dedicated to moving forward his agenda. it's got a a lot less to do with mike johnson and the republican conference. cheryl: so you're not concerned, obviously, monday, january 6th, is when the election is certified. heavy got to have this buttoned up by tonight. >> while they certainly could go into several rounds in the future, i think mike if mike johnson's going to lock it in in the first or second round. cheryl: listen, thanks to both of you for being with me. again, we've had a couple big pieces of breaking news during the program. dow right now is up 104, nasdaq is up 62, and the s&p is up by more than 14.5 points. jay, real quick, 5 seconds, are you bullish on markets year? >> i am. i think we're in a little bit of a correction, it'll be a rocky start, but we'll be okay. cheryl: all right. "varney & company" is up now, ashley webster is in for stuart. ashley. ashley: good morning, cheryl. thank you very much. good morning, everybody. i'm in for stuart who, by the

way, will be back nicely refreshed onioned monday. now -- on monday. after a moment of silence to honor the victims of the new orleans attack, college football fans erupted into a powerful usa chant. it was a loud and patriotic show of support as the crowd rallied together. finish meantime, new details emerging out of new orleans. the fbi is confirming the terror attack was inspired by isis. local and federal law enforcement searched jabbar's home in texas and confirmed that they found bomb-making materials. the suspect's brother believes that extremism was the driving force behind the attack. meanwhile, the suspect in the cyber truck explosion right outside trump international hotel in las vegas has been identified as a deck do rated active -- decorated active duty soldier. we'll get into that. let's take a look at these market, the second trading day of the new year, and after a yesterday's down finish, well, we're up at least in the

premarket. the dow up 108 points, the s&p and nasdaq also up about a quarter of a percent. if let's take a look at the 10-year yield. if that backs down, it is more friendly for if equities, and it is down 1.5 basis points on the 10-year, 4.54%. let's take a look at the 2-year yield. we also like to look at this one as well, of course, and it is unchange at 4.24%. what about bitcoin? perhaps trying to make another run at $100,000. right now just down slightly at $96,486. well, of course, today lawmakers will decide if mike johnson will remain speaker of the house. johnson can only afford to lose one vote if all house members participate. a democrat being absent or a republican simply voting present could change the equation. it's on a knife's edge. it is friday, january the 3rd. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪

>> [inaudible] acts of violence that occurred yesterday morning in the french quarter here in new orleans. [background sounds] ashley: well, that was the patriotic scene at the sugar bowl in new orleans last night. the crowd honoring victims of the new year's eve terror attack with a moment of silence then followed by those chants of usa before the game. the game itself between georgia and notre dame had been delayed for one day because of security concerns. authorities installed additional barriers, of course, ramping up security with hundreds of local, state and federal police officers on site. the broadcast began with a message of resilience from

president joe biden. >> because the spirit of new orleans can never be kept down. and that's also true of the spirit of america. just is have to to remember who we are. we're the united states of america. there's nothing, nothing beyond our capacityty went we do it together. ashley: as a for the game, notre dame, by the way, beat georgia and will now advance to the semifinals. we are now learning more about the suspect. according to his half brother, jabbar struggled to find himself throughout his life reportedly. his brother blamed extremism for the attack but says he has not seen any signs of that prior to tuesday night. authorities do they say found bomb-making materials at jabbar's home in houston. the fbi is warning of cobble copy-- possible copycat attacks. there is specific warning, but that's to keep people aware from the fbi. new video, by the way, from the

las vegas tesla cyber truck explosion at trump hotel yesterday. you can see the cyber truck through the window there from inside the hotel lobby. police, by the way with, have named 37-year-old green beret matthew livelsberger as their primary suspect. they used a driver's license, passport and a tata -- tattoo on his arm to identify him. the driver sustained a gunshot wound to the head prior to the explosion. joe biden also, by the way, emphasizing that the fbi's claim that the new orleans terrorist attack was a seoul -- sole, lone wolf attack. >> as of now, no if information, we have no information that anyone else was involved in the attack. they've established that the attacker is the same person who planted the explosives in those ice coolers in two nearby locations in the french quarter

a few hours before he rammed into the crowd are -- with his vehicle. they assessed he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those ice chests. so there's no question that -- remember all the talk about other people were involved? they have him, they have established he's there and even established that he had a detonator to explode -- ashley: all right. so, jason chaffetz, joining me this morning. great to have you here, jason. the s&p 500's brother says he was radicalized and was even -- the suspect's brother says he was posting about being inspired by isis, so how was he not picked up on the radar, so to speak? how was he missed, do you know? if. >> well, i don't know. director wray at the fbi had foreshadow canned such an attack multiple times, told us that we needed to be worried about it. and so -- and and i respect what the president's saying about ono direct can ties between the two,

but these happened within hours of each ore, each served in the military, each served at the same military installation, each rented an electric vehicle, is my understanding of this, each used the same rental company isn't widely known, but it is growing in popularity. finish -- by doing it online. and so there are, evidently, a lot of ties that need to be further exploit plained or certainly d explained or certainly investigated. ashley: yeah. it seems like a very huge coincidence. let's move on, jason. speaker johnson wassed is asked this morning if he will win on the first ballot. he replied, i think so. not a ringing statement. trump, meanwhile, just wished speaker johnson good luck today on truth social. he says he's close to 100% support and a win for johnson would be a win for republicans. if so the big with question

today, jason, what do you think? does mike johnson have enough support? >> i don't think house republicans -- i used to be one -- are going to do anything easy. you can only lose one vote. you lose two and you're not there. so a big question. one of the questions i have is, will nancy pelosi be there? all the democrats gotta show up too. we haven't seen her in quite some time. that's a question mark. i do think there will be some protest votes. this might go multiple rounds. they might go through and then the clerk ask does anybody want to change their vote, somebody might change hair vote and get there. house republicans have got to learn this is a team sport. there's room for individuality. i understand your need for principle. but if you aren't united each and every time, guess what, folks? you lose to the other team. it is a team sport. ashley: it is, indeed, and hopefully, you know, donald trump can exert his pressure. it's a big test the for him

right out of the chute, isn't it? >> well, you know, it shouldn't if all be on donald trump. he's got, you know, another branch of government to worry about. ashley: yeah. >> but if you don't certify the speaker, you can't certify the election. if you don't certify the election, you're going to get pushed back on all of your nominees going through the confirmation process, so there is a huge domino effect. and the president and the country needs them in place as soon as possible. so let's not screw this up and delay the vote of the speaker, for goodness sake. ashley: first round of voting beginning at noon eastern. jason chaffetz, thank you so much, sir, for being with us, as always. okay, let's take a look at the futures market. we ended the day yesterday in the mega. well, of course -- in the negative. i think yesterday we started in the positive and couldn't hang on to it. so we'll see what happens today. kenny polcari joins me now. you know what, kenny? this is the last day of the

so-called santa rally period, it and seems to me that santa took a wrong turn at albuquerque. what say you? >> 100%, right in where'd he go? everyone's wondering. i actually think today's going to end like yesterday. we started strong, i think it's going to end up being a dead cat bounce where we end up weaker going into the weekend. i've been saying it for a while, i suspect january's going to be an anxious, tough month as markets reassess, they kind of figure out where where we're going and what's happening. i'd like to see us fill the gap created on november 6th which means we've got to trade down to about 5780 in order to fill that gap where i suspect that is going to happen. whether it happens today or not, we're not sure, but i think it needs the happen. ashley: you know, there is a lot of enthusiasm for the new year, some bullishness, you know? we have tax cuts, less business regulation for policies, but what are some of the risks out there, kenny?

>> so there are lots of risks, right? there are geopolitical risks which you know are short term in nature, but they are out there. the other one is a big bond market risk, right? you think about the amount of supply in bonds half to come to the market to pay for all this debt, right? it's a simple econ 101 equation, supply and demand. more supply, lower prices on bonds which is going to send yield withs higher, and higher yields is a headwind for stock it is. i think we're going to see the 10-year between 4.75-5. i think if the economy remains strong and inflation remains under control, the market can function in that environment. the problem is going to be if and the economy starts to weaken and then you have 5% rates, not gonna be good for stocks. ashley: wow. on that happy note, we'll leave it there. [laughter] kenny polcari, great to see you, sir. >> happy new year. ashley: see you again soon, kenny. yes, happy new year as well. joe biden is taking a

victory lap for the judge confirmations that he says he's accomplished during his term. exactly what is he saying about it, lauren? lauren: morning, ashley. the president wants to cement his legacy as protecting democracy and democratic institutions and sees the courts as a way to do that. he has gotten through 235 judicial confirmations. everyone from ketanji brown jackson at the supreme court to 187 district court judges. he wants to use them as a barrier against the incoming administration and, remember, these are lifetime appointments. so he got senate confirmation for 23 the 5, the former president, trump, got 234. ashley: okay. thank you very much, lauren. appreciate that. coming up, hundreds of anti-israeli demonstrators calling for an inmy tad da revolution, descending on manhattan's times square, the just hours after the deadly terrorist attack in new orleans. brian brenberg will react to that. also amid heightened terror

concerns, florida congressman mike waltz stressing the importance of getting trump's cabinet nominations in and on day one. and -- >> getting president trump's cabinet in is so important. that has to be in place day one, guys, because this is a moment in ricks the of vulnerability -- in transition of vulnerability. ashley: yeah. the sooner the better, in orders. so do trump's picks have enough support? we're going to ask florida congressman carlos gimenez next. ♪

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ashley: well, the opening bell will ring in just under 13 minutes from now, and as we can see the we market looks like we're going to start on the upside. the dow up 157, the s&p and nasdaq up anywhere from a third to close to half a percent. now this, critics are calling out the biden administration if priorities following the attack in new orleans and that explosion in las vegas are. alexandria hoff joins me now from the white house, and, alexandria, what specific policies are we talking about? >> reporter: well, there's a lot of undoing here especially when it to comes to some actions on guantanamo bay, actions when it comes to one of the alleged 9/11 if masterminds. we're going to get to the that because the president, i mean, he had spoke yesterday about how the country should be i moving forward from the attacks we saw on new year's day. but the national security space is a lingering concern, always is the potential for bad actor it is both domestic and foreign to seek out inspiration from events like what we saw. and yesterday president biden did take to the podium, he said

he's been busy meeting with his national security team reiterating that no connection has been found between the attacks in new orleans and las vegas. >> i've assembled the entire defense and intelligence apparatus of the country in the situation room, and we've been spending a lot of time there. >> reporter: and while the reported suspects were american military veterans, biden critics feel that the potential for foreign-grown terror has simply been ignored by an open border that's allowed entry of people on the terrorist watch list. >> so in addition if to this rather rare domestic, home grown, we do have people who very much might be planning something today and certainly have a history of terrorism. >> reporter: and here's where we get to some of these priorities here. lawmakers reacting to a military appeals court ruling that decided defense secretary lloyd austin could not undo a plea deal for mastermind khalid shake

mohammed saying they're happy that austin is now on their side, but they say this plea agreement which would remove the death penalty was under his watch. they wrote, senators mcconnell and cotton, when the new congress convenes, we will let the american people see who in the senate is willing to stand up against terrorism and mass murderers. mcconnell and cotton called out some specific things in the biden administration, at least their a approach, they called it naive and negligent including removing the houthis from the terrorist organization list back in 2021. they've so far been added back on, ashley. ashley: all right. alexandria, thank you very much. appreciate that. and now this, republican congresswoman victoria spartz if says, you know what? she will decide today on the speaker johnson vote. johnson will likely need her vote to keep his position. florida congressman carlos gimenez joins us now. congressman, great to have you along.

first question, does mike johnson have your support if to remain speaker? >> absolutely. 100%. and he always will. i'm going to stick with mike johnson. mike johnson is the right man, the right person to be speaker of the house. we have a lot of work to do, we need to get on with it. ashley: well, i've drawn out floor fighters, the last thing the -- a drawn out floor fight is the last thing the party wants to get going on donald trump's agenda. how can you prevent this? we know people have individual thoughts, but how do you get everyone on the same page? >> i think what you do is you appeal to the fact that this is about america, it's not about yourself, it's not about myself. it's about, it's t about an agenda. we have a mandate from the american people. we want change, and we want to save this country. the only way we can do it is with a unified republican party. and so, you know, he is our conference nominee. president trump is 100% behind him. we all need to line up behind

mike johnson and get -- and start to work. ashley: right. i want to move on to this one, congressman. i want you to listen to what donald trump's incoming national security adviser mike waltz had to say about the senate confirmations. ing take a listen. >> this is why getting president trump's cabinet in is so important. we need governor noem at dhs, kash patel at -- marco rubio at state and, of course, ratcliffe at cia and tulsi gabbard at dni. that has to be in place day one, guys, because this is the moment in transition of vulnerability, and president trump is going to project -- because he is a leader of strength. the narrative that we project on day one will be just as important, and that's having our people in place. ashley: so, congressman, can

republicans push trump's cabinet picks through quickly? >> well, i think it's on the senate side, and i think that, yeah, they could -- they can, and they should get their act together as quickly as possible once they convene. i think that the secretary of defense, he already has a hearing set, but i agree with mike that all of those the key positions, they should have their confirmation confirmation hearings set prior to inauguration day so that they can hit the ground rubbing. -- running. we need to hit the ground running here in the house, they need to do the same thing in the senate, and the administration needs to keep up also. ashley: that's a good place to leave it. congressman gimenez, thank you so much for joining us on this friday morning. >> my pleasure. ashley: thank you. our pleasure too. take a look at futures pointing to a positive opening as we get the second trading day of 2025 underway. question is, can we hang on to it for the rest of the day? we'll find out, i guess. the opening bell is next.

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ashley: well, the dow futures, the premarket, shows us an up beginning, up half a percent on the dow, s&p and nasdaq. we'll see how that works out. the markets opening in less than three minutes. let's bring many in mark mahaney to talk about some individual stocks, and i want to go through some of your top picks for the year, mark. let's begin with a familiar name, uber. >> yeah. our top picks here in the large cap space would be uber, amazon and dash. the big news you want to watch out for throughout the whole year on uber is robotaxis and whether we're going to see robotaxis, more on uber's network or not. if we do, the stock goes higher. if we don't, that'll be a major headwind. we're going to have two pieces of news coming out of austin and atlanta, and both of those markets waymo is going to roll out exclusively on uber's network. we think we're going to see more deal us like that -- deals like that. amongst the large cap tech stocks, uber, i think, is just about the cheapest out there

there on a pe to growth basis or earnings to growth basis. so, yeah, it's our number one pick. ashley: all right. you mentioned amazon. why do you like amazon? >> we think this is the year in which we'll see an acceleration in advertising revenue growth. and we'll see an acceleration, continued acceleration in aws, web services, their cloud computing business. the so what of that is those are their highest margin businesses, so you'll have this positive shift in the business model towards faster growth in the highest margin businesses means that the very strong margins, operating margin expansion, free cash flow margin expansion category that's powered the stock over the next six months the by continues to power it over the next 6-12 the months. ashley: doordash, you like that too. >> yeah, doordash carb too. frankly, across large cap internet stocks and maybe across a lot of large tech, large cap

tech there's not a huge amount of upside in t names. you know, we've had -- we're two and a half year into a very strong bull market. i don't think we're going to get the kind of outperformance in '25 the as we had in '24 and '23. the setup is not nearly as constructive. but for a high quality asset that i think can hold its multiple and grow its earnings 20-30% and the stock can, therefore, rise accordingly, doordash is one of those names. ashley: very good. we'll have to leave it there, mark ifful thank you, as always, for bringing your picks to us. >> thank you, ashley. ashley: and our viewers. always appreciate it. thank you very much. the opening bell going to ring in about 15 seconds from now. we had a positive start yesterday the first trading day of 2025, but we lost all of our momentum and finished down. the dow was off about 150 points yesterday. but let's see if we can hang on gains at the opening today, and off, we are off and running. the second that trading day of the new year.

can and and take a look at the big board, the dow up 191 points, 194, 197. it's going up and up, about a half a percent gain. we had, what, nvidia, jpmorgan at the top, apple and and boeing on the other end. let's take a look at the s&p 500. the s&p finished down about, what, .2% yesterday? it's already up today half a percent at 5899. and let's take a look at the nasdaq. the tech-heavy nasdaq is up19 points -- 119 points, about .if 6% gain .6% gain. and those big tech names, carbon copy of yesterday. amazon, alphabet, meta and microsoft all moving higher but apple is again a laggard, only down about a third of a percent. all right, now this, president biden, as we've been talking about, blocking sale of u.s. steel to japanese company nippon. good morning, taylor riggs. i guess the question we ask now

is, what happens next? >> yeah, it's a good question. so i think everyone's sort of either lawsuits, maybe waiting for what's next, or if president-elect trump maybe changes his mind. remember, trump in the past has hinted he also is against this deal, but a lot of the trump voting union members, particularly down in pennsylvania, have said that they are for the deal. is so maybe some holdout toes from union members saying that trump will listen to them and maybe change his mind. again, this is a long row that may not if be over yet, but it look like it's nearing the end. ashley: very interesting to follow. next one for you, taylor. what's tesla saying about their sales in china in. >> that things are doing pretty well, right? pretty surprisely. so tesla are -- surprisingly. tesla sales in china hit a record in 2024, up about 8.8% to 657,000. it's a pretty good feat overall

concerning yesterday we talked about how overall deliveries were down year-over-year. about 37% of all tesla sales are now going to customers in china. ashley: very interesting. let's take a look at the solar stocks. i believe they've been moving higher, and the question is dah, mixed bag really. is tesla in some cases giving a boost to these stocks, taylor? >> yes. remember, when we got the deliveries yesterday, we were hearing from tesla they have an energy storage department x that energy storage deployment hit a record in the fourth quarter. again, they produce residential and commercial batteries for customers that are looking to store solar energy. they deployed about 11 gigawatt hours of that energy storage production in the fourth quarter so, again, giving a boost to those solar stocks. ashley: interesting. okay, let's move on to this story: the department of transportation penalizing jetblue, apparently, over chronic flight delays.

i mean, how much money are we talking in. >> a cool $2 million. one million of that in cash directly paid to the treasury. i think what's so interesting is this is the first case that the doj has been bringing about chronically delayed flights. but remember, this is also the same administration that blocked jetblue's purchase of spirit -- ashley: yes. >> and so when you do that, people argue that that would have made that company more efficient. they blocked that deal and now penalizing jetblue for being chronically late. [laughter] ashley: oh, the government irony. now this one, it's interesting, the surgeon general apparently is wanting alcohol to have a warning label. what kind of warning? >> and see all the alcohol stocks that are down on in this news. basically, very similar the a warning label that you see on a pack of cigarettes, that some ingredients could be a leading cause of cancer. i'm hearing about the third leading cause particularly when we talk about the liver. this is the all the rage..

i'm actually maybe okay with this. i think more knowledge is better. especially in terms of what we're smoking and drinking. i know a lot of colleagues of mine are not thrilled about this. they want a drink, and they don't want to know any of the risks. ashley: exactly. maybe that's half the reason they are drinking, to care less. anyway, let's move on. talk about crypto. how is blackrock's bitcoin etf doing? >> you know, overall for the year, it was great. it has about $53 billion in assets, but yesterday you had three straight days of big outflows. yesterday was the largest outflow on record9 to the tune of $333 million. again, remember, there has been a big with balloon as crypto jumped up to that peak of about $108,000. since then it's been around $96,000, below 100,000. you have seen some people withdraw from that bitcoin etf, so yesterday not a great day. still in perspective not bad

considering it's an over $50 billion fund. ashley: right. this story, interesting, temperature short seller hindenburg just hundredsed their latest target -- announced their latest target. what are they saying about carvana? >> yeah, they're at it again, right? they're saying carvana is alleging they are, basically, the the auto retailer's subprime loan -- retailers subprime loans are a lot weaker hand they thought and they have way too relaxed underwriting standards. as we know, there's a downturn. any subprime mortgages should be effectively written off the books. so really not liking the subprime loans that hay see on the balance sheet and not liking the way to relax underwriting standards. ashley: interesting. now this one, meta's policy chief, the former u.k. politician nick clegg, stepping down. do we know why? >> yeah. basically saying that the time is right for him to step down, and the timing is right. when you think about the deputy

chief policy officer who's now going to be taking over, joel kaplan, he's a very well known republican. of course, as republicans hold all three branches of government. he is saying that joel kaplan is clearly the the right person at the right moment, at the right time. kaplan, as we know, was a deputy chief of staff to george w. bush, so maybe the right person when we think about leading the person forward with a republican administration. ashley: all right. terrific stuff, taylor. thank you so much for running through those individual stocks. we appreciate it. let's take a look at the big board. as we can see, the dow up now over 200 points. again with, it was down 150 at the close yesterday, so we've made that up and then some, up about half a percent. system of the dow winners, let's take a look at those. nvidia, all the big names, of course. there's amazon, financials, jpmorgan chase, ibm and goldman sachs. those technology no -- are among the dow winners. the s&p 500 winners, western digital, nvidia again, some

energy plays. nrg energy. but there you have it, amd also among the winners on the s&p, up more than 2%. and in the nasdaq, marvell technology, i believe des moines r. barton talked about -- d.r. barton the talked about that stock yesterday. and it's up nearly %. amd, tradedesk and amazon up more than 1.5%. those are some of the winners so far, seven and a half minutes into today's session. coming up, louisiana attorney general liz merle is managing fallout in new orleans after the horrific terrorist attack. >> the information that we have received is coming through the fbi. i have not received a lot of information from them. there are thousands of people right now in new orleans. the hotels were full. it's a complicated situation to manage. ashley: we'll hear more about ongoing investigation from the attorney general in louisiana in the 10:00 hour.

incoming border czar tom homan is worried about the military background of the men accused in the new orleans if attack and the las vegas explosion. >> we've got two people who served in the military that were, that created -- that committed these terrorist acts. we need to dig down into insider threat in our military. ashley: so the question is, how can insider threats be found and eliminated? former fbi agent nicole parker has that next. new. ♪ ♪ your best defense against erosion and cavities

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ashley: we have this just in, president biden and the first a lady will travel to new orleans on monday. they will visit families and community members affected by the terror attack as well as

officials on the ground. that just coming to us, the president heading to new orleans on monday. meantime, the man responsible for the las vegas cyber truck explosion has been identified as 37-year-old green beret matthew livelsberger. jeff paul join joins us now from las vegas. jeff, what do we know about this highly decorated soldier? >> reporter: well, the interesting thing is that police are only referring to to him as a subject or a person of interest. they are describing it as a suicide with a bombing thereafter. and the reason why they're not 100% confident in the id is because the body was so badly burned. but they did find some things inside that charred tesla to that lead them to to this man, 37-year-old matthew livelsberger. they were able to mostly confirm his identity through tattoos as well as partially burned military ids and a passport. they also found two guns inside

purchased just two days prior and evidence that he had shot himself in the head. as far as why this all happened, authorities are investigating any possible ties to terrorism, but the overall motive remains unclear. >> it's not lost on us that it's in front of, you know, of the trump building, that it's a tesla vehicle. but we don't have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests it was because of this particular if ideology or, you know, any of the reasoning behind it. that's the purpose of the investigation. >> reporter: investigators spent some time yesterday searching a home in colorado springs where livelsberger is from. they're trying to the find clues regarding what pushed him to rent and drive that the cyber truck from colorado to las vegas with are it ultimately exploded in front of the trump hotel. defense officials tell fox news he's active duty special forces with the u.s. army, a green beret, and was on leave from germany. a law enforcement source told the associated press he may have got into a fight with his wife about some relationship issues,

but multiple neighbors out in colorado springs say they never saw any of this coming. enter a normal guy. i don't even mow what's normal anymore, i'm sorry. [laughter] that's why i'm so shocked right now. he was really polite and, yeah, he never talked to me about his military career though. we never got involved with any of that. >> reporter: authorities did acknowledge the similarities between what happened here in las vegas and the terror attack in new orleans, but at this time they say they're looking into any possible angles. it doesn't seem like there's a strong connection between the two. back to you. ashley: very good. jeff, thank you very much. jeff paul in las vegas this morning. now listen to what incoming border czar tom homan said after the new orleans attack9 and the las vegas explosion. >> the incoming administration needs to look at insider threat. i mean, insider threat, the analysis has been put in the backseat by this administration, and we've got two people who

served in the military that were, you know, that created -- that committed these terrorist actsment we need to dig down into the insider threat in our military and our federal service whether it's the fbi, whether it's, you know, other agencies, whether it's the military. insider threat's a big issue. we can't let this go on any further. ashley: former fbi agent nicole parker joins me no morning -- morning. nicole, great to have you here. apparently, the suspect, jabbar, had made statements on social media. i'm are interested to know, he never seemed to kind of turn up on anybody's radar even though he was talking about isis. or what are your thoughts on that? >> you're right. first of all, the fbi claims that they had no knowledge of him prior to this tragic incident. i think it's important, tom homan brings up a very, very valid point, insider threats. having been an fbi special agent, we were trained on insider threats on an annual basis. you know, we're all human, but

to determine is there something that you're seeing that seems off whether it's among your colleagues, maybe it's in the military, whatever it might be. a lot of times there's a precipitating stressor that causes an individual to stand -- snap. whether it's a financial issue, whether it's in their marriage, relationship. in new orleans, clear low, this individual -- clearly, this individual was radicalized by ice. usually, but not always, there's linkage. there's some sort of indication that they're off, their behavior is erratic, there are signs of things that might occur. but with the las vegas incident, the neighbor said i saw no signs at all. not always is there linkage, sometimes there is, but that is why it's so important whether you're in the general community or law enforcement, if you see something, you must if say something. ashley: and because of the society we have in the united states that we treasure, it's very hard to, you know, ferret out these people. and if as you say, it could be a trigger, they snap. that's almost impossible, i would argue, to sprint.

to prevent. >> very difficult to to prevent. and, again, a lot of times these individuals are lone offenders. if they're more complex working with isis cells, it's various situations that we're dealing with, but lone offenders are extremely difficult to track. but again, that is why the fbi needs to be on top of social media posts, on top of the chatter, on top of everything because a lot of times there are indications that they're involved in certain activities. and if you see something that needs to be reported to law enforcement, the key is if you are receiving a tip, you actually need to act on it. and that's my concern, that a lot of times the fbi is so focused on the wrong priorities that that they may be missing tips that could prevent these types of things from if happening. ashley: we'll have to leave it there. nicole, thank you very much for sharing your expertise with us this morning. always appreciate it. okay. coming up, house speaker mike johnson slamming fbi failures after that new year's eve terror attack. >> this seems to be very

reactionary when we have known for many months that an attack like this was possible and perhaps imminent. ashley: well, did the department of justice take their eye off the a ballsome if mike huckabee -- ball? if mike huckabee will be here to talk about that. the car rental app used by both the terror suspect many if new orleans and the las vegas explosion is now very much in the spotlight. we're going to have that full report next. ♪ ♪

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ashley: now this, the car rental app turo is in the spotlight after trucks used in both the new orleans terror attack and the las vegas explosion were both rented through that platform. kelly saberi joins me now. kelly, explain to us how this app actually work. >> reporter: hi, ash. turo has been coined the airbnb of rental cars as you can rent cars directly from a person. and this includes vehicles you wouldn't find at traditional rental services like a tesla cyber truck. so the process is similar to these traditional services like hertz or enterprise. you choose your location, what vehicle you want. but you do not have to see the car owner face the face in order

to get the keys, much like peer-to-peer platforms like airbnb or vrbo. there may be a lock box nearby the pick-up location can, or the car's owner may use their phone to unlock the car for you. this is not the first time these car rental companies have seen their platforms used to accomplish crime like smuggling drugs across the border or robbery ares. so i spoke to gene roy, former chief detective for the chicago public, who says platforms that allow anymorety can -- anonymity can harbor crime. the key is to keep delaying without human interaction. we make it easy to create an ax of terror, and additionally, there's less suspicion if law enforcement check who the plates belong to and they belong to the a person and not a rental company. >> when you have that face-to-face contact, you know, i need to see a driver's license, i need to see your credit card, i need to see your proof of insurance, whatever it

may be, those are adtional, those slow town the process. those throw out those roadblocks. >> reporter: apokesperson for turo saying in part, quote: we are actively partneringith law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. we to not believe that either renter involved in the las vegas and new orleans attacks had criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. the past year, 34.5 million people -- 3.5 million people booked a vehicle through turo per a recent company filing. ash? ashley: kelly, thank you very much. still ahead on the show, louisiana attorney general liz merle is here9 with the latest on the attack investigation. donald trump planning a victory rally in washington the day before his inauguration, mike huckabee will respond to anti-israel protesters just hours after the new orleans

attack, and border guy lieutenant chris oliveraz is here to react to democrats in the media admitting that the joe biden's immigration policy was a tail your. the 10 a.m. hour -- failure. the 10 a.m. hour of "varney & company" is next. ♪ so won't you come out here with me and haze -- chase this rocky mountain freedom ♪ .. i didn't do this for the fame. i did it to pay it forward to the next generation of athletes. ♪ i joined sofi because they've helped millions of members bank, borrow, and invest for their ambitions. sofi. get your money right.