ashley: it is monday, february 15th. millions are bracing for impact after another massive winter storm is sweeping the nation. slick roads caused a fiery pileup in oklahoma as heavy winds and ice knock out power to hundreds of thousands. we're live with the latest winter weather warnings. todd: president biden's immigration policy causing confusion, how three illegal immigrants convicted of child sex crimes almost walked free. ashley: a wild finish to the daytona 500. >> oh, teammate. right-hand they go in a hard crash. >> mcdowell is first to the line. ashley: michael mcstorming mcdl storming through the crash to win his first nascar race, the celebration from victory lane. "fox & friends first" continues right now. ♪ oh, we're halfway there.

♪ oh, living on a prayer. ♪ take my hand -- ashley: my shoulders are so burnt from being in daytona and to come back to new york, see piles of snow -- todd: that's not where i was going to go with this. ashley: where were you going to go. todd: i was going to say in kansas, where you're from, when you're in a bar and that song comments on does everybody fist pump. that's what we do in jersey. ashley: that's not what we did. todd: with that, good morning. you're watching "fox & friends first" on this monday morning. i am not sun burnt. i am todd piro. ashley: i'm ashley strohmier. a dangerous situation unfolding across texas as power is cut to reduce demand on the system. temperatures are below freezing leaving homes without heat. snow and fall beginning to fall.

winter storm causing this fiery multicar pileup in oklahoma. todd: the system set to take on us here in the northeast. janice dean joins us live with the latest. janice, the 5:00 a.m. report should be out. what do we know? >> we know that we're expecting not only today's round of snow, ice and rain, we've got more on the way this week and look at the temperatures. coldest temperatures in texas in at least three decades. this is wind chills, so what it feels like, dallas feels like minus 14, going up to the northern plains it feels like minus 36 in fargo. this is the coldest air of the season, the coldest air in decades as far south as the gulf coast. you can see the past 24 hours, record breaking snow across the south, and then we have a line of freezing rain and ice ahead of it, that's where we've got the rain and winter storm warnings in effect yesterday, the whole state of texas was under a winter storm warning

with blizzard advisories for the mountains of texas. where we have the purple, those are ice storm warnings across portions of the ohio river valley. this is coming up towards the northeast. along the coast it's mainly going to be a rain event. we're going to see a mixture of rain, freezing rain, sleet and ice. we have another system behind it, thursday and friday. that's going to be really dangerous with widespread ice. so here is the forecast as we get into tuesday and wednesday. you can see that icy mix there and then look at friday into saturday, northeast, this is going to be really dangerous, an ice storm unfolding for millions of folks along the i-95 corridor. forecast highs, you can see where we're not barely getting out of the single digits in a lot of these states and then as we go through the next few days, temperatures are going to moderate a little bit but that icy mixture as we get into tuesday, wednesday and then thursday, friday, is when we really see the potential for an

ice storm. we'll keep you up-to-date. it will be a busy week, my friends, ashley and todd. back to you. ashley: janice, thanks so much. todd: president biden will allow more than 25,000 people seeking asylum into the united states, reversing a major trump era policy. ashley: rich edson is live in washington, d.c. as republicans push back against an emerging border crisis. >> reporter: president biden is moving to dismantle the trump administration's border policies, now allowing about 25,000 asylum seekers to grad rally enter -- gradually enter the united states from mexico. the department of homeland security says as president biden has made clear, the u.s. government is committed to rebuilding a safe, orderly and humane immigration system. this latest action is another step in our commitment to reform immigration policies that do not align with our nation's values. this begins the reversal of the trump administration's controversial remain in mexico policy. that's where migrants applying

for asylum would wait in mexico while u.s. immigration courts consider their applications. that trump era program had enrolled about 70,000 asylum seekers. the associated press reports this week two border crossings will process about 300 people a day and now some republicans are jumping on the administration. >> this is all political. so he's opening the border, he's letting illegals pour in. they're not doing niko individual test. -- any covid test. yet he wants to potentially make you take a test if you get on an airplane and fly from one american city to the next. >> reporter: the international organization for migration said it will test asylum seekers for covid-19 before they enter the country. the changes in immigration policies have appeared to prompt confusion at the department of homeland security. as immigration and customs enforcement nearly released three men convicted of sex offenses against children, that's also according to the ap. the men remained in custody

after discussions between texas' prison system and immigration officials. on his first day in office, the president directed dhs to narrow its immigration enforcement to specific categories, like threats to public safety and national security and those who entered the u.s. illegally after november 1st. ashley and todd, back to you. todd: rich edson live for us in washington. thank you. ashley: and senator lindsey graham has a message for republican colleague mitch mcconnell after he speaks out against former president donald trump, the minority leader blaming trump for the capitol riot, despite voting to acquit. >> that speech you will see in 2022 campaigns, we've opened pandora's box. i don't know how kamala harris doesn't get impeached if the republicans take over the house. ashley: graham argues the same charges leveled against trump could be used in a case against vice president kamala harris after she supported a fund that bailed out black lives matter protesters last summer.

a big question now is where does the republican party go from here? gop congressman darrell issa says it's time the party go back to its roots, cherry picking the best of its leaders over the years. >> we've got a rebuilding to do. without the leadership of president trump and the way we've had it for the last four years, we've got to take the best of trump, the best of reagan, the best of lincoln and put it all together. we're the party of smaller government. we're the party of the small business and the small business worker. and as we show that to people, as president trump did for four years, but as we show it to people, we're going to become the majority party again. i expect to do it in two years. ashley: house republicans are currently targeting 47 seats held by what they deem vulnerable democrats and hope to pick up in 2022. a california cop calling the growing movement to recall governor gavin newsom a wake-up call.

officer adam garcia telling fox news if he is recalled i think it could be a great movement in the right direction, not just for california, but the rest of the country. the petition has one and-a-half million signatures needed to get on the ballot but organizers are trying to get 2 million signatures. randy economy joined us last hour. >> we don't want to leave any doubt in anybody's mind the validity and veracity of the people that have been working every day. they've been working like this for eight months. ashley: the state's republican party donated $125,000 to the movement over the weekend. todd: the new cdc director doubling down that it's safe for schools to reopen even if teachers are not fully vaccinated, pointing to a hybrid model outlined in the latest guidance, as the country's top coronavirus doc goes political pushing for congress to pass the relief bill. >> not something that you can't open a school unless all the

teachers are vaccinated. i think that the schools really do need more resources and that's the reason why the national relief act that we're talking about getting passed, we need that. todd: dr. anthony fauci stands behind the new cdc directive despite admitting it was previously known but never put down on paper. one state that has been forging ahead with reopening schools is iowa. governor kim reynolds said she prioritized parents and students and starting today all districts must offer in-person learning monday through friday. take a listen. >> the vast majority of our school districts have been open and kids have been in the classroom since august. and we've done it safely and responsibly. but some of our largest school districts refused and our kids are paying a price because of it. and so what i saw was a tremendous grass roots organization of parents and teachers and kids and administrators who we did listening sessions with and we said enough is enough.

if the pandemic has shown us one thing, it's that parents need choice. i said our kids can't wait any longer. we passed a bill that said every school district must offer parents the option to have their children in school, full-time, monday through friday. todd: last week white house press secretary jen psaki defined reopening schools as at least 50% of schools open at least one day a week. president biden relaunching a faith based white house office. the office of faith based neighborhood partnerships will help address the pandemic and combat systemic racism. the office was shuttered during the trump administration as president trump created a similar but more health focused office. overnight, the daytona 500 ended in a fiery fashion. take a look. >> oh, teammate. >> around they go in a hard

crash. kyle busch. >> austin, hard hit by kyle busch. >> mcdowell is first to the line but will have to go back to the moment of caution. todd: michael mcdowell taking it all after narrowly escaping a terrifying crash. fortunately, no one was hurt in that. ashley: it was his first career win in 358 starts. the crash, the second of the race, the first happening just 15 laps in. >> oh, no. >> oh, the 24's on his side. remember what i said about 21 cars? i don't know if we got there but, man -- ashley: this crash took out 16 drivers and put the race on pause. todd: the great american race took nine hours to complete following a very long rain delay.

this is a little insight into todd which i know you want. when i first saw who won, i was like michael mcdonald, the guy from the doobie brothers and i started singing a doobie brothers song in the car but it's not him. ashley: i'm glad you clarified that for us. and still ahead, lawmakers pressuring governor cuomo to release the full tape of his administration's call on nursing home deaths. our next guest says there needs to be an immediate criminal probe into the coverup. todd: i'm always telling you this. when you think valentine's day, you think white castle. the couple who owes their decades long relationship to the fast food chain coming up. i don't know about you. that sounds really good right now. ashley: it kind of does, yeah. ♪ cheeseburger in paradise. liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's something you shouldn't try at home... look, liberty mutual customizes home insurance so we only pay for what we need. it's pretty cool.

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>> whether a person died in a hospital or died in a nursing home, it's -- people died.

people died. but who cares? died in a hospital, died in a nursing home, they died. ashley: a new york assembly is demanding governor andrew cuomo release the full tape of his administration's call where a top aide admitted to covering up nursing home coronavirus deaths. todd: republican mike waller joins us live. thanks for being here. what do you think that the full tape is going to show? >> well, i think like we've seen with previous scandals, this was a secretly recorded meeting between the governor's staff and senate and assembly democrats and they released partial transcripts of it which to me says that they have the whole transcript and it also says that they have the full reporting. and given that this administration has spent the last many months covering up one of the biggest scandals in new york state history, they have an obligation to release this tape.

you know, president nixon resigned from office in part because of the secretly recorded tapes from the oval office that did end up revealing a coordinated coverup of the break-in at democratic party headquarters and what we've seen here is an administration that secretly behind closed doors admitted that they did in fact cover up the true number of deaths and so they have an obligation to release this data. and release this information and if they don't, it's clear that they're obstructing justice. so i'm calling on all of my colleagues to join me in demanding the immediate release of this tape by the governor's administration. it should be turned over to both federal authorities apthe state attorney general so that they can conduct a thorough criminal investigation because it's clear at this point that they have engaged in a criminal conspiracy to cover up these deaths. ashley: even with all of your

colleagues an yourself calling for the full transcript, do you think that's going to be enough for them to release the full transcript? >> no. you know, it's very clear, number one, that the legislature needs to return this week and revoke the governor's emergency executive powers that they granted him last march. we need to rein in this governor and return as a co-equal branch of government. that's number one. number two, i believe very strongly we need to convene a joint hearing between both houses of the legislature and start issuing subpoenas of to the governor, his staff, the commissioner of the department of health and really dig into all of the information and get some level of justice and accountability for the victims of this public policy decision that resulted in the death of thousands upon thousands of nursing home patients.

and then ultimately there needs to be a criminal investigation by the attorney general. the other day it was reported in the new york post that the current u.s. attorney for the southern district of manhattan is in fact the mother-in-law of melissa derosa and assuming that is factually accurate, she would obviously need to recuse herself from any investigation. the department of justice should appoint a special prosecutor to look into this. todd: we have about 30 seconds. with the press that seemingly has no curiosity about the situation whatsoever or at the very least limited curiosity, how upset are your democratic colleagues and could that be the thing that ultimately leads governor cuomo to have some accountability here? >> well, i am heartened by the fact that many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have been talking about this. ron kim has been big on this.

he lost his uncle in one of the nursing homes. so many of my colleagues are speaking out. but i have to say, one of the biggest reasons that this has gotten to this point is because of fox news' janice deefnl she has -- dean. she has been dogged in her determination. i appreciate the fact that she stood up not just for her own family but for all the families who lost loved ones due to governor cuomo's nursing home policy. todd: it has been something she has been on top of for the last year. we certainly support her. she has been through something that is absolutely horrific. we appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me. todd: beijing blasting the white house for expressing concern over the world health organization's pandemic probe. the u.s. is not you alone. a live report on the other country casting doubt on the investigation. ashley: minneapolis residents are begging for better security as crime spikes. the millions the city is spending on improvements after

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ashley: tensions are rising as china accuses the u.s. of gravely damaging relations amid the coronavirus pandemic. todd: carley shimkus is here as the biden administration raises concerns about the probe into its origins. carley: good morning. the world health organization fact finding mission into the origins of the covid-19 pandemic sparking an international war of words. the white house raising concerns about china's transparency and their embassy in washington hitting back in a statement, saying what the u.s. has done in recent years has severely undermined multilateral inches tuesdays including the w.h.o. and gravely damaged

international cooperation on covid-19. but the u.s. acting as if this never happened, pointing fingers at other of countries who have been supporting the world health organization. with such a track record, how can it win the confidence of the whole world? on saturday, white house national security advisor jake sullivan said the biden administration has deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the covid 19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them. those early findings suggest the outbreak was much larger in wuhan in december 2019 than previously reported. investigators now seeking access to hundreds of thousands of blood samples from the city the lead investigator also telling cnn they discovered dozens of strains already circulating in december, suggesting the virus began spreading months before. but an infectious disease expert

on the w.h.o. team claimed china denied that. the u.k. questioning the accuracy of this investigation. >> we need to know exactly what happened, was it in a wet market? did it come from the bats? all these questions are now matters of speculation. we need to see the data. we need to see all the evidence. so i thoroughly support what president biden has said about that. carley: president biden is set to discuss the pandemic and china during the g-7 summit on friday. todd, ashley. ashley: carley, thanks so much. todd: time now, 26 minutes after the hour. president biden pushing for gun control three years after the parkland school massacre. the laws he wants congress to pass. ashley: presidents' day is a time to honor our greatest leaders like lincoln. how can we preserve our founding fathers the midst of cancel culture. john crib says efforts to cancel

are misguided. he joins us, next. ♪

ashley: we are back with extreme weather. overnight, power is cut to hundreds of thousands across texas as freezing temperatures push the system to the max. todd: the massive winter storm is impacting millions across the country. the northwest hit with heavy winds and ice. janice tracking it all, she joins us live. janice, good morning. >> yes, this is going to be a storm and a week they'll be talking about for generations with the coldest air in decades and some of the snowiest snow they've ever seen, especially in parts of texas and the south. wind chill advisories, watches and warnings extend as far south as brownsville, texas, along the gulf coast. so that cold air is in place. these are current temperatures, not wind chills, by the way. but wind chills across the northern plains of minus 35 to

minus 50 and dallas is at 7 right now but with the wind chill it feels like minus 14. you get the picture. the cold air is in place. we saw many inches of snow and blizzard conditions over the mountains of texas and that is moving across the mississippi and tennessee river valley. winter storm warnings for at least a dozen states and we have several ice storm warnings as well for parts of alabama, up towards the ohio river valley including virginia and west virginia and you can see the forecast radar as this system moves through. we're going to get a piece of it this evening into tuesday for the northeast. and then we've got another storm system that's going to push into the plains states including texas across the mississippi, he ohio and tennessee valley as we get into wednesday and thursday. thursday, friday, that system comes to visit us in the northeast and that one could be a very icy one with the potential for ice storm warnings and over a quarter of an inch to half an inch on the roadways,

power lines and that's going to be really dangerous, the most dangerous weather you can have is an ice storm where you cannot travel at all. todd: we were talking about it during the break, at some point later on today we're all going to text or e-mail you, janice, what should i do, should i drive, we always do that. >> that's what i'm here for. todd: always so helpful with that. too bad the entire nation can't do that. that would be a lot of e-mails. thanks, jd. ♪ todd: presidents' day, a time to honor our of nation's leaders. but could the federal holiday be next on cancel culture's hit list. ashley: john crib shares his concerns in a fox news op-ed. thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you for having me, ashley, i appreciate it. happy presidents' day. ashley: getting to it. do you think presidents' day is next on the list for cancel culture? >> well, i hope not.

who knows. we've seen statues of presidents he defaced and taken down around the country and names taken off of schools and in some places they're being deemphasized in school curriculum. who knows. todd: how has the rewriting of history been allowed to foment in our schools. >> it's been going on for a while now. it's been creeping up on us. it started in higher education, moved down into k-12 schooling and it's a bad idea because it's -- you know, it's an attack on america, an attack on american history. there's been a lot of talk about the assault on the capitol of the last few days. this is a shame. because it's going to teach school children and others to

despise their own country. the french recently, they recently spoke up, some leading politicians and thinkers and said america, stop this. this is a bad idea. don't export it across the atlantic to our of country. we don't want it here. americans need to stand up to this. todd: as one who wrote a book about abe lincoln, you say it's vital to push back against thinking like this. a new york times op-ed said slave owners should not be honored with monuments and public spaces, this is not an eraser of history but rather an appreciation of the horrible truth of it. these guys erreed gravely. what would lincoln think of a comment like that? >> i don't think he would think very much of it. lincoln spoke in his first

inaugural address of the miss particular cords of memory -- mystic cords of memory that hold things together. they're an important part of the mystic cords that help unite us, a glue that holds us together, a common language. if we cancel them out, we may not have much of a country left if we can't have any heroes in common. ashley: really quickly, john, about 20 seconds, why is tearing down these statues, why is it such a bad idea? >> well, it's a bad idea because remembering these heroes helps us understand the principles and ideals that underlie our country and helps us remember how 45rd it was to win them and how hard it's been to preserve them over the years and it helps each generation remember what a unique and ex fairly place this done -- extraordinary place this country is. it's our duty and responsibility to uphold the freedoms and rights and pass them on to the

next generation. todd: happy presidents' day, sir, we appreciate you coming on and talking about presidents and their importance. ashley: president biden is vowing to take action to he prevent the next mass shooting. his message coming on the third anniversary of the massacre at marjory stoneman douglas high school. the president wants congress to strengthen gun laws including requiring background checks on all gun sales as well as banning assault weapons. flags across the florida area and florida state are flying at half staff to honor the 17 people killed. todd: following calls to defund police, minneapolis is asking for more officers to patrol the streets. i saw this one coming, right. this comes as the city sees a surge in violent crime. the department is down about 200 officers. many quit or took an extended medical leave following the death of george floyd and protests that followed. after cutting $8 million from the budget in december, city council approving $6.4 million to hire dozens of officers.

ashley: and a los angeles police officer delivers a sweet little surprise for two little girls. they received new bikes after their old ones were stolen last week. who would do that? the girls testing out their new rides in front of the officers. police say the officer who took the report from the girl's mother took it upon himself to replace the bikes. how sweet. love it. and still ahead, progressives and celebrities push to scrap the keystone pipeline. todd: it could cost you big. the potential spike in food prices, next. ♪ (noise of fridge opening) guy fieri! ya know, if you wanna make that sandwich the real deal, ya gotta focus on the bread layers. king's hawaiian sliced bread makes everything better! ♪ (angelic choir) ♪

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psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen, painful. tremfya® is approved to help reduce joint symptoms in adults with active psoriatic arthritis. some patients even felt less fatigued. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. janssen can help you explore cost support options. todd: this is not good. food prices could rise if the dakota access pipeline shuts

down, as hollywood makes its case to the president supporting the closure. ashley: cheryl casone from fox business joins us live with more. cheryl: good morning. if president biden decides to shut down the dakota access pipeline, experts say food prices will spike immediately. the pipeline transports oil daily to illinois. if it shuts down the oil would move with railway cars. 200 celebrities want the pipeline shut down over environmental concerns. a review currently underway by the biden administration on what they're going to do. todd: i mean, food is pretty expensive. have you shopped lately? it's going up. it looks like it could go up more if that happens. meantime, big players in the gamestop excitement looks like they're headed to the

principal's office. cheryl: the ceos of reddit and robinhood are set to face a congressional committee over the gamestop trading frenzy. reddit's ceo, robinhood's ceo set to appear before maxine waters and the house financial services committee, to testify about the shares' wild swings last month after traders sparked a massive price spike. keith gil, one of the traders, turned $53,000 into $48 million worth. he's going to be appearing. all of this starts noon eastern time on thursday. i think gil is going to be an interesting witness. we'll probably see a face behind the traders. ashley: cheryl, bitcoin hit an all-time high after elon musk obviously tesla said it would start accepting cryptocurrency as payment. this is a big talker. cheryl: speaking of trading craziness, bitcoin has been on fire this year.

yesterday, the cryptocurrency hit close to 50,000, an all-time high, after interest soared when tesla's ceo elon musk confirmed an investment in bitcoin and said customers can pay for tesla and other products using bitcoin. uber plans to consider bitcoin as a payment. bitcoin, up 70% year-to-date. some of the big wall street banks are creating divisions to start to handle trading in cryptocurrency. so it's really gotten mainstream. todd: seems after the first tranche it had a dip and it was like this is a flash in the pan but not anymore. this thing is mainstream. got to get used to it. cheryl, thank you. ashley: still ahead, californians are one step closer to forcing their governor to fight for his political life. the major goal the recall newsome campaign is approaching. todd: look who is sleeping in this morning. >> i woke up at the same time.

todd: you did. extra prep time. that's mele. she's on the big show. what's coming up? jillian: i've got a puppy. we have a lot coming up. the national guard could stay in d.c. until the fall. michigan congresswoman lisa mcclain demands answers from speaker pelosi on why troops from her state are being redeployed. and as you know, we spent a lot of time talking about getting kids back in classrooms, back on the field. san diego high school football coaches call out democratic politicians for they say doing nothing to help kids back on the field. plus, from rain delays to a fiery crash, nascar driver michael mcdowell overcame the obstacles to win his very first daytona 500. he will join us live this morning. "fox & friends first" rolls along right after this.

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todd: a petition to recall california's democratic governor quickly approaching the goal of 2 million signatures. ashley: jackie ibanez is live with the growing support in the move to remove gavin newsom from office. >> reporter: california residents say their governor's got to go and this weekend they came one step closer to making that happen. organizers say they have one and-a-half million signatures to get the proposal on the ballot and are trying to get 2 million. randy economy, who helped start the movement, joined us last hour to explain. >> we don't want to leave any doubt in anybody's mind the validity and veracity of our people out there that are working tirelessly every day, and they've been working like this for eight months. such an inspiration. >> reporter: newsom's popularity plummeted as the coronavirus rules have shuttered schools and businesses there in california.

adam garcia, a 20 year law enforcement veteran and recall supporter told fox news, quote, if he remains in office i don't think that it will be a wake-up you call for him at all and i think you're going to see a greater exodus out of california. if he is recalled i think it could be a great movement in the right direction not just for california but the rest of the country. there's buzz that former acting director of national intelligence, ric grenell, might be interested in newsom's job. he dodged the question on sunday morning futures. listen. >> i think what we have to do is concentrate first on the signatures that we're gathering. i want to focus on long-term solutions in california. that's going to take five, six years for somebody to really reform this place. >> reporter: california's republican party donated $125,000 to the recall effort over the weekend. speaking of recalls, former new york governor george ptaki says

the state should look at recalling governor andrew cuomo over the nursing home scandal. cuomo's top aide admitted her boss underreported the number of nursing home deaths by half. new york has no legal proceeding for ows of continuing an elected -- ousting an elected official midterm. ashley: earlier this hour we spoke to assemblyman mike lawler, who is calling for governor cuomo to be held accountable in the nursing home scandal. take a listen. >> we've seen an administration that secretly behind closed doors admitted that they did in fact cover up the you true number of deaths and they have an obligation to release this data. and release this information and if they don't, it's clear that they're obstructing justice. ashley: there have also of been calls for the department of justice to investigate the scandal. it's now 10 until 6:00.

cdc doubling down, saying teachers do not need to be vaccinated for schools to reopen of. todd: congressman dr. brad wenstrup joins us live on the latest push to reopen our nation's schools, next. ♪ struggling to manage my type 2 diabetes

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mitigation strategies such as teach he will vaccination from. a scientific standpoint we know it's possible to reopen schools safely without all of the teachers being vac sip nateed. the. todd: the cdc doubling down on back-to-school guidance. >> why are schools taking their time to open. dr. bradley joins us live. thanks for joining us this morning. get down to it. the more they push this reopening back. kids missing out informative years. really it's the kids taking the brunt of this. >> there is no doubt about it. my school children have been able to go to school since august. they have done it safely. i think there has been some times when a family member of one of the students maybe was diagnosed with having cody and the proper precautions were then taken but they have been open every single day since august

without any complication. and obviously that's before vaccination. in ohio, they are offering vaccinations to the teachers as a priority if that's one of their concerns. but, it's been shown over and over that you can do this safely. you touched on something that's been a problem not just for the kids with the schools shut down but for america going back to the very beginning. we weren't looking at the holistic health of america. we weren't looking at all the fallout and bad things that were happening to people such as increase in drug use. domestic violence, and things like that and you see this with the kids the number of suicides going up. and the interaction that's being missed in the social and mental development that the american pediatric society has said is vo very important for the children's development. we are not looking at risk vs. benefit and a lot of kids are suffering. an entire generation of kids are going to suffer greatly. and the country will suffer from that as well.

todd: congressman, in a battle between joe biden's own cdc and the teacher's unions why are the teachers unions still winning? this isn't trump vs. the unions anymore. this is biden's own cdc. >> you may have covered it with the unions. they seem to be the ones to not have the kids go back to school or the teachers be teaching that seems to be the problem. is he just bowing down to the union? it may be that's the case it. certainly seems like it. and the cdc director has said well, it is safe but then she had to walk it back. i'm sure that was pressure from above. and she said well, that was just my personal opinion. well, since when did your personal opinion differ from your scientific and professional opinion? it should be one in the same. so, we know what's going on here. it's very obvious what seems to be going on. and i think parents are tired of it. and the students really are just thirsting to be with other

students. todd: she knew what she was saying the first time and it was right the first time. >> yes. todd: meantime the joe biden administration expressing concerns about the china probe. we have deep concerns in which the ways the early investigation was can. are it's imperative this be free from -- are congressman, why this statement now wasn't trump saying this for, i don't know, a year? >> yeah. i think it's nice that the biden administration is codifying what the previous administration had to say. but, at the same time, they went and rejoined the world health organization. i served on our board of health in cincinnati. if you don't have accurate data when you are confronting a problem. certainly nothing like the size we see with this virus. if you don't have accurate data, you can't respond to it appropriately. what is interesting a friend of mine, another doctor, we were doing so much digging when we were first all shut down.

we came across an article in the south china morning post which has since been pulled from being online that talks about dr. who studied these bats for years. and she would bring them back to the wuhan lab. when the first two cases of this virus were identified in china, she was called back to take a look at them and she said that this virus matched 96% of one of the ones that she had brought back to the lab. todd: there you have it. congressman brad wenstrup, we preent you taking the time to give us insight on this. happy presidents' day. >> >> you too. >> valentine's day tradition continues even amid the pandemic. >> in 1989 she showed up for my birthday with a sack of white castles from new jersey and i said she is for me. will. >> offering them cush side curbe

service. they have made white cass set their date spot since meeting 30 years ago. not about how fancy it is it's about lo. how about you? i can go some white castle. >> i'm down for it right now. todd: this was fun. >> it was. thanks for joining me. todd: "fox & friends" starts right now. millions bracing for impact. >> major storm expected to bring heavy snow fridged frigid temperatures and wind chills. >> president biden will allow 25,000 people seeking asylum into the united states. >> this begins the reversal of the remain in mexico policy. >> this is an open border strategy. >> even in the areas of the highest community spread, children should get back to school. >> if the pandemic has shown us one thing it's that parents need choice. enough is enough. >> the campaign to recall gavin newsom from california says it has collected the 1.5 million needed signatures. >>ing are the foreseeable future is blowing up before him. >> the lincoln project