Doug Jones' election caps off the month that the #MeToo movement made its way to Washington. Bustle's Erin Delmore joins Cheddar to discuss how Senator Kirsten Gillibrand became the face of the new wave that's beginning to enter the political arena. We put the Alabama special election in context as the first time voters went to the polls in the post-Weinstein era.
Delmore also discusses President Trump's targeting of New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Twitter. The senior political correspondent says the fact the president already has a nickname for the senator proves he's taking her seriously as a threat. We consider Gillibrand's presidential aspirations and look back at the history of her work fighting against sexual harassment.
Finally, we focus on UN Ambassador Nikki Haley's statement that President Trump's accusers ought to be heard. Delmore says this breaks with the official White House stance on Trump's history of sexual misconduct allegations. She says both Haley and Ivanka Trump prove there is at least some dissent among the president's inner circle regarding the issue.
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.
