the union? >> any time the country rallies around country the president is beneficiary of that. he bumped up a little bit but it will be a tough haul here. >> dana: gas prices continuing to go up today. thank you. the president would speak at 10:45. it will be into harris faulkner's hour. here she is. >> harris: ukraine under siege as the murderous dictator in the country next door, russia, unleashes fury and pain. vladimir putin once again showing the world exactly who he is. a monster, a mass killer. the russian army failed to topple the country as quickly as putin had hoped. so now he is resorting to

endless slaughter. i am harris faulkner and you are in "the faulkner focus". it took fewer than 24 hours for russian forces to resume air strikes on humanitarian corridors meant for ukrainian civilians to escape. the shelling forced a pause on evacuation efforts in the northeastern city of sumi. the mayor of one suburb of kyiv says russian shelling is preventing people from collecting even the bodies in the street and now animals are tearing apart those lost souls. the russians are securing positions in the north, south and east and its military shelling another nuclear facility in ukraine. we've learned from the pentagon that nearly 100% of those troops that putin had put along the border through belarus and around the country, those 200,000 russian forces it is

estimated are now inside ukraine. however, ukrainian president zelenskyy speaking from his office now for the first time says nothing could make him abandon his people. >> i stay here in kyiv at bankova street. i don't hide and i am not afraid of anyone. i will stay here as long as it is necessary to win in our patriotic war. >> harris: the world has watched to see the next steps the united states might take. would we get off the dependency as the third largest supplier for us of russian oil? we are now waiting to hear live from president biden on the russian invasion and a ban on oil imports. they won't get the millions from us every day depending what he says next. senator tom cotton is in "focus." we have fox team coverage, mike tobin in western ukraine, alex hogan with refugees in poland. let's go live on the ground to the capital city right now.

trey. >> good morning. we bring you an update today from the ukrainian town of sumi in the northeastern part of ukraine. i need to warn our viewers the images you are about to see are extremely graphic but they are important to see. if you have small children in the room we suggest that you take them out. this is important to show the world, though, what is happening on the ground in ukraine. overnight russian air strikes targeted a number of housing complexes in this city killing at least 21 people including two children. that according to local authorities. the russians are continuing their ground and air campaign against major population centers in ukraine. it is not just sumi but also the second largest city and outside the city of kyiv where we're at now. these images show a bridge this weekend as civilians were fleeing the area. russians are using snipers and

artillery units to target the citizens. you can see desperate people taking their lives with them as they try to get out of harm's way. new images showing russian tanks, some tanks will be used in what u.s. officials believe will be an assault on the ukrainian capital of kyiv. some disturbing words today by c.i.a. director william burns as he testified before congress saying the next few weeks will be ugly in ukraine. listen to the words of ukrainian president zelenskyy who spoke directly to his people earlier today. >> it is that kind of time. you see it is that kind of wartime, that kind of springtime, harsh, but we will win. >> just two weeks ago the ground was tense, people knew a war was possible but it was nothing like we are seeing today. people were still going to restaurants and cafes, preparing for exams at school. today the entire country is consumed by war.

harris. >> harris: you know, just the add to that a little bit about what life was like two weeks ago. they had been basically in conflicts with russia since 2014 when russia then wanted to invade. so it isn't as though they didn't know russia could do this. they just didn't think it was going to happen now because they've seen so much, trey. >> absolutely. they had heard this rhetoric from president vladimir putin of russia over and over. this is a man who called the collapse of the soviet union the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century. as recently as last year he wrote essays saying the russians and ukrainians are the same. this conflict is getting closer to the capital city. the people knew it was a possibility but now living amid what has been described to us as a nightmare. harris. >> harris: thank you so much as we welcome tom cotton, republican senator from

arkansas into "focus" today. member of the armed services and intelligence committees. i'm looking back at that picture and i don't know if my team can put it up. you see, senator, how slow this process is. you have a lot of children and elderly in those masses of people trying to reach the borders. there it is. and they are pulling them off of trains. they are crossing bridges and walkways that have been blown to bits from all the shelling and there is water running in some places. they have had melting of snow. other waterways there. this is going to take a very long time especially if they don't have true corridors to exit in. >> the images we've seen out of ukraine from the beginning are horrific atrocities and only gotten worse every day that goes by. this is why it has been so important that we act more urgently. i welcome the announcement it sound like president biden is about to make that we will ban the import of russian oil. i wish we would have done that two weeks ago before we were

spending on average $20 million a day to support russia's war machine. i hope the details of that ban are what we would like them to be which is it goes into effect immediately. and i hope that the president is able to bring our european partners along with us. they obviously export a lot more oil and gas from russia and they provide even that much more money. but the consistent theme we've seen from the president is that it has been a day late and a dollar short. five days ago that nancy pelosi of all people called for banning this oil. >> harris: i want to get into what democrats are saying this morning. but i also want to step back because the wall street op-ed that we had that we featured yesterday and others are writing about this, too. russia can sell its oil elsewhere. is this mostly symbolic or if we stop buying their oil does it really tell the rest of the world our third largest supplier, we can live without you, why can't you guys follow

us? >> we should be engaged in intensive diplomacy to insure our allies follow with us and sends a signal to china for the long run that we won't tolerate this kind of naked aggression because we want to deter xi and the chinese communist party from going for the jug lar for the future in taiwan and raises a question the diplomacy the biden administration is engaged in to get more oil. rather to produce more oil and gas at home apparently he is going to the dictator in venezuela who our government doesn't even recognize as the legitimate head of state in venezuela or we're willing to giveaway the store to the ayatollah as in iran rather than simply producing more oil and gas here in america. last week in the state of the union the president said he wanted to buy american. i agree. the only thing he is unwilling to buy in america is american oil and gas. that's what we should be doing.

>> harris: what kind of strangle hold do some of those progressives inside the democrat party have on a president when he sits down with someone that our country doesn't even diplomatically wreck neu to buy oil? we've gone from one to the other in terms of enemies. this gives us a window into the world. this is coming into our newsroom. house democrat caucus chair jeffries was just asked on camera what if the ban on russian oil doesn't work to stop putin from slaughtering ukrainians. er said democrats continue not supporting getting u.s. troops involved and it's why the u.s. must continue arming ukrainians to fight and then he added he hopes the house reaches an agreement on the omnibus spending bill with ukraine aid in it in the next day. what is your response to that? >> first off we could have passed aid to ukraine a week ago. there is no reason to wait to include it in this massive spending bill coming up soon that we've been working on for months and should have passed

it a week ago. if we can't get it passed this week we should pass it as its own bill. second the biden administration, democrats should stop dealing vladimir putin what we aren't going to do. this goes back to the early days whenever the president first said that we would under no conditions send troops to ukraine. even if that's our policy, harris, we shouldn't be telling vladimir putin what we won't do and continually reminding him what we won't do. it projects weakness and indecision and allows him to continue to escalate in ukraine. again, we could have avoided this war from the beginning if we had been firmer with vladimir putin starting when this build-up occurred in late september and early october before it became known to the wider world in late november and early december. >> harris: i want to get to the sanctions now. president biden, our allies overseas continuing to try to punish russia with sanctions. however, the kremlin critic says so far we're only scratching the surface.

a bit of that. let's watch together. >> we've just begun the sanctions program and there is a lot more we can do. we should starve vladimir putin of money in every possible way we can. >> harris: the "new york post" editorial board writes this about putin. if he can't get that surrender he will keep onslaughtering as many ukrainians as he can despite his fevered claim that they are all actually russian. senator cotton. your reaction. >> well, if all those ukrainians are your answer i would say that vladimir putin has a russian uprising on its hand. every single ukrainian is fighting for their nation and people. frankly you have a lot of russians in russia itself rising up against vladimir putin's war of aggression. bill browder is right. we can do more in sanctions. the sanctions against the central bank can be strengthened and remove all russian banks from the payment

system. vladimir putin owns all of them in russia at one level or another. we can take stronger measures than we have. as i said earlier president biden has been a day late and a dollar short on these measures. when he gets to the right place it's later than it should have been and not as sweeping as it should be. i hope that's not the case of the ban on russian oil. >> harris: we're watching the scene now inside the roosevelt room as they pull the microphones in place and media getting set and the president expected the speak at any moment. when i hear you talking about those sanctions everything takes time. at the very beginning of this two weeks ago the president said oh, let's see how it goes a month from now is what we put into place. now he is talking about pulling us out of securing russian oil every day to tens of millions of dollars paying for the war for putin coming out of our pocket books. i don't know what comes next. none of it is immediate enough now to save lives because they are falling away before our

very eyes. >> it's why i was calling for the administration to start weapons shipment to ukraine last year. start sending more advanced weapons. the answer we got was we didn't want to send more advanced weapons to ukraine to provoke vladimir putin to invade ukraine. how foolish does it sound now? now what we're doing on a crash emergency rushed basis trying to get every wep oon we can into ukraine when minutes count and we're still in too many cases dragging our fete as a government. >> harris: what good to try to guess what he is going to do without doing what we need to do. he is a madmen and do what madmen do? i don't think you can stop him with this. you served. what works? >> well, what works is taking the initiative and getting on offense. since the beginning of this build-up in ukraine we've ceded the initiative to vladimir putin and been on the back foot. we take take the right steps in

the right fashion and not sweeping enough. i hope the ban on oil is total and is immediate and i hope it's coupled with expansion of more american oil and gas production. at every stage this administration has crippled americans gas and oil production. >> harris: the president getting ready to speak. the image that has hit the world today is a different president. zelenskyy of ukraine going back to his office now. you don't have to geo track him to know where he is. what was your first response when you learned that this president zelenskyy was going back to the office to do his job and he is going to be presenting and taking questions from, we understand, the brits? he will be talking to parliament. >> he spoke to us over the weekend in congress as well. i was heartened and encouraged as the ukrainian people are that president zelenskyy has embodied their resolve and

courage and their indomitable will to fight for their nation and their freedom. >> harris: senator tom cotton as we look forward today, i mentioned what congressman jeffries has said, democrats don't want to put our men and women in harm's way and fight but you have given us so many other options we could be doing that might be expeditious in terms of getting responses. great to have you in "focus" today. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you, harris. >> i drive a dodge ram costing $100 just to fill up. >> horrible. i make a decent living. >> i'm trying not to drive as much as possible. >> frustrating when you are putting $70 two times a week into your tank just so you can get back and forth to work. >> harris: so we are waiting to hear from the president on what will happen with russian oil and america. frustrations boiling over as

gas prices hit an all-time high. russia's war on ukraine pushing a gallon of regular unleaded past the former record set in august of 2008 by 3 cents. up just 11 cents from yesterday. 56 cents from a week ago. per gallon. more than a dozen states, however, averaging even moving on that. some people in california are paying like $7 a gallon. and the price of oil hovering around $130 per barrel of crude. that's a high the first we've seen in more than a dozen years. this also raising inflation fears and pushing the dow jones into a correction mood. it slid nearly 800 points yesterday. we were watching it at this hour and things were happening. they are seven hours ahead of us in ukraine and waiting to see if the evacuation corridors are going to hold and don't think it doesn't have an impact on wall street.

i'm about to get it into with david asman. it was down 10% from a january high. the nasdaq fell into a bear market dropping 20% below its november peak. all of this putting major pressure on the white house now to step up energy production here at home. apparently it is a touchy issue. watch. >> the increase in the anticipated continued increase is a direct result of the invasion of ukraine. >> we're asking other countries to think about maybe pumping more oil. why not do it here? >> to be very clear, federal policies are not limiting the supplies of oil and gas. let me finish. to the contrary. let me finish. >> the executive order halted new oil and gas leases. >> let me give you the facts here. there are 9,000 unused approved drilling permits so i would suggest you ask the oil companies why they aren't using those. >> harris: can we pause for a

second? david asman fox business is having quite the expression and response to that. let's jump in. >> the audacity to tell peter doocy that facts can be inconvenient and right after she says facts can be inconvenient she misrepresents the facts. she said we have actually produced more oil. it is at record levels. that's not true. we are now producing in the united states 1.5 million barrels a day less than we were in december of 2019. we aren't at record levels. we're way below record levels which were at the end of the trump administration. that's when we had this extraordinary burst of production and became energy independent. that's not troou. they are trying to lay the high gas prices at the pump on russia. prices have been going up at the pump ever since president biden was elected because the oil traders knew about his war on fossil fuels. he made no secret about it. he advertised it when running

for president. they knew they would be shutting down pipelines and shutting down drilling and exploration. that's what oil traders do. they look to the future because it takes so long to put together an oil rig. you hear these statements about oh, we gave plenty of oil contracts to oil businesses. it is their fault, not the government's fault. that's just not true. these prices have been skyrocketing ever since joe biden was elected because he tell graphed to the whole world about his war on fossil fuels. >> harris: deflection is not what we're looking for. >> you can come out and say we're against fossil fuels. that's fine. we can argue those facts but then don't come out and point your finger at peter doocy and say facts can be inconvenient and then come out with her own made-up facts that aren't true. >> harris: look, you hit upon something in terms of that 1.5 million barrels per day fewer

than we were in 2019. but we still have quite a bit in our coffers. >> we do. >> harris: do we really need to sit down with venezuela and make an oil deal? >> i used to cover latin america for 12 years and fly over these huge fields in venezuela some of the most beautiful areas of the western hemisphere which are totally polluted now. it is the dirtiest. the oil company controlled by the government there and they produce oil in a dirtier fashion than anybody on earth. if you care about the western hemisphere in particular and ecology, you don't ask them to produce more, you produce more here because we produce it much cleaner than any major oil-producing country in the world. particularly venezuela, which is the dirtiest. it also happens to be a narco terrorism state.

you substitute terrorism money for russian oh money. which is worse? it's not a great idea. >> harris: the dirtiest producer, is there any way biden wouldn't know that and his administration? >> somebody should know that. this is an attack on domestic oil production period. >> harris: inconvenient fact. he didn't tell the american people that getting ready to sit down a do a deal with venezuela. those are the facts americans might want to know about. my second question if we have some in our coffers we can get things going here at home again. it may take a little bit of time. we may have to still pull back a little bit. suffer at the pump. people won't buy gas the way they had been anyway. >> the way they're at war with fossil fuels. he shut down a pipeline when he first came into office. they stop exploration on federal lands. they say all the oil is coming out of private lands. not true. but there is another way which is that there is a war on banks

that fund fossil fuel programs because they want to be woke. that's part of the problem, too. my friend, phil flynn, oil expert introduced me to these people having a lot of trouble getting funds from banks who have woke corporate boards who say we won't fund anymore fossil fuel programs. on many fronts this war on fossil fuels is taking place. the key is when you go to applies like venezuela that pumps dirty oil and pollutes the environment far more than any of the u.s. companies do, you should be drilling here. if you care about the economy and if you care about the consumer and if you care about the environment, drill here, drill here, drill here. >> harris: is this hypocrisy we're looking at with the white house on this? >> complete hypocrisy. >> harris: what would the point be? if they aren't sincere with the progressives, they've already shown them the door. i don't know how you play ball

with somebody who literally is willing to carry a cannon politically into the room. >> the president is about to speak to the nation and you have jen psaki saying things not true at press meetings. presumably they will be reading from the same script. the same person that writes her notes on energy writes the president's notes and frankly he has to rely on those notes. he doesn't think these things through himself clearly. so it will be very interesting to hear if he takes any questions because if the journalists there are honest enough to say mr. president we don't have the highest amount of oil production in the u.s. now than ever as jen psaki said. we're 1 1/2 million barrels of day short of where we were, what are you going to do to get back to those higher levels to help out the u.s. >> harris: will you frack and produce your own oil or will you go to iran? how many enemies will we sit down with, mr. president? you and i can get there on a jet. climb on the back of your

tandem bicycle. inside of a two-minute warning now for the president. the discussion of how we got here has to do with an invasion by russia into ukraine and the american people i've been seeing polling all day long. look, their hearts are broken over this. doesn't mean we will get into world war iii but there are some things. i don't know if you caught senator cotton. a lot more we can do. talk to me about how much pressure this would put on russia full well knowing they can sell their oil to other people on the market, too. >> the missing ingredient in the discussion in china. china can take all the oil russia produces. >> harris: would they? >> if they can find a way of doing it which wouldn't subject them to the economic pressures like russia they'll do it. the thing about sanctions there are a lot of ways to get around it. back when we were at war with saddam hussain. a sanctions program oil for

food supposed to prevent him from selling oil. he managed to do it anyway. you can get through sanctions. there are ways to get through sanctions. i'm all for the sanctions against russia that we've got going now and they should strengthen it but we have to be honest there are ways to get through sanctions and china will look for those ways. china could use that russian oil at discount prices for its production. >> harris: the president of the united states walking into the room now and he will talk about russian oil. >> president biden: today i'm announcing the united states is targeting the main artery of russian economy. banning all imports of russian oil, gas and energy. it will not be acceptable at u.s. ports and american people will deal another powerful blow to putin's war machine. this is a move that has strong bipartisan support in congress and the country. americans have rallied to support the ukrainian people and made it clear we will not be part of subsidizing putin's

war. we made this decision in close consultation with our allies and partners around the world particularly in europe because a united response to putin's aggression has been my overriding focus to keep all nato and all e.u. and allies totally united. we are moving forward with this ban understanding many of our european allies and partners my nat be in position to join us. the united states produces far more oil domestically than all the european countries combined. in fact, we're a net exporter of energy so we can take this step when others cannot. but we're working closely with europe and our partners to develop long-term strategy to reduce their dependence on russian energy as well. our teams are actively discussing how to make this happen and today we remain united in our purpose to keep pressure mounting on putin and his war machine. this is a step that we're

taking to inflict further pain on putin but there will be costs as well here in the united states. i said i would level with the american people from the beginning and my first spoke to this i said defending freedom will cost us as well in the united states. republicans and democrats understand that. republicans and democrats alike have been clear that we must do this. over the last week i spoke with president zelenskyy several times, about the situation on the ground and consult and continue to consult with our european allies about u.s. support for ukraine and ukrainian people. thus far we have provided more than $1 billion in security assistance to you a cien. shipments of defensive weapons are arriving every day from the united states to ukraine and we in the united states are coordinating the delivery of our allies and partners of similar weapons from germany

and finland and the netherlands. we're working that out. we're also provide humanitarian support for the ukrainian people. those still in ukraine and those who fled safely to neighboring country. we're working with humanitarian organizations to surge tens of thousands of tons of food, water, medical supplies into ukraine. with more on the way. over the weekend, i sent secretary blinken to visit our border between -- the border between poland and ukraine and moldova. general milley was also in europe meeting with counterparts and allies on nato's eastern flank to reassure them the nato countries bordering russia we'll keep our nato commitment, sacred commitment to article 5. the vice president harris will be traveling to meet with our allies in poland and romania later this week as well.

i've made it clear the united states will share the responsibility of caring for the refugees so the costs do not fallen tirely on the european countries bordering ukraine and yesterday i spoke with my counterparts in france, germany and the united kingdom about russia's escalating violence against ukraine and the steps we are going to take together with our allies and partners around the world to respond to this aggression. we are enforcing the most significant package of economic sanctions in history. it is causing significant damage to russia's economy. it has caused russian economy to frankly crater. the russian ruble is now down by 50% since putin announced his war. one ruble is now worth less than one american penny. one ruble less than one american penny and preventing russia's central bank from propping up the ruble and to keep its value up they can't do

that now. we cut russians largest banks from the international financial system and crippled their ability to do business with the rest of the world. in addition, we're choking off russia's access to technology like semi conductors and economic strength and weakened its military for years to come. major companies are pulling out of russia entirely without even being asked. not by us. over the weekend visa, mastercard, american express suspended their services in russia, all of them. joining a growing list of american and global companies from ford to nike to apple. they suspended their operations in russia. the u.s. stock exchange has halted trading of many russian securities. the private sector is united against russia's vish use war of choice. u.s. department of justice has

aassembly and seize oligarchs's gains to make sure they share in the pain of putin's war. giant yachts. some of them are i think i read one was over 400 feet long. this is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. the decision today is not without cost here at home. putin's war is already hurting american families at the gas pump. since putin began his military build-up on the ukraine borders, since then the price at the gas of the pump in america went up 75 cents and with this action it will go up further. i will do everything i can to minimize putin's price hike at home. coordination with our partners we've announced we are releasing 60 million barrels of oil from our joint oil reserves. half of that, 30 million is coming from the united states.

we're taking steps to insure the reliable supply of global energy. also going to keep working with every tool at our disposal to protect american families and businesses. let me say this to the oil and gas companies and to the finance firms that back them, we understand putin's war against the people of ukraine is causing prices to rise. we get that. that's self-evident but -- but, but, but it is no excuse to exercise excessive price increases or padding profits or any kind of effort to exploit this situation or american consumers exploit them. russia's aggression is costing us all and it is no time for profiteering or price gouging. i want to be clear what we won't tolerate. but i also want to acknowledge those firms and oil and gas industries that are pulling out of russia and joining other businesses that are leading by example. this is a time when we have to do our part to make sure we

aren't taking advantage. look, let me be clear about two other points. first, it is simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production. that's simply not true. even amid the pandemic companies of the united states pumped more oil during my first year in office than they did during my predecessor's first year. we are approaching record levels of oil and gas production in the united states and we're on track to set a record world production next year. in the united states, 90% of onshore oil production takes place on land not owned by the federal government. of the remaining 10% it occurs on federal land the oil and gas industry has millions of acres leased. they have 9,000 permits to drill now. they could be drilling right now, yesterday, last week, last year. they have 9,000 to drill

onshore that are already approved. so let me be clear, let me be clear they are not using them for production now. that's their decision. these are the facts. we should be honest about the facts. second, this crisis is a stark reminder to protect our economy over the long term we need to become energy independent. i have had numerous conversations over the last few months with european friends how they have to wane themselves off russian oil. it is not -- it is not ten able. it should motivate us to accelerate to clean energy. european allies share it and the future where together we can achieve greater independence. loosening environmental regulations or pulling back clean energy investment won't -- will not lower energy prices for families. but transforming our economy to run on electric vehicles powered by clean energy with tax credits to help american

families winterize their homes and use less energy that will help. and if we can, if we do what we can, it will mean that no one has to worry about price of gas in the future at the gas pump and tyrants like putin won't be table use fossil fuels as weapons against other nations. and it will make america a world leader, manufacturing and exporting clean energy technology of the future to countries around the world. this is the goal we should be racing toward. over the last two weeks ukrainian people have inspired the world and i mean that in a literal sense they have inspired the world with their bravery, patriotism and defiant determination to live free. putin's war has caused enormous suffering and needless loss of life of women, children, everyone in ukraine. both ukraine and i might add russians. ukrainian leaders as well as leaders around the world have repeatedly called for a

cease-fire for humanitarian relief for real diplomacy of the putin seems determined to continue on his murderous path no matter the cost. he is now targeting cities and civilians, schools, apartment buildings. last week he attacked the largest nuclear power plant in europe with an apparent disregard for the potential of triggering a nuclear meltdown. he has already turned two million ukrainians into refugees. russia may continue to grind out its advance at a horrible price but this much is already clear. ukraine will never be a victory for putin. putin may be able to take a city but he will never be able to hold a country. if we do not respond to putin's assault on global peace and stability today, the cost of freedom and to the american people will be even greater tomorrow. so we'll continue to support the brave ukrainian people as they fight for their country and i call on congress to pass

the $12 million ukrainian assistance package i've asked them for of late. ukrainian people are demonstrating by physical courage they aren't about to just let putin take what he wants. that's clear. they will defend their freedom, their democracy, their lives. and we'll keep providing security assistance and economic and humanitarian assistance and support them against tyranny, oppression, violent acts. people everywhere and maybe surprised some of you all. people everywhere are speaking up for freedom. on the history of this war, putin's war on ukraine will have left russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger. and god bless all those who hear us in ukraine and now i'm off to texas. thank you very much. i know there are a lot of questions. i know -- i know there is a lot of questions but there is a lot more that has to be made clear

and i will hold on that until we get more information. thank you. appreciate it. >> harris: so no questions again and he says there is a lot more that needs to be made clear. he was very clear on a couple of things and david asman is here with me from fox business. fast and furiously fact checking. >> he was very clear in saying making the same misstatements that jen psaki did saying we have the highest oil production ever right now. anybody can look it up on the website. eia, the official energy statistics. in december 2019 we were producing 12.9 million barrels of oil a day. in december 2021 we were producing 11.5 million barrels a day. a 1.5 million barrel per day drop since december 2019 at the end of the trump administration. the fact is we are not producing as much oil as we could and we could ramp up our

oil production to easily replace what we're not getting from russia. >> harris: that's critical to know. the facts matter here. our enemies look at that and they know the truths. venezuela knows we can do a jig today because america will buy some oil from us. maybe iran is thinking the same thing. the saudis are listening to the president get ready to beg for more relief from opec. >> what are the chinese thinking? the chinese are thinking oh boy, we get to sneak in some russian oil because we can go under the radar, get the oil at a discount while americans are spending a fortune more on oil we get oil cheaper here by dealing with the russians. >> harris: peter doocy correspondent often in those briefings asking those questions. as he was talking, the president, peter sent this out. the white house has said we don't have strategic interest in cutting off russian oil. i know where he is going.

today is the 8th. the 3rd jen psaki said we don't have a strategic interest in reducing the global fly of energy and it would raise gas prices at the pump for the american people. on the 2nd we don't have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy. that was the deputy press secretary. also our objective is to insure that there is a greatest economic pain on russia and not on the russian people but on president putin to minimize the impact on the american people. they have said time and time again. what changed? it could not have been the horrible images and realities of death and war because those have been going on for 13 days. what do you think was the calculus to get the president to this point in time? >> because of the fact they are blaming the price increases on russia. all of the price increases. i mentioned before in december long before the invasion took place it was a very political

calculation on their part. you listen to what jen psaki said. she is blaming russian invasion on the gas price increases. you go back to november of 2020 and look at gas prices during the election in november of 2020. gas prices, average gas prices were $2.11. that was during the pandemic and prices went down base people didn't travel as much. go back before the pandemic. 2019, prices never got above $3 a gallon. as soon as biden came into office, prices spiked not only at the gas pump but also oil prices spiked and they've been going up continuously long before the invasion was even in our calculation. so the idea that this is all can be blamed all the price increases can be blamed on the russian invasion is just incorrect. go ahead, look at eia, the official statistics on gas and

oil production. everything they say to blame gas price increases just on the russian invasion is wrong. it is wrong, incorrect and oil production is not at its highest levels ever. it was much higher in december 2019 than it is now. >> harris: we're taking a look obviously and we can take that picture up on screen of air force one. the president was getting ready to head to texas at joint air force base ft. worth to meet with the secretary of veterans affairs and talk about v.a. healthcare and texas, what role does texas play in oil? >> a pretty big role. could play a bigger role. again it is -- these oil companies are right now you saw the president put the squeeze on them saying it is all their fault. all their fault. he just said -- >> harris: do you think price controls are coming? >> when you hear the president talking about price gouging from oil companies. the next step for a politician who doesn't understand how markets worse is price controls. price controls, one thing that

is always true about price controls they lead to shortages. private companies will not produce something at a loss because otherwise they lose money. if we have more shortages than -- we have the long gas lines that we had during the oil embargo in the 1970s where you had price controls, we'll see not only higher prices but long, long lines to get gasoline. >> harris: a lot of people wanted to see the president do what he did today a week ago. whenever he does it we'll feel it. what you are saying is let the markets shake it out on their own without him putting his thumb on it. >> drill here, here and here very simple. >> harris: thank you very much, david asman, fox business. >> the days we go in the shelter and there was just a real fight for our city. unfortunately this russians

came to our city and damaged our infrastructure and killed innocent people. as for the food and medicine, we don't have any of. >> harris: ukrainian woman trapped by the russian shelling speaking of all she has endured and that of thousands of others suffering at this point. many without food, water, electricity for more than a week. it is day 13 of this war putin has waged on ukraine. efforts to put in place cease fires along humanitarian corridors have largely failed and russia's indiscriminate release of artillery, power against citizens, is unspeakable. ukraine says buses of civilians have left the battered city of sumi in the country's northeast. ukraine's foreign ministry said russian forces have broken another cease-fire agreement and gone after an evacuation route in the besieged city of

mariupol. mike tobin live for us in lviv, ukraine. mike. >> one of the towns that is in russia's crosshairs now is a ship building town located halfway between kherson and odesa. the may or said they have them surrounded on three sides. this is a russian speaking and russian friendly town unless the bombardment started. they understand that russia is the enemy. the mayor says they will fight until the last bullet to prevent the russian army from moving through them on to odesa. >> to have odesa and we are the wall between kherson and odesa.

>> people are fleeing sumi east of kiev and mariupol. we found an artist studio converted to shelter in lviv. a woman moved from the donbas region to get away from the fighting. moved to kyiv and had to flee again. >> why would anyone deserve being deprived of their houses, deprived of their families, their dreams, their lives just for no reason? i don't think someone deserves that at all. >> back to the siege at the city they are running short on body armor and anti-tank weapons. >> harris: we know hundreds of thousands of ukrainians are forced to leave their homes,

leaving behind everything. my next guest is one of them. natasha left her home in kyiv, the capital city of ukraine as putin's forces launched unrelenting attacks on her city. she fled with her friend and friend's baby son to keep him safe. she is now in the western part of ukraine and is working with others to help in the fight. natasha in "focus" now. first of all, tell me what that fight is like. >> well, we have organized our volunteer organization. we made the refund money all over the world to help our soldiers to buy some technical stuff like drones, like, i don't know, walkie-talkie, things like thermal images where they use it to find images at night. and we transfer all this

technical stuff to kyiv or other districts within ukraine. we now are seeking suppliers. we find funds that support us. we just sent messages to all people we know worldwide just to fund something to buy this stuff. >> harris: that is so technical and you know it is operations and military terms and to see civilians taking up this charge is really remarkable. i hope people realize that you are talking about basics. you said walkie-talkie and drone things and nighttime military supplies that you guys are finding as you basically crowd fund for this war. what is the morale like now? you have had sitting outside of

kyiv that 40-mile long convoy of russian forces. we know that they have stalled for we don't know all the reasons, really. what is the morale inside the city? >> you mean kyiv? >> harris: yes. >> well, i'm in contact with kyiv. i left kyiv -- i tried to stay as long as possible, but when they started bombing our district, we decided to leave in one minute and we left. and i'm in contact with my city, with my friend and my -- i don't know, neighbors there. they say that kyiv is still okay. there is no trade bombing or something like that. you cannot recognize the city because it is all this war ammunition and preparation things voluntary and so on so

it's really hard to see our city in such condition. but still it is not -- it doesn't look like kherson or like sumi as you see now on your screen. so hope -- i really hope that kyiv will stand and i really hope that we can stand and war will be over as fast as possible because we lose people. everybody all over the world they are losing money because of the oil price and so on but still we lose people. ukraine lose people and while ukraine -- why people exist ukraine exists as well and democracies exists worldwide. i believe it. we need to protect our people. >> harris: before i let you go our president of the united states has just announced we won't be buying russian oil at this point. your quick reaction to that. >> well, yeah, i have heard

president biden now. i really appreciate that and every ukrainian appreciates that and i am sure that every ukrainian and i'm speaking from ukraine, everybody really thankful for such support and i am sure that we can that each country can be all independent apart from this country, which is aggressor which can hurt the whole world, yeah. so thank you, biden. >> harris: natasha talking about energy independence for the world including the united states. the president today making the decision that for now we will not buy russian oil and you thank him for that. natasha, thank you. stay well. >> thank you. >> harris: we're praying for your survival and your success against an invader. god bless. >> thank you.

>> harris: video we often get starting this hour of the day. they are seven hours ahead and gives everybody a chance to kind of pull back into position, journalists get their images across the world. devastated city of mariupol in southeastern ukraine. people there waiting for news of evacuation efforts as they are struggling to just hang on to life. it is a city where bodies have been left in the streets due to near constant shelling. it is raining at times in sheets of rain. dogs have come out and forgive the indelicacy of the fact but it is true they cannot always retrieve the dead because of those factors. there have been repeated attempts to establish a humanitarian corridor to get people out safely with cease fires agreements but they've kol answered as russia resumes attack. electricity out and water cut. people are collecting it from

streams and melting snow. it took 13 days and this is where we are. we'll keep bringing you the images, the story as it unfolds from ukraine. >> harris: the children understand saying goodbye. even the really young ones know what that means. at least for now. more than 2 million ukrainians fleeing to neighboring countries in less than two weeks. their papa holding on this them as they are fathers stay behind to fight and women and children move ton as refugees. the images are stark. some crossing the border with family and then turning right back around to go fight. the united nations high council

on refugees says children without parental care are -- when these children are moved across borders the risks are mult flied and the risk of trafficking goes up and emergencies. as we watch this today we know that there are several really countless geos pulling in now and we've been putting a list together on the faulkner focus that we can share these things. we are vetting these things and want to make sure the money and supplies go to the people that really need them. two million people now, 40 million people in the nation of ukraine. we don't know yet how many of them will be able to make it out, what that trek will be like and what will be needed in the countless days ahead. we don't know how this will end. but right now this is putin's horrendous war. the red cross is stepping in.

you can visit red cross.org or call 1-800 help now. samaritan's purse is another. we'll put all of this together for you so that each day when you watch you will know where things are going and what the needs are. thank you for watching "the faulkner focus". "outnumbered" after the break. ha financial boost? the newday 100 va loan lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value and take out up to $60,000 or more. give them a call. veteran homeowners, newday wants to help you use your va home loan benefit to get more. more cash, more savings, more peace of mind. the newday 100 va loan lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value. up to $60,000 or more. veterans are saving an average of $615 every month. with more ways to help more veteran families, no bank, no lender, no one knows veterans like newday usa.

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♪ ♪ >> harris: president biden has just announced a ban on russian oil imports. and now, we are more. >> just as russia ramped up attacks on civilians in ukraine, president biden is now going after pollutants oil imports come after a source tells