eric: okay, okay, okay, the protests t night after night after night have been damaging and destructing the city, well, the mayor of portland, oregon, has finally had it. after millions of dollars of destruction, continued violence and lawlessness in the streets of the city, for months protesting against police brutality, mayor ted wheeler who once rejected federal support last are summer is now calling on the citizens of this city to stand up against iowans that rioters -- antifa rioters who continue to put his city the under siege. hello, everyone, and welcome to "fox news■ç live," i'm eric sha.

arthel: hi, everyone. mayor ted wheeler is asking people in the community to help identify members of a self-described anarchist mob who have been engaged in acts of violation and vandalism in recent months. christina coleman is live with more. >> reporter: arthel, following the derek chauvinning verdict, there's been a huge uptick this week in the looting, the burning and the riots that have been wreaking havoc in portland for nearly a year now. democrat mayor ted wheeler strongly opposed former president donald trump sending in federal agents to help stop this. now wheeler is extending a state of emergency to deal with the ongoing chaos. the mayor put out a statement this week saying the city is focused on four key priorities, one of them includes identifying, arresting and prosecuting self-described anarchists seeking to sow chaos and anarchy. >> we're seeing the groups are getting smaller, yet they're probably more determined. they want to burn, they want to

bash. i think want to intimidate. -- they want to intimidate, they want to assault. >> reporter: and portland police are sharing some new photos■ç this week, some of it there you see the graffiti. this one reading abolish the police. send monday alone -- since monday alone there's been thousands of dollars worth of property damage. windows have been shattered and arrests have been made which includes the detainment of a guy who allegedly punched an officer then scuffled with him. they say that the sergeant was walking his bike when a person dressed in all black stepped in his path and then this happened. >> the sergeant moves the person aside and another person punches the sergeant in the head. a scuffle begins, and the sergeant is knocked to the ground. the sergeant lands in a dangerous position underneath the suspect and on his back. >> reporter: the suspect was arrested and is now being charged with multiple felonies.

and still no ending in sight to all of this violence. arthel? arthel: yeah. and they're not pro anything, they're anti everything. christina coleman, thank you. eric. eric: arthel, in washington president biden this week is set to address for the first time, give a joint address to congress. that's going to happen on■ç wednesday. he's about to mark his first 100 days in office, and brand new fox news opinion polls are out this morning. they show 54% of those who are surveyed approve of the president's job approval, but 43% disapprove. his approval higher than presidents trump and clinton at this time but lower than george w. bush and ronald reagan in a similar period. david spunt live in washington with the very latest on the fox news polls and the job the president is doing. hi, david. >> reporter: hi, eric. the first 100 days for any president is a critical time. many people see it as a way for the president to set the agenda for the next several years in

office whether it's one term or whether he decided to run for a second term. and the number when it comes specifically to covid-19 and the way that president biden has handled this pandemic are actually fairly good. i want to read these numbers to you. according to our opinion polls, 58% of the people polled approve of his handling of coronavirus with 34% disapproving. one of his lowest numbers though is immigration with 34% approving and 52% disapproving there. now, with a■ç 46-15% margin, voters, eric, say that u.s. border security is worse today than it was two years ago. according to that latest fox news survey. again, now 15% in june 2018, 28% say that it was better. i also want to read the handling of covid among democrats and republicans. democrats, 94% approve of the

president's handling of covid whereas 24% of republicans. and, eric, on to issues that americans are concerned about, many different issues. the economy, 78% of the people polled were concerned about the economy. 74% with gun laws. you look down, you see 65% with racism. another incredibly important topic right now in the conversation in america. but the lowest on this list right now, 57% climate change. as you mentioned, the president will address a joint session of congress in just a few days. he was originally thinking about doing it earlier this year, most presidents do it february, maybe atest. the reason this is so late, president biden wanted to get that covid relief bill passed, but he will be addressing republicans and democrats wednesday evening. eric? eric: yeah. not considered a state of the union, but a joint session of congress. david, thank you. we're going to go deeper into

those poll numbers with byron york, and we'll also get a preview of what the president is expected to say on wednesday. arthel? arthel: well, the surge at the border not showing any signs of slowing down with a big uptick of illegal activity in laredo, texas. law enforcement there just found four stash houses packed with people and millions of dollars in drugs. and as david just noted, fox news polling finds almost half of those surveyed believe border security is worse now than it was two years ago. casey stegall live in laredo, texas, with more. caseyment. >> reporter: arthel, good to see you. the criminals, we can tell you, are also becoming more and more brazen, doing anything to get their cargo across the rio grande river here which is the international boundary between the two countries in this part of texas. whether it's drugs or people, just unbelieva@l■ stories continue to emerge. and look at this new video from

cuts toms and border protection -- customs and border protection. it's out of california. night infrared pictures showing a smuggler using a rope, watch, lowering it down the 30-foot-tall wall and then the lowering a 2-year-old girl, a 6-year-old boy and two adults down it onto the u.s. side. happened just after 3:00 in the morning. while cbp i data shows almost 570,000 migrants have been apprehended for the first three months of this year, that is all than 2020 combined. 172,000 in march alone, that's a 71% jump from the previous year. >> president biden's made a catastrophic mistake by canceling the trump policies that worked with nothing. and no good manager ever cancels a policy and abolishes it without something to take its place. >> reporter: now, close to 19,000 of the march

apprehensions are unaccompanied minors or children traveling alone. that number doubled february's tally, and hhs and the■ç orr, te office of refugee reit element, as we -- resettlement, as we know, frantically working to find additional bed space and places to house all of these unaccompanied minors. arthel? arthel: casey stegall reporting from laredo, texas. thanks, casey. eric? eric: arthel, elizabeth city, north carolina, community leaders there right now appealing for calm. this as protests have is continued over that fatal police-involved shooting of andrew brown jr., an african-american man there last wednesday. the sheriff now under mounting pressure to release the body cam video of the shooting. that release could come as early as tomorrow. we're live in elizabeth city with the details. hi, griff. >> reporter: that's right, mounting pressure, indeed, on the county sheriff, tommy wooten. just in the last 15 minutes we have had a dozen or so

protesters walking peacefully, marching around the sheriff's office here behind me, and it's pressure to release the body cam video warn by the seven deputies in the fatal shooting death of brown on wednesday morning. there's also new calls for the sheriff's resignation. now, yesterday$ a press conference attended by brown family members, bishop reverend william barber and the local naacp president, keith rivers, they were at a church, and here's a little bit of rivers' calls for the resignation. listen. >> sheriff wooten, i want to say if you want to release these tapes as sheriff or as not the sheriff. on behalf of the -- [applause] we today are calling for his

resignation. >> reporter: and last night the fourth night of peaceful protests by demonstrate theres. -- demonstrators. they traveled more than 4 miles across elizabeth city to a walmart, shutting down an intersection, essentially shutting down the walmart on a saturday night. meanwhile, sheriff wooten is responding, texting fox news just an hour or so ago in response to president river■ç ares' calls for resignation. wooten tells fox, quote: i will not resign. the citizens elected me to do a job, and i intend to do just that. he says that yesterday sheriff wootenen took to facebook to talk about the efforts he's making to get that body cam video released. here's what he said. >> i've asked the north carolina state bureau of investigation to confirm for me that the releasing of the video will not undermine their investigation. once i get that confirmation,

our county will file a motion in court, hopefully monday, to have the footage released. we understand the district attorney may also present his perspective on the issue to the judge. >> reporter: but, eric, it's a little complicated because the north carolina state bureau of investigation responded to a request from me about that confirmation, they referred me to a thursday statement simply saying that the fbi does not have any decision making in the process of releasing videos. so we will find out whether or not this will move forward on monday or not soon. eric? eric: perhaps we will be getting that video. griff, thank you. thank you for your fine reporting. arthel? arthel: okay. eric and griff, police retirements on the rise in new york with the nypd reporting a whopping 75% jump in 2020 over the year before. laura ingle is live in new york with more.

hi, laura. >> reporter: hi, arthel. you know, when you take a look at just your general newscast, be hard pressed to find any newscast across the country and not see a story involving police and most recently about anti-cop rhetoric and hostility. now, you take that combined with many uniformed officers getting close to retirement, the pandemic and the challenging, the challenges that officers face on the streets after the death of george floyd, all of that combined has apparently accelerated the departure of those wearing the badge. here in new york the nypd reportedly has seen more than a 5300 uniformed officers turn in their paperwork to leave in 2020 which according to published reports is a 75% spike from the year before. and as the defund the police movement marches on with the continuous debate over the deadly use of force, many other police departments are reporting the same■ç mass exodus. some police departments even calling the state of recruitment as being in, quote, crisis mode.

that according to the "philadelphia inquirer". one former nypd detective su says the growing rate of departure is understandable. >> police officers go out there each and every day and put our lives on the line. now as to opposed to being proactive, more police officers will look at it as more reactive. if you're proactive and you're second guessed on your decision, then, therefore, you will wind up losing your job, your pension and possibly incarceration. >> reporter: and it should be noted that there are officers still, of course, on the job and those who are signing up to become a police officer. but in baltimore, maryland, fraternal order of police, a group of sworn law enforcement officers in the police, adding this context in a tweet that reads in part: 81 officers have fled baltimore police this year with, outpacing last year. pay, working conditions and the anti-policing climate are the primary reasons. now, as these retirement numbers continue to go up, so do the number of shootings in new york

city. we just got these stats a short while ago. 15 people were injured■ç in 14 shootings in 24 hours just this weekend alone. the job continues to be a dangerous one. arthel in. arthel: indeed. laura ingle reporting from new york, thanks. eric? eric: arthel, back in washington those new fox news polls are out about president biden. you know he's approaching his 100-day milestone, so how do folks feel about his performance and how he's handling the issues that matter to us in we'll take a look next. and here at fox news channel we are celebrating a fox news media milestone. the 25th anniversary of "fox news sunday." it started with our wonderful colleague, tony snow, now by chris wallace. tune in for a special broadcast 2 p.m. eastern right here on the fox news channel as "fox news live" continues. ♪ ♪

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♪ arthel: a big week ahead for president biden as he inches closer to his first 100 days in office. the biden administration preparing to unveil the second half of his massive two-part spending proposal in the coming days. it comes as president biden is scheduled to address a joint session of congress for the

first time on wednesday. mark meredith live at the white house with more on all of this. hi, mark. >> reporter: arthel, good afternoon. on wednesday president biden will have a chance to speak directly with members of congress, also likely a chance to speak to millions of americans eager to hear how the country's going to navigate the post-pandemic time. but the president's going to roll out the second phase of his economic agenda, this time the focus is expected to be on what they're calling the american families plan in an effort to boost social, education and childcare programs. his proposal expected to cost at least $1.5 trillion. republicans, though, they're already revolting against the idea of another round of tax increases. they argue adding more taxes on wealthier americans could create massive selloffs on wall street. we heard from kentucky senator rand paul on "sunday morning futures" earlier today. >> there's a real risk that you are going to see a significant market reaction to this. the other thing is we're printing up so much money that there's going to be real inflation, and i think there's going to be a day in which

people wake up and say, oh, my goodness, what have we done to our country. >> but some democrats want the white house to think even bigger with its government expansion plans. seventeen senators sending the white house a letter urging the administration to expand medicare, lowering the age down to 60. they write: the time is long overdue for us to expand and improve this program so millions of older americans can receive the care they need including eye glasses, hearing aids and dental care. we'll see how the white house reacts to that. later on this week the president will be hitting the road going down to atlanta, georgia, holding a rally ahead of marking his 100 days in office. the cabinet and the vice president on the road in the next days and weeks to start selling the plan. arthel. arthel: mark meredith, thank you. eric: as president biden prepares to give his first address to congress on wednesday, he will do so right now with a 54% approval rating, that according to that brand new

fox news poll. in the same survey, a slightly higher percentage of those polled believe the president is making an effort to work with republicans. but a majority of those polled also say they don't think republicans have made much of an effort to work with the president. byron york joins us now. he's a fox news contributor, chief political correspondent at the washington examiner. he's above presidents clinton and trump at this point in their administrations, but he's below barack obama, george w. bush and ronald reagan in the same period. so what do these polls tell you? >> well, we have seen a whole new bunch of polls today, and they all have the president's job approval rating in the low 50s, between 54 and our new fox poll, there's 52 in a couple of polls. so he appears to be about in the same place, and that is lower than most -- first of all, it's higher than president trump. everybody should note it's higher than president trump.

but it's lower than most presidents since 1945 at the 100-day mark. i think there are a couple reasons. one, the nation is just very divided right now. it's just absolutely divided. and, two, his agenda is, president biden's agenda is a bit divisive. there's a lot of support for the recovery plan that was passed, that huge covid pandemic relief plan, a lot of republicans said it didn't have enough to do with covid relief, but still it's really popular, people like that. i think there's going to be less popularity for the infrastructure plan which republicans also say is not a lot about infrastructure. there'll be divisions there. there's not a lot of approval for the president's handling of the border situation and immigration. so he has done some big things on covid, and so far they've been very well received, but then there's that next hundred

days to think about. eric: let's pick that apart and look at the economy first. it's surprising, but even though the economy's in a rebound, let's take a look at this: fewer americans believe the economy is excellent or good now than, you know, even in december as we are still going through the pandemic. he gets a 69% on the economy as only fair or poor. why do you think the numbers reflecting that? reflect that? >> well, there's still a lot of anxiety about what the economy, the post-covid economy exactly will look like. first of all, there were millions of americans very fortunate who didn't suffer economically during the pandemic. they didn't lose their jobs, they didn't lose income, and a lot of them actually saved money by not doing stuff during the pandemic and are in better economic shape now than there were before. -- than they were before. but there were millions who did suffer, who lost hours on the

job, who are in an industry that suffered terribly, entertainment and other industries that suffered terribly because of it. there are questions about some aspects of the economy going forward, commercial real estate, for example, will everybody go back to an office or not? there's, there are all sorts of questions about the economy, and i think those figures reflect a certain anxiety about how things will be going forward. eric: and then what he is going to do on wednesday, unveiling massive new program including more taxes on the wealthiest americans as well as corporations. let's take a look at those numbers. a vast majority of america seem to support some of that. 56% say that, yes, there should be higher taxes on businesses and corporations, 63% from those folks earning more than $400,000 a year. but as you have pointed out, others are now chiming in saying, look, you do that, you could decrease the incentive for

investment. others saying this may hurt farmers and small businesses. what about that? >> well, in general, the idea of taxing the rich does pretty well on polls. people always define somebody else as rich, and they say you ought to tax the them more. now, this capital gains tax thing is interesting. before trump it was 38 -- excuse me, 35, and a lot of people had talked about how it needed to go down. under president trump it went way down, to 21. and now there is a proposal to make it 28%, kind of splitting the difference. my guess is that some sort of increase in the capital gains tax could be done, nothing close to where it was before trump. but you will see that. and then you will see republicans argue that, hey, that's going to decrease investment, slow the economy down. but in general, increasing the

capital gains tax would probably not be super unpopular. eric: yeah, you know what doesn't seem to ever go down? at least in a long time? the debt clock. under president trump and it's been increased and doesn't seem that they've gotten a handle in washington yet on spending. we will certainly be hearing more about that as that debt clock keeps on, you know, ticking up even more. byron york, good to see you, thank you. we'll see what the president says on wednesday. >> thank you, eric. eric: yep. arthel: thank you, byron. more fox news polls just out today. we're collecting opinions on a wide range of issues across the country and how voters think president biden is doing so far. karl rove joins us next with his take. ♪ ♪ ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein,

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arthel: well, president biden to addresa joint session of congress this week to mark his first 100 days in office. this comes as we're getting new polling data that shows president biden's job approval rating is at 54%, significantly less than that of his former boss, president obama, at the same point in his presidency. former white house deputy chief of staff karl rove joins us now. so, karl, president biden's approval rating is also 9 points higher than president trump's was at this time. so separately though, why do you think president biden's approval rating is 9 points lower than presidents bush and obama at this time? is it the political climate? is it the scorched earth foundation of party politics right now, too difficult or impossible for any u.s. president to tread? >> well, i think it is because of the polarized environment, but i also think part of it goes to the president himself. when president bush came into office in 2001 after a very controversial election, you may

recall, his approval rating was higher. i think this has to do with both the tribal moment that we find ourselves in, were heavy partisanship, but it also has to do with the fact that the president has taken a course that has kept his number from going higher. as your previous guest, byron york, wrote in a wonderful piece, this is the lowest approval rate outside of donald trump's since gerald ford took office in is 1974. arthel: what is it about his approach though the, karl, that you think is causing it? >> well, i think in part it's because he's, again, i hate to parrot byron york, but i think he was right. president biden has a number offish -- of initiatives that are highly divisive. the infrastructure bill is very big, a very big number, and his climate proposals are, have a huge implication for the economy. cutting -- we reduced between 2005 and 2019 greenhouse gas emissions in the united states by 12%.

we led the world. and he wants to have three times that amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the next nine years. and so there's already certain industries whether you work for a utility or you work in the oil and gas field that you're already starting to worry about where this is all going. and then police reform, you know, sort of controversial statements. he weighed in on what the jury ought to do in minneapolis are, admittedly after they were sequestered, but that was a pretty extraordinary moment for the president of the united states to say i hope they find him good guilty. and then immigration, which is one of the issue in which the president has very low ratings on, and in part because he's not talked about border security. in fact, it's getting worse. more people are coming across and being apprehended because security's down, the wall is not being built. he's talking about expanding inflation and allowing in more refugees, and that's not very popular right now. arthel: all right. that's your take and, obviously, you have, you know, a studied

and experienced analysis is. i don't have the breakdown of how our pollers thought about it but, again, you have a pretty good assessment of what's happening. right now, karl, we want to take another poll, do you want president biden to succeed? 78% said, 15 percent saying no. if the overwhelming majority of americans want president biden to succeed, do republicans share that sentiment? >> well, when you've got numbers like this, basically, you know, 80-15, obviously, they do. and i think that's a good thing. i mean, one of the good things about our system is we have a tendency even after contentious elections to want the country to succeed, and we know that if a president succeeds, the country will succeed. so i think there's goodwill for this president. i'm glad to see it reflected in this poll. as you say, it's sort of reflective of what we saw from president obama who came in with a very strong mandate, 53% of

the vote in 2008, and president bush who came in with, after a very contentious election. so good sign for the country, that's exactly what we want to see. arthel: okay. and let's take a look at another newly-released fox fox news poll asking is it important for biden and harris to hold regular press conferences? 77% said yes compared to the opposing 19%. so, karl, would you advise president biden and vice president harris to adhere this? >> oh, absolutely. i think this is, again, an example of -- we want to hear from our president, and we a want to hear, you know, and president biden has done this infrequently, but he's been pretty good at it, better than i thought he would be. of course, they were held early in the day and his first news conference was an hour and two minutes, which is fine. but they do want the hear from the president on a regular basis and in a more traditional way. one of the advantages that president biden has going for him is that people, i think, did get burned out at the end of

four years of having president trump an omnipresent fixture in their lives. so they want a little bit less, but they still want to see their president and hear him about these big issues and initiatives that he has underway. arthel: karl rove, thank you very much. where's your white board? >> i decided today to give you a wide boardless presentation. you already had all the numbers on the screen that i wanted to talk about, so no need to repetitious. arthel: and i'm special, i know i am, so there you go. [laughter] >> yes, you are. arthel: karl rove down in austin, thank you. eric. eric: overseas at least 82 patients have been killed in baghdad more than 100 injured after a fire ripped through a covid hospital there. that medical center did not have smoke detectors. trey yingst is following this

developing tragedy from jerusalem. >> reporter: eric, good afternoon. this is a tragic story out of the iraqi capital of baghdad. 82 people were killed and 110 injured in a hospital fire last night. [background sounds] >> reporter: firefighters worked through the night to put out the flames that started on the second floor of the hospital. rescuers pulled dozens of survivors out of the charred rubbling and rushed them to other medical facilities. one eyewitness described a scene of total chaos. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: people were jumping from over there. everyone was jumping. >> reporter: today people are still trying to find their loved ones, some with multiple family members missing, desperately searching for any informing. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: we are looking for them there is no trust. we went to the pork to every hospital, all of the hospitals.

there is not even one of them. >> reporter: an investigation is underway into the exact cause of the disaster, but early reports indicate an oxygen tank explosion started the fire. at least 28 people who lost their lives were on ventilators, battling covid-19. this was the hospital's coronavirus intensive care unit, and it was busier than usual as iraq faces its second wave. iraq's prime minister has suspended the country's health minister following the fire and said this morning in a statement negligence in such matters is not a mistake, but a crime for which all negligent parties must bear responsibility. the prime minister has declared a three-day period of mourning for the iraqi people, and today in vatican city poem francis -- pope francis offered his prayers for the victims. eric? eric: yeah, just so sad. trey,ing thank you. arthel? arthel: indeed, trey and eric.

the challenges facing law enforcement at our southern border now that the governor of texas just put operation lone star in effect to deal with the growing surge of migrants. we've got an up-close look at how that's going. plus, "fox news sunday" marking a pretty big milestone, a quarter century in the making. a look back at the highlights of this very special showed today. ♪♪ aleve it. aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. the first survivor of alzheimer's disease is out there. and the alzheimer's association is going to make it happen. but we won't get there without you. join the fight with the alzheimer's association.

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hand to border patrol agents and the national guard using air, ground and marine assets to stop mexican cartels from smuggling people and drugs into the country. we went up in the air with state troopers as they patrolled the rio grande valley. state troopers are the eyes in the sky. when they see migrants down below, they'll alert border patrol agents to pursue -- [inaudible] with all the recent activity, it is taking longer than usual. only ten minutes into our flight, we spot a woman with a backpack on the mexican side. troopers think she's a scout for the cartel. she's looking right at us as she talks on a cell phone. >> [inaudible] >> reporter: there is a constant aerial presence, there's about 2-3 choppers in the area throughout the day -- [inaudible]

>> reporter: just in the last five weeks of this operation, dps arrested 631 people, seized marijuana, cocaine, guns, money and detained 24,000 smuggled my grants, 7,000 of them minors. >> we're always stretched thin, but we're trying to always find that balance, and we're making it worse. >> reporter: the firsthand experience shows us how porous and open the border really is and how difficult a job these men and women have as they chase down the cartels with seemingly no end in sight. >> the violence and corruption is bigger and a different level. >> reporter: in the rio grande valley, aishah hasnie, fox news. eric: a bipartisan group of lawmakers are now looking to get the border surge under control with a new immigration bill. our next guest says border security is paramount, but he says it needs to be done with immigration reform that does not include citizenship but does provide for legal status.

he is congressman carlos gimenez, he sits on the house homeland security committee. you were born in cuba, welcome, thank you for being here. first, the border right now. you visited twice, you're going to go back soon. to you, what is the situation like and what should be done? >> it's chaotic, and i know a lot of things bother me about what's going on. the biden/harris policies are actually separating families at the border because young kids under 18 years old are allowed to stay on this side, and so what happens is, you know, that's why we're seeing so many unaccompanied minors crossing the border, thousands and thousands of them, putting them at risk and danger. the policies are also enriching the multi-national cartels to the tunes of hundreds of millions of dollars a month. we have policies now that we're actually paying our contractors on our side to not construct the wall, hundreds of millions of dollars not to construct the wall.

part of that wall is also a levee system that is supposed to protect our are residents and citizens from flooding, so that's not being done. there's a whole myriad of stuff that's happening at the border that concerns me and the policies of this administration are to blame for this surge that we're seeing at the border. eric: yeah, it's unbelievable. i guess it must be the contracts, you know, you contracted to build a wall, and if you stop it, you've still got to play the money. that's unbelievable. >> it is. eric: how do we fix this? >> well, i think we need to revert to some of the policies we had in the past. holding asylum seekers on the mexican side of the border will disincentivize people from coming. look, if you know that you can get to the other side, to our side of the rio grande and basically be processed and then the released into the country, you know you have a really good shot at just staying here in the united states which is your end game. and so the old policy of processing them at the other

side of the border really reduced the likelihood that you were ever going to make it over successfully by 90%. and so, you know, people understand the odds. that's why you have this huge surge. and restoring those policies with mexico, restoring the policies and agreements that we had with guatemala and el salvador and honduras, that needs to be restored. and then the rule of law. we need to add additional judges at the border so we can process these asylum cases much quicker. so there's a whole myriad of stuff that we need to do, and it's really common sense. we need to follow what the customs and border protection agents have said. they need more people, they need technology and they need infrastructure, and that infrastructure's actually completing that wall. we've already got to spend the money, why don't you let the contractors go ahead and finish what they started so we don't waste tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars and paying people to not to do anything. eric finally on that point, are

you surprised most people don't know that? that we're paying for the wall not to be built? >> yeah, i think most people -- i didn't know it until we got there, and our customs and border protection people said, oh, by the way, see all that equipment and material? we're paying those contractors not to build the wall. to me, that's insanity. i mean, you're paying not to build the wall? and the customs and border protection agents are saying we need those portions of the wall to be completed because that's a force multiplier. it actually, in the end, will save us money. we won't need as many agents to guard the border if we have the wall, if we have technology, you know? and restoration of some of these policies. so, you know, to me, it's insanity. and it's all ideological. it's got nothing to do with common sense or what's really happening at the border. eric: well, we're paying not to build the wall, says congressman carlos jimenez from florida.

congressman, thank you for that surprising insight and want you back after you have your next visit very shortly to the border. >> absolutely. thank you. eric: of course. thank you. arthel? arthel: the green flag is about to drop at talladega. charles watson is live at the super speedway with a preview. ♪ ♪ up to one million dollars. that's how much university of phoenix is committing to create 400 scholarships this month alone. because we believe everybody deserves a chance.

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♪♪ arthel: all right, get ready. nascar's top drivers are revving up for the geico 500 at talladega super speedway today. and this year there will be fans in the stands, some of them arriving a few days earlier, and they've been tailgating at the track's infield. charles watson live in alabama with more. charles a. >> reporter: hi, arthel, that's right, today is the big day. we're going to see all of nascar's biggest stars convening in the geico 500 here at the talladega super speedway. this is the first big race they've held here all year long, and i've got to tell you, the fans are pumped. we saw folks rolling in around 9:30 this morning, hours before anything is really happening. and as you mentioned, other fans have been camped here for days having the time of their lives. it's really like a party

atmosphere as folks are pulling out their grills, cooking up some some great looking food, and there's no shortage of adult beverages. this is what they've been longing for. >> i even went so far as to watch old reruns of old races. >> it's just a great time. the atmosphere's great. >> reporter: now with covid-19 precautions, it takes a lot for nascar and the talladega super speedway to host this event with so many people here, so there will be a lot fewer fans in attendance today, around 35% capacity. 9 and the the interactive fan experience that you would normally have at events like this is completely virtual this year. and fans are not alone in all of this. the pit crews and drivers are also locked into covid-19 safety procedures. they have to wear masks, they have to distance, and before they even make it to the garage, nascar is bringing in the big dogs quite literally. they have covid-sniffing dogs who are helping to screen crews.

they can smell the virus within a matter of seconds, arthel. so no weather problems here today like the rain, a beautiful day out here, so so fans are in for a lot of fun. arthel: sounds like and looks good, charles watson. thank you very much there live from talladega, alabama. and we'll be right back. [laughter] did you know that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? thank you! hey, hey, no, no, limu, no limu! . . . ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ it's a wishlist on wheels. a choice that requires no explanation. it's where safe and daring seamlessly intersect.

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angeles' union station. the vaulted ceilings are helping to avoid a super spreader event. they have the red carpet that will be socially distanced. right, arthel. arthel: it will be a good show. i'm looking forward to it. we'll be back at 4:00 p.m. eastern. before then, have a good afternoon. fox news alert, the ingenuity helicopter making its third ever flights on mars in the longest distance traveled and fastest flight yet. the ingenuity is the first and only helicopter to fly on the red planet, many in the scientific community compare it to the historic wright brothers test that brought controlled flight to mankind. >> president biden getting mixed marks in new fox polling of, tracking his first 100 days in office, the president earning his highest job approval rating for his handling of the coronavirus pandemi