maria: welcome back.30 minutesg bell sounds for a monday, futures indicating a mixed opening. final thoughts here, john lonski. >> i think right now investors are being under compensated for risk. i don't care if you own stock, bonds or or bitcoin. maria: cheryl casone. >> my favorite op-ed this morning is on foxnews.com, go woke, go broke, time is real for american businesses to get back to business, bring in doge, bring in a new government. maria: liz peek. >> i think joe biden's forgiveness of hunter sets the stage for kash patel to be confirmed. maria: have a great day, everybody. see you tomorrow. "varney & company" picks it up. take it away. stuart: president biden has done what he said he would never

do. he has pardoned his son, hunter. for years he said he would abide by the jury's decision. late sunday night he did a 180. the republicans are going after the president for what they call his lies about the pardon. the democrats worry the pardon detracts from their opposition to some of trump's contentious appointees. nbc news says biden was considering a pardon all the way back in june of this year but he didn't do it until after the election. we're seeing the trump effect, canada's prime minister rushed to mar-a-lago after trump threatened 25% tariffs on canadian products, justin trudeau held a three hour meet, now says he will toughen border controls, will deploy more drones. helicopters and personnel. the president of mexico said the two migrant caravans headed to the border have been broken up. that's the trump evidence ebbing. let's turn to money.

over $10 billion spent online on friday. today is cyber monday, $13 billion worth of spending expected. consumers showing some strength. a threat from trump to any countries trying to replace the dollar for trade, he will impose 100% tariffs for any of the so-called brics countries that try it. november was great for stocks, s&p and dow had the best month of the year. this morning the dow might be down 20 points, virtually no change for the s&p and same for the nasdaq which might be up about 30, 40 points. bitcoin, we're looking at 95,600 bucks. interest rates, we have the 10 year yielding 4.23%, very close to the two-year which right now is 4.22%. the price of gold, 2,670 bucks an ounce, oil, $68 a barrel. gas look at this, down to an average of $3.04 for regular, diesel coming in at 3, 53. all right. on the show today, the saddened

to a failing presidency. joe biden leaves the stage broken politically, at odds with his own party. it is monday, december 2nd, 2024, "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ good day sunshine. ♪ good day sunshine. stuart: good day, sunshine. okay. you're right, you have to be -- >> it's freezing. stuart: that's good music to start the show on a monday morning. good day, sunshine. president biden announced he pardoned his son hunter. lauren, what did he say about it, what did president biden say about the decision. >> he thinks raw politics affected hunter's situation. the president writes i signed a pardon for my son hunter.

i said i would not interfere with the justice department's decision making and i kept my word as i watched my son collectively and unfairly prosecuted. i hope americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision. it's a major reversal. the president said as late as last month that he would not pardon his son. >> does the president have any intention of pardoning him. >> we've been asked the question multiple times. our answer stands, which is no. >> from a presidential perspective is there any possibility that the president would end up pardoning his son? >> no. >> i just said no. >> i'm extremely proud of my son, hunter. he's overcome an addiction. he's one of the brightest, most decent men i know. i am satisfied that i'm not going to do anything, i said i would abide by the jury's decision. i will do that. i will not pardon him. >> hunter's sentencing for gun

and tax charges was set for december 12th and 16th respectively. the pardon covers those and all crimes he may have committed going back 10 years. his slate has effectively been wiped clean by his dad. stuart: thank you, lauren. charlie hurt with me this monday morning. to me this is a distraction from the democrats, diverting attention from the confirmation of trump's picks. i think the timing is good for republicans. do aagree with that. >> >> i think without a doubt. let's be clear. most of us were not terribly surprised that he made the decision, not even surprised he lied so much about i he has a pretty good, long reputation for lying about things but the timing is -- could not be worse and i think it's kind of interesting to look at the reaction from his fellow democrats who are appalled by the decision because it hurts them so badly because not only does it distract the democrats from trying to talk about how outrageous some of donald trump's picks are for his

cabinet but it also confirms the argument that trump has made all along which is there are problems in the department of justice being politicized. >.stuart: this opens the door r kash patel running the fbi. it's an invitation, get in there and sort it out. >> it's suddenly a bipartisan issue, let's get to the doj and clean out all of the rot and using it as a political cudgel to go after your enemies. stuart: the pardon applies only to his son, hunter. could there be more pardons still to come for the biden family and what they allegedly have been up to. >> i think this will be the most interesting part of this whole thing. this is what he has done today, a month and-a-half before he leaves office. who is he going to pardon -- usually you wait until your last day to issue all your pardons. so you get this one out of the way now. who is he going to pardon on his last day in office? and it could be other members of the family because as you point out the entire family was involved in this operation.

his grandchildren were getting money out of the influence peddling scheme and he himself could be -- you know, obviously he himself was involved in i does he pardon himself? there's no end to it. and it's going to be -- if we end up talking about that on january 20th, it's going to make whatever he's done today, yesterday, look like small change. stuart: i want to get back to kash patel. democrats are going after trump because he nominated kash patel for fbi director. watch this. >> the department of justice and the fbi is supposed to be there to go after drug traffickers, gun smugglers, go after corrupt wall street financiers. instead the department of justice is going to serve donald trump's political interests. that's what kash patel has said he thinks the department of justice and the fbi should do. stuart: so is kash patel, is that trump's revenge on the doj?

>> yeah, or i would argue it's the -- i don't know if i would use the word revenge because i think that there's clearly we need to see a house cleaning at doj and kash patel will be the one to do it and not only that, just the confirmation hearings alone are going to be an opportunity for the american people to hear the full case against the fbi and the doj. stuart: you were on the air at fox when this was announced. >> it was crazy. stuart: that's called a scramble. >> we all expected it to happen. it was still sort of insane when it does happen. stuart: i found out about it this morning when i woke up at 3:00. there you go. thanks for being with us. you're working too hard. today is cyber monday. looks like a lot of people went online for black friday as well. >> i love doing shopping stories with three men on set with me. [laughter] >> i can tell you that $10.8 billion was spent online only on black friday, 110% more than last year, -- 10 more than last year, the most ever. black friday is traditionally

in-store experience. now we're having the shopping happening online. we're comfortable on our phones. that's where more than half of transactions happened and using chat bots. $11 million was spent every minute online friday and tonight it's cyber monday, expected to be $16 million per minute later tonight. that's a lot of money. stuart: it sure is. look who is with us, david bonson, one of our favorites. >> aforementioned man. stuart: right. what about the numbers of online friday, what does that tell us about the consumer. >> i have a daughter and a wife. i'm a bit of an expert on this from a distance. this is the most important thing i will say today. big shopping, consumer activity does not create a strong economy. it reflects one. stuart: exactly. >> people spend when they have earnings, when they have save, when they have productivity. you must first produce before you can consume. that's all this is. stuart: so it looks good,

doesn't it? >> it certainly does. stuart: it reflects well on the consumer. >> the e-commerce people have done a great job marketing. stuart: trump is threatening 100% tariffs against several brics countries if they abandon the dollar as the reserve currency. what do you think of that. >> i think it's mostly posturing. nobody is abandoning the dollar as a reserve currency. some have transactions they want to do but they have to convert it back to whole dollars. the way to make the dollar the reserve currency is to have the best currency, have the most stable monetary fiscal policy. we control what people do with the dollar, they don't. stuart: the u.s. dollar is not necessarily an all-time high but it's very strong. the dollar index is way up there. >> near most currencies it is. that's a reflection of a lot of things most people have gotten wrong. the dollar's in a strong place. stuart: stay with me through the hour, please. coming up, jake sullivan says republicans cannot take credit

for the israel, hezbollah cease fire. >> you know you've done a good thing when other people take credit for it and it came about because of the relentless i dids diploma sigh di cy corrected bye current president. stuart: two canadian men arrested for smuggling over $40 million of cocaine across the northern border, it happened days after trump vowed a 25% tariff on canadae for not handling the border crisis. the incoming border czar, tom homan, he has the latest on this and tom is next. ♪

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stuart: futures on this monday morning suggest a mixed market opening, dow up 50, up 46 on the nasdaq. bitcoin around 95,000 bucks this morning, 95,500, and the 10 year treasury at 2-year treasury are yielding pretty much the same, 422 on the 10 year, 422 on the 2 year. there you have i friday, police in illinois arrested two canadian nationals suspected of crossing our northern border with over 11,000 1,000 pounds of cocaine, valued at over 4 # of $40 million. incoming border czar tom homan joins me. justin trudeau promised to help on the border, more drones, more helicopters, more personnel. is that the trump effect? >> well, absolutely. i mean, canada has the most lax immigration policy i think in the world. that's why so many special

interest aliens cross through the canadian border, people from pakistan, india, turkey, they can afford to fly to canada, it's easier to cross the border. for instance, i grew up in upstate new york. alien smuggling, drug trafficking always happened on a small scale. it increased significantly under the biden administration. i hope justin trudeau is a man of his word. stuart: mexico says two caravans which were headed to our southern border have been broken up and may have turned around. again, is that the trump effect? >> absolutely. what i think you're going to see is, look, these criminal cartels from mexico they're not going to start easily so they're going to break up these larger caravans and break them up in smaller pieces. they'll try to cross in areas where they think border patrol has less resources. they're not going to stop until trump gets in office and ends catch and release and puts the remain in mexico program back on. when you fire up the programs

you'll see significant change. until then, the cartels will be more sneaky with smaller groups. stuart: what do you expect to see at the southern border for the next 49 days before president trump is inaugurated, what happens when the migrants hit the border in the next 49 days? >> they'll be released just like they've done the last four years and again, i think the cartels will break them up in smaller groups that way the president of mexico can say i stopped the large caravans. at the same time working with the cartels to put them in smaller groups to cross the border. this is not going to stop. last year alone mexico has taken in more than 60 billion with a b, $60 billion remittance payments from illegal aliens from the united states. they'll play hide the mouse a little bit. when president trump gets back in, we will secure the border. stuart: got it. ralph norman says the sanctuary

cities all over the country will be history under trump. is that correct? >> i hope so. because sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals. i see the sanctuary mayors and governors saying they're going to prevent us from doing what we're doing. president trump's been clear. i've been clear. out of the gate we're going to focus on public safety threats. why would you not want public safety threats taken out of your community. that's the number one priority, protecting your cities. sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals, period. victims and witnesses of crimes, they say they want to feel comfortable coming to the police. victims and witnesses of crime don't want the bad guy released back into the neighborhood either. so work with i.c.e. and let's make the communities safer. stuart: alex padilla in california, says california will

not help trump's deportation plans. same story? are you going to take him on. >> get the hell out of the way, we're going to do it. if they don't want to work with us, that means i send twice as many resource toss the city. they say they don't want i.c.e. agents through their neighborhoods. if you let me in the jail, there would be less agencies in the community. when you release them into the streets, i've got to put officers on the street and the whole team because of officer safety issues and that puts the immigrant community at greater risk of crime, puts the community at greater risk of harm. i would ask one question. would you rather have i.c.e. operating in the community or the jail where the bad guys are locked up, where you decided to lock a bad guy in a jail cell. that's who we want to talk to. work with us. they're pushing back and it's going to create exactly what they don't want, more agents in the neighborhoods. stuart: i want to make sure i've got this right.

in california, a criminal migrant is in jail and i.c.e. refuses to -- or they refuse access to i.c.e. to go get him, what will you do? >> depends what actions they take. they cannot help us but i've been clear for the last couple weeks, there's stat statutes ty need to look at. if you knowingly harbor or conceal illegal aliens from i.c.e., that's a felony. if you impede law enforcement officer from their duties, that's a felony. they could not help, that's their choice. don't cross the line because there will be consequences. stuart: the consequence will be to arrest them? >> we'll prosecute whoever is knoknowingly harboring and concealing the illegal alien. stuart: thanks for being with us the last four years.

it's been great. we'll see you real soon, i hope. thank you, sir. >> all right. stuart: we have a new surge at the northern border. lauren, who is trying to get in? >> migrants from india. they're coming into the united states via canada. more than 63,000 this fiscal year were caught by border patrol there. 30,000 last year. so you're seeing about a quarter of border encounters come from the indians. why? well, it takes canada just 76 days to process them. it's about a year here in the u.s. and they used to be able to fly visa free to el salvador, then trek northward and cross the southern border, then el salvador tightened the visa restrictions, now they're going to the north and coming in through canada. stuart: quick check of futures this monday morning. dow down 30, nasdaq up 30. we'll be back. ♪

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keith fitz with me this morning. you say it's time to go on offense, get aggressive with the markets. you want to get aggressive and start buying walmart. >> you bet i do. because this company, stuart, is getting ready to take on amazon. it's well on the way to doing it. people don't see it coming which means it's undervalued to me. stuart: you see it going to at least $100 a share 1234. ?>> well, that's the first initial target. i see mid-100 a year from now, maybe double within three. stuart: what's so good about it? its e-commerce business? >> e-commerce is just half of it. the company's investing at scale, digitally. target isn't doing it. kohl's isn't doing it. no other retailer is doing it with the possible exception of costco which i also own. to me this is about mounting an attack on amazon. it's very profitable for them to be online. stuart: how about nvidia. you want to start buying it aggressively? >> well, again, here's the same

story, you've got 80 to 90% of the s&p 500 that can't not afford to spend on a.i. they're selling every chip they make and when you see something like this, it's a seed change. very few technologies, electricity, penicillin, the internet had this kind of effect on humanity. people are starting to understand how dramatic an impact this will have. i want to be ahead of that. stuart: you think nvidia goes to $300 a share within three to five years, right? >> yes. and i will put an additional caveat on that i haven't had my coffee yet. there's no doubt in my mind we're going to see that. stuart: moving onto tesla. currently at 351. you see it as 421, 12 to 2 months away. >> and i might beonservative on this one. if you look at robo taxis, you look at all of the other a.i. being developed, it's an so i might be too low on that. it might be $500 stock. it's half a trillion, trillion

dollar opportunity when you start integrating these things. my colleague says it's a trillion dollar opportunity. i'm not going to go that far. i don't think he's off the mark. stuart: you're big on this robo taxihing. >> i am. not just becse orobo taxis. i'm big on it because of the way it will change our lives. if you have the opportunity to summon car, go to the doctor, go to the grocery store, think of how many people that will thk of how iwill change the perception of how we move around. it's astonishing. stuart: oy. i'm with you. wel sehow it turns out. keit tnks for being with us this morning. vid nson, i've got to look small caps.n especially for >> small caps are up er 11% on the mon you basically had thbest month theear,ovembe w is up over 7 s&p, almost 6%. wasn'tp.'t risk sethat thyields came downte abit, all t

elds gngigher. strt: look on theoard now ere's the yiel, 423 on t 1 looks like we're carrying over from novembe >> the maet wasp ov 20% stear. peormance of allime thugh the enof nembe uart:tuart:it's the tmpally ist it. >> >> it started after the electi. finaia and iustrials were ad hugperformawi a oitpolicy uart you wldot shis rally ifars had wo strt you can heathe butt a s thearkete lling on monday, deceer 2nd, first tradg

y t n month dow is opewith a rgh 30he point gain. there's more greenmong the dow 30 tn there is r. the s&500 ightly hher, the nasdaq comsite is up.2%, oints high. t's have a look atig tech, probably a mixed picture. only one loser, that microsoft. up.nmealphabet, appl i've got to start with intel when we look aindividual the ceo announced his retirement, th's sen the stock 3% higher. >> i mean, what's fcinating about thiss thatt wa we'rhearing about it today. you have two long menternal people who will take over as co-ceos. pat gelsinger joined intel from vmware in 2021.

we're three or four years into the five year vision. this was an hill battle. intel struggled i don't think through any ult of pat gelsinger's own. he talked about how it was a challenging year and he tried but at sompoint you have to walk away. stuart: can they turn it around. >> it will be difficult. i wish they weren't relying an the corporate welfare from the chips act. he was a gifted ceo. couldn't get it done. stuart: maybe someone will buy it. >> it's so expensive. they'll want it cheaper if they're going to buy it but intel shareholders will say no, let's ride it out. it's not overly indebted. they c ride it out. stuart: jeff bezos is backing a clip maker which is trying to compete with nvidia. there's an uphill struggle for me. tell me about ten surrent. >> you forget there's other a.i. chip makers out there like the one you mentioned that has a valuation of $2.6 billion.

funding was all financed, the first round out of south korea. and then of course you have jeff bezos through bezos expeditions joining along with lg electronics d fidelity hping the financing. this is bet that nvidia can't have 100% of the market share. there has to bsomeone that can he take on the big giant. this is the bet. stuart: you don't think much of nvidia, do you, david? is an incredible company. i think in the price, tradinat 65 times earnings and broadcom signifint competito it's done very well there but this whole space is going to be riddled with deaand bankrupt companies. stuart: i sll remember that a few months fm now. >> i didn'tay few months. you remember dot-com, don't you. stuart: i was the. he was there. have a look at tesla, please. i thk the stocis uthis moing. self-driving software.ion of the what's n about it? >> so software 13, stifle analts are calling it a game

change took to 411 from 287, that how excited some are over the weekend.thame out it's aend to end net work. e's camera systemst are working, apparently it's worth some of the hype we're heari stuart: i'm a skeptic. i' move on. stelntis, thceo just resigned. down goes the stock, 7% lowe at's the big deal here? >> down 40% for the year in company has lost.athat this this is the maker of jeep and ram. stuart: cysler people. all year.talked about low sales massive inventorbuildup, massive prof warning and just you had a point wherdealers were writing in and saying we can't sell our cars, we have a big problem so finally this came to a head and the ceo decided to st down. stuart: $12 a share. cost, planning to stop selling an item that's very popular in most stores. what's the item?

>> books. stuart: really? >> they said they're not going to do it year round. they're only do it for the holiday season. the why is interesting. they'll keep books in 100 of the 600 stores. in the 500 they're taking away they said it's labor intensive. itequires manual restocking instead of using a forklift. stuart: that's not necessarily the decline of book reading. >> i hope n. i love good old fashioned books. a lot of peoe buy it on kin kindleormazon. stuart: tod is cyber monday. we saw record onli spendg on black frid, 0 billion plus. we're expeing 13lion today, cyberonda this is od for rairs, it is e a. adis sayinit's up 6 to 8 p iser ore looki at the liday as.rt to we h fm of these taers ana w of tm be mtiatol seasas oo a good stayoeeg t

stuar moan 2 did we or thwed. ishat turnthe cine. wicd, gladiator t had y thksvi holid weekend over. moana pulled in half. wicked dng well. gladiator doing ll. this is a big win for sney. stua: $118 a share on disney. counselor erapy company, know no cure, the stock is up 34%. i presume the study was good news. >> they mel met the main al ina late stage trial where along with using chemotherapy it helped reduce some of the pancreatic cancer. they used electronic fields to kill cancer cells. it's extended the life of

patients with p pancreatic canc, meeting the main end goal from the late stage trial. stuart: that's good news. davi you brought your stock picks. i know they're dividend picks, correc >> dividend growth picks. stuart: dividend growthicks. i'll get this right. >> this is the first time we've discussed this. stuart: johnson & johnson. >> i picked johnson & johnson and pepsi for the same reason he, i wanted to pick a couple that aren't up huge on the year. we have so many names, financials, energy, it's been a good year for the dividend portfolio. johnson & johnson and pepsi are two names people might want to consider if they think the market's a little frothy, if they think things have gotten ahead of themselves. they're conservative, not as votile names. rock solid balance sheets, they yield 3.3%. theyaised the didend for -- johnso& johnson over 60 years, pei over 50 years in a row. it's a stable, conservative way to be invested in stocks. johnson & johnson could give you

a solid dividend, 3% and some growth and at the same time ybe a capital gain. >> absoluly. if the dividend's growinit ans the earnings are growing and the stocprice ends up catching unand that's our philosophy is the dividend indicates where the stock price is going, not vice versa. stuart: thank you very much. stay more. i've got more for you later. coming up, remember when biden said this about pardoning hunter? >> i'm not going to do anying. i said i would abide by the jury decision. i will do that. i will not pardon him. stuart: well, look, we've got a major reversal. he has pardoned his son after all. we'll get into that with joe concha. california democrat speaking out about trump's immigration policies. >> we're not gog to utilize state and local resources to do the federal government's job for them. donald trump has made it no secret that has it in nor for

california. stuart: can anything be done about the resistance. california congressman darrell is covers it for us. shoppers spent a record amount on black friday. today is cyber monday. sales are expected to soar. what does this say about the economy? we'll ask columnist stephen moore, next. ♪ what does a good investment opportunity look like? at t. rowe price we let curiosity light the way. asking smart questions about opportunities like clean water. and what promising new treatment advances

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stuart: we should tell you the s&p 5 has hit an all-time high, looking at 6,040 right now. nice gain for the nasdaq, up 117 as we speak. as we told you, today is cyber monday. it is expected to be a record breaking day for online buying. take us through the numbers. lauren: many folks are warming up their fingers to do their

shopping today. cyber monday is expected to be the biggest shopping day of the entire year. adobe analytics forecasts we will spend $13.2 billion online today, 6.1% more than last year. here are some of the deals you can expect. air pods at amazon, 38% off, $154. the phillips 50-inch tv at walmart, 25% off, 298. a prelit christmas tree, more than half off at kohl's, plus you can get deals on clothing, appliances, beauty and travel. here's a look at what's been spent since this thanksgiving online. add that up, that's more than $40 billion. when you factor in what's going on in the store, the entire holiday season, it could very well add up to close to $1 trillion in holiday spending, how's the consumer? i would say feeling energized but on the hunt for value. some people find value as the price, other people think it's

the exclusivity of an item. we'll find out friday, the latest consumer sentiment. stuart: what do you prefer, online shopping or bricks and mortar store. lauren: they each serve their purpose but i'm largely not only on my phone, online mobile. stuart: steve moore, what do the numbers tell you about the strength of the consumer? >> the moore family will spend a little more for christmas this year and also we're looking for value too. i think you guys nailed it. listen, this is really the trump effect. there's no doubt about i there's been a trump bounce both in terms of the cyber market, both in terms of what happened with consumer and small business confidence and you just look at their actual spending, people spend money because they're optimistic, they feel their paychecks are going to rise and i think they're probably right in terms of the trump agenda being very pro-growth, very pro-worker and people are looking at wages and more jobs

are available. i love this. you walk down the street and you see people -- even my democratic friends have more bounce in their step. stuart: you should come to new jersey. okay. [laughter] cher stuart: trump threatened 100% tariffs on brics nations which abandon the dollar as their reserve currency. does the dollar need defending? >> no, it doesn't. you can ask the guy sitting next to you, david bonson, one of the experts on this. look, my belief is, first of all, why would any sane person invest in brazil, russia or india? the united states is the alpha male economy. we're the ones who have the most stable currency. so i do not see brics as being any kind of threat to u.s. dominance in terms of our currency. but trump is concerned about it, no question about it. and what i would tell him is, mr. president, just deregulate the economy. cut taxes. cut government waste. all of those things make america

economically mightier and will protect our currency. i don't think we have to take retribution on this countries because they are no competitors to us right now. stuart: you've got a little extra spring in your step, don't you? >> i do. i can't stop smiling, stuart. i don't know what's going on. i was at mar-a-lago last night. it's a festive atmosphere. the president is so pumped up. i just talked to him briefly but he just cannot wait to get into that white house. i mean, literally, stuart. in the first hours, i don't think he's going to wait until the next day, i think at midnight when he becomes president he is going to start signing those executive orders, reversing a lot of the crazy things that biden has done and it's going to be pro-growth. i mean that. i really believe this is going to be a prosperous four years. stuart: keep smiling. >> what about you? come on. stuart: i had a wonderful anything. there were a lot of smiles

around the thanksgiving table. i promise you that. steven, we'll see you soon. you're a good man. labor unions celebrating trump's labor secretary pick that will be congresswoman laurie darima. lauren: it's a selection celebrated by the unions. she is one of three republicans in the house to endorse the pro act, that would allow some independent contractors to unionize. she served as mayor of happy valley oregon. if she is confirmed, she could speak for some of those working class voters, the union voteers that helped deliver for trump. so republican voice, pro-union, unexpected in such a republican pick. stuart: yeah. david, what do you think of this? >> she's not pro worker. she's pro union bosses. there's a huge difference. this ab5 in california took away the rights of independent contractors. she was vehemently for it. everything she stants stands fog

right to work states, there's a huge divide in our country. we talk about the working class. some are pro union bosses. some are pro workers. i think president trump in his first term is pro worker. she represents union bosses. this is the pick i'm most against of all of them. stuart: coming up, joe biden has done what he said he would never do, he has pardoned his son, hunter. this is not what the democrats want as president-elect trump makes contentious appointments, president biden distracts everybody's attention by doing a 18 on his son. it's a saddened to a failed presidency. that's my take. biden's final foreign trip as president, visiting africa, looking to counter china's deepening influence in the region. full report on that, next. ♪

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stuart: today, president biden is actually flying now to angola, likely to be his last foreign trip in office. greg palkot is in angola for us.

what is biden looking to accomplish with this trip, greg? >> reporter: there is a lot planned. his time and headaches in office just about over. president biden is squeezing in at least one last important foreign trip here in the warm heart of africa. air force one refueling in an eyanisland in south angola. he has a three day visit planned, his first in africa as president. some say it's too little, too late. others say it's crucial. biden will meet with the president of angola who he saw at the white house last year. he'll be dealing with a range of topics, especially the lobito corridor initiative, a rail and infrastructure project the u.s. is backing, aimed at diversifying industry and bringing critical metals from neighboring countries.

it's to counter china's aggressive moves in africa. president xi granted millions of loans in angola, invested in many projects and is the largest trading partner. while u.s. energy companies like exxon and chevron have been active in the oil-rich country, mostly america is playing catch-up. and then there's the u.s. military aid and talk of new u.s. bases here as a way of neutralizing russia, russian president putin providing military aid to african countries in turn for access to resources. the old soviet union was a long-time supporter here. so how will all of this fare when donald trump takes over? trump and some cabinet picks might relish duking it out with xi here. how much trump wants to face off with putin here is another matter. we also have the transactional deal making. for the moment it's all about president biden, perhaps happier

to tangle with the problems on this continent than deal with those new domestic matters, some 6500 miles away. back to you. stuart: i think you're right. good stuff. greg, thanks very mitch indeed. david is sthi still with me. what do you expect from the remainder of biden's time in office, he's got 49 days left. what do you expect to happen. >> i think he'll do more par dofnls pardons, probably the ene next 40, 50 days. stuart: pardon himself and his family? >> i don't think he will. generally at the end of presidencies. i think there will be no affection with kamala harris. stuart: thank you. thank you for being here as well. still ahead, joe concha on biden's major reversal in pardoning hunter. he wants a cease fire deal with gaza before the end of his administration.

and we have a reaction to democrats resisting immigration plans. the 10:00 hour is next. ♪

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