More than 80 million affected by massive snowstorm across Northeast

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More than 80 million affected by massive snowstorm across Northeast

FOX News correspondent Bryan Llenas has the latest from Brooklyn, N.Y. on 'Your World'

This is a rush transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto" February 2, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR:  All right, game stopped, and for investors
in the once hot stock, come-to-moment reality that they're still not
getting a handle on.

But we have got some startling news developing right now, in case you think
that some of the very big hedge funds were going to sort of roll over for
Washington and take any type of criticism, some startling news. No, they
are not. They are planning a major, aggressive, defensive campaign against
a Washington that they say doesn't get what they do. They're not greedy,
selfish moguls, any more than those who bid up the prices of the stocks
they short are prescient investors.

This is a startling development in a battle that has now taken it to
Washington, as both sides are preparing to meet the politicians who have it
out to regulate Wall Street.

Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto, and this is YOUR WORLD.

And in case those big hedge funds were looking for trouble, well, they
found it for themselves, because they're going to put up quite a stink,
quite a fight that they're no one's tool, capitalist or otherwise.

Charlie Gasparino on some fast-moving developments that could change where
all of this is going.

Charlie, what's happening here?

CHARLIE GASPARINO, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT:  Neil, the speculation in
these stocks has had far-ranging implications. The markets are going nuts.
These stocks are up and down. GameStop is down dramatically.

Somehow, the focus got on hedge funds, following some comments by
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who thought this was a good time to
crack down on hedge funds. She said as much. She seems to have some support
in Congress, even by some Republicans.

But the hedge fund business is fighting back. What they're worried about is
these restrictive measures from Congress that curtail what they do, how
they do it, including their practice known as short selling. That's making
money when stocks decline.

We should point out that a couple of hedge funds got caught in this whole
frenzy over GameStop, not making money, but losing money. They were caught
in a short squeeze. When prices go up, the short position loses value. And
at least one fund, Melvin Capital, needed a bailout from Steve Cohen, the
current owner of the Mets and one of the top hedge fund executives in the
country.

So, what are the hedge funds going to do? From want I understand, they're
planning a battle royal with Congress, or at least an information campaign,
a vigorous one, where they basically go to the Congress and to the public
even, and explain the benefits of short selling and what they do.

We should remember that short selling uncovered many of the biggest frauds
ever that saved investors tens, hundreds, countless billions of dollars,
from Enron, to Valeant, to Martin Shkreli -- Shkreli. If I -- excuse me
from butchering his name, but you know who I'm talking about, the pharma
boy. Hedge funds were behind uncovering these scandals.

They add information to the marketplace, where most stocks are being
touted. And they're going to say all of that, and they're planning to gear
up right now, because, listen, Neil, I was talking to the hedge fund
executives. And they're a lobby group. The lobby group is called the
Managed Funds Association, which is going to be heading this effort.

They were telling me, listen, we knew something was going to come down
against us, given the makeup of Congress, if you -- and that now that it's
Democrat, if you notice, Elizabeth Warren, the progressive Democrat from
Massachusetts, is now on the Finance Committee. What we didn't know is what
the triggering event would be.

And it was -- and it's this whole imbroglio involving Robinhood, GameStop,
and Reddit that led to massive price increases in these stocks. And they
feel it's unfair. Again, they had nothing to do with the speculation. They
had nothing to do with the promoting of these stocks, where some people are
going to lose money, as GameStop is now -- I think it closed below $100 a
share today.

But because somehow hedge funds were involved shorting these stocks,
pointing out some of the problems with GameStop, BlackBerry, and some of
the other stocks, AMC, that were at the center of this, they became -- it
was a convenient -- they believe they became a convenient whipping boy for
progressives like Elizabeth Warren, who always harbored intentions to
regulate them.

So, it's going to be game on now.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO:  But we do know this, Charlie. We do know this, that the Robinhood
CEO is being called on to testify, and some, like Elizabeth Warren, were
wondering whether he had a cozy relationship with some of these hedge
funds, and that that's what led to the difficulty of processing trades,
because he was doing their bidding.

There's no proof, no iota of that here. But it seems to be not only will he
be facing scrutiny in Congress, but a lot of these short fund traders as
well as well, as well as managers. This could get pretty big, pretty ugly
pretty fast.

GASPARINO:  It could get ugly, but the facts are on the Robinhood CEO's
side and the hedge funds' side on this.

Listen, the hedge funds -- let's be clear here. The Robinhood CEO had to
prevent -- had to stop trading those stocks, lock down those stocks because
he couldn't meet capital requirements. Does he have relationships -- and
that's it. That's factual. You can't deny that. Everybody knows that.

Does he have a side relationship with hedge funds? Well, certain parts of
the hedge fund business buy his order flow and match the buyers and
sellers. That's a big business for these -- for that side of the hedge fund
business. And guess what? If they didn't want to buy it, Robinhood would
sell to someone else, because it's a valuable commodity.

The conspiracy theory falls apart pretty quick here. I'm not some big
defender of hedge funds, Neil. I'm telling you, I have written books about
them going off the rails.

CAVUTO:  Understood.

GASPARINO:  They don't like me, a lot of them.

But, in this instance, the class warfare argument doesn't match logic or
the facts.

CAVUTO:  All right.

Very good, Charlie. It's very easy to politicize this, as Charlie just said
here.

We're going to explore this a little bit more detail in our next segment
here, why the general markets were running up today. A lot of it had to do
with trouble for all of those stocks that were shorted, and then people
were buying them, that there might be a comeuppance going on here.

We will explore that a little bit more. Keep in mind, those who bet on
stocks going down are still doing so. Those who want to reverse that
activity are still doing so. We might assign black helicopter sinister
motives to all of this, but we're discovering that sometimes, when a lot of
people rush for the door, there are only so many you can get through.

It might be as simple as math. We will explore that, a little bit more
detail.

In the meantime, FOX on top of two storms barreling down, not only the
political one you saw brewing on hedge funds and the like, but that mother
of all twin storms that has hit 80 million Americans along the Northeast
Coast of the United States and much further.

The very, very latest right now, Bryan Llenas, who's looking at an East
Coast trying -- and I stress trying -- to dig out.

How's it looking so far, my friend?

BRYAN LLENAS, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  Hey, Neil.

Well, you're talking about 16 inches of snow here in Brooklyn, New York.
You can see some people in New York, they're having fun, because, frankly,
nobody has been under a more strict COVID-19 lockdown than New York City,
for this long anyway.

So, look, at the end of the day, you're talking about 17.2 inches of snow
in Central Park, the snow continuing from tonight into tomorrow morning.
When it's all said and done, this could be a top 10 winter storm hitting
New York City, the most snow we have seen since January of 2016.

Overall, flight cancellations, take a look, over 350 flight cancellations,
JFK, LGA and Newark. That's about 30 percent of all flights coming and
going from those airports. And in New York, there were over 300 crashes on
this -- on the roadways in this state. At one point, we had 30-to-50-mile-
an-hour gusts. There were one to three inches of snow falling per hour.

New Jersey saw over 600 crashes on their roadways. Pennsylvania declaring a
state of emergency, some spots seeing two-and-a-half feet of snow there.
They're declaring a state of emergency to clear the roadways of snow.
Matter of fact, some interstates have banned commercial cars and trucks
from traveling on those roads.

And take a look at this video. This is from Connecticut, in Stamford,
Connecticut, a truck stuck in icy waters there, a man and a woman saved
from that truck, thankfully, but a dangerous situation.

Overall here in New York City, Neil, vaccination appointments have been
canceled for the last two days. They will resume tomorrow, as well as
outdoor dining, if you can stomach it in this February weather, restaurants
here really feeling it. Hopefully, indoor dining starting on Valentine's
Day, and things will start getting better -- Neil.

CAVUTO:  All right, Ryan, thank you very, very much.

Adam Klotz right now on Punxsutawney Phil.

Well, if that little creature is right, get ready for some more monsters
winter for at least another six weeks.

Adam, say it isn't so.

ADAM KLOTZ, FOX NEWS METEOROLOGIST:  I wish I could say that, Neil.

Yes, unfortunately, more winter is on the way, maybe even some more winter
storms areas where we just saw this winter storm over the last 48 hours or
so.

Here's where we're currently looking. This is the system dropping all that
snow across the Mid-Atlantic up into New England. At this point, really,
the heaviest snow continues to track into interior New England. But, boy,
did we see some snowfall totals, the top highest one, 33 inches in New
Jersey. A lot of spots, though, getting up to two full feet of snow across
a very large area.

We have still got some winter storm watches and warnings for Upstate New
York and then stretching into interior Northern Maine, areas where you can
still see some heavy rain from this particular system. But as I take you in
our future forecast, runs you through tonight, into eventually tomorrow,
you do see we're beginning to get on the tail end of this system.

Now, what could come next? We have got a couple of rounds of systems here.
And this is still a ways off. This is taking you all the way into Friday,
and then eventually the second system into Sunday. But that is two more
blasts of winter weather that are sweeping across the country, something
we're going to be paying attention to, probably not as bad -- big as what
we just saw, but perhaps some more snow is on the way.

So, maybe the groundhog was correct -- Neil.

CAVUTO:  Yes. He has a poor batting average. But I guess, today, he might
be correct.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO:  We will see.

Adam, I trust your weather reports much more so than I do the groundhog.

Adam Klotz on all of that.

Meanwhile, the fight over that $1.9 trillion stimulus measure that the
Democrats want, the president seems to be indicating he will get. But
here's the thing. Republicans aren't fans, and some noise we have heard out
of the White House to indicate they might be justified having their doubts
about a bipartisan move on the part of the White House.

Chad Pergram has more from Washington.

Hey, Chad.

CHAD PERGRAM, FOX NEWS CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT:  Good afternoon, Neil.

Well, the president and the secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, spoke
to Democratic senators virtually today about the next COVID bill. There's a
huge gap between the $1.9 trillion bill President Biden wants and the $618
billion package pushed by a group of 10 Republican senators.

Republicans balk at the price tag of the Democrats' plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MIKE BRAUN (R-IN):  The need is different state by state. And I have
always been a proponent for helping any small business, but the broader
approach, which at $1.9 trillion, and you know the other items that are in
there that are totally unrelated to COVID.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM:  If all 50 Senate Democrats stick together, they can pass a bill
using a parliamentary gambit called budget reconciliation. That shuts off
filibusters.

West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin signed off on going forward with
reconciliation, but has not committed to backing the final bill.

A reconciliation bill can't deal with other policy priorities touted by
Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN, FORMER CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE DIRECTOR:  That
means if you try to introduce an extraneous provision that has nothing to
do with raising taxes, lowering taxes, raising spending, lowering spending,
then you can object, and the parliamentarian can force that provision to be
taken out of the bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM:  A narrow bill could cost Democrats votes if liberals revolt.

Democrats are still smarting after only spending $700 billion for the 2009
stimulus package following the financial crisis. Democrats believe that was
an error -- Neil.

CAVUTO:  All right, Chad, thank you very, very much.

Chad Pergram on all of that.

Well, if you had any doubt that maybe some of the Republicans' fears about
flexibility out of the White House might be misplaced, maybe we heard the
White House press secretary hint that they might have something to beef
about, especially when it comes to the costs of a stimulus plan, that Joe
Biden does not want to compromise.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION:  You had acknowledged that the gap between the administration and
Republicans is wide, but the talks last night was constructive.

So, after the discussion in the Oval Office last night, is the number from
the White House still $1.9 trillion?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY:  It is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO:  All right, still $1.9 trillion. There's not going to be any wiggle
room there.

Senator Todd Young, Republican of Indiana, who was among those meeting with
the president on this issue yesterday, joins me now.

Senator, did he hint at the time to you that this $1.9 trillion, that was
nonnegotiable, because, hearing from the White House press secretary today,
it certainly seemed that way?

SEN. TODD YOUNG (R-IN):  That wasn't the message I took away, Neil. In
fact, we have at the staff level some negotiations and conversations
following on that visit in the Oval Office just yesterday.

What instead I heard from the president was a desire to find common ground
where we can, but a determination, candidly, to move forward in some other
areas where we won't find common ground.

Look, the president emphasized unity throughout his campaign. And that was
the theme of his inaugural address. He also is emphasizing the importance
of speed right now.

Well, the only way you can move forward with speed is the way we moved
forward five previous times -- it was during the Trump administration --
since this pandemic hit. And with almost unanimous support, we passed
successive CARES response packages. We should do the same thing again,
getting vaccines in arms, helping businesses that need it most and getting
our kids back to school.

That was our message, and one that he offered a courteous ear to. We will
see if we can arrive at some sort of more targeted agreement.

CAVUTO:  All right, but it seems that, if they stick to that $1.9 trillion
figure -- and a lot of Republicans are leery of going that high -- I assume
you're among them, sir.

YOUNG:  Yes.

CAVUTO:  They would have to do this the reconciliation route, in other
words, just a simple majority, not 60 votes.

Did the president hint to you that that is what he's prepared to do?

YOUNG:  I won't discuss the details of our conversation.

But I will indicate that the president has spent decades in the United
States Senate prior to becoming vice president and then president. So, he's
very much aware of the risk of using reconciliation on a number of fronts.

Number one, it's a tedious and lengthy process. So, if he really wants to
get vaccine aid out to those who really need it, he should work in a
bipartisan way, as we have in the past.

Number two, frankly, it could set the wrong tone for an administration that
is trying to get a lot more done down the road. If he really wants to unify
the country, not just politically, but culturally in society -- and I know
he's thinking ambitiously in those terms -- then he really needs to work
with Republicans.

And, third, frankly, it could be a bit embarrassing if he can't pull enough
Democrats onto his side to support this reconciliation process, which would
be extraordinary, for this to move forward.

CAVUTO:  Well, Democrats have all said:  All or nothing. We're going to do
it our way. Republicans want to slice this in half. We're not.

So, it looks like full speed ahead, if I'm reading this correctly, Senator.

You're hopeful, though, that something can be worked out as a compromise.

YOUNG:  Neil, I would emphasize that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are
moving forward with this process, as we just heard from Chad Pergram.

CAVUTO:  Right.

YOUNG:  So, they are determined to ram this thing down our throats,
extraneous issues and all.

I mean, they want people with -- that make a household income of $300,000
to receive checks, people who have jobs. That's absolutely bad public
policy. It's irresponsible for our children and grandchildren. That's just
one of the many policies that I object to.

But, nonetheless, I remain open to working with the administration, if we
can slim down this package and make it more targeted.

CAVUTO:  All right, understood, Senator Young, thank you very much for
joining us.

We have a lot more coming up here.

We're just getting word that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is going to step down
from day-to-day running the company. That offset what is otherwise a
stunning quarterly report, its best to ever, another company that has a
$100 billion-plus revenue quarter, earnings that were twice as good as most
thought they would be.

Offsetting that, though, is this concern. Hey, the chief, the maestro, the
guy who started it all won't be running it all -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO:  All right, he, he's leaving. He's leaving the company as far as
day-to-day operation.

Jeff Bezos has announced, after quarterly earnings were announced at the
company, that he is stepping down as Amazon's CEO. He still will have a
very active role in the company, as he says, but quoting from Jeff Bezos:
"Right now, I see Amazon at its most invented ever, making it an optimal
time for this transition," a transition that will have him taking on a role
of executive chairman.

If this should raise sort of parallels to you, the closest I could see is
when Bill Gates stepped down up from day-to-day operation of Microsoft to
make wait for Steve Ballmer in that role. It is not totally unusual, but it
gets a lot of attention, given Bezos' extreme wealth.

And, of course, he founded this company in a garage selling books. It's
obviously a lot bigger than that today. The reins are now being taken over
by Andy Jassy, the chief executive of Amazon's cloud business, and all of
this on the heels of a very, very strong earnings report, where the company
generated more than $100 billion in revenue little more than a week after
Apple said it had done the same thing.

Earnings were double what they thought they would be. The stock, which is
already pricey, has kind of been all over the map in after-hours trading.
Keep in mind, in the past year, it has jumped in excess of 84 percent, so a
little bit to giveback in after-hours, because they're trying to digest
what this could mean with the day-to-day operation of the company.

You might recall as well, when Bill Gates stepped down as day-to-day
operating chief over at Microsoft, the stock took a hit, stabilized under
Steve Ballmer, has continued to soar post-Ballmer in the new management, in
the new emphasis on cloud computing and the like.

But, again, this is a big development of the world of technology, because
Amazon, of course, has been one of the safer investment bets. When everyone
was sheltered at home buying things like crazy from home, Amazon benefited
appreciably. And given the guidance the company has been giving after-hours
here, it expects that to continue, whether we're all sheltered in our homes
or not.

Larry Glazer, Mayflower Advisers, here.

Larry, I guess the surprise isn't that he's doing this and taking advantage
of a company that's considered well-run anyway, but that he's doing it now.
What do you make of this?

LARRY GLAZER, MAYFLOWER ADVISORS:  You know, Neil, in normal times, blowout
earnings for these tech giants would be the talk of Wall Street. These are
the darlings of investors. They have driven the major market averages,
driven 401(k) plans.

If you have a pension, a retirement plan, chances are you have exposure to
these very big companies. And you have benefited from it.

At the same time, these are not normal times. You have shifting political
sands in Washington, Neil. These companies benefited from COVID. It's not
just Alphabet, Google and Amazon, but a whole host of technology companies
really benefited from the lockdown, at the expense of Main Street, Neil.

And we could see that maybe it doesn't get a lot easier. Maybe it doesn't
get better. Maybe he's getting out on top. And that's OK. I mean,
everybody's entitled to step aside.

But, going forward, the shifting political sands could put a target on
these companies from a tax and a regulatory perspective. And he knows it.
And maybe it's going to be someone else's challenge to take that on. And
that's why you're seeing these executive C-suite changes at this massive
company.

CAVUTO:  You know, we always talk about the sheer wealth of some of these
guys.

Up until a few weeks ago, he was by far the richest human being on the
planet, now second to Elon Musk. But all of that can change in the very
always shifting sands of technology valuations.

What's interesting here is what Bezos said about the catalyst for this. If
you do it right -- this is from his statement -- "A few years after
surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. That
yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. When you look at
our financial results, what you're actually seeing are the long-run
cumulative results of invention. Right now I see Amazon at its most
invented ever, making it an optimal time for this transition."

So, the big question, will they -- will investors agree? Is it the same
thing without him running it day after day, day by day? Does it make a
difference that he's still very associated with the company, he still owns
by far most of its stock, so that nothing really changes, or does it?

GLAZER:  Look, Neil, transitions can be very difficult.

Here's a visionary entrepreneur who built this company from scratch. He saw
the future, right? He executed on that future. He's been two steps ahead of
everyone else. As Wayne Gretzky used to say, see where the puck is going.

With that said, when we look at other great big companies in the United
States, they have not executed that transition well. Look at General
Electric under Jack Welch. It was a disaster after he left. So it is not
that easy to step into those big shoes.

At the same time, when the expectations are so high -- look, investors
haven't lost sight of the fact that this company makes a ton of money. And
I think that's great from an entrepreneurial standpoint, from an earnings
perspective. It means the expectations are very high to keep making that
money.

They had a $100 billion fourth quarter. It's amazing that they were able to
execute on it. That's why the box has a little smile on it, right? But that
box may not be smiling under new leadership, because they have got to
continue to innovate, continue to grow. And the law of big numbers makes
that really difficult.

They have all of the tools in place. But the stimulus plan policies in
Washington are going to shift the focus back to Main Street. They want to
even out the economy, right? And it's going to come at the expense of big
technology firms. They are going to be asked to pay for some of this
stimulus.

They're going to be asked to be accountable for regulatory changes. So,
those are going to make the job more challenging. It doesn't mean they're
going to go away. When Teddy Roosevelt broke up Standard Oil, Rockefeller
made a ton of money. So, he's still going to be the richest man in the
world. He's still going to fly to space, and he's still going to have a big
smile on his face.

But investors need to recognize how challenging this can be.

CAVUTO:  All right, for the time being, the second richest man in the
world, but we will watch it very closely.

Larry Glazer, thank you very, very much.

For those of you just tuning in, Jeff Bezos, arguably one of the most
successful business men or women that this country has ever seen, started
his business in a garage. His family thought he was nuts, that he was
wasting his time, that he left pedigree investment firms to go off on this
lark selling books in his garage.

Many, many times, I have interviewed him over this period, including in
that garage stage, and always scratched my head, how can you make a
business of this? He famously one time told me, because this could be a
whole lot bigger than books.

The next chapter -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO:  All right, everyone knew that, if he became president, Joe Biden
would stop Keystone. He did. Everyone knew that at least 1,000 jobs would
be lost. That's just for starters.

Rick Perry, the former energy secretary, on why it doesn't stop there --
after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO:  Joe Biden had promised this day would be coming. But the impact is
still pretty serious, huh?

LAURIE COX, STROPPEL HOTEL AND MINERAL BATHS:  It is very serious, and
still very shocking.

I guess maybe I was a little naive in going, no, he can't shut down a
project that's already started. Or how could they shut down a project
already started?

Our KOA invested a lot of money and getting hookups so that the workers
could stay there over the winter. And we have just got a lot of other
businesses around this area, that a void has been left in our communities
because of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO:  You know, normally, when we think of the Keystone pipeline
shutting down, that oil workers are hurt, not just oil workers, though.
That nice lady runs a very, very popular hotel in South Dakota and a store
that catered to the crowd that had those jobs, had them until now.

Other businesses are feeling the pinch right now. That could turn out to be
the thousands.

Rick Perry, the former energy secretary of the United States and Texas
governor, with us right now.

Secretary, thank you.

As you had been saying in your days, the best thing that ever happened to
the industry was getting it going again, and the U.S. being responsible for
its own production and fracking and the like, and the Keystone pipeline and
the like. And now that's being taken back bit by bit.

I have talked to industry workers, and even those that depend on those
workers, who are worried it gets worse. Will it get worse, in your eyes?

RICK PERRY, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF ENERGY:  It will get worse.

And that's a sad story for the men and women who were counting on getting
COVID over with and kind of getting the economy headed back in the right
direction.

And I can't think of anything more unkind, anything more thoughtless than
what the Biden administration has done with stopping this. And they're
playing to the Greta Thunbergs of the world, people halfway around the
world who stand up and applaud the Biden administration for being so pro-
climate.

And the fact is, the United States was leading the country in the reduction
of emissions because of the American natural gas that was taking the place
of a lot of inefficient power plants around the world. And that's going to
be lost.

And so political points, but real personal loss for people around the
United States. I can't help but think, having been the former governor of
Texas, what the governor of New Mexico is thinking today.

I think well over half of the proceeds that come in for their state come
from federal lands when it comes to oil and gas. I mean, what do you tell
the teachers and the administrators of your public schools in New Mexico,
when you campaigned for this fellow that is absolutely sticking a knife in
the back of New Mexico?

So -- and it's my understanding that the secretary of the interior is from
New Mexico. So, I just don't know how you square that. I mean, how do you
with a straight face...

CAVUTO:  Then how do you square, Secretary -- what do you think -- you talk
about how you square stuff.

When John Kerry says things like there are plenty of solar panel jobs that
are going to be in the millions in the future, how do those oil workers,
those Keystone workers, and all those across the country who now could be
facing job losses, how do they transition to making, building, putting on
homes and businesses solar panels?

How do they do that without -- without some preparation, without going
back, essentially, to the beginning, to zero? Because all they know is this
industry. All they know is oil production and everything that goes with it.
That's quite a bit of knowledge that now they have to just put back.

PERRY:  Well, first off, John Kerry is a pretty poor spokesperson for the
climate business, when he hops on his private jet and leaves a trail of
emissions.

It's about 40 times more than what it would be if he flew first-class on a
United Airline going somewhere, American Airlines, one of our great
airlines. Matter of fact, they probably need to work right now.

So, it just doesn't square good with me and I think tens of thousands of
Americans out there and those that care about the climate, that, listen, if
you're going to -- if you're going to parrot this line that we have got to
do things to help the climate out, for God's sakes, man, get off your
private jet, and go travel with the rest of the folks out there, if you're
going to move around.

And the idea that he can so parsimoniously sit there and say, well, they
can go get a job over in the solar panel business, well, most of those
folks along that pipeline can't relocate to China, because that's where
most of those solar panels are being constructed.

So, listen, this is -- this is...

CAVUTO:  Are you worried, though, Secretary, about another thing he
outlines in that statement there, where he says, even if we do everything
we should do, of course, the reality is that we're only a small percentage
of the world?

Ninety percent of the pollution, everything else borne by countries like
China and Brazil and India, that will still be a reality that world
officials have to address. So, the double damning indemnity for a lot of
these workers is that they're sacrificing their jobs for something that
will not necessarily have tangible results for quite some time.

PERRY:  Well said, Mr. Cavuto.

This is absolutely being sacrificed on the bonfire of the vanities here.
This is truly a political move that's not going to have a bit...

CAVUTO:  But can't you do everything, Secretary? I mean, you espoused -- I
know, when you were running for president, you were open to wind and solar
and all this other stuff, but not at the expense one over the other.

Now, clearly, we have said, these are our future technologies, and not oil,
fossil fuels, coal, none of that. I thought we would be all in on
everything.

PERRY:  And think about nuclear being a zero-emission energy source. And my
bet is the Biden administration is not for that.

They are for wind, they are for solar, they're for whatever else the
environmental community tells them to be for, but they're not for fossil
fuels. They're not for the nuclear industry.

I -- and, listen, I mean, the reality is, we're going to continue to use
fossil fuels. We're going to need energy in this country. The real winners
in all of this, China, India, countries that are going to continue to
develop their energy sources.

And a lot of those energy sources are going to be fossil fuel-driven. And
the climate is not going to be protected the way that John Kerry and his
ilk would like to tell you that it's going to be.

CAVUTO:  All right, we will see.

Secretary, thank you very, very much.

In the middle of all of this, to the secretary's interest here, oil prices
were heading up north, mainly on the notion, though, that economic activity
is picking up.

So, that will be a factor to consider, along with maybe cut production in
the United States as a result of this.

We will have more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO:  All right, this was the week, of course, that Chicago schools are
supposed to reopen up for in person learning, delayed yet again. And it
could be a while before they even see any hope of reopening.

Mike Tobin with the latest from the Windy City.

Hey, Mike.

MIKE TOBIN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  Hey, Neil.

An announcement came late yesterday that let a lot of pressure off the
situation, may have prevented a strike by the teachers and created a
dynamic in which 340,000 students Chicago Public Schools could continue
with some kind of curriculum, while the teachers in the city try to pave a
pathway back to the classroom.

A joint announcement from the mayor and the CEO of Chicago Public Schools
yesterday announced what they called a milestone, but it boils down to two
more days of remote learning, while negotiators head back to the virtual
bargaining table.

Part of the statement reads: "We are calling for a 48-hour cooling-off
period that will hopefully lead to a final resolution on all open issues."

One concession made by CPS was to not make good on an ultimatum over the
weekend. Janice Jackson, the public schools CEO, said, if teachers didn't
show up on Monday, they would be locked out of Google Suites, which they
use for remote teaching.

The president of the teachers union said that move would have triggered a
strike vote. Jesse Sharkey, the union president, stated: "We don't want to
strike. We want to keep working remotely, as we bargain for an agreement to
return to our classrooms."

Now, a letter from the mayor to parents yesterday said that they had made
progress in a number of areas, contact tracing, safety protocols and
ventilation.

But we're now just about halfway through this cooling-off period in which
the teachers and the city need to strike a deal to get back in the
classroom -- Neil.

CAVUTO:  All right, thank you very much, my friend, Mike Tobin in Chicago
on all of that.

Keeping track of President Biden's executive orders, three new ones today
addressing immigration, and not a one of them intriguing to Chad Wolf, the
former acting DHS secretary.

Why he's worried, approaching frantic -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO:  All right, at least three more executive actions on the part of
President Biden to address the immigration issue.

These are on top of actions he's already taken to put a halt, a 100-day
halt to deportations in this country. At the same time, he has promised not
to build another inch of that wall.

Chad Wolf joins us right now, the former acting DHS secretary.

Secretary always good to see you.

Well, he's undoing and unwinding a lot of this stuff you were doing. Are
you worried?

CHAD WOLF, FORMER ACTING U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY:  Well, I am,
Neil.

And thanks for having me on.

CAVUTO:  Thank you.

WOLF:  I think the executive actions or executive orders that you see
today, as well as the ones that he did on the first day, are problematic
for a number of reasons, right, because they're weakening not only the
critical reforms that we made to the asylum process. They're weakening the
security on the southwest border, halting that border wall construction.

They're weakening our ability to deport dangerous individuals, dangerous
criminals. And across the board, some of the legislation that he's putting
forward will give work -- work permits to millions of individuals and
undocumented and illegal aliens, at a time when millions of Americans are
out of work.

So, across the board, up and down, there's a number of concerns that I have
with some of the actions being taken. And at the end of the day, I'm
concerned that they're creating a crisis on that southwest border in the
middle of a pandemic crisis, in the middle of an economic crisis as well.

CAVUTO:  You know, Secretary, I'm curious, because the rap is that Joe
Biden is more of a moderate, maybe more moderating than his old boss Barack
Obama, who had a reputation for being the deporter in chief when he was
president.

He didn't like that label, but a lot of progressives threw at him. A lot of
folks threw that at him. Joe Biden doesn't appear to want that label, at
least in these first 100 days.

Do you think deportations stay down to the degree, not necessarily stop,
but they're extremely limited even after the 100 days?

WOLF:  Well, that's certainly a concern.

I know they're taking a look at it. They have that pause for about 100 days
to reset their enforcement priorities there along the southwest border, but
also in the interior of the country as well. So, we will have to see what
that pans out to be.

But the concern would be that it would go back to those enforcement
priorities in the Obama administration. And what we saw as we came in, in
2017, and for the last four years, is law enforcement individuals, folks at
ICE and Border Patrol and others, law enforcement folks that wanted to
enforce the law, the law as written by Congress and on the books.

And the concern here is that they are again cherry-picking which laws to
enforce, while telling law enforcement officers to ignore other laws. And
that's very, very concerning, has a bad morale for the department. And I
think that's something that we're going to have to keep an eye on.

CAVUTO:  All right, we will watch very closely.

Chad Wolf, the former acting DHS secretary of these United States, very
good catching up with you. I'm sorry for the limited time.

We are following a couple of big developments, not the least of which is
news that Jeff Bezos is stepping down from running Amazon day to day. He's
going to be focusing on his Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin spaceship
company, The Washington Post, and a host of other things, enough to keep
him busy, he said.

As he put it: "As much as I still tap-dance into the office, I'm excited
about this transition."

It remains to be seen whether investors will be when they digest it all --
after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, 1999)

CAVUTO:  You're the expert here, but the rap is that you're spreading
yourself too thin, I mean, with music and videos and down the road drugs
and everything else, that your original base, books, which sounded fine, is
pushing it.

JEFF BEZOS, CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO, AMAZON :  Well, we don't want to
be a book company or a music company or a video company. We want to be a
customer company. So, our goal is to be the world's most customer-centric
company and then, within that, to be Earth's biggest selection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO:  You know, for all the times I had the pleasure of interviewing
Jeff Bezos here and before, when I was at CNBC, the one thing that struck
me was his passion, his passion.

That was only a couple of years after going public. Actually, a month after
that interview, I would finally finish puberty. But that's a whole 'nother
story.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO:  But what was interesting about his vision is, it went way beyond
books.

Doesn't John Bussey know it?

John, I was thinking, when the company went public in a split-adjusted
price of $1.50, which came later, and now shares that are trading close to
$3,400 a share, he proved the doubters wrong.

What happens now that he's stepping down as far as day-to-day running the
company?

JOHN BUSSEY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  Yes.

Well, Wall Street's probably going to be pretty happy with this decision, I
would imagine, that -- look, Andy Jassy has been running the Amazon Web
Services, the cloud computing business, for some time.

It has been a primary mover for Amazon. It's where a lot of the growth has
been. It's got new competition...

CAVUTO:  Absolutely.

BUSSEY:  ... that's from competition -- more competition from Microsoft and
others.

But it's been a big success, 37 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit just
this last quarter. So, when Wall Street looks at what is happening now,
Bezos isn't leaving. He's going to be executive chairman. He will still be
around.

But you have got a person there who knows the broader business and has been
part of a prime mover sort of segment of the company. So, I would imagine -
- Sebastian Herrera has a story on WSJ.com right now about this. I imagine
that Wall Street's going to be fairly cheered about this.

CAVUTO:  Let me ask you.

AT the time that I was interviewing him there, when he was making it big,
and the Internet boom was about to go bust, it was the summer 1999. As you
know, and you have reported, John, Amazon survived that, but so many others
did not.

Ironically, Amazon survived that without any earnings. And it was an
exception to a rule that eventually said all the guys without earnings are
gone. He survived. What did you make of that?

BUSSEY:  Yes, he survived by hitting the right moment, with the right
degree of customer service, with the right offering of product, and then
rode that as, essentially, the market came to him, right?

We all began to see the convenience, the opportunity of shopping online.
And nowhere was that more evident than in the last 12 months, with the
pandemic, as you have seen an extraordinary surge in Amazon sales and
earnings, $100 billion -- over $100 billion in sales just in the fourth
quarter of last year.

So, he hit the right moment, and the market also came to him.

CAVUTO:  Well put.

John, thank you very, very much.

All right, so, tomorrow, we will see in trading whether, well, investors
can adjust to the new reality.

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