announcing his retirement after more than 20 seasons in the nfl. "fox & friends first" continues right now. ♪ have a nice day. ♪ jillian: 5:00 on the east coast, in new york city, and it is 10:00 in london town. good morning to, i'm jillian mele. you're watching "fox & friends first" on this monday. good to see you, benjamin. ben: you too. we both had to get up an hour earlier today. a lot of people will be struggling this morning with daylight saving time. jillian: it's always a struggle. a lot of people like the whole daylight longer but for me when you go to bed at 6:00 p.m., when it's super bright shining in your room it makes it a little challenging. so i have mixed opinions on this. ben: i can tell you, there is perhaps some hope in. >> neil: in sight. senator rubio put a bill up, seeks to make daylight saving permanent, partly to do with the golf and barbecue lobby. they want an extra hour of daylight. jillian: as a golfer, i can appreciate that. ben: as can i. today, a rendell gas station will descend upon -- republican delegation will descend upon the mexican border. jillian: mark meredith is live in washington as democrats lay blame on the trump administration for causing the crisis. >> reporter: later today, republican lawmakers will head to el paso, texas, to see what's going on firsthand. this comes as the gop insists that the country is facing an immigration crisis. they argue that it's p president biden's rollback of trump policies that's creating a huge incentive for my grants to travel to the u.s. we -- my grants to travel to the u.s. -- migrants to that. travel tothe u.s. >> basically, they're ignoring all that and i think sending the signal that the border is open and anybody who wants to come to texas or the united states is free to do so. >> reporter: president biden is back at the white house after spending the weekend in delaware, he has yet to call this a crisis. over the weekend his administration announced fema will step in for the next he three months, fema will be supporting efforts to process, house and transport unaccompanied minors. top democrats insist biden does not deserve all the blame. >> this is a humanitarian challenge to all of us. what the administration has inherited is a broken system at the border and they are working to correct that. this, again, is a transition from what was wrong before to what is right. >> reporter: this week house lawmakers are expected to consider immigration reform legislation which if passed would create a pathway to citizenship for millions of people already in the u.s. it's far from a done deal. officials who represent border communities are urging for the country to pay more attention to what's going on as they say this is a national security matter. >> the border patrol officers told me that the biden administration policies, they are enriching and they are empowering the drug cartels in mexico who make money off the people they assist in smuggling them into the state of texas. >> reporter: president biden does not have any immigration events on his schedule today. he is speaking about the american rescue plan this afternoon, there's also a press briefing scheduled so it's possible we could get more details about how fema is getting involved like we learned over the weekend. jillian, benjamin, back to you. ben: thank you, mark. jillian: now to a fox news alert. a chicago police sergeant is shot in the face in a precinct parking lot. the 26 year veteran was grazed on the chin. he was later released from the hospital. no arrests have been made. he is the 13th officer to be shot at or of shot this year. ben: and overnight, secretary lloyd austin arriveing in japan for the biden administration's first cabinet level talks abroad. he will be joined by secretary of state antony blinken. china and north korea are the big concerns and will be likely a big topic, this as the rogue regime in north korea is giving president biden the silent treatment. nearly every new york lawmakers has called for the resignation or impeachment of governor andrew cuomo. >> reporter: president biden making his very first comments on the growing scandal surrounding governor cuomo. biden, a long-time cuomo cuomo h acquaintance spoke about the topic on the white house lawn. he stopped short of joining the calls for resignation. >> do you think governor andrew cuomo should resign? >> i think the investigation is underway and we should see what it brings us. >> reporter: meanwhile, cuomo remains defiant saying he won't bow to, quote, cancel culture in the face of the growing number of allegations, despite 90% of the new york congressional delegation asking for the governor's resignation or impeachment, house speaker nancy pelosi is also holding out on making a judgment. >> there's zero tolerance for sexual harassment. people have to look inside themselves and say and governor cuomo also, how effective is their leadership in leading the state under the circumstances. >> reporter: the new york attorney general is currently investigating the allegations. but making matters worse for the governor, reports that his long-time advisor, larry schwartz, known as new york's vaccine czar reached out to county executives to gauge whether they still supported the governor, prompting some to worry whether their response would impact the vaccine supplied to their county. schwartz saying, quote, i did nothing wrong, i have always conducted myself in a matter commensurate to a high ethical standard. nobody indicated they were uncomfortable or that they did not want to talk to me. for his part, the governor has also said he did nothing intentionally wrong and that he would fully cooperate with the investigation. important to know, he is also under investigation for allegedly under-counting covid-19 nursing home deaths. ben and jillian, back to you. jillian: start of another week where it seems like there's going to be a lot of information to keep up on. anita vogel, thank you. ben: now to march madness, gonzaga is the number one seed, entering the tournament undefeated. the bracket was unveiled yesterday. the other top seeds are baylor, illinois, and michigan. duke and kentucky missing the dance for the very first time since 1976. jillian: oh, man. let's take a look at golf now. justin thomas rallies from three shots down to win the player's championship. >> justin thomas, takes the lead. jillian: they that putt giving thomas his first lead of the week. he beat lee westwood by a single shot. he is the four player to win a major championship, fed ex cup and world golf championship. he's got a little game. ben: you could play with them, couldn't you, jillian? >> jillian: totally. no. ben: coming up, the left is passing the buck on the border surge. >> what the administration has inherited is a broken system. >> joe biden inherited a huge mess. ben: top democrats say the current crisis is the former administration's fault. congressman richard hut son sounds off, coming up next. jillian: greece is reopening their beautiful beaches but there are some conditions. what you need to know before you book that flight. ♪ you've got to fight for your right to party. ♪ ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ ♪ my only sunshine... ♪ rybelsus® works differently than any other diabetes pill to lower blood sugar in all 3 of these ways... increases insulin... decreases sugar... and slows food. the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7. people taking rybelsus® lost up to 8 pounds. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration which may worsen kidney problems. wake up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ please don't take my sunshine away ♪ you may pay as little as $10 per prescription. ask your healthcare provider about rybelsus® today. >> what the administration has inherited is a broken system at the border. >> this idea that it's joe biden's election that prompted more people to show up is belied by the actual facts. >> jo goa inherited a -- joe biden inherited a huge mess on immigration. >> it's a consequence of dismantling every system in place. jillian: as you can clearly hear, democrats placing blame for the surge of migrants at the southern border on the trump administration, but if that's the case, many people are asking why is this happening after president biden reversed former president trump's policies? ben: here with his take, north carolina gop congressman richard hudson. thank you for joining us this morning. you heard it right there, this has nothing to do with biden administration, nothing to do with the biden administration's policies, this has all to do with president trump's policies. what do you say? >> unfortunately, the facts just don't bear them out. nancy pelosi and the liberal democrats hide behind their wall around the capitol in washington, d.c., trying to spin the american people. but the facts are, we've had more migrants cross our border this year than we had all of last year and the reason we're having the biden border surge is because he reversed the policies, as you say, he stopped building the wall, put a halt on deportations and brought back catch and release. that's why hundreds of thousands of migrants are heading to our border, wearing joe biden campaign t-shirts. jillian: you'll see more than 100,000 in february of this year, that's up 28% versus january of 2021, up 174% from a year ago, february of 2020, which is the highest since june of 2019. how do they attempt to turn this around, do you think? >> well, president trump showed us the way. if you incentivize folks to come, if they feel like we're going to go back to catch and release and if they know they can make it to the border, turn themselves in, say the magic word, asylum, they'll be handed a notice to appear in court in a certain date. most of them, surprise, don't show up. and it's even worse now because we're hearing that they're even having covid-19 positive migrants that they're then releasing into the united states. ben: and congressman, you got so many states now opening up. i think we've got a list of those states which are doing so. but at the same time, we're hearing from the white house it's considering bringing in new restrictions aimed at the workplace. i mean, how does that make sense? just as cases are falling, particularly in cases like florida, which are open of already, why would the white house bring in new restrictions? >> you look at the science, you look at the facts. we have many states that have opened. like florida and others. and there's no difference between covid outbreaks between the states that are open and the states that are closed. president biden says even if you had a vaccine, maybe by july you and a few others can gather in your backyard and celebrate. that's ridiculous. the american people are ready to get back to school, to get back to their lives and leaders like ron de santis, the governor of florida have shown we can do both. american cans be trusted to be responsible, it's time to reopen. the democrat policy is the border's open and our schools are closed. jillian: congressman richard hudson, thank you for joining us. have a good day. >> thank you. ben: coming up next, catholic schools are serving as a model for the nation for reopening classrooms. brian kilmeade joins us live with his one on one with cardinal timothy dough lain to find out -- dolan to find out how they're doing it safely and successfully, coming up. ♪ this is the part when i tell you -- tomizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? i mean it... oh, sorry... [ laughter ] woops! [ laughter ] good evening! meow! nope. oh... what? i'm an emu! ah ha ha. no, buddy! buddy, it's a filter! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ having the new myww+ to help me through this crazy time has been amazing. it has given me such a sense of control. the program puts everything you need for overall wellness all in one place. you don't have to give up your life to lose weight. you can still eat the foods that you love. i've lost over 90 pounds and i feel the best that i've ever felt. why would you wait to feel better, your time is now. the new myww+. more holistic. more personalized. more weight loss. ww, weight watchers reimagined. go to ww.com to check out today's limited time offer! ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ oh, you think this is just a community center? ♪♪ no. it's way more than that. cause when you hook our community up with the internet... boom! look at ariana, crushing virtual class. jamol, chasing that college dream. michael, doing something crazy. this is the place where we can show the world what we can do. comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create wifi-enabled lift zones, so students from low-income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. oh we're ready. ♪ ♪ ben: catholic schools serve over 181,000 students in new york city alone, as of september every single one of them has had the option to return to in person learning. jillian: brian kilmeade interviewed cardinal timothy dolan to find out houthis schools do it while a number of public schools are learning remotely. >> it's about the parents and the kids. you've got a brown university study that found that school districts located in counties with more catholic schools were less likely to shut down because of competition. one reason why those public schools are seeing firsthand how successful and how possible it is for parochial schools to go back and bring kids back to the classroom safely. i went out to new york city and we picked a random school that's been open since september. we met with archbishop of new york, i think future pope, my vote of course, cardinal he dolanto find out why it was so important to get kids back the to school and what it meant to him. watch. school of "the good shepherd" founded in 1925. think of everything the school has withstood, the depression, world war ii, all the challenges of new york and this country. it's no surprise that this is one of the schools that opened up in the fall after shutting down, it had to open for the students. and the specialness of the school, we had to see the success story up close. another mask, this time a little different. >> two-thirds of the seventh graders were there and they were properly distanced. >> the schools will finally open at the end of march. you opened in september. >> we listened to people. we listened to the healthcare experts and said you can do this. our teachers said we want to teach, we want to be back, we want to be in person and our parents said please let the kids come back and you know what, did you ever think you'd see the day when kids said we want to get back to school. we listened to them. >> there's just under 6,000 catholic schools. >> our schools took a hit. parents were unable to reenroll. now the good news is since we reopened in september our enrollment is up and next year looks even better. >> how many people would rather be at home? how many people would rather been in class? every hand. >> my day is better here than in remote. i get to hang out with my friends, i get to talk to them. i get to play with them. >> i wanted to go back to school and i wanted to focus again like i used to. .>> i'd rather come here becaue in person it's much easier. >> people are watching around the country and they're jealous of these things. >> isn't that a good thing that the whole nation wants to get back to school. they're saying look at what the catholic schools are doing, they're doing it safely and the teachers want to be there. .we have always said our teaches are frontline workers. >> are you glad you're back. >> i'm so happy to be back. >> no doubt about it, there's a risk to going back to school. that's why the department of commerce did a study, looked at the closure of 130,000 schools. the more the kids stayed out of school, the more they would suffer which is why so many parents are happy that catholic schools across most of the country went back to in-class learn. >> they make me feel secure and safe. my child this the best hands. >> i'm so grateful they're here, they're safe, they're learning, they're happy. >> she's happier. >> a lot of my friends' children that go to public school, they feel like they've lost their education for the entire year. >> when we came back in september, it became real for the teachers and for myself how detrimental it was for our students be at home and learning remotely. children need to be in school. >> wisdom of our schools is that children come together, they're not only learning reading, writing, arithmetic, they're learning to get along. you don't get that when they're staring at a computer. the kids are happy to be back n want to be back. >> we followed the science and listened to government officials who told us if you follow these very specific steps, your children would be safe and the teachers would be safe. >> are you scared to go to school? >> no. >> because you're safe. >> uh huh. >> we know what's going on. we know we have to follow the rules in order stay safe. >> it hasn't been that hard. we always social distance. we always keep our masks on. we always clean our hands. >> it's possible to do it. here we are in march, a year later, and we're good. i'd say come back to school. it's time. >> and it's harder on the teachers too because they do have hybrid because they have to look at the flat screen and deal with the kids in school and what the kids were saying when is was home, i felt like the teacher wasn't paying enough attention to me, i want todd be in front of the teacher. they say 2 million moms have had to give up their jobs in order to stay home to supervise their child on the laptop or because they needed to provide the day-care because they were too young to go back to work. ben: i don't know how many times we have to be reminded, the damage it does to keep kids out of school and the positive to go in, not just on education and mental health but on allowing the parents to get back to work. i cannot begin to explain why so many states have not followed the catholic church like this. jillian: good job, brian. and two questions for you, brian. what's coming up on "fox & friends" and will you be wearing a jacket? >> i will not let you know yet if i'll be wearing a jacket. pete will be filling in for steve. sometimes he doesn't wear a tie. that may be my way to get the attention away from pete hegseth who wears a lot of gel. the next three hours, we're going to have i.c.e. director tom homan, they're blaming donald trump for the crisis at the border. senator tom cotton will be here, we'll have congressman maryana miller meeks, brad domenech will be here and nancy grace. also with us live, oklahoma governor kevin stit, he loosened up restrictions in oklahoma, and eliminating all covid-19 restrictions entirely. i wonder if that's neanderthal thinking. at this point, according to the prompter, you both have to thank me. jillian: thank you, brian. that was quite a plaid shirt he was wearing. ben: nobody can steal the lime light from you. jillian: the limelight is all yours at 6:00 a.m. and we'll be right back. it all starts with an invitation... ...to experience lexus. the invitation to lexus sales event. get 0% apr financing on the 2021 nx 300. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. jillian: welcome back. overnight drug maker astrazeneca doubles down on the safety of its covid-19 vaccines. the company revealed it has no evidence to support claims of blood clots. there have been at least 37 case is reported. greece plans to reopen its borders to tourists in may. the tourism minister saying in part, quote, greece is ready with a complete protocol for summer of 2021. tourists will be welcome if they are either vacation late inned or have antibodies or -- vaccinated or have antibiotics or test negative. tourists will be subject to random testing. ben: meanwhile, hope is now rising out of the sunshine state as covid-19 cases and deaths fall in florida, despite a surge in the deadlier u.k. variant. is this a sign that the u.s. will not face a fourth wave? here to discuss, fox news medical contributor, dr. marc siegel. doctor, thank you so much for joining us today. i'm a little confused as well. this supposedly deadly variant coming out of the u.k., which we're seeing a number of cases in florida, in fact, almost 50% of all case there's are the u.k. variant, but at the same time we have restrictions being lifted and cases falling. is this down to the vaccine and what message does that send to the rest of the country that you can open up safely now? >> that's actually a big part of it, ben. let me boil this down for you. it's a real world laboratory. since january, we've seen a drop in hospitalizations which doctors like me really look for as the main issue. hospitalizations are down from over 7500 to just over 3,000 since january. case numbers are down 75%. now, how could this be happening while the b117 u.k. strain is now more than 50% of the cases in florida. how could it be happening? well, first of all, that strain is much more trans miss i'll but it is isn't -- transmissible but it is isn't necessarily more severe or deadly. they have in florida vaccinated over 60%, closer to 65% of overone over 65. those are the one was the most severe cases. those are the one was the hospitalizations. and guess what? this strain is completely covered by the vaccine. that gives us the answer. you want to beat the variants? vaccinate. you want to beat the variants? vaccinate as soon as possible. that's the key to florida's success right now that they have vaccinated the elderly. ben: now yesterday dr. fauci said lifting the mask mandate in techs as was dangerous. the w.h.o. is said to reject the wuhan lab link to the outbreak and says the animals is the source. do you think first of all that it was a mistake for president biden to rejoin the w.h.o. and is it too soon to write of off the chance of it coming from this lab? >> yeah, i agree with both of those. president trump gave the stick, president biden is giving the carrot to an organization that was clearly involved. if you look back to january of 2020, i mean, the w.h.o. leader was meeting with chairman xi. he was saying it was a regional problem only, there was a reported phone call from german press saying he was told to say that by chairman xi, there was no warning about international travel. now they go in there a year later and i like the word whitewash, i mean, how can you rule out the wuhan institute of virology when they were studying coronaviruses there and the horseshoe bat, the structure of the virus is 96% the same. even if it originated in the bat, where did it go next? you can't just say it went to a wet market. how do you know it didn't go to the lab. as secretary pompeo said back in the fall of 2019 people were getting sick in the lab with covid-like symptoms. could it have leaked from the lab? that is definitely not off the table. i think the w.h.o. is doing its usual which is politicizing the situation and we're busy paying them. ben: on top of that, the w.h.o. is not given access to the lab and the information that they wanted there. and there were diplomatic cables in 2018 warning about the safety in that lab. it's supposed to be a biolevel 4. it was not meeting the standards. many questions yet to be answered. marc siegel, thank you so much for joining us this morning. thank you. >> great pleasure to be on with you, ben. thank you. jillian: now let's talk about extreme weather, a record shattering winter storm cripples the western plains with up to four feet of snow. the blizzard forced the denver airport to cancel more than 2,000 flights. senior meteorologist janice dean is tracking the winter blast. that is a lot of snow. >> absolutely. incredible amounts of snow across the rockies. let's take a look at the current temperatures. we've got very cold air over the rockies, extending across the northern plains, in towards the mid-atlantic and the northeast where we've got 3 in caribou, maine. ahead of that we have warmer temperatures and we had a severe weather threat over the weekend with several tornadoes being recorded across texas and louisiana and towards mississippi. the rain associated with this and perhaps the chance of severe weather over the mississippi river valley but behind that we have a winter storm cranked up moving across the midwest, into the interior northeast on tuesday and wednesday and then we'll see potential for heavier rainfall for the southeast and a wintery mix moving into the northeast. there's the forecast rainfall and the he snow from minneapolis to shy cay. -- chicago.another storm for thr area later this week so winter hangs on to some parts of the country. we'll watch the system move across the eastern third of the u.s. and the snow is going to fly over parts of the upper midwest and the great lakes and we'll see the potential for more wintery weather for the colorado rockies and towards the west. very warm for the south with temperatures around 83 in houston and then we'll start to get those temperatures cranked up a little bit across the northeast later this week but for now it's cool, it remains cool and we'll watch that snow, the remainder of the snow from what we saw incredible totals over the rockies moving towards the northern plains or the upper midwest. jillian: you pointed out caribou, maine on the map. my first job out of college was in presque isle, maine and i had snow until may of that year. it was so cold. >> they are hardy folks out there. jillian: yes, they are. janice, thank you. ben: still ahead, backlash as dr. fauci backtracks yet again on a key covid restriction. fauci's latest reversal and the questions it's raising about the science behind it. a champion calls it a career. the unique way that drew brees broke the news that's sending shock waves throughout the nfl, that's coming up next. ♪ let's give them something to talk about. who build it a solid foundation. wealth is shutting down the office for mike's retirement party. worth is giving the employee who spent half his life with you, the party of a lifetime. wealth is watching your business grow. worth is watching your employees grow with it. principal. for all it's worth. want to make a name for yourself in gaming? then make a name for yourself. even if your office, and bank balance are... far from glamorous. that means expensing nothing but pizza. your expenses look good, and your books are set for the month! ...going up against this guy... and pitching your idea 100 times. no, no, no! no. i like it. -he likes it! ...and you definitely love that. intuit quickbooks helps small businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. jillian: welcome back. for the last year we heard the same guidance pretty much over and over again, standing six feet apart will help reduce the spread of covid-19. ben: now dr. anthony fauci is suggesting we could only need half that space. carley shimkus with fox news headlines 24/7 siriusxm 115 is here to explain. carley: a new study found no significant difference in coronavirus spreading from six feet of physical distancing versus three feet of physical distancing. dr. anthony fauci was asked about this yesterday. take a listen to how he responded. >> does this study suggest that three feet is good enough? >> it does indeed. and that's exactly the point i'm making, chuck. what the cdc wants to do is they want to accumulate data and when the data shows that there is an ability to be three feet, they will act accordingly. carley: so dr. fauci says that the cdc will update its guidance soon which will be very important for how schools and businesses reopen but we have been living in a world six feet apart for over a year now. so some people are mad and they feel misled. like buck sexton, who posted a tweet saying oh, you thought six feet of social distancing was some fancy super scientific thing they came up with after years of real world testing and experience. think again. another twitter user says just grasping at straws now. live your life, people. so that's the problem with these overly strict guidance that later needs to be corrected, some people feel misled. they lose faith in the cdc and that's not a place that you want to be in. jillian: oh, boy. okay. so this was absolutely adorable. carley: that's right. drew brees, he announced his retirement from the nfl yesterday and you're so right, i don't think there's ever been a more heart-warming retirement announcement video. take a look. >> after 15 years with the saints and 20 years in the nfl our daddies finally going to retire. so he can spend more time with us. yeah! carley: how great is that? he posted that video on social media saying i am only retiring from playing football, i'm not retiring from new orleans. this is not good-bye, rather a new beginning. now my real life's work begins, of course being with his beautiful kids. that announcement comes 15 years to the day a that he signed with the saints. so pretty cool full circle story there. jillian: love it. good for him. ben: one hell of a career. carley: absolutely. jillian: still to come, we've been profiling businesses across the country that are struggling to survive the pandemic and this time todd piro went to some of the main street shop owners we've met. an update from them, next. not everybody wants the same thing. that's why i go with liberty mutual — they customize my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. 'cause i do things a little differently. hey, i'll take one, please! wait, this isn't a hot-dog stand? no, can't you see the sign? wet. teddy. bears. get ya' wet teddy bears! one-hundred percent wet, guaranteed! or the next one is on me! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ rinsing the dishes before they go in the dishwasher? well, new cascade platinum has 50% more cleaning power, so you don't have to. its food-seeking enzymes break down food into particles so small they can flow right down the drain. plus, it's powerful enough for the quick-wash cycle. new cascade platinum with 50% more cleaning power! oh, you think this is just a community center? no. it's way more than that. cause when you hook our community up with the internet... boom! look at ariana, crushing virtual class. jamol, chasing that college dream. michael, doing something crazy. this is the place where we can show the world what we can do. comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create wifi-enabled lift zones, so students from low-income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. oh we're ready. ♪ ♪ ben: it has been a year since the coronavirus forced our nation's restaurant owners to put their livelihoods on pause as harsh shutdown measures swept across the country. jillian: todd piro paid a visit to some of the owners who joined "fox & friends first" at the beginning of the pandemic to see what the year has taught them and to see how they're doing. let's take a look. >> the date is sort of up in the air. so we're just hoping everyone can pull together. >> restaurants is a very important ingredient in the life of new york. todd: we spoke with you at the beginning of the pandemic. now hopefully knock on wood we're toward the end here. walk us through what the last year of your life has been like. >> well, that's a wonderful question, because it's like a roller coaster. >> there were times when were down 75, 80%. we were worried. we don't know what was going to happen. i have four kids. we have a whole family. we wanted to make sure we've could support the family and the business. >> my wife and i had a son. that's been a glowing part of this year, in an otherwise kind of gloomy year. there were moments where you're close to breaking down. i remember when we first reopened we had absolutely no staff so i was here at 6:00 a.m. doing prep here and i would go downstairs and make pasta and after like hour 16, you know, it got rough. todd: how with your employees doing? >> it's been really hard. as a small business owner, obviously it really hurts when you lay people off, it really hurts when you tear apart your team that you've built to create a successful business model. i'm sort of excited to be able to hopefully start hiring people back and getting back to whatever the next normal is. >> the worst thing for me is when you have to fire somebody. todd: did you have to lay anybody off? >> we have not laid anybody awful which is something that i'm proud of. we took everything we had in savings. i may never retire. at least all my people are with me. todd: this is definitely a time when business owners had to get creative. what did you do to survive? >> we tried delivery services, tried staying later, offering new products. >> i had to be on top every day that i do the right thing. the margins are very low. >> i was going through any idea that i ever had that could help us try to diversify. so we created a couple things. one of them is our small batch cocktail company, we linked up with local distilleries. todd: you're in the business of providing food, some are the supermarkets, so are some big box stores. you were shut more or less, they were not. how frustrating is that? >> i don't understand how they were allowed to be open and we couldn't be open. for us, it made no sense. they had so many more people going in there. we are just a big a necessity for people down in this area as some of these big box stores. >> the restaurant here, it was 50% capacity and here it was no business. it doesn't make any sense. >> the politicians want to say go out and support your small local businesses but i don't know if they fully grasp how a restaurant operates. todd: when do you think that you're going to be able to sit back and take a deep breath and say i can breathe again? >> it's like starting the clock over again. you know. it's going to take two, three years. i'm always one where i want to pick myself up by my bootstraps and keep on working and i think most people in our industry are like that. >> i feel like it's get a little better right now, people are more optimistic that things might be coming to an end and opening up again. >> one day at a time. one day at time. we can handle it. we need to be optimists. and i love the american saying, the best is yet to come. ben: resilient people. that's amazing. we have a stat here, if you look at how many restaurant closures have happened since the start of the pandemic, new york it was 8300, connecticut over 600. depending on where you are in the country, huge figures across the u.s. jillian: absolutely. ben: i am hoping that it will be boom time when they open again. reservations in the u.k. are already hard to get. fingers crossed we'll bounce back quickly. jillian: coming up tomorrow in this series that we're doing, i talked to gym owners in california and michigan, todd talked to some in new york. we'll have that for you, see what they've been dealing with for the entire year. ben: coming up after the break, a former keystone pipeline worker and arkansas congressman bruce westerman join us live. guy fieri! ya know, if you wanna make that sandwich the real deal, ya gotta focus on the bread layers. king's hawaiian sliced bread makes everything better! ♪ (angelic choir) ♪ and here's mine! so you're a small business, or a big one. you were thriving, but then... oh. ah. okay. plan, pivot. how do you bounce back? you don't, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. powered by the largest gig speed network in america. but is it secure? sure it's secure. and even if the power goes down, your connection doesn't. so how do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business. psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen, painful. tremfya® is approved to help reduce joint symptoms in adults with active psoriatic arthritis. some patients even felt less fatigued. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. janssen can help you explore cost support options. >> it's hard to make plans when you've got an administration that's trying to crush your future. >> i don't want to draw unemployment. there's a lot of people hurting. he added to the list. jillian: thousands of jobs lost with no relief in sight. now laid off pipeline workers and industry leaders will sit down for a discussion. neil crabtree will participate along with arkansas congressman bruce westerman. both join me live. thank you for being here. >> thank you. jillian: neil, i want to start with you. we aired a clip of the piece from when carley shimkus went to visit you among others. that was the beginning of february. we're more than a month later. have you or any of the others gotten any jobs? >> well, not yet. when these contractors, when the pipeline was canceled, they're oftentimes left scrambling, trying to fill the void, trying to find other projects to bid on and the keystone was so large that it took most of our company's assets that had to stay focused on building it so it's not an exaggeration to say that a lot the guy t's that were depending on the keystone may not work at all this year. jillian: how is everyone paying their bills? how are they surviving? >> hopefully they've done like me and saved a little money over the years and we're pretty handy. we find odd of jobs to try to help out but it still doesn't pay the health insurance and the benefits that we're used to getting. jillian: absolutely. that's a huge loss. congressman, i want to bring you in here. tell me about this round table, tell me who will be a part of it and what everyone is hoping to get out of it. >> good morning, jillian. we're planning to meet with neil and several people that he is bringing together, most of these are union workers who have lost their jobs or will be affected by the policies of the biden administration. these are the lock us up, let them in policies that the left is pushing and locking down the keystone pipeline, locking up federal lands for energy production and even locking down the united states capitol while we opened the borders and we opened up our economy for foreign oil, for chinese supply and it's people like neil that are losing their jobs, but every american is going to lose their job in the long time. >> have you guys heard from congresslike neil who are struggling like this, need to find work? >> yeah, we talk about green jobs, show us the jobs. it's not to say that we can't have green jobs in the future, and we can't all work towards a cleaner, safer, healthier environment, but importing oil, importing critical minerals from china and bringing all this stuff across the ocean from china where we could import oil from our neighbors in canada new an efficiently operating pipeline, there was actually green jobs being created with this pipeline. >> i understand members from the energy, agriculture, construction industries are going to be joining you and joining neil today. neil, what are you hoping to get out of this, and do you finally feel like perhaps your voice is being heard when you have an opportunity like this round table? >> what we're get out of it is not just for the congressman, you know, to hear our concerns, because i'm pretty sure he knows what they are, but we're looking for solutions. and i know it's difficult because republicans are in the minority in both houses. so we're in a tough situation right now. but we believe there's things that can be done. and, like i say, we're looking at solutions not just for the pipeline industry the, but for the energy industry in this country as a whole. >> absolutely are. okay. neil crabtree, appreciate you giving us an update, congressman bruce westerman, we appreciate your time. keep us updated, guys, we would love that. have a good day. >> thanks for having us. jillian: benjamin, it's been the source of a lot of frustration for workers who all of a sudden, you know, with the swipe of a signature lost their jobs. >> even canada was asking the biden administration to keep it open. make sure you download the fox news app -- jillian: gotta go. have a good day. ♪ ♪ >> democrats blaming the unprecedented migrant summer on the trump administration -- surge on the trump administration. >> what the administration inherited is a broken system. >> the biden administration policies, they are empowering the drug cartels. >> do you think governor andrew cuomo should resign? >> i think we should investigate and see. >> he was told if you hear the word cuomo, just say this. because it could apply to any question. >> have the schools stay open. you know why? what we're doing is extraordinarily valuable and, number two, we listened to the health care