deadlines loom and the cdc faces mounting criticism over changing guidelines surrounding the pandemic. we'll go one-on-one with the agency's director, dr. rochelle walensky, only on "fox news sunday." plus, big problems for the nation's big cities grappling with spikes in crime and the impact of covid on schools and businesses. we're joined by miami's francis suarez, newly-elected president of the u.s. conference of mayors. it's a "fox fox news sunday" execs collusive. then -- >> the senate must advance legislation to protect our democracy and safeguard the right to vote is. bret: democrats use january 6th to make the case to pass voting rights legislation in congress to counter moves by republican state legislatures. we'll discuss with house majority whip james clyburn, a close ally of the president and advocate for reform. and the u.s. puts russia on notice over ukraine. enter we're prepared to respond forcefully to further russian aggression. bret: and monitors russian involvement in protests in kazahkstan. plus, the international drama over the number one men's tennis mare in the world, all right now on "fox news sunday." ♪ ♪ bret: hello again from fox news in washington. the covid health emergency facing the nation landed friday before the nine members of the u.s. supreme court. at issue, the authority of the feds to impose vaccine mandates on tens of millions of workers. orders on enforcement of a pair of biden administration man a kates could come soon -- mandates because one rule by osha is set to go into effect monday. questions from the justices reflecting the national divide over covid vaccines and the latest surge driven by the only caron variant. in a moment, we'll talk with the cdc director, dr. rochelle walensky, about the rise in cases and what's next. but first, let's turn to lucas tom lynnson at the house -- tomlinson at the white house. >> reporter: any day now we await those two decisions from the supreme court on vaccine mandates. during oral arguments friday, the justices took different takes on the value of vaccines. >> we know that the best way to prevent spread is for people to get vaccinated. >> as i mentioned in the findings, the younger workers, 20-year-olds, who are unvaccinated are actually safer than the older workers who aren't vaccinated. so there are obviously some differences. >> reporter: last week more than one million cases in a single day. despite a majority of americans fully vaccinated. the osha mandate requiring all companies with a hundred or more employees to either be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask if unvaccinated was supposed to begin monday, enforcement wouldn't go into effect until if february 9th. economies worry the surge in cases could stunt job growth in the coming months. >> america's back to work, and there are more historical accomplishments. >> reporter: but the president optimistic over the latest jobs report despite falling short of expectations, adding 199,000 jobs. the good news for the white house, unemployment fell to 3.9%. this as the administration scrambles to ramp up testing despite shortages nationwide. two contracts with industry signed late last week to begin production. the white house plans to ship half a billion tests direct arely to americans via the postal service which recently asked for a temporary mandate waiver for its 650,000 workers. the postmaster general says usps is well prepared to accept and deliver test kits on the first day the program launches. the pandemic also affecting the president's state of the union address. president biden has accepted nancy pelosi's invitation to give it to a joint session of congress on march 1st, the latest in modern history. bret: lucas tomlinson, thank you. joining us now, cdc director dr. welcome back to "fox news sunday." good morning. >> good morning, b are ret, good to be with you. bret: we just heard about the u.s. supreme court. in the questioning, justice sonya sonia sotomayor made this statement. >> we have over 100,000, which we've never had before, in serious condition and many on ventilators. bret: now, documents we can find from friday suggests there are fewer than 3500 current pediatric hospitalizations from covid-19. is that true? >> yeah. but, you know, here's what i can tell you about our pediatric hospitalizations now. first of all, the vast majority of children who are in the hospital are unvaccinated. and for those children who are not eligible for vaccination, we do know that they are most likely to get sick with covid if their family members aren't vaccinated. so the most important thing we can do for those children to keep them out of the hospital is to vaccinate them and their family members around them -- brent breath understand. but it's roughly 3500 in hospitals now. >> yes. there -- and, in fact, what i will say is while pediatric hospitalizations are rising, they're still about 15-fold less than hospitalizations of our older age demographic. bret: do you have a number of children on ventilators? >> i do not have that off the top of my held, but what i can say -- my head, but what i can say,ing i don't believe there are many in any of these hospitals who are vaccinated. so really the highest risk of being on a ventilator if you're a child is if you're unvaccinated. we also have recent data out just this week that demonstrated that dangerous misv syndrome that we're seeing in children, 91% protection if you've been vaccinated. bret: the risk of death or serious illness in children is still very small, right? >> comparatively, the risk of death is small. but, of course, you know, children aren't supposed to die -- bret: yeah. >> so if we have a child who's been, who is sick with covid-19, we want to make sure that they, we want to protect them, of course. bret: right. but i'm talking from your data, ages 15-24, for example, the risk of death is at 0.001%. i guess what i'm getting at in this opening is that the supreme court is in the process of dealing with this big issue about mandates, and do you feel a responsibility as the cdc director to correct a very big mischaracterization by one of the supreme court justices? >> yeah, i -- here's what i'll tell you, i'll tell you that right now 17 -- if you're unvaccinated, you're 17 times more likely to be in the hospital and 20 times more likely to die than if you're boosted. so what my responsibility is, is to provide guidance and recommendations to protect the american people. those recommendations strongly recommend vaccination for our children above the anal of 5 -- age of 5 and boosting for everyone above the age of 18 if they're eligible. bret: speaking of statistics, it seems to make a difference if the person in the hospital is in the hospital for coto i would 19 or with covid-19. it's been almost a year since you've been running the agency. do we have that split on numbers? >> you know, what i will say is it differs by each varian variant. so, first of all, we're doing screening in many hospitals of everybody who's walking in the if door. what we're seeing with the omicron variant is that it tends to be milder person by person, but given how large the numbers are that we're seeing more and more cases come into the hospital. and some hospitals that we've talked to up to 40% of the patients who were coming in with covid are coming in not because they're sick with covid, but because they're coming in with something else and have had covid or the omicron variant detected. breathe. bret: right. but do you know how many of the 833,000 depths in the u.s -- 836,000 deaths are linked to covid or how many with covid but they had other co-morbidities? do you have that breakdown? >> yes, of course. with omicron we're following that very carefully. our death registry, of course, takes a few weeks to collect and, of course, omicron has just been with us for a few weeks, but those data will be forthcoming. bret: the questioning in the supreme court also said that omicron was as they wouldly as delta. that is not -- as deadly as delta, that is not true, right? >> i'm sorry, i didn't hear you? >> omicron is not as dell deadly as delta, right? >> on a person by person basis, it may not be. however, given the volume of cases that we're seeing with omicron, we very well may see death rates rise dramatically. bret: okay. back to the mandates for a second. people are losing their jobs. more than 220 marines, sailors, airmen have been kicked off the military for refusing to get vaccinated. healthy service members, some of them have circulating antibodies from past infections, but they're not the antibodies the government recognizes. is that fair? >> you know, i think the thing that's most disruptive to any business or industry is to have half their work force out because they're sick with covid. we have seen with the omicron variant that prior protection protects you less well than it has with the current, than it had with prior variants. so having preestles infection seems to not protect you as well as, against omicron. right now i think the most important thing to do is to protect americans. we do that by getting them vaccinated and boosted. brent breath yeah, i know that's the variant, but it is infecting the vaccinated. and the vaccinated are transmitting the virus. correct? >> that is true. it's infecting them at a lower rate. and importantly, those people who are vaccinated and infected with omicron are not the ones who are ending up very sick in the hospital. those are the people who are unvaccinated. bret: right. but will the cdc take natural immunity seriously to study its effect on the big picture? for example, why not include recovery from infection the way other countries do? >> yeah. you know, we have taken this very seriously. several months ago we provided a scientific brief with dozens of studies provide providing the updated science with this. of course, that science is ever evolve ising as has this variant, and so we need to update that science with regard to what we learn about omicron which so far has demonstrated that prior infection protects you less well. bret: as recently as this past week, president biden called this a pandemic of the unvaccinated. according to your cdc study, omicron is accounting for the majority of the cases. again, the vaccinated are getting this infection, transmitting it to others. considering all that and these percentages, how is that pandemic of the unvaccinated is aer thenology that should be used? >> we do know people are still protected about 70% against innext especially if they're boosted. so the people who are ending up in the hospital, the people who are ending up very sick with omicron are ones who are unvaccinated. brent breath dr. walensky, you mentioned about the confusion about the guidance and -- over the past year. the most recent example, obviously, is on isolation and testing. but other guidance is the mask wearing, educators being vaccinated before returning to the classroom. before you took this job officially, you emphasized that one of your primary goals was to restore public trust. but in this time, do you think that it's fair to say that the trust and confidence of the public has gone down with the cdc? >> thank you, bret. you know, this is hard. we have ever-evolving science with an ever-evolving variant, and my job is to provide updated guidance in the context of rapidly rising cases. and that is what we've done, and i'm here to explain that to the american people, and i'm committed to continuing to do so and continuing to improve. bret: and we appreciate you coming on, we really do. i'm just getting facts out there. i do want to read this quote from this piece looking at how universities are handling this. at georgetown, fully vaccinated students are randomly test for covid every week using a pcr test. asymptomatic students who test positive are ordered to a room in a designated building where they spend ten days in confinement. food is dropped off once a day at the door. georgetown is still using a 10-day quarantine. what do you say to the major companies and universities who are ignoring your new guidance and sticking to the 10 days' isolation or quarantine for asymptomatic people? >> yeah, this is really important, and what i would say is that guidance that we put out is for the general public. we -- i'm committed to wanting to keep schools open and want to keep universities open. many of these universities have kids living in multiperson rooms, so they're going to have to adapt our guidance for the safety of their congregant settings. bret: right. but sticking them in a room for 10 days, doesn't that sound extreme to you? >> that is what our guidance was before. if a student -- and our updated guidance actually says you can leave isolation after of 5 days if you can wear your mask all the time including being able to eat meals alone so that you are not infecting others while you eat. that may need to be what's hang in these congregant settings. bre. bret: so you would send that message to georgetown, other universities or companies. >> no. what i would say is you have to adapt our guy dance for that congregate. >> erica tweets, please ask dr. walensky, where are the treatments for covid? whew are they not promoting them more? what is the delay with the new pills that were authorized? >> yeah, really important question. we now have numerous treatments that we can use against omicron including colluding our monoclone monoclonal antibodies both for treatment and prevention, two new antivirals, one from pfizer, one from merck. so many opportunities now -- rem december veer to be able to be used in an outpatient basis with three daily infusionings. all of those are now being distributed. many of those are harder to make and take some time to make, but the administration is rapidly scaling up what they are able to purchase and get out to the american people. bret: last thing. mentioning schools, you know, the situation in chicago, they still haven't found a solution with the teachers union there, and it'll be closed for a fourth day, monday. and they're not alone. a site that tracks school closures has found more than 5,000 schools are currently closed for in-person instruction due to covid. there's been a lot of money given to school districts across the country after the covid relief bill. what grow tell them, these school districts? >> yeah. you know, really importantly i want to remind people that in the fall of this year we had a delta surge, and we were able to safely keep our children in school before we had pediatric vaccination. fast forward to now, we have pediatric vaccination. of course, every jurisdiction is going to have to make these decisions locally. but what i will say is the most important thing we can do is get to our children vaccinated, our teachers and our teenagers vaccinated and then to practice all those mitigation strategies that have been proven to work, masking, ventilation, test to stay strategies have saved hundreds of thousands of person days for kids staying in school. all of those things have been proven to work. brent breath dr. walensky, we always appreciate your time. great to talk with you. >> great to be here. thanks. bret: up next, we'll talk with miami mayor francis suarez, new president of the u.s. conference of mayors, about how big cities are dealing with the pandemic. ♪ ♪ as a dj, i know all about customization. that's why i love liberty mutual. they customize my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. how about a throwback? 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>> well, of course we are. i meaning i think every city across america right now is seeing a surge with the omicron variant. and the variant seems to be significantly more contagious but also not quite as severe as the delta variant. so we're seeing a gross number which is significantly higher than with delta. and so that's pushing all the other numbers. that pushes hospitalizations, that pushes all the other metrics. so what we're doing in the city of miami is, number one, we're obviously allowing people to get tested and expanding our testing capacities and vaccination capacity, and we are seeing a correlation between those that are hospitalized and them being not vaccinated. bret: florida senator marco rubio pushing back a little bit on the hospitalization characterization. he tweeted out: there is no omicron hospital surge in phenomenal. people admitted for noncovid reasons get counted as a covid patient. the majority of the 5400 patients in florida are in the hospital for non-covid reasons. mayor, what do you say to people who accuse republican elected officials of downplaying the rise and spread of covid and hospitalizations? >> well, what ill say is, you know, just look at the facts. what senator rubio's saying here is a fact, right? it is a fact that there are many cases of people that are coming to the hospital with covid as opposed to because they have covid. and i think that is something you highlighted in your prior segment. there is a differentiation, you know? the fact that there are so many more cases which is what's driving hospitalizations and the fact that it's also not quite as high as it was at the peak. so, you know, i think we just have to talk about this in a factual basis and try to depoliticize it as much as possible. brent brent do you think your state's governor has struck the right balance? >> you know, i think that if you look at deaths, the state of florida has significantly heads deaths, that for example, new york on a per capita basis. so, you know, i think florida's done very well. you know, obviously, the surge is something that is hitting the entire country, but i think the state of florida, i think the city of miami is doing significantly better than in other parts of the country. we have a very high vaccination rate, i think we're at about 80% in the city of miami, and so we are, we're dealing with this the very best that a we can. and, listen, many people who are not vaccinated and who are young and healthy are getting it, and there's a high level of asymptomatic impact and effect. and so they're not getting severe symptom. bret: but you've differedded with the governor on the use of masks in general, saying the science of masks supports their use. >> yeah. you know, particularly a few months ago or maybe even closer to a year ago we, you know, had a disagreement over masks because i felt that, you know, as a tool masks are something that we could implement, and it could reduce the number of cases without affecting people's ability to go to work, right? i think the the biggest issue was making sure this did not harm the environment particularly, you know, at a time where our unemployment rate was skyrocketing. now in the city of miami our unemployment rate is at 3.7% which is almost a percent than the entire rest of the state of florida. so what we've implemented is pro-business policies that could keep people safe, and i think using a mask was one of those. bret: as the newly-elected head of the u.s. conference of mayors, weigh in on chicago with the schools canceled again friday, looks like they're going to be canceledded on monday. mayor lori lightfoot said we're not going to rob parents of their right and obligation to tell us if they want testing or not on their children, it's not going to happen. it's morally wrong. now some parents are suing the union. what's your take on all this? >> well, you know, in florida, here in miami-dade county, we've done everything we can to keep schools open. we feel that, you know, the risk for children is extremely low, and we also feel that it's very important for kids to, you know, to have as much normalcy as possible to be able to be in a social setting with their friends, to get educated. i mean, these are the building blocks of the future for our children in america. and so for me, you know, it's a tremendous concern when you see schools being closed. i think both republicans and democrats, if you hear the cdc director and pronouncement from the president, have made every effort to keep school open and want schools open. and so they should be open. bret: there's been a spike in violent crime in several major cities across the country. you've noted that homicides in miami have fallen 25%. you've said, as president of the u.s. mayor, i'm working with america's mayors to duplicate recommended solutions. what are those solutions? >> well, definitely i think you'll see in miami we just hired this particular fiscal year 30 new police officers, we increased funding for police while many other cities have talked about or actually decreased fund funding for police, and we saw a dramatic reduction in homicides by 25% and 14% in what they call contact shootings. so, certainly, investing in your public safety should be the number one goal. police officers in america, i think, now have the hardest job in america. they, you know, they have, you know, have to do the most number of things for the least pay with the most scrutiny of any profession in this country. and i think we should not only invest in them in terms of the sheer number of them and the pay, but i think we should also invest in technology and giving them the tools, the force multiplier to, you know, to do their job better. and that's something that we've done in miami. we have a gunfire detection system, we have a machine which is a police ballistics machine, we have a variety of different technologies that allow us to solve crime, allow ours our officers to be more effective at doing their job, and we've seen the results. and i think it's something that can be replicated across america. bret: quickly, you've been praised by miami-dade county's first female mayor, you kind of stay out of ideological battles, for the most part, more politicians should start thinking like mayors. do you have plans for statewide or national office? >> well, bret, first of all, you know, being president of the u.s. conference of mayors is going to give me a tremendously unique opportunity. i do believe that american cities which have 85% of the population of america and constitute 91% of the gdp of this country need to be heading in the right direction. it's a generational opportunity for our country, and if we get it right, we're going to have generational prosperity. so once, you know, being president of the u.s. conference of mayors is over which is a year and a half from now, i'll look at the landscape and decide if i want to serve at a higher level and, hopefully, be an opportunity that will be enjoyable, prosperous and something that will be beneficial to the people of the country, the state or my city. bret: okay. mayor suarez, thank you for your time. >> thanks. bret: up next, january 6th as a reason to push election reform on a national level. we'll ask james clyburn whether it's worth changing the rules to get it done. 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[female narrator] every day, americorps members and volunteers live out their values to make communities stronger. what's at your core? learn more at americorps.gov. ♪ ♪ bret: senate democratic leader chuck schumer this week called on his caucus to do whatever it takes to pass voting rights, even if it means changing senate rules to get it done without repalin support joining us now from south carolina, the number three democrat in the house, jim clyburn. congressman, welcome back to "fox news sunday." >> thank you so much for having me back. bret: you said this week that if you don't get voting rights done, it will be the beginning of the end of democracy. you also wrote in a column this week about the january 6th attack on the capitol comparing it to the japanese attack on pearl harbor, writing: 80 years later, tyranny is threatening america again, this time from a domestic attack. vice president harris, obviously, had a similar construct with pearl harbor and 9/11. but what do you say to families of world war ii veterans or 9/11 families, victims' families who agree that january 6th was a very bad day and a dark day in our history, but that that comparison's not fair and seems to be being used to pitch voting rights legislation that was drawn up before january 6th? >> i would remind them of the oath that all of us take when we take office, especially the president of the united states. pleasure that oath -- that oath says against all enemies, foreign and domestic. a recognition of the fact that there the will be times in our development when we have to deal with the enemy from within. so i would ask those people who say that's an unfair comparison, why is it then that that construct is sitting this in the oath that all of us take? that is, the recognition that there will be times or could be when we will have domestic terrorists among us. breath brent what about, congressman, the argument that the u.s. constitution leaves election laws to the state? georgia's secretary of statemeny rebuffed president trump's prodding for finding additional votes -- pointed to article i, section four and writing opposition to h.r. 1, and he wrote that federal legislators have no idea how elections are actually run saying, quote: as a result, they choose policies that create chaos in elections administration that can overwhelm county election officials. in doing so, they create a vicious cycle where they sent local election administrators up to fail, then demand federal intervention to address the problem they cause. thoughts? >> i would say to mr. rath lis berger that i admire and respect him a whole lot but he's off base here. i am a federal official, but i understand very well how elections are run. most people who are now serving at the federal level have at one time served in some capacity at the state and local levels as well. so they, too, have have an understanding. i would also refer him to federal -- i think it's alexander hamilton talked cogently about this, and he says that these federal elections cannot be left up to the states, should not be left up to the statements. that's why -- states. that's why states were not allowed to put term limits on federal officials. is so the elections or not solely conducted by the states, that's why the 1965 voting rights act was necessary, and that is why the 15th amendment to the united states constitution was necessary. that's why the 18th amendment of the unite constitution was necessary -- united states constitution was necessary. all because it had to go beyond the states to determine everything about elections. breath brent congressman, doesn't seem like they have the numbers -- can i'll get a little bit more to that in a second, but there is bipartisan support to a change to the electoral account law -- act, rather, that deals specifically with the vice president and the congress and the certification of the election. and you could get a change to that right away. why not take that? >> well, that's -- we'll take that, but that's not all we immediate to do. you know, i'm very -- i studied the tilden-hayes compromise most of my life, so i know exactly all of that, i know. south carolina played a very critical role in that. bret: they did. and louisiana. >> so i know all of those issues, and i also know that what is true today was not true then. and, therefore, the kind of changes that we need to make, the kind of modifications that we need to make must fit the times. that's why so many learned juries have referred to the constitution as a living document which means the constitution is updated, it's changed, it's modified as conditions change and are updated. and so that's what we need to do here. just because we've got one little management that was true a back -- nugget that was true back in 1876 doesn't mean that is true in 1976. today's sunday, i grew up in a parsonage, and i'm thinking about first contribute januaries, the first chapter -- corinthians. this country has matured. this country is not the same country it was over 200 years ago. bret: barring -- >> and people must mature right along with it. bret: barring the bipartisan change too old that, you say you want bigger, broader or change. democrats will likely have to resort to changing the rules in the senate. and as i said, senators manchin and sinema don't seem like they're there yet. i want to ask you about the filibuster. democratic senator elizabeth warren said it should not be receiver served to crypt a veto for democracy. it's majority if rules. do you agree with that? >> well, yes, i do. the majority always determine the outcome in an election. so the fact of the matter is the filibuster would not allow -- you've got to have a simple majority in order to get to the majority. that's the fallacy of this. now, the filibuster was put in place, and i know the history of the filibuster. john c. calhoun is everybody attributes, but he perfected the filibuster. he wasn't talking about slavery, he was talking about the banking laws. he didn't want to have national banking laws. what this country would be like today if he we did not have national banking laws. and that's what john c. call heene was -- calhoun was arguing against. so i want us to grow up. i want us to look at this and say, come on, this is a new day. these are different circumstances. bret: yeah -- >> the filibuster has been changed time and time again. back when they were filibustering, when strom thursday thurmond set the record in 1957, he had to stand on the floor. bret: that's right. the u.s -- [inaudible conversations] the u.s. technically, obviously, is a constitutional federal republic. democrats last time they were in the minority, just the last time, used the filibuster the -- 270 times, and one of them was to block a police reform bill put forward by a black republican senator, tim scott, from your state. >> well, you know, you can call it justice act, you can call it anything you want to call it. now, i don't know exactly what was contained in that law, but when you filibuster in order to get time so that people can bring people around to your point of view, that's one thing. but that is still a policy. that's not stopping anybody from voting. that's not a constitutional issue. i have said that the filibuster ought not be applied to constitutional issues like voting. do not allow the filibuster to get in the way of the full faith and credit of the united states of america because it would jeopardize the future of this country -- bret: you could argue that police reform is a constitutional issue. i just want to ask you one more thing because i'm running out of time. you are the man responsible, as much as anybody, for candidate biden in the primaries reus tating his prospects in south carolina. do you think president biden is being well served by his advise areerers -- advisers now? do you think he's getting good advice? >> i don't know all of his advisers. and i suspect that there may be some advisers that i will disagree with. be i think that, by and large, this president is doing a great job. i think the rescue act that everybody said he couldn't get done, he got it done, the infrastructure bill that is now in place, the build back better which should be in place, restoring people's faith and confidence in what this country is all about. i believe that joe biden is doing exactly what this country needs done. and i would hope that people who want to see an autocracy replace the democracy would give up on that pursuit. breath brent and you think he runs for re-election. >> i hope he duds. he does. bret: congressman -- >> i'm older than joe. he's a young guy compared to me. bret: congressman, thank you for your time on this sunday morning. >> thank you very much for having me. bret: up next, growing tensions between the u.s. and russia. ♪ ♪ these are the faces of listerine. the face of millions of germs zapped in seconds. the face of clean. the face of whoa! some are of intensity, others joy. all are of... various: ahhh... listerine. feel the whoa! 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. >> i think one lesson in recent history is that once russians are many your house, it's sometimes very difficult to get them to leave. bret: secretary of state anthony blinken speaking about a cracktown in kazahkstan which has left dozens dead, a former soviet republic, and its president called in russian troops to help. those troops are now shooting to kill, and it's beginning to look like a russian takeover there. meantime, russia is poised to invade neighboring ukraine, tens of thousands of troops amazed along the border there. russia wants to keep ukraine out of nato, the u.s. has threatened serious con consequences in russia invades. fox news contributor, cam rove. fox news correspondent gillian turner and analyst juan williams. gillian, secretary of state blinken said the prospects are not that great for seeing some major movement here in geneva as the u.s. and russia sit down on these talks. and given what we're hearing and what we're seeing both in ukraine along the border and in kazahkstan, what do you make of this? >> the reality is that the u.s. would like nothing better than a stable, predictable relationship with russia. but russia, at least under president putin, has less than zero interest in making this happen. so the key question for the biden administration in the high stakes talks is, is it smart to continue to broadcast this as your number one policy objective when it's essentially unachievable? every russia expert will tell you normalized relations are not in the cards in the near future and, by the way, every u.s. expert -- excuse me, official you talk to, at least behind closed doors, will say the same thing. this becomes an issue of saying something 17 million times doesn't make it any more true. bret: yeah. and the question is whether the u.s. will getten concessions during these talks in geneva. karl, vladimir putin has this vision on the old soviet regime which is why these actions in these two countries are kind of eyebrow-raising. but why should americans sitting on the couch at home care about this? >> well, because the u.s -- european alliance is a key cornerstone of stability and peace in the world, and it's important to us economically. and to surrender countries like ukraine and poland and the baltics and eastern and central europe to russian domination would be a grave mistake. it would simply embolden putin and act against the interests of the united states and diminish our standing in the world and the standing of our allies. so we have vital interests in europe, and the idea that those interests would be well serve by turning europe back into eastern and central europe back into part of the russian empire is ridiculous. bret: the secretary of state, juan, said this morning that he can't say whether it's likely or not that russia will go into ukraine and that they're committed to dialogue and diplomacy. but it seems like putin is pretty aggressive in the face of what have been very significant threats at least financially with sanctions from president biden. >> that's right. so i think the primary accomplishment of the biden administration so far on this issue is molding the u.s. and european allies into a united front against this chest-pounding effort to, you know, reimagine the former soviet union by vladimir putin. right now you have the potential for sanctions that would punish russia substantially in terms of removing them from the international financial system, in terms of potentially recreating or expanding nato to the non-european -- the eastern european countries that are non-aligned at the moment. and then, of course, you have the critical issue of in order stream that would go from russia to germany. i think germany has been reluctant to shut that down, but now you have president biden working with the new german chancellor saying, you know what? we have to look at this seriously and look at if there are alternative sources for natural gas to get to germany. that's a major, major shift in thinking among the germans and a critical sanction, critical punishment potentially for the russians. bret: gillian, meantime, kazahkstan, a country of about 20 million people, about four times the size of texas. it's the second largest oil producer in the ex-soviet state. so what's the significance of kazahkstan's action with russian troops going in, and could this ukraine standoff on the border be kind of a head fake for russia to do some action inside kazahkstan? >> the reason you just laid out, the fact they're a relatively oil-rich nation, are some of the reasons why putin is interested in the first place. what happened this week, bret, is remarkable because the president there essentially flipped sides seemingly overnight. he had been sort of stand-up, low-key bureaucrat who people saw plodding along into the future. he had allied himself with the foreman regime there, not putin. -- former regime. now he's teamed up with putin against the protesters and rioters showing essentially putin's wish to kind of remake that renal of the world in the image of the cold war is still alive and well. a lot of leaders of these former satellite statements will family up with putin if they deem it pretty create expedient to do s. the threat is alive and well. bret: another international incident, less scale perhaps but still serious, the number one tennis player in the world, karl, novak djokovic is in melbourne in a hotel somewhere. he was denied wednesday entry by federal border authorities because of his -- he couldn't prove his exemption to the covid-19 vaccination requirements, and there's a question about not only this year, but for three years whether he gets in. it's strict in australia. >> yeah. the australian state of victoria said come on down and play tennis, but the national government, the prime minister, said, no, we're going to enforce the rules, and you're not allowed in. we've got a standoff. we're not the only country in which there are disputes, apparently, between the state and federal governments, and australia seems to be mt. middlest of one. -- in the midst of one. bret: juan, what did you make of the cdc director's words today? >> i thought that was a very important interview. i thought you were really tough with her in terms of what did sonia sotomayor say on the supreme court, is that right, because it's so important with these decisions coming down. but the critical point she said was, you know, thank you for asking this question about whether the american people have more or lets confidence two years, in the cdc, two years into this pandemic. she said thanks because, look, it's an evolving issue. the science is evolving, the crisis is evolving, and i'm trying my best. on that level, i guess that's the best she could do. but, you know, people do have questions about the extent to which we should quarantine, whether or not a negative test is required. there's no question about the efficacy of the vaccine itself, about masking, social distancing. you know, we still have, i think last week it was, like, three-quarters of a million people, you know, getting sick with this covid. so this is an ongoing pandemic, but she did the best she could with tough questions. bret: we have to take a break here. when we return, two major announcements for republicans in their quest to regain the senate in '22. ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? 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[female narrator] every day, americorps members and volunteers live out their values to make communities stronger. what's at your core? learn more at americorps.gov. >> this is their christmas, okay? >> they are going to take this and milk if this for anything they could to smear anyone who ever supported donald trump. bret: there'll governor desantis saying democrats labeling republicans as extremists will backfire on them between now and november. we're back with the panel. karl, this week you wrote this op-ed that was pretty blistering in some ways saying republicans have a heavy burden. one year after january 6th, there can be no soft-pedaling what happened and no absolution pollution for those who aided the attempt to overthrow our democracy. but democrats should be resisting the leadership's petty habit of aggravating partisan fault lines by indiscriminately condemning all who came to washington that day. the president gives this scathing speech, points directly at former president trump. can a speech like that, in your opinion -- as we look to this election year -- move republicans or independents in any way to help the administration or democrats? >> no. i thought it was tone deaf. that was a day to herald the institutions of our government that worked on january 6th, not to engage in a deeply personal attack at donald j. trump. the purpose of that was to set up the 2024 election. look, republicans have to acknowledge that what happened on january 6th was atrocious and that the people who invaded the capitol, assaulted 140 police officers, made threats against the lives of the leadership of our congress and attempted to disrupt a constitutionally mandated, statutoryly-required joint session of congress, that every one of hose people ought to be identified, prosecuted and, if found guilty, punished. but let's be careful with the high partisanship. jim clyburn, whom you had on earlier, let's just remember in 2005 he was of one of the 31 members of the house of representatives who made outrageous claims about the 2004 election including electronic flipping of votes in ohio and voted not to certify the election of george w. bush to a second term. and he's the third ranking democrat in the house. so we found a way to get over these in some instances, but republicans have got to start by a acknowledging what happened on january 6th. bret: juan, make it quick, but is voting rights where democrats hang their hat even though they don't have the votes in the senatesome. >> yeah. they've got to do something there. you know, i think president biden gave a great speech this week. i don't think there's any question about that. i think it had impact on democrats, independents and republicans who care about democracy. hats off to karl for speaking the truth in his column, but, you know, voting rights is a major issue for the biden base. it energizes people. i don't know that they have the votes, but they've got to make a serious effort here to stop efforts at voter suppression by republican state legislatures. bret: last thing. number two rewill palin in the senate, john thune, announcing his plans to run for he election, viewed as a potential successor to mitch mcconnell, and senator ron johnson announcing he is going to run which means the republican prospects for winning back the nat in december. -- senate in december. panel, thank you. we'll see you next week. thank you very much. that's it for us today. i'll see you tomorrow at "special report" at 6 p.m. eastern on fox news channel. have a great week, we'll see you next "fox news sunday." ♪ ♪ maria: good sunday morning, everyone. thanks so much for joining us. welcome come to "sunday morning futures," i'm maria bartiromo. happy new year. it is a new day. congress returns to work tomorrow, and we officially kicked off the midterm election year. coming up,ia the man hoping to take gavel for the gop majority after thisin november's electio, leaderer kevin mccarthy is here laying out the gop agenda as the supreme court takes up joe biden's vaccine mandates as he pleads to follow his rules. >> for p