of us here at "mornings with maria," we wish you a blessed and beautiful easter sunday. and thank you so much for an incredible quarter with us on this program. morgan ortagus, kevin o'leary, it's been great having you this morning, thank you so much for being here. >> thanks. >> thank you. maria: all right. it are reminds me of the nicer days, there's my mom and my niece, samantha, color aring easter eggs in years past. but this time of the year reminds me that spring is on the way. we are in spring, but i'm hoping for warmer weather so that we can do some plantings like i always do, plant if flowers, and we hope you have a great holiday, everybody. thanks very much for being here. i will see you on monday right here on "mornings with maria," 6-9 a.m. ian. have a great day. ashley webster's in for tu, take the it away. ashley: good morning, maria. great stuff. good morning, everyone. i am ashley webster in today for

stu varney. it is a tale of two campaigns. last night president biden holding a star-stud thed fundraiser with barack obama and bill clinton. meanwhile, earlier in the day former president trump was just 45 minutes outside of new york city attending the wake of murdered nypd can officer a jonathan diller. trump talked about the need to get back to law and order. spoke exclusive ally to brian kilmeade about that, and we'll bring you that interview this morning. also today marks one year since 32-year-old "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich was detained by russia a while working on assignment. we're going to speak to one of evan's close friends later in the show. markets, as maria said, closed for the good friday holiday, but the markets certainly closing out the first quarter in record fashion. the s&p 500 seeing its best first quarter performance in five years, gaining 10% in just the first three months. question can is, can it -- question is, can it continue in the second quarter?

we'll get into that. bitcoin was over $70,000 yesterday, till there. it's down $447 at a $30,1 -- 70,176. meantime, the millions are set to hit the road for this holiday weekend. we're going to tell you what you can expect to pay at the pump. oh, yes, it's friday, it's good friday. it's march 29th, 2024. "varney & company" about to begin. ♪ ♪ ♪ god only knows, god only noses what you've been -- knows what you've been through. ♪ god only nose what they say about you. ♪ god only knows the real you ♪ if. ashley: god only nose, for king and country. midtown manhattan on this good friday. good morning, everyone. let's begin with this. the markets are closed, we want to get into some politics and a

new fox poll that shows voters' trust on certain issues. president biden beating donald trump on climate change, abortion, election integrity and a slight edge on health care. but trump wins on foreign policy, the economy and immigration. former arkansas above mike huckabee with joins us -- governor mike huckabee joins us this morning. great to see you, governor. what issues -- that said about the poll, what issues do you think are going to matter most in this election? >> i think it's going to be the border and the it's going to be groceries and gasoline. that's where people are touched every single day. abortion may be an emotional issue for people both on the right and the left, but very few. people are going to be personally as affected by that as they will be by what they have to pay to put gas in their car, what they pay to put bacon, bread and butter on the table and whether or not they believe that we're protecting our

citizens by having a controlled border and dealing with crime in the big cities. those are issues that touch americans. and and what we're seeing is a huge shift of those reliably traditional democrats or who are sayiing you know, i'm just not that well off anymore. i'm much worse off than i was four years ago. and maybe i don't like donald trump's tweet, but, by golly are, i liked the america i was living in when he was president a whole lot more. ashley: yeah. i want to get into the campaign itself. joe biden putting in more than $26 million from yesterday's fundraiser in new york city. by the way, trump is hoping to bring the in $33 million at a fundraiser in florida next week. i ask you this, if it wasn't for the will be will bal billionaires -- liberal billionaires and the celebrities out of hollywood, i mean, how much money would the president really have raised? that's just a lot of bigtime donors, right? >> well, it absolutely is. this was the a star-studded

event. by the way, i have it on good authority that you had to spend about $500,000, you know, to have your picture made with the three former president -- or the two former presidents expect current one who hopefully will be a former one by the time november rolls around. but if you paid $750,000, you were not forced to be photographed and seen with any of them. so that may be the real reason today raised so much money -- [laughter] you know, ashley are, because if you want to be seen with them, you've got to pay a certain amount. if you don't want to be seen and you don't want anyone to know you were there, you've got to pay more money for that. ashley: there's no doubt that trump has fallen behind bide when it comes to fund raising. the democrats have kind of said is, hey, donald trump is along with the pacement strategy. that's because democrat d.a.s in these but cities have been tying him up in court.

do you think trump will catch up when it comes to fund raising, and how important is that? >> i don't think he has to have the same amount of money. let's keep in mind that a lot of the donors to joe biden, these are billionaires, you know? all a in the name of the party that's supposed to be for the working class and the little guy. but the truth is donald trump has the working class people on his side. and his contributions, there will be many more of them, they'll be smaller, but he'll have enough money to not only compete, but to win. he doesn't have to have as much as biden. you've got to remember donald trump is out there every day doing rallies in front of 60,000 people. joe needs 6 people to grab him by the arm and help him get off the stage the right way, and he doesn't pull together a big rally. he he rarely does interviews. he almost never talks to the press. and even this week he's now said that he's probably going to spend more time with local reporters than he is with national reporters. and i'm thinking he hasn't spent

any time with the national reporters. so if he spends maybe two minutes a month more, he's really boosting up his transparency. [laughter] ashley: okay. we'll have to leave are it there but always terrific stuff. governor, thanks as much. thank you for being with us on this good friday. we really appreciate if it. which. >> happy easter. thank you. ashley: same to you. thank you, sir. now this, sports commentator stephen the a. smith says she's -- stephen the a. smith if says he's ashaked of democrats. what? good morning, lauren are what's the problem here? lauren: good morning. he says the democrats have failed to put a better candidate to compete against donald trump. watch here. >> i find myself ashamed of the democratic party for their lack of a competitiver if sor is. -- fervor. you had since 2016 to come up with minute, and you till can't do it? that is pathetic. i'm the kind of person that might voted society for the president being a democrat and

every other position republican. every senator, every congressional -- [laughter] every local -- lauren: wow. he doesn't like the direction of the country. he said, yes, totally considering voting republican down ticket. this was his point. he's a, like, i was raised at home to obey the law. that makes me conservative at home, republican at home but, you know, democrat at the polls. he said a lot of people are like that, but that is slowly changing because there is zero law and order on the streets. ashley: very strong message. all right, next one for you, lauren, vivek ramaswamy weighing in on rfk jr.'s bid for the white house. what's he saying? if. lauren: he says rfk jr. is a democrat, clearly, therefore, he's a threat to president biden. >> the democratic party now is going to probably try to do everything to keep this man off the ballot just as they were trying to stifle him when he was running as a democrat. but the thing that has become clear, sean, is that he's free to have his own views on the

climate change agenda, on abortion, on a range of other questions, he's anti-second amendment, he's a range of issues that are not aligned with the republican party that are better aligned with democrats. so if he does make it on the ballot, it should take votes away from the democrats, can and this should be a good development not only for president trump, or but, i believe, for this country. hawn lauren yeah. and that's why you have the biden campaign, the war machine, money machine doing everything in their power to minimize rfk jr. they're literally throwing money and resources to keep him off state ballots. but conditionty's team is working -- kennedy's team working hard too. they have signatures to get him on the ballot in arizona, georgia, south carolina, and they're closing in on michigan. ashley: yeah. it's an interesting story to follow, that. lauren are, thank you very much. we should remind our viewers that the markets are closed today for good friday, but it doesn't mean we can't talk about what the send quarter may bring, right? let's bring in heather zumarraga.

by the way, heather, happy birthday. a little birdie told me that, so congratulations and thanks for using part of your day to be here to talk to us. let's begin with kind of a political angle. i want to talk about truth social. we've had analysts say, no, not going to touch it with a 10-foot appointment are you buying it, and and what do you think about it? [laughter] >> well, first off, thank you so much, ashley. i couldn't find a better way to share. >> it than with you this morning. so truth social, right, this trump media and technology group now trading public under djt, it's soaring. so there still is a lot of market action going on right now. obviously, the majority investor is former president trump himself. however, you do have investors from susquehanna international, for example, such as jeff yas although the company has yet to turn a profit, the rally this week hats -- has caused a valuation of over $8 billion in truth social.

yeah, okay, it's a far cry from facebook, meta platform or x user, but they do have half a million, 500,000 users, ashley, and sometimes stocks can go up not necessarily on fundamental value, but because of if you look at amc and gamestopping for example, because people are bidding a stock higher. and this is a bet on the trump brand. i wouldn't be so sure that the stock's going to go down. ashley: yeah. isn't the concern at some point he may be able to sell his stock to raise a money, and if what does that do to the investor? >> yeah. well, obviously if president trump had to sell his shares, there is a lock-up, so-called lock-up period for six months before he can leverage or sell at in this moment in time. so to offset some of his legal piece, $175 million or whatever it is that he owes down from $474 million which is -- i can't even believe i'm saying those numbers. but, look, the guy is a

businessman that continues to reunvent himself. so whether or not -- reinvent himself. whether or not you are a subscriber to truth social or whether or not you are a political support of president trump, the guy knows how to make money and brand himself. and if you look back at twitter in the early day, they didn't make money. they couldn't figure out how to monetize it, yet they had a ton of users. elon musk came in later, has, well, the stock is down this year, but he figured out a way how to monetize the it with advertisers. [laughter] so trump has his gold shoes, he has a lot of different platforms that he's marketing on, and he's saying don't discount me just yet, ashley. ashley: right. no, indeed. we're out of time already are. heather zumarraga, thank you so much for being with us and and have a great birthday. we do appreciate it very much. >> thank you. ashley: all right. coming up, donald trump attended the wake of new york police officer jonathan diller and called for law and order. watch this.

enter what happened -- >> what happened is such a sad, sad event, such a horrible thing, and it's happening all too often. we're just not going to let it happen. we have to get back to law and order. we have to do a lot of things differently because this is not working. ashley: it is not work. so the question is, can we get america's crime crisis under control? meanwhile, joe biden has come out in favor of a ceasefire in gaza, but that doesn't seem to be enough for anti-israel reel protesters. they heckled the president last night, so the question is, what should our israel policy be? lieutenant colonel james carafano answers that right after this. ♪ and let will there be peace, peace to every nation. ♪ let there be hope for all the world to see. ♪ and let there be love and joy e to all the a children.

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ceasefire -- in first of a ceasefire in gaza is, we know that. but it doesn't seem to be enough for the protesters, so what should our israel policy be, in your opinion? >> there really is only one way to peace, and that is for israel to be able to defend itself. the idea of a palestinian state is actually counterproductive and destructive. look, if we had a pal if stint january state tomorrow -- palestinian state tomorrow, it would be an ally of iran, a state sponsor or troughism, it would be mitted to the -- committed to the destruction of's israel. this whole notion of a two-state solution, it literally is strategic nonsense for the u.s. and for the region and even for the palestinians. there's no future with them under the likes of hamas. ash. ashley: do you think the israeli force will go ahead with with their plans for rafah and move into that area? >> yeah, you know, identify always said there's kind of only one offramp for this conflict which is the israelis will stop if all the hostages were

returned. and and as long as hamas uses that as a calling card, there's nothing really to suggest why they shouldn't continue operations in their own self-defense. if. ashley: all right. let's change gears, talk about this one, colonel. ing ukraine's zelenskyy making a new plea for help. listen to this. enter so you're expecting a counteroffensive in may/june from the russians. >> i think so. >> what sort of weapons do you need to stop that counteroffensive? [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: number one is anti-air defense and artillery e shells. that's what we need. we have almost no artillery remaining. >> last month you said if we have american support, we will win. if we don't have american support, we will lose. >> yes, sir. ashley: yeah. so the question is, or colonel, are we at a tipple point here -- tipping point with the stalemate

in washington over more aid for ukraine? is russia winning this war or threatening to do so, especially with this apparent, you know, counteroffensive in may or june? >> right. so i don't think russia has the military capability to conquer ukraine, and i do think a free and independent ukraine that can defend itself is in all our interests. so here's what i think we know for sure, there's probably going to be a russian offensive. moving the nato summit to the middle of july, which was a u.s. initiative, is probably stupid because you're giving putin a prime opportunity to essentially humiliate the west and the rest of us. for ukraine to defend ther the -- the territory and hold, it definitely needs a more air defense, artillery and the long-range e missiles that row you -- allow you to kill russian tough before it gets there. and and it probably makes sense to help them build out their capability to field an air force this year to help defend theirer

thety. so ukraine ukraine needs that stuff. 40, do they have legitimate if needs to get that stuff to defend the territory they have, the answer is, yes. and do they need it in the next 2-3 months, the answer is, yes. ashley: so what does the world look like if, or indeed, ukraine with can't hang on despite what you say, colonel, but just a hypothetical, what does the world look like if ukraine loses? >> it's like a guy that's going to go to the olympics, and he doesn't train for four years and he eat toes doughnuts, right? -- eats doughnuts. can the west survive without ukraine? the answer is, yeah, look, ukraine was on the other side of the iron curtain, we can still defend the west, but it will be a lot harder. if you have a strong and end dependent ukraine with whether it's in natoment and and the e. e.u. or not is irrelevant, you have an anchor of a strong defense against further russian aggression for really decades to come. ashley: right. well, we'll continue to cover it, of course.

colonel, thank you so much. colonel carafano, always great to have your insight. thank you very much, sir. all right, now this. thank you. show that iran covered up a covert israeli operation back in 2020. if okay, or lauren, what was the cover-up about? lauren: israel's destruction of an iranian nuclear facility. this was in july of 2020 according to a dissident iranian news publication. they reported that israel actually hired a team to set a secret atomic workshop in iran on fire. nine people were arrested. clearly, this is a major national security issue in iran. it reached the highest levels of government, but they tried to keep it secret for obvious reasons. ashley: yes, indeed. all right, interesting. lauren, thank you very much is. all right, coming up, house oversight committee chair james comer invaded joe biden to testify as part of the impeachment inquire i against him, and the white house -- inquiry, and the white house, well, laughing it off. we'll get into that this.

president biden raising over $26 million during his celeb-filled fundraiser last night, but americans are finding out his economic policies are continuing to cost them this. we've got that report next. ♪ ♪ you act like you don't want to listen when i talk to you. ♪ you think you ought to do, baby, anything you want to do. ♪ you gotta be crazy, baby ♪ trading at schwab is now powered by ameritrade, unlocking the power of thinkorswim, the award-winning trading platforms. bring your trades into focus on thinkorswim desktop with robust charting and analysis tools, including over 400 technical studies. tailor the platforms to your unique needs with nearly endless customization. and track market trends with up-to-the-minute

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by america's number-one motorcycle insurer. well, you definitely do. those things aren't related, so... ah, yee! oh, that is a vibrating pain. ashley: well, a reminder, of course, the markets are closed today for good friday, but it's been a good first quarter. look at that, the dow up 5.5% and for the first three months, s&p up 10 is, fast a damage up 9. let's bring in mark ma haven knit. i want to talk about google. i know you cover this company very closely. does the department of justice probe into google concern you for the stock? >> yeah, it should, it should concern all a investors. so regulatory risk has been rising for apple, amazon, google and meta/facebook for the last three, four p five years. but this is the year in which we're going to have major doj decisions. there are two cases that the doj has brought that are coming to

fruition this year, and i think there's a decent probability, greater than 50% chance, that google could lose one or both of those cases. there's two major trends in the market for investors in these stocks. there are regulatory are risks which is becoming more and more if negative and then there's the a.i. tailwind which is becoming more and more positive, and google's kind of at the center of those. ashley: so they're being with accused essentially, if i read it right, mark, of monopolizing the search function and no knop ifizing search advertising, is that right? >> yeah, that's right. and, you know, of all those major tech companies, you know, the one that's kind of easiest to say that has a monopolistic position or has a very strong market share position is google. in search they account for over 90% of search queries globally outside of china. and so thats', that's always been there. the real question is how -- what kind of impact has that already had to competitors and to consumers, and then that are,

what could be effective remedies that aren't worse than the current problem. those are or very hard things to work out, but as an investor, you know the chances of a negative decision have been rising for years. but this is the year, we think, which those decisions are going to come through. by the end of this year, we think both of these cases are going to be resolved. at least the first round. we'll have years of appeals, and my guess is we'll a have -- have a major settlement, but that's years down the road. ashley: of the three big tech names, what do you think have the best a.i. strategies? >> the irony is here i think the company with probably the greatest regulatory risk is probably the one that's best positioned for a.i., and that's google. then the i think the one that has the least regulatory risk is amazon. somewhere in the middle is meta. it's the really hard to see what the monopolistic risk is with meta given how much competition we've seen with name ifs likic e

doc. i'd put at the top of list of a.i. winners, google and amazon. and then apple has been a little bit of a slow, slow player in this place. ashley: yep. well, we're going to have to leave it right there, mark. thank you so much for jumping in on this good friday to share your insight on, on google and the big tech stocks. we do appreciate it as always, sir. >> thank you, ashley. ashley: now this -- always. hillary clinton has a warning for voters about the upcoming election and artificial intelligence. okay, lauren, what is she saying? lauren: she's warning what we saw in 2016 with deep fakes, mess information, it's -- misinformation, it's child's play compared to the tech sophistication that we are seeing now. >> they've got such a library of stuff about me. they're using it to practice on and see how more sophisticated they can get. so i am worried because, you

know, having defamatory videos about you is no fun, i can tell you that. but having them in a way that you really can't make the distinction that vivian was talking about, you have no idea whether it's true or not. that is of a totally different level of threat. lauren: i mean, i think she's right, ashley. you know -- ashley: yeah. lauren: -- what we saw eight a years ago looks primitive compared to the a.i. capabilities that we're seeing right now. and the onus is on the social media companies to try to police it and for americans to be aware of what information is real and fake. ashley: that's the trouble with technology, it can fake a lot of people9 out. all right, lauren, thank you very much. now this, joe biden brought in a mere $26 million at his fundraiser last night. meanwhile, everyday or americans are still strapped for cash because of inflation. remember that? hasn't gone away.

edward lawrence joins me now. good morning, edward. of all right, we got the pce number today. take me through it. >> reporter: and you're right, ashley. in fact, this was a record-setting night for cash for a campaign in one night. and this as americans are struggling to pay those this bills. the pce inflation report that came out, it did tick up overall 2.5%, just slightly, but when you look at the core pce inflation year-over-year, it ticked down slightly but has been basically moving sideways since december. this report also shows that people were pending more and bringing in less money -- spending more. that reflects higher prices. it also may be the reason we by 11 points or more people trust president trump more on foreign policy, immigration and the economy. images out of new york could not be more different this week. americans struggle with those higher costs, and the president raked in a record $26 million in campaign contributions from celebrities using the former -- former presidents bill clinton and barack obama. former president trump faced a new york democratic d.a. in

court and then attended the wake of an officer murdered on the job by a repeat violent offender constantly released from jail. >> who's the hero? the hero is the fallen law enforcement officer who gave his life for his community and his country, and that's who donald trump is honoring. joe biden's honoring the almighty dollar. >> reporter: the fundraiser last night, house minority leader hakeem jeffries said as long as we continue to stand up, together we will make sure that we win the day, we win the week, we win the month or, win the year, win the election, hold the senate and win the house, reelect joe biden and continue america's march towards a more perfect union. republicans, though, believe that president biden is willing to win at all costs no matter what. back with to you. ashley: yeah, or all right. edward, thank you very much is. next one here, bernie sanders is looking to make to semie pick cheaper. -- ozempic cheaper. how's he going to do that, lauren? lauren: he's going to meet with

the ceo or try to. here's the deal, he's armed with this research newly published in a medical journal, i took a look at it, that -- [laughter] ozempic can cost under $1 to manufacture. so bernie sanders can't understand why novo nordisk is charging over $1,000 a month for it. so he wants to meet with their ceo with. look, they spend a lot, billions of dollars. their research and development tab is $5 a billion worldwide. obviously, that's money they have to recuperate, so drugs have to cost more money so they can continue to operate as a company. but to an extent, bernie sanders has a point, right? i mean, if you look at it ozempic costs $60 in germany a month. $1300 a month in the u.s., $60 in germany. smells a little bit fishy, but nonetheless, we know his stance on most things, and he thinks you're being gouged. ashley: yeah. well, you know what? if americans pay for all that research and development, but the rest are of the world gets the benefit of the drugs for a

lot less. it doesn't seem right. anyway, staying on weight loss drugs, are any of them covered by health insurance? lauren: wegovy. this is after the fda approvedded it for the treatment of overweight americans who also have hart9-related conditions. heart-related conditions. if that is the case, cvs, blue cross blue shield and kaiser permanente will coffer it for those on medicare plans. it's either happening now or will happen in the next couple of we're weeks. ashley: all right. lauren or, thank you very much. coming up, a new fox poll finds voters are split on a ban of tiktok. steve hilton is against social media a for children, we know that, so where does he stand on this everybody suesome should the app be banned, or should we force a sale? steve will be here later on. the biden administration announcing $60 million in emergency relief funds for the rebuilding of the baltimore bridge, but who foots the bill? we've got the latest on the financial fallout next. ♪

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ashley: the department of transportation has announced $60 million in ree leaf funds for the bridge collapse in baltimore. grady trimble joins us now from the scene in maryland. grady, it's going to take a lot more than $60 million to fix this disaster, isn't it? >> reporter: way more, ash a, but officials say it's too early to put ap an exact price tag or even a ballpark estimate on exactly how much it's going to cost to remove the wreckage, move the ship out of the channel. it's still back there. and, of course, to rebuild the bridge. we do know that the largest crane barge on the eastern seaboard arrived overnight.

another one is on the way. governor wes moore says crews are moving as quickly as possible, but he's reminding folks just how difficult the task at hand is. >> if the eiffel tower was laid down, this vessel's almost the size of the eiffel tower, and the only difference is, is that it now has a key bridge laying on top of it. this is remarkably complicated. >> reporter: president biden is prompting the federal government will foot the entire bill for the bridge rebuild, but maritime attorney michael winkleman tells us he has no doubt the government will file a lawsuit against the ship owner to recoup some of those costs. he also expects companies who are losing money because of the collapse and the port closure to do the same. >> there's a risk of companies going bankrupt, insurance companies going bankrupt, having tremendous the issues. so the ripple effects of litigation as it relates to this

disaster is going to be gigantic. >> reporter: and still no estimate on when the port will reopen, but we do know from the maryland chamber of commerce, ash, that it's costing this state alone $15 million for every day that this port if remains closed. ash? ashley: yeah, and continues to grow. grady, thank you very much. appreciate that. pennsylvania congressman dan muser, by the way, slamming biden for using taxpayer dollars to fix that bridge disaster. listen to this. >> that was kind of outrageous immediately for biden to express in in this tragedy the idea that he's going to use federal funds to pay for it in the entirety. i mean, you know, he doesn't refer to it as the american taxpayer dollars on anything. you know, the first reaction, in fact, the only reaction just tends to be to spend if. we just can't take the easy route all the time and just try to spend the taxpayers' money. ashley: it's interesting, isn't

it? economist e6789 j. antony joins me now. i guess the question is, e.j., more government spending, i mean, who should be paying for this bridge and all the recovery? >> oh, ashley, it's very clear that those responsible for the disaster should pay for the cleanup. and it's absolutely amazing, why is it that the biden administration never wants people to actually pay for the damages they cause? they never if want people to be responsible for the ramifications of their e own actions whether it's student loans or whether it's people crossing the border. oh, no, it's always the a pax -- taxpayer that's going to pick up the tab. ashley: yeah. and the taxpayer is tapped out, that's for sure. you think this ship was registered in sing singapore, obviously, it has insurance, at least i'm assuming so, seems like that's where the money should come from. >> absolutely. again, there is no reason why the taxpayer should have to pay a dime for this. and it's interesting that, you

know, as was pointed out the biden administration's reaction was, oh, it's okay, the taxpayer will just pay for it. it was only after a substantial amount of criticism to that response that the biden administration then said is, or well, we eventually expect to get at least some money back from the insurer. how about all of it? ashley: yeah, no kidding. all right, i'm going to move on to this one, e.j., you've got a new op-ed out. you're calling biden's labor market swiss cheese. interesting. what do you peen by that the? -- mean by that? >> well, this labor market, ashley, is far from solid is. it's actually filled with holes, hence the title of the piece. it's not as if we have widespread job growth across the country that i colludes good jobs that are high paying jobs. no, we're actually only seeing about 15% of all the metro areas in the country growing right now. the jobs that are being added are only part time. we've been hemorrhaging full-time jobs. we've seen the fastest losses in

terms of full-time jobs over the last three months over any period since the great financial crisis if you exclude the covid lockdowns, of course. and so we're not adding these high quality jobs that are paying wage increases above inflation, for example. and on top of that, who has the jobs? it's not native-born americans. they've actually lost jobs, over a million, since february of 2020 right before the pandemic. they've lost jobs on net. all the job gains that we've seen over the last four years have are gone to foreign-born immigrants. ashley: who are earning minimum wage and leaving americans, what, to get a couple of part-time gigs, right? >> that's exactly right, ashley. more and more one of the things that is driving these supposed job increases are people getting part-time jobs to supplement their, the income from their full-time jobs, because americans simply can't make ends meet today. but every time you go out and you get an additional job, that

is increasing the monthly payroll figures even though you're not increasing the number of people who are actually employed. ashley: very good point. all right. you explained it very well, e.j.. thank you, sir, for joining us. much appreciated. >> thank you, ashley. ashley: all right, coming up finish thank you. it is friday, it's good friday, so don't forget to send in your feedback. you've got time still. i'm sure how you've got some things to say. you can e-mail your comments and critiques, we can take it, to varneyviewers@fox.com can. go ahead and do out. meantime, disgraced crypto king sam bankman-fried if sentenced to 25 years in prison for his ftx fraud. so what will life look like now for the crypto kingpin turned criminal? not too great, i would imagine. we've got that report right after this. ♪ if today was your last day and tomorrow was too late -- ♪ would you say good-bye to yesterday? ♪

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ashley: sam bankman-fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after one of the biggest financial frauds in history.

kelly o'grady's been covering this and joins me now. kelly, what's next for the former crypto king? >> reporter: so is,ing ashley, his legal team will mount an appeal, but sbf is also a set to find out what his long-term dig cans look like. the judge recommended bankman-fried serve his sentence at a low or medium security fit. anything above 20 years requires one of those medium ficialghts but the bureau of prisons will ultimately decide which one. the. judge lambasted sbf yesterday as a scammer though he urged the bop to take into account his autism when determining the facility. cap lain also a recommended it be with in the bay area so his parents can visit more easily. you've got low security which affords more dormitory-style beds, or your white collar criminals, a medium would see sbf sleeping on steel beds with violent criminals as potential cell meats. -- cell mates. a web site shares inmates can

enjoy foosball, act debtball with, tech learn to croce. victorville is a another option, he can even paint if a mural. and, of course, he's also going to look to keep his vegan diet i took a look at the standard bureau of prison men you, it offers everything from tofu fajitas to aing taco salad is. but the activities may sound fun, this is not going to be a walk in the park. they made the news for inmate deaths, epa violations though perhaps not as a bad as that that rat-infested baa bahamian jail he spent a few days in. over time he can earn his way to nicer facility facility, but that's going to take good behavior and working a job to earn credits. ashley: and then it's tennis lessons and a day spa. kelly, thank you very much. my next guest created unicoin after the ftx collapse. his name is mo, and he joins me

now. great to have you, mo. let's begin begin with unicoin. what is it? >> unicoin is actually an alternative, right, that we actually launched because we believed that the lack of transparency, the anonymity and the decentralization of traditional cryptoor currency was so volatile -- clip the currency was so volatile and is so suspect, you know, and open for all kind of nefarious behavior. so unicoin is asset-backed. it's public reporting, it's compliant k. and so we believe that that is the future of cryptocurrency and, certainly are, sam bankman-fried's case certainly supports that message. ashley: and talking of sbf, what did you make of his sentence? do you think it's fair? >> i do think it's fair, and i think that the department of justice sent the right message and the judge, judge kaplan, did as well in the 252-year sentence and this -- 25-year sentence and this $11.2 billion fine. i think the message loud and

clear. they're not going to tolerate nefarious or criminal behavior in this relatively young industry and sector, the cryptocurrency. i think it also recognizes that clip the currency's part of our future, it's here to stay, but it has to be done subject to our laws and our regulations even though some of those are still evolving. ashley: you know what's interesting, po, is when this happened, people were questioning the whole industry, but if initiation it kind of has come on a a lot stronger. would you agree? >> i do agree, and i also, a lot of people think this is going to, like, weaken the confidence in the crypto industry. ashley: yeah. >> i think it's going to have the opposite effect, i hope anyway, that people are going to realize that it is -- it's a great industry, it is the future, it is an alternative currency for the future. but to remember, always mitigate your risk whether we're crossing the street, wait for the walk

signal, right? in this case when you're investing, there's always a risk. mitigate those risks. asset-backed, transparent companies, reporting companies, these are ways to mitigate the risks. if. ashley: very well said. great to have you on the sew this morning, moe, and the best of will luck -- >> thank you for having me. ashley: thank you so much. oh, our absolute pressure. moe vela. all right, still ahead in the show, tammy bruce will be here, tom homan, tammy heroin and gas buddy's patrick dehaan to talk about how much it's costing you at the pump. the 10 a.m. hour of varney and company coming up next. ♪ ♪

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