now, and the way it works is that a company comes out, it says a whole bunch of things. the algorithms look at it and they check all the boxes. if everything's perfect, the stock is up. if one thing is off, the stock is down. take the long view. it's just earnings noise driven by computers. maria: i like that, that's good. we'll also wait for the resumption of the trump trial tomorrow, and we're watching these college protests. final thoughts, lee. >> so 44% of registered voters don't believe trump's trial is fair, and yet 65% expect to see him convicted. we're going to have some real issues if he's convicted. 20% of americans are going to be really, really concerned and upset. we have got major issues ahead of us. maria: paul mauro. >> all i can say is this, maria, in 25 years of bringing cases, if i walked this case into the t.a.'s office, they would have up thrown me out. maria: yep. wow, paul, thank you for that. "varney & company" picks it up, stu, take it away. stuart: good morning, everyone.

college chaos is not over. there was mores disruption in new york, police cleared the campus at the fashion institute of technology. con frontation at george washington university, police cleared the encampment there. how convenient. the d.c. mayor and police chief testify before congress today on why the clearout was so long delayed. the president heads to wisconsin. he's announcing a $3 billion data center project with microsoft in raci new york stock exchanger. he will be talking up the -- racin if e. to the markets. the trend this morning is to the downside. it's not a champ eloff, dow off 50, but the nasdaq is down, what, 103 points premarket. interest rates, not much change there. the 10-year yields are at 4.49%, just below 4.5. the 2-year around 4.84 at last count, it is right now. bitcoin, $62,000 a coin, and we

have oil around $77 a barrel. no change for gas, you're looking at a $3.if 64 for a gallon of regular. diesel, though, is down one cent, $3.96. gold still hovering around $2300 an ounce, 2322 right now. politics. trump is having fun with his vice presidential pick. he's not saying yet who gets the nod. he's kind of spinning it out. he does say he wants somebody, quote, who is really good to take my place if something happened, okay? on the show today, biden's plan to bottle up trump in court not going well. the documents trial has been postponed indefinitely. it could be there will be only one trial before the election, and that's the new york hush money trial that is riddled with problems. we have a warning, biden is coming for your air conditioner. we will explain. it is wednesday, may the 8th, 2024. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪

stuart: all right, here we go. we're starting in d.c. this morning. police have cleared the encampment on george washington university. lauren, how many arrests? lauren: at least 35 arrested at the school in washington d.c. they had an anti-israel encampment on campus that stood for two weeks. it was just cleared by the police. garbage trucks moving in and removing the debris. they sanitized it ahead of d.c. mayor mover yell bowser and the police chief testifying this morning on capitol hill. lawmakers want to know why didn't the police respond right away to the school's request for help? [laughter] i heard this and i had to look it up because i thought it was so extreme. they were chanting guillotine and calls for beheading the add m -- school administration. here in new york the last encampment has been cleared at the fashion institute of

technology, protest it is happening there too. dozens a arrested by the new york police department. the arrests were described as forceful after protesters blocked the nypd bus full of arrested protesters, but they're out. stuart: the action continues, got it. thanks, lauren. donald trump has laid out his number one criteria for picking a running mate. roll tape. >> if something should happen, you know, it's such an important, such an porn position. but if something -- an important position. if something should happen to me p we win and something happens to me which can happen, you have the make sure that somebody really good is in there to take your place. so that's always not to be the number one criteria. stuart: all right, somebody really good todd piro with me this morning. it doesn't appear that mr. trump is going for a woman or a minority. he seems to be going for, be with looking for performance instead. what do you say? >> i think that is a smart move on on two fronts. one, it really does sort of jibe with the republican party platform whereas we don't like dei, you put the best person in

the position to succeed, you don't pick them based upon alternative characters. but there's another reason are. what's the major knock on donald trump? that he's selfish, that it's all about him. he just wants to do this to feed his ego. a decision like this tells the world, hey, i'm not doing this for donald j. trump, i'm doing this for the nation if that's why the person who comes in behind me needs to be able to lead on day one because, a a, i want them to take over for eight years and keep up the momentum that i'm bringing into this country, but, two, if something happens to me, i need that person to be able to take over. it says i'm putting america first, and it's not just a slogan. it's a very shrewd move, and it could speak to the people, those independents in those swing states could look at this and say, hmm, interesting. now i want him as opposed to joe biden who clearly picked a person only for dei reasons. stuart: okay. i'm moving on from that. the judge in trump's classified

documents trial just postponed the case indefinitely. now, you know the law, you know the lawyers. what does that mean? >> it's less about knowing the law and more about knowing a calendar. you look at the calendar, if she's postponing this indefinitely, all the pretrial stuff that you're going to have to do which we with all know tax up a lot of time in the court of law is not going to happen anytime before the election, and if it does happen before the election, the actual trial would never happen before the election. so what does that mean going forward? if trumpen wins, this thing could go away by him telling the doj stop going after me, it could go away vis-a-vis a pardon or, you know, we could have a decision. but if i, if i'm trump, what i'd do is if i get into office, i i eliminate both my case and the biden document case and say we're going to come up with a different law on what we do with document, but those cases are gone. stuart: so the idea of bottling trump up in court all the way through to the election, that's the strategy of biden, it's

falling apart. >> it's falling apart when it comes to jack smith, when it comes to fani willis. it's happening a couple blocks down, but that case itself now seems to be falling apart because we still don't have a violation of the law. we have a lot of salacious stories, it doesn't feel good, but it's not a violation of the law. stuart: stay there, please, if you would for the hour. thank you. a new poll shows what people believe will be the outcome of trump's criminal trial. do they think he's going to be convicted, lauren? lauren: 65% say yes. it's for registered voters so two-thirds say he will be convicted on all 34 counts or some, 23% say not guilty, he'll be cleared. i think the bigger question is do they care. stuart: of course. lauren: conviction or potential jail time, does in that change your vote? people are fed up. of i think they're confused by four criminal trials. and i'm going to say right here this hutch money trial, they say it has go more weeks to go, that's probably the last one.

if he wins, he can clear the other trials, and and everything else has been delayed. so this is the it. a few more weeks go, people. stuart: probably. we shall see. only time will tell. we've got to say that. all right, thanks, lauren. there is a generational divide between young and old black voters. younger back vote or favor biden over trump 58-25. older black voters, it's biden 88, trump 6. finish charles payne with me now. can you explain this, charles? >> sure. but, first, i want to say i don't think anything trump said about picking a vice president had anything to do with race or gender, so i don't know how that is part of the conversation because, to be quite frank with you, i think the person trump has to pick has to, first, be a non-politician, someone with a lot of chutzpah and someone who understands the system but also isn't part of the system. so that could be almost anybody that hasn't been in washington, d.c. for -- stuart: well, biden used identity politics to pick his vice president. >> right.

by the way, biden won. so, you know, we would all love to see a world where things were perfect and everyone was judged perfectly and evenly, but we're not if necessarily there yet. i think the president, in biden's case, you know, doing that actually did a disservice to to everyone. you know, qualified people on all sides. stuart: i agree. okay. >> and, you know, what's happened, the thing with the black population is you've got two things. ing older black people remember how tough things were. my grandmother and grandparent -- grandfather bought a farm in alabama in 1952 it was a tough time. really a tough time. for all black people in alabama, specifically those who owned property. my grandmother never owned a pillow, or she never used a billow, she slept with her -- pillow she slept with her arms crossed so she'd here the night riders. my grandfather had a business

burned to the ground by the ku klux klan. older black people remember that. younger black people don't remember that,s and they want a piece of the action. you can't get their vote with higher minimum wage. you can't get their vote by saying, hey, we'll build housing projects and give you homes. no, they want a business. they want a private jet. they want general with rational wealth -- lauren: are generational wealth. >> young black people want a piece of the action. my father fought in vietnam p if i want a piece of the american dream. no more crumbs. no more crumbs. it's a faustian deal for protection from those evil white folks known as republicans. stuart: so younger black voters or will go for trump in bigger numbers. >> burglary younger black men, absolutely. stuart: charles, we'll be watching you on "making money," 2 p.m -- >> by the way, they told me the topic was the economy.

[laughter] i'm just teasing -- stuart: we like our guests to take it through on something they feel passionate about and clearly you do. >> yeah. stuart: you have a great e place on this show to do this. thank you very much, indeed. >> thanks a lot. stuart: tiktok suing the federal government to block a possible ban. any response from the white house on that, lauren? lauren: not really. i describe this as the iconic, i say one thing and do another. in this case the white house press secretary refers comments to the department of justice z -- as the biden campaign keep using tiktok despite the forced sale or ban they have endorsed. he's karine jean-pierre if. >> so seeing the reports, going to be mindful this is, obviously, in litigation process here, so we're going to refer to the president of justice on this one. lauren: yeah. so tiktok's lawsuit accuses the doj of interfering with the first amendment rights of tiktok's 170 million u.s. users. stuart: that's a lot of users, ain't it? lauren: they have until january 19th to figure this out, someone

come in and buy it, i don't know what happens here. stuart: okay. only time will tell. another one of them. thank you, lauren. check those futures, please. it is wednesday morning. i see a little bit of red especially for the nasdaq. next, students at columbia have started a petition to go ahead and hold the commencement ceremony on campus. they've already received thousands of signatures in less than 24 hours. education secretary miguel cardona won't rule out student debt forgivenesses for campus protesters. how about that? loll it. >> do you want to have the taxpayers pay their loans off? >> i believe that students who are breaking the law and are disrupting the educational environment should be held to account. stuart: that's a non-answer. senator ted cruz says forgiving their student debt is un-american. the senator is next. ♪

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stuart: fox has confirmed, this is just coming at as, that the house hearing on college anti-semitism has been canceled for today. house oversight chair james comer or says he spoke with mayor bowser and thanked her for finally clearing the protesters off the campus. they did it last night. comer added he would not rule out rescheduling the hearing. students are pointing some of the finger of blame at their professors. madison alworth is at columbia for us. madison, what role kid the professors play in the protests? >> reporter: you know, stuart, at these protests we're seeing students initiate it, but in some cases the professors are

supporting them and often times even participating in the protests and starting protests of their own. at unc-chap ill hill, faculty are threatening to withhold grades. in a letter to the provost and dean, they say in part, quote, we strongly support the right of faculty and graduate students to express their opinions freely, but there are better ways to do this than hurting our students and abrogating our contract with the people of north carolina to support our university. we have seen first ifhand those faculty protesting. last week here at columbia, faculty of the university initiated a protest that called for the lifting of suspensions of student protesters and also included chants like from the river to the sea, palestine will be free. now, the students that are protesting, they're asking that the money they give to the school via tuition e not go to

israel, but the faculty members, they're being paid by the schools. and critics are skeptical about the salaries that continue to go up. but some in academia are pushing back. the newly-launched faculty against anti-semitism movement is looking to create a national network of academics to stand against what we're seeing on campuses. >> students have already organized and are fighting anti-semitism. administrators have started cracking down on it. the government and the legislature started coming down very hard on universities that are not doing their job, so i think the last missing piece of the puzzle is faculty standing up for what's right and declaring loud wily that you can't hide -- loudly that you can't hide your anti-semitism behind israel criticism. >> reporter: you know, even though we've now seen the final clearing of encamp. ments here in new york, anti-semitism and the threat of it still a real concern. as you mentioned, columbia actually canceling their

commencement here saying it's because of safety concerns, and the graduating seniors that we've spoken to are really upset by that decision because, remember, he said this, those seniors were seniors in high school when covid broke out. so they lost that graduation and now they're losing this one. stuart: yeah, it was a double hit really. madison, thanks very much, indeed. listen to what biden's education secretary had to say about student debt forgivenesses for no protesters. roll it. >> do you want to have the taxpayers pay their loans off? >> i believe that students who are breaking the law and are disrupting the educational environment should be held to account. i believe it's important that all students have access to their higher education classes and graduation. stuart: okay. senator ted cruz, republican from the great state of the texas, joins us now. mr. senator, are we really going to forgive the debt of anti-israel, to-hamas if protesters? -- pro-hamas?

>> the answer is actually, no, but you've got to understand the biden administration is in the business right now of buying votes. they tried before the last election to give away a trillion dollars in money they didn't have the legal authority to give away by forgiving a bunch of loans. that was obviously lawless when they did so. they knew that. if it went to the supreme court. the supreme court struck it down. we're in another election season, what are the democrats trying to do? they're trying to buy the same votes. they're trying to convince young people, hey, we'll give you free stuff, just make sure you vote for democrats in november. the courts will strike this down too, it'll never happen. so the answer that secretary cardona gave there is completely unsurprising because if he actually said, you know, the viability protesters that are threatening -- the violent protesters that are threatening jewish students, that are burning american flags, that are chanting death to israel and death to america, we won't forgive their loan, if he said that, look, they're trying to buy their votes twice both with loan forgiveness and through

undermining israel. this is all about a politics for the administration, and it's really a shame how extreme the democrat party has gotten that this kind of rabid anti-semitism now a major your part of the party, that there is a pro-hamas wig of the democrat party. stuart: listen to this one. the administration has just coniferred they have, indeed -- can confirmed they have, indeed, paused shipment temperatures of weapons to israel. is biden helping hamas? >> of course he is. from the very first days of this administering, joe biden, this white house -- administration, joe biden, this white house has been the most anti-israel white house we have ever seen. they have systematically undermined israel at every step. they have flowed $100 billion to iran. iran is the leading funder for a hamas and hezbollah. 90% of hamas' funding comes from iran, 90% of hezbollah's funding comes from ranch they have flowed hundreds of-to gaza --

hundreds of millions to gaza. you look at this latest aid package. they delayed it from october until just a couple of weeks ago, so it went over six months refusing to provide military aid. and then they tied it to military aid for hamas, more money, billions of dollars to go into gaza. and look what's happened in the last week. in the last week do you know what they have sent? they've sent the aid e to gaza that was almost immediately seeded by hamas as many of -- seized by hamas, and they've halted the a aid to israel. at every stage joe biden and this administration has beleaguered, has attacked the government of israel, has said stop killing terrorists, stop killing hamas, we should support israel utterly eliminating hamas. stuart: last one with real fast, i know you're big on the speeding up airline refunds. we're not used to you covering that kind of. subject. you're usually a big picture, big policy kind of guy. what are you doing with speeding

up airline refunds? [laughter] i'm sorry, only 30 seconds. >> sure. i'm a the ranking member of the senate committee on commerce, science and transportation. the commerce committee covers about 40% of the american economy, and my focus is on jobs, jobs, jobs. so this legislation reauthorization of the faa is going to make airline travel safer, more efficient and less expensive. it's a big victory for the people of texas. stuart: and it's bipartisan. >> very much so. stuart: amazing. senator cruz, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, stuart. stuart south yes, sir. thank you. check futures real fast, i see some red ink for the nasdaq. you're down 115 there. the opening bell on wall street is next. ♪

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but st. jude has gotten us through it. st. jude is hope for every child diagnosed with cancer because the research is being shared all over the world. ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a

goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. fourth stuart futures suggest a modest downside move at the opening bell which is just about two and a half minutes away. shah ghailani with us this morning. shah, when. >> -- when are you going to buy nvidia? [laughter] when are you going to buy it? if. >> we're buying it right now, stuart. great question. looking for dips, i was thinking we might see a larger dip, but everybody sort of picked up last week when the fed came out on wednesday with less hawkish news than people thought and the fact that they are cutting back on

the qt. i know i'm going to get the bell on that one. investors ran, bought bonds by the handful. that elevated stocks, so we're not seeing much of the dip. it's time to buy nvidia because i don't know if it's going to dip much more from here. stuart: okay. you're generally bullish. do you see one huge black cloud on the horizon which could end your bullishness? >> the only black cloud i see is rising rates. we've seen them comp down, last week a great rally in terms of bond market and that elevated stocks. we have the big 10-year treasury auction today. if that doesn't go well -- it should, stuart -- and we've got a 30-year bond auction tomorrow. if that doesn't go well, but it should, if they don't go well, that means investors arewalking at -- balking at accepting these yields. if the market sees that and thinks, wait a second, if investors aren't buying the treasury auctions, yields can go higher and this rally may be a

little suspect, and we could see some selling. so far that's not been the case. the auctions have been fairly well received, and today and tomorrow are big deals as far as is -- -- the actions -- auctions go. stuart: any other big tech? >> microsoft on the dip, it hasn't been a significant enough dip can. all of the big tech claims -- names. we bought google on the dip, we're very happy with that. we're buying gingerly because we would like to see something more of a dip where we can grab some of these great names with with both hands but just haven't had that opportunity. we're long all of them, just a matter of adding to those positions. stuart: yeah. the money just keeps pouring into big tech. that's the way it is. shah ghailani, thanks very much, sir. back to wall street. they're about to open that market. new york stock exchange and the nasdaq, there you go, press the button. we're off, we're running. it's 9:30 each time on a wednesday morning. -- eastern

time. dow industrials off a fraction, .15%. when we get the market, when we get them the all open, we'll show you the dow to -- dow 30. move to the s&p 500, please. where where's that opened? just about one-third of 1 down, not a huge drop. the the nasdaq composite, a bigger drop there in percentage term, the nasdaq is down, show me, or please, there you go. .62%. nasdaq compos fit down 100 points, 16,232. show me big tech, please. we always do at this time. big tech led by apple which is up a fraction, 47 cents. the rest are down across the board. apple did get some good news out of china. iphone shipments were up in march. why was that? lauren: [inaudible] so china is telling us that 3.75 million phones were shipped by foreign companies in march, that's -- there aren't many foreign companies. it's an increase of 12%. we'll take it.

earning last week showed us china's performance is both better than feared for apple and now apparently recovering. so a turn-around in china for tim cook. stuart: there was one major league stock that reported before the bell this morning, and it's not doing very well, so i presume the report was bad and that is uber. lauren: thanking -- tanking. there's weakness in demand. quite frankly, they've gotten really expensive. and uber's forecast for this current quarter, the gross bookings, that disappointed even for food delivery. there are positives despite what your seeing on the screen can. they are profitable, and more people are booking ubers to go to the office. hmm. i guess if you're going two days a week, an uber is not that bad of. [laughter] and comfortable. and the airport. stuart: it is work from home three day as week -- lauren: you can a afford it. stuart: you just need to uber twice. that's understandable. ab inbev.

lauren: they are way up. beer sales are down double digits because of the bud light controversy and the hangover from the dylan mulvaney saga that started april of 2023, so we've had more than a year of this. but it seems like they've moved on, right? business do reassume. business in colombia and brazil, record highs. despite the bad numbers in north america, maybe this is it. bud's up. stuart: forbes our parent company. lauren: -- fox. they reported earnings. advertising revenue if fell by a thirds, but overall revenue of $3.45 billion. stuart: then we have uber's rival, lyft. yeah, they're going the other way from uber. they're up. now, they reported. what are they doing right? lauren: shorter wait times. they're appealing to customers and what they wallet. you don't want to wait long for a ride. that's helping to attract new riders or and retain the current ones. and i'd also like to thank amazon, because lyft's new-ish

ceo, david david risher, he's been in office for a year. he was the 37th employee if at amazon. and the one thing he learned there if jeff bezos was about pleasing the customer. so you want a shorter wait time, a decent price and cost cutting. that strategy's lifting. -- working. lyft increased rides by 23% last year but it is still losing money but less money. stuart: tesla is down 3.5%. they've got trouble with the authorities. they're being investigated. lauren: you know, i did three the separate tesla stories today, and is all of them were bad. this is why the stock is down 28% this year. the latest is from from reuters. they're reporting about a department of justice investigation. it involveses full self-driving and autopilot. u.s. prosecutors are examining whether the tesla committed securities and wire fraud in a criminal probe of claims that were made by tesla and elon musk about the technology's

capabilities. why wire or is and securities fraud? it involves deception in interstate communication that misleads consumers and/or investors. then there's the nhtsa probe of the recall of 2 million cars. we now -- so elon musk has to provide all these documents by july or pay a huge fine. but we now know that that probe involves at least 20 crashes. so when you're looking at what e elon musk is dealing with not to mention business in china is down, right? you have all these probes in the u.s., they're getting expensive, and he's laying off employees. this has been a very bad year for tesla. stuart and the stock is down to 171. that's tesla. pfizer has paused enrollment for its new screen therapy trial -- lauren: yeah. stuart: what's the problem? lauren: a trial died in a phase two trial for dmd. it's rare. basically, boys get it. they can't walk by around 9 or 10 years old, and they i do

between 16 and 20 year old -- they die between 16 and 20. it was phase two, a young boy, 3 or 4 years old, died in the trial from cardiac arrest and now this trial has been paused and discontinued. stuart: understandably. reddit had their first earnings report since they went public and judging by that stock, it was a good report. lauren they're popular but not profitable. and investors seem to be okay with the not-profitability part. red edit doesn't want to be a one-trick pony, they want are revenue from place other than advertising sales, so they're bringing in licensing deals, particularly content licensing with a.i. companies. the cfo says they fired on all cylinders in the quarter, daily active users up become , revenue up 48%, it was a good report card: their first one. stuart: check the big board, please. in business for six minutes. down a tiny fraction. i'd call that dead flat. dow can winners, there are some in a dead flat market, united

health, merck, johnson and johnson, visa, procter & gamble. s&p 500 winners including nrg energy, arrest that networks, constellation energy, jack henry and associates. nasdaq composite winners, data, do constellation energy charter communications, vertex and monster beverage. the 10-year treasury yield right at a or just a tad beneath 4.5%. the price of gold, $2316 per ounce. bitcoin, $61,800 and change. here is oil, $77 a barrel. nat gas right around $2, 2.23 right there. and the average price for a gallon of regular, $3.64. no change. diesel, though, is down another cent at $3.96. coming up, more problems for biden's green agenda. democrats and republicans teaming up to block biden's lap on some home ea mineses. we have the story. pro-hamas propaganda has been found at some of the

college campus protests. say gross a conspiracy? we'll get into it. president biden campaigns in wisconsin today. seems like that state gets all the cover coverage, all the visits. why is it so important? is it an absolute must-win in the election? karl rove on that next. ♪ ah, sugar, ah, honey honey -- ♪ you are my candy girl, and you got me wanting you ♪

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stuart: 12 minutes into the if trading session, a little bit of red ink. the nasdaq is down about 90 points as we speak. president biden is enroute to the swing state of wisconsin. he's set to tout his economic agenda. edward lawrence is there. edward, what can we expect? >> reporter: yeah. we can expect the president to say in that his economic plan is working. he's going the to be here at the gateway technical college. he's going to announce a

microsoft if a.i. data center investment. the company is investing $3.3 billion in a data center that would create potentially 2300 construction jobs and 2000 permanent jobs. the president doing damage control here on his economy which features 19 higher prices than when he got into office $19. >> the election is going to be about the economy, inflation is back and they're ignoring it. it's going to be about the border. >> reporter: president biden's campaign director of battleground states told reporters while former president trump is stuck in new york, in may president biden plans to be out on the campaign trail in battleground states and this is why. even with democratic prosecutors tying up the former president in court, he's tied in wisconsin according to fox news polling. and wherever president biden goes, protesters follow over his handling of the hamas attacks on us' and -- israel and israeli response. >> you see the president do this all the time. it doesn't matter where he is, doesn't matter if it's a

commencement or one of his events, he welcomes peaceful protest. and you actually have seen the president engage in that process. >> reporter: but this whole area's locked down, rarely -- protesters have a hard time getting in there. former president trump held rally last week in this general area. this is the fourth time president biden has been to wisconsin. his campaign plans to spend $14 million in campaign ads alone in may in battleground states. stuart: edward, thank you very much, indeed. look who's here, karl rove joins us. of welcome back to the program. always good to see you. a general question, why is wisconsin so important? is it an absolute must-win state for this election? >> oh, absolutely. in 2016 wisconsin's victory by donald trump put him over the top. and the it's a very close state. i want you to think about this. in to 16, 2.9 million people voted and donald trump won it by

0.77% if or 22,748 votes out of 2.9 million. in 2020, 300,000 more people turned out to vote, 3.2 million people, and joe biden won it by 0.63, againing or less than 1%, 20,682 votes. this is going to be a tight contest, and whoever wins wisconsin likely wins the presidential race. stuart: so that's why it's so important, okay. thanks for straightening that one out for us, karl. biden then goes after wisconsin to chicago for a fundraiser. chicago. has this got something toot democrats' convention in chicago this in august which really terrifies the democratsesome because it might be like 1968? >> yeah. first of all, it's about a raising money, and lee got a big financial advantage there, and he wants to keep that advantage. it has allowed him to get ahead of the trump campaign in organizing the ground game in the sick or seven battleground states -- six or seven. we've seen dozens of biden

headquarters being opened up in these battleground states and an army of volunteers and staff beginning the ground game, so significant advantage. but you're right. part of it also is to sort of reassure the troops in chicago that things are in hand. now, it's not going to be as bad, i don't think, as 1968 because the democrats and republicans both have learned how to control these kind of things. but it is going the to be a potential -- going to be a potentially ugly situation because there are likely to be thousands of demonstrator ors who are flown in from minneapolis and deerborn who are going to be organized and brought to protest america's support of israel and opposition to hamas. so it's going to be unpleasant, but it's unlikely to be as bad as a 1968. they've learned that the police forces have learned how to control crowds a heck of a lot better than they did some 50 years ago. stuart: it was bad back then. trump is praising his potential vice presidential picks for getting out on the campaign

trail whilst he's stuck in court. is trump getting his message out? >> well, it depends on what he says going in and coming out. he actually gets some press based on what he says. so if he takes a whack at the president over the campus disruption, that.com gnats -- dominates the news. but when it's the all about what happened in trial or what happened that day, then his message gets lost. but, yes, he's smart to say if you want to be my running mate, maybe you better get out there and get op on the campaign trail. incidentally, speaking of that subject, there's going to be a column tomorrow in the wall street journal on the very issue of the vice presidential, i think a well written, a well drafted column, i think i've done a heck of a job on it. [laughter] this is one of the points i make, it's smart for the former to say, in essence, boys and girls, i want you out on the campaign trail at a time that i can't be. stuart: you bring your white board and you promote your own article in the "wall street

journal" tomorrow, what a guy. great guest, karl. thanks for for coming by. >> thank you, stuart. all the best. stuart: you're welcome, sir. this is important and it's just coming at as. the georgia court of appeals has agreed to review the ruling that allows fani willis to stay on the trump election case. now, in simple terms what does that mean? >> good day to have a lawyer sitting next to you, stu. this is huge for two reasons. one, this could knock fani willis off the case. you'll recall in the initial lower court decision the judge said look, fani, it's either you or your lover, nathan wade. he fired her lover, nathan wade with, so that she could stay on. this court of appeals is saying, hold up, we're going to let the defense offer their arguments as to why fani willis should be disqualified based pop things that she did during the course of this case. and if ultimately the court of appeals decides she is off this case, that throws this case into absolute chaos because who takes over? do you have to start again? is it fani willis' office or

some other jurisdiction within georgia in that jurisdiction, if that course -- not court, but if those lawyers take it up, what happens? do they even follow through the9 with the case e? but even if fani willis is allowed to stay on it, there's one key piece in this order from the court of appeals, no date has been set. where did we just hear that within the last 24 hours? we heard that in florida -- stuart: documents case. >> if there's no date set for the appeal, this could drag on very, very long. could it go until the election in maybe. my gut tells me that they decide to hold the hearing on this before the election, but there's no date on the calendar. this is a huge win for trump. lauren: he's going on the campaign trail. this hush money case is probably the last one before the election, and he will hit the campaign trail actively. stuart: listen to this, this is my take that's coming up, biden's plan to bottle up donald trump in court is running out of steam. he wanted trump convicted, hopefully jailed before november 5th election. that play is not working out as the president hoped.

that is my take at the top of the hour. good news in the housing market, home prices seem to be falling. the bad news? it comes as insurance premiums are rising. is there a connection? full report next. ♪ 'cuz i know i got some good friends that live down the street. ♪ got a good looking woman with her arms round me. ♪ in a small town that feels like home -- ♪ i got everything that i need and nothing that i don't ♪ (♪) what took you so long? i'm sorry, there was a long line at the thai place. you get the sauce i like? of course! you're the man! i wish. the future isn't scary. not investing in it is. nasdaq-100 innovators. one etf. before investing, carefully read and consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco.com

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♪ stuart: home pieces down in approximately half the country just as insurance premiums are rising. gerri willis has the story here. is there a connection between lower home prices and higher insurance costs? >> reporter: in some markets there is a connection. in places like florida where we've seen the prices spiral out of control for homeowners insurance, we're being told by movers that they're having deals fall out of bed at the last minute. so when you go back in that market to sell that home after that deal blows up, do you ask for more? no. do you ask for the same? no. you can ask for less. stuart: that's interesting. >> yeah. homeowner insurance costs spiking so much they may be contributing to lower home

prices in about half the nation's markets. across the country the average annual rate increased by almost 20% between 2021 and 2023. but it's not over yet. an online insurance price comparison service forecasts average national rates will rise another 6% in year -- this year to 2500. one florida mover who also sells home insurance tells fox business that he hasn't seen homeowners insurance costs this high in 27 years of business. listen. >> a lot of cash buyers in some cases are opting to not insure which is not smart, obviously, but that is something that people are considering. >> reporter: now, florida homeowners, as you can see here, pay the most with an annual rate of over $10,000, nearly $11,000. louisiana's second at a 6300. six of the ten most expensive cities for homeowners insurance are now in florida. some deals are falling apart, as e said, because buyers can't

find insurance they can afford. home boyses countrywide, they're are up marginally. but in 20 states nearly half of the 420 the metropolitan areas tracked by moody de's, prices are actually down. and you guessed it, the markets where prices declined are in the hurricane and tornado-prone parts of the country where it's most difficult to get that insurance policy. stuart: that's right. you need insurance when you're in tornado country. gerri, thank you very much, indeed. todd, do you think home affordability is an issue in the election? >> not specifically, but when it's tied to the inflationary picture, absolutely. the reason insurance rates are high is because it costs a lot more to rebuild a home, the reason you need insurance in the first place. stuart: got it. todd, thanks for joining us for the hour. still ahead, liz peek, clay travis, carolyn leavitt and congresswoman young kim. the 10:00 hour of varney and company is next. ♪ ♪

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