was across the board. he had hoped to succeed to implement this for all businesses with more than 100 employees. the court did allow the vaccine tests and mandates to stand for healthcare workers to go into effect because they are federally funded but this was really just icing on the cake of what looks like the worst week yet for the biden white house. jen psaki acknowledging this loss but saying now they hope that companies and not the federal government will take it upon themselves to decide how they want to handle covid and the policies that they implement. >> the supreme court's decision on the osha mandate essentially means that the pandemic is up to individual employers to determine whether their workplaces will be safe for employees and whether their businesses will be safe for consumers. >> at least one republican senator suggesting that the white house may be glad to be out of this potentially losing battle for them. watch this. >> there might be some secret sighs of relief going on at the white house right now. this is a problem they can now think about in a different way. >> arizona attorney general mark brnovich co-led the lawsuit against the president's mandate and i will speak with him in a moment. jackie heinrich live at the white house with the latest what's going on there. >> the supreme court slapped down that mandate for large private businesses. the vaccine or test mandate. the justices writing while covid spreads in the workplace it also spreads in schools and at home and anywhere that people gather. that is exactly the kind of universal risk that is beyond osha's power to address. the president is now pushing states and individual employers to reimpose those mandates. he wrote the decision quote does not stop me from using my voice as president to advocate for employers to do the right thing to protect americans' health and the economy. republicans are taking a victory lap. >> the court has got a lot of good conservatives on it. thank you, mr. trump and mitch mcconnell. >> what we've seen now over the last with the rise of the omicron variant that lots and lots of people who are vaccinated are getting the virus and they are passing on the virus. these mandates don't even have a point anymore. the point apparently is just to punish anyone who deviates from the democratic party line. >> the court did uphold the mandate for healthcare workers whose facilities are federally funded with medicare and medicaid. it allowed the mandate to remain in place for more than 10 million healthcare workers. >> we have a shortage of healthcare workers. we need nurses and doctors, we need specialists to be able to come to work and so this is disappointing there wasn't at least an exception given by the supreme court for people who have concerns or health issues who cannot take a vaccine for one reason or another. >> even with this defeat the biden administration sees a bit of a silver lining. they were able to outline a roadmap for these employers to put the mandates in place. ahead of the enforcement deadline and many of them have including some who likely wouldn't have otherwise taken any action, martha. >> jackie, thank you very much. mark brnovich is arizona's attorney general. he co-led the lawsuit. you know, what about this idea that perhaps as we heard from senator blunt that perhaps this takes a burden off of this white house. they were going to continue to be losses from companies who wanted to make their own determination about how they run their own business. >> absolutely. we always must start with the primis that the constitution is the law of the land and states created the federal government not the federal government creating the states. we were very happy with what the supreme court did on the osha mandates to protecting more than 80 million employees or people working in the united states. it was a little disappointing they didn't go further when it came to those hhs rules. i would like en this to a football game. the cardinals beat the rams this weekend. like kicking a field goal. it is not a touchdown or a turnover. points on the board. an important decision but i do worry that the supreme court and justice roberts and kavanaugh said that if congress passes a law the biden administration may be able to do this. i think it's unconstitutional and wish the supreme court had gone further and followed along with gorsuch, alito and thomas said there are serious constitutional questions about this. >> there was a fair amount of pushback against justice kavanaugh on social media. on the other side liberals were lashing out about the decision targeting the court and republicans. take a look at the tweets out there from brad woodhouse and georgetown professor. the court is willing to let people die in the name of indefensible formalism. the president should take the supreme court to task for this abomb nation. he says republicans want to prolong the pandemic so they can blame biden and win an election. the supreme court helped them. disgraceful. another, republican senator who changed the filibuster to pack the supreme court with three right wing extreme justices has just prolonged the pandemic. from a health perspective, that question was just raised moments ago about whether or not this vaccine treats omicron effectively. so i think that's a valid question for people to ask as they try to implement more vaccines going forward when we aren't sure if it addresses the need that's out there. plus you have supreme court justices making fallacies, false statements about what is going on out there. i think that undermined their credibility quite a bit. >> it is unfortunate that there is an old saying everyone is entitled to their own opinion not their own facts. what the left has done on immigration or vaccine mandates they have tried to demonize and destroy anyone that disagrees with them and the fundamental problem. when we concentrate so much power in washington, d.c. he when pays the piper calls the tune. whether healthcare or education all these issues now d.c. is trying to get involved in and they shouldn't be. the court, alexander hamilton used to say the court was the least dangerous part of government. unfortunately in this country our policymakers let executive agencies run amuck and let the bureaucrats run our lives, name your agency and it is not the way the framers intended our government to work. when it comes to public health, safety and welfare the decisions are meant to be left to the states where government is more accountable. people closer to government. we need to push back against the overreach of the federal government and realize not every problem requires a national solution. if we let it happen the biden administration will nationalize our economy and elections and undermine our freedom and why i'll keep fighting for every hard working american taxpayer. >> i heard ben shapiro put it very well. this would have set a precedent for osha to implement healthcare and mandate vaccines in other instances across the country and opened the door for osha to make healthcare decisions for private workers across the country and the door hasn't been opened as a result of this decision. it was good to see you, sir. >> never an issue whether or not we should do something about the covid vaccine or whether covid was an issue or not. this was an issue of who had the authority to issue an actual mandate. it was a great day for liberty, a great day for our freedoms and great day for our constitutional and a great day for our small businesses who disproportionly been hurt by the mandate. >> business organizations are celebrating the supreme court's ruling as a welcome relief. president biden says it won't stop him from calling on companies to voluntarily impose their own vaccine or test requirements. one of the world's largest financial companies is standing by that mandate. citigroup says it will fire any employee who hasn't complied by today. art laffer former economic president advisor to president reagan good to see you. that's the way it should be. allowing these companies to make their own determination and those employees have a decision to make whether or not they want to continue to work at that company or work somewhere else. >> it is not covid restrictions that matters. it matters who makes those decisions. i really laud the supreme court for doing what they did and just remember i'm not a lawyer, martha. i think before i speak. but i think that's a great decision that they made and i think it's great on both counts. and it is not a covid this or covid that or whether it's right or not to require it. it's who makes that decision. and the more you allow businesses to make that decision and look at the individual cases involved, it is not a one size fits all. it is really you have to tailor make it to the individual companies, the states, whatever. and whenever the federal government does stuff like this it will hurt the economy and society at large. >> and it would have opened the door for a lot of new regulations and that obviously is a weight on companies across this country. that is a relief for them as well. the economic hits have kept coming for americans and for this white house to face. this week we learned inflation rose 7% during december. a four-decade high. the labor department also reported prices jumped a record 9.7% last year. listen to this. >> every time you come in everything is 50 cents more. every day, every day, every day. >> a little bit of an increase on everything. $20 or $30 more in my total costs. >> i don't splurge like i used to. >> we have the wrong people in office. they have a different agenda that's not for the average person's benefit. >> "the washington examiner" with this headline. it sends a biden searching for distractions saying it is clear the biden economy is in an inflation crisis. a crisis that neither biden nor his useless twitter addicted senior staff has any clue how to fix. if you wonder why biden has become so bitter about legislation in congress that is going nowhere look no further than these economic results. the average worker in 2021 lost the equivalent of two paychecks due to biden inflation. an editorial from "the washington examiner". your thoughts on that, art. >> i just say ouch. that hurts to even me watching it from a distance. the truth of the matter is it is very inflationary. you have the fed that has no constraints any longer, you have the passage of this legislation that puts huge amounts of spending power in people's hands who don't work. so you have demand hitting and no supplies coming on stream and you have the large numbers, which by the way, martha, just for the record are year numbers. they are not going to change substantially over the next three, four, five, six months because almost all of those numbers are already baked into the cake. the thing that bothers me on the inflation numbers even more than than they're baked into the cake is that the wholesale price index precedes the consumer price index and the wholesale price index is up a lot more than is the consumer price index. if you look at the passage of time, i would expect the consumer price index to rise going on into the future because prices pushing the consumer prices higher. it is bad. then you get the retail sales today, martha, just a catastrophe for one month. it can obviously be offset next month or whatever but these are all just piling on this administration who deserves to be piled on. >> you know, we saw that video of the president on the hill yesterday pushing for changes in voting laws. i think about prior attempts to sort of make inflation the banner issue, you know, with inflation now, right? why aren't we seeing that as sort of just get your arms around it and lead on this issue? >> you should. in fact, when jerry ford did the whip inflation out was a catastrophic policy as biden's we at the university of chicago back then it wasn't win buttons we wore lose buttons. let others save the economy. this is the one where biden should stop doing the poll seals he is doing, which is causing the inflation. he is the anti-reagan. reagan stopped the inflation and biden is causing it the way i put it in the paper i put out recently is that reagan healed the sick and biden is infecting the healthy. that is just reversal of your policies and you will get a great economy. >> talking about going back to congress for more money for covid relief. art, thank you very much. >> crazy. thank you, martha. good to see you as always. >> good to see you, thanks. vice president harris not catching any breaks in the new year. her word salad answer on the white house's covid strategy. plus this. >> joe biden had, i think, one of the worst weeks of any president since maybe watergate. without drastic changes, you are basically a lame duck. >> well, everything that could have gone wrong this week pretty much did. can the white house bounce back from the president's terrible, horrible, really bad week? buck sexton is up next. i broughn ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! (sighs wearily) here i'll take that! (excited yell) woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and nutrients to support immune health. veteran homeowners- you deserve more. one gram of sugar, more cash, more savings, and more financial peace of mind. newday can help you get it with the newday 100 va cash out loan. it lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value: up to $60,000 or more. and veterans are saving an average of $615 every month. with more ways to help more veteran families, no bank, no lender, no one knows veterans like newday usa. people with moderate to severe psoriasis, are rethinking the choices they make like the splash they create the entrance they make, the surprises they initiate. otezla. it's a choice you can make. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -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. ♪ every day in business brings something new. only pay for what you need. so get the flexibility of the new mobile service designed for your small business. introducing comcast business mobile. you get the most reliable network with nationwide 5g included. and you can get unlimited data for just $30 per line per month when you get four lines or mix and match data options. available now for comcast business internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. >> frankly things seem like they're going poorly now. at what point do you take stock and say things need to change. if things were going well no need for change right now? >> i think having worked in the white house before, you do hard things in white house's and a propose legislation to see if people support bunny rabbits and ice cream but it wouldn't be very rewarding to the american people. >> martha: snarky response after the possible worst week for president biden's term so far. not an exhaustive list. approval rating hit a new law. security killed vaccine mandate for businesses. progressives and moderates on voting ritz. inflation at levels we haven't seen in 40 years. bare shelves biden is trending amid a prolonged supply chain crisis and workers who are home because of covid. democratic senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema stood up and embarrassed the president by speaking quite clearly on their refusal to go along with his idea of blowing up the filibuster. on the pandemic an issue that was a huge reason that he won the election, covid cases hit a record high and deaths higher than they were in the trump administration. a "washington post" op-ed reading as biden chases support from progressives in his own party he has been spinning his wheels. biden hasn't delivered on uniting the country, but he has succeeded on many other things. successful presidency carry political momentum going from success to success. sadly president biden has lost much of that forward drive. buck sexton co-host of the buck sexton and clay travis show. i want to play this quick clip of greg gutfeld summing up how politically alone this president finds himself at this moment in his presidency. watch. >> joe embraced rhetoric about as unifying as alec bald win showing up on the set of a new western. unified america against him. even his allies admit he went too far. when you lose al sharpton and dick durbin you are on an island and no one wants to get near you. the only way off is to swim right through it. >> martha: when it comes to democratic voters and polling, ouch. new poll shows 75% approve of the job this president is doing down nearly 20 points. usually within your own party you are 80 or 90%. what do you make of what's going on here? >> not surprising the anybody, martha, that this is a slow-moving train wreck of a presidency and the problems are likely to only get worse. these aren't situations when you are looking at whether it's the decision to try to push the osha mandate which got struck down. when you look at the way the biden regime hanged ld, covid, economy and inflation you have a direct cause and effect from decisions that joe biden and the apparatus around him have made at various points here that have led to pretty disastrous outcomes. now that we've seen this, now that the results are in and run the experiment, so to speak he doesn't have the political capital to turn the ship around. he is not in a position to gain momentum he would need to get something big done. people are starting to say the earliest lame duck president they've ever seen and saying that biden regime is essentially floundering and going to continue that way because what else is the move here? they can't break the filibuster. manchin and cinema are standing strong so far. you have a lot of talk of the insurrection and telling people to triple mask at home alone and get their fourth or fifth shot. i don't think it will turn it around. >> martha: recently several doctors who advise the president recommended that he change his strategy. they said you have to go from shutting down the virus which the president ran on, to telling americans they have to live with it. guess what? americans already think that. 81% say you know what? we get it. the thing has dumd down thankfully. we aren't out of it but we'll go on with our lives and 14% think it will be eradicated. does he need to switch gears in dr. fauci's seat or other places like that and maybe in his chief of staff chair as some potential changes to start to turn this thing around? >> this is what you would expect. if they were really serious about looking at not just the science but the numbers, data, reality of what we're going through they would bring in fresh voices and bring in some people who have a different approach to the risks inherent in living in the era of covid. instead you have babble. harris said doing the thing we do everything day or whatever she said it effectively the biden administration's best case now. they don't actually have a way to explain how we go forward with this so they will drag us through doubling down on the madness and people are waking up and seeing who before i think were willing to go along and that's why the numbers down in the 30s for biden overall and we could see him in the 20s at some point. that's how bad things are going to get. >> martha: buck, think about it. he had a record number of people vote for him in this country. one of the reasons that happened was because people -- enough of them wanted to turn the page and they were drawn towards what was being presented as sort of a very moderate, take a breath, take a pause president who was going to keep things on the rails and make sure that the country proceeded at pace but not what we got. i keep wondering if one morning the president wakes up and says i told the country i was going to be a president for all americans. i'm not doing this anymore. i'm not listening to any of you anymore and i will do what i told the american people i was going to do when i ran for president. >> unless there is some major pivot they head into annihilation. the polling reflects that and democrats i talk to. to your point i've said the decisions he has made have been poor and that's pushing the numbers down. the overall promise of the joe biden election has been shown to be a lie, that he was going to bring back normalcy, shut down the virus, not the economy. unite the american people. nobody feels like this is a uniting president. the speech he gave a few days ago was disgraceful speaking about his opposition on voter i.d. and things like that. that's what we're talking about. it was an outrage and people know they were lied to and sold a bill of goods. those open having their minds changed understand that joe biden was never the guy, should never have been the guy and going forward there will have to be some other political approach from the democrats unless they really just want to see how much republicans can run up the scoreboard in november. >> martha: well, the clintons are poking their heads up out of the sand and seeing who notices. we'll see where that goes if democrats look for another alternative three more years in this president's term. buck, great to see you. thanks a lot. >> bill: thank you so much, martha. >> martha: president biden coming under fire for ignoring questions from the press and for saying this. >> president biden: me, too. >> martha: his white house insisted that the president is very available to the press but the numbers on his appearances and his question taking just tell a different story. plus this. >> while they say they want to destroy the filibuster it is only for the purposes of things they want to get through like voting rights that they claim will help voting rights. it is actually the opposite. >> martha: dems' push to change the filibuster was all but a failure at this point capping off president biden's really bad week. no other way of putting it. a terrible week. he pledged to keep moving forward on bbb and voting rights. tammy bruce is up next. if you used shipgo this whole thing wouldn't be a thing. yeah, dad! i don't want to deal with this. oh, you brought your luggage to the airport. that's adorable. with shipgo shipping your luggage before you fly you'll never have to wait around here again. like ever. that can't be comfortable though. shipgo.com the smart, fast, easy way to travel. ever wonder what everyone's doing on their phones? they're banking, with bank of america. his girlfriend just caught the bouquet, so he's checking in on that ring fund. that photographer? he's looking for something a little more zen, so he's thinking, “i'll open a yoga studio.” and as for the father of the bride? he's checking to see if he's on track to do this all over again... and again. bank of america's digital tools are so impressive, you just can't stop banking. >> we missed this time. we missed this time. the state legislative bodies continue to change the law not as to who can vote but who gets to count the vote. count the vote. count the vote. it's about election subversion. >> martha: president biden frustrated yesterday admitting that his bush to overhaul elections by changing the senate filibuster rule is likely not going to get done. he said i don't know whether we'll be able to get this done. that came after moments before that arizona senator kyrsten sinema got up and said she wouldn't go for changing the filibuster and joined joe manchin in that effort. here is sinema in a rare and emotional floor speech. watch this. >> while i continue to support these bills, i will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country. the debate over the senate 60-vote threshold shines a light on our broader challenges. >> martha: more on the ongoing drama today. >> a stinging blow to president biden on voting rights and the filibuster. democrats lack the votes to change the filibuster exclusively for voting bills the president is skeptical about what's next. >> president biden: i hope we can get this done. honest to god answer is i don't know whether we can get this done. >> the president also failed to deliver on build back better in december stymied by his own party namely joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. aclu senior staffer tweeting that sinema sounded like she would cry on the floor because left wing attacks were breaking her. the g.o.p. embraced sinema. >> hats off to senator sinema. she kept the senate intact at least for a while. it will change the senate and make it the house. so congratulations to her. she deserves a lot of credit as well as senator manchin. >> some legislative goals aren't ripe yet. it takes awhile to get the proper political weather. democrats nixed a plan for a symbolic weekend session and votes on martin luther king day. >> due to the circumstances regarding covid and another potentially hazardous winter storm approaching the d.c. area this weekend the senate will adjourn tonight. make no mistake the united states senate will for the first time this congress debate voting rights legislation beginning on tuesday. >> democrats need all of their members on board and available to vote but it is about the math. at least one senate democrat is sidelined because of covid. martha. >> martha: thank you very much. for more on this let's bring in tammy bruce, fox news contributor and host of get tammy bruce on fox nation. tammy, obviously a very rough week. chuck schumer threw in the towel for this weekend thanks in part to a coming winter storm. what do you think? >> you know, there is so much going on here because it is a bad week. and it is a bad week, been a bad year. not for joe biden so much but for the american people. this is the con -- conundrum. if the leftist ideas are successful the country loses. if he is unsuccessful the country loses because there is no leadership. sinema is not a conservative. she is just not a leftist democrat. there is no crying in baseball. what we saw from the left from the tweet you showed was that these are bullies. the left are bullies who have been successful at pressuring people at the point as an adult woman like she will shutter and collapse on the senate floor. they get excited at that. i saw it so long on the left. the emergence of threats and intimidation, pushing people to do things in a certain way. many have collapsed to that but we've seen that the american people i would disagree with sinema's assertion that we're like this disease of division. not in america. look at those polls, martha, right? not here. the american people are united in not wanting anything that is going on right now. maybe the senate is divided but they have to realize we're 2 ones out here. all of this is affecting us. immigration, inflation, the crime across the country, bad foreign policy, bad actors around the world. overreacting, getting excited, wanting to do more. all of it affects us. dynamics that have to change and it is more than just wondering if joe biden is going to have a bad week. he is going to have a bad three years. we're going to have a bad three years and why the mid-terms will matter so much to the american people. >> martha: you make a great point, tammy. what's happened and what we've seen with the things being pursued is that they are out of touch. they aren't meeting people where they are in the country in terms of what they care about. and then you get this message coming from some in the media and here they are melting down over kyrsten sinema's defense of the filibuster when they defended time and time again when it suited them. >> sinema did something extraordinary. she went to the floor of the senate within an hour of the president knowing what he would do and she completely embarrassed the leader of her own party, sitting president of the united states. >> martha: the liberal commentator keith ol berman calling on her to resign laura o'donnell. childish words a melodramatic effects. >> this is what they don't understand is that kyrsten sinema and joe manchin represent the grassroots and average democratic voter. they're representing the nature. they look at the polls and go back home. they are the voice of the average person in this country in general. keep in mind, martha, the democrats use the filibuster just yesterday to stop ted cruz's sanctions on the nord stream pipeline. they used it to their advantage. it didn't pass because they enjoyed using that. kyrsten sinema and all the other people that disagree it's supposed to happen in the senate. you aren't supposed to shut people down. it is coming together and finding the compromise. instead it's chopping off heads which americans don't appreciate. >> martha: we've seen it work that way for republicans who have been disappointed by a couple of hold-out senators at times and democrats as well. as you point out they got a win for the filibuster with ted cruz yesterday. maybe they should think sinema for what might help them in another round. not a great kickoff to the new year and that also applies to the vice president. a recent interview has critics comparing her to characters like kramer from seinfeld and michael scott from the office. we'll show you what she said and why wasn't she prepared with a better answer for what was obviously coming as a question? we'll get into it with the power panel. >> she gave importances because she is not in the loop. she does not have a teamworking for her. several staffers quit. you can't name me one accomplishment from kamala harris. now make another one and turn your equity into cash with your va home loan benefit. the newday 100 va loan lets you borrow 100% of your home's value. upgrade the kitchen, add a pool for the grandkids, or have the security of cash in the bank. with today's high home values, turning equity into cash is a really smart move. trelegy for copd. [coughing] ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze driftin' on by... ♪ if you've been playing down your copd,... ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day,... ♪ ...it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. ♪...and i'm feelin' good. ♪ no once-daily copd medicine... has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy, and save at trelegy.com. ♪ dry eye symptoms keep driving you crazy? inflammation in your eye might be to blame. let's kick ken's ache and burn into gear! over the counter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. those drops will probably pass right by me. xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. what's that? xiidra? no! it can provide lasting relief. xiidra is the only fda-approved non-steroid eye drop specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you're allergic to xiidra. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. after using xiidra, wait fifteen minutes before reinserting contacts. got any room in your eye? be proactive about managing your symptoms by talking to your doctor about twice-daily xiidra. like i did. i prefer you didn't. xiidra. not today, dry eye. for investors who can navigate this landscape, i prefer you didn't. leveraging gold, a strategic and sustainable asset... the path is gilded with the potential for rich returns. [ sigh ] not gonna happen. that's it. i'm calling kohler about their walk-in bath. my name is ken. how may i help you? hi, i'm calling about kohler's walk-in bath. excellent! happy to help. huh? hold one moment please... [ finger snaps ] hmm. ♪ ♪ the kohler walk-in bath features an extra-wide opening and a low step-in at three inches, which is 25 to 60% lower than some leading competitors. the bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience. are you seeing this? the kohler walk-in bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassage. everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohler-certified installer. and it's made by kohler- america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath. yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. call... for fifteen hundred dollars off your kohler walk-in bath. visit kohlerwalkinbath.com for more info. >> martha: president biden ignoring questions from reporters yesterday after his remarks on the administration's covid response. watch this? >> vaccinated americans are wondering why they have to restrict their activities and health officials say most americans will get covid at some point? >> president biden: we'll talk about that later. come on. >> martha: he said he would look forward to that too. this comes from the associated press says the president held fewer first year press conferences than the five previous presidents. they've asked jen psaki about this for months and some of these responses to that. >> he takes questions multiple times a week. hopefully we'll be able to add local interviews in the next couple of weeks. president is taking your question. this president has done 1040, 150 by now short q and as where he takes questions from the press typically a couple times a week. it is not accurate to say he doesn't answer questions or isn't accessible. >> martha: let's bring in the power panel. mercedes schlapp, and brad woodhouse, former dnc communications director and obama campaign senior advisor. brad, what's going on? we watched the campaign which was mostly from the basement. he didn't get out a lot on the campaign trail. is there a reason this white house doesn't want the president to answer questions on a more regular basis? >> look, martha, for one i don't think that's true. you showed him in that clip answering questions from the press. you may not like the answers, may not like the length of the answers. >> martha: he didn't answer either question. he said we'll talk about that later. those aren't answers to the questions. >> those clearly are answers to the questions. he didn't just walk out of the room. the bottom of the chart you showed from the a.p. which was a study showed he has done 216 informal q and as as of december 31st. that's almost double what trump did in terms of informal q and a. >> martha: brad, you know what? let me tell you something. a lot of those -- this is not -- listen to me. let me tell you how most of those go. a minute, a minute 30 and someone jumps in and says we're done and the president says something i wasn't supposed to -- that -- you know as well as i do, you know as well as i do that president trump love him or hate him did 20 to 40 minutes every time he got on and off the chopper. free wheeling q and a and mercedes knows this better than anybody. >> what did that do for him? he lost reelection. >> martha: mercedes, what did it do for him? >> i have to bring out the popcorn, this is too good. brad, any communication expert knows this idea that biden is actually having quote, unquote press conferences, it is not happening. he literally doesn't go into any -- answering any complicated question on a variety of issues. he literally gives maybe a sentence or two and then walks out of the room. that is a -- >> 216. >> informal. i'm saying press conferences where he is standing right there in front of the press for 30 and answering a variety of questions. >> martha: brad, chill out. let me get in here. >> here is the deal. what the problem is, it is a disturbance to americans. we need to get to the bottom of this. the problem is i think that the communications team is giving the president bad advice. you can't just be a scripted teleprompter president. that's not effective. they are trying so hard to control the message for president biden and so scared he will fumble on answering what you would say are unscripted questions and i actually think that the com shop is doing a disservice to president biden. he should be going out there and answering the tough questions. >> martha: you know, there is a lot of discussion whether or not he needs to change the chief of staff office and communications office. the vice president has changed quite a few deck chairs. a number of people have left. "washington examiner" titled the stat to staff. kamala harris refuses to do her homework, a piece in the "washington examiner" editorial. accuses her of ignoring briefing materials prepared by her staffers and says she has a history of doing this in prior jobs as well as critics tear into her word salad answer on how the administration plans to shift gears and meet the moment with covid. this was her answer. watch this. >> at what point does the administration say you know what? the strategy isn't working. >> it is time for us to do what we have been doing and that time is every day. every day it is time for us to agree that there are things and tools that are available to us to slow this thing down. and so right now we know -- we still have a number of people that is in the millions of americans who have not been vaccinated and could be vaccinated and we are urging them to get vaccinated because it will save their life. >> martha: some on social media comparing the vice president to fictional characters like michael scott from the office with that convoluted answer. this article says it is like an episode of veep watching this. brad, what do you say? >> look, first of all let me say this. the amount of time this network spins bashing the vice president is a real tell how worried you are about her as a future political leader in the democratic party. the thing she talked about there that is critically important is vaccines. that's a very substantive part of the strategy. vaccines, masks, tests, the administration is doing this. republicans are prolonging the pandemic because they aren't doing those things. >> martha: she was on the "today" show and the host felt it was a question that needed an answer from this vice president and we are not bashing anybody. we are looking at what is going on. that's a question she should have been really ready for. what's going on? there have been a number of failures. put them on the screen and look at them. the american people want a successful president and successful vice president. mercedes, quick thought before we go. >> obviously kamala's poll numbers are very bad. you look at the fact she is a weak vice president. she adds very little value to the team. it also looks like she is not briefed on the materials and on these policy topics that are critical. >> martha: i'm out of time. thank you both for being here and watching "the faulkner focus". i will see you at 3:00 eastern on "the story". thanks to our guests. i may have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. or psoriatic arthritis. but we are so much more. we're team players and artists. designers and do-it-yourselfers. parents and friends. if joint pain is getting in the way of who you are, it's time to talk to your doctor about enbrel. enbrel helps relieve joint pain, and helps stop permanent joint damage. plus enbrel helps skin get clearer in psoriatic arthritis. ask your doctor about enbrel, so you can get back to your true self. play ball! enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. tell your doctor if you've been someplace where fungal infections are common. or if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding or paleness. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. visit enbrel.com to see how your joint damage could progress. enbrel. eligible patients may pay as little as $5 per month. >> present by the a very bad horrible week and just the last five days. it is only the second week in january. i'm kayleigh mcenany and this is outnumbered. i'm joined by my