'Your World' on Brianna Kupfer murder, future of Senate filibuster

close

Video

Senate Democrats' vote to change filibuster 'doomed to fail'

Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram has the latest on the filibuster fight.

This is a rush transcript of "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on January 18, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

CHARLES PAYNE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: So, the search goes on for the suspect.

This UCLA grad student was stabbed to death, as you just heard, while working in a Los Angeles furniture store. And now her father's speaking out the FOX.

I want to go first Jonathan Hunt, who is live with the very latest in Los Angeles -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN HUNT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Charles, the murder of Brianna Kupfer was horrific and, apparently, as you just heard the police chief saying there, entirely random.

The 24-year-old had gone to work at a part-time job at a high-end furniture store last Thursday. Within hours of arriving there, she had been stabbed to death by a man the police say they believe is homeless. He had walked into the front of the store, was there for a couple of minutes, according to the police chief, attacked Kupfer, and then calmly walked away through a back alley.

Here is Brianna's father talking to FOX earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD KUPFER, FATHER OF STABBING VICTIM: I'm not blaming anybody by name,

I blame what's endemic in our society right now is that everybody seems to be oriented on giving back rights and bestowing favor on people that rob others of their rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Now, on the same day as Kupfer's murder, 70-year-old Sandra Shells, a nurse who was close to retirement, was waiting for a bus at L.A.'s Union Station, when she was randomly attacked and punched by another homeless man. She died three days later in the hospital.

The L.A. County sheriff, meantime, has accused the district attorney here, George Gascon, of being soft on crime, of emboldening those who are prone to violence by having what the sheriff calls stupid policies. These two top law enforcement officials continue their battle here over crime and punishment.

Listen hear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX VILLANUEVA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, SHERIFF: If you cannot be counted on to hold people accountable for breaking the rule of law in such a depraved manner, what good is your local district attorney?

GEORGE GASCON (D), LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The reality is that a punishment-based approach to the work does not serve as well.

An eye for an eye, it is not the way the government should behave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Now, the murders of Kupfer and Shells will be added to the 10 homicides that the LAPD says happened in the city in just the first eight days of this year.

Now, that is one less than there were at the start of 2021, but double the number of murders that there were at the start of 2020. Overall, though, Charles, we should point out that violent crime is at the moment trending down in Los Angeles.

But that, of course, is very little comfort to the families of Brianna Kupfer and Sandra Shells -- Charles.

PAYNE: Jonathan, thank you very much.

So, what does it take to prevent more tragedies like this from happening?

Former D.C. homicide Detective and FOX News contributor Ted Williams joins me now.

Ted, I like to always get your overall assessment. You have had a couple -- some time to look at this, and just to get your thoughts on what happened here and what might have prevented it.

TED WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Charles, first, if I could, let me offer my deepest condolences to the Kupfer family.

This young lady, Brianna Kupfer, was just a wonderful, radiant person who had gone to the University of Miami and got an undergraduate degree. And now she was at UCLA getting a graduate degree. And she was working at this high-end furniture store.

And for all -- from all that we're able to see and have been told, an individual who was homeless came in and killed her. Now, what they're looking at, Charles, is his clothes that he was wearing.

As you can see, he had all black come on, and was pretty well-camouflaged. But there are other videos of him being in other stores in that area that they are also looking at. They're looking at the manner in which he walked.

There -- and they do believe and I have to believe also that, with an award of over $200,000, that somebody at some stage will turn him in.

PAYNE: Right.

WILLIAMS: But that is only, unfortunately, the beginning of what is going on there in L.A. Crime is just out of control, Charles.

PAYNE: Yes, it is. And I'm going to get to that.

But I want to get back to that video we're watching. And, to me, he looks like he's dressed like a ninja, right? And he's pacing. And he's got this sort of deliberate lurking, stalking kind of movement. He's all covered up.

Could a police officer on patrol, could they have been pulled over to question him, as someone who looks out of place, something -- someone, again, who's dressed all in black, looks like a ninja, is lurking around? Could he have been pulled over?

WILLIAMS: Well, I can tell you, as a lawyer, it is highly unlikely that a police officer could do that without violating, unfortunately, the constitutional rights of the person to just pull him over.

If there's some justification, you could pull a person over. But he's dressed that way, but that is not so uncommon in Los Angeles out there. A lot of, unfortunately, homeless people dress in that manner, Charles.

PAYNE: OK.

Let's deal with the homeless situation that's playing such a difficult role, not just Los Angeles, but in a lot of crimes. We have seen some crimes here in New York City recently that people appear to be either homeless and/or mentally unstable.

A recent poll in Los Angeles, overwhelmingly, people are complaining about the homelessness. What's the -- what can be done about that particular situation? Because that does seem to be the source of some of the more outrageous crimes we have been seeing committed.

WILLIAMS: Yes, you're right.

Let's just take what took place there in New York, an Asian woman on a subway, and, all of a sudden, she's pushed into the subway by a homeless man who was alleged to have had some mental problems. We have had all the smash-and-grabs killing -- or thieveries, should I say, out there in California, and that is taking place.

What we're finding is that crime is up all over the country. You have these individuals who have mental problems, and they need to be dealt with. And a lot of them are homeless. They're the individuals, Charles, that -- unfortunately, that just below the radar screen that are not being dealt with.

But there are various units within various police departments and in various governments that can help out in that instance.

PAYNE: Ted, we heard part of this in Jonathan Hunt's report. I want you to hear now the victim's father. And after we listen to it, I would like your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KUPFER: What's endemic in our society right now is everybody seems to be oriented on giving back rights and bestowing favor on people that rob others of their rights people, people that are falling out the bottom that really don't care about the other human beings, and just think they can do whatever they like in our society.

And they are doing it more and more in every community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAYNE: Ted, your thoughts?

WILLIAMS: Charles, I got to tell you, Todd Kupfer, the father of Brianna Kupfer, is right on target.

Law-abiding citizens are pushed to the side. You have got Gascon, the DA out there in L.A. And it seems as though his concerns is about criminals. There in Manhattan, in New York, you have got Alvin Bragg, who is the DA there.

And he's concerned more about criminals, so much, that many individuals in his office have left. And as a result of that, you're losing experienced lawyers to prosecute these various crimes. We have got to start being more concerned about law-abiding citizens who are trying to walk around and live daily lives.

We're concerned about that criminal and that criminal element out there. And that criminal element is killing people, harming people. And now, as we can see here in L.A., that criminal element, a homeless person walks into a store and stabs a young girl to death, a young girl who had every, everything to live for.

This is what we're dealing with in society. And we need prosecutors, judges, and police officers to go after these lowlifes.

PAYNE: Yes.

WILLIAMS: And we're not having that in our various communities. Charles.

PAYNE: Ted, when the press conference started, the councilman said, we should -- he said we should never allow this kind of lawlessness to become commonplace.

Some would say it might be too late.

Ted, thank you so much for your passion and your expertise. We will talk to you again soon, hopefully, when we get some better news.

Thanks, Ted.

I want to switch gears here now folks to Capitol Hill, Democrats set the face off as they meet in person about one hour from now, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling the meeting as he tries to bust the filibuster and ram through voting rights legislation.

Now there's just one problem, maybe two. Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have yet to budge and may not be too receptive to this latest pressure campaign.

I'm going to go to Chad Pergram on Capitol Hill, where this is all about to go down -- Chad.

CHAD PERGRAM, FOX NEWS SENIOR CAPITOL HILL PRODUCER: Good afternoon, Charles.

Well, Democrats can't overcome a GOP filibuster on the voting rights bill. So Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is teeing up a vote to attempt to change the filibuster. It will likely fail because not all Democrats agree.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: We must consider and vote on the rule changes that are appropriate and necessary to restore the Senate and make voting legislation possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: Schumer likely forces a vote to change the filibuster tomorrow. The vote is doomed to fail. But Schumer is also putting Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin on the record opposing a filibuster change.

There is a squeeze play in baseball. There is also one in politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president's view is that the American people deserve to see where their leaders stand on protecting their fundamental rights. That is a reason to move forward with this debate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says Democrats are focusing on the wrong things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We have inflation, a pandemic, rampant violent crime, a border crisis.

But rather than work on any of that, Senate Democrats want to mar their own legacies with a reckless, reckless procedural vote they know will fail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: Democrats are playing the long game. It's an effort to gin up support to change the filibuster in the future. Voting rights is seen by liberals as a proxy for other issues -- Charles.

PAYNE: Chad, thank you very much.

So, money over morals, the fallout from a billionaire NBA owner dismissing China's human rights abusers, as the league keeps cashing in over China.

And you think it's flightmare now. What if I told you airline cancellations could soon be taking off big time, and it's got nothing to do with the weather or COVID?

We report, you might want to hide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAYNE: It was a sea of red on Wall Street. And it all began in the bond market, bond yields spiking higher, as everyone expects the Fed to get more aggressive, the S&P off 1.8 percent, but the Nasdaq the biggest loser.

We will be back in 20 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAYNE: It's another China controversy for the National Basketball Association.

And this time, it's over a billionaire minority owner of the Golden State Warriors who dismissed China's treatment of that country's Uyghur population.

To Jackie DeAngelis with the latest on this fast-breaking story -- Jackie.

JACKIE DEANGELIS, FOX BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey. Good afternoon, Charles.

Well, he's from Silicon Valley. He is a billionaire. And he is a minority owner in the Golden State Warriors. He raised more than some eyebrows when he said that no one cares about the CCP's genocide of the Uyghurs.

Chamath Palihapitiya, he's making these comments on his "All-In" podcast. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHAMATH PALIHAPITIYA, MINORITY OWNER, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: Nobody cares about what's happening to the Uyghurs, OK?

You bring it up because you really care. And I think that's nice that you care. The rest of us don't care.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? What do you mean nobody cares?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You really don't care? Wait. You're saying you personally don't care?

PALIHAPITIYA: I'm telling you a very hard, ugly truth, OK? Of all the things that I care about, yes, it is below my line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEANGELIS: All right, so the billionaire tried to walk back those comments, but to no avail. He's been criticized all over the place for lacking empathy.

Of course, this is not the first time that the NBA has been wrapped up in controversy regarding the Communist Party of China. The league has famously tiptoed around comments made by its players and executives supporting Chinese dissidents, like the Uyghurs and the Hong Kong protesters.

The NBA has a huge foothold in China. Remember that. Basketball is extremely popular there, and the league has a large monetary incentive to keep the CCP happy. Now, think of this. The CCTV there has banned NBA games from its air, costing the NBA roughly $400 million.

Now, there's a statement from the Golden Warriors distancing itself from its minority owner, who owns about a 10 percent stake, but choosing not to acknowledge the root of the controversy, saying -- quote -- "As a limited investor who has no day-to-day operating functions with the Warriors, Mr. Palihapitiya does not speak on our behalf -- on behalf of our franchise," rather.

Now, someone who did take it head on was Enes Kanter Freedom of the Boston Celtics, a human rights advocate himself, an outspoken critic of the CCP. He offered this scathing tweet.

He said: "When genocides happen, is it people like this that let it happen?"

So, of course, there is a debate here, right? You're going to have some who are going to call China and Xi Jinping out, and you're going to have others who are going to put profits over morality. But this is also particularly timely, Charles, because we have got the Winter Olympics set to begin in China in early February.

PAYNE: Jackie, thank you very much.

I want to get to read on this from Gordon Chang. He's a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, also author of "The Coming Collapse of China" and "The Great U.S.-China Tech War."

By the way, we did reach out to Chamath Palihapitiya to come on the show today. We have yet to hear from him.

Gordon, it's -- there's -- it's not just, of course, the NBA. I always say we're missing something big when we don't bring Nike into this conversation as well. China is their fastest growing market. They spend millions and millions of dollars on NBA, NBA promotions.

So it's sort of that trifecta, these billionaire owners, these millionaire basketball players, and these large corporations, but that was one of the most callous statements I have ever heard.

GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR, "THE COMING COLLAPSE OF CHINA": Yes, Palihapitiya, in his walking back on Twitter, said, well, this may have shown a lack of empathy.

But what it really showed was a lack of humanity. And it's incomprehensible, Charles, because he comes from a family that left a country, Sri Lanka, where there was ethnic cleansing and genocide. And for him to say that about the genocide of the Uyghurs and the Kazakhs, it is just unspeakable.

PAYNE: Do you do you expect -- I mean, listen, we have seen this before. A lot of folks have pressured LeBron James, for instance, about these things. Do you expect anymore, anything else to come out of this?

A lot of people today are saying, hey, he's a billionaire. The NBA has become Teflon. They're able to have the double standards. They can speak out in this country. You have someone like Steph Curry, who's very outspoken, very much a Democrat, wears it proudly, does promotions even for the Civil Rights Act.

Will they come out on behalf of these people, this minority religious group that are being -- that are being thrown in reeducation camps and treated horribly?

CHANG: Well, I don't think that there will be a change of heart until the NBA starts to lose money in China.

Remember, China has a debt crisis. It has an economy which is probably not growing at the 8.1 percent pace that they claimed for last year. So I think that we're going to see a real change in attitudes on China when the Chinese economy fails to give people what they want.

PAYNE: Yes. It's so unfortunate, Gordon.

It's nice seeing you, but it's so sad that someone can just let those comments roll off their tongue like that. And then that so-called apology was just really added just more pain to the whole statement.

We will see you soon, my friend.

All right, meanwhile, folks read them and weep, stocks selling off again today. Worries have intensified over rate hikes. In fact, maybe a more aggressive Federal Reserve.

I'm going to go to FOX Business' Susan Li, who's keeping track of all of it -- Susan.

SUSAN LI, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so a rough start to a holiday- shortened week for U.S. stock markets. You had the tech heavy Nasdaq now down roughly 10 percent from recent peaks, which is what we call a correction in investing.

And the reason? Well, concerns that the Federal Reserve and the Central Bank might be behind when it comes to reining in sky-high inflation. So Wall Street now expects the Fed to raise interest rates four times this year, which then spiked up 10-year Treasury yields to the highest in two years.

Now, Treasury yields are indicative of where traders expect interest rates to go, which is clearly up this year. But when Treasury yields go higher, that also means that Wall Street has to sell out of stocks in order to chase more guaranteed money on government bonds.

So, that selling more pronounced when it comes to expensive technology names that have run up so much over the past two years, Apple, Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, they were down sharply in the session today.

And as for banks, which actually usually do go up when interest rates are forecast to go higher, since banks make more money off their loans, but Goldman Sachs had its worst day in almost two years after a disappointing report card.

Now, there was one bright spot. You had oil stocks, with oil prices hitting their highest in seven years, and U.S. gas prices are on track to hit four bucks a gallon by Memorial Day, according to GasBuddy.

Now, to try and bring down oil prices, you had the Department of Energy releasing another 400,000 barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Doesn't seem to be having much impact, though, on oil prices.

And, finally, a big shock to Wall Street and big bets on the virtual reality future the metaverse, with Microsoft this morning bidding $68 billion to buy "Call of Duty" and "Candy Crush' maker Activision Blizzard. You had Activision spiking almost 40 percent at its peaks on the back of this news.

And virtual worlds like in the movie "Avatar" or "Ready Player One" seems to be a big future bet for a lot of companies.

I hope you're excited, Charles.

PAYNE: I talk about it every day on my show. I'm not going there, but my wallet is already there.

Susan Li, thank you very much.

LI: You got it.

PAYNE: So, no third jab, can you wave aloha, as in goodbye, to your Hawaiian vacation?

We will explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAYNE: No boost, no luau.

Hawaii's Democratic Governor David Ige signaling that all tourists will soon need to have the COVID-19 booster to stay on the island without being in quarantine.

FOX News' Jonathan Serrie is in a slightly-less-than tropical Atlanta with more -- Jonathan.

(LAUGHTER)

JONATHAN SERRIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Charles.

Yes, it's a little cold here in Atlanta right now. But if you are traveling to Hawaii, be advised that the state is considering adding a booster requirement to its already stringent travel guidelines. The state's Safe Travels program already requires incoming travelers to be fully vaccinated or to quarantine for five days.

In an interview with The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Governor David Ige said, if he decides to announce a booster requirement, it will come with a grace period of at least two weeks to allow visitors and returning residents time to get their vaccinations up to date.

While existing vaccines are still reducing hospitalizations and deaths, researchers are looking for ways to stop transmission altogether. A preliminary study out of Israel found that a fourth vaccine dose does not appear to produce enough antibodies to stop Omicron infections, however.

The CEO of Moderna says he expects to begin clinical trials in the coming weeks of vaccines specifically targeting Omicron and have data to share with regulators as early as March.

Separately, he says, in late 2023, a vaccine could become available that would combine in a single shot a COVID booster protection against seasonal flu and protection against another common respiratory virus called RSV.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANE BANCEL, CEO, MODERNA: And our goal is to be able to have a single annual booster, so that we don't have compliance issues, where people don't want to get two to three shots a winter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERRIE: Yes, in other words, simplifying it, so people are getting fewer shots, and not growing weary of always having to go in to get new vaccinations.

A day ahead of its official launch, the federal Web site for ordering free COVID test kits is already online. The White House says it's being beta- tested. But everyone I have spoken with says it's working just fine and you can get up to four free test kits per household -- Charles, back to you.

PAYNE: Good news.

Jonathan, stay warm, my friend.

SERRIE: I will. Thanks.

PAYNE: Well, the White House rolling out its free at-home COVID-19 testing program, as it keeps trying to keep up this fight against COVID.

I want to bring in FOX's Jacqui Heinrich, who is at the White House, to talk about this, also the action at today's briefing.

So, Jacqui, what did we learn?

JACQUI HEINRICH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

So, Charles, I actually tried that beta-tested Web site myself, as Jonathan was mentioning. COVIDtests.gov went live today in its beta form, the White House saying that it will go fully live tomorrow, and directing people to really use it tomorrow, which was the expected launch date, where you can get four tests per household, per residential address.

But there is one drawback to this. I tested it out, put in my order. And you get this message popping up that says that the first orders are going to go out in late January, and then you have this long shipping timeline.

It's expected to take anywhere between seven to 12 days. So, critics are saying that, yes, this is great effort, but now this effort might come at after the peak of Omicron and have sort of a blunted effect.

We also are hearing more about the White House plan to make masks available, N95 masks available. The president said last week that's another thing that Americans need to have better access to. We are awaiting an announcement on that. But, again, we are almost three years into this pandemic. And the president has talked about the need to expand access for testing, the need to have people masking up for his entire administration.

So these efforts, to critics, are coming too little, too late -- Charles.

PAYNE: Thanks. Thanks, Jacqui. Appreciate it.

Now to the potentially unfriendly skies, AT&T and Verizon officially putting a pause on lining up some of their 5G signals, this after major airlines warned that the rollout will keep even more planes from taking off.

To FOX Business correspondent Grady Trimble at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport with more on this back-and-forth -- Grady.

GRADY TRIMBLE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Charles.

Air India, Emirates and a few other international airlines have already canceled flights to and from the United States over concerns with the 5G rollout.

Here in the United States, the major airlines have put pressure on the telecom industry, as well as government officials, saying that the rollout of 5G could create chaos for fliers. And it seemed that pressure worked, because AT&T and Verizon now say they will delay turning on some towers around certain airport runways.

AT&T tells us: "We're frustrated by the FAA's inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services. And we urge it to do so in a timely manner."

So, instead, Verizon and AT&T will both launch towers everywhere else as planned, with the exception of that limited number of towers around airports. The airlines say 5G signal could interfere with critical safety instruments on planes, leading to mass cancellations of passenger and cargo flights.

President Biden says that: "This agreement from the cell providers will avoid potentially devastating disruptions to passenger travel, cargo operations and our economic recovery, while allowing more than 90 percent of wireless tower deployment to occur as scheduled."

So, Charles, it sounds like the worst of the fears from the 5G rollout from the airline CEOs have been avoided, but we will see what happens when the rollout officially commences tomorrow.

PAYNE: Thank you so much, Grady Trimble.

So, as President Biden prepares a press conference tomorrow to mark one year, what if I told you he and his party are worried about one month?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAYNE: President Biden and his party trying to regain momentum ahead of the November midterms, but is time running out?

A piece in The Wall Street Journal arguing Democrats only have one month left to score legislative wins ahead of the State of the Union. And then, after that, well, time's up.

So, let's see that -- let's see up this segment with that and RealClearPolitics founder Tom Bevan.

Tom, if that's the case, it seems really clumsy, the handling, for instance, still trying to push through the Civil Rights Act, still trying to push through the filibuster. What else is on the agenda?

TOM BEVAN, CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, REALCLEARPOLITICS.COM: Well, that's the problem for Democrats is they don't really have the fallback plan.

I mean, the original plan was to get Build Back Better done. But that died. And so they shifted gears on voting rights legislation, which, again, is an issue that a lot of Americans is not top of mind. It's inflation and it's COVID. It's not voting rights.

And so, and on top of that, Charles, it's a strategy that was doomed to fail from the beginning. They know that they don't have the votes to get it done. So it's a dead end for them politically. And there is no plan C, there is nothing to shift to that they can get done. There's some talk now about breaking up Build Back Better into small pieces and trying to pass those.

That seems to be the only option left for Democrats at this point in time.

PAYNE: What I don't get is that Senator Manchin let everyone know, all the leadership in the Democratic Party, where he stood. And they could have worked around what he did say was acceptable.

I mean, obviously, this would have turned into the Manchin bill. But I think, if you added up the numbers, it would have been another $900 billion package. And so this sort of tug of war and this attempt to publicly humiliate him and Senator Sinema has really been a huge mistake in my mind.

BEVAN: I agree.

And, look, I think part of the strategy here for Democrats is to try and reinvigorate the base of the party because it's an election year, and because they have been dispirited sort of watching Democrats fumble about and the disunity within the caucus, their inability to get anything done for the past few months.

And so this is intended to sort of energize them and galvanize them for the coming midterms.

PAYNE: Right.

BEVAN: The problem with that is that, as I mentioned, it's not in line with the priorities of the American people, number one, and, number two, it has the potential risk to backfire and to alienate moderates and independents, who look at this and not only don't believe that it's the priority, but also think it's a tough sell to convince people in 2022 that we're facing a civil rights crisis equivalent to 1965.

PAYNE: Yes, yes, or even before, because, I mean, some of the rhetoric.

Hey, Tom, I want you to take a listen to what President Biden said at his inaugural address. This is January 20 of last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this, bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAYNE: All right, so that was then and this is now; 49 percent of Americans say that the president is doing more to divide the country.

Tom, can he -- what does he say tomorrow to try to turn that around?

BEVAN: Well, I don't know if he can turn it around, Charles.

And you're right. He was elected on basically two promises. One was to unite the country, and the other was to get control of COVID. And, clearly, COVID is continuing to be a problem for the administration. But -- and some of that stuff is out of the control of the administration.

But in terms of uniting the country, at every opportunity, this president has chosen the confrontational path, the one that causes division, as opposed to the one that can unite the country, whether it is on COVID and vaccine mandates or on other pieces of legislation like Build Back Better.

PAYNE: Yes.

BEVAN: He never really sought to sit down with Republicans and build those bridges that he vowed that he would do.

And the American people, the public -- the polling reflects the fact that they have lost faith in him in his ability to bring the country together. He simply has not done it. He hasn't even really tried.

PAYNE: Yes, I mean, he came in, to your point, he had COVID-19, the economy and unity. Now he's got all three of those he's dealing with, Afghanistan, lower sentiment, rising, skyrocketing crime, skyrocketing inflation.

And just, overall, people are frustrated. And it's reflected.

We will see what happens tomorrow.

Tom, we always appreciate being able to tap into your expertise.

And, folks, remember, FOX will bring you the president's press conference tomorrow. It begins at 4:00 p.m.

Meanwhile, you can catch me every weekday 2:00 p.m. Eastern on FOX Business, "Making Money."

Again, it was a terrible day for the stock market, a lot of anxiety over where interest rates are going. If you're concerned about your portfolio, check me out tomorrow 2:00 p.m. on the Business Channel.

"THE FIVE" starts now.

Content and Programming Copyright 2022 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2022 VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.