"Your World' on debt ceiling

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Lawmakers agree to raise debt ceiling, keeping government running

Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram has more on the deal on 'Your World'

This is a rush transcript of "Your World" on October 7, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Thank you, Martha, very, very much.

We're monitoring the president of the United States, no doubt, to say something about congratulating us on our 25th anniversary. OK, maybe not, maybe not. But you never know. You never know.

What he is touting is the big improvement in vaccinations in this country, mandates that some say went too far, nevertheless saying that it is incumbent upon all Americans who are not vaccinated to try to do so, and soon. And if he can force the issue, he will.

The president talking about that great progress, and that it has yielded fewer cases and that trend is our friend. Let's listen.

He's speaking in Illinois right now.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And the Ohio-Pennsylvania -- the Ohio-Pennsylvania -- I'm from Pennsylvania.

The Illinois president of the -- Don Harmon, state Senator Laura Murphy, State Rep. Martin Moylan.

And we've got great labor leaders here, too. Tim. Where's Tim? There you go, Tim. Thank you. Thank you, pal, AFL-CIO state president. And Jeff Isaacson, United Brotherhood of Carpenters, and Don Finn, IBEW, and Robert Riter -- Reiter -- R-E-I-T-E-R -- Reiter -- of the Chicago Federation of Labor.

And, folks, that's how we beat COVID-19, by working together.

CAVUTO: All right, we're going to continue monitoring this here when it gets to the details of numbers and all of that, whether he takes questions. We are monitoring this.

Of course, it comes at a time when, for seven days running now, we have had a steady decline in hospitalizations and deaths. The trend, the president will say, is our friend. We're keeping an eye on that.

This is an important development for the markets as well today, because there was a startling turnaround on Wall Street on the notion that maybe a debt ceiling problem what would make a lot of people feel very sick might be resolved right now. It kind of pushes the can down the road for another couple of months.

We have to live on a very strict diet of $480 billion in spending for the next couple of months, as we work out those details. We will get to the details on all of that with Chad Pergram and get a read on the implications of all of this shortly.

But for the corner and wall and broad, this was a welcome development. They don't like uncertainty, right, Susan Li?

SUSAN LI, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Right. Exactly.

CAVUTO: And this removed, at least for the time being, one uncertainty.

LI: That's right, so relief that the debt limit was extended, yes, even if it's just for a few more weeks, but that puts off a possible government debt default for at least a few more months.

So you saw Wall Street ripping higher when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that they had a deal. And now we are on track for a winning week, Neil, despite the big sell-off that we started with on Monday. Stock markets have now been up three straight days. And that's the S&P 500's biggest three-day rally that we have seen in three months.

So, yes, it's just short-term debt limit extension to December the 3rd, which lifts the debt ceiling by that skinny $480 billion that you mentioned. Still good enough for stock markets, which are sweating the days, pushing closer to that October 18 deadline, when the U.S. would run out of cash, threatening an historic and catastrophic debt default.

So, the deal lifted most sectors of the market from technology to more industrial stocks, like carmakers GM and Ford. And it was interesting that stocks rallied, despite oil prices going up again closer to those seven- year highs and the 10 year Treasury yield also hitting its highest since June at 1.57 percent.

Because, as you know, stocks usually go down when that happens, when investors start selling stocks in order to chase that guaranteed money, more guaranteed money on government bonds. But there was also some good news on the economy and the jobs front, so weekly jobless claims this morning falling the most in three weeks, down to 326,000, and combining the better jobless claims now to that private payrolls report that we had earlier this week.

Neil, we're looking at a pretty solid September jobs report tomorrow. Economists are forecasting 500,000 new jobs. And the jobless rate should come down a little bit to 5.1 percent. All right, we will watch it closely, Susan Li following all those developments.

In the meantime, here, you do begin to wonder, are the markets getting ahead of themselves? After all, this just sort of puts this off for another couple of months. And that that's assuming that everyone OKs the whole thing.

Chad Pergram following that.

Chad, is the market getting ahead of itself?

CHAD PERGRAM, FOX NEWS CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not really.

We have learned in just the past couple of moments here that the Senate is going to take a vote on this later tonight. There's going to be a procedural vote first around 7:30 Eastern time. That needs 60 yeas, and then they go to final passage after that.

Now, the deal would lift the debt limit by $480 billion for two months, but there's no vote yet. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a deal to Democrats. McConnell told Democrats for days they should lift the debt ceiling on their own.

Some GOP members are mad at McConnell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I don't understand why we're folding at the end. This is a complete capitulation. And I'm upset with us, because we had a strategy to make them pay a price to raise the debt ceiling.

And we blinked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: This means at least 10 GOP senators must vote yes to break a filibuster on the bill. They are not pleased with that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Look, McConnell blinked.

So I think Senator McConnell took a hard look at the risks this was posing to the filibuster, and decided that he'd step aside and let us move forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: There was chatter that Democrats wanted to create a special carve-out on the filibuster exclusively for the debt ceiling. Democrats would need all of their members on board.

But Democrats lacked the votes for that gambit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: How close were Democrats yesterday to doing a filibuster carve- out?

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): No, that wasn't going to happen. I mean, I don't know what the desires were with some people thinking it might happen. It was never going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: Democrats were ready to make a deal. Otherwise, a debt ceiling crisis could hijack their effort to pass the big social spending bill. And, as I said, it's just been announced the Senate will likely vote later tonight -- Neil.

CAVUTO: Chad Pergram, thank you very much.

And this would not be the first time that Mitch McConnell has played a very crucial role in settling or at least moving the ball forward on an important matter that, in this particular case, could all but shut down the federal government if he didn't act as he acted.

It depends on your point of view. But, as long as I have been here, Mitch McConnell has been in that kind of a role. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: Reporting to you today from the Senate Finance Committee room in Washington, D.C.

This, as they say, is where, well, I guess you could say the sausage is made. It was here that the biggest tax cut in American history was cobbled together.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I think it really kind of sums up the major differences between the parties these days, Neil.

I got a letter from all but three of them before we passed the tax bill, saying what kind of tax reform they would be willing to support. And it was all about class envy and wealth transfer. It had nothing to do with actually getting the economy growing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: Bottom line, Mitch McConnell was the key reason why those tax cuts ultimately shepherded their way through and on their way to law, and now being likely reversed under President Biden, if he can get the votes, no short thing.

In this particular development here on the whole debt ceiling thing, fellow Republicans, as you saw there, concerned that he blinked.

Let's go to Tiana Lowe, the Washington Examiner reporter extraordinaire.

Tiana, what do you make of the role that Mitch McConnell played here? Some are welcoming just moving the ball forward. Other Republicans, like Lindsey Graham, said he made a bad move. What's the fallout?

TIANA LOWE, THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER: So, McConnell has always been playing the long game.

I think that Democrats gravely miscalculated when they thought that he was going to fold two months ago. McConnell was saying, no, you guys have to do this on your own. Reconciliation literally exists for this purpose of moving forward the debt ceiling.

Republicans, you have to cater to your base. So people do need to project some performative dismay what McConnell is doing. But the truth is, when you have the CEO of Raytheon and Nasdaq in the White House explaining how dire the situation is, McConnell knows that, even though it would probably harm Democrats more than Republicans if we did hit that crucial crisis of hitting that fiscal cliff, that it would still be devastating to ordinary Americans, right, and effectively create a constitutional crisis by forcing the Treasury to decide who gets the funds allocated by Congress, which has the power of the purse.

So, I mean, quite frankly, McConnell knows what he's doing. He knows that this is a short-term allowance. And, quite frankly, Dems right now are in a circular firing squad. He is not interrupting the enemy while they are attacking themselves.

CAVUTO: It's interesting when you report that business groups were getting to Mitch McConnell and saying, even though they might support what he was doing and leaving this on the Democrats, if things certainly went south, or let's say the government shut down or, worse, got so close to this that we were looking at a default possibility, voters wouldn't discern who's responsible, just that they'd hate them all, right?

LOWE: Yes, I mean, if you account for retirement plans and 401(k)s, a majority of Americans have a stake in the stock market. It's not just millionaires and billionaires who care how the Dow is doing.

And on top of that, you do have Lloyd Austin warning that, if we did pass that debt ceiling crisis, that he wouldn't be able to pay service members. We do not know how the Treasury would choose to allocate funds.

And so McConnell is trying to put Democrats in the hard place, which is either use their one of three reconciliation attempts to raise the debt ceiling or do the short-term business.

And the fact is, if he thinks that he has enough to go through just for the short-term increase, that's not giving Democrats a lot of lateral space. They're still fighting about things as basic as the Hyde Amendment.

CAVUTO: Yes.

LOWE: And if they don't even have their own caucus in order, then McConnell knows that that's the war. It's not inter-party. It's intra- party.

CAVUTO: We shall see.

Tiana Lowe, thank you very, very much.

And, as Tiana pointed out here -- and I think this is a fascinating development -- the strict guidelines are that we have to make due on $480 billion over the next two months. That used to be the entire budget not too many years ago of the United States government. That's our strict allowance

Don't spend a penny over the next two months, $480 billion. By the way, we are still trying to, with this increase in the debt ceiling, to deal with this for the time being. Our debt is still rapidly closing on overall debt an $30 trillion.

When this network started 25 years ago, it was about $5 trillion. Does that look like progress to you?

After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: You are watching "The Cavuto Business Report."

Close, oh so close, but no cigar. Wall Street flirted with and eventually stepped across the 6000 line early today, but pulled back from there and stayed low from mid-morning on. It looked like the calm before the storm, as profit-takers stepped in to clean up after Friday's big run-up.

That's when the Dow closed at 5992, its third record high for the week. In the end, the Dow Jones industrial dropped about 13 points to close just under 5980 on the day, still a stone's throw away from 6000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: That was our first show 25 years ago today. Only days after that, puberty was completed.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: And what the heck?

Anyway, the one thing that startles me there even more than that a credible hair thing -- I don't know what was going on there. It's some sort of cross between Liberace and paint.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Look at the Dow. I mean, you know what it's at now. It's flirting with 35000. Back then, the big quest was for 6000.

That's what we call, I don't know, stock inflation. But now the worry is for something a little bit more concerning. And that is, well, real far, spread, price inflation on everything, a lot of things.

Lydia Hu following all of those numbers -- Lydia.

LYDIA HU, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Neil. Well, congratulations on the anniversary, first of all.

Now to the inflation number, because that inflation rate is forcing the average household to increase spending by $175 a month on food, fuel and housing. That's according to a new analysis from Moody Analytics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK ZANDI, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MOODY'S ANALYTICS: In this case, I think it's short-lived. I think it's already peaked, because it's tied to the pandemic. The pandemic has scrambled global supply chains.

Delta really messed things up, because, particularly, it hit hard here, but it creamed Southeast Asia, which is where a lot of these supply chains begin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HU: But, for now, Americans are paying more for many of these food staples driven by the labor shortage and supply chain issues. You can see here a pound of ground beef up 7 percent, hitting $4.47 a pound, bacon up almost 28 percent over a year ago. And that's more than $7 a pound, more than 50 percent higher than a year ago, milk up 4.5 percent. It hit $3.56 for a gallon.

And we have here a study of prices at Dollar General and Family Dollar stores that show prices for a lot of the other products have increased; 12- pack of Pepsi used to cost $3.33. Now it's $5.95. Folgers ground coffee up to $8.80 from $7.95.

And we can't forget about the price of gas, because that's a big driver of the cost and what we buy. It's at a seven-year high, up almost 50 percent over a year ago for a gallon -- Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, Lydia, you weren't even born when this network started, I think.

HU: That's not true.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: But it's great having you on board.

HU: Thank you.

CAVUTO: Lydia Hu following of those developments on the inflation front.

Forgot about not even born. I mean, he doesn't even remember a bear market, this next guy, Scott Martin, FOX Business contributor, but, again, an uncanny reader these markets for a young whippersnapper.

Scott, they're mentioning the inflation word again. And they're saying be prepared for it sticking around a while. Are you in that camp?

SCOTT MARTIN, FOX BUSINESS CONTRIBUTOR: In parts of that camp, Neil.

I think the gasoline concerns are definitely there and going to stay there. The food and some of the materials, I'm not so sure. Now, it's funny. The things that Lydia was talking about, Neil, it's the kind of things that we should probably be eating less of anyway, so maybe the inflation is doing a favor for us.

I mean, personal story. I may or may not have brought some Golden Oreos with me to the studio today. You will never know.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: The point is, you go to the store now, man, you used to be able to buy those. Love Golden Oreos in the pack.

CAVUTO: That's right.

MARTIN: And they had about 60 of them for five bucks or something. Now you're down to about 40 for a higher price.

We probably don't need to be eating 60 of those things anyway in a sitting. So, for my sake, some of the food inflation might actually maybe force us to make some healthier choices. Oh, my gosh.

CAVUTO: Well, don't go nuts here.

But I don't relate to this, because, again, I haven't noticed the same run- up in prices in arugula. But you could be right.

But I'm wondering, because when inflation takes hold, it has a devil of the time sort of easing back. And we saw that from the '70s experience, not that I think that is necessarily the case now. But what do you look forward that would at least get you thinking, maybe this is more of a problem than I thought?

MARTIN: I think the secret, Neil, lies in the job market.

I think it basically pans itself out in wage inflation, because our good buddy Milton Friedman, who, yes, I have read about, didn't actually get a chance to meet him, which was the old talk of saying inflation is basically a monetary phenomenon. It's too much money chasing too few of goods.

We definitely have too few of goods. I mean, that that's evident everywhere around the country today. But the wage thing, the too much money chasing those goods, may or may not be really the case here. So I think, until that pans out to where we have both sides of those things fighting it out, I think -- that's why I still think Jay Powell has it right.

I think a lot of this stuff is transitory. It's probably lasting a little bit longer than a lot of folks predicted, but we're going to start to see - - we get a jobs number tomorrow. We're going to start to see those wage numbers, I believe, calm down as the job market maybe normalizes here.

CAVUTO: All right, we will see what happens.

Scott Martin, great catching up with you. And great relying on your expertise these last few years here, even though you weren't alive when we started. But it's good that you're alive right now.

All right, Scott Martin on all of that.

MARTIN: See you.

CAVUTO: Scott was an early enthusiast too of the technology sector.

Before the boom, there was a concern right now that the whole promising field would go bust. That did not happen. Over the years I have been here, 25 years now, I have gotten to speak to some of the titans of technology and their view, which is generally counter to all the naysayers, throughout a quarter-of-a-century.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: Amazon.com becoming the first e-tailer to serve 10 million cyber shoppers, CEO Jeff Bezos marking the occasion today by hand delivering himself a lucky customer's order.

Must have been pretty neat for that guy to have the big cheese bringing the stuff.

JEFF BEZOS, FOUNDER, AMAZON: I think it was more fun for me.

CAVUTO: Yes?

BEZOS: Yes. Four years ago, I was delivering all the packages to the post office in my Chevy Blazer.

(LAUGHTER)

BEZOS: So, it's a big change.

CAVUTO: The shares have tripled in just the past year since Steve Jobs came back to set things right at his old home.

Is this a labor of love? Or is it just your mission statement now to get Apple back on track?

STEVE JOBS, CO-FOUNDER, APPLE: I think Apple started in my parent's garage, and Steve Wozniak and I put a lot of years into it. And I think Apple has a lot to contribute still.

MARK CUBAN, OWNER, DALLAS MAVERICKS: The best thing about the Internet is that the technology just keeps on going and getting better and better and better.

We like to say this is the worst the technology is ever going to be.

CAVUTO: Mark, you had impeccable timing. I think it was -- well, it was in 1999 you sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo. It made you a billionaire many times over. No regrets about that one, huh?

CUBAN: No, not at all. And the technology worse -- was the worst that ever was. It has gotten better. It's just that the market was crazy then and it's just as crazy now.

CAVUTO: What do you think of Bill Gates on just a personal note?

LARRY ELLISON, CO-FOUNDER, ORACLE: I think Bill Gates is one of the most remarkable businesspeople that's ever lived.

CAVUTO: Do like you him?

ELLISON: I neither like nor dislike Bill. It's very hard to have an emotional reaction to...

CAVUTO: Well, he's trying to kill you, isn't he, not physically, but I mean, he's trying to make sure Oracle is like a footnote.

ELLISON: Well, Bill -- but Bill is trying to kill everybody.

CAVUTO: There are many people, Mr. Gates, who look at your now move in the gaming industry and say, oh, there he goes again. The bully is back. He dominates our work lives. Now he's trying to dominate our living rooms.

What do you say to them?

BILL GATES, FOUNDER, MICROSOFT: Well, we're about giving people empowering tools. And if we can make a contribution in this space, we think that's a fantastic thing.

CAVUTO: So, to those who are saying, though, you're trying to take over the world, what do you say?

GATES: I'm building a big product, a great product.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: You have kids 5 or older?

Well, Pfizer is on the verge, it says, of hopefully getting FDA approval for a vaccine that can cover them all the way up to 11 years old. Now you have got everyone except those under 5 covered.

How do you feel about that? After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUY FIERI, CELEBRITY CHEF: What's up, Neil? Your buddy Guy Fieri here.

Listen, man, congratulations, 25 years, dude; 25? Dude, you make it look easy. Keep it up. We're following in your footsteps.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: Oh, that's very nice.

And we have been enjoying this whole week, but one thing we have not been enjoying is what's been going on with energy prices, gasoline prices in and out of seven-year highs.

And I don't think the former energy secretary of the United States is here to say, I told you so, but the fact of the matter is, Rick Perry did say just that when the Biden administration came in and sort of put the kibosh on domestic oil production, beginning with the shutdown of Keystone. You know the drill there. He did as well.

The former Texas governor, the former U.S. energy secretary kind enough to join us now.

Well, Secretary, you did warn us this could happen, and now it's happening. And now we're kind of hoping and praying that the OPEC and OPEC Plus countries cover what we no longer produce.

What do you think?

RICK PERRY, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF ENERGY: Yes, pretty fascinating that we would be asking some countries that -- we can do this ourselves, but we're begging some people to put that in the marketplace.

And, Neil, there was a headline this morning halfway around the world that it was talking about, but it basically said that Europe is about to be held hostage by Russian gas.

And, now, you talk about I told you so, with Nord Stream II. American LNG was flowing into Europe. We were replacing a lot of old coal plants.

CAVUTO: You're referring to liquefied natural gas.

But go ahead. I'm sorry, Governor.

PERRY: Yes, liquefied natural gas. Yes, thank you.

And now we have Russia finishing up the Nord Stream II pipeline. You got the Keystone pipeline shut down in the United States. And I refer to these folks as the Keystone Cops. Now a lot of people won't remember the Keystone Cops were a silent movie group that -- just a bunch of cops that couldn't do anything right.

But I thought about that when was thinking about Keystone pipeline and the Keystone cops. This administration is the Keystone Cops of running government. They can't do anything right, shutting down that Keystone pipeline, which would allow for the heavy sour crude, which our refineries are set up to refine into gas.

And we're seeing $5 gas prices. And this administration is running around like the Keystone Cops going, how's this happening? And the fact is...

CAVUTO: Well, now -- you know, what is interesting now, Secretary, is what's going on.

You mentioned what's going on in Europe right now. And it was -- it just seemed like to be an embarrassing position for Vladimir Putin to say, don't worry, I might have your back and deal with production. I'm paraphrasing here.

But when you really are depending on Vladimir Putin to be nice, you're in a bind.

PERRY: The weather is mild right now. When the weather really gets cold, there were people who froze in Europe because Putin cut off the gas, trying to get his political will done.

If you think that will not happen again, then you may not be anywhere near smart enough to be running this country. And that's what really -- it doesn't just irritate me. It's a scary thought that this administration didn't recognize what they were doing.

They were allowing Russia to come back in and put a stranglehold on Europe. Look at the polls. The polls have understood this for a long time. A year ago today I was in -- excuse me -- I think, four years ago today, I was in Latvia doing an event there with the leadership of Europe talking about how to bring more American liquefied natural gas into that market, so that they would not be held hostage by the Russians.

And in nine months, this administration has completely turned all of that great and good economic and national security policy around. The -- President Trump understood this, is, you bring American energy into Europe, and they will not be held hostage by the Russians.

CAVUTO: All right. Well, it is a scary situation right now with energy, because we're relying on all the wrong guys, to your point.

Governor, always good seeing you, Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, U.S. energy secretary as well.

Sometimes, the more things change, though, the more we see kind of the same, politicos who break through and others who don't trying to deal with the same thing at the same time.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERALDINE FERRARO, FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I had never expected that I would see in the same election cycle another woman running for national office. I want her to succeed, not because I'm going to vote for the ticket. I want her to succeed because I don't want anyone...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: See, I think you secretly are. I think you are secretly going to vote for her, because I don't think you like Barack Obama.

FERRARO: No, no, no. That's not so.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: No, no, no, you're not letting bygones be bygones.

You're still angry. And you're Italian.

FERRARO: Will you cut it out?

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: So you're still angry. I know what that's like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, we are learning that Brian Laundrie's father has now asked to take part in the search for his son. So far, they can't find the guy.

Laura Ingle just had a chance to speak with Gabby Petito's parents on all of this and had some remarkable revelations, as she always does.

Laura, what's the latest?

LAURA INGLE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Neil.

Well, we're here in Blue Point on New York's Long Island. This is Gabby Petito's hometown. And it's hard to imagine it was just over a month ago that the family here knew that something had gone terribly wrong. They weren't hearing from their daughter, Gabby Petito, on this cross-country van life trip that she was taking.

Now they are opening up to us, telling us about what those initial days were like, starting with their reaction to learning that Gabby's white van was found back in Florida without her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICOLE SCHMIDT, MOTHER OF GABBY PETITO: I screamed at -- I didn't mean to scream at the detective. I said: "Where's my daughter? Where is she?"

INGLE: And what did they say?

N. SCHMIDT: She just said: "I wish I knew the answer to that."

INGLE (voice-over): Gabby Petito's mother, Nicole Schmidt, remembers the moment she feared the most.

N. SCHMIDT: The night I knew the van was in Florida, I instinctively knew that my daughter was not here anymore.

INGLE: Eight days later, the FBI called Gabby's stepfather, Jim Schmidt, who had traveled to Wyoming to help find her.

JIM SCHMIDT, STEPFATHER OF GABBY PETITO: It was a hardest phone call that I have ever made in my life. I was thousands of miles away. And I couldn't hold my wife and other children at that moment.

And that was -- that was what made it increasingly difficult, painfully difficult.

INGLE: As the manhunt for Brian Laundrie continues, I asked them if they had any ideas where he could be.

N. SCHMIDT: I'm not certain, but I would think that he's in an area like the Appalachian Trail or a campground where he can live off the land, because he had those skills.

INGLE (on camera): Do you think he's alive? Do you think he's in the country?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do believe he is alive.

INGLE (voice-over): And if they had one thing to say to Brian Laundrie right now?

J. SCHMIDT: Just turn yourself in. Whatever the circumstances are, whatever happened, just go there, do the right thing. Do the right thing for yourself. Do the right thing for Gabby, for our family and for your own family.

N. SCHMIDT: We deserve the truth.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

INGLE: They deserve the truth.

And they are very well aware of the activity going on in Florida today. They know that Brian Laundrie's father, Chris, was taken by law enforcement to that hiking area near the preserve. They say that's great. They're glad to see that they are participating in the investigation.

But, for right now, what they want to do is focus on their foundation, the Gabby Petito Foundation, which is going to raise funds to help families of other missing children with resources and hope get the publicity that they have had during all of this -- Neil.

CAVUTO: Laura Ingle, thank you very much.

When we come back, the latest push for a vaccine for kids as young as 5 that might be out very soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: A vaccine for kids as young as 5 years old?

Well, if Pfizer has its way, it will get that FDA approval and soon at, least for emergency use of a vaccine that could be for kids 5 all the way up to 11. There are about 28 million in that category.

To Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider as to whether it's a good idea.

Doctor, what do you think?

DR. SHOSHANA UNGERLEIDER, INTERNAL MEDICINE PHYSICIAN: Well, Neil, as you said, Pfizer has submitted their vaccine for 5-to-11-year-olds to the FDA for authorization and review. Federal health officials could give the green lights for these kids, these younger kids, to get their shots by the end of October.

Neil, COVID is still a significant risk, even for children. And we have seen tremendous rises in the burden of disease due to the Delta variant and large numbers of deaths and hospitalizations in kids. In a typical year, just for context, we document about 200 pediatric flu deaths, usually a bit less.

Since the start of the pandemic, nearly 600 American children are documented to have died from COVID. So, this readily makes COVID a leading cause of death in children. So, vaccinating kids is going to help make schools safer as well. The FDA is going to be reviewing a whole lot of data over the next few weeks, looking at it very, very carefully, and then make a decision on the next steps.

CAVUTO: The president was in Illinois talking about the progress we're making on vaccinations.

Some people don't like the way we are getting and making that progress, that these mandates, orders, if you will, violate their personal freedoms and rights, and they think it's a slippery slope.

As a doctor, how do you feel about that?

UNGERLEIDER: Well, Neil, I think we can all agree that COVID-19 is one of the most significant obstructions to normal life that we have ever witnessed economically, socially, politically. There really isn't a sphere of life that hasn't been touched by this pandemic.

And we're now over 20 months into it. We have administered over six billion doses of vaccine worldwide. That's nearly half of all humanity. These vaccines really have been proven to be safe. They have been very effective at preventing serious illness and death from COVID.

And the FDA has fully approved one. So whatever people are waiting for to convince them to take a shot, I do think that time has passed. And I think for health care workers to be enduring this volume of sick patients is really unsafe and unreal for us.

Vaccination really is our most powerful tool to control this pandemic, and, in addition to the use of non pharmaceutical interventions, we can return to a largely normal life. But it's going to take an immense effort. It's going to take everyone pitching in when they can. And asking people to take a very simple step that also truly confers amazing protection to themselves, in addition to the rest of society, is certainly reasonable.

I think it would be preferable for people to take the vaccine without being compelled by mandates, but we face an ongoing, unprecedented public health emergency. And for our vaccine uptake in this country to be where it is, is hugely problematic.

CAVUTO: Got it.

Dr. Ungerleider, thank you so much for joining us, the internal medicine physician at the California Pacific Medical Center.

We have been doing a lot of flashbacking. Is that a word? But, anyway, looking back some 25 years ago, and all the different types of folks we have interviewed over 25 years, including some pretty impressive CEOs.

And one really stands out to me, that he was so familiar. Where do I know him from?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUPERT MURDOCH, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, NEWS CORPORATION: We criticize people, and sometimes pretty harshly. And we have got to expect some back.

And when you get to our age, it is water off a duck's back.

CAVUTO: All right, but they always come, every time: You're not fair and balanced, not hearing both sides. They're not what they say they are.

MURDOCH: But we answer that, because that's obviously untrue. If we weren't fair and balanced, we wouldn't have the number one network in news by a very wide margin.

People believe we're fair and balanced, and they love us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: What do you think's driving all of this?

MURDOCH: Well, I think, as far as FOX News goes, it's very simple. It's very powerful. It's very good. And it's very balanced.

And everybody else, every newspaper either now is every -- this may be an overgeneralization, but by far the most newspapers, and certainly the other television networks, sort of are all on one side, and the liberal side of things, and where I think the population of this country is pretty worried about its direction.

And they turn to FOX News.

CAVUTO: So, when you see that criticism and the media criticism of you personally, or FOX News or FOX anything, period, do you just look at numbers like this and say, bring it on, bring it on?

MURDOCH: It's good for ratings.

(LAUGHTER)

MURDOCH: Yes, absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: That guy looks so familiar, Rupert Murdoch, of course.

He perhaps best illustrates not only the success of FOX News, and literally banking on it, but we couldn't even launch in Manhattan. Imagine being a financial anchor and trying to get guests and you're not on in Manhattan. But he was patient.

You obviously know what's happened and where we are 25 years later. But it's a pattern I have seen among some great CEOs with whom I have also had the pleasure to chat over this last quarter-century. They zig while others zag. They never buy the consensus, and they have an amazing innate ability to see opportunity, oftentimes where others see nothing.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: You're watching "The Cavuto Business Report."

In our "Behind the Boardroom" segment today, Jamie Dimon. "Businessweek" recently dubbing him into whiz kid of Wall Street.

How much of what you have been able to orchestrate, Jamie, has been helped by a great stock market, today a good example?

JAMIE DIMON, CHAIRMAN, J.P. MORGAN CHASE: Well, I think there's no question everyone in our businesses is benefited by this fabulous market.

CAVUTO: Do you mind a nasty personal question? Not nasty.

DIMON: Shoot. Go ahead.

CAVUTO: Politics?

DIMON: Yes.

CAVUTO: Interested?

DIMON: Not really, no.

CAVUTO: College pals say I guess you would be the guy. Perfect.

DIMON: Yes, but didn't we also learn in college and talk about what we wanted to do when we grow up? And it doesn't seem as appealing as it used to.

CAVUTO: Do you know what legendary investor John Bogle wanted folks to think when they heard the words Wall Street? Main Street.

JOHN BOGLE, FOUNDER, VANGUARD GROUP: The term index fund is becoming useless.

CAVUTO: Yes.

BOGLE: It's low-cost index fund. If you want to make a lot of money, if the manager or sponsor wants to make a lot of money, they're putting costs that I think are grossly excessive on the front.

SUMNER REDSTONE, FORMER VIACOM CEO: I consider not -- people my partners in running the company. We ran it together.

And we had the...

CAVUTO: But you control the voting stock, don't you?

(CROSSTALK)

REDSTONE: I control this interview too, to a certain extent.

(LAUGHTER)

LEE IACOCCA, FORMER CHAIRMAN & CEO, CHRYSLER CORPORATION: Oh, one more thing. If you can find a better car, buy it.

CAVUTO: Lee Iacocca, it's great to see you.

IACOCCA: Neil, good to see you.

CAVUTO: It's like Elvis has entered the building.

(LAUGHTER)

IACOCCA: Right.

CAVUTO: How important is the guy who runs the company to the company's image?

IACOCCA: Well, very important. I don't suggest everybody go out and do commercials. We had no alternative. We were going bankrupt.

CAVUTO: Yes.

IACOCCA: And the union -- the agency talked me into it and said, you're a guy who's got to go out there and say -- instead of using a celebrity, you got to go back that afternoon and make sure the cars don't leak and rattle.

CAVUTO: Right.

IACOCCA: I mean, you have got the job of doing that.

CAVUTO: He spent $60 million out of his own pocket to become mayor of New York City. But what the feisty self-made billionaire Michael Bloomberg does now is anyone's guess.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK: It's a daunting task, but that just means it's a greater challenge for everybody, not just for me.

CAVUTO: You're used to being the guy in charge. You call the shots.

BLOOMBERG: No, no, no, no. I have 8,000 people at Bloomberg, the company, that I work with. They don't work for me. I work with them.

CAVUTO: But come on.

BLOOMBERG: And that's why we have been successful.

CAVUTO: He is considered one of the most controversial billionaires on the planet. And last time I checked, there aren't a whole lot of billionaires on the planet, George Soros back with us.

But you see a slowdown coming, Mr. Soros. Many agree with you. But is the slowdown you see coming next year a recession or worse, a housing bubble that bursts or worse?

GEORGE SOROS, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE: That actually is the $64 question. And I honestly am very much on the fence about it, because there's no question that the housing bubble is being deflated.

But there are other positive developments which may counterbalance it.

CAVUTO: He is perhaps the most polarizing figure in corporate America today, the one message CEOs fear most getting from their secretaries: It's Carl Icahn on line one.

CARL ICAHN, CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN REAL ESTATE PARTNERS, L.P.: Here's a no brainer. I can make -- and I'm no genius at managing companies, OK?

I can go into a company, almost any company that we go into, we save 30 percent to make that company turn it around, which I have done over and over and over again. And I'm not a management genius. It tells you one simple thing. Companies, many of them are terribly run, and there's no accountability.

I'm a kid from Queens. I grew up on the streets. Only in this country, this great country, only in here could I have done what I have done.

CAVUTO: Jack Welch, the man who not only changed a company, but arguably a country.

You have to get to people from a certain level that goes beyond just wonkiness. And that is what we need. And...

JACK WELCH, FORMER CHAIRMAN & CEO, GENERAL ELECTRIC: Your job as a leader is to get in the skin of everyone.

CAVUTO: Yes.

WELCH: Show them where you're going, how you are going to get there, and what's in it for them when you get there.

CAVUTO: Yes.

WELCH: You get those three things going, and, man, you have got it.

CAVUTO: One of America's most iconic, if not beloved companies, Home Depot, celebrating the opening of its first stores 40 years ago in Atlanta, Georgia, this day.

If you were starting in an environment like we have today, much lower taxes, much more stable economic environment, what do you think?

BERNIE MARCUS, CO-FOUNDER, HOME DEPOT: First of all, it would be very difficult today.

CAVUTO: Yes.

MARCUS: The government is really working against you.

KEN LANGONE, CO-FOUNDER, HOME DEPOT: A cornerstone of our belief from day one was the people in the store. We always believed that, if this was going to work, we had to not only get the right people. We had to motivate them. And, after we got them, we had to respect them.

MARCUS: Look, he's my brother. He may be Italian, but he's my brother.

LANGONE: We're brothers by different mothers.

CAVUTO: Yes, exactly.

MARCUS: We are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: It's just remarkable.

I have been so fortunate to talk to some of the movers and shakers, but not only movers and shakers. What you see with great CEOs -- and that's one of the great benefits I Have here. I have two candy stores, right, which is dangerous just to put me in one.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: But the news and the business together.

And when you talk to corporate titans or those who had a dream, all these men I was showing you were given no chance of succeeding. When I talked to Jeff Bezos in the early days, they laughed at him. When I talked to Steve Jobs when he was coming up with this thing called the iPod, they said, we already have the Sony Walkman.

When I talked to Rupert Murdoch about starting this channel, everyone said it was a joke, it wouldn't go anywhere, it would be smashed like a bug. They all ignored that. They all ignored the bad press, all the criticism, by the way, in this case that continues to this day.

Greatness, I like to think, is defined not necessarily by the compliments you get, but how you deal with the criticism that invariably comes your way. Greatness is also defined by those who take chances, by those who buck the consensus or what everyone thinks will work and says will not work.

The great ones, the great leaders, they get that. That's what makes them iconic. That's what makes them great. That is what has defined FOX News.

Good night.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.



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