MARIA-02
Blair on U.S. Politics, Donald Trump & Global Terrorism; Yoshikami on Oil's
Impact on Financial Markets; Trump Wins Nevada Caucuses - Part 1>
Jared Max, Blake Burman>
Government; Policies>
MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: 7:00 a.m. on the East coast. Fox News Business Network Dagen McDowell, Destination Wealth Management, Michael Yoshikami, and Maverick PAC Nationals, Morgan Ortagus.
First, your top stories, 7:00 a.m. on the East coast, Donald Trump cementing his front runner status last night, where the victory in Nevada getting more than 40 percent of the vote -- now, 46 percent of the vote in fact. The race for second place between Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz tied is tight with each carrying just over 20 percent.
Last night's victory marking Trump's third straight win and he believes that streak will keep going.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, we weren't expected a couple of months ago we weren't expected to with this one, you know that right? We were.
Of course if you listen to the pundits we were and expected to win too much and now we were winning, winning, winning the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Meanwhile on the Democratic side Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders making their case at a town hall last night just three days before Democratic primary in South Carolina.
Clinton was on the defensive after getting a question about releasing transcripts of her paid speeches to wall streets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTNIAL CANDIDATE: Why is there standard for me and not for everybody else? You know, at some point -- at some point, you know, look, I'm on record, I have a record, it certainly is far different from the Republicans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: We have more on that plus judge's ruling that Clinton's aid should testify under oath about her use of private e-mail server. What that can mean to the race coming up.
Onto markets we go -- we're looking at some selling this morning on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average at the lows of the morning right here with the decline about a 145 points on the Dow about 50 points lower on NASDAQ, falling oil prices is one of the issues just coming after Saudi Arabia ruled out production cuts by major producers.
Oil now also at the low, down 3.5 percent, sitting at $30.79 a barrel. The news also weighing on European markets this morning. We've got weakness in the Euro as well as the pound and that's also one issue. You've got the DAX Index in Germany down 2.5 percent. The CAC (inaudible) in Paris down 2.30 percent and the FTSE 100 down 1.5 percent
Major markets in Asia mostly lower overnight, take a look. The Shanghai composite, one exception that was up about 1 percent, I China. But the Hang Seng, the Nikkei and Kospi under pressure. Nikkei down 1 percent almost.
Meanwhile turning back to politics. Donald Trump winning his third state in a row last night as he gets closer to Republican nomination, Blake Burman in Washington with the recap. Blake, good morning.
BLAKE BURMAN, FOX BUSINESS: Maria, good morning to you. This was not your average double down in Nevada last night. Donald Trump once again blew right past the Republican field. Trump getting 46 percent of the vote in the Nevada caucuses with some precincts still to report this morning. That is as much as Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, as you can see there, combined.
Trump has been highly criticized as you know by opponents for this stance on immigration. But last night the entrance poll showed he overwhelming won the vote among Hispanic Republicans in Nevada.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with adult and you know what I really -- I'm happy about because I've been saying it for a long time, 46 percent with the Hispanics, 46 percent, number one with Hispanics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURMAN: It is back-to-back second place finishes for Rubio. Three straight thirds for Cruz. The focus now for everyone moves on to Super Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Tonight, I'll sleep in my bed for the first time in a month. And then it will be back to the campaign trail in Texas and all across Super Tuesday, energizing and building that Reagan coalition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURMAN: A dozen states, Maria, roughly 600 delegates, that's about 25 percent of the total are up for grabs six days from now, but for right now heading in, Donald Trump has to be feeling pretty good about where he is sitting this morning. Back to you.
BARTIROMO: He certainly looks like he is feeling pretty good when you look at those sound bytes. Amazing night, Blake. Thanks so much.
BURMAN: Yeah.
BARTIROMO: I think most people were expecting him to win Nevada but not by the amount he did.
Federal judge ruling that Hillary Clinton top aids be questioned under oath about their intention and allowing former secretary of state to use a private e-mail server during her time in office.
I want to bring in Congressman Darrell Issa right now. California Republican. Sir, good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.
REP. DARRELL ISSA, (R), CALIFORNIA: Well, thanks for having me on this morning and as you say, it's time for Hillary's staff to tell the truth about what the intent of those e-mails were.
BARTIROMO: Yeah, let's talk about that. What do you think the government can learn -- what can you learn from her aids in terms of what was behind this? I mean it is pretty obvious that she set up a private server because she wanted to have private e-mails.
ISSA: Well, there's no question about that. But there's a difference between, if you will, her paranoia and conspiracy. And the question really is whom (inaudible) and some of the other staffers who originated, it appears 1,750 classified material containing e-mails. They had to type those in from somewhere. And why they did it and what they did from is a question that needs to be answered.
You know, a lot of people look at Hillary Clinton because she's the kingpin. She made this decision to do something wrong. But now the question becomes with 1,750 classified e-mails, 22 of them at the highest levels, where do the material come from, who typed it in and why.
BARTIROMO: Yeah, so what will --why do you think they have to answer this? Because her supporters congressman, well, say look, we're not going to learn anything else. We know that she made a mistake, you know, what really is it going to tell us about where we are in the country and what missteps may have been made in certain places in the world?
So explain to our viewers if you can connect the dots, you know, what really is at stake here?
ISSA: It is a crime to release sources and methods. Scooter Libby went to jail just for saying he didn't remember something related the sources and methods that he actually didn't have anything to do with.
David Porteous is now a convicted criminal because he released the information to his biographer. It is serious business to release information that may be classified or to deal in a way that is wrong. The statute specifically says, someone who takes that information is guilty of ac rime. Well, she took 1,750 pieces of information that were sensitive. She took 22 that went to what we call sources and methods.
Former Secretary Gates made it clear that her server was likely hacked by one or more, of our, if you will, not friends. So, what she did was a crime, the question really is, is it a crime that she's above or is it a crime that she and others will be held accountable for. It's not a punishable crime to have a private e-mail server. It is a punishable crime to use that in a way that is reckless to American secrets.
BARTIROMO: This is a really important analysis that you just gave us. Thank you for that congressman. Because you really did just said it out and explain it very, very well. Let me ask you about what happens next.
Every time we talk about this subject most people who I speak with say, Jim Commy is a solid citizen, he's always going to do the right thing. What are you expecting in terms of a recommendation from the FBI in terms of where this goes next in such an important year, an election year, does President Obama protect her from getting indicted?
ISSA: Well, I hear you say he's a solid citizen. What I would say is this justice department so far including the FBI director haven't found the ability to prosecute members of the administration including Lois Lerner. You understand that there was a congressional referral from the Ways and Means Committee, The Tax Committee under a statute that says the U.S. attorney shall present to the grand jury.
Now, the fact is Lois Lerner was not presented to a grand jury, that was a failure to enforce a statute. We have a similar situation in that no matter what we send to the FBI, they don't seem to find much and the case is closed.
So now the question is in this case where secrets, where traffic in and somebody had to originate those, I'm not saying the secretary. Somebody had to originate them and they did it on the secretary's private e-mail server and she saw them and she moved them back and forth.
Will he bring charges against at least somebody? If he brings it against nobody then, in fact, he clearly has not done his job. If he brings it against her key staff who originated some of these e-mails, who obviously didn't make up classified information, it had to be shown to them, then it begins a process in which they may take the wrap, if you will, or they will admit that it wasn't an accident that they didn't just violate the law, but in fact, Hillary Clinton knew it.
If they do that, then he has a case against Hillary Clinton. If they don't, if they're willing to essentially be plead to felonies, maybe the case ends without going to Hillary Clinton, maybe her followers can say, well, she was just badly represented and bad judgment. I don't think it's bad recommendation or bad judgment. I think Kuma and other key staffers did what she wanted to do and now that it looks bad, she's pretending she doesn't understand millennials.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
ISSA: . new technology, Blackberries, it's amazing how -- how she can look a little bit like George Herbert Walker Bush look when he couldn't explain scanners. She suddenly doesn't understand technology or government rules.
BARTIROMO: Yeah. It is comical. But let me ask you this. I mean it is his legacy. She even call this legacy and the FBI's legacy. If they don't do the right thing and what -- everybody around them is saying this really should go this way. They've got to worry about their own reputation.
ISSA: He does have to worry about this reputation. But right now right he's betting this reputation on demanding that employees of Apple Corporation develop something so he can spy on Americans likely without her permission.
Remember, I listened to your last segment. He isn't asking them to do a brute force attack and give them with thumb drive of information as one of your guests said, he's actually asking for a back door, he's asking for something that would very much lead to they're getting a secret wiretap, pulling the information off your iPhone and you never knowing it about it.
This is very, very scary when you're government wants to know more about and they're no willing to have you no more about your government.
Remember, the state department could have released all these documents, sends classified ones that Hillary Clinton quickly, instead they've been dripping and trapping. And as of today have not even released to Congress all of her e-mail.
And yet, in order to make life easy for them, they want a tool developed and they're in court using a 250-year-old law to try force a private enterprise to do something for the government so the government can sneak and peak into your iPhone.
BARTIROMO: Yeah, this is really important because it comes down to, is it this one phone that we're talking about or are we talking about creating a back door so that government can listen in and snoop on people's conversation. You said it's a back door, Tim Cook says it's a back door and yet, you know, the FBI is saying, no, this is all we want them to do is hack into this one phone. I mean, which is it?
ISSA: Well, first of all.
BARTIROMO: And is it time for Congress to step in here?
ISSA: It's time for Congress to define what in this era would be allowed and not allowed under the Fourth Amendment and have attested by the courts. You can't rely only on a law created at the time of founding.
But for your viewers, let's just understand if what you want to do is find the hard drive, solid-state hard drive that lies inside the iPhone and want to take the encrypted information and want to get it out, anyone of ordinary skill in the business I used to be in, can copy that drive and make a million copies of it.
So now when it comes to brute force attack, there's no question. You've got a million copies. They may self-destruct after 10 tries but you can make as many new copies as you want.
So, brute force attack if you're willing to disassemble the phone is certainly possible and I calculate it, it can be done in 80 or 90 hours, and we're talking about by the lowest means.
The reality though is they want a tool that is usable easily and quickly. And in this case it's been along time since San Bernardino, if they want today get the information by a brute-force attack, they would already have had it. It appears though that's not their goal. They want something more and they are using this as a test case. And it's terrible to use the bodies of victims in order to try to get something that you're otherwise likely not to get.
BARTIROMO: Yeah, and people do not trust the governments will use this responsible. We know what they done with the IRS. They used the IRS to target conservatives who didn't' agree with them.
ISSA: You're exactly right. And when you look at the two, if you will non-conventional candidates that are head in many cases for president, one of the reasons is on both the left and the right, the American people do not trust their government and for good reason, as hard as some people have try today make government accountable, they've a long way to go to get back to where they were 20 years ago, 30 years ago.
You know, we're in a government where since 9/11 your government knows a lot.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
ISSA: .more about you and you know less more about your government.
BARTIROMO: Yeah. Real quick, congressman. Is it possible that the NSA and the CIA can't get this information? Only Apple can get it?
ISSA: It's not only possible that the NSA could assist in get the information but there's an advantage to the NSA getting it. If our (inaudible) industry develop tools and get them, the advantage is the bad guys don't know it.
BARTIROMO: Right.
ISSA: If this court order forces it then the Chinese and all the other nations in the world not only will know the tool exists but they'll begin demanding it.
BARTIROMO: Bingo. That is exactly -- the point that many of us have been making. Congressman good to see you. Thanks so much.
ISSA: Thank you, Maria.
BARTIROMO: Congressman Issa there. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back, new developments into the investigation into the horrific shooting rampage in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Nicole Petallides with the morning's headline, next.
NICOLE PETALLIDES, FOX BUSINESS NEWS CO-HOST: Good morning again, Maria. New surveillance video showing Uber driver Jason Dalton in a gun store where he bought a tactical jacket just hours before his rampage that left six dead on Saturday.
The gun shop owner says Dalton was laughing and joking. Police say the accused killer may have switched vehicles while carrying out the shootings.
Politico (ph) saying mark (inaudible), the Koch brothers top political adviser in Washington is making a surprise move to the Marco Rubio campaign as a senior adviser and will reportedly join the campaign in about one week. He's president of Freedom Partners of Koch, umbrella political organization.
And the political battle to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is heating up. Key Republican senators vowing not to vote or even hold a hearing on any Supreme Court nominee by President Obama, the move likely puts the replacement process in a holding pattern for now.
Every Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee signing a letter not to hold a hearing until the next president is sworn into office. We will take a closer look at this issue when Maria speaks with Senator Jeff Sessions who is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Back to you, Maria.
BARTIROMO: All right. Thank you so much, Nick. Roger Goodell loses in court but has nothing to do with tom Brady or deflating, Jared Max with the NFL's 100 million dollar question, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back, the NFL has a new 100 million-dollar problem, Jared Max on sports right now. Jared.
JARED MAX, FOX BUSINESS NEWS: Good morning, Maria. An appropriate song from the album Shake Your Money Maker, a bank error in your favor collect $200, you feel special when you rather (inaudible) chess, or carding (ph) game monopoly, right? What happens -- when it happens in real life, it did.
For NFL players, according to the Wall Street Journal arbitrator Steven Burbank ruled over the last three years. NFL owners essentially kept around $50 million out of the pockets of NFL players when the arbitrator says they created an exemption, a mischaracterization of around $120 million in ticket revenues. That was ruled by the arbitrator to be part of pool revenues shared by the league and its players.
NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith said they created an exemption out of fiction and they got caught. The NFL called it a technical accounting issue under the collective bargaining agreement that involves funding of stadium construction and renovation projects.
Sales (ph) score another win for the players association. This is the largest since U.S. district court overturned the four-game suspension that was (inaudible) Patriot's quarterback Tom Brady in the deflate gate scandal.
Does this damage by the NFL -- makes you kind of wonder who is looking out for who here?
MICHAEL YOSHIKAMI, DESTINATION WEALTH MANAGEMENT: You know what this reminds me of, this reminds me of all of the litigation that you see around, actors that in T.V. shows and in the end the actors never get paid because cost are so high because of the way the distribution deals (inaudible) looks to me like the NFL owners are playing games with the numbers.
BARTIROMO: So you think it does damage the NFL?
YOSHIKAMI: I think it does damage the NFL. But, you know, the NHL is such a juggernaut. I think it'll go over and they'll be some free markets and free agent signing and we'll all forget about it.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NEWS ANCHOR: They're the Donald Trump of professional sports. And you can't touch them. You can't touch the brand. I don't know what will harm the brand.
YOSHIKAMI: Yeah.
BARTIROMO: One concussion.
MCDOWELL: The concussion -- but again--
YOSHIKAMI: It's (inaudible) didn't kill the brand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know. Domestic violence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:. the lack of them (inaudible) going after the players.
MAX: Look at the importance of players association was all we know say about the damaging affects of playing in the NFL. The player's association has to do everything. They caught this error to get $50 million in their favor.
The NFL players has the shortest careers of any of our four major sports. And unbelievably, they make the least amount of money.
YOSHIKAMI: They're non-guarantied as well.
MAX: And non-guarantee contracts for what they sacrifice.
YOSHIKAMI: Yeah.
MAX: It's special. I mean you look at-- take a look at these numbers here. Average players' salaries, the NFL is sitting there at the bottom between the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL. You also look at the Canadian Football League as an example. But average careers, the NFL average careers are just around 3.5 years.
YOSHIKAMI: Yeah.
MAX: 5.6 years in baseball. 5.5 in the NFL.
MCDOWELL: And if you look at baseball it's like (inaudible) and you think about the injury.
YOSHIKAMI: Bobby Bonilla (ph) contacts in the NFL where someone is sitting.
MORGAN ORTAGUS, CO-OWNER, MAVERICK PAC NATIONALS: It's completely anecdotal evidence it but everyone in my age has babies and young kids, none of my friends want to put their kids into football.
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: Based on what they put themselves through, I mean the salaries are relatively speaking.
YOSHIKAMI: Yeah. You wonder why -- we see commercial for it.
(CROSSTALK)
YOSHIKAMI: Contact his lawyer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
MAX: They got the $50 million, they deserve it.
BARTIROMO: Jared, thank you, Jared Max. You probably got great one rhino in South Africa. A serious case of roadrage and taking it out on a stationary truck parked in a dusty road next to his grassland home.
Check out the footage where the animal rams into a white Toyota SUV in a full sprint leaving terrified passengers inside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my goodness.
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: Back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Good morning everybody. Welcome back. I'm Maria Bartiromo. It is Wednesday, February 24th. Your stop stories now at 7:30 a.m. on the east coast.
Donald Trump cementing his front running status with the victory in Nevada last night, getting more than 45 percent of the vote. The race for second place between Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz is tight as well. With each securing just over 20 percent.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders making their case at the town hall last night, three days before the Democratic primary in South Carolina.
And yesterday, a judge ruled Clinton's aid should testify under oath about her used of a private e-mail server. The Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee meanwhile vowing to block any nominations made by President Obama to replace Justice Antonin Scalia.
Senior committee member Senator Jeff Sessions will join me later this hour.
Turn to market this morning. We're looking at a pretty good sell off at the start of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial average now at the lows of the day, down at about 156 points and NASAQ and the S&P 500 also weaker.
One of the issues oil prices, falling oil prices weighing on the broader (ph) market this morning. They add (ph) about 3 percent. Take a look. This coming up to Saudi Arabia rule that they are not going to do production cuts by major producers as a result oil down 3.5 percent.
The sharp decline in oil being felt in the financial services sector. J.P. Morgan yesterday at investor day said that it will set aside an additional $600 million for expected losses on loans in the energy and mining sectors.
At that investor day, the bank also signaled a rough first quarter with double-digit declines in investment banking revenue. The stock was down better than four percent yesterday. It is down again this morning and that as well setting the tone for markets.
British Prime Minister David Cameron fighting for the U.K. to remain in the European Union ahead of the June 23rd referendum. The British public is deeply split on this matter. Now with popular London Mayor Boris Johnson announcing his support to break off from the European Union.
Joining me right now is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Good to see you, Mr. Prime Minister. Thanks so much for joining us.
TONY BLAIR, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Maria.
BARTIROMO: How should this go?
BLAIR: We should vote to stay. I think we will vote to stay, but it's going to be close. I mean, as you know from here, politics at the moment's pretty unpredictable. It's the same both sides of the Atlantic.
And there's a referendum seen around. It's a very simple choice. So there are real risks obviously, but I think in the end, the British people are sensible enough that they won't take the risk of leaving and break up.
BARTIROMO: Isn't it a really big risk to break away and not have the support of the entire European Union? I mean, what will that look like for the U.K. if, in fact, it goes that way?
BLAIR: Right. It's a good point.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
BLAIR: I mean, it'll look painful, and it'll be painful, because we'll need then to negotiate a whole lot of the trade agreements with E.U. I mean, over half our trade is with the European Union t the moment. We're part of the single market there. You break that up obviously it's a penalty for the country.
BARTIROMO: Have you ever seen this kind of vitriol? I mean -- I mean, you've got, you know, this debate going on in America.
BLAIR: Right.
BARTIROMO: But it's a similar situation on different levels, right?
BLAIR: It's very similar. It's very, very similar. People -- look. People are angry. They're frustrated. They want to, in a sense, rattle the cage of the people in power, all of which I completely understand. But at a certain point, you need answers as well anger. And, you know, you need to take levelheaded decisions.
So, you know, I hope and believe that we will vote to stay. If we don't, by the way, I think Scotland would almost certainly vote to leave Britain as well. So this is -- this is a double -- you know, double test in a sense.
BARTIROMO: It's unbelievable what's going on in the world.
BLAIR: It's -- I actually find it really -- you know, I've got such a long experience in politics, but as I'm looking at politics today, whether on the left or on the right, and I sort of think maybe I just don't understand it anymore.
But in the end, look, I think people ultimately -- because this is partly to do with great waves of emotion, which are partisan, but then you've got a big center ground in politics as well. And that tends to reassert itself at election times or big decisions like this referendum in the U.K.
BARTIROMO: But when you've got somebody like Boris Johnson, I mean, who is incredibly, wildly popular on the side of yes, let's leave the E.U., that's got to sway some people, right?
BLAIR: It might do, but on the other hand, you know, the prime minister's going to be standing up with a lot of support as well and the support of the majority of the business community for sure. And I think in the end, this is a very -- you know, it's a choice that's political obviously. It's about the destiny of Britain, but it's also economic.
BARTIROMO: And we should point out that it's impacting markets. I mean, the pound falling to the lowest level in almost seven years after the Bank of England policy makes that uncertainty clear.
BLAIR: Yes, so we should take that as a lesson as to what would happen if we actually voted to leave.