i'm sam morrison. my brother max recommended you. so, my best friend sophie says you've been a huge help. at ameriprise financial, more than 9 out of 10 of our clients are likely to recommend us. our neighbors, the garcía's, love working with you. because the advice we give is personalized, -hey, john reese, jr. -how's your father doing? to help reach your goals with confidence. my sister's told me so much about you. that's why it's more than advice worth listening to. it's advice worth talking about. ameriprise financial. >> in the situation we're having to defend a lot of stuff from in particular from the biden administration, and from things that kamala harris has said over the course of her career that is frankly indefensible. >> next year, is what i refer to as the super bowl of tax. you see $4.6 trillion. no tax on tips that's something very doable. >> it's like throwing a

lifeline to iran and hezbollah and hamas. >> i've been speaking to members high up in the long shoreman's union. they will see a step up in inflation as a result of this. >> this is not going to be very good for us. >> vice president harris, because she's depending on lower prices. take it easy, baby, make it last all night ♪ stuart: this is one of my favorite songs from tom petty, "american girl." lauren: you're an american boy. stuart: i'd like to be an american man actually but that's another story. it's 11:00 eastern time and it is monday, september 30. last day of the month. last day of the quarter as well. check the markets as we go out of the quarter dow off, nasdaq

off, not by much just a little red ink today. show me big tech please. mixed picture i believe. only apple beings apple is the only winner. it's up three bucks 1.6% the rest are in the downside. the 10 year treasury, the yield there going up just a little. 3.77%. any moment now president biden will give an update on the response to hurricane helene and we'll bring you those updates as they come in. we're also waiting on the governor of new york, kathy hochul who will address the looming port strike and we'll monitor that and bring you headlines as they come in. now this. i'll queue it again. now this. [laughter] we've got these. the port strike is due to start tomorrow. president biden says he will not intervene. you will be hearing reports from shortages of maybe fruit and vegetables and gift items for the holiday season. this strike, if it goes on for days or even weeks, is

going to be costly. four to $5 billion a day, according to wall street. come on, now, let's dig deeper into this. the strike is about union power, when a very pro-union president is in the white house. biden walked the picket line with the auto workers when they went on strike. they won big. the dock workers are hoping for biden's support too and they are getting it, because biden will not intervene. there's political risk for the president here. he came into office promising supply chain reform with the port strike. that goes out the window. look deeper still, and you'll see that automation is a key issue. the dock workers reject the injection of computing power to the cranes and loading facilities because it would likely cost jobs. they want a big wage increase, but underlying demand is a fear of a.i. again, political risk for biden. he wants america to be a technological leader but he can't do that if our ports are locked out of new tech. there's no surprise ports in

china are much more efficient and then there's the timing. the election is five weeks from tomorrow. the day the strike is supposed to start. tomorrow. the last thing this administration wants to see is a sudden en burst of inflation and shortages because the president refuses to intervene with a powerful union that actively fights change. third hour of "varney" starts now. steve forbes with us this morning. biden won't intervene in the port strike. i think that gives him a political problem. what say you? >> absolutely. because even though he wants to appease the union he's got millions of people whose lives will be disrupted especially coming on the holiday season. he has a tool in hand that can call it 80-day cooling off period to try to get a negotiation and have the ports still remain open but he's fearful of offending union lealeaders this is a case, unlae

the auto workers two years ago, this is going to hurt more people than it's going to help with those union members. stuart: especially if you get a degree of inflation. if a strike, if it went on for a week, say, you would run short of fruits and vegetables. >> you're exactly right. we saw that during the covid lockdowns how easy it is to disrupt these sophisticated intricate supply chains so he's got a political problem and if he is a wise politician, he would use that 80 day cooling off period and try to get a settlement because people even if prices don't immediately go up, the inconvenience of not getting holiday gifts, bad for an election. stuart: five weeks away. steve, the chair of the house ways and means committee, jason smith, very powerful guy. he was with us earlier this morning, and i asked him about trump's tax plan which includes, you know, no tax on tips, no tax on social security benefits or overtime, et cetera. i asked him, jason smith, is

this just vote-buying? watch this. >> i'll tell you, next year is what i refer to as the super bowl of tax. tax on tips is something very doable. i'm glad we're having this conversation of no tax on social security benefits because the provision of the tax cuts on social security benefits stayed constants since 1980. stuart: steve i think it's vote-buying, what do you say? >> i'm shocked you'd think of such a thing. five weeks before an election. how dare you? stuart: well we criticize harris for a lot of her proposal which is are clearly vote-buying like student debt forgiveness but the same thing could be said for trump deserves' suggestions. >> but actually they are constructive ideas, social security benefits, should not be taxed especially as they aren't tied to inflation. the tax thing versus smith pointed out, since the early 1980s and on tips, that's i

think a tip in the door, you might say, to getting tax simplification. no tax on tips, why not have a flat tax? stuart: you want a flat tax. you want to flat tax at what level? >> 17%, but good deductions for adults and for children, a family making $53,000 would pay no federal income tax. above that $53,000, be would pay only $0.17 on the dollars. no tax on savings, and no death taxes. you should be allowed to leave unmolested by the irs. stuart: you think that a flat tax at 17% would bring in more revenue than the progressive tax we've got now? >> absolutely. would focus people on doing real things. go back 20 years. we've spent 6 billion hours a year filling out tax forms, cost two to $300 billion a year complining with this code. if you took that literally tens of billion of hours, new

products, new services, new medical devices how much better off we be? stuart: i love it but it's never going to happen. steve forbes thank you very much. >> have faith. stuart: steve thank you very much, sir. >> thank you. stuart: programming note the cbs news vice presidential debate will take place tomorrow. you can watch it here on fox business. we start at 9:00 p.m. eastern but leading up to the debate there's this pre-show coverage on the bottom line. that's 6:00-8:00 p.m. eastern it's tomorrow night. on the markets this morning, not much price movement, just a tiny bit of red ink. dow off 60, nasdaq down all of 1 point. jason katz with us this morning. you've got a new survey, i believe it's of wets it people, wealthy investors, it shows what, 77% of them consider changing their portfolios before the election. work on that for a minute. 77%. >> so ubs has what's called investor watch, a varicellavaricella survey of

ultra high net worth and it's not this survey. i'll share with you every conversation i have starts, ends and finishes with how does this election impact our investments. stuart: which way are they going to change things? if they think that trump is going to win do they make any changes, do they think harris will win do they make changes? >> yes and yes. stuart: whoa. >> the first thing i tell them is look. it's okay to make changes at the margin. it's okay to make micro changes. wholesale changes is a recipe for disaster. look at how the markets reacted after trump's inauguration the first go-around, with respect to what industries, for those in favor of trump are getting more long industrials, energy, financials and for those more in favor of harris by and large it's wind, it's solar, it's green energy related plays. stuart: big picture for a second away from your survey. we've got something of a melt-up recently for the overall

markets. >> that's an understatement. stuart: it is actually, because it's doing really well. new highs all of the time. does it continue? >> so i don't think it melts up. i think the pace slows, but there's still gains to be had. so, number one, you had this bazooka of a rate cut not just here in the us. it's all central banks. secondly, talk about a bazooka, you have an arsenal of stimulus coming out of china and you don't want to fight that type of stimulus and i think what you're going to see is an economy that is very likely to have a soft landing, and all these people in cash, it's so boring we talk about this every week, but i'm seeing panic in the cash market. panic with wait a second. it was 5.5 now it's 5. i make it 4.5% so you're starting to see that money come off the sidelines so it's for that reason that you're likely to see 5,700 by year-end on the s&p and mid-next year, 6,200 which is what, 9 some odd percent, so not a melt-up.

stuart: w what does it take to e considered a high net worth investor? >> so high net worth is generally 5 million or more, ultra high net worth liquid assets in says of 10 million. stuart: that's fascinating because we're all positioning ourselves in the network tables. lauren, what's with fedex? lauren: and ups. we are sharply higher as the east coast port strike looms, stifle is saying these air freight providers would benefit the most from a potential strike. stuart: trump media, djt. >> the lockup expired over a year ago. trump has yet to sell his shares, stock is up almost 7%, the real clear political average of polls has trump up marginally in the battlegrounds. stuart: got it. thanks lauren. i've got to go to this the latest on hurricane helene. at least 106 people have died.

millions are still without power. ashley? take us through the latest, please. ashley: well, an unprecedented tragedy is what it's called. it's unfolding in the mountains of of western north carolina. plus, communities simply struggling to cope without water, food, power, gasoline, or cell phone service. a major disaster declaration now infect for the 25 counties for western and north carolina, local federal officials are trying to deliver supplies to areas and repair and restore what they can, but complicating the whole recovery efforts here is the enormous number of road closures. more than 200. maybe 300, that includes interstate 40 and has been significant damage to water treatment facilities throughout the region. in the city of asheville, authorities say restoring the full system there could take

weeks. in the meantime, north carolina governor roy cooper says the state is urgently trying to get supplies to these affected areas and will be setting up what they are calling mass feeding sites. at last report the number of people unaccounted for by the way, still above 500. so, and we should also mention, join fox forward supportive recovery efforts we've been putting this up on the screen a lot. you can visit the redcross.org/foxfor and or scan the qr code below on your screen to support these efforts. it is most definitely needed and the struggle goes on. stu stuart: it it does, governor of new york kathy hochul gave an update on the potential port strike. here is what she said so far. new york will maintain essential services if a strike doesn't occur got that. they are working to get things like food supplies and medical goods off the ships currently sitting at new york ports.

homeland security department will help with any shortages of essential materials. and new york is preparing for the worst, but they don't anticipate shortages anytime soon. the governor says do not run out to the store and stockpile any goods like what people did in the pandemic. we are not there. okay? there you go. coming up, over the weekend hezbollah's leader was killed and an israeli air strike. iran is vulnerable and they're losing. we are we not putting pressure on them? kurt volker gets into it, next. to duckduckgo on all your devie

duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine, like google, but it's r and doesn't spy on your searchs

and duckduckgo lets you browsel but it blocks cookies and creepy ads that follow youa and other companies. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. ♪ ♪ join with so much greatple entertainment out there... wouldn't it be easier if you could find what you want, all in one place? my favorites. get xfinity streamsaver with netflix, apple tv+, and peacock included, for only $15 a month. stuart: donald trump is criticizing biden's response to iran, after it was revealed that

tehran threatened to assassinate trump. gillum ran turner at the state department. what did trump say, jillian? reporter: just a few days ago, as you know, stuart, we learned through the trump campaign that iran had undertaken an assassination plot against the former president. he now has a message for president biden and vice president kamala harris. take a listen. >> iran is threatening my life, and they're guarding the president of iran, and biden doesn't say anything. if that were me and i don't care who the opponent was, i'd be letting them know, you better not touch. reporter: well, plots targeting us officials right here on home soil plus cyberattacks on both the trump and harris campaigns and iran now on an accelerated nuclear program timeline, it's just the latest evidence of tehran's war against the us, essentially. on friday the biden administration announced new sanctions on iran and

the justice department charged three iranians with trying to hack the us presidential election. the attorney general delivered this morning. >> the justice department has a very long memory and we are going to pursue these people endlessly. reporter: senator marco rubio says the biggest threat iran's regime poses right now is through their financing of terror group hezbollah and lebanon. >> their goal is to dominate that region, and they seek to drive america out of the region and then destroy israel and so any time the iranian regime is on defense it's good for the world, good for america and good for israel. reporter: so, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, stuart, agree with that assessment and we had multiple national security officials tell us now hezbollah has perhaps more american's blood on their hands than any other middle east terror organization. stuart: thank you very much. iran's ayatollah community is reportedly heig hiding with exta

security. former us ambassador nato joins me now, kurt volker. if i ran is vulnerable why didn't we put more pressure on them. why are we urging restraint on israel? >> right, it is exactly the right question, stuart. every time we say we don't want to escalate, we need to avoid a war, that is sending a signal to iran that they are safe, they don't have anything to worry about. we should be doing the opposite just as israel is doing on its own which is to show there are costs to iran's aggressive behavior through their proxies, and that they can't be assured that things will be okay. we should be raising the stakes here. stuart: a senior us official says, a limited ground incursion by israel into south lebanon is imminent. that would hardly be restraint on israel's part would it? >> it would not and the reason

for this is to create a buffer zone where hezbollah will not be present and then to try to reach a deal with the government of lebanon, that they be there and prevent hezbollah from coming back. but israel is taking security into its own hands, because the us has basically taken a position of calling on restraint, not preventing hamas attacks, not going after iran directly, not telling hezbollah directly to stand down, so it is having to take security into its own hands which is unfortunate. i wish that we were in a more robust posture vis-a-vis israel's self-defense. stuart: iran's nuclear program is very much in place and they reportedly got enough enriched uranium to do whatever. can you see the day coming when israel and all of the united states took out using bunker buster bombs, their nuclear facilities. can you see that day coming?

>> i think that it may come. i know that the biden administration is seeking to avoid any direct engagement of iran in the hope that we can then persuade iran not to pursue its nuclear program. i don't think it's going to work so we may be confronted with that day where we're going to have to do that or else face an iran wielding a nuclear weapon against israel. stuart: presumably it would come during the biden-harris administration and not in a potential trump administration, because i'm pretty sure he would do it. >> well, and i think more to the point. i think the ayatollahs are pretty sure he would do it, so they would want to getaway with it sooner rather than later. stuart: ambassador volcker always a pleasure thank you very much for with being us we appreciate it. come in here, ashley, what does senator lizzy graham say abilitt the handling of iran.

ashley: they claim the biden administration is paralyzed by fear of iran and also the escalation of the war in the middle east. here is what senator told cnn. >> as a result of iran running wild having $80 billion of sanctions, they used to build up hamas and hezbollah, nobody in israel is even talking to the biden administration. the biden administration's paralyzed by fear of iran and the name of not escalating the world is on fire, so i promise you, if trump does win, we're going to fix this pretty quick. ashley: well, grammar guys that the biden administration including kamala harris doesn't have a clue on how to handle rising global tensions. stu? stuart: okay, thanks, ashley. breaking right now, president biden just gave an update on the response to hurricane helene i've got bullet points here. he says he's committed to traveling to impacted areas "as soon as possible" he does not want to get in the way of crisis response. he's expected to be on the ground sometime later

this week. his words. the head of fema is in north carolina and they will stay there for the foreseeable future. 600 people considered unaccounted for. they can't make contact with them. this i believe is in the asheville area. 3,600 federal personnel have been deployed. the federal rescue teams working with local first responders and will not rest until everyone's accounted for et cetera et cetera. his message for survivors? we will be there with you as long as it takes. now, biden was coughing often during the address. he says he has a cold. got it. coming up, trump says he's going to cut energy prices in half. >> here is a promise i'm making to you. i will cut your energy and electricity prices in half. within 12 months of taking the oath of office, i will cut your energy prices by 50%. stuart: how exactly, what's the plan to do exactly that? we're going to try to find out.

port strike set to begin tomorrow, will it fuel inflation? will it bring higher holiday prices? stephen moore lays it out for us, stephen is next. under the boardwalk ♪

stuart: on the markets the dow is down 100, nasdaq is up 17. not much price change, a diverse market so to speak. i want to know what's going on with home depot because that stock is up now. i thought it was down earlier. lauren: well it's a storm stock, and piper sandler, all of the fixing up you'll have to do. piper sandler increased the price target on home depot to, it was well 455. thank you very much and they increased the price target to 3.07 but lowe's is down a bit now. stuart: barrick gold. >> lauren: the stock is down just about 2% however goldman sachs is raising their price target on gold, the commodity, to 2,900 from $2,700 an ounce for early next year. stuart: 40 years ago it broke a

thousand bucks and all hell broke loose. lauren: we're going for 3,000 now. stuart: 45,000 dock workers preparing to strike if they don't reach a deal by midnight tonight. jeff flock outside the port of newark, new jersey. how is this affecting the truckers? how is it affecting them? reporter: it is crazy for the truckers right now, stuart. if i can step off here maybe you'll see. this is a line of trucks and i don't know if scott is able to spin around. this is into the port of newark and there are multiple ports in there, backed up trying to get in. this one truck has got obviously trying to get a load, trying to get everything out of the ports as quickly as they can, and a lot of these truckers i'll tell you, if this strike comes off and it certainly looks like it will, they aren't going to be working. gene has been driving at this port for 40 years? >> yes, sir. reporter: if this shuts down tomorrow, what happens to you? >> i don't get paid. i get paid daily. if it's shutdown that means i've

got to wait whenever it's settled and when they start moving. reporter: but you get paid only by the load? >> by the load, yes. reporter: he drives for imc logistics, stuart, one of the biggest intermodal freight companies in the country and again everybody is trying to get into the port and get stuff out as quickly as they can. we've got a picture from their terminal imc logistics terminal not far from here and it is littered with these, you know, these trailers. they tried to get everything out of the port as quickly as they can, so that nothing is trapped in there because if this strike goes on for weeks basically anything inside the port is not going anywhere until that strike is over. one piece of breaking news here, and this is unconfirmed, but we've been told by multiple sources now, that one of the ports and maybe scott gives us a spin-around one more time to looked toker the port.

one of the ports has already been shutdown. that is because the workers have said do you know what? this strike is happening. we've got to be back at midnight for the picket, and its been shutdown. so, that's unconfirmed but that's what we believe here. multiple ports in the ports of new york and new jersey. it's a mess out here, but you might have expected that and the mess is maybe only more to come depending on how this plays out. mr. "varney"? stuart: jeff flock right there. thank you very much. now steve moore joins us. steve, we've heard the president will not intervene. we've also heard that if they does intervene the union will go slow anyway, so it's a de facto strike. a real one and a de facto strike, depending on what happens. is that inflationary? >> it sure could be, stuart. remember that term we used to talk about a couple of years ago, called supply chain shocks. so this is a supply chain shock. you're talking about as many

as one-third of those ports on the east coast that are all of this merchandise that's coming in, so yeah, absolutely if this strike happens, you're going to see higher prices for consumers. it'll take a while. it'll take a couple of weeks for the effects to be felt at the stores, but there's no doubt about it. this be bad news for consumers. just at a time where we finally seem to get inflation down. you could see inflation going up by a couple percentage points just as a result of this strike depending on how long it goes. stuart: well biden is a pro-union president. doesn't he face political risk by supporting this union in this action, which interferes with the supply chain and is probably inflationary? >> well, here is the thing. you know, the unions know that joe biden and the democrats need their votes in november, so i don't see them. i see them using that as leverage, as they negotiate this with the companies, and so this is the moment.

look, if trump wins, obviously, there will be a different environment, a different administration in washington. i think that's why they are trying to strike now. stuart: yeah, steve, if trump says if elected he'll cut energy prices in half. watch this. >> you're paying one of the highest in the whole country, perhaps your governor's not doing a very good job. i don't know what the hell's going on but when you have that kind of energy, you shouldn't be paying, but you're one of the highest, but here is the promise i'm making to you. i will cut your energy and electricity prices in half. 50%. 5-0 when 12 months of taking the oath of office. >> [applause] >> within 12 months, within 12 months of taking the oath of office, i will cut your energy prices by 50%. stuart: all right, steve, i don't know whether he was just referring to pennsylvania energy prices or whether he was talking nationwide, but if he wants to cut energy prices in

half, you're talking about $34 a barrel for oil & gas at a $1.60. can he do that? >> well, look. i mean, trump does have a tendency to exaggerate a little bit, but the direction is certainly true. i mean, prices were, of energy were about one-third higher today than they were when trump left office and throughout most of trump's presidency, remember, stuart, we have very low gasoline prices, very low electric utility prices, oil prices were closer to 50 to 60 not $75-$80 a barrel so can donald trump do a drill, baby drill policy, reduce our energy costs at the gasoline pump and utilities? absolutely yes. i think 50% might be a slight exaggeration, but i'm going to say we can get those prices down by a third, how is that? stuart: we would take that definitely take it. steve moore, thank you very

much. coming up, a new trend in the youth vote. more are leaning conservative. why is that happening? we are on that. beginning tomorrow, the student loan grace period is over. borrowers who fail to make payments will face delinquency noteses or default. that story is next.

stuart: on the markets this morning we've got some red ink for the s&p and the nasdaq, not much, but the dow is down 147. let me tell you about that. boeing, goldman sachs, and salesforce, they are dow stocks and they are down sharply. together they shave 98 points off the dow so without them minor loss. starting tomorrow, the grace period for student loan borrowers repayment is over. hillary vaughn on capitol hill.

hillary? what will happen to those who missed payments? reporter: stuart, well borrowers who are not making payments and ultimately end up in default could have their wages seized, their tax refunds taken, and their social security benefits snagged. this ends the 12-month grace period that the biden-harris team put in place which meant that even though borrowers were required to start making payments a year ago, they didn't face any consequences if they didn't. now all that goes away starting october 1. millions of delinquent borrowers took full advantage of this grace period, 6.7 million were protected from negative credit reporting from missing payments according to the education department. right now there are about 42 million students who have federal student debt totaling about $1.6 trillion. the education department reports borrowers who are delinquent are reported to credit rating agencies when they are 90 days past due on their loans. it takes about nine months of missing payments before a borrower be placed in default which they would then face some

of their financial assets being seized. stuart? stuart: thanks, hillary. now this. young voters seem to be moving to the right politically. ashley? how come? ashley: yeah, 26% of young men ages 18-24 say they identify as conservative. 5 points more, by the way, than 25-29-year-old men, so, the question is, why? well, analysts say that age-group of that particular young age-group was hardest hit by covid and they felt ignored by the establishment. the younger voters also think less about policy and much more about personality and they tend to see donald trump as an anti-hero and not a villain. among women, the younger group is more conservative as well, by 3 points. the data also showing that the youngest age-groups still favors liberal positions on some issues, including the belief that basic health insurance is a human right and the government should spend more to reduce

poverty, but when it comes to the politics, turning more conservative for the younger age, interesting, stu? stuart: how about that? all right, ash, thank you. show me the dow 30. let's get a sense of the market. here we go. a lot of selling by the looks of it. far more red than there is green. the dow is off about one-third of 1%. still ahead democrats lower fare strategy to defeat trump seems to be just falling apart and new york appeals court appeared highly skeptical of trump's civil fraud conviction and the $480 million penalty. former acting attorney general matthew whitaker on that, next.

there are many ways to do things. at old dominion freight line, we do them this way. this way has people who start early. people who care and inspire each other to do things the way they should be done. this way uses technology (♪) and goes the extra mile (♪) to deliver your promises on-time, every time. this way is why we're the number one national ltl carrier for quality. for us, this way is the right way which is why it's the only way we go.

♪ ♪

with so much great entertainment out there... wouldn't it be easier if you could find what you want, all in one place? my favorites. get xfinity streamsaver with netflix, apple tv+, and peacock included, for only $15 a month. stuart: attorney general merrick garland faces backlash for the release of a bounty letter from the suspect in the second trump assassination attempt. david spunt joins us. why did garland release this letter, which really kind of a manifest? reporter: yeah, stuart i asked him. he told me it's simple. the doj filed the ruth letter image to keep him behind bars, it ultimately worked and a judge ordered ruth detained. now ruth is in court right now. he has a probable cause hearing

in south florida. the letter authorities say is in his hand. it states he was attempting assassinate the former president and includes an apology for failing to kill him while offering $150,000 for anyone who could finish the job. how judiciary chairman jim jordan says the letter could actually harm trump by encouraging others to think they could possibly get paid by ruth. the department's decision to broadcast the attempted assassin's bounty on president trump at the same time that the doj is aggressively and unconstitutionally prosecuting president trump raises significant concern that the department could cause additional harm to occur. now ruth's finances are unknown, but important to point out he does have a public defender and i asked the attorney general directly on friday about the criticism for putting the letter on the docket and here he is in his words. >> our first job within secretary or ruth was ensuring he be detained and when you file a detention motion the prosecutors have to make

the most reasonable judgment they can about what evidence is necessary to ensure detention. reporter: and detained he is. ruth could spend the rest of his life behind bars if he's convicted on the charges brought forward by the doj. stuart? stuart: david, thanks very much. now this , there are new doubts about trump's new york civil fraud conviction. justices in a new york appeals court appear skeptical of the conviction, and that huge $480 million penalty. they say nobody claims to be harmed. former acting attorney general matthew whitaker joins us now. matthew? tell me about what the appeals court justices were saying because it sounds like this case is just falling to pieces. >> yeah, stuart and we talked about some of these issues previously when this case was decided on, summary judgment and then the judge ultimately assessed this massive fine and that is that there was no one that was harmed, that it was just a commercial transaction

where both sides finished the transaction happy, and satisfied. the bank got their money, the loan was made and i think the appeals court was very skeptical that this was even in leticia james as attorney general's jurisdiction to bring a case like this and on top of that obviously they thought this fine was excessive and way over-the-top compared to any potential harm that happened. stuart: the case just be completely thrown out or adjusted? a smaller penalty, whatever. >> yeah, so there was a five-judge panel and obviously it's going to be the vote of the majority to decide, because i think there are some judges that felt it was way too much of a fine on the one hand and then there was some that just thought the basis in law was not there in this case, should be dismissed and so i think it's going to be very interesting where three of those judges out of the five come out on that. stuart: i want to talk about new york city, the mayor, eric adams

criminal charges. i'm sure you've read the charges. would you define this as a strong or weak case against him? >> yeah, it's probably comparatively a weak case. i think some of the solicitation of illegal campaign contributions are probably the stronger counts. you know, the counts about the quid pro quo and the scam. that voters can't stand when elected politicians do where they get benefits for official action. i think it's a little weaker but remember, eric adams has said the whole time that these are politically-motivated charges. that the biden department of justice brought these because he had criticized the situation he was facing in new york city with the illegal immigration and how it was impacting the city of new york. stuart: it looks like adams says he's going to fight. he's going nowhere. he's staying in this game. he's staying in the race. he's staying as mayor of new

york. that means with his administration, i would say largely crippled with the departure of the police chief and the education guy, and the top counsel, that means we've got a chaotic government in new york, for at least the next year at a time when we could least afford it. >> that's a great point and i think mayors obviously handle the day-to-day whether it's picking up trash, enforcing the laws, keeping the streets clean. all of the small things that city government does, mayor sits on top of that and to have him this distracted with federal charges, i think is going to be very difficult for him to continue to run the city effectively. stuart: mayor just go back to the trump fraud case and the skepticism by the appeals court justices. they are really passing judgment on new york's judicial system aren't they? and it's a bad judgment at that. >> yeah, so remember at the time this case was going on. it looked like a real claim to

come in after the fact and to say that somehow fraud had occurred when nobody was complaining of, you know, losing money or being defrauded, and i think all along, there was this skepticism that the trial judge and leticia james as the attorney general had kind of railroaded donald trump to try to score cheap political paints and to do this before the election. this panel which was sort of asking very basic questions about the fundamental basis for these charges and for these claims i think dismantled the case pretty effectively. i think it's going to have a hard time surviving especially at the almost $500 million penalty level that it currently stands. stuart: that's ridiculous. matthew whitaker thanks very much for with being us this morning. matt we appreciate it and we'll see you again soon. quick check of the big board please we're down 135 points just about one-third of 1%. take a look at the dow winners, there are quite a few of them. apple i think is top of the list.

it is. it's up nearly 2% today. home depot, walmart, chevron, verizon, on the list too. here are the s&p 500 winners. fedex, intuitive surgical, apple is on the list, cvs and nasdaq composite intuitive surgical, apple, palo alto networks and ge healthcare technologies and the yield on the 10 year treasury moving up to 3.87% price of gold over 2,650 bucks an ounce, 2,654, bitcoin 63,000 and change. all right here we go, the monday trivia question, an excellent one. where was the first indoor shopping mall in america? providence, rhode island, savannah, georgia, nashville, tennessee or or straton, pennsylvania. the answer when we come back.

what will you do when the power goes out? power outages can be unpredictable and inconvenient, but with a generac home standby generator, your life goes on uninterrupted. because when your generac detects a power outage, it automatically powers up, giving your family the security and peace of mind they deserve. we don't have to worry about whether we lose power or not. if the utility company does not come through, our generac does. after the hurricane happened, we just want to be prepared for anything. 8 out of 10 home generators are generac, with thousands of satisfied customers. number one thing to prepare for is extended power outages. don't make it so hard on yourself, have a generac home standby generator. and owning a generator is easier than ever.

special financing and low monthly payment options are available, and if you call now, you will also receive a free 5 year warranty valued at over $500. call or go online now to request your free quote.

we really don't want people to think of feeding food like ours is spoiling their dogs. good, real food is simple. it looks like food, it smells like food, it's what dogs are supposed to be eating. ♪

stuart: well we did ask, and i absolutely have no clue as the correct answer. where was the first indoor shopping mall in america? providence rhode island, savannah georgia, nashville, tennessee or scranton, pennsylvania. ashley any good ideas? ashley: i have no clue, i have a feeling lauren may have one. i don't know why. i would go with number one,

providence rhode island. stuart: he said that because you're a female and you go to malls. lauren: i'm a better online shopper these days very good shopper here, and i think ashley is right. i think it's number one, providence rhode island. stuart: and not to get out of line here but i'm going with scranton, pennsylvania, but the answer is wouldn't you know it? providence rhode island. the westminster arcade is located downtown and we've it or not it was built in 1828. this goes back a long way doesn't it? all right folks we're out of time. ashley, lauren, great stuff today. i know we'll see you both again tomorrow. that's it for "varney" & company. but if you stay tuned if you just sit there for just a few more seconds, you're going to have neil cavuto miraculously appear with all kinds of news including market and politics, neil?