knocking out of the park, maybe target a little bit. all of this and all these energy components that we awe in today's to -- we saw in today's report, that's bad news for retailers and also the other point, the fact that personal savings rates are down and people are saving less and spending more. because we've still got some decent consumer spending numbers for february. so all of that doesn't bode well for the markets, and i point back to said retail stocks. maria: by the way, it's not just consumers. according to pipe sandler, nancy lazar, businesses are also cutting back. they are not spending as much as many expected in terms of the capital spending a allocation. so we'll watch that as well. thanks, everybody, luke lloyd, cheryl casone, great to be with you. dow is up 61 right now 30 minutes before the opening bell. "varney & company" picks it up now if. i will see you mañana. ashley webster in for stuart. ashley, take it away. ashley: good good morning,

everyone. indeed, i'm ashley webster in for stuart today the. the of course, inflation in the spotlight. the consumer price index coming in hotter than expected, 3.2% or year-over-year, on the plus side. markets initially dropped on those numbers but now recovering quite nicely, thank you very much. in the premarket the dow, s&p and nasdaq all moving higher. the nasdaq up nearly 100 points. meantime, bitcoin takes just a little bit of breather after another record run yesterday. down about $500 but still above $7 2,000. 72,194. let's take a look at the enter rates. the 10-year yield. we always, of course, like to keep an eye on this. moving up ever so slightly, just a little more than 2 bay basis points, 4.11% on the 10-year. let's take a look at the 2-year which i believe is also, or was earlier, edging up slightly, and it is up, 4.55%. all right. a lot happening today on the political front as well.

an hour from now special counsel robert hur will testify for the first time before congress. this comes after his damning report on president biden's handling of classified documents which sparked major questions about the president's mental fitness. lawmakers will receive a classified briefing today on the dangers of tiktok. this coming one day before the house votes on the bill that would force a sale or simply just ban it in the united states. the ceo of tiktok will be are on the hill today. a lot going on. and then there's this, pizzerias in new york city in the crosshairs of the green agenda. any restaurant that the uses wood or coal ovens will be forced to cut carbon emissions by 75% before april 27th. hmm, we're going to talk to owner or of one of the oldest coal-fired pizzerias in the country. i'm sure he is not thrilled. make mine the pepperoni. it is tuesday, march 12th, 2024.

"varney & company" about to begin. ♪ ♪ ♪ are you ready for a good time? ♪ then get ready for the light life -- night life ♪ ashley: that's going to wake you up. a little bit of ac/dc on this tuesday morning. are you ready? yes, we are. as you take a look down sixth avenue in midtown, kind of crowded on the road. not so much on the sidewalk. let's start this tuesday morning with the very latest read on inflation. the consumer price index. edward lawrence joins me now to break down all of the numbers. good morning to you, e. ward. take us through out -- edward. >> reporter: maybe the market's holding on to that green because we're both in our pink ties there. i did get the memo on that. we're seeing the trend of month over month changes that are much more than the federal reserve would like to see.

for example, cpi inflation up .4 percent month over month this month, a study increase of inflation. you look at this going back to december when you look at key areas of year-over-year inflation, transportation up 9.9%, shelter, including rent, is up 5.7%. all food is up 2.2%. used cars coming down, the price of energy also coming down. there are the numbers there. now, with this number real wages are actually up 2.5% from the month -- i'm sorry, down 2.5% the month president biden came into office, so we're not quite where we were when the president got elected. now, former treasury secretary -- or former treasury officials say all this boils down to people, do people feel better off under joe biden. listen to this. >> how much they have to spend on food ors how much they have to spend on energy. those things have gone up well more than the amount they have seen their wages go up. and so the american people feel like they have fallen behind.

and no matter how much caffeine joe biden consume ises prior to going and giving the state of the union speech, it doesn't make their personal situation any better. >> reporter: and still in these numbers from the day president biden got into office, overall year-over-year prices are up 18.5%. all food is up year-over-year 21%. all shelter including rents up from january 2021 to february 2024, up 20%. here's the the fed chairman. listen to this. >> so is we're not looking for inflation to go all the all the way down to 2%. that's not what we're looking for. what we want is more evidence that will give us more confidence that inflation is on a path down to 2% sustain the by. >> reporter: and this report today will not give the fed chairman that confidence at the moment, so the numbers lend fuel to the federal reserve to push off rate cuts not in this meeting. back to you, stu. ashley: exactly. edward, thank you very much. appreciate that. [laughter]

let's take a look at the futures. as we said, they initially moved down on a hotter than expected inflation numbers, but now they've turned it around. the dow up slightly. but as you can see, the nasdaq up about half a percent. let's bring in john lonski now to talk about all of this. john, inflation hotter than expected. i did note that rising rent and gas prices accounted for 60% of the total gain which tells you something. i don't see those numbers coming down anytime soon. what say you? >> i think you're correct, you know? we were expecting rent inflation to go ahead and slow, but as it turns out we, because of higher home prices, we're finding that landlords are under less pressure to go ahead and reduce rents. ashley: yeah, it's interesting. so to -- in edward's report there we saw the fed chairman saying, look, we don't expect the get to 2% anytime soon, we'd

just like to see we're on the path to that. these numbers don't they saw -- say that, do they? >> they don't, at all. the economy's doing quite well. to be quite frank with you, you have to have a slower rate of economic growth, you have to have a softer labor market if you're going to make progress at reducing inflation. if you want to have a fed rate cut, you can't afford to have the economy growing by 2% or faster. in fact, all of these expectations of a june rate cut are based on a slowing of real economic growth from that, what is it, 3.2% in the final quarter of last year to about 1.5%. ashley: all right. let's move on, john. i want to talk about this, president biden looking to change the tax code. he wants to hike taxes on corporations and the wealthy. listen to this. in are with i'm a capitalist, man. make all the money you want, or just begin to pay your fair share. does anybody here think the tax

code's fair? raise your hand. i don't think so either. we have building a future of american possibilities, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not just the top down. when the middle grows, the bottom has a chance, the poor have an opportunity, and the wealthy still do very well. they still do very well. investing in all america and and all americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot. ashley: pay your fair share, man. he says that all the time. [laughter] he never says exactly what a he thinks the fair share is, but that's not the solution, is it, john? >> no, it's not. he doesn't know what he's talking about. taxing corporate incomes, let's not forget that it's shareholders who own corporations. and when you increase the tax on corporate income, you're increasing the tax on shareholders. and many, many americans through 401(k) plans at least own common

equity shares. also the top down, my goodness, i want the people on top to do well. they're the business leaders. they're the ones who are smart enough to generate jobs. go ahead and reward them. [laughter] you don't want to take it away, you want to have every incentive in the world for the most talented, most brightest, most ambitious people in this country to do the best they can. ashley: you know, john, the top 1% of taxpayers pay more income taxes than the bottom 90% combinedded, and i'll have to leave it there. thanks so much for joining us today, as always, john lonski. great stuff. >> thank you. ashley: now this -- thank you. at the top of the next hour, former special counsel robert hur will testify before the house judiciary committee. should be interesting. miranda devine joins us now. good morning to you, miranda. what could we learn from today's testimony? and what are you looking for? >> look, i think what we'll learn is that the outrage by

with joe biden towards robert hur was completely misplaced and probably some sort of sneaky diversion from the really sour things that were in robert hur's report about joe biden, about his lack of candor, about his fudging. we see the transcript now, i haven't read the whole thing but what i've seen shows that he was filibustering, wasting time, you know? i don't know whether he was pretending to forget dates, but he was certainly being blurry. he knew that hur and his team only had a limited amount of time ask questions of the president, and he knew he was in hot water. so he managed to put on such a performance that hur didn't let him off the hook. but hur had to show his workings, as he said in his e opening statement, and he a had to show, give a reason why he was letting joe biden off the hook, and he did that. and then joe biden carried on when he'd been given this great

gift, he'd been given a favor that e wasn't being prosecuted for real wrongdoing when it came to classified documents. a. ashley: yeah. he just kept saying i don't remember. i want the move on to this one, miranda, special counsel david weiss going after hunter biden's efforts to dismiss his tax charges in california. look, you've been covering this from the very beginning. where's this headed, and will hunter biden actually be held accountable? >> look, i mean, it certainly does seem that weiss has turned around and at least his prosecutors are playing tough in these dueling court filings. what really strikes me as interesting is that hunter biden and his lawyers are really plague hardball -- playing hardball in putting up all sorts of fans ifful theories that are being shot down as conspiracy theories and a house of cards by weiss. but, you know, hunter biden, his

lawyer abbe lowell is claiming the sort of russian interference that's caused somehow his client to be charged. he's saying it's donald trump's fault, it's maga republicans' fault. really kind of every single trope that you could imagine being shoved into this pie. [laughter] and i think you only do that if you had in your back pocket daddy's pardon power. ashley: yes, indeed. very quickly, i wanted to get to this, you have a new op-ed out. you say that joe biden is as callous as it gets when it comes to laken riley. in what way way, miranda? >> well, look, first of all, he wasn't going to mention laken riley, then he was kind of heckled into it by marjorie taylor greene, and then when he did mention her, he got her name wrong, called her lincoln riley, and then he did say she was killed by an illegal are, was his words. and, of course, there was outrage from the left about that, from the democratic party. and so he then very quickly goes

on msn if bc -- msnbc and basically expresses his regret and backs down from -- not if about bringing in the illegal migrants, 8 million plus of them that have caused mayhem and basically caused the death of laken rival hi re. he didn't apologize for any of that -- laken riley. but what he was regretful about a was using the incorrect term. he said it's undocumented is the real term. he should have are remembered, actually, it's newcomer or neighbor is the new term for illegal alien. ashley: oh, absolutely ridiculous. we'll have to the the leave it on that note. miranda devine, thank you so much is, as always, for joining us today. >> thank you so much. ashley: thank you very much. oh, thank you. now this, donald trump is looking to delay his hush money trial until the supreme court rules on his immunity case. all right, lauren, good morning to you. lauren: morning. ashley: what do these two cases

have to do with each other? lauren: basically nothing. trump faces a new york criminal trial, that's a march 25th, over payments he he made to a porn star in 2016 and an alleged attempt to cover that up. it's the first of his four criminal cases the go to trial. but his legal team is asking the judge, hey, wait until the supreme court hears his immunity claim. thats' a month later, on april 25th. they say, look, trump is immune from prosecution because some of the evidence that might be presented in the new york hush money case overlaps with his time as president which would grant him immunity. so we wait. ashley: we wait and we wait. all right, lauren, thank you very much. taking a quick look at the futures as we head to the break here. the opening bell about, what, 2o math. 27 minutes or thereabouts. looks like a positive opening for the markets. coming up, president biden dismissing his sinking poll numbers. listen to this.

>> none of the polling matters much more now, it's way out. but, number two, polling has kind of changed a lot too. it's not nearly as accurate, it's not nearly as capable as it was before. ashley: i wonder if he'd say that if he was ahead in the polls? probably not. the question is, do polls matter? we're going to get into that. then this is this, the house passed the laken riley act. it requires i.c.e. to detain migrants who have committed burglary or theft. should the senate take it up as wellsome we're going to ask senator roger roger marshall that question later in the show. stay can us. -- stay with us. ♪ ♪ trading at schwab is now powered by ameritrade, giving traders even more ways to sharpen their skills with tailored education. get an expanding library filled with new online videos, webcasts, articles, courses, and more - all crafted just for traders.

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ashley: all right, let's take a look at futures, all pointing higher. modestly so on the dow, but the nasdaq still up chose to half a percent, the s&p up about a quarter of a percent with the opening bell just about 10 minutes away. let's bring in mike lee. i want to talk about the cryptos. we've seen quite a rally in these past few months. we got record highs for bitcoin. i was reading your notes, and you say, you know what? for bitcoin the party is just about getting started. you said the last four times that bitcoin hit a new all-time high, it took on average just 30 days for it to double. so by my really poor schoolboy math, about $140,000 the next month. what say you? >> so it's an unbelievable trend, and it's typically when things hit all-time new highs, people get nervous. but the reality is you should never sell at an all-time new high. and if you think about why bitcoin was created in the first place, it was due to

quantitative easing and the unbelievable amount of spending at the time from barack obama when nancy pelosi, when they had both chambers of the house and the senate, the amount of spending that was coming in and the quantitative easing in response to interest rates running away, that if you can just keep printing money more forever -- for forever, we need something with a limited amount of issuance. that is the case with bitcoin. a year ago when silicon valley bank went under was the first risk-off event where bitcoin rallied, went from 17,000 to $27,000 roughly when that happened. and it's really started to recover s. and when you add to that, we're likely to have a deficit this year in excess of $2 trillion. finish you have the halving which is where bit bitcoin miners will get half the rewards that they do coming in about a six weeks. halving has coincided with every other spike in bitcoin price

historically. so all of this and then the etf being issued and the series of etfs -- ashley: right. >> -- allowing it for much easier access because it's not that easy for a lot of regular investors that a don't pay close attention to open a cryptocurrency wallet whereas you can just by a -- buy an etf from trusted, reputable company. my feint, of course, is hodl for the vaneck one which is the acronym hold on for dear life. [laughter] ashley: always good advice no matter what. mike, i want to get your comments on this, we got the latest cpi report, price up 3.2% year-over-year. i think the markets have been overly optimistic about a fed if rate cut for some time, and this certainly does not, you know, show us we're going to have a rate cut anytime soon. maybe by the summer. what say you? >> so as the fed started this iewking cycle, you know, we got

all these various inflation experts even though the last time we had inflation was the early 1980s around the time i was born, so the -- [laughter] one truth that a lot of these people have said is that last 1%, get from 3 to 2% will be the fed's hardest hurdle, and that a looks to be the case right here. so i don't know if we're going to get more than one rate cut this year. we may be in a situation where we get zero if these inflation numbers seem to come in hotter than expected. andit's, you know, it's -- the super core pce actually came in much lower than expected, so that's core cpe -- sorry, core cpi below, without housing as a part of the number. ashley: right. >> core services minus housing did come in lower. so, look, i think the fed's going to have a tough time getting down to 2%, and i don't

know that we'll get any rate cuts this year although i hope we get a few. stuart: to exactly. at one point they were talking about seven. that's not going to happen. mike, thank you so much, as always. great stuff. from inflation to shrinkflation, snickers responding to biden's claims that they reduced the size of their candy bars. lauren, what is the company saying? lauren: yeah. this is after the president went with after a candy bar in the state of the union. mars is clapping back. they're say is, not true, there has not been 10% fewer snicker ors in the bag. here's the statement. we have not reduced the size of snickers' singles or share size in the u.s. like many industries, we continue to face high inflation and spikes in material costs, etc. so there you have it, ashley. no shrinkflation at mars. ashley: aha, do not mess with my snickers, that that's all i'm saying. a taking a look at future, pointing to a slightly higher opening as we ring the bell

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ashley: let's take a look at futures, moving higher. let's bring in our good friend david nicholas. david, you just raised your price target for nvidia where. where are you standing now? >> ashley, i was on with you, actually, last november, nvidia was trading at $a 500 a share, our price target was 90. we're raising it to $1100 a share. i know it sounds crazy, but it's all about data center revenue if growth. it is the massive, the growth we're seeing in the revenue in the data centers. i think the stock hits $1100 a share is. we actually bought more for clients yesterday on the pullback, so i still think this is -- it's a good time to get in, ashley. ashley: we hear you with. we always like a good dividend play. what have you got for us today? >> ashley, bti, british with petroleum. this is a cigarette company. look, there's a lot of issues in the cig is relate market. we're seeing revenue declines, so the market has beat up the stock, but where we're seeing if you look under the surface is in their smokeless products.

they're seeing 21% growth. they're paying an almost 10% dividend, and they're raised it, ashley, by 9 on average over the last 5 years. so if you're looking for income, you're getting almost 10% in a company that i think is innovating. ash a ash are quickly, i've got 10 seconds, the cpi number, david, not doing much for the markets a although we are ifs positive, apparently. >> yeah. the market doesn't believe at the fed is going to get aggressive this year, so i think the market still wants to see inflation coming down. it was in line, the core was a little bit higher, the market's not freaked out by that, that's why i think we see markets pretty steady this week. ashley: sharp and succinct. great stuff, david nicholas. thank you so much is, david, for rushing through that for us as we head towards the opening bell. everyone's happy, clapping, and we'll be off and running as we show you the premarket. looks like we're going to be on the upside despite the hotter than expected consumer price

index, the inflation number. and off we go. the dow up 89 points, about a quarter of a percent. more stocks in the green than red, that is for sure. as you can see, boeing and honeywell,s the laggards. but for the rest of the market or the dow 30, you can see 3m, morveghts amazon all moving higher. let's take a look at the s&p if welcome, a broader index, see where the s&p is, up 22 points at 5140. and, of course, let's take a look at the nasdaq that was up the most in the premarket, and that's the case here now that we're underway. nasdaq up about a little more than half a percent, up 109 points. talking about the nasdaq, let's look at those big tech names. among the magnificent seven we have meta, amazon, microsoft, apple, alphabet. guess what? they are all in the green. meta, by the way, up nearly 2%. all right, let's take a look at oracle. that stock up 10%, surging after its latest report.

so, lauren, what was so good about it in. lauren: cloud revenue grew 25%. the ceo says oracle signed several large deals and has many more in the pipeline. a.i. demand is helping reignite the momentum in hair cloud business. -- in their cloud business. and they do have a tie-up with nvidia that's helping them gain share. also we heard from the chairman, larry ellison, oracle increased its business with movement it's actually building 20 data centers for them. ashley: very good. up nearly 10%. let's talk about kohl's -- that. lauren: yeah. ashley: reported before the bell with. how did they do? lauren: so they returned to profitability, but the forecast was bad. the shares are down 2% like macy's, like in order if strom is, they're warning of -- nordstrom, they're warning of muted in 2024. kohl's has a lower income shopper e. their sales are down for 8 quarters in a row, but they managed to eke out a surprise profit because of better

inventory management, keeping costs in line and, of course, they have a brand partnership with sephora, store within a store kind of concept, and that's working out for them. ashley: yeah. to o.k. completely changing subjects now, lauren, what about cyber truck owners? apparently, they're trying to flip the cars for profit, right? lauren: you can't do it. if you're found guilty of it, you will be fined $50,000. basically, or you'll be sued by tesla. when an owner puts down a $100 deposit for a cyber truck, they also sign a contract, and can that contract says you can't sell the truck for a year. well, some owners are trying to resell the trucks online for over $200,000. and some goes depositors are listing the trucks online before delivery. so when tesla finds out about that, they cancel those orders. so here's the deal, let's say you get your cyber truck, you don't want it, you don't like it.

first, you have to try to sell it back to tesla. if that doesn't work out, get written permission from the if company to sell the car. now you know. ashley: now you know. can't do anything for a year. let's take a look at a airbnb. what's this about a ban on indoor security camera as? if. lauren: yeah. all right. they're no longer allowed. they were allowed in common areas, so when you rented a house, there could be a camera in the hallway or in a living room, and it had to be the stated on the lusting. so the renter -- on the list aring, so the renter or new at the time that would be happening. now airbnb says, no, not anymore. tear going to be completely banned starting april 30th. the reason is renters really do want privacy guarantees. think about it from the owner's point of view. you want the make sure that everyone's behaving, nothing's being stolen. but if a listing said there were cameras in the hallway or in the living room, ashley, i would never rent that home. ashley: me either, but how does airbnb traffic, how do they

enforce tata a with millions of homes in -- that with millions of homes? it's interesting. ashley: lauren: i suppose a guest has to look in every crevice. i don't know. ashley: isn't that awful? all right. let's move from cameras to airlines. of southwest, alaska air both weighing in, apparently, on how the grounding of boeing's 737 max jets has hurt them. so take us through it. lauren: let's start with the top one, southwest, thest domestic carrier. hook at -- look at this, this is all the ripple effect of the quality control issues at boeing. southwest is warning that they will not be able to meet meet capacity for all of 2024 because boeing once again cut the number of max planes that southwest is getting. then you have alaska, which is up by 2.5%. this is actually the airline where the boeing jet had the door plug blowout in january. they also a say, yeah, our 2024 capacity is in flux because of these questions over delivery

numbers. ashley: yeah. wow, down 11% for southwest. let's talk about pfizer. i believe the shares are rallying on some good news -- no, they're not. it's down slightly. but they did have some good news, i understand, on a cancer drug. what type of cancer? lauren: lymphoma. covid sales down in the dumps, he was to pivot to oncology and for potential blockbusters for revenue, right? they bought seagen last year, and they're using their cancer drugs to help beef up pfizer's pipeline. this latest oncology drug actually extended survival in patients with a common type of lymphoma. if this gets regulatory approval, it would add to the portfolio that already has 25 approved cancer therapies, and we we told you yesterday thattize or or expects 8 of them to be blockbuster by 2030. ashley: amazing. lauren, thank you very much. let's take a look at the big board. we're, what, 6 minutes into the

session on this tuesday. the dow up, modestly, up 23 points, 38,795. let's take a look at a some of the winners on the dow in the very early going, of course. there they are, 3m, microsoft, ibm, amazon, johnson & johnson all a moving higher. 3m the standout, up 5.5%. let's take a look at the s&p 500 winners, if wean, in the very early going and here we are. oracle, 3m, hewlett-packard and and paramount if global all i moving higher of. oracle, again, up nearly 13%. let's that take a look at the nasdaq winners. adobe, microsoft cost coe. they're all there. -- costco. so overall, it's been a -- well, the dow just turned negative. it's about flat. so far slightly on the upside is. leave it at that. all right, coming up, the president of the free world had to ask for permission to answer a question from reporters.

watch this. >> anyway, am a i allowed to talk any questions? [laughter] anybody here -- >> [inaudible] [laughter] ashley: you know, it's the same question, who's pulling the strings on this? he clearly has to ask someone what he can do. the press, by the way, kicked out right after that. i guess biden's team just trying to continue to hide him or keep him under control as much as possible. then there's this, former special counsel robert hur will testify at the top of the hour. he'll likely put bind's team on defense -- biden's a team on defense, so will the doj turn over some tapes? we're going to get into that next. ♪ ♪

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ashley: former special counsel robert hur just arriving on capitol hill. he did not respond to any shouted questions and walked straight into the hearing room. mark never kurt joins us -- meredith joins us now from the white house. good morning, mark. any word from the if white house on today's testimony? >> ashley, we have heard from white house officials this morning, and we expect them to react in realtime. robert hur's expected testimony on capitol hill any moment now. he did not speak to reporters, but we already have an idea what he's going the say in the next few minutes. now, hur has spent the last several months preparing the report which was released last month looking into how classified documents dating back to biden's time as vice president ended up at his wilmington home as well as an office building here in d.c. hur said biden repeatedly it would him he was a little off on his time frame of some key dates or how documents ended up with him. hur is expected to say my assessment about the relevance

of the president's memory was necessary, accurate and fair. most importantly, what i wrote is what i believe the evidence shows and what i expect jurors would perceive and believe. i did not sanitize my explanation, nor did i discan pager the president unfairly. you're going to hear hur say that on camera in a new minutes. the white house is trying to paint the former special counsel as a partisan and someone who's interjected personal beliefs into this report. lawmakers say there are fundamental questions they believe he alone can answer. >> there have only been three individuals from the respective parties over the last three cycles, hillary clinton, joe biden and president trump. all three have had concerns about how they handled classified documents. only one is getting prosecuted. if that doesn't point to the double standard that we see in this country, i don't know what does. >> reporter: and we've seen the white house push back quite a bit about this, and president biden himself has also gone to great lengths to talk about how he disagrees with hur's findings about especially his age, his memory and his past experiences. this transcript that came out

earlier this morning details the conversation the president had with the special counsel's office back in october. the white house is insisting this is proof of what they've been saying, that the president knows more about how things were operating but maybe relied on some staff for a few key bait dates. all this, ashley, is going to come up when the hearing begins, what, 15 minutes from now. ashley: all will be revealed. mark, thank you very much. house judiciary committee member, congressman chip roy, or joins me now to talk about this. congressman, you're going to be grilling robert hur in just a few minutes. what are you going to ask him? if. >> well, we'll wait and see what we do in the hearing. i don't like to preview my question before i get in there -- [laughter] but the important thing here is we've got a sitting special counsel appointed by the biden administration that has brought directly to light and into question the mental competency of the president of the united states to literally be able to stand trial. that is an extraordinary position for a sitting special counsel, a lawyer at the

department of justice, to share with the world. and i think that should be front and center in the entirety of the conversation. we're obviously going to want to dive into what he has learned and what we're able to extract with respect to the president's handling of classified information. again, we're talking about documents in a garage next to a corvette as well as other documents that are scattered around to the winds. and so this is highly problem mat you can. the american people deserve to know the truth. i'm a big believer, seek the truth wherever it shall lead, and i believe we should do that with respect to either of the two former presidents. but here in this case we have very clear indication that the president of the united states is not mentally able to be, participate in trial which should beg the question why he is the commander in chief and has the access to the nuclear codes and is leading the united states of america. ashley: it's interesting, congressman, because the white house pushing it back saying this is just a partisan effort. but when you look at the questioning and the answers the president gave, basically i

don't remember, i don't remember, that the special counsel said, look, he's a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory. he's just being honest. i don't think that's being partisan, it's just based on the responses he got from the president, right in. >> yeah. you know, ashley, my father whom i love dearly is 81 years old, and i spend every waking moment i can with him fishing and hanging out, learning about his life, his life story. but he's looked at me square in the eye and said, son, i shouldn't be president of the united states right now. the fact of the matter is it's a problem with what we're seeing out of this president. the president's inability to function. i say that -- i don't say that lightly. i don't say that on a partisan basis. i have real, actual concerns about the president of the united states, the commander in chief, with a mental state where we all get what we're seeing unfold. and, again, this is important, a federal prosecutor, a lawyer in the united states department of justice. i used to be an assistant united

states attorney. he stipulated, he actually filed and said the president of the united states is not mentally competent to be able to trust what he's doing here in the context of a trial. again, how can you trust him as commander in chief? ashley: yeah. i want to get to this quickly, congressman. chairman of the senate select committee on china warning of the national security threat from tiktok. listen to this, i'll e get your comments. >> it was rare for me to say that donald trump was right, but donald trump was right years ago when he pointed out the enormous national security concerns around tiktok. both in terms of obtaining data but also think about the percentage, i think we're up to 170 million americans who use tiktok. ashley: that was a democrat saying donald trump was right. you know, save that for posterity. listen, you introduced a bill to ban tiktok last week. do you think you have the votes?

enter first of all, i appreciate mark warner. he's led on this. this is one of those rare moments where we have bipartisan agreement. president trump was right, he was correct in going after a tiktok. but in this situation, let me be clear, this is not a bill to ban tiktok. it is a bill to insure that foreign adversaries cannot control american data and be a foreign adversary targeting americans with that data which we know so occurring. look at what they're doing. 400 to 1. that's the ratio, if you do a search on china virus, how much the difference is between ins gram and tiktok. -- instagram and tiktok. if you go look up tiananmen if square, i think it's something like 80 to 1. other examples like hong kong, it's 180 to 1. they are absolutely manipulating the information. this bill would make sure that we're protecting them if from foreign adversary ownership. it's not a ban. they can choose what to do, and all the people hiding behind this and saying it's a trojan horse to go after web sites, that's not true.

ashley: right. >> what this is is a trojan horses to put china in your bedroom, your backyard and take your data and target your kids and undermine our national security. we should stop it on a bipartisan basis is. ashley: very good. congressman, thank you. we'll see you in the hearing coming up at the so much the hour. congressman chip roy, thank you so much. >> thanks, ashley. ashley: coming up, it looks like georgia is becoming the new california. why? well, atlanta has become a breeding ground for start-ups. we're going to be talking to entrepreneurs who are taking their business to the peach state. why not? next. ♪ georgia, georgia the whole day through ♪ (fisher investments) in this market, you'll find fisher investments is different than other money managers. (other money manager) different how? aren't we all just looking for the hottest stocks? (fisher investments) nope. we use diversified strategies to position our clients' portfolios for their long-term goals.

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♪ ♪ ashley: it is primary day in georgia, one of the biggest battleground states and also benefactors of the blue state exodus. madison alworth is live from atlanta this morning and, madison, why have people been flocking to the peach state? >> reporter: hey, ashley. you know with, people are coming for the affordability, the jobs and the tax-friendly business structure, all of that the has

the tech and start-up scene here booming. it is helping atlanta grow into its new nickname. georgia is earning the enation as one of the fastst -- reputation as a one of the fastest growing and most prolific tech hubs in the country. >> sometimes referred to as the silicon valley of the south is. that's a great comparison is. >> reporter: the business-friendly tax structure in georgia is are made atlanta a breeding ground for billion dollar start-ups. garrett langley is a georgia tech grad and the ceo of a security company whose valuation has hit $4 billion. >> literally whether it's blue or red, because clearly we're in a purple state, doesn't matter. everyone's aligned that business is what helps drive safer communities. >> reporter: the country's tech giants are taking notice. google, microsoft, apple all opening offices here in atlanta. and it's not just tech. georgia has taken aim at one of california's most lucrative industries, tv and filmment

while hollywood has lost hundreds of millions in revenue in recent years to other locations, the film industry spent over $4 billion in georgia last year alone. the best with innovation in tech, entertainment and start-ups no longer just in california. >> really the state of georgia very pro-business. we want to see companies grow here, we want to build here. >> reporter: ashley, venture america has helped tear -- has helped really build out the infrastructure for start-ups here in the state. they've had $15 is billion in successful exits for their start-ups, that's a really good end for the start-up and a very good beginning for the silicon valley of the south. ashley? ashley: it is definitely booming. madison, thank you very much. fascinating stuff. all right, still ahead on the show former speaker of the house newt if gingrich, kansas senator roger mar if shall, brian kilmeade and texas congressman pat fallon. the 10 a.m. hour of "varney &

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