afghanistan including pentagon spending as well as state department so when you think of it that way throughout the last 20 years it is shocking last 20 years it is shocking >> it is monday, september 6th. this is a fox news alert. breaking overnight, the taliban claiming victory over afghan resistance fighters in the ponchire province. .>> you're watching "fox & friends first." i'm ashley strohmier in for todd piro. jillian: i'm jillian mele. benjamin hall has more on the breaking news as a top republican says the terror group is preventing planes carrying americans and allies from leaving kabul. >> reporter: there are

conflicting reports at the moment, the leaders of the national resistance saying they still hold key parts of the valley, so in their eyes at least the battle is not over. now to the other news, this worrying news that there are americans trying to escape from afghanistan who have been prevented from doing so. congressman mccall saying yesterday that the taliban is holding american citizens and allies hostage for demands by blocking six plane from leaving northern afghanistan. he says those americans are sitting on-board but unable to leave. >> this is really, chris, turning into a hostage situation where they're not going to allow american citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the united states of america. they're going to demand more and more whether it be cash or legitimacy as the government of afghanistan. >> reporter: and as reports of taliban brutality continue to grow, including the murder of a pregnant police woman in front of her own family, on thursday both the white house and state

department denied that the biden administration was preventing planes from leaving. as commercial planes start landing again in kabul airport, americans engaged in rescue efforts claim the state department is the only thing preventing the flights from leaving afghanistan, one of them saying this is displeer rove place to be -- zero place to be negotiating with american lives, those are people on the tar a t. all it takes is a phone call. if one life is lost from this, the blood is on america's hands. if this is a hostage situation, it changed the game completely and of course it will bring into question president biden decision to trust the taliban with the safe evacuation of americans. benjamin and ashley. jillian: thank you, benjamin. congresswoman nancy mace slamming democrats for voting against her amendment to find out what u.s. weaponry was left behind in afghanistan. >> rather than debate it, they ruled it out of order.

i don't know of another committee -- we have oversight and if we don't have oversight over what was spent in afghanistan, then who does? they want to bury their heads in the sand and cover up for biden's botched withdrawal. jillian: the u.s. left billions of dollars in equipment behind in afghanistan, although central demand insists it has been demilitaryized. let's bring in chad robicho who served with the marines. i want to get your reaction to who our benjamin hall was reporting a few minutes ago, talking about that plane from congressman mccall, saying that there's basically a hostage situation in afghanistan as the taliban is preventing, anyway, according to him, multiple planes from leaving with americans and others on-board. what is your reaction to this? >> yeah, i mean, this is absolutely true. this is -- i have firsthand

knowledge, speaking to one of the ngos that was working to get people out, that were having phone contact with people on that plane saying the taliban pulled up, had a manifest of who was on the plane and shut it down, would not let them leave and we created a scenario where americans and i don't believe hundreds, i believe thousands of americans are on the ground, in afghanistan, controlled by terrorist taliban and will not let our american citizens leave as well as our allies. i think we need to go backwards here and say who made the decision for and the rest of the world to be negotiating with terrorists, with the lives of americans. jillian: are your sources on the ground saying anything else of importance that you could offer any more color that perhaps we don't know to this situation? because without boots on the ground as you know, for those of us who don't have sources such as you do, it's hard to really comprehend exactly what's going on since we left afghanistan. >> it is hard to comprehend

because it seems like it's not real, it seems like we're in an alternate reality right now that america -- that the american government would be working with the taliban in its capacity. this is a pretty simple solution. the united states needs to be strong, the united states needs to pick up the phone and call whoever they're negotiating with, the taliban, and demand our americans be able to fly out there. we can't -- we cannot allow the taliban to continue to pull the strings on this and make the decisions in this. this is going to end very badly. jillian: i want to get your reaction to what rob smith had to say, he was on the next revolution last night. take a listen. >> we have effectively made the taliban one of the most of well-equipped armys in the world on the taxpayers' dollar. this is the stuff that keeps me up at night. jillian: of courses talking about all of the military equipment, all of the guns, all of the helicopters and everything that they now have of ours. not to mention we're hearing the

reports, we had breaking news at the top of the show, that the taliban has made strides in the valley where some of the last remaining afghans were trying desperately to try and continue on their fight. what do you know about that? >> $85 billion in u.s. equipment and technology. we have some of the best equipment in the world. mrap vehicles, armored vehicles, this currently -- the taliban is in the top 15% of rotary weight ariel fleets fleets in the world with 200 helicopters. the valley which they were holding the last stronghold in afghanistan, i was saying two days ago this was going to last a week, maybe while they're amazing fighters, now they're dealing with u.s. equipment and china who is involved by proxy,

isi and pakistan intelligence and isis is there. the northern alliance had no chance. we didn't help them which is insane to me because we had americans going there for refuge, we had allies going there for refuge and it's not surprising to hear that it's already fallen. jillian: that's sad. and the president is in delaware on this labor day. is that the place to be, given what we're seeing still unfolding in afghanistan? >> no. i mean, the commander in chief has a duty and responsibility to the american people. we have americans and, again, i'll say we have thousands of americans still in afghanistan right now. but even if it was one, even if it was one american, the commander in chief should be 24/7 around the clock in the white house in the west wing of the white house making sure we get that american out and in my time in special operations, if one american is on the ground, one american is in a bad place, we'll scorch the earth to go get them, we'll exhaust every

resource we have to get them and now we have thousands and we're not doing anything about it. we're leaving people behind. we have to go get our americans, no questions asked. he's not where he's supposed to be. jillian: what you said, even if we have one, that's one of the things that all of the veterans that we've been talking to, that's one of the things they have the hardest time with, you never leave one of your brothers or sisters behind there. it has been devastating to see this play out. i want to get your reaction to this. general milley says it's likely afghanistan will see a civil war. he said this saturday to our jennifer griffin. take a listen to this. >> the conditions are very likely in my opinion that-and i testified this and i said it in public, that you could see a resurgence of terrorism coming out of the general region, within 12, 24, 36 months. jillian: if we know that, then why pull everyone out or at least if we think that? >> i mean, here's the truth.

everyone knows it. today the world is a much more dangerous place than it was a month ago. a civil war not already has begun but the civil war in afghanistan has already been won by the taliban. executions are taking place, cultural cleansing is taking place. thousands of americans and allies are being held hostage. we'll see terrorism grow and spread from the region it's going to require u.s. involvement again. we didn't end a 20 year war. we started one. we should have never left. americans have been conditioned to believe we were in a 20 year war. the war was over three years ago. we were supporting the afghan army and the international community. it ways working. they -- it was working. they were keeping the taliban at bay. we left without consent and put the taliban -- we put the taliban in power and we're responsible for this and we're going to have to pay a price for

this. jillian: many people are wondering if we'll see a similar situation in iraq where we pulled out in 2011 and in 2014 we had to go back. i think these are a lot of questions. there are still a lot of questions and there are a lot of people who need help over there. chad, thank you so much for your insight, for your service to this country. appreciate the conversation. ashley. ashley: to the crisis at the border, the mexican national guard is trying to stop a cara van of hundreds of migrants from reaching the u.s. marianne rafferty joins us live from los angeles as they continue to face threats from human and drug smugglers. >> reporter: a new migrant caravan headed towards the u.s. despite efforts by the mexican national guard to deter them, this is the fourth such caravan officials have tried to stop recently. the group of 800 marching from the southern part of mexico was broken up by mexican authorities, some of the migrants fled. many are still forging on toward

the u.s. border. meanwhile, customs and border protection agents continue to face threats from human and drug smuggler as fentanyl deaths skyrocket and a agents come under attack. according to the cpb in the latest attack, quote, the agent was attempting to apprehend approximately 12 to 15 migrants, a smuggler in mexico struck out at the agent, hitting the agent with a large object believed to be a 2x4 board. texas' attorney general says as cartels get stronger, border patrol agents's hands are tied. >> they're not allowed to do their jobs. they're being put in logistics, as opposed to stopping importation of drugs and people. cartels are getting stronger and stronger as they get paid by each of these people to come across the border. >> reporter: the border protection is going high tech, a virtual border wall consisting of watch poles called autonomous

surveillance towers are being placed along the 2,000-mile stretch of border, giving agents an extra set of eyes. they use artificial intelligence to detect movement. officials are scrambling to fix holes in the wall that was never completed when construction was halted when president biden took office. >> chad wolf says it's important to remember that cartels are getting rich off the crisis at our border. >> for every individual crossing that border, it's five to $10,000 they pay a cartel member. these cartels are putting that money back into their illicit business. they continue to traffic illegal narcotics such as fentanyl and others. we know the fast majority is getting through. why do we know that? border patrol agents are no longer on the line doing their national security mission. they're back in facilities, trying to care for all these migrants that are coming across the border. the 200% increase is a good start. it's only a small percentage of actually what's coming through

the border. again, fueled by the cartels and fueled by the biden administration's policies. jillian: forming acting i.c.e. director will weigh in when he joins us live later in the show. ashley: to fox weather, more than half a million people remain without power in louisiana as the state continues to slowly recover from hurricane ida. jillian: new york is seeking fema funding from the devastating impact the storm had on the northeast. robert wray joins us live from new orleans with the latest. robert. >> reporter: good morning, ashley and jillian. unfortunately, 17 people across three states in the south have lost their lives because of hurricane ida. over 50 in the northeast, you across six states. an unbelievable situation that we've been seeing. nypd officers went down into a basement submerged with water, trying to rescue three people. they went under and risked their own lives. unfortunately, the mission was

not successful but we're seeing scenes like that all over because of the wrath of hurricane ida. let's listen to the governor of new york and what she had to say. >> there's no escape. when those basement windows break and the door is crushed, the water's coming in, there's no back door. there's no back door. people shouldn't be living there. it's not their fault. they do the best they can. they're struggling. and we have a responsibility as government to find alternative places for them to live. >> reporter: meanwhile, down here in louisiana, over 500,000 people are still out of power. we were told by the power company that it could be to the end of september that many places are restored. here in new orleans, in the french quarter where i'm at, we do have power because the power lines are under ground and the city of new orleans expected to be fully restored by mid-week. to add insult to injury, out in the gulf of mexico, two miles off of port fushon where

hurricane ida's almost category 5 winds came in there is an oil spill. officials are monitoring it. vehicles are cleaning up the muck on the surface. it's about a one foot in diameter hole that they're trying to contain and governor bel edwards here trying to make people feel better about what's ahead this week here in louisiana. >> it's been a week. it's been a very challenging week for people all over southeast louisiana and there's been a lot of good work, hard work, no doubt things are better than they would have been otherwise. but we know there are a lot of people out there who are in fact hurting. >> reporter: indeed. a lot of people here hurting, dealing with the heat and the humidity, the clean-up, the long fuel lines, lack of food and water. meanwhile, president joe biden will visit the northeast later this week to tour the damage up there and give his words.

guys. jillian: unbelievable what this storm was able to do in so many states. robert, thank you very much. fox weather launches next month. be sure to watch for it. another bloody holiday weekend in chicago with the heartbreaking number of children caught in the cross fire and police are fuming after prosecutors decide not to pursue murder charges in the death of a 7-year-old. >> raymond lopez said city leaders have proven they're incapable of restoring law and order. he joins us next with his own solution.

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>> we're back with a fox news alert overnight. 59 least four people were shot at a popular festival in missouri. the festival is located in independence, about 10 miles east of kansas city. police say all victims are expected to survive. no arrests have been made and the annual festival you atr atrs about 300,000 people over the course of five days. >> in chicago, a 4-year-old boy is dead following a violent labor day weekend. he was in an apartment when stray bullets came through a window, striking him in the head. he is one of at least four killed from shootings over the weekend. 49 others are hurt including eight children you according to

the chicago sun times. jillian: chicago police fuming after prosecutors reject murder charges in a shooting that killed a 7-year-old. >> this as the city is rocked by a bloody weekend with over 40 people shot including eight children. >> let's bring in raymond lopez, the democratic alderman in the area. thanks for being here, raymond, we appreciate your time. can you help us understand why they wouldn't want to bring or couldn't bring murder charge as they're saying in this case? >> you know, it's mind-boggling to me, ladies, that our state's attorney, kim fox, chose to not bring charges of murder in the 7-year-old that was killed a few months ago, despite community, despite witnesses pointing out who the shooter was. to make matters worse, a local commander tried to override the state's attorney's decision only to be rebuffed by lori

lightfoot's hand picked police superintendent, david brown. we got a double whammy this weekend, a message saying even when you put forward and put your own life on the line to be a witness and testify against someone, political leadership is not there to hold criminals accountable. jillian: raymond, also help us make sense with this. more than 250 kids were shot. that was as of last month. 32 of them died. like i said, that's a month ago. those numbers are sure to change after this. but i mean, do you think democratic leaders in this city are capable of getting law and order under control? >> with the current crop of leadership, no, they are not. they're too busy coddling criminals and enabling bad behavior. they're bending over backwards as we saw with those charges to get people out on the street when we know they're criminals, when we know they're murderers,

we know they're doing harm to the city of chicago. they simply do not have the will, though they have the rhetoric of saying they support black and brown communities, they don't have the will to protect them from individuals who are dangers in our community. >> take a look at the statement from kim fox's office, it reads, quote, after a thorough review of the information presented to us by police, we concluded that the evidence was insufficient to meet our burden of proof to file murder charges at this time and the police agreed with this decision. it's just, you know, you try and put yourself in the family's situation when you have a young child who lost their life and you have as ashley referenced many others who lost their life so far this year in the violent city of chicago. you wonder if a child can lose their life and if there isn't what family height see as any -- might see as any sort of justifyable accountability here, doesn't that embolden other

criminals and doesn't it make the swigs worse on the -- situation worse on the streets? >> without a doubt it emboldens criminals and the insufficient amount of proof has become so burdensome to police officers that it's almost an insurmountable obstacle to achieving justice for victims, lori lightfoot, kim fox, neither want to hold criminals accountable out of fear what that it will somehow be racist to hold people accountable for their actions. what they're doing in the meantime is ignoring the victims in every community who are savagely targeted by individuals who are committed to repeating crimes over and over again. every day in chicago, repeat offenders are appearing in our headlines, while on parole, committing a new crime or similar crimes. no one is stopping them and our leadership now is emboldening them further by saying even if you have video evidence, even if you have eyewitnesses, it is simply not enough. to allow someone out of jail simply because they say it

wasn't them or they were shooting at someone else is an insane policy when it comes to administering justice in the city of chicago. jillian: one more thing. as far as the weekend shootings in chicago, since friday evening, four people were killed, eight children shot. what solutions do you have for this? >> you know, it's not hard. we don't have to reinvent the wheel. we know that our police officers can go after criminals if we allow them to do their job. we know that if you are committed to violence, you belong in jail. we need to take the politics out of this and allow law enforcement to do its job the way they're trained to do. every community, whether it's white, black, latino, you name it, wants safety in their neighborhoods. we need to allow that to happen and stop playing narrative politics that only emboldens criminals. we can do better in this city and our residents deserve better. jillian: raymond of lopez live with us this morning. thank you for being with us this morning. it is 25 minutes after the hour.

americans are still stuck in afghanistan and a migrant crisis continues to unfold at our southern border, vice president harris is getting set to hit the campaign trail ahead of the california recall. ashley: critics say governor newsom could lose his job thanks to his weak policies and crime is at the top of the list. we are talking to the district attorney, cynthia zimmer, next.

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>> a tragic story in florida, a gunman shoots and kills four people including a 3-month-old baby in what appears to be a random attack. it happened at a home in north lakeland, east of tampa. the suspect, brian riley, surrendered peacefully. one sheriff wishes he hadn't. >> if he had given us the opportunity, we would have shot him. but he didn't. he was a coward. >> riley is a military veteran of wars in iraq and afghanistan.

his girlfriend says he suffers from depression and ptsd. he told police he was high on drugs. officials say there is no evidence of a connection between viely and the victims. >> a new development in the mission tri of a prominent south carolina legal family. alex murdoch shot in the head three months after his wife and son were gunned down at their family cabin. murdoch's attorney said he was shot on a back road while changing his tire saturday. he dialed 911 himself to say he was shot by a passing vehicle, then made a call to his brother. authorities say he suffered a superficial head wound. he is expected to fully recover. police have not named a suspect. there still have been no arrests in the shooting deaths of his wife and son. at the time of paul's death, he was awaiting trial for a 2019 boat crash that left one person dead. ashley: california governor newsom's critics say soft on

crime policies have caught up with him. one of his recall opponents, larry elder, says the time for change is now. take a listen. >> the number one responsibility of government is to protect people and property. under this governor, some 20,000 convicted felons were released early and based upon statistics they're likely to reof fend. what could possibly go wrong. ashley: cynthia zimmer joins me to discuss. cynthia, you heard larry elder there. what could go wrong with this? i couldn't imagine. >> well, good morning. everything has gone wrong in california as it relates to public safety under governor newsom. i would hope that californians make a decision regarding whether or not to recall governor newsom. they will look very closely at what happened to public safety here in our beautiful state. ashley: kamala harris, she is expected to be campaigning for newsom just a quick search on

the internet before i came down, according to an la report, a report out of la, an nbc poll showed kamala harris has the lowest vp approval rating since al gore. does newsom want her campaigning for him? will this help him? >> i don't know what he has in mind. i don't understand why governor newsom can't speak for himself and a sees fit to bring out one of the most liberal politicians in the country. but he needs to stand on his record and talk to us about what his plan to fix california is. we never hear from governor newsom about how he is going to address the skyrocketing crime rates in california and every major city in california and including my county. what is governor newsom going to do to help us with the homicide rate? and instead of addressing that, he brings out kamala harris. i think that's pathetic. ashley: not only that but she's

more or less been vacant when it comes to the issue in afghanistan. okay, so in april of 2021, california increased early release credits for 76,000 california inmates that received those early release credits. that does include violent and repeat felons. apparently that trims the population of what was once the nation's largest state correctional system. what is the point in doing this? is this just so it looks better on paper for the state of california? i don't understand the logic behind that. >> well, i don't understand the logic behind it either but i can tell you that victims are suffering because of it. when you release over 20,000 inmates back into the streets and plan on releasing 76,000 more, this has a profound effect on family, on neighborhoods, because the people -- these are violent felons that he is releasing from the department of corrections. and it does have a profound effect on our crime rate.

ashley: when you talk about violent felons, july of 2021, la's highest monthly homicide count, the highest in 10 years. do you think these lax views he has on crime will affect him at the ballot box, i guess the mail-in ballot box? >> well, i hope that californians take a serious look at public safety and his abysmal failure in that area and see that the crime rate, the homicide rate increasing in los angeles county alone in one year, 40%, that's simply unacceptable. california deserves a governor who cares about crime victims, who cares about justice and governor newsom does not. ashley: okay. cynthia zimmer, we appreciate it so much, thanks for being up with u.s. early this -- us early this morning. jillian: the president spending another weekend away from washington as his administration takes heat for leaving americans

in afghanistan. our next guest is the afghan war vet who is leading the digital dunkirk evacuation effort. he joins us live with an update, next. ink premium can't be capab? think again. ♪ (energetic music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ introducing the first ever at4 lineup. premium and capable. that's professional grade from gmc.

jillian: we are back with a fox news alert. the taliban claiming victory over afghan resistance fighters in the panjshir valley. it was the last anti-taliban stronghold in the country. it comes as the republican

congressman accuses the taliban of refusing the let the six planes leave an airport in the northern part of afghanistan. >> this is turning into a hostage situation where they're not going to allow american citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the united states of america. they're going to demand more and more, whether it be cash and legitimacy as the government of afghanistan. jillian: the biden administration told fox news it is not aware of any hostage situation and has not confirmed any americans are on those planes. jillian. jillian: president biden spending the holiday weekend home in delaware. meanwhile, veteran groups continue to work around the clock to rescue those still stuck under taliban rule. joining me now, former defense intelligence officer who served in afghanistan and leader of digital dunkirk, alex plesis. thank you for joining us. thank you for your service. i want to get your opinion on what the white house is saying right now, this is the chief of

staff, ron klain, on trying to get americans out. listen. >> we are going to find ways to get them, the ones that want to leave, to get them out of afghanistan. we believe it's around 100. we're in touch with all of them who we've identified. we know many have family members, many want to stay. the ones that want to leave, we're going to get them out. jillian: you're hearing the white house say about 100 people they're trying to get out. you're operating this digital dunkirk. you have a lot of information and insight into what's happening there. what is your take on the situation? >> sure. so the number of 100 persons that's being quoted is specific to u.s. citizens and that number is way off. so we know there's more u.s. citizens that have not been publicly accounted for because they were at least six that contacted me after that number, about 250 was originally released a couple days ago and we've been working with hundreds of more green card holders on top of that. if you take into account legal permanent residents and u.s. citizens the number is probably

back up probably close to the thousands. so there's a lot more folks that are being -- that are still there, including 2,000 people on the six aircraft in sharif. the statements that the government couldn't do anything about it, speaking to folks in charge of the air operation there, they're unable to get ground clearances to leave. part of that is because passenger manifests are not completed to vouch for them. jillian: as far as you know, has anyone, american citizen, afghan ally, has anyone been able to get out of afghanistan since we left, since our last troop was on the ground? >> so the neighboring countries have sealed off their borders in terms of refugees on foot and there are no aircraft flying in and out. the other are domestic between three locations in afghanistan and relief flights have come in. most people illegally crossed

over borders. jillian: you how are you guys operating then? you don't have boots on the ground anymore over there. our troops have gone. we don't have a presence there. how are you able to try and do the best you can to help the people who are stranded there? >> well, sure. up until about august 31st, we were supporting an official u.s. government operation, not the other way around. our job was to serve as force multipliers, helping people in a couple different ways, including helping them with paperwork to help navigate that process. there's a lot of paperwork that needs to get done. between that, helping them navigate and get to the airport or wherever it was they were told they needed to be and in some cases provide more support, whether it came to transportation to safe locations. jillian: it's different now, right? >> that's definitely the case. the official operation is over at this point. so still helping folks make sure that they're safe, i kind of

leave it at that at this point and we are waiting for basically to see what happens with the six plains that are currently on the ground now that have not been allowed to leave. hoping for some more support from the u.s. state department that can lead on a couple of neighboring countries as well as engage with the taliban to make that happen. there's a lot of folks asking what are we supposed to do now because we left tens of thousands of vulnerable afghans, we did not get the majority of interpreters and there's a lot more americans than we're letting on are there. one green card family who has several seriously sick family members with u.s. green cards who are holed up and have been unable to get out of afghanistan. they signed up with the state department several weeks ago. they received no reply. they received no instructions or any communication for that matter. so when i hear statements like that from the chief of staff that they've been in touch with everyone, there's only 100 people, that doesn't jive with what we're seeing on the ground at all. jillian: you served there.

can you even comprehend yet in your brain that this is how everything ended? >> no, i mean, i don't think anybody saw it collapsing in two and-a-half weeks or so. i mean, the t vast majority of us realized the tall a ban would eventually take over. i don't think we saw it happening this quickly. i supported president trump and president biden's decision to withdraw. the issues we're seeing now are surrounding the execution of it and we've got thousands of people that we left behind and people are simply now saying, well, they can hop on commercial flights when they reopen in a couple weeks. if there wasn't a dire enough security threat then why did we launch a military air lift, one of the largest in u.s. history, only tell the remaining folks that we chose not to be able to get because we stuck to a hard deadline that they need to stick it out and hop on a delta flight in two weeks to washington, d.c. it doesn't make sense. jillian: i think a lot of people are having a hard time understanding that. alex, thank you for joining us and for your service. ashley.

>> thank you so much. you as well. ashley: the u.s. navy identifies the five sailors killed in a helicopter crash off the san diego coast. they were performing exercises from the uss abraham lincoln when the chopper went down. one crew member survived the crash. five other sailors on the deck were hurt but they're expected to be all right. the crash is under investigation. time rights now, 4:46 on the east coast. business owners across the country are struggling to hire workers this labor day. now you pandemic benefits are set to expire for millions of people. jillian: our next guest has been putting in overtime to keep his business open and hopes cutting off government crash will bring workers in the door. we're talking to him, next.

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>> welcome back. federal unemployment benefits are expiring today for nearly 9 million people as the pandemic boost from the 2020 cares act comes to an end. businesses say they're ready to hire and must compete with the inflated government payout. the u.s. department of labor reporting more than 10 million job openings, 1 million more than those losing benefits. >> this labor day, 50 of% of small business owners reporting unfilled job openings in august.

brent bashir, the chief barbecue officer joins me now. good morning to you. i will call you the chief barbecue officer this morning. >> good morning. thank you very much. >> of course. i want to get to this before we dive deeper into this, it's the unemployment numbers. so 8.4 million americans are unemployed but there's 10 million job openings so there are obviously enough jobs to go around and then some left over. how hard has it been for you to find good, solid work since the pandemic started and since everything kind of reopened back up? >> it's been difficult. this has been a difficult last 18 months or so in the restaurant business. we have -- we're operating right now with about half the staff we had pre-pandemic. i actually have four restaurants, two in wisconsin, one in illinois and one here where i am in indiana and, you

know, it's difficult for me to understand indiana's unemployment rate right now is back to a pre-pandemic level, yet everybody i know in the restaurant business is having a really difficult time hiring people. obviously, the benefits ending, it can't hurt but i don't think it's going to be some kind of panacea where all of a sudden everyone is fully staffed again. so i think we have to look, a lot of people have left the hospitality business in general and i think we have to look at why and what we can do to bring people back to work in restaurants and bars and hotels. i mean, this is something that you have to have a passion for and you have to enjoy it and we have to provide a work environment where people want to come do that. so in my company, i've really been focused on doing that. >> you said you're operating with 50% fewer staff members than before the pandemic. so how are you getting around this? i know every time i go, you just

walk down the street, it says help wanted. are you cutting hours? how are you making that work for your businesses? >> we've cut back. we're open six days a week instead of seven. we reduced our hours. we close an hour earlier, we open an hour later. just different things. we have a really great team and we have a lot of people working really hard right now. it's -- a lot of times it jobs that we would have had multiple people doing and there's one person doing it and working hard and we're lucky to have the great people that we do. >> you made an interesting point you said the applicant flow is low and when you say that, you mean they get through the phone interview but then you say they just don't he show up for the second portion. what's going on with that? >> you know, it's -- our hr director, she's been in hr as long as i've been in restaurants and this is a really -- it's something that we've never seen before. we're spending a lot of money

advertising and recruiting. we'll get people that will apply. she'll do a phone screen and we invite them in for an interview at their convenience and they never show up. that is not unique to my company. we've seen that in talking with a lot of people in the restaurant business that i know. people aren't showing up for interviews which is -- i don't have an answer a of why that is, but it is definitely a challenge for us. >> that's bizarre. you also said you were talking about the recruitment, that you're spending ten times the amount you did before as far as recruiting. so what are you doing differently? does this mean something different on social media? how are you doing this and what does that dollar amount look like? >> it's anywhere we can get a job posted. we take advantage of college job boards, community college job boards, linkedin, indeed, all of these different places where you can find people and we're spending north of $15,000 a

month on that as a company right now. and in the past, we might spend 100 bucks but a lot of times we just had people knocking on the door, looking for a job. hey, that's a good restaurant or we have a friend that works there, it's a good playstation to work. we offer a -- place to work. we offer a great benefits package for a small restaurant company. we've had excellent employ hey retention over the years. it's been a challenge lately. we're grateful for the team that we have and they're doing a great job. >> and then in 20 seconds or so that we have left, do you think that once those unemployment benefits lift, do you think you'll see a change quickly, maybe a little later on? how do you foresee that looking? >> i really don't know. [laughter] >> just like everything else in the past year and-a-half or so, i'm not sure what the future holds. i don't think it's going to be like flipping a switch for sure.

i think we'll start to see some people come in which will be great. >> okay. all right. thank you so much. chief barbecue officer, we appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you very much of. have a good day. >> quite a title. all right, still to come in the next hour, joe concha, tennessee congresswoman and ron batello join us live, next. erent? while cheaper aerosols rely on artificial propellants... febreze uses a 100% natural propellant. check it out! pressure created by what's in your air makes the bottle spray. which means freshness everyone will love.

>> it is monday, september 6th. this is a fox news alert. breaking overnight, the taliban claiming victory over afghan resistance fighters in the panjshir province. ashley: it marks the fall of the final holdout of anti-taliban forces in the country. you're watching "fox & friends first." i'm ashley strohmier in for todd piro. jillian: i'm jillian mele. let's begin with that. benjamin hall has more on this breaking news as the top republicans say the terror group is preventing planes carrying americans and our allies from leaving afghanistan. benjamin. >> reporter: good morning. there are in fac