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maria: welcome back. good tuesday morning, everybody. thanks so had much for joining us this morning. i'm maria bartiromo. i hope you're having a good tuesday morning, it is tuesday, february 18, 70:11 on the east coast. time for the hot topic of the hour. president trump security team in saudi arabia this morning, speaking with russian officials on how to end the war on ukraine. secretary of state marco rubio, national security advice earn, michael walz and middle east envoy steve witkoff in attendance. saudi's foreign minister and national security advisor are there. john ratcliffe is not in riad but he is part of the u.s.'s negotiating team. ukraine will not be part of this particular meeting. president zelenskyy is maintaining he will not take a cease fire deal if he is not at the table. european leaders are also holding an emergency summit on

ukraine yesterday. macron started the emergency saying we need a meeting on trump. they said they will not put peace keeping troops on the ground in ukraine unless the u.s. does the same. i spoke with middle east envoy steve witkoff on sunday morning futures right before the meeting. >> well, i think ukraine is part of the talks. the president had their president, zelenskyy, on the phone this past week. i appropria am pretty sure thf our cabinet people including treasury secretary bessent, the vice president, mike walz, john ratcliffe, our secretary of state, marco rubio, have been meeting with various ukrainian people at the munich security conference. i don't think this is about excluding anybody. in fact, it's about including everybody. maria: an expert telling fox news ukraine's initial exclusion is the only way to finally

resolve the conflict and they could be an obstacle to peace up front. interesting there. you know, liz, at the same time that they're trying to -- the u.s. is trying to negotiate an end to this war, the u.s. is also trying to put certain conditions in place for ukraine to pay up for some of the support from the united states including revenues from the resource extraction licenses of those rare earth minerals, liz, so it's really a two front conversation here by the u.s. >> i think president trump understands that the american people are running out of patience with this war. i mean, that sounds sort of harsh but it's true and if he can come up with some sort of joint venture opportunity in ukraine to, number one, gather for the united states rare earths and minerals that we very desperately need and we are now dependent on from china, that's obviously a win for the united states.

b, it's a win for ukraine if indeed it develops revenues because, boy, do they need money to rebuild their incredibly destroyed country. the fact that zelenskyy's having a big fit about not being in this meeting, i just think it's foolish. look, what we know is this conversation should have started, maria, a year and-a-half ago. far too many people have died. far too little has been accomplished in this war. elon musk well over a year ago said, look, there has to be a settlement. so let's move the conversation towards some sort of reasonable settlement. just because zelenskyy's not in saudi arabia, it doesn't mean that his interest, the interest of his country which the united states has basically pledged hundreds of billions of dollars to are not on the table. obviously, they are. maria: yeah. no, i think it's really smart of the trump administration to come up with this notion that, yeah, we will support you, ukraine,

but not without something to show for it and what i'm hearing, chris and cheryl, is that the kind of conversation taking place right now is that ukraine will transfer a big percentage of revenues from resource extraction licenses to the united states. of eeffectively giving washingta financial stake in the economy of kyiv. they're going to do an investsment fund for reconstruction. it will have exclusive powers to issue and manage licenses for the resource extraction of those minerals, chris. >> i think it's a refreshing approach. maria: it is. >> we put millions and millions of dollars into this. it's extraordinarily smart. it's leadership. zelenskyy has to take a breath. this is a prenegotiation. they're trying to get any kind of negotiation to get them on the same page and i think he's doing this masterfully. maria: what do you think,

cheryl? >> where is europe in all of this? they're losing their minds right now. you have the emergency meeting that was called by emmanuel macron. there was a phone call that lasted 3 30 minutes. we don't know the details of the call. where has europe been for the past three years. they were told -- jd vance called them out last week. maria: do you have the sound bite? >> i heard you, maria. many of these countries in europe have not increased their gdp, their spending into nato by 2% of gdp. they were told to do it. they never indict. biden didn't push it. and now oh, no, wait a minute, we're not being included in these talks between -- waiting for a russia, ukraine cease fire. well, i'm sorry. it took a lot of guts. i applaud vice president vance for what he said last week in munich. maria: he called out the europeans for a number of reasons and it was the talk of the whole munich security

conference. here's jd vance on friday from munich. watch this. >> what i worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the united states of america. but when we see european courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we're holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. we must do more than talk about democratic values. we must live them. if you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing america can do for you. we shouldn't be afraid of our people even when they express views that disagree with their leadership. maria: yeah. and there you go. he said it. and it was a great speech, liz, a lot of people talked about it but he was spot-on in terms of what's happening in europe. >> and by the way, i have a piece out this morning on the fox news site, maria, about i i

thought it was a brilliant speech. by the way, what he's talking about happening in europe, the subversion of elections and sty stifling of free speech, guess what, folks? that's been happening in the united states too. we can't be complacent. we can't be totally smug about our protections in our country because we just had a government that wanted to set up the government disinformation bureau and also that leaned on social media sites to clamming down on free speech so, yes, we've seen this horror.. thank the lord we stifled it in its infancy. but the reality is, europe is in trouble on these fronts. jd vance was brilliant to call it out. i thought it was terrific. maria: absolutely. we are just getting started this hour. we have a lot coming up. futures indicating a gain at the start of trading after markets were closed yesterday for the presidents day holiday, all three major indices showing green this year, as you can see. you're talking about 5% moves

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maria: welcome back. time now for the word on wall street. top investors watching your money. joining me now is sang wear at this wealth chief investment strategist, marianne bartels. also with us is chris mcmann this morning. i want to get your take on markets here. we've been talking with chris this morning on markets, doing well year-to-date. take a look. of course futures this morning are higher after the market was closed yesterday for the presidents' day holiday, the dow industrials up 63, nasdaq up 91 and so far this year we've got impressive moves as well with the dow up about 5% year-to-date, the s&p and nasdaq up almost 4% year-to-date. but the wall street journal

raises caution this morning saying some investors fear market gains are outpacing typical measures of underlying value, after strong economic growth powered the s&p 500 to record highs in a bull market. you believe president trump's tariff plans and short-term volatility will not derail the market's bull trend. tell us about it. >> thank you, maria. you know, earnings are coming in significantly higher than expectations. that's fourth quarter earnings. and that's really what powers markets. now, valuations are high but i think with earnings coming in much stronger, i'm not as concerned about valuation. in addition to that, if you use the valuation like pe, price earnings ratio e it's not a timing tool. yes, markets are expensive but not the whole market. there's a pocket of the market that's expensive. there's a large part that's not expensive. so we still think the markets can power higher because of the new innovations that we have. we have artificial intelligence.

we have virtual reality, block chain. there's just so much innovation occurring that we think can power earnings for the rest of the year so our target for the s&p is 7200 to 7400 which is a 20% gain and if we're correct, the last time we had three years of a 20% or more gain was back in the mid to late '90. maria: and you would imagine would new policies from deregulation to prioritizing growth coming out of president trump's agenda, you would think that would boost earnings further later on in the year. is that not right? >> that's correct. i mean, i think that ceos are very happy with this new administration being very business friendly and we are looking for m&as to pick up, we are looking for ipos to pick up. and what's really interesting, maria, right now the s&p and the nasdaq are attempting a

breakout. we've kind of been consolidating for a while and if we do break out here, i think the market is going to be surprised because most people are not looking for a breakout. in addition to that, we have 10 year treasury yields falling and if we break certain levels, we can see yields on the 110 year continue to come down which we think can also fuel this equity market rally. maria: it's a good point. they're up today, the 110 year's at 4.5% right now but certainly, chris, i'd like to get your take on this broadening out because it was all about semiconductors last year. nvidia is up about 2% year-to-date. it lost nearly $750 billion in market value following the chinese launch of a.i. startup deepseek. the stock this morning is trading higher but the journal says nvidia's selloff might set a better stage for its chip product transition as the a.i. race intensifies, nvidia is projecting 53% revenue growth this year with the rest of the

customers and competitors trailing far behind. your thoughts on nvidia and what's gone on as a result of deepseek. >> i think the journal's right on this thing, the fact that deepseek gave a little pause, gave a little knockdown nvidia gives everybody the break they're looking for. there's two things going on. i think the broadening out is happening. if you take the mag sense out of the s&p the last kim years it's been basically flat. valuations are very high in the tech sector but high relative to what. when you look at their earnings, when you look at where they're heading, i think there's an opportunity for great growth. i mean, the capital markets cycle is definitely accelerating. we're seeing this year, we've seen real recovery in ipos. we think we're 220 last year, we'll see over 3 300 this year. private equity is moving forward. if you look at core weave, coming online with the ipo 57d d medline, these are two leaders in the ipo sector. i think it will be a boon year

in the capital market and broader markets as well. ithe journal is onto something. we think it's got another 20% this year. maria: do you agree with that? the stock was on fire last year. it's obviously had a big selloff and maybe a new entry point for people. >> so semis were our pick for last year. our pick for this year is software. not that we're negative semiconductors. they're critical for a.i., for building out data centers but we think can outperform this year is software. there's a cycle in technology where you improve your technology like your chips and then the software catches up. we think it's a software cycle this year. longer term we're bullish semis. maria: do you want to put new money to work now ahead of what you're going to see from earnings? >> absolutely. i am so bullish, maria.

and i'm bullish because i'm seeing so many people finding reasons not to invest in the market. what i'm most impressed with is we've had the -- the market has had to deal with tariffs, it's had to deal with doge, earnings, economic data, inflation coming in a little bit hotter than expectations. the market is holding up phenomenally well and as i said, trying to break out. so this just makes me even more bullish. maria: all right. we will leave it there. marianne, good to see you. thanks so much. chris, you're with us all morning. we appreciate that. we'll slip in a break. when we come backing elon musk and doge looks into social security spending and finds millions of people aged 150 years and older are receive something social security checks. to be clear, there is no american living that's 150 today. republican policy chairman, oklahoma congressman kevin hern breaks down the wasteful spending by the biden

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maria: welcome back. the department of government efficiency revealing $4.7 trillion in treasury payments that went out and they're almost impossible to

trace. the treasury access symbol which links payments paid out to a budget line item was often left blank according to doge. doge set up x accounts for the irs and securities and exchange commission asking for insights and findings on fixing waste, fraud and abuse. elon musk alleging rampant fraud at the social security administration, he found millions of people listed in the database receiving social security checks between the ages of 100 and 159 years also, one person was listed as l old as 360 years old. to be clear there, are no americans living today at 150 years old. the oldest american is 114. senate doge caucus chairwoman joni ernst introduced a bill to limit taxpayer funded perks for former presidents and cut expenses for travel and staff. she looking to claw back a $400 million fund that's supposed to help presidential candidates launch campaigns.

mike pence pulled in more than $1 million from that fund and jill stein pulled in nearly $380,000. joining me now is oklahoma congressman, kevin hern. mr. chairman, thank you for being here. your reaction to all of this fraud and abuse that musk and doge are finding? >> well, it's something that the american people have wanted for a long time and have not gotten it. you can't do oversight by congress because these agencies block people coming to testify and similarly weigh you out. president trump ran on the narrative he's going to secure the nation from the southern border, from our military, you're seeing this happening in europe right now and then look at the economic security. president trump is really sensitive about the inflation that was caused under the biden administration. he's going to find out and root out all of the illegal payments across the government and as a republican and as an american i want my government to be limited and accountable and that's what you're seeing right now. maria: i mean, it's just

incredible. now i understand better why the democrats tried to stop trump so aggressively. they didn't want any of this revealed. >> well, certainly when you -- i sit on ways and means. we had a hearing last week. every member of the democrat party talked about how they cared about waste, fraud and abuse. they were going crazy that it was elon musk finding it. again, every american is tired of this, this is why president trump won with a mandate, the electoral vote and the mop later vote. the american people need a fighter. they see that with president trump. i have been with him since he's been in office, i was with him before he was in office, he is directly involved in this every day. it matters them because knows the american people want him to take care of it. maria: the energy secretary spoke at a forum in london yesterday. he called out the u.k. and its rush to eliminate carbon emissions, warning it's backfiring.

watch this. >> net zero 2050 is a sinister goal. it's a terrible goal. it's unachieveable by impractical means. the aggressive pursuit of it and you're sitting in a country that is aggressively pursuing this goal, has not delivered any benefits but it's delivered tremendous cost. maria: president trump recently signed an executive order to create the national energy dominance council which will focus on accelerating u.s. fossil fuel production and boost private sector investment in energy, congressman. how significant is that and what do you think can be done here? >> well, as he said, we have the golden money right under our feet in oil and gas and the democrats to say they want zero emissions is incredibly stupid. you want lower emissions, you want the american natural gas. it's the cleanest burning gas in the world but that's not what they want. they just want to end it. they want to destroy fossil

fuels as we know it. it's our prized possession, it's what keeps -- our national security depends on our energy security. chris wright is an expert in the field. ehe's going to do wonderful as you're seeing now in the first few weeks. maria: do you think creates -- how many jobs do you think can be created. president trump is putting growth as his priority and that's what's leading some of this stuff. >> these are not just everyday jobs. these are high paying jobs. i live in oklahoma in the oil patch, in the gas patch. these jobs are significant. these aren't just entry level jobs and when you see what's going on across america, biden get rid of gas and gas stoves, looking to get rid of refrigerators, having buildings that can't have natural gas piped to them. they did everything they could to destroy the fossil fuel industry and thank god president trump was elected and stopped this or reverserd it so we can

have the national security we deserve around the world. maria: they did the same thing during his first term to the coal industry, right? i mean, remember hillary clinton famously saying we're going to do away with the whole coal industry. where are you in your work now? senate budget committee chairman lindsey graham says he wants the $340 billion plan to boost border security and defense spending on the president's desk but the government shutdown deadline. the senate is working on two tracks, putting the border and defense money first and later dealing with tax cuts in a second bill. where are you in your work and do you believe you have agreement or are you still battling with certain members who have other priorities? >> well, we first did what everybody thought was impossible which was move the budget resolution language out last week and the senate is working on theirs this week. the problem in the senate is they're trying to move two bills that i think will be very difficult to get all of that done in the house in timeframe you're talking about because

we're going to lose votes. there's a vote for the energy package, 11 100% of the house. we need everybody to have something, that's one big beautiful bill the president is talking about. we can move that, the tax page at the same time and get everything done and we can save the budget resolution lack wedge languagefor the 2026 period to r things for president trump like codify what elon musk and president trump are finding. there's a lot going on right now. it will be determined with what comes out of the senate. maria: what do you think is the most viable offset you were able to come up with? >> well, president trump has made it very clear. he is not going to do anything to stop the benefits of medicaid for those who deserve it but when you look at those, we tried to do this in the first term, the able bodied adults without dependents, people that are able to work that are not working.

americans have taken care of those that need help. we're not going to fund those who are living off the government. we're seeing that as we go through with doge, there's a lot of payments out there that we need to take back and use to fund the offsets. maria: yeah, exactly. all right, congressman. we'll be watching your work certainly. thanks very much for being here. congressman kevin hern joining us. thank you, sir. quick break and then some in washington are skeptical over what doge is doing and the wasteful spending being uncovered but the next guest says doge is doing good. new york post columnist and fox news contributor miranda very vine with her take. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. we'll be right back.

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from accessing federal data, doubting claims from 14 attorneys general that doge's actions are a threat to democracy, saying she sees no evidence they're causing harm. she is expected to v decide on e case later today. i spoke with lisa mcclain about democrat's reaction to doge's findings. >> that's why you see democrats losing their mind because we're actually uncovering all of this waste, fraud and abuse and they're losing their minds why? because we're uncovering it and they're actually advocating for us to continue the wasteful spending. there's a lot of fear mongering right now that's going on. listen, i believe that there are a lot of savings and efficiencies that we can find before we have to touch mandatory spending. but let's not confuse savings with cuts and let's not confuse

reforms with cuts. our goal is to make sure that we give the money and the programs to the people who need it most. i'm hard-pressed to believe that government runs so efficiently that there's not any savings that we can find. maria: joining me now is new york post columnist, fox news contributor, miranda devine. great to see you. thank you so much for being here. you've written so much about this. your reaction to how the democrats are reacting to doge. >> good morning, maria. look, i just am baffled by them. i think that this is a very popular issue. part of elon musk's remit tans reason forgoing into these depas to update their technology. he's uncovered along the way so much waste and potential fraud

and certainly abuse, all these social security numbers for people that are either too old to be alive or just don't exist. that's something that opinion polls are starting to show that the american public is behind so the democrats don't seem to have got their act together. they don't seem to have a leader. they don't have a proper message. all they are is rejecting and obstructing everything that donald trump is trying to do even when it's as popular as what doge is doing. so i'm not surprised that they were pushed back in a federal court because really their arguments are hysterical and thread bare. maria: it is incredible what elon musk is saying. he said having tens of millions of people marked in social security as alive at 150, 130,

whatever it is, when they are definitely dead is a huge problem. so i mean, how is this possible that these checks are just on automatic pilot and they keep going out? he puts the whole list together. there was one person in the social security record that was receiving benefits, he was 360 years old. okay. and then you've got thousands, hundreds of thousands, 150, 160, 130. to be clear, i googled the oldest person in the united states is 114 years old right now. but still, i mean, it's just crazy. your thoughts? >> it really is crazy. and i mean, all that money going out and there's been no visibility by the government on where it's going. no wonder we're in terrible debt and deficit. maria: right. >> it's the first time donald trump, the first president who is actually really trying to get

to grips with this problem and he's brought in the number one expert in the world. you could not find anyone better than elon musk to come in with his big brain and his technology and his team and high iq kids to actually try and sort out this enormous problem and i can't think of anyone better to have done it and we are incredibly lucky that someone like elon musk is willing to roll up his sleeves and do this for nothing and he doesn't need money. people are absurdly accusing him of doing this for his own personal benefit. he's the richest man in the world. maria: right. it's ridiculous. everybody knows if you're balancing your own budget or you're balancing, you know, the state or the country's budget, the first thing to do is to stop digging the hole and understand clearly what you're spending on. so it's bizarre to think that the democrats are going to come

up with this idea, yeah, you can cut fraud, abuse and waste without actually looking at where the money is going. i also have to ask you about europe because vp jd vance gave quite the speech in munich the other day, warning europeans about the dangers of censorship at the munich security conference last week. here's a bit. watch. >> what i worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the united states of america. but when we see european courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we're holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. we must do more than talk about democratic values. we must live them. if you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing america can do for you. we shouldn't be afraid of our people even when they express views that disagree with their

leadership. maria: miranda, you wrote about this in an op-ed in the new york post. that was quite the speech. your reaction? >> it really was. it was a wonderful speech and i think that jd vance has done a service to european people by articulating exactly the american view of how sort of dastardly the censorship regime is falling out around europe right now. they were boasting about the fact they criminalized insults on the internet. you can go to jail for insulting someone on the internet and even reposting an insult so this is quite frightening and in fact what led to the nazi regime, unlike what margaret brennan was trying to say to marco rubio the other day who slapped her down, i think that america because of

its first amendment and history of free speech is the sort of beacon of light in the world as censorship does rear its ugly head in europe and i think europeans themselves will be cheering on jd vance even if the political elites were agast. maria: what was she saying? margaret brennan was saying that free speech was weaponized during world war ii. free speech? there was no free speech. >> she said free speech was weaponized and led to the nazi regime. in fact, there was enormous censorship and it's arguable that the backlash to the censorship led to the rise of the nazi party, made their message sort of forbidden fruit and when the nazis took office they destroyed all free speech, took over all media, and propagandized the people and that was the opposite of free speech. maria: yeah, right. liz peek, jump in here.

>> vance was not just talking about free speech but also the efforts in europe to subvert elections. we have an election coming up days away in germany and there's been some talk that if it goes far right, they simply won't allow it. what is your thought about that? >> that's right. and jd vance actually quoted terry briton, a former head of the eu that retired recently who said that, well, we did it in romania in terms of canceling the election and we can do the same in germany if the afd, which is this right wing recent anti-immigration populo corks party wins. jd vance said you can't do that, you can't pretend you like democracy while at the same time canceling democracy. maria: let me get your take on ken paxton launching an

investigation into chinese a.i. company deepseek, he says the company's allegiance to the communist party of china is a threat to data privacy, calling it a proxy for china to steal data. we talked about this so much from tiktok to other ways that the ccp is trying to steal our data, has been going on for decades. you write in an exclusive piece in the post about this as well. your reaction? >> well, i think it's terrific that ken paxton, who does this sort of thing a lot, he's sort of a lone ranger out there investigating things that are threats to the united states and that includes deepseek, this upstart a.i. group, and he's very concerned that it's propagating ccp propaganda and also invading americans' privacy. maria: sure. miranda, great to see you as always. thanks very much. >> you too, maria. maria: we'll be following your work. quick break and then president

trump pushing for more manufacturing in america, fox whbusiness' lauren simonetti lie from a made in america store are a firsthand look. lauren. >> reporter: we're here at the made in america store, we're whe literally everything is made in america, from the big league chew gum, i remember this from my childhood, to the pots and pans. the owner in the store set out 15 years ago to create a movement to return supply dines the united states because china is a long way away. we're going to talk to that owner right after this. [sofi mnemonic] can a personal loan unlock your ambitions? oh yeah. borrow up to a hundred thousand dollars to consolidate bad debt and save money for your next goal. take a swing at your kitchen reno... meant that literally. or design your actual dream wedding.

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maria: welcome back. president trump is trying to bring manufacturing back to america using tariffs as a tool for leverage. fox business' lauren simonetti is live from the made in america store in elma, new york with the very latest. lauren. >> reporter: maria, this is the only 100% made in america store and we're joined by the founder, mark andol. you founded the store in 2010. how difficult was it to source everything in the united states? >> it was hard. we require three letters of authenticity on every product. we're 100% made in america. out of 15,000 products, we don't have one thing that you plug in

or take a battery and i say we've been to the moon but we can't build a toaster no more? come on. >> reporter: 15,000 items and not one, we're standing in front of the toys and they're old fashioned toys. not one with a battery. all the batteries are made in china. that's unbelievable. i spoke to tim herzog who owns a brewery nearby and he said for him and the most popular type of beer there's no way to source in america any time soon. listen here. >> the price of cans will go up. the price of some of the grains we buy will go up. it's going to cost -- if we were to eat all those costs it would cost this company approximately $52,000 this year. that's a full-time job in the brewing industry. >> reporter: and he says he can't afford it. mark, you spoke with tim. what do you think about that? >> i think it's a lot of work. when we started 15 years ago we had 50 products, 100%. we go through this a lot. but i think it's a lot of work

but it's worth it. it is for our children's future. we've got to rebuild america. it takes time. can you find it. if you've got to charge a little more for a beer, you know what, guy's going to buy a beer. >> reporter: he said the can of beer can go up $1 each because of it. so manufacturing is the heartbeat of america. i want you to look at this graph, maria. in the past near half century we've seen a 35% decline in manufacturing employment here in the u.s. to under 13 million jobs now. there's a way to bring those jobs back by the u.s. leading in two things. automation, think artificial intelligence and also 3d printing. back to you. maria: great points all around, lauren. that's the rub, right? liz peek, you know u want to, yo manufacture in america but it's going to be more expensive. you understand, we all understand the behavior of the communist party of china, we want to decouple but what will that mean for america given the reliance on the ccp's supply

chains. >> i think, maria, look, this is something that all americans should applaud. i would be very interested in having this fellow talk about what is most important for the companies he's dealing with, all these american companies making things in america. do they want deregulation? do they want lower taxes? is it labor rules that they're fighting? what could the president do to help companies make in america. i think that is probably one of the number one goals of this administration and it should be the number one goal for the entire country. maria: definitely. and you know, chris, that's why he's using this blunt sharp object called tariffs because the company will have to make a decision am i going to pay it here in tariffs or am i going to pay it there when i open up my manufacturing plant in america. >> the tariffs definitely help. i think lauren's right own. we have to embrace technology. remember a few months ago the long shoremen said we'll sign a new contract if you don't

embrace technology. that's the wrong approach. hopefully the tariffs will get us over the threshold and we'll be competitive again. it's important for us to embrace technology to grow jobs here and i salute what mark's doing in his store. it's very encouraging. maria: we saw the effect of being so reliability on china during covid, cheryl. remember when there were ships on their way to the u.s. for all of those ppe products, the gloves and masks, et cetera, and china -- i reported it in real-time. i got a call from a hospital source, he said to me we're just told that the ships carrying all of the things we need were just directed to go back to china. they cornered the market on those products and they tweeted out in one of the propaganda sites, oh, well maybe we won't send the underlying components of prescription drugs to america right now. let them get sick. >> they threatened our blood pressure medication supply at the time, maria, not just china but a lot of the medications are

made in india. i have an answer here. guess what, regulatory reform at first and foremost the epa, i know you are talking to lee zeldin in the next hour. if you pull back on regulations and get more facilities built, more manufacturing plants built in the nation without all the ridiculous red tape from the epa, that is a great place to start. maria: well, look, we want to get to weather because we have disasters underway at least 12 people are dead after catastrophic flash flooding in kentucky and tennessee. more than 1,000 rescues taking place across kentucky. officials in tennessee urging residents to evacuate to higher ground after a levee failed. flooding could stretch into the weekend. virginia under a state of emergency after severe weekend flooding killed at least two people in virginia. incoming winter storms could slow the recovery efforts in all of those states. fox weather meteorologist craig herrera now with an update.

craig. >> well, maria, listen, you've got all of the flooded homes and everybody trying to get back on their feet and now we've got a winter storm on their hands and we have cold temperatures, a lot of the rain and those flooded homes is going to freeze over. that's a major concern. this storm is bringing some heavy snow, most of the state of kansas and oklahoma dealing with snow covered roads. it's a fluffy snowfall. they're going to get 8 to 12 inches of fresh, fluffy snow. you factor in wind and that will create snow drifts. as the storm system makes it to the mid-atlantic, we're talking heavy snow over portions of kentucky and tennessee. we could add another 8 inches of fresh snow on top of areas that dealt with the flooding. that storm by the day tomorrow into thursday goes off the mid-atlantic. big cities like new york, d.c., baltimore on the northern side of this. not likely to get much anymore. this is going south and places across virginia including virginia beach and over to norfolk, you're talking 8 to

12 inches of snow, closer to the atlantic with the influence off the atlantic, it's a heavier, dense snow so we'll watch this closely and we're going to see some ice this morning from oklahoma city to little rock before that all switches back to snow and again most of this will miss the big states to the northeast. it is a mid-atlantic storm through the day tomorrow. maria: all right, craig. thanks very much. we'll be following that. craig herrera. stay with us. big hour coming up. the 8:00 a.m., lee zeldin is with me live. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. ♪ with the chase mobile app, things move a little more smoothly. ♪ deposit checks easily and send money quickly. ♪ that's convenience from chase. as your host, i have some rules. two flush maximum per bathroom visit. no games. no fun. there's a great barbeque outside. but don't touch that. meanwhile, at a vrbo... when other vacation rentals make you share your turf with a host, try one that's all yours.

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