>> trace: i thought the line of the day is will smith might have bet on st. peter's. >> dana: i even understood that joke. that's pretty good. i've come a long way, trace, i have come a long way. thank you so much. "the faulkner focus" is up next. here is harris. >> the biden gaffe going international. president biden's epic moment calling out vladimir putin was immediately followed by the stunning and woeful attempt by the white house to walk it back. i'm harris faulkner and you are in "the faulkner focus". the president delivered a fiery speech in poland and he veered off script and into a verbal hurricane. >> president biden: we'll have a different future rooted in democracy and principle. hope and light. decency and for god sake, this man cannot remain in power.

>> trace: and the white house quickly released a statement. that was my take on what he said clarifying the president was not calling for regime change in russia. wasn't enough. he did manage to unite some democrats and republicans on the hill. >> there is no support in the democratic congress for regime change. rethe party against regime change for 20 years. >> this kind of flip-flopping. he says one thing and the white house has to clean it up damages his credibility and the commander-in-chief has to be taken seriously. >> i wish he would stay on script. not a lot more you can do to escalate than call for regime change. >> potentially having more war triggering language than any president in american history. we need to be careful and precise in things we say particularly the commander-in-chief of our country. >> president biden getting torn apart in the headlines. the "wall street journal" editorial board says he needs a whole new team.

"new york post" editorial board says the president's words don't mean a damn thing. their words again, not mine. another post op-ed calls this whole episode a perfect symbol of the president's foreign policy follies. we have fox team coverage. retired four star army general david perkins is in "focus." alex hogan in lviv, ukraine. we want to begin with david spunt outside the white house. david. >> good morning. the president spoke and the world heard the call for regime change but yesterday after the president got back to washington, d.c., well, he changed course a little bit. listen. >> mr. president, do you want putin removed? mr. president, were you calling for regime change? >> president biden: no. >> the president said no when asked yesterday but blinken had to quickly come out and explain u.s. policy. >> president putin cannot be

empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against ukraine or anyone else. as you know and as you have heard us say we don't have a strategy of regime change in russia. >> that's the talking point circulating around the administration as the u.s. ambassador to nato really used the exact same words. >> the u.s. does not have a policy of regime change towards russia but i think what we all agree on is that president putin cannot be empowered to wage war. >> i want to read this nbc news poll. extraordinary. 40% approve of the president's job performance in this new poll on ukraine specifically 28% of those polled say they have quite a bit or a great deal of confidence in the president's ability to handle the crisis. >> biden needs to stop talking

and start acting. stop telling putin what he is going to do and start giving every resource you can to the ukrainian people. rally nato to do the same thing. biden has to start acting and getting things done and stop misspeaking. >> the president is going to be speaking on camera today. the planned remarks are not about ukraine. it is about his fiscal year 2023 budget. you can bet he likely will be asked about what he said in poland just a few days ago. >> we'll see if he takes and answers any questions. thank you very much, david. >> mariupol which has become a bit of a ukrainian alamo at this point in time. fighting to the last defender and pinning down multiple russian battalions but it looks like it will be taken. >> david petraeus petraeus says

the strategic port city of mariupol may be running out of time. after weeks of intense bombing, most of it has been destroyed. russia appears to be consolidating its forces to go to the south and the east unleashing brutal attacks along the border and negotiations between ukraine and russia are set to continue. president zelenskyy says they could consider adopting a neutral status. but the ukrainian ambassador to the united states says just because they are talking doesn't mean the ukrainians are standing down. >> the negotiations does not mean what ukraine is ready to surrender. negotiations mean there should be a solution and push in diplomatic pressure to stop russia. so no, we are not ready to give up our territories and not ready to give up our people. >> this weekend all eyes were focused on an area that had not been hit.

alex hogan is in lviv and it has been hit now. >> it has, harris. since the invasion, russia has failed to fully take over any large city here in ukraine. and today the mayor of one town said ukrainian troops have managed the take back their town as more ukrainian troops turn to the offensive. friday we heard from russia saying they would shift their focus pulling more troops into the east. well, that military statement was contradicted with attacks we saw right here in lviv. where i am is 45 miles from the border of poland where u.s. president joe biden spoke on saturday. the mayor here in lviv calling the attacks this weekend a clear message to the u.s. from russian president vladimir putin. russian strikes here on saturday marks the closest attacks to the city center that we've seen since the beginning of the war. firefighters worked to put out

the massive flames at an oil depot and a factory that were both struck twice and both of them were used by the ukrainian military. meanwhile in mariupol the situation continues to deteriorate even further. residents are creating makeshift graves to bury their dead. they are search pg for food and shelter. half of the residents in the city have fled. the mayor there says about 160,000 residents are currently stuck in the city that has been repeatedly bombed and shelled for weeks now. there is also new footage we can show you of ukrainian state emergency services in a city searching for bombs and mines yet to detonate. they are finding explosives every day. i spent weeks on the other side of the border speaking to refugees who fled the country

more than 3.8 million people have done so, and many of the people i spoke with said they fled for safety but many of their family members stayed here and even came to lviv where i am now thinking that this would be a safe place and this, of course, these attacks this weekend shifting that ground under people especially in their thoughts of what this possibly could mean for the city that was considered relatively safe. harris. >> i know where you are standing and over the weekend cameras showed where that neighborhood is in relation to the energy plant that they hit. it was a couple football fields apart the way it looked. just -- they could have hit another neighborhood. it is frightening. stay safe. thank you for the great reporting. russia's new focus is taking control of the eastern donbas region. the head of ukraine's military

intelligence says putin's goal is to split the country to two parts. an attempt to create north and south korea in ukraine. david perkins, retired four star army general and fox news contributor is in "focus" now. general perkins, first of all what about this idea to split up? as i understand it, the dmz, the demilitarized zone is kept by thousands of us, our own troops. will we have to do that there? >> harris, good to be with you here today. i think what you are seeing is the russians redefine success. if you redefine success it means you are not having success. i think obviously putin's initial plan was this multi-axis fast moving armored attack has not worked. the ukrainians have steadfast held their ground and have, you know, really given the russians a much tougher fight than they were planning on. what you are seeing now is very

typical in warfare as you go through phases. the russians are trying to consolidate gains. putin is trying to get a good assessment of what his capability really is. and what is his potential to continue the offens? he obviously either did not get good intelligence or didn't listen to it prior to the invasion. now he is having to adjust his plans to see what is in the realm of the possible. as you say, to maintain, you know, territory that you have occupied is a very resource-intensive operation and the russians have not shown a capability to be able to manage their resources well. >> sometimes not even in their own country. i do want to point this out. you know, ukraine has said that they are talking now to try to bring peace. they have lost so many people particularly children. close to 5 million children

displaced by all of this and we've seen the deaths of children as the russian what i call army of terrorists continue to target civilians. ukraine, though, is not settling for a surrender here. do they settle for a walled-off version of their country? >> well, obviously the ukrainians and russians will have to work through this. from all of their statements is far you can see that that's a non-starter. the ukrainians have been much more successful than the russians had planned on and most people initially gave them credit for. i think they have the upper hand in this. the russians are taking huge losses. their losses are already greater than the u.s. had in 20 years of war in iraq and you have to remember the last time the large losses was in afghanistan. they eventually pulled out and shortly after that the berlin wall came down. the russian country as a whole

has not responded well to large losses of this type. >> part of what we were seeing this weekend as we hear more publicly from what they choose to release of putin are words for his own people. he is dealing with a lot of pushback. thousands of people in jail now for speaking out against this war. their economy is crumbling reportedly. the ruble is worth almost nothing. russian forces are meeting fierce resistance in ukraine and there are rising concerns that putin could employ the use of atomic weapons. take it up a notch. those haven't been used since world war ii. the biggest question is how rational the russian leadership is right now and senator marco rubio with this. >> i think the likelyest thing you'll see from putin is trying to use chemical or biological weapons for that matter but doing it in way that makes it look like someone else did it.

i don't think he would admit he is using the chemical weapons. he would want to blame it on ukraine ornate owe and blame them. >> it would seem past the point we can hope to deter this madman. if he uses those weapons is that a red line for the united states as you would understand it militarily? what would the answer be? we saw in syria it was tomahawk missiles against the assad regime. >> what we have to keep in mind and take a look at putin, he is not a military leader. he is a spy. and they travel in narratives. they are all about building a narrative, you know, being able to twist the narrative. so i would be very -- pay close attention to his narrative and if he is starting to craft something as you said sort of this, you know, false use of something that you can blame on somebody else he is much more apt to do that than some bold military move. that is not his strength.

>> lawmakers, experts, world leaders united on this. biden's comments are ultimately a gift to putin. talking about the gaffe that he made. they are claiming the president pretty much gave russia an excuse to escalate the war in ukraine. let's watch this together, general. >> by saying that that regime change is our strategy plays into the hands of the russian propagandists and vladimir putin. >> it strengthens putin at home. makes it difficult for opposition to company lens. i wouldn't use those terms. i continue to speak the president putin. what do we want to do? stop the war that russia launched in ukraine. without waging war and without escalation. >> macron of france, i wouldn't use those words because i continue to talk to putin. what do you make of it all? >> well, as i said, putin and his background lives in a world

of narratives and ukrainians have been very effective throughout all this not to fall into his false narrative or get caught up in the tit-for-tat back and forth of putin taking one thing and twisting it and so my advice would be that would be the best strategy moving forward. don't focus on narratives, focus on what they are doing and keep the eye on the ball and continue to put up the strong resistance that the ukrainians have. >> i can't help but ask this when i see the french leader macron talking the russia and russia not taking our calls. are we not leading anything anymore not even the phone call brigade? >> the russian military has not done well for itself. it has embarrassed itself on the world stage. they probably don't have much to talk about and now would not be a good time for them to get in discussion.

they are not discussing things from a position of strength. >> a "wall street journal" op-ed reads the reality is that we have to live with mr. biden for three more years as president. members of congress of both parties will have to play a more assertive role. mr. biden would also be wise to bring some high profile conservatives, mr. biden desperately needs to diversify the advice he gets beyond the liberal internationalists who dominate his councils. susan rice, ron klain and jake sullivan have the afghan failure on their resumes. your thoughts. >> you know, in pursuing strategies during periods of conflict and war it is always useful to look at historical precedents and really get a good understanding of who the enemy is, who your coalition partners are. the wider the range of advice, it is always much better to really get a clear understanding of the issues you are dealing with at the time.

>> it was clear after our losses in afghanistan, the 13 who died and that debacle of a pull-out that generals like yourself were not listened to. we saw generals on capitol hill say as much. they had given the president a different plan. it is difficult. you are in a non-political role. what do you think our next step should be quickly? >> i think we need to continue to reinforce and support the ukrainians as we are and as all of nato is doing quite well and keep in perspective whatever we give them for assistance and however we can move them forward in their fight with the russians it has to be something they can use right away. their ability to take a capability and turn it into action immediately has really made the russians stand back on their heels and that is the strength of ukrainians have and we have to be able to support that as much as we can. >> that strategy that you are

talking about. general perkins, thank you. great to have you in "focus" today. >> thanks a lot. appreciate it. >> the gaffe that caused the universal cringe continues to do some damage today. the liberal media coming to president biden's rescue yet again. and this. >> oh, oh. oh, wow, wow. will smith just smacked the [bleep] out of me. >> was it staged or real? it's the flap heard around the world. at least one lawmaker tweeted and then deleted her support for him. a member of the squad, pressley. the whole thing could cost will smith his oscar. imagine how the williams family feels. that was the story of their lives and now it's all about

him. joe concha in "focus" next. no one deserves the american dream of homeownership more than veterans. at newday, you can buy a home with no down payment. and they're holding rates in the 3s. already own a home and need cash? with the newday100 loan, you can get up to $60,000 or more and lower your payments $615 a month. no bank, no lender, no one knows veterans like newdayusa.

attention medicare beneficiaries, if you have or are eligible for medicaid, please listen closely. you may be eligible for a medicare advantage plan from wellcare with $0 or low plan premium. call now. we can answer your questions and help you enroll over the phone. wellcare provides access to essential benefits

that go beyond original medicare such as dental, vision, hearing and prescription drug coverage with free home delivery. plus, extra benefits like: free over the counter healthcare items, free transportation, free gym membership and home delivered meals. get more access to care with wellcare's telehealth services, including online doctor visits and a 24-hour nurse advice line. wellcare is contracted with medicare to provide plans that may be perfect for you. call now.

xfinity mobile runs on america's most reliable 5g network, but for up to half the price of verizon, so you have more money for more stuff. this phone? fewer groceries. this phone? more groceries!

this phone? fewer concert tickets. this phone? more concert tickets. and not just for my shows. switch to xfinity mobile for half the price of verizon. that's a savings of over $500 a year. switch today.

>> a dictator bent on rebuilding on empire will never erase the people's love for liberty. brutality will never -- for god sake this man cannot remain in power. >> harris: despite the massive blunder the liberal media still has his back. former cbs white house correspondent tweeted this. tops reagan's 1987 bring down

the wall speech. white house now watering down biden's statement. one user tweeted to him did the staff have to come out after reagan's speech and say just kidding, guys, he didn't mean that? joe concha, media and politics columnist for the hill and fox news contributor in "focus" now. good to see you. the real challenge with all of this isn't the fact that he continues to make gaffes, it is that it is always oppositional to something that the white house then has to clean up and is relatively critical. >> a great point. i'm old enough to remember president biden's inaugural address was the best ever given. i don't remember it. i'm old enough when the state of the union address would result in the biden bounce where it will turn around. only 40% approval. all time news nbc news.

the speech in poland was not the reagan/gorbachev tear down the wall moment. we didn't have to run to aisle 5 to clean it up. it's always aisle 5. look, there are consequences here. overwhelming number of americans in the same nbc poll are concerned that the war will ultimately result in the use of nuclear weapons. 74%, 3/4s fears u.s. troops. >> harris: it sounds like it has creeped up a bit. >> right. we see the russians stalled. >> harris: i don't know how the french president doesn't get involved and ends up saying as i just said to general perkins i wouldn't have said those words because i'm talking to putin every day. the general said they are losing the russian military and don't have much to say to us.

aisle, 5, 7, 9 include our white house and the french it would appear. >> the french didn't have the only line into putin now, maybe the germans. our own pentagon can't get through to the russians. scary. >> harris: jay johnson has this take. >> i'm not sure i would have walked it back. he is a war criminal. he is slaughtering innocent men, women and children. he illegally invaded ukraine and he has command and control of nuclear weapons. that person should not remain in power. >> harris: critical to the obama administration at points. what do you make of that? >> jay johnson is one of the few people from the obama administration that criticized joe biden on his handling on the southern border. the catastrophe down there. words matter and the white house went off script and what

do they think should happen? >> harris: they could say he expressed what he thought was right. that may not be american foreign policy, they could say. but it is a shot across the bow to putin that left to his own devices the president could handle it this way. the cleanup. they have the bleach and everything out right now. i don't know what they're focused on. the oscars coming to a halt when will smith marched onto the stage and slapped chris rock over a joke about will smith's wife. >> jada, i love you, gi jane 2, can't wait to see it, right? that was a nice one. okay. i'm out here, oh oh, oh oh.

oh, wow, wow. will smith just smacked the [bleep] out of me. >> harris: then the profanity started. will smith was telling him to keep his wife's blank name out of his mouth and keep his wife's name out of his blanking mouth. if you thought it was staged the drama continued once he sat down. smith could be seen consoled by fellow actors following the incident. even one squad member, an elected congresswoman, praised will smith seemingly for the violence. that's what was happening. pressley suffers from alopecia as jada pinkett smith. deleted the tweet. again violence. smith was later awarded the oscar for best actor for his

role in king richard. some are questioning whether the star should be able to keep the oscar. daily mail, could will smith be stripped of his oscar, academy faces pressure to respond after he broke conduct drawn up in wake of #metoo movement. wait a minute. you have to have conduct about slapping people and -- why don't we call it you assaulted somebody and leave it there and why didn't they do anything about it last night? where was security. >> it happened so suddenly. we have never seen somebody hit someone else during an oscar ceremony. >> harris: somebody takes 20 paces. it is not like he ran. where is security? i'm being serious. i know they are big stars. you don't see anybody move? >> it is not a fan. a guy who has been in the public eye for 30 years. >> harris: all right. what is the fallout of this for the academy? >> for the academy, the fallout?

>> harris: do they take the oscar? >> i don't think so. he apologized. he didn't apologize to chris rock. it could have been a lot worse. what if the guy who played ali had closed his fist in the situation. i think that's a one-punch knock-out. amazing that rock took that shot, didn't go down. i would have. will smith is not a small person and was able to recover in that sense. it is remarkable. i like the way cnn said. they said will smith appeared to strike chris rock. >> harris: quickly, the people who suffer in this, king richard is about the williams sisters, goats in their field of tennis, amazing and that movie is about their rise out of a very violent los angeles, compton. the shine is not on them, the shine is not on the movie or on

the performances or the inspiration their story has given it is all on a guy who hit his friend who has done at least one walk-on on fresh prince and tell you how old i am. >> you watched it when you were five. >> harris: you are kind. house republicans demanding answers saying an internal audit shows major misconduct by the f.b.i. and they believe much of it was politically motivated, and more. >> anything short of russia leaving the ukraine is probably a non-starter. we have to support zelenskyy on the ground with air assets, air defense assets, harpoon, everything he needs. >> harris: you hear it over and over from the generals, the colonels, not the white house. president zelenskyy accusing the west of cowardice as his troops desperately fight to hold off putin's forces. the ukraine leader pleading for action and more assistance. congressman michael mccaul in

"focus" next. >> tech vo: this customer had auto glass damage, but he was busy working from home... ...so he scheduled with safelite in just a few clicks. we came to his house... ...then we got to work. we replaced his windshield and installed new wipers to protect his new glass, while he finished his meeting. let safelite come to you. >> man: looks great. thank you. >> tech: my pleasure. that's service on your time. schedule now. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ (vo) verizon business unlimited is going ultra! get more. like manny. event planning with our best plan ever. (manny) yeah, that's what i do. (vo) with 5g ultra wideband in many more cities, you get up to 10 times the speed at no extra cost. verizon is going ultra, so your business can get more.

when a normal day is anything but normal, we fit your schedule, you get with our uniquethe speed at no extra cost. tub over tub process installed in as little as a day. bath fitter. it just fits. visit bathfitter.com to book your free consultation.

this isn't dry food or wet food. it's not burnt brown pellets. the farmer's dog makes it simple to feed your dog real food. it's real meat and veggies. freshly-made. developed with vets. delivered right to your door. that's why dog lovers are choosing the farmer's dog. a smarter, healthier pet food. delivered. visit tryfarmersdog.com

and get 50% off your first box of food.

>> i talked to the defenders of mariupol today. in constant contact with them. their determination, heroism is astonishing. if only those who have been thinking for 31 days and hand-to-hand over dozens of jets and tanks have 1% of their courage. >> harris: president zelenskyy calling out the west saying allies must do more to help him fight russia's invasion. many americans agree. a new poll finds more than 60% of registered voters believe the u.s. should be doing more. some are asking if the president's sinking apriefshal ratings at home are hurting him abroad. national security advisor jake sullivan had this response. >> preserving democracy at home. concern some of these things are undermining his ability to

work with allies on these issues. we have not seen that at all. the story of the unity on this throughout has been a story of the president's personal leadership. american leadership and of the deep credibility he has with these leaders. this could go on for quite some time and to sustain that unity as costs rise, as the tragedy unfolds, that's hard work. >> harris: texas congressman mike mccaul ranking member of the house foreign affairs committee. great to have thu morning, congressman. first of all, what's your response to what jake sullivan is saying there? do you agree the president is leading abroad and at home to the point that he should be? >> do you think one man has unified nato more than any other is mr. putin. i give the administration getting the nato together and

141 to 5 with the u.n. resolution. every time he goes off script he causes an international incident and we get off messaging. not the policy of the united states to have regime change. and he is always talking about not escalating which is the reason why they didn't send the mig jets into ukraine in the first place because they don't want to be too provocative. and why you saw an nbc news poll saying 70% of the american people believe he is not doing a good job as a wartime president. if you talk to zelenskyy. i was with the ukrainian ambassador yesterday, what were with deliverables that came out of the meeting at nato? other than talking about giving more energy to europe rather than russia. why did you waive the mandatory sanctions on nord stream 2 >> trace: what zelenskyy needs not only these jets but the s-300 anti-aircraft would give

him his no fly zone. i saw no movement on that issue at all. that is what he needs now today. we can't waste anymore time with this. >> harris: you are on capitol hill and you are leading and you are the ranking member of a pertinent committee in this whole conversation what to do with and for ukraine. why do you think president biden and the white house are not doing more? >> i don't know. it's the first question i asked was okay, what happened with slovakia and the eastern nato country that have the s-300. it's like our patriot battery system. anti-aircraft. russian and they know how to operate it. it's what they need. then well, we have to backfill it with something. go ahead and backfill with it our patriot missile system in slovakia and eastern europe and nato countries. same thing happened when i was over in poland, harris, they are taught the mig jets pilots

coming over from ukraine flying them into poland and into ukraine but oh, we can't backfill two f-16s to give poland for force protection. unfortunately as i said the outcome there was no outcome. zelenskyy didn't get any more weapons than the day before they started these meetings. >> harris: it is hard to believe that biden's name is being focused and not just putin's name because of the gaffe not because of all the things you listed militarily need and could be done. house republicans are demanding answers about an internal f.b.i. audit that found the bureau has broken its own rules. the 2019 audit came to light earlier this month and mentions more than 700 so-called compliance errors including questionable surveillance of politicians and religious groups. congressman andy biggs had this to say.

>> it mentions there were things like search warrants and procedural errors. we need to get to the bottom of it. chris wray testified they always follow the predicates and rules. have they corrected these? who was targeted? why they were targeted and how these errors might have impacted these investigations? >> harris: how do you investigate the investigators? >> you have an outside investigator. inspector general. i would call upon an outside investigation by the inspector general. you can't do this now internally. i was a federal prosecutor for many years. i respected the weight of authority and power that a federal prosecutor and f.b.i. agent has. if that power is abused there is nothing worse. so what it sounds to me like what is happening is f.b.i. agents are running around in a

rogue fashion not consulting with the prosecutor like myself who would guide them to what the law requires but starting their own investigations, not working with the prosecutor or going through proper channels of review, not only within the f.b.i. but you know i was in the public integrity section. we focused on public corruption including members of congress. in that day the layers of review are very, very high. in fact, in many cases went all the way to the attorney general. it sound like the review process has been basically violated and like the fox guarding the hen house. i think an outside inspector general investigation is warranted. >> harris: if there are 700 violations you better get on it. i can only imagine something that is that egregious it will only grow. thank you for being if "focus" today. good to see you. >> thank you for having me.

>> harris: approval down, disapproval way up. a new poll spells trouble or biden again and democrats in total. we'll break down the numbers. the power panel and the debate you don't want to miss. based on your goals, whatever they may be. all that planning has paid off. looks like you can make this work. we can make this work. and the feeling of confidence that comes from our advice? i can make this work. that seems to be universal. i can make this work. i can make this work. no wonder more than 9 out of 10 clients are likely to recommend us. because advice worth listening to is advice worth talking about. ameriprise financial.

[upbeat music playing] ♪♪ welcome to home sweet weathertech home. a place where dirt stays outside. and floors are protected. where standing is comfortable.

and water never leaves a mark. it's spotless under the sink. and kids can be kids. order your american made products at weathertech.com. okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete balanced nutrition for strength and energy. woo hoo! ensure, complete balanced nutrition with 27 vitamins and minerals. and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. ♪ ♪ no one deserves the american dream of with 30 grams of protein. homeownership more than veterans. with the newday zero down home purchase loan, you can buy a home with no down payment. and they're still holding rates in the 3s. already own a home and need cash? the newday100 loan can get you up to $60,000 or more and lower your payments

by $615 a month. take ten minutes right now and make the call. because no one knows veterans like newday usa.

>> it's a huge red flag coupled

with the idea that people are blaming president biden's policies for inflation when you ask people right now, they are saying republicans are the ones who they trust with the economy. that is going to be a hard thing for democrats to overcome. >> harris: president biden's approval is down to 40% and a new nbc poll. the lowest of his presidency. ahead of the mid-terms it shows his support is falling among reliable democrat voters including blacks, latinos, women and independents. when it comes to their votes for congress, more people say they would vote for a republican than a democrat. interesting. remember, that's local politics and they are still choosing the republicans over the democrats. the republican pollster says the numbers mean democrats are headed for a catastrophic election. power panel now, matt forman communications director for the national republican

congressional committee. nomiki, former national surrogate for bernie sanders. i will come to you first and get your initial thoughts on why you think democrats in those particularly important categories for voters are leaning away from your party? >> listen, this is a very tough economy but when you look into those numbers in the polls and dig into a little more you see that a quarter of americans are blaming the pandemic. another quarter of americans are blaming corporate price gouging like the oil companies who are jacking up gas prices right now for their benefit and congress is now investigating. it is historic that as we all know in the mid-terms whatever president it is, their party is not doing as well. if you even see those numbers, it is a statistical tie. it is wonky and people -- polls are polls and can influence how people feel about things. obviously if you really want to look at the polls donald trump right now is doing his best

ever and that's exactly what joe biden is right now at his lowest ever. >> harris: we don't have donald trump. we have the president joe biden and half of what you mentioned he is under water. the pandemic. he said he would fix it. man, he would shut it down. shut down the virus. that hasn't happened. nomiki, i appreciate your love of history. matt. >> you look at the polls or the cross tabs there. the number one issue is the economy and inflation. 63% of respondents disapprove how biden has handled that. that is a flashing red warning signal not just a red flag. this poll is a story for other reasons. as you saw the generic ballot there republicans lead by two points. that's the first time nbc has had a lead for republicans on that question since september of 2014. later that year republicans

elected the largest house majority since the 1920s. that's historic. if you look i think afghanistan proved to be biden's katrina moment undermind the argument of competence and adult in the room and exposed him and hasn't gotten better since. >> harris: biden's approval on the economy an all time low. 33% of his handling. 38% blame him for rising inflation that hit 7.9% in february. reverse order, matt. >> again, that's a huge, huge issue. as you mentioned before his numbers among latinos and african-americans is also troublesome. republicans have been making quiet gains, steady gains over the last couple of years. democrats have taken them for granted. they assume all they care about is immigration or free stuff when all they really care about is what the rest of us care about, economy, making sure

streets are safer and houses are safer and kids get a quality education. not pandering. >> i have to hand it to you, matt. your communications are amazing. 2014 is the last time republicans did better. it was a mid-term year. historic. that's how it works. everybody knows that. you do a great job at that. also let's see, i would like to know how much we're losing support among minorities. it is quite small. you are gaining a very tiny almost not even relevant number of minority support. let's go back to your numbers which is important. the economy is in the situation because the corporations, the multi-national corporations -- >> harris: you do realize the price of gas was up by like a buck 92 before we got into a situation where we told russia we wouldn't buy any more oil and the numbers started to hurt. what about the cost of bread? that doesn't have anything to do with the oil companies.

>> it has to do with ceo price gouging to an effect that congress will investigate it. if the republican party take donations. >> harris: my favorite part of your argument is arguing how many blacks, latinos, independents and women don't like you. great to have you both and good to have you in "focus." "outnumbered" after the break.

>> hollywood hypocrisy on full display at the 94th oscar award ceremony. with plenty of disinformation about red state america. and actual violence on the stage. one a-listers smacked another a list or in the face. you're watching "outnumbered," i'm harris faulkner