a stunning new take-away from president biden's really troublesome polling numbers that he's seen the past week or so. his approval has dropped faster than any president since world war ii according to gallup. this poll came out today. he's down 11 points since the beginning of his presidency. some of the slide have to do with the views on the economy and concerns about rising inflation, which we've seen in our fox polling, which is a major concern. the supply chain, something that has people concern about the american economy. that's where we start today. william la jeunesse is live at the port of los angeles with the very latest. hi, william. >> martha, you remember, it was ten days ago that president biden said he had good news about speeding products into the hands of americans. well, when you look out here and you talk to those involved in making that happen, they say it's a goal, but it's not a reality. the waters off the coast of basically long beach and los angeles, it's never been this busy and crowded. 109 ships are waiting just to come into port. half of them out here are at anchor and the other half are in a holding pattern up and down the coast waiting for their turn. some of these container ships are three football fields long, 50 yards wide. a long field goal. they can care are up up to 25,000 tons. that's like looking at every car in the parking lot on game day. this is the global supply chain coming to a halt. almost every ship is a container ship suggesting the 24/7 going to the ports is not solving the problem. truckers say it's not accurate. >> the ports are already open for two ships. you're already having ten hours on both shifts here. so the extra four or five hours that the ports are being open, i can't return an empty. they're only allowing containers to go out that are already on chassises, on wheels. that's the problem. >> it's all in the ports. they don't organize themselves the way to do it. they need better organization. >> so what is happening out here is reflected in the products that you see and the prices you pay. it's also slowing down the economy, especially hurting the time sensitive businesses. think about the guy selling artificial christmas trees that show up in january. experts say that insurance claims are also piling up. >> the impact is widespread. the spoilage that is occurring is where companies are losing money. they're not able to get products on the shelves in customers' hands. >> so cargo used to travel by crate and barrel and bag and right now everything that moves across the pacific and the atlantic is by container ship. while all of us would like to see more products made in america, this mode of travel for cargo has changed the world. experts say there's no silver bullet to solve the problem we have. back to you. >> martha: incredible. williams, thanks very much. bouncing around up there on the pacific ocean for us today. let's bring in joe concha for the hill and a fox news contributor and steve moore, former economic adviser to president trump. steve, speaking of unleashing prosperity, one of the things that struck me in this town hall appearance by the president last night is that there wasn't a lot of action related discussion. from an administration that is talking about expanding government and the role of government and the power of government to help people, what we saw really is a suggestion about the national guard that got pulled back today. let's watch what he said about calling in the national guard, which he could do. jen psaki's walk-back. let's play them together. >> would you consider the national guard to help with the supply chain issue? >> yes, absolutely. positively. i will do that. >> requesting the use of the national guard at the state level, which is often how it's done is under the purview of governors. we're not asking them to do that and we're not actively pursuing the use of the national guard on a federal level. it's something that any president would have the capacity to do, the authority to do. but it's not something under active consideration. >> martha: so why not is the question, steve? why not? that's the obvious next question. >> well, look, there's a lot of gaffes last night for sure. one of the biggest gaffes is when he asked about what are you going to do about gasoline prices, which is something that we're all feeling the pain at the pump. he held up his arms and said it's going to go away in maybe 2022. we're seeing in california now, some stations with $6 and $7 gallon gasoline. new york, where you are, martha, it's $5 a gallon. i predict that it's going to be probably within a month we'll have $5 a gallon gasoline across the country. you have problems with the grocery stores, not just the prices, but many stores that are now effectively running out of goods and services. in many places, your starting to see empty shelves. an example, a friend of mine went to wall mark to stock up on stuff. he said i've never seen it so crowded. people are just loading up because they're afraid of the shortages. this is i believe an economic crisis. i don't think that biden has a solution to it. it's not just the cargo ships, by the way. even if they can get the cargo off of the ships, we don't have the truck drivers to get the merchandise to the warehouses and to the stores. i just think biden is a sleep at the switch and inflation will get worse. >> martha: just from a communications and a polling standpoint, joe concha, last night was an opportunity. let's talk to the american people and tell them how we're going to fix the problems. as steve pointed out, meanwhile, i don't think there's anything that we can do to significantly affect gas prices and other things last night. can't and won't. >> what we're learning with this administration, don't judge them by the words. the value of the words is decreasing by the day. judge them by their actions what are you doing to fix the problems. the questions that need to be answered by buttigieg or the president, they're simple. how many ports in california, georgia and florida have you visited? how many trucking executives have you met with? who was acting secretary of transportation when buttigieg was on leave? who was running the show when this crisis was exploding? several organizations reporting there's 13 loads for every truck at the port of los angeles and long beach. you have the chief of the staff and ron klain calling it a high class problem because i guess rich people drive cars and purchase grass lean, which is up 40% to last year and fat cats buy groceries. groceries are up in the double digits. home heating costs will go up 50%. you think the low and middle class can absorb the problems? of course not. the white house press secretary said it it's about rich people not getting the treadmills for home gyms. the messaging is horrible and the actions are worse. >> the problem at the white house right now because as we're speaking, they're trying to negotiate this crazy $4 trillion spending bill. here's the problem. if you have an inflation problem, which we do and every american is feeling it every time they go to the grocery store and every time you go to buy anything, how in the world is printing $4 trillion of more money going to sow the problem? it's going to make it worse. joe, you made a really good point. this isn't just an issue of ideology. it's more that they don't have the competence -- there's nobody at the white house in my opinion that has the management experience, the business experience to deal with this kind of crisis. biden has to bring in somebody that knows something about business and management, a fred smith of fed ex, that knows how to deal with these crises. pete buttigieg is not up to the job. >> martha: yeah. i think rahm emanuel, never let a good crisis go to waste. a crisis is a leadership opportunity for any politician. right? to wrap your arms and it and say see what we did? we got the trucks moving. seems like they're taking a very lazy altitude to it and raises questions when you look at the polling numbers, why they're not trying something different at this point. thanks, gentlemen. great to see you both. >> thank you. >> martha: so we have breaking news in "the story" which is so awful and so disturbing. this alec baldwin situation. we're learning new details about what happened out there yesterday and the early morning hours today and the death of this woman on the right-hand side of your screen. a rising producer in hollywood who is dead. she leaves behind a husband and son. mark garagos digging into this situation. we'll see what happens when we come back. they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? 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[ sneezing ] needs, plop plop fizz fizz. alka seltzer plus cold relief. dissolves quickly. instantly ready to start working. so you can bounce back fast with alka-seltzer plus. now available for fast sinus relief. >> martha: actor alec baldwin says his heart is broken after he fired a prop gun on a movie set accidentally killing the producer and wounding the director who we understand is now out of the hospital. these photos are heart breaking were taken after the shooting yesterday on the set in new mexico. so how could this have happened? first to chief correspondent jonathan hunt who is investigating, looking into this story for us from california, from los angeles today. hi, jonathan. >> hi, martha. the santa fe district attorney and the local sheriff's office are now investigating the shooting after police rushed to the bonanza creek ranch in new mexico following this 911 call. the sheriff said 63-year-old alec baldwin fired a prop gun on the set of his new movie, "rust" killing halyna hutchins, the director of photography and injuring joel souza who is 48. alec baldwin said there's no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of halyna hutchins a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of hours. i'm fully cooperating with the police. the sheriff said "this investigation remains open and active. no charges have been filed in required to this incident. witnesses continue to be interviewed." the witnesses include baldwin himself who was distraught and in tears outside the sheriff's office yesterday. the shooting recalled a similar tragedy in 1993 when 28-year-old brandon lee, son of bruce lee was shot and kill with a prop gun. safety protocols since then should have prevented any accidental shooting. >> there's lots of checks in place. so for instance, with the lee incident, there was an obstruction of the barrel, which came out once the blank was put behind it. nowadays, all weapons, the barrel is checked before any blanks are put in the weapon. >> the santa fe district attorney says her office will look at the facts with discretion and that they don't know if charges will be filed. one other interesting point, martha a crew union e-mailed its members co to the industry publication saying that a live round was fired. that would raise all sorts of questions. obviously live round as opposed to blanks, which are usually used on movie sets shouldn't be anywhere near any kind of working set like this, martha. >> martha: yeah, we're just at the very beginning of understanding what happened on this set and that last statement that you made based on that report about a live round, potentially being involved in this, raise as ton of other questions. thanks, jonathan, very much from los angeles. let's bring in mark geragos, a trial lawyer, represented michael jackson, chris brown and scott peterson. he's the co-host of the reasonable doubt podcast. what was your reaction when you woke up and saw this story? what do you make of it? >> well, shocking actually. you would have thought and you mentioned in the package before that the brandon lee shooting many years ago, almost 20 years ago, you would have thought that all the protocols installed post that would have eliminated this. you know, i watched here the twilight zone prosecution, the brandon lee tragedy. if these reports are accurate, that there was a live round, which makes some sense because how else did this possibly happen, and you've got both the sheriff and the d.a.'s office investigating, it wouldn't surprise me if someone will be held accountable. i'm not suggesting mr. baldwin. but there's a chain of events that led up to this. somebody may be found culpable here. >> martha: i'm curious what you think about the investigation and the fact that he has been sending out these tweet messages saying it was an accident and all of that. you know, there's no reason to think that what he's saying in these tweets isn't exactly what happened. would you as an attorney advise him to speak out in this way at this point or not? >> well, you look at what happened in the brian laundrie situation where they were vilified publicly for not expressing any remorse and not cooperating and that ended in a tragedy. here look, i clearly -- unless there's some animus, there's nothing to suggest that. it clearly was an accident. just because it's an accident doesn't mean there's no criminal liability. there's a death. obviously there's a homicide. the question then becomes if there's no intent and there was no animus, the question is there a man slaughter here, is there an involuntary manslaughter here. not necessarily, as i said by mr. baldwin. did somebody that was in charge of the weapon have a live round in it when they shouldn't have had a live round in it? that -- those are the questions that they'll be asking, the sheriff and the da's office will be drilling down as to how in the world this could have happened and injured another person on top of it. so by the way, it also at least preliminarily didn't involve another actor. it's not like it was in the middle of the shooting, the shooting of the film. no very good point. yes. and they have to reconstruct where every person on the set was standing at the point that this happened. right now they're asking everyone of them all of these conditionses to recount exactly what they saw from their vantage point when this happened. so as i said, this is just such a shocking, shocking story. halyna hutchins, our heart goes out to her husband and child and the career -- she was gaining so much recognition for her work, a tremendous loss to all of those in her family and those in the industry as well. thanks very much, mark. we'll stay on this with your help. >> thank you. >> martha: so we have two exclusive interviews coming up for you in this hour. the first is with republican lawmaker james colmer. he received a letter from the nih that is getting a lot of focus and bringing this moment back up for questioning. >> we did not fund gain of function research. >> martha: and dr. brett giroir responds on how the vaccine roll-out happened. as i observee risk and reward, i see one element securing portfolios, time after time. gold. your strategic advantage. when you're looking for answers, it's good to have help. because the right information, at the right time, may make all the difference. at humana, we know that's especially true when you're looking for a medicare supplement insurance plan. that's why we're offering "seven things every medicare supplement should have." it's yours, free! just for calling the number on your screen. and when you call, a knowledgeable licensed agent-producer can answer any questions you have, and help you choose the plan that's right for you. the call is free, and there's no obligation. you see, medicare covers only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. that's why so many people purchase medicare supplement insurance plans, like those offered by humana. they're designed to help you save money, and pay some of the costs medicare doesn't. depending on the medicare supplement plan you select, you could have no deductibles or copayments for doctor visits, hospital stays, emergency care and more! you can keep the doctors you have now, ones you know and trust, with no referrals needed. plus, you can get medical care anywhere in the country, even when you're traveling. with humana, you get a competitive monthly premium and personalized service from a healthcare partner working to make healthcare simpler and easier for you. you can choose from a wide range of standardized plans. each one is designed to work seamlessly with medicare, and help save you money. so, how do you find the plan that's right for you? 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>> of course it matters. he politicizes the vaccines and wonders why people can't distinguish between a public health fact and a political talking point. he said two million. there were over 20 million given by them. 1.6 million that day received the vaccines, which had exceeded by 60% his goal for the next 100 days. we procured 900 million doses and i personally signed the guidance that enabled every farm six, every pharmacy tech and internal and every emt in this country to provide shots. his facts are not facts and he knows it by now. >> martha: when he said i went out and bought everything in sight and it worked, that doesn't hold up under what you just said. >> no. >> martha: the prior, the trump administration, you guys bought everything you could. >> of course we did. we had 900 million procured. we had an option contract for an additional two billion. that means all the contracts were there. it was the government's option. all they had to do is push the button. he did push them but that was good. but because it was of the trump administration and azor and operation warp speed. >> martha: it would be great if everybody could give each other credit across this board. that might be helpful in bringing people together. the delta plus variant before i let you go, what do we know about this variant and do you believe a third shot will be effective against this delta plus new variant? >> we're very early in the delta plus understanding. we need to be humble about that. right now it is only a minor player in the united states. so it is not a major player here right now. secondly it looks like our vaccines will still have coverage around that. i don't believe right now given the data that we have on delta plus, there's any difference in recommendation. if you're eligible to get a booster and recommended to do that, you should do that. as of now we believe the vaccines can cover that. let's be humble, let's do the research and let's follow it carefully. >> martha: yeah. absolutely. dr. giroir, thank you very much. good to see you today. so coming up, we have a new warning that is coming out from the intelligence community and ranks communist china as the number 1 competitor to the united states. they're citing their use of technology to achieve global dominance over our healthcare system and other frightening things that come up with regard to what the pentagon software chief knows and he resigned his post because he doesn't feel the united states is doing what it needs to do, the defense department, in order to company with china. he's fed up and joins us next. e, i appreciate that liberty mutual knows everyone's unique. that's why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. 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"china's ambitions in artificial intelligence and a range of advanced technologies that could give beijing a decisive military edge and possible dominance over healthcare and other essential sectors in america." nicholas joins me now. he resigned from the air fort in protest over the department defense's lack of action to do what he sees needs to be done to best china when it comes to a.i. he says it's a thread to the united states. a.i. is the foundation of all future warfare. nicholas, thanks very much. welcome back. good to have you with us today. so i wonder what you make of this, this report that comes out. it says from our intelligence folks, we're concerned. we see a lot of stuff going on here with chinese businesses and the interaction that they have with their defense department. so we're not telling you not to do business in china. we're just telling you you ought to be very careful and basically if they get into all of your private research and all of your intelligence, don't blame us. >> yeah, absolutely. it's much worse than this. china is very good at bringing companies from the united states in to china for a period of time, mostly to steal the i.p. and the technology and insights so they can copy it and creating the local version of it. we've seen it again and again with google and other companies. when we take a step back and look at how bad this gets, you can see china announcing they'll have 70% of all the chips made in china will be made locally in china and completely controlling the supply chain of chips and the artificial intelligence competence that tie back to the supply chain as well. >> martha: so you say having a disadvantage in artificial intelligence for the united states is a threat. if we don't win this, there's no potential future for our kids. explain that. >> yeah, absolutely. when you look at the speed of a.i. and what that leads to, which is really improving the way everything -- how everything works and effectively what you see is this massive adoption of artificial intelligence all around us to the point that weapons now are controlled by a.i. when you see the tasks that we've done in d.o.d. where every single time the jets flown by a.i. manage to always beat the u.s. best fighter pilots. there's just no way for the human brain to comprehend all of that data gathering and all the da that we see now when you have a nation with 1.5 billion people that gather all of this data points to come to conclusion that even us cannot even understand. >> martha: so when you -- you resigned in protest. i know you were trying to speak what you say as truth to power. you felt like nobody was listening in the agencies in the u.s. government and how dire this, how pressing this is. when you saw the report that not one but two chinese hypersonic missiles were launched, that circumvented the globe, went in an unusual pattern over the south pole that would evade radar capabilities that the united states has to enter the united states in a way that we don't have a lot of eyes on, i bet you were not all that surprised. >> no, exactly -- that's the threat that we're facing. it's always interesting to see that the pentagon officials are always surprised by these events where it's honestly common sense. the only way to prevent and stop these attacks will be to leverage best of breed, artificial intelligence capabilities that can react to the movements of these devices effectively able to practically and even reactively move to avoid a collision, which effectively is how we would stop them. so that demonstrates the importance of the a.i. capabilities also of defending ourselves. when you see u.s. companies refusing to partner with us and stopping contracts with google did three years ago effectively is not just about offensive capabilities, but also defensive as well. >> martha: i know you believe we need to completely decouple all ties with businesses and china. i point out on the way out here that jen psaki was asked at the white house whether there's any change in our approach to too taiwan issue with the continuing aggression. she said there's no shift in policy, no change in policy where that is concerned. i hope you come back as we stay on this story. thanks very much, nicholas. good to have you with us today. >> thanks for having me. >> martha: shoe a story exclusive coming up next is a member of congress who got a letter, got his hands on a letter from the nih which he says proves that the united states taxpayers did pay for gain of function research in wuhan. he will lay that out next. >> nih and niaad categorically has not funded gain of function research. again, we have not funded gain of function research. i don't know how many times i can say it, madam chair. we did not fund gain of function research. >> martha: okay. the nih says u.s. tax dollars paid for limited experiments with bat viruses and humanized mice that were infected with this tweaked virus did in fact become sicker than those given the unmodified virus. so what do you think that sounds like? the letter says the bat coronaviruses used in the experiment are decades removed from what we know as the corona 19 virus. members on the house oversight committee says this directly contradicts dr. fauci's previous denials. in a moment, the ranking member, james comer joins us. first, jonathan serrie. >> the national institutes of health has ordered one of its grant recipients, a nonprofit called eco health alliance to submit any unpublished data regarding experiments that eco health funded at a laboratory in wuhan, china. in that experiment in question, lab might mod fight to mimic the human immune system became sicker when exposed to a certain virus pound in bats. the nih says this was an unexpected result, not something the researchers sat out to do. senator rand paul and other critics insist this amounts to gain of function research where you genetically enhance an organism. nih officials say it's not. either way, it raises questions about activities at the lab. >> the real question in my mind is not whether it was or wasn't gain of function. it's what was it. what was funded, what was happening in the wuhan lab. that's what we need to get to the bottom of. >> the nih issued a statement explaining the naturally occurring bat coronaviruses studied under the nih grant are genetically far distant from sars covid 2 and could not have caused a pandemic. any claims to the contrary and false. and the research that is being investigated right now is unrelated to covid-19, the chinese government has been so uncooperative with investigators trying to trace the origins of the covid-19 pandemic that federal researchers say they cannot rule out the possibility that the pandemic started as a lab leak until the chinese demonstrate more transparency. martha? >> martha: jonathan serrie, thank you very much. let's bring in ranking member on the house oversight committee, republican james comer from kentucky. he says this letter from the nih proves that american tax dollars were used to fund gain of function research in the wuhan lab. congressman, good to have you with us. thanks for being here today. i understand in jonathan's reporting what the nih is saying that this particular research, they do not believe, is the actual covid-19 virus that was amped up. however, i would just draw people's attention to things that the nih didn't say what they were. case in point, this montage from what we were told previously. >> this question about the the wuhan lab, it's been debunked that the virus was manmade or modified or anything like that. >> agencies have been tabbed with investigating one of trump world's most favorite conspiracy theories. >> very, very strongly leaning towards this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated. >> martha: you know, i don't know how at this point, we've been told so many different things that don't turn out to be true, representative. what is your take on what you read in this letter? >> the nih confirmed that eco health alliance and wuhan lab used american taxpayer dollars to do gain of function research. they can call it something else, but it's gain of function research. it also proves that eco health alliance violated the terms of that grant by doing the risky gain of function experiment. you're not supposed to take a virus and use american taxpayer dollars and create a mad science where you genetically alter that virus to makes it worse. that's illegal and violates the terms of the grant. it proves that the nih knew all along what was going on in the wuhan lab and misled congress at best or lied at worst. >> martha: we heard this sort of pile-on of people from the nih, dr. fauci, dr. collins saying, no, no, no, this didn't come from a lab. everything points to a zoo origin. now they're saying we think it did come from the lab. we need to be open to that possibility at least is what they have said on this. you know, so it just raises all kinds of questions about -- i guess one of the things that strikes me is peter daszek. so are they pointing the finger at him and saying it's his fault, you know, he's the guy that funded this research. we never should have given him any money. so are we going to hear some testimony or investigation of peter daszek, the head of eco health alliance? >> we've been looking into him all along. he won't response to correspondence or requests for information. at the end of the day, the nih is supposed to administer these grants and ensure that the grants are being used properly. they have known all along that there was risky experiments being conducted in that lab with american tax dollars. it would have been nice 1 1/2 years ago when this first came out if they had been transparent with the american public and our health community about what was going on in that lab, we might could have gotten the virus sooner around we might could have saved a few hundred thousand lives that were lost because of this bad experiment that went wrong. >> martha: representative comer, thank you, this is a big story and we need to stay on it and make sure that no other american tax dollars are going to this lab. there's a big question mark as to why we would have ever engaged in there kind of research with this chinese lab in the first place. thanks very much. >> thanks for having me on. >> martha: all right. coming up, john durham's investigation into the russia probe origins is "still in action." that according to a.g. merrick garland when he testified before congress. he didn't know that congress had sent him a letter raising concerns about hunter biden's art sale. that was news to the a.g. >> i just received the letter today and we'll take it under advisement. i wasn't aware that you sent me a letter. >> 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 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reported a couple days ago. there's been 1.7 million migrant encounters at the southwest border in the fiscal year of 2021. those are the highest numbers we've seen in 25 or 30 years. so just an astounding number of interactions at the border of people crossing and interacting with our border patrol. so that is obviously a big story to watch and something on the minds of americans across the country. meantime, special counsel john durham is continuing his investigation. that according to attorney general merrick garland. he told the house judiciary committee said you would know if durham were done investigating the origins of the fbi's look into president trump and russia. last month durham got an indictment against former clinton campaign lawyer michael susman. he pleaded not guilty to lying to the fbi when he passed on a tip about a possible connection with the trump organization and a russian bank. a two-year russia collusion investigation followed and went nowhere. the question is why was he passing along that information and to whom and what understanding did they have any understanding of why he did that. susman says a subpoena to his law form showing that he's not done. let's bring in former acting attorney general matt whisker. what did you think of that moment and what can you tell us about your understanding where this stands and where it's going? >> well, it's very clear the investigation by john durham is still going on and trying to get to the origins of the russian collusion hoax. ultimately the question is how much resources is john durham being given by the department of justice. somehow merrick garland mentioned that there was a budget approved for this fiscal year, which we just started on in the beginning of the month. that it's adequate to accomplish what durham's investigation could accomplish. you know, we don't flow what the numbers are yet and i'm sure there's some smart reporters trying to get to the bottom of how much money durham had to complete his investigation. >> martha: do you have any indication that the durham folks don't have the resources to do the job? >> i don't. but having sat in that chair, i know that each answer is very carefully crafted. so i was watching very carefully that comment and suggested there might be a dispute as to his budget for the fiscal year. >> martha: very interesting. one quick item in the last minute i have with you. congressman ken buck wants a special counsel to hunter biden because of the e-mails that have surfaced that show there might have been money that he was making for foreign sources that might have crossed over to joe biden's hands at some point. that is the question. what do you see here and do you think that there should be a special counsel and would we ever see one? >> i would say generally merrick garland struck me as someone that wasn't intellectual liqueur use about the issueses of corruption with the biden administration. whether it's that issue, hunter biden's artwork. each area that he seemed uninterested in actually doing his job and being independent and making sure this administration is free of corruption. there's an opportunity for a special counsel in these areas. >> martha: we'll be watching that. thank you very much. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> martha: so that is "the story" of this friday, october 22, 2021. the story keeps going and going. we'll see you back here monday. have a wonderful weekend, everybody. stay tuned, a lot of breaking news this afternoon as "your world" gets started right now. >> charles: deal or in deal. senator sanders and manchin go at it over the price of the bill. sanders saying it should be $6 trillion and manchin responding how about zero? i'm charles payne in for neil cavuto and this is "your world." let's zero in with peter doocy at the white house. peter? >> charles, around here we just heard from the press secreta