want to bury his governor, andrew cuomo. he piled on on the claims of sexual harassment against the governor and is now adding his support to the calls for an investigation of the governor as the white house calls for a review of the claims against the governor who they have given great credit to for months and months with regard to the vaccine. what about these cuomo supporters? some of home afforded no due process to brett kavanaugh. now suddenly quiet when it comes to their response against the charges against cuomo. the big push in north dakota to make the governor's mask mandates illegal. we'll talk to the man that is pushing a controversial move to make mask mandates illegal in stores, schools and anywhere in the state of north dakota. we'll talk to him. first, we're waiting for the president. he will be speaking about the vaccination victory lap. there's a lot of good news when you take a look at the numbers out there. let's take a look at these numbers. in the 37 days that vaccines were available during the trump administration, 16.5 million shots got into americans arms. that same time under president biden, we've seen 50 million shots as this program has clearly picked up speed and accelerated. those numbers leading to this viral post by the other 98% they call them solves, a progressive grass roots organization. they claims that biden's competence is to thank for the uptick in the vaccination and downturn of cases. facebook has flagged that post as misleading or missing context. we'll ask for more context today on all of this. the drop in cases became noticeable about a week before biden took office. it's a case of new cases and vaccinations didn't change dramatically after he became president. so this is always a big question. who deserves the credit for any improvement across two presidencies. we'll see how the new president couches his handling of the now dramatically declining covid pandemic in the united states. a great news story for everybody in this country. we begin with kristin fisher standing by, waiting for this event at the white house this afternoon. hello, kristin. >> hi, martha. president biden making this -- commemorating this milestone, the 50-million shot milestone. puts him on track to blow past his goal of 100 million shots during the first 100 days in office. but some states are doing better than others. take a look at one end. maryland that left distribution up to individual counties making things complicated. states like west virginia have done very well but centralizing decision making at the state level and making sure their distribution plan is simple. >> this was not rocket science. it's still not rocket science. >> our model is simple. it's just really -- what it boils down to -- >> one of the other complicating factors is the biden administration's push for vaccine equity, which in some states like rhode island has hurt the white house's other priority, speed. some experts say you don't need to choose between the two. the head of the rhode island health department said the focus on equity is slowing things down. at least in that state. president biden is going to be commemorating this milestone, 50 million shots in just a few minutes. then, martha, at 4:30, he will meet with the national governor's association and the embattled governor andrew cuomo is the current chairman of that association. so he is expected to be there at least virtually. martha? >> martha: thanks. we've got that coming up and more. we wait for the live event to get underway at the white house this afternoon. we want to bring in bret baier, anchor of special report. your thoughts. hi there. obviously this is headed in a better direction. you've got more americans that are vaccinated, 50 million americans out of 320 million or 50 million shots, i guess we should say, since a number of them take two shots to work. but this has been a huge political football. it was during the campaign and it remains so today. >> definitely. i think that how president biden characterizes this today is important. obviously he will tout the success that they've had since taking over. it will be interesting to see how much credit he gives to the trump administration for operation warp speed, for the 16.5 million vaccines that were in arms while they were in office. and for the fact that we are where we are. a lot of the characterization from vice president harris and the president and the white house press secretary has been that it was really starting from the beginning or it was a bad scenario as they took over. i think that fauci and others have said that's not accurate. in fact, the thing that had happened to get us to this point had been really significant. so it will be interesting to hear the president on this. >> martha: yeah. there was a time in an interview during the campaign when then candidate biden said that he gave credit for operation warp speed for the really astonishing speed with which we got a vaccine for this. i think the record prior to this one was three or four years in terms of vaccine production. he hasn't said anything along those lines since becoming president. it's been the cupboard is bear and all that. i want these two screens so we can get a look and get your thoughts, brett. this shows new daily coronavirus cases. so you can see this is from january 1 to january 20th, which is inauguration day. so you can see the decline in daily coronavirus cases begins in that sort of mid points, in that period. and then it sort of continues as about that rate, which is what politifact was pointing to for coronavirus cases. a trend that began under the trump administration. daily vaccinations. you can see during the end of the trump administration they were on the rise and they continue to be on the rise in a very similar fashion. brett, do those numbers, do they matter at this point? >> you know, march that it matters in the political sense. how they're talking about it. but in the big picture, it's about getting shots in arms. i had governor justice from west virginia on last night. west virginia which doesn't have a great health track record is one of the best states, one of the best rates of getting vaccinations in arms in the world. they've been doing an amazing job in getting that done. they use all the vaccine they get every time they get it. that is the challenge. getting all of this to logistically work. i think we'll see a big spike in coming weeks in states across the country being able to do this quicker. >> martha: yeah. one of the things that is very interesting, we don't hear the president talk a lot about reopening, getting schools back open. that will be a forced conversation. when you see the declines in cases, bret and the increase in vaccinations, i mean, that is going to be the elephant in the room that needs to be -- we need to get a point of view on from the white house. >> it's huge. a huge story. how the white house is handled it, how they messaged it, how the messaging has gone from teacher's unions to different communities is just astonishing really. if you think about all the parents that care about getting these kids back to school, you know, teachers want them back, too. but the teacher's unions have played it politically and how the white house talks about it and their messaging has been off. >> martha: it's the only essential work force that has not gone back to work. we need to answer the question of why. when you consider how important their work is. bret, stand by if you would for a moment. we're going to take a quick break and want to get to another breaking story at the white house as he's pressed on the sexual harassment allegations against governor andrew cuomo. democrats are accused of playing politics with me too allegations in the past to see if they will join the calls as kristin gillibrand just did for an investigation in to looking into this. we'll be right back to bret. thr three thousand 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reviewed. >> martha: new york city mayor bill de blasio piling on today saying the sexual harassment claims are disturbing. he's calling for an independent investigation of the governor's actions. as fox awaits comments from powerful democratic leaders, the governor's office says that lin say's boylan's allegations are false. lisa boothe and leslie marshall with here with us. kristin gillibrand weighing in. she also weighed in asking for an investigation of her democratic colleague al franken, the democratic from minnesota. let's hear what she has to say. >> these allegations are concerning and anyone that has a right to come forward to be heard and to have allegations be investigated. governor cuomo also has a right to be heard. he has to come forward and has denied the allegations. ultimately the decision will be up to the state legislature. >> martha: lisa, your thoughts. >> contrary to what we heard from kirsten gillibrand and the white house press secretary, the demand is that women don't have a right to be heard but to be believed under brett kavanaugh. the fact that we have to believe his accuser because they're making the statement, validations against him. it was never based on the facts or based on the evidence. so that is the difference here. democrats surely don't believe that mantra, believe in women unless the accusation is made against republicans and can be used as a political weapon against them. i'm going to tell you, martha, from my time in politics, the kavanaugh confirmation hearings is the most eye opening thing. it allowed me to see the left for who they are. it's about power. they will do whoever they have to do to keep the power and for political purposes including baselessly accusing a father of two and husband in front of his family of gang rape without any evidence whatsoever. i will never view them the same based off of that. >> martha: you know, it's interesting. there was pretty much silence across most of the news channels, leslie, on this story. they haven't reported on it at all. that is a continuation of the pattern that we saw with tara reed's allegations during the campaign against the now president, joe biden. he also had people that said that he was touching them in a way unwanted. similar suggestions here. so where is the fairness? where is the fair treatment here? >> quite frankly and you mentioned it before we saw the clip, martha, democrats have called out their own in their own party. look at senator al franken, former representative katie hill. two examples. if we're going to toss stones towards the democrats and i don't like the sweeping generalizations of either party, democrats or republicans on the victim of sexual harassment, i believe victims male or female when they come forward and unless the investigation and there should always be an investigation shows the allegation is not to be truthful, that individual needs to be believed. the majority of people coming forward are telling the truth. there's some that don't. but during the trump administration and prior to his election as president, this were over 20 allegations against him and i also heard some silence from those on the right that were supporting donald trump at that time. >> martha: you know, i will say this. we have always on this program believed in due process for both sides in these stories. these stories can ruin lives of both sides involved. that's something that we have always really pressed for and discussed in these cases. i want to play this from steve cohen. here's what he said. >> i have never seen anything of the like of what mrs. boylan has described, his conduct has always been in my presence with the members of other staff appropriate. not that it's always fun loving and a good time, but it's always appropriate. >> martha: so lisa, obviously, you know, an investigation is being called for by de blasio. people are normally supporters of governor cuomo are wanting an investigation. where it goes for him is a big question. this is another straw on the camel's back as we said for a very embattled governor right now. >> he's no longer a politically useful to the left. he was a foil to president trump with coronavirus. now he's expendable to the left. but to leslie's point, evidence matters. that's where republicans have always been on these two issues. to the aide's point, if you look at the allegations she made, she has e-mails and texts that she sent her mom concerning governor cuomo that boost the allegations she's made. there has to be an investigation. due process is paramount to this country. if we want to be a free society or free county, we have to have due process. for republicans, it's now more important than ever to support due process even though it's for people like cuomo. we're continuing a less free society. we've seen that under coronavirus where we have given up rights and people like governor cuomo using the coronavirus to consolidate power and control. we have a political party on the left trying to use the events of january 6 to indict over 74 million people. so now is more important than even to live in a true society and a society that embraces process. >> martha: good point, lisa. thanks very much. lessy, thank you. we're going now to the white house. thanks, guys. to the auditorium where the president is giving a report on the state of the covid-19 pandemic. let's listen in. >> cancer is something that is so personal to so many families including me and kamala's and many viewers. we've asked dr. eric lander, an mit scientist to serving a my science adviser and head of the office of science and technology and co-lead the advisory, science and technology. these are the white house offices that bring together the country's top scientists to address our most pressing needs. and they'll be part of the work to dark advanced research effort on cancer and other diseases just like we do at the defense department. they have break-through projects to secure our national security. relatedly, i'm delighted to see five of the leading cancer centers are joining forces to build on the cancer moon shot that i did during the obama-biden administration to help break through on cancer research. we're making progress. there's so much we can do, so much progress within our reach. that's why i'm thankful for the folks here today for getting their vaccine shots. gerald and corey, d.c. firefighters. i said to corey, you know, in old expression god made man and a few firefighters. thank god we have them. linda bussey from safe way grocery store in bethesda. and victoria, elizabeth callaway, nurse. the more people that get vaccinated the more we'll beat this pandemic. that's why one of my first goals before sworn in, my goal was to get 100 million covid-19 shots in people's arms in my first 100 days as president. first critics say that goal was too ambitious. no one could do that. then they said it was too small. the bottom line though is that america it will be the first country, perhaps the only one to get that done. today i'm here to report we're halfway there. 15 million shots in 37 days since i've become president. that is weeks ahead of schedule, even with the setbacks that we faced in recent storms that devastated millions of midwestern cities, towns and also the same in the south. we're moving in the right direction despite the mess we inherited from the previous administration, which left us with no real plan to vaccinate all americans. i'm going to use the milestone to report to the american people on our vaccination program, our overall fight against this pandemic. good and the bad i'll tell you. success and the failures. here's the deal. here's the deal. the story of this vaccination came pan is like the story of everything hard and new that america does. some confusion and setbacks at the start and if we do the right things, we have the right plan to get things moving. that's what we're seeing right now. the weeks before i became president, the previous administration saw six million shots. this coming week, we will have administered over 12 million shots. double the pace in six weeks that we've been in office. other milestones. we've increased vaccination distribution to states by 70%. nearly 60% of people over the age of 75 have now received at least one shot, 14% six weeks ago. close to 50% of people over the age of 65 have at least one shot now who was 8% six weeks ago. it's important. people over 65 account for 80% of all the covid deaths. additionally, about 75% of the people who live in long-term facilities have gotten their first shot and those cases are at the lowest level since recording began in may. here's how we've been doing it. it starts with increasing the supply. my team has worked very hard with vaccine manufacturers, pfizer and moderna to ensure that we have enough supply by the end of july for all americans. when we heard they department have the supplies, we fixed the problem. we used the defense production act to speed up the supply, which has increased in vaccine production. last week i toured the pfizer facility manufacturing facility in kalamazoo, michigan. it's incredible the precision, the safety, the pride and the sense of purpose everyone involved in that process and project has. we've all seen the news about johnson & johnson's vaccine. the idea of a third safe and effective vaccine is very promising. the food and drug administration, the fda is reviewing the data and reviewing recommendations from an outside committee of experts that will meet tomorrow. let me be clear. we're going to do this the right way. the fda will decide on emergency use authorization of a vaccine based on science, not due to any political pressure from me or anyone else. no outside factors. what i will say to the american people is this: if the fda approves the use of this new vaccine, we have a plan to roll it out as quickly as johnson & johnson can make it. we'll use every conceivable way to expand manufacturing of the vaccine and we'll make even more rapid progress on overall vaccines in march. i'll have more to say about this in the days after the fda review. look, we've been laser focused on the greatest challenge this country has ever undertaken. administering shots in the arms of hundreds of millions of americans. we found you may have the vaccine but not enough people to put the vaccine in people's arms like you just saw. we brought back retired doctors and nurses. already deployed more than 1,500 medical personnel you see during national disasters from the federal emergency management agency, fema. and we commissioned our commissioned from the department and health and human services including national guard. we're relying on thousands more to do the vaccinations. we're setting up more places for people to get vaccinationed. as of today, we provided 3.8 billion to states, territories and tribes to create hundreds of new vaccination centers and ramp the existing ones already. we're working with governors to bolster their efforts in stadiums, community centers and houses of worships and large parking lots. we're covering the costs for the states including use of their national guard, which are incredible. tomorrow jill and i will travel to eastern texas to look at one of the first mass vaccination centers and to thank everyone involved. this is an example of the kind of partnership between federal, state and local governments and government and private partners that will get this job done. we also sent millions of vaccines to thousands of local pharmacies across america to make it easier for folks to get the vaccine shot like they would the flu shot, going to a familiar place, familiar folks that they can trust and know to get the shot. and for folks that didn't live near a vaccination center or pharmacy, we're deploying mobile units. these are special vehicles and pop-up clinics that meet folks where they live and where they don't have transportation to get the shots, to get to the places to get the shots. we've also started to send vaccines directly to community health centers to help the hard -- the hard-to-reach folks in cities and small towns, rural communities, black, latino, native american communities that have higher rates of covid infections and death than any other groups. as a result of these round-the-clock efforts and five weeks, americans have administered the most shots of any country in the world. among the highest population fully vaccinated. that is progress we promised. it's also true that while covid-19 vaccinations are up, covid cases and hospitalizations are coming down. but i need to be honest with you, cases and hospitalizations could go back up with new variants as they emerge. so i want to make something really very clear. this is not a time to relax. we must keep washing our hands, stay socially distanced and for god's sake, for god's sake, wear a mask. some of our progress is because so many americans are stepping up and doing those things. the worst thing we can do now is let our guard down. of course, it's my hope to come back in the next report that -- after we've done another 50 million, another 50 million shots before the end of my first 100 days. but here's the critical point. as hard as it is now to believe, we're going to hit a phase in this effort, maybe as late as april or may where many predict instead of long lines of people waiting to get a shot, we'll face a very different scenario. we'll have the vaccine waiting. we'll have ramped up vaccine supplies. we'll have administrative -- folks to administer the shots to the most of the people that aren't eager to get the shots. that's been the prediction. i think -- i don't think it going to happen. more people see other people getting shots, it's going to build confidence. you know, at the same time, people live in hard-to-reach areas that can't get them and folks that are hesitant to take it in the first place. there's a history in this country of subjecting certain communities to terrible medical and scientific abuse. if there's one message that needs to cut through is this. the vaccines are safe and effective. i believe, as you see your neighbors, your husband, your wife, your son, your daughter getting it that you'll be more inclined to get it. listen to dr. fauci and the scientists that develop the vaccines and the extensive rigorous review. i did. i took my shots publicly to demonstrate to the american people that it's safe and effective. but the time is coming, maybe 60 or 90 days when the supply is adequate but not enough people can access the shots and don't want them. to address that challenge, we're going to launch a massive campaign to educate people about vaccines that they are safe and effective and where to go to get those shots in the first place. we're going to bring together leaders of all segments of our society to educate and encourage all americans to get vaccinated. so i hope the senate will soon confirm a key leader of that effort. my nominee for the secretary of health and human services, xavier becerra, who did so well in his hearing this week. i hope congress passes the american rescue plan which i've been pushing, which provides funds for everything we need to do to beat this pandemic around to get the economy going again. critics say the plan is too big. it costs too much. let me ask a rhetorical question. what would you have me cut out? on vaccines alone, if we don't invest $20 billion to vaccinate the nation, doesn't that make sense? $160 billion in total towards the pandemic for testing? to protective gear, the vaccine production and distribution? i'm ready to hear any ideas on what will make the american rescue plan better, stronger and effective. we'll have to answer who will get health and who will get hurt. i'm going to close with this. the question that i ask and i'll ask most often is when will things get back to normal. my answer is always honest and straightforward. i can't give you a date. i can only promise that we'll work as hard as we can to make that day come as soon as possible and we're going from a mess we inherited to moving in the right direction out of significant speed. this is not a victory lap. this is -- everything is not fixed. we have a long way to go. that day when everything gets back to normal depends on us. depends on congress passing the american recovery act. research plan. recovery plan. and also for all of us to remain vigilant. i've said it before, wash your hands. stay socially distanced, wear a mask. get the vaccine when it's your turn. when your friend or neighbor or loved one is eligible, encourage them to get vaccinated. when all, above all, remember we can do this. this is the united states of america. there's nothing we can't do when we do it together. so it's not over yet. we're getting close. god willing, if we do all we know we have to do, we're going to beat this. sooner than later. may god bless you all and may god protect our troops. thank you for your time. >> [question inaudible] >> martha: all right. the. putting his mask back on as he wraps up comments there. that was peter doocy calling out about seven weeks ago saying that checks would be going out for the covid relief bill. going to bring bret baier back in. what is your reaction to what we just heard from the president about the progress so far in all of this? >> yeah, as expected, he's touting the progress so far saying they're halfway there. not giving really a hat tip to the trump administration and calling for the covid-19 legislation to be passed. what would you have me cut from that bill? you have a democratic representative from new york saying he's not comfortable with the pork in the bill, including a bridge from new york to canada and underground rail line in nancy pelosi's district as well as $350 billion for state and local governments and republicans have a real problem with. some other money that doesn't get spent until 2022. if he keeps on using that line, there's more and more representatives that will start answering it directly. that is part of the problem with that bill on the hill. >> martha: yeah, the same line caught my ear as well, brett. he launches into an explanation of $20 billion for vaccines, distribution, $160 billion for ppe and basically covid-related items. but this is a $1.9 trillion bill. so i think when you do ask a lot of americans, you know, what would you cut? you're right. you're going to start getting answers to that question. cut the bridge from new york to canada, a number of other things in the bill. also education money that wouldn't be spent until likely long after this pandemic is over. there's so much money that hasn't been spent at all. i'm going to ask you about a big interview tonight. because a lot of people have been wanting to hear from the senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell. you'll have an opportunity to ask him questions tonight. >> yeah, senator mcconnell comes on "special report." we'll have a whole host of questions about the legislation on capitol hill and the future of the republican party. this weekend, obviously, the big speech from former president donald trump at cpac in orlando. the first time that the senate minority leader is speaking out to answer questions since his speech on the floor that drew all kinds of push-back from trump supporters and the former president himself. >> martha: strong lines in the sand between himself and the former president. so we'll be watching always always tonight on "special report." thanks, bret. also breaking right now, nancy pelosi responding to the claims the investigation into january 6 will not be fair and balanced in the composition of that panel. a report by chad pergram watching this unfold on capitol hill. hello, chad. >> good afternoon, martha. the first draft of the plan for the committee to investigate the riot called for seven democrats and four republicans. democrats fear the gop could use the panel to give equal weight conspiracy theories. mitch mcconnell says if democrats target trump supporters, the commission could address a wave of left-wing violence last summer. >> we could do something narrow that looks at the capitol or do something broader to analyze the full scope of political violence here in our country. we cannot land at some artificial politicized halfway point. >> house speaker nancy pelosi wants a bipartisan panel but she ignored my question as to what the bipartisan means and equal split. >> the impression that he wanted to have a january 6 similar to 9-11 commission. it seems when he spoke that he was taking the page out of the book of senator johnson. >> the 9-11 commission was divided equally with democrats and the gop. people wouldn't have confidence to a commission tilted to one side. only legislation can create a panel to probe the riot. martha? >> martha: chad, thank you. let's bring in dan henninger, from the wall street editorial page and in today's paper, the board says a riot commission stacked with democrats won't be credible. also joined by marc thiessen, a rmer speechwriter for president george bush and a "washington post" columnist. busy man. let's start with you, dan. what do you make of this commission? we all remember the 9-11 commission and one of the reasons it was 50/50, republicans and democrats so it couldn't be accused of having a politicized bent in its findings. why wouldn't nancy pelosi want that? >> well, nancy pelosi wouldn't want that because she's become so hopelessly and relentlessly partisan in her treatment of virtually anything these days, martha. it's been going on for four years and the only lens through which speaker pelosi can see the world, which is to say what can she identified that will disadvantage republicans. she seems to be trying to attach republicans, the party to the events of january 6 such that any voter out there in the country and the coming mid-terms will conclude that they cannot possibly vote for a republican. that is such a stretch. this event on january 6 was an extraordinary historical event. we do need to get to the bottom of it. we need a 9-11-type investigation or say something like the silverman commission that looked into the intelligence before the iraq war. if speaker pelosi insists on pushing a partisan interpretation of those events, we won't get to the bottom of it. that would be a tragedy if we failed to find out what happened leading up to the invasion of the capitol. >> martha: it sure world. mark, during the impeachment part of this process, we were told that president trump was solely responsible. essentially that he was the essential piece that led to this. then as this investigation goes on, we find out that people had climbing ropes with them, helmets, pipe bombs that were assembled and the whole event began before the speech was over. your thoughts on the approach to really figuring out what happened and preventing this from happening again. >> you know, nancy pelosi has been so disfigured by her hatred of donald trump that she's been trump in pumps. she's highly partisan, vicious and attacking and everything. the reality is that she politicized impeachment. she said we had to get rid of donald trump. he couldn't serve another day in office. she waited a week to introduce the articles of impeachment. she didn't ask any republicans to be impeachment managers in a bipartisan case against donald trump. can you imagine what the trial would have been like if liz cheney was a manager? she didn't want to highlight any republican opposition to what trump had done. then she chose general russell honre to investigate security in the capitol. a guy that called josh holiday a piece of expletive. now she's making this commission. she's not getting to the bottom of what happened. she's not trying to come to anonymous report like with 9-11 commission came out with a unanimous finding. she wants ammunition in 2022 to hold on to her narrow house majority. she's not concerned about the truth. she's concerned about her political future. >> martha: i'm trying to get the trump in pumps image out of my head. might take while. dan, let's bring you in. before i let you go, i want your outlook for cpac. the first time, you know -- we haven't heard. trump on social media, so we've lad a little bit of a spacer in between. so now he gets this fresh opportunity to make an appearance for the people at cpac. dan, what do you hope he will say? >> well, what i hope he will say is that he will spend some of that talk talking about the future of the republican party. let's face it. the most important sub out there is what is the meaning of trumpism going forward? we knew it was about make america great again. that's mainly a sentiment. i think it's up to donald trump to kind of set the parameters of what the republican party will be about. he's got that authority and he should probably use it. was it a set of policies having to do with immigration, trade, economic policy, taxes, deregulation. it's a vision, in other words, for the republican party going forward as opposed to the question of whether the party is only attached to a single personality of donald trump. that's the balance that we're going to look for sunday night. is it all about trump and grievances about the past or is it going to be forward-looking creating a vision for the future that is indeed about some interpretation of trumpism. >> martha: yes. i think he will get as much time as he wants, mark, which sometimes benefits him and sometimes might not. i think his points are great. there's a lot of material already from the biden administration to draw contrast with. >> no doubt. look, i hope he does what he should have done the day after the election, focus on 2022 and winning back the house and then 2024 and winning back the presidency. because if he had done that, he would be -- things would have turned out differently for him and he would be in a very strong position going forward. i hope he learns the lesson of his mistake between the end of the election and the inauguration and starts looking forward to the future of the party. >> martha: yes. interesting to contrast the georgia speeches before the senate elections there and what the focus of those was. that was pivotal. it will be an interesting moment to watch for everybody. thanks very much, dan and mark. great to see you guys as always. >> thanks, martha. >> thanks. >> martha: so when a "new york times" columnist is blasting teachers for not returning to class, you know the message in this is beginning to change in this battle. a columnist asks why bars are open but schools are closed. we'll take you live to a charter school in washington that is getting it done in the classroom. i took out this personal loan with sofi and it significantly helped me lower the amount of 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columnist writing "school closures have failed america's children." he says there's another tragedy that we haven't adequately confronted. millions of american school children will have missed a year of in-person instruction. in a moment, we have more on how catholic schools and charter schools are keeping open. first, lawrence is here in washington d.c. how there. >> hi, martha. yeah, i'm at friendship peters elementary and middle school in northeast d.c. this is part of the charter public school system. they've been open for the past six months. they've been doing it successfully with 6 foot distancing, with masks and tests. they tested 261 students. not one of them tested positive in this. students are taking home what they're learning about covid safety. the communications director for the system says not only do parents need the kids back in school but the kids need the interaction. >> what we found, there's a fraction of students that do well with virtual learning. they thrived there. but we do understand the vast majority of students really need face-to-face instruction. >> it's two national testing programs said performance declines this year compared to last year. we're talking about a 58% increase in the number of students falling behind, notably in math. at this school, they're in four days a week throughout the entire system actually. this charter system. the fifth day is a deep clean that they do. that system has been working. back to you. >> martha: sounds like a good system. thanks, edward. now we bring in bill mcgurn a former speechwriter for george w. bush. good to have you with us today. you know, this piece coming from "the new york times" is remarkable. he doesn't call out the teacher unions. there's many interesting lines, but one is when he said that, you know, president trump called last summer for a big return to school. sort of fell along the lines in terms of how people responded to that. he said we shouldn't let ourselves be ruled by ideology over science. in other words, we shouldn't have just dodged it because it was trumped idea. >> yes. this is -- people say it's not science. it is science. it's political science. the reason that it broke down on these lines, teacher unions control most of the big city public school systems, but they control the democratic party in many ways. people are afraid to break with it. nick is right. the amazing thing is there's many other people like him, including teachers and so forth in different cities writing similar op-eds because they see the human cost of what the teacher's unions are doing and they say they don't have a leg to stand on in terms of science. catholic schools and in the areas where they're allowed, charter schools are opening and teaching their kids. they're keeping covid at bay at the same time. >> martha: yeah, i know catholic schools have record enrollment. in a position to turn people away at this point. a lot of charter schools are being innovative the way they're doing it. we know not everyone has the opportunity to be part of those programs. one of the things that he cites in this piece, he says high school and college dropout rates could lead to shrinking incomes for american workers for the next 70 years. there's a very long-term impact from all of this. >> that's what i was saying, the human costs are staggering. we don't know what they'll be. a lot of times when kids are younger, third and fourth grade level, get knocked off the path, they never get back on it to proficiency in math and reading and so forth. that's why it's been so disastrous. one thing i have to say, the enrollment at some catholic schools has been up. overall, the hit that it took in the beginning, 100 something schools that closed. over all enrollment is down like significant amounts. so the problem is parents find that when these things happen, the teacher's unions say we will not teach. they're left with no options. i don't know what the working moms are doing when they can't go to work because their kids are at home. it shows people whose interest they put first. >> martha: he talks about the kids that disappeared, the children that never logged on or maybe they logged on for a few days and a lot of -- mostly inner city school systems and the teachers have not heard from them again. it's really heart breaking. talk about a friend of his named mike that was homeless and who died of drug addiction. how many more mikes we're creating in this. there's an interesting pitch from the charter schools in new york pushing for a national summer school program over the course of the summer. you know, i don't know if there's any hope of that happening. i can't imagine that the teacher's unions would embrace that. but a national movement in favor of this would put added pressure on them, wouldn't it? >> it might. my guess is they would use it for more leverage for more pay and more benefits. i'm not sure that is the answer. i like to see a lot more choice and a lot more options for parents. what they can do to help their kids catch up if they're behind and all sorts of things. what we're dealing here is with moms and dads and their children dealing with the one size fits all government monopoly. if it's working and running, that's fine. you're kid is getting an education. if it's not working, you have no options. you're just stuck. not everyone can afford to pay private tuition or even catholic tuition, which is very modest. so you're just stuck. what do you do? how many parents have the wherewithal, the computer systems, the wi fi to guarantee a good learning experience for their children? we're learning how vulnerable we are and it's all unnecessary. >> indeed it is. a lot of work done by the inner city scholarship fund in new york and new jersey and similar programs around the country that help parents pay for the lower priced catholic education if they applied for it. we hope they're aware of that option. good to see you, bill. >> thanks, martha. >> thanks. >> martha: so this week 76 years ago, six marines raised the american flag on iwo jima. three of those men were killed in a brutal fighting that followed. we remember them all. "unknown valor" chronicles their story. thanks for being here, everybody. >> neil: all right. we're chronicling a sell-off at wall and broad. i know this sounds weird. the bad news there, the good news here in the economy. it's too good to be true. that had interest rates backing up today. the fact of the matter is, we were pelted with one good piece of economic news after another. jobless claims, 730,000. most thought that they would be 100,000 more. that we were seeing durable goods orders. goods you order ahead of time and make a commitment continuing to go