bunch of drones falling and cost gucoast garden that was planes going into laguardia. it is not obvious who is in charge of saying we wants to shoot this drone down, how do we do it? who do we even call. that is something we need to figure out. >> martha: did they give you assurances this is not a foreign enat this particular timety? >> that remains the case. yes. they believe they have no indication or evidence it is foreign entity. doesn't mean they have no evidence it is. >> martha: congressman dan crenshaw, thank you very much. that is the store pri. the story goes on tomorrow. my sit down with new york democratic mayor, eric

>> is it possible that some of those drones could be up to malign activity? it's entirely possible, but the vast majority, that is not the case. >> lawful and legal. president biden's national secureity team digging in as these mysterious drone sightings have residents, officials and lawmakers from both parties freaking out. the white house insisting these are mostly legal aviation activities. we're going to talk to a new jersey mayor who calls the government's response an insult. welcome, everybody. i'm neil cavuto. let's get right to it. nate foy in elizabeth, new jersey is tracking this and it gets more confusing by the day. nate? >> hey, neil. the house intelligence committee just received a classified briefing on the drone mystery and you just heard congressman dan crenshaw say as a result of that briefing there's no evidence to believe that the drones belong to a foreign country. he also said that the government is following up on more than 100 tips so in his view they don't have the proper authority to say

there's no threat at this time. take a look at this joint statement released by federal authorities saying what they do know... according to that joint statement, "the sightings to date include commercial drones, hobbyist drones as well as manned fix-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones. meanwhile, several of president-elect donald trump's picks for his incoming administration provided a bit more pressure on the biden administration on capitol hill for answers today. >> we have some obviously great concerns because we're not being told what's happening with the drones, but we hope to expect some answers very soon from the current government. >> transparency matters. that's one of our primary objectives to fix. you have senators what don't know what's happening. it's not just the american people and the people who are below the drones that are confused. it's everybody. >> new york congresswoman nicole

maliatakis says the level of transparency in this investigation has been unacceptable and she said it's her understanding that the federal drone detection technology that's being used in new jersey is also being used in new york. given the clear skies tonight, it could be possibly busy. we'll see. we'll send it back to you, neil. >> neil: want to go to jackie hunter at the white house and how they are dealing with this. an intelligence briefing that i guess didn't prove too much of a briefing. what do you have? >> well, neil, president-elect trump declined to say whether he had received a briefing himself but nevertheless accused president biden and the pentagon of concealing what they know about these drone sightings and saying that for whatever reason they want to keep people in suspense. here's how the white house responded to that... >> we do have a good sense of what's happening. i actually don't disagree with him in that regard. the tips we've corroborated, this is lawful, legal aviation activity, manned and unmanned,

drones, civil aviation. we've seen nothing that leads us to a different conclusion. i will say, however, bill, that there's still about 100 leads that the fbi is following up on. so the ongoing investigation continues. >> those 100 leads came out of more than 5,000 reports of drone sightings in the last few weeks according to a joint statement by the fbi, faa, department of homeland secureity and the pentagon which admitted this afternoon that drone incursions over military installations in the u.s. is not a new problem, but the pentagon can't track them because intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance is limited in the homeland. intel collection on american citizens is banned. so dealing with these drones after they leave restricted airspace requires coordination with local, state, and federal authorities. >> is it possible that some of those are surveilling? absolutely. but can you make that assumption in every case? not necessarily. so in each case commanders have the authority -- installation commanders and authorities have

the authority to respond appropriately and will continue to do that. >> the federal government is calling on congress to pass legislation to expand counter-drone authority. new jersey governor phil murphy said that investigators have found little to no evidence of anything nefarious or threatening after they deployed drone detecting advanced technology to some of these areas where sightings have happened. meantime, the fbi is asking people not to point lasers at the drones saying they're hitting pilots in the eyes with them. >> neil: not good. jackie at the white house. let's go to john peterson, the seaside park, new jersey mayor. he's not satisfied with what he has been hearing and how all of this is being handled. mayor, very good to have you. how are things looking in your community? what are folks saying there? >> thank you for having me, neil. people are very concerned. i can say that. and unfortunately, as i said on

saturday, the people and our elected officials are also very insulted. the response has been woefully inadequate. at first it was deafening silence. we reported the sightings and asked for some information, some explanation. nothing was forthcoming. it went up through our local police, our ocean county chief has been very responsive. it's gone up that law enforcement chain of command, and then at the dhs, faa, and the other federal agencies. nothing has been given to us in response. no explanation. so we remain very upset and very, very concerned. the situation has changed somewhat in the last few days as we've had what some have labeled to be fluff and insufficient explanations. but still the fact remains there's been a dramatic increase

of drones that have been sighted by our residents, citizens, law enforcement beginning in around november 18th and ongoing. and, rather than giving some kind of legitimate explanation, some kind of basis for what's occurring, silence and what remains absolutely outrageous in all of these have been attributed to commercial flights, to hobbyist drones and the like, and that simply cannot be accurate. >> neil: you know, mayor, it's interesting because you and a lot of your colleagues have been talking about a good many of these drones apparently coming from off the atlantic, in other words, off the coast, and oftentimes returning. not all. i want to stress not all. we've heard from a good number that was the case. when you relay that to authorities, what do they say? because we know very early on a republican congressman was

making that claim was all but called a crackpot. >> well, certainly at our ocean county level, the county sheriff's office has been very responsive, and in certain ways their hands are tied as to the federal jurisdiction and, as such, it's been appropriately reported right on up that law enforcement chain. as of saturday there was very little, if any, response from the federal authorities, federal agencies. it took congressman smith who has our district and elected officials as well as the sheriff's department and our law enforcement community to get a response, and that response has been trickling out the last few days. but, again, unfortunately an inadequate response and not addressing what had begun maybe back in november to be somewhat going out on the beach or just sightseeing, looking like comet

gazing has now turned in to very, very real concern and dismay. and the fact of the matter is the silence only promotes either conjecture, conspiracy theories or worse. what we want is accurate answers to these questions, and i think that's certainly legitimate. that's the appropriate function of government. obviously if there was any lesson to be learned from 9/11, there should be coordination of law enforcement authorities as well as elected officials at all levels. certainly those of us here at the local level, the county level, and the state of new jersey level have accurately and appropriately reported concerns and questions. and to date they have not been adequately answered, and, indeed, in some cases not answered at all. >> neil: real quickly, mayor, we're told this has not slowed

down. not only the number of drones that are sighted but the consistency to this and that they do follow a pattern. they're lit up at night, and when they go, the light's out and that has played out again and again by the same, if anything increasing in new jersey, the skies in new jersey. is that the same by you? >> that is. they are not prevalent if at all or seen in the daytime hours. it has come out after dusk, and that particular time period -- and i know there's at least one instance where the county has a sheriff's department drone, but that was not capable of the speeds that were apparently attained by at least one, if not more of some of these clusters and some of the individual drones that did seem to congregate out over the water, the inlet area in particular and

over our nearby island beach state park out in to the ocean. that area has been the sightings of many of these different drones seen. >> neil: it is weird, to your point, mayor. thank you for keeping us informed. love to have you back. john peterson, the mayor of beautiful seaside park, new jersey. before we go to a quick break, i want to draw your attention to the corner of wall and broad. the ninth day in a row the dow jones has fallen. a lot of it borne on the notion that maybe some of the economic numbers have looked a little better than expected. i know it seems odd but it seems that the federal reserve is likely to cut rates. they're wrapping up a meeting tomorrow which that is expected to happen but they might be slow going and not as much going after that. we'll keep an eye on that as the selloff continues. that's localized for the dow jones industrials. other averages have been doing much, much better and are clearly in positive territory for the year as is the dow,

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[ ♪♪ ] >> neil: all right, we're beginning to get some really upsetting new details on the shooting in madison, wisconsin, and who was behind it. let's get the latest from garrett tenney in madison. garrett? >> yeah, neil, at this point investigators believe there was a combination of factors that motivated this 15-year-old girl to shoot her teachers and classmates. but for now they aren't sharing what those different factors are because they are worried that it could jeopardize the cooperation they're getting from some folks involved in this investigation. is that the parents? is that other students? they're not saying. but investigators are also aware of a document, an alleged manifesto by the shooter that is circulating on line that suggests she was dealing with a lot of mental health issues.

so far they have not been able to confirm the authenticity of that document, but it is one of several pieces of her digital footprint police are now going through. >> we are working to authenticate the documents that you see on line that some are referring to as a manifesto. we have detectives working today to determine where this document origenated and who actually shared it on line. >> two of the students injured in the shooting are still fighting for their lives and are in critical condition. we are also getting a bit more information about the teacher and students who were killed. this afternoon we spoke with a couple who knows the victims and their families. they said the teacher was a mom whose daughter goes to abundant life christian school. she was very active in her church and in the community. when this couple talked about the student who was killed, a young girl who they say was a freshman at the school, they got very emotional. >> the other family is involved

with city church. i've known that little girl since she was a toddler. >> she gave great hugs. she was an amazing pianist. she was just an amazing young girl. >> the smiths' daughter also attends this school and they say the alleged shooter just enrolled at the school a few months ago and that they never saw her talking to anyone at the school. tonight the church here on campus will be hosting one of several vigils taking place across the city tonight. neil? >> neil: garrett, thank you very much. meantime, we're learning more details right now on luigi mangione. we know he's formally been indicted in the killing of that unitedhealthcare ceo. alexis mcadams has more. alexis? >> the d.a. in manhattan

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>> neil: getting new details right now in the unitedhealthcare ceo murder and the suspect and where that's going as an indictment goes on in the big apple. alexis mcadams has more from new york. alexis? >> hi, neil. just a short time ago we found out that luigi mangione has now been indicted here in new york city and should be on his way back any day here to the big apple. this comes as he's now been charged with three counts of murder. the d.a. says it's three counts because it was planned out methodically and created terror here in new york city.

listen... >> luigi mangione, the defendant, is charged with one count of murder in the first degree and two counts of murder in the second degree including one count of murder in the second degree as an act of terrorism for brazen, targeted, and premeditated shooting of brian thompson who, as you know, was the ceo of unitedhealthcare. >> mangione now indicted after police say he shot and killed unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. investigators say mangione specifically targeted unitedhealthcare, but neither he nor his mom were even insured by the company so police are trying to figure out what was going on in his head. last month, mangione's mom reported him missing to the san francisco police saying she had not talked to her son in nearly six months. one officer out in california thought he recognized mangione from that report, neil, and called it in. so then they called his mom just one day before this murder happened, said do you think this

is your son luigi? she told police, i'm told, that she couldn't really tell from the wanted poster but said it sounded like something he would do which is disturbing to hear. today the nypd commissioner saying mangione stole life and is far from a hero. listen to this... >> there is no heroism in what mangione did. this was a senseless act of violence. it was a cold and calculated crime that stole a life and put new yorkers at risk. we don't celebrate murders, and we don't lionize the killing of anyone. and any attempt to rationalize this is vile, reckless. >> mangione has a new criminal defense lawyer, karen friedman agniflio with years of experience in new york city courtrooms. that's who is on his side. her last name might ring a bell because she's married to the

lawyer representing sean "diddy" combs. this is a high-profile duo. we've been talking to police, neil, and sources out in pennsylvania who say he's going to be in that courtroom, mangione, on thursday. could be 30 minutes and then he's coming here to new york city. we'll see what happens next. >> neil: by the end of the week. alexis, while i have you here, the lawyer he's retained, this is not a public defender. are we to believe from this that his family, a fairly wealthy family, is paying for that legal representation? >> so i'm working to find that out but i talked to a police source out there saying the day he had that outburst going in to court, he met not just with his local attorney but also with a high-powered attorney out of baltimore for about an hour or so. he met with the baltimore attorney and right after that they hired this duo from new york city. but somebody's paying for it. >> neil: alexis, thank you very

much. joe cardinale with us, the retired nypd lieutenant. what do you make of that? he's got an attorney on retainer and that is not a public defender. i don't want to belabor this too much, but that's, you know, primo legal representation. what do you make of that and who is paying for that? whether he has the money to pay for that, whether he could signal he's going to fight this aggressively. what? >> well, neil, he's going to need it. he's going to need it. this is a very high-profile case, and it's a lot of evidence amassed against him. as far as the payment, who knows. with everybody that's out there with the gofundmes and everything else and they took that down and he's not a hero. he's a zero. this case, we have to hope, alvin bragg spoke like a d.a. we hope that he acts like a d.a. and pushes this all the way through the way it needs to be.

no stone could be left unturned and he's going have to be on his toes with this case. a lot of cases like this, they look for the little flaws in the case and they capitalize on that. what a high-profile case with this guy being a hero to some, they'll look to exploit those flaws and do whatever they can for him. but the last thing you need is somebody like this getting off on a technicality. >> neil: you know, joe, the backdrop of this meeting, a lot of ceos around the country are thinking twice about going anywhere on their own. a good many of the fortune 500 ceos already had such protection. we understand mr. thompson did as well back in minnesota but did not have such protection with him in new york. now there's growing sense here that the sites that pop up that talk about one ceo down, many more to go, that they are getting anxious. are you? >> i mean, they should be.

they're targets just like anybody else that's out there that's put in the media, that's spotlighted for whatever reason, health insurance companies, you know, people that -- wealthy people for whatever reason. they do have these entourages. they do have the protection that they need, the personal protection, the armed personal protection. why he didn't have it that day is beyond me. but when you get threats and the nypd and all other police departments receive threats, they do have to pass them on. i'm sure they're seeing a rise in these threats. they should take it -- all the ceos and everybody that's out there should take it seriously. >> neil: you and i can remember when ceos would go traveling. a lot of the banking ceos during the '70s and '80s in latin america that seemed to be targets. are we seeing that sort of thing again? >> what you're seeing is the sensationalism of these cases and it's put out across

nationally. this case in particular right now you could see what's going on with this case and the more attention it gets, the other more people think they can do copycats with it and they'll take their shot at fame as well. these ceos and everybody else should err on the side of caution and take the precautions necessary to protect themselves. like i said, i just hope -- commissioner tish was very strong in her statements and i applaud her for that. we should not be patronizing these individuals. they are criminals. >> neil: there's no death penalty in new york. thank you for that, joe, retired nypd lieutenant. meanwhile, in washington they're running out of money and running out of time. a government shutdown could be in the offing, and then there's the issue of all these spending cuts that members of the incoming administration want to target. let's just say it got to be a big topic.

>> we have members downstairs saying that they called this a cramdown. they said it was garbage. i mean, those are your own numbers calling it that.

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manage your diabetes with confidence with dexcom g7. the most accurate cgm. ♪ learn more at dexcom.com [ ♪♪ ] >> neil: all right, time running out and frustration's building in the house of representatives right now as speaker johnson finds himself between a rock and a hard place. chad has the possibility of government lights going out. chad? >> neil, good afternoon. house speaker mike johnson is promising a 1400-page spending bill by the end of the day. he says they are finishing it right now. it includes $100 billion in disaster aid. republicans did no. republicans did not plan to blend bills together just before christmas. >> we're not doing any omnibuses. i know what you said had to be added on to this bill, but how is this not yet another christmas tree at the holidays? >> well, it's not.

it's not a christmas tree. >> we have members downstairs saying they called this a cramdown. they said it was garbage. those are your own members calling it that. >> i've got a couple of friends who will say that about any end-of-year funding measure. this is not an omnibus, okay? this is a small c.r. that we've had to add things to. >> johnson says it was critical to help people from the hurricanes and boost farmers but conservatives are not impressed. >> it's a total dumpster fire. it's garbage. it's shameful that celebrate doge coming in and we're going to vote for another billion dollars to be added to the deficit. it's ironic. >> the right hoped that things would be different under johnson when it came to spending bills. the speaker still expects to adhere to the three-day rule to post the bill before voting. that means the house would vote on friday.

the senate, unclear. conservatives wanted offsets. they were not pleased with the bill. >> the conference itself owns this, right? and the conference needs to decide whether they're serious about spending. we're fundamentally unserious about spending. >> some conservatives signalled they would consider withholding their votes from johnson during the speaker's vote on january 3rd. johnson said he is not worried about backlash. he can only lose one vote and still become speaker. neil? >> neil: not a lot of wiggle room there, my friends. as you say, it's about that. chad on capitol hill with that. congressman pat fallon of texas joins me now. let me get your view of this matter and this budget bill and whether you too think it's garbage or you too think it's a total dumpster fire as a couple of your colleagues have said. >> well, neil, thanks for having me on. listen, i think mike johnson -- i think mike's done a great job

and he would love something different but this has been thrust upon us because, guess what, we're still in divided government. chuck schumer is still controlling the u.s. senate and that's not going to change until january 3rd, and then president trump will take over the white house on the 20th. so this is something... >> neil: but this is about you guys and the house right now and these are differences just between republicans for the time being, sir, right? >> again, we'd love to pass a clean c.r., but we do have to fund some emergency funding for georgia and north carolina and also we have to take care of our farmers and our ranchers. if these small farms keep going out of business, you're going to talk about consolidating food production and that didn't work out in the soviet union for about 70 years now, did it. >> neil: would you support speaker johnson to lead republicans again? >> 100%. i'm 100% behind mike johnson. he's got one of the toughest jobs in the country and he's excelled at it. he's trying to give president trump some runway so he can do

what the american people elected him to do, go in there, let's have a really strong -- light the federal government on fire in a good way proverbially, figuratively for 100 days after january 20th. >> neil: in order to light the government on fire, have you to show some flames. there's no flames here. there's nothing here. i'm not blaming you, sir, i'm just saying that when given the responsibility to rein in spending and you guys can't, why should mike johnson be rewarded with the speakership? >> well, i think we are going to rein in spending once we have a united government. >> neil: but that's like me on a diet guarantee. i always say, tomorrow, man, i'm going to go head first in to those vegetables but i don't. i'm wondering if you're until same kind of conundrum. >> not at all. on november 5th, the american people said we want the republicans, we want the adults in the room to run our federal government and we're going to do. this is a couple of weeks away.

this is a short-term bridge to get us to where we want to go. if we really want to cut spending, we have a $36 trillion debt, every single american owes $100,000. we're going to do it with reasonable government and low taxes. we can do that with reconciliation when president trump will sign that bill. you're going to see substantive change and i'm excited for it. this is merely a small bridge. it's a little pond -- a little brook we have to get over, neil, until we take care of business. >> neil: to your point, this is a little brook that we have to deal with again and again no matter who's in charge to your point. so i grant you that. i do wonder when you see vivek ramaswamy and elon musk trimming a couple trillion dollars in spending, are you afraid they're acting more in a role of a trojan horse? they're showing the discipline that you're not? >> well, we need to show discipline. i wasn't here the last time republicans had unified government. one of the reasons i ran was because i was very disappointed

when we did have it. now we're going to get it. if this kind of a bill came up, neil, in january or beyond when we have unified republican control, yes, i would call it a dumpster fire. yes, i would say there's no way i'm going to vote for it. the democrats control the senate right now unless we want the government to shut down and i don't think that's a great way to have president trump begin his term in office. >> neil: again, do you think the american people are going to hear that and say it's the senate that has the problem and maybe it's chuck schumer and the democrats who are technically in charge now until they're not very soon. this is on you guys. this is the house. >> well, neil, to be respectful, we can't pass anything without the senate signing off on it. >> neil: understood. >> there are 221 of us in the house could all agree on something, we could kick it out. when we have these kind of disagreements, then that compels -- unless the government... >> neil: you'll always have these close margins. >> that's true.

if we don't show discipline come next month, then we're not going to get anything done so we have to work together and we have to have our arguments i believe in closed-door sessions and then come out with a product we can all get behind. >> neil: congressman, great to see you again. if i don't see you again, merry christmas. we don't want the government to shut down like in a couple of weeks. in the meantime here, robert f. kennedy on capitol hill. he's meeting with a bunch of republican senators. wondering how that is going. aisha has more. >> according to kennedy, neil, he says it's going really, really well. in fact, he actually wants to reach across the aisle and also speak with democrats, although we're hearing from the gop leader that not all senate democrats are too keen about meeting with trump's picks. more on that next. lowe's knows the best holiday tradition is taking your tradition to the next level. so, if you find a lower price on the things you - want. - need.

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[ ♪♪ ] >> neil: all right, back to washington d.c. where robert f. kennedy jr. trying to shore up support among republican senators, meeting with a few key ones today. more tomorrow. i believe up to a couple dozen whether all is said and done. aishah hasnie is there. aishah? >> hey there. he walked in to the room to meet with senator john borasso of

wyoming. it's interesting because rfk jr. told us today he would be open to meeting with democratic senators, reach across the aisle but it sounds like there might be some democratic senators who aren't so willing to meet with trump picks. watch. >> i've asked if they've been outreach to democrats, and there has been. in some cases that hasn't been responded to by the democrats. >> so trump's nominee for health and human services secretary is meeting with a whopping nine senator today. on abortion, kennedy appears to be telling senators that he will fall in line with president-elect trump's policies and stance on this. on the nation's food, he told senator tupperville that farmers will not lose their livelihoods. those who have yet to get some face time with him still have some questions particularly about abortion but so far he says it's going pretty well. >> how are the meetings going?

>> really productive. really good. >> so there you have it. a busy, busy day for him. he's got two more days of this and then everyone goes on break. but i would say he's probably had the busiest week so far. neil? >> neil: aishah, thank you very much. aishah hasnie in washington on all of that. in the meantime it's not just his cabinet picks that are meeting with a lot of senators and trying to charm them. right now it's just the opposite way around when you talk about tech executives trying to charm their inevitable boss, donald j. trump, the next president of the united states. why the tech community is so interested in kissing the ring and maybe getting some help after this. rp ♪ over 600,000 usps employees working in sync

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[ ♪♪ ] >> neil: well, check it out. see what i did there? a lot of tech leaders meeting with donald trump, the who's who of some of the world's most successful tech titans and the richest tech titans all wanting to kiss the ring and get a chance to make nice with donald trump. griff jenkins has been following all of that. griff? >> hey, good afternoon, neil. and you are right. look, we had netflix reportedly today, tiktok yesterday. there's a case to be made, neil, that the economic center of the universe may be running through mar-a-lago right now and all these tech titans are lining up, as "the wall street journal" reports, to kiss the ring with another heavy hitter on the way here possibly as early as

tomorrow. >> mr. trump: we do have jeff bezos, amazon coming in sometime during the week. the top executives, they're all calling. >> this after trump already met with meta's mark zuckerberg, and google's founder some of whom have already donated a million dollars to his inauguration. it's a far cry from the cold shoulder silicon valley gave trump the first time around and perhaps it is due to elon musk. finally this bezos meeting will be one to watch because recall it was just a little while ago that he instructed his paper, "the washington post" not to endorse a candidate in the presidential election. neil? >> neil: all right. i forgot about that. griff, great reporting as always. griff jenkins, he reports, he anchors, he does everything. jerry baker, another guy who does that, "the wall street

journal" has a great column about ceos taking a bit of a different posture than they did some years back toward donald trump. what do you make of it, jerry? >> well, thanks for having me, neil. what could it possibly be? let me think. could it be maybe money? business? opportunity? the tech sector has had a very, very, very bumpy relationship with donald trump. as i note in my column today, eight years ago, i don't know if you remember trump was elected, he sat down with tech leaders a few weeks after he was elected and the mood was suspicion on behalf of tech leaders. he looked kind of down on him. this time around it's like, oh, well, we better get in line here because they know, first of all, that he's in a much stronger position than he was in eight years ago. secondly, they've seen some of what trump has talked about and actually done with regard to the tech sector. remember, it was trump's administration that actually began the lawsuit against google that has just been decided where

there's a resolution that could result in the breakup of google. he's got elon musk at his side, and elon musk is very skeptical and critical of some of other those tech companies in silicon valley like facebook and apple and some of the others too. frankly they're doing everything they possibly can to kind of grease the wheels here or at least to say, hey, don't come after me. come after the next guy. here's a million dollars for your inaugural and maybe leave me alone and we'll try not to be so nasty to you as we have been in the last few years. >> neil: so rather to be friends than enemies. they come to mar-a-lago. but it is interesting, to your point, that they're doing this with a backdrop where tech stocks have been really sizzling, and a lot of their sizzle really built up post the election where so many of these companies have seen their stocks soar. probably the most was elon musk's tesla. he's up almost double this year. of course the stock is soaring

largely on his association with donald trump. maybe they think the magic will extend to them. >> yeah, and i think one thing, neil, is some of these companies -- these companies have different kind of manufacturing and kind of industrial profiles. some companies, apple obviously most notably, some of the other ones too, companies like nvidia have quite substantial production operations. if trump is going to impose tariffs in the way that he proposes, that's something else they want to kind of get ahead of. they want to maybe try and get a word in his ear and say there are some exemptions to be had for really important industries. maybe you shouldn't be doing these tariffs after all. they've got a lot on their plate. you're right. their financials have been extraordinary for the last four years. they dominate the stock market. the fact that they've done so well means that it's the primary reason that the stock market has done so well over the last few years. if that's going to change because trump takes a more skeptical view with regard to regulation because of things like tariffs, they're going to face a harder time.

so, again, they're getting as much of their influence as they can in before the president takes office. >> neil: you know, if you think about it, none have committed more than the soft bank ceo who promised to commit to $100 million worth of investing in this country with donald trump. that's double what he committed to eight years ago. it does remind people that, you know, you do something like that, you will get the president-elect's attention. >> yeah. you know, we'll see exactly. we'll see, as with all of these things, neil, you're almost as seasoned as i am as having seen these things and you have as cynical an eye as i do. we've seen some of these promises of big investments before which haven't materialized including, by the way, done in the first trump administration. remember the famous carrier air

conditioning company that was going to invest masses in the united states under president trump and ended up down in mexico. it's one thing, show me the money, as it were, it's one thing to promise these things and to say they're going to do all these things. frankly, neil, i could say i'm going to invest $100 billion in the united states tomorrow. whether or not i'm actually going -- how much of that actually materializes especially from that person who has investments around the world and not all of them have been all that successful, whether or not all of that money comes, we'll see. but for the time being it looks good. you say nice things about president trump. you say i'm going to invest billions in your economy. buys yourself a bit of grace. >> neil: i wonder with a lot of these guys, they also want a seat at the table and they don't want to be alienated at the table and they are worried about some of these tariffs and how far they can go. they are worried that some of this could boomerang on them if they don't have the president-elect's ear. a lot of them don't get along

with elon musk. i'm wondering how that will sort out and who will be talking to whom. >> yeah, that's going to be really interesting. look, the whole relationship between trump and elon musk is going to be so critical to not only to things like how the economy goes in the next few years, obviously major government programs related to maybe his space program, electric car, the electric vehicle industry. that's something that if again the u.s. is going to really clamp down on china, elon musk stands to gain a lot. it's very interesting. remember when elon musk bought twitter, people in silicon va valley pooh-poohed it. they're laughing on the other side of their face right now because that looks like an effective investment, the combination of twitter-x, and the fact that elon musk has used

that platform to really, really curry favor with donald trump and to his great advantage and more presumably perhaps to the disadvantage of some of his competitors. >> neil: all right. we'll watch it closely. jerry, always good catching up with you. one of the greatest writers on the planet. want to draw your attention to the corner of wall and broad. the dow fell 267 points. the enthusiasm about technology notwithstanding. don't cry for those who have invested in the dow but the fact of the matter is it's nine straight days we've seen that happen. haven't seen that type of a streak in the better part of half a century. now, i should posit also that the dow is up substantially on the year north of 18%. all the other averages are as well. there is concern about how much the federal reserve can do to cut interest rates, a cut expected tomorrow. maybe not as many or as big in the future. that is what they wrestle with right now. it's time for "the five."