>> thank you to jessica, mitch, and steve for being here on this holiday again. we come to work, right, charles payne? charles: right we're open and the other people, whoever they are, aren't. >> love you. charles: good morning. love you too. i'm charles payne. stuart's going to be back tomorrow. but we have a ton of stories for you. president trump says there's no collusion. yet 13 russians indicted for medaling in our elections and no results. the head of the fbi should resign after the agency didn't follow up on a tip about the florida school shooting suspect. and to your money. president trump considering a tax on consumption also a higher gas tax and internet sales tax. what would that do with all the good news we've had

recently? and talking about that thrilling daytona 500 in the future of nascar. also no three-day weekends here. fbn, we're live. charles payne and crew we're all here. "varney & company," we're about to begin. ♪ ♪ >> while cnbc is on tape, we're open for business. charles: you can see we've been working on days cnbc hasn't for a long time because you're using one of those tube tvs with our point. we're going to update that with a flat-screen tv. but weaving doing this for a long time. we've been working when the other guys haven't because that's what we're all about. we're in busy for you. here ashley and liz, we're going to be here for the next three hours and begin with this. president trump tweeting about russia this weekend a few times. one quote i never said russia did not medal in the election. i said it may be russia or china or another country or a

group or it may be a 400 point genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer. the russian hoax was that. the trump campaign colluded with russia, and it did not. it never did. joining us now charlie kirk. all right. so at this particular moment in time, charlie, obviously president trump feeling vindicated. which is he taking his victory lap too, too soon? >> i was part of the campaign. i spent 24 hours of the day with don jr. and eric traveling the country and this idea that there's some intergovernmental conspiracy to clued with even russian certify gets to get the president elected is completely ridiculous. but you look at this recent indictment, it's really stunning. i mean, these are 13 russian nationals that supposedly, you know, tried to put division on social media. so what. so they reached a couple million people here and there. that's really the depths of all of this russian

collusion. charles: are you concerned, though, that a foreign country can try to create division. all the outcome sort of disgrace our election process. >> and i think part of it is just how social media operates because you could devise ip addresses, and they're such ease of access. but to have all of these committees and these special investigators for 13 russian nationals that were trying to sew division on social media, most of which did not make a difference i think is such a huge distraction, and it mislabels what this president did, which is win one of the most historic elections in history. and delegitimatizes the effort put to work for middle america. charles: you have the biggest names right now on social media, and they have mentioned this russian indictment. facebook, instagram, youtube, twitter, paypal, are they just outmatched? is there any way they can totally safeguard our election process, considering how large their platforms are? >> it's difficult, and i think they're going to go to great

lengths to try to do so. it's not as if the united states has tried to medal another country's elections either. despite all the cia stuff in the 80 and see '90s, president obama sent his team to undermine benjamin netanyahu. but to say countries don't medal in other people's countries isn't the thing. the this is an issue is that the left was so stunned that president trump won is that they needed to blame it on something. look, facebook and twitter, they're going to need to do a better job regulating their platform internally. liz: is it just an idea, though? it's not just an idea; right? this indictment shows 13 individuals targeting 126 million people with information war; right? and hillary clinton lost what? the wisconsin, pennsylvania, and other state. but michigan by less than 80,000 votes. >> right. it sounds like a lot. but my twitter reaches

2 million, and i would hardly say i reach any of the election. and some of it was for bernie sanders and some of it was for hillary clinton. i'm not saying it's necessarily insignificant, but i am saying in thescopy of political conversation to put a special investigator to try to have 13 russian nationals that they're not going to kick out of the country. charles: i do believe we should take care -- the people looking outside into our country and knowing what hot buttons to push could be a wake-up call for us anyway in a different way. >> without a doubt. charles: they do want to ask you about adam schiff, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee. he's now pointing fingers at president obama over this russia thing. watch this tape. >> i do think, though, that in fairness, some of the responsibility is also attributed to the obama administration for not establishing a more forceful deterrent. i think it goes back to the korean hack of sony in which there was a minimal response. i think that others around the

world watched that and determine that a cost-free intervention. charles: your reaction. >> well, look, adam schiff is now my least favorite person of congress even more so than less than pelosi. but i agree with what he's saying about president obama. he's one of the ones who famously said all men have more flexibility after the election when it comes to russia relations. the obama administration did nothing. they had this and decided not to move on this aggressively or decisively. that was well before president trump even thought of running for president. so, look, i agree with schiff in this instance that president obama's own handpicked intelligence community allowed these russians actors to have more and more of a platform, and they did nothing. so i think a lot of the blame goes on them. charles: there's no doubt that he certainly emboldened them to do more and more. charlie, thank you very much. appreciate it. well, president trump floats the idea of consumption taxes online for online purchases,

gasoline. joining us now dan mitchell the center of freedom and prosperity. all right. we're hearing about a bunch of taxes on how some of these programs work. how do you feel about it? >> i think it's bad news, and it's an inevitable consequence of trump being co-opted signing that big spending deal, that increased spending for both defense and nondefense spending and now what's happening? washington is looking for more ways to take money away from us. and what i don't understand is trump's main accomplishment in 2017 was a tax cut. if he does a big gas tax increase, almost all the benefits for middle class people are going to be wiped out. charles: dan, is president trump living with a reality in dc that he didn't create that the establishment on both sides will not do any sort of deals unless it involves some form of spending. he wanted to help the military. there was only one way they perhaps get it done without another continuous shut down or resolution or shut down. is this just the reality, the political reality the swamp is

murky and if he wants to get deals done, this is what he's going to have to do? >> that's certainly not the excuse that defenders of the administration used for that big spending deal. but i think trump should play hardball on the government shut down. he should have said i don't agree that the military needs a lot more money. i think we should be doing less intervention and nation building overseas. trump said that during the campaign. but set aside the military. if he wanted more money for the pentagon, that doesn't mean he should have just rolled over and accepted more money for a lot of these programs that shouldn't exist in the first place in washington. this is a great -- charles: how do you get infrastructure done without another way of paying for it? >> that's the thing. we shouldn't have federal government involved in infrastructure. there shouldn't be a federal gas tax or federal department of transportation. so much of that money gets siphoned off for mass transit just which is pay off the government workers to fight

the path for government environmental. get government out of -- becoming the swamp creature. charles: the thing that struck me more than anything else is how many people want more government intervention. even republicans are 50% now. which, you know, i know is not traditional. not the orthodoxy, but it feels like that's the way we're being swayed. i do want to ask you about silicon valley valley billionaire peter till because he's leaving silicon valley all because of politics. he can no longer take it. what's your reaction. >> it's kind of funny because silicon valley, especially you look at the big companies like facebook and google and whatnot, they are some of the most crafty international companies in terms of protecting their profits from taxation. and so i sometimes wonder do they act left wing to sort of just buy off the democrats so that they don't get attacked for their tax planning and tax avoidance behavior? and, by the way, i defend

facebook and google to keep the money with their shareholders and not countries around the world. charles: they're not inclusionary in practice. you cannot have a conservative voice in silicon valley. >> this is what's bizarre. they are some of the most greedy capitalist companies imaginable. and i don't object to that. but then they play this left wing game and there's this left wing culture. and part of it i think really doesn't have anything to do with economics. i think it's the culture of silicon valley where, oh, if you're conservative, then you're like these rubes and this elitism where if you're hypersuccessful in silicon valley, it doesn't matter if you actually believe in small government or low taxes. you can't actually behave that way, and i think that's what he's running into. and he's saying i'm out of here. charles: that's why both sides of the aisle claimed steve jobs, perhaps after he passed

away. a big weekend at the box office for black panther. brought in over $190 million over the last few days. the fifth biggest opening of all time. president trump taking a shot at oprah calling a segment she did for 60 minutes slanted and factually correct. if she runs in 2020, he'll beat her. and the fbi admitting it didn't follow up on a tip about the gunman. now there are calls for the fbi director christopher to resign. more varney after this [ telephone rings ] [ client ] - hey maya. hey! you still thinking about opening your own shop?

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charles: president trump putting school safety on his agenda after the school shooting. ashley, you've got the details. ashley: well, according to the white house, they put this out yesterday that had been meeting with students from marjorie high school on thursday. that's all we know. we don't know how many students or where it's going to happen. but we do know that mr. trump has gotten a lot of criticism from the students at the school. in fact, they're calling this march in washington to demand better gun control also calling on people across the country to call for similar marches in their own cities. so mr. trump is going to meet a group of very angry people, that's for sure on thursday. but, again, we don't have the details of how that's going to play out. but he wants to talk to them face to face. neil: i like that with that a lot. in the meantime the fbi admitted that they ignored a tip last month about the florida school shooter. florida governor rick scott tweeting that fbi director christopher ray should resign as a result perform. joining us danny colson, former deputy assistant

director at the fbi. all right. danny, the fbi certainly everyone agrees they dropped the ball. so the big question is should ray consider resigning? >> absolutely not. i mean, every agency makes mistakes. if you look at the system that's in place, the fbi stopped many, many attacks on our society, many terrorists of this very same system. the fbi knows it made a mistake and the director knows that there was a failure there. and the fact that he has admitted it says a lot of good things about him, and he will find it. i promise you the fbi will fix this deficiency, and they'll move on. what the problem here is -- and it may not get fixed, is the system that allows mentally deficient or people that have mental problems to go unaddressed. this man was contacted many, many times by state and local authorities and nothing was done about it. and he went out and bought a

gun. charles: i do have to say, you know, the day when this occurred, i was preparing for my show, and i just googled fbi drops the ball, and i'm reading articles going back to pearl harbor. now, we respect a lot of the fbi. but let's face it. after 9/11, we were promised that there were going to be tighter controls and better communication. and consequently, there have been a lot of mistakes. this isn't just sort of a one-off. >> no. there have been. charles: this is egregious. someone specifically gave details that should have raised raised a red flag and facilitated some action. so the american public isn't going to accept lip service on this. americans want to see exactly what you're going to do to make it better. >> and the director said that. i totally agree. i'm not defending what they did at all. i'm as sickened by it as you are. i'm still part of that culture and the fbi is sticking by it. but i don't think you should throw the baby out with the

bathwater here. the director says he will address it and fix it. we don't want to kill the agency because they made a mistake and this is a horrible mistake. and they are sickened by it. i'm sickened by it. but they will, in fact, fix it. the other part of the problem, i had questions about that and that's something we could talk about maybe another time. but they will fix this, and we'll move on. charles: danny, you mentioned the mental illness aspect of this, and i obviously that's urgent. there's no one who would disagree with that. you do get -- it does get more controversial, though, when you start talking about the gun control aspect of this. people are afraid second amendment rights. there's a large swath of powerful forces that have wanted to take that away from americans for a long time. but is there going to be some sort of movement you think now on some form of gun control? >> i think there will be. and i think what it will be is better background checks. law-abiding citizens who have guns are not going to be the problem. it's the individuals that are

demented or terrorists or some other kind of issue. we need to keep them out of the system. we need to keep them from buying weapons. but another thing, charles. one thing we have to remember too is where there's a will, there's a way. and we need to do a better job protecting our children in schools. they need to have better training, they need to know what to do in an active shooter situation. and we don't have armed policemen in the schools in our country. it's a financial issue and let's address that. it's not a single issue problem here. it's a multifaceted problem we need to address it across the board. charles: danny, i agree 1,000% and maybe this time it will be better. >> i hope so. charles: thank you very much of. appreciate your time this morning. >> yeah. thank you. enjoyed it. thanks. neil: one family blamed for starting fights with passengers and crew. in fact, it got so bad, the ship had to dock early so the cops could remove the unruly passengers. we've got the full details coming up next

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experience nbcuniversal's coverage of the olympic winter games like never before with xfinity. proud partner of team usa. charles: a wild brawl breaks out on a cruise ship in australia. ashley has the details. ashley: my wife's australian. comes from a very large family. i checked the name. i'm okay. as you can tell from this cell phone footage, violent brawl.

the security officer there that can be seen kicking people on the ground. from what we managed to gather is that from the passengers on board, there was a large family of about 23 members who were unruly to say the least. in fact, some passengers described them as just roaming the decks looking for fights. people screaming, people running around said others throwing glasses. they eventually had to dock the ship early after had left australian in the south pacific. six men, three teenagers were taken off the boat and then more of the family members were taken off later. now, those passengers on this -- it was a ten-day cruise -- are wanting their money back but the cruise company said, no, we're not going to do that, but we will give you a 25% discount on another trip. but what an absolute nightmare for all involved. charles: wow. amazing. and they never give you your money back no matter what. well, the president challenging oprah for running

in 2020. liz: oprah winfrey appeared with a panel she's already talked to. this is on 60 minutes. michigan republicans, democrats, and independents asking about the history for sexual misconduct for president trump. the respect for united states around the world. the president didn't like it. tweeted out this: just watched a very insecure oprah winfrey who at one point i knew very well interview a panel of people at 60 minutes. the questions were bias and slanted and the facts incorrect. i hope oprah runs so that she could be exposed and defeated just like all the others. it's unclear what oprah said that called for the insult very insecure. but she asked very tough questions of this panel and their feelings for donald trump. charles: all right. thank you very much. well, good news for anyone looking to retire. a number of people with more than a million dollars in their 401(k) accounts now at a record high. we're all over that. and apple has a problem with its futuristic new headquarters. apparently employees keep walking into glass walls.

we're going to have those details next ..

train to a record 150,000 401(k) millionaires were missing last

year according to fidelity investment from adjoining the now keith fitzgerald with money math prize. you're not surprised by this, are you? >> no, i think it's great. the economy is firing on cylinders. that's good because wealth is growing. that's important money people are going to need in their silver years and now the job is to keep it moving. sure into here the thing that bothers me with the media that doesn't generally cover the markets, but when there are big town. took a couple weeks ago and they blame it on individual investors $100 million came into the market in the market crashed. that kind of thing. >> you know, the mass media really is money here. it is not the investors themselves. the media reports the sensation. they don't look at the history on the track record and they certainly don't look at reality.

investors who came in when the market was lower the smart money. ashley: one more for you because this is a biggie. the trump administration wayne terris. they wanted curb imports to protect national security. the fact we are using the tariff in 1930 date night. a section of that which pertains strictly to national security. when president trump had the meeting with my partisan lawmakers coming talked about the idea of us ever having to go to war in being able to produce a rosenstiel in 11:00 a.m. -- our own steel and aluminum peer >> no one bothers me a lot. an agreement that goes back decades. number two, we don't buy a lot of our steel from china which is the alleged target really get a venture in china, south korea, south america and mexico. to me, and this is a questionable move that will provoke responses against companies like apple, bowling, other high-tech american

manufacturers sold all over the world. i'm not sure the calculus is right. ashley: on friday, the stock was up significantly. still a 14%. that was one of the companies mentioned in the bipartisan meeting penicillin 15% on friday. the market likes the idea somehow balancing it. we know that they are the number one importer steel, but not only in america, but around the world and then has a ripple effect to protect the american interest and perhaps spark greater manufacturing here at home. >> i think you've got a separated. i'm going to step out a step out a lamb. effect a separate political from economic spirit political policy is one issue, the ceos by and large are very good at figuring out how real money has to work. they are good at protecting american jobs and paying for the things and figuring out how to do that under president trump. i'm not so sure the political action here is expedient.

train to this weekend we saw black panthers, huge winner, one of the biggest openings in history movies and certainly a winner for disney. how is this going to impact the stock because, you know, laster was a terrible year for the movie industry, but they're starting off with one of the biggest february openings ever if not the biggest. >> you know, i can't wait to see the spirit i've heard great things about it. my boys are excited about it. so are my -- so is my wife. i think disney itself still has an espn problem. it brings brand ethos alive and saladin gives another franchise to stand on camera releases merchandising rights which are worth billions of dollars. ashley: do you own disney? >> full disclosure i do not disappoint. it has an espn problem. ashley: if you buy it, let us know. >> roger back. ashley: president trump touts

republican gains in here is the tree. john maclachlan now has the gop up in a generic congressional ballot. they gains over the last four weeks. people are loving the big tax cuts given them by their publications. the cuts the dems want to take away. joining us now, herb london with the london center of research. it is obvious that an assortment of polls of the republican party is coming back. the gop has 39-38 in his generic congressional race. people now starting to see the impact of these policies. the mac if you are republican today, what you say to your constituencies are you earning more money? did you look at your check this month? do you find there's more jobs available than the case before? do you put yourself in a position where you ask the obvious question about the state of the economy and the psychology associated with the

economy. all of those fact there is no tape again some sort of success for the republican party. all trump has to do is concentrate on the issues. as i indicated before, the dramatic disparity between the way people see trump in the way they see the issues. they're very positive about the issues, not always positive about the president. trying to close that disparity is an extremely important. ashley: as james carville said, it's the economy. there's no doubt the economic economy that is phenomenal and they are trying to get president obama credit for this sort of ridiculous to be quite frank with you, removal of his policies. and some are saying it's too hot. we may have inflation so they are boxed in pretty on this. >> democrats are unquestionably awesome. the nancy pelosi issue, donald trump, the personality, the fact that he will say things that are sometimes outrageous.

that is the only argument the democrats have. when it comes right down to it, the criticism of the republicans doesn't make much sense. maybe you could've gotten a fatter increase in your weekly wages. maybe. but the check is larger. >> on not know, republicans are set to use the unpopularity of nancy pelosi to launch an attack. democrats are vulnerable in certain areas. it continues to call a thousand bucks, to thousand oaks, paid maternity leave, paid sick leave, billions of dollars in charitable donations. educational things. she continues to call that crumbs. >> of irony republican leadership position today, i would say let's give her a charge account at saks fifth avenue. she campaigned every single day.

she's the best argument the republicans have going for them. ashley: using focusing on nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, older democrats who in my mind seemed to be not only disconnected, but in their own party are sort of saying you don't really represent us anymore. >> the hypocrisy was evident when you listen to mr. schumer. the hypocrisy you have for nancy pelosi clearly suggest a younger democrats these people are out of touch. they don't represent the leadership in the democratic party. ashley: herb london, thank you very much feared we want to look at cary. brian darling joining us. make your case here. government intervention bad for a crypto currency. >> sure, there is a senate banking committee hearing just recently where the securities exchange commission and commodities futures want to

regulate. the federal government desperately wants to regulate cary because it's been so volatile and may see it as -- bitcoin. if the government were to come in and regulate it would destroy a business model that allows peer to peer, to have that peer-to-peer banking that cuts credit card companies out. it is the future of the way we do business in america in the u.s. government could destroy if they overregulate. ashley: it would be argued, could be argued to things. those who don't believe in bitcoin, the fact that it has no guard rails perhaps we'll likely see some government intervention. let's face it, if you're a government with the ability to print fiat currency anywhere in the world, you'll be intimidated by this new crypto currency and perhaps try and destroy it. >> that's exactly right. i own bitcoin. i own a new currency which

strives to be compliant with the anti-money laundering laws. maybe that's the future of these curries niece. maybe there's going to be choice between the eerie in light calling him all these ways to transact business. government does on the crackdown could government wants a piece of the pie. it is what government does than they used the pretext of a lot of problems some of these anonymous currencies have had with bad guys using them and not as a problem. basically these crypto currencies these crypto currency skin self-regulating entries to people, they will flourish. ashley: one more for you. your opinion on consumption tax. >> i'm against it. it's a terrible idea. i'm a big supporter president donald trump. his tax cuts are great. put more money in my pocket, lower corporate taxes so we can answer us more jobs to america.

that's a middle-class tax hike. if you have an internet tax hike, that will take away a lot of benefit that they've given average americans. it seems like a big mistake that goes against the trump tax cuts, the idea of making the american economy great again. ashley: brian darling, thank you. appreciate it. well, apple employees are walking into walls at headquarters. liz: two cases are so bad they had to call emergency services to help these workers. this is the estimated $5 billion new spaceship in cupertino that has 45-foot high walls, glass indoors and mayor kurt. people get distracted on their eyes phones or devices glued to them and they are walking into these walls. the workers started putting post-it notes saying don't live here to alert that this is class. apparently the company took it down because it conflicted with the design of the building.

so that is an astonishingly beautiful campus, but it's apparently dangerous to work in. ashley: aesthetics over safety. charles: these are the brightest minds here by the way, in silicon valley. ashley: thank you does. he reports that chinese security officials tried to stop president trump are bringing the nuclear football into the great hall of beijing. it even got physical ending with a secret service agent tackling a chinese official, taking into the ground. we've got full details coming out. 13 russians indicted for meddling with the election. how to respond to that? colonel ralph peters, the man with the answers, is next. ♪

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train to a report says the u.s. and china tingled over the nuclear football during the president's visit to beijing. actually coming you've got details. charles: the same in the u.s. military carried the nuclear football, a briefcase with the nuclear code always travels with the president. so if they are going into the great hall in china, chinese security officials balked the president with the nuclear codes. words were exchanged. next thing you know come a secret service agent grabbed the chinese security official, tackled him to the ground. this is all going on while the president carried on down the hall. now the chinese saying it's a terrible mistake. we know that you have this person traveling with the president and you told us ahead of time that her security officials didn't get the memo as they say and try to prevent the person from moving forward. apologies all around the quite a remarkable scene. at no time did chinese officials

ever get their hands on the nuclear football as it is called or anywhere close to it. ashley: amazing. charles: bizarre but true. meanwhile, 13 russian officials have been indicted for meddling with the election. ralph peters and, how should we respond to this? >> well, the first thing we should do is implement the sanctions already approved 98-to bite the u.s. senate. we are not punishing rationale for what is and why is and remains an attack on the fundamental tool of our democracy, free and fair elections. charles, the problem we have as americans is who made the dreadful mistake of politicizing medicine personalizing this. president trump sees it through his own personal wednesday the democrats see it to a get trump lines. republicans are low with a torn map is the patriotism of lindsey graham or john mccain to the

dubious behavior of devin nunes. we should all be united on this. the russians attacked our election system. not that any individual or political party. it's about the integrity of our elections, which again is the foundation of our system. ashley: well, and to your point, even adam schiff acknowledged that they may have been emboldened going back to the obama presidency after the sony hack and there was very little done. with sanctions alone be enough? obviously, hugely successful for shot in the sense we are talking about to your point, they've been able to stir frustrations and animosities among americans and debate an article about how they had anger with the black voters and everyone is taking this thing so personal that they are going to keep trying. >> it is about our country, the foundation, the bedrock of our democracy. we've got to get beyond politics

peter sanctions enough? no, they are not enough. they're a nice start. putin is hurting economically and money matters. it really does as you know very well in the show knows very well. beyond not, we need to be really aggressively responding to our intelligence capabilities, through our own information capabilities and honestly, the president needs to get over his personal thoughts about it and provide leadership in stand up to the russians. this cannot be permitted to go on. even when they aren't successful, so it's doubt and discord and we the people cannot afford that. so while americans of any political stripe should take this very, very seriously and not make excuses for the russians or anyone else. ashley: yeah come away we will see if that happens. i'm just very doubtful. the president now looking at there is still an aluminum

imports. this of course in the name of national security back in 1938 component there that would allow for special tariffs. i don't think would have to go to congress if indeed they can interfere with national security. what are your thoughts on that? >> i am generally a free-trade guy. i don't think tariffs or the right way to go most of the time, but there are exceptions. the issue of steel and aluminum capacity in our country is indeed a national security issue. despite the importance of microchips and 21st century warfare, tanks, artillery, most aircraft, ships still rely on steel and aluminum and we cannot be relying on foreign sources. we buy a relatively modest amount of steel and aluminum from china. as you know, the world markets or in a related and anything but ultimately baker's the u.s. steel and aluminum industries

profoundly hurts us. when i was growing up in the gold country pennsylvania, a mile from my house there is this vast aluminum plant. it was critical in world war ii. it is not there anymore. it's used for other purposes. the threat to our security by the destruction of american heavy industry is far more profound than most people realize. in a war, if we were at war with china you can't buy steel from china. >> that says it all. colonel ralph peters, thank you. we appreciated always. >> thank you, charles peered ashley: a big night for nascar, a lot of drama on the track and other feel-good crashes, too. we'll wrap it up with kyl petty, next.

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true into austin dillon is crowned the new daytona 500 champion. veteran nascar driver kyle petty with his thoughts. great day for nascar yesterday, wasn't it? >> yes, it was.

an exciting way to kick off this evening. a lot of things happened down there. when you run with the new rules package the nascar came out this year with a chevy which is a different aero package, so many new things happened, but it's still exciting and it's our super bowl and a great way to start the season. charles: it felt like what was new again. the number three by the number 43 car. so many worlds and stories. are the children of great. you know, your father, the number 43 car commie was amazing because that's another one of the stories of an emerging driver spreading this sort of nascar among young people in other people and it feels so exciting. >> yeah, it is. nascar has gone in a different direction. there is a youth movement in the sport right now with daniel suarez, jolie look on no, chased

elliott, rob laney who went so much to the race. in a great story, and the second african-american to come into our sport and his first daytona 500 he drives that car to a second place finish. my father couldn't have been happier. a great day in so many aspects for the sport. charles: let me ask you off so. there is the racks and the danger involved in of course danica patrick and her last race basically finished 34, but she spun out there. you are getting a wider base obviously, but she had a major impact on the sport as well. >> you know what, i'm not sure we can measure her impact on the sport. although she was here for sure. time, five or six years in the nascar arena, the fan base has broadened and i know the female fan base has broadened. i think her effect will be felled five, 10, 15 years down

the road when we see more females come into the sport, hopefully in ownership positions in crew chief positions and driver positions. this has given her female audience an opportunity to look at our sport and say there is a place there. guess jenna came along in the 70s and we've had other women her female drivers come along, but danica did the most for the sport. charles: i want to ask you because right behind you you are working at liberty tax service is in specific, you are trying to sure veterans are not paying over taxes. >> yes, disabled veterans, especially if we go back to 1991, congress and the government has found a mistake made at that point in time and a lot of disabled veterans. 130,000 individuals were overtaxed. what liberty tax service is doing is they will go back and filed an amended tax return for these veterans.

they will be getting a letter from the government, from the defense department if they were overtaxed if they will go to one of the thousands of liberty tax service locations. charles: i have to let you go. thank you very much. it is a wonderful service. more "varney" after this. with anoro. ♪go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators, that work together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. anoro is not for asthma . it contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death . . . . once a day. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder, or urinary problems. these may worsen with anoro. call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain,

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charles: 10 a.m. on the east coast. 7:00 a.m. on the west coast, no your eyes are not deceiving you, we are live. here is it what we have for you this hour. while the other guys are asleep, robert mueller's russian probe, 13 russians indicted more meddling in our election. no collusion or impact on the results but we have the fallout. one leading democrat says president obama's lackluster to the sony hack from north korea actually laid the groundwork for russia's meddling. we're all over that. venezuela's president launching commodity backed crypto currency. hoping to get around western sanctions. we'll see if it makes any difference. the fda approving a blood test

to detect concussions in people, identifying brain injuries more quickly. dr. seeing bell will tell us how much of a game change they are will be. "the black man they are" dominating the bock office this weekend. i'm charles payne in for stuart varney. you're watching the second hour of "varney & company." ♪ charles: we begin with this, robert mueller indicting three russian companies and 13 individuals for interfering with a 2016 presidential election but there was no evidence that the trump campaign had anything to do with it. tammy bruce, fox news contributor joins us now. all right, tammy, has president trump indeed been vindicated? >> i think so but at the same time part of their public rhetoric need to change. the democrats have moved the goalpost saying, well at least

proves the russian involvement wasn't a hoax and president trump kept saying that it was. president trump made that clear on twitter as well, just i think today, that or late yesterday. that this, his claims about the hoax was never about the fact that the russians were involved or russians were doing something. it was collusion that was the hoax. charles: sure. >> that is the kind of reality that the president needs to make clear. at the same time when president, candidate then trump was complaining about interference in the election in 2016, in october, president obama was telling him to stop whining about interference, and so this is when obama and that team thought that hillary was going to win. they didn't want that specter over the results of the election. so only after the election did obama in the last few weeks of his term in december of '16 act on russians. because it was clear their girl

wasn't going to win. charles: did you see rush limbaugh cautioning president trump about being vindicated, it validates the investigation in of itself which many republicans, many people in general see as sort of a witch-hunt against president trump anyway. so why validate the process no matter what the outcome? >> even especially if it's a witch-hunt and they still couldn't come up with what they wanted to come up with with it is important thing to state but at the same time some individuals are noting this isn't necessarily over. you also if you announce an indictment, it is interesting, when you indict people it is to get them to help whatever else you're working on. indicting people you can't even arrest, kind of makes that a non-workable framework and it doesn't help if people are saying this is just the beginning, the shoe will drop on the president. seems like when this is the indictment that doesn't actually make much sense. charles: mueller had to put something out there at this point, because it has been going

on a long time. maybe bought himself a little time. >> president is right i would say. charles: adam schiff, the top democrat on the house intel committee blaming the obama administration for paving the way for the russian meddling. here is what he had to say. roll tape. >> i do think though in fairness some of the responsibility is attributing to the obama administration for not establishing a more forceful deterrent. i think it goes back to the korean hack of sony in which there was a minutable response. others around the world watched that and determined cyber is a cost-free intervention. charles: tammy, what is your reaction? >> not just cyber, we know what the indictments were on, kind of silly actions happening, $1.2 million in a fund and 90 people had an effect there. keep in mind in 2014 the israelis called a new election

at the end. also what was public knowledge was that the obama administration was interfering in that election with an ngo called one voice. so here you have got the obama administration also what we found was funded by our state department by $350,000, was part of that interference. so, we've done it. we have, so we openly, with ngo associated with obama's 2008 campaign, were interfering with the israeli election through 2015. so we have been doing it. part of putin's argument also, why this was an anti-hillary effort was their argument that her state department when she was secretary of state was interfering with the russian election. so i it would be very difficult for obama to condemn it when we were openly at the time in 2014 interfering in an election ourselves. charles: schiff is admitting, i think it is sort of newsworthy that president obama emboldened this sort of thing. many people think he was feckless, emboldened terrorists chinese, north koreans and even

would be meddlers in our election. >> schiff's effort is give himself some credibility which is difficult for mr. schiff these days. charles: i want to shift topic as little bit. treasury secretary steve mnuchin saying president trump strongly favors online sales tax. burt fleckinger, resource group managing director. burt, boy, this would obviously hurt amazon, which many people say for years has an unfair advantage to brick and mortar but would it hurt the sort of economic momentum we're seeing for consumers? >> it wouldn't really hurt the economic momentum. what it would to your earlier point, charles, really establish a balance in the competitive playing field. that would end government giveaways. would establish a level playing field tax collection for all businesses regardless of size and then maybe the federal trade commission would go after amazon for section 2 and section 3 violations, predatory pricing

anti-competitive practices and we had a record number of bankruptcies, 12 major chains in 2017. we'll have even more in yate. the wealthiest guy in the world, jeff bezos, number two, walton family and walmart doesn't need unfair breaks. we need tax dollars. every time one of the bricks and mortar retailers go bankrupt -- charles: what about consume that's use amazon, will that hurt them at all? >> that is a great question, with price discovery you're seeing deflation in non-consumable areas. you're seeing apparel, accessories, consumer electronics, key everyday items. unit price is declining year-over-year. even with amazon not having advantage, consumers are outsmarting stores. pricewaterhousecoopers, my alma mater, buy on price, whether amazon or somebody else. charles: last cpi apparel was up

pretty big. >> asian stocks dropping below a dollar, taking a price increase for financial stability. one-time event. charles: took a hit on volume because they had to do it in because they're in dire straits. >> not dire straits. but they need the cash flow. they don't want to be in dire straits. charles: look at amazon. they're looking to sell medical supplies, medical equipment, getting into lending with bank of america. listen, they have their tentacles in all aspects of our lives. forgetting about the antitrust elements of that, is it simply too much for one company to try to do everything for everyone? >> too much for amazon's retail empire. almost like the roman retail empire, when they were fighting wars on every front and every theater of what was the old world globe, amazon is getting crushed on the new whole foods openings. everybody caught up. walmart, joe dash, in niagra falls are beating their brains n amazon is doing well in aws or

amazon web services. cloud. charles: we know that is where they get all the money. >> to go to health when they're struggling in food it, was easy to beat up borders, barnes & noble and b dalton books in the areas they're getting now are particularly tough. charles: anytime they mention or suggested they get into other industry, the stocks established in that industry get hammered. every single time, wall street acts like they will be successful in every endeavor they take up. >> you're right. wall street erroneous deductions and conclusions. tom ryan, at put together a terrific team at cvs. charles: are you suggesting if amazon keep this up, maybe old school brick-and-mortar could come the modern day goths and visigoths take them down. >> bingo. charles: thank you. president trump would support stricter background checks for

gun buyers. we're all over that. venezuela getting around sanctions to launch its own cryptocurrency as it struggles to feed its citizens. the black panther bringing in over 192 million this weekend. hollywood would need a lot more to get people off the couches into the theaters. stay with us. we're live. ♪

charles: now this, general electric is exploring selling its gas industrial business. emac, how much? liz: that is a great question. possibly two billion. here is the problem. ge is struggling to bring good things to life on its balance sheet. they lost $130 billion in last year-and-a-half in market value. the stock is cut in half. debt continues to swamp the book value. ceo john flannery is seeking to break up parts of the business, selling of $30 billion of business. industrial part of it. plants are becoming robotic and automated. so do they need ge services? power division and health care and aviation. the power division lost 45% in profit last year. this company still in a world of pain. charles: immelt really blew it. took most powerful, richests

wealthiest company in the world and left it in shambles. speaking of shambles, venezuela's nicolas maduro will sell cryptocurrency backed by oil. the government claims 100 million bet troh dollars will be worth $6 billion. "blood profits" author vanessa neumann joins us. it sound like a crazy long shot. any chance of this is working? >> that is all he has left is crazy long shots. the country is facing 13,000% inflation according to imf in 2018. that is one .5% an hour. here are the pros and cons. people of venezuela are mining bitcoin for a long time to get around the government, maduro government for them to trade and to store value and buy stuff in this hyperinflationary scenario. what the people of venezuela don'ts want is for the maduro regime to get their own cryptocurrency so they continue

indebting the country and stay in power. charles: and it, again, there is 1500 cryptocurrencies out there and it is hard for me to believe anyone would want to tinker around with this one, with this government has to be on the brink of some sort of trouble? you wonder when the ultimate uprising would occur. i remember chavez always raising pay for police and military significantly and maduro kept that practice going but how long can they keep him in power? >> you bring up two really excellent points. so the military is literally just leaving the country, a lot of them. some have been trying to rise up. they have been captured and tortured. some have gone over the border, either joined insurgencies in colombia. some joined the colombia army. they know how to wield a weapon. they want a paycheck for the moment. you have that complexity. you have the problem exactlies, do you want to do business with

these guys? do you trust the maduro regime? the answer is no. the u.s. treasury department came out and said we consider this sanctionable offense because as the past the sanctions because it's a debt renegotiation. they also try to set it up because it is illegal, was illegal according to their own laws because in venezuelan law in order to protect national sovereignty you can't guarranty what is under the soil as debt collateral. that is why they try to put it as barrels of oil. here is the other problem. nobody knows how big venezuela's debt is really. already those barrels, they can't produce them fast enough because of collapsing infrastructure and china owns it all. so it's a bad deal. charles: i mean of course we're seeing repercussions of kicking out all the western companies, particularly american companies. >> correct. charles: they don't have the skills or expertise to get to the oil they possess. >> that's correct. what we really need is for the americans to come back in.

and for the reconstruction to begin and that will only happen when the maduro regime is out. everybody is placing their bets that will happen sooner or later. if we have another up rising with a little bit of military backing and they don't just all skedaddle over the border, you know, looks like that will happen sooner rather than later. charles: right. you know what? there have been a whole lot of regimes in south america over the years that looked like they had an iron grip and eventually the people did rise up and perhaps that will happen. it will happen there because maduro will never do right thing. we always appreciate when you come on, vanessa. you're a great guest. >> thank you so much. a pleasure. charles: several companies are competing to win digital streaming rights for the nfl's thursday day night package. ashley: youtube, twitter, amazon, verizon all in the running. twitter paid $10 million in 2016

to carry the nfl package. amazon paid 50 million. how much will it cost for the next season? we don't know but the nfl would like a whole lot more than 50 million. problem, youtube wants desperately so get into this but it is fragmented. verizon already has streaming rights for the nfl. amazon we understand may drop out of the bidding for this because of concerns over some parts of the contract although we don't know what that contract and what the issue is that they don't like but we do know that the nfl tv audience is shrinking. it was down 13% in 2017. down even more in the playoffs. the question how many people watch the nfl on a friday night on twitter as opposed to or amazon as opposed to the tv? i can tell you last season early game between the bears and packers, you had 373,000 people on amazon. okay, 373,000. on television it was 14.6 million. so we're talking about a very small amount of people that actually watch on social platforms but they all want a

piece of the action. charles: gives them some form of legitimacy but it is expensive. ashley: it is. liz: amazon needs to raise the prime membership a buck. charles: or send more coupons to my house. anyway -- out of silicon valley because of his liberal politics and mean-spiritedness they have towards conservatives of the he is not the only one though. we'll have more on that next. ♪ [fbi agent] you're a brave man, mr. stevens. your testimony will save lives. mr. stevens? this is your new name.

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charles: billionaire tech investor peter thiel says he plans to leave silicon valley. by the way he is not only one. several tech workers and entrepreneurs are leaving because of politics. want to bring in tammy bruce, fox news contributor. you're well aware of california politics but this is something different. this is sort of the people who preach to us all the time about inclusiveness and those things really don't practice it. >> they don't. he found out exactly. this is shock when you're a liberal, i come from that end, you're really emersed in it, well within the acceptable behavior, it is when you suddenly don't conform, you find out how bad it is. so obviously mr. thiel has gone through that process. it can be a shock. i believe ivanka and jared kushner are going through that process. it becomes quite the shock. the good news if you're someone like mr. thiel, who you can make your own decisions, you can get out of that muck, you do so, because it becomes quite surreal. politically you move through

something, an entrepreneur or inventor you need to be able to think out of the box, where suddenly you realize the restrictions that exist. charles: the idea that again, i just find it so amazing that they talk all the time while the silicon valley, hollywood about free expression and when you have an expression they don't agree with it, they beat you down. >> this was effort with classical liberals even through the civil rights movement, real individual freedom, really new ideas, the freedom to create, live the life that best suited you, the difference when the left they win, they co-opt that, they continue with the rhetoric and slogans but it becomes of course once they get power to control it. you can't really run a business when you have to conform. you can't come up with new ideas. that is peter thiel's bailiwick if you will, how it will make this marketplace work. you can't do it under the circumstances. so he is doing, i think what every independent does, which is find his own way.

many more need to. charles: millions of people left the whole state entirely. thank you very much. social media in the spotlight after mueller's indictment, facebook, instagram alone, mentioned 41 times in that indictment. we're on top of that. also the fda approving a blood test that detects concussions in people. could this be a game-changer in identifying these brain injuries much quicker? dr. marc siegel is next. ♪

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charles: we always play the beatles just in his honor no matter what. 10:30 on the east coast. 7:30 out west. that means of course the beatles are playing. that means this, record number of investors have a million dollars in 401(k). great news. emacs. liz: 150,000 according to fidelity. watch this, the number of women 401(k) millionaires doubled over last 10 years. percentage of average savings rate is higher in 10 years. investor euphoria, stock market gains created a lot of 401(k) millionaires. rule of thumb, you should have 10 times your annual income for your retirement. charles: whoa!, 10 times? where did that come from? no way. liz: i will be sticking around longer. charles: i heard three months. people find that one to be tough. liz: liz: is that rule of thumb?

charles: maybe the government promised that in social security. i don't want to divert too far. thanks. president trump will meet with teachers and students from the florida school shooting this weekend. the white house says he supports efforts to increase background checks. kristin tate, "the hill" contributor joins us now. kristin, what do you make of that? president trump he met with first-responders friday night. he met with some of the victims already. he will now meet with students and teachers alot who have been critical of him? >> as stuart varney said on the show last week, trump is not an ideologue. he is a pragmatist. he has shown he is willing to rise above politics and do whatever it takes to work towards a solution even if not everybody is happy. we saw that with his surprising daca proposal. now it looks like he is going to do it again with background checks. on friday president trump with senate majority whip john cornyn who introduced the bill with senate democrats chris murphy.

the bill strengthens federal compliance with background check regulation. the bottom line, charles, trump is not going to propose any kind of knee-jerk reaction legislation to ban all guns, nor is he going to completely ignore this issue like traditional republicans may have done in the past. he is really going to hear ideas from all sides of the aisle. he is going to talk to all kind of folks with the goal of coming up with smart, thoughtful policy, president trump took criticism in the initial statement when he focused on the mental illness aspect and gun wasn't mentioned. no matter what he does, there will be a lot of people that will criticize him. you make the point, even a lot of democrats these days are not saying get rid of guns completely. it was a disaster when they thought they could do that early under president obama. what kind of compromises could there be out there. >> there are some compromises.

trump is willing to look at them. he talked about mental health. he talked about background checks and make those stronger and federal compliances. as you mentioned, charles, it is really unfortunate that the media and left used this tragic shooting as political opportunity to demonize donald trump, guns, gun owners, gop, and nra the narrative seems to be and the donald trump and gop are somehow complicit in the mass murder of our schoolchildren. as rahm emanuel once said, never let a good crisis go to waste and the left sure isn't but i don't think donald trump will let partisan attacks hinder his progstress, nor has he closed the door to working with democrats. this is the most unorthodox presidency in our lifetime. the american people are finally glad to have a pragmatist in office who is solutioned-based. charles: to that point, before i let you go, more and more republicans will reconsider their positions on this and, you

know, is that the trump effect? that you know, where again, sort of in the past, everyone was afraid, listen, there were a lot of second amendment folks out there who had legitimate worries they were going to lose all of their rights to gun ownership and second amendment was under attack. so is this perhaps the right president to make these changes? >> it very well may be. this isn't about politics. something needs to be done here. we don't want to infink on anybody's rights but clear some steps need to be taken to protect the most vulnerable, our children and our schools. hopefully president trump can be the leader to bridge the gap, bring people together, hear all sides, come up with a solution that keeps people safe without infringing on rights. charles: kristin tate, thanks very much. appreciate it. >> thanks as always, charles. charles: back to the russian investigation. some of the biggest social media names were mentioned in the indictment, facebook, incity gram were mentioned the most --

instagram. 41 times each. joe concha, hill media reporter is with us. social media giants we hear about them, these sort of incidents with terrorism or mass shootings, where does it go now? we're already talking about politics changing perhaps in the aftermath of this. how does social media change? >> well, obviously now they have a head's up. now they have actually being included in an indictment tends to give you a head's up, 41 times as you mentioned to be much more careful use the resources they have. clearly facebook, for instance has the resources given how they'ring doing from a profit perspective. the stock is a little bit down obviously but still 177 points, it debuted around 25, right? they are doing pretty well, and they have the resources but i think the story in terms of changing votes, charles, is a bit overblown. when you dig into the indictment and facebook report they gave congress, 50% of the ads bought by russians were less than $3.

in other words, that doesn't get you a lot of placement. 99% of the ads were less than $1000. in digital world that doesn't get you that far. the vp at facebook advertising very few outlets, covered aspect, half the ads were bought after the election, you can't influence an election after it is already over, very few outlets covered it doesn't align the main media narrative trump and election. golden got bullied and beaten up on social media saying that by the very media he was calling out as a result. charles: he called the media a bully. got bullied by the media. it's a valid point. nonetheless these nice are smart and they understand the pressure they're under and microscope that they're under. is it possible for them to, there is no way they will be able to perhaps monitor billions of people but, you do expect them to make some sort of changes and perhaps to

acknowledge and promote those changes, even if it is in a self-interest? >> yeah. they are, absolutely. we've heard that, this is very bad pr. you don't want company being seen as helping russians sow discord and doubt into our free elections. that was the goal here. that is very clear. charles i go back to the fact, how many votes in wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania, those three key states, the blue wall, how many were changed as a result of a 3-dollar ad in facebook, somebody read it, i was going to vote for hillary clinton but i have my eye on jill stein or i will flip to donald trump. effect of the overall outcome of election is vastly overblown through russian efforts. it is bad yes, it should be fixed yes, but the election in my mind didn't change as a result of 3-dollar ads on facebook or instagram or anywhere else, that is insulting to american people who are paying attention to a lot of other things besides ads on a

social media page. charles: maybe would be hillary voters changed their mind when she didn't show up to campaign. >> in wisconsin. charles: maybe that played a bigger role. joe, thank you very much, buddy, appreciate it. now this, concussions can be detected with a new blood test approved by the fda. dr. marc siegel joins us right now. what does this mean? >> it is the ban i don't know brain indicator. it is a test looking at blood test, two proteins that tend to go up when you have damage to the brain. the pentagon studded for us. they looked at 2,000 people, over 95% sensitivity, meaning 95% of the time if you have damage to the brain you're going to see these proteins go up. you know what that means for us? 2.8 million visits for head trauma to the emergency room we'll do more, who should we do a cat scan on, who shouldn't we, who should we do an mri on, who

we shouldn't be. if you have the proteets up you may have actual brain damage and a if you don't you may not. we overdo tests. may decrease tendency to overdo the test. you could have a concussion, no actual brain trauma, brain damage, bleeding in the brain, some lesion in the brain, you could still have a mild concussion have the proteins elevated but if they're up, we worry. that is something that the fda has now given us an additional tool. imagine that, a simple blood test will tell us we better scan you. charles: so the applications for this, you know, can we be proactive with this? so interesting because you're saying perhaps fewer mris and unnecessary tests but could be applied to people who may not know that they have any sort of traumama or any sort of damage to the brains? could it be a preventative measure as well? >> hugely important point you made.

the military devised this for use in combat but it will be very important in high school football fields. 50,000 deaths among the 2.8 million people. 50,000 deaths from emergency room trauma that wasn't realized. so somebody gets clocked, i will say get them in, get them scanned right away and keep them off the field. a lot of times with concussions people go right back on and keep playing again. biel no more evidence to keep them off the field. that is key. charles: doc siegel, thank you very much. >> appreciate it. charles: "the black panther" dominating the box office this weekend but be honest, beyond that, hollywood had fewer hits. a lot of people can't watch whatever they want. they don't like the hollywood movies. but when you watch you can sit at home. you have a lot of alternatives there. catch me every week night at 6:00 p.m. eastern on fox business. making money, that is what i try to make for you every night. more "varney" next.

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>> in the last hour former fbi deputy assistant director danny cowles son explains why the

agency's leader christopher wray should not resign after the florida school shooting. take a listen. >> absolutely not. every agency makes mistakes. if you look at the system that is in place, the fbi stopped many, many attacks on our society. they apprehended many terrorists by this very same system. the fbi knows it made a mistake. the director knows there was a failure there. the fact that he is admitted it says a lot of good things about him. he will find it. i will promise you the fbi will fix this deficiency and they will move on. what the problem here is, maybe, may not get fixed, is the system that allows mentally-deficient or people that have mental problems to go unaddressed.

charles: the superhero film, "the black panther" hit theaters and brought in record 192 million. but hits like this are fewer apart in 2016. total box office gross $11 billion, 3% down from the year before. we have ceo of national association of theater owners and he joins us now. john, face it, box office under a lot of pressure. netflix is spending $8 billion on content. you have all the others coming in there as well. how does the industry turn it around in the face of that onslaught?

>> first let's talk a minute about what great success "black panther" was this weekend. $230 million over four days domestically, 400 million globally. the second biggest opening in the history. movie business. it is quite historic. happening in the middle of february at a time we typically don't get big pictures like this. it is a sign of strength about the movie theater business. netflix is not challenging the movie theater business. netflix is disrupting home entertainment business. home entertainment is dollars are on decline because of streaming services. we had 11 billion a year in a row domestically. charles: everything is hunky-dory then? >> when we get the product it works. but in 2017 we don't have the move is. last four years, up four down one. that is driven by product in particular year.

charles: that is tough though. it was like clock work every year. the products vary. until "it" was released it was one of worst years on record. just honest assessment of it, if you're saying everything is working everything is fine, that's okay. i watch the stocks of some of these companies, i watch them go down dramatically, feels like there is some sort of problem with the industry. you mentioned the product, did hollywood good too political at one point? were they making movies satisfied hollywood or maybe not the general public? >> certainly we want product that satisfies all the public. that is why "black panther" is such a tremendous success story. 37% of the audience was african-american. usually about 15. we need diversity on all content and themes. movies that appeal to conservatives, liberals, movies that appeal to all demographics come out 12 months of the year. when we get diverse product spread out across the year, appeals to diverse audiences our

business grows. when we don't which happened last year, our business can shrink. as long as product is there, appeal to diverse audiences -- charles: i love the "black panther" movies, that there was that they didn't work overseas. china and india dictate content that, was excuse for hollywood not to make black movies. that has been turned upside down with a string of successes. >> it has. which did 160 million in some territories overseas this past weekend. hasn't opened in so bigger territoriries. this is playing in places like korea, uk, hong kong, where the the -- myth of black cast not totally working has been dispelled. charles: that is good to hear. they're talking about same day releases on internet of, major motion pictures. we're seeing it now with lack of a better term, "b" movies if you will but at some point this

competition that you say is nonexistent feels like it will become more intense. there will be more pressure on traditional movie theaters. trying to make up for it with food. we saw. quote jumanji, ordered food and shakes didn't arrive. there are kinks to work out. you can't just put up a movie anymore. you have to have reclining seats and fresh food. >> we have to get the best possible experience to get people off the couch and out to the movie theaters. that is happening with the recliner seats, best sound systems, bigger screens and amenities with food and beverage we're getting a much better experience than ever before. the great thing with a movie like "black panther," there might be people have not been out a couple years for this blockbuster, saying this is great experience, i might come back more often. that is why this movie so important to us. charles: john you do your industry so well.

>> thank you. charles: apple employees at headquarters keep walking into walls. liz: this is astonishing. 5 billion-dollar spaceship type campus. it is luxurious and gorgeous however market watch is saying number of employees walking into the curved glass walls there gotten so bad, emergency services had to be called in two serious cases. so, the workers are saying hey we'll put sticky notes on some of these glass walls and doors so people don't walk into them. apparently reportedly their bosses took the sticky notes off because it ruined design and look of the building. this is estimated 5 billion-dollar campus in cupertino, they're walking into walls because glued to their iphones and devices. charles: the at the time ticks over safety. thanks a lot. liz: sure. charles: president trump's top trade advisors are calling for potential new tariffs on steel imports. the head of a steel company calls it long overdue and he will be here with us next, next

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ashley: social media companies firmly in the spotlight after being mentioned numerous times in the russian meddling indictments. hillary vaughn following the story and joins us now with more on this story. hillary? reporter: hey, ashley. well, facebook alone was mentioned 41 times in mueller's indictment that accuses 13 russian citizens of interfering in the presidential election. so facebook over the weekend announcing some changes leading up to the midterm elections to make sure that fake political ads aren't proliferates on their site. facebook's global director of policy saying at the national association of secretaries of state this weekend in washington, d.c., that facebook will start sending postcards by u.s. mail to verify political ad buyers actually live here in the u.s. here is how it works. the postcards would have a code buyers need to enter to confirm they're located here in the u.s. but the company admits this new step won't solve everything that went wrong in 2016.

facebook vice president of ads rob goldman, getting a shoutout from the president over the weekend after goldman tweeted this, most of the coverage of russian meddling involves their attempt to affect the outcome of 2016 election. i have seen all the russian ads, i can say very definitely swaying the election was not the main goal. he continues, the that majority of the russian ad spend after the election. we shared that fact but very few outlets have covered it because it doesn't align with the main media narrative of trump and election but facebook not only company mentioned, ashley in this indictment. twitter was as well. ashley: to be continued as they say. hillary vaughn, thank you very much. appreciate it. very quickly we have a teenager who made millions of dollars investing in bitcoin. he will tell us his secret to success. i want to know it. it is coming up in the next hour. don't♪ go away. use my body can l make its own insulin.

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charles: good morning. i'm charles payne in for stuart. he will be back tomorrow. now here is a question that

everyone is asking themselves last week, does this rally continue. we are coming off a stelar week, it was the biggest week since november 2016, so is this market going to continue? it's been a couple of wild weeks. by the way, another big question is this vindication for president trump, he says there's no collusion between his campaign and russia, he's been saying that from day one and pounding pounding the table with the indictment of 13 russian nationals and also president trump top trade advisers calling for tariffs on steel imports. and ar-15 rifle once again in the spot slight after being used in florida school shooting, the president and ceo of ar-15 gun owners of america responds to critics to say that that rifle needs to be ban. meanwhile california residents will elect a new governor this year and new polls show that top

two democrats are way out in front yet there is a republican candidate and he thinks he can win the formally golden state, he will be with us. the third hour of varney & company starts right now. ♪ >> while cnbc is on break, we are open for business. which he-- charles: we are live. we, of course, want to get ahead of the market, the dow, s&p, they are up six trading days in a row. i want to bring in the man himself, jonathan, jonathan, we have a heck of a winning streak, will it continue? >> you can't take today off, charles, i know we are not taking today off because the markets continue to move, the

futures and despite a great couple of days i don't think the correction yet is over. i don't think the big trend in stocks is yet upward as it has been and for most people, given matters of level of individual debt they have the best move is probably sitting on your hands. charles: the problem with that, jonathan, is when do you get back in? i know a lot of people who got out of the market. it's a dangerous game when people say i'm going to get out now and assume that somehow i will pick a bottom and get back in. >> it always depends on your contacts, charles, from individual that is have the long-time horizon, 5% in s&p shouldn't make a difference. ironically i don't think you should buy it lower. for most stocks you should buy higher. when i look at the list of new etf highs like soybeans and

japanese yen and commodity related and inflation-related trades, when i look at one-month lows it's bond markets. i would want to get back in when i see more assets. >> let's turn our attention to bitcoin. i know i've been told you're not a fan but it made a nice reversal and in fact, it broke out 11,000 for the first time since january, is this comeback potentially real? >> well, i have to say, charles, i'm not a fan but i'm not a hater. i mean, you have have to channel gordon and say i look a hundred deals a day and i choose one. it's betting on 100% move back to 20,000 for bitcoin, is that your best bet given all the other ideas you have in the marketplace right now? for me it's not.

charles: what about the folks drawing, millennials who are drawn, the fact that it went to 20,000 real quick, a new currency that matches a new day and age, new-technology driven, revolutionary kind of thing that they want to be a part of. we have gone on tv and most people gone on tv and they see the stocks are in sale, how come bitcoin can't be on sale right now? >> for one thing, bitcoin tends to be correlated to the stock market now. recent research out from morgan stanley saying that people are viewing bitcoin, the market is viewing bitcoin as risk asset and when the market goes up, bitcoin tends to go up. i have seen that in the last couple of days and weeks. in terms of investing in the future, i think you to put that type of fantasy aside a little bit. the same thing was said in the 1990's. you have to own microsoft, you to own cisco. the companies that are building

the future, a lot of the stocks are getting back to where they were 15 or 16 and 17 and 18 years ago. don't confuse a dream with astet in portfolio. charles: i want to switch gears again because there's a proposed consumption tax coming, potentially president trump floating higher federal gas tax and sales tax, what are your thoughts on that? >> i think it's a bait and switch, charles. you can't be for lower taxes when at the same time you're floating new taxes and ironically consumption taxes on something benign as gas. if the president wants to raise money for infrastructure, a great idea, charles, in my mind privatizing it and costing the taxpayer money and improve service that is so many know and why not do something revolutionary and privatize airports an privatize post offices and the infrastructure,

then you'll see it soar. charles: become 1.5 trillion, a lot of opportunities for private sector. wasn't thing -- wasn't -- one thing when we have conversations there's a political backdrop that we have to take into account. the president won't be able to wave the wand and have to work with establishment that likes to spend money. is it the worst thing in the world to get infrastructure done even if it's done in a way that we would normally not like, more debt or do we just not get it done at all? >> well, i mean, if you kind of give up that moral high ground, charles, if you start to say, you know, debt doesn't matter, i don't know, maybe president trump called himself the king of debt. i doesn't matter to him. but i have to thing that some of the rise in interest rates, interest rates are moving higher than the federal reserve is raising them. i have to think that some of that is in anticipation.

it's fear of inflation. unless you're 50 year's old or more, charles, you don't remember inflation in this country. caused by government spending and i have to think that some of what i'm seeing at least in bond market severely higher rates is a reaction to what the president is considering a hell of a lot of government spending. charles: jonathan, we covered a lot of ground. you're still the best. appreciate it. >> be well. charles: i want to say on the consumption tax and bring in moody's director john, what do you think, i know it can be economic purist or also be -- as kristin said in the last hour pragmatic, how does it work? >> i'm a realist, if you use it, you to pay for it. if you want to have infrastructure spending, highways rebuilt, you will have higher gasoline tax. make the people who use the infrastructure be the ones who pay for it. charles: what do we say to single mom in uniontown, alabama

that drives 20 miles to wal-mart because of high tax because it'll be aggressive to her and people like her. >> that's a problem and maybe look at alternative form of transportation. >> no in uniontown, alabama. >> somebody will get hurt by this. in my mind, what are you going to do? you can have gasoline higher in higher-income areas where they don't have mass transportation and maybe in alabama because they can't take a bus or subway, doesn't take effect. it's a slight increase but in new york city, this area where you have alternatives, the increase would be steeper. charles: i think one of the problem, john, is accountability, where is the money going now? the money vanished. they patched up a few bridges, we never know where the money

goes in the first place and talking about taxing to get more of it. >> that's a good point. that's where you have to have oversight of any new infrastructure spending program and see that the money is spent on what the target might be and not going to consultants and engineers and lawyers or whatever. charles: real quick, internet tax. >> i believe amazon for the most part tries to conform to state laws as far as taxation, sales taxation is concern, maybe it's not universal, but you should fair about this. if you're selling over the internet, why not pay the sales tax, if you have to pay it, if you buy from a bricks and mortar's place. charles: bill gates says ultra wealthy people like him should be paying significantly more in taxes, in fact, the government should require it, what's your take on that? >> he may have a point. why not go ahead and have an even more progressive tax structure where if you're making

more than $100 million per year, the top rate of tax ration moves, it would not affect most americans and might be politically popular. charles: what i think about that you can open up slippery slope. you're not going the tax income, so you'd have to tax assets and that opens up an area that at some point it might begin with the 1% but you could see few years for later being the top 10%, top 20%, top 30%, can it be a pandora's box? >> i don't think that that is doable as you move down the income ladder. we are talking about very wealthy individuals in the case of bill gates. does it really make that much of a difference for the budget? it doesn't. getting back to consumption tax and sales tax, my prediction is inevitable the u.s. will adopt something in terms of value-added tax in order to help close the budget gap as baby

boomers get older and older. charles: i hope you're not because it's been abused. it's going higher and higher. we will see. you're the expert. >> yeah. hold the politicians accountable. charles: yeah, right. i want you to check this out, a volcano erupting today sending ash to more than 16,000 feet into the atmosphere, the volcano was dormant for four centuries before exploding in 2010 and erupted several times. no one has been injured in today's erruption. >> amazing. charles: are made millions of dollars in bitcoin and will tell us his secret and whether he's worried about the bitcoin bubble and the trump administration calling on new tariffs and steel imports, up next the president and ceo of a steel company tells us how this decision could save tens of thousands of american jobs. ♪

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charles: well, president trump weighing the idea of imposing tariffs in steel and aluminum import in the answers of national security. come in now majestic steel, ceo and president todd. todd, your thoughts in this, just to refresh the audience last week president trump had 50-minute open meeting bipartisan lawmakers in and he got pushback from a lot of republican who is were suggesting this would be a bad idea. >> yeah, thanks for having me, charles. the steel industry has been awaiting awakening for a long time. recommendation from secretary ross is a positive

recommendation. charles: why would this be in the interest of national security, why would this be justified when a lot of economists and politicians on both sides of the i'll tell us it could trigger the kind of trade war that would have devastating impact on our economy? >> yeah, i would say that we have been in a trade war for quite a while. i have been in the domestic steel industry for ten years now and i have watched steel plants shut down, jobs lost and the government do nothing to protect it. i think it's important that we have a strong domestic steel industry beyond what just goes into the defense industry, but without domestic steel industry you think about the impacts of infrastructure and not being able to fight a war with our own steel. charles: yeah, you know, for me, i guess, sort of boils down that your industry has been carved out and devastated, you don't have the kind of money to buy voice in washington, d.c. because the average person it seems no-brainer, our steel companies need to come back.

>> i agree with that. it's been a major issue. you watched the domestic steel industry, steel production in the u.s. has continued to decline while we look at countries like china in last 20 years they went to 100 million tons and u.s. is strongest market in economy and they feel like they can ship steel here and we are not playing by the same rules and we need to even the playing field which has done a lot of reinvestment, can continue to survive and ideally thrive. charles: you know, i was looking at the data on mining jobs including coal and steel and down 40% in the last decade. we were flat last year, up slightly which was great but some arguing that it's too late that we have crossed and there's no way your industry can reinvent itself and now compete on a global stage, are they wrong? >> yeah, i disagree with that. you look at steel-making in the u.s. today, 60% of production is

made within electric furnace, we recycle old cars, washers, from a technology standpoint, the steel industry in the u.s. is the most efficient industry in the world compared to other steel-making countries and so the reason why the domestic steel industry isn't stronger, has nothing to do with reinvestment or technology or innovation, it has to do with the fact that we are competing against an unfair marketplace where you look at countries like china, they are not competing in a market economy and they are doing things where their government subsidizing steel pricing to ship product here in the u.s. and we can't let that be. charles: todd, on friday, publicly-traded sale on steel has gone through the roof but they have been hit hard as well. worst case scenario if nothing happens, if this is sort of rad

lg -- raddling from the administration? >> all of a sudden we see flood of import, in 2017 we saw the highest level of steel imports in the united states and without action we will continue to see that, when you have countries that are subsidizing prices and shipping to the u.s., it will continue to put pressure on domestic mills both from pricing perspective and capitalization perspective and difficult to perform in that environment. we need to see action in order to even the playing field. if we can get rates up from where they have been trending in low 70% to the 80 percentile, that would make difference. charles: appreciate it. >> likewise. charles: irs officials saying that the companies handing out bonuses, the numbers include

more than two dozen who were also tax sheets. the bad staffers were paid bonuses in 2016 and 2017 topping $1.7 million. also i've got an update for you, you saw this family version of the tom brady super bowl li championship ring last month in this program, well, we have an update for you, it was sold nearly $345,000 at auction over the weekend, that's a record for football ring, 265 diamonds and it is about 10% smaller than the one that tom brady actually has, no word on who the buyer is. gop lawmaker taking a swipe at nancy pelosi with new legislation called the crumb's act, it would make tax cuts, bonuses from the tax-free bill that we got tax free. congressman dana is back, he's going tell us why he thinks the bill is a good idea, he's next.

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elon musk launched into space can crash into space, don't worry, it could be a million years, tracking the space travel over 3 million years giving 6% chance of hitting earth or 2.5 chance of hitting venus. back here on earth russia rolling out first batch of driverless cars, similar to uber conducting first successful test on a snowy roads of moscow. the test video shows car waving through traffic around pedestrians and manage to go weather hazards. amazon video showing moment that a baby elephant was rescued from a well in villagers near rubber plantation, heard cries and brought out mechanical digger to pull baby out of muddy water and another scary moment. its agitated mother caught itself on electric fence. >> no. charles: she recovered from the

chock, both mom and baby were reunited. more mom and dad after this.

charles: 13 russians and three companies indicted for meddling in election but no evidence that trump campaign had anything to do with it, come in congressman,

california congressman, congressman, would you say president trump has been vindicated? >> well, i would say this, that the whole charge of collusion and the investigation of the alleged collusion has collapsed. the official report now that is out shows that there was, yeah, there was some russian interference in our election and -- but it had no impact on the election and there was absolutely no collusion on the part of the trump campaign and that effort, so it's collapsed and it's been a huge waste of time. it's time for the democrats to admit they lost the election and quit disrupting the democratic process that we have counted on for our country's history was set up, you accept who won the election and then you try to win the next election rather than

disrupt the current administration. charles: there's no doubt that this thing is taking an enormous amount of twist and turns, if it was a soap opera it would have branched other six different shows, i can't keep up with it and the american public can't keep up with it, how important is it for congress to make sure we stop it because we know what the russians are trying to do, they are trying to sort of put this discord not just in our election process but with americans in general? >> well, we shouldn't -- we shouldn't tolerate the fact that anybody comes into our system and interferes with our election, now let me just note russia was doing this because it's a nation state watching out for its interest, we watch out for our interest, true with major countries in the world. we shouldn't be interrupting and interfering with each other's democratic election process and we should, by the way, obama was

president during this, we had the same intelligence officers, we should have tried to put a stop to it then and if they didn't -- and there were indications that this was going on, thus they should have stopped it. even adam schiff has noted obama was very slow in coming to gripping in trying to prevent involvement. charles: do i want to switch gears with you here because i know that you're a big fan of congressman proposal the so-called crumb's act, the bonuses free up to $2,500 tax free and obviously, of course, taking a jab at nancy pelosi who continues to call them crumbs. are you plan to go cosponsoring the bill? >> i have cosponsored the bill already, let me note that the head of the democratic party in

the house of representatives is saying that, you know, $2,500 are a thousand dollars worth of bonus given to employees is nothing more than crumbs, this exposes their mind set, first of all, they want the government to do everything and they discount whenever the republicans come up with solutions or ways of making people more self-reliant. that's not even a consideration as something that's a good policy. well, where are they at when some multimillionair who is in congress like nancy pelosi and a lot of the other democrats think that a thousand dollars -- or $2,500 which is what crumbs is, our bill says, that if you get a bonus for $2,500 because of this tax bill that was just passed, you don't have to pay income tax on it. it's not just crumbs. i will tell you that it means a lot to my family. i have triplets at home and i

have trouble making my own, my own budget at home. it would mean a lot to me. what does it mean to people who are making 50, $60,000 a year? i guess that shows you the mindset of the democrats who only think it's good if the government is actually giving something away. charles: nancy pelosi championed the idea of having food stamps, champion 40-dollar cut. how does nancy pelosi who bought vigorously for people with million dollar mansions not to have to pay extra taxes but then calls regular working folks getting a thousand, two thousand dollars crumbs, how do they get away with being the supposed party of the middle class, the supposed party of the working poor? >> well, take a look at contributions and who spent the most money in the last election, who is spending the money right now. we just heard that george soros'

sons has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to democrat campaigns. they claim to represent working people and what they represent is a far-left position, philosophically that has put them out of mainstream and out of touch of working americans. donald trump has more of a direct relationship with working americans than the liberal democrats have and they've got their theory of out compassionate they are but when it comes down to policies their policies are for big government and not for taking, giving people a better life and letting them earn a better life of ordinary working people. charles: the idea of of people pulling themselves by bootstrap, i think they are intimidated by that. i think i have one more topic that i would like to go over to and i want to turn to florida shooting, sir, president trump wants a conversion over -- a

conversation rather over increase in background checks and some in gop say that it's time for some gun control reform, where do you stand on this? >> well, i think that what we need -- the real solution to this and it's not taking away the guns from honest people, that is not going to solve the problem because this -- criminals and other people will get those guns. the solution to this problem i believe and i support -- we will support legislation that creates a federal list of anyone who has ever been convicted of a felony and people who are on psychiatric and psychopathic drugs that could impact them in this way, those people will be on a list and it will be illegal for people, anyone to sell them guns or ammunition to someone who is a convicted criminal or someone in a psychopathic drug. if you note, so many of these

kids who have been involved with shootings are on psychopathic drugs that the schools have given them the drugs in order to, quote, keep them under control and ends up creating this psychosis and the drugs themselves say leaves to suicide or can lead to suicide. people on drugs, that would be a reason not to give them -- not to permit them to buy guns and it's saying, of course, with convicted felons. charles: congressman, appreciate your time this morning. i want to turn now to ar-15 gun owners of america president and ceo chris walt joins me now. chris, we know the shooter in this last horrific massacre used an ar-15 rifle, many americans say they want to ban this weapon, you say no, but why --

what do you say to the folks that they believe that this weapon should not exist in our culture? >> hi, charles, thanks for having me, ar-15 rifle is america's rifle. it's very unfortunate that the killer chose to use this particular weapon to do his carnage in florida but we don't believe that the answer is to ban people from having ar-15 rifles, they are used every day for hunting, for personal protection, a number of different things and used responsibly by our folks throughout the nation and they should not be part of the discussion right now. charles: with all due respect, it's at the center of the discussion, to say -- if your rebuttal it's going to be part of the discussion, i don't think you will sway people that ar-15 is assault rifle that the framers to have constitution would never have imagined and that should not exist for

ordinary americans to have access to. >> okay, so to say that it's assault rifle, first it's not assault rifle, they were banned in 1994. yes, okay, it was the weapon that was used but, again, it's not -- it's not the -- it's not the weapon that was used it was the person behind the weapon that actually killed those 17 innocent children and teachers. charles: yeah, and, again, people are going to say is that, chris, you are being someone disingenuous because if you had a hammer or knife, the death toll would have been a lot of less, if this is the basis of the argument, do you feel like you'll lose because gun control issue seems like it's getting traction right now and a lot of people who own a variety of hunting weapons and believe in second amendment are concerned that -- listen, everyone want something smart but concerned it can go too far.

>> right. that is true, and so the answer, you know, again, we have to go back and look at mental health, we have to look at school security, you know, i'm not so sure that, you know, saying that he couldn't have done it with another weapon besides the ar-15, if it wasn't the ar-15, it could have been a knife or anything, he was looking at bombs and how to make bombs online too. charles: all right, chris waltz, appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. charles: stole from appraiser, the building had no surveillance cameras and right now no leads.

this teen has been influential teen because he made millions of dollars on bitcoin and peter teele leaving silicon valley because of politics. a republican governor says how this state can attract conservatives once again.

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charles: update you on a story, the secret service now denying that they tackled chinese official in the fight of nuclear football. ashley: this is interesting. he did get physical and chinese security official was wrestled to the ground because they would not allow the person with the nuclear codes follow the president into the great wall of china while visiting there last year. anyway, the secret service putting out a twitter saying reports about an agent, tackling host official during visit to china in 2017 are false. there you go. reported, the website that this, indeed, happened and john kelly, white house chief of staff was involved in this rumble. but apparently, apparently not according to secret service. charles: wouldn't be the first time that they've had a different story than the secret service. [laughter] charles: new california poll

finds democrats, they have a large lead over republican candidates there, the poll also finds that our next guest has, in fact, only 3% of the votes, so far but we want to bring in republican gubernatorial candidate, doug, are you concerned about the numbers, are you concerned about them? >> i'm not. when they took the poll, i've been in the race like four days, i'm surprised i'm that high. lucky the election is not in february. charles: that's true. what do you make, though, because california it's been a real long time since they've elected a republican governor and they've gone left further than any union, what are your chances, what do you think is going to happen, how is the light going to go up for the citizens of california? >> charles, i ask one question of everybody and that is, do you know anybody who has moved or family that's thinking about

moving out of california and uniformly 80% to have hands in the room go up. that's indictment of what the democrats have done over the last eight years and we are going to carry that message through the voters and ask them to change direction. charles: and usually the democrats people left because taxes aren't high enough, i mean, listen, i get where you're coming from and people vote with wallets and a million people left your state, they have gone to texas, hard-working people can prosper. maybe it comes around this time but it feels like seriously, doug, with all due respect a long shot in a state that either you're extremely wealthy or struggling get by. >> charles, you make a great point. we are running uphill as republicans in a state dominated by democrats but every single issue that's affecting people's everyday life, the democrats are on the wrong side of it. the cost of housing, the cost of fuel, the success in your k-12

schools, what you just mentioned, the elimination of the middle-class jobs that we've relied upon for decades. the democrats own every single policy failure and we are going to communicate that, hopefully we will get and make that connection with people and we will get through and we will change the course of this state. charles: all right, next one for you, doug, because this dove tails what we were saying, several tech workers will join peter thiel and leave silicon valley reportedly over politics. >> there's a certain element in california that is disparaging of views that don't align perfectly with the politically correct progressive agenda and which you see is thiel moving away to la to get away from that, i'm surprised he didn't move to nevada, texas, because we are losing hundreds and thousands of people leaving this

state for better climate for their families and their businesses that has to stop and we cannot sustain that. if we do -- if we stay on this path, we end up with literally a tale of two states as dickens would have put. charles: we will certainly have you back. thank you. >> congratulations, grandpa. charles: thanks a lot. they gave me my middle name. i almost cried during the break. >> have a great day. charles: 19-year-old parents that he wouldn't have to go to college if he was a millionaire by age of 18, guess what, he won that bet by investing in bitcoin and he's here with us in studio to share the story next.

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charles: bitcoin has seen pretty wild swing this is year but one teenager, he's manage today make it worth for him, eric invested in bitcoin when he was 12 year's old, now 19 year's old. he was also named one of time

magazine's most influential teens and joins us now, eric, everyone wants you to share the secret, how did you know at 12 this was the way to make money? >> me and my brother were very close and we were at the protest and that's where we first heard about bitcoin. we were in the middle of getting tear-gassed and then that's where we first heard about it. charles: what were you protesting? >> we went to a lot of protests, people arrested for dancing at the jefferson memorial and protesting that, foot loose, occupied wall street was happening at the time, that's why we are super in bitcoin. charles: you consider something like of a libertarian? that's the mind set that would be attracted to bitcoin, something free of government intervings, is that what sort of what drove you to say that's something that the rest to have world may eventually want? >> that's what we like about bitcoin, completely free from

political intervention and cronyism and all that stuff, that's why i got into it and we saw that as an incredible purpose and incredible technology, we knew it was going to go up. charles: where is it going to go now because a lot of people know about it and a lot of folks have gotten into it, some people bought at 19,000, they are getting hurt, what do you say to people? >> i remember bitcoin reached peak which cus peak for years, it was $1,300 and everyone got into it and at 1300 and then they lost a bunch of money from bitcoin to 300. if they stuck with it, then it went up to like you said 19,000 and so i think bitcoin will go up even more in the future, that's my opinion and i think don't sell if you bought at 19,000, don't sell. charles: we only have 30 seconds, are you afraid that government will try to shut it down because we have seen government action all over the world? >> that's the purpose of bitcoin, when it came out everyone expected it to be shut

down and it wasn't. that's the purpose of bitcoin and the technology, it can exist even if the -- charles: it will survive all the governments attempts to shut it down? >> absolutely. charles: eric, congratulations. >> thank you. charles: appreciate it. all right, folks, more varney after this. ♪ . . . .

charles: it has been a glorious morning. last night my daughter-in-law had our fifth grandchild. her fourth child. there he is michael charles. i found out during the show they named him after me. middle name. liz: all five of your grandkids middle name charles? charles: i think as the years go on, by buy them things. ashley: that is big baby. charles: nine pound, 10 ounces. ashley: no c-section. i. charles: i will pay the sports, traveling team. getting hooked up. i took a special interest when

dr. siegel was talking about helmets and stuff. that kid is going straight to the nfl. bring him down to wall street. ashley: next week. charles: here he is the man himself, neil cavuto charles: here is neil cavuto. neil: thank you, my friend. his public defender is trying to seal some court records. we're not sure which. no specific records have been cited the state has not seen the records this defender wants removed but judge will make a call at 1:00 p.m. regardless. we'll take you to that, when that event occurs. meantime there is a lot of back