but the president said yesterday that he doesn't think covid as we know it is here to stay. listen. >> i don't think covid is here to stay. having covid in the environment here and in the world is probably here to stay, but covid as we're dealing with it now is not here to stay. the new normal doesn't have to be -- we have so many more tools we're developing and continuing to develop that'll contain covid and other strains of covid. finish. david: dr. ahmed is a senior fellow at the independent women's forum. doctor, great to see you again, thank you for being here. we'll get to the mixed messages in just a minute. but first of all on omicron itself, we saw in south africa that it was kind of like a wildfire. it burned very quickly through the population but burned out fairly quickly as well. is the same likely to happen here or has it begun happening already? >> so south africa gives us a great template, you're absolutely correct, and we do expect this burden of infection is going to degrees crease by late january, mid february. we're seeing many more people catch the infection. all of us know somebody who's caught it, our patients are catching it, but it's very different in presentation. sore throat, coarse voice, cough and cold, particular particularly for those who have been fully vaccinated. those nonvaccinated can become seriously ill. so i think, yes, we're going to see a sharp peak and then a sharp descent. but we can't be complacent. we have a very significant aging population, we have some of the highest rates of obesity in the world, and we have a lot of co-morbidities, diabetes, hypertension, stroke. all of this leads to a greater vulnerability to infection. david: what about deaths and hospitalizations specifically? again, you mentioned the differences between south africa and the u.s., but south africa did have surprisingly low number of hospitalizations and deaths and though i believe a majority of that population was not vaccinated. >> exactly. so 70% of south africans didn't have advantage end seen. here we are 62% nationwide and over 70% in new york state. and you're absolutely right, there's a strong decoupling of the number of infections and the number of hospitalizations. so very few people who are catching the infection immediate hospital level of care or even outpatient level of care. so that's true. we're seeing a different kind of covid-19. we refer to it at nyu as an incidentalal covid-19. i am allowed to tell you that 65% of people across our hospital system that have covid-19 are actually admitted for some other reason. they come in for various other reasons, we screen them and we find they're positive. so people are not shareing manifestations of the disease, but we're going to start learning about that. with president biden i don't engine his job. he's got a very difficult job to do as any president has,s but we really have to recognize we are not yet at the point where covid 19 is endemic. that means it's not yet permanently embedded in our ecosystem. we are going to have more episodes, and we prepare americans properly, they won't be as disappointed and crushed and exhausted as many of us even in the health care field are feeling. one of things we need to do, and he is moving on that, is accessing rapid deaths -- rapid tests. even as doctors, it's been hard to get that -- david: i was going to ask you about that, doctor. the pact is we -- the fact is we spent a lot of money, trillions of dollars in covid relief over the past couple of years now. one would think that one place that they would be spending that money would be in the rapid testing. why -- how long -- >> i absolutely agree. david: how long does it take to roll these things out? >> i absolutely agree. i think it shows there's been a flat footed response because rapid tests are wildly available where my family are in britain, where my colleagues are practicing in the middle east and other places in europe. so we've been very slow at that. i can't say how it could have been improved, but it should have been escalated, for sure. and also people should have been given more autonomy. the more we teach people about this infection, the better they're going to be. the vaccines most definitely save lives, most definitely. i worked in the first wave in the intensive care units with very high level of mortality, very few people surviving that first kind of infection when we had no therapeutics and no vaccine. those individuals who have been fully vaccinated, having all three shots, have almost 20 times lower risk of dying from the infection. it's a massive benefit. so the best thing -- david: forgive me for jumping i- >> no, no. david: the therapeutics themselves, particularly monoclonal antibodies, i know that not all of them work against omicron as well as they did against delta and the other variants, but we need more of those. i know of a hospital westchester that has zero monoclonal antibodies, and these new drugs, the pfizer drug, the merck drug that you can take in pill form. how soon do you expect those to come online or to be available again? >> so my hope is that they will come rapidly available. know some of them have been fka approved, and -- fda approved, and it's difficult to know why established therapies, for instance, regeneral ron, which was the first to be note, are difficult to questions -- to access. and some of that, i think, has been a heavy focus on vaccination, possibly without giving the same attention to therapeutics. and so vaccination is very important, and we are in a much better position than we were two years ago, and that is only going to continue to improve. one of the vulnerabilities i'm very worried about and it's not been emphasized is there are many things we can do preventatively. i don't mean hand high general and masks, but being as healthy as we can, becoming physically active, going outdoors. with owl of the restrictions we've experienced in new york state, many of my patients are developing obesity and depression, they are developing major health problems, mental health disorders because of these restrictions, and that is a huge health care burden that's not being recognized. david: yeah. particularly, i was going to say, particularly with children. we're going to get into that later in the program. i'm so sorry, but we've run out of time completely, but you were extremely helpful to us, doctor. thank you so much for being here, really appreciate it. >> pleasure, david. thank you for inviting me. david: well, when we come back, democrats use the anniversary of the january 6th riot to push for a sweeping election overhaul. so will they change senate rules to get those bills passed? ♪ ♪ >> the fact that violent criminals broke the law does not entitle senate democrats to break the senate. ♪ ♪ i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance. ow! i'm ok! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ only in theaters december 17th. it's my 4:05 the-show-must-go-on migraine medicine. it's ubrelvy. for anytime, anywhere migraine strikes, without worrying if it's too late, or where i am. one dose can quickly stop my migraine in its tracks within two hours. unlike older medicines, ubrelvy is a pill that directly blocks cgrp protein, believed to be a cause of migraine. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. ask about ubrelvy. the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. ♪ >> as we stand here today, one year since january 6th, 2021, the lies that drove the anger and madness we saw in this place, they have not abated. so we have to be firm, resolute and unyielding in our defense of the right to vote and to have that vote counted. >> let's be clear, we must pass voting rights bills that are now before the senate. david: president biden and vice president harris tying the one-year anniversary of the january 6th riots with a push to pass a sweeping overhaul of federal elections. with the midterm elections looming, majority leader chuck schumer is attempting to jump-start the democrats' agenda, announcing this week that the senate will debate and vote on changes to the filibuster by january 17th if republicans continue to block a pair of voting rights bills that passed the house last year. let's bring in our panel, columnist bill mcgurn and kim strassel and editorial board member kyle peterson. kim, first of all, the way in which this was handlinged -- handled during the anniversary of memorial, whatever you want to call it, transforming a memorial of an awful event into really a partisan political pitch. there was something unseemly about it, wasn't there? >> oh, yeah. but, look, i think one of the things is this is all they've got at the moment. and that was really exposed by that very aggressive speech by joe biden. they've got raging inflation, raging omicron, the rest of their agenda has collapsed, build back better. this voting rights bill is stalled because of filibuster issues. and so what democrats have going into 2022, they have clearly decided is donald trump and this argument that the gop is the party of violence and insurrection, and they're going to beat that dead horse all the way until november. david: and, bill, it's a little unclear about what exactly they object to with regard to all of these laws regarding voting that states are, have the responsibility to deal with themselves, that's what the constitution says. it looks like the democrats, i mean, to put a broad stroke on it, are trying to federalize voting rules that the constitution says are up to the states, right? >> yeah, that's exactly what they want. they want to nationalize these rules, and they want to do things that would make ballot harvesting okay, force the states to count ballots, some without postmarks, all sort ises of things -- sorts of things, sort of mischief they want to do. this gets back to something rahm emmanuel said a long time ago, never let a crisis go to waste. and they think this crisis is the best way for them to capitalize in the coming year. i agree with kim, it's all about demonizing trump and protecting the nation from trump. david: yeah. and, kyle, the fact is, is that at first they said they were opposed to voter id laws until they went to the polls and saw that 80% of americans favor voter id. up until then, up until the summer they were saying voter id laws were a bad thing, but then they switched their tone on that. so exactly, specifically what is it that democrats say is wrong with all of these state bills? >> well, they say that these state bills are making it harder to vote, but i just don't think that holds water when you look at where voting rights were 20 years ago. i mean, georgia, for example, is where one of these bills has caused a lot of controversy. anybody can vote by mail, you don't have to give a reason, you can just request a mail ballot. that's still the case going forward. one of the changes in the law is instead of verifying by comparing signatures of voters, they're instead jutte going to ask people -- just going to ask people, write your driver's license number on the ballot and that way we know who you are, we don't have to squint at your signature, and i think there's going to be reasonable debate about what's the best way of verifying votes like that, but it's not the end of democracy, which is how it's being presented. david: and, kim, there's a credibility issue that the president has in trying to push his own form of voter law changes. he had the four pinocchio claims about the georgia election law that he was ripped for by the mainstream media, which was unusual. and yet he still claims that, to be on his high horse that he has a way of directing these voter laws that somehow the states don't. >> yeah. you know, the entire democratic party deserves four or five or six pinocchios. can we look at the timeline here? they're now suggesting this law is in response to january 6th, an antidote to january 6th. in fact, they've been pushing it for two years. nancy pelosi first introduced it in 2018. and if you want to look at what caused some of the passions on january 6th, because democrats willy-nilly imposedded parts of those laws urn covid across the country which really reduced people's faith in the outcome of the election and stirred a lot of passions. now they want to impose this nationwide. it's not going to make the problem better, it's not an antidote to january 6th, it's only going to up spire or a lot more reduced faith in electoral integrity. but this is what they're doing because they're going to use everything they can to put pressure on joe manchin and others to break the filibuster and get their agenda moving. david: bill, just about 20 seconds more, but on the filibuster change, senator manchin does not support that or at least hasn't in the past. will he come around to changing some of these filibuster rules? >> i don't believe -- i think he has senator sinema with him. look, this is seasonal change that democrats are for. when things don't go their the way, mow it's filly best -- filibuster, before that it was the supreme court, before that it was get rid of the electoral college. david: yeah. they're losing many of these races. kim, bill and kyle, more of you to come, thank you very much. meanwhile, the supreme court hearing oral arguments on two challenges to president biden's vaccine mandate. what we learned from friday's emergency session, that's next. ♪ ♪ when a cough tries to steal dad's punchlines, he takes robitussin naturals powered by 100% drug-free ingredients. are you gonna leaf me hanging? soothe your cough naturally. 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 at university of phoenix, we have scholarships for everyone hard at work, no matter where you work. get up to a $3,000 scholarship, starting with your first course. explore your opportunities at phoenix.edu when you have xfinity xfi, you have peace of mind starting with your first course. built in at no extra cost. advanced security helps keep your family protected online. pause wifi whenever for ultimate control with the xfinity app. and family-safe browsing gives parents one less thing to worry about. security, control and peace of mind. with xfinity xfi, it's all built in at no extra cost. ♪ muck. david: well, the supreme court holding an emergency hearing on president biden's vaccine mandates in a rare friday session. the justices took up two appeals, one on whether the federal government can force health care workers to get their shots, the other focused on vaccines for employees at large businesses. or fairly large businesses. all told, the two mandates cover roughly two-thirds of all u.s. workers, about 100 million americans. so what did we learn from friday's arguments? back with our panel. bill, first to you. last summer we had both the white house and members of congress like nancy pelosi saying that these vaccine mandates wouldn't happen, that they wouldn't institute them because they didn't have the authority to do it. but then we came in september with the mandate, so what changed? >> what changed is simply they felt they needed to look like they were doing something. these are extraordinary cases, and they don't have to decide the merits. you know, they're talking about a stay. i think the main issue is whether the agencies have the authority to issue these. you know, osha is responsible for workplace safety, not dealing with pandemics. and i think the court was very clear in striking down biden's eviction moratorium last year that, you know, congress needs to exprison sitly -- explicitly grab these kind of powers when it's such a big political or economic impact. and i don't think the osha a institute -- statute, for one, comes anywhere close. and i worry that it's such a usurpation of state powers, state mandate. i worry that just by calling something a public health measure, all of a sudden we're going to find all these federal agencies empowered to do all sorts of things that congress never intended for them to do. david: kyle, bill is talking about constitutional issues, and rightly so. that's what the supreme court's supposed to decide about. but on friday in the hearings, we heard justice kagan for one talking about issues that sounded more like a doctor talking about covid than a supreme court justice the talking about constitution. let's just listen to the sound bite and get your reaction. roll tape. >> more and more people are getting sick every day. i don't mean to be dramatic here, i'm just sort of stating facts. and this is the policy that is most geared to stopping all this. there's nothing else that will perform a function better -- that function better than incentivizing people strongly to vaccinate themselves. david: kyle, she's talking about the debatable scientific terrific points rather than constitutional issues. what about that? >> yeah, i was struck about this as quintessential explanation of the divide on the court. on one side you have justice kagan, stephen breyer, i was struck by his comment. he cited the death toll of covid, he said given the omicron variant, covid cases report daily are now ten times higher than they were, ten times as high when osha initially issued this rule. and on the ore side you have the conservatives, neil gore such asking questions like do we have to find this law ambiguous before we apply the major question doctrine to it, and their argument is basically it doesn't matter if this is in the public interest. if the federal government does not have the constitutional and legal authority to do it in the first place. david: yeah. and, kim, if, in fact, health and safety issues will be allowed to, allow the executive to come out with these executive mandates, what about an issue like climate changesome it could be argued that that is a health and safety issue or at least the administration's argued that in the past, so there's a whole range of issues on which executive mandates would be allowed. >> yeah. that's why it's so important that the court actually reach a conclusion on the merits here. and you saw some of the justices indicate that they are worried about whether this could go as well too. amy coney if barrett was questioning the government saying, wait a minute, how long does at minnesota last? how long do you -- an emergency last? as kyle noted, gorsuch, brett kavanaugh talking about major questions to what level does a regulation rise in which it's very clear that congress needs to speak clearly on it before agencies regulate it. these are the sort of questions that if they don't settle them quite definitively in this case, it could open the door for a lot more stuff like this from an administration that clearly is willing to use it. david: well, bill, i asked you to look into your glass ball and figure out whether or not this conservative supreme court is going to stand by the constitution and disallow what the administration's been doing with these mandates. >> yeah. i can't predict from the questioning. i hope they do because i think the mischief that could come from this is incredible. you know, in a ruling in favor of navy seals who were arguing against the mandate for them, that they would lose their jobs, the judgment came out for them and said, look, this is no covid-19 exception to the constitution. and i think that's what the the supreme court needs to decide. they're not public health experts. they should be limited to deciding authority, and i think they should err on the side of not giving the federal government powers unless congress has explicitly laid it out to them. congress could very easily give them these powers, and the if that's what biden thinks, he should go to congress. david: bingo. all right, gang. still ahead, teachers unions forcing several big city school districts to return to remote learning again leaving students and parents in the lurch now more than ever. is school choice the answer to save our children? 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(judith) yep, we do better when our clients do better. at fisher investments we're clearly different. ♪ >> we know that our kids can be safe when in school, by the way. that's why i believe schools should remain open. you know, they have what they need. we provided the states with $130 billion, with a b, billion dollars to specifically keep our students safe and schools open. david: president biden this week calling for schools to remain open amid a nationwide spike in covid-19 cases, but districts including newark, atlanta and milwaukee temporarily returned to are bloat learning this week despite almost $200 million in pandemic aid for schools and growing scientific evidence that children are safer in the classroom than they are at home. the nation's school largest third largest school district remained closed after the chicago teachers union left hundreds of thousands of students and parents in the lurch. all this for igniting the debate over school choice as participants across the country roar it can -- look for alternatives. let's bring in darla rum foe, president and ceo at children's scholarship fund which has helped over 300,000 needy kids get scholarships. darla, thanks for being here. how badly are school closures hurting our kids? >> oh, it's very bad. if you look at chicago, schools were doing poorly before covid, but now if you lined up five third graders from chicago, only one of them would be able to read proficiently. monopolies -- we have a government-run monopoly in education, and what the pandemic has shown us, that this nation needs more schools that are not run by the government. you look in chicago, nobody's talking about the fact that 230 kids were killed, homicide, during the period of the pandemic e. only 12 died of covid-related issues. 87% of infectious disease pediatric specialists say even if there were novack city nations, children should be in school. so there's just no excuse for this. biden's right about this and so are a lot of other democrats -- david: well, he's right, but he -- >> they're not doing anything. david: he's not doing anything, and he's constantly saying he's a union guy, and it's unions who are going against the science here. it's his buddies in the unions, i'm just wondering why he doesn't, to use an old expression, take them to the wood shed and say, look, you guys gotta shape up because we spent $200 billion making schools safe. >> and i don't know what the union's end game can possibly be here too. i think they're pushing it one step or ten steps too far because parents and educators, there's plenty of people that are saying 80% of parents are for school choice at this point x. that just means the government's money that a they're spending on education follows the child. we stop funding systems, we start funding children. systems are clunky, they're not responsive to the children, they respond to the adults in the system, and we need to fund the children. i'll give you an example, csf is running a program in new hampshire called the education freedom account. the state takes the money that they pay per child, they deposit it into an account, we approve expentures, what parents are allowed to spend it for, and parents can directly put their child into a private school, pay the tuition with those funds. it empowers parents to do the best thing for their children. and immediately we were flooded with applications because it's enough money to actually pay your tuition at a private school. but i would tell people, parents listening right now, more than any other time people are aware of the bad deal that they're getting and that they should take steps. go to -- private schools were open during this whole pandemic. catholic schools were open. they're still open. there's no question they're going to remain open. go check in. if you don't have money to pay the tuition, there's actually seven schools in new york that only charge -- 1250 in tuition, go to one of those. and there's interesting things happening if places that don't have school choice. now, you need a certain amount of money to attract few providers, but even in spite of that there are innovative people all over the country. like in chicago i heard morning about a micro school. and there's a lot of them popping up all over the country -- david: you know, the other thing is -- i'm sorry, you mentioned the cost of education. in new york, of course, it's very expensive. it's not as expensive as the rest of the country, but just as an example, in new york the government spends $30,000 per pupil. >> yes, right. david: the catholic schools in new york cost about $12,000 per kid. in tuition. you can get even cheaper catholic schools than that. so the point is that the government's spending 2, 3, 4 times as much, and yet the education they're providing on the basic three rs, generally speaking, is less than what they're getting at some of these parochial or charter schools. >> you're absolutely correct. and during the pandemic the people that were hurt the worst by school closures were the people -- minorities and people in poor areas. that amount of money is being spent and the schools weren't even open to educate. that's just mind-boggling. anybody who's got a reasonable brain and, you know, thinks these things thereupon and has a compassionate heart would realize we need to be for school choice. the money need to follow the child. the parent needs to direct where their child goes to school. hopefully a bricks have come out of the wall and, hopefully, the wall comes tumbling down. david: very quickly, we only have ten seconds, the new governor of virginia is governor primarily because of the school choice issue. are we going to see that multiply all over the country where politicians coming out for school choice can run on that issue and win? >> absolutely. if politicians talk as though they're hearing and listening to parents, they're going to win. that's what he did, you listen to parents and they will win on that eshoo. david: darla romfo, thank you for the work you do. >> thank you so much. david: when we come back, hiring slows down in december as american consumers continue to get hammered by high prices. joe biden has found a new scapegoat for the record inflation his policies helped create. ♪ >> my wife was there with her sister and a good friend named mary ann, and she was saying do you realize it's over $5 for a pound of ham brger meat? hamburger meat? age is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: boost® high protein also has key nutrients try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette i have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. so i'm taking zeposia, a once-daily pill. because i won't let uc stop me from being me. zeposia can help people with uc achieve and maintain remission. and it's the first and only s1p receptor modulator approved for uc. don't take zeposia if you've had a heart attack, chest pain, stroke or mini-stroke, heart failure in the last 6 months, irregular or abnormal heartbeat not corrected by a pacemaker, if you have untreated severe breathing problems during your sleep, or if you take medicines called maois. zeposia may cause serious side effects including infections that can be life-threatening and cause death, slow heart rate, liver or breathing problems, increased blood pressure, macular edema, and swelling and narrowing of the brain's blood vessels. though unlikely, a risk of pml--a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection--cannot be ruled out. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, medications, or if you are or plan to become pregnant. if you can become pregnant, use birth control during treatment and for 3 months after you stop taking zeposia. don't let uc stop you from doing you. ask your doctor about once-daily zeposia. ♪ david: well, more fuel for the argument that the president's mishandling the economy with a very disappointing jobs number on friday. employers adding just 199,000 new jobs in december, that is less than half the number that was expected. wages rose again, making it even harder for businesses to hire and for the fed to get overall inflation under control. let's bring back our panel, bill mcgurning kim strassel and kyle peterson -- bill mcgurn. kyle, digging into the numbers, it's bad for both employees and employers. it's bad for employees because even though wages went up, it's still below inflation, so they're underwater when you consider inflation. but inflation is still enough in terms of wage inflation for small businesses not to be able to hire new employees. so both the employers and the employees are getting screwed by these numbers. >> right. and it's a real problem for the biden administration. and the risk, it seems to me, that the worse it gets, the worse it's going to get. people who are out of the labor force not coming back in, the longer they're not in the work force, the harder it is to get them to return. expect biden administration's whole argument has been that this is a supply supply-side problem. once we get the bottlenecks in the supply chain figures out -- figured out, the inflation will be transitory. but if people are not getting -- if bosses are not getting people tired -- hired, then it seems those supply problems are going to per cyst into next year. david: well, kim, they're going beyond that to blame it on producers. it's the fault of producers whether it's oil producers, they're causing inflation, or whether it's meat producers or turkey producers, a whole host of things. and their solution to that is more regulations. >> yeah. [laughter] you know, it's really remarkable. old democratic playbook, make a political mistake, blame a big company. you know, the meat example is a very, very good one. they're claiming because we don't have enough meatpackers, not enough competition. well, the real problem is they can't get enough labor. and so there are shortages, and so prices are going up. and then add in -- and that'll be the same thing if there's new producers too, so that will make no difference. and as you said, add in all of these regulations? it's exactly the wrong policy approach. david: bill, we do have the unemployment figure coming down to 3.9% which is pretty close to full employment by the federal reserve's definition, but that makes it more likely that the fed is going to have to raise interest rates, and that could hurt businesses. i'm just wondering if we're entering into that awful period of high inpolice station and low growth, stagflation. >> yeah, i think absolutely. look, we know that the longer on inflation you wait to tackle it, the harder it's going to be. and i think that's why the biden folks have been shy about doing it. and as you say, they've been going about it exactly the wrong way. you know, when inflation first came up, they were claiming build back better was, you know, the way to do it. you know, dumping trillions more into the economy. i don't think they have the foggiest clue what to do. so their economic problem is looming stagflation. when the fed, i think, inevitably has to raise rates, and their political problem is they keep trying to explain this away. the greed of the meat producers and so forth. and the ordinary american doesn't get news about inflation from the chairman of the fed or the treasury secretary. he gets it when he goes to the shell station, you know, it costs him more money to fill up, $20 more. or the a and p if, that bag of groceries costs more. that's what people are seeing and feeling in their own lives. and i think what they're seeing is that the administration doesn't really have a sense of what to do because they're misdiagnosing the problem. david: yeah. and, kyle, one thing that a lot of people are afraid of is if they continue blaming producers for inflation rather than their own policies, we may get the to the era of price controls. and price controls always lead to shortages. so we may end up with not only high prices, but also empty levels at the market. >> yeah. i'm skeptical that the biden administration will go there just because of the bad history. but it is remarkable to watch this flame game going on. my favorite -- blame game. i think elizabeth warren was talking about greedy grocery companies because the grocery business is a very competitive, cutthroat business with very low profit margin, so the idea that grocers just became super greedy just in the last three or six months, i don't think, washes. david: yeah. well, still ahead, new york city mayor adams vowing to restore law and order to the big apple, but manhattan's new progressive district attorney seems to have other plans. when we come back. ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. and you may lose weight. adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. in adults also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. ozempic® helped me get back in my type 2 diabetes zone. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? ask your health care provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ you may pay as little as $25 for a 3-month prescription. some of my best memories growing up were cooking with mom. so when she moved in with us, a new kitchen became part of our financial plan. ♪ ♪ find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com ♪ david: well, new york city mayor eric adams coming into office with a promise to restore law and order to the big apple amid a big spike in crime, particularly violent crime. but the city's top prosecutor seems to have other plans n. a memo this week, manhattan district attorney alvin bragg announced that he will do away with jail time for all but the most serious crimes and will stop prosecuting low-level offenses like trespass, resisting arrest and prostitution. he'll forgive those entirely, arguing that these policy changes will make new york city safer. we're back now with our panel, big mcgurn, kim strassel -- bill mcgurn, kim strassel and kyle peterson. bill, first to you. this is exactly the opposite of bragg's policies of what the mayor ran on. how because he deal with a -- how does he deal with a chief prosecutor who goes against his wishesesome. >> yeah, he's kind of soft on crime prosecutors, very popular in the last couple years. jason bow dean in san francisco, larry crasser in in philadelphia, kim fox in chicago. everyone's reconsidering those policies when they look what they've done to their cities. so i think it's a real problem for eric adams. so far the mayor has kind of downplayed the problem. but, look, here's the big problem for mayors like eric adams who want to do something. anything that's effective is going to be challenged in court by local activist groups, and they're going to claim it's racially -- in its impact, so forth. so the major has to be willing to fight for these policies as mayor bloomberg did. and when you have a d.a. that's not going to prosecute, look, the signal it sends, i believe that if you committed armed robbery with a gun but no one gets hurt, it gets reduced to petty larceny? this is crazy and an invitation. david: you know, we've tried it before, kim. i hate the word progressive because many of these progressives have policies that have been tried and failed decades before. in the '80s we went up to a murder rate of 220 a year in man hat non. then jewel giuliani came in with the broken windows theories where he hit small crimes and ended up getting some big fish in the mix. we brought the murder rate down to 400 a year from 2200. are we going to go in exactly the opposite in terms of the more rate and the other victims of crime now? >> we already are. and, look, as you said, we know what works. it's a combination of both better policing tactics, more aggressive policing tactics, but also district attorney's side, the prosecution side, the incarceration side. while i think what happened when we had that terrible incident in back shah where it was perpetrated by someone who'd been let out by a soft on crime district attorney, it really woke people up to the fact that you have to have both of those in tandem. we've seen a reversal on the defund the police move, but now belatedly we're getting attention on these prosecutors that are other half of the problem. and as bull said, these guys, there are names that are known nationwide and not for a good reason -- david: no. [laughter] >> and these policies are going to be up on the ballot to represent temperature democratic party and their crime posture. that's a problem for them going into the mid full-terms. -- midterms. david: well, kyle, they have gamed the system very successfully. these are, i mean, these prosecutors are all over the country, by the way. we can put up a picture. they run the gamut from new york, as we've mentionedded, to los angeles, san francisco, mill withdraw coe, chicago. i mean, they're all over the place, and they have one thing in common -- george soros back these prosecutors. he saw, because he has radical ideas for america, that these down-ballot races, people doesn't really pay attention to them -- didn't really pay attention to them. they didn't really know about them. will people now wake up to the fact that they are voting for people that may put their lives in jeopardy? >> well, it seems in san francisco at least they've begun to wake up. it's taken some carnage to get there and, certainly, we hope that doesn't happen to new york. but that's what i think that eric adams could do if he wanted to was raise profile, get these stories out. he has access to all the city's data. he can show and point to people what's not being charged, what should be charged, you know? if they stop prosecuting fare jumping, he can explain how much it's gone up. if you stop prosecuting it, you're going to incentivize it. and there's nobody in a better position to make the case than the mayor. david: by the way, we see video cameras of videos, turns out they were jumping the turnstiles and doing some of the small crimes that allowed them to carry out the bigger crimes which is why broken windows theory came in in the '90s. gang, thank you very much. we have to take one more break. when we come back, hits and misses of the week. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ helen knew exercise could help her diabetes. but she didn't know what was right for her. no. nope. no way. but then helen went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now she knows what activity helps lower her glucose. and can see what works best for her. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. freestyle libre 2. now covered by medicare for those who qualify. to run a growing business, is to be on a journey. and along the ride, you'll have many questions. challenges. and a few surprises. ♪ but wherever you are on your journey. your dell technologies advisor is here for you - with the right tech solutions. so you can stop at nothing for your customers. time now for hits and misses of the week, kim, first you. >> a hill hit to bill gardner, secretary of state stepping down after 45 years in office. mr. gardner is getting a lot for his successful efforts over all those years to keep new hampshire first in the nation's primary but i think he deserves equal attention for being one of the only democrat in recent years to oppose his parties attempt to federal takeover of voting laws in the country, he stood up for new hampshire's constitution and laws just as he did most of his career. >> there aren't too many of those left. bill. >> you talked about lori lightfoot unable to help students thanks to the chicago's teachers union at the center for education reform stepped in to provide alternatives which chicago public schools failed. it's called. award rescue fund and its emergency funding for schools or programs ready to immediately provide education for the chicago school kids, expanding capitol school to a learning center. a hit to the rescue fund, we hear a lot about putting children first, these folks are doing it. >> got it. kyle, to you. >> a missed to the recent panic about gerrymandering democrat talking for months as if it's another finale for democracy, the endless and political report said on current trend, the next election will be on a house map with more districts than the last election so gerrymandering can be an ugly practice but take a deep breath. >> that's it for this week's show, thanks to my panel and all of you for watching. we hope to see you here next week. ♪♪ >> change in messaging from the white house, president biden pulling back from the crash the virus promised. another surge in covid cases. a brand-new hour of fox news live, i am eric shot