Fox host: Proposing we divert money from Trump's wall to address coronavirus will drum up panic
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From the February 27, 2020, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST): So what do you point to, as you've looked at the market these last few days?
STUART VARNEY (FOX BUSINESS HOST): Well, Bernie Sanders scares investors half to death. Socialism is an economy killer, it's a stock market killer, and Bernie Sanders is now the front-runner. The possibility, however remote, of a Sanders presidency really upsets and worries investors. And so they should be worried -- the man's a socialist. But the -- obviously, look, the real driver of this big downside move that we've had this week, we're off about 2,000 points just this week on the Dow --
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VARNEY: -- the real driver here is obviously the spreading virus. There's no question about that. But politics is a factor. And if you see a Bernie Sanders presidency or a Democrat presidency looming at you -- as the president says, anything can happen in an election. No matter how remote, you're going to get worried if you're an investor.
HEGSETH: And that looming reality never became more stark than on Monday morning when the markets opened after what happened on Saturday in Nevada, right?
VARNEY: That’s true. Yeah.
HEGSETH: Sanders runs away with it. Everyone starts to realize it could be him. You add that to the coronavirus and you’ve got a bad --
VARNEY: Let’s be clear: The coronavirus is by -- obviously the main driver of this sell-off. But politics is, and socialism is a factor.
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VARNEY: Look what some of the leading Democrats have been saying about the president's performance on the virus. I think they've been creating a level of panic here, and that's not helping the market. Sen. Schumer called it -- called the president “dangerously incompetent." Speaker Pelosi says it's shameful, late, too late, an anemic response. And Sen. Warren, as you said earlier this morning, she has got a new plan coming. She would take money from that racist wall, and divert it all to the virus. If that's not drumming up some panic which actually encourages the downside move for the market, I don't know what is. Politics is a factor.