any night is a chance to see what cooking can do. >> thank you so much for joining us and heather good to see you see you again tomorrow. over to you stuart. irnlg promise to never use the buzz or again maria i'll call this amazon big tech day because those companies are dominating the news just like they dominate the market. it might also be memo day as well. good morning, everyone, a few hours from now, we'll get the financial results from what is perhaps the most exciting company in the world that's amazon, how do they do over the holidays when they captured half of all online sales. the stock is actually moving down a little bit. premarket, but as of now, jeff bezos is worth it $120 billion.

also apple day stocks under pressure because of iphone battery and production cuts for the iphone 10 it is down premarket. look at this. facebook's stock is well it is nice higher only media company that i can remember that urges its users to use it less. [laughter] but its profits and sales are seller up she goes. all right quickly microsoft strong financial performance. but maybe not strong enough. it will open lower to the tune of a buck 26. overall, this market is headed south at the opening bell. we'll be off more than 150 points this thursday morning o. all right. politics -- today, dominated by the memo. this make the day when we get to see it. i sure hope we find out what fbi was up to before and after a and during election did they really protect hillary and undermine. another day for politics and your money and that's what we

do. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ >> if congress sends me a bill before christmas, the irs this is just out. this is breaking news has just confirmed that americans will see lower taxes and bigger paychecks beginning in february. just two short months from now. >> you heard the president this is february first don't forget to look at your paychecks. nancy pelosi says your taxes are going up. that is utter nonsense today is the day the tax cuts will be reflected in your paycheck your paycheck is going up. let get at it facebook's numbers. i want to bring in market watcher jason, jason mark zuckerberg said people are

spending less time on the site but i believe you still think that stock will go higher. make your case please. >> sure. this shouldn't be too difficult well you know first of all stuart facebook is turning into -- a mini but as i've been saying with you for two years when it is ultimate gross stock in 60s i think it is maybe not the but one of the ultimate gross stocks because they are what's up and instagram and main reasons yes people are spending less time but it went way up. mobile advertising dollars everything was a beat. so that's really what the market has to focus on whether people are spending 30 minutes or 48 minutes facebook is making more money than they were just last quarter. >> do you own it by the way? >> no. >> you don't? why not? >> i used to. but you've got -- >> you know what i will sell you right now why not because my style and this is just a personal comment. i like looking for more value.

low pe ratio higher earnings growth it is like netflix and amazon which we'll talk about not necessarily my style but i think it is going higher. rng talk to me about amazon. opening -- well record highs with the close yesterday. it is beginning to be down about $4 today. now it reports its earnings of a the close of trading eve to say, that jason that -- the slightest disappointment could really puncture that stock. what say you? rk yeah. you know what stuart i actually 100% agree with you. but one point which wouldn't be the fist time one point that i want to make about om dison is is this. microsoft, obviously, it is all connected their cloud presence their cloud market share is growing at a much, much faster pace than amazon, obviously, amazon has extremely diversified business model that's why jeff is over 100 billion dollars. but i would almost if you want to come up with a creative

trade, i would get microsoft and short amazon for that reason. >> i want to ask you why the market will open sharply lower this morning at 140, 150 point loss. what's l the big deal? twornlings main thing that's a good question number one is classic general notion of the market has been overbought for so long. i mean, i'm kind of a technical chart watcher we've been way outside all, with all regular you know bands and standard teffuation that has been to the monoso moral to have a little pullback, and then also to be more specific. we are coming off of a fed meeting even though they did not raise rates there was a language added to -- to the conversation that janet yellen added further. so there will be further rate north increases not just one or two but further a gradual rate hike scenario so i think we could see three or four hikes and market

didn't really love that. >> jason you use several buzz worthy pex presentations but you avoided the buzzer that's congratulation are in order. j thank you. thanks for joining us. appreciate you being with us. got it now just coming out this is ups says it is buying 14, 747 boeing planes and four 767 traders. they say they're doing it in response response to tax law. ups is sharply lower because they took -- they cost them 125 million to catch up with the holiday deliveries. that stock is down today boeing down a little bit too. senate minority leader chuck schumer takes shot at president trump over the economy. roll that tape. >> he owes a lot of it to barack obama. two words i don't think we'll hear tonight, on the economy -- thanks obama. >> round out before you but let me suggest this for you look at some numbers for a second. 2016 to 2017 -- there were more than 2 million

full-time workers added to the payrolls and -- the number of part-time workers dropped by more than 300,000. that's a very, deep deal. >> important point because they have two to three part-time job in the obama economy. >> right this is the trump economy. all right brian is here. business professor at the kings college in new york city. okay how much credit should it shall president trump take or for the economy we've got now? >> look, with the ups announcement he should take a lot of credit here. s here's the thing that schumer does not puns people said thank you to obama. they said no thank you to the economy that he gave them for eight years. that's what the 2016 election was about. we have moved past this. the trajectory has changed people are very throg give president trump credit where it is due and it is due here. >> what do you make of those numbers? 300,000 fewer part-time workers in the trump first year. ting that's very telling actually. j it all comes back to paychecks.

president trump is willing time and again to talk about people's paychecks. president obama never wanted to talk about that. he always wanted to talk about inequality president trump says no, i care about your paycheck and everything i do is going to focus on that and people are willing to give him credit and they like that -- >> hiring full-time workers. >> got final numbers on pay raise are it is -- in 2017 best pay gains in nearly ten years. the trump economy. >> exactly my point and you cannot give that credit to president obama because president trump's policies have focused on paychecks. obama's did not focus on paychecks. he focused on inequality and trump said nope i focus on paychecks and we're seeing. >> brian stay there please bring you back to the opening of the market quick check of the futures because that market will open lower today. off about 160 points. interest rates are a worry. and we've had had a terrific rally haven't we? >> microsoft they took a $13

billion charge related to the tax law but reported significant growth in the cloud business that is the big server park in the sky. nonetheless microsoft will be down a buck at the opening bell. ebay -- higher sales over the holiday season. they changed the welcomes a bit. they tweaked the marketing it apparently worked will you look at that, an 11% gain for ebay. 45 premarket. the tax overhaul will give at&t $3 billion exare a cash. this year the company plans to spend it on enhancing its networks. stock is up $a buck 25. alibaba profit fell short over holiday season and that thing is down 5%. now this. the liberal and frequent cnn celebrated the fatal accident where a train was carrying gop members to a retreat in west virginia. he celebrated it. here's how his new deleted tweet went on. wow -- train full of goopers hitting

truck and this. god is working hard today to clean up the stink. thank her. okay. this -- was apparently referring to congressman's tweets about leaving politics. congressman greg is with us again, republican from oregon. congressman, you were on that train. how do you feel about this gentleman tweeting that? >> what a despicable thing to say. i was on the train when it hit the truck i watch what had our republican members of congress and they did they try ared to get off the train those with medical training went as soon as we could get the doors open. they raced across that open field. bound three individuals from the truck and immediately began to assess their condition and give life saving aid. i mean, this is a sort of thing stuart that nancy pelosi and chuck schumer and resistance movement if they had any would be condemning publicly and they should. j i believe that president trump

will address your group this amp. is that correct, sir? >> that's my understanding we have vice president mike pence last night, there's a forum going on right now with tillerson and mattis on foreign policy and defense issues. we're serious about making america strong and great again. just like president trump has been about paychecks and -- defense, and really putting a spurs grow our economy. you all were talking about paychecks people should look at their stubs and say better off today than i was a year ago, and i think as you see real result and new jobs and better pay and better benefits. you know, the democrats really overplayed their hand. >> greg , republican oregon, thanks for joining us, sir, we appreciate you being here. >> thank you. now this -- authorities in france are are calling off search for pier a ceo of the surf clothing company. quick silver, been missing at sea since tuesday.

his boat washed up on shore in a french beach. he went on a solo early morning fishing trip. did not come back -- seattle's soda tax backfiring some of the residents of the city are reportedly crossing city lines to save a few bucks. [laughter] that's my middle england pronunciation coming out. all right maxine waters on your screen right now. very angry -- heavily critical of president trump ander her response to the "state of the union." she says the president is a shaleful race racist who will never be presidentialerer are going to play you the soundbite right after this. if you've been diagnosed with cancer, searching for answers may feel overwhelming. so start your search with our teams of specialists

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and you can too. build a better website - in under an hour. with gocentral from godaddy. stuart: now we're looking at a 200 point of impact loss or for the dow industrials productivity down labor cost up. interest rates holding at a relatively higher level forly down 200 in about 15 minutes time. then this, democrats maxine waters delivers her own response to president trump's "state of

the union" address roll tape. >> one speech cannot and does not make donald trump presidential. he claims that he's bring people together. but make no mistake, he's a dangerous, unpresence pl divisive, and shameful race cyst. joining us now is pastor darell scott with a national diversity cohition, waters called trump a race arist. but don't you meet on a weekly basis with the president's chief of staff to discuss minority housing? i think you met with him this week, didn't you? >> yes, i did we've been meeting with the white house for several months now regarding an -- a very ambitious and aggressive urban revitalize program that we're initiating seening i's crossing the t's a blessing to merck really. >> why is maxine waters saying this kind of thing? this race card that democratic party is saying is worn out as

deck of a kartd in penitentiary no matter what it does it shall no matter what the president says they're going to try to play the race card when they don't have anything else. you know, with talked about president acting or behaving presidentially she needs to act and behave congressionally. you know we have, you have what they call the junk uncle she acting like the crazy aunt that is rambling and babbling and over every little thing and act is becoming very, very stale. she needs to worry about her congressional district and condition that it's in and fact that there are candidates out there breathing down her neck that are starting to unseat her in the next election. >> pastor the bible says that will shoal noel not steal but i will steal that line about the dc of cards and penitentiary. next one the con impressional black caucus didn't stand when the president mentioned unemployment. roll tape and look at it. >> african-american unemployment

stands at the low test rate lowest rate ever recorded. [applause] is there a disconnect between the black leadership -- >> there is a huge disconnect i believe the caucus first of all they were juvenile and immature sitting there. they looked ridiculous looking at their phone playing candy crunch texting doing everything but behaving the way they should behave number one. number very, very universal. i thought they must have confused the "state of the union" address for a u.n. meeting because they have these -- stuff on, and there's a huge disconnect there. the man on the street doesn't think the way they think. they went in preplanning to not -- engage in anything that the president said but i really believe that if it was up to the

con o depressional black caucus black unemployment they would rather black unemployment be at all time high rather than are all time low to have something to accuse this administration over. >> pastor we always thank you for joining us on the show. great pleasure to have you. >> thanks god bless you. latest on that bombshell memo trump could order it to be revealed today hof fbi director is urging president keep it underwraps please he says he's worried about its accuracy. more on the memo, coming up for you. oh, and there's the closing bell. (sighs) i hate missing out missing out after hours. not anymore, td ameritrade lets you trade select securities 24 hours a day, five days a week. that's amazing. it's a pretty big deal. so i can trade all night long? ♪ ♪ all night long...

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stuart: the me mole, with fbi on the qhows clashing over its anticipated release could come as early as today. what's the clash? >> the battle of the fbi yesterday, for the first time going possible with this thing. pex -- or expressing grave concern over the accuracy of the memo the accuracy comes from deputy attorney general rod rosenstein he says i'm not so sure about the accuracy chris says this will set a or very dangerous precedent if you put this out there. but from all accounts look the fbi and president have gone back been a very stormy relationship he said to agency was not so long ago. but appears to me if you believe

what the president said at the "state of the union" when he was on mic saying it is coming out 100% but the fbi desperately trying to prengt that. which begs the question, how bad is it? >> panic mode -- yes. sphwhriewrt another item of news here former fbi director andrew mccabe he reported he knew about clinton e-mails on ajtny anthony weiner's laptop what's the significance of that? >> kept congress in the dark about classified clinton e-mails on -- anthony weinerer laptop he's serving 21 months in prison for sexting these according to peter let me read to you new text message from peter struck about these e-mails, quote, hundreds of thousands of e-mails turned over by weiner's attorney to sbny meaning u.s. director and new york include a top of material froms spouse meaning huma abidin and this will never end. so this was a -- this was october 28th through september 28th to october 28th 11 days before the election. they look like --

andrew mccabe is accused of sitting on e-mails and now fox news reporting, senator ron johnson wants e-mails from james comey adding more people to this list that's a growing list. he now wants 16 parents and former fbi officials to turn over their communications during this period of time. and has to do with all sorts of probes going on including clinton e-mail investigation. primarily nap >> it is coming out . it is -- i want to know what was the be if i up to before it during and after the election? i think we're going to piepgd out. okay. let see now we are going to open this market in four and a half minutes time and we're going to be down about 190 point on the dow 12 points on s&p and a big 53 point on the nasdaq. it's a down day on yet. we'll be getting drop below 26,000. we'll be back with that in a moment. ♪

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>> i wish i had a warning button that i could press to alert everyone to a downside here i'll take that ashley. >> okay not using the buzzer no. >> the hammer -- >> order. [laughter] order -- >> 20 seconds ago and we will

open this market on the downside looking at about 150 points loss why product and at a relatively high level here we go thursday morning, first payday of the month here we go. we're off, we're running ab and we're going to be down. there you go 6 points down. 72 down. 79 down. 77, okay. 87 point down. a sea of red among the the dow 30 i only see four dow stock that are up. rest are down. we're up 113 point and down 106 at 26,027 there you have it. apple quick check of the rest of them the s&p 500 for example, in percentage terms it is down a little bit less than the dow. and the nasdaq again in percentage materials is down a little, about the same as the dow industrials. we're up 126 for the dow as we speak. we've got to start out by checking the big tech names because this is their week.

how have they opened? the first minute of business? i think i'm about to show you. yes i was -- i promise you i was going to show you. i was going to show you -- apple was up microsoft was up. okay this is all today. vrs verizon, visa having it problem her but let me assure you ladies and gentlemen we're on it. there you go. facebook is up. 188, and stock market is over -- because we're on the air. [laughter] okay o amazon is down $5 amazon is up 6, 11 cents alphabet and 1,175 down about $7. apple marginally high per at 167 and change. okay who is with me? the aforementioned ashley webster and elizabeth macdonald and brian holding his place here and jeff joins us this thursday morning. jeff. why the selloff? >> well because i think the market which had has been overly complaisant is priced to

perfection and little concerns like interest rates going up some of the concerns the markets have been having have been give ifing investors an excuse to liquidate. whining you have markets hitting records time and time again investors that are looking at their profits and are tempted to take profits will when they're given a read. >> seven monthses away from this being long tests bull run ever. [laughter] it is nerve wrecking to me. send them away to be historic longest bull run in the dow ever. stuart: look we have it ten straight months. ashley: so old. it is aging gone up for ten straight months first time we've done that i thinking in 60 years. that's a pretty good indicator. and now we're only town 90 only down 95 points we're holding above 26,000. why are we down today? >> investors are getting used to the fact with four rate hike that's not a big deal. inflation is up and hale get over this very quickly. >> this is big tech week and

focus on that right now. first of all, facebook, mark zuckerberg is encouraging people to spend less time on his site. i can't ever remember a media company saying use me less. but he did. however, the stock is in record territory and getting close to it. because they have very good earnings u they did that right -- j they've got a lot of pricing power on their ads he's saying use me less and advertisers pay me more. >> saying 58% of their ad revenue comes from the news feed. how about o this? when is facebook going to start paying for newspapers and news feeds? they could get a lot of con tengt free local newspapers are getting hammered he says wall street journal "new york times" they're great. how about start paying carriage fees for it like you do on cable, and we have -- i have to point out chair and cross-examination oh says that along with a lot of other individuals, mark zuckerberg speaks but is he paying up and how would that hit the profit line? >> mark said he want it is

facebook to be something his children are are proud of. he's doing everything he can to remove these -- a lot of these detestable viecial videos that drove people to spend more time on facebook. he want it is them off. but here's the bottom line, facebook is making more revenue per user showing yet again they have multiple bullets in the chamber they have a lot of revenue streams it is this is just a blip for them. >> you're in and you're staying in it. >> i don't own shares and i'm not buying because i think market is overvalued. but i think this is -- >> analysts love it and all raised price target up to $225 on it. >> have they? >> up right now, up 4 dollars. that's a big deal. got it. next case, amazon, their report profits todays after the closing bell. do you think professor -- i use the title properly. lately -- >> yeah. that's a record high i do -- 14, 52 is awfully close to

record high. can they keep this up? >> look at the story stuart talking about sears closing stores. this is all about amazon they're talking about reinventing health care this week. i'm not sure they can do it but that's ambitious that's the kind of thing investors want to buy. >> by the way, jeff bezos founder of amazon is worth $120 billion. big withdrawal -- moving on. microsoft they took a hit with a new tax law i think it was about a $13 billion, however, cloud business which is very important is going gang bust ergs. and again, you know they're taking, they're taking aim at amazon web business because amazon is the king of cloud. and microsoft legitimately took market share from amazon. i'm very optimistic i don't own shares but i'm very, very optimistic with microsoft they are making this cloud o opposedded to ibm that's not.

microsoft is. >> you know really good -- microsoft has 20% of the entire cloud business. that -- that sector that business one will be worth more than 300 billion in the next four years. they have 20% of the entire -- cloud that's impressive. cloud business is drawing faster than amazon's cloud business. >> that's 90 -- 98%. revenue o growth it is amazing. j okay microsoft don't you love it. a physical -- they report again today, after the closing bell. they've had some headaches lately. iphone ten demand not strong cutting production under investigation about the battery thing. can they -- 166 they paused that stock paused. can they get become on track? >> what are you excited when had it comes to apple and new things out of apple that you're eager to buy? i don't see that happening there relative to other players in the space. i think that's why you're seeing pause in apple right now.

tnches 166 -- first of all this is 50% cut in production. a it apple does not deserve to e where they are. the fact that -- this phone is priced so significantly higher, the ten so pangtly higher than previous phoneses for these little add-on gameings they keep rolling out if new product -- new versions of old products. it is not going to get them to maintain leadership. >> you wouldn't buy it? >> no. okay got it. check that big board because we're town but not as much as we were town 81 points lower holding well above $26,000. couple of individual stocks moving, alibaba profit fell short over the holiday season checking it to cleaners down 5%. the tax overhaul will give at&t $3 billion extra cash this year. they're going to spend it on enhancing their network up 4% very strong. ebay higher sales over holiday period they tweaked the website they tweaked marketing and thing

is up nearly 13%. a whopping great gain. for ebay, better sales of the dow component dow dupont strong global economy that led to robust demand better product price for that it is down just 60 cents. health insurer cigna better profits boosted by higher enrollment that's interesting and it forecast better profit this year. nunts it is down 87 point a 207. sales and profits falling short of hershey, man down 4.7% really big moves today in name brand companies. look at this. ups, they spent 125 million dollars extra living all of those packages during the holiday period. more than they expected it to spend and the thing is taken down 6%. the company also announcing it will invest an additional 7 billion in the next three years. for construction and renovating facilities.

it is down $8. diewsh deutsche bank saying ge may be dropped from the dow what's the significance of that? >> crushing for ge and likely will be dropped to sell 20 billion in assets so if you're talking this could start trading breakup value of $11 billion a share so who could be the candidates to replace ge? this is a horse race and this is a water cooler talk on wall street. and look at the stocks to show you you're seeing on the list that is talked about about now berkshire hathaway and midland kraft, hines, facebook not on the list amazon and google. this is a price weighted index google and amazon but probably need to split their shares in order to get on the dow 30. >> okay. got it very is interesting. ge below 16 again. cue oregon music sears laying off -- 200 workers at its headquarters -- they're done yes. >> here's the bottom line, they've had gone to their

predatorses and they are trying to get their creditor it is to lower their terms they're threatening their creditors and for me a company that is just about to go into bankruptcy that threatened bankruptcy they're on the edge, they will be gone by next year. >> okay. they're swamped market value that's all you need to know. >> keep close stores and headquarters people it is a sad story because when i first came to america sears -- king of the hill. >> that's right. used to go there all of the time. back in the day when i wect went to the mall. that's exciting. stuart: i'm told i should have a license to go to the mall. i qongt get a license -- [laughter] >> it is that time everybody. i have to say thank you very much to professor brian brenburg gentleman thanks for joining us. good stuff. check that big board when we come back. now we're down just 73 points we were down 130. coming back a bit.

epa announcing plans to cleanup one of the country most polluted sites we're talking about the westlake landfill in missouri final spot from the manhattan project. epa administrator scott pruett is going to lay out his plan for speeding up the end of that nasty site. scott pruett is with us shortly.

>> this just coming at us big deal wall street jowrnlg reports that google parents alphabet and ko in talks to build a tech hub in saudi arabia. big deal. >> a really interesting story the the big state own o thrdz to get together we're told to build this huge large technology hub that kind of like silicon valley in the desert. but this is important for google. alphabet because amazon is

already into saudi arabia they're announcing big deal in this country soon a billion dollar deal. the reason being is this saudi arabia we know through the crown prince is desperately trying to get that country off of the dependence on oil into other area and always talked about tech. and technology and data centers being future for saudi arabia, now is seeing the -- the seeds being planted right now. very interesting. >> a whole new agenda diversity issues i'm just kidding it is a footnote. i would say it shall is a low form. thank you you should have buds me. [laughter] >> check the big board we're coming back we were down 13 now we're down 72 points holding at 26,074. these are the names which dragged dow down a little 3m and nicki ibm dow stocks all down. speaking of mcdonald's they've announced plans for a futuristic new restaurant tell me about it, nicole. >> this one is unbelievable and

very instagram friendly the younger plane yales are who they're hoping to hit in chicago. the family owns more than 20 franchise this is one, 19,000 square feet, 27 foot ceiling, and it will be made of glass and steel and then we'll have -- floating apple trees that stick out of the restaurants' roof, of course, also they're going to have the mobile ordering touch screens, going to be energy efficient. and get this, service so you order your big mac and then you go sit dun and someone brings it to you so they're hoping this futures tick setup that they have that they're building there in chicago will actually be a real crowd pleaser, and draw in everybody for the mcdonald's huge menu -- >> yeah, yeah make it fast that's all i want. fast food should be fast. i think we agree on that one. so do i like it. thanks nicole now this, the epa is ready to clean up a landfill in missouri which contains radioactive material. it is the westlake landfill, it

is a superfun site. epa administrator scott pruett is joining us all the way from the swamp to new york city to sit next to me. so welcome to the show. >> like wise. good to be with you. now this superfun site westlake place in missouri that's been superfun site for years and years and years. >> discovered in 1970. listed on national party list in 1990, 27 year when is i came into this position the agency still not made a decision on how to clean it up. i cleaned it up but make a decision how to do that. made it a priority as i came into the position to get that done, announcing it today. we're betting accountability the radio active material is going to be taken away and people will be protected. wfnghts nuclear material are from the manhattan promote. world war two. how long will it take to clean it up? >> less than five years always say -- no, joust sloughing this off. fnlings what's amazing about this is it is reflective of the agency last srl year has used regulatory power to weapon nice against certain sector of our economy as opposed to doing

thing it ises like this. cleaning up a superfun site in st. louis missouri, taking 27 or years to get it done and providing in that area and getting back toes core agency protecting the health and environment of our citizens and not allowing agency to be used in a weaponnized way. to impact parts of our economy. >> is the money already there to clean up this site? >> in fact we have a responsible party. and this instance, reasonable that is responsible for cleanup. 36 million less than five years. >> i have to ask you about this philadelphia, philadelphia energy, i think that's the correct name they've closed refinery, and they blame green mandates for their -- with the closing of the refinery i think almost a bankruptcy of the company. they are in bankruptcy actually. >> they are, that's right and because of green mandates the government says you have it use this reusable energy. >> 2006, time frame they're after update in 2007 renewable fuel standard with fuel have ethanol and advance --

biofuels. there's sthupg called a ren program you might be aware of a accounting mechanism and refineries have to pay for those. that is what is driven largely this problem. it is not just pdf but we need wren reform and something i've talked about to congress about we have to take steps to address this and ting there are many that are understand that. >> you'll never get rid of the ethanol requirement. you know why this isn't getting rid of the ethanol requirement but accounting mechanism to ensure that we have a certain percentage of fuel actually has ethanol so it truly is enforcement mechanism that is being used in ways that really -- it wasn't intended we need to get reformed around that. ening these green energy mandates attack various forms all around the country. are you in a position that the epa to reform all of them not necessarily goat rid of all of them bus to reign them in. j we can't and shouldn't because statute says we have to talk these, do a statute requires we set volume every november from conventional to advance like

biobase diesel our job should be -- to take the what -- market and production levels to set kipght with objective factors that set inflated or blue sky type of member it is that create this inflation their pressure on wren. >> so you'll reign it in. working to do somehow or another. rming working on that ren reform is very important. >> amongst environmentalists are you most detested man in america ?rvelings i don't know. they don't know me very well why be fun in st. louis, missouri that's the issue it should agency be used as a weapon or used to do basic good thing like st. louis, missouri. i'm in latter cart if they have a problem with that, that's their problem. >> deweapon nicing that's not popular. thanks for joining mous the great new york city. j thank you very much. sir appreciate it. >> check that dow still coming back not all the way back but down a mere 65 points as we speak. get this one too. get this alone three dreamers have been arrested for tempting to smuggle illegal immigrants other the border.

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we are coming back we were with down 130. now we're down 38. the u.s. olympic committee reportedly knew about the rampant sexual abuse at the hand of disgraced larry nasser but did nothing about it for over a year. >> two executives told them in to 15 that doing this according to internal probe. they sat on it for a year that means this gentleman now sentenced to 42, i think now -- 70, 175 years in prison. he could have abused more athletes than patients in the interim period. so that's what is at stake here. why didn't they alert law enforcement as well? so this is another black eye for the olympic committee. >> very much so. thank you, liz. we've got do we have autosales out, yes toyota january sales up 16%. up last year, that's pretty good

not sure what stock is doing but 16% gain is very nice. i have another story for you up three dream reverse behind bars. they allegedly tried to smuggle illegals across the u.s.-mexico border three separate incidents involving three treatmenters in this country and this program have been arrested all of them trying to smuggle mexican nationals into the country all of them by the way from california, the latest a 26-year-old mexican national the beneficiary of the daca program arrest bid arizona border agents trying to smuggle four people across border three in a week. sew he's a treatmenter . >> he's a dreamer and they want to stay and bringing more. >> that's the third in that program it week alone trying to smuggle people across border and been charged with human trafficking. rng oh, that's -- that's a -- yeah. nasty one human trafficking is much more serious charge of smuggling getting people across border. i do believe. if we stay with this long enough we will see the dow turn positive i believe. because we're down just ten

points 5 points at the moment. three point, two points -- [laughter] okay we're down stay with it. don't let me go yet almost but i do believe we're close to going positive for the dow industrial today is the day we expects to see what's in the memo we did underturn memo we think news should come from the white house. my take on that, top of the hour and newt gingrich too. see that's funny, i thought you traded options. i'm not really a wall street guy. what's the hesitation? eh, it just feels too complicated, you know? well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman? hey, ian. you know, at td ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until you're comfortable. i could be up for that. that's taking options trading from wall st. to main st. hey guys, wanna play some pool? eh, i'm not really a pool guy. what's the hesitation? it's just complicated. step-by-step options trading support from td ameritrade

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sometimes, they just drop in. obvious. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group - how the world advances. ♪ stuart: this is memo day. it is very likely the memo will be released today and we the people will get to see what the fbi has been up to before, during and after the election. the fbi flat-out in panic mode, understandably. they're not keen to let the world read about what looks like

a plot to undermine our electoral process. the justice department shows signs of panic too. they are not keen to let the world know why they're dragging their feet on supplying key documents. adam schiff, the ranking democrats on the house intelligence committee, engaged in a full-blown shouting match on release of the memo. he is not keen to let the attention shift away from the mueller investigation. the democrats realize it may blunt their big weapon which is russia, russia, russia. the lines are drawn. they should not be. we have every right to know if there is group within the government that tried to shield hillary and undermine trump. it is not a democrat or republican issue. it's a issue that goes to the heart of our democracy. did government officials conspire to influence the election and undermine the winner. we have every right no know about this. we hope the president stands firm and releases the memo.

now. second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ economic data coming at us thick and fast. first of all we have construction spending numbers. ashley: another symbol of the economy. it is up .7% in december. twice as much as was hoped for. it is strong following a strong report in november. stuart: ism manufacturing, a manufacturing indicator, liz, what we got? liz: big beat. 59.1. the seventh straight month the factories are humming near the 58 level. biggest growth since 2004. stuart: two big wins on the economic front. how about mortgage rates? ashley: freddie mac, 30 year coming in at 4.22%. we're starting to see as

expected these rates rising. it was 4.15% the week before. just around 4%. first time i can remember in a while it is more than one yearing ago. we're definitely seeing rates which of course could hurt homebuyers, getting more expensive to pay for a house. stuart: big tech names. check them please. we got news on a couple of them. first of all google, reportedly in talks with saudi arabia's aramco. that is the huge state-owned oil company. they're talking about building a large tech hub in that country. facebook and microsoft they hit all-time highs earlier. they reported profits late yesterday. apparently the market kind of like what is they got. those two stocks are up. we have five companies which are in the dow, that they are losers. 3m, home depot. mcdonald es turned it around. they just turned lower. nike, ibm, all dow stocks lower.

ugly sign for sears cutting 250 corporate jobs. one analyst says, look, this retailer may not be able to cut costs quickly enough to avoid bankruptcy. ubs, the stock is way down. they spent $125 million trying to get all the packages delivered on time for the holidays. -- ups. that is extra 125 million, they will invest several billion more on new planes. the stock is down 6 1/2%. chipotle used to follow them very, very closely. well, they have a sell recommendation from ubs. that bank says, sell that thing. apparently people are. it is down 12 bucks at 312. do we have breaking news, liz? liz: tax cut bonuses to hourly workers, 260,000 at lowe's. up to 1000 in bonuses to 260,000

hourly workers. they're going to add new benefits. paid maternity leave. paid parental leave. adoption assistance. number of companies doing this, giving back tax cuts is 287. stuart: lowe's, 260,000 employees. liz: hourly workers. stuart: they get a bonus up to 1000. liz: that's correct. stuart: added benefits. liz: that's correct. new benefits. stuart: the stock is up but not much. the classified memo could be made public today. the news expect to come from the white house. the author of the book, "understanding trump," newt gingrich, with us. can you give us a an outline what mitt be in this all-important memo. >> all i know what i have seen in the media. that is chairman nunez put together pretty clear evidence that the fbi was using campaign

material paid for by the clinton campaign and apparently, if the news reports are correct the fbi was lying to the fisa court judge in order to get him to approve wiretapping in an american presidential campaign. now, i mean if all that turns out to be true, that is with we're told so far, and certainly the flury of activity has been amazing, you would then discover there was collusion to change the american election but the collusion was not in the kremlin. it was in the fbi and the justice department. and that would be a remarkable boomerang for all the liberals who thought they had a big issue. now turning out we have discovered enemy and they may have been our very own government. stuart: extraordinary stuff. newt, please, stay there for a moment. get back to another issue later. i have to turn my attention to money, specifically the stock market and those big technology companies we follow all the time. currently facebook, microsoft, and apple are up but amazon's

down and alphabet'sdown. come in gary kaltbaum, kaltbaum capital management kind of guy. what about facebook, would you buy it? will it go higher still? tell me your analysis. >> i think it is going higher but my worry the market and facebook are ahead of themselves. let's say this, their sales are up 47% a year. this company is delivering everything they said they would deliver on, the market is thinking, they're doing the right thing. earnings are up 80%. i like it longer term right here. i would probably wait. i think we may be in little bit of corrective mode. stuart: tell me about microsoft, i believe at new high today, above $95 a share. where is it going, gary? >> i think it is ahead of itself. i this everything is great, the numbers are good. by the way, microsoft sales were up 10% year-over-year for a company that gargantuan it is an

amazing story. amazing story of a company everybody thought was going to be in big trouble as of 2000. now it he eclipsed numbers from 2000. i think it goes higher longer term. same with facebook. you wait on weakness here. stuart: tell me about amazon, could that go hire still in the longer term? at $1141 per share. >> only thing i can tell you it moved up 250 points in the last month. that is way ahead of itself. they will report sales up 35% year-over-year. they are one of the great brand names of this universe now. sales will be up over 35%. earnings will be strong. i think 250 points in a month. probably pull back before it goes higher. stuart: pull back before it goes higher, same with facebook and microsoft. apple, around 166 per share. no, i'm sorry, alphabet i've got

here, alphabet at 1174. apple it is at 167 as we speak. what is your analysis of buying apple at 167? >> i tell you a lot of people do not like the stock here. there has been a lot of negative stock this week about the iphone x. earnings and sales look pretty good. it will be all about guidance. i will wait. this had such a gargantuan run. it is most overowned stock in history. i wait and see what earnings are. if they knock the cover off of the ball we'll take a look. i'm missouri on this one. show me first, then we take it from there. stuart: you're consistent, gary, wait on all of them. some will go down. they will all go up in the long term. gary kaltbaum, everyone. short and to the point. he is a good man. thank you, gary. get back to newt. he is still with us. want your reaction vice president mike pence, seems like he was attacking senator joe manchin. roll tape, please. >> people of the mountain state,

you deserve to know, when it came to cutting your taxes joe voted no. joe voted no to give working families more of your hard-working family. joe voted no on tax cuts for job creators. when time came to repeal and replace disaster of obamacare, joe voted no. now that might make chuck schumer and nancy pelosi pretty happy but west virginia needs to let him know, you expect better from joe. [applause] stuart: let me put it clearly. that was a direct attack. here is senator manchin's response. i am shocked after the vice president worked for almost a year in divisive and partisan way to take health care away from almost 200,000 west virginians, he would come to west virginia and continue his partisan attacks. newt, what do you think is going on here? >> well, i think you're seeing the beginning of the 2018

campaign. the choice will be simple. every single democrat voted no on tax cuts. that means they voted against giving the people of their state or their congressional district a substantial tax cut. they all voted against repealing obamacare. they have been consistently almost like a herd of musk ox trotting hine schumer and pelosi sustaining left-wing policies. a number of these, manchin comes from a state that voted for trump by 26 points, go to north dakota, go to indiana, missouri, montana, even ohio, talking about states where people said they wanted dramatic change. incumbent democrat voted no over and over. the choice this fall is over do you want lower taxes, more jobs, more take-home pay the very economic news you were giving us earlier, unemployment coming in lower and, just saw an article that said may be down to

three 1/2% sometime next year, that would be so astonishing, such a change from where we have been under the liberals, i think it is fair to make the case. i like joe manchin. he is a very nice man. saw him yesterday morning. he truth is he talks like he is us and votes like he is them. that is true of all of them. they lined up in a row and said, we're all going to vote no. well, that made the case pretty clear here. you want big taxes, big bureaucracy, power in washington, you got a team. you want lower taxes, more jobs, more take-home pay, you got a team. don't tell us you're on our team, run over to vote on their team. neil: newt gingrich, short, sharp, to the point. we love that. newt gingrich. we appreciate you here. yes, sir. big hour ahead on "varney & company." press secretary sarah huckabee sanders says nancy pelosi should smile more often.

the mia goes nuts. mike huckabee, sarah's dad, responds. much more what could be memo day. we the people deserve to know if there was a group within the government that tried undermine trump. we're all over that. charles schumer says president trump should thank president obama for the economy. the white house will respond on that later today on this program. 20 cities still in the running to be home to amazon's second headquarters. we have someone who says those cities should stay away from amazon. he makes his case during the second hour. you're watching the "varney & company." ♪

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are down 30 points but we're above 26,100. ebay, look at that, a record high, they did very well over the holiday season. they're up 14% that is a whopping gain. look at this, frequent cnn guest, jonathan tacini, he is under fire about a tweet involving the deadly train wreck involving gop lawmakers. wow, a train full of gopers, hit truck. got is working hard to clean up the stink. thank her. this was referring to trey gowdy announcing retirement from congress. we have former arkansas governor mike huckabee. you're response to that please. >> what a nice guy. wonder if he works for cnn. that is really over the top. one thing to have people strong differences opinions. i have strong differences of opinion, differ dramatically

than people on the left. i don't want to see them dead, or in a train wreck. that brings me no pleasure. would bring me some great sorrow and pain. amazes me people could have that attitude. stuart: goes on and on and on. one example of another, crude language and very insensitive statements from the left. it goes on and on. i don't think it will ever stop in this presidency. >> i'm afraid it isn't. i send out a tweet i think it is funny, i have like 3,000 people call me everything but a human being. i find most of that amusing, i feel like the irrational reaction, especially from people who say, nobody is paying attention to you. what kind of idiot even follows you. i think you're the kind of idiot who does because you're following me. stuart, this is really over the top. i think people need to recognize that passion is a good thing but iraqal anger, and hate toward other people, especially from

those who love to talk about how tolerant they are, and how much diversity they want, that is such a lie. they don't want diversity. they don't want tolerance. they want conformity to their views. or they want to us die. i will not give them that pleasure. i will live a long time. stuart: well-done, governor. i like that. now another one for you, your daughter, sarah sanders, getting some flak for a comment she made about house mine another leader nancy pelosi. here is what she said. roll tape. >> i think nancy pelosi looks like that all the time. i think she should smile a lot more often. i think the country would be better for it. stuart: whoa, you can't say that governor. she should smile more? what was your daughter thinking, governor huckabee? >> i think it was simple. nancy pelosi ought to smile more. it looked like last night she need ad desperate dose of metamucil. it was embarrassing to watch. i'm not sure if she had

abscessed tooth. it was appearing to look at something to figures a tooth issue. maybe she needed to go to the dentist, i don't know. it was miserable thing to see people who couldn't enjoy the fact that americans are getting bigger paychecks today. record low unemployment among blacks and hispanics, not able to applaud. that isis is basically eradicated owning any land in the middle east. on and on these things go. they were oblivious to that. stuart: it was visceral image. largest tv audience ever for state of the union%, 46, 47 million americans tuned in to watch it. the visual image of democrats sitting on their hands when good news is played. mr. gutierrez running out of the chamber when people were chanting usa, usa. you can see him right there on the screen, i think that is a terrible visual image and a bad political strategy. >> well, that is unless, stuart, you're running a candidate

campaign for a republican this year. that was the best night of your life because on, the night of the state of the union, basically the democrats wrote the ads that republicans will use against democrats. it's a powerful one. it is all visual. they will show the things the president was saying, how positive they are. of they will show the democrats looking like they just lost their dog. and when that happens, people are going to say, you know, those people don't represent me. they don't even know me. they don't celebrate the things i celebrate. why should i continue to send them up there, pay them $184,000 a year, to insult my very existence. stuart: we got it, governor. as always. thanks for joining us sir, appreciate it. thank you. >> take care, stu. stuart: breaking up, hard enough, but breaking up with your gym can be even more difficult. we'll tell you the way one person tried to get out of his gym contract. that's next. stay there. ♪

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stuart: alibaba's profit fell short over the holiday season. the market does not like that. it is down 2 1/2%, five bucks. lowe's, big deal here. announcing they will offer bonuses to their hourly employees, up to 1000 bucks for 260,000 hourly employees. they have joined the list of big companies offering bonuses, givebacks. a man found a very interesting way to cancel his gym membership. ashley: this is planet fitness. apparently easy to get into these things. getting out not so easy. many sitcoms have done stuff on this. as part of getting out of his

plan net fitness membership required to write a certified letter. all right. sew wrote the letter in the form of breaking up with someone. this is what he said. which is quite amusing. it is with deep regret and heavy heart i write this letter but i must come forth my intentions with sincerity an honesty. certain events in my life put me a different place. the purpose of this letter is to end my relationship with plan net fitness orange. he goes on to say, i have been distant. it is because i have changed. i have different needs. to be frank you haven't changed at all. the yellow, purple building with toot at this rolls at the counter. i don't want to change but it pains me to think that you were once. stuart: i drive by many of your locations. sometimes i'm alone i even throw on one of my own power pop workout playlistses, feel the rush of our past course threw me as if we were will stun. you get the sense.

>> very clever. stuart: serious stuff coming next. venezuela falling deeper and deeper into chaos. president maduro having trouble keeping his military fed. we have the latest. this could be memo day. we the people should know what is in it. yes, we should. more "varney" after this. ♪

♪ ashley: now he is smiling. see, it works. stuart: [laughter]. you've got to hide your love

away. liz: daily timeout. stuart: 10:30 eastern time, time for the beatles. make me smile, boys. this will make you smile if you're an ebay shareholder. the thing is up 14%. they had a very good holiday season. messed around with the website successfully. focused on marketing. it is up five bucks. ebay at 46. higher profits at health insurer cigna. they had more enrollees forecast better profits later this year. nonetheless down 1.8%. back to my take at the top of the hour. we could see that controversial memo today. fbi director chris wray, he is warning the white house, don't release it, don't release it. come on in nix johnson, axios editor-in-chief. >> hello. stuart: you have got very good sources as we often say. >> thank you. stuart: what is in the memo? everybody is confused what might be in it. give us a synopsys.

what is probably in isn't. >> reporting from us and elsewhere, we don't have a really clear sense. what we hear from some people on the republican side, there may be details on it that could possibly discredit some of the information that the fbi and doj used to do some of the surveillance that eventually led to some of the surveillance that involved the trump administration. one important thing to note how politically charged memo. democrats say that is not the case. with we talk to republicans they say entirely different. there is wide gulf and polarized debate as you well know about this memo coming out. stuart: it is polarized, no question about it. the democrats do not want this thing to come out. i suspect it connects the dots. it links the russian dossier with the fbi. then the introduction of the russia, russia, russia investigation. then undermining of trump. that is really what it is all about, isn't it? >> there is recently reporting that is what the trump administration thinks it.

i want you to pause there, when you say democrats don't want the memo to come out. it is not just democrats. as you said in the lead-in the fbi said there would be grave consequences. stuart: of course they wouldn't want it to come out. it throws dirt all over the fbi, they're in panic mode to keep it quiet. >> we've written today how uncharted the territory is, president publicly fighting with his fbi and his justice department over this kind of thing. stuart: now we have another report, came out today, director, february by deputy direct to, andrew mccabe, he knew about the clinton emails a month before the fbi alerted congress to them. place on significance on this and in context. what is this all about. >> not known the full context unless we understand the process that involved. there is a lot of steps as they discover the emails, go through the emails to figure out what were in them. of course leading up to the very controversial decision of then director comey publicly announcing that these emails

have been found. what it is, what makes us so difficult at axios, help readers figure out, parse through all the very conflicting narratives to get to the real truth. a lot of people on both sides of the aisle working for that. stuart: the bottom line seems to me attention shifting away from russia, russia, russia towards, hillary, fbi. there is a shift in emphasis and what is going on here, isn't there. >> there is a certain effort by the president's allies, sort of a disinformation campaign to spread different kind of information to try to undermine the mueller investigation, whether that is correct or not, that is certainly what his political allies are trying to do, adding hillary clinton in the mix is a step in the right direction. stuart: will we see the memo, nick. >> that is a tough prediction. president certainly wants it out. a new wrinkle that congressman schiff said late last night the memo vetted by the fbi and shown to the white house is different than the bit tee voted on. we heard on the president's hot mic comment at state of the

union. he wants it out. stuart: nick johnston from axios. >> my pleasure. stuart: venezuela, haven't covered that for a while, the government is faced with keeping the police and military fed. that's right. s that is a problem. blood profits author, vanessa newman joins us now. vanessa, if you can't feed the military and can't feed the police, you're done. >> pretty much. i will tour refugee camps in colombia on the border town. venezuelaian civilians, former security force members, police, people shooting at protesters last summer they're coming across because they're hungry, can't be fed, can't be paid. as part of that the colombian government is forcing them to confess their crimes. that is what colombians do, they gather intelligence. stuart: if you're done, this terrible stage where you can't

feed the military and police force what comes next? >> well there is a lot of fracture. we know at least 1300 military personnel did not return to their barracks back, right after christmas. they killed, you know what was the equivalent of venezuela's james bond figure. he came, he was one of the leaders of one of their special forces commando units. you have different commando units of different armed services fighting against each other now. there is a lot of talk that there might be a, you know, some coup attempt, you have got two things. one they're leaving. and the others are starting to attack. take a number. stuart: sounds like a scenario for a military coup. >> it does. let's see what happens here. let's see what happens. stuart: you yourself you couldn't go to venezuela could you? >> i went in may, very, very carefully. i was unsurveillance because i am both american and venezuelan.

i have been accused of being too american by the government. i think that after this trip, when i'm actually meeting with opposition leaders in colombia, it will be very difficult for me to go back for a long time, which is why i'm staying on the colombian side of the border. there are a lot of changes by the way how the trump administration deals with these guys. shannon, who is undersecretary for a lot of venezuelan opposition viewed as too sympathetic to the socialist cause is out. that was announced a few minutes ago. trump is taking a harder line with the opposition. if you negotiate, we're going to stop backing you. we'll find other people which is the diaspora to really back. because we've had it with this scenario. stuart: vanessa, thank you very much for being our reporter on all of this. >> thank you. stuart: only way we find out what is going on. >> thank you. stuart: now this, the ceo of a surfwear company is missing.

tell me about it. liz: pierre agnes. now the search unfortunately called off. he is ceo of quiksilver. he went out on his boat for a regular fishing expedition tuesday morning. radioed in, thick fog. has not been seen since. authorities have called off the search. so, this is a popular surfwear company. ash pointed out the parent bought billibong for 350 million. ashley: 300 million, recently, this month. stuart: this company just bought australian surfwear billibong. ashley: biggest rival. stuart: now the guy who runs -- ashley: quiksilver. stuart: quiksilver he is gone. liz: that's correct. his boat washed ashore but he is gone. ashley: it's a mystery. stuart: it's a mystery. we have nintendo, they announced a whole range of new release this is year. it is a gaming company.

they have got the mario cart, that will soon be available on your iphone. also announced, mario film made by the makers behind minions. nintendo announcing a online service for the switch console. don't understand that. but nintendo is down 2 1/2 dollars. four%. notre dame under pressure to change its nickname. that nickname being the fighting irish. former notre dame coach lou holtz, what will he say about that? he is on the show next. first i i want to see that memo. white house's raj shah, he is next.

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weapon. roll tape. >> what is amazing about this it is reflective of something, stu. the agency the last several years has used regulatory power to weaponize against certain sectors of our economy as opposed to doing thing like this, cleaning up a superfund site in st. louis, missouri. taking 27 years to get it done to provide confidence to the people in the area. we're getting back to basics core agency of the and protecting health and environment of our citizens and not allow the agency use in weaponized way to impacts part of the economy. stuart: is the money already there. >> we have responsible party, republic, responsible for the cleanup. $236 million. less than five years. ♪a on thousands of hotels, cars and things to do. like the royalton riviera cancun for 54% off. ♪

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stuart: hershey, not doing that well. they're down 5%. profits and sales falling a bit short. analysts warn, the rival, mars, they're stealing market share. mars makes m&ms, snickers, heaven knows what else. herb shy is down. now this. ipo, the company went public just today. it is, what is the word, ipo, that is what it is. ashley: initial public offering. stuart: initial public offering. i will cover that in a second. look at it. it has now started trading. it is the hudson group or hudson, limited. hud is the symbol. it is down a buck 25.

that is down 6% from its initial offering price. people in seattle crossing the city line to buy soda. ashley: making a run for the border, stu. stuart: you don't save that much, do you? ashley: i will give you an example. january 1st this tax of 1.75 cents per ounce was placed on sugary drinks. they are bad and create health problem. so a two-liter plastic bottle of coke originally 2.79. costs 4 bucks. that is 43% increase. all the stores just outside of the city limits got all the banners, get your drinks here. no sugar tax. people are doing it. stuart: really? ashley: now of course university of washington will spend four years, two million dollars to study the effects of this types of taxes. that is money well-spent. stuart: if you're going to save what, a buck 20 or something on -- ashley: on two-liter plastic bottle of coke. stuart: wait a minute. save over a dollar.

ashley: went from 2.79 to four bucks. stuart: whoa. ashley: that is $1.21. that is a 43% increase. stuart: i would do that. ashley: i would go across the street. stuart: ladies and gentlemen, the white house could make that memo public today, despite strong objections from the director of the fbi. white house principle deputy press secretary raj shah, he joins us now. sir, are we going to see that memo today? >> well, stuart, thanks a lot for having me on and good morning. right now the memo that the white house received is going through a review process led by the white house counsel's office. it is getting input from folks in the intelligence community as well as law enforcement personnel. they will be advising the president and when he make as decision and we have announcement, we'll make it available to you and everybody else. stuart: there is intense pressure from about all sides,

democrats, fbi, the justice department, everybody saying please, please, don't release this memo. natural security grounds. would upset the fbi, et cetera, et cetera. what is the balance here? i mean, most people want to see it. it will be a big deal if we could not see it? >> right. well look, this president is used to pressure. and frankly, he believes in transparency. that is the bottom line. he wants to make sure that national security and law enforcement equities are protected in this process. ultimately he made his viewpoints and his inclinations very clear. through this process, what we will run through, he will make a decision. but he does stand for transparency. he does believe the public has a right to know. stuart: so if it is released, will it come through your office? >> well, this is fundamentally a legislative document and a legislative process. they have voted this out of committee. we will, as a white house consider anything the house intelligence committee were to vote out and work it through the

same process. the president believes in transparency. he will use the same standard for anything they choose to vote out, choose to make public. we believe again the public has the right to know. but again this would be a legislative document. we would give it back to the legislature, they would make a call how to release it. stuart: raj, we know the president is on his wray to the retreat for gop lawmakers in west virginia. what is he going to say? he will address them this afternoon. what is he going to say? >> he will talk a lot about the themes he talked about two nights ago at the state. union address. the president had from the heart, unifying address that talked about issues, right? what this president and this administration have done to improve the economy in 2017. a lot of what we want to do in 2018, right? the tax cuts bill, that cut taxes for middle class families and businesses, deregulation, booming stock market, unemployment at near two-decade lows. he will talk about issues where we reach across the i'll, like

immigration reform and infrastructure. stuart: senator schumer says that president trump should say, thank you obama for this food economy. what's your response to that? >> i think that is preposterous. this economy is booming and growing a lot faster than he ever predicted and in 2016 we saw growth and job creation slower than we did in 2015. thank you, but no thanks to president obama. this president's agenda, this president's policies that led to stock market boom of historic proportions. it is this president who has overseen two million jobs being created in the private sector. it is this president whose policies have led to the lowest unemployment rate we've seen among african-americans and hispanics in nearly five decades. and the lowest unemployment we've seen among women, veterans in decades. as well as overall unemployment rate. i think it is pretty cute for senator schumer frankly to try to take credit for the successes of this president. but it is a joke. stuart: okay. i was kind of surprised when i

saw vice president pence really going after senator joe manchin, democrat, west virginia. it was a full frontal attack on senator manchin. i was surprised about that but is it a new policy from the white house of going straight at those democrats up for re-election in november who come from trump-voting states? are you taking the gloves off with them? >> i think the vice president is talking about issues here, talking about the fact that senator joe manchin voted against the tax cut bill that is providing tax relief for middle class families in west virginia, and helping businesses in west virginia. just yesterday, worldwide equipment, a company that ships coal, announced they were giving over 1000 employees four figure bonuses because of the tax cut bill. these are bonuses if senator manchin had gotten his way with his vote wouldn't have happened. we think senator manchin is wrong on that issue. that the vice president is dead

right. if senator manchin wants to join the white house in growing the economy the door is wide open. but on this vote he cast he was just dead wrong. stuart: you know, raj, this morning we had added news about another major company offering bonuses this is lowe's. they're offering bonuses up to $1000 for their 260,000 hourly employees. better benefits as well. i'm sure the president wants to talk about that today. we see him, i think he is on board marine one at the moment. >> there is a laundry list of companies, lowe's being the latest. you saw exxonmobil announce $50 billion of investments in the united states. apple, with nearly $300 billion, over $300 billion of investments in the united states. we're thrilled with the reaction from companies across the globe. and frayingly this isn't rocket science. when you cut taxes, make it more, more profitable to do business in the united states, people will invest. people will create jobs. they will make it better for

their workers. it will raise wages. they will give bonuses. this is economics 101. we hope democrats can embrace it. stuart: nancy pelosi says, it is just crumbs. these bonuses are just crumbs. debbie wasserman schultz said, at 1000 bucks is almost nothing. what was the exact expression? almost -- doesn't mean much. liz: pathetic. stuart: doesn't mean much to anybody. want to answer that, raj? >> i don't know what democrats in congress are getting paid, $1000 doesn't feel like crumbs to me. doesn't feel like crumbs to the average middle class family that seeing benefits. you're seeing it in polling. the approval rating for this bill is rising because people are seeing it in their paychecks. they will be seeing it starting in february, moving forward. this tax cut bill is good for the middle class. it is helping families. there is a child care tax credit that has been doubled in this bill. there is so much good in the bill. i know they want to attack it in any way, shape or form.

it is starting to become a little laughable of. stuart: do you have a program or plan to get out there around the country, have the president pound the table for his tax cuts and the economy? >> he will be pounding -- he did it on tuesday night. he will be doing it today, moving forward. this bill is something we're very proud, very proud of. we think it will add fuel to the economy. stuart: where is he going to go? will he target like north dakota or ohio for where democrats in the senate are up for re-election? is he going to do that? >> the president will go all around the country talking to businesses, talking to families and making the case that this tax cut bill and the approach of this administration, beyond taxes but also on issues like trade and issues like deregulation is helping to boost the economy and helping to fatten their bottom lines. stuart: raj, our own john roberts, fox news white house correspondent, is saying that his sources tell him that the memo will be released tomorrow morning. can you confirm that?

>> i can't confirm anything like that just yet. there is a process that is going on. that is led by the white house counsel's office. national security and legal voices are going to be heard. and the president will make a decision at the appropriate time. stuart: are you in the loop? >> yeah, sure, i'm in the loop. until we have announcement, we simply don't have announcement. it is that simple. we'll report. how about that? >> fair enough. stuart: raj, thank you very much for being with us. >> thanks a lot for having me. stuart: many thanks. viewers on your screens you've been watching the president get out of marine one, at joint base andrews and get on to air force one. i believe it is about to take off. that would be momentarily. he will take off to west virginia. he is going to the greenbrier resort, wonderful place, where the gop is holding a large-scale meeting to decide on their strategy for the forthcoming year. the president will address that meeting this afternoon. he had just gotten on board of

air force one. back to amazon, i'm going to call this amazon day. it is looking for a new home for its second headquarters. 20 major cities, all candidates for that amazon second home. however, our next guest says, states should not want amazon in their city. richard florida is with us, city lab cofounder and editor-at-large. make your case. i mean, look if i'm the mayor of a a big city i would offer heaven and earth to get amazon to come to my city. there is lots of jobs and lots of money. what is wrong that? >> i think amazon is great to pick the city it wants. i think amazon could be great for a city, i have said that what 100 economy experts and libertarians to free-marketeers to people on the left, it is mistake for cities to put together these multibillion-dollar packages.

7 billion from the state of new jersey. five billion from the state of maryland that far exceed benefits of having amazon headquarters. that is the only consequence. simply do it right. stuart: if you offer them benefits worth $7 billion, they move to your city or your state, you're saying, the city and the state doesn't get the 7 billion back? >> no way. i mean i think it would be great it put clawback provisions should incentives be granted, but point of view some level of incentive are warranted and many of our signatoryies are pro some little of incentive. we think is a race to the bottom. cities and states offer incentive packages that far exceed any benefits. from amazon perspective they created a situation in seattle, city council, amazon look, housing prices are rising. you put pressure on our transit system. they don't feel loved. that is why they're looking for a second headquarters.

don't they want to go into a town on a good note, high note. we're partners building this town. we want to be partners in a long-term relationship. we'll do this the right way. stuart: richard, i have only 30 seconds left. i'm intrigued, have you done economic analysis, x number of dollars given to amazon given to x city is good? two billion is worth it, but three billion is not. have you got the number? >> we're in excess, people say 50 to $100,000 a job we're getting to the point of excess. campus pete on public investments in transit, housing, workforce. not a tax giveaway to one of the most well-capitalized companies in the world and the world's richest man. stuart: richard, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. stuart: charles schumer, says, thanks obama for the economy. but the data, that says otherwise. my take on that, top of the next

hour.

stuart: let's get something straight, president trump inheritedded a slow-moving, low-became economy where the -- low-wage economy where the middle class was losing ground. trump turned it around. the democrats and the media are in denial about this. senator schumer says mr. trump should say, thanks, obama, for the booming economy. "the new york times" says, and i'm quoting now, mr. trump has done nothing so far to derail the e slow, steady recovery that began under obama. it's president trump who's got it back on the rails. some facts. 2017, his first year in office, saw the best pay gains in nearly a decade. fact: 2017, 2.2 million new full-time jobs created. 300,000 fewer part-time jobs. fact: starting today, february the 1st, all tax rates down.

paychecks up. fact: three million people have received a bonus or wage increase or extra benefits because of the trump tax cuts. this is the trump economy. it is the direct result of mr. trump's reversal of the obama recovery from tax and regulate to tax cuts and deregulation. slow growth to strong growth, part-time jobs to full-time jobs. so why do the democrats continue to pooh-pooh the clear win for middle america? because they're desperate to deny the president a win on the most important issue to voters; that is, the economy. when will a responsible democrat stand up and tell nancy pelosi that she is killing the party's credibility when she repeats the nonsense that middle class families face a tax increase? when will someone tell debbie wasserman schultz that a $1,000 bonus is a big deal to america, it is not crumbs? and the proof comes now, today. february the 1st, repeat, tax

rates down, paychecks up. the third hour of varney and company is about to begin. ♪ ♪ >> he owes a lot of it to barack obama. two words i don't think we'll hear tonight on the economy: thanks, obama. stuart: okay, that's what i was talking about at the top of the hour. senator schumer says, thanks, obama, for the economy. i disagree. i'm going to give you the numbers one more time, because these are very telling numbers. 2016 to 2017 more than two million full-time workers were added to payrolls. and the number of part-time workers dropped -- dropped -- by more than 300,000. that is the trump economy. the full-time jobs economy. the ceo with kidder capital with me now, todd, i'm saying very,

very clearly here that it is the trump economy, no thanks to president obama or very little. what do you say? >> well, i would agree with that, stuart. i think, ultimately, president obama will go down in history as someone who inherited the financial crisis and a bit of a mess, but he will go down as the regulatory president. and i think more than anything regulation really tamps down good business. and i i think the ceo of bank of america, brian moynihan, says it best when he says under the obama years he had ten t-shirt factories. all of them could have gone online, he could have sold all the t-shirts, and he could only operate seven of them. what is fundamentally what happens when regulations are an overburden on the american businessman. stuart: by the way, it was announced this morning that lowe's is going to offer bonuses to 260,000 of its hourly employees plus better benefits. so that list of people getting a bonus is now way beyond three million. i think that should be part of the mix.

>> no question. i mean, look, tax reform was huge, i mean, you know, president obama couldn't do that, president trump got it done right away. it's part of what i call expansion economics. i sent a letter to the president that laid out the pillars of expansion economics, one of them was tax reform. he got that done and, you know, institute, it's not just bonuses. those are huge, obviously. $1,000, $500, any amount of money in middle america's pockets is huge for the economy and huge for those people, but it's also changes in governance you see in private companies. so ceos of companies now, we have some of these in our portfolio companies have stepped above, taken board spots and now look at new opportunities, and people underneath them are raised up, and they're now running the companies, they're making more money. the company will do better because the ceo is now chairman and expand the company through acquisitions and other choices that they make. it's more than just bonuses, there's a lot more going on. there's also the issue, stuart, of the 1099 employees, you know, that were part time. mow the company wants to invest

in them and bring them on as full-time employees which is a great thing. stuart: real fast, the president wants to put out $1.5 trillion on infrastructure in the next ten years. do we have the workers to build all that we want to build? >> we don't right now but, you know -- and we need to address this labor shortage. and i put that in my letter to the president as well. you know, through immigration reform, through job training and relocation of people in middle america to places where the jobs are, we can get that all done. we need an historic jobs bill that addresses this. stuart: okay. todd, thank you very much for joining us, sir. >> always good to be here, stuart. thank you. stuart: check that big board, it's a very flat market, basically. we're down, i think, 31 points -- 7 points as with we speak, 26,140. i want to talk about big tech because this is big tech week. we start with facebook. they reported higher profits, but we are now told that people are spending less time on the site. not apparently a problem for the stock, it's up $7 at $194.

craig johnson is with us, managing director at piper jaffray. i want to go through all of the big tech stocks, and i'm going to start with facebook. 194, that's looking pretty rich, is it not? >> stuart, you're absolutely correct. and as i look at a lot of these names in big tech land right now, a lot of these stocks look extended based upon the charts. and you look at facebook, you're just about 10% above your 40-week moving average or 200-day for your viewers, it's extended. i see that when i go and start tearing apart the dow, pretty close to a quarter of the names in the dow are very extended looking stocks, and we could see some meaningful corrections just back to the 200-day moving averages, and that doesn't change the uptrend, stuart. stuart: now let's deal with amazon. i believe the stock is up again today. it's really just straight up, this thing. i'm sorry, it's down $13 at $1436. it reports this afternoon.

would you say the same thing about amazon? overextended? >> absolutely. it is overextended, and this is where we need to separate a great company from a stock at this point. you wouldn't want to buy this stock. i've talked to a lot of portfolio managers and, again, it's the same thing. it's a great company, but when you're 15 plus percent above your rising 200-day moving average, it's not a great entry point to buy the stock today. so would not be surprised to see these stocks come in, providing a better entry point. stuart: okay. now, i want you to be very careful when we deal with microsoft. yeah, they took a $13 billion charge because of the new tax law, but that cloud business is just going through the roof, and the stock's hit an all-time high today, close to $96 a share. would you say the same thing about microsoft, overextended and due for a setback? >> yeah. alex zukin follows this name, called out in his note today just how well those parts of

their business are doing. but when you step back and look at a five-year chart, you're well above an upward trending price channel. what i've seen happening in the past, you go above the upper end, you typically correct right down into it. again, great company, i'd buy the stock on a pullback and, frankly, take some profits right here. stuart: we'll accept that, craig. [laughter] how about apple? they report their profits after the bell today. they've been struggling recently, hitting the mid 160 level. would you say about the same thing about apple, overextended and due for a more significant pullback? >> little different on this one, and this one's followed by michael olson, does a great job. he keeps talking about positive mix for apple shares in here. difference between this, facebook, amazon, microsoft is you're only about 5% above your 200-day moving average, so this stock has already started to come in a little bit. out of all of the fang stocks if

i was to buy one today, i'd buy apple because you're not nearly as extended as a lot of these names. stuart: direct and to the point, craig, thank you very much, indeed. okay. the tax overhaul is going to give at&t $3 billion in extra cash this year. they plan to spend it on enhancing their network. the stock is up nicely, 4.8%. now look at ebay. higher sales over the holiday season. boy, did they have a wonderful end to last year. they've changed the web site a bit, they're focused on marketing, and the stock is up 15% -- >> wow, look at that. stuart: huge gain. how about mastercard? just announcing it's reinvesting some of the financial windfall from tax cuts to its employees. they're going to increase their. match of the 401(k)s to 10%. big deal. that's a form of pass-through, mastercard doing it. and they've got a lot of employees. and now this: a new study named switzerland the capital of

bank secrecy, and the united states is second. the study is from the tax justice network. the group criticized the u.s. saying it's not doing enough to crack down on tax evasion, money laundering and other financial crimes. jam-packed hour ahead for you including former notre dame football coach lou holtz. what does he think for a call to drop the fighting irish nickname? imagine the what he'll say, and the thor equities, real estate investment firm, responsible for the projects on your screen. the ceo, joe sitt, is here. he says president trump is now starting to hit his stride. you're watching hour three of "varney & company." ♪ ♪ let's begin.

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stuart:

ever thought about moving to ut? now's your chance. an italian village is selling 200 houses for about $1 each. the only catch is you have to commit to fixing them up in three years. i can't pronounce its name, it's in sardinia, it's population has been cut in half from its peak 30 years ago. move in, please, and fix it up. politics. our next guest says president trump is really hitting his stride after a somewhat rocky start. look who's here, joe sitt, ceo of thor equities, developing real estate all across the country. i thought you were a never trumper kind of guy. where did it go wrong? >> you know, i'm really for the sake of the middle road, and i know that that's the hardest position to be in, but that's what we need today. stuart: okay. tell me about the economy. is he hitting his stride on the economy? >> unbelievably well. i think that we really are in that goldilocks moment economically in our country. markets in places that soar,

unemployment, depression coming alive. everybody talked about this economy being one of a wall street economy. i don't think we've ever had a main street economy boom in decades like what we're seeing today. markets like houston, denver, minneapolis, salt lake city, i mean, you travel this country and the heartland, and it is waking up. people are getting excited -- stuart: is that because of trump and his policies? >> it's probably so much so that it's a balance. some of the red due from the prior administration -- residue from the prior administration's good move but, obviously, you've got to get the largest share to president trump and the initiatives he's done for this country. stuart: now wait a minuter, joe sitt. you are a reality developer. you coa lot of business in new york -- you do a lot of business in new york. president trump is a real estate businessman in new york. are you trying to get on his good side? >> i'm looking for both sides to come together. i think manchin out of west

virginia needs to schedule a weekly beer time between chuck and donald to go over the issues and find some middle ground. we happen to have gone through a rough patch, i would say maybe his bedside manner on some issues weren't the best. maybe some of the clowns, can didly, that he had in his administration may have caused him issues in the past, but now he's got the a-team. he's got gary cohn on the economy, general kelly, general mattis, he's got jared kushner, he's got vice president pence. he really at the ultimate high point of the administration has some of the brightest, most talented people that anybody could have wanted in an administration. stuart: what do you think about immigration? he's proposed a deal. you build the wall, you get rid of chain migration, you get rid of the lottery, and in return some of the dreamers can stay. is that the kind of deal that joe sitt can get behind and approve of? >> i think what folks are missing is that part of his plan is not to stop immigration, but to control and manage it. one of the things he said is

let's not have immigration by lottery -- stuart: do you approve of that? >> what i approve of is that we need the best and brightest here in our country. we have people that come to the best universities in the united states and, candidly, we kick them out, yet we have a lottery system that brings other people into the country that maybe doesn't add value to our country. and i think that the proposed system of utilizing the immigration policy to bring and keep the best and the brightest that can help the united states grow is a value add. and they need to find that middle ground. stuart: now, in your business you've come across labor shortages, surely, in various parts of the country to build your buildings and build your projects. we are short of labor, aren't we? >> yes. and i think that there's two answers. number one, obviously, managing immigration right because that can actually fill so many important positions at all levels of the economy. but i think that one of the things that people kind of missed along the way there his speech was vocational education. that's something that i've been

talking about for years and years that we need. what do i mean? the world's changed. we all see it now very vivid. the skills that you need change. and what was a factory before of putting together a particular product now a factory today might be a gigantic amazon or apple office with people coding, etc., etc. and we need that vocational program. we need government-sponsored education to reeducate folks and take them from jobs that they can't even get at $30,000 a year to jobs who are starving to be able to pay people at $80, 90 or $100,000 a year. stuart: why did i ever think this man was an anti-trump -- where did i get that from? >> the answer is i'm for the balance. i'm for what's great for america. we really need -- forgive me for saying it on the show -- we need to not look at things as polarized as fox or cnbc, etc.

we have to look at it as america. we've got technology booming, for the first time we're going to be more powerful than saudi arabia and russia. we are going to be the biggest pump orer-outers of energy in the history of man kind. that's a weapon. let's use that weapon. stuart: oh, i'm not going to stop you. just keep rolling. unfortunately, we're out of time. [laughter] joe sitt, come back anytime you like. you're all right, sir. thank you very much, indeed. [laughter] i cue the organ music. sears -- >> oh, no. stuart: -- cutting another 250 corporate jobs. one analyst says this retailer may not be able to cut costs quickly enough to avoid bankruptcy. ubc look at chipotle and says sell that stock. somebody is, because it's down nearly 4% at 311. look at this, spacex launched its second falcon 9 rocket of the year. came out of florida. apparently, it was a successful

launch. i think we're going to see it. are we going to see it go up there? any moment now -- >> the suspense is killing me. [laughter] >> there you go. stuart: hold it long enough and you'll see it. [laughter] next case, the size of your tax return largely depends on the state you live in. that will be the tax refund, i think. >> yes. stuart: as you know, can you guess which state gets the largest refunds? we will tell you, that's a promise, after this. ♪ ♪ alerts -- wouldn't you like one from the market

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♪ ♪ stuart: we asked you which state's taxpayers get the largest tax refund, and the answer is texas. >> what? stuart: texas. [laughter] in 2016 people in the lone star state earned, they received an average federal refund of $3,100. maine, the lowest, at $2,300. check this out. a woman doing yoga on a plane. her name is kate kaye, yoga

teacher. she got out of her seat and did a full routine in the aisle. she says she needed to stretch, and by the way, she says she's not sorry. >> how about seat pose and sit down? >> yes. it's a annoying. [laughter] stuart: people receiving 9,000 pounds of oranges. they noticed three cars driving together, stopped them, hundreds of oranges spilled out. believe me -- >> they tried to peel away, but -- [laughter] sorry. stuart: monopoly making a game for cheaters, hasbro releasing a new version which features 15 cheat cards that require players to do dishonest things like stealing from the bank. [laughter] and not paying rent. >> it happens anyway. stuart: look what we have more you. former notre dame football coach lou holtz. does he think notre dame should drop "fighting irish"? the memo, fox news' john roberts reports it will be released tomorrow morning.

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stuart: all right, we're up, 10 points higher. we were -- well, we opened sharply lower. now we're up 12, 11 points, 21,160. this is big tech day. we've got facebook up, amazon down $16 lower now, microsoft up, $95.46. google and apple, both of them down. mixed performance by the big techs but all very close to record highs. and now this, listen to president trump remind us why we should all stand for the national anthem. roll tape. [applause] >> preston's reverence for those who have served our nation reminds us of why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the pledge of allegiance and why we proudly stand for the national anthem. [cheers and applause] stuart: i think that was pretty clear. it was during the state of the union address. come on in former notre dame football coach, lou holtz.

all right, lou, what would you have done when you were coach if a player of yours had failed to stand for the national anthem? >> well, the first thing i'd tell them at the beginning of the year, you'll not use our football program to advance any other thing except this university. you aren't going to use it to promote gay rights, whatever -- you can do that on your own, but not as a team. and the supreme court has ruled that you are not allowed to do anything as an employee that hurts your company. for example, you can't work at wal-mart and wear a heart that says walmart sucks. by the same token, the football field is your workplace. you heard the customers, everything's going down as far as attendance, revenue, that is their obligation. and where else can they go? i defy them to go anywhere else in this world and have the opportunity this country gives them. you look at the financial resources, the admiration that millions of people have for it. that's because this country -- my father was in the navy from

age 7-12, i never saw him for five years. i served in the military, i have no reason to explain why you would not stand for the national anthem. there's a saying, love it or leave are it. stuart: well, now that we have fired you up, lou -- [laughter] >> you can mark me down as undecided. stuart: espn's max kellerman says notre dame should drop its fighting irish mascot. he argues it is offensive to irish people. okay, we've fired you up, go for it. what do you say? >> well, first of all, understand how the word fighting irish came about. it's about a spirit, it's about a feeling. the first time the word fighting irish -- and i studied this when i went to notre dame to explain to our team why we are the fighting irish. it started in the civil war when the irish brigade fought for the north and their chaplain was father cornby, the third president of notre dame, and they were nicknamed the fighting

irish. that was during the civil war. then when rockny -- rockne came, they named them the fighting irish. but let me tell you where the real name came from. 78 years ago, may 17, 1924, the ku klux klan was having a big gathering in south bend. at that time the ku klux klan was against blacks, jews and catholics. they came there to intimidate notre dame. the students went down to the train to meet 'em, beat up on them, there were all kinds of scuffles. finally, knute rockne and father walsh, the president, prevailed on the students to back off. the headline said fighting irish confront the kkk, and for me there's all kinds of reasons. i've learned and understand what it means. you don't have to be from ireland to be irish. stuart: i feel like i'm pinned to the back of my seat as a

former englishman. [laughter] quickly, your call on the super bowl, eagles, patriots. >> well, the eagles are faved, but i think the eagles can win the football game because their defense is very, very good. nick foles is playing outstanding. let's remember this, the last two super bowls that the patriots won, the other team lost. three years ago seattle had second and 1 on the goal line with, like, 30 seconds to go, and they throw an interception. why don't you run the ball? they should have won. then last year the falcons up by 7, julio jones makes a great catch, they're in field goal range. the kicker, 49 out of 50 times had made a field goal inside the 40. you're up by 10, the game's over but, no, they throw a pass, they get a sack, get a holding penalty, and consequently both those teams lost the super bowl. i think this, the patriots are there to win the super bowl, are the eagles happy to be at the super bowl or there to win it? i do believe the eagles will

upset them. stuart: whatever you had with your cough of fee this morning, son, i want some of it. [laughter] >> hey, stu, i've got a bad cold, but i'm trying to turn it into pneumonia because they can cure that. they can't help the cold. [laughter] stuart: we'll take that line. mr. holtz, sir, you're all right. we'll see you again soon. >> always a pleasure. stuart: let's get to pure politics, shall we? why not? [laughter] the democrats want to take over congress this november. our next guest says it is not a done deal. we have with us dan henninger, "wall street journal" editorial kind of guy. that's your column today, it's not a done deal. it's not a certainty. make your case. >> i know. i don't know whether i can produce as much optimism as lou holtz, what an act to follow. [laughter] >> good luck. >> well, look, nancy pelosi sat through that state of the union look like madam defarce like she was going to send somebody to the guillotine, and she thinks after the november midterm she will be in control of the house

of representatives and sending donald trump to impeachment. why? because at least since the civil war only three prime ministers in midterm -- presidents in midterm elections have gained seats. by and large, you lose seats always in the midterms. the republicans lose more than 24 seats, the democrats control the house. now, i went through all of these, most of these elections and tried to get some consistency on how you can either gain or minimize the losses, keep it below 24. and one thing that came up was the popularity of the president. well, president eisenhower was the most beloved president we ever had, lost seats in both midterms, lost control of the house for 40 years. richard nixon was with loathed by the press, absolutely hated. in 1970 he kept his loss to about five seats. what is the one thing that seems to mitigate? [laughter] a strong economy. a strong and growing economy. bill clinton -- here's the most

interesting example. 1998, he's awash in scandal, right? we all remember that. >> yes. >> just incredible pressure. clinton gained five seats in the house. why does that happen? because when he became president, the unemployment rate was 7.5%. by mid 1998, as you know, the economy was growing, unemployment was down to 4.5%. so if the idea that russian collusion is going to sink trump, if he's got that unemployment rate down to 4% and if the republicans stay on offense, keep pushing the democrats back, we might have a republican house. stuart: you're just as spunky as lou holtz there. [laughter] well done. >> i don't want pneumonia! stuart: you're all right. [laughter] i've got to get to the memo which our own -- fox news' john roberts says is going to be released tomorrow morning. judge napolitano is here now.

>> i've got to say as a notre dame alumnus, i love lou holtz, and that story that he told about the fighting irish and the kkk is essentially accurate and is absolutely lore, holy grail at notre dame. and you don't have to be irish to fight for catholicism against bigotry. stuart: and you're not supposed to character guise any group of people in any way whatsoever. do that and you're out. anyway, what about the memo? >> oh, boy. i think that according to the reports of our folks in the white house, the president is going to declassify it. the process of declassification sends it back to the house intelligence committee. it is their document. the house intelligence committee has to release it. now, the house intelligence committee, most of its members are in the greenbriar in west virginia, we all know that because of the tragedy yesterday. so the if it's going to be released tomorrow, it'll be released after the house intelligence committee receives it and votes to release it because the version to be released is not the same version

that they sent to the white house. there are changes made to ameliorate fbi concern. i'm not talking about commas and spelling and grammar, i'm talking about what the fbi persuaded the white house to take out or add in which the house intelligence committee hasn't seen. i think that that could probably be done in a day, and i think it will be released sometime tomorrow or monday at the latest. stuart: so bottom line, all the objections will be cleared one way or another -- >> well, i don't know -- stuart: we get to see it. >> i don't know that the objections will be cleared. stuart: well, the technicalities about when and how to release and what's in it, that will be clear. >> the procedure will be done, but i have argued we are entitled to see the raw data on which it is based, because if there's a republican version that says this and a democrat version says that and it's based on the same data, we should see the data. stuart: we probably won't, but we might see the memo.

>> i think you're right. stuart: put the big board up for a second, we are now moving higher, rapidly so, up 80-odd points. we started down about 120, now we're up 73, 26,232. >> that's because "varney & company"'s been on for two and a half hours. stuart: precisely right, judge. [laughter] next up, a former california state assembly member who says the golden state, california, is addicted to raising taxes. he's going to sound off for us next. kind of like lou holtz, i hope. and the koch brothers plan to spend $400 million to help republicans in the midterms. part of that money will be used to promote the tax plan. details coming up. and listen to this, google flights will now predict airline delays before the airlines do that. [laughter] that story is in 90 seconds. don't you -- i'd like that, i'm telling you. >> yes. stuart: i'll use technology for that. [laughter] ♪ ♪ how do you win at business?

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stuart: lawmakers in massachusetts appee rethinking their sanctuary state policy. governor charlie baker supports a bill that would allow -- not require, but allow -- local police to detain immigrants at the request of the feds. baker says the bill's not a response to pressure from trump but, rather, a formalization of a practice during the obama administration. it is, however, in my opinion, a retreat. now this, our next guest has a column on foxnews.com, perfect for this show. and this hour. here's the headline of that article: california and the definition of insanity. why do democrats love tax hikes so much? joining us now is chuck devore, he's with the texas public policy foundation, a former california state assembly guy. sir, as i understand it, you were in politics in california,

you jumped ship, you now live in texas. so answer this question: why do the democrats in california, why do anybody -- why does california love taxes so much? >> well, as part of their dna, they just can't help it. when i was on the revenue and taxation committee, i was vice chairman, i tried to explain to my democratic colleagues that you could have a tax code to maximize government revenue or to try to redistribute wealth. pick one, because you can't do both. and they, of course, always try to redistribute wealth. and the problem is people can move. and as a result, about a net of 200,000 americans every year in an average year pick up and move out of california, more move out than move in. the number one state they go to, like me, is the lone star state, texas. stuart: well, now there's a proposal in california that illegals can get a driver's license, and when they get the driver's license, they're automatically registered to vote.

that's a terrific way if you're a democrat of keeping democrat control of the state of california, isn't it? >> well, the challenge is that that may be the proposed rule or law, but the people -- if they do vote -- their committing a -- they're committing a crime. stuart: you can't police it. >> unfortunately, you're setting up your own residents to be prosecuted. stuart: you cannot police that. you can't. >> well, in some instances it is policed. it certainly isn't policed as much as i would like to see it. in fact, we even have cases of voter fraud here in texas. there was a big case that broke just yesterday that governor greg abbott tweeted about, about someone who is being accused of having illegally signed up three people for a home ballot. and that's, of course, a very easy way to commit fraud. stuart: you're a successful man in california. were you driven out by taxes? [laughter] >> well, you could say i'm a political and economic refugee in texas. i used to work in the aerospace industry before i was elected to

the legislature in 2004. we had plenty of huge aerospace headquarters in california, all the major headquarters have now left the state because of a combination of the california tax policy and regulatory policy. they just found that they couldn't make as much money in california compared to if they moved somewhere else. and so my client base vanished and, therefore, it was kind of hard to do what yoused to do for a living -- used to do for a living when i was termed off the the legislature in 2010. stuart: but the culture is really different in california to texas. i mean, it's almost like day and night. it's like you're living in a different country. have you adopted and adapted to the new culture in texassome. >> -- in texas? >> well, absolutely. it's a very freedom-oriented culture. and to your point, on a hunch when i moved to texas and started work for the texas public policy foundation, i did a survey of the occupations of the majority that was in charge in each state legislature. and as i suspected, i found that

somewhere around 85% of the republicans who were in the majority in the state legislature in texas, business ranching, they were doctors, they were people who worked for a living. in california what i found was that same percentage was about 18% versus about 85% in texas. and the rest of the majority democrats in california, what they did for a living in the legislature before they became elected were roughly one-third community organizers, plaintiffs' attorneys and government staffers. and so as a result, they brought a different life experience. they brought a different attitude toward their legislative duties. and that's one of the reasons why california has among the highest taxes in the country. in fact, i did a study looking at the 15 biggest states, and you see a very tight correlation between the big tax states like california and new jersey and connecticut and new york and the

low tax states like texas and florida, you see a big correlation between americans moving out of those big tax states into the low tax states. stuart: chuck, you're talking to somebody who lives in new jersey, okay? [laughter] chuck devore -- >> better than new york. stuart: marginal. you're all right. thanks for joining us, sir. much obliged. >> thank you. >> yes, sir. stuart: now this. people in seattle have gone to great lengths to get their soda. they're going to neighboring cities just across the city lines to avoid the new tax on sugary drinks. small business owners in seattle say they've noticed a decline in sales since the tax too effect. a two-liter bottle that once went for $2.79 is now $4 in in seattle. we keep saying the president of the gop has to sell the tax plan. the koch brothers are spending big money to do just that. we're on that story, and it's next. ♪ ♪

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stuart: okay. pay attention to your screens, bottom right, we're up 105 points, and this: the koch brothers plan to spend $400 million to help republicans in the midterms. part of the money will be used to promote the tax law. joining us now is tim phillips, president of americans for prosperity. i know you approve of this. >> right. stuart: am i going to see the republicans mount a full court press to sell tax cuts? i want to see 'em barnstorming across the country. are we going to get it? >> i think you are. mike pence is in pittsburgh tomorrow night touting the benefits of this law. i thought the president, stuart, did a great job of taking a well-deserved victory lap at the state of the union explaining the benefits of tax reform. and certainly, our network, we're all in. this is a good law that's benefits already millions of our fellow americans, and we just

want to make sure they know about it. the pay raises, the bonuses, the new jobs, it's a good thing, stuart. stuart: vice president mike pence went to west virginia and correctly attacked joe manchin, democrat senator of west virginia. >> right. stuart: attacked him on the issue of tax cuts and the economy. is he going after those democrat senators up for re-election in november who may be wobbling on the economy? >> absolutely. they chose partisan politics, they chose loyalty to schumer and pelosi and elizabeth warren, all these liberals, stuart, instead of actually helping their states start to recover from the economic difficulties we've seen for a decade now. it was a terrible decision by these democrats, manchin and donnelly in indiana and heitkamp in north dakota. i think these guys are going to have big problems, these democrats, because a they chose partisan politics over actually helping people get the economy

moving back in their states by supporting these tax cuts. it's a big problem for these guys, stuart. stuart: okay, got it. tim, i'm terribly sorry, i'm short on time this morning. >> no problem. stuart: it's just a huge day, and we're in the middle of it. tim phillips, everyone. there will be more "varney" after this. ♪ ♪

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saying i miss being with you anymore, and holding hand with the elliptical machine. toes get in. hard to get out. "hotel california." stuart: see what you do for you, neil? neil: as i do, never signing a gym contract, unless they're including bakery products it ain't happening here. thank you very much, my friend much we're following up on the varney rally going on here. a lot is built on the construction report growing optimism, data going the president's way or republicans way, and upbeat statement we're expected to hear from the president 45 minutes now. addressing republicans from west virginia. we're hearing replay of a tax cut. democrats are coming up with alternative measures of their own should they retake