>> john: a busy wednesday. expect another busy day today. i'm john roberts. >> sandra: and i'm sandra smith. "the story" starts now. >> trace: thank you. good afternoon. i'm trace gallagher in for martha maccallum. this is "the story." if you wear a mask, stay six feet apart and follow the rules, you're safe to get back in the classroom. that's the latest from researchers at the cdc says transmission in schools has been very rare. they cite data from several studies including this one out of wisconsin where spreads between students was "limited" and no staff members contracted covid at work. researchers writing there's little evidence that schools contribute to spread within the larger community as long as safety protocols are followed.

the new guidance comes as teacher's unions across the nation insist that classrooms are too dangerous to return to. in chicago, a strike is looming with faculty members insisting only a vaccine will make their works place safe. >> without being given access to a vaccine quickly and timely, we're putting our students at more exposure. we want to focus on students, end well but instead we're working tirelessly to see how we can vaccinated and safe. >> do i think teachers should be vaccinated? should we be prioritized? if we are being forced back into unsafe buildings? then yes. >> meantime, the biden administration is standing behind the teachers insisting their goal of opening schools in the first 100 day is possible through $130 billion worth of funding. >> the teachers i know want to work. they want to work in a safe

environment. >> i think what you're seeing is schools that haven't made the investment to keep the students safe. most of the teachers i talked to want to be back in the classroom. >> trace: here now, alex baronson and carroll markwietz. the teachers are not overruling science but that's what they're doing. keep them six feet apart and there's virtually no spread. your thoughts. >> absolutely infuriating. this is getting worse and worse. the unions have discovered this is something that they can use, i guess, to get more gains for their members in other ways and they're playing extremely hard on this. it has nothing to do with the science. the science says children, any

child healthy enough to go to school is at essentially no risk from serious consequences for covid. this is clear almost -- for almost a year now. the science also says and this has been clear for months and months, too, that schools are not a major vector of transmission. in a country like france, the schools in france have remained open almost since april or may of last year. the epidemic has waxed and waned in france like everywhere else there. why are they open there? because the teachers are committed to teaching kids. they don't want remote learning. >> trace: andthe studies in south carolina showing that kids are actually safer, better off in school than they are within the larger community. "the washington post," carol, wrote this op-ed saying teachers

are vital servants and should act like it. bureaucrats have been back on the job and show their courage and dedication every day. assuming some risk for themselves and their families. our teachers are needed, too. what do you think? >> yeah, that's absolutely right. again, the teachers i know also want to be back. the unions have all the control over them. they're wanting to get all of this money from the biden administration. that will be how they bring back the kids. i also want to bring back masks and social distancing. the schools that are not open are in major metropolises. in those places, doesn't matter how much money you rain down on them, you won't social distance six feet in every direction and have school open full time. i'm worried about the study $that the biden administration is pushing because it was led to part time school in september. something i've been worried about for a while.

>> trace: we talk about the mental health of students. i want you to listen to this mom, mother of four. she said this. listen. >> my 10-year-old son is a fifth grader. he's upset. he wants to be around kids, he wants to see his friends. it's very hard for them. they're voting yes for a strike while their own children are in private schools. those children are going to school. why can't mine? >> trace: i want the numbers on the screen if i can. this is from april, october to 219, ale pry to 2020. 5 to 11-year-olds, 5 to 20% increase in mental health related visits. carol, we have talked about the fact in be ninth months in las vegas, they had 18 children 9 years old included committing suicide.

>> this is a travesty. you can see this in the child development. what that woman said, private schools are open. suburban schools are open. it's not just going to have a wide educational gulf but a wide gap. this is a disaster. >> trace: alex, your thoughts? >> yeah, you think this is just vegas? the fact is that we don't have suicide day that from last year, but we have overdose data coming in. it is terrible. teens through people in their 50s. i'm hearing -- i get a lot of e-mail because i'm sort of on twitter. people know who i am. college students e-mail me, high school students e-mail me. they are -- as we head into a full 12 months of this, people are starting to really lose hope. they don't understand, yes, it's nice to hear that police and firefighters are working. how about the clerk at your local grocery store or walmart?

how about anybody that works in a mall? why is it that teachers are so much better than everybody else, that they don't have to work? i don't understand. or they get to choose where they work from. teaching is an in-person job and always been that way and there's a reason for that. children need sociallization in person. >> trace: 10 seconds. carol? >> i agree. to alex's original point, look at europe. in most cases they tonight have masking under 12. they don't social distance. they didn't put in new filtration systems or new buildings. they hopped their schools. we should have done the same months ago. >> trace: vegas counted the number of kids that committed suicide. it was 18, a lot of cities and towns across the country have not counted. and we might be astounded if they did. alex, carol, thanks for coming on. >> thanks. >> thanks. >> trace: a new terrorism alert.

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let's get to gillian turner with the breaking details. >> the bulletin warns about the threat of domestic terror attacks from now through april. the fbi says they have spoken to

law enforcement. they all agree the threat the real. the bulletin reads -- >> the rub here is that dhs says they don't have any ed of a specific or a credible plot, but this terror warning does match up with the recent decision with the fbi and secret service to keep a couple thousand national guard troops here in dc through the end of march. the capitol police have basically admitted to failing to protect the capitol from the invasion january 6. time ryan was in that meeting and he says keeping the guard in d.c. a few more months is a good call. listen. >> we're not going to let the national guard go home or we're not going to create an insafe environment for the country's business until we have that figured out. >> sending the guard home though

is a decision that not everyone here in the nation's capitol agrees with. defense hawk tom cotton tells fox news today "i sit on the intelligence committee but i'm aware of no specific credible threat reporting as distinguished from aspirational, uncoordinated bluster on the internet that justifies this discontinued troop presence." as with the homeland security bulletin, fox news is unaware of riots in recent days alated to the presidential transition. something else the bulletin says later on, we have reached out to dhs and asked them but so far we're not gotten any response. >> trace: gillian turner with breaking news. back to you when we get more specifics. thank you. also today, president biden insisting that we can't wait any longer on the issue of climate change. with action to make it an essential element of national security. his pick to lead the special presidential envoy, former secretary state turned climate czar, john kerry. >> the stakes on climate change

couldn't be any higher than they are right now. on april 22, earth day, we'll have a reconvening of the mayor economies forum. the convening of this summit is essential to ensuring that the -- that 2021 will be the year that makes up for the lost time of the last four years. >> joining me now, governor mike huckabee, former presidential candidate and fox news contributor. governor, thanks for coming on. we appreciate it. i want to play sound from gina mccarthy about jobs and then get your response. >> people need to have jobs. this is all about building the jobs of the future we want. not continuing to nibble at an economy that is no longer going to be where our future lies. >> trace: building jobs of the future. that is odd. a lot of people in the keystone

pipeline and oil rigs around the country that are laid off or about to be laid off that would big to differ with her, governor. >> there's a lot of people that are losing their jobs because of these energy policies of the biden administration. and i'd love to point out to john kerry, under president trump and he may find this hard to believe, he ought to pick up the newspaper and find out under president trump, we did better taking care of the u.s. environment than we did and would have under the paris climate accords. what we're not addressing are the two biggest polluters, china and india. we're surrendering our sovereignty to the globalists and it's not really affecting the polluters. i'll tell you who is proud of it, russia is excited. they'll sell more of their energy and get back in the market after taking a beating since we became energy independent. the big, big happy dance is

being done by the chinese. because we just gave them a stick to go ahead and pollute the world and no consequences. >> trace: governor, you'd think they'd look to california. they're going to put their eggs in renewalable energy. look a california. there's one key flaw. we have not figured out a way to store this stuff yesterday, wind and solar. you have to use it now. that's why they have rolling blackouts when it's too hot. there's different models to look at. you know, maybe slow steps, baby steps to get to where you want to go. >> i'm even fine with big steps as long as the marketplace can support it. government can't create these jobs in the energy sector. what the will, somebody comes up with great ideas to make solar and wind and other forms of energy affordable, usable and plentiful, the marketplace will take it.

as long as we don't have it, use what we have hundreds of years worth of. when the market is figuring it out, we'll go to some other form. that's the way it's supposed to work. >> trace: i want to play this sound bike from chuck schumer and get your response. >> might be a good idea for president biden to call a climate emergency. >> why? >> because he can -- it relates to what you're saying. then he can do many, many things under the emergency powers of the president that wouldn't have to go through -- that he could do without legislation. now, trump used this emergency for a stupid wall, which wasn't an emergency. if there ever was an emergency, climate is one. >> ever an emergency, climate is one. your time thought, governor. >> i'm anxious to see how chuck schumer will affect the climate by his hot air. he's not. we needed a wall to protect americans.

this doesn't protect us. it only emboldens our enminutes. >> trace: thanks, governor. >> thanks, trace. >> trace: rand paul hot off of a litmus test on impeachment and the results suggest the support is not there to convict. veteran homeowners: during uncertain times, money in the bank can bring you and your family real piece of mind. refiplus from newday usa can make it happen. refiplus lets you refinance at the lowest mortgage rates in history plus get an average of $50,000 cash for the financial security you and your family deserve. refiplus, only from newday usa. is is is is %-y

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. >> when a democrat inciting a

violence, no democrat will ask maxine waters incited violence when she told her supporters and i quote, that if you see a member of the trump administration at a restaurant, at a department store, at a gas station, you create a crowd and you push back on them. is that not incitement? >> trace: senator rand paul blasting hypocrisy and the left pushes impeachment on the same charge. some democrats admit the likelihood of a conviction slim after 45 republican senators backed a measure to dismiss the trial. >> i think yesterday's vote in which 45 republican members of the senate voted that in their view proceeding with the impeachment trial of a former president is a strong end case that it will be an uphill climb for president trump to be convicted and in any way sanctioned as a result of this.

>> trace: republican senator rand paul of kentucky joins me now. thanks for coming on. we appreciate it. you got a bit of endorsement from chris coons there. so it does look like an uphill battle and yet on we go. >> yeah, impeachment is dead on arrival. it will now be all theater. it a double standard when you think about it. kamala harris paid people bail for those rioting in cities. is that inciting people for violence when you're willing to pay people to get out of jail after they committed violence? should kamala harris be impeached? no, the answer is no. we would never do that because we're reasonable people. the democrats are wanting to impeach the president because they're deranged with hatred and bitterness. the president never said anything close to what kamala harris did. he never said anything close to what bernie sanders did in saying, well the republican plan

is you get sick and die. that incited one of his followers to nearly kill steve scalise because he was incited by intemperate words of democrats. none of us would have said they should have been impeach and none of us said that kamala harris is responsible for the violence or that bernie sanders is responsible for the violence because we don't think that that is a reasonable thing to is a i. but every one of them said it about trump. remember, it's a double standard. >> trace: i want to stay on impeachment but also the violence in port land and seattle that the media has largely and politicians have largely ignored. very quickly. >> yeah, if you ask the people there, they're tired of the violence. ultimately i think they're going to get rid of these politicians. they've resigned or not running for re-election. people are tired of the violence. i haven't heard the democrats condemning the violence. they've been calling it the

summer of love. it's a double standard. i'm not going to sit around and take it nicely and say oh, we need to really thoroughly examine the president's speech. i'll examine the president's speech when we can talk about kamala harris getting bail for people burning down cities. >> trace: your name came up, come up several times in the past several days. came up on msnbc. joe scarborough going after conservatives and you in particular. listen. >> forget? forget? you're out of your mind and you're not a conservative. that is how conservatives do not talk. this is what the republicans in the senate want you to forget. this is what rand paul wants you to forget. >> trace: this is what rand paul wants you to forget. your response. >> if anybody has forgotten

they're a conservative is joe scarborough. i stood up and opposed the president's position on the electoral college. i did vote to seat the electors. i thought the argument was wrong. i made that argument. joe scarborough is so much a hater of all republicans and things conservative that he doesn't listen to the issues. i made reasonable arguments against many of the president's positions on a series of important issues. scarborough has no clue because he's deranged and surrounded himself. so he has no idea what's going on and call names. if he were fair-minded, he would look at the comments that democrats made. maxine waters saying it's the summer of love as they burn her city down. not one time have we said that you should impeach cory booker or that you should impeach kamala harris or impeach bernie sanders because we're much more fair-minded people.

i let the public decide who is right on that. >> let me place this sound bite from megan mccain and 15 seconds to wrap it up. >> i believe president trump should be impeach. we have to make a fine line about what is acceptable for a president to to or not. he incited a riot. people died. i cannot defend people who are against impeachment. >> defend yourself very quickly, senator. >> i think we ought to look at the facts. apparently the violence happened while the president was giving the speech to other people. apparently people plotted about this violence weeks in advance on facebook. the other thing is, she needs to look at democrat's language and use the same standard. so if she wants to impeach the president, she should impeach maxine waters, cory booker and kamala harris. >> trace: thanks, rand paul. also here, andy mccarthy,

contributing editor for fox news. you talk about republican senators doesn't look like they're going to vote to convict. mitch mcconnell says hey, look, i want to hear the evidence, i want to see the evidence and make up my mind. any chance, andy, in your estimation they can convince 12 more senators to jump on board with this? >> i don't think so, trace. the reason is the way that this was teed up in the senate yesterday on senator paul's motion was to say basically that the senate doesn't have constitutional jurisdiction to have this trial. and that gives every republican who took that position the out to say it's not a question of how bad the facts are. it's not a question about whether i'm against violence. the constitution doesn't permit this. so that's sort of the i think safe legal position that they're trying to gravitate to. >> the argument, andy, that some

say look, you impeach the president because he cannot be prosecuted. if the president is out of office and you feel like you have a compelling case to prosecute, why not prosecute? >> there's no question, trace, if there's a criminal offense he can be prosecuted. now, i think we may have talked about this before. i prosecuted an incitement case against terrorists in the 1990s. it's a very tough proof. i don't think there's a case there. but if there is one, absolutely the criminal justice system is the place where it would be brought. >> trace: yeah, i want to place this if i can. senator susan collins wrote this quoting "would be in lieu of a trial, if the outcome of the trial is already obvious which we discussed it might be, which i believe yesterday's vote shows no possibility of conviction. the question is there another way of expressioning condemnation of the president's

activities with regard to the riot and the pressure he put on state officials. she's talking about censure, what are your thoughts on that? >> i've been in favor of censure all along. it would be more productive than impeachment, which has no chance of success. >> andy mccarthy, thanks for coming on. i appreciate it. >> biden's call for a global alliance to confront the china threat met with a vail by president xi. more on the global factors at play next.

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president who warns a misguided approach of confrontation will hurt all countries and at least one u.s. ally agrees. what? >> the chinese president spoke yesterday and he and i agree on that. we see a need for more naturalism. i would like to avoid the building blocks, you know. i don't think it would do justice to society to say if this is the united states and there is china and we're grouping around one or the other. this is not my understanding of how things ought to be. >> trace: here is richard grenell former secretary of intelligence for the trump administration. what did you think about angela merkel say teaming up against china is not the way it should be. >> anybody that is surprised by these words hasn't been watching long. this is the largest economy

coming from the largest economy in europe, the germans and many in europe. the troubling sign here is that the biden administration goes back to their typical language of happy talk. pretending like somehow consensus is just a meeting that was supposed to happen. it's difficult when you look at the issues that china has been pushing. you look at the huawei issue. official recognition around the corner, the push from irresponsible facial recognition companies in china. a lot of issues. if the biden team is not looking closely, they'll be very surprised going forward. >> a foreign policy analyst in berlin said --

>> trace: what do you think? >> look, if i was the u.s. ambassador and i read that, i would say there's no choice between business and human rights. you always come down on human rights. this is a western alliance. when you look at nato spending, nord stream 2 with the buying of russian gas, this is the problem. the western alliance is freying not because america is doing something didn't but little by little, the western alliance has frayed from the western side of europe. the europeans little by little have been moving from us. when donald trump put his foot down and said if you care about the western a line, act western.

pick the western side. for the chancellor of germany on the day of international remembrance of the holocaust for her to somehow say that she doesn't know which side she's on between communist china and the united states, that's very, very troubles. i hope jake sullivan and kamala harris and joe biden and susan rice were all paying attention. >> trace: it's not hard to see that china is cheating when it comes to intellectual property, militarizing the south china sea. these are easy things to see. thanks, rick. thanks for coming up. >> thanks, trace. >> trace: bernie sanders is looking for a federal minimum wage hike. we'll look at the potential impact on business owners next. >> if raising a wage from $7.25 which has not been raised in ten

years to $15 an hour, a living wage a radical idea?

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>> trace: with democrats in control of washington, bernie sanders reviving calls to raise the wage with a federal increase to $15 per hour over time. >> let us be clear and i don't any there's any debate about this, there ain't nobody in america not in the north or the south, the east or the west can survive on $7.25 an hour. >> so let get to work and let's help tens of millions of americans have hope for a better life by raising the federal minimum wage. >> trace: for restaurant owners struggle doing survive, the

prospect is alarming. gerri willis has more. gerri? >> hey, trace. that's right. i'm at rare bit in westchester county. take a look at the offerings here. this is one of hundreds of restaurants here and hundreds of thousands across the country that will likely have to deal with higher wages. bernie sanders is introducing legislation yesterday that would double the minimum wage to $15. the first increase in ten years. one big secret about that law, they want to put in cost of living adjustment, an adjustment based on median wages. big impact there. for impacts to restaurants generally, let's turn to scott brockway, the opener of rare bit. you faced this in san francisco, saw the minimum wage rise. how did it impact your business there? >> it practically crushed up. we got to a point that we had to

lay people off, cut hours. still raise our prices at the same time. service is suffering, costs are going up. it's difficult to manage. doing this right now with everything else we have to deal with makes no sense to me. >> the timing like a double whammy for you guys for sure. what will this mean for restaurants long-term? >> long-term we have to make serious changes. you're seeing it happen in the major fast food corporations like starbucks. they're going kiosks. that's not a good thing. >> thank you as i go back to you, trace, i want to mention a study from the cbo that showed the impact of a doubling of the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a loss of 1.3 million jobs. trace? >> trace: thanks, gerri willis. good to see you. let's bring in andy puzner. andy, you know, this as gerri

just said this, this conversation is going on for years. i found a restauranteur said restaurants would no longer be viable if labor costs rise. we can't just jack up the prices and pass the cost. there's real limits to what people will pay. you heard him and the restauranteur that we just talked to. what is your thoughts? >> you can't raise the minimum wage for these small businesses out of a recession. small businesses are dropping like flies. they're closing every day and the jobs that go with them. minimum wage is zero. you can't shut it down when you're coming out of a recession. you can't increase labor costs. bernie sanders knows perfectly well that nobody is out there making $7.25 an hour. you can't hire an employee for

less than $11 or $12 an hour right now. despite what the federal minimum wage is. this is political. gerri mentioned the cbo said they would lose 1.3 million jobs. that was the median number. they said you could lose up to 3.7 million jobs and a report came out on monday of this week looking at the research on the minimum wage by the national bureau of economic research. again a nonpartisan group. they said it kills low wage jobs. kill small businesses and low wage jobs and hurt american workers. sanders knows it. it's political. they don't want to pass it. they prefer that republicans prevented it. >> trace: some critics say florida did it. california did it. they're still in business. what is the argument? >> that's where it should be done, done at the state level or the city level.

florida is a very prosperous state right now. they have people moving there from all over the country to get away from high taxes in states like new york. california has been a very prosperous state. you can raise the minimum wage in san francisco to $14 an hour and people are not going to notice. you go 80 miles east to stockton and it will hurt. state level is fine. better at the city level. i would point out that florida did not raise their wage to $14 an hour this year. it goes to $15 an hour by 2026. so that is six years down the road.right now the minimum wage in florida is about $8.50. so you know, that is not what happened in florida. they didn't go to $15 an hour. >> trace: you know what i hear? business owners say a lot of times when they talk about raising minimum wage, we look at things liked automation and outsourcing, right? some of these restaurants are already in the time of covid going toward a lot of automation, which is in essence

going to cost jobs down the road. >> that's absolutely right. you can't pay people more than what they produce for your business. in other words, if you bring somebody in, you know, they're an entry level employees, they don't produce anything at first. after a couple months, maybe they produce 7, 8, 9 of benefit an hour. you can't pay them $15 an hour, so you try to find a way the accomplish that task. you hire fowler people or experienced people that were worth a higher wage or you automate. if you can automate, you automate because it's less expensive. that is what a minimum wage will do. it will kill small businesses, which we need right now, and it will kill jobs. we've got 10.7 million people unemployed. another 7 million that are not in the labor force but want a job. 18 million people looking for jobs coming out of this pandemic recession. we need to find jobs for them. we don't need to kill those jobs. >> trace: tough times for a lot

of people. thanks, andy. we appreciate it. >> thanks, trace. my pleasure. >> trace: howie kurtz says there's a shift underway in media's treatment of joe biden. suddenly it's not the guy down at mar-a-largo that is responsible for every issue around the globe. and the new president is beginning to feel the heat. >> i know he always asked me tough questions. he always has an edge to it. i like him anyway. go ahead and ask the question. here's huge news for veteran homeowners who need cash. refiplus from newday usa. record low mortgage rates have fallen again, while home values just keep climbing. refiplus lets you refinance at record low rates plus get an average of $50,000 for retirement tomorrow and for peace of mind today. refiplus. it's huge news. it's only for veterans. and it's only from newday usa.

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where i needed it. ♪ rock music ♪ >> man: that's service i can trust... no matter what i'm hauling. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ >> trace: after coming under fire during the cam pain season for a so-called basement strategy that allowed him to escape tough questions, joe biden's white house podium now in the direct path of reporters preparing to hold him accountable. >> we may get that to 150 million a day rather than 1 million a day. we have to meet that goal of a

million a day. >> did the president miss speak when he said the goal is 150 million shots in 150 days or operating under some new update that he got? >> he didn't say the new goal is. the president said i hope we can do even more than that. that is certainly his hope. >> trace: let's bring in media buzz host, howard kurtz. howie, good to see you. it's not trump push-back by any stretch. but there is some push-back against this vaccine roll-out. >> absolutely. the president has been openingly challenging jen psaki about the botched vaccine roll-out and why biden set the goal so locally. a few days ago he snapped and that pressure caused him to throw out the 150 million shots in 100 days. biden has been in office a week. his not a miracle worker.

the media is not buying the argument that this is all donald trump's fault. governor's bear some responsibility. >> cnn did buy in to that saying there was no system to get the vaccines out. at the time they were doing 940,000 a day. that ran that a lot. that was a mistake, right, howie? >> that was a mistake. doesn't take an army of reporters to know this is frustrating. beyond the lack of availability of doses, the sheer process of registering is confusing or impossible or you spend easiless hours online being bounced from one website to another. for many millions of americans, it's been an awful experience and the media is challenging that frustration. biden also told reporters that any american wants a vaccine will get it by this spring. jen psaki walked that back.

anthony fauci says no, it will take to the summer or even the fall. >> trace: i want -- we have a couple minutes left here. ben shapiro drew outrage after being tab a guest writer for political. they wrote -- >> trace: woke scold. >> i can't believe this is still going on. politco is having guest writers for one day. one of them was conservative ben shapiro. they had liberals like msnbc chris hayes and others. that was fine. 100 politco writers have written to the editor demanding an apology and saying this was terrible. one conservative one day.

politco to their credit said, no we wanted the diversity of voices but shows you how news rooms have changed. one quick point on the press and biden and trump. clearly there's not the same hostile taupe as with president trump compared to president biden. one is jen psaki takes a more conciliatory approach. and there was a visceral dislike by so many journalists about donald trump and now things are more adversarial with biden on a bunch of issues. when you sit behind the desk in the oval office, you own them. >> trace: are you saying jen psaki is being nicer to the media so they're being nicer to her? very quickly. >> yeah, a more civil tone being set in the briefing room. i don't think that is a bad thing. doesn't mean the press shouldn't do their jobs and be aggressive.

we're seeing a little bit of that. >> trace: good insight, howard. thanks to see you. thank you. >> thanks. >> trace: that is "the story" of wednesday, january 27; 2021. as always, "the story" continues. we'll see you tomorrow at 3:00. "your world" with neil cavuto is now. >> our team is of course our economic team and others monitoring the situation. it's a good reminder that the stock market is not the only measure of the health of our economy. >> neil: no fun and games at the corner of wall and broad as a lot of people look at a big fall-off that has some wondering whether -- some gaining stocks and lesser known names can all of a sudden gain tens of billions in market value. i'll tell you what is behind it. those big institutions and hedge funds that love to short stocks.