back here bright and early tomorrow morning. will: we'll see you tomorrow, see you tomorrow, jedediah, have a good saturday. pete go enjoy that kid's basketball tournament. pete: absolutely go stillwater 5 black. that's the team big basketball tourney, have a great saturday, everybody. neil: you're looking live on the floor of the united states senate, where they are doing something called a vote-o-rama if you will the number of amendments attached to this $1.9 trillion stimulus plan most will likely be voted down but a last ditch effort on part of the republican s to try to reign it in even some democrats who want a little bit more added on. we're following this very closely, because by days end, we just might be getting a vote in the u.s. senate, on all of this. there have been fits and starts to all of it. we'll outline it for you but the rush to get it done is on. speaking of rushes, the rush to judgment on andrew cuomo, he was

taken down by a democrat control of the new york state assembly and legislature that stripped him of a lot of the powers that he enjoyed overseeing covid-19 in the state of new york, but that is just the beginning because separately, there's a rush to get him out of office or as some democrats want to see , just resign, and then, the rush to get an all-civilian crew in space by the end of the year. we'll be talking to two of those astronauts slated to lift off later. we've had civilians in space before, this will be all civilians in space, and we've seen that, well, never before. welcome, everybody, we're here, and ready to blast off on the old cavuto, and this is cavuto live, we've got a lot going including what's happening first on earth and in the washington d.c. part of earth and in the united states senate, where they are debating that huge $1.9 trillion covid stimulus relief measure, it is going to be quite a battle but

in the end, we're told it'll probably fall along party lines you never know mark meredith at the white house on how it's all going down right now, hey, mark. reporter: neil, good morning to you, while most of us were sleeping the senate stayed the $1.9 trillion american rescue plan, the president says this is essential to get the country through the pandemic but we heard from so many republicans that say this is really about funding democratic wish list priorities. as we talked about the senate still in session right now, we're expecting this to keep going, at least for a few more hours, overnight the senate dismissed the idea of trying to force an increase to the minimum wage into the bill, a handful of democrats joining gop senators in that opposition, the biggest breakthrough though coming yesterday, when senate democrats agreed to a plan that would extend enhanced unemployment benefits at $300 a week through early september, and some of those benefits will now not be taxed based on your income, and it is a bit less money per week, than democrats originally had pushed for. want to also show you the latest jobs report that shows you where

the economy stands right now. last month, employers adding 379,000 jobs bringing the unemployment rate to 6.2%. the labor department says they are seeing some growth in the leisure and hospitality industry but the president says these gains are far from enough. >> our economy still has 9.5 million fewer jobs than it had this time last year, and that rate would take two years to get us back on track. reporter: it's unclear at this point if we are going to hear from president biden over the weekend. his schedule appears to be a little bit influx. we're still waiting to see he talked to us on friday we'll be looking to see if he has any more to say about what's happening up on the hill or on the economy. we'll let you know, neil. neil: all right, thank you, my friend, mark meredith at the white house, want to go to senator mike braun in the middle of all of this the indiana republican joins us on the phone senator thank you for taking the time. well the president made it clear as you know and your democratic colleagues made it clear that

despite the strength in that employment report, and that we don't need this , that they want this , and they will likely get this. what do you say? >> well they are definitely going to get it and i'm literally here the last three to four votes we've been up all night and the only accomplishment for the american public be what you heard, the unemployment benefit will be at $300 and will go through september, but neil, if you would look into the amendment that we offered to flush out some of the stuff that is in this bill, because 90% of it unrelated to covid, and there was one item that was just a small amount in today's denomination, 390 million was from the administrative fees associated with the underlying

authorization of 70 million for the sba and there was a group of ag loans that were not only forgiven by ethnicity, but given a 20% dividend, to boot, and that kind of stuff, when i think people look into what's in it, that wish list that we've heard about that's been rushed over here, we've tried to flush it out with roughly 25-30 amendments but there's more than you can imagine totally unrelated, two covid reliefs and the healthcare issue, economies rebounding back in the states that had good business climates and didn't have these massive shutdowns in relation to the disease itself, and i think we do see it starting to tick up it's steady over the next year or two, and what do we have, 5%

predicted gdp growth for the first quarter and i don't need to explain what that means when it comes to inflation and that it's simply not needed, we're borrowing every penny of it to boot. neil: well that's nothing new to your point, senator. i do wonder though, and the democrats with whom i've been talking about this very subject, senator have been saying, well, republicans are fine ones to talk about the deficits getting worse, debt building, you know, it was a republican president donald trump who urged during the fall to go big and a bigger stimulus plan be better than anything smaller. in fact, his wishes were something more in total than this , at the time. how do you answer that, that it was fine for donald trump evenl, he was doing it not to make any excuse for how much or when it

was too much, so we were not where we could see the tangible evidence that we got on the run and we did roughly 4 trillion bipartisan so it was the five bills prior had 90 votes plus on each of the five, and i think that you could make the case in general though, this place runs with trillion dollars structural deficits related mostly to social security and there are only four or five of it, neil, that go in ways that would show it. that's a problem that preceded trump. don't know whether his forte was being a fiscal conservative and that had to be shown yet, but there's no doubt about this , and most of it comes from the house. the senate, on the democratic side, didn't add as much to it

as i imagined and most of it came over from the house, which they aren't going to change, and i think what the american public needs to do is look into the details of what's in the bill, in those committees that got rushed over here and thank goodness ron johnson and e lise davis looked at it and then for it to be read outloud, and then the 11-hour delay was planning to get the unemployment benefits at 300 bucks. neil: okay, we'll watch it very closely, senator i know you're in the middle of all of that and this vote-o-rama will go on but a vote looks like to your point might be had tonight. mike braun the indiana republican senator. in the meantime switching to politics now, where it's going on with governor cuomo, if you think about it, last year at this time, he was a rock star. now, more rock. fellow democrats reigning in his covid-19 ownership and command,

and that is just for starters. many of those same democrats are urging the governor to resign, the very latest following all of this , alicia? reporter: hi, neil governor cuomo has indicated he will sign a bill that was passed by state lawmakers yesterday to strip him of temporary emergency powers that were granted to address the covid crisis. this as a second part of that cbs interview with charlotte bennett airs, telling nora o'donnell she was transferred to a new job after telling cuomo's chief of staff the governor asked if she was willing to sleep with older men and in a meeting with cuomo's general counsel, bennett says that they apologized and acknowledged the governor was inappropriate. out of fear, bennett says she did not want the matter investigateed. >> she said you came to us before anything serious happened it was just grooming and it was not yet considered sexual harassment, so for that, we do not need to investigate.

reporter: bennett is one of three women to come forward with complaints about cuomo. in a broad apology this week he said he never knew he was making anyone uncomfortable. his office is also defending itself against reports it changed public data, to make the number of nursing home deaths appear smaller. the wall street journal and new york times reporting his team pushed to strip the count of those moved from nursing homes to hospitals where they died in a statement the general counsel writing, "there were repeated public statements acknowledging the out of facility deaths were not being listed as a subset of nursing home deaths, stemming from concerns related to potential for double counting and consistency and accuracy. " republicans and some democrats now calling for him to step down >> so i believe not just me, more people, are calling for his resignation, but if he doesn't resign, it will soon turn into an impeachment process. reporter: and, neil, cuomo says he will not resign.

neil? neil: thank you very much, alici a kunia following all these developments and we've reached out to the governor and have not heard back this is always the case, hope springs eternal but in the meantime, the governor when it came to some of these issues that these women have raised that he's a hugger, a very physical and emotional person, and that's just the way it is, but it's not so much his actions as much as his words. that is what could prove the lynch pin here, and the problem here, after this. wanna build a gaming business that breaks the internet? that means working night and day... ...and delegating to an experienced live bookkeeper for peace of mind. your books are all set. so you can finally give john some attention. trusted experts.

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neil: all right, i want to take you to baghdad right now, the pope is celebrating mass right there, he has already met with the grand ayatollah, and he's hold toured the ruins city and again these are unprecedented events certainly for a pontiff to say nothing of

those from the west period, his first trip, obviously, given the pandemic, outside of italy and the better part of a year, we're monitoring all of this , and in the meantime, we're monitoring developments closer to home, and the dust-up over governor andrew cuomo, not only what he knew and when he knew it regarding that nursing home death scandal, but again, all of these women coming forward and saying that the governor acted inappropriately. the governor, for his part, has said he had no idea he was, take a look at this. >> i never touched anyone inappropriately. i never knew at the time that i was making anyone feel uncomfortable, and if i ever did make people feel uncomfortable, which i now understand that i have, i apologize for it. neil: all right, but it wasn't the issue of his hugging, or

holding a woman's face and the issue now is what he said, his lawyers had advised the governor not to talk about this and he did and he had a trap or something that his accusers could say prove their point that he made it a very harassing environment. tom dupree with us former deputy assistant attorney general. of a different time, for men of his generation, but it wasn't the coming on to these women or making them feel uncomfortable but it was the stuff he said, the strip poker comments allegedly made and some of these other things to a young woman that could she consider an older man, and that is what brought this to the next level, right? >> neil, i think that's right and look, i think the governor frankly is digging himself a deeper and deeper hole the more he tries to offer these explanations for what he said, and look, he's not disputing or

at least he hasn't yet disputed a lot of these things that he said to these women, and his explanation that it was just playful banter, or that's not what all what he intended i just don't think is credible. it's obvious what he meant by his statements and obvious that he was propositioning them, or testing the waters for a sexual relationship and his attempts to explain and spin this to mean something different than what he obviously meant, i don't think are particularly persuasive. neil: you know, even democrats are trying to reign his covid-19 authority powers in by more or less saying this is delegated everyone now, the powers we granted you a year ago don't holdup now, and obviously, be an up hill battle to impeach him, some of the same democrats, a good man it i talked to, want him to resign. that seems to be unlikely, but on the nursing home situation, and the fact that now, he's kind of been neutered on this subject , and these ongoing, you know, investigations into the charges of these women, he

could be sort of like political dead man walking, right? >> well i think that's right and look, obviously the two issues go hand in hahn. there's no question that so many new yorkers, not just politicians, but have lost an enormous amount of faith in the governor. remember, he is being held up as a model governor with how to handle the covid situation and now we're learning some of his numbers may have been dramatically modified to make him look better. i think a lot of new yorkers have also lost faith in him because of all of these allegations from these women saying that he's not the governor that we thought he was but he's someone quite different so i think they are right. i think his power and i suspect that the attorney generals investigations will move ahead and his power will be weakened even further in the weeks and months to come. neil: it would still be an up hill battle to impeach him wouldn't it? >> it would. look new york has a scenario or a setup that's similar to

congress, when it comes to impeaching the chief executive. you need both a procedure process, so i think it be tough to actually begin impeachment proceedings i suspect. if the investigation uncovers more facts and his approval rating continues to deteriorate and it's about whether he can continue in office even before it comes. neil: all right we'll watch closely, tom dupree, former deputy assistant attorney general, much appreciated tom thank you for coming in on saturday nonetheless but on this saturday, looking at the week that was in the markets. interest rates are backing up. that might bother you if you're in the market for more it might trouble you, but they are backing up for all the right reasons, the economy is on fire. on fire so much that a lot of people are saying do we really need $2 trillion worth of stimulus? after this.

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neil: all right, want to take you to the floor of the united states senate. ted cruz is addressing his colleagues right now. they are in the middle of what they call a vote-a-rama where there are amendments, sometimes dozens that could come up, and they vote on them and some get in, most never get in, but the back and fourth on this as the debates ensued in this case between dick durbin and of course ted cruz over this whole $1.9 trillion package is even necessary. the vote, some time tonight in the senate. so that's the way it's looking as they get through these various amendment votes and debates. it's a drawn out affair, they were there all night long, and they did get together an agreement on reigning back some of those weekly unemployment benefit checks, it's $300 from $400 with the

compromised ground found on extending them until at least september 6. so, they are making progress, but in inches and progress could be in the eye of the beholder here because many people say do we need something of this size? take a look at what happened in the markets and why they were acting the way they were. up strongly on a jobs report that showed 379,000 more of them in the latest month, and the unemployment rate inching down to 6.2% the feeling seems to be that we're doing a-okay and we don't need this type of massive help. david bonson joins us right now, the group cio, kelly himan, democratic strategist, and the former dallas fed advisor. danielle, from your perspective, having worked for the federal reserve, from, you know, jerome powell the fed head and some of his district presidents, to a man and woman they've been saying you know? we want to err on the side of big stimulus and we'll sort it

out later but better to gold dig so they seem to be supporting this. should they? >> you know, i think if the federal reserve has tip towed too far into the political for e y and should not be commenting on the size of the stimulus package, especially because a lot of their own internal work has shown that the multiplier effect, so to speak, is not going to be as strong as what it was when we initially needed the relief as when we did when the shutdown s initially occurred and that need no longer exists to the same extent, to even a fraction of an extent. there are permanently unemployed americans, and that number is high, about 4.5 million with what we saw from friday's jobs report so there are going to be americans who are going to need continued assistance, but again, the 1.9 trillion is very much a shot gun as opposed to a rifle and being targeted and spending taxpayer money wisely, you

mentioned interest rates arising before the break. if we get true inflation, because you're pumping too much money into the economy, that sets off a whole different chain of events that we don't necessarily need to see see anthropology overindebted nation as we are. neil: well you know, joe biden would ask that very question, does not seem to fear that happening that this is almost too stimulative and will get inflation going. david what did you make of that? >> well, i actually think that it's very unlikely that the white house economic advisor s right now even disagree with larry sommers and some of the others that the have thrown water on this. i just think they are in too deep. i think politically right now for them to backtrack from this it be really really devastating. it was very unwise to come out so big and it was even more unwise to come out as danielle said, something that is so shot gun oriented a rifle would have been really really effective here. we can disagree as i do about

the amount of money they want to give directly to the state, but this $1,400 issue and the way that they are structuring the payment, the direct payments , it's not even stimulative. it's really just silly and so i think that they are in a position politically that they can't back frac track from. neil: that might be the case but kelly then i'd start wondering about when you look under the hood and get into this package and you realize more than half of it is in future years and a good chunk of it has nothing to do with covid and i can understand an eye popping figure like 1.9 or $2 trillion but they seem to be that is those pushing this , are shooting themselves in the foot in the face of strong economic news, to advocate for something that they are, the economy needs right now, yet more than half of this is not for right now. >> well i would disagree with you on that studies have shown a recent poll of americans support this covid relief, people are

struggling personally, professionally, financially. neil: you're right about that. they do. they do support and i don't think they know all of the features of it. if they were similarly told more than half doesn't take effect until outgoing years and so much of it has nothing to do with covid relief right now, i don't know if ahead. >> you know, i would disagree with you on that. i think we had one senator who wanted to waste time and read 10 hours of the bill. i think that's horrible. i think the democrats want to help american people and they are independent thinkers. they are negotiating a deal on it. but i would disagree with you and i think people are struggl ing and they need help financially and they need healthcare, small businesses need help, and i think american people knew 100% about the bill which i do believe they do i do and it's a shame the republicans are so anti-against this bill and not helping the american people. neil: all right, well, i think when you look at the particulars

like the 350-plus billion for cities and states when a lot of them are surprisingly coming forward and announcing a surge in revenue whether you're talking new jersey or connecticut, danielle, you could at least widdle that figure down but to kelly's point that's not going to happen and it's going to get passed so let me ask you about the fear of this being too much. when we say it's too generous or it makes the debt too much worse, i mean, what's new? right? what is something that you think would come out of this as not good? >> well so you mentioned states and you've got real estate prices, you've got housing prices that are going through the roof and that's going to benefit states. that's why we're seeing and municipalities that's why we're seeing surprises in tax revenues but you have to understand that if you give the patient more medicine than they need, and we know that a ton of this $1,400 is going to go to families who

have good incomes, who have not been impacted by the pandemic, and who were going to take the money, are they going to put it into even higher-priced housing? are they going to put more and we know a ton of it is flowed into the stock market. are they going to put it into the stock market and potentially push those prices too high to where you're really setting up for quite the hangover, come 20 t2, come september, when these unemployment insurance benefits wear off and you're back at square one, because so little of the actual legislation is being applied to the people who need the help the most, and you've got the savings rate in the united states is 20% right now and they anticipate that that's going to climb even higher, again, it's free money. that's all good, but it's not targeted and it's not going where it needs to go and we're going to end up at the discussion over again on september 6 when these unemployment insurance benefits run out and you'll be saying what was the return on taxpayers investment? neil: all right, well the debate

right now seems to be not if, but when, and this does look likely, so then we can explore it as we will a little later and the result once we do get it and follow-up spending including a big infrastructure package that could be coming soon afterwards, guys i want to thank you in the meantime, guys we can take a peak back at the senate floor here. they mix in these debates usually republican and a democrat on whether an amendment is necessary to add, they quickly vote on that and they move on to the next debate, we're told that they have anywhere from two dozen to as many as 40 of these amendment s to decide, and now they could cancel those , at any time, but for now, they are debating them one at a time that's why they call it a vote-a-rama and then they get to the actual vote, which has no ra ma attached to it, after this. ♪ ♪ water? urgh! (rocket ship) hey! hey! heads up. thank you! water tastes like, water. so we fixed it. mio

keeping your oysters business growing has you swamped. you need to hire. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo neil: all right, you're looking live at a border crossing in texas right now, that gate is open. it's not always open, but it just shows you that these wall issues that come up, and you know, president biden has stopped further wall building along the border, but all of this occurs at the same time, he's also put a halt to deportations and said there's got to be a more logical way to treat the minors who have come into this country, setting up at a facility probably at a u.s. military base in virginia, but the back drop of that is

100,000 migrants who have been reported at the border, in the month of february, we haven't seen a number that high in a number of years. lucas tomlinson following this very heated debate, because it's heating up all over again in washington. lucas? reporter: that's right, neil. border agents detained as you mentioned nearly 100,000 migrants at the southern border last month, the highest total in nearly two years. the number of migrants coming to the border spiked 28% last month , compared to january. these numbers were first reported by reuters and have an expected report next week by u.s. customs and border protection. those are the highest numbers for the month of february since 2006 and the sign of a potential wave of migrants coming this spring and summer. this comes as president biden wants to repeal many of president trump's border policies which the white house calls inhumane. the surge in migrant children arriving at the border without parents has sent the u.s. government scrambling to come up with a solution. late this week, the department of health and human services visit a u.s. military base outside richmond as a possible

place to put the children. i asked pentagon spokesman john kirby the defense secretary supports this move. >> the secretary was supportive of having hhs visit fort lee to examine and to do a site survey, and if there is a need and right now, there isn't one, there's no request, but if there's one, the secretary's fully committed to making sure that that request gets a full airing here at the pentagon and that we make the best decisions we can. >> and does he support the name of the basic changed before any potential migrants? >> as you know there's a base- naming commission at work. he named four commissioners to it. they have started to have their initial deliberations. reporter: the basis name for general robert e. lee not clear why it's chosen as a possible destination, neil. neil: thank you very friend, very very much, lucas tomlinson following all that a guy in the middle, david hathaway the

santa cru taking the time. its been a busy week for you and obviously, the worries are building on whether it's coincidence or not. the migrant issue is a big one, and the biggest its been right now in a couple years. where do you think this is going , sheriff? >> yeah, greetings, neil, from beautiful santa cruz county, arizona i'm standing here on a spot where several john wayne blockbusters were filmed, red river and yeah, back to the topic of the day. this has been, i know way more about this than i should. i've talked to all of the border patrol chiefs in this area, we have the biggest office in the nation and also the third biggest border patrol office in the nation and i've talked to the management and they've reached out to me, and discussed where is this going? they are operating under their 100 day interim guidance from

the biden administration and their policies aren't totally flushed out yet but what we know for sure right now is if somebody sets foot in the united states illegally and they say the word "asylum" then they are put in the queue for a hearing down the road some time, maybe seven months, three year, five year, depending on the size of the queue, there's already thousands of people in line, they are given a piece of paper and released into the community. the border patrol officials have asked me, sheriff, where do you want us to turn these people loose in your county? want us to turn us loose in an urban area, a rural area, do you want to take them from us? and obviously, i can't take the position on that because that be liability for me if i'd say turn them loose in this community, turn them loose in this rural area, or i can't send a detention van to pick them up because at that point, they basically have been released on their own recognizance by the federal official so that be liability for me of, you know, that i be unlawfully detaining somebody , so at this point, it's

kind of wait and see. i've talked to a lot of local civic groups about this. i just was a keynote speaker for the constitutional conservatives of southern arizona. they meet in a little church about a quarter mile from where i'm standing, and they have these same wide array of questions like what's the status of these people that are being released right outside the front door of the border patrol station. there's a border patrol station 200-yards from where i'm standing, and they are being released right out the front door, and there's not really clarity, do they have the authority to work, do they have the authority to go to school, what's their status? all they've been told is check in on an internet portal, to find out the status of your future hearing and there's no specific hearing dates being given. but you know, on the other side of the coin, we do value our relationship with mexico in this county. we have the biggest ports of entry of any county in arizona, with mexico. we have sister cities, we have n ogala , arizona, and mexico, and they have the same

name on both sides of the border and our relationship with mexico is very important and mexicans repatriate $0.40 out of every dollar that america sends to mexico and you compare that with china where only $0.04 of every dollar comes back to the u.s. so we do value our relationship with mexico. they are very important to our economy. neil: it's interesting, sheriff, because this policy right now that you have to follow, that they want to seek asylum, they got a piece of paper that shows the court date, under the trump adminitration, the policy was they would wait in mexico, now they're allowed to wait here. that used to be the policy pre- president trump. now i'm wondering how many then show up on that court date. you got figures all over the map but we were hearing that very few do. what really happens? >> well, there is no tracking mechanism. it's basically an honor system and the first ones in the queue

are those thousands that were told to remain in mexico. the process used to be if they claimed asylum, they were released back into mexico, pending a court date. they were referred to an internet portal, they were told to check this frequently and then you will see when your court date is coming up. now those are the first ones in the queue right now, those are that and that queue will have to be dealt with first before the current asylum seekers that are being released into the u.s. before they're dealt with. neil: do you think it is coincidence or do you think maybe that wasn't an intention that when president biden signaled that he wanted to put a halt, 100 day halt to these deportations that he wanted to stop building a wall not another inch as he said during the campaign and soon after his election that this sort of galvanized migrants to come. >> you know, i don't know. on my spot of the border here i don't see any buildup on the south side or waves offer

people coming across the north side and i do go to security meetings in mexico and regularly meet with the generals in charge of the military and the police commanders and level. you know, to see what's happening on that side and i need those connections in case i have like a kidnapping or a stolen vehicle on this side i have those people to reach out to, and i haven't seen a buildup in this area. they do have the national guard in mexico which is the legacy of a trump program, trump brokered that deal with the mexican officials to use mexican national guard to actually deter people moving up through central mexico to get to the borders, so i haven't seen it in this area, but we're just standing by. maybe in texas they are seeing that sort of thing but we're not seeing it here yet. neil: all right it's stunningly beautiful behind you, sheriff. hopefully it stays that way, sheriff david hathaway, santa

cruz county, arizona, he's in the middle of all of this trying to deal with all of this. then there's the unexpected development of a number of these migrants who tested positive for covid. better than 100 of them. now what? after this. what do we want for dinner? burger... i want a sugar cookie... wait... i want a bucket of chicken... i want... ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win.

neil: well, back to this border issue. the cdc, by the way, is allowing migrant centers to open at 100% capacity. the thing is though, that announcement comes the same week we learned that better than 100 migrants released in texas, or mostly in texas, had tested positive for covid. should we be worried about that keep in mind that governor abbott in texas has already indicated he's going to to remove pretty much all remaining restrictions in the state that department with covid-19, and will remove the mask mandate as well, beginning next wednesday.

dr. debbie nepirample joins us from the nyu school of medicine clinical associate. doctor, is there any risk to texas in general to the release of these migrants better than 100 of them tested positive for the virus. how quickly could it spread, what are the risks in general? >> sure, well i think the situation highlights some of the problems we've seen throughout the pandemic, so first of all, if there are 100 people who have coronavirus or test positive, i mean, they can expose other people to coronavirus just in general regardless of whether people are wearing masks or not, so some of it has to do with the physical distancing, of course masks protect you because they can block the spread of respiratory droplets which is the main way the virus spreads but if you're in crowds, then the virus could spread that way too, just because of the physical distancing that you're close together, so let's say that people on the other side of the border let's say are close together, there's still a

delay in terms of the test turning positive, so people could still get exposed and test positive later, even if they initially tested negative, so that's one thing, a person might look like they're negative, but actually still be carrying the coronavirus, and then for texans, native texans, they actually can come into contact with people and later get exposed and become positive as well, and continue to spread it. now, i'm in favor of businesses opening in general. i think that we need to try to move forward and try to get back to normal, but that doesn't mean that we have to immediately remove our masks and get rid of them right away. i think it's better to continue with the masks and try to open the businesses and try to get our economy going with some precautions, so we don't have to get rid of everything immediately. neil: all right so stay calm in the meantime i guess, thank you very very much, we'll follow these developments at the border

again there was a scare when they first heard particularly in texas so many of these migrants tested positive but if the doctor is right, it is within the statistically acceptable range, we shall see. in the meantime taking you back to the floor of the united states senate apparently they are really moving lightning fast on some of these amendments. by and large mostly from republicans i want to add to or limit some other provisions within this , eight of 13 right now are out of the way at the pace they are going they could wrap up this so-called vote-a-rama on the so-called amendments in the next 45 minutes to an hour, and then vote on this , so maybe in this show, we'll nowhere does this stand in the united states senate. stay with us. wanna build a gaming business that breaks the internet? that means working night and day... ...and delegating to an experienced live bookkeeper for peace of mind. your books are all set. so you can finally give john some attention. trusted experts. guaranteed accurate books. intuit quickbooks live.

neil: all right you know, we had a 50/50 senate with the tie breaker going to the democrats here. republicans are doing their best in a hail mary pass, a series of hail mary passes to try to get something that they want in this legislation that seems unavoidable, the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, so the so-called vote-a-rama and a number of amendments largely mostly almost exclusively republican to just sort of get their statement across on how they feel about some of the waste in this. for example, they're voting on a measure this is expressed by alabama senator that no funds for schools that will allow biological males to compete in girl's sports and that doesn't look like it's making much progress and another measure that would ensure that recovery rebate are not provided to illegal immigrants that was the dust-up with senator ted cruz you might have seen a little earlier debating with dick durbin of illinois. there are other measures in there, no budget, no pay in

other words if we keep doing this sort of thing where you get to a point where you delay a vote on a budget or you don't have a budget, that senators, congressman can't get paid that doesn't look like it's going anywhere and then a disaster funding for crops, a measure pushed by iowa senator grassley and that also not happening for the time being, but again, they will probably shoot this down in just a matter of 40 re told so we'll keep you on that political weather. now, to the national weather, which is not nearly as stormy, not nearly as chilly and for most americans, actually, for a lot of places, spring-like, rick reichmuth on all of that. rick: hey, this is the week that i think a lot of people are going to have spring fever in a really big way which is good news. with ehad really cold weather this week across parts of the northeast in fact take a look at the temperatures still cool 23 in buffalo, it's a little bit breezy as well so

feels like 13 so like 19 up in burlington, virginia so the cold air is here, for a while. it is about to change though we have one storm we're watching right now across parts of the southeast this is a today storm and a tonight storm by tomorrow, pretty much everybody clears out, friday or sorry, tomorrow in florida, at least by say mid-morning everything should be dry out and sunday going to be looking really good. all of our activity has really been across the pacific northwest for a lot of the winter things a little bit calmer today do see another storm that comes in this week and brings rain across parts of the southwest which is good news make a look at what we're about to see this coming week these are temperatures monday, tuesday , wednesday, dodge city, kansas tuesday, 81 degrees, kansas city 72 by wednesday, 79 degrees warm across parts of texas everybody here really above average across parts of the central plains and now that's the good news. the bad news is it's too early to be stuck with that kind of weather watch what happens on wednesday, we have our first little batch of snow that moves in across parts of south dakota into minnesota and then the next one comes in next weekend where it's really warm this week,

right behind it some snow coming back. all right, neil? neil: rick, thank you very much, my friend. back to the senate floor, where things are still chilly, but getting done. we'll have more, after this.

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learn, save and spend with guidance from chase. confidence feels good. chase. neil: all right, looking live in the senate floor. they have a deal, by in large it's going to fall along party lines, republican voting for it and democrat voting for it since it is a 50/50 senate. it would be the vice president kamala harris who will cast the deciding vote some time later today. could come just hours from now if even that. chad following this process and explaining what comes next. chad, play this out for the rest of the day and where to from

here? chad: well, neil, good morning. we are expecting the senate to probably go to final passage of $1.9 trillion covid bill probably in the next hour or so. the senate has been on it all night. a lot of ties are loosened, buttons, senators have been taking naps in the back of the chamber. this is what we call a votorama. the bill is going to pass on party line vote. the math is different. probably 50 to 49. the reason that dan sullivan, the republican senator from alaska, he had to go back to fair banks because father-in-law passed away so he's out of the mix. it'll be 50 to 49 and they would not need vice president harris to come to the capitol to break a tie to pass the bill. joe manchin, he's at the center of attention on this. he flexed his muscle overnight.

he held up the senate overnight and secured agreement on extra unemployment benefits. extend additional unemployment assistance through september, longer than the house bill but cuts extra payments to $300. manchin is showing that he's the most power player in washington especially in a 50/50 senate. now, what's going to happen is these changes in the bill in the senate, that's going to ignite the house of ire liberal. they have reduced some of the extra unemployment benefits. the changes, the house has to sync up with the senate. nancy pelosi will have some headaches, last night there were liberal democrats saying why should we support the bill. , there's too many changes, it tilts too far to the middle and not to the left. the first act was passing the bill through the house. they could only lose 4 votes there. they lost 2 votes. they passed the bill in the wee

hours of saturday morning. the second act, they will pass y the drama increases. the third act, you're going to have the most drama, can they pass this bill in the house of representatives next week with all these changes when they can only lose 4 votes and they have alienating liberal progressive democrats, neil. neil: in the house we have all the progressives who included the 15-dollar minimum wage feature. that's not part of the senate package. more than a few i would think are going to get their dander up over that. but enough to maybe get some no votes, what do you think? chad: possibly. you had bonnie watson coleman expressing real frustration saying she was outraged that some-her -- on some of her

democratic colleagues in the senate. if they blow this up in the house of representatives next week, that really imperils the biden presidency and that's the sales pitch that they would make. do you really want to get 80% of what you wanted, 90% of what you wanted? the national wage standard, that was the first vote in the votorama and the vote started at 11:03 yesterday morning and turned out to be the longest roll call vote in history. bernie sanders, independent senator from vermont, he was trying to get the senate to put back in and override the senate budget rules. that's why they had to take this out for this type of bill. he needed 60 votes to do that. they only got 42. it comes to what they can pass, it comes down to the pass and they couldn't do that in the senate. it was in the house bill, nancy pelosi will tell her members, look, you can say you voted for it and we will try again with another wage bill some time,

independent bill, but doing it outside of the special budget reconciliation process means it is subject to a filibuster. you need 60 votes in the senate to overcome a filibuster and that dog is not going to hunt. neil: got it. chad, thank you very much. let's get the republican and democratic read on this. noel, gop fundraiser and democratic strategist. noel, republicans can complain but it looks like the math favors -- again, to chad's point, we don't know what could happen and if there's a serious split with progressives in the house but i would imagine they will swallow this having gotten most of what they wanted and republicans will just have to move on, what do you think? >> well, exactly. you took my talking point. republicans are just going to have to look and move on from it. i actually think -- and chad brought up a really good point. all these hours, you know, all these hours spent overharshing

and getting things done and going to the house where some of the liberals can feel that some of the key things that they wanted for their base and they represent that base, they -- they are going to have the task of do we go ahead and -- and accept this or not and pelosi is going to have a big task because some of the, you know, aocs and very liberal people in the house, they have put name and reputation on fighting or extremely left issues and causes. so it's going to put them cross ways with their actual platform and beliefs. neil: so kelly, how does it play out among democrats? sometimes maybe we overstate the friction between progressives and the president but i would imagine even the most progressive of the progressives don't want to hand a new president a defeat of this

magnitude. what do you think? >> i think we have to think about the american people first and foremost. i'm a strong supporter of increasing the minimum wage but doesn't look like that's going to happen but we need to help people and so something is better than nothing. so i do believe that if the bill passes in the senate, it'll go back to the house and even though the minimum wage is not there, it's still accomplishment for the american people and the democrats want to help the american people with small businesses. i do believe that they will come together and unite and support it. neil: this isn't the first time that we have seen legislation, noel, whether it was president trump's tax cuts or in barack barackobama's obamacare. this is another example of that. they are moving to infrastructure. the president meeting with a bipartisan group that was open

to looking a lot of spending, maybe more than this, substantially more than this. is that the next battleground and would that get republicans on board? >> well, if the structure is interesting. you remember back when trump was president and paul ryan was over everything and he came out with trying to reconstruct the healthcare bill instead of what a lot of people thought would have been a great effort to bring bipartisanship together would be to start on infrastructure. so it'll be interesting to see what will be done on infrastructure because there are a lot of senators, house members that would benefit by some of the issues or some of the things that would be in some sort of legislation for infrastructure, so that's going to be a very interesting one to see what happens if they can, indeed, do some sort of a good bipartisanship with infrastructure. neil: kelly, in the end for

democrats, they obviously need this to your point, a response to the needs of the american people. republicans have come back as we have discussed in the last hour and said, we don't need this to be nearly as generous but in the end, the democrats see this as a good

beginning. in other words, the president gets his way, gets monumental piece of legislation through and has the wind at his back or are all the other issues we just mentioned are going to come back and haunt him with progressives coming back and say, all right, we gave you this and now you give us this. >> you know, i don't think. the progressives think about the american people and, yes, absolutely one that again, it isn't done after senate votes. on and on we go. we are pa on it. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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neil: all right. they say don't mess with texas but the mayor of austin, texas is saying that the governor there shouldn't be messing with masks in texas. that giving away and ending all restrictions in the state including a mask mandate come next week, that is going a bit too far. steve, austin, texas mayor kind enough to join us. good to see you. >> good to see you, neil. neil: i think you're open to easing some of the restrictions but the mask was a big line.

is that about right? >> yeah, i think that's absolutely true. you know, the wearing masks doesn't slow down opening up businesses, it doesn't slow down getting more and more children in school in person. the health folks here in texas seem to be pretty unanimous that wearing masks help and -- and helps minimize the risks that we are not going to be able to open up schools or open up businesses. we wouldn't have put those things at risk and i'm disappointed that the mandate has been withdrawn. the governor say it's still important to wear a mask and i appreciate that but by removing the mandate, i think we create ambiguity. many people in the state that are hearing that as a message that masking doesn't work, it's not effective or that we are past concern on the virus and that ambiguity in communication is what i have the biggest issue

with. neil: well, you know, he did lever it with businesses and localities to decide what and how they saw fit. a number of businesses to your point, mayor, will insist on mask, kohl's and some other big retailers are saying in their stores masks on. is that not good enough? >> and i appreciate that and i'm real supportive of the businesses and trying to hold them up and elevate, the ones that are doing that. but there are others that have removed the mandate in their stores because they -- they felt comfortable insisting that everybody wear masks when it was part of a mandate and with the mandate gone they don't feel like they are empowered to do that and don't want to deal with customers that don't want to wear masks. it's good, it's better than not and i appreciate the businesses that are doing it. but the consistency of the message which is we are not out of the pandemic yet.

if we can hold on a little bit longer, we are vaccinating more and more people. it is just not something that we have to add any question or doubt about and put at risk opening up our schools and opening up businesses. neil: mayor, i'm curious what you mean of the president's response to all of this. it raised eyebrows when he talked about what's going on in texas and mississippi. the president on reaction. >> the last thing that we need is neanderthal thinking. neil: what do you mean by the neanderthal? >> that we are politicizing the wearing of masks is part of the problem. i think that we are facing as a country. i just wished it wasn't caught

up in the politics at all. most of, if not the overwhelming majority, if not almost every health expert says that we are masks help. and -- and i would always air on the side of -- of that when it is entirely consistent with opening up businesses and schools. so, yes -- neil: the neanderthal comment. wow, are we potential idiots here? >> well, i don't think that i take it personally and certainly it was a strong word and got a lot of attention. neil: would you have used it, a used like that? >> not a word that i have used but i have been really hard and insistent that the mandate shouldn't have gone away. we try to be guided by the science and the data and removing the mandate is not being guided by the science and

the data. so whatever you want to call it, it's the wrong move. neil: while i have you, mayor, co some might disagree that it's a crisis, but a hundred thousand migrants in february, some are interpreting it as open season that the president himself has sort of triggered by making the comments he has, by putting a freeze on deportations but not building more of a wall, by looking at a kind her, gentler way to deal with migrant and migrant minors many of whom he wants to put in facilities, u.s. military facilities to protect them while we are going through the process of -- of dealing with them. do you think, a, it's a crisis, and b, do you think if it is the president has made it that way? >> you know, i'm a supporter of

president bush's attempt to come up with a more comprehensive plan for how we deal with immigration. i think we are going to run into problems whenever we are going to deal with this issue on an ad hoc basis or one piece of it. i am in favor of the movement which i think would be bipartisan if it can ever get to the floor in congress to have a more holistic look at our immigration policy. and that's the direction that i hope the country is moving right now. neil: mayor, thank you very much for taking the time on a saturday. we appreciate it. steve adler. the mayor of austin, texas, beautiful city. we have a lot more coming up including beautiful land to what was a really bumpy week on the markets and a lot of it based on good economic news. we have been exploring this. the worry seems to be that interest rates are going to rise but we don't know to what level they ultimately do. what we do know is that if

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neil: all right. i want to show you a chart. everyone calm down. he's dull enough and excruciating enough to deal in the week but now on a saturday. the only reason that i'm showing is this can show up the markets angst in one chart. the gap, if you will, between the return on 10-year treasury note. that's the yellow line and the yield on the the s&p 500. all the stocks in the s&p 500.

some pay out dividends and you've been richly rewarded buying stocks because there was no contest. there was such a gap between the yield on the and near zero percent interest rates one. stocks have a little bit of competition as you can see. they've essentially met each other, crossed each other. 10-year treasury note gives you bang for the buck than yield in stocks. for those still awake to hear the import of this, it's this, this is among the factors rattling investors because at least with the treasury you get backing of uncle sam and with stocks, you are on your own. maybe 1 and a half percent on return but volatile markets where i could be losing my shirt, a lot of technology investors at. technology losts $1.6 trillion in sign

of things to come. people might want to get more conservative with their money. is it something to watch? to da, former dallas fed adviser, daniel, is this competition for stocks, is it legitimate competition, should investors who like stocks be worried? >> well, there's certainly something to be said for, you know, the nasdaq being down more than 6% from february the 12th high. there has been a lot of volatility. there has been money that's been lost and as you say, the united states treasury, they risk freeholding. you know you will get your money back. there are a lot of retirees, pension funds, insurance companies that have been waiting a long time to -- in order to be able to put a little bit of their portfolio in something that's got the security of a u.s. treasury but, again, rates have risen -- excuse me, tripled rattling markets.s and

it may not feel like it. yesterday's rally was tremendous but the nasdaq closed down 2% on the week despite the, you know, blowout job's numbers that we had yesterday. so things are really interesting right now in what you call the boring part of the market. neil: yeah, i guess so. believe me i'm cheap, boring editor here. but david, you know, i guess -- i kind of tease it this way, depends on your age group. for young people and the alarm that i heard when they heard that mortgage rates were over 3% and i like to remind those of another age, let's say me, when i was there age and my wife and i were getting the first mortgage, i might have told the story one or two thousand times. it was 13 and a half percent and we thought we were financial geniuses. that was in the day of ronald reagan and it's a whole different world now. but the perspective that rates are still low, 30-year fixed

mortgage is still low than a year ago at this time or the notion that it could go still higher, where are you on this? >> when it comes to stuff about the fed, daniel, and i pretty much agree on almost everything but i disagreed with almost everything she just said. the issue with the ten-year 1 and a half percent and we talk about a tripling from the four seconds that it was at 5% a year ago and tenure is less than half of average and well less than 50-year average and there is no way that stocks are competing with 1 and a half percent treasury. the nasdaq is down -- neil: that's assuming it stays there. >> that's right. some threshold -- there is some threshold in 2 and a half, 3 is where i would think it might be and we are nowhere near that and we are not going to be able to get there for the very sad reason that we don't have the organic real economic growth. the excessive debt and the fed

interventions serve as holding rates down. we are in the debt deflationary cycle and that's the problem. the nasdaq was just simply too rich in valuation and has had to adjust a bit but we are talking about the market being rattled. it's up over a thousand points in the last few weeks. there's been a little bit of volatility this week but i really think that we are substantially overthinking this. >> danielle having said, we have seen oil prices rise and timing is everything, could be opec getting mojo back and sticking to production limitations and the rest as the economy globally is picking up steam. but a barrel of oil is over 66 bucks, that's double what it was back in the summer. so i guess what i'm asking you is kind of the same thing. is this something that is gaining traction? >> well, we've seen a lot of

volatility in a lot of the for example.over the last w but there is something to be said for the fact that input costs are as high as shipping rates, freight rates. a lot of manufacturers are suffering right now because the costs are so high and you're about to inject $1.9 trillion into this dynamic and you've got very low consumer price index prints from last march, april and may when the consumer price index year over year bottomed at 0.1%. so mathematically you're just -- you are going to see some kind of print that could get to -- possibly get to ten-year, 2% threshold. just one little note, thanksgiving purchases to mortgage applications to purchase home were up 28% over year, excuse me, as of last year they were only up 1%. that's what's so frightening,

the rise of 3% has been enough to rest the purchasing of homes and that shows you how sensitive the economy is because it's so indebted. neil: i want to get back another time to get you guys to argue on one another only if you can be a lot more nasty. thank you for sorting this out. when worried or not so worried, we will look at the fallout from that. speaking of fallout, fallout for andrew cuomo, his own party turns on him and limits covid powers. before there was a pile-on there was just one person, janice dean. she was all alone. she's next.

neil: all right, how quickly things can change. a rock star year ago now governor cuomo on the rocks right now with his own party. democrats in the state legislature strip him of his powers of covid-19 and the pile-on is on but there was there was a pile-on there was only janice dean if you think of it spurred by the tragic and needless deaths of her mother-in-law and father-in-law in nursing home situation where the deaths were severely

undercounted. she led a charge to simply get some facts. that's how it started out. it got to be a little bit more than that. my friend janice, joins me right now. great book out, make your own sunshine, inspiring stories of people who find light in dark times. oddly enough it doesn't really deal with governor cuomo or any of this as much as uplifting stories and uplifting examples that helped her get through all of that and will help you get through all of this. of course, she does not forget her mother-in-law and father-in-law or her family. but first i just want to get right to janice and what she saw then that is now being played out in the state legislature in albany as we speak. janice, good to have you. are you surprised? i mean, this is an incredible turnaround of events. when you were raising issues about governor cuomo, you were a one-person show and everybody is looking into the same thing that you were.

>> well, i am grateful. i'm grateful for ron kim, democratic lawmaker who lost his uncle in a nursing home who has been right by my side leading the charge on this governor and the fact that he put over 9,000 infected patients in nursing homes and covered up the numbers. i knew pretty early on in may that he was covering up those that died in the hospital, but got covid in elder care facility because my mother-in-law, that's what happened with her. she got the virus in her assisted living residence and transported to the hospital and died in the hospital and governor cuomo did not help those who died in the hospital. that's what we have been trying to raise awareness on. he obviously has more charges now. sort of the me too kind, listen, no one should be subjected to that kind of behavior but it's not surprising to me. he's a bully and sexual harassment is not about sex, it's about power and making

people feel intimidated. making people feel small and the level of power that this man has had over the pandemic is just extraordinary. neil: obviously not surprising to hear that the governor and his folks say that there was nothing untoward going on even revelation that they jointer thy undercounted. i believe richard at the time said of you, last time i checked, she's not a credible source on anything on maybe the weather. could you get more condescending? janice: that's their bullying tactics. rich is an extension of governor cuomo. he's not only refer today me on not credible on anything except the weather but also called those trying to fight for answers for their loved ones a

death cult. he called me part of a death cult and told my sister-in-law to get a life. that's what these people do. they want to silence by intimidation and all that did, neil, is make me want to scream louder. neil: you don't want to get on your wrong side. having said that, this book, you were kind enough to give it to me to read it, you instead stepped back and took a look at what maybe we learned from the pandemic. obviously a lot of bad stuff but a lot of good stuff too, inspiration stories, you know, tebow is featured in there, uber driver that helped new mom buy baby clothes. how did you get the stories and why did you go that route? janice: well i've been doing good news stories for a long time. i do a 60-second piece on fox

news radio called the dean's list and that's an extension of what that is, good news story and i wanted to delve into people that want to do kind things for others and the common thread throughout the book is most of the people have gone through extraordinary challenges and they come on the other side of it and realize that after the storm the sun comes out and they want to spread goodness and kindness and humanity. and, you know, what i'm doing with the nursing homes, that's also making your sun sunshine because i'm trying to shed light on something that needs to have light on it. sunlight is the best disinfectant. neil: you know, janice, we joked about it but we have multiple

sclorois. we can look at the glass half empty or glass half full and remember people that where they are that better days are ahead. a lot of people have a hard time grappling with that, what do you tell them? janice: getting a diagnosis like ms brought clarity to my life. it made me realize the most important things around me, my family, my friends, the support group that i have and every day is precious. every day that i get out of bed and i'm standing up strong, that's a day to be grateful for and i do feature two strong women who were also diagnosed with ms in the book that really are inspirations to me and should be inspirational to everyone. and by the way, you're not in this book but you should be because you were a big inspiration to me when i was first diagnosed and i know that you know that. neil: i love you like a sister

but you have way too good an attitude and i don't see you playing a victim and i don't see you blaming people. i give up. but, janice, i love you. the book is make your own sunshine, fine stories of people that find light in dark times. she's a legitimate deal. you can disagree on other things, why, i have no idea but she's a genuine article and she has been through a whole lot. she can be be whining and bitching but besides that she's a great person. we will have more after this. >> i love you he looks♪ ♪let's make lots of money♪ ♪you've got the brawn♪ ♪i've got the brains♪ ♪let's make lots of♪ ♪uh uh uh♪ ♪oohhh there's a lot of opportunities♪

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the new government there is trying to protect them, the very presence of the pontiff himself is getting the message across. we must all be open and we must all be heard, we must all be respected. joey jones joins us right now. he knows quite a bit about this particular neck of the woods and the danger that the pope could be facing, fox news contributor, veteran, fox nation host. never ask joey tough questions because you don't want to mess with this guy. joey, i'm honored to have you particularly to talk about this and the pope and the message he's sending and iraq is still a very dangerous place obviously you know that very, very well. i'm wondering the message he's sending right now. what do you think? >> well, i will try to be optimistic about this. it really struck me as the 34-year-old deploy today iraq at 21, i believe, in 2007. you know, i don't know what iraq was like before 2003, i don't

have a great historical context. i was young in high school. my entire adult life of iraq has been a place of turmoil and so i guess in that respect i consider this to be a pretty positive thing that, you know, i was deployed there and fought a war there and lost brothers there and here we have the most -- i guess obvious figure head of christianity in the world visiting iraq and soty to the me that's a positive thing. i think really what it means is does this mean progress or does this mean that there's a lull before the next proxy war that happens there. i think that's what's important. most of us understand the majority of turmoil is iraqis want today wage war, a great place for a lot of people to go and kind of jab dagger in the u.s. and fight against terrorism. so what does this mean moving forward? i would like to see it's optimistic and positive step. neil: occurred a little more than a week after the u.s. facility was bombed, a lot of iranian links to that.

we don't know. where do you think this is all going particularly in iraq? >> you know, i think that this is the biggest test on foreign policy joe biden has. forget russia and china for a minute because those are problems of their own and perhaps russia finds its way into this one. but the idea, joe biden led the obvious -- let obvious problems with iran turn places like iraq or policy way to get us out of this tit for tat that we were in. president trump the one thing he did, he haddock train of certain and immediate retaliation that seemed to have at least hold iran at bay but really all it did have them go covert and supporting these militias and groups, you know, covertly, than are we in a better place. i championed when we killed solemani and terrorist

organizations that find their way out here and people like lindsey graham have a lot of explaining to do because they've advocated for decades. as someone who fought boots on the ground i don't think people iraq want havoc for a long time. great place to attack u.s. troops and attack u.s. worldwide really through rhetoric and posturing and i hope that joe biden has the plan. we haven't seen it yet. neil: we shall see. joey jones, thank you very much, fox nation outdoors host. a lot of these very issues. in the meantime we had civilians in space. that's not a first. coming end of this year only civilians in space. meet two of them next.

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neil: all right. busy time for space and i'm not just talking right now what's going on in mars or back to the days of apolo 11 and landing on the moon and planting a flag and a whole host of countries compete for all of that. we had a number of times where civilians have gone up in space but this will be the first time the end of this year when spacex will launch an all-civilian mission. that mission is called inspiration 4, the commander joins us right now. jared is the founder and ceo of a company called ship for payment. she's a multibillionaire, among the first thing they had to do is select a crew and didn't waste a lot of time picking the next young woman hailey, the crew member who is in her 20's, cancer survivor, she's

done a lot of st. jude hospital, helping those who are afflicted as she was as a young child. they both join us in their first joint interview with this big announcement. welcome to both of you. looks like i'm staring at two heros here and i'm very impressed. jared, to you first, i guess you have control of who you pick and there was a theme to the people who you will pick to compete the other two positions, could you explain? >> sure. so inspiration4 is the first all civilian mission to step. the first step toward a world that everyday people are going to journey among the stars and since it's the first and that comes with significance and responsibility, we wanted to be thoughtful about the organization that stands to benefit from this mission which is st. jude children's research hospital and the crew members that we select and it's all in the namish sirration4, delivering a really powerful message as to certainly what we can do up among the stars but

what we can accomplish here on earth and every one of the crew members will represent a pillar. hailey represents mission of hope and a person that we are selecting going through the process that represents gabbrosty. they made a donation to st. jude research's hospital on our website, they will be selected for the mission like literally any day now and somebody who represents prosperity which is an entrepreneur. neil: you know, hailey, in your part here, i know that you were interested in space as a kid. you used to watch launches and you dealt with a lot as a kid, you dealt with cancer, a leg removed, so not only would you be the youngest ever to venture into space, you would also be the first with a prostesis, a lot of firsts there, are you ready for this? >> i am ready and ready to represent pediatric survivors.

st. jude was able to save my life through innovative technology. i have a prosthesis internal. you know longer have to be physically perfect to go to space. neil: you know, guys, this seems to be a whole new excitement around space. the past week, there's a guy who launched a debut of space hotel in orbit. obviously virgin galactic and blue origin moving to space citizen travelers. so it's on. you will be the first, though, and in your case, jared, people forget you're an experienced pilot. it's not that if you're coming this like a babe in the woods. i'm curious as to what you make of the safety of an all, you

know, all citizen crew. in other words, every day joes and joannes. you're not trained restaurants and just the four of you, not trained astronauts doing this. what do you say? >> we are all civilian right now for sure. by the time we strap in the dragon spacecraft and launch into orbit, the faa says we will be commercial astronauts and that means an awful lot of training from now until then in order to be prepared. so it is a big responsibility because we want all the cool things that you just described to happen. we want like a space hotel and we want a lunar base and a martian colony and such. we have to start somewhere and that's inspiration and we have to get this right for all the cool missions to follow. neil: you know, i was just thinking in the context of this, if you think about it, hayley, maybe you can weigh in on what we are seeing in mars right now

and a lot of people say that's an unmanned mission and you have this incredible scene of a rover and a helicopter and digging for soil and settling to mars and be taken back to earth. all done unmanned, who needs men and women in space when you can do all of that without endangering them, without risking them, what do you say to that? >> i mean, space travel is the future and it's an incredible opportunity to be part of the first all civilian mission in space and we are not going to be the last ones to go to space. there will be humans in space for the rest of eternity. neil: you know, jared, elon musk, said this is in your hands, this mission, 2 to 4 days, as long as you want it, you decide, just everything to do. does that mean that you're

paying for all of this? deferring to you because i'm sure he has faith in you, that you will call the shots from start to end. >> yeah, i think that elon was -- was having a little fun with the announcement. there's obviously a lot of collaboration that happens between inspiration4, the mission, the team and the spacex personnel, you know, to design the mission with us. so it's totally a joint effort. we will do interesting things and things that may not have been done in apollo mission. but we will be safe and responsible about it. when you think about it since the space shuttle retired a decade ago, we got two missions up right now and one mission down. it's still very really on and you want to push limits a little bit to work toward the grand, next age of space but you want to do it in a

responsible way. neil: so you're up there, you're looking back at the earth s and whether it's 2-4 days, depending on what commander isaacson says, what's the first thing you want to do? what's the first -- what are you looking forward to most? >> what i'm looking forward to the most is talking from space. we're trying to figure out how we can do video calls with the kids, and i think it's going to be so meaningful to them to see what their future can look like. you know, i was in their shoes 19 years ago, and i really hope this mission shows them to dream big and not put limit ares on themselves. -- limits on themselves. neil: that's beautiful. i want to thank you, or haley, an amazing story. jared, yourself included. looking forward to this next fall. hopefully, everything goes off without a hitch. keep us posted on who fills those two other seats. guys, thank you again. we needed to hear this. we really did.

because back on earth, take a look at this, the floor of the united states senate. there are many people who say they should be put in a rocket, but for now they're on earth, and they're pushing stimulus, and it's going to happen later today. that much we know. ♪ ♪ griff: the second day of the senate's voterama is in full swing with law a make hers still at odds over priding's $1.9 concern president biden's $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. states are struggling to keep up with a major surge in illegal immigration. welcome to this very special first edition of "fox news live" on our brand new set here in washington. chick this out, alicia? alicia: we'll have coverage of both of those top stories, but