'GRASPING AT STRAWS'

Fox Hosts Varney and Bartiromo Look to Joe Biden to Calm the Stock Market

The pair expressed hope that a Biden primary win in Michigan this week could help the market recover after Monday’s massive slumps.

By Justin Baragona & Andrew KirellMar 09, 2020

With the stock market experiencing record-setting drops on Monday morning that prompted trading to briefly halt, pro-Trump Fox Business Network hosts Stuart Varney and Maria Bartiromo turned their eyes to... uh... Joe Biden to boost the stocks.

During Monday morning’s broadcast of Fox Business Network’s Varney & Co., the eponymous host wondered aloud whether the markets—plunging due to fear and uncertainty surrounding a coronavirus outbreak—could “see a bounce” in the next couple of days due to a likely Biden victory this week.

“I mean, Michigan primary, maybe I’m grasping at straws here,” the Fox host added.

Bartiromo, meanwhile, said she agreed with her colleague before finding a silver lining in the market volatility, noting that the historically low 10-year Treasury yield meant it was “time to take out a mortgage” and plummeting stock prices represented an “enormous buying opportunity.” (Trump took to Twitter on Monday to boast that gas prices plummeting were “good for the consumer.”)

‘OH MY GOD’

SNL Roasts Trump’s Coronavirus Rant: ‘We’re All Gonna Die’

Matt Wilstein

Varney, for his part, wanted to pivot the discussion back to politics and how the markets will react to democratic-socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) possibly losing handily in Tuesday’s primaries to the former vice president.

“I think Bernie’s gonna lose,” Varney asserted. “I think Joe Biden, he’s got the momentum and I think the market will like that. The very hint, if Bernie does well, I think the market has another problem on its hands.”

“Absolutely,” Bartiromo responded. “You wanna see this market taken out even more than today, have a victory for Bernie Sanders. That will really kill any expectation of a comeback here.”

As the markets have reacted negatively over the past couple of weeks to the impact a likely coronavirus pandemic will have on the global economy, a number of Fox hosts have insisted that the possibility of Sanders becoming the Democratic presidential nominee has also spooked traders.

Last month, when the market began its massive sell-off, Fox Business host Charles Payne blamed much of the losses on “the Bernie factor,” claiming there was “absolutely no doubt” that Wall Street had taken Sanders’ then-rise in the race “very seriously.”

Varney himself has recently said that a Sanders win would result in both the stock market and economy crashing. “I think I’m totally right,” he told Fox & Friends earlier this month, adding that his prediction was “guaranteed.”