lining to this border catastrophe and the tsunami of illegal immigrants coming into the country is the that it's inspiring a very significant political realignment. black withs, latinos, women, asian-americans are coming in droves to president trump and the gop. maria: good point adam johnson. >> the free earnings of employment, the economy are why we are making new highs. in spite of washington's best efforts to screw things up, fortunately, we have the creative of -- creativity of american ingenue de. maria: nice. ing. >> i think it's important to note that a recent monmouth poll shows 84% believe that the illegal immigration is a serious issue. maria: there you go. thanks, everybody. we'll see you again tomorrow. "varney & company" if begins now. stuart: good morning, everyone. the market has been a rallying for months. stocks are up again this

morning. this bull has legs, doesn't it? minor losses tuesday, plenty of green on the screen today. the dow up maybe 160, nasdaq up about 100 points. that's a continuing rally. ing djt moving higher, this is donald j. trump's media and technology company, up 16% on day one, up, what is it now, up 21% on day two. it's up again. bitcoin, we're looking at about $70,000 per coin, 70,200 right there. interest rates, the 10-year yield is now to below 4.25%, it's down to 4.22. the 2-year just above 4.5%, it's at 4.58. no change for gas, $3.53 for regular on average, no change for diesel, still at, $4.05. all right r polls ticks -- politics. donald trump will be spending a lot of time in court starting april 15th. if this is biden's strategy, keep him off the campaign trail and brand with him a criminal. ronna mcdaniel out, nbc fired

her. on-air talent had staged a very public revolt because mcdaniel is associated with donald trump. what happens at other news outlets if management wants to hire pro-trump people over there? mcdaniel is said to be lawyering up. on the show today, the bridge collapse, disruption to supply chains and travel, but there is a positive. as the container ship approached the bridge, the captain sent out a mayday signal. police officers heard it and quickly brought -- blocked traffic from getting on the bridge. that a saved lives. it's wednesday, march 27th, 2024. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ here we go, one more time the. ♪ everybody, here we go now. ♪ muck. stuart: let's get on with it. we'll start this morning at the

meltdown at nbc news. on-air talent now celebrating after management if ousted ronna mcdaniel after just four days on the job with. roll tape. >> i just have to say when somebody does the right thing, i feel like it should be acknowledged as publicly as we acknowledged our outrage are. i am grateful to caesar for making the right decision. >> i'm grate our leadership was willing to do the bold, strong, resilient thing. >> i appreciate working in a a thing where people say we got this one wrong with, and they made the right decision. >> our company listen ared to us, to you and did what was right. stuart: how about that? karl rove the gentleman on the right-hand side of the screen joining us now. karl, is this a journalistic disaster or what? >> yes, it is. now, let me be clear, this was done because they said she was an election denier, an advocate for trump. i'm one who's long believed that the election of 2020 was fair

and that joe bide season is the legitimate if president of the united states -- biden is the legitimate president of the united states with. i said so in a a column thursday the week after the election. but on the other hand, what's amazing to me is the sanctimonious nature of the nbc crew in saying we're getting rid of her because she's an election denier. chris -- kristin wilker on september 24th of last year interviewed james clyburn, until recently the third ranking member of the house of representatives, the man who, as you may remember, was credited by making joe biden president by giving his endorsement in the primary. in 2004, james clyburn led an effort to not accept the results of the 2004 election claiming that computers had been used over the internet to shift 120,000 votes in ohio from john kerry to george bush, thereby giving bush ohio and with it the

election. and he led 38 democrats on the floor of the house to vote against accepting the results of the 2004 election. he was an election denier. and kristin wilker was interviet the press," was interviewing him last september. in fact, he interviewed him again in january. so if being an election are denier is such a bad thing, it is only republican election deniers. you remember the guy, john lewis, who is a saint -- stuart: is yes. >> here is a man who was nearly beaten to death on the edmund pettis bridge and went on to serve a storied career u.s. congress. he himself in 2005 was a member of the group with james clyburn to deny the outcome of the 2004 election. finish in fact, he then appears on "meet press" in 2017 with, being interviewed by the former head of "meet the press" and said i don't see trump as a legitimate president. of he was an election deny or or

e, and e yet he was welcoming back time and time again. in fact, when he passed from this earth, he was subject to a glowing, and deservedly so is, you know, praise by the "meet the press," on "meet the press." my point is there's a double standard here. stuart: yes. >> ron that ronna mcdaniel must beremoved because she's an election are denier, but with we can have democratic election deniers and and never raise a stink about that. stuart: any connection to trump is verboten at nbc, it seems. donald trump currently holds an 111-point lead over -- 11-point lead over bind, however, is separate polls show baden -- biden taking the lead in wisconsin. is he making a comeback? >> first of all, we've got to be careful. it's a good pollster, don't get me wrong, but one poll. we've got to be careful. that's why in this age it's

better to wait and see if there are second or third polls that a suggest the same thing. but if it's, if these are accurate, then he has gotten a modest bounce whether it's from the state of the union which i don't really expect or from things at the beginning of the campaign and his personal appearances in the state. the one advantage that joe biden is going to have is that he is able because he's not in a courtroom in one of three or four places in america every day, he has a chance to campaign and showing up in places like wisconsin and north carolina and arizona and michigan where he has been recently or where kamala harris has been recently does serve to, you know, help his numbers. and we're to likely to see an advantage come from that if he continues to be able to campaign and donald trump is stuck in a courtroom someplace. stuart: karl, thanks for being with us. see you again soon. >> you get. -- you bet. stuart: robert f. kennedy jr.

has selected nicole shanahan as his running mate. lauren: she's young and are rich. the daughter of immigrants, a philanthropist and single mom with an autistic daughter. >> i wanted someone with who would honor the traditions of our nation as a nation of immigrants. but who also understands that to be a nation, we need secure borders. i wanted someone with a spiritual dimension and compassion and idealism and, above all, a deep love for the united states of america. lauren: shanahan grew up in oak eland. her mom emigrated here from china. her father was an addict. the family relied on government systems. >> so you can understand why i gravitated to the democratic party. because that was supposed to be the party of peace, the party of compassion. many democrats, we still believe

in those ideals. but unfortunately as an institution, it as has lost its way. lauren lauren and the stiffest resistance is going to come from biden. his allies have formed a superpac. they're going to coordinate attacks on third party candidate, rfk jr. he's polling at 13%, according to fox, and now that he does have a running mate, this independent ticket will try to get on the ballot in two dozen states. stuart: okay. i wonder whose votes he will take? will he take votes from trump or from biden? lauren: both. i think more biden. stuart: i think so too. lauren: and i think biden's e team knows that. stuart: well said. check futures, please. you'regoing to like this. that's a rally. dow's up 160. this is premarket. the nasdaq's up 100 points eddie ghabour is with me this morning. this is quite a rally, eddie, and you think the market is going to or is now melting up. make your case. >> so, look, it's clear that our government and fed really don't

care about fighting inflation because if they a did, they wouldn't be pumping this much liquidity into the system. and right now what we have, and we think we're going to continue to see a melt-up to levels that are probably going to far exceed expectations because as the fed goes to cut rates, which i think is insane sane at this cycle but they're going to do it, it's going to cause risk assets to continue to inflate. and this is why what we have really grossed up is in the small cap area and your higher risk areas are going to be the ones that have the biggest reward. but the best advice i can give investors is you can make a lot of money in this melt-up, but what the fed if is doing and the government is doing has a high probability of causing inflation to reaccelerate at the end of this year and going into next year. so we plan to ride this bull all the way up, but you'd better take the time now when your accounts are at probably all-time the highs or close to find out what your exit strategy is if the fed has to pivot and start raising rates again next

year. because what they're doing is inflationary which is counterintuitive to what they say they're trying to do. stuart: real fast, have any of your clients asked you to buy djt, donald trump's vehicle? >> we have a couple of clients that the actually own that, and they are smiling ear to ear today in premarket. it'll be interesting to say if they talk some off the table and play with house money. but a stock like that is going to be extremely, extremely volatile, as we know. stuart: got that right. eddie ghabour, thank you thank you so much. see you again soon. jamie dimon met with vice president harris at the white house last week. do we know what it was about? lauren: well, the financial times is reporting about this lunch and, no, we don't have specifics. look, it could be a conciliatory gesture, right? biden has attacked big corporations. his policies are brave proving the big banks -- can depriving the big banks of revenue, and dimon if has publicly come out and praised trump. his economic policies, his foreign policies.

but with jamie dimon is well liked, he's well regarded, and this meeting in addition to being an olive branch, maybe it was a job interview. stuart: for treasury secretary? if. lauren: possibly. first of all, he was speaking t. right? so he said i have a democratic head, a democratic heart and a republican head. so what are his exact politics? [laughter] maybe there's a place for him in the administration. stuart: maybe he'd like to be the treasury secretary. i'm sure he would. can you bring us up to speed on the bridge with collapse? lauren: it's now i a search and recover operation. eight people went into the water yesterday morning when this 1.a 5-mile bridge collapsed in seconds. six men working on the bridge are now presumed dead, two have been rescued, and investigators are trying to piece together how did this all happen? they do have the data recorder from the vessel, it has been sent back to the lab a, and that

could confirm the power blackout that a disabled the engine and the navigation equipment. in the meantiming if you look broader, this region is frozen. the port of baltimore is a major hub for transporting of cars, for coal. all of that is going to have to be rerouted, and if you look at the estimated cost of a prolonged shutdown, it's $15 million a day. stuart: thanks, lauren. we'll check the market real fast. green still on the screen, 160 points up for the dow, 1000 for the nasdaq. coming up -- 100 for the nasdaq. biden may give 4,000 illegals a green card if they've been here for 10 yards. about what about the other 8-9 million who are already here? are we going to let them work? texas congressman pat fallon answers that question next. ♪ ♪(voya)♪ there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. voya helps you choose the right amounts without over or under investing.

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♪ stuart: the u.s. appeals court is upholding the block on the texas immigration law. it stays blocked. casey stegall in el paso, texas, for us. what more do you have on this particular case? >> reporter: stuart, this is late breaking this morning. in a 2-1 decision late yesterday, that 3-judge panel at the fifth circuit court of appeals ruled to keep texas' controversial immigration law known as s.b. 4 or senate senate bill 4 on hold for right now. that means the state law enforcement will not be allowed to arrest and deport migrants suspected of being in texas illegally. another appellate hearing is scheduled for next week with the same panel of judges who previously found s.b. 4 to be unconstitutional and conflicting

with principal law. meantime -- federal law. meantime, the department of justice announced five people from south texas have been arrested for allegedly trafficking military grade firearm as to a mexican drug cartel in nuevo laredo. court documents alleged the organization would ace quire drugs from if up licensed dealers of firearms or federal fire arm licensees where straw purchasers would make false representations to secure firearms. while here in the el paso sector where we are, federal agents arresting several colombian nationals in the haas are week with -- last week with what agents call extensive criminal backgrounds from firearms trafficking to homicide, to kidnapping. all of them face criminal charges for entering the united states illegally followed with by a formal order of removal or deportation and, stuart, as we know that is just one that arrested -- that were arrested by border patrol.

we have a tremendous amount of gotaways that get through the country, and many of those the people also have criminal background withs, and we just don't know. -- back to you. stuart: hundreds of thousands of them, actually. casey, thanks very much, indeed. now, the administration may hand out green cards to 4,000 illegal migrants, 4,000 per year get green cards if they've been here in the country, this country, for ten years and if they have a legal relative. congressman pat fallon, republican from texas, joins me now. forget for a moment about the green cards. what about the 8 million that are already here? they're not going away. should we let them work? if. >> well, stuart, joe biden has amnesia about those 8 million that have crossed the border illegally under his watch and, no, they shouldn't be able to work. they shouldn't be here in the first place what's going to happen is it's going to follow on, it's just going to be 8 million more in the next couple of years unless, of course,

president trump -- stuart: so what are we going to do? we've got to house them, feed them, clothe them, educate 'em, health care wise, they've got to get all of that indefinitely because they're not going away. >> well, they should be. federal haw says the immigration and nationality act says you'll be detained and you won't be released or deported until we determine what your status will be in this country. joe biden has just released them. he's not following the federal law. we're supposed to be a rule of law nation. and, stuart, there's an inexhaustible supply of folks that have a desire to come here, and if we coddle the folks who cross the border illegally, the problem's going to be exacerbated, and it's not going to wane. stuart: i just don't see how we're folk to pay for all of this. if we i put the number at 8 million, that's 8 million people that we're paying for year after year, week after week after wee- >> yeah. stuart: i don't see any solution to this other than letting them work so we don't have to support

them. >> well, the federation for person immigration reform, stuart, say says it costs $155 billion -- stuart: right. >> -- for all these folk when they cross. but again, i hearken back to i don't want to reward people who break our laws. i think they should be deportedded. it's very difficult to deport that many people, of course, but they shouldn't be allowed -- what joe biden should do immediately, stuart, is reinstitute wait in mexico where you will be are, your case while it's being adjudicated, you will wait in member we coe. that will stem the tide by 70%, but he refuses to do this. i think it's probably going to cost him the election in november. stuart: you think this is the key issue that a biden loses with? >> oh, yeah, no doubt. no doubt in my mind. stuart: and you don't think he will do anything before the election to stop the flow? >> we handedded it to him on a silver platter, speaker johnson and the house republicans were begging him to reinstitute wait

in mexico, and we'd be willing to compromise, and he just absolutely refused to. what he's done is make every state a border state. stuart: if it's a losing issue for biden, and i think it is, why does he continue down this path? why does he not do anything about it at all? >> my theory, to be quite frank, stuart, is joe biden isn't the joe biden he was 15 years ago, even 10 years ago, and his staff is running the show, and they are left of even what he was politically. so they're just continuing to cater to that far-left element within the democratic party that this truly wants open borders. and i find it interesting that they have these sanctuary cities and states, but they're not put anybody up -- once we have illegals en masse that go to these cities, they want to get are rid of hem. and not one of these folks houses illegal immigrants in their homes. so they're complete hypocrites. stuart: you're right. congressman if pat fallon, thank i very much, indeed, today. have very difficult subject to talk about, but we talked about it. pat fallon, thanks so much.

>> thank, stuart. stuart: dow's up 170, nasdaq up 106. the opening bell is next. ♪ ♪ don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got til it's gone? ♪ they saved para-- they paved paradise and put a parking lot ♪ we got the house! you did!

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stuart: all right. wednesday morning, three minutes to go before we open this market, and the dow is up close to 200 points, and the dow -- sorry, the nasdaq, 110 points higher. show me djt, please. that is donald trump's media company. it's up 23% now. it was up 16% yesterday. and that's when it originated,that's when it came out first of all. now, i suspect, lauren, see if you agree with me, that people are buying into trump media because they expect him to win. lauren: yeah. stuart: and they want to show support for him. this is a way of betting, gambling almost, on the election. lauren: so you're saying it's a metric of his popularity, and i would agree, and it will be a megaphone for him, as it is now, as he's campaigning and if he does become president. sustainability might be the bigger issue. profitability might be a huge issue for the company because if you look at their prospectus when they decideed to take this vehicle public, they said, look,

there are many, many risks, and one of those is the former president himself. right now this is absolutely a gauge of trump doing well in the polls and people backing him. stuart: i see it as something of a gambling chip. lauren: the meme stocks, in a way, have come back a little bit. reddit, for instance, and even gamestop, which we're going to talk about mow 9/11 men tearily. -- momentarily. david: -- do we have david stryzewski with us? have you got people, clients who have bought into it because they like trump and want to support him? >> yeah. you know, a lot of people today are reaching out because they definitely have an affinity for the president. but i also think when we look at meta and we see the power of social media today, i think that a it's important for us to understand that, you know, there are -- there's room for more players. remember, meta wasn't the first one out there really doing social media, there was a place called myspace. and that thing is just gone now. so i'm not saying meta's gone, but i think that there's room

for trump social in this thing and, yes, we have clients that are asking for it. we haven't allocated it to a portfolio yet because it hasn't screened, it hasn't been around long enough for us to jump in, and we don't want to be speculators with core allocations. but as people reach out to us, i will personally look at this myself. stuart: you're a bitcoin guy, aren't you? >> yeah. stuart: you think it's going higher or. we have predictions on this show of it going to $100,000 or even $200,000 a coin. what's your prediction? >> you know, i'm in the camp of $100,000 at the end of the year. could it be higher than that a? easily. could it be with lower than that? sure. i think that thesis is going to play out year or next, but it's pretty easy to see this thing is heading in the right direction, and this halving cycle is going to bring in a lot of institutional cash. stuart: are there you go. bitcoin this morning, by the way, is just around $70,000. david, thanks for being with us. see you again soon. the market is now open and, boy with, has it opened strong.

look at that. the dow right in the first few seconds of business, 29 of the dow 30 are in the green. only 11 is down -- 1 is down, that's cvs. the dow's up 240 points as we speak. that percentage is .6%. the s&p 500 also up .if 6. .6. and, again, look at the dow 30, 29 of them are up. the nasdaq is up two-thirds of 1%p109-point gain, 16,425. show me big tech. i'm pretty sure they're all up, yes, they are. amazon, meta, microsoft, apple, alphabet all on the upside. apple still scraping around $170 per share. of let's get back to trump's media company. another rally. lauren: yeah. stuart: right now it's up 21%. lauren: 2-day rally of 91% now, and it trip tripled last year, just to point that out. it's an actively tradedded stock. there is interest in this thing.

it was the tenth most traded on the nasdaq as of 7 a.m. this morning. as i said, it is the metric of the former president, it's a megaphone for him as a well. stuart: yeah. lauren: what are the fundamentals, is the question. i don't think investors care right now. stuart: is it a bet on the election? lauren: in a way, yeah. stuart: you buy this stock if you think trump's going to win or if you want to show your political support for the guy. that's possible too. lauren: or, and i think david was talking about this too, if you see how social media with the exception of x is being dominated by similar, like-minded companies, this is an alternative outlook. stuart: apple have just announced the date for their annual developers' conference. what's the date, and are we going to get a.i. from them? lauren: june 10th-14th. are we going to get a.i.? well, a marketing executive at the company wrote on x, wwdc is going to be absolutely incredible. a.i., get it? absolutely incredible. stuart: oh, i got it. lauren: so i would absolutely

say -- it was the way he wrote it made it more obvious. the question is how, how do you use a.i. from apple. maybe just for improvements in your daily life. maybe there's an a.i. app store. that would be very steve jobs, if you ask me. you use apple as the main way to get everybody else's best of stuff, right? get all of their a.i.-end enabled apps on your a.i. app store. anyway, i think a.i. would make apple cool again. everyone's got an iphone, right? the iphone's not cool anymore. stuart: $170 a share seems to be holding. t not dipped below there, and at the same time it's not rallying much despite this news about a a. i'll, and you might think the it would rally. 170 on apple as we peek. robinhood, they're launching a credit card? lauren: their first one. up 4 for the stock the. they're moving to become more than a trading app, and they bought a credit card start-up last year. hence, off a credit card now. the perks are pretty cool, 3% cash back on all your purchases.

who knew you could book your travel through robinhood? and if you do that the, ugh get 5% -- you can get 5% cashing back. no annual fee, but there is a catch. you have to be a robinhood gold subscribe kerr, and that costs $5 a month -- stuart: oh, okay. the sting was in the tail right there. merck, they've got approval from a new -- for a new drug. what's it do? lauren: pulmonary arterial hypertension. basically, if you have it, you have trouble moving because of shortness of breath x this drug -- and this drug literally helps people move again. it's an innext. you do it -- innext. you do it once every three weeks or so. you'll see it in pharmacies next month. the cost per shot is $14,000 without insurance. the reason merck is up 5.7% is this is another way they're diversifying beyond their blockbuster keytruda which loses market exclusivity in a few

years. stuart: up 5 a %. big gain. lauren: yep. stuart: amazon pharmacy expanding same-draw delivery for prescriptions -- same-day. they want to the make this available in a dozen cities, i think. how are you going to do that? lauren: you've got to come to the biggest cities, new york city and los angeles. to they're doing that. i think they get tested, how comfortable are people with ordering their medications online. stuart: i would have no problem with it. lauren: really? i'll give you numbers, they're old from 2021, but just 10 of people were ordering medication online -- 10%. so i think there might be some resistance. the perk is you ever go to the pharmacy and pick up your script and you're like, oh, my god, i didn't know it cost that much money? or the opposite, it was a dollar or free if p. amazon is going to give you immediate pricing when you go on to order your meds. the other part of the story is how are they doing these deliveries. e-bike in manhattan, rivian e-vans inning los angeles and

drone delivery in texas, college station, texas. stuart: really? that's how they're doing same-day prescription delivery? lauren: yeah. everything about it it is new and cool. stuart: gamestop, i believe they're sharply lore this morning. yes, they are. what's the problem? lauren: competition from e e-commerce. a lot of people buying and playing video games online, and you have once again a consumer that is pulling back. if you look at their sales of hardware consoles like the playstation, down 61% in the quarter. so there is no relief in sight. they're also cutting an uncbs 2 -- unspecified number of jobs. stuart: the dow just keeps on going up. right from the opening bell this morning we've gone higher. right now we're up 288 points, that's the best part of three-quarters of 1%, .73%, to be precise. and look at the winners, merck, intel, disney, dow, verizon. they're top of the winners' list on the dow. by the way, 29 of the dow 30 are up. this is a rally. the s&p 500, merck, enphase,

intel,s nasdaq composite winners, please, headed by -- marvell technology, intel, warner brothers, xl energy. no other big -- well, intel's a big name. check the 10-year treasury yield it's down. it's below 4.25%. the price of gold morning, well above $2,200 per ounce, 2209, to be precise. bitcoin's at $70,900. oil right around $80 per barrel, 81 right now. nat gas below $2 still, $1.73. the average price for a gallon of regular all across the country, $3.53. it's nearly $5 in california. diesel, $4.05. no change there overnight. coming up, karine jean-pierre does not want to be asked about the president's mental fitness. watch this. >> reporter: would you please just ask her, does the president have dementia? >> mark, i can't even believe you're asking me that question. with that, thank you so much, mark. have an amazing, amazing day.

>> wow! stuart: that was a hang-up. they don't want to deal with this or issue, do they? if. an expert warned lack of sleep could trigger mental and physical health issues, so how much sleep do we actually need? dr. marc siegel will answer that question. supply chain problems because of the bridge collapse. we're live on the scene with the latest on what is a disaster. right after this. ♪ ♪ meet ron. ron eats, sleeps and breathes hoops. and there's not a no look pass, double double, or buzzer beater he won't wax poetic on. ad nauseam.

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stuart: it's about is 11 minutes into the trading session. the dow is up 309 points, the nasdaq's up just 50 as of now. that bridge collapsed one of the nation's largest ports to reroute cargo, and that's a real supply chain interruption. grady trimble is on the scene in maryland. grady, how are company handling this? >> reporter: well, stu, you just mentioned big automakers

like ford and general is motors and other big shipping companies, they're having to reroute their ships away from the port of baltimore and toward other east coast ports. the chamber of commerce here in maryland estimates that this state alone is losing something like $15 million every single day that this port remains closed. i spoke with governor wes moore this morning, and he tells me as the coast guard is searching for those six victims, they also need to focus on the next steps of getting the port back open. >> for people who want to buy a car, this is the largest port in the country for that. for people who are looking for farming equipment, this is the largest port in the country for that. we're dealing with places where we have loss of human life, and we have to bring a sense of closure to these families as well. so we're doing that with that in mind, with but we also have got to prioritize making sure that we can get this economic engine going again. >> reporter: the american trucking association says the

detours some trucks have no to make will add a significant cost in time, fuel and delays for trucks traveling through the region on top of the disruption that a closure of the port of baltimore will inflick on our economy -- inflict on our economy. as far as the investigation into what caused the ship to lose power and slam into the key bridge, the ntsb is leading it. they tell us this morning that with the help of the coast guard, they were able to recover the data recorder, and they're analyzing that now. they'll also look at the safety record of the ship, inspection reports indicate it may have had issues with gauges and they are mom orer thes in the recent past and they're looking at whether contaminated fuel played a role. as far as the rebuilding process and clearing the debris and getting that ship out of the port, stu, it's too early to tell when that's going to happen. too a early to tell when they're going to be able to rebuild the bridge. but as you know yesterday, president biden promised that the federal government will foot the entire bill for the are

reconstruction process here. stuart: grady trimble right there. thanks so much. joining me now is chesapeake bay waterman luke mcfadden. thanks for coming on show. you surveyed the bridge yesterday. what did you see in. >> yeah. i mean, i went out right after it happened. it's right behind my house, i mean, a 10-minute boat ride. and, i mean, it's just in ruins. it's pretty surreal to see it like that. it looks like something out of a movie. it's, i mean, it's sad. it's truly sad. stuart: can you give any estimation after the damage that you saw, any estimation whatsoever on how long it'll take to redo, rebuild the bridge? >> i mean, or i'm not a bridge expert, i'm a crab fisherman, but, i mean, i think it took them, like, five years to build this one, you know, in the '70s, i guess. and, or i mean, they didn't have to pick up a mile and a half of bridge out of a 60-foot-deep channel. stuart: how much of the bridge is actually down?

the bridge is 1.6 miles, i think it is. how much of it is actually down? >> i mean, the whole center span. is so, i mean, the majority of it. you can see in that a picture there, i mean, that channel right where that boat's at is 60 foot deep. they maintain that that channel about 60 foot, and that bridge is right on the bottom. it's still sticking up that much, so there's quite a bit of steel and concrete to be moved. it's a big job. stuart: it occurs to me though that any bridge anywhere is vulnerable to cargo ships, container ships of this size. one tiny little bump from a ship as a big as that into one of the stanchions to keep it upright, and that bridge is gone. this is vulnerability all over the world, isn't it? >> yeah. i mean, nothing is impervious to that. that's a 950-foot ship. i think a lot of people that are seeing this on the news don't realize how big these ships really are. i mean, i've worked around them my whole life, been with on the water of chesapeake bay my whole

life, so they're a daily part of my life, seeing these things and being up close to them. i mean, they are massive. and and you are not stopping that thing. no anchor's going to stop it, na half mile to stop. [laughter] you pull it out of gear. so nothing is impervious to that ship hitting the brick. -- the bridge. there's no bridge anywhere that can stand up to that. stuart: now, you live very close to the bridge, you say you're about a 10- minute boat ride. the collapse of this bridge, what kind of a difference has that made to your immediate environment? >> i mean, it's messed up traffic pretty bad. i think people are just now trying to figure out how to kind of get to work around it and whatever else, and i know that traffic's been very bad for people, you know, for my area which is kind of a suburb of baltimore city, trying to get over into baltimore or vice versa for work because now all we really have is the tunnel or you go all the a way around or through the city.

and, i mean, traffic around the tunnel was already pretty bad, and this is not helping. i mean, people don't realize how much we use this bridge, you know? i was on that bridge hours before it fell. six in the morning to go pick up my boat the day it fell and go gone. i mean, i use that bridge five, six times a week, and there are people that the use it twice as much as me. stuart: i'll bet. luke, we're out of time, i'm afraid, but thanks for painting a very interesting picture of what happened and what it's like now perform thanks for being on the show. >> no project thanks for having me. stuart: president biden, he spoke about the recovery efforts. what did he have to say? lauren: the federal government will be there to help every step of the way including financially. >> as i told governor moore, i've directed my team to move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible. is and we're boeing to work hand

and hand -- going to work hand in hand to support maryland in whatever hay ask for. we're going to work with our partners in congress to make sure the state gets the support it needs. it's my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge. and iment -- i expect congress to support my effort. lauren: experts say it could cost no less than $350 million and could take up to four years. you have to remember what the hardest to see and the most important is underground. they have to look at the structure, the foundation. they have to replace that. that's half your timeline, right? if. stuart: $350 million, that sounds awfully low. lauren: that's why i said at least. so that bridge was built in 1977, in 2024 dollars it would have been $316 million cost. stuart: okay. times change. thanks, lauren. ing. coming up, biden's strategy is clear, keep donald trump in court all the way through to the election. load up the charge, bend the law, drain his finances,ville

pie him. run on trump, the criminal -- vilify him. that will be my take at the so much the hour. a chinese firm suing a tiny michigan town over its opposition to the company's plan to build an ev bat i plant. the company is accused of bullying the town's residents. we have a report on that next. ♪ ♪ you're up against the wall ♪ up against the wall ♪

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stuart: residents of a small town in michigan say they are very concerned about a chinese company building a mass if i battery plant there. garrett tenney is in green charter township, michigan. what are the residents so concerned about? >> reporter: well, stu, the biggest concern is national security. this company, goshen, is the u.s.-based subsidiary of a chinese firm with ties to the chinese communist party, and u.s. officials including former cia director leon pa if net that have warned that china will use deals like this to gain any kind of advantage over the u.s. from intelligence gathering to economic and supply chain dominance. is last fall voters here recalled the entire with town

board that had supported this deal and put in a new board to stop the factory from being built. and now goshen is suing the town for breach of contract for trying to undo the deal the previous town board made. the nearly $2.4 billion factory would bring 32900 high paying -- 3200 high paying jobs, but folks here say it is just not worth the price. >> it makes just no sense at all to invite them in, to allow them to do this. and in michigan, of course, we're subsidizing it with money and tax abatements. >> the lithium issue, the environmental issue, the. >> ccpish saws. this is not a good fit for our community of. >> reporter: goshen argues the ccp has no presence in the u.s. subsidiary and that it's being singled out because of political fear mongering. >> there are currently 269 companies in the state of michigan with chinese ties, okay? that's a big number. they employ 32,500 people, and

none of them have a ccp designation as to what they do. goshen will be the same. stuart: >> reporter: gauching started clearing the 270 acres and and says it plans to move forward despite the town board saying it's going to fight this every step of the way. stuart: garrett, or thank you very much, indeed. still ahead karine jean-pierre hung #u up on a radio host. guy guy benson on that. intermitt tent fasting is linked to heart-related death. if nbc dropped former rnc chair ron many in -- ronna mcdaniel. martha mccall rum takes that on. and u.s. business leaders in beijing to meet with xi jinping. what are they there for in christian whiton responds. the 10:00 hour is next. ♪ no chase but to stay, stay,

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