[laughter] maria: i buy servicenow stock, you mean after i your interview -- my interview with bill mg if dermott. >> absolutely. everything that's going on in a.i. without software, it's like having a massive engine with no driver and vehicle. you need software to make it work. maria: stock is up 70%. >> common sense is becoming popular in this country again. maria: lee. >> i am all about the drone stories, but i am so curious what's happening in new jersey. maria: health cared be a national security threat. -- this should be a national security threat. thank you so much. great show, everybody. have a good day. stu, take it away. stuart: good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. a 26-year-old ivy league graduate has been charged with the murder of united health care ceo brian thompson. this is the story everyone's talking about, the assassination of an executive in the health care industry. the suspect, luigi man joan

first was spotted by an employee in a mcdonald's inial teen tuna, pennsylvania. he had a manifesto saying parasites had it coming. bundies turning aspect is the hostility that it's revealed. amazon has removed some clothing items, pennsylvania's governor says man joan is not a hero. politics for donald trump's nominees. joni ernst now looks favor by on pete hegseth for defense secretary. tulsi dab ard is the pick for national intelligence. some senators are concernedded about her meeting in 2017 with the now-deposed syrian dictator assad. at this point it looks like trump will get almost all of his nominees through. more on that in a moment to the market, stocks fair ifly quiet with after monday's selling. the dow's going to be down over 800 points, minor gains for the s&p and the nasdaq. bitcoin is 97,7 as we speak.

interest rates holding pretty steady, 4.23% is the yield on 10-year treasury, and we have 4.14% now on the 2-year treasury. oil hovering just below $70 a barrel, you're at 68.40 this morning. and look at gas. peril lousily -- perilously close to a 2-handle, $3.01 across the country, but in california a gallon of regular set ises you back $4.35. no change for deals at $3.51. on the show today, the new senator from california, adam schiff, says a preemptive pardon is unnecessary. he deliberately undermined the first trump term with the russia hoax, but he says pardon is unnecessary, i'm not sure what that means. daniel penny, not guilty. he walks free after d.a. alvin bragg charged him in the death of an unruly subway rider. new yorkers are left wondering about their personal safety when bragg are releases violent criminals on the street and

tries to put a good samaritan in prison. two losers from the deposing of syria's assad, russia might lose its only war water port and iran which loses its supply line of weapons to hezbollah. things are changing rapidly in part because donald trump is the new sheriff. tuesday, december 10th, 2024, "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ if. ♪ ♪ all you need is love. ♪ all you need is love ♪ stuart: i love this one. all you need is love. [laughter] ain't that the truth? it's the -- a good way the start the show. the latest on trump's nominees, his picks for defense secretary, national intelligence director as well as the fbi director, they're all facing i would say fairly intense questioning on capitol hill.

bret baier joins us in this morning. at this moment does it look like most of trump's picks will get through? >> stuart, good morning. all you need is love, and they are getting some lo up on capitol hill -- love up on capitol hill. [laughter] they are seeing a lot of senators who are saying positive things including iowa senator joni ernst with defense secretary nominee pete hegseth put out a statement that was very positive, not 100%, but definitely dating she's leaning towards voting for him. indicating. that would be a big barrier removed. remember, they can only lose three. as far as the other nominees, i think kash patel looks very strong for fbi director, and tulsi gabbard, while there are critics, it does seem like more and more senators are lining up. so senator tom cotton said president-elect trump is going to get all of his nominees. it looks more of a chance that's going to the happen today than it did a week ago. stuart: is trump putting heavy

pressure on the gop senators? i want my guys in place, help me? is that -- he's putting pressure on them? >> i think, yeah, i think he is. i don't think there have been a ton of direct call, but he has lobbied a bit, and the message has gotten through the grapevine. i'll be up on capitol hill today, i have an interview with speaker johnson, i'm doing my show up there, so i'll get a better sense of things. but i do think there's pressure to get the president who he wants in the jobs as soon as possible. stuart: am i allowed to ask you what your big first question will be the speaker johnson? you don't have to answer. >> yeah, i'm not going to tell you -- [laughter] but i really want to know how he's going to negotiate president-elect trump's agenda with such a slim majority. once you get to the inauguration, stu, you've got three congressmen that the leave because they're either in the administration or resigning, so the number becomes 217-2215. you can't -- 215. you can't lose any republicans

on big ticket items, and they're tryinged to do them right off the bat. stuart: one more for you. senators manchin and welch have announced a bill to the place an 18-year term limit on supreme court justices. why the push for term limits at the supreme court, bret? >> well, both of them say there is a politicization of this process and that they think an 18-year term limit where someone is up every 2 years would take the politics and pressure if off the it. there's obviously been a lot of focus on the supreme court despite the fact that the supreme court being divided decides 9-0 on a lot of things that we just don't coffer. so on thing big, controversial items it's leaning toward the conservatives now, and that's why there's this pushback. also on the hill today i'll talk to senator manchin in his exit interview as he gets ready to leave congress. stuart: we're all waiting for your interview with the speaker. i want to know how he's a going to to get big stuff through the

house. >> all right. stuart: the we'll be watching, thanks for joining us. >> you bet. stuart: the last night trump's nominee for defense secretary, pete hegseth, defended his vision for the military. watch this. >> return the pentagon to the war fighters, pete. get in there and clean out all the social justice, politically correct garbage on top and get back to lee hallty, war fighting, accountability, meritocracy and readiness. i can't tell you how many families have reached out and said my son or daughter wasn't going to join, and they are after president trump was elected. same with retention. and then the rest of the world takes notice of that, and we will put america first. that's' what he's asked me to do at the pentagon, and that's my promise to the american people and our war fighters led by president donald trump. stuart: let's get it straight, trump has a mandate for change. he believes hegseth is the right man to bring that change. to the markets and look at futures, please. i see some red ink for the dow industrials, minor gains for the

s&p and the nasdaq. not that much price change in the very early going. let's bring in david bahnsen. i want to talk to to you about eli lilly. you're a dividend kind of guy, and lilly just hiked their dividend about 15%. heavy got a $15 billion buyback as well. are you buying? >> no, we're definitely not, and this is a case where the dividend hike works against the argument. they went from a .65% yield to a .74% yield. but the stock has gone from 100 to 800. it hasn't really moved all year. it's been kind of dead money through this huge 30% rally, but, stuart, why would a company that's making more money than they've ever made from a single drug be paying such a very low dividend? going back 10, 15, 20 years. eli lilly had a 3, 4 or 5% dividend yield the entire time, now it's way less than 1%. so we look to the dividend to see confidence from management that this free cash flow is

going to expand. i think in this case they had a huge blockbuster, stock went up a lot, but management if isn't paying the share holders with cash from it. we're not attorney touching it. stuart: -- not touching it. stuart: going to. how about amgen? you've recommended this previously. it's a strong and growing dividend payer. you sill in with amgen? >> yeah, definitely, and it brought it up just to contrast it with lilly. amgen is paying almost a 3.5% dividend yield, and that represents $9 a share of real cash. so amgen's management seems more confident in their future, their pipeline, their different drugs, their research and development for the future. we think amgen is a better play in terms of the cash flow going forward. stuart: see, what i want is a steady the dividend payer, somebody that gives me 3 or 4% and the possibility of a capital gain on top of that. you got anything like that for me? >> yeah, i just said one called

amgen, my friend. and this is basically what you want, it's what everybody wants. stuart: yeah. >> so a big high flyer that goes up once but then the stays dead money for a long time, that's not what we want either. we want steady growth, and you measure it from the dividend. the dividend is not only money you and i have getting, stuart, it's management telling you what they believe about the future of the business. so that's what we want too, and amgen is a good example of that amongst all the other numbers i'm continually bringing you on your fine show. stuart: i just wanted to thank you very much indeed for bringing me blackstone because you recommended that on the basis of a 6 percentage point dividend, and i got a triple whammy, triple capital gain on the thing which, thank you very much, indeed, dave. you did that for me. >> thank you, sir, i appreciate that. it was my christmas present for the last six or seven years. stuart: it was, indeed. david, you're all right.

good luck, sir. >> thanks. stuart: biden might enact last minute policy changes on a.i. what can you tell me in. lauren: it would be the final antipush of this administration, and axios says its chief of staff is hinting at major a.i. announcements perhaps pertaining to a.i.'s role in climate change and conservation. zients has taken a firm stance on the need to build out our a.i. capacity throughout the government, so you might see policy changes to ensure a.i.'s being used responsibly or just doling out the rest of that chips funding to ensure the u.s. leads in semiconductor development. why the faces? stuart: to make sure that a. i. is being used responsibly -- lauren: uh-huh. anything less? stuart: it just means we're going to stop you from innovating. that's what they do. lauren: well, coming in is elon musk and david sacks, so you just wait. [laughter] stuart: can't wait. thanks, lauren. white house officials say biden's postelection silence makes it feel like trump is

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stuart: the futures present a mixed picture. dow's off 90, nasdaq up 37. today biden's expected the make remarks defending his economic legacy. edward lawrence joins us from the white house. all right, edward, what are we going to hear? >> reporter: biden hopes to rewrite what people felt over the last four years about his economy going forward.

now, the white house has just opened up a new web site. they just started that this morning to say what the president's going to say in his speech at the brookings institute where he's going to highlight the fact that they've had the lowest unemployment rate in average over the the last four years. he will highlight record highs by the dow, something he's not done much. the president will also say he was able to get inflation down from its peak of 9.1%. >> over the last four years, the president has rejected trickle down economics and written a new economic playbook that the builds the economy from the middle out and bottom up, not the top down. >> reporter: what the president not say is that his policies sparked that inflation. also under the biden administration, prices increased more in recent history, up about 20 over the past four years. president-elect trump won on the things president biden is trying to spin, looking at one side of the coin. the president-elect's vision, a

clear one on the economy. listen. >> very simple word, groceries. like, almost, you know, who uses the word -- i started using the word the groceries, when you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they were double and triple the price over a shutter period of time if. and i won an -- short period of time. and i won an election based on that. >> reporter: president-elect trump believes he has a mandate on this to make life more affordable, and now he has to deliver. stu? stuart: thanks, edward. politico reports one democrat close with lawmakers says the lack are of leadership coming from the white house has left a power vacuum. they say it feels like trump is already present. newt gingrich joins me now. it do does seem like the biden era is rapidly drawing to a close if it's not already over. what say you? >> i just wrote a newsletter at gingrich 360 saying trump is the

first de facto president in american history. when he went to paris, president macron treated him with the full presidential honors as though he were the incumbent president. there were 82 heads of state there. he met with the president of ukraine, the prime minister of italy, and it was literally as though the president trump era has begun and, oh, by the way, joe biden's still hanging out. so in law, biden is president. but de facto, in fact, i think for all practical purposes the world now thinks donald trump is president. and his cabinet picks are the most entrepreneurial, most aggressive cabinet i can remember, and i think they're going to make an enormous difference in the quality of life of the average american. stuart: you know a lot about the point where they go through senate hearings. does it look like most of the appointees will get through? >> i think senator tom cotton is right. in the end, he's probably going to get all of them. i have to say, watching pete hegseth's courage, and i've to known pete for year, but

watching him these last two weeks under fire calmly, methodically, happily meet with senators, answer all their questions, i, you know -- i think, you know, you've got to be very tough if you're going to try the reform the pentagon. i actually show hegseth is showing he's personally tough enough to actually get the job done. so i think he was probably the most endangered after gaetz left, and i think he will be approved. and i think, frankly, any effort to go after the other candidates is just going to fail miserably. stuart: do you think that musk and vivek ramaswamy have the power and the -- [laughter] the vigor to cut the trillion bucks worth out of the budget? you're laughing. are they going to get it done? [laughter] >> i've read berger's ticket book on space, and, and i'm now reading the amazing biography of elon musk. look, musk's energy level, he makes trump look slow and quiet

and calm. [laughter] i mean, he is just unbelievable. and, frankly, ramaswamy has already founded two billion dollar companies, run for president, so you've got two guys who are smart, inner inner jettic, courageous, have enormous if resources. and if i were -- i'm not sure you're going to get a trillion in one year, but i have no doubt they're going to take out more than enough money to the pay for the tax cuts which, frankly, will pay for themselves through economic growth. but i think they're going to dramatically cut the government. just start with the radical suggestion that government workers should show up. stuart: radical. >> this kind of bald thinking could change washington. stuart: that's radical thinking, isn't it? hey, you work for the government, so show up. who would have thought? i've got to run this by you. california senator adam schiff, not a fan of biden's potentially preemptive pardons. schiff called it, quote, completely unnecessary. what does that tell you, newt?

>> well, first of all, he doesn't think he's done anything which is illegal as opposed to just stupid. [laughter] i think. but in addition, you know, you're assuming a presumption of guilt. i mean, why would somebody who's not been found guilty of anything want to be pardon which implies that they were guilty? and i think this whole idea of a preemptive pardon is unconstitutional and, frankly, is the sort of thing people dream op up when -- dream up when they feel too liberated by marijuana, are sitting around late at night talking to each other, and the smoke and the haze confuses their brain. you can't have a preemptive pardon. the person's to not even guilty of anything, you know? and i do think, by the way, that what biden has done by pardoning his son is he's actually set the stage for president trump on the very first day to pardon if virtually all of the j6 prisoners which is manager that should be done in term -- something that should be done in terms of honesty and decency.

stuart: newt, i've never seen you as happy as you are now. am i right? >> well, i think the contrast between kamala harris seeming to be drunk on her video and donald trump being in france accepted as the president of the united states, i gotta tell you, both calista and i have about as happy as we can be. stuart: good, glad to ceo. come back -- to see. come back soon. the biden administration just broke a record previously held by obama. what's that record? lauren: having the most federal regulations. [laughter] so if you look at pages of the federal register, biden filled 96,088 so far this year. that is the most ever, and he has a couple of weeks left. by contrast, trump in 2017 filled right in the middle there 61,000 after obama in 2016 had almost 96,000. so trump's goal when he gets into office, slash the regulatory burden once again, and that's a major opportunity

for doge and for congress. and when you shark the regulatory burden -- slash the regulatory burden, you unleash innovation. stuart: yeah. and newt gingrich thinks they're going to get it done. all good. thank you, lauren. check futures, please. a little red ink for the dow. little green for the s&p and the nasdaq. we'll be back with the opening bell. ♪ ♪

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stuart: we've got about two and a half minutes to go til the opening bell, and i'm look at the dow industrials on the downside in the very, very early going to there. s&p on the upside just 5 points, nasdaq up about 41 points. okay. can we see big tech as we're going into the opening bell this morning? we had a guest who had just -- we can't quite get in contact with him, so can you show me big tech? let's see how we've got on this so far. okay, there you go. microsoft, that's to down a couple of bucks, top of the list. apple, alphabet, amazon and meta, they are all higher. and we've got the guest back. david nicholas is his name.

hank goodness, he's back with us. we might have lost him again taft. that's what it's like on live tv. when things go wrong, you smile. david, can you hear me, david nicholas? >> stuart, i can hear you loud and clear. stuart: oak, we can definitely hear you, so here's the question. we get the producer price report tomorrow -- consumer price report tomorrow producer prices thursday, are we going to get the prices down to to the 2% level the fed wants? >> i think we're going to see it. i think we're in a goldilocks environment. i was very critical of the federal reserve. i'm not saying they officially pulled this off, but it looks like we may achieve soft landing, and i think we're going to get inflation down to below 2%, but that's where it is right now. if we see growth under president trump, which i think we will, we could see inflation tick back up, but that's not a bad thing. if we're getting growth at the same time we're getting inflation, i'm good with that,

and i think the market is as well because that'll be a risk-on environment for stocks. stuart: the rally continues well into next year? >> i think it does. look, this is a pro-business president. we're looking at regulation being better for businesses, taxes to come down. all of this bodes well. tests also just the environment, stuart. i had a friend saying, david, i've been thinking about starting a business for four years, i've put it off, i've got confidence. i'm going to start that business. that sends ripple effects throughout the u.s. economy. i think it's a good thing for markets and the economy as well. stuart: i think you're right, david. i sense more positive news -- mood sweeping through the country. it appears aswe're going places at long last. david, thanks for joining us. i'm to glad we got you in the end, all good stuff. the market is open. we've opened on the dow side with the dow industrials. we're off 100 points. we'll wait million we get all the dow 30 stocks open. it's almost an exact even split, winners and losers, and the dow is down 90 -- 102 points.

the s&p 500 also opening a little bit higher, just a tiny fraction, a 5 points. 6,058 is the level of telephone index -- on the index. nasdaq is up 58 points, nearly one-third of 1%. you're getting close to 20,000, 19,799. again, let's go back to big tech. we've got alphabet, meta and apple up, microsoft is down just 80 cents, 445. pretty close to the high. now here's a really interesting piece of news. google. they've unveiled a new quantum computing chip. okay? if all strange to me, but taylor's going to try to explain it. explain it. >> in very simple terms what i'm hearing -- stuart: yes? >> a game-changer: it's called willow. everything that i was reading about it on x is that this is unbelievable. called willow. performs a task in 5 minutes that would take a supercomputer 10 accept until years to

complete, basically the time it takes to travel a universe. the company is doing it in 5 minutes. usually when we talk about this, we talk about the bits 1 or 0, but this kwan a tunnel computing chip talk -- quantum computing chip talks about i cue bits. maybe a 1, maybe a 0 or somewhere in between. that creates a lot of errors. google is saying they've been able to reduce those errors. i have no idea what i'm talking about except this is a game-changer. people are really excited about this. stuart: look at the stock, a 4% gain for a stock as big as alphabet, that's really something. investors like it. got it. >> yes. stuart: eli lilly. look at the stock price, it is up just 1%. they've god a dividend hike -- got a dividend hike and a buyback program. >> yep, a 15% increase in the dividend. basically, this company is raking in so much money from zepbound with, the weight loss drug, that they're returning cash to shareholders.

stuart: david bahnsen doesn't think much of it. it's a very low dividend. they've increased it, but it's still a low dividend, and they're putting the real money, $15 billion, back into the company itself which is different than giving it to shareholders. tesla, please, what do we know about these new, cheaper models? >> we think we have confirmation from if their investor of -- director of investment, they are confirming a sub-$30,000 model next year. deutsche bank calling it model q. we don't know what the real model will be called but without that ev credit about $37,500. but if that credit stays in, you are getting a simplified model that's able to use the same manufacturing plant to keep costs low. again, really excited for a sub 30. stuart: the stock's almost $400 a share, how about that? oracle reported after the the bell yesterday. heir down this morning.

ouch. 8% down. what went wrong? >> this is a case of sky high expectations. so, unfortunately, revenue here came just in line. and that's not good enough for a cloud company, right? so oracle said overall revenue growth up 9 year-over-year, cloud revenue growth was up 52% year-over-year, but people wanted a lot more. stuart: okay. the chip industry is doing remarkably well. taiwan semiing my reported november sales. i thought they did well. why is the stock down? >> you know, maybe a little bit of waiting to get all of the numbers n. we have the month ifly numbers, maybe getting the quarterly numbers. but, stu, so far, honestly, this is really good numbers. the shares are also up 80%, so maybe a little bit is profit taking. november revenue is up 34%, about $8.5 billion with. october and november combined sales are up 31%, so really good strength heading into the end of the year. stuart: and then we have meta. they're launching an anti-scam campaign. how would that work?

[laughter] >> basically, they're putting out an awareness campaign to try to help people avoid scams in the holidays. stu, i know you certainly are not one of them. you would never fall for such a thing. there's a lot of a malicious urls, links out there, that can dupe people into cricking on bad links -- clicks. done click on mig if they promise christmas gift boxes, discount holiday connect rations or holiday -- decorations or holiday coupons. those are usually scam. stuart: okay, got it. thank you. boeing, i believe they're getting to to build max jets again, is that accurate? >> yes. so a month after the strike is over, we're sort of getting back to business. remember after the alaska airlines plane blew out last january, they capped at it maybe just 38 planes a month. it obviously was well below that as they were focusing on quality control. it's going to take us a while to get back up to full production but, hey, it's a start.

rebuilding trust with their customers and suppliers is key. stuart: one more for you, disney. they're going to continue to raise the price of their theme parks which astonishes me. does the cfo, the chief financial officer, can does he think they'll get away with it? >> he is defending it in a way and that they are being careful with it, but it's something they have to do, right, to keep up with inflation. this was the disney cfo speak at a conference yesterday, and he said they're comfortable with some of the price hikes, but they are, you know, just making sure that they're not totally outrageous. they have to be smart about it, he said. he said there's also a new theme park coming in orlando next may of 2025 the from universal that could provide some headwinds so, again, they're cautious when it comes to the supply and demand. stuart: i wonder if kamala harris would call the price hikes price gouging. i'd love to know. taylor, thank you very much, indeed. let's get to the big board, see how we're doing. we're off 160 points now. dow winners, topping that list we have boeing, salesforce,

chevron, walmart, nvidia is on the list. the s&p 500, the winners, alphabet, nice gain there. that's that quantum computer thing. up 5% on alphabet. american airlines, warner brothers, boeing, norwegian cruise lines is up. and the nasdaq composite, the winners, alphabet, of course, tesla, illumina, warner brothers. coming up, a shocking new report details the biden administration operation to track pro-trump americans. 14,000 the government employees accessed private financial data, 3 million times. no warrant. that is a breach of privacy. judiciary committee chair jim jordan has much more on that later in the show. in the wake of daniel penny's verdict, a new york black lives matter leader is blaming white people and calling for black vigilantes. watch. >> we need some black vigilante- >> that's right. >> people want to jump up and choke us? and kill us?

for being loud? how about we do the same? stuart: brian kilmeade will take that on later from the -- in the show, and we will be back. ♪ ♪

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voltaren... for long lasting arthritis pain relief. (♪) stuart: l. 12 minutes into the trading session, the dow is down nearly 20 to 0 points, but the nasdaq is up 96. then there's this, assad's prime minister who stayed behind in da maas damascus met with rebel leaders yesterday. alex: lex hogan joins us. -- alex hogan joins us. >> reporter: hi, stuart. the foreign prime minister, or former prime minister, i should say, of syria announced he's handed over power to the rebel force. they're made up of a coalition of different groups, and now

this new person has been named interim prime minister until the 1 os of -- 1st of march. this is mohamed al-bashir. he led the so-called rebel government ahead of the stunning 12-day offense. attacks continue to rock the country. countries like turkey, israel and the u.s. have carried out strikes to to prevent not only isis from attempting a power grab, but also to the prevent anyone from getting their hands on weapons left behind by the assad regime. israel has carried out hundreds of strikes including on suspected chemical weapons. bashar al assad fred to russia two days ago. now there has been heart-wrenching scenes of syrians searching few prisons, desperately looking for loved ones who had been locked up. the assad regime had been known for mass incarcerations and torture. people brought k-9s, sledgehammers, shovels and drills searching for what they believed could be these secret

dungeons in the prisons. others combed through maps and paperwork, looking through complexes trying to track down rell relatives and friends -- relatives and friends, adults and even kids. >> translator: where are our children? my heart is burned over my brother for 13 years, i kept looking for him. where is he? he was 30 when they took him. >> reporter: the u.s. state department says intensive efforts are underway to find austin tice, the american journalist who discuss appeared 12 the years ago near damascus. president joe biden says that the government believes he is alive and has been working with his family to try to bring him home. and washington's special envoy for hostage affairs in beirut as the fbi tries to to find more information about his whereabouts. stuart? stuart: thank you, alex. state department guy kris christian whiton joins me now -- christian whiton. trump wants us to stay out of syria, but we're bombing isis

bases. so what is our role in syria? >> our role is probably just the sit back and watch. you know, there is this hope that we're dealing with a kinder and gentler form of jihadist, but if you look, these are battle-hardened jihadists. they have just won a very hard-fought battle, and they are not probably going to govern syria in some sort of classical democracy. we know that. it's unlikely they'll even govern it ine form of moderate dictatorship. these are e have to worry about them that they'll inspire other adherence to political's elim in places like egypt -- islam in places like egypt or saudi arabia. yes, it's good that the united states, turkey and israel are bombing what's left of assad's military, but after that we should probably just stay out and watch. stuart: the way i see it, there are two big losers from, what, the revolt in syria. russia, because they might now lose their warm water port on the mediterranean in syria, and

iran which is d they've got their route of putting rockets into hezbollah, that's blocked. they can't do that anymore. they're two losers. >> that's right. the small naval base is probably gone. i can't imagine islamist jihadists who are mad that russia's harboring assad are going to allow that to continue, and iran especially is probably going to lose hezbollah. hezbollah has been supplied through syria, so you have sunni jihadists just take over, they're not going to like the shia jihadists, they're probably going to replace them. so, again, you're not going to have classical liberalism in southern lebanon, just a shift to sunni terrorists there. but, yes, that is the short-term outlook which is good but, again, it's not a good thing that jihadists have made a breakthrough. there's this fear that they're going to inspire bad guys throughout the region and possibly europe. stuart: i just think overall in the mideast things are looking up, and i think that's in part

due to the trump effect. he's the president, he's the new sheriff, and everybody's taken notice. >> certainly since iran is the chief exporter of terrorism and the bad guy, the idea that trump will re-- will enforce the sanctions that are in place the way he did, it was called maximum pressure, i think you are going to see that. so this sort of, you know, real cause of most of the problems and also the threat that has kept the arabs together and on the side of israel, you may see an expansion of the abraham accords to the include saudi arabia sometime in the next four years so in that sense, yes, it is good. stuart: china just performed a large naval exercise, largest in decades, targeting taiwan. are they sending a warning signal to trump? if. >> i think they're practicing for a potential invasion. as a way to exclude the united states to prevent us from resupplying or supplying taiwan in a conflict. if you look at the arms we've supplied to ukraine, we have the benefit of poland and a lot of

ways to do that. if china makes a move on taiwan and wants to keep us away, you know, they work with the russians, rush has been just tested a mach 17 maneuverable cruiser ballistic missile, manager that could easily take out our carriers and keep us at bay. it's a message, but also i think it's just china practicing. stuart: china practice, okay. thanks very much, christian. see you again soon. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: coming up, daniel penny if found not guilty. he walks free after alvin bragg charged him in the death of an unruly subway rider. new yorkers are left wondering about their personal safety. that's my take, top of the hour. mysterious drone sightings in new jersey baffling local authorities. residents want answers. we still don't know who is sending these drones up and why. our report on that is next. ♪ ♪

stuart: it's been more than three weeks since the first mysterious drone sightings in new jersey. residents and officials are still looking for answers.

nate foy joins us from morristown. nate, why are we not being told who is putting these drones in the air? if because somebody is. >> reporter: well, that is exactly what people here if new jersey if are asking, stuart. they feel that either someone knows and they're not telling them, and if nobody knows, then that would be ridiculous because these drones have been up nearly every single might for three weeks with still no answers. and governor phil murphy, perhaps feeling a bit of -- pressure, calling for a meeting at 10 a.m. tomorrow with lawmakers, state troopers and the new jersey office of homeland are security and preparedness. murphy said yesterday that he's been on the phone with top officials in the biden administration and dhs trying to get answers. he says he needs more from them, and he assured the people of emergency that he is taking any threat that the drones may or may not pose, quote, deadly seriously. >> these are, apparently, very -- as i understand it, very

sophisticated. the minute you get eyes on them, they go dark. and, you know, we're obviously most concerned about sensitive targets and sensitive critical infrastructure. we've got military assets, we've got utility assets, we've without the president-elect, one of his homes here. >> reporter: trump national golf club isn't far from the military base in northern new jersey. some thought the military base may be behind the drones, but the base tells fox news, quote, while the source and cause of these aircraft operating in our area remain unknown, we can confirm that they are not the result of any artal-related act elles. fox news also spoke with congressman jeff van drew of new jersey. he said it doesn't appear the pilots of these drones are break breaking any laws, rules or regulations, they're staying out of restricted air space which he says is an indication that they know what they're doing. >> i do not believe it's the

u.s. military. and if it is and if they're doing exercises, shame on them for the disorganized way they are doing it. i don't believe it is the them. i am hopeful it is not a foreign adversary, yet i do worry about that. >> reporter: and, stuart, this will be a main topic of discussion at a house hearing on capitol hill today that starts at 10:00 focused on the national security implications involving drones. congressman van drew says that the united states is far behind china with this technology and that we need to do a better job depending against and integrating drones. we'll send it back to you with. stuart: nate, we'll take it. thanks very much, indeed. lauren, you and i both live in new jersey. i haven't seen them. lauren: i haven't seen theming, but i keep thinking of the chinese spy balloon, and it makes us nervous. and if it is the federal government or they know what it is, you should say something. right now everybody's got a

phone, they're taking videos of this and saying, we're concerned, we want answers. stuart: we should get a statement from the feds in the next two days, western. lauren: they have to. the. stuart: aye got to tell you that the nasdaq just hit another all-time high, 19,813 is where it's at. still ahead, former u.s. prime minister liz truss, she has a new documentary about her 44 days in office. she says the british deep state did her in. house judiciary committee chair jim jordan will weigh in on the possibility of more biden family pardons. there are calls for manhattan d.a. alvin bragg to resign after daniel penny's not guilty verdict. jon levine will cover that for us. and the murder of the united health care ceo revealed issues with obamacare. "the wall street journal"'s allysia finley explains that. the 10:00 hour is next. ♪ ♪

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stuart: one of my favorite christmas songs, bin