offensive. you don't have to be >> i'm martha maccallum. the biden administration announces the end of a key covert arab border policy despite fears of a looming migrant wave. >> there will be an influx of people to the border, and so we are doing a lot of work to plan for that contingency buried >> martha: border control and humanitarian groups race for an influx as democrats prepare for backlash once the pandemic restriction is no more. plus, the midterms are now just months away at the president tries to ease the pain of the pump. >> president biden: our prices are rising because of putin's action. >> martha: we will discuss the challenges democrats base to

reset their agenda heading into the midterms with suzan delbene, who leads the centrist new democrats coalition. >> most of the purple district in the country, we are really the majority makers. >> martha: and speak with texas senator john cornyn about republicans' push to extend title 42. then... >> are you willing to trade any amount of ukrainian territory to achieve a peace deal with rus russia? >> what we agreed to, we don't trade our territory. >> martha: bret baier sits down with ukrainian president zelenskyy as the west assesses putin's next move. we will speak with pentagon press secretary john kirby about the latest round of peace talks and efforts to reach those in the crosshairs. plus, a lightning rod new law in florida thrust the state, its governor, and disney into the heart of the country's culture wars. we will ask our sunday panel about the escalating debate.

>> when you're trying to impose a woke ideology on our state, we view that is a significant threat. >> martha: all right now on "fox news sunday." ♪ ♪ >> martha: into logan from fox news. just months from the midterm elections, controversial move this week but president biden to lift the covid restriction known as title 42 at our southern border that has turned away thousands of migrants over the past couple of years. and that could add to the political liabilities that vulnerable democrats are facing right now, an unprecedented surge of the border, concerns about what the war in ukraine could lead to next, and then you have the weight on the country from rising inflation. we begin with team fox coverage, bill melugin at the southern border and david spunt traveling with the president in wilmington, delaware, today. david, we will start with you. good morning. >> martha, good morning to you. two years into the pandemic,

president biden insists democrat policies are working in the economy is on the move despite the fact that his poll numbers are stagnant. >> president biden: people are making more money. they're finding better jobs. >> hi, everyone. >> white house officials are touting the march jobs report which shows employers added 431,000 jobs, a bit below estimates but still bringing unemployment to 3.6%, the lowest level since the pandemic hit two years ago. it's a tough political sell with inflation at a 40 year high. >> they've done all the wrong things, they own this, and it will take the fed to squeeze it out, and i don't know how long that will take. >> the president also planning to release 1 million barrels of oil a day for six months from the u.s. emergency oil reserve to chip away at record gas prices. >> i think it's going to be very helpful. >> fox news poll showing bleak

numbers for the president and his party. 59% of those polled disapprove of the president's handling of the economy. 66% disapprove of how he's handling inflation. and republicans hold an advantage in the midterms, winning a hypothetical matchup 43-41 against democrat. this week, moderates and progressives met with the president to talk strategy and fend off a possible red wave in november. i mentioned progressives, it was at the urging of progressives that president biden decided to roll back what you mentioned, title 42. that is the policy that expels illegal immigrants crossing the southern border as soon as possible, citing the covid pandemic. martha. >> martha: david, thank you very much. david spunt reporting from wilmington. now let's turn to vilma lujan who is on the southern border in texas. >> helicopter 116. you might be in upwards of 75

75-100. >> stunning helicopter video from texas dps paints a picture of the ongoing crisis at our southern border. over 100 migrants crossed illegally. some of them using a rope to get across the river as an overwhelmed and outnumbered border patrol tries to respond. and their jobs may soon get even more difficult. dhs projects with title 42 rescinded, there could be upwards of 18,000 illegal crossings every single day. that's more than double the current average of 7,000 per day. former u.s. border patrol chief rodney scott says it would be total chaos. >> when title 42 drops, the processing time increases dramatically for every individual the border patrol arrest, so there's going to be no border patrol agents actually patrolling, they are going to be literally just doing processing and releasing aliens into the u.s. >> new jaw-dropping numbers on how many illegal immigrants have slipped past border patrol already. cbp sources tell fox news there have been more than 300,000

known got aways in the last six months. that includes more than 62,000 in march alone, over 2,000 got-aways everything okay. and that is a major concern as border patrol frequently arrest criminal migrants trying to sneak into the country, including this convicted murderer and these two convicted child predators, all arrested by border patrol this week after crossing illegally in texas and arizona. even with title 42 still currently in place, illegal crossings are nonstop. here in eagle pass, we've witnessed it repeatedly in broad daylight as border patrol's del rio sector alone continues to average up to 1500 illegal crossings every day. >> venezuela? >> some arrived with celebra celebration, others with dejection. sometimes too young to truly understand what's going on. in deming county texas, new body cam video shows texas dps

troopers finding 76 illegal immigrants being smuggled in a gravel trailer, almost all of them single adult men. the size of the groups seen from a dps helicopter's thermal cameras, the driver a honduran man in the country illegally. he had meth on him that he had a lengthy criminal record. he is now charged with human smuggling. >> that was vilma lujan reporting from eagle pass, texas. joining us now, chair of the new democrat coalition, washington congresswoman suzan delbene. it welcome to "fox news sunday." good to have you with us this morning. i do want to ask you about the broader democrat agenda, which i know you have been working on, but just first, your reaction to these numbers. 18,000, dhs says, will be crossing when title 42 is lifted. and your colleague in the senate, mark kelly, fellow democrat, says this is the wrong decision. it is unacceptable to end title 42 without a plan and coordination in place to ensure a secure, orderly, and humane

process at the border. do you agree with him? and do you think this is a move that could hurt your party? >> congresswoman delbene: well, i think this was a policy that was put in place to address the public health crisis, and it needs to be driven by the science. the cdc is making the decision on this. i support that decision. it won't go in place until ma may 23rd, and we have to make sure that we are not using a public health policy to undermine our immigration laws. secretary mayorkas is also working on this and has articulated his plan, and we need to engage with him on that plan. >> martha: but congress is still pushing for more covid funding and in some places there are restrictions, mask restrictions, going back into place, so how is this the right time to remove title 42? >> congresswoman delbene: well, i think when we look at funding for covid, the ongoing covid response, we are shifting in terms of how we look at

managing covid going forward. we are always going to need to have resources to make sure that we have available therapeutics, vaccines. those are what those resources are going towards and i think we have to look at how we are going to be resilient going forward and have a strong public health response, and that's really what the ad administration is looking for resources for, and that's part of what i think we need to do is numbers of congress. we need to make sure that we have policy in place so we are well prepared. >> martha: so just to be clear before we move on, argue in favor favor of lifting title 42 if the cdc recommends? >> congresswoman delbene: i think it needs to be driven by the science and i support the cdc's decision. >> martha: okay, you chair the new democrat coalition, which we mentioned in the intro. 98 moderate democrats. you had a chance to meet with the president and talk to him about bipartisan measures and we just laid out his approval numbers, on the weak side, about 40%, and even weaker for the economy. so what did you press him to

focus on to try to turn that around? >> congresswoman delbene: i think we had a great meeting with the president, and we talked about the work that we have a head, lot of important work that's been done with the american rescue plan, but the infrastructure bill. we are seeing that impact on our communities already, but there's more that we need to do. we need to pass a bipartisan innovation bill to address supply chains and competition. at the house at the senator going into conference on that. we continue to want to see that move as urgently as possible. we talked about budget reconciliation and the ongoing work there because we have important issues we want to address in that legislation and want to work with the president. and we have a lot of bipartisan bills that we want to see move. legislators, we want to legislate, we want to continue to work for the american people and good policy is good polit politics. when we are showing that governance can work and really impacting the lives of the

american people, that has a big impact in terms of what people are thinking when they go to the voting booth. >> martha: so you have a large coalition, as i said, 98 members, and the progressive caucus also has a similarly large number that are trying to persuade the president the other way, and alexandria ocasio-cortez, congresswoman from new york, said if we decide to just kind of sit back and rest for the rest of the year and not change people's lives, yeah, i think we are in trouble. with regard to the midterm elections. she is pushing for more executive orders from the president to get things done, to please people before that election, and you have been pushing more for legislation, for that side of the process, so that it's longer-lasting. who's winning the president's heart and mind on this? >> congresswoman delbene: well, the president is a legislator and i think it's important that we legislate if we want long-term, durable policy. first of all, the executive actions are in place for a period of time and another president can change those.

it's congress' job to put our laws in place and there are many things that congress can do that you can't do through your executive action. we have an important opportunity. we have a lot of time left in his congress to legislate and we are going to do everything we can to pass policies that really impact and positively impact the lives of our american families buried >> martha: do you think the president sort of needs to decide which lane he's going to be in? when he goes on in campaigns for candidates, whether he says look, america is in this more middle-of-the-road, as you said in our lead in, place, and we need to perhaps leave behind things like this green energy push or canceling student debt. were you persuasive on hang stomach things like that, do you sense that he is leaning in your direction? >> congresswoman delbene: i think the president was very clear in the state of the union, i think very clear in the budget that our views in the new dem coalition and the president and administration are very closely

aligned. we want to tackle the issues that families are facing today and that's why it's important that we move forward on competition legislation, address supply chains, and not just look at things for the short term, but really take a long-term view, because again, long term, durable policy is what will put us in a better position not only today, but decades ahead. >> martha: all right, we will see. after his actions, where he puts the focus. congressman, thank you for being with us this morning, it's a pleasure to meet you. thank you for being here. joining me now, republican senator john cornyn of texas. welcome back to "fox news sunday," good to have you with us this morning. >> thank you, martha. >> martha: with regard to title 42, senator, you know, on the other side of the fence, g.o.p. mostly behind keeping title 42 in place, but there are groups who say it's been an inhumane practice. this is what the physicians for human rights said about it, that this practice of not allowing

people to cross because of the pandemic, has severely harmed the health and human rights of children, families, single adults, by exposing them to violence, separating families and inflicting acute medical and psychological impact. they also say that there is simply no epidemiological evidence to justify banning asylum-secrets from the country while allowing the other borders to allow in other travelers at the same time. what you say to that? >> senator cornyn: well, we fed 3 million border encounters during this pandemic so far, and you and i are still required when we fly on an airplane or take public transportation to wear masks because that's what the transportation security administration has ordered. i heard the congresswoman say we need to sit follow the signs but frankly it's contradictory, the messages we are getting from the administration, and really the point is here, if you eliminate title 42, this is the last tool that's been available to border patrol to try and maintain some semblance of order on the

border, and if you eliminate title 42, the border patrol tells me they will lose control and the people who will benefit the most are the drug cartels who will have free, a freeway into the country with which to funnel the drugs that took 100,000 american lives last year alone. >> martha: it's interesting that you bring that up, senator hecate of tennessee has suggested that title 42 could also apply as a public health measure to keeping it in place, to keep people out, because of all of the drugs that are crossing the border that are killing so many americans. do you support that? >> senator cornyn: i think he's got a good point and -- but i think what we need to do is also to enforce our immigration laws. the administration considers it a success when they place migrants who come to the border in a location somewhere in the united states, and they wait for a year or more, there immigration court hearing for asylum, and many of them, this

will surprise you, don't show up, so this is a case of catch and release, which is a flawed policy, which never worked, and it won't work now. we need to enforce our existing immigration laws and do it aggressively, but the bag of administration shows no interest in doing so. >> martha: you know, with regard to the midterms, which we spoke about with the congresswoman as well, and how democrats are positioning themselves, when you look at how the republican party is positioning itself, rick scott has laid out an agenda, some of which has conflicted with what senator mcconnell would like to commit to. we've also got mike pence, the former vice president, laying out an agenda of election reform and being tough on president putin of russia. when asked if republicans take back control of congress after the midterms, what would be your agenda, that was asked of minority leader mcconnell, and he said this, "that's a very good question, i will let you know when we take effect." do you think that's a good

answer, senator cornyn? >> senator cornyn: i think we know what the problems are right now. we know that inflation is undermining the standard of living of americans across the country, including the people in fixed income and at the lower end of the income scale. we know that violent crime has spiked because of the disrespect at the far left has shown the police, including this defund the police movement, which has killed morale and made it harder for the police to do their job. and we know the border is on fire and of course now we have an invasion of ukraine by vladimir putin. i think we got a lot to pay attention to and to me, those would be the issues that would drive our agenda when we get back in the majority. >> martha: i want to ask you quickly -- i'm going to speak with john kirby at the pentagon, but this potential attack that ukrainian forces did inside the russian border on a fuel depot. what is your reaction to that?

do you believe that that could escalate the war, and do you think that the united states should be sending weapons to the ukraine forces if they are going to be used inside russia proper? >> senator cornyn: i am for giving the ukrainians anything they can use and as fast as we can get it there. that's the message we had from president zelenskyy time after time, and that's the message we got when i visited poland and germany with a bipartisan group of senators a couple of weeks ago. we can't dither and worry about some of the niceties here when the ukrainians are fighting for their very lives, and if they feel like they need to take out a fuel depot across the russian border, go for it. >> martha: 55% of americans say that they do not want to be in a war with russia. >> senator cornyn: well, russia is in a war with everybody else, including ukrainians and the rest of the free world, so i think it's a fantasy to think that this could be done in some sort of very nice, neat package.

war is -- been described as hell and it's ugly, it's violence, and the ukrainians are fighting for the very lives and i would give them everything they need faster than we are right now. >> martha: former president trump has called vladimir putin a genius for the prewar strategy. he clarified that recently. he is also called on him to turn over information that he might be -- that putin might be aware of about hunter biden's business practices in the region. do you think that will help them, or will it hurt him if president trump decides to run again? >> senator cornyn: i wouldn't trust vladimir putin any farther than i could throw him. i think that's -- that's really -- that's really the answer, because putin is a killer. he's a thug. he has a vision of restoring the russian empire, the fall of which he said was the greatest geopolitical tragedy in the last hundred years. so i wouldn't trust

vladimir putin for a minute. >> martha: see you think those are unwise comments, is that fair to say? >> senator cornyn: well, i just don't think it's a conversation worth having. >> martha: okay. senator cornyn, thank you very much. good to have you here this morning, sir. >> senator cornyn: thank you very much. >> martha: coming up next we will bring in our sunday group on the border, the fight over more covid funding, and will there be a federal legalization in america for marijuana around the whole country? ♪ ♪ this is frank. he runs a sustainable camping supply business. he's smiling because fedex is growing it's fleet of electric vehicles. and these, are the camper scouts. earning their eco badge. they're sharing this news to their global scout community. which, unexpectedly, has made frank quite popular. so it's a good thing frank uses fedex to help him expand his reach and make earth a priority.

fedex. where now meets next. ♪ ♪ can a company make the planet a better place? what if it's a company of people working beside friends and neighbors? pursuing 100% renewable energy in our operations. aiming to protect, manage or restore millions of acres of land. and offering you more sustainably sourced products so you can become part of the change. so, can a company make the planet a better place? we're working on it, every day.

>> it's hard to believe the biden administration has found a way to make the worst border crisis in american history even worse, but they have. by repealing title 42, the biden administration is intent on driving an agenda that can only be described as open borders. the american people aren't having it. >> martha: that is the former vice president mike pence and perhaps a likely 2024 candidate as well hammering the decision to end the use of title 42 used by both the trump and the biden administration's that turns away migrants at the u.s. border, or a good number of them, during this pandemic. it's now time to go to our sunday group. fox news contributor ben

dominates, suzan page of "usa today" and fox news political analyst juan williams. great to have you with us this morning, thank you so much for being here. suzan, let me start with you. obviously this is a tricky one. it's one of the few policies, trump policies, that the bag administration left in place. how do you see the political calculus here for the white house? >> i think it's tough for the white house. president biden said during the campaign but he was going to do this, it was going to be a matter of following the signs, treating this as a public health issue, not as a border control issue. but what you see, even democrats like senator mark kelly, being concerned about it is that there isn't an effective border control process underway today and that putting back rule 42 for public health reasons is likely to make that worse and just as they are heading into this tough midterm election season. >> martha: juan, no doubt the republican side will use this as a cudgel in the midterms and

ted cruz laid it out once again pretty clearly right here. let's watch. >> there's a reason joe biden has been to the southern border as president zero times. not once. he doesn't give a damn. there's a reason kamala harris has been to the rio grande valley zero times as vice president. she doesn't give a damn. >> martha: is that a fair criticism? is not been a lot of focus and news conferences or interviews or state of the union on this issue from this white house. >> i don't think it's fair. i think it's hard not to pay attention. this is a very big issue and obviously come as you pointed out, the republicans are using it as a political cudgel against the administration, so it's hard to ignore. right now at the border, martha, i think there are like 7,000 arrests daily and it's likely to double if they lift the covid restrictions, more than double, i think it would spike at about 18,000. hard to ignore.

right now the administration is looking already, trying to put in plans to create more detention facilities, to get help for the border patrol, more transportation to get those immigrants out of there. all of this is going on, including -- and i think this might be the biggest thing they're trying to do -- more streamlined the asylum system so it would go from a five year process to more like a six year process. again, you've got to get more judges, administrative people in place. but i think the problem is, the biden administration is relying on these kind of administrative fixes and works workarounds, maybe executive actions, because congress refuses to act. they haven't acted in 30 years in terms of immigration reform. not under bush, not under obama, not under trump. if they won't fix the immigration system. they seem to think it's a great political issue, a better political issue and one that doesn't require them to deal with what could be, you know, blowback from some people on the

right to say why are you dealing with dreamers, why you're dealing with people who are here, came in illegally, but these are tough issues and they require leadership from both parties. >> martha: yeah. ben, what you think? >> first off, i would say that jeh johnson, barack obama's former secretary of homeland security, just back in 2019, said that a thousand a day is a good day that 4,000 a day is a crisis. now we are at 7,000 how we are about to head towards 18,000. we are not doing this because of health reasons, we are doing this because of political concerns. the left wing of the democratic party has been demanding that this shift for the first year and a half of joe biden's tenure, and the only reason that they've been pushing back against it from the administration to this point is because of the various outbreaks that we had come in the various variantses that have happened, and ultimately what we are going to see here is a flood that they really have no plans ready in

order to stop, and when juan talks about congress, i agree. i think the congress could have done something on this under barack obama. i think they could have done something on this actually under president trump. i think that he was willing to move on dreamers and a number of the other low-hanging fruit that actually is pretty popular, or scores pretty popular among republican voters. the problem is the democrats chose under both president obama and president trump to insist on an entire package, something that deals with every aspect of immigration, as opposed to dealing with the aspects where we could find some kind of bipartisan agreement, and the ultimate end of this is a border in chaos. >> martha: suzan, one of the issues here is that people are looking at this idea of lifting the border restriction as if everything is over, but then congress is asking for 10 billion more dollars in covid spending to cover a myriad of things relating to covid, and we still have -- we just look back to the numbers this morning -- hundreds -- a hundred billion

dollars, roughly, that was already allocated in the first several trillion bel that hasn't even been spent yet, so how can they go back for 10 billion more when they got 100 billion that is still in hopper? >> there is a sense that covid pandemic is getting better, but is not over yet. everybody is braced for the possibility of another variant to become very went again, but we are hopeful that, you know, we can go back on tv sets and not wear masks when we go out on the street. you know, i think we are not quite certain where this covid epidemic, whether this covid crisis goes from here, whether we are on our way out of the pandemic or whether it might emerge, and that's i think one of the reasons that the administration and some in congress are trying to make sure there is money to continue to deal with it. >> martha: a lot of -- record amount of money that have been put into it. we will see where it goes. juan, in a potential sea change for what most of us grew up with knowing as, you know, the war on

drugs, now we see congress passing just a slim margin, federal law that would make marijuana legal at the federal level. is this a good thing for amer america? >> well, i think americans think it is. i think like 69% of americans tell gallup that yes, marijuana should be legalized. right now in terms of federal law, marijuana is on par with heroin, at arby's the people don't think anybody should legalize heroin, that's a killer. but i think that what you've got to understand here, martha, if that 37 states have already legalized medical use of marijuana. i think there are 15 states where recreational use is legal, so the federal government is kind of behind the curve, playing catch up with what the local and state laws are with regard to marijuana, and the difficulty is that even as you have passing in the house, when it gets to the senator people

who will say hey, you know, remember when we were kids, this is stronger marijuana or this could lead to other drugs, there are all sorts of reasons that people in political power could say i have hesitation, but even people on the right are saying it's time for change with archaic laws. >> martha: all right, we will see. be interesting to see what the president will do if it made it to his desk but as you say, it's looking a little tenuous in the senate. ben is shaking his head buried >> not going to happen. >> martha: we will be right back, thanks, panel. up next, the latest from ukraine. president zelenskyy warns that there are mines that have been left behind in the ground by russians near kyiv, so he's concerned about people making their way back, not advising that. also, questions mounting about whether ukraine attack helicopters bombed a russian fuel depot inside of russia as peace talks, tenuous as they are, remain underway. pentagon press secretary john

kirby on u.s. strategy, next. ♪ ♪ i'm so glad we did this. i'm so glad we did this. i'm so glad we did this. i'm so glad we did this. i'm so... ...glad we did this. [kid plays drums] life is for living. let's partner for all of it. i'm so glad we did this. edward jones

child, voice-over: there was an old woman who lived in a shoe. she had so many children, she didn't know what to do.

i'm home. child, voice-over: she gave them some broth... without any bread... [siren in distance] and kissed them all soundly... lights out. good night. child, voice-over: and put them to bed. hunger is a story we can end. end it at feedingamerica.org. ♪ ♪ >> martha: now to russia's war on ukraine. new reports today that the ukrainians are gaining back some territory around kyiv as tenuous peace talks continue today. in just a moment we will speak with pentagon press secretary john kirby, but first, let's turn to alex hogan in lviv. alex, what can you tell us about the gains that the ukraine military is making?

>> hi, martha. the ukrainian troops are taking back territory around kyiv, the capital, and also in the north, but it has not been without a devastating amount of loss of life. the mayor of a small town outside of kyiv says that 300 civilians have been killed, so while russian troops are retreating from the northern part of the country, ukrainian president zelenskyy says that they will not be able to leave without a fight, especially as they focus their attacks and move towards the eastern part of the country and the southern part of the country. there in the south along the s sea, odessa was the site of an attack just taking place this morning, russian strikes blowing up in oil depot, black billowing smoke blow up into the skies if they're trying to tackle those claims. but mariupol, in the eastern side of the country, is another

site that has been continually attacked where thousands of free people remain. they do not have access to drinking water, they do not have access to food, and for weeks they have been without heat. >> martha: so, alex, the ukrainian president zelenskyy has warned residents of these towns that they are considering liberated now should not return home yet. why is he warning them that? >> well, the thing we are seeing across the country from ukrainian president zelenskyy is that there are landmines and there are tripwires in the bodies of people that are still laying in the streets when some of these russian forces have left. it is devastating to see the loss of life, the reports of rape, pets being shot, and our negotiations on the table. ukraine and russia have been speaking but there are talks of whether it they will bring any real concrete change in the future. martha. >> martha: thank you very much. alex hogan reporting from lviv. joining is not from the

pentagon, press secretary john kirby, welcome back to "fox news sunday." good to see this morning, sir. >> secretary kirby: think it buried >> martha: as alex just reported, there are these talks that are going on, but president zelenskyy has said that victory is the only acceptable outcome for ukraine and that they will not trade any of their territory in this war and in these discussions. you were asked this week how you wanted to see this end, how the united states, i should say, wants to see this end, and i just want to remind what you said there. watch this. >> secretary kirby: sure. >> we wanted to end and we want ukraine's sovereignty, all of their sovereignty. their borders as it was before the end of february, to be respected. >> martha: so you say the borders before the end of february to be respected. at that point, russia had already occupied the dawn best region, and crimea. so does the united states consider those to be russian territories when you talk about

those february lines? or ukraine? >> secretary kirby: no, not at all. we never observed any russian occupation or ownership over there, and we have certainly never recognized their illegal occupation and presence and crimea. we are talking about all of ukraine emma and they have a right to their own sovereignty and to their territorial integrity, and we support president zelenskyy and his soup pursuit of that end. >> martha: so speaking of territorial integrity, i think there's been a lot of focus, and rightly so, on this helicopter attack that took out a fuel depot inside of russia, so bret baier interviewed president zelenskyy and asked him specifically about the origins of this attack, and here's what he said. >> did you order the attack into russian soil, the ukrainian helicopter attack on a russian military depot across from

kharkiv? >> i'm sorry, i do not discuss any of my orders as commander in chief. the leader of this state, there are things which i only choose share with the military, armed forces of ukraine, and when they talk with me. you need to understand that on that territory that you mentioned, you have to know they were placing their shooting systems and firing those missiles themselves. >> martha: so, the last part of that sounds like ukraine order that attack. did they? >> secretary kirby: i won't get ahead of president zelenskyy. he's the commander in chief of his forces, and i will let him speak to the operations that they conduct. that's the appropriate thing. we want to preserve as much of their operational security as we can, so i think that's really for him and for his generals to talk to. but we have seen no, martha, is across the country, and your reporter just laid some of this out for your audience, the

ukrainians are pushing back. they are recapturing ground that they had originally lost to the russians in the early days and weeks of the war, and that includes around kyiv. as russian forces move away from kyiv, the ukrainians are moving in and they are attacking them while they are moving away, so they are definitely clawing back territory that they had earlier lost. >> martha: but just with regard to this attack, because an attack inside russia would be a change in the way this has been played out so far. would it be possible -- you know, there's that video, right? you can see these attack helicopters. it would it be possible for ukrainian helicopters to disguise themselves to look like their russian helicopters? there's been talk of a false flag. would that be something that they could pull off potentially? >> secretary kirby: well, again, i won't get into ukrainian tactics here. i think you can understand why. but the ukrainians have been very effectively defending their airspace and defending their troops on the ground, they are doing it a multitude of systems

and weapons, most of which, a lot of which, are coming from the united states and other countries that are contribute and to their ability to defend themselves. i don't think it would be wise for me to get into specific tactics they might be using on the field of battle. >> martha: i spoke with general petraeus this week and here's what he had to say about if this happened, and then we will move on from this topic, but onto ask you one more question here, watch this. >> secretary kirby: sure. >> how can russia be outraged if there's an attack just inside its territory on a fuel depot when russia has been actively attacking fuel depots throughout ukraine since the very beginning of the invasion? so the idea that there should be outrage if indeed these two attack helicopters turned out to be ukrainian, it's just ludicrous. >> martha: you agree with him there? >> secretary kirby: i think general petraeus raises a really good point. we all need to remember russia isg inside ukraine very, very brutally. i meand weapons

depots and airfields. i mean, they are hitting residential areas. they are killing civilians. they are hitting schools and hospitals. they have shown no effort to be discriminant in the kinds of attacks that they are launching through air strikes, so to the ukrainians have the right to defend themselves? of course they do, and again, we're focused on helping them do that more effectively than they are right now. >> martha: indeed we are, and there's in a $300 million package that includes the switch blades that have been discussed over the past several weeks, which i'm sure they're going to be very happy to have in hand. so is the united states committed to continuing to send military firepower, equipment, all of this, to ukraine for as long as it takes and even if they do start striking within russia? >> secretary kirby: president biden has been very, very clear on this, martha, that we will continue to help ukraine defend itself through security assistance such as these articles we are talking about as long as we can and as fast as we

can, and i would add that of that $800 million that the president just recently signed out in the middle of march, i mean those shipments are arriving even as we speak, including in the last money for hours and a lot of that is legal systems -- lethal systems. antiair missiles, that stuff is arriving is i even as you and i speak. >> martha: at that will continue even if ukraine extends its attacks or expands them into russian territory? >> secretary kirby: i will tell you again what the president said. as long as we can, as fast as we can. they need these articles to defend themselves and we are going to continue to provide them. >> martha: there's been a lot of discussion about whether or not president biden doesn't want to provoke president putin, whether or not that has been part of the strategy in all of this. bret asked president zelenskyy a little bit about that and here's what he said. >> i don't know if preside president biden is fearing president putin. i believe that he doesn't.

i want to believe that he doesn't. because he is the leader of a big nation, a great nation. >> martha: so i ask this because we just canceled an icbm test after north korea did a test of their own. and back on march the 2nd it was postponed, and you said this is not canceled, this icbm test that we were planning on carrying out, it has just been moved to the right a bit, so now it's been canceled. so what does that say? >> secretary kirby: well, look, there's other icbm tests that are scheduled for later in the year, and they are still scheduled to be later in the year. we are confident in our capabilities in terms of ballistic missile capabilities, that they are still ready, they are still sound. this test is just one of many that will be conducted, and have been conducted, in recent years. so we are confident of that capability. president biden has been nothing but direct with president putin. there is no fear here.

president biden sees president putin for exactly what he is and the kind of leader that he is and the kind of unprovoked aggression that he's conducting inside ukraine, we are doing everything we can, as fast as we can, to help ukraine defend itself. we're also doing an awful lot to bolster the eastern flank of nato. we just added a different home aircraft and forces in just the last seven days, so we're trying to help ukraine defend itself, we are going to make sure nato can defend itself but we also have to be mindful. russia is a nuclear power, and so as we make these decisions, it would be responsible for us not to think about making sure we don't escalate this conflict any bigger than it already is buried >> martha: but is that why the test was canceled and not just postpone? >> secretary kirby: i think there was a prudent decision at the time to take a neon that and to not launch it, where we were in space and time in the early goings on here with respect to this invasion. it was the right thing to do. the cancellation is not just a factor of what's going on in

ukraine. it's a factor of other modalities as you get these tests. when there postponed for a given. lack of time, at some point it just becomes the logical thing to cancel that one and move onto the next one and so that's what we're focused on. >> martha: thank you, admiral kirby, always good to see you. >> secretary kirby: thank you. >> martha: thank you very much. coming up next we are back with a panel at the federal investigation into hunter biden's business dealings is expanding. next. ♪ ♪

care coalition, where are we on alaska airlines? we found that people are raving about their customer care. where are we on alaska airlines? i mean, take a look at this! wow! [dog barks] says here they have the most flights from the west coast. they fly to chicago, hawaii, cancun! wow! do they fly to my magical faraway kingdom of care-a-lot, way up in the clouds where anything is possible? they have direct flights to vegas. close enough! ♪ ♪

close enough! >> what kind of american it, alone an ex-president, thinks that this is the right time to enter into a scheme with vladimir putin and brag about his connections gimmick there's

only one, and it's donald trump. >> martha: by dusk communications director kate bedingfield this week responding to former president donald trump publicly encouraging putin to release any damaging information he might have about the president's son hunter biden. we are back now with the panel. good to have all of you with us. so, juan, this federal investigation is now being reported on vary widely across the media, and the charges appear to have been expanding during the course of this beyond tax violations. they include money-laundering, foreign foreign agent violat violations, and cnn reports that firearms violations may be part of this as well. this is what senator grassley, who's been on this beat for quite some time, had to say about it. watch. >> there is a financial connection involving millions of dollars between hunter biden and james biden and companies led by chinese leadership, that that leadership in turn has a close

connection to the communist party. hunter biden and james biden served as the perfect vehicle by which the communist chinese government could gain inroads here in the united states. >> martha: so mike given the potential political implications of this for the president, what you make of the expansion that we are seeing in this case? >> well, i think that there's now a mounting, you know, wave of evidence that you see hunter biden using his family name, martha, to make money for himself. you know, i mean, this is -- i don't think it's unfair to him to say this is a man with serious drug problems, sort of drug addled problem child for that family. there's no evidence that it was tied to the president, that the president knew about it or the president profited in any way. but i don't think there's any

doubt, it's embarrassing politically to the president and especially so if there's an indictment of hunter biden. i will say that, you know, this is washington, the families of politically connected prominent people often user business. we saw that with tru's we've seen it before. but to me, the idea that the president -- former president trump posthumous asking president putin for more information, it just indicates, you know, this is politically potent for any opponent of president biden. it you know, even in a week you had a congressman talking about cocaine use, it's incredible that hunter biden's story continues to be in the headlines. >> martha: susan, there is a question mark though about the president given tony by belinsky's emails, you know, 10% for the big guy. he says that was a reference to

president biden. he's turned all of that over to the fbi and now i guess this is getting coverage from cbs, from "the washington post" and "the new york times," how do you see this story changing and potentially the impact on the president? >> i do think the impact on the president is quite perilous. it's a long tradition of relatives giving presidents -- creating problems for presidents, and that is what we have seen with the story. once we have findings, conclusions from the investigation going on by the u.s. attorney in delaware, i think we will know more about just how serious this could be. but democrats were very critical of president trump and his family for appearances and actual conflict of interest, and it's i think imperative that the same standard be applied to president biden and his family. >> martha: so even belmar weighing in on this. ben, let's get a look at this and we will get your thoughts on the trump comparisons on the other side. >> it looks like the left-wing

has buried the story because it wasn't part of their narrative and that's why people don't trust media. >> martha: your thoughts? >> that's just the tip of it. look, the media didn't just buried us, joe biden tried to bury this. he said on stage in that second debate that this is russian misinformation. this is disinformation, this is not true, but what we've learned is that it was true, and we know enough, i think, at the time, to know that it was true or at least that there was enough that it needed to receive greater attention. and look, there has been a long tradition of families, you know, exploiting their connections to powerful political figures to make money, but in this case, the really disturbing aspect is how much of this was foreign money, particularly related to the chinese communist party and figures who around the world who frankly, you know, are not operating in america's interest. i don't think that this story is going away anytime soon, and what we need from the white house is clarity, the president owes it to the

american people to make clear that he had no connection to this, and he needs to apologize to us for calling it russian disinformation when he knew that was not the case. >> martha: susan, do you think that will happen? >> do i think the president will be forced to answer questions about this? yes. i do. and i think you'll need to answer questions. i don't think that's the case right now. i think they are waiting to see what the grand jury and the federal prosecutors do, but yes, this is not a question the president will be able to avoid forever. >> martha: okay. so let's see, kansas under carolina? ben? -- juan, you go first. >> i think kansas is pretty good, but you know, i was surprised that north carolina was able to beat duke last nig night. >> kansas all the way! i'm a native kansan, and they are going to take it. >> north carolina. all the way. >> martha: kansas beat my villanova and my providence so i'm going to hope kansas goes all the way. thanks, you guys, great to see

you, we will see you next week. up next, a final. because grilled-to-order makes a sub above. can a company make the planet a better place? what if it's a company that's pursuing 100% renewable energy in our operations. and aiming to protect millions of acres of land. so we can all live better. she's smiling because her small culinary supply store, titans pans, is up and running. and this, is nfl star derrick henry, accidentally tagging “titans pans,” instead of his loyal fans. which, very unexpectedly, has her business trending.

and trending. and trending. and oh my. das internet auf dem telefon. and there goes the internet. good thing maya uses fedex to help prepare for unexpected demand. because you never know what's next. getting that perfect slice is satisfying. fulfilling. and rewarding too. but we don't do it for fun. we do it for fresh. sliced-to-order makes a sub above. ♪ ♪ >> martha: and that is it for today. i'm arthur mcallen. thanks for joining us, i will see you on "the story" tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. eastern, have a great week and we will see you next "fox news sunday." ♪ ♪

floor and decor, my go-to to get it all. tile, wood, stone and laminate — they've got it. installation materials — yup. and all the tools i need — they've got those too. more importantly, they've got my back with benefits and services i actually want and a pro app that makes my job easier. floor and decor just...gets it. and that means i get more done. at floor and decor, whether you're looking for everyday low pricing on in-stock job-lot quantities and installation materials, or a powerful partner to help take your business to the next level, we've got you covered. discover floor and decor today!

sixl others injured after a mass shooting in downtown from ktvu. fox two news. this is mornings onto welcome to ktvu mornings onto it is sunday. april 3rd. i'm molly rasmus and i'm greg lee. the overnight shooting reported just blocks from the state capitol building in an area filled with bars and restaurants. let's get right to katie's jesse gary live in our newsroom. he's following the latest developments in this breaking story, jesse good morning to you. and as you said, investigators say at least six people have been killed. a motive for the shooting has not been given. let's take a look at our video. this is at the scene downtown sacramento at the corner of ninth and k streets that's withi