maria: welcome back. we are 30 minutes away from the hoping -- opening bell, markets now at the lows of the marketin. dow down 16, the nasdaq down 80 points and the s&p lower by 20 points, the employment cost index came in up 1.2% versus an estimate of 1. thank you mark, joe and cheryl, great show this morning. final comments real quick, cheryl. >> well, obviously that employment cost index is going to be a market negative today. i'll be watching that. maria: all right. have a great day. "varney & company" begins right now. stu, take it away. stuart: all right, good morning, maria. across the country police are moving in and making arrests at college campuses. pro-hamas if demonstrators are being removed, but at columbia,

an's clegg. overnight if activists broke windows and occupied hamilton hall. the question now is when will the authorities move in to end this occupation and restore order? there are more questions. will the authorities delay action if white principle cysts had run black students off campus? where is president biden? his press secretary stays -- says we're not going to weigh in from here. at this moment columbia university is largely under the control of anti'em mites -- anti-semites. to the market, all a eyes on amazon. they report after the bell this this afternoon. where the market goes from here will have a lot to do with amazon's performance today. premarket it's at 182, up $1. we have a downside move for stocks overall though. minutes ago the employment cost index showed a rise in the cost of labor, and the market turned south on that news. the dow's off about 170, nasdaq down about a 85 at this point. bitcoin, well, it came

perilously close to falling below $60,000. it's right now at 61,1. there you have it. interest rates, the 10-year treasury yields just above 4.60. it's gone up a little bit more to 4.66. the 2-year is sharp -- [laughter] when i wrote that, the 222-year was shy of 5% -- 2-year, now it's at 5.01%. that's not popular on wall street. gas, unchanged right now at an average of $3.65, diesel holding at $4 a gallon. all right, politics. president biden and mexico's president own rah rah door have an agreement to, quote, significantly slow the flow of migrants. longtime democrat james carville rant rahs at young student demonstrators. he says they'll cost joe biden the election. carville has exposed the divide can over age. p.s., a harvard-harris poll shows 80% of registered voters support israel in the war, 20% hamas. just who are those 20% which support a terror group?

on the show today, the identity trap. kamala harris and karine jean-pierre, both appointed because of their identity, neither doing well but they can't be fired because of their identity. biden's pulse putting politics ahead of performance. and jerry seinfeld on the death the of comedy in the age of cancellation. yeah, we cover it all. tuesday, april 30th, 2024. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ stuart: all right. the breaking developments in the anti-israel protests escalating hours ago at columbia. students broke windows to get inside, occupy a university building. morning, lauren. what's the latest? lauren: my alma mater. access to campus is restricted for those who live in the dorms expect essential staff. those are the ones who are told they should go to campus. this of after a group of anti-israel protesters barricaded the doors, they used

zip ties to keep them closed, they covered security cameras and then formed a human chain around hamilton hall. these students are emboldened. they are not getting what they want. they want columbia to divest itself from companies that do business with israel, and columbia said they're not typing that. i mean, there are no repercussions here that they're facing, so they're not stopping. i was reading reports this morning that several in masks got into one of the dorm rooms, john jay, that building, through the windows while the kids were sleeping. but that's okay. because the icing on the cake in all of this is that the protesters are demanding don't call the police, amnesty for our actions. this is peaceful protesting. stuart: so at this moment, we're waiting to see if the authorities retake control of hamilton hall. >> yeah. and a group of democrats are saying, yeah, they should. stuart: good. the white house refused to take a position on the columbia situation yesterday. watch this, please.

roll it. >> we've been very clear, americans have the right to peacefully protest, and we're going to continue to call out any type of hateful rhetoric, any type of potential hateful violence here. it has no place in america. aunt semitism, we're going to call out. it is abhorrent, and that is hate speech. we're just going to be consistent when it comes to these type it is of decisions on campuses, that is something for college, universities' leadership to decide on. stuart: she's not going to weigh in from here. todd piro with me this morning. why aren't we getting a firm answer from the white house? >> the two-state solution, michigan and nevada. [laughter] this is a campaign calculus. he doesn't want to lose those states, so he's trying to play both sides of the aisle, ands it is not working. stu, you've been around great leaders your entire life are especially being in this business covering business news, but just news on the whole. it all stems from the top. and if you set the tone at the top with this is not going to be

tolerated, you know what? t not tolerated. the biden administration has tried to have it both ways, and they've a come across as a weak not just in this situation, but throughout foreign policy issues during the last tree and a half years. -- three and a half years. also a let me add when young people see a president who says, eh, that supreme court decision, i'm not going to follow it, look at how i went around it, that sets a tone as well that the laws aren't real. they're just there for guidance, and you don't have to follow them, and that's what we're seeing -- stuart: red states are reacting differently. texas and florida have stopped these plo if tests, nipped it in the bud. >> pent the blue part of texas, ut-austin, where the protests are raging. i hate to play politics with it, but it is what it is. red states are getting control, blue states are not. stuart: you hate to play politics? [laughter] get out of here. >> well, okay, stu. stuart: james carville had choice words for young voters who say they will not show up for biden in november.

roll it. >> if they get a hold, there'll be no government left are, no rights left. you'll end up under three theocracy, but that's all right mr. president 26-year-old -- [bleep] 26-year-old. they're not addressing the issues that i care about. my advice to tell these young people to get off your [bleep] and go vote because you should vote like your entire future and the entire future of this united states dependsen on it. stuart: you know, todd, that exposes a real division, an age division. and he's basically saying, look, biden can't win if he doesn't get the youth vote. >> well, that's the take from it from an electoral perspective. i like to focus on a word that simonetti used earlier, entitlement. democrats feel entitled to the youth vote, to your point, because they've had it always and hay can't win without it. let's focus on what he said in that sound bite. we need to make sure republicans

and democrats and our entire nation to tamp down that language. because if donald trump is elected president, our country is not going to disappear. democracy is not going to disappear. yes, there will be changes from the last three and a half years, and when you i go into the booth and if you want those changes, you determine, yes, i want those changes, i'm voting for donald trump. but to hear him talk, democracy is going to end if donald trump is elected. incorrect. it's the fear mongering we've seen so far, and we're going to see a lot more of it over the next sixth months. stuart: check futures on a tuesday morning. quite a lot of red. the dow down 140, nasdaq down 73 at this point. greg swanson joins me morning. we're going to talk about the markets together. interest rate, will the fed help biden by lowering interest rates in, before november? is the fed politicized? >> i don't think. i think there's risk of that,s, and we'll see, but it's too late really. and the issue is not just economic growth because most of the economic numbers are god.

they're not attainable -- are good. it's driven by government spending, so it's not real growth, but it is g.o.a.t. nonetheless. it's the inflation that's too stick sticky. so i think they will -- and, by the way, inflation is, you know, the number one or number two top issue for the election. so i don't think they're going to worry too much about gdp numbers and try to stimulate. i think they have to think about inflation. and also remember, the fiscal policy is almost in direct conflict with the monetary point if it's free spending, statism in the government, you know, the larger role for the government in the economy -- stuart: why is -- i think of biden as aunt-business. >> yeah. he is. stuart: you cover the markets. why is biden antibusiness? >> two reasons. one is he's economically illiterate. the nice way to argue, okay, he's a keynesian, he thinks government spending is good. but i think it's worse than that. he's really in the pocket of the progressive wig of his party. you receive that with open

borders, with economic policy. all of this so-called success has been massive government spending programs. that creates scarcity. scarcity leads to dependency. that's what they want. the others, the second reason are is he's got this new coalition todd was mentioning that, you know, young people are sort of breaking away from sport for the democrats -- support for democrats or biden. the old coalition was young people and identity groups, minorities, african-americans, hispanics. now you've got this new coalition of super rich, and they're not bothered by inflation. food prices up 20% really isn't going to change your life if you're a silicon valley executive, right? so it's a combination of the super ewell think and the poor if dependent who are on the government payroll or on government benefits p. and that's the coalition now. so he doesn't care about the actual working economy and the private sector. stuart: okay. and the election is in november. greg swanson, thanks for joining us. >> good to be here. stuart: we have the latest case

shiller report on home price, but we have to remind everyone that these numbers are from february. they're two months old. lauren: the trend is the sail, prices rose 7.3% year-over-year in february, the highest since october of 2022. the biggest increases were out west in san diego, home prices up more than 11%. and in the midwest, chicago and detroit, they were up around 9% each. stuart: chicago and detroit? lauren: yes. e read that several times, up 8.9% for each city. stuart: that's year over year? lauren: yes. scratch your head. stuart: thank, lauren. check futures one more time, please, left-hand side of the screen. dow's down about 150. nasdaq down 72 points, and there's this: nancy pelosi snapped when she was fact checked about trump's economy. watch this. >> donald trump has has the worst record of job loss of any president -- enter that was a global pandemic. >> he had the worst record of any president. [laughter] stuart: it's all good stuff,

isn't it? the meltdown continued from there, and you're going to see the full tape, believe me. president biden and the president of mexico reworking on a plan to reduce border crossings. is this progress? texas congressman pat fallon on that next. ♪ ♪ everybody wants super straight, super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile. new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients. so, you have diabetes, and your glucose is heading low. [ alert sound ] dexcom g7, the most accurate cgm,

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stuart: a little red ink this tuesday morning. dow down 50 now -- 150, nasdaq's down 67. more in just a moment. texas the razor or wire appears to be pushing the migrant can crisis further west. matt flynn joins me from sunland park, new mexico matt, have you seen an uptick in border

crossings there? >> reporter: stu, we're standing on mount crystal ray just across the state line from texas, and over the past couple of weeks we have seen a consistent stream of illegal immigration right here on this very mountain. in fact, the border patrol agent told me he feels like border patrol has lost control of this mountain to human smugglers. and we have some exclusive video to show you, our fox cameras shooting this video of migrants who had just crossed through one of the many holes in the border wall here in southeastern new mexico. and you can clearly spot holes all over the wall that illegal migrants cross right through. border patrol does their best to apprehend those migrants as quickly as possible after crossing into the u.s. our fox camera also capturing the repair of one of those holes in the border wall here in new mexico. on one of our previous trips here, the company contracted to fix the holes tolds there's sometimes a dozen new holes cut into the wall withs in a single week. we also captured u.s. law enforcement on horseback

deterring migrants who were hiding out underneath if shrubs and bushes on the mexican side of the wall, likely preparing to cross illegally here into the united states. now, as texas governor greg abbott has bolsteredded his border, we are seeing the lift towards the west here in new mexico, arizona and the san diego sector. the san diego sector right now in california is ranking consistently as the busiest there. stu. stuart: thanks very much, indeed. now, biden and mexico's president obrador, they have agreed to a newen plan aimed at reducing illegal migrant crossings at the southern border. texas congressman pat fallon is with me. is this progress on the border, congressman? what do you think? >> stuart, good morning. it only took joe biden three and a half years to seriously meet with the mexican president. this is something he should have done in the first three hours of his presidency. you know, stuart, it's never been worse than it is right now. we have the worst february on record of 1180,000 illegal --

180,000 illegal crossings, the worst jab of 1 is 76,000 and the worst month ever was the one before that in december. so joe biden has clearly proven to the american people he has no interest in securing our southern border and keeping our citizens safe, and he's made every state a border state. of. stuart: congressman, what is the end game here? if you and i, we've talked together for a long, long time, and we've always talked about the mass of migrants coming across the border, the increasing number coming across the border. nothing seems to change. where do you think we're going here? >> oh, i think joe biden's going to lose the election in november on many different issues, record inflation, the hot mortgage interest rates higher but also the border. this is the number one issue that we talk about not just in our district in texas, but i talk with other members of congress, and they say across the country. he just does not -- he wants the mexican drug cartels determining who gets into our country and not our own federal law enforcement. so moving forward i scratch my head, but that's the way to secure your border, is to get a new president. stuart: but we're going to have,

ultimately, 10, maybe 12 million if illegals in the country. and when the next census comes around, they will not be counted as illegals, they'll be counted as people, and that will are contribute to the number of seats that, congressional seats that a state gets. the blue states are going to do well out of this. >> yeah. well, i'd say that could be part of the plan if. but what he should be doing right now, stuart, is he should reinstitute wait in mexico. that would reduce the flood of illegal migrants by 70% right away, immediately. and he should also meet with the mexican president again and say, listen, what is mexico after here? they want more work permits for their citizens. and in return for that if they will vigorously and robustly enforce their immigration policies that they completely ignore and secure their southern border with central the america, that would help, again, dramatically as well reduce the number of migrants. so it's in the united states' best interest to have mexico

onboard. stuart: i'm going to change the subject, congressman. we've got a new poll. it's a harvard-harris poll that a shows 80% of voters support israel in the war against a hamas. my question would be, is israel perhaps beginning to win the pr battle? >> stuart, or when i saw that, i was heartened by and pleased by the 80% number, but i was terrified by the 20 president number. 1 out of 5 americans are supporting hamas over israel? that is insane. stuart: that's a disaster. let's address the discussion about hostage release. they're trying to get this deal going here which would actually lee that las are -- hamas leadership in rafah. to my mind, that would be a hamas win. >> yeah. what i think, you know, we want to support netanyahu, prime minister netanyahu's government, and we shouldn't be dictating, we should be advising. but, yeah, i want hamas -- hamas has got to go, and those hostages need to be returned, and then i think you can have a

serious conversation about ceasefire. stuart: don't hold your breath, congressman. congressman pat fallon, always a pleasure. thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks, stu. god bless. stuart: now this, a new poll shows which issue is the most important to voters in november. which issue is it? >> i am shocked. you could knock me over with a feather. according to the latest monmouth university poll, inflation, the economy, money the top issue for voters at the ballot box when split by party. most republicans say immigration and inflation are their top issue. for the democrats, immigration and abortion is their top issue. more republicans, 24% than dems, 11, say the israel-gaza war is the determining factor when deciding which candidate to pick for president and more democrats than republicans say the same about climate change. so when you look at the numbers, despite all the stuff that we with talk about, it's always coming down to the money. stuart: yeah, i think it is. it usually does. quick check of futures again, down 174 points now for the dow

industrials. nasdaq is down 74. by the way with, the 2-year treasury yield hasp gone to 5%. the market does not like that. the opening bell is next. ♪ and i won, $11 on a -- 100on a scratch-off ticket. ♪ bought two tanks of gas and a 12-pack with it ♪

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stuart: three and a half minutes to go before the market opens, and we see some red ink. not dramatic, but there's some red ink left-hand side of the screen. david nicholas joins me. david, amazon reports after the bell. are you expecting a blowout report? >> you know, i hope so, stuart the. our clients own the stock, i personally own the stock. this really comes down to amazon with web services. so i want to see what are the results around it e, the commentary around it. overall, i like the stock. just what we're seeing last week we saw with google and microsoft, a.i., cloud was huge for them. this bodes well for amazon, and amazon cloud revenues are $90 billion, ads are the next thing the i'm following, $46 billion in revenue just from advertising. so i think those two segments, if we see some growth there, it could be a blowout day for the stock, stuart. stuart: apple reports thursday afternoon. under what circumstances would

you buy apple currently priced at $173? >> you know, here's where i would buy it, it's a hold for me right now. they've struggled with china. this i communist growth story that we thought was going to happen, it's been disappointed. so apple's having to -- here's where i would buy it, if i see a pullback of 8-10%, i am diving right in. if we don't see it and the stock pops, i think it's because they're further along with a.i. than the market thinks. i'm saying hold, wait for a pullback and then buy this stock left and right if we get a nice little 8-10% pullback with, stuart. stuart: i've been looking at the earning reports that we've seen so far in this quarter. what strikes me is the profit if margins appear to be going up, expanding. i would have thought that was pretty good news for the market. >> you know, stuart, that's a great nuanced point to bring up because one of the fears was going into this earnings season we see inflation not going down, or we see inflation going up, how are corporations going to stomach this continued high increase in wages and costs?

guess what? corporations have figured out a way to get through earnings and also do it while increasing profit margins. that point is key, stuart. it's why i think we see this market holding op. i think we still have some legs going forward. stuart: okay. so we're not looking at some serious decline, and we're not looking at a major breakout either. it's steady as she goes and slightly higher, is that it? >> yeah, stuart, a lot of people missed this, but what you just brought up about profit margin, either companies are profitable or not. we're seeing companies produce profits. that's what the market wants to see. so until we see that declining, stuart, at least in the short term, inflation for corporations hasn't hit it as much as i think we thought it would. why? corporations are raising prices on products, they're raising prices on services. the consumer bears the burden for that. but right now the consumer's willing to pay. why? because employment is stable. if we see the employment situation, stuart, change, that's when i'll start to get concerned. stuart: do you guys pay much attention to the fed these days?

we always say you can't fight the fed, you've got to study them. the progression of interest rates is all important. well, is it now? >> it's still important, it still matters for the market but or you know what? this is an environment that we're in that's a higher rate environment, but i think the market needs to be prepared not for rate cuts, we could see rate hikes. i know this is not what the market wants to see, but that changes the game. we're preparing ourselves that we could see a rate hike because the fed has done the opposite of what it's telegraphed. the fed has done the op opposite of what the markets belief. so that's what i think you need to be prepared for. stuart: how do you prepare for it? real fast, 10 seconds. how do you prepare? >> own short-term bonds, don't go out long on the curve and own quality balance sheet a companies like amazon, microsoft, google, the big names with a lot of cash. stuart: we're back to 5% on the 2-year treasury. thanks very much, david. he presses the button. the market is open, and we've opened on the downside is. not a dramatic loss but we're down 0 on the dow -- 130 on the

dow. look at the dow 30, almost all of them, 26 i think it is, they are down today. plenty of red ink there. the s&p 500 also on downside, about a quarter percent. the nasdaq composite, pretty much the same story. that is down .40%. all right, big tech. do this every day, show it to you at 9:30. a mixed picture. alphabet, apple up. microsoft, amazon, meta down. plenty of earnings reports out before the bell today. in particular, eli lilly. that stock straight up today, 4% higher. lauren, i guess that's the weight loss drugs doing well. lauren: mounjaro, beat and raise kind of quarter thanks to skyrocketing demand for those weight loss and diabetes drugs. stock's up 4.5%. eli lilly's ceo says demand will outpace supply this year despite if making more, becoming their top careerty. can't do it. that's how big demand is. their market cap topping $7 billion. stuart: coca-cola, did they report this morning?

lauren: yeah. and consumers are splurging on soda and juice when they go to restaurants, not at at a grocery store. stock's relatively flat, down a quarter, but they raised their prices 13% on average -- stuart: whoa. lauren: some pricing power. stuart: mcdonald's, were they out today before the bell? lauren: yeah. the stock down almost 4%. i guess when with it comes to fast food if chains, americans aren't splurging. they're becoming picky about their spending. in the u.s., same-store sales increased 355%, but -- 3.5%, but a year ago a, it was 212.5%. they're test -- 12.5%. they're testing a bigger burger. maybe that'll give up someone a reason to spend more money? if. stuart: is that a sign of slowing down in consumer spending in the economy? lauren: i would say so. i would imagine a fast food chain, some sort of dollar men you is recession-proof. stuart: matches those gdp numbers last week too. molson coors, are they -- they

drink alcohol, they a make alcohol, are they recession-proof. lauren: i was going to say yes because the stock was up in the premarket. now it's down in a wig way, 4.5%. their profits almost tripled. double-digit volume growth for coors light, they have hiked prices consistently, and customers have accepted. not sure why the stock is down at a the moment. stuart: stellantis, they own chrysler. lauren: jeep, dodge, ram, revenue fell 12%. north america, biggest market, shipments here down 20%. they are putting the pedal to the metal when it comes to evs. they have 25 new models coming out this year, and 18 will be fully electric, not hybrid. bev, battery electric vehicles. all that comes at a cost, and investors are paying the price. stuart: isn't that all again about a slowing economy? down big with percentage terms, isn't that slowing the economy? lauren: yeah, well, the evs they're coming out with are going to be extensive like the jeep suv, that's going to start

at $800,000. so if we're -- $80,000. you only have a certain number of people that can afford that. toure stuart and that's why the stock's down 8. big loss. amazon reports after the bell. i'm told everybody's looking for amazon's cloud performance. lauren: aws. how is a.i. boosting aws. they have 30% market share. aws is the biggest player in the cloud market. has that grown? also a e-commerce. when was the last time you ordered something at amazon and you had to wait two days? amazon said that 60% of their orders are fulfilled that day or the next day. stuart: really? lauren: and they want to make that the standard. same-day standard. remember alphabet announced a dividend? amazon's doing well. if they can confirm the numbers tonight, will they announce if their first ever dividend? stuart: we shall see. only time will tell. tesla, don't tell me, or they're going to lay off more workers. stuart: the stock was up 15% yesterday, down 2% today. they have already laid off two

key high-level executives, the one who headed up the superchargerrations and the other who headed up the new vehicles division. reportedly, their entire team's 500 plus people will be let go too. stuart: ouch. that a hurts, doesn't it? lauren: well or, elon musk has to downsize the company, and he's got to get a cheaper car to the market faster. stuart: not easy, i'd say. what's the warning that macy's is delivering to their corporate employees? is it layoffs? lauren: it could be. bloomberg is reporting that they told their hybrid workers, these are people that work, are supposed to come into the office, you can be home but only three days a week. you need to come to the new york city headquarters two days a week starting may 13th. and if not, you face consequences. can you -- we come to work five days a week with. stuart yep, have to. lauren but for many people they were told, okay, hybrid. but many companies didn't enforce that, so they might have moved out to california or wherever. are they going to move back to new york in this environment to go to work two days a week?

stuart: and you get used to no commute even though your head office is in new york city -- >> during the pandemic, i didn't move my car literally for four months. stuart: i forgot how to drive. lauren: except working. when you're working from home, no childcare, no dry cleaning, no commuting bills, going out to lunch bills -- stuart: boredom as well. lauren: i know. [laughter] stuart: walmart made a big announcement about their health center -- lauren: this is huge. they're closing all of them. stuart: all of them? lauren: they have 5 51 centers in 5 a states, all of that being closed. several reasons. rising costs, etc. but staffing, they couldn't get enough doctors and nurses to staff them up, so we see walmart bailing on health care as amazon and cvs are pushing deeper into health care. stuart: a friend of mine went to a clinic to get some kind of testing done, no staff available to do it. lauren: i know. stuart: line out the door, everybody waiting, no staff. it's happening. last one, i think, microsoft. what are they doing in

indonesia? lauren: investing $1.7 billion over 4 years for new cloud and a.i. infrastructure there and also training hundreds of thousands of workers on the new skill set. i always tell my kids, can you take a robotics class, please? just do it, because the job of the future are going to be how to design a robot or fix one, or right? if. stuart: you're so right. [laughter] all right. look at the other markets, please. i'll start with the 10-year treasury yield. where is with it in going up. yes, it is going request up. 4.67%. by the way, the 2-year is now above 5%. the price of gold, we haven't checked it yet today, $2319. it's down $38, that's 1.5%. bitcoin, under pressure earlier, close to dropping below $60,000. it struggled back to 61,2. oil, low $80 per barrel range, 82 to be precise. coming up, jerry seinfeld says the extreme left has ruined comedy. roll it. >> you just expected there'll be

some funny stuff we can watch on tv tonight. well, guess what? where is it? this is the result of the extreme left. stuart: i think he's right. does jimmy failla think he's right too? he's on the show in the 11:00 hour. astrazeneca admitted their covid vaccine can cause a rare and and deadly blood-clotting side effect. dr. marc siegel tells us how widespread and serious this could be. day nine of trumps' criminal trial in new york. former acting attorney general matthew whitaker on that next. ♪

stuart: all right. 12 minutes into the market's session, dow's down 170. much smaller losses for the s&p and for the nasdaq. it's day nine of trump's new york criminal trial. today we'll hear from the

prosecution's third witness. eric shawn outside the courthouse. eric, what are we going to hear today? >> reporter: good morning, stu. the testimonies has just resumed a few moments ago. former president trump arriving here at the federal -- can at the manhattan criminal courthouse with his son eric trump, the first time we've seen a family member accompany the former president to these proceedings. and as usual, he is not a happy to be here. >> there is no case here. there's no case whatsoever. it's a disgrace. we have a conflicted judge, and it shouldn't be happening, not in this country. >> reporter: right now gary farrow is back on the stand. he was the senior managing director at first republic bank here in manhattan. he set up the shell company for michael cohen a cohen used to pay off stormy daniels. farrow's testimony is designed to start laying the foundation for the financial documents the prosecutors say are the backbone of the 34 charges of trump

allegedly filing false business records. cohen billed trump in invoices listed as fees for his retainer for providing legal services. prosecutors say that was all a sham to hide the true purpose of stormy's paves that were -- payoffs that were then reimbursed by trump. we could be hearing from a bookkeeper who the defense said positived the checks for cohen. todd blanch, the president's lawyer, said no one told her to keep anything secret. blanch told the jury, quote, president trump had nothing to do with anything -- any of the 34 pieces of paper9. in the white house while he was running the country, that is not a crime. the president arriving here this morning also made clear that he doesn't think this trial should go forward. he attacked judge juan merchan as he usually does saying he has conflicts. the judge has already at least

twice decided that he is not recusing himself. the testimony of mr. farrow now underway. the entry candidate details -- integrate details of the -- intricate details being laid out for the jury all in anticipation, stu, for the eventual testimony from the star witness, and that will be michael cohen, of course, hardships. stu, back to you. -- himself. stuart: former acting attorney general matthew whitaker is with me. matt, this is just coming at us. the judge has fined trump for eight gag order violations. that's a total of $8,000. is there any ruling on contempt of court? >> well, you know, those gag order violations are the contempt of court. those are, you know, the state alleged 4 gag -- 14 gag order violations, and the judge found 8. i think the judge is really trying hard to look fair and impartial, and he's being criticize ised tremendously

including by myself for being conflicted and for, you know, his daughter that's made millions of dollars off of this trial. and so i think he's got to walk a fine line. but, you know, president trump if now knows the price of poker is $1,000 per gag order violation, i don't think that is expected to make him stop sharing what's on his mind and how he feels about this trial. stuart: look at this op-ed, and it's from republican jim jordan, nicole mag tackies and jeff -- malliotakis and jeff van drew. i'm quoting, american people can see through man manhattan political trial gwen trump. give me the big picture here. is the new york judicial system held in highest esteem after all of this? >> no. i think it's actually decreased in its esteem. i think there was a time probably 50 years ago where new york was viewed as really, you know, the place to be and the place to have businesses, but, you know, i would not expect that many business owners and

entrepreneur are starting new businesses in new york because of this risk of being prosecuted for your political beliefs. but, you know, president trump's trial is going to demonstrate what the evidence actually is. so, if anything, you know, at least new york can follow the basic rules of evidence and procedure. but, you know, i think the outcome is going to be watched very squarefully, and the american people are showing -- carefullying, and the american people are showing they don't have a lot of respect for the new york courts. stuart: i thought from the beginning the biden administration just wanted to shut trump up. now he's been fined for eight a gag order violations. could i interpret that as a success for the administration, the biden team, they've shut him up? >> not only do they want to keep him quiet, i think they also want to keep him off the campaign trillion, and that's why -- trail, and that's why you have the former number three in the biden administration now trying this case in state court or in new york city. it is very much the fingerprints of joe biden and his political

strategy are all over these four cases strewn across the country trying to keep donald trump busy, distracted and off the campaign trail. stuart: matthew whitaker, thanks for being with us as always. see you again soon. >> good to see you, stuart, thank you. stuart: michael cohen is making money from the case on tiktok. doesn't that violate some kind of rule? >> no. no gag orders for michael cohen, apparently, only donald trump as he a awaits his turn on the witness stand. michael cohen's been attacking trump on social media and talking about the system that has -- the testimony that has occurred so far. his nightly live streams on tiktok appear to be earning him financial benefit through viewer donations. while this doesn't seem to violate any existing court order, legal experts say it hurts his horrifically-bad credibility as a witness and in turn hurts the prosecution case because be you don't want your key witness talking about the case outside of court. they say the trump team is pouring over these live streams

in an effort to weaponize them against the prosecution. when you think about what a gag order is for, it is done to protect individuals like michael cohen, but michael cohen goes out there and does everything to undo the protection. this case boppingers. stuart: you are a reformed lawyer. what do you make of the prosecution's case so far? >> what they are doing is 100 to % clearly trying to -- 1000% clearly trying to set the stage, set the foundation for when michael cohen goes up there. you have a witness in david pecker, defense was able to poke some holes in his testimony but, by and large, his testimony went from a to z and set a storyline, a narrative. they need to prepare for when michael cohen fills in blanks because the defense is going to get a lot of time cross-examining michael cohen, and they're going to destroy him. we need to take a step back though, stu. based opinion upon what was presented so far -- upon what was presented so far, yeah, it's salacious. there is no illegality based

upon the law, and that's the challenge for the prosecution unless it doesn't matter because you're in new york and they can find a ham sandwich guilty -- stuart: indict a ham sandwich. thank you, todd. coming up, if you hire someone on the basis of their identity, you may score some political points. but if a person doesn't work out, how do you fire them? in many cases, you are trapped. plied ifen is trapped with kamala harris and karine yeah pier. boom supersonic wants to sutt flight time in half. grady trimble got an inside look at the operations. i want to know how soon travelers can expect to travel in one of these things. we'll be right back. ♪ going to take you right in through the danger zone. ♪ highway to the danger zone ♪

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stuart: i'd like to clarify what we reported just a few minutes ago. the judge in the new york criminal trial of donald trump misspoke. trump has been fined $9,000 for 9 gag violations, not $8,000 for 8 violations as the judge originally said. got it. now remember this, concord?

boom supersonic's going to introduce its own supersonic jet in coming years. grady trimble got an inside look, and he joins me now. grady, i've got a rarity of questions. how fast can this plane fly, how much will it cost, a tick, that is, and when will they start taking passengers? can you answer all three? >> reporter: stu, mach 1.7 and about twice as fast as commercial planes fly these days. as far as the airfare, it's going to run you about as a much as you'd pay for a business class ticket on a regular commercial flight these days, and they are hoping the these planes in the air with passengers on 'em by 2029. of so pretty soon. this plane that you see right here is basically a one-third scale prototype of what a will eventually become boom supersonic's commercial if plane. this video that we're showing you is the plane if behind me but on its first test flight just last month. so the first time ever that this

plane took to the skies. we talked to the two test pilots who when will take it on more flights below the speed of sound at first, so subsonic, looking to eventually fly supersonic later this year are. >> flight test is essentially a build-up process where you learn, you understand the airplane as well as you can within a given environment, and you expand that each time you fly. >> we learned an awful lot. first final the aircraft's been in the air, first time for a lot of things. the second flight will have a lot of firsts as well. >> reporter: and, stu, you mentioned the concord. the ceo here at boom tells me that they've got a lot of new technology, new materials, and that's what's going to be able to bring the price of this plane flight down for p hopefully, one day regular travelers who wouldn't have been able to fly on the concord will be able to fly supersonic in the not too distant future. stuart: grady trimble, thank you very much, indeed. thank you, todd, for joining me

for the hour. appreciate it. coming up, what's ahead? why is america condemning an ally? that would be israel. all kinds of people on that. more "varney" after this. hello, ghostbusters. it's doug. we help people customize and save hundreds on car insurance with liberty mutual. we got a bit of a situation. .. ♪ liberty liberty liberty liberty ♪ in theaters now. ava: i was just feeling sick. and it was the worst day. mom was crying. i was sad. colton: i was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma.

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