through 2024. we've had a great year. we've got so many exciting things planned for all of you in january and as does maria, but i will stop there. i will let her tell you all about that. real quick, i do want to show you another live picture of times square because i can now confirm, yes, it's going to rain tonight as that's the forecast from our team at fox weather, no umbrellas will be allowed, no alcohol, no cool kerrs, so if you are oi to going to brave it this in new york city, just keep those things in mind as we ring in the new year. and we will see you of course, on thursday. markets are going to be closed tomorrow for new year's day. samantha, great to see you, greg, always good to see you. i will send it over to "varney & company" and ashley webster. stuart is in for the varn if s. ashley: that's exactly right -- cheryl: i don't know, i just made that up.

[laughter] ashley: i knew where you were going. already hit the champagning or cheryl cheryl casone. i'm ashley webster in for stued today. and we quinn with a look at the markets. futures pointing dog a slightly higher beginning for the final trade thing diet to year. the dow up 72 points, the s&p and nasdaq also up ever so slightly. nice if change from yesterday when we saw more of a selloff. let's take a look at the 10-year treasury yield. backing off that 7-month high now at 4.54%, well under 4.6 that we saw last year. the 2-year treasury yield with up ever so slightly at 4.25 %. let's take a look at bitcoin which, of course, at one point plowed through the $10 100,000 mark, has since bulled -- pulled back. this morning at $95,000, almost 96,000. okay, on the show today,

house republicans want to extend donald trump's tax cuts. the chair of the ways and means committee, jason smith, is warning taxpayers they'll face a 22% tax hike if they are not extended. we don't like that. meantime, the crisis at the border goes on. texas dps found a 9-year-old girl and a 5-year-old girl just abandoned by a smuggler along the southern border. the two children were only holding a piece of paper with an address and phone number. so awful. the treasury department has announced that it was hacked in a major breach by the chinese state-sponsored hackers. those hackers reportedly gained access to treasury workstations and unclassified documents using a security key. and, of course, it is a busy day in new york city as the nypd prepares for huge crowds packing midtown manhattan this new year's eve. more than one million people are expected the watch that 12,000-pound new year's eve ball

make its iconic descent at 11:59 p.m. tonight in the pouring rain. almost obscuring. it is december the 31st, 2024. happy new year's eve. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ if. ♪ ♪ if for "auld lang syne", my dear. ashley: theres it is, the focus of the big night tonight as you listen to the "auld lang syne" by mariah carey. i thought it was going to be frank sinatra, but it's the not. it's mariah carey in times swear. people will be packed in, apparently in the pouring rain, but they will not care, i'm sure of that. let's begin this final day of 2024 with a look at how the markets have done throughout the

year. good morning, lauren simonetti. lauren: happy new year's eve. ashley: yes, happy new year's eve. despite the selloff recently, we have seen quite the rally this year. lauren: an a.i.-fueled rally. the nasdaq is up 30% this year. six of the seven popular mag seven stocks posting gains much bigger than that. nvidia up 178% this year. if you take a look at the broader market as you can see there, it's up about 24%, and it is higher by over 20% for the past two years. can we do it again in year number three? the dow higher by 13% this year. yes, those gains are being overshadowed by this stalled santa claus rally. investors are growing cautious that trump 2.0 could mean higher yields. but trump's first term, ashley, great for investors. when you look at what's called the s&p total return index which includes dividends and capital gains, trumps third among all presidents with a gain of 15, of

about 16%, bested only by presidents clinton and obama with. biden comes in ninth place with 13.5% gains. ashley: interesting numbers, lauren. thank you very much. now this, talking of joe biden, he apparently has been reflecting on his time as president as he prepares to make his exit. he reportedly regrets dropping his re-election bid. he thinks he could have won. according to the "wall street journal," that sentiment not shared by his staff. they also, according to work environment in recent weekses as, quote, draining and depressing. i can only imagine. tammy bruce joins me now. great to have you here, tammy. what do you make of that is? >> hi will. -- hi there. ashley: does he seriously think he could have won that election? i don't think anyone else did. >> that's been, obviously, parking lot of his potential problem d -- part of his potential personal problem, cognitive the issue, the nature of his opinion about himself versus the reality of what's

happening around him. but at the same time, he can argue he would have been a better candidate than kamala harris, and he could be right. but he still would have lost. is so he might look at it in that context because the problem for the democrats is they never took trump seriously, they underestimated him, they felt they had sole possession of the truth. and so when you think about the running against trump, their mistake was, the biggest mistake was not considering the nature of why he was in the position he was in, why his approval ratings always rose, what the american people were responding to because they had had begun a number of decades ago, i think, to just not think about us as active participants in this republic. and that has changed. so they're still looking inward narcissistically, that everything was about what they did. in fact, it was about what we have wanted and what america deserves. ashley: very well put. all right, i want to talk about

kamala harris now. i want you to listen to what one former -- >> oh, no. ashley: -- says about a potential political comeback for the vice president. listen to this, tammy. >> i don't think the world has seen the last of vice president kamala harris. if i don't know how she will show up again, but she is a young politician who garnered over 75 million votes in this election, and she will be back. ashley: well, whoop pee. all right, tammy. do you think harris is going to the make a comeback and, if so, in what capacity? >> look, is some people are profession allocates. now, she is one office -- professional candidates. she is one office, right? she has done well inexplicably. she did -- it continues to concern me that she received as many vote zs as she did, but that is something that the legacy media and party loyalty contributes to. all americans across the board are waking up.

but this is a woman to who, because of the weakness of the democratic bench, she becomes a star. and if the democratic bench expands, if democrats vote people in who know what they're doing and explain a vision, then the value of someone like kamala harris or the appeal of her will wane. but, you know, in california you can, i suppose she might have a shot at something if she wants to run for governor, but she's not going to to go and do something new. many people forget or to think about that, you know, maybe you should try something else. there are other things in life. but, you know, for politicians at her level there's really nothing else in their minds that they can do, so it's going to be up to the democrats. ashley: right. >> but if they had a bigger and stronger bench, she would not, i think, be in the position she's n. ashley: i think you're exactly right. tammy tammy bruce, great stuff as always. happy new year to you. >> same to you too much thanks,

ash. ashley: thanks, tammy. thomas hayes joins me now. thomas, okay, we had a bit of a selloff yesterday, but do you have any concerns about losing any momentum going into 2025? >> well, ash, have no fear, the broadening rally will reappear. i think we saw a similar situation in 2016 right after donald trump was elected the first time. you saw some volatility in november, december. the dollar rallied, yields rallied. but shortly are, right after the turn of of the calendar and after the inauguration, everything fell into place. if if you keep it in mind earnings growth, prices what you pay, values what you get, the magnificent seven while they're growing to grow earnings 21% next year, that is down from 33% this year whereas if you look at some of the broadening, look at small caps, for instance. they're also going to grow earnings 21% except that is up from 8% this year.

so, one, you're paying 33 times earnings, one you're paying 15 times earnings, price is what you pay, value's what you get. so that broadening rally that started in july, we're going to to see a continuation of that in 2025 despite the abrupt interruption in december. expect that trend to resume after the calendar turns, ash. ashley: yeah. the santa rally has been a big belly flop, has it not? i've got one minute left, thomas. a record $1 trillion was invested into etfs this year with. do you expect that trend to continue? >> well, the last peak of passive et, f ifs inflows was 20 2021 which implies it often happens at the exact wrong time. i think what you're going to see see is the weights that make up those paifsz indices are going to the underperform the mag 7 versus the rest of the market broadening start to outperform.

as a matter of fact, value has outperformed growth by 4.4% per year since 1927. the only exception, which is why we're stuck with -- was the zero interest rate policy decade since 2010. so unless you believe we're going back to zero interest rate policy, you want to add some cheaper value into your portfolio as the calendar turns, ash. ashley: terrific advice. we'll have to leave it there but, thomas, thank you so much for joining us today. >> thanks for having me. ashley: our pleasure. we just got a read, by the way, on home price. the case shiller report. and a reminder that these numbers are from october, is so they're two month manies behind us. but, lauren are, what are the numbers? lauren: the theme is the growth in the price of a home is slowing. so seasonally-adjusted, here are the numbers. prices rose 4.2% in october from last october. it's still an increase, but it's the smallest one since september

of 2023. perhaps good news for home buyers out there. prices are coming down. sort of. [laughter] ashley: yeah. gotta try and make these homes affordable, that's for sure. lauren, thank you very much. coming up, i don't even really want to show you this, but don lemon melting down and mocking trump supporters in a bizarre new video. >> you're so dumb. yes, i am gloating over your stupidity. you don't even realize it, because you have stupid maga brain, and you don't yet it. how stupid -- don't get it. how stupid and dumb are you? if. ashley: my question is, who are you? harsh words, for sure. we're going to get marc thiessen's reaction later in the show. indiana congresswoman victoria spartz says speaker johnson's track record hasn't secured her vote yet. >> if speaker johnson wants to be a speaker, then he needs to lay out the plan and commit to that plan, not like what he did last year. ashley: yeah.

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ashley: just taking a quick look at the futures, different than yesterday. we are up, modestly so, but we are in the green on the dow, the s&p and the nasdaq. up about a quarter to a third of a percent. all right. it is, of course, new year's eve. everyone getting ready to ring in 2025. matt finn joins me now from west palm beach down if florida. all right, matt, how does

president-elect trump plan to celebrate? >> reporter: well, the morning there are plenty of reports out that trump plans to hold his annual glitzy gal a la at mar-a-lago here in west palm beach. but ahead of the party tonight, there was a lot of business that went down here over the past week including trump's endorsement of speaker mike johnson. here's johnson reacting. >> i'm really humbled and honored to have president trump's endorsement for speaker again. he and i worked so well together, so closely together, and we have a lot of big things to do. he recognizes what we need right now -- i think my colleagues recognize this as wellwell -- is a proven fighter and if a true maga conservative, but also someone who can work with every single member of our very diverse house gop to get president trump's priorities over the line. that's what's ahead of us. i think this could be the most consequential presidency and congress of the modern era, because we have to fix everything, and it has to start on day one. so we can't waste any time.

>> reporter: johnson's future as the speaker is not garon with teed when congress -- guaranteed when congress reconvenes friday. tonight president-elect trump reportedly hosting his annual new year's party at mar-a-lago. he previously hinted bill gates could be in attendance. a few days ago president-elect trump postedded online that mar-a-lago is the center of the universe and said new year's eve is going to be, quote, amazing. mar-a-lago has been described as the southern white house. the palm beach daily news reports this morning tonight's party is expected to draw about 300 guests. security is, of course, a concern and a focus following two assassination attempts of president-elect trump this year, one right here at trump international golf course. we will keep you update about tonight's celebration, who is in attendance and perhaps maybe if any big acts perform. back to you. finish shar.

ashley: matt finn from the southern white house, thank you very much. now this, donald trump endorsing, as we just saw, mike mike johnson for speaker ahead of that january 3rd vote. but i want you to listen to what undecided congresswoman victoria spartz had to say. >> i look at people's track record and p unfortunately, we will not be able to deliver on president trump's agenda as the same happened in 2016 because with it has to be done legislatively. if we don't have speaker with the courage, vision and the plan. and if speaker johnson wants to be speaker, then he needs to lay outta that plan and commit to that plan, not like what he did last year. i can give him a chance, but i would like to hear from him how he's going to be delivering this agenda and what plan he has, and he hasn't been doing it. ashley: all right. well, that's one opinion there. kentucky congressman thomas massie says he's still a no even after trump's endorsement. he thinks it will work out about as well as paul ryan did back in

2016. in other words, not very well at all. texas congressman chip roy joining us in this morning. great to have you here, congressman. big question, of course, is, is mr. johnson going to have the support the keep his role as speaker? what do you think? >> well, good morning, ashley. happy new year to all the listeners and viewers out there. ashley: same to you. >> look, victoria and thomas are good friends, and this they raise reasonable concerns. i remain undecided because we saw so many of the failures last year that we are concerned about that might limit or inhibit our ability to advance the president's agenda. i respect, like thomas, that president trump supports mike. i like mike. he's a good friend. but let's consider what happened the week before christmas. we violated the 72-hour rule twice which means we didn't have time the read a bill. we had to have elon, vivek, the president and j.d. come in to kill a 1500-page monstrosity. it still spent $110 billion

unpaid for, and my colleagues who say, oh, that that's all just discretionary spending. we also passed $200 billion that is taking money out of social security to transfer it which will hasten the bankruptcy of social security by six months. that was all the week before christmasing ashley. that's a problem -- christmas, ashley. that's not how we should do business. we racked up $300 billion additional after the election. we spent $1.7 trillion last year with more democrat votes than republican votes. we gave another $61 billion to to ukraine. my friend victoria, she's from ukraine. she has a heart from ukraine, but she understands giving $61 billion to to ukraine after mike johnson promised to secure the border first, that's a problem. so we need to have a plan if before january 3rd. the speaker needs to speak to it if he wants to have all of our support. ashley: yeah. and i have to follow up, at this point, congressman, does he have that support or not? >> yeah, right now i don't believe that he has the votes on

friday, and i think we need to have the conference get together so we can get united. people say, well, chip, who would you choose otherwise? mike's a friend and maybe he can answer the call and deliver an agenda and a plan. byron donalds is a good man and a good friend. i nominated him two years ago. jim jordan's a good man and a good friend. there are other members of leadership in the conference who could do the job. we need to unite around a plan to deliver for the president. right now if i do not believe the conference has that. the failure before christmas, i cannot overstate, it's a glimpse to come if we don't organize the conference and deliver for the american people. we are not going to be able to bend on the things that matter. we mustcut spending if you want inflation to go down and for people the afford to live in this country. we have the secure the border. we can't be going back and forth on that. we have to give the tools to tom homan, the president, stephen miller, to secure the boarder, and we've got to have the plans in place by friday. ashley: lot to be decided, that

that's for sure. congressman, thank you so much for joining us and happy new year. >> god bless. ashley: thank you very much, same to you, sir. let's check the futures. looking to be, well, slightly up opening, when the bell rings in, what, less than six minutes, six and a half minutes from now. maybe we can get a little bit of the santa rally. we'll have to find out because the opening bell is next. ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me ♪ if you're living with dry amd, you may be at risk for developing geographic atrophy, or ga. ga can be unpredictable—and progress rapidly—leading to irreversible vision loss. now there's something you can do to... ♪ ( slow. it. down.) ♪

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ashley: the last trading day of 2024, and so far we're looking -- we're going to finish it out in the green. at least that's what the premarket is showing us. let's bring in luke lloyd to talk about this now. luke, as i just say, it's the last day of 2024. what's your prediction at least for the first, in the short term, for 2025? >> well, the santa claus happened, actually, the first two weeks after the election. i think that's why we haven't seen anything the last couple of weeks, it's been cooling off. but predicting just the first few week withs is difficult, but the first few months, i think it's going to be similar to the

first few weeks after the election. the perception is that 2025's going to be a great year for exuding confidence. small business. optimism's been rising since the election along with consumer confidence that's also been rising. 2025 looks like it's actually going to be the year of confidence, and that confidence comes from knowing what to expect from a trump regulation, de-- administration, deregular lairks lore taxes and balancing the budget. and that means taking sugar away that's only benefited the rich9 and the big tech the names of the year. and less sugar's denation their which means lower -- deflationary which means lower interest rates and pushes energy prices lower. is so lower rates and overall economic confidence is going to allow all those other sectors that, frankly, have been unlove- [audio difficulty] financials where managers, and a's going to pick up -- m&a's going to pick up. i think in 2025 you're going to see the equal weight s&p 500 do better than the market cap-weighted s&p 500 in the

first couple of months of 20 that 25. ashley: i wanted to talk about bitcoin in particular. we know that president-elect are trump is a fan. could it actually start to take away from the u.s. dollar which some fear? >> yes, absolutely. the question we need to ask is whether or not bitcoin's big or is it actually relatively small. people see that $100,000 price tag and assume it's extremely big, but the reality is bitcoin's only a $2 trillion market cap. it's not even worth one ap apple, one amazon or one nvidia. right now the government and institutions are treating it like a commodity, and bitcoin's relatively small compared to gold. if it caught up, it's going to be almost a million dollars a coin. the interesting thing is bitcoin is not intended to be a commodity, it was intended to be a currency -- ashley: we'll leave it there, luke. >> -- poses a threat to the u.s.

dollar. ashley: whoo, you got a lot in in a short amount of time. luke lloyd, thank you very much. interesting stuff on bitcoinful we are now up and running on wall street for this last trading day of 2024. looking at the dow, a lot more green than red. look at that, 27 the of the 30 in the green led by amazon and nike. the only two in the red, home depot and honeywell. let's take a look at the s&p 500. we were expecting this to move higher by about a quarter of a percent and, guess what? that's where we're at. the s&p up 16 points at 5923. and why not the nasdaq? the nasdaq up close to 30% for the entire year. not too shabby. right now up a third of a percent, about 70 point offense the nasdaq. we'll take -- points on the nasdaq. we'll that take a look at those big tech names that carry so much weight. amazon, apple, meta, alphabet, microsoft if all doing well, modestly so, up a quarter to maybe three-quarters of a

percent. now let's drill down and look at individual names. let's begin with tesla are. good morning, taylor riggs. great to have you here. let's begin with tesla. let's kind of give a report card, if you like, on this stock. >> i mean, not bad. it's up, what, 68 percent for the year. i think, ashley, we all know this was elon musk's year. and so much of the betting market around politics was about tesla. if elon musk seemed to be gaining influence in washington, the stock of tesla would go up. analysts looking about 510,000 deliver is -- deliveries for the quarter for tesla. it's been a phenomenal year for this company. ashley: not shabby at all. okay, what about nvidia? some calling it the stock of the decade. >> and that may not be overstating it, right? this is a company that's up 178% this year. this was, again, the year of a.i. nvidia has done so well the last

few years, there may not be a better pure play on a. i. than nvidia with. a lot of people say, well, look, given the big runup is it still overvalued, other analysts will say if you take a look at the future growth of this company, the future growth of technology and a.i., it's not overvalued. again, this was a wonderful play on a.i. ashley: not bad at all. we've got to get to this one, taylor, the trump play, djt. how's it done this year? >> it's been volatile, but it's doubled. not bad, right? up almost 100%, about 95%. but we had some swings. we had that high in martha you see, we had that low many september, and then a little bit of a gain in november, again, as he was close closing in on the polls and showing he may win the election. there was no fundamental news with jdjt, it was all purchase g market on trump, and if you did it and if he won, you've doubled your money.

ashley: i'll take that every day. of course, we've got the talk about bitcoin, taylor. hitting new records this year. >> yes. i mean, it went up to, what, $108,000 at a one point just a few weeks ago. i mean, long gone are the days when this was a 20, 30, 40,000 crypto, right? bitcoin has done really well. up 125%, more than doubling. again, the key milestone was how do we get six figures. a lot of people i speak to say, well, the first 100,000 was the hardest, maybe the next 100,000 isn't so hard, maybe we're looking at $200,000 not so far in the distant future. we'll have to see. ashley: yeah. it's hard to to bet against it. okay, talking of bitcoin, taylor, what's it done for micro strategy which is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin? >> yes, i was reading by some accounts they own about 2% of all bitcoin outstanding. they are the largest corporate holder, they have it on their balance sheet. micro strategy, huge tear

towards the end of the year as you can see on that chart. a little volatile recently because, again, they sell stock in order to buy with bitcoin, and when bitcoin was going up, the share price of micro strategy would go up, and they would sell more shares and more records and use that to buy more bitcoin, and it was this endless feeding loop. since bitcoin's off a little bit, the shares have been volatile, but again overall, micro strategy is a great stock play if you like bitcoin. ashley: absolutely. talking of chipmakers, we've talked about this stock a lot this year, broadcom. >> yes. this is unbelievable, you're up 111%. there had been a little bit of profit taking in the past few days and we've seen as luke lloyd was mentioning the santa claus rally being pulled forrd closer to november and the beginning of december. ashley: right. >> but if you want a strong chip maker, you think nvidia, f -- ts america c, broadcom. so, again, a pretty phenomenal run for these companies if

you're a chip maker and have an a.i. play with you. ashley: yeah, it's remarkable. also taylor, every analyst we've had on the show this year pounding the table forral -- palantir. how did this stock do? >> you're up 350%. again, what people are saying, the perfect play if you like a.i. and you like defense spending. this is the stock. i mean, i remember coming into the year and at one point it's like, what, $30 a share, $11 a share, and now you're all the way up to $77. this is an unbelievable company, and most people, again, that i speak to say the future is yet to come for this company next year. ashley: remarkable. all right. so let me ask you this too, taylor, while we have you, has mark zuckerberg sold some meta stock? >> yeah, this is interesting. it's hard to to get worked up about this stuff because when insiders sell, a lot of this is pre-planned. so again, it's not an indication that they think the company now

is overvalued or they see something on the horizon and they want to sell and hurry and get out of the company. a lot of this is prescheduled. again, insiders, we're hearing, sold about $1.4 million worth of stock, mark zuckerberg was one of those. but again, as long as these are sort or -- sort of preplanned and prescheduled and filed with the sec, which it was, hard to read too much into it. ashley: what a wonderful recap of all the big stocks and the moves they've been making this year. taylor, thank you so much. very much appreciated on this last trading day of 2024. >> thank you. ashley: okay, coming up, illegal border crossings arrests are near the lowest level since july of 2020, but does that tell the real story of what's happening at the border? if we're going to ask a border guy, art del cueto, later in the show. starting tomorrow, teachers in new jersey won't have to pass basic reading, writing and math tests to receive certification.

shouldn't basic skills be at least a minimum requirement? we'll get into it with brian brenberg on the show. and tiktok is set to be banned, but the incoming president has other plans for the controversial app. if. >> -- doing really well. stay on line, don't get offline. >> the president is now on tiktok. it's my honor. >> i'm going to save tiktok. ashley: it's interesting, isn't it? can donald trump use his art of the deal tactics the save tiktok? kara friday rick will be here -- frederick will be here to talk about it next. ♪ i keep rolling like an old banjo. ♪ free and easy, done the road i go ♪

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ashley: all right, well, after the selloff yesterday, today the last trading day, more buying than selling mostly. the dow up 77 points, the s&p up

a tenth and the nasdaq just now turning slightly negative. now this, according to the "wall street journal" joe biden believes he could have beaten donald trump if he'd stayed in the race. lucas tomlinson joins us this morning. all right, lucas, why does the president think that? >> reporter: well, ashley, good morning. perhaps the president has a little bit of regret dropping out, certainly are after seeing what happened the kamala harris, losing to donald trump. donald trump coming back into office much like sports figures, right? when you lose the game, you look back and say what could you have done differently. i think there's no question what's going on in the white house, and perhaps here in st. croix where president biden just departed there was some soul searching, looking at how things could have been done differently. some reporting from the washington post saying president biden wishes he hadn't dropped out of the race. also the "wall street journal" saying there is this regret from the president, but apparently not everybody shares this view. i'll just read this from the wall street journal.

it says the belief that biden could have won isn't widely shared in the white house. the more common view is that the party would have suffered a much large larger electoral defeat and lost even more congressional seats had biden remained the nominee. perhaps that's why nancy pelosi and other democratic lawmakers were so adamant that he drop out, ashley, because of those congressional seats. as you see here, president biden departing st. croix after five days on the island. he shook hands with local officials before the party took off just a few minutes ago, we saw air force one leaving the island and flying north, heading back to wilmington where he'll be spending new year's eve. in recent years hes has spent new year's here on the island are. what many call after a disastrous debate performance, that sent democrats to general quarters and a change was needed, they said. the debate blunder against jimmy carter in '76 when gerald

forward said there was no middle eastern domination if in europe. what they both had in common, they both dealt with an american hostage crisis. back to that debate, ashley, biden in the days following had said he was still committed the staying in the race. this is what he said to reporters just days after the debate. >> unless they came a back and said there's no way you can win. me. no one's saying that. >> we will 1,000%, if your words, see you on the ballot this november? >> unless i get hit by a train. >> if you get in, perhaps in a year and a half or two you would like to, in your words, very capable vice president to carry it over the finish line? >> only if i was told that there was some medical condition that i had. and that's not the case. >> reporter: so president biden is, has just taken off

from st. croix where he's heading back to wilmington to ring in the new year. that's not the only u.s. military aircraft taking off, ashley. ashley: all right. lucas tomlinson in st. croix this morning, thank you very much for that. by the way, donald trump is asking the supreme court to delay the tiktok ban ahead of his administration. he wants to pursue a negotiated resolution which is a bit of a change of mind, i think. tech expert kara frederick joins us now and, kara, how do you think this whole thing's going play out? it's become quite fascinating. >> oh, yeah. ashley, what i will say is i do not envy the supreme court at this moment. and a little bit of humility and analysis at this point, we knew tiktok would appeal when the federal appeals courts upheld this divestiture law, but i did not believe that scotus would a take this up so readily. and that is because when they

gave their unanimous 3-0 decision to uphold this tiktok law, the court said that this is lawful even when applying the most rigorous first amendment standard to the law are. so the supreme court is going to have a lot of -- they're going to just have a very, very big decision to make because i do believe that the law is a good one. ashley: yeah. so basically it comes to threat the national security versus free speech. that's' the issue here. >> yes. but the law itself, it looks at the conduct of the platform, not the content on the platform. that's what's so critical here. ashley: ah. >> and the conduct is very important because of what it does. you have an australian cybersecurity firm that says tiktok as a digital platform only exists to collect information. we're talking about an app that collects the key stroke rhythms, how you actually type in the keyboard, how you hold your phone, etc., your most, your contacts. i mean, we understand that other

apps like facebook and digital platforms do similar things but not to this degree. the amount of data exploitation and vulnerabilities especially as laid are out by the cybersecurity firm which says it's even worse than these, you know with, russian spy if apps designates this as chinese if communist party spyware. crazy. ashley: yeah. that's very disturbing, indeed. we're going to have to leave it there, kara, but thank you thank you so much for joining us today to talk about an issue that we're going to talk a lot more about. again, thank you so much. now this, donald trump's team has a new policy for his nominees ahead of their senate confirmations. what is it, lauren? lauren: stay off the socials. the new york post is reporting that the chief of staff fired a direct missive at the president elect's nominees telling theming hey, look, stop post on social media ahead of your senate confirmation hearings. they start next week. susie wiles reportedly told all the nominees, quote, you don't

speak for the incoming administration. the post reports the request had nothing to do with the h-1b visa discussion largely taking place on social media. ash will concern ashley? if. ashley: all right, lauren, thank you very much. coming up, a former u.s. general is warning that elon musk poses a national security risk. we're going to ask army veteran lieutenant colonel james carafano if he sees it that way. and the people are going into the new year with mountains of credit card debt. loans just hit their highest level in 14 years. we're going to have the full report coming up next. ♪ the best is yet to come and, babe with, won't it be fine? ♪ the is yet to come, come the day you're mine ♪

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visit xfinity.com/rewards. ashley: according to new reports, defaults on credit card payments are hitting their highest level since 2010. jeff flock joins me this morning. jeff, looks like all that spending coming home to roost, right? [laughter] >> reporter: i'm up the date, ashley, i don't know about you,

but the federal government has set such a good example of about not spending beyond your means so, you know, i figure everybody's following it. yeah. take a look at these numbers, tear not pretty right now. these -- they're not pretty. these are what the banks are writing down, $46 billion in uncollectible, they say, credit card debt. the scary part of that, it's a 50% increase year-over-year, the worst since the 2008 recession. you know, there's so much credit out there these days. the average household now has five credit cards and $10,000 of iraq debt. it's crazy. delinquency rates are the highest in nevada, almost 13%. in florida, arkansas and texas, more than 1 in 10 are delinquent on their credit card payments. yeah, christmas, of course, did not help all of this. yeah. according to the folks at lending tree, they surveyed folks, 36% said they went into

debt over christmas on the, credit card to make christmas workment 60% of them say they're stressedded about it. i suggest all 100% should be stressed about it. 42% regret the fact that they spent the money. yeah, and there you go. what does it cost you, bottom line, when you don't pay your balance off? well, in total about $170 billion over the course of the -- $1700 billion we're -- 170 billion we're paying in interest and, of course, so is the federal government. you know, ashley are, back in my day they really didn't have a lot of credit cards, you know? you borrowed from your her or your friend or the mob or something -- [laughter] and now it's just so easy. i still got all my fingers -- i paid my debts. i didn't get my fingers broken from the mob, fortunately. ashley: i was going to say, don't fall behind on payments to the mob, that's all i'm going to say. that's wisdom over the ages -- >> reporter: hope it's not personal information.

i hope it's not -- ashley: no, not at all. i've got all my fingers. [laughter] thank you, jeff. border guy -- coming up next on the show, border guy, art del cueto, will tell us what's really going on at the border despite biden's term ending with low border arrest numbers. jon levine is here to tell us ability what trump told him about his support for immigration visas a. that's going to be interesting. brian brenberg will be along to react to new jersey lowering testing standards for teachers. how can that be? and resident theologian jonathan morris will share his message for the new year. the 10 a.m. hour of "varney & company". ♪ so raise your glass if you are wrong in all the right ways ♪

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