will be in i think the east room of the white house. they have not got that many chairs out there. we'll watch to see you who the president performs at his first ever official news conference. 1:15 this afternoon. you can certainly watch it right here on fox business. my time is up. neil, sir, it is now yours. neil: i was just looking at east room. one way to avoid tough questions, stuart, not to invite any reporters. holy cow, like four seats? my god. thank you, my friend. we're following that. it is top of the hour at noon eastern time. welcome, everybody, i'm neil cavuto. this is "coast to coast." an hour and 15 minutes from hearing from the president of the united states. in recent memory we have never seen a president wait so long to have a formal press conference. the over will be how long it will be starting about an hour ant and 15 minutes. expect border issue to come up.

expect tax hikes to come up. expect gun scroll to come up. this is lot coming up. we have kristin fisher setting the table for us at white house. hey, kristin. reporter: anytime a president holds his first formal news conference it's a big deal but it's a much bigger deal when you have gone 64 days without holding one, hey, who is counting? up until this point though there has really been reporters shouting questions at president biden. he is really only had to answer extended questions a few times. now he will have to stand up in the east room and answer them at length and deal with the pesky follow-ups. when you go this long without holding a formal news conference, there is a ton of ground to cover. president biden will get grilled about immigration, calls for tighter gun laws. north korea's missile test hours ago. his inauguration day called for bipartisanship and unity, maybe a question about his son hunter

biden. when asked if he was ready, listen what he said. >> the press conference tomorrow sir? >> [inaudible] reporter: so in addition to you know the substance of these questions, neil, there is also going to be a lot of folks watching the style, you know how does president biden deal with these tough questions, from the white house press corps? how long does this news conference go? how many questions from how many different reporters? is he going to take? neil, my biggest question, is he going to take a question from our own peter doocy who will be inside, neil? neil: going to be interesting on some levels. kristin, thank you very, very much, kristin fisher at the white house. the president an hour and 13 minutes away from addressing the nation at the first formal press conference. 65 days in office right now. very unusual to wait this late to have something like that. above cusack with us, "the hill" editor-in-chief you could have

said the prior presidents who took their time, not this amount of time for formal press briefings. the issue with donald trump he took questions from press all the time going out from marine one, coming back from an event. even those type of exchanges with reporters are limited virtually nonexistent with joe biden. so what do you expect now, the attention it is getting from a press corps that has been deemed a whole lot friendlier to this president than the last president ? >> i mean, biden had a honeymoon no doubt about it with the media. the media is getting restless, number one he hasn't had a press conference. he hasn't addressed congress. that is usually done in february after first term president, he has not allowed the press to go down to the border to take photos of the crisis down there? so this is this is going to be a testy press conference and it is going to be interesting, neil, as far as how he deals. sometimes he can get testy with people as well as the media.

how does he stay calm and collected? i want to know what is next on the agenda? filibuster, so many questions he will be asked. we'll learn a lot today i think. neil: a lot of it has to do i know there are fewer seats in there because of spreading people out from the pandemic, all of that, how he calls on people. sometimes he has a list of reporters he wants to call on. others you have to go back to john kennedy who just picked on anyone and everyone, pointed to them, didn't say their names. i'm wondering what strategy he will use? normally more recent where you have pre-designated reporters he will go to, although donald trump of course went to anyone and everyone, but what do you think? >> trump was very accessible no matter what. he would stop and talk. i can't remember how long his first press conference was but it was long. i imagine biden will be shorter. also i do think there will

probably have a list who to call on. that is a key storyline out of this, who does he call on? is it pre-kind of arranged? so you know, he is not freewheeling with the press. he has been pretty protected. we'll see if, they also cut it short? i do think the list of who he calls on is going to be key of how open this president is to the fourth estate. neil: now obviously the border issue has emerged as probably the most heated for the moment. and his deeming it or reluctant to deem it as a crisis. >> right. neil: i began to think in history about facing crises head on. john kennedy comes to mind, bob, when he dealt head on with the racial integration crisis and the horrific treatment of blacks at that time, trying to get into white institutions. great political risk to him. he addressed the nation on the subject. many argue because he was so

aggressive, he might have set up democrats losing the south, at least having the lock on it. hard to say. we'll never know how that election turned out had he lived. i only contrast that with joe biden because the president did refer to the treatment of minorities, particular live blacks at the time as a crisis. it bass something morally repulsive, i believe those were the words he used. this president has been a little bit more cautious in his response to what is happening at the border, refusing to call it a crisis, further one he inherited from his predecessor. i don't remember that out of jfk but your thoughts? >> presidents are tested by crisis and problems. they have to be problem solvers. i think all of the words smithing about whether the crisis or controversy is kind of a waste of time. it really tests you, whether it is 9/11 or any, cold war, russia, china. there are a lot of issues that

biden has to address now but it tests you. i think it would be better for them to say listen, this is a real problem. we'll let the press in we're going to solve it one way or the other and we're going to solve it this way as opposed to kind of being defensive. when you're on the defensive then it becomes a bigger story almost. neil: i'm wondering what kind of signal he will send about the border. now he has sent advisors and the like to the border but of course he has not visited it yet. that might be coming. he might oust line that today, who knows this issue has become one bedeviling him. getting stimulus through. his optimism about infrastructure. how aggressive do you think reporters will be on covering these extremes? >> i think they would have been less aggressive about a month ago but now because the press is antsy, i do think there will be

and should being a aggressive. they should always be aggressive. that is the role of the press. it is interesting that the vice president has been given the assignment of the border. the vice presidents always get the worst jobs sometimes. trump gave pence the pandemic. now harris has to deal with the border. so i do think they should go to the border and i think it is acknowledgement, okay, this is a problem. you know, when you try to downplay a problem, we saw that with trump and the pandemic, it cost him, and it might have have cost him the presidency. neil: i remember harkening back to jfk, when you take on a problem, as unpopular as it might be at the time, we forget, seemed strange to a lot of people hearing this today, how unusual it was for a white american president to take that on to the degree he did at great potential risk to his his own political standing but it was an indication what can happen if you're forth right about it. so we'll see how this goes. bob, thank you so much, my

friend. i appreciate it. >> thanks, neil. neil: all right. bob cusack. pete buttigieg talking a little bit about infrastructure and today how to pay for it. take a look. >> i have heard loud and clear from members of congress, republican, democratic, a infrastructure proposal needs to at least a partial funding source and i know that is a challenging conversation. ultimately while there are many complicated details, there is a simple set of places we can look. user fees, general fund or other tax sources as congress has done to fill gaps in highway trust fund in recent years. or borrowing, and the bulk of any proposal will amount to whatever congress is prepared to authorize in any combination of those sources. neil: all right. if you had trouble identifying mr. buttigieg, he was in the upper left box of the 700 we

showed you. scott shellady joins us now, the cow guy, ag optics. carol roth, as well, former investment banker. guys, thanks for coming. carol, i guess we shouldn't be surprised if you talk about infrastructure you have to talk about ways to pay for it but it goes beyond some of the initial tax hike plans the president already telegraphed, raising the top rate, bringing the corporate rate up from 21 to 28%. bernie sanders wants it brought up to 35%. there will be no shortage of interest of raising taxes. this is on top of that. what do you think? >> i think they will have a really hard time trying to get anything more than optical -- type through and frankly more spending through. i think if you think about the markets, particularly the bond market has tantrums it has been throwing, you start talking about, we're going to spend more money, i think there will a big

push back there and one of the things we need to keep in perspective that biden was funded in large part by wall street. wall street made major contributions to him than to trump. there will be a lot of pushback. not to say they won't try because obviously that what congress knows how to do, spend, spend, but i think there will be a lot of pushback both on the spending front and any meaningful tax hikes that are optical. neil: i wonder, scott, we talk about this, all of us talked about this before how much the markets are prepared for. i think they brace themselves for the tax increases the president already outlined during the campaign. i'm not quite sure, carol raised a good point, not easy to get all that through even among reluctant moderate democrats, say nothing of republicans, having said that i don't think they're ready for a wave of tax hikes on top of those tax hikes. or maybe to carol's point, scott, they dismissed the

possibility they're going to happen. what do you think? >> i think you have to be very careful, once you get through the reopening cycle, growth estimates 6 to 12% gdp. we'll come down the other side, we're lucky if we get back to pre-pandemic growth rates trump had of 3, 3 1/2%. you want to throw a ton of taxes at that? trump had herculean task getting 3% with all the tax cuts he did. this is how desperate they're getting. look at the wealth tax they talk about. 2% of over $50 million. this is the great unanswerable in the democrat rick party, what is the fair share? when is enough enough? they can't answer that question but they can answer the question when you earned enough, right? hypocrisy at all-time high. verges on farcical. they need to look at themselves in the mirror because they have a spending problem. that wealth tax might bring 2.3 trillion to 2.8 trillion over next 10 years.

heck, we spend two trillion next week. like a hot knife going through butter, right? at the end of the day we'll be in debt $35 trillion. that is like a suitcase on the queen mary. i think look themselves in the mirror. i have don't think they have any. at the end. day it is farcical and immoral. neil: you know, carol already they crunched numbers, some groups have on elizabeth warren's wealth tax. that it would take a lot of gdp. bernie sanders has ideas to go way beyond what she is proposing. obviously on the left the party is driving this debate to go still further on tax hikes. how do you think biden juggles that? >> well i think that he is going to get a lot of people like all of us and probably some of the moderate democrats saying look, this is at some point, you start going into a wealth tax, a

violation of a constitutional right. not only unconstitutional but it is a bad idea. these things are impossible to figure out. they are a huge burden. small businesses, would be a drag on the market. for goodness sakes, they had nine countries in europe who dropped them since 1990. if it doesn't work in the welfare state, they know it is a bad idea. we will know it's a bad idea. that is the optics idea. they try to do a tax hike that maybe brings back and removes the salt cap that we have. that will benefit the blue states but optically looks like a higher rate but net-net people are not paying anymore. i think a lot of optics juggling around this so it looks like we stuck it to the bad man, the rich man, at the end of the day net-net they're probably not generating anymore revenue. neil: we shall see. guys, don't go too far. we'll bring you up to talk about some of the pressure points for the president today. they are piling up and fast.

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♪. neil: all right. i wonder if they get frequent flyer miles for testimony on capitol hill? you're watching live see quote of twitter, facebook, google, all testifying virtually it seems, before a congressional committee, that it is contemplating what measures to take against each and all of them. i say that because that's, well, some of the stuff they are talking about right now. edward lawrence following all of that on capitol hill. hey, edward. reporter: neil, flying on the private jets with the frequent flyer miles. this hearing started 17 minutes ago. house members itching to ask about the censorship of social media companies. there are a lot of questions about section 230. that gives immunity to the companies what is posted online. the tech companies have continued to ban accounts, block content, nag content. and their concern going forward,

voices from republicans are concerned their voices are being mostly banned and what not. former president donald trump remains on the banned list for twitter, for example. republicans will ask questions today saying these ceos have learned nothing from last appearances. >> they have gone in one ear out the other because they have not cleared it up. i think we'll have questions about censorship. i think we'll have questions about illicit use of these platforms. there will be questions about mental health. i have a special interest in that. i think there is a big problem particularly with our students in the realm of mental health right now. reporter: buddy carter is in the hearing right now. facebook ceo mark zuckerberg is telling lawmakers that the platforms mirrors what is already fractured society. basically saying the companies didn't create or amplify the fracture. he will make a pitch to change section 230 making it conditional on putting adequate systems in place for content removal. mark zuckerberg will say this,

platforms should not be held liable a particular piece of content evades its protection. that would be impractical for platforms with billions of posts per day. but they should be required to have adequate systems in place to address unlawful content. they have been here before. they have testified at least several other times over the past year or so other even less than that. the companies continue to operate without any changes to the way they're doing business. we'll have to see if this hearing is the one that prompts changes. i can tell you, neil, representative peter walsh, a democrat from vermont will unveil his plan a government agency to regulate social media companies. we'll see what actually happens. back to you. neil: edward lawrence, thank you very, very much. with us right now is adam, the former google senior director of u.s. public policy. adam, thank you very much for coming. what do you think will come of these hearings today? >> not much. a lot of pounding the table. i think you will see republicans

are upset they see the platforms as removing too much conservative speech. you will see democrats pound the table in the opposite direction that the platforms are not doing enough to remove hate speech, disinformation. that will lay bare differences we have in the country over political speech. i don't think you will see a lot of legislating. congress has more hearings when they're less likely to legislate something. neil: that is interesting. you raise a good point. both sides have an axe to grind whether their side is covered fairly on social media. on the left they say you're handing things over to those crazy trump loyalists. trump loyalists say you ignore us at the expense of the kooky liberals. where does this ultimately goal. >> you have to remember. these are global platforms. you have to remember the vast majority of content shared on social platforms is not political. only 6% of facebook posts are political. most are cat videos and kid

pictures. i think companies they have a strong interest in maintaining trust with the users. so some people say they're just, monetizing click baste and short-term sugar high hits. i don't think that is true. i think people see the platforms as just that. they're going to stop coming back. i think why you've seen facebook, twitter, over the last several months take more aggressive action to remove really billions of posts on disinformation, on vaccine disinformation, election misinformation, on covid. look, if people want to find the information they can go to gab or parler, the dark web. there are plenty of sites on the open internet they can go to. neil: i think they should be punished for the cat videos myself but that is a whole separate area we can get in with. >> yeah. neil: adam, i'm wonder in this environment where all companies will see taxes go up, like all u.s. companies, from 21% to 28%, this comes at a time many are

prepared for that. many of them, at least their staffs preferred joe biden to donald trump but i but without getting into political fights is it fair to say they will face midcall headwinds, all of them. >> no matter what they do with respect to speech, whether to leave something up, take something down they will always face criticism. that is what you will see. there is no winning when you're a global social media platform. that is why i do think it is really important i wish they would be more vocal saying look it is our platform. we can run it however we want to. we have a first amendment right to do that. we understand that is not going to make everybody happy. we'll not please everyone. there are alternatives to go to. i think that is the right position for social media platforms. look, we want to keep people on our platform, broadest possible array. we'll not please everyone. there are alternatives if you don't like what we're offering.

neil: well-put, adam, thank you very, very much. good catching up with you. we'll talk about the cat videos in our next visit. in the meantime we're focusing on the border right now. we know a little more than 45 minutes from now the president in his first formal press conference of his presidency will no doubt be asked a lot about this steve harrigan at the border right now with some of questions that might come up, and some of the issues he is seeing first-hand. steve. reporter: the biggest question, the biggest challenge, how will the biden administration house unaccompanied minors? i'm steve harrigan on the text sass border. that story ahead my retirement plan with voya keeps me moving forward... even after paying for this. love you, sweetheart they guide me with achievable steps that give me confidence. this is my granddaughter...she's cute like her grandpa. voya doesn't just help me get to retirement... ...they're with me all the way through it. come on, grandpa! later. got grandpa things to do.

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♪. >> vice president kamala harris has been put in charge of border security. she is about the worst possible choice that one could make. at no point in her career has she given any indication she considers the border a problem

or a serious threat. if president biden's intent was to show that he is taking this issue seriously, he really has done the exact opposite here. neil: all right. arizona's governor not keen obviously on kamala harris overseeing what is happening at the border. they're wondering exactly what she can and will do in that capacity. let's go to steve harrigan in mission, texas, with the problems she will likely encounter. steve? reporter: neil, one of the biggest short term challenges for the vice president will be to try to find safe housing for more than 16,000 unaccompanied minors who cross over into the u.s. illegally. there is a scramble to find housing for them now, everything from dormitories to oil field worker houses, convention centers, maces them anywhere they can safely. there was a youngket yesterday, a biden administration officials with some members of congress

going to look at carrizo springs, texas, ideal hhs center, that had medical care, schooling, recreation, clothing. that is a far cry from those images, of other images leaked out in a customs and border protection facility in donna, texas, severe overcrowding, prison conditions. they took the camera to the one nice place. they're not allowing media to tougher places where the younger people are. biden officials defended the policy of not deporting unaccompanied minors. >> we're sending a very clear message that people should stay in the region. we're setting up legal channels for people to my grat. we're also not going to turn back a five-year-old into mexico by themselves. reporter: some texas democrats now suggesting that the biden administration might want to stop, consider stopping not

deporting 16 and 17-year-olds. they make up about half of the unaccompanied minors now in u.s. facilities. neil, back to you. neil: steve harrigan, thank you very, very much. let's go to mike howell, heritage foundation advisor, former dhs oversight counsel. >> thanks for having me. neil: what do you want to hear from the president about this subject? >> i always been taught you make a mess you clean it up. biden created the border crisis on the campaign, promised amnesty, benefits, voting rights so the rush started coming. i want to hear a recognition what is the prime driver of this crisis. it is that rhetoric combined with undoing all the trump policies. basically saying if you come to the border, we're going to let you no. at least if you're under 18. even in the other categories they're releasing tens of thousands of others in. he needs to basically do the

politically impossible thing which is about-face. restate a new position how we will deal with immigration in this country. we're not giving amnesty to anyone who comes to the country. if you come illegally, we will be returned to the home country. that is only way to stop it. i don't think kamala harris will do that i don't think biden will say. they want to facilitate illegal immigration better. they're looking for more facilities storage capacity to, move folks into the interior. watch this, remove title 42 covid public health notification to turn people back. once that is gone everyone is come income. that is where they're moving. neil: talk about the 16,000 migrant kids, also teenagers in custody. you can argue that, if you stay there at various facilities being set up as far-flung as california. one in virginia, another being considered in massachusetts, the push to bring them back home or

get them back home could be set aside to bring their parents or family members here, right? >> yeah. i mean that's the point. you get one in the country. next thing you do you do a chain immigration, everyone is coming in. that is the whole idea of this. it is using illegal immigration and people under 18 as a vector for further illegal immigration. so long as we're doing this, and sending a green light south of the border say come we'll let you in they're going to do it. more will come. that is the word south of the border. so i hope that in this press conference, they take questions from reporters who were asking about these prime drivers. because it is really, really simple what is happening. eastern the president of mexico agrees. this surge is caused by biden's presentation of lax enforcement, shuttingdown i.c.e., promising goodies. it is easy to understand. he needs to take the really easy steps of undoing the things he

has done to stop it. neil: kamala harris maybe telegraphed the administration position on this, talking about the kids, you're not going to send a five-year old back alone. what did you think of that? >> i think they're doing a misframing here for of the american public. as you noted earlier, the vast majority of those under 18 are coming 15, 16, 17. last i looked, 75% were in that age group. i think they need to be honest with the american people. i'm glad to see representative from texas, cuellar talk about this earlier. it is two different groups of people. even with the young children, when you say young children can come to the border, we will further facilitate their entry into the interior, what you're saying to the cartels is your business, new business model focus on little kids. you know what happens on the journey when these little kids are placed in cartel's hands, traffickers hands, they're abused sexually, mentally,

physically. it is a inhumane thing. saying little kids come on in, you're acting like the final stage of the human trafficking network. that is not what the u.s. government should be doing at all. frankly it is despicable. neil: these guys are not paid to be babysitters, essentially what they're doing right now. mike howell, thank you very much. we'll see what the mt. has to say about this. semantics don't really matter. as much as a solution what is going on there. it is pretty serious. mean while we'll update you what is happening with the markets. kind of holding their own ahead of the president's remarks. bitcoin down a little bit. again optimism that it could, engendering good deal of widespread support especially fidelity kicking around an etf devoted to the digital currency and more. ♪.

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♪. neil: all right. this tech hearing going on right now, looking at facebook ceo mark zuckerberg, who is getting an a earful from those in congress going after him, he is responsible for waves of disinformation about safety and efficacy. that you shrug off billion dollar fines. we need rules and regulations. we will legislate to stop this. so he has become a particular target, actually of both parties right now. so we're staying on top of that, no doubt our charlie gasparino is. he said this would be a difficult hearing for all of these guys but particularly, charlie, it would seem for mark zuckerberg. what do you make of it early into this? >> yeah. i mean i, if you recall yesterday i said this would be a

snoozer. no one would care. that there wasn't the same personalities on these panels than there were in the past panels. that it wasn't going to be much of a rout. apparently i was wrong. the i will say this, the tech industry, based on people i'm speaking with, they're not worried about too much about this hearing. they think there is a lot of three attrition. the rubber will meet the road later, there are priorities out there right now, we'll get through covid, we have spending, we have infrastructure coming down hot and heavy on tech right now, just is not, they believe, they could be wrong but they believe it is just not on the legislative agenda. infrastructure is. and, if you want to know why people are worried from a deficit standpoint about infrastructure, $3 trillion, a part of this, part of this thing on bitcoin from what i've been gathering, i've been speaking with a lot of bitcoin investors, is because of the spending blowout that is going on here.

the notion that we're debasing the dollar. we're leading to higher deficits. neil, this is fascinating. bitcoin is up 667% from time last year. used to be back in the olden days when you and i were covering the street, when we were starting out gold was the safe haven for people worrying about deficits and debts. it has become bitcoin and, it is fascinating. you see today bitcoin is off a little bit but it is still above 50,000. i can't tell you if this is a great, if bitcoin, cryptos are great. i'm not quite a believer yet in their store of value but clearly more and more smart investors believe if jerome powell will go out there, if biden will spend

$3 trillion on infrastructure with reconciliation with just 51 votes, lean on jerome powell which he will do to suppress interest rates, you usually get that much debt, get higher interest rates on the 10 and 30 year bond. by the way once you start getting higher interest rates, the amount of the deficit that goes to paying, amount of budget goes for paying interest expense explodes. that is a real problem for the u.s. then he will have to go out there to suppress rates. you put all of that together, you have got people betting that the dollar is not going to be, it is not going to survive as the reserve currency. that is why you got people flocking to stuff like bitcoin. it's a real fascinating dynamic that is going on. i think, as long as you keep spending in washington, neil, i think there is a good chance this speculative bubble in bitcoin will go on for a while. and then it is going to be interesting to see what policymakers do. does janet yellen outlaw it or the sec outlaw bitcoin? it is always a possibility when

you have a shadow banking system on the side which bitcoin is. it is currency of the blockchain technology which is a seamless way of transacting outside normal systems. it's fascinating stuff but just watch bitcoin as we keep spending because there is and inflation play here. neil, back to you. neil: yeah, if they extend it, if fidelity succeeds getting an etf pegged to that, a bitcoin index, and you know, you have, mutual funds and others doing the same or trying to get sec clearance to do the same, you have changed the dynamics mightily. >> yeah. you know, neil, it is a new world out there. i never have seen money printing like this before. we thought, the tea party movement was an outgrowth what went on post-2008 with the spending, low interest rates and also the qe. we got, we got 2008 on steroids right now. another 3 trillion and they're

going to ram it through reconciliation. at some point, that has to lead to much higher interest rates unless the fed gets involvded. if fed gets involved, you're expanding the balance sheet, debasing the currency. i don't know, maybe i'm, maybe i'm just too old for this? neil: you are but then so am i. but thank you. we're like jack lemmon and walter matthau, these kids today. thank you, my friend. always good seeing you getting your perspective on all of that we're getting news out of pfizer it launched a trial of a covid-19 vaccine for kids younger than 12. we got word out of astrazeneca it sort of rejiggered its data. some are interpreting this as bad news for astrazeneca. the efficacy rate declined. when i look the numbers behind the numbers, to 76% from 79%.

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♪. neil: all right. egypt is doing its best right now to dislodge that 200,000-pound or ton, i should say container ship that has been stuck in the suez canal, stuck along a wall, that has a backlog of 100 ships, many carrying oil, 10 to 50% of the world's oil passes through that region. trey yingst on the impact that is having. trey is in jerusalem. reporter: neil, good afternoon. egyptian shorts are still working today to try to dislodge the container ship stuck in the suez canal. the vessel laid on its side is the length of the empire state building. it has been trapped since tuesday. you can see some of the equipment being used from a distance the machines look hike toys. this is a massive ship. the operation to free the cargo ship could take weeks according to a specialist from a salvaging

company. 150 vessels are waiting to pass through, though the ripple is coming around the world. it has stalled 9 billion worth of goods. 10% of the global trade passes through this area. this could not come at worst time for global supply chains struggling through the pandemic and chip shortage. the company issued apology. saving his company is working with local authorities trying to find a solution to get this container ship out of the canal to get things moving again. neil? neil: thank you very much for that update, my friend. trey yingst in jerusalem. to scott and carol, about energy prices. they're bouncing around certain levels here. they're looking at 47, 48 days in a row of rising gas prices up

30% already this year. where do you see this going? >> first i feel like the ship is a metaphor for all of us trying to fit back into your jeans after covid. neil: careful, young lady. >> yeah, you know, it has been a rough time. but this is wild. if you think back, neil, to like the third week of april of last year, you couldn't give oil away. there was no place to put it. now we're in a situation where maybe things are stuck. at the end of the day, the oil is a weird one. i do think that overall the bigger issue for oil pricing is going to be what is happening with the vaccine rollout in europe and how quickly can they get things on track. global travel getting things back to normal. i think this is sort of that blip on the radar. and it isn't as important as what having more, from a more dynamic point of view globally

with covid. neil: you know, scott, we had been seeing, you know, a host of commodities, oil, and gas included, rising and i know inflation is still not a problem but the trend could be. do you, what do you think of the trend? >> i think the reopening of the economy or the reflation of the economy i think that is not a trend. i think that is binary and we'll get through it and we'll get back on the other side hopefully some normalcy. with the distribution problem we're having here, our economy shut it off, it goes off like the gym lights after practice on friday. when you come in saturday morning you flip the switch it takes a while to get the lights to relight, right? demand, you can flip a switch it is on overnight too. we have a problem logistically, getting planes, trains, trucks, ships in the right spots to meet up with the demand that is the disconnect that will take six to 12 months. you have mr. magoo captaining

ship through the suez canal throwing another wrench into the thing. that will take some time too. this will add misery to pain. we'll get through it, we'll get back some point in time way things were pre-pandemic with logistics. neil: that might be okay. a little bit of growth is okay. carol, if you're jerome powell, you're seeing uptick in inflation, certain live not anything like the 70s but looks like he is going to sit back to let it happen for a while even if he falls behind the proverbial curve what do you think of that? >> thank goodness i'm not jerome powell. listen, economists are not very good at making estimates and we all know that they're not very good at communicating things to the market either as we keep seeing from powell and yellen the last couple times around. i think at some point the horse will leave the proverbial barn,

and they will have to play catchup. i think that is what the bond market is signaling. whether that happens in the next three months, the next six months, the next 12 to 18 months, that is what we're trying to sort out. that is the trade everybody is trying to reposition for. at some point they will behind the eight ball. if they feel like they can bring it in for a soft landing but i think it will be bumpier than they expect. neil: all right, we shall see. guys, thank you both very, much. meantime you saw interest rates are continuing to back up a little bit. we're at 1.61% on a 10-year note. i'm not so sure the president will be asked about the yield on the 10-year note. i'm sure he will be asked about pace ever economy, stunningly good news on jobs front. more after this.

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it's been a long time coming, i mean, days into his presidency. >> 65 days into the biden presidency and for the first time we will have a press conference with the president of the united states circuit the white house has been holding daily briefings with jen psaki , also the president's covid response has been made available. the president has taken questions herein-- here and there, but nothing with what we expect in about 15 minutes, extended question and answer session with the president. 30 reporters will be allowed in the east wing, restricted due to covid distancing practices. we don't know how long it will take, which reporters will be it called on, what questions and topics may be discussed. it will unfold shortly. we do expect the president to announce

major goals that the cdc says will update how many covid-19 dosis you'd like to see administered in his first 100 days of his presidency. the goal was 100 million and we are about 130 million administered , about 110 million doses administered during the biden presidency so that has surpassed and we expect an update from the president and what else may unfold and be put before him and most importantly what the president said and maybe a glimpse into his thinking. neil: thank you. blake berman. texas republican, retired air force captain. i went to go back to your air force days if i can, congressman, because of what north korea pulled overnight, lodging to intermediate missiles. it's the first provocative act they have made in the better part of a year, certainly the first under this president.

what do you make of it? >> good to be with you. i'm very concerned. i'm very concerned. i think it is certainly a test of the will of the biden administration. and i hope that we respond with some tough at least some tough rhetoric and i think the biden administration certainly should take a few whether they like it or not, they may not like this but they should take some cues from the trap administration absolutely defuse a terrible situation that was brewing with north korea right after president trump took office. he wound up with a really decent relationship with kim jong-un and i hope that the biden administration will try to have the same thing. this is a rogue nation without question. a very unpredictable

dictator. i think it's certainly goes without saying that we need to keep north korea on a short leash and be tough with them. neil: having said that, congressman, as you point out, i mean, it's been a little bit more than a year when donald trump was still president that north korea tested such missiles, so seems to be doing their own thing no matter who is in the white house and i'm wondering the difference this year now with the relationships with china severely deteriorated kickback could be a big game changer here. >> i think it could be a big game changer. i think the trump administration was very hard on some adversaries including russia who he was president trump was accused so often of coddling and we were tougher on russia than anyone i have seen in a long time in the white house.

now with the chinese, there's been a past relationship that kind of concerns me with the biden family and some of the democrat administration. very concerning, so i'm hoping we can start protecting ourselves more, implement some policies as suggested and actually started under the trump administration. the chinese has been taking us to the cleaners for many decades and i sit on the science committee and the aeronautics subcommittee and cyber security is a big deal. a lot of theft going on. they are an adversary, the chinese i'm talking about now and i think in light of what happened with the covid pandemic, not being told and kept up-- abreast of what the chinese are doing with the world health organization. we need to keep them at arms length and very

careful like reagan said trust, but verify. neil: congressman, thank you very much. good catching up with you. in the meantime, we are focused on developments in washington, not only the president in about 10 minutes, but jerome powell already talking about the improving economy and the possibility of higher rates, taxes and all of that. jerome powell from earlier today. >> in a natural as accommodation of better developments on covid particularly vaccines and economic support from congress, that's really what's driving it we have seen something like 85 million americans had at least one shot, daily shots are two and half million and i will enable us to reopen the economy sooner than may have been expected. neil: he hinted in that interview that a little bit of growth, activity and honestly

some inflation that comes with it we can tolerate for the time being. liz peek is with us, and alex as well. alex, one of the things you get listening to jerome powell and i try to read behind the lines is that he's not going to move on hiking interest rates in an environment that in the past the feds most certainly would have done so. i think he's airing on the side of keeping the economy going, the job growth going, improvements that we saw even in weekly jobless claims today, less than expected, keep all that going. what you think about? >> i think you are exactly right and he's being careful while he same the country and the economy is recovering more quickly than expected, he is still saying it needs to be fully recovered until they can start to even start the process of gradually pulling things

back. of course, when he mentioned the faster recovery than he thought, he attributed that to the stimulus, help from congress and the vaccine and the accelerated distribution of that and so he's definitely cautious, but it was optimistic, eventually he thinks we can get to the point in the near future i guess to start pulling back. neil: lives,-- liz, does the market worry if he falls behind the proverbial curve, you know the markets fret about that kind of thing? i don't see them too panicked about the prospect of inflation, but how would they feel if this keeps up and he does nothing? >> well, i think it's the number one concern amongst investors now. people aren't concerned about growth. we know the growth prospect is good and i think jay powell and almost all the experts tracking the economy have been way behind the

curve in expecting in what they have been looking for in terms of job gains and also returned to full employment. i just saw a survey actually of investors and inflation was by far and away the number one concern and their expectations have gone up substantially in the last three months, so that's not nothing, i mean, i think people are looking back to what happened in the past and accepting the fact we have a gigantically monetary policy right now and now gigantic fiscal stimulus which jay powell has called for and so yeah, there's concern about it, i mean, whether it's really going to impact market severely over the next couple of months, i don't know. but i think it's out there. neil: danielle, back to the press conference we are waiting for, i was looking at the room and it set up and i get it for the pandemic, but i'm also the

cynic wonders if it's a way to limit asking questions. you always get the feeling-- again, it could be my gut that he's not known to deal in exchange even pleasantries with the press. i'm just wondering how this goes down or if it looks like it's a staged event rather than spontaneous. >> i think it will be different when it was planned for two because we have two mass shootings within a week so i'm sure he will speak to gun control. you could go nokia joe biden basically to shut up. he loves to talk to the press that it's fair to say he has been-- he has had limited chat here and there on the way to marine to.

this is about the size of the white house briefing room. we will find out if this conference, what it's going to be like. i think we will have the expected and possibly the unexpected. neil: alex, you have been with the prior president, but i'm wondering how goes down in terms of does it take spontaneous questions, i mean, there's only a few people there, does he do that jfk thing and do it out-- open it up to anyone, but you had many many more who were asking questions are raising their hands trying to get his attention and sometimes i admire the president who takes questions from anyone and not preselect anyone. how do you watch this yourself? >> you know, that's a great question to see

who he will choose. will literally be the "new york times" and "washington post" and may be a beer something or will it be for a diverse set of outlets coming danielle is correct that we have a much better-- much different sense of what he's going to say that if you asked us a month ago. of course, the two mass shootings over the past week and i think that will take up a lot of the time, so if he even gets to other questions, of course, the crisis at the border will take up time so be on those two things i'm curious to see how much time he will really have to delve into other topics or answer may be more generalized questions about his presidency and things like that or if he will be so focused on gun control and immigration and that will just suck all the auction-- oxygen out of that. neil: we shall see. i will want to go back to this later depending on how long the presser

last. we will take a quick break. we have learned he will at no ounce release detailing new covid-19 coronavirus vaccination target of 200 million doses in the first 100 days. there's about 35 days to make it to that. the old goal was 100 million vaccines and he's essentially doubling that. that is his goal right now. that might be amongst the first things he says when he addresses reporters. ♪ mom and dad left costa rica, 1971. and in 1990, they opened lrazu.

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and now, the new queen sleep number 360 c4 smart bed, is only $1,499. plus, 0% interest for 24 months on all smart beds. only for a limited time. neil: we should hear from the president of the united states assuredly. we are told he might address progress on vaccinations giving another 100 million out by the time his first 100 days wraps up. jonathan following these developments as well as the latest push to reopen schools. he's in atlanta. reporter: we are getting our first data from the federal government, a survey they conducted a random sampling of schools in january. wanted to get a snapshot of what was going zero with students during the pandemic. at that time, they found 43% of all students were studying remotely. 38% returned to in person classrooms and

17% were enrolled in a hybrid program. the survey found huge racial disparities, nearly half of why to students were receiving in person instruction while 33% of hispanic students, 28% of black students and 15% of asian students were attending school and physical classrooms. cdc guidelines say students wearing masks and can safely distance as little as 3 feet in classrooms, but the american federation of teachers is pushing back saying these are studies that led to the guidance weren't conducted in underfunded schools where there's often crowding and poor ventilation. efforts are underway to get teachers vaccinated at a mass vaccination center in atlanta we spoke with two educators that said they felt safe returning to the classroom even before they received their first dose. >> i'm definitely younger than many people i work with so i worry about their health.

everyone has been great about keeping their mask on and maintaining distance. i feel safer in an elementary school. >> eventually we will have to go back to normal anyway and as long as we take safety precautions we should be okay. reporter: new jersey governor phil murphy has announced unless there's a major resurgence in covid cases he wants every student in his estate back in a physical classroom by the beginning of the next school year. back to you. neil: thank you, jonathan. dr anthony fauci said we are a long way from getting any resolution and we have to get about 78% of the back-- population vaccinated before we can see that. doctor marty mccarry disagrees writing a column in today's "wall street journal" in which he read lays out the reality that you don't have to get that many vaccinations to start to see it. doctor mccarry from john hopkins school of

medicine, best-selling offer-- author of the price we pay. so your premise is doctor that she is too conservative here that you don't need that many are that high of a percentage of vaccinated americans to get the immunity thing going. can you explain. >> we want everyone to get vaccinated. that's a universal consensus, but you don't want to change the story to manipulate people to get vaccinated and i think it's intellectually dishonest we know about half the us population roughly has natural immunity from prior infection and i was confirmed two weeks ago in a data report from the state of california showing 45% of residents of la have circulating antibodies and that was done about two months ago so it's even more now. about 39% of all californians have circulating antibodies

so we know that is real. we know we infractions are, so why not include that in the calculation. dr. fauci repeatedly said we have to vaccinate 75 to 80% to reach heard immunity and it's not true. neil: you know, near the end of your call and you say the cdc which has seen more than $40 billion in from taxpayers should have focused on answering the most basic covid-19 clinical questions affecting americans. if we say we follow the science then we need to consider all the data. are you saying dr. fauci in particular botched it >> will come i think there's been failed medical leadership from dr. fauci from the beginning. he basically missed the pandemic for two months in january, february the first week of march and didn't prepare the country. he didn't know it was aerosolized micro droplets even though he has been through sars and even though he knows it behaves similar.

so, we should have that leadership. that's their job, to prepare us for pandemics and prevent the spread. we didn't get that guidance. we didn't get the guidance on masks. we see sort of conflicted behavior now with the schools. it's all stuff that is their job and if they argue we didn't have the answer to these questions, while they have a 40 billion-dollar budget between the nih and cdc, why not ask the most basic research questions quickly like how many people are asymptomatic, how is it spread. we didn't get the answers until very late and in the absence of the knowledge we had opinions to fill that vacuum. neil: you also point out that there is a of authorities or miss allocating the supply by directing towards people without natural antibodies. >> there's an antigen test where you can

actually look for previous covid infection or look for the antibody itself and that's what california did. it looked at californians in a representative sample who had circulating antibodies and you can go to any lab and get the test with antibodies. we should not have put it in the vaccine line when we had a limited scarce resource and we were rationing to high risk american said. we should have delayed the second dose. many of us were calling for that urging to delay the second dose to 12 weeks. that's with the uk did and they have 54% of their population immunize and we are at about a quarter. that was the right way to go, not the way we went. neil: what you think of the bumpy progress? it depends on the state and i know you get into that a bit, but abroad they are having a host of problems. italy will probably be in lockdown for easter, but germany will come close to that also. europe is getting the vaccine now.

some states are experiencing problems here. how would you judge the worldwide vaccination efforts? >> there's a lot of missteps in europe and if you look at europe say the uk versus the rest of europe, the uk has about 54% of their population vaccinated, the rest of europe 11% so the path to herd immunity is dependent on how well the rollout is going to supplement natural immunity. if you look at israel, the uk and many parts of the us we have seen some places do well. new mexico has about 40% of their adult preparation vaccinated and other parts of the country not doing so well. that's the big factor. neil: doctor, we are waiting to hear from the president which he will outline that he has upped his vaccine program to 200 million doses at least by his 100th day in office, a little more than 34 days from now what do you think of that

women generally i don't pay attention to the politicians setting goals for expectations. we deliver 3 million flu shots per day in the us during a regular flu season rollout of the flu shot so i'm not sure it's worth a big victory dance that we exceeded the schedule of 1 million per day. sure there is a supply chain, but we should have had that astrazeneca vaccine online now and i think we are doing well, but it's highly variable and we should have just gotten more straight to the pharmacies in the grocery clinics and places back and it quickly. also, we need walk-ins. you can just rely on appointed times. that will leave out a lot of america. we need to have any time walking vaccinations. neil: astrazeneca had to redo some data to say its vaccine is not quite as effective, but 76%,

90-- 79% earlier reported. i thought it would be at big difference, but it didn't appear to be. >> numbers are essentially the same, actually better in age over 65. the other group went from 79 to 76, but the big headline and what no one really talked about his the ultimate endpoint is how it prevents covid hospitalization and covid death and that is still 100% effective in the numbers we got from astrazeneca and the numbers we got reviled today it's 100% effective and that should be the headline and we should get this thing out there quickly and stop.some kind of gotcha on a corporate press a statement. neil: second delay now from the president. he will be speaking to very few people in the east room of the white house, just a half a dozen or so, this spreading out we have seen going on in the country, some states different from others.

how long do you think that goes on? >> well, i think it will be veritable. first we will drop the restrictions on density and then finally masks. airplanes is a model. people pack in shoulder to shoulder but they're good ventilation and masks and we might do that longer even though most people are immune, so i think the end is in sight. 20 states zero covid deaths this week and that's a piece of information i think we should celebrate. neil: doctor, thank you very much. johns hopkins school of medicine, appreciate it. now president of the united states. >> to the nation on where we stand 65 days into office here, on vaccinations and a few other top priorities for the american people. first come on vaccinations, on december 8, i indicated that i hoped to get

100 million shots in people's arms in my first 100 days. we met to that goal last week my day 58. 42 days ahead of schedule. setting the second goal, and that is we will buy my 100th day in office have administered 200 million shots in people's arms. that's 200 million shots in 100 days. i know it's ambitious, twice our original goal, but no other country in the world has come close, not even close to what we are doing. i believe we can do it. today, we made a historic investment in reaching the hardest hit and most vulnerable communities, highest risk communities as a consequence of the virus by investing an additional $10 billion in being able to reach them. i also set a goal before i took office of getting

the majority of schools in k-8 fully open in the first 100 days. now, thanks to the enormous amount of work done by our administration educators, parents, local and state education officials leaders, department of education survey shows nearly half of the k-8 schools are open now full-time, five days a week for in person learning. not yet the majority, but we are really close and i believe in 35 days left to go we will meet that goal as well. as of yesterday, more than 100 million payments of $1400 have gone into people's bank accounts, that's real money in people's pockets bringing relief instantly, almost. millions more will be getting their money very soon. one final note, since we

passed the american rescue plan, we are starting to see new signs of hope in our economy. since it was passed, a majority majority of economic forecasters have significantly increased their projections on economic growth that's going to take place this year, now projecting it will exceed 6%. 6% growth in gdp. just this morning, we learned the number of people filing for weekly unemployment insurance fell by nearly 100,000 persons. is the first time in a year the numbers following below the pre- pandemic high, so there are still too many americans out of work, too many families hurting and still have a lot of work to do, but i can say to the american people help is here and

hope is on the way. i will be happy to take your questions. the, associated press. >> thank you, mr. president. dimension progress on covid-19 and i would like to ask you about some other issues. one of the challenges you face in the coming months is how to deliver on your promise on immigration reform, gun control, voting rights and climate change, all of those are facing opposition from republicans on capitol hill. how far are you willing to go to achieve those promises you made to the american people? >> look, when i took office, i decided that it was a fairly basic simple proposition and

that is i got elected to solve problems and the most urgent problem facing the american people at stated from the outset was covid-19 and the economic dislocation for millions and millions of americans. so, that's why i put all of my focus in the beginning-- there were a lot of problems, but all of my focus on dealing with those particular problems and of the other problems we are talking about from immigration to guns and other things you mentioned are long-term problems and have been around a long time. what we will be able to do, god willing, is now begin one at a time to focus on those as well whether it's immigration or guns or a number of other problems that face the country. the fundamental problem is getting people some peace of mind, so they can go to bed at night

and do not stare at the ceiling wondering if they lost their health insurance, whether they will lose a family member, whether they will be in a position where the they will lose their home because they can't pay their mortgage or the millions of people that will get thrown out of their homes because of the inability to pay their rent. so, we will move on these one at a time, trying to do is many simultaneously as we can , but that is the reason why i focused as i have. here's the deal, i think my republican colleagues will have to determine whether or not we want to work together or they will decide the way in which they want to proceed is to just decide to divide the country, continue the politics of division. i'm not going to do that. on going to move forward and take these things as

they come. >> follow-up, mr. president. can your presidency be a success if you cannot make progress on those four challenges? >> i plan to make progress in all of them but it will be pretty american people to decide. i think, you know, i doubt maybe he did, maybe others did, i thought many of you thought there is no possibility of my getting the plan i got past passed without republican votes. pretty big deal. got past. growing the economy. people's lives are changing, so lets you what happens. all i know, i have been hired to solve a problems, to solve the problems, not create division. okay. how about-- >> thank you, tried for. you have said over and over again that immigrants should not come to this country now

and it's not the time to come to that message is not received. instead the perception is the reason a lot of immigrants are coming to the country and interesting you with unaccompanied minors. how do you resolve that tension and how do you choose which families can stay in which go given the fact with title 42 some families are saying-- staying. is there a timeline would we won't see the overcrowded facilities when it comes to unaccompanied minors? >> will, i guess i should be flattered people are coming because i'm a nice guy, that's the reason it's happening because i'm a decent man or however it's phrase because they know biden is a good guy. truth of the matter is, nothing has changed. as many people came to 28% increase in children at the border in my administration, 31% in the last year in 2019 before the pandemic. in the trump administration.

it happens every single solitary year. there is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border in the winter months of january, february, march. it happens every year. in addition to that,-- by the way, does anyone suggest that there was a 31% increase under trump because he was a nice guy and he was doing good things at the border? that's not the reason they are coming. of the reason they are coming is that it's the time they can travel with the least likelihood of dying on the way because of the heat of the desert, number one. number two, they are coming because of the circumstances in country , in country. the way to deal with this problem and i started to deal with it when i was a united states senator, vice president for putting together a bipartisan

plan of over $700 million of why people are leaving, what it trump do come he eliminated that funding. he did not use it. he did not do it. in addition to that, he dismantled all the elements that exist to deal with what had been a problem and has continued to be a problem for a long time. in fact he shut down the number of beds available. he did not fund hhs to get people to get children out of those border patrol facilities , where they should not be. not supposed to be more than a few days, a little while, but he dismantled all of that. what we are doing now is attempting to rebuild, rebuild a system that can accommodate what is happening today and i like to think it's because i'm a nice guy, but it's not. it's because it's happened every year. let me say one other

thing. if you take a look at the number of people coming, the vast majority, the overwhelming majority people coming to the border crossing are being sent back, are being sent back. thousands, tens of thousands of people who are over there 18 years of age and single people, one at a time coming have been sent back, send home. we are sending back the vast majority of the families coming. they are trying to work out now with mexico their willingness to take more those families back, but that's what's happening. they are not getting across the border. those coming across the border unaccompanied children we are moving to try to put in place dismantle like i said, for example all the children coming across the border over 70% are either 16 or 17 years old.

we are not talking about people ripping babies from others arms, three -year-olds on the border, i think it's less than one and a half percent fall in the category of the very young. what we are doing is providing for the space again, to be able to get these kids out of the border patrol, so no child, no one should be in any longer than 72 hours and today i went to, for example, i use all the resources available to meet, went to the defense department and secretary of defense just made available for bliss, 5000 beds being made available, 5000 beds on the texas border. so, we are building back up the capacity that should have been maintained and built upon that trump dismantled. is going to take time. the other thing we are doing, i might add-- am i getting too long of an answer?

because if you don't want the details-- no, no, i don't know how much detail you want about immigration to maybe i will stop there. >> my follow-up question is if you could talk about which families and the families that are allowed to stay why they are allowed to stay and when it comes to the filibuster, there's immigration that's a big issue when it relates to the filibuster, but also republicans passing bill after bill trying to restrict voting rights, schumer is calling it an ex- essential threat to democracy, why not back a filibuster rule that at least gets around issues including voting rights are immigration, jim clyburn who you know very well has backed the idea of the filibuster rule when it comes to civil rights and voting rights. >> well, look, i'm going to do with all of those problems. the question is the priorities as they land on my plate.

let's go to the first question you asked, the first of the second question and that is what about dealing with families, why are some not going back. because mexico is refusing to take them back. they are saying they won't take them back, not all of them. we are in negotiations with the president of mexico. i think we will see that change. they should all be going back, i'll be going back of the only people we are not going to let sitting there on the other side of the ground by themselves with no help our children. what we are doing there and it's an important point to understand-- i know you understand, i don't mean to say it that way, an important point to focus on, the vast majority of people under the age of 18 coming to the united states come with a telephone number on a wristband or come with a telephone number in their pockets in the united states. and mother, a father,

close relative, grandmother or grandfather and what's happening is before it's taken literally weeks and weeks and maybe months before anyone picks up the phone and calls to see if there was someone there. well, we set up a system now where within 24 hours there's a phone call made. the child process the border and then a very system put in place as of today to determine quickly whether or not that is a trafficker being called or potentially a mom, a dad and/or a close relative they are establishing that right off the bat and if in fact his mom or dad, dad says to take the extreme case i have a birth certificate, then guess what we get that kid directly to that parent immediately. so, that will reduce significantly-- there are two ways to reduce child populations in circumstances that are not acceptable like being held at a border

patrol station. number one, to get them to the place where they have a relative and set a date as to when the hearing can be held. the second way to do it is put them in a health and human services facility that we occupy now both licensed beds around country that exists as well as for example, federal resources like fort bliss to get them safely in a place where they can be taken care of while their fate is determined. filibuster. you know, with regard to the filibuster, i believe we should go back to a position in the filibuster that existed when i came to the united states senate 120 years ago and that is that it used to be required for the filibuster and i had a card on it and i was going to give you statistics, but you

probably know them that used to be that between 1917 and 1971 the filibuster existed. there were a total of 58 motions to break the filibuster. that whole time. last year alone there were five times that many, so it's being abused in a gigantic way and for example, it used it to be had to stand there and talk and talk and talk until you collapsed. guess what, people got tired of talking and collapsing. filibusters broke down and we were able to break the filibuster, get a quorum and vote, so i strongly support moving in that direction in addition to having an open mind about dealing with certain things that are just of mental to the punch in our democracy like the right to vote, like the basic right to vote. we have amended the filibuster the past, but

here's the deal, as you observe i'm a fairly practical guide. i went to get things done. i wanted to get them done consistent with what we promised the american people and in order to do that in a 50/50 senate we have to get to a place where i get 50 votes so the vice president of the us can break the tie or i get 51 votes without her and so i'm going to say something outrageous, i have never particularly poor at calculating how to get things done in the united states senate , so the best way to get something done if you hold near and dear to you that you like to be able to-- anyway. we are going to get a lot done and if we have to, if there is complete lockdown at chaos as a consequence of the filibuster then we will

go beyond what i'm talking about. okay. hang on. sorry. oh, ms. kim. >> thank you, mr. president. to follow up on the filibuster, do you believe it should take 60 votes to end a filibuster on legislation or 51? >> if we had 51 we would have the problem. you will have to in the it's going to be hard to get a parliamentary ruling that allows 50 votes to end the filibuster, the existence of a filibuster, but it's not my expertise and what the parliamentary rules on how to get there are, but our preoccupation with the filibuster is totally legitimate. in the meantime we've a lot we can do while

talking about what we are in a duke with the filibuster. let me get here-- okay cecelia. >> i would like to circle back to immigration, please. you listed the reasons people are coming talking about in country problem saying it happens every year. you blame to the last administration. sir, i just got back last night from the border where i met 9-year old who walked here from honduras by himself along with another little boy. he had that on him and we were able to call his family. his mother said that she sent her son to this country because she believes that you are not deporting unaccompanied minors like her sauntered that's why she sent him alone from honduras. sir, you blame the last administration, but is your messaging in saying that these children will be allowed to stay in

this country and work their way through the process encouraging families like his to come? >> look, the idea that i'm going to say-- which i would never do and unaccompanied child ends up in the border we will just let them starve to death and famine-- stay on the other side, no previous administration said that either except trump. not going to do it. i'm not going to do it. that's why i have asked the vice president of the united states yesterday to be the lead person on dealing with focusing on the fundamental reasons why people leave honduras, guatemala, el salvador in the first place. is because of earthquakes, floods. it's because of lack of food. it's because of gang violence. it's because of a whole range of things that

when i was vice president had the same obligation to do with unaccompanied children and i was able to slow it up significantly by working with heads of state in those communities to do things like in one of the major cities people were leaving is they couldn't walk in the street because they're cats were getting beat up or shot with gang violence. i was able to not give money to the head of state because so many are corrupt, but i was able to say you need two things-- change things, i put lighting and. we got the type of lighting and pay the contractor. did not go through the violent-- government violent crime was significantly reduced. fewer people sought to lead. when the two hurricanes occurred instead of as going down and helping in a major way so people would not have a reason to want to leave in the first place because they didn't have housing or water or sustenance, we did nothing. we are going to do a lot

in our ministration. we are going to be spending that 700 plus million dollars a year to change the life and circumstances of why people leave in the first place. that mother did not sit around on the kitchen table and say you know i got a great idea, i'm going to make sure my son gets taken care of-- how old was she cracks. >> he is nine and i also meant a 10-year old. >> a 9-year old, i'm going to send him on a thousand mile journey across the desert to the united states because i know joe biden is a nice guy and he will take care of him. what a desperate act to have to take. circumstances must be horrible. so we can do something about that. that's what the vice president will be doing, what i did when president obama asked me too come in deal. i was in turkey at the time and he said you got to come home and take

care of this, so we put together a plan and it had a impact, so the question here is whether-- how we go ahead and do this, what we do. there is no answer. >> quick follow-up if i may. do you want to see these unaccompanied minors stay in this country or should they be deported eventually? >> well, the judgment has to be made whether or not in this young man's case he has a moment home, why he would be put on a plane and flown back to his mom. >> sir, you mentioned circumstances that must be horrific. customs and border protection facility in texas, i was there, 1556% capacity right now with mostly unaccompanied minors with kids sleeping on floors and they are packed into these pods.

i have spoken to lawyers who say some of these children have not seen the sunshine in the days. what is your reaction to these images that have come out from that facility, it's what's happening inside, is it acceptable to you and when will this be fixed? >> that's a serious question; right? is it acceptable to me, come on. that's why we will move the thousand of those kids out quickly. that's why i have for it simple with up and i have been working from the moment this started to happen to try to find additional access for children to safely, not just children, but particularly children to safely be housed at while we follow through on the rest of what's happening. that's totally unacceptable. can-- can. >> thank you, mr. president. a way you about afghanistan, you face a papers, deadline for the withdrawal of us troops

from the country. as a candidate in foreign affairs you wrote that it is past time to end these forever wars. can you commit to the american people that by may 2, the us will no longer have forces in afghanistan? >> the answer is that it's going to be hard to meet the may, one deadline. this in terms of tactical reasons, hard to get those troops out, so what we have been doing, what i have been doing and what secretary blinking has been doing has been-- we have been meeting with allies, those other nations that have nato allies that have troops in afghanistan as well and if we leave, we are going to do so in a safe and orderly way. we are in consultation with our allies and partners on how to proceed. 's secretary blinking is

meeting in brussels this week with our nato allies, particularly those who have forces there and general austin just met and i'm waiting for the briefing on that , he is the leader in afghanistan and there is a you and lead that's beginning shortly on how to mechanically get people-- how to end this war, but it's not my intention to stay there for a long time. the question is how and under what circumstances do we need that agreement that was made by president trump to leave under a deal that looks like it's not being able to be worked out to begin with. how is that done, but we are not staying a long time. >> do you think it's possible--

>> we will leave, the question is when we leave. >> sir, do you believe it's possible we could have troops there next year? >> i can't picture that being the case. okay. kristin. >> thank you very much, mr. president. given the conditions that were just laid out, at the migrant facilities at the us border, will you commit to allowing journalists have access to the facilities that are overcrowded moving forward? >> i will commit when my plan very shortly is underway to let you have access to not just them but other facilities as well. >> to be able to have access to the facilities. obviously been allowed to be inside one, but we haven't seen the facilities in which

children are packed together to really give the american people the chance to see that. will you commit to transparency on this issue? >> i will commit to transparency as soon as i'm in a position to implement what we are doing right now. one of the reasons i have not gone down, my chief folks have gone down, is because i don't want to become the issue. i don't want to, you know, bring all the secret service with me too get in the way so this is being set up and you will have full access to everything once we get this thing moving. >> to be clear, how soon will that be? >> i don't know, to be clear. >> do you bear responsibility for everything happening at the border now? i hear you talk about the past administration. you decided to roll back some of those policies. did you move too quickly >> i'm sorry? >> did you move too quickly to roll back some executive orders of

your predecessor? >> first of all all the policies underway were not helping at all, did not slow up the amount of immigration as many people coming and rolling back the policies of separating children from their mothers, i make no apology for that. rolling back the policies of remain in mexico sitting on the edge of the rio grande in muddy circumstance with not enough to eat, i make no apologies for that. i make no apologies for any programs that did not exist before trump became president that have an incredibly negative impact on the law, international law as well as on human dignity and so i make no apologies for that >> ask you about foreign policy, mr. president. overnight we learned north korea tests two ballistic missiles. what is the red line on

north korea? >> let me say that, number one, u.n. resolution 1718 was violated by those particular missiles that were tested, number one. we're consulting with our allies and partners and there will be responses about they choose to escalate. we will respond accordingly. but i'm also prepared for some form of diplomacy but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearization. so, that is what we're doing right now, consulting with our allies. reporter: just very quick follow-up. >> you have only got another hour, okay? reporter: diplomacy, can you define what you mean? president obama warned incoming president trump that north korea

was the top foreign policy issue that he was watching. is that how you assess the crisis in north korea? >> yes. okay. hang on a second here. kristin. nancy. cbs. reporter: thank you very much, mr. president. i want to go back to voting rights. as anish mentioned republican legislatures across the country are working to pass bills that would restrict voting, particularly democrats fear impacting minority voters and young voters, very people who helped to get you elected in november. are you worried that if you don't manage to pass voting rights legislation that your party is going to lose seats, possibly lose control of the house and the senate in 2022? >> what i'm worried about how un-american this whole initiative is. it's sick.

it's sick. deciding some states that you cannot bring water to people standing in line waiting to vote? deciding that you're going to end voting at 5:00 when working people are just getting off of work? deciding that there will be no absentee ballots under the most ridge it circumstances? it is all designed, and i'm going to spend my time doing three things, one, trying to figure out how to pass legislation passed by the house. number one. number two, educating the american public. the republican voters i know find this despicable. republican voters. folks out in the, outside of this white house. i'm not talking about the elect officials. i'm talking about voters, voters. and so i am