bottle and just take it in your purse when you go into the chick-fil-a and get some nuggets and such. a look at the markets at the close, the dow, s&p, nasdaq snapping a three-day losing streak. jobless claims lowest since march of last year. gains across the board. that does it for us on "fox business tonight." "can evening edit" starts right now. edward: breaking news, president biden facing mounting pressure both at home and abroad. right now, live pictures as israeli ground troops are hitting back in the because sagr strip. another group of hackers withac ties to russia hits the d.c. olmetro police department, these are just a few of the bold attacks this year. we will dig deeper if this is a test for the new president. joining us tonight, congressman jason smith, jodey arrington and and buddy carter. as well as kt mcfarlane and former acting deputy security

secretary ken cucinelli. also the crisis in the middle east intensifies. we investigate why president biden may be shying away from am stronger stance as we monitor the situation going on right now in israel. plus,ow it's the dividing the democratic party. these tests for the country highlighting speculation that president biden might not be note charge. we'll ask who is coming up. plus, biden caving to public pressure and continuing construction of parts of trump's border wall. digging deeper into why. finally, toss the mask in most cases if you're vaccinated. the cdc making a bombshell announcement, but it's something people already knew as common sense. i'm edward lawrence in for elizabeth macdonald. "the evening edit" starts right now. ♪ ♪ed president biden saying neither president putin, nor the russian government were involved

in the colonial pipeline hack but admits the people who did it were in russia. also thatin pipeline is fully operational, full capacity, but pain at the pump expected to get worse before it gets better. it takes days for the gas to travel through that pipeline. as the white house finally acknowledging a gas shortage after energy secretary jennifer granholm called it a, quote, supply crunch. missouri congressman jason smith is on the powerful ways anden means committee, the ranking member. i want to ask can you, you see the effects of the hack on the colonial pipeline. the gang database released for the d.c. metro police department because they would not pay. these are just a few of the bold attacks in 2021. thit's not happening on this sce year, this is what's happening this year. is this a test of the administration, do you think? ?>> oh, it absolutely is. the world's been watching,ed edward, and the fact that the administration didn't step in and help, help protect us

whenever you have some russians trying to extort $5 million, that's absolutely unaccepted. in the first 110 plus days of this administration, you have a crisis on the border, you have an energy crisis, and now you have an economic crisis with the rising cost of inflation. sure, gas prices might be a little bit more stable, but guess what? they're going to continue to go up just much like the food prices, much like people purchasing medicine, because of this huge cost and the huge increase of inflation. and it's because of the uncontrollable spending just in the first 100 days of this administration. they have either enacted or proposed more than $7.5 trillion of spending. that's $75 billion a day. that's why we're seeing cost of goods and services skyrocket. edward: a confluence of events here. i want to get back to that hack though. president biden not commenting on whether ransom was paid to those cyber attackers, although it's been reported that colonial

paid $5 million in cryptocurrency. does that in itself set a dangerous precedent going forward to tell hackers, hey, we're open for business? >> it does. it makes us look weak, and that should have never happened. you know what concerns me, you look at this administration, the world is watching their actions. they watched that they didn't ten in in this should -- step in in this situation, and they watched the president's proposed skinny budget. he proposed an average of about of anything that did not deal with national security. when it dealt with homeland security, he gave a 0% increase. that shows prior des. that's why you're -- priorities. that's why you're seeing people cross the southern border, and that's why you're seeing hackers coming after our homeland. it's unacceptable, and it's the fault of the administration. edward: president biden saying he wants to to work with vladimir putin on an international standard for hacking, literally.

almost nothing big happens in russia without putin knowing about it, so the attacks were initiated inside russia against our country, and now the president wants to work with the authoritarian in charge of russia, am i missing something here? >> the president is a day late and a dollar short. he should have been on the phone with putin much before this and got everything straightened out. this should not happen to u.s. companies, and the president should have engaged quickly. edward: energy secretary jennifer granholm facing serious backlash, now admitting the pipeline is the best way to transport fuel. this after canceling the keystone pipeline permits, destroying thousands of jobs. john kerry also testifying to the same thing. are they listening to their own data? >> they're not listening to their own data, they're not listening to awe americans. whenever -- in the first few hours of the biden administration and they limbing nateed keystone, firing tens of

thousands of american workers. and, you know, just this week she stood up in front of a press conference and said, you know, it wouldn't be such an issue if people drove electric cars. i'm telling you, folks across the united states, theyol don't want to hear those kind of statements. it shows how out of touch this administration is with the working class. edward: in the last 30 seconds, i want to ask you a little bit about that with the gas shortage. are we looking at the new greenn new deal in action? you mentioned electric cars. >> they're trying to implement every aspect of the green new deal. for example, the $2.3 trillion proposal as of a, quote, infrastructure package?tu more than $600 billion of that proposal is trying to implement the green new deal. they're trying in every aspect whether it's through executive order or the policies and legislation that they're now proposing. edward: congressman jason smith, thank you very much. for more, let's move a little bit south, bring in texas congress bank jodey arrington. the colonial pipeline starts in

your state. your district is northwest of that, but your thoughts, first, on the colonial pipeline resuming operations and now that that flow is on. >> well, i think it's just demonstrated to the country how important real infrastructure is. not the phony infrastructure or all things that we want to labeu infrastructure where we should debate health care in other committees or house or the long list of non-germane, irrelevant, non-infrastructure-related items. we need to make investments to facilitate the recovery and growth of our economy and protect critical infrastructure. and so i think it's revealing not only that we need to make the investment in critical energy-related infrastructure, but how dependent our country is on fossil fuels to make the wheels of our economy turn. edward: so, congressman, do you think we should be sending a message or should the u.s. be

launching our own cyber attack against those groups identified behind these attacks in addition to urging ab companies to invest more in protecting some of those networks? >> well, i think we absolutely need to make cybersecurity a priority. and again, when we talk about infrastructure and you have infrastructure packages, democrat packages that are really a trojan horse for all things outside of infrastructure, about 90% of of the current infrastructure has things about climate science and has other issues with health care and public housing, we need to make the investment in real infrastructure. and i do believe beyond roadsuc and bridges you have to have energy infrastructure and resill yens. and to me, resill yens is protecting our baseload of oil and gas and the pipeline ares that take it not only from the upstream production in west texas to everybody's homes and

businesses, but pushing it out around the world to our allies so that they're not dependent on russia or china, but that they get it from a freedom-loving country like the united states. edward: a net exporter like we were under the trump administration. so we understand that you sent a letter along with 55 of your colleagues including steve scalise to speaker pelosi and the leader hoyer demanding that they stop putting these green energy special interests over american families. tell us what your beef is really with the administration at this point. >> well, we've seen gas prices go up prior to the colonial pipeline hack because of the unilateral decisions that are hostile by this president, that are hostile to toes sell fuels. and you have a tax package, a tax hike that is going to be bad for the economy in general, it's going to run jobs back over seas, and it's going to make it much harder to recover. but it's being punitive.

there areni targeted provisionsn there that would take basically business expensing, the ability to depreciate assets that every business has but would repeal that for the fossil fuels industry. so on top of banning drilling, on top of getting back to the paris climate accord and all these things that are an assault on the very thing that, again with, are the underpinnings of our economy and our quality of life in this country, it's punitive and it's punishing a particular industry that, quite frankly, it's not based on science. it's ideological, it's even religious for the left who are really in charge and driving the train in terms of the democrat agenda. edward: is so in that vein, with the last 30 seconds, these long lines that we're seeing at the pump, is this a wake-up call for what the green new deal would look like relying too heavily on renewable energies and discarding oil and and natural gas? >> absolutely.

it's a wake-up call. we have safe, affordable and abundant supply of fossil fuels. we are energy independent for the first time in 67 years. we are the leaders in reducing carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. so -- and we're the greatest economy in the world. and the reason we are the land of opportunity. and people literally are dying to get here, it's because of our free enterprise system and the freedom to produce the natural resources that god has blessed us with in terms of fossil fuels. so we're doing it9 better, we're doing it cheaper, and we're improving everyone's quality of life. edward: thank you very much, congressman jodey arrington from texas. the great state of texas. still ahead, toss the mask in most cases if you're vaccinated. the ckc making the -- cdc making the announcement almost

everybody knew was coming. congressman buddy carter on why it took so long. >> it's about damn time. we should be following the science and not playing politics, and from the beginning of covid, there's been too much politics attached to it. really? i'll check that out. oh yeah. i think i might get a quote. not again! aah, come on rice. do your thing. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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♪. ♪ >> a first step to making masks an afterthought today, fully vaccinated can ditch the masks inside in most cases. here's the president late today. listen. >> i think it's a great milestone, a great day. it's been made possible by the extraordinary success we've had in vaccinating so many americans so quickly. to date, we've given out 250 million shots in 114 days. and we're seeing the results. edward: let's talk about that with georgia's buddy carter from the house republicans doctors caucus. what's your initial to this new mandateis or new recommendations coming from the cdc? >> well,ro the cdc relaxing the requirement of masks is, should coencourage people to get the vaccine and really joe biden and the democrats, they've been using the pandemic to oppress

people all this time. we should have had this lifted weeks ago. i've been vaccinated myself since the end of november, and yet we've had all these regulations in place and the mask regulations in place when they should have been lifted. finally, that message came through. finally, the teachers union and joe biden get the message that we've got to lift this restriction and that we've got to get back to a normal life. and, again, hopefully this will spur people to get the vaccination because it does work. it's 95% effective in a lot of cases, and it should be used. edward: it's very interesting, the timing of all this. we saw that report about the teachers' lobby group, the word for word, their mail became law, basically, in the cdc, in their rules. do you think public pressure played a role in this, for them to actually now follow the science? >> i don't think there's any question about it. the science needs to be followed, and it should have been followed long ago. i'm really, really dise a appointed in the teachers union.

going to have a serious problem with our students in the future. this fall you're going to see sixth grade teachers welcoming in fourth grade students, and that's going to be a big problem that's going to take a while to catch up. it may take years for us to catch up with that. and to think that the teachers union had influence and that the democrats and joe biden were allowing and cdc were allowing them to have this kind of influence, it's very disappointing. edward: fully vaccinated people are advised to wear their masks in crowded indoor settings such as in a hospital, prison, if you go there. do you agree with that part of it then? >> well, certainly, you know, there's still a recommendation on airplanes, when people are in tight quarters. perhaps that t is. but, again, if you've been vaccinated, this is no reason why you should have to wear a mask. i don't care what kind of setting it's in.n. but, you know, out of consideration of other people, okay, i get it. but at the same time, the key

here is the vaccination. people who have been vaccinated, it's been proven that they are safe and that they are effective. and, hopefully, this will encourage people to get vaccinated now that they know once they're vaccinated, they don't have to wear the mask anymore. edward: the president used to wear a mask outside despite social distancing. is this going to get the white house to clean up their messaging? >> i certainly hope so, because right now their messaging is far beyond mixed. i mean, it's just nonexistent. people don't know what to think from what the white house is saying. i mean, one day you turn on the tv you hear one thing, the next day you hear something else. the messaging from the white house and the cdc has been bad. and, as we we found out, they have been influenced by groups like the teachers union. edward: i wanted to ask you quickly about the gas pipeline. are you concerned about this, and is this what we're looking at with the green new deal?

>> well, it is. i mean, you know, finally we get realization of how important pipelines are. and even the administration has admitted, yes, it is important. this is a problem, a big problem. oh, yeah? well, if it's a big problem, why did you suspend and deny the keystone xl pipeline? makes no sense whatsoever. you understand now the importance of infrastructure and the importance of gas lines. it is the safest way to transport gas, and it makes suri that it's safe. and now we're suffering the consequences of this administration not realizing that. e. ward: do you feel like there needs to be another alternative, another pipeline? i mean, we're seeing the reliance that we have, 45% of the fuels for the east coast is reliant on this one pipeline. do we need other sources now? pe>> obviously, redundancy is vy important.bv whether it be on our electrical grid, our fuels, all of that is is extremely important, and it's been brought to light because of this situation we're

experiencing right now. edward: congressman carter, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. interesting conversation. a lot going on in the state of georgia there. thank you very much. an still ahead, as the crisis in the middle east intensifies, miwe investigate why president biden might be shying away from at stronger stance, plus how its dividing the democratic party. a conversation you don't want to miss with congresswoman maria salazar, next. >> number one, they wouldn't be doing this if trump were president. hamas would not. the iranians would be afraidfr trump would hold them accountable, so they're testing biden. and the response by the biden administration is the moral equivalency here. there is no moral equivalency. ♪♪ hey, guys! they have customized solutions to help our family's special needs... giving us confidence in our future... ...and in kevin's. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected. ♪ na na na na

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edward: president biden facing mountinge from a variety of crises both here and abroad,d, some of it self-inflicted. but right now israeli ground troops are hitting back in the gaza strip. live pictures there. with the escalating violence in the middle east, president biden is now facing a major foreign policy test amid warnings of a full scale war between hamas and israel. let's turn to congresswoman maria salazar who sits on the foreign affairs and middle east subcommittees. is president biden handling this correctly? >> hi. are you talking to me right now? tedt -- delaware ted yes, what o you think?

is he handling it right in. >> i think we still have to see more action coming from the biden administration. what we do know is israel is not at war with the palestinian people. us -- israel's at war with hamas. and iran would like the biden administration to go back and sit at the table under its terms to revise that iranian nuclear deal, and that's manager that we have to be watching and that we cannot make the mistakes of the past. we have to wait and see what biden's going to do. edward: the iranians' supreme leader praised the, quote, pure blood of resistance martyrs in palestine. there's a houthi escalation in saudi arabia, the iranians may think the proxies attack u.s. allies, the u.s. might be more eager to make concessions. is this a product of the biden administration reaching out to iran to try and make a deal with the regime, do you think? >> iou think this is a very good possibility. because we heard it in the first

100 days that the biden administration went out of its way to say to iran, hey, we want to negotiate with you once again. we have to understand that we're dealing with very bad actors. iran is the number one promoter of terrorist attacks all over the world. iran is willing to help anybody that wants to come and harm us, the united states,o or israel. and that is what we have to be very alert. and something else that i think you mentioned is that now the other arab countries, supposedes supposedly the ones who are more neutral, the ones who have established a relationship with israel, bahrain, qatar, those are in a very difficult spot because they need to see what's happening in the middle east.s with we know that that's a very convoluted neighborhood, but we have to stand next to israel. i've always said that israel is an island that is surrounded by 350 people that do not necessarily like them. and once again we're seeing that

since 2014 we have not seen such a havoc. and i think that you're showing some of this footage with what's happening right now. we have 1,500 rockets that have been launched in four days. who can stand that? israel is standing right now. edward: a test for this administration, also for the israelis. representative alexandria ocasio-cortez today saying president biden is siding with occupation, offering a statement of support for israel. and her voice seems to carry weight at least when you talk about spending plans from this administration domestically. so are you worried her agenda specifically now with this foreign affairs will spread into the white house foreign policy and we may at least be not as strong a friend of israel? >> well, i think that's very accurate, what you're saying. unfortunately, aoc is a democratic socialist.

that doesn't exist. you're either a socialist or a capitalist. and every time you mention the word socialism, that comes with it anti-semitism. if you're socialist, you're anti-semitic. and we know that, unfortunately, socialism is not the ideology that we need in this country, but it has penetrated deeply the democratic party. and that's where where we need to be very concerned. socialism and anti-semitism -- edward: i'm sorry,ma congresswoman. this unrest is coming at a time when we're seeing a number of crises here in the u.s. do you feel this this is a test by irar is this a test from hamas? >> well, it's the same thing. when you mention hamas, you're mentioning iran. gthey're allies. they are in bed together against two countries, israel9 and the united states. this is good versus evil. this is, unfortunately, this war between very bad actorssome good actors.

and that's why we have to be siding with israel. i just said in four days 1,500 rockets falling on your head. who can stand that? i understand that the palestinians have the right to have their own state. that is why we're supporting the two-state solution. but that's not what we're discussing right now. right now we're discussing that israel is being bombed with these rockets day and night for four days. i just repeat, 1,600 rockets. so we've got to stop this and then sit at the table and start negotiating -- gaedward: i agree with you. running out of time, coming up on a hard break. thank you, representative salazar, i really appreciate our conversation. >> thank you very much. delaware ted and next, speculation joe biden might not be in charge of the cub. we'll digg into this with kt mcfarland. >> in the little over hundred days, we went from secure border to crisis, from energy independence to lines at the pump, and now we went from peace in the middle east to hundreds of rockets fired by terrorists

on our best ally, actually over a thousand rockets being fired on our best ally, israel. this is exactly what happens, as you said, when we project weakness h from the to oval office. ♪ ♪ walter, did you know geico could save you hundreds on car insurance and a whole lot more? so what are you waiting for? world's strongest man martins licis to help you break down boxes? arrrggh! what am i gonna do to you box? let me “break it down” for you... arrgggh! you're going down! down to the recycling center! >>hey, thanks martins! yeah, you're welcome. geico. switch today and see all the ways you could save.

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edward: breaking news,es israel hittingk in the gaza stripip right now. former national security adviser kt mcfarland joining us. you've looked at this ream, what do you think about -- at this region, what do you think about the actions happening right now? >> i think it's so predictable, and it was so preventable. donald trump left the middle east at peace. the pal palestinians were squeed becauseac they weren't getting e support from iran because iran had been sanctioned, and iranpo was broke. what does biden come in and do? they hate donald trump so much that even the things that donald trump was going that were successful they had to reverse. so they support iran, they tell

the palestinians, you have a just cause, they separate themselves from israel, and now the predictable has happened.is iran has sent missiles to thenc palestinians, and the palestinians are firing the missiles into israel, and now the israel's going to have to send ground t troops into gaza o stop the missiles coming at reel. this is going to get worse. this is going to escalate into a real intifada. but the whole region is now back in flames, and it's such a tragedy because it didn't have to happen this way. edward: interesting. as the biden administration now being tested, it seems, on multiple fronts, many are asking, you know, who's running the show. i want you to listen to former national intelligence acting director ric grenell. he says it's rice. watch. >> president biden is too weak to stop the progressive left from taking over the domestic and foreign policy. kamala harris does not understand what's going on

because she's not an expert on foreign policy, and susan rice is really happy that biden is too weak, kamaha is totally distracted with the 50-50 senate and has to be up at the senate. she's running the show. we have a shadow president in susan rice. david: i've also heard chief of staff ron klain has a lot of clout in the white house, so twhat do you think about this? >> i worked in the white house for, three administrations, over a decade, and it's all about a location. it's a really small place. you know, it's even smaller than it looks like on tv shows. so if you're working in the west wing, you see the president a couple of times a day, couple of times an hour. susan rice, former national security adviser, has one of the big offices inspect west wing of the white house. if she's going to meetings, lawrence -- i mean, edward, she's not going to say, oh, i'm not going to talk about that

topic because i'm domestic affairs now. i think she probably has an undue apt of influence -- amount of influence in an administration where joe biden, i don't think anybody thinks he's fully in charge of the administration that he's running. edward: it's interesting, people are wondering about biden and the reason why he was speaking yesterday. he took two questions, and then he got lured back to the podium, and this is what he said. listen. .>> you guys are bad. i'm not supposed to be answering all these questions. i'm supposed to leave. edward: i'm not supposed to be answering your questions. he's the leader of the free world. [laughter] who is he taking orders from? [laughter] >> can you imagine donald trump -- he's never going to say i'm not supposed to answer your questions. he'll answer everybody's questions. look, you know, the tragedy is the f foreign policy of the bidn administration is the same foreign policy of the obama administration. it's a lot of the same people, susan rice being one. it's soft on china, don't stand

up to china, it's pro-iran, it's anti-israel, it'sel pro-palestinian, and it's talk tough about russia but don't act tough about russia. utso you now have a situation where in just a couple of month, they've got a crisis on just about every continent. they have an open border, they have a crisis with china in the south china sea, they have a crisis in the black sea and with hacking with russia, and now they've got a war in the middle east. it's not an accident that all these things are happening simultaneously. foreign policy is like shark tank, and if countries that are eryour adversaries sense weakne, they're all going to say this is my time. and they look at an american white house, washington is dysfunctional, a president that's preoccupied, a vice president that's preoccupied, and they're all thinking, this is my moment. i sense weakness, and i'm going to get what i can. that's why, you know, you're going to see more and more crises and more and more tough talk by the biden administration

and probably very little tough the action. edward: so put your white house hat on. if you were back in the white house, what would you recommend from here? >> i would have gotten on the phone with vladimir putin and vailed said, vlad, that hacking thing, you gotta stop that right now, and don't tell me that a you don't know who these people are. they're in your territory, and they're not hacking you, they're hacking me. i'd let everybody know, that would send a great signal to the chinese, to the russians, to the iranians that this is a guy who's in charge. sadly, what happened? they paid the ransom. bad, bad president. [laughter] edward: kt mcfarland, i appreciate it. we'll ransom you, maybe you'll pay. i doubt it though. thank you very much. >> thanks, edward. edward: coming up, nicole malliotakis is here to tell us what she thinks about bind meeting with gop leaders today, was it all just for show, or do we actually see a bipartisan deal on real infrastructure? ♪

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♪ edward: so round two of the meeting between president biden and gop lawmakers on the massive american jobs plan which has some infrastructure, mostly other things in it. the president says he's hoping to find some middle ground, so is this talkk of compromise just for show? let's bring in new york congresswoman nicole malliotakis from the transportation and aninfrastructure committee. this is what the president said about this, listen. >> look, what we're doing is at the, at the request, mutual request of us getting together, getting heeding republicansess - leading republicans in the senate together to seeor if we n work out something on a compromise on infrastructure. and i know they're sincere about it and so am i. and what we're going to try to do is figure out what we can agree constitutes infrastructure

from each of our perspectives and then see whether or not we're in a position that, how, how much we want to fund it above theun baseline. the baseline meaning what we spent last year. and then talk about how to proceed from there. edward: do it my way or we'll just ram it through. what do you think, can it be done? >> look, i think time will tell, but the real question here whether he's willing to stand up to the radical left of his party that are making so many demands that are unrelated to transportation infrastructure. thisan is a president who said e wanted to work with us on a covid relief package a and then the rammed through a $1.9 trillion package despite the fact that there was still $1 trillion sitting on the table without any input from republican orn democrats, quite frankly. so it's hard to tell at the point whether he's serious or not. we see a lot of talking, but will he really take our suggestions that this needs to

be a very focused plan that's based on true transportation and real infrastructure. energy to infrastructure to prevent further cyber attacks like we saw other the weekend, real infrastructure investment. that's really the question here, and i don't have the answers to that right now, and i don't think he knows either whether he's going to be tough enough to stand up against that radical left that is trying to hijack this proposal and make it a green new radical deal that aoc wants. edward: let's take it a step forward. do you see a way to pay for this plan without impacting middle class taxes then? >> look, that is a real concern. and there are some fees that can be increased or some alternatives. i've always suggested that, look, government spends money on all sorts of things where they don't belong. they should be looking at the metrics, seeing what is not working right now and shifting those funds. just like i suggested with the $1 trillion that was left over

from the covid relief package, instead of using those funds where it was needed at that moment, they decided to authorize another $is.9 trillion -- 1.9 trillion in department. so i think the question is, you know, what are we going to focus on in this package, and let's make sure that we're not repeating the mistakes of the past. the covid relief package has led to more people staying home because they're earning more moneyg staying home than going back to work. there's a major labor shortage right now, and we don't have the people to go to work to increase the supply chain, and that is at major problem. everything from lumber to agriculture, people are seeing increases in their gas prices as well. all that's related to the policies that have come forward through president biden so far. so we have to be cautious about that, and we just want a reasonable -- edward: right. ouand possibly increasing the amount of people relying on government. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell says the red line

for him is reopening that 2017 tax bill. do you see democrats compromising op their tax agenda then? >> i do actually see some democrats willing to side with us against increasing corporate taxes and capital gains. remember, this is supposed to be a stimulus package, which meansi you want to encourage the economy. any increases in taxation that would encourage investment outside of the united states of america, actually, what would be the point of a stimulus package then? we want to be smart about it. but i think one of the main things is as a new yorker, i do want to restore the s.a.l.t. deduction that was taken away and capped in that 2017 plan. as a new yorker, i know that affects the residents i represent that are homeowners, and i'm going to push for that. but certainly, we adopt want to increase taxes concern we don't want to increase taxes at a time of economic recovery. that would be a mistake. ted ted thank you very much from the great state of new york.

i appreciate it. we'll continue this conversation. continue watching. >> thank you. edward: coming up next, wall or not if to wall? the biden administration now saying it needs to complete at least one more section. we'll tell you why with former department of homeland security acting director ken cucinelli. ♪ >> and the numbers this year alone, and and we're just in the month of april, have now surpassed in most categories previous year totals. so you can see where we're at, and you can see where we're going. and,d, again, this administratin continues to not look at the issue on the border and try to enforce the law on the border. again, what they're trying to do is solve this capacity issue. and it's the wong approach. ♪ ♪ insurance with liberty mutual, so you only pay for what you need. hot dog or... chicken? only pay for what you need.

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♪♪ edward: as the biden administration reversing course and continuing construction on part of the border wall on the mexican border but only because of public pressure. that part of the wall will be used as a levee to stop the rio grande from flooding homes and remember when biden campaigned on tearing down the border wall. joining me now is former dhs acting deputy secretary ken

cucinelli. over the past few days we've watched these crazy pictures on fox news channel of hundreds of people turning themselves in, no resistance, no wall. this is also a national security risk, right? >> oh, absolutely. i meat the same time we see this massive invasion going on that is enriching the drug cartels south of the border, we also see drug availability on the streets of american cities going up, and that's coming across the southwest border. to what you know is going on -- so what you know is going on is that the cartels are sending people off on certain preplanned routes by them, they have intelligence themselves, and they run these right at the agents. as you noted, people are just turning themselves in because the government is facilitating their i legal immigration -- illegal immigration. at the same time, that overwhelms the border patrol in terms of manpower, and at the same time the cartels run the

drugs across a different part of the border and are, thus, far less opposed in doing so, and it's easier for them to deliver those drugs to the whole rest of the uncountry. that's why the former customs and border protection commissioner mark morgan likes to say every town is a border town. your home community is affected by how this administration is breaking down border security. edward: somewhere about 178,000 people last month were processed by the administration. that's not including, that doesn't have the number of gotaways, the people who did not get caught. >> right. edward: just to your point. and those folks could be carrying drugs, diseases, or we don't even know who they are. >> well, heck, the people they're welcoming in are carrying the pandemic. of they're testing positive, and this administration has in previous months been putting them on public if transportation anyway. incredible.

they tell you and me to go hide in our basements, and they stick covid-positive people buses and planes with the rest of us. so the dichotomy is enormous, it's hypocritical, and we just saw mayorkas testify earlier. and he mentioned various aspects of the border like getting at root causes. the one thing he didn't mention is enforcing the law which is can -- which is the most fundamental respondent within the department of homeland security. edward: and the video that's running there was the mexican authorities finally after two and a half days or so stopping the flow in that one particular area. was there phone calls or cooperation between the u.s. and mexico in that particular area? is that t why they show up, because it was on tv? >> so under the trump administration we had daily communication. when i say we, i mean career professionals right there on the border had regular communication with their mexican counterparts on the other side of the border. but make no mistake, the drug

cartels control the southern side of the border. it is the a great big 2,000-mile toll booth for them, and they are making a mint off the biden effect. one great big money opportunity for them, and this is easy money the biden administration is feeding to the mexican drug cartels. edward: yeah, there are new warning signs that the surge is straining the american foster system as the biden administration is sending ununaccompanied kids through the facilities as quickly as possible to get them into hhs care. and it's not just kids, the cbp rescued an elderly woman in a mountainous area. this is another example of heroic efforts that we with little hear about and the heartless conditions on the open borders subjecting illegal immigrants to coming in, right?

>> look, the border patrol and ofo agents who work the legal crossings, they save thousands of lives every year, and as you just noted, they get no credit for it. do you ever see the mainstream media cover that? of course not. almost never. we've seen video in recent weeks of children, for instance, beine dropped from 30 feet high by these human traffickers who don't give a flying rat's tail about these children. and your point about older folks is just as legitimate. if they're slowing them down, they just leave them in the desert because they do not care about these people. that is part of the humanitarian aspect of this crisis. you mentioned it's a national security threat to the whole united states. it is also, of course, a humanitarian crisis, and it's odflooding a foster system that already has so many problems with a whole wunsch of illegal -- bunch of illegal aliens.

edward: on the pipeline, this hack that took place, it seems the company paid, colonial may have paid, reports are. would you have recommended that or not? last ten seconds. >> yeah. wish they hadn't done that. i live in one of the affected states. it's a big deal, but this just encourages more ransomware and cyber attacks. edward: i appreciate it. ken cucinelli, i'm edward lawrence in for everyone. welcome to "kudlow." i'm larry kudlow. we're going to go right to president biden, i guess, who's got a surprise press conference or something else. let's take a listen. >> -- roll out the vaccine and boost our economy. as i said in my joint address to the congress, this vaccination effort has been historic logistical achievement for the united states of america. over the past 114 days, our vaccination program has led the