scott gottleib cited two studies on teen use and says it is clear juul cannot keep their products out of the hands of kids. president trump said he plans to meet with the vaping industry, but as meg tirrell reports, th c situation isomplicated. >> reporter: two months to the day after the trump administration said it planned to ban all flavors of er ecigarettes ohan tobacco, no guidance has arrived. but the president in a tweet id today he'll meet with the vapingry indust medical professionals and state representatives to come up with a, quote, accept ablg solution to the vaping and ecigarette dilemma. together with jobs and children's health will be a focus.they say the president's on jobs as a sign that he may bl potent softening on a total flavor ban potentially allowing menthol to remain on the market. despite the ban, the owner of this vwoe shop and others say the national focus has already had a major impact on herbusiness. >> almost every shop in new york at this point has lost between 60 and% of sales. we have been struggling to stay open. most of us have laid off employees, c

scott gottleib who is former fda commissioner. board and a cnbc contributor scott, the politics obviously sound pretty tricky. what's the science say >> it looks like what the kids are abusing are the cartridge-based products, giuliani, njoy they like the high nicotine content including giulianjuul it's potentially sound to carve out the vape stores. that's what we were looking to do when i was at the fda at this point you really need to look at potentially pulling all of those cartridge-based products off the market. >> you're not even just talking about flavored, you're saying anything out there >> all of them juul in particular, you can't treat differently -- similarly situated products differently under regulation juul is a differently situated product. we have data showing that more than 50% of all kids who vape are using juul it's very clear that juul can't keep their product out of the hands of kids. you could treat that differently or selectively pull all of the cartridge-based products off the market if you wanted to carv

scott gottleib who made his mark as a hard liner on the opioid epidemic and working to ban e-cigarettes. since he stepped down months ago, the vaping issue has become a crisis with vaping-related deaths and lung illnesses increasing. the markets right now are showing at least the two stocks that are very vaping-centric. altria group which has more than 30% stake in juul, the big vaping company, and phillip morris which gets the business outside the u.s., both of them are moving higher right now. but we shall see. new chief of the fda. >>> fitbit investors can wipe the sweat off their collective brow at this hour as alphabet google finally confirmed it will buy the fitness tracker for $2.1 billion. turns out to be $7.35 a share in cash. we're not there yet. we're at $7.15 right now. the $7.35 would be a 19% premium to yesterday's close but folks, it's a 70% premium to where fitbit was when google made the offer we think about a week ago. google clearly scooping up the wearable name to take on the apple watch and samsung galaxy watch. no interest in pinterest after quarterly revenue disap

scott gottleib will join us right after the break to talk about options and what may happen. >>> and unveiling the cyber truck last night, but not everything went as planned we'll show you theid a veond talk about tesla's latest model. "squawk box" will be right back. >>> president trump's going to hold a meeting at the white house. eamon javers has the information. >> reporter: they're calling this a listening session 1:45 p.m. eastern time a lot of the top stakeholders in the vaping debate will be meeting with the press to discuss what to do about vaping, particularly teenage and youth vaping the white house, you remember, proposed a ban on flavored ecigarettes back in september. nothing has happened really since then in terms of the absolute finalization on any plans. they insist that everything is still going forward. here's the statement that the white house gave us on today's meeting. they say there's a serious problem among our youth and their growing addiction to ecigarettes. the policy making process is not stalled. it continues to move forward this meeting will allow the pr

scott gottleib after the break. interviews, original content and behind the scenes access look for us on apple podcast or on your favorite podcast app and subscribe to squawk pod today. what i love most about being a scientist at 3m is that i'm part of a community of problem solvers. we make ideas grow. from an everyday solution... to one that can take on a bigger challenge. we are solving problems that improve lives. >>> first off, right, we're going to cut military spending so immediately dead in the water, right two, jeff bezos is going to go from paying no tax to a tax. i'm going to tax the banks duh. what would you think i was going to do, hold up a gas station come on. they're going to pay for it and not one penny from the middle class and all we've got to do is convince jpmorgan to operate like a nonprofit >> elizabeth warren's $20.5 trillion plan to provide health care for all-americans being attacked by republicans and fellow democrats even parity on "saturday night live." joining us is dr. zeke emanuel uni

it's more efficient than insurance, with 3% cost -- >> you put everything together -- >> we had scott gottleibi'm forgetting -- fda. he talked about chairman, how administrative cost is a little misleading he said what really happens is medicaid and medicare rely on the private insurance oversight for much of what they do, which is why -- which is why you would see higher numbers there >> humana is based in my district and humana, that's what they do. they administer government health care programs >> right >> and they do very well but getting back to j. powell for a minute, what i think we ought to know -- want to know from j. powell is two things primarily. what's happened as a result of lowering and raising rates, has it really made that much of a difference and what kind of difference has it made? and what's happened with the tax cuts and whether -- i heard in your prior segment, talking about whether middle class tax cuts justifiable or advisable or not. i think we have to get -- really dig into what's happened with the 2017 tax cut and see whether that's made a difference clearly on the