earlier today defense secretary lloyd austin offered his own heart felt reaction. >> i lost a tremendous personal friend and mentor. i feel as if i have a hole in my heart just learning of this just recently. first african-american chairman of the joint chiefs, first african-american secretary of state, a man who was respected around the globe and who will be quite frankly it is not possible to replace a colin powell. >> harris: loved and respected by so many. robert will key former trump secretary who served with general powell in the bush administration and family friend of the powells is standing by. first david spunt is reporting live from the white house. >> colin powell's family made the announcement on facebook a little more than three hours ago. we have yet to hear from president biden here at the white house. i'm told there will be a statement coming at some point on paper. we don't know exactly when it will happen. as you heard from secretary austin there we'll also hear from the secretary of state anthony blinken at the state department. i want to read the statement from the powell family posted on facebook. general colin powell, former u.s. secretary of state and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff passed away this frerng in complications from covid. he was fully vaccinated. we want to thank the medical staff at the walter reed for their treatment. we have lost a loving husband, father, grandfather grand ate kam. he was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, national security advisor and secretary of state spent more than 40 years in public service. the first black secretary of state under george w. bush and he oversaw operation desert storm and gulf war. he was criticized widely for his speech to the united nations in 2003 making a case for war with sawed am hussain. he is in 2015 on that u.n. spee. listen. >> if we had known the intelligence was wrong we would not have gone into iraq but the intelligence community, all 16 agencies, assured us that it was right. my speech at the u.n. was based on that information. >> a long time republican working for reagan and the bushes turned heads when he announced support for then senator barack obama in the final weeks of the 2008 campaign. powell is survived by his wife alma married since 1962 and three children george w. bush put out a statement in part he was highly respected at home and abroad and most important colin was a family man and friend. we send the family our sincere condolences. president george w. bush went on to say that colin powell was liked by so many presidents he received the presidential medal of freedom twice. >> harris: that's right under presidents from two different political parties. amazing. good to see you. david spunt. robert wilkie served in the bush administration with general powell. great to sigh. we have gotten to know each other through the years. my father served under colin powell and you served with him, too. talk with us about his brand of leadership. >> well harris, let me say i think some of us have missed what general would you else's greatest contribution to america was. it involves people like your father, and my father. it was to restore the primacy of the american military. after vietnam you know this, your father, my father weren't allowed to wear their uniforms off post because the times were so harsh on them and the people blamed them for vietnam. it took someone like colin powell, who was the embodiment of the american dream and hear about his roots in jamaica. he spoke yiddish in the melting pot of the south bronx. nobody embodied the american dream more fully than he did. in terms of leadership something should be passed to all in uniform but certainly in government and business and that is to lead from the front. to take care of your people. to insure that you don't ask your people to do anything that you would not do. it sounds basic but i think in vietnam and certainly in the years after that we lost sight of those basic principles of leadership that general powell embodied. >> harris: you made me smile when you talked about his linguistic skills and speaking yiddish. it is okay to smile today. i remember being a little one and being able to visit the pentagon. there was a lot of pride, joy and laughter about the kind of leadership going on with colin powell as the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. i remember my father being very proud to serve under him. i have a couple of things i want to share with our audience here. this is an image of colin powell on september 20th, 1989 after he was unanimously approved by the senate armed services committee to serve as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. and when he assumed his duties 11 days later, he made history becoming the youngest person -- i don't know if people know that as much as they know about breaking the barrier becoming the first black american to ever serve in that position. secretary, what was his idea going forward just in terms of the troops? >> well, in terms of the troops he had been raised certainly in the vietnam era and post vietnam era and he developed a doctrine for the united states to follow that we could never put american soldiers in the same position that we left them in in vietnam. when we went into a military fight we had to go in with overwhelming force. just as important, we needed the support of the american people. general powell never wanted to return to those dark days of the 1970s when serving was pushed aside and soldiers were looked down upon by the general public. i think that is what he left us and i think that is -- that will be his legacy throughout history. and also we will put him in the same vein as ice en haur. -- eisenhower. they were relied upon by presidents of all stripes, ideologies and parties. >> harris: i feel like we wouldn't be having an honest conversation, secretary, particularly for you and me. we go into every detail. what unfolded in afghanistan is not indicative of who we are and how we feel about our military. and the loss of those 13 at the kabul air base. i just wonder at this point what the difference would be like if we had the counsel of a general powell. we can't go backwards but you can take us forward knowing the man. >> well, i don't think it would have come out that way. general powell knew what soldiers could accomplish and knew what their primary mission was, to protect the united states and its citizens. we would have never seen the succession of events that occurred. this would have been stopped at the white house because the general and certainly in the meetings that i was in with him as a junior staffer for dr. rice, he was not shy about telling the president of the united states what direction the country should head in particularly when it came to the use of our greatest asset. the young men and women in uniform. he would have seen beyond the immediate political headlines to the strategic realities that america was facing, particularly in this world when we face a greater enemy, i think, than we ever faced in the soviet union, communist china. >> harris: hearing you speak that, the constellation of people around former president george w. bush, the people that he trusted around him, you mentioned condoleezza rice and some others, it is very different than what we have today. is that fair to say all the players are different but the perspectives are different, too, because even lloyd austin said in those hearings on capitol hill secretary of defense, now we know that president biden was told what the possibilities of an immediate pull-out the way he wanted to do it would be like. you wonder what it took to be listened to as a general. let's throw in another picture of powell in january of 2001. he was sworn in as the 65th united states secretary of state under george w. bush and at that moment again breaking barriers, becoming the first black american to serve in that role. we can say those things. we can talk about diversity, but it was the diversity of thought and the numb bellness of thought that allowed him to be listened to by clinton and many other republicans. >> and ronald reagan. it was the presence. it was that calming presence that he had that endeared him to troops and men and women of the state department. the state department has not run as well as it did under powell's leadership because he got to know the people there. he walked his post. and that is a trait that we're sadly lacking in many levels of government. but having been through the caldron of vietnam. your father served three tours. my father served two tours. he knew what soldiers could and couldn't do and he knew the american people needed to be behind every operation in order for those shoulders not only to succeed, but to come home and be proud of the service that they had rendered. that's why i think his greatest contribution was raising again the profile and primacy of the american soldier in the minds of the american people. >> harris: you and he taught us about that. we have a lot of great examples to live out and we need to remind ourselves constantly that life would be very difficult without men like colin powell and yourself leading the way. secretary, thank you for your time and your memories, your expertise. >> thank you as always, harris. >> harris: and there is other news being made today and we want to get to it. police departments across america are bracing for staff shortages as vaccine mandates start to take effect. in some departments they say they worry they could lose up to half of their officers over this. what will that mean for public safety? jason rantz, remember, soo*ilt has had a tough go. what will they do if they have hundreds of police officers saying no to the vaccine mandates? plus president biden under fire for going maskless at a d.c. restaurant. wait a minute. the guidelines say -- you have to do it indoors, wear a mask. he repeatedly encouraged all of us to follow the guidelines. we talk to the power panel to find out why he gets to do what we don't. ord lows. with home values at all time highs, now is the best time ever to use your va benefits to turn your home equity into cash. newday usa lets you borrow 100% of your home's value and take out $50,000 or more for security today or retirement tomorrow. get the cash and peace of mind every veteran family deserves. so make the call. >> tech: when you get a chip in your windshield... trust safelite. this couple was headed to the farmers market... when they got a chip. they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? >> tech: that's service the way you need it. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire >> harris: vaccine mandates taking effect putting pressure now not there wasn't already pressure, on police departments in big cities where crime is already raging. in seattle for example today's deadline to report vaccination status. that means if you've had it or haven't just tell them that's your situation. their deadline is coming up and as of friday, 140 police employees had not submitted proof of vaccination. again, did you get it or not? they just want to know. police union warns it cannot afford to lose not even one more officer. meanwhile another dangerous weekend in chicago as democrat mayor lori lightfoot and police are clashing over their own covid vaccine requirements. garrett tenney is live in chicago with more. garrett, this is a place that sees dozens of shootings and killings across weekends. >> yeah, harris. the mayor says this vaccine mandate for city employees is about keeping people safe but that mandate could take as many as half of chicago's police officers off the streets. that is what chicago's police union is suggesting could happen if the city doesn't back down on requiring all city employees to either be vaccinated or undergo testing twice a week. the head of the union who is in a fierce stand-off with mayor lori lightfoot over the mandate has urged rank and file officers not to comply and to refuse to upload their vaccination status to the city's website. >> any sergeant, lieutenant, captain, or above who gives you an order to go in that portal is not valid. you are able to refuse that order. they cannot order you to violate your collective bargaining rights period. everything else is irrelevant after that. >> this year is already on track to be chicago's most deadly in 25 years. the prospect of taking 5,000 cops off the streets is unsettling to say the least. this weekend in anticipation of a potential shortage cpd leadership notified officers that all time off is restricted until further notice. and while there is no clear plan on what the city would do in that kind of mass shortage scenario, mayor lori lightfoot is not backing down on her directives. >> for those who are sworn to uphold the law act as if they are above the law. we're not going to tolerate that. that is not acceptable. >> both sides have filed lawsuits over the vaccine mandate and a judge is expected to hear those arguments a week from today. >> harris: i want to make sure that we're correct about this, too. so you are just simply saying whether you have been vaccinated. yes or no to that and then is there testing offered, too? what are the real options here? >> the city employees all of them across the city police, fire, as well as every city department is required to upload their vaccination status either way whether you are vaccinated or unvaccinated. if you are not vaccinated you agree to get testing twice a week. you pay for that yourself through the end of the year. after that mayor lori lightfoot is not clear what will happen if folks will be required to get vaccinated at that point or continue to be allowed to just go with this twice a week testing option. >> harris: making people pay for it on their own. corporations are paying, obviously. they have income to do that. but they have our tax dollars in the municipalities and people who live there. did they put it up to the people or did the mayor make that decision? >> they will be forced to pay for it themselves but also not given time off of their regular schedules to get the testing done. paying for it themselves and taking out time to get it done putting a lot of folks in a hard place if they are choosing not to get that vaccine. >> harris: i like the way you clean it up. i call it something else other than bargaining. it sounds like some people want to fight with police and it is a losing battle. you have to support them. all right, garrett. we'll move on. thank you. in washington veteran state troopers have signed off for the last time after being forced out for not getting a covid vaccine. watch this. >> my personal choice to take a moral stand for medical freedom and personal choice. i will be signing out of service for the last time today. please, please, please take care of each other. make sure you all go home at the end of each day. >> my final sign-off after 22 years of serving the constituent sense of the state -- -- citizens for the state of washington i'm leaving. jay inslee can kiss my -- >> harris: your reaction to that, jason rantz. >> in the case of the latter video you played the trooper has been on my show for several times over the last several months and i've been following closely his struggle here. these are two people in this case who are deeply religious and have religious convictions against this particular vaccine and also as you heard doing it for the sake of personal freedoms and medical choice. when you look at not just the troopers but any of the law enforcement officers who are impacted by this mandate, many of them have told me privately i'm vaccinated but i don't think it's the right of government to require this as a condition of employment. that's what we are starting to see a lot of. this belief that everyone pushing back is unvaccinated. that is not true. >> harris: that's fascinating and that's why i was making the point about they just want to know are you or are you not. but then jason i wonder if something else isn't at play. when i find out in chicago that they are not going to foot the bill for the testing after mandating that you go get something else, a vaccine, but they aren't going to offer you, it feels like they're negotiating in bad faith and then they won't give you the time to get the testing. feels like they're negotiating in bad faith. you don't think that they have some tax dollars to be able to support that? it blows my mind. >> they clearly have the money to do that. in seattle, for example, there is no testing option. you either get vaccinated or you will be fired. that's the problem here. you aren't even given the option in some of these cases. we were told over the last 18 months that all of these folks were heroes, front line workers essentially and they are protecting us and doing so at great risk to themselves. now last year at this exact time there was zero percent vaccination. right now in seattle and washington in general there are 80% of the state vaccinated with at least one shot. they are telling us back then it was safer than it is now for these law enforcement officials to do their jobs. it doesn't make sense. it is not like after they get vaccinated they lose all the ppe they've been wearing. they still have to wear that. nothing has effectively changed in that regard. >> harris: so when we talk about the percentages, the numbers of officers who died of covid in the country, that is something that people are looking at just in terms of safety here. but that hasn't persisted necessarily as high as it was at one point. are maybe more getting natural immunity? you know officers who are vaccinated and they don't want to talk about it. >> exactly. i think that's really important to pay attention to. it is true there have been officers who died from covid. not necessarily covid they caught on the job, which i think is an important distinction here. plenty of studies including here in washington that show ems responders to emergencies who were dealing with people who in some cases you are not going to be able to even wear your own mask depending what you are doing with that individual showed a very little, if not insignificant, amount of transmission of covid between patient and ems provider and vice versa. we have to be honest about what we're doing here. if we are talking about hundreds or thousands of officers across the country being put out of a job, there are serious public health implications. >> harris: more than 300 seattle police officers have retired or quit in the past year and citing anti-police sentiment across the country and it comes as shooting incidents have spiked by 39% from the same period last year. you already had a caldron and now just more flame and gasoline on that. >> yeah. we're in territory we haven't been since the 80s as how many deployable officers we have. right now we're at a stage 3 mobilization effort for the seattle police department. anyone who is deployable is uniform ready. if we need to respond to 911 calls the detective who may try to solve a murder case will end up responding to 911 calls. today we expect potentially depending on what ends up happening with the final numbers when they get reported we expect 60 or 70 officers who will not have submitted their paperwork and who will be unemployed shortly at a time when i spoke to the police chief a couple weeks ago said we need as many people hired as possible right now. we're 500 or so short of what we need to be. >> harris: unbelievable. quickly the politics of this. democrat mayor chicago, lori lightfoot. do these leaders realize that they are leaving their their own public in a corner with no one to protect them from being cornered? if something happens to you in the city of chicago or seattle after people leave their jobs over the fight with these city councils and mayors, i thought their number one job was public safety. how do they stay in office? >> these are cities that are run by folks who have been pushing defund policing. lori lightfoot has walked it back significantly and the mayor in seattle has walked it back some but council members are leaning into defunding. what a better way to defund police to quit on their own and say they were selfish and didn't want to protect the public from covid. 80% of the budget for the seattle police department is personnel. so you lose a few of those officers you get closer to the 50% defunding that they promised. >> harris: then they trick them by either making the testing nearly impossible on their shift and not pay for or like in your city don't give them an alternative at all. this way or the highway. it is a trick. it is not honest negotiation. jason rantz always great to have you in focus. thank you. high stakes, big democrat heavy hitters coming to the aid of terry mccauliffe, the incumbent governor of chicago. the president's agenda could be on the line as much as mccauliffe's. where is biden? no, he is not there. plus this. >> there is factors in terms of the situation we're in in the supply chain. one is demand. one of many factors causing the surge and disruption in supply chain. >> harris: that doesn't sound like an immediate fix. he is laying it out. still unresolved backlog of america's commerce, biden's transportation secretary pete buttigieg issuing a dire warning himself while trying to sell the positive. can you do that? "fox & friends" weekend co-host pete hegseth is in "focus." are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean? what if your clothes could stay fresh for weeks? now they can. downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters keep your laundry smelling fresh waaaay longer than detergent alone. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load. and enjoy fresher smelling laundry. if you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks make sure you have downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters. shop online for downy unstopables, including our new, lighter scent. ♪ ♪ hey i'm joe montana. when you get to be our age, you have little patience for nonsense and inefficiency. after years of practice you become a pro at pretty much everything. so when i qualified for medicare, i got wellcare. they're pros at making things streamlined, efficient and convenient. i don't even need to leave the house anymore, because wellcare offers great benefits like free grocery, meal, and prescription delivery. 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wellcare guide today. or visit our website at enrollwellcare.com. that's enrollwellcare.com. ♪ ♪ wellcare. it's medicare done well. >> a lot of the challenges we've been experiencing this year will continue into next year but there are both short term and long term steps that we can take to do something about it. look, part of what what's happening isn't just the supply side it's the demand side. demand is up, income is up. the president has successfully guided this he coon me out of a recession. >> harris: and into the teeth of inflation and so much other. transportation secretary pete buttigieg warning the supply chain crisis that has led to high prices will extend to 2022 claiming the bottleneck is spurred by an unprecedented amount of demand brought upon by president biden's economic recovery. jonathan serrie is with us in savannah. the facts. >> the truck depot is run by a company in business for three generations. i spoke with the grandson of the founder who says he has never seen anything like this. they were about busy pre-pandemic and busier now and there is a surge in consumer spending. >> everyone wants their stuff that was shut down. greater demand on the trucking industry before the pandemic and fewer truck drives than there were before the pandemic. that created a real bind. >> my older truck drivers retired during the pandemic. construction industry is luring away younger drivers and a hard business to get into. federal regulations say people need to be 21 before they can cross state lines. drivers face inefficiencies in the process of transferring cargo and off on the trucks. listen. >> to me yes there is a driver shortage problem but it's a driver utilization inefficiency problem. >> researchers at m.i.t. estimate if you could improve efficiency for the average trucker by 12 minutes in other words, they would spend 12 minutes less parked picking up or dropping off cargo and 12 minutes more driving on highways, you would no longer have a trucker shortage in this country. harris, back to you. >> harris: you know what you'll need to help truckers save off 24 minutes? more employees to make sure they are able to do that. you need a bigger workforce is what they've been telling us. i believe them. >> you have to find a way to recruit more truckers, exactly. >> harris: yes. for more i'm joined by pete hegseth, co-host of "fox & friends" weekend. i'll give it to you to take it off the top. you have a fountain of ideas on this. >> well, many things contribute to this. first of all we have a transportation secretary on family leave for three months. knew the job he was signing up for and knew this crisis was coming and wasn't leading the charge to do something about it. we knew this was coming. we knew it was a challenge. also you blame it on demand you are basically blaming the consumer, it is your fault. how dare you want all the christmas gifts now, how dare you want the products you've relied upon. we have a domestic manufacturing problem but if you talk to people who are working at these ports and service the trucking companies, which i have digging into this, the dirty little secret is most of them are independent operators meaning they aren't union and you have bills in california and in new jersey and california called ab5 where they are pushing to unionize all the truck operators which would push a lot of independent operators who don't want to be in the union out of the ports. you've already got a trucker problem. now because -- in the 3.5 trillion bill which will get smaller, the reconciliation bill, when they say there will be more union jobs it includes these same kind of requirements. so you are squeengz out independent contractors in favor of union jobs they don't want. meaning you will have even less of an opportunity. meanwhile where is our transportation secretary going? he is back on the job finally heading to europe for a climate change conference as opposed to addressing what's going on now. >> harris: we'll goat that. -- we'll get to that. we are both parents. take your paternity leave but this transportation secretary didn't leave somebody we were familiar with at a lectern. the president was quick to make someone a port czar. not clear what that means. go take your paternity leave. we're in favor of being there for newborns. i'll confused about didn't he know the job was this big and you have to have a designated other? >> of course. and they knew it was coming, harris. remember when they said months ago we'll have challenges with christmas and all that. they knew it was coming. i also take a little bit of issue. you know what you are signing up for. i know you sign up for a job in the white house or job as a secretary that's a job you can't afford to take two or three months off. if you do, fine, whatever, it is his choice. legally totally his choice. you better have a pro-active plan to get ahead of what will be a huge life impacter for americans when they can't get their goods in realtime. and that's on him. >> harris: you have to have a staff and then give the staff some delegated responsibility. i don't know, seems basic. >> cut some red tape. >> harris: liz pique titled biden team off the u.n. climate summit at green energy policies fuel inflies at home. 13 cabinet members and senior white house officials head to glass could you. that's a lot of fire power. your thoughts. >> it is. this is a perfect example of what the biden administration and what democrats and defendantists like to do. big growing problems in our our country. they say those are necessary casualties in service of a bigger cause which is defeating the weather. controlling the climate. and they tell you that at the same time that, i don't know, communist chinese are building coal-fired power plants as record pace emitting more than they have. they want to squeeze our economy saying you can't build more pipelines. certain jobs are dirty and restrict what we can do economically. but they tell you when things get more expensive or you can't get your goods on time because we're obsessed with unionization as opposed to making ports more efficient deal with it. it is part of the world we live in. climate is more important than your quality of life. >> harris: i know they live in different lanes. there is a common denominator between the vaccination mandates that don't offer testing or want them to pay out-of-pocket and then don't have time on their shift to take the testing. i like en this to that in this way. it's not genuine negotiation. they are telling us what to do, but i don't know if they are living by what they are telling us to do and i also don't know if they understand we need options. your last thought. >> and they don't care because ultimately by going to that logical extent whether it's climate or whether it's covid vaccine mandates, they can virtue signal they've done everything they can and force you to do the same as opposed to trusting people to be earnest about their own health status and make their own choices. it is more difficult to put trust in people than it is to force them and then when they don't take the vaccine you were good, they were bad. you played the law enforcement officer signing off that's the experience we've now last. >> harris: they don't trust us i guess as parents to weigh in on that, either. how did they lose trust in us? when we take time off we have people who back us up. we have a plan. anyway, we could talk all day. pete hegseth, good to have you in "focus." biden facing backlash after he was pictured with the first lady ignoring washington, d.c.'s mask mandate and democrats have made their final push to secure the governor's race in virginia. a former mayor now wanting to be the -- governor to be the governor again, terry mccauliffe and company break out the star power to prevent a republican upset. can they prevent one? erty mutual so they only pay for what they need. woooooooooooooo... we are 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weeks until election day. many people say a republican win. terry mccauliffe has been governor before an wants to do it again. and his supporters are pulling out all the stops in the race against glen youngkin who has done well as the up-and-comer republican in this race after stacey abrams gave her support for mccaul i have this weekend, barack obama is set to speak at a rally on saturday. vice president kamala harris out with with this ad being played in more than 300 churches across the state. >> we were taught it was our sacred responsibility to raise our voice and lift up the voices of our community. i believe that my friend terry mccauliffe is the leader virginia needs at this moment. so please vote after today's service. >> harris: go to the border. headlines. virginia race looms at dark cloud over biden's agenda. virginia is for worriers. governor race poses real risk to dem agenda. power panel now. we welcome matt schlapp and a professor of education at johns hopkins university. matt, you are first. your take. >> well, there are two strikes against terry mccauliffe. first is history. virginians have a one-term governorship and it is hard to get elected again and buck history. when there is a democrat in the white house usually the other party wins in virginia save for one election, terry mccauliffe's last election. what we've seen in this race is a tight race for a month now. i think glen youngkin has a chance. >> harris: i have to break with news. secretary blinken is talking about the passing of colin powell. >> patriotism and decency and the state department loved him for it. secretary powell trusted the career workforce here and empowered them. he made sure that the desk officer who knew a particular country or issue most deeply was the one who got to brief him or the president. he told his staff that they didn't need to worry about getting fancy lunches, hamburgers and hot dogs were just fine. when he hopped onto the elevator he pulled others on with him. he didn't bother with formalities. he wasn't overly concerned with hierarchy, either. he wanted to hear from everyone. he walked around the building, dropping into officers unannounced, asking what people needed, making sure they knew he was counting on them. secretary powell was simply and completely, a leader and he knew how to build a strong and united team. he treated people the way he expected them to treat each other and made sure that they knew he would always have their back. the result was that his people would walk through walls for him. secretary powell's career in the u.s. military is legendary. as a teenager at the city college of new york not far from where he grew up in the south bronx he joined rotc and after graduation became an army officer. for 35 years, he was a professional soldier. he start evidence in the infantry, served two tours in vietnam, stationed in south korea and west germany and oversaw operation desert storm in iraq. when he retired from military he was the most respected and celebrated american in uniform. at that time he received his second presidential medal of freedom. this time from president clinton who said at the medal ceremony today the grateful nation observes the end of a distring wished career and celebrates 35 years of service and victory. a victory for the united states military that gave young colin powell a chance to learn, grow and lead. a victory for the military and political leaders who elevate him based on their confidence an respect. a victory for a nation well served and in a larger sense, a victory for the american dream. for the principle that in our nation people can rise as far as their talent, their capacities, dreams and discipline will carry them. after that career, colin powell could have enjoyed a quieter life dedicating himself to america's promise to help young people from under represented communities like the one where he grew up. instead he started a new career in diplomacy and i believe secretary powell's years as a soldier are what made him such an exceptional diplomat. he knew war and military action should always be a last resort and to make that so, we need our diplomacy to be as robust and well resourced as possible. he called for increased funding for states which then as now was just a fraction of the pentagon's budget. he modernized the state department putting a computer on every desk. and he believed deeply that america was an exceptional nation, that we could and should lead with confidence and humility and that the world was safer when the united states was engaged and its allies and partners reunited. future military leaders and diplomats will study his work like the powell doctrine that hammered out criteria for when and how the united states should use force and support for diplomacy. diplomats and military working together to bring stability to high-threat environments. he was a man of ideas but he wasn't ideological. he was constantly listening, learning, adapting. he could admit mistakes. it was just another example of his integrity. as is probably evident by now i was a huge admirer of secretary powells and i always will be and he was very generous with me. this past fourth of july we spent a few precious hours together talking about the state department, discussing all the challenges we're confronting around the world. two things were clear. secretary powell's depth of knowledge of world events was unmatched and he loved the state department and wanted it to thrive. so today is a sad day for us here at state. especially for all those who worked for and with secretary powell and will never forget the experience. our thoughts are with alma powell and the entire family today, to everyone who loved him. colin powell dedicated his life to public service because he never stopped believing in america. and we believe in america in no small part because it helped produce someone like colin powell. thank you, mr. secretary. >> harris: there you saw the secretary of state talking about serving with colin powell and what it meant not necessarily serving with him but what it meant for the nation to have his passing today and what we're all feeling today as a loss with a military icon. let's go to the current -- the former secretary of the v.a. under president trump robert wilke is back with "the faulkner focus" to get his ideas what he just heard and where we go forward now. secretary. >> well, thank you, harris. i certainly agree with everything that secretary blinken said but i want to emphasize the american dream portion of this. i heard general powell tell me one day when his parents got on the boat from jamaica they could have taken a right turn and gone to london or a left turn to gone to new york. if they had gone to london the best he imagin would have been a sergeant in a low-rank british regiment. turning left and going to new york city he fulfilled the american dream and gave inspiration to millions of americans. that and his restoration of the affection that the american people should always have for the military i think is his greatest legacy. >> harris: that's so beautiful and as well as you knew him, to know part of his personal story like that, it's not something that we often know about generals. but his form of leadership -- i remember my father serving under him at the joint chiefs of staff would share this when i was a little girl. i think i was eight. if you let people get to know you when you were commanding them and let them know that you wouldn't ask them to do a job you wouldn't do yourself first, when you let them know you are in it together it is amazing where you can lead them. >> the ultimate in servant leadership, harris. >> harris: your button on this as well. the world watches. it is a hot mess on some days and dangerous as we saw in afghanistan and our attempt to pull out of that nation after so much blood and treasure successfully and our troops did a great job but the decision left us with death. >> right. it did. it goes to another facet of this. we don't really have people in charge at the white house and at the state department -- i apologize for broaching on the political -- who have had the kind of experiences that would lend to decisions that create a successful mission but at the same time make sure that we do everything that we can to protect those americans who are on the ground doing the fighting. there is nobody of that stature who could walk into the oval office and say mr. president this is what you should do. >> harris: very honest and raw you always have. you stepped there because i asked you. i thank you for your service today in leadership and getting us through this time. our prayers always to colin powell's family. secretary, always good to see you. thank you. >> thank you. >> harris: and that's going to do it for "the faulkner focus". you can see that i'm already on the set of "outnumbered" as we had that breaking news. stay close. >> harris: just moments ago we heard from secretary of state anthony blinken remembering the life and legacy of general colin powell who died this morning at the age of 84 from covid-19 complications. general powell, the son of jamaican immigrants, rose through the ranks of the military and then went on to make history as the first chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and later as the first black and youngest secretary of state. you're watching "outnumbered." i'm harris