ ♪

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>> yes. joe biden is approaching this next campaign the same beta he approached the last one. he is dodging interviews, questions, any kind of accountability, and that's something that i think is absolutely unacceptable. >> this president, joe bide, he doesn't like change -- taking questions, he doesn't sit down for interviews ver