"Fire and Fury" is the biggest news of the day. Michael Wolff's explosive tell-all from inside the Trump White House has provoked legal threats from the president himself, and intensified the war between Trump and former adviser Steve Bannon. Jason Howerton, Senior Editor of the Independent Journal Review.
While Wolff's credibility came into question during yesterday's news cycle, Howerton says the author was able to turn things around in his Today show interview this morning. He also discusses the extent to which Trump's attack on "Fire and Fury" actually improved sales.
Howerton also ponders how much the revelations from the book will impact the Mueller probe. Steve Bannon reportedly said that that investigators would "'crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.'
Cheddar's Chloe Aiello has our cannabis year-in-review, breaking down how several states legalized adult recreational use and greenlit medicinal use in 2021. She noted that while a cannabis legalization and decriminalization bill was introduced in Congress this year, potential FDA involvement in the industry, as well as a 25 percent excise tax, killed any chance the bill had of moving forward. Aiello also speculated that some form of cannabis reform could be rolled out in 2022, as the midterm elections draw closer.
Jim Worden, Chief Investment Officer at Wealth Consulting Group, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says the period between Christmas and New Year's is difficult to predict due to a lack of institutional volume, with the Omicron variant adding even more uncertainty on Wall Street.
Prices at the pump this year reached a seven-year high, and a new forecast from GasBuddy shared with CNN predicts that gas prices will only continue to rise in 2022 and that the national average could even reach $4.00 a gallon; however, analysts at GasBuddy say anything could happen when it comes to gas prices in the future, as the pandemic has made it difficult to make any predictions about the economy. Consumer Energy Alliance federal policy advisor Michael Zehr joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
David Stryzewski, CEO of Sound Planning Group, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says that some of the major stock positions are getting the most lift to the upside as the major indexes climb higher to begin the week.
