protected. >> as critics of remote learning pushback, the children come first, not last. they have been a very neglected group over the last few years. we will ask miguel how the administration plans to keep kids in school. >> it is not enough. it is clearly not enough. >> facing backlash over being behind the ball and covid testing. >> my message to the government is simple. we will discuss with arkansas governor chair of the chair association only on fox news sunday. then one year ago this week, the storming of the u.s. capital that sent lawmakers scrambling in a quest for answers amid growing political division. we will discuss the mission to keep democracy secure with the capitol police chief and ask our sunday panel whether the partisan divide can heal and the country moves into a new year. all right now on fox news sunday. ♪♪ hello again from fox news and happy new year. we begin with breaking news out of colorado where hundreds of people are starting the new year and devastation. three people missing after a late season wildfire are several suburban northwest towns near denver. nearly 1000 homes and other buildings destroyed and less than what 24 hours. rushing out into a smoky store parking lot. one woman recording the moment she fled. >> okay. guess i am a little scared. this happened in five minutes. >> several inches of snow and freezing temperatures adding to the misery as residents try to pick up the pieces. >> it feels so surreal to see your home just not there anymore >> stay with fox news channel in your local fox nation for continuing coverage of breaking news. students across the country are returning from winter break. many doing so virtually after school closures amid the covid search. we continue to see a crunch on rapid test. health officials are shifting guidance on how long to quarantine. the school closures are particularly tough blow to families and children hoping for normalcy this year. in a moment, we will discuss with education secretary. first, let's turn to rich edson traveling with the president in wilmington for a look at the latest on the biden administration's response. rich. >> the holiday season is ending. americans in the white house are returning to work in school. uncertainty about what comes next. >> be on the omicron variant, as you know, it is spreading like wildfire. >> the center for disease control says the delta variant is still infecting a significant number of americans. on tuesday the cdc reported omicron made up 59% of all cases. lower than expected. the agency also cut its recommended isolation time for those with the virus. ten days until five as long as they have no symptoms. this latest search has led to staff shortages across the economy. cdc officials also advised americans to avoid cruise ships even if they are vaccinated. scientists say they are getting a better understanding of omicron. early studies in rodents show omicron lead to less serious infections because it largely stays in the throat and airway. mostly avoiding the lungs. the surge and affections led to long lines of americans waiting for covid test. the white house should have moved to expand testing months ago. now the administration is trying to buy 500 million at-home test to begin sending to americans free sometime this month. >> we expect the contract to be completed sometime late next week. >> a patchwork of school policies across the country. a chicago teachers union is demanding more testing and has told members to prepare for action if their concerns are ignored. washington, d.c. is requiring all students and staff to test negative before returning from break. >> any student that does not have their result uploaded by january 4 will not be allowed to attend school on january 5. >> some school districts have already moved to remote learning the white house pushes test to stay. students are exposed to the virus, they can avoid quarantining and staying in the classroom as they continue to test negative. >> rich edson traveling with the president. thank you. joining us now is education secretary. welcome to fox news sunday. >> thank you. happy new year. >> happy new year to you as well, sir. in person learning. the cdc recently announced that students exposed to the virus can safely continue in person learning so long as they are regularly tested for the virus. according to a firm that tracks the school closures, the closures are really taking backup. already more than 2100 schools planned to be closed in the coming week. mr. secretary, where we had it exactly? >> you know, we have been very clear. we remember the impact. we have better tools. we have $10 billion in the american rescue plan for surveillance testing. vaccinations are available for those five and up. there may be some bumps in the road when superintendents while working really hard across the country are getting a call to say some of their schools may have some of their staff not available. very short-term or emergency closures are most likely based off of staffing issues and other safety issues when you don't have adequate staff. they have suffered enough. >> you mentioned bumps in the road. those that plan to remain open, larger school districts have announced strategies centered around testing. to stay ahead of the spread and keep in learning. mr. secretary, how practical in your s nation is your approach when there is a nationwide federal distribution really up in the air. and new research now showing that it is questioning the reliability of detecting the omicron by the widely used rapid test. how do you square that, sir. >> you know, we know that testing is a part of overall strategy that should be used to keep our schools open. vaccination efforts are also big part of that strategy. we have seen them work. as schools come in, they should be thinking about a testing strategy to make sure students are having symptoms, they should be tested in school. keeping in school is critical for them, our families, our parents. it's important that that is put in place, but they are not done in isolation. mitigation strategy that we know work are also part of the strategy. >> what about the school's ability to carry out these prescriptions, these strategies that you talk about. we have seen the enormous strain in terms of staffing shortages. randi weingarten said i am concerned about lots of districts do not have the infrastructure for testing and test tuesday. it will be really, really bumpy. frustrations are high and grace is in short supply, sir. >> there is a level of urgency that we should not lose. making sure our children learn in person. the impact of remote learning is very real for us parents who have had to experience it at home as well. we need to do everything in our power which includes getting access to those tests. thanks to groups like the rockefeller foundation, contracts were set up early for school staff surveillance testing regularly done in their schools. we see more and more of that happening. these systems are robust so that our students can stay in the classrooms. >> are you saying that the road will not be as bumpy as randi weingarten said it is? >> i have been doing this since march 2020. it is really important that we continue to work together. i do think that there will be bumps in the road. superintendents today are receiving calls from those expecting to be in the classroom tomorrow. let's keep our children in the classroom. that should be our default. we need to work together to solve them. >> i want to run some numbers by you. an increase of 50% in new pediatric covid cases. only 23% of five-11 -year-olds have received one dose of vaccine. are you confident that they are the best effort for in-person learning. have a plan b for staffing shortages, more and more of their students home. >> we learned that educators were able to turn on a dime when the pandemic first came. we went to remote learning across the country. it was not ideal. the goal, remains to stay focused on in-person learning. not only for students academic needs, but their social economic needs. we have to do everything possible to keep them. obviously, short-term emergency closures are necessary, schools should have the tools because they have the resources the thet you talk about plan b. one school district has already had to modify plans for students 12 years and older. pulling back its mandate at the last minute. questioning and unintended consequence. unvaccinated students would be moved back into distance learning. the district offended the turnabout as necessary because i did not have a plan b to stand up remote learning infrastructure at the last minute. what do you think about that, sir? >> you know, vaccination decisions need to be made at the local and state level. over the last year and a half, those places where vaccination numbers are hi, there is less disruption. there are less students in the hospital. you take something vaccination clinics across the country, we need to protect our students. at the end of the day, we want all of our students in the classroom, but we want to do it safely. >> the brookings institution which has surveyed parents for time since the pandemic. parental concerns about their children's well-being has began to ease during the summer. began to ease when 93% of students were in person school. brookings wrote the following quoting here, this evidence suggests that the relevant normalcy of in-person learning this year may be driving reduce parental concerns. as you know, closures and school curricula became hot button topics. former education secretary bill bennett said this in an interview with fox this week. watch. >> the american people are saying we are not taking this anymore. we do not believe you. >> mr. secretary, how do you respond to that? >> you know, in my travels across the country in the last eight or nine months, they want their children in school, they want their children safe and they want to be heard. trying to balance work and educating their children. this needs to continue. i want to see it elevated. as we move forward past the pandemic. it is important that we work together to make sure children are in the classroom and that they are safe. >> and parents have been juggling. secretary, thank you for coming on. happy new year. >> happy new year. take care. thank you. >> balancing the federal response in the rural states play in the fight against covid. president biden saying there is still work to do in his meeting with governors across the country. we will discuss with the head of the national governors the national governors association next. i always wanted to know more about my grandfather. he...was a hardworking man who came to new york from puerto rico when he was 17. with ancestry, being able to put the pieces of the puzzle together... ...it's amazing. it's honestly amazing. this is elodia. she's a recording artist. being able to put the pieces of the puzzle together... 1 of 10 million people that comcast has connected to affordable internet in the last 10 years. and this is emmanuel, a future recording artist, and one of the millions of students we're connecting throughout the next 10. through projectup, comcast is committing $1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities. governors had been on the front lines in the fight against covid many met with president biden between state-level solutions and federal resources. joining us now from arkansas, chair of the national governors association. governor, welcome back to fox news nation. happy new year to you. >> happy new year to you as well. >> on thursday you told the people of arkansas that your state has adopted the new guidelines on what precautions someone with a positive covid test should take where someone is exposed to covid. i understand the goal is to minimize the disruption we have previously seen when waves of new cases cause people to isolate from society. are you concerned about the can fusion that it has created or the criticism from some experts about the isolation and quarantine and the fact that you don't have to have a negative test before getting out of isolation. what do you think? >> i think it was important that cdc revised the guidelines. a recognition that we have to be able to manage our way through this virus. we have to get people to work. supply shortages, staff shortages. really doing a great deal of harm as well. i think that they use science. they overlaid it with practicality. i applaud them for that change. i do think that there is some confusion out there. you have one set of rules for healthcare workers, you have another for those in the school systems and now you have one for the general public. i would like to see some harmonization of those because there's a lot of information out there that we need to simplify more for the public. >> states going away from those guidelines altogether. on your call earlier, you raise your concern that the federal plan not step on state efforts to get test to their people. critics hammered the president for part of his response. watch this. i will get your response. >> as you look towards federal solutions that will help alleviate the challenge, make sure that we do not let federal solutions stand in the way of state solutions. >> there is no solution. it gets solved state-level. >> that created some big headlines. the president then tweeted this response to his critics. the back of every governor fighting covid-19 in their state. i rolled out a plan to tackle omicron. hospital equipment, staff and more. we will get through this by working together. governor, what did you take the president to mean? in general, do you believe that there is a robust role for the press federal government to play here? >> what the federal government does well, it can use the defense production act and maximize production of testing, of vaccines. they use that very successfully with states that they do not have. what the states do well is the distribution. we have to have flexibility in that. whenever you look at 500 million tasks, that slide, i would encourage the administration to utilize the state and distributing those 500 million tasks. we could do it more efficiently. we have to have flexibility to do it. if you do not do it that way, then you will be in competition. distributing it by a website, personal calls. there is a point of disagreement there. this administration does back us up. we need to have the flexibility and i courage to give the states and flexibility to manage that distribution. >> no federal solution. what did you take that to mean? >> well it is a little bit ironic. wherever you see the federal mandates on vaccinations, they have utilized federal power rather extensively. that is one of the things we are in litigation about. it is a little bit inconsistent. i take it as a good faith statement -- we cannot do it by the federal government alone. the president is absolutely right. he has relied upon the states to get it done. give us a greater deal of flexibility in terms of how to manage and don't use the federal authority to take that away from us. >> it is interesting. we look at this whole thing, governor, and you thanked the president for his efforts to depoliticize the covid response adding that it was helpful. how harmful do you think politicized agent has been in fighting covid? >> i point to the explanation that you are reluctant of imposing a vaccine mandate. you don't want to harden the resistance. what role has pandemic politics played in all of that? >> too much. over the last year, people have been frustrated. we have been divided. it really is refreshing. i believe that there is a uniformity of opinion by our leaders that vaccinations are critical to get us through this. the unified message is absolutely essential. so i complimented the president on that. whenever you have this, we need to increase our vaccination rate every message out to be consistent with the importance of that and to demystify and to take away the political side of this wage and. that is how we get to it working together. >> you engaged in a debate of sorts within new york city bill de blasio last month aware, as i said, you argued against imposing vaccine mandates. hardening the resistance. you held out that vaccination as an important tool in defeating covid just as you said. you even embarked in a state wide to convince your constituents. what do you think, sir, can be done and what do you owe this hard fast reluctance to? >> well, there is a lack of trust in the development of it. i think now we have greater confidence. whenever you have emergency use authorization, that causes some concern. we have greater experience as we see the threat of omicron. there is a greater consensus now than ever before that vaccinations are important. we have to continue to be consistent in it. the secretary of education says vaccinations have historically always been local and state driven. that is the point. at some point down the road, states can make decisions. local governments can make decisions. it is never been at the federal government level. that also has increased the distrust, the reservation, it has hardened the resistance. we are in agreement on those shutdowns. agreement on the federal state partnership, the federal mandates on vaccinations is inconsistent with that plan. >> we should know that in arkansas judge on wednesday struck down the state's ban on math mandates by schools and other government entities. you praised his ruling having said that you regretted signing that band back into law in april. you explained in an august interview. later having to adjust to the new facts. when pressed about a recent interview you said i do not think with what we have given with covid that we can rule out anything down the road. what metric are you watching? >> in terms of masked mandates, we don't have anything statewide we are not doing that. local school districts historically, they need to be able to protect their children in the school. they ought to be able to make those decisions and that is what the judge's ruling said and that is what i support. right now, i oppose any vaccine mandate. having greater experience and the use of it, we do not know what is down the road. maybe, maybe not. whatever decisions are made, it should be done at the state and local level in terms of education, in terms of what we need. hopefully it is the end of this. it goes through very quickly in january and we will get back to normal. we don't know what the future holds. we can look at solutions that are consistent with science and what the public can accept. >> what would change our minds. your state ranks 45th with just over half, 51.2%. you see it on the screen. hospitals in arkansas now bracing with a wave of new cases. 310% over the past four teen days. what is the likelihood that facts are rising from this wave of new cases. they may convince you to back a vaccine mandate. >> i do not see that anytime soon. i believe that we will increase vaccination rates. if you look at the future, if our hospitals are overrun, if they continue to show the safety of the vaccine and if there is greater public acceptance, then you can look at requiring it in the schools as need be. the other thing is, there always has to be the right exceptions for religious convictions. if vaccines are not acceptable. that is a current law in arkansas and that should continue to be the case. >> very good site, governor. best of luck to you in your state. thank you for coming on fox news sunday. >> thank you. great to be with you, trace. >> speaking with the new capital police chief about the lessons learned and security going forward one year since the mob stormed the capital thursday marks one year since a violet breached barricades and stormed into the u.s. capital as lawmakers met in u.s. session. this week president biden will make remarks and speaker pelosi has invited historians to speak on capitol hill and will hold a moment of silence. former president trump will hold a press conference. in a moment we will discuss changes made to security since that day with u.s. capital police chief. first, fox news correspondent with a look at the unprecedented events of january 6 and the fallout. >> the images were breathtaking. barriers broken down and the capital breached. while lawmakers gather inside to count and certify the electoral college votes. >> counting the votes of the electors. >> they had gathered near the white house to rally. >> we will walk down and i will be there with you. we will walk down through the capital. >> protesters headed that way. >> a very evolving situation. >> some hoping to stop vice president vice pens were making joe biden when official. the result, chaos. >> they are walking down the capital complexes. >> the mob was now inside the building. >> people are now just walking through the capital. taking shelter and fearing for their lives as the situation turned deadly. >> i heard on the radio shot fired. >> tweeting to remain peaceful. president-elect biden pressed trump to stop the mob. >> everyone knows it was a landside election. >> trump tweeted again by video. >> we have to have peace. >> national guard stroop secured the building. >> senate will come to order. >> the united states senate will not be intimidated. >> the election was certified. >> the state of delaware has received 306 votes. >> in the end, nearly 700 people were charged and for the first time in u.s. history, a president was impeached and acquitted for a second time. >> i can never again allow democracy to be put in peril. >> those that defended lawmakers called for justice. the capital police chief resigned in house beaker nancy pelosi launched a committee to investigate the events appointing to republicans both trump critics. >> this is not about partisanship. this is about our duty as americans. they struggled to get staffers to cooperate. steve bannon now charged with contempt. the democrat-controlled house recommended the same for former chief of staff mark meadows. still, the committee plans to issue an interim report by the summer. a final report by november just before midterm. today, the fence around the capital is gone and while capital police received your money to out officers and the authority to call in the national guard, it has only implemented about one order of the 100 for recommendations to keep the ground safe. safe from the idea that history would never repeat itself. >> joining us now is a new chief thomas manger. welcome to fox news sunday. happy new year to you, sir. >> thank you. happy new year to you. >> you are not in charge of the department on january 6. put in place to leave the capital police in july. we ask these questions and got a reference to your 42 years of police experience including the police chief for over a decade. what strikes you about the immensity of this task before you? >> the advantage i have coming in is the fact that there been so many inspector general reports, other oversight reports that i've listed recommendations about what needed to be done to improve the capital police to fix the failures that occurred on january 6. i have the advantage of coming in with over 100 recommendations that i can look at and say these are the things that we need to implement. >> we talk about the challenges. two of the big challenges facing your department. likely due at least in part to the january 6 events are more than doubling threats against violence and lawmakers. an increase in departures among your officers. what are some of the measures, chief, that are being taken to address this? >> i think that the threats against congress, they have just increased exponentially over the years. so, we have had to really shift the focus of just doing the typical jobs that we would do normally and put more resources towards investigating those complaints, ensuring that members of congress are safe. not only at the capital, but when they are traveling in with their home districts as well. it really is the biggest problem that we face today. when we look at the events and we saw the operational planning failed, those things have been addressed. they have been largely fixed at this point. one thing that we have not been able to fix, so to speak, are the staffing issues. we lost over 130 officers that have left their retirements or resignations after january 6. the prior year in 2020, the national federal law enforcement training academy was shut down for 10 months because of covid. between not being able to put any classes through the prior year with the way it's been the past year, we are really about 400 officers short of where we need to be. that is a -- that is a pretty critical issue for us. >> asking more for contract. can you give us a status on that, chief? >> we are moving forward with that. we have to breach the oversight committees on exactly what that means. we have identified posts where we believe we do not need sworn capital police officers, whether they are in a barrage or something like that where people have already been checked before they have gotten to that point. so, we think that if we are able to contract security guards at some of those posts, that will free up a number of sworn police officers. >> we have a plan for this fiscal year to put over 280 police officers through the academy and hopefully get through. >> talking about immediate help. citing a piece of legislation that will allow to request assistance from the d.c. national guard or federal law enforced an agent these in the event of an emergent see instead of having to go through the police. what kind of difference would that made on january 6 if that authority had already existed the markets crucial. you have an emergency situation and you need to be able to request those resources and get them as quickly as possible. typically when we are planning for different events, we know ahead of time if we will need additional assistance. that is one of the improvements we have made since january 6. our planning is much more well-thought-out. we can make sure that we are contacting this ahead of time. the fact that we have the authority to call out the national guard, the fact we have formal processes in place to get additional resources from law enforcement agencies is a big improvement. we believe that it would've prevented something like januar. >> you are not leading the capital police the day of the attack on the capital. as a citizen, as a member of law enforcement, what went through your mind as you watch the events on hold that day. how does that shape your mission to lead this going forward? >> i was watching the events on the sixth. very emotional day. just angry, horrified by the assaults that were going on against police officers there. it was the first time, i'd only been retired a short period. i wish that i was not retired. i thought to myself, i have been involved in this where we helped each other, we had gotten together on big events to support one another to make sure that we had adequate staffing to handle whatever happens. i want to do what i can to help. it was my motivation for expressing interest in the police chief here at the capital. i am very motivated to get the department to where it needs to be. we have made a great deal progress already. there is still a great deal of work to be done. >> you have had a great career. a lot of people that are very glad you are back in the mix. thank you for coming on, sir. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> marking january 6 in the return of the senate and the supreme court hearing challenges to bidens vaccine mandates. we will bring in our sunday group to take a look at the busy week ahead next. when you have xfinity, you have entertainment built in. which is kind of nice. ah, what is happening. binge-watching is in the bag, when you find all your apps, all in one place. find live sports faster just by using your voice... sports on now. touchdown irish! [cheering] that was awesome. and, the hits won't quit, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. all that entertainment built in. xfinity. a way better way to watch. and i hope the covid duration will get better and better thematic happiness, good health. that is it. the met pandemic wary americans expressing their wishes for return to normalcy. two years since the arrival of covid in this country. time now for our sunday group. jason riley of the wall street journal. welcome to all of you. these are the big headlines all week. the white house racing to meet its own deadlines to meet half a billion free at home tested to build the website where people can request those tests. this could deplete the supply of test. how well is the administration volunteering state and federal needs? >> the shortage of at-home test is a spectacular miss calculation by the biden administration. you don't wait until a house is burning to order the firefighting equipment. it seems to me that we will not even see the first of these tests. we won't see them until later this month. if this had happened under trump, the pundits would be shouting they are not following the signs when it comes to the cdc. lurching to a five day quarantine. at the same time, we are in this bottom up shutdown. by the fact that they are so many affected workers. when we hear there are a half million new cases reported every day, that is actually in undercount. they have no way of tracking the tests that exist. some journalists and scientists are saying that we should just stop. there is no point to it. that would be a new year's gift for joe biden have in the excessive daily focus on these numbers. >> several doctors are saying forget about the case count and let's focus on severe illness and totality's. that is what the true metric should be. it really does seemed like we are back to square one. we see these fiery school board meetings. there was plenty of chatter that education was the issue that lifted the gop gubernatorial candidate to victory in virginia back in november. how closely are both parties watching this new guidance for political pitfalls in the midterm year? >> i think very, very closely. i think that we learned a lot the first time we went to this. parents remember this, employers remember it. i don't think anyone in either party wants to go back. i've been encouraged by the biden's administration's focus on getting people back to school and back to work. the talk of how we really need to deal with this as a country. it is not something that we will get rid of anytime soon. it will be an anthemic as a medical expert say. the job of a government is to help us deal with public health risks that we will not be able to eliminate it entirely. i think that that needs to be the focus here. we know that shutdowns create all kinds of learning and economic problems. political problems for president biden. one stat that is very interesting, as recently as this summer, july, august, his approval of the handling of covid was well above 60%. it is now below 50%. he is playing a political price here for us handling the virus. i don't think anyone wants to go back to what we had before. >> well below 50%. that is the whole concept. we had heard from doctors all week long at the schools need to be open. the schools need to be open so you can convince teachers. the vaccine mandates for large businesses in healthcare workers how critical is a win here for the administration? >> one of the boldest steps that the president has proposed to take. relatively supportive of the actions and effort against covid-19, even his state against the biden vaccine mandate. the court has upheld the mandate. the administration is is hopeful that after oral arguments later this week the supreme court will, as well, which would mean employed with more than 100 people would be required to have them vaccinated or undergo a texting regime. that would catch a lot of americans, including some of those that have been very reluctant to get the vaccine up to now. >> let's backtrack against the panel. a big week. senator joe mansion coming face-to-face with his colleagues this week after announcing that he could not vote for the president's massive bill back better plan. what kind of pressure is he facing from all sides? >> if he stands his ground, i don't think this bill in its current form will go anywhere. it should not go anywhere. that is the bottom line here. joe biden campaigned as a moderate. yet he has tried to govern as a progressive. within evenly divided senate. a very small majority in the house. you do not ram through an expansion of the welfare state of this size that narrowly. that is just not the way that it should be done. and that is not what is mandate is. his ambitions exceed his mandate. i think that joe mansion is doing his party a favor. even if they don't realize that right now. >> we will hear from president biden and former president trump as we mark a year from january january 6. how big is a partisan divide on what happened that day and who do you think is responsible #. >> an assault on our government has given way to a deeply polarizing debate over who is to aa. the answer remains. some thugs that storm the capital that day as well as with our house democrats being excessively partisan in trying to get donald trump. worrying about the claims. the pull out today the democrats for their protest. the chilling images was in fact an attack on the government. sixteen turns out to be the polar opposite of 9/11. a tragedy that brought the country together. >> in your publication, usa today had a piece about the failures of monitoring extremism in the u.s. what did your reporters find about the broader context here? >> kevin johnson found in a study that took several months that the united states federal government has a very even effort against domestic terrorism. against white supremacy groups. looking at at the. since oklahoma city. that was 27 years ago at bombing some efforts since then by the justice department or by the fbi to address the threat of domestic terrorism. they have not been consistent and they were revised a year ago with a terrible attack on the capital last january 6. >> i just wanted to get you in here as well. i've got about 30 seconds left on january 6. the one year anniversary coming up. what do you think? >> claiming that there was widespread voter fraud that gave the election to biden. they don't care about those court rulings. around 70% or 75%. adding more republicans believing that donald trump won this election but for widespread voting fraud. 80% of them want him to run for president in 2024. >> thank you, panel. we will see you next. the final word on the the. >> that is it for this first "fox news sunday" 2022. i'm tracy gallagher all see you tomorrow for "america's newsroom" 9:00 a.m. eastern on fox news channel. we will cover all the news from across the country. happy new year everyone, bret baier in the chair next week and he will see you next "fox news sunday". ♪ see next time on life liberty and within. steve. >> happy new year welcome to a special edition of "the next revolution". i am lisa the within for steve hilton. as we as human new year only to when it came to covid remember when biden said all we need is to shots and that will end the pandemic? if we just took the vaccine me when i get infected and definitely would not pass it on. now we know that the vaccines