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maria: welcome back. good friday morning, everybody. thanks very much for joining us this morning. i'm maria bartiromo. i'm is friday, february 23, 7:0. i'm for the hot topic of the hour. the white house considering ways to act unilaterally to stem the flow of illegal migrants at the southern born deer before president biden's state of the union address on march 7. the president is facing you're s and challenges in court. alexandria ocasio-cortez blasting the president on x for saying that he's considering exec i've the action, she writes this. doing trump impressions isn't how we beat trump. seeking asylum is the legal right of the people, all people in the face of authoritarian threat, we should not buckle on our principles, we should commit to them. she wants more illegals coming in. james, your reaction? >> i think doing a trump impression is actually how he could beat trump because this is a huge issue that's hurting him across not just republicans,

independents, democrats. i think just trying to mimic the trump immigration poll he sigh maybe with a new grand -- policy maybe with a new brand name would possibly take this issue off the table for joe biden. obviously, this is all completely insincere on the president's part, this election year pivot to suddenly pretend to be so concerned about law and order at border and we're having this public debate before the state of the union. he wants to do something. can it get through the courts? of course, there are many policies that have survived judicial scrutiny that he's not using and he abandoned starting on the first day of his presidency. he could go back to 2019 policy, anything that hasn't been knocked down and reinstall that. this idea that we've got to have this long discussion in the white house before the state of the union which of course is a political event, this is really disappointing because what he's done, he's ruined immigration policy for everybody.

we ought to be creating more legal pathways to bring in talented people from around the world who want to come here. instead we have a messaged he's not helping. maria: we've got 10 million people on his watch. maya mcginnis said when people show you who they are, believe them the first time. the only thing he wants to do anything is it's an election year and immigration is the number one issue for voters. that's the only reason he wants to do anything, in my view. chinese migrant encounters at the san diego border sector are exceeding mexicans. the immigrations and customs report for fiscal year 2023 reveals 288 chinese nationals were deported from the united states last year. you've got more than 24,000 encounters, 24,000 people coming in since october. and they've only sent 288 back. and by the you way, the daily mail reported the other day that

once chinese nationals come beijing won't take them back. they won't reyou pay trait r re. we're talking about dangerous gangs in new york right now, john. >> who knows the chinese that are coming in, what their intention the are, once they reach the united states. are they agents of the chinese communist party? we have no idea. a little side bar here, we do have chinese coming into the united states, we don't have americans walking into china. so much for these cl claims and forecasts that the chinese economy would overtake the united states and it will be heaven on earth in so many years. that's a lot of nonsense. let's also consider how this illegal immigration is overburdening school systems. maria: oh, yeah. >> in areas where school systems are already suffering

from a lot of under-achieving students. this is just making matters worse for the american education system. we'll pay a cost for this later on. and not to be forgotten is fence p -- fentanyl, the influx of fentanyl that's facilitated by illegal immigration. that has done who knows how much damage to american families. it's heart breaking. on balance, it's really odd to sit here and think early on in the biden administration they tried to reverse anything, everything that trump was doing and now of course they're reversing course, going back to his policies because they worked in the first place. they're admitting failure, admiting intellectual bankruptcy. maria: on the china story, china home prices sliding increasing pressure on beijing, a story in the journal this morning. i want to get your take on the border overall, gamings. i don't know how the president -- james. i don't know how the president

can justify doing an executive order at the border when day one he walked into the oval office and reversed all of trump's executive orders which were hehefsecurity at the border ande said when the senate deal didn't go through, now everyone knows the border's open because of trump. does he really think people are that stupid? >> the biden orders at the start of the presidency was he attempted to do a deportation moratorium. maria: that's right. >> i mean, could you more aggressively advertise your desire not to enforce our southern border? i think the chinese numbers are interesting because this is the problem with lawlessness and chaos is how do we know that deportation number isn't the right number? maybe it is. because you've got -- if you've got 20,000 plus people coming, a lot of them are probably fleeing xi jinping's communist dictatorship. maria: we don't know that for sure. >> we don't.

we don't. because we have chaos. but if we had a lawful system where you are vetting people, you probably have a lot of -- look at all this. you probably have a great new americans within those numbers. you can't differentiate right now between them and people who are criminals because we're essentially maintaining an open border. maria: as a communist country, with the heavy hand of beijing, can you even just pick up and leave and go to america? i mean, don't you need approval to leave? how are you all those people you say getting away and -- >> i'm not saying the vet wag be easy but -- vetting would be easy, same thing with venezuela and any other country where people have lived under the marxist boot, you know a lot of these people are going to be freedom loving americans who will put down roots here and build businesses. you just when you allow this chaos and you have either incompetence or indifference in washington, we stop attempting

even to vet and we don't know. maria: yeah. we are just getting started this morning. coming up, how markets are on the move as we look you ahead to a major week on inflation, next week. will the fed cut rates in the next meeting in march? we're on it with the word on wall street panel coming up. the panel is here with expectations. watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. ♪ i love your dress. oh thanks! i splurged a little because liberty mutual customized my car insurance and i saved hundreds. that's great. i know, right? i've been telling everyone. baby: liberty. did you hear that? ty just said her first word. can you say “mama”? baby: liberty. can you say “auntie”? baby: liberty. how many people did you tell?

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industrials continues the moments tom, up 39 points top f a huge almost 500 point rally yesterday. the nasdaq is down after the 400 point rally yesterday, nasdaq down 16, s&p 500 up a fraction as we see earnings continuing to hit the tape, warner brothers discovery missing revenue expectations, interest rates this morning dennis, the 10 year is up. take a look at 4.33% up 1.1 basis points on the 10 year this morning, philadelphia federal reserve president said a rate cut is the next step for monetary policy. the fed vice chair said you cuts are appropriate later this year, warned that excessive easing cn undermine. we have the second quarter gdp on wednesday, january pce index next thursday. one guest said the pce will be hotter than expected. what are you expecting and what about that day yesterday for

stocks? does it have legs? >> that day yesterday was extraordinary. i have not seen anything like it in my almost 50 years of being in the markets. if you watch nvidia and the announcement of the earnings for the first four or five minutes it was down $70. by the end of the program, it was up, what, 60 or $70, up $100 yesterday, extraordinary movements, unlike anything i've seen in my lifetime. can it continue? thought the market was overbought some time ago and was due for a correction. i've been clearly wrong. we'll see what happens but this looks like f tulip bulbs, the event of the 17th century in france and england. i think are things are aggressively overbought. time shall tell. maria: even though the ceo of nvidia said that a.i. is kicking off a new wave of investment,

worth trillions of dollars, these major tech companies are buying advanced a.i. chips and nvidia has 80% of the market on those advanced chichtion. advance chips of.i know you've n the markets. are there areas that you want to see that you feel there is value. i know you don't see value in some of these that are outsize. are there areas that you think you want to hide in while you watch this volatility. i know you like gold. >> regional banks make sense, they're down in price from a year ago and i think earnings will be fine. commercial real estate is on everybody's anti-wish list. i think it should be on everybody's wish list because it's so universally disrespected so give me regional banks and commercial real estate. i think you're supposed to buy the straw hats in the fall, the

straw hats in the summer belong to nvidia, the straw hats now belong of to regional banks and commercial real estate. maria: what's your take on commercial real estate? the u.s. saw 635 commercial real estate foreclosures in january, up 17% from december roughly twice as many from last year. had this came up yesterday in my panel in miami. i spoke with blackstone's ceo, stephen shwartzman, blackstone is the largest owner of commercial real estate in the world. we were talking about commercial real estate, watch this. >> we're the largest owner of commercial real estate in the world. when i say things like that, i find that just so stunning. i remember when we owned no real estate and that was in 1991. and real estate really fascinating business, it's pretty simple, it's the ultimate supply and demand kind of business and it's comprised of a

lot of sub-asset classes. so they don't -- they're not all correlated in terms of growth or in terms of success. and so what you didn't want to do in this cycle is own office buildings. office buildings with the pandemic really -- i don't know why people don't want to go back to work. maria: john, that's a problem, office real estate. your thoughts? >> well, i think prices of office real estate will continue to decline. after all, the housing crisis back in 2008, 2009, we had home prices declining for some time thereafter. so i don't think -- i don't see any bottom for office property prices any time soon. and he says about long-term outlook for commercial office space, well, you know, with a.i., this movement towards

a.i., we're probably going to lose a lot of jobs that at within time occupied office space. they're going to be gone. so the long-term outlook for commercial office space is not what it was five or 10 years ago. this would worry me. who knows what's going to happen to these properties. maria: it's a good point, john, but i guess my real question would be, okay, so office space is having a problem. is that going to be a big enough problem to take down the major banks? because it's the banks that could be holding the bag and when we talk about the capital markets business, look, social media company reddit just filed to list its ipo on the new york stock exchange under the ticker rddt, robert, david, david, thomas, expected to go public next month. renaissance capital is reporting 20 ipos with proceeds of $6 billion. where do you see the ipo market headed this year and what about

the impact on banks as well as the impact on banks from that office space issue? >> first of all, the ipo market, i wouldn't be surprised if interest rates remain higher than what was anticipated earlier this year, that's going to be a drag on ipos as well as the overall equity market but that's yet to fully make itself known. looking ahead at banks, some banks they have exposure to commercial office space but this isn't the housing crisis where you had banks taking on all of this leverage to finance the purchase of mortgage backed securities that eventually created huge problems for the banks and the banking system itself. i don't think we're about to see something comparable to the failure of a bear sterns or lehman brothers during the current cycle. maria: so you could have a problem with office space but not have you major problem with commercial real estate is what you're saying. >> with commercial banks, banks in general, yes.

maria: that's good news. dennis, great to see you this morning many thank you for joining the conversation. john, you're sticking with us for the rest of the hour. we appreciate it. we'll take a short break. when we come back, fbi informant alexander smirnoff arrested again in california. house democrats say the entire inquiry is based on russian propaganda. nancy mace is here next on that. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. ♪ do you believe in life after love. ♪ i can feel something inside me say i really don't think you're strong enough. ♪

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join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. maria: welcome back. former fbi informant alexander smirnoff arrested again days after being released from jail. smirnoff's lawyers filed an emergency motion insisting their client was taken back into custody under bizarre circumstances. he was arrested for allegedly lying to investigators. dan goldman writes this on x. doj must investigate whether and when grassley, comer or jordan knew that smirnoff was spreading

russian disinformation. he's accusing law make aers of conspiring with you putin. gop slammed goldman for peddling russia hoax 2.0, they point out the committee never talked to or knew the informants name and the fbi said smirnoff was highly credible of. he was paid six figures and was very trusted. joining me now, south carolina congresswoman nancy mace. your reaction to now plunging into politics on all of this? >> well, it's clear that dan goldman has lost his mind yet again. and the oversight committee we've been doing this investigation, the fbi told the oversight committee that this witness was credible and this witness was trustworthy. even jamie raskin last year said in front of the entire world that he was told this witness was credible and so this is just another day and another russia hoax coming out. maria: so do you believe that

he lied or do you believe that joe biden and hunter biden accepted $5 million each from burisma? >> i don't believe anything joe biden, hunter biden or james biden says in this debacle. i believe we need to have smirnoff in to testify before the oversight committee. we should be asking some of these questions and find out for ourselves what's really going on and quite frankly i don't trust the doj or fbi. there is millions of dollars that was exchanged from russia, russian oligarchs to the biden family. who is investigating that? where's the fbi and doj on investigating 3.5 million that the buy bidens got right into r bank accounts? there's a lot of questions that i would like to see smirnoff come before the overnight committee. maria: with you tell us what learned from james biden you appearing earlier this week. gop lawmakers claimed the testimony included inconsistencies about money he received from china and take that it contradicts testimony

from other witnesses. gamjames biden said there was no documentation of the loan checks he sent joe biden. new york post columnist miranda devine is reporting that he told investigators that hunter got two diamonds to entice him to work with cefc, one diamond he received when his father was vice president and the other was in february 2017 after the term ended. jim said, james biden said that hunter gave the first diamond to him and james biden threw it away. so he said that he threw the diamond away, congresswoman. can you tell us more? >> right. [laughter] >> yeah. well, what's behind closed doors. i believe that james biden committed perjury on the stand. everything about the biden brand is nothing about perjury and lies. these guys cannot tell the american people or investigators or those behind closed doors in these depositions, they cannot tell the truthnd joe biden we know lied throughout this thing and all of this has a he paper

trail. when you have a loan, you have to have loan documentation. we know that millions of dollars was exchanged for the biden brand the joe biden brand. we know they sold access to scrow goa as vice president -- joe biden as vice president and the years thereafter. this is provable. it's false. we've got to show he committed perjury. i believe he did. maria: i don't know why he would throw out a diamond. to be clear, james freeman, i want you to jump in hear in a second. >> it's unbelievable. maria: a very high end jeweler told me that diamonds is a very good way to hilled hide wealth had because you don't have to put it m the will. it's a diamond. you can pass it on to generations and it's millions of dollars in value. so i'm wondering how it's possible that james biden receives the diamond from hunter and he throws it away, i don't know, james, what you feel about this. >> congresswoman, maybe you would know standard protocol. my guess is, at any white house and i believe this is aledgedly

at the time when joe biden was vice president if some incredibly expensive gift is given by a foreign actor that for whatever reason it's deemed inappropriate to accept, it's returned. i would guess. as opposed to thrown away, kept by someone at the white house. maria: just throw it in the trash. okay. >> it does seem -- i mean, you've been talking about the credibilities problems. i wonder if you think this one in tech is going to be hard to explain. >> well, absolutely. i mean, you would have to -- you would have to logically return a gift as expensive as this with your proximity to the vice president, now president of the united states it's not a believe ability story and yet the mainstream media, they just eat it up, hook, line and sinker. they take everything they say as fact when the facts prove otherwise. it's ridiculous and the american people believe us over the mainstream media and you're seeing that when we talk to

voters, they believe the oversight committee. they believe our investigation. we have to continue down the line. i very much am looking forward to proving hunter biden wrong when he comes in for his deposition. when he comes in before the oversight committee. because this is nothing but lies and perjury from this family. maria: will you ask where the other diamond is and what's the value of these diamonds? do you know. >> i don't know. it's got be millions of dollars from media reports that he have read. i would like to know why he give the middle finger to america when he brought the camera you crew when he defied the subpoena months ago. i would like to know where the money is, the shell companies, the bank accounts that were used overseas and why he took dollars, cash and diamonds from communist china, from russia, romania, et cetera. what's the excuse? where was the business? what kind of business were they doing and where is the documentation for the business because nobody seems to have any answer as at all when your last name is biden. maria: do you think this is going to be an issue for south

carolinans this weekend, the primary tomorrow. you've been campaigning for president trump in south carolina, holding a town hall last night and then earlier in the week you held an event, taking questions from constituents. tell us about the campaign, what you're expecting from tomorrow's primary. >> i'm expecting a massive win by donald trump and the exciting thing about being in south carolina on saturday is that south carolina picks presidents and historically the last 50 years or so when you win south carolina you will go on to be the nominee and the question's really going to be on sunday, after donald trump has a massive win in my home state of south carolina, are they going to continue to allow someone to attack donald trump when we need to be focused on joe biden, we need to focus on our southern border, we need to be focused on the endless wars, possibly world war iii started by joe biden with the only man who could beat

him and that's donald trump and a he's strong, he's getting undecideds getting independent voters. i want our focus to be on sunday, coming together, uniting the nation and goating our country back. maria: i don't know if nikki haley will step down if what you're saying materializes. what do you think? >> well, i don't think she does based on her comments but there's no hope and a prayer for nuke nick tomorrow. it's all -- nikki haley tomorrow. it's all about donald trump. he's going to be the nominee. we have to take on j joe biden. maria: president biden has sanctions against russia are coming, saturday marks two years since russia invaded ukraine. ben hall is with us to react. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. ♪ i feel for you. ♪ i think i love you.

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maria: welcome back. the armor on the set of alec baldwin's movie rust facing a new jury. >> this is going to be quite the trial. so hanna gutierez reed was in charge of weapons during the filming of the movie. prosecutors allege she w sloppy with safety protocols which led to the fatal shooting. the director was shot in the shoulder. dramatic video and audio was shown in the courtroom. alec baldwin was practicing a cross draw when the gun he was holding fired a live round.

gutierrez was 24 years old at the time. a biden appointed judge from california's northern district tossing a class action lawsuit filed by a man who alleges a major appliance manufacturer committed fraud by saying the gas stove he bought was safe, despite the emission that's the gas stove gave out. the judge saying he failed to show elements of fraud by omission from ge appliances and the parent company of ge appliances. so you can't sue a company if you buy a gas stove from them is the moral of the store ily even if it's bad for the environment. maria: thank you. that's inconsidered i'll, actually. >> it's -- incredible. maria: president biden is announcing more than 500 new sanctions against russia expected today as ukraine prepares to mark two years since russia's invasion. we're expecting those sanctionses tomorrow. in a statement said the

sanctions will target individuals connected to navalny's imprisonment and sanctions evaders, they'll ensure putin pays a steeper price for aggression abroad and repression at a home says the administration. the biden administration is imposing new export restrictions on nearly 100 entities for providing support to moss you could you. the latest -- moscow. this comes a day after president biden met with alexei navalny's wife and daughter in california. joining us now is fox news correspondent, benjamin hall. it's good to see you. we thank god you're okay after all you've done for this country and for your work. thank you, sir. >> maria, thank you. it's a pleasure to be with you today. maria: tell me your thoughts on the sanctions expected tomorrow. >> maria, on one hand they are pretty symbolic and there are 500 of they'll, the biggest tranche of sanctions since the war broke out and they target the usual people they might

usually target but that's all they are. they are a moral victory. they'll have no effect on what's happening on the battlefield right now. two years ago many sanctions were given to russia. they found ways to continue to export and get weapons they need. it looks good, the sanctions, but it has no real elect. russia is in a better place than they have been for many months, perhaps the last year. they're taking over new parts of ukraine, conquered a city last week and so many people, and i've spoken to ukrainians n say sanctions are doing nothing to change the war, change what's happening. we need more. we need weapons. we need money. it's a big announcement, symbolizes following the death of navalny, it will have little impact. maria: you know this. most people know the sanctions have not worked. the biden administration knows this. what is this then, just smoke

and mirrors to appear that theye doing something? >> sadly i think that's all it is. they flow it's not going to work -- know it's not going to work. it is a big question, what more can you do other than what the ukrainians are asking for which is more weapons, more money. sanctions are not working. it's not just in russia. they don't work in north korea, don't work against china. there need to be more aggressive movements is what many are saying. maria: we talked about what's taking place in terms of russia if space, the wall street journal is reporting exclusively that the u.s. privately warned russia not to deploy a new nuclear armed anti-satellite weapon into space. national security advisor jake sullivan and cia director spoke with their russian counterparts about this, ben. your thoughts? >> yes, but they only spoke to the russian counterparts after congressman mike turner came out and announced this is a national security threat. until then, no one had heard

heard aboutit. they are saying it's not a grave dane veer -- danger to americas right now. it could be. they could take out cell phone signals if targeted the right satellites. it's a major issue. the u.s. is mainly looking to stop russia he by speaking to ca and india. this is a big issue in the future. russia is potentially jeopardizing the outer space treaty if it does this. again, threats towards russia often don't work. so we have to see as putin is on the offensive whether he might consider launching something like this. maria: you're featured in a fox nation special which looks at russian opposition leader you alexei navalny's life. let's take a look. >> he continued after the election. he picked up the pace.

he was building up a movement across the whole of russia. he never stopped even though he was attacked, even though he was disqualified, convicted twice of corruption. he never stopped. maria: navalny life is available on fox nation. ben, tell me more about the special. >> there's something quite remarkable about a man like navalny. you may approve or disapprove of where russian politics is going, et cetera. his is the one man inside russia under the dictatorship who rose up, who kept speaking out, who kept believing in what was right for the country, pushing for democracy and a talking about how corrupt putin was. he ended up losing his life for it it's a fascinating story to talk and look at someone who was so brave and a it follows the russian trajectory from the '90s. it's a look insight russian corruption, a look at putin and a look at this remarkable man.

many hope there's more people like him in russia. there is no one with else willing to risk themselves and if you lay flowers in front of navalny you are arrested inside russia. the opposition has been totally silenced and with the death of navalny it feels there is nobody in russia talking from the opposition side and so this is a real look into his life. it's fascinating to see where russia stands at the moment but it's a sad story to be honest because it feels like this may be the end at the moment of if any opposition against putin. maria: that is incredible. check out the documentary on fox nation right now, navalny, a life. james freeman, jump in. >> i want to get back to the issue, you were talking about how putin found a way to get around the sanctions, we're two years in. he's running an economy smaller than texas. and yet he has managed to keep this effort going. does it seem to you at this point that he can sustain this indefinitely or is there a moment where he just can't fund this expensive war anymore?

>> well, i think he will be able to continue funding the war. the one place where it might become a hardship is when the people don't have enough food or energy for themselves. when this becomes economically dangerous, someone like putin takes the money away from what the people need and puts it towards the weapons. that's where i think it's going right now. as long as he has iran and china as well, helping somehow get some of his oil out, he's not doing that badly. the sanctions are not hitting the way they were supposed to hit. and so right now there's no real concern for him economically. he's setting up a war economy and that's not for one year or two years. he's looking over the next decade. so it's a worrying trend. once you turned the economy in that direction, that is the one way they are heading. maria: really incredible story. ben, thanks very much. we'll be watching that special, benjamin hall, thanks for joining us this morning. >> thanks, maria. maria: i want to thank john lonski and james freeman for joining us this morning. you're worried about the stock

market right now. >> i think it's over valued. i don't think they're taking into account the fact that interest rates are a probably going to be higher than we expect going forward and that's eventually going to weigh on the equity market. there is no way that the fed cuts rates, declares victory over inflation until the u.s. economy slows appreciably. maria: final world from you. >> i don't know why you see cutting rates when the economy is growing. maria: we'll be reading you in the wall street journal. great to see you. james, john, thanks for being here many coming up, calling all lobster lovers what started as a single food truck turned into a major business, cousins maine lob ser co-founders are -- lobster f co-founders are here maybe give us a taste. they're here after the break. stay with us. ♪ keep on whispering in my ear. ♪ tell me all the things i want

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here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. maria: welcome back. so what started as a single food truck back in 2012 when i first met them has gone on to become a leading provider of maine

lobster rolling across the country with a combination of food trucks, brick and mortar stores, talking about the company expanding immensely bringing a lobster shack to your neighborhood over 23 states and 50 locations, cousins maine lobster. joining us now, jim tselikis and sabin lomac. great to see you, gentlemen. thank you for being here this morning. congratulations. when we first met you, you had one truck. >> now we have more wrinkles and gray hair. maria: how did you do it? today you have the grand opening for the second food truck in virginia, patch brewing company, celebrated a grand opening in chicago with a seven unit franchise deal. to what do you attribute this amazing expansion over these several years. >> >> i think we've got a fell on got a greatproduct and great qu. we have fantastic franchise partners. we have grand opening in chicago

so expansion is able to scale pretty quickly. maria: i said i look when you have the trucks, it's a lot more cost efficient because you don't have to have lots of people working there. so tell he me about the makeup of trucks versus brick and mortar and what you see as the real growth story of the company. >> for truck owners it's easy to scale. you can get into the business for a couple hundred thousand dollars, auvs are around one, three, one, four, some franchise hes do close to $2 million a year out of a food truck. industry average is 300 to 400,000. franchisees are happy, doing a lot of sales. they're easy to scale. you are doing well, a couple months later you have another truck, cu couple months later another truck. maria: what's the big cost you're looking at they where do you see the growth happening, more trucks or more brick and mortar. >> truck gives you a real benefit compared to the quick service restaurants.

the truck and startup costs, doing 1.4, 1.5 million, you can make the money back in one to three years versus an industry norm for a restaurant, five to seven plus years. maria: you don't sell alcohol in any of the restaurants? >> quewe donot. we'll work on it. maria: that's another part of business to get into. >> the truck is easy to operate. you can generate sales quickly. you can put another truck on the road in three or four months. maria: the lop of lobster's frm maine. you brought in delicious classics today. show us what you made. because maine lobster is the best in the world, right. >> the best in the world. we never strayed from that we're from maine. we wanted to keep it simple, traditional, have the best lobster in the world. this is your maine roll, a new england style hot dog roll with all a maine lobster. we don't mix it or add anything.

connecticut roll is served with warm butter and lemon. maria: that's the one the team wants. >> that's the one you like. we got you a whole bag. we have lobster tacos, lobster tater tots. maria: the lobster grilled cheese -- >> you want to sit on the couch in a pair of sweat pants. maria: yeah. >> keep the menu small, concise and simple. maria: what about the lobster basic. >> that's actually chowder. we do a chowder and a basic. -- bisque. those are old school recipes that we try to perfect over time. >> we stole the recipes from our mom. >> you weren't supposed to say that. maria: secret cause. let me ask about inflation and how that plays into everything. have you been raising prices? >> since the last time we saw you two years ago towards the end of covid we raised prices a little bit with inflation and

the costs we saw from the product itself but we haven't p in the last couple years because we try to drive sales to offset that. we can go to the market and drive sales to increase auv to keep it reasonable to the consumer but that all being said we're working with a delicacy. i think our consumer base understands, this isn't just a sandwich. it's going to cost a little bit more. it's not for everyone every day but it's something they can look forward to. we call it a delicacy item that's kind of celebratory. >> a lux luxury. maria: what does it mean when it's wild caught. >> we have rules and regulations in maine which take into account all of the catches and making sure they're hand-caught, they're caught by traps but measured by hand to make sure they're within a certain range and caught and made sure -- >> there's no farming. floss farming. maria: okay. and tell me you how the process works in terms of catching the lobsters, to putting them in a sandwich. >> so right off the ocean floor

into the trap up to the boat, that's where regulations come into play, they're catchable, legal size. they go into a processing plant in maine and cooked to the spec every time and then sent to all of the units throughout the country. what you have in california or new york or pittsburgh is all the same. >> we even send the bread. it goes to like the traditional aspect, we always say we want to he recreate our our childhood,d have the simplicity. whether in dallas or nashville, you have you the same experience. maria: smells so good. has the business gotten harder to manage as you've gotten bigger. you've actually created scale. >> i think we're happy to have phenomenal franchisees so we scaled with them. they have grown each unit so we're working with a lot of the same people. we have 70 locations throughout the country, 29 grand openings. we tried to beef up the

corporate staff. >> some things get harder. some things get easier. as you're able to grow and scale you add more staff members and have more money to play with and make sure you do things better. >> there's always headaches. maria: of course. it's been a great growth story to follow. thank you so much. >> thank you for having us. maria: thank you for joining us. jim tselikis and sabin lomac joining us this morning. check out cousins maine lobsters. quick break and then fox news contributors kellyanne con way and newt gingrich are here joining our panel, the power hour is ahead. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. ♪ they're all expecting more. more efficiency. more benefits. more growth. when you realize you can give your people everything, and more. thank you very much.

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