and seat back protectors... we've got mom's covered. your turn. (hose spraying and laughter) find all these american made gifts, perfect for mother's day, at wt.com maria: welcome back. good wednesday morning, everybody. thanks very much for joining us this morning. i'm maria bartiromo. it is wednesday, may first. you 7:00 a.m. on the east coast. former president trump slamming

the judge in his so called new york hush money trial, posting this, the judge has taken away my constitutional right to the free receive, i'm the only presidental candidate in history to be gagged. the judge saying the court is hereby ordered that the defendant pay $1,000 fine for each time of the nine violations that trump violated the gag order, he says, trump responded to reporters yesterday. watch. >> this gag order is not only unique, it's totally unconstitutional. i'm the republican candidate for president of the united states and they have me sitting here for a biden trial. it's a biden trial. maria: meanwhile, michael cohen's ex-banker testified saying the account he facility taughted was not illegal. i want to get your reaction. ins creasingly we're hearing from people, they can't find the crime. what is the crime that we're

talking about here? he just testified in terms of the transactions. they're not illegal. >> no, they're not. you nailed i it. as an attorney, i'm telling you, i cannot find the crime. this is a business records issue at best. back in 2018, we have to remember, federal prosecutors looked at this, the federal elections commission looked 59 t this and passed on prosecuting. there's a statute of limitations that, fired. the missed minors were trumped up against president trump. there's a criminal enterprise run by joe biden and his cronies, alvin bragg, tish james, a prosecutor in biden's administration prosecuting this case, michael cohen, we have to call this what it is. it's a two tiered justice system against president trump. let me tell you, this judge had has given two separate donationses to joe biden. what does that tell the american

people? s he's on team biden. he should have recused himself. we're done with this controversy. trump needs to be back in front of the american people, running for president. maria: this is the whole point, i think. keep him in a courtroom, keep him on trial. put that gag order in place so he can't say a word while joe biden campaigns all over the country. mike, there's so many conflicts of interest here. the house judiciary committee is investigating the lead prosecutor for his past work as a senior department of justice official to the biden administration. house judiciary committee chairman jim jordan is demanding that attorney general merrick garland turn over the employment records of coangelo. your reaction. >> this is the genesis of the gag order on donald trump. so gag orders are designed to protect defendants, not silence them from talking about corrupt judges, corrupt prosecutors, and a corrupt federal government. matthew coangelo was the number three political appointee at the

justice department under joe biden who left to join the new york city department. that's a largest demotion demotn someone would take. every one of these trials that donald trump is under, you can trace a clear line back to the white house. just under redacted this week in the florida trial, the white house general counsel, obama's clean-up person, dana remus, she was at the genesis of the entire special counsel document investigation. all of these things are coming out. it's the same people from russiagate that tried to frame donald trump as n agent of russia are behind all of these charges. it's so third world banana republic. we were told the adults are in charge and donald trump was a threat to the institutions. the way this administration is shredding the constitution and

the very foundations of this country was built on is beyond imagineable. all for what? for what? just to try to keep a guy out of the election. and donald trump's not you allowed to talk about that and this judge will try to he throw him in jail for pointing out that his daughter raised $100 million for democrats. they is a direct financial conflict that he should recuse himself for. it's just unbelievable to watch this happening in our done you tri. maria: it real -- country. maria: it really is. i think people are onto it. people understand what's happening to donald trump and the people understand why this is so political and it is in fact election interference. >> the numbers bear that out. if you look at the most recent polls in the seven swing states, trump leads by anywhere from 1% to 7%. so yes, i think you're absolutely right, maria. the american people have started to figure this out. it's not fair and we don't like things that aren't fair. maria: they want him convicted

before the election. >> oh, yeah. maria: that's what they want. >> that's a media headline. and it's not going to happen. we're going to continue to fight this in court. trump has a solid legal case. i looked at polls. the american people are standing behind him because we pick winners. we're tired of losers running our country. maria: quick break and then we're looking ahead to the federal reserve's meeting today, 2:30 p.m. eastern. we'll a had hear from jay powell as we kick off the first trading day of the new month, what that means for markets after the employment cost index spiked yesterday. the word on wall street panel is here with expectations. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. moving forward with node-positive breast cancer. my fear of recurrence could've held me back. but i'm staying focused. and doing more to prevent recurrence. verzenio is specifically for hr-positive, her2-negative, node-positive early breast cancer with a high chance of returning, as determined by your doctor when added to hormone therapy.

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maria: welcome back. time for the word on wall street, top investors watching your money. joining me right now is payne capital management president and host of p payne points of wealth podcast, ryan payne. also with us is adam johnson and

mike lee this morning. thanks for joining the conversation. >> thanks, maria. maria: mike, with the market that is not positive for the entire quarter so far, second quarter, futures extending yesterday's big selloff on this the first trading day of the new month of may, the dow industrials down 88, nasdaq down 109, s&p down 20. yesterday the dow industrials sold off 570 points, nasdaq was down 325, dow capping worst month on wall street since september 2022 with april down across the board. markets red across the board for the month of april. take a look at the numbers, dow industrials down 5%, nasdaq down 4 and-a4 and-a-half percent on e month. interest rates elevated ahead of the ted rail reserve's interest rate decision at a 2:00. the treasury yield is up eight tenths of a basis pont. the fed is expected leave rates unchanged. i want to get your take on what

will be said about inflation now you that we saw the employment cost index spike yesterday. nick timiraos was on the program yesterday ahead of the fed on the state of inflation. >> they're no longer trying to slow down the economy. so long as wages are coming down. so if it's not growth, what do you care about? it's inflation. so right now i'm looking at the inflation numbers. do we continue to get these 0.3 monthly increases that translate to 3% or higher inflation or do we get the 0.2s whichs is what you're going to need to see for the interest rate conversation to get taken seriously again. i think they've put that on pause, perhaps indefinitely, until they see better numbers on inflation. maria: and of course we're getting worse null betters on inflation, mike. -- numbers on inflation. yesterday we got the employment cost index which was up 1.2% versus an estimate of 1%. 1%.>> getting from 3% to 2% has

been extraordinarily difficult. the idea was you had such a fall. if you look at the trend from 2022 until october of last year it looked like we were going to get there and possibly fall below that 2% and that's when the fed put out the messaging that we're possibly going to cut six times next year. i always thought that was a bit insane. i will say what's remarkable about the stock market is that we have gone from six rate cuts this year to basically zero and the market's only 5% off of absolute all-time highs. that being said, jerome powell has had his work cut out for him this afternoon. the messaging at the end of last year loosened financial conditions to a degree. i think they may have worked against themselves. and so they made their job much harder than it possibly has to be but right now i don't know how they can cut this year. unless we get a meaningful economic slowdown, a fall-apart in the labor market which i just

don't know that we're going to see. so i think that 1% is going to be extraordinarily difficult for the fed. i don't know that we're going to get a rate cut this year. what i would say from a positive standpoint, i think the chances for a rate hike are very, very minute. i think the fed talking tough, saying we're going to sit pat for a long time will do more than a rate hike would do because you'll tighten financial conditions so dramatically by saying we're going to stand pat, maybe a rate hike is on the table, but rate cuts are off the table for the time being, that will tighten financial conditions, may get fed to where they need to be. i don't b envy jerome powell this morning. maria: evercore writes stronger than expected wages will raise fed anxiety over overheating. we spoke with nancy lazar. here was her reaction on wages. stocks are plummeting, interest rates are surging on a hotter

than expected employment cost index for the first quarter. 1.2% versus an estimate of 1%. your reaction. >> annualized run rate is over 4%, that is sticky wage inflation and we think that is reflection of a sub-4% unemployment rate. it's not shelter keeping inflation sticky, not auto insurance rates that are keeping inflation sticky, people have purchasing power because they have jobs and they're getting wage increases. i would rather take short-term pain, get the unemployment rate up so we can move back to low inflationary environment, certainly unsettling things going on in college campuses highlights the economy is fragile. cost of living is too high. you need to crack the unemployment rate to get that down. maria: adam, she's talking about inflation being too high but it's happening for a good reason is basically what she's saying. >> you better believe it's a good reason. maria: we're getting the april

adp number this morning. economists were expecting 175,000 jobs were add ad to the economy for the month of april. we'll get the jolts report today and the april jobs report on friday. your thoughts. >> my first thought is thank goodness people are finally starting to make more money because they got squeezed by inflation. in exact take, if you look at the -- in fact, if you look at the increase in wages, it's about 4% which is more than inflation so finally pool are kind of getting back to where they were. and you say yeah, but that's inflationary if you pay more. yes, it is. i think i'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who would say wouldn't it be great to cut people's wages? no, that's not the way to do it. we will eventually find the equilibrium. wages go up, prices go up finally, it finds its spot. it's taking longer. but we're getting there. maria: we're seeing a good showing on earnings. let'cvs reporteda miss on reveng

the full year profit outlook on higher medical costs. shares of pfizer are up this morafterlifting their forecast. cvs healths is down 12%, pfizer is up 2%. amazon had better than expected earnings. they turn to artificial intelligence. the ceo said a.i. will drive, quote, tens of billions of dollars in revenue in the next several years. the stock is up 2%. starbucks reporting weaker than expected results fueled by a decline in same store sales of 4%. the company cut the 2024 forecast. this stock down 13%. serious selloffs here with cvs health and starbucks trading down but overall assessment of earnings so far. >> really good. right. we're over 77% of earnings have come in better than expected.

untech, no surprise, keeps blowing it out of the water. you mentioned it, they had 200% increase in the quarter, operating profit, that's amazing. the stock is only up 2%. why? because so much good news is priced into a lot of the tech stocks and that's been the theme here. you're seeing the mega caps he blow out expectations, the prices are up big but i think that also speaks to the fact there's other places to put your capital right now because other companies are making money too, not just big tech. maria: where they are there areas to hide right now if we continue to see the selloff? >> i do -- i think income is cheap right now. amazon pays no difficult didn't. regional banks, earnings will go up 25%. they trade 10 times forward earnings. a lot of my clients are baby boomers. they need income right now. dividend income is high. i think that's a big opportunity that everyone is missing.

maria: mike, anywhere to hide here? >> look, i would be adding to all these big cap tech names. they continue to get cheaper. earnings are blowing away expectations. okay. and then they're raising guidance as the stock prices are going down. you are getting some of the most exciting growth stories i've seen, particularly the a.i. side. this is the largest technological upgrade in the history of the world so i'm still in with this big cap tech. i'm going the ride the roller coaster. maria: i know agree with it. >> i totally agree with it. as a guy who is long cvs and down this morning, i thought it's so cheap, it's got a dividend. you're right, mike, go with big tech. maria: ryan, great to see you this morning. adam and a mike, you're sticking with us all morning. we're grateful. protests are breaking out across the country at college campuses. where is president biden on the anti-semitism raging across the country? house judiciary committee member, florida congresswoman laura lee is with us. we'll talk with her on how some

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>> we have to stop the anti-semitism that's just prevading our country right now and biden has to do something. biden is supposed to be the voice of our country. it's not much of a voice. i don't think he's able to do it. i don't think he's got what it takes to do it. but he's got to. he's got to strengthen up and he's got to be heard. maria: that was former president trump calling on president biden to take action against the rising anti-semitism. he appeared on han hannity last night. mike johnson you announced more investigations into anti-israel protests on college campuses. five more committees set to open their own investigations into different aspects of these protests such as who is behind them, who is funding these protests. and whether foreign students on visas are also engaging in these demonstrationses. the speaker calling on president biden to visit columbia university to see the chaos for himself. police were called in overnight again to clear agitators

occupying hamilton hall. joining me now is florida congresswoman laura lee. congresswoman, thank you for being here this morning. you're on the homeland security committee and i want to start there. how worried are you that these college demonstrations include potential terrorists who want to create attack on u.s. soil? >> that is absolutely a grave concern and the first thing that we need to do is call this what it is. when these people take over campuses, occupy buildings, threaten and terrorize students who are jewish, they're not protesters, they are criminals and they need to be treated as such. our university presidents have an obligation to keep their campuses safe so in congress we want to ensure that what's happening on these campuses is coming to light where they're getting their funding, what are they doing with federal tax dollars that go to campus and what are they doing to keep every single student safe?

it's absolutely right, president biden should be speaking out about this. he should be condemning anti-semitism anywhere that it occurs in america and certainly on these college campuses and he's not even begun to do enough. he's been silent. so we need to be shutting these protests down the minute they start and ensuring that every single student is able to attend class, is able to do so safely and that is absolutely the opposite of what we're seeing in higher education institutions across the country. maria: what have you learned based on your own briefings on any of this? what have you learned in terms of who is behind this and who is specifically in the crowds. it's not all students. >> that's right. those types of questions are exactly why speaker johnson and house republicans want to initiate investigations so we can ask these questions of our universities. where's their funding stream? who are these people? are they students? if they are students are they here on visas? we need to make sure we know who

these people are and they're being treated appropriately and if they're a threat to our campuses or to our country, we find that out and we deal with it. again, this is criminal conduct. this is not first amendment expression. there is no right to engage in this kind of behavior, this kind of violence and destruction on college campuses. as congress we have a real opportunity to get to the bottom of who these people are, why they're here and what their intentions are for our country. maria: you made a good point earlier in saying that these tents are all the same. and they're from north face. these are expensive tents. >> yeah, they're $500 apiece. you have to ask, this is a coordinated conspiracy and an attack on college campuses. this is not a college student that's able to afford this. this is outside money coming in. and the congresswoman said, thy have to investigate where the money is coming from. i have a hard time believing we'll know who the actors are,

because most of hem are masked. how do you ask questions of masked individuals. in terms of accountability, we're not going to see it at university campuses. you have to start the congress. the first thing congress can do is that $5 billion they've given to eye he i have league institutions -- ivy league institutions claw it back immediately. make them feel the pain. maria: they shouldn't be you allowed to wear the masks by the way. i want to get your take on what the biden administration is signaling. cbs news is reporting the administration a is considering bringing certain palestinians to the united states as refugees, several u.s. agencies discussing resettling palestinians who have immediate family members here who are american citizens or permanent residents. congresswoman, is this the answer 1234. >> one thing we know about this administration is they're completely incapable of safely and evidence ebbing toughly managing -- effectively managing immigration. we've been watching the catastrophe at the southern border since the inception of the biden administration and time and again we have seen that they absolutely are unwilling

and unable to keep track of who is coming into our country and where they're going. so we already know that the abuses of the visa process, the a abuses of the parole process are extraordinary and have led to an absolute catastrophe that is affecting every community in america. the last thing the biden administration needs to be doing right now is ae thing to broaden -- attempting to broaden or expand policies of the influx of people coming into the country until such tame as they're able to properly and lawfully process applications an ensure they know who these people are, where they're going in our country and that every aspect of the immigration or visa process is following our law. i do not have any confidence that this administration will do that. we've seen it at the southern border and until they get that under control, they should not be even contemplating a new direction for their immigration policies. maria: what kind of message does that send? you can go to college campuses

with signs that say death to israel and we'll let more palestinians into the country to be refugees. >> it's a bastardization of something we hold dear which is free speech. to twist free speech into that kind of expression, it's mind-boggling. it shows how far these people are willing to go to try to achieve the means they're looking to. maria: congresswoman, i want to ask about the status of the impeachment inquiry that you and your colleagues have been working on and whether law makesers are considering biden's mishandling ofs classified documents. michael waltz joined me on sunday morning futures about the probe with some very concerning comments. watch this. >> maria, i was shocked at how highly classified these documents are. the media wants you to believe oh, this was just some old cold war stuff, old see senile bidend

in his garage from decades ago. no, it was recent. it was reel haven't. they had -- relevant. they had so many code words. i had to ask what they meant, eyes only for the president and vice president, sensitive stripes down the side. maria: congresswoman, what have you done on this? >> well, i'll tell you, there are a couple things that are really important about this investigation and one is the findings of special counsel hurr, a at the conclusion of his report the ultimate decision was not to bring criminal charges here, not because there wasn't evidence. in fact, the evidence was uncontroverted that biden had documents that he shouldn't have had, that people had access that shouldn't have had it. it's because he was an elderly man who the jury would believe was confused or well-meaning. here's the bottom line. to the extent that us is correct, they is the person we have in the white house and the finding of the special counsel should lead us all to think he

is not capable or up to the task of being commander in chief, if he can't be held accountable criminally for conduct that violates the law. the second thing that i believe americans are very concerned can about is what appeared to be a two-tiered system of justice that similar people who conduct similar acts should have the same experience with the department of justice and our criminal justice system and here when you compare president biden and president trump, the american people just aren't buying it that they're being treated fairly and they're being treated the same by the department of justice. maria: we'll leave it therend watch your work on this. thank you very much. laura lee joining us this morning. thank you. quick break and then a ken paxton has in the front row during president trump's new york trial. he's here to he'll the us what -- here here to tell us what he has seen first a hand. next week, spea i'll speak withp economic and business leaders. don't miss it, we'll join you

live from la next week. "mornings with maria" is live on fox business. stay with us.

maria: welcome back. a new breakdown of just how many papa roled migrants the biden administration is flying to different parts of the country on taxpayer money. cheryl casone with details now. cheryl. >> brand-new department of homeland security data revealing key details about president biden's controversial migrant flight program shows that an overwhelming majority are ending up in florida, in just eight month period roughly 200,000 migrants were flown into the u.s., 80% landed in the sunshine state. four cities, miami, fort lauderdale, orlando, tampa bay, those airports were identified as the destination.

it's part of a program that gives a limited number of migrants the ability to fly directly to the u.s. if they didn't try to enter illegally, had a sponsor and passed velletting. migrants from from venezuela, hi and cuba are available. a jet crashed in new mexico yesterday. the jet's pilot was the lone occupant and was able to safely eject from the aircraft. the jet crashing in white sands national park. officials say we're working closely with local authorities especially the white sands national park staff to ensure the safety and well-being of the public around our first responders to protect the integrity of the cash site. an investigation is underway to determine the cause of that accident. well, a group of ex google employees who were fired after protesting over the company's business ties to israel filed a labor complaint alleging they

were illegally fired, the complaint says google unlawfully retaliated against workers who staged a quote, peaceful, nondisruptive protest for improved working conditions. they the want their jobs reinstated. they want back pay and they want google to promise they won't face any retaliation. the pro-palestinian staffers wearing head scarfs and masks stormed google offices. a google spokesperson says this is a clear case of employees disrupting and occupying work spaces and making other employees feel threatened and unsafe. he by any standard, their behavior was completely unacceptable. they threatened workers. maria: they camped outside the ceo's office. one of the leading executives, ceo of one of the divisions. i mean, you know, i mean -- >> now they want their jobs back. >> now they want their jobs back. >> i'm so sorry, i didn't mean

it. maria: i was peacefully protesting outside the ceo's office. you're fired. >> can i have my insurance, by the way? maria: breaking news overnight, violent protest remember optingt ucla. in new york, the nypd cleared hamilton hall after anti-israel protesters occupied that building. more than 100 protesters arrested y acolumbia university. joining me now, ag ken paxton. we're learning this morning that more than half of the 79 anti-israel protesters arrested at ut austin on monday had no affiliation with the university. what should be done about the pro efforts? what can you tell us in terms of who is funding it, who i behind all of this? clearly the agitators are not always students. >> yeah, this looks a lot like

what happened a few years ago with antifa, where they were shipping people into my state and other states. this is exactly what's happening now. it was soros back then. i'm glad the governor is clamping down on this. free speech matters but when you're committing violence, when you're threatening people, when you're blocking highways, that cannot be allowed. fortunately in texas we're not going to put up with it. maria: free speech matters but not for president trump. he's got a gag order right now. the presidents was back in the courtroom yesterday for the so called hush money trial. the judge ruled he violated his gag order, fining him $9,000. the judge writes this unfortunately we cannot charge trump more. he will be allowed to attend his son's high school graduation. trump responded to reporters yesterday. watch this. >> this gag order is not only

unique, it's totally unconstitutional. i'm the republican candidate for president of the united states and they have me sitting here for a biden trial. it's a biden trial. maria: ag, you sat front row in court with president trump yesterday. tell us what you saw. your reaction. >> i think your last guest was partially right. she says there's a two-tiered justice system. it's not just that the bad guy is joe biden. they said he committed a crime. hillary clinton, hunter biden, they're not prosecuted. on the other hand, president trump who has never been a criminal in his life suddenly is prosecuted in four different states including new york right before an election. this sounds much more like something that would happen happen in venezuela or china or russia, not in a constitutional republic. this is tyrannical and to stop him from speaking out and defending himself and keep him from basically campaigning, i think is hard to believe but i hope the american people do not put up with this. maria: so ag, obviously you're

a lawyer, you're the attorney general of texas, where is the crime here? >> i can't find it. i sat there all day trying to figure out what exactly is the charge, what is the crime. it is so attenuated, such a thin thread to any law. it's ludicrous. no one has ever been prosecuted for this, i doubt anybody will ever be prosecuted again. it's a sham. maria: mike lee, jump in here. i know you're looking at the -- right now the hearings underway at the supreme court about the president's potential immune the at this. >> attorney general paxton, on the off chance that the supreme court comes back and does not presidents are immune from official acts, do you think your administration would pursue charges against, say, barack obama, for the drone strikes and murdering of three american sit suns? >> every state is different. i don't have the authority unfortunately in my state, i cannot prosecute unless it's referred by a district attorney

but i certainly think if there's no immunity, that ought to be considered, that both sides ought to be treated exactly the same. if somehow barack obama should be prosecuted, just like donald trump, they should be treated the same, whatever the law is. it should ayou ply equally to -- apply equal to everybody. maria: is there any other take away from the trial yesterday with president trump. >> i went there to support him. i've been through this myself. i'm disgusted by how this is going across the country, how the justice department, the fbi and local law enforcement are being used as weapons against political he o opponents. i saw that. it makes me sad. i was very impressed with the president and had his team, how upbeat they were and how willing to stay to fight for the american people so i commend him and i commend his entire staff. maria: and of course he was the first person to make a big deal about the wide open border and he obviously built a wall.

texas is still constructing a border wall, putting up more razor wire to reduce the flow of illegals coming into texas. tell me how the state is holding up on the front lines of this border crisis. >> look, we're fighting. we have several lawsuits going about the wall, about the wire we put up. the reality is, the story you talked about, you just highlighted about people coming across the border on planes from all of these countries like haiti and venezuela, 30,000 a month. we have a lawsuit over this, 30,000 a month and they're placing them in the right states like florida, texas and other republican states and i'm convinced now that these people are not just going to vote in the future, they're going to try to get social security numbers now and get them to vote in the right states so they can assure victory just like they did last time. maria: this is something that people have been worried about but obviously we know if you're not an american citizen, you're not allowed to vote. how are they going to get away with that. ag? >> so look, here's the deal.

there are 47 states right now that don't stop noncitizenses from voting. there's no proof. texas is one of those. we tried to pass this legislation, the house speaker helped to kill that bill. in the texas, you have to check a box saying you're a citizen, you don't have to prove it. three states passed laws to protect themselves. we have 44 states that are open to illegals voting if they come in with a driver's license, given a social security number by the administration, they get a driver's license and register to vote. to me, it looks like it's wide open for cheating for these illegals to be put where they're supposed to be put by the administration and then they vote. maria: well, the rnc and lara trump and michael whatley put this as priority number one to ensure we have a fair and transparent election in november. do you see those efforts? do you think rnc is doing enough? >> i don't know. at this point i'm very concerned. i'm figuring this out. i i know what they did last time. we saw it in my state.

we stopped all the mail-in ballots from being sent you out to these different liberal counties and we stopped it. i saw you what they did in other states. i think this time they are going to give these people as they come into the country they're going to give them the ability to vote by giving them a social security number and with that they have tremendous power to access resources in the country including in 44 states voting. maria: that's incredible. we'll be watching your work on this. thanks very much. >> thank you. maria: attorney general ken paxton this morning. coming up, new york city restauranter, the father of lady gaga, joe germanotta take is here on the success and challenges small business is facing in the city after the break. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us.

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that's wall-to-wall wifi with xfinity. maria: welcome back. it's national small business work. fox business is highlighting success and challenges of small businesses here in america. joining me is one of them, new york city restaurant eur and lady gaga's father, joe germanotta. he is the owner of a restaurant on the upper west side in new york. joe, it's great to see you. thank you for being here.

let me get your take on all the protesters. are you seeing any impact in terms of the protesting and the crime in new york city? >> you know, i haven't seen any direct impact because columbia is pretty far away from he my restaurant. i think it's john rating -- generating a little bit of reluctance in consumers coming to the city. maria: that makes sense. >> i can tell you this. where we're getting hurt the most is the economy. the customers that used to come in once a week, now they come in once every three weeks. maria: yesterday we saw the employment cost index up, it was hotter than expected, up 1.2%. how are your labor costs? have you had to raise wages? >> a little bit. i mean, the restaurant business is not as big a hit as others. they just changed the compensation laws for servers and waiters. they went from $10 an hour to $10.65 an hour. they lowered the tip credit.

so now you you have to pay them more. and who gets hurt? not so much the restaurant on that payroll but the workers. the salespeople. maria: how's business going? how would assess things? >> i would say it's about 30% off. business was booming four years ago. i was going to have the best year ever and it's a steady decline since the new administration and the mayor and the crime and the newcomers and every time turn around there's a got ya a there. maria: in terms of regulation, there's also that in terms of new rules coming from this administration as well, big impact? >> well, yeah. i mean, everybody seems to -- most recent one, i got a requirement that i had to register my grill with the city. first time i've seen that. i've been there 14 years. maria: wow. >> i got a notice. now there's a lawyer running

around handing out ada compliant complaints, right, so they're suing small business owners. i mean, like a place like mine, 100 years old, right, it's two steps down. right. the doorway isn't wide enough for a wheelchair. the bathrooms are about 2x2. i can barely turn around in them and they want me to build -- they want me to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building all this ada compliance. maria: this is on top of the cost of inflation, your costs are up. the ppi has been up like the cpi has been up. do you feel like inflation is reaccelerating? >> that's a better question for one of the financial analysts. is it accelerating? you know, i don't know. it's not going down. maria: it's not going down. >> i can say that. maria: okay. let me go back to -- >> i will say this, though. maria: yes, please. >> there's a lot more credit card business than i've seen in a long time. all right. used to be, you know -- used to

be about 30% cash and now it's probably 10% cash. maria: so they're coming in less, they're coming in more infrequently. >> right. maria: your costs are up. you've got new regulations. you've got to just register your grill. >> right. maria: and you've got people using credit cards more often. >> yeah. maria: so these are all signs of an economy that is slowing. >> it's a downward climb. maria: we saw the first quarter was 1.6% growth. in terms of what's going on, on the streets outside the restaurant, more than 100 people were arrested at columbia, the city college of new york last night after the anti-israel protests across the country. the naffed cleared out ham i'll -- the nypd cleared out hamilton ton haul. eric adams and nypd commissioner are expected to brief the city this morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern. you mentioned newcomers. these are illegal migrants. what's the impact? >> well, the impact is -- i mean, there's probably enough scooters and bicycles on the

sidewalk to expand your delivery zone to co comet connect cut. they're everyone. you have to look both ways when walking down the street. most of the time they're riding in both directions. i mean, the city's become unsafe. all right. a couple different ways. not just crime. okay. but now there's chaos. maria: wh why do think it's be so unsafe? >> well, i really think -- i've been in the stores, okay, and to see the stores with everything locked up and then there's -- what's been so unsafe, a lot of people running around, all right, just hanging out on corners, loitering. maria: don't forget, there were at least five muggings in central park in the last week. the nypd increased their pa a trolls and camera surveillance in the park in response, 18 robberies reported so far this year compared to four the same time last year, 350% increase year over year.

we had ray kelly on yesterday. he said the city's not safe, exactly what you just said, former commissioner of the nypd. >> i got attacked outside of my church. maria: you were attacked? what happened? >> it was 7:30 in the morning. some -- i don't know whether he's homeless. he was a little disturbed. let's say that. maria: did you give him money? >> no, no. maria: what did you do? >> i'm not very generous. i usually -- i'm very generous. i usually give away 20 bucks a day. maria: how were attacked? >> first he went after the pastor and he came down the stairs and came after me. i can't tell you what i did to him. maria: thank you. i've got to come by the restaurant soon. joe ger germanotta, thank you. we'll be right back. stay with us.

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