- [Presenter] Tonight-

- [Woman] Mr. President!

- [Presenter] Atlantabound, President Biden,

heads South in the wakeof a shooting spree

targeting Asian-Americanspas that left eight dead.

This amid a White Housewarning to stay wary.

- Things may get worse.

- [Presenter] Even as the U.S. hits

the 100 million mark vaccinating

nearly 50 million Americans, plus-

- They're offering dignity.

- [Presenter] The Republican rebuttals

to House passed immigration bills.

- Biden has lost controlof the U.S. Mexican border.

- [Presenter] As the humanitarian crisis

at the border deepens.

All this and more on "Faith Nation".

(upbeat music)

- Healing and awareness coming to Atlanta,

welcome to "FaithNation", I'm John Jessup.

- And I'm Tara Mergener, tonightwe now know the identities

of all eight people murdered this week

in a Georgia shooting spree.

- Six of the victims are Asian women.

They include a 33 year oldmother of two, Delaney Young

who was also meeting herhusband for a couples massage

when the shooter broke in.

The shooting which targetedthree spas in Atlanta

hit a crisis point for Asians

and Pacific Islanders across America.

Investigators have not ruled out

calling the murders a hate crime.

In a meeting with some ofAtlanta's Asian community leaders

this afternoon PresidentBiden offered his condolences

to the victims.

Well, here with us now isRaymond Chang president

of AACC or the Asian-AmericanChristian collaborative.

Raymond, thanks so much for being with us.

The president's trip to Atlanta was part

of a previously scheduled visit.

Ray, It's a chance for himto act as consoler in chief.

How best can he do that?

- I think by continuing to acknowledge

the rise in anti-Asian hate

that's been a part of thisnation's history and sadly

the part of the fabric ofthis country would be helpful.

Thanks for having me, by the way.

It's great that you're covering this.

I also think that it's important

for him to reach out to local members

of the community and to seehow they can care for them

and how the government can step in

to really connect with thereal needs that are there.

- How real is the problem of hate directed

against those of Asian descent?

- It's real, stop API hatehas been collecting data

since March of last yearand they've collected

almost 4,000 cases inincidence of anti-Asian hate.

People have been spit on, slashed,

an elderly woman has been lit on fire.

Russell Jung, who is thelead researcher there,

and one of the co-foundersof stop API hate,

his wife got, got a coughed at.

Someone drove by by house and yelled,

"You yellow piece of S."

Just by looking at me andknowing nothing other than my-

So, it's been on the rise and especially

with the many deaths that ledup to the massacre in Atlanta,

the five deaths that occurredin addition to the massacre,

we're seeing a brutal pandemic right now.

- Right, in a tweet, you saidracism will always make things

about anything other than race.

Let me make sure I said that correctly,

racism will always makethings about anything other

than race when racializationis a clear factor.

Ray, what did you mean by that?

- Yeah, I think the waysthat racialization works is

that it tries to keep whites on top

and everyone else at the bottom

and the way white supremacy works is that

it seeks to maintain dominancein our social hierarchy.

And so Asian-Americanshave historically been

considered modelminorities which is a myth,

it's not actually true,

because the greatest income gap is

among the Asian-American community.

The second largestunemployment that we're seeing

especially during the pandemic is

in the Asian American community.

Many businesses are struggling,

especially because of the ways

that the COVID-19 has been racialized

and called the Chinesevirus or the China flu.

And so,

the way that racializationworks is that it tries

to make race an invisible factor

when Asian-Americans are involvedwhich is why you see a lot

of people trying to reportin ways that make race seem

like it's a non-factor and emphasize more

the disturbed nature of the killer.

- Ray, your organization is working

with others and local churches in Atlanta.

You're also a pastor.

How are you taking a standagainst hate right now?

- Yeah, we're spendinga lot of time in prayer.

I mean, I work with studentsand they're reeling.

I mean, they're in grief, they're in pain.

And so, we're crying beforeGod asking the Holy Spirit

to minister to the entireAsian American community

but especially the AsianAmerican community in Atlanta.

Students I'm working withother Asian Americans

outside of kind of my direct care.

They're all in grief.

Some of them are confused.

They're sad.

And my wife even said yesterday feels

like for the first time

because an incident like thistook place, Asian Americans

across the board aregiven permission to be sad

and to be angry.

And I'm getting emotional nowbecause you know, every day

this week I've been crying

and I haven't cried thismuch in a long time,

because I feel like a part of the ways

in which the structures and the frameworks

of race operated whetherpeople are aware of it or not

especially whether Asian-Americansare aware of it or not.

Has made it almost difficult

for us to tap into our own emotions.

And so it's been a verytroublesome and trying time.

- Ray, a very important conversation.

We appreciate you being a part

of it today on "FaithNation", Ray Chang with AACC.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you very much.

- Well, the number of migrants crossing

the Southwestern border is on pace

for its highest level in 20 years.

Republicans call it theBiden border crisis though.

The White House has been callingit, quote, "a challenge".

- Tara, and Congress once again is moving

to tackle immigrationattempting to address dreamers

who are already here in the country.

But as Jenna Browder reports,

the two parties remain far apart.

- With migrants pouring acrossthe border and the number

of children coming into thecountry on pace to set a record

lawmakers are rushingto solve at least part

of the immigrationproblem with legislation.

In a near party line vote theHouse approved a bill Thursday

that would give legal statusto around 2 million dreamers

brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

The bill also extendsto hundreds of thousands

of people led into the countryfor humanitarian reasons.

And in another measure the House voted

to give similar protections

to 1 million farm workers here illegally.

But, both bills face anuphill battle in the Senate.

Republicans insist anyimmigration legislation

must also strengthen border security.

- Legalizing anybody underthese circumstances will lead

to even more illegal immigration.

- [Jenna] Senator Lindsey Graham, who has

for years joined democraticSenator Dick Durbin

in sponsoring the DreamAct signaling he's now

hesitant to move itacross the finish line.

- Biden has lost controlof the U.S. Mexican border

until he regains controlby implementing policies

that work it's going to bevery hard to do the dreamers

or anybody else.

- [Jenna] This week he joined

with representative MariaSalazar on the Dignity Act,

which combines legal protections

for undocumented immigrantsand border security.

- I'm offering dignity.

What I'm offering is the artof the possible I'm offering

to bring those people out of the shadows,

the ones who TPS and the air,

everybody that who's been here for more

than five years and doesnot have a criminal record.

- [Jenna] Democrats arguedreamers and farmers

need that protection now.

- Dreamers are doctors,nurses, lab technicians

contact tracers, and job creators.

- [Jenna] This all happeningamid serious concerns

about the surge of migrants on the border.

The White House has labeled it a challenge

and steadfastly refusedto call it a crisis.

But, in what seems to bea slip up, press secretary

Jen Psaki used that exact word Thursday.

- There have been expectations set outside

of unrelated to anyvaccine doses or requests

for them that they would be partners

in dealing with the crisis on the border.

- And for years, Congresshas been unable to come

up with a solution forthe immigration problem.

And with Democrats andRepublicans holding steady

it doesn't appear they'll be able

to do it this time around either.

In Washington, Jenna Browder, CBN news.

- Thank you, Jenna, here with us now

is Congresswoman Yvette Herrell,

a Republican from New Mexico.

Congresswoman thank youso much for joining us.

I know that you wereat the border this week

with leader McCarthy.

I imagine you were ableto see children there

and the conditions thatthey were being held in.

Can you describe what you saw?

- Yes, thank you for having me today.

I was, I had the opportunity to go down

to the processing centerand then of course

we went into parts of the border,

looked at part of theborder wall in my district.

And what's interesting isthis is a 98,000 square foot

facility that was builtto house 1,040 people.

And on Monday they met capacity there.

We were able to see a lotof unaccompanied children.

They have them separated out, you know

the younger girls and then theolder girls in separate pods.

And of course the same with the boys.

And then the family units areall in different pods as well.

But, we are seeing justhow overwhelming it is.

Not only for the border patrol agents

but for the communities.

They're going to have to start having ways

to house these peoplebecause we're seeing they

or keeping the children longer

than what federal lawrequires, the 72 hours.

And we have a huge crisis at the border.

And it's such an unfair thing

because we know that the policies

from president Trump'sadministration had been working

and working very well.

- And can you describetheir emotional state,

the children that you saw?

- Yeah, you know, I'm smiling because,

the kids, you know whenthey come into the facility

they obviously are given ashower and a new set of clothing

and they look hopeful, butsome of them look lost.

One thing I will tell you thatI do believe most Americans

don't understand is theseboarder patrol agents

are now encountering children

as young as one years old, three years old

five year olds comingacross the border alone.

And what they're seeing a real increase

in is people will write phone numbers

on the back of a child's shirt or blouse.

And then they are obviously coached to go

and find a border patrol agent.

And so can you imagine justsending a child a year old,

they had that just recently,

a one, a three and a fiveyear old came together

found their way to the borderand found an agent of course.

But, no one can even speakto how many of these children

don't make it across.

So, I think it's very eye opening

but I can tell the children are hopeful.

You can tell they reallydon't know what's going on.

They are here in this facility

and they don't know what will happen,

what their next day looks like.

And this is an unfair advantage, not only

for the migrants that arecoming to America illegally

but also to the American people.

- Yvette, former PresidentTrump introduced a rule known

as Title 42 to expel undocumented migrants

to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

It is one of the issuesthe Biden administration

says is causing the strain on the system.

Is that something thatshould be left in place?

- That absolutely should be left in place.

In fact, I introduced legislationto keep Title 42 in place

we have over 40 co-sponsors,that's a public health order

because our nation has beenunder COVID pandemic for a year.

This Title 42 was one policy that worked

and it worked for the border patrol.

And they will tell you it'sa good tool in their toolbox,

if you will, what Title 42 allows

is for border patrol agents to expel those

coming here illegally through Mexico

and Canada, they can do quickprocessing on the border

and then expel them right out.

And again, that's becausethe pandemic that we're under

so far, they've left Title 42 in place.

But we introducedlegislation and when you look

at the bigger picture ina state like New Mexico,

where it has been a very slow recovery

for us in terms ofrebounding from the COVID

we've all had friendsor family or loved ones

we know who have beenaffected by the COVID.

Some people dying alone in the hospital

and in our state our kidsare not even back in school

but we've had a hugespike in teen suicide,

domestic violence-

- All right Congresswoman,unfortunately we are out of time,

I hate to cut you off.

But, thank you so much for joining us

and you'll have to come backto "Faith Nation" again soon.

- We'd love it, thank you.

- All right, when we come back today,

the U.S. marks 100 million vaccines.

The latest and the raceagainst the virus next.

- [Presenter] Come home tothe sounds of Southern Gospel

from CBN radio.

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- [Presenter] Life it'smeant to be lived fully.

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- Welcome back tonightanother courtroom loss

for a football coach firedfor praying with his players

in a unanimous panel opinion three judges

on California's ninthcircuit court of appeals

ruled that coach JoeKennedy's 50 yard line

post-game prayers were a violation

of the constitution'sestablishment clause.

Judge Miland Smith writing,

"Kennedy's attempts todraw nationwide attention

"to his challenge to the district showed

"that he was not engagingin private prayer.

"Instead he was engaging in public speech

"of an overtly religious nature

"while performing his duties."

In 2019, the former Bremerton,Washington high school coach

told CBN news why he wasfighting the district.

- Praying I could do anywhere.

The Christian side of me is like,

"Yeah, well, you don'ttake away my faith."

Prayer makes no differencewhere you do it.

But the Marine in me, I was like,

"Yeah, I will fight for the constitution

"and everybody's rights,it means something to me."

I got blood in that game.

- [John] Kennedy's lawyers saythey plan to appeal calling

the decision wrong andcontradictory to the constitution.

- Tonight, a majordevelopment for schools as the

CDC announces a shift anddistancing guidelines.

- It's a move that could allow for more

in person classroom learning.

CBN's White Housecorrespondent Eric Phillips

joins us now with more onthe new guidance, Eric.

- John, Tara, the CDC announcinga new three foot distancing

in guideline, as opposed to six feet

between students in the classroom.

Now, this comes as theyare reinforcing the need

to continue wearing masksand washing hands frequently.

- Our conclusion is thatwhen schools can continue

to use that package ofpreventative measures,

that the distance betweenstudents in classrooms

can be at least three feet apart.

And that really kind of maximizes

their opportunity for in person learning.

- [Eric] Officials based thechange in distance on studies

that found no significant difference

in the number of contracted COVID cases

between students who were threefeet apart versus six feet.

- So, when I think about the big picture

of the risk to children fromgetting COVID in school,

versus what are the downsidesof being out of school,

I think to me having those kids in school

with the mitigationmeasures in place is really

to me, it's almost a no brainer.

- [Eric] The new guidancecomes a day after CDC director

Rochelle Walensky was takento task on Capitol Hill.

- When we discuss this issue recently

I really detected a lack of a sense

of urgency on your part to reopen schools.

- I'm the mother of three,one of whom has been home

for this entire year.

This is an urgent issue.

- [Eric] On the heels of the announcement

CDC leaders briefed to both the president

and vice-president Fridayon work being done there.

The president hinting atdoubling his previous goal

of 100 million shotsin his first 100 days.

A goal that was exceeded.

- Science is back.

No, all kidding aside.

Think about it for the longest time,

not just as a voice to CDC,

but science was viewed as

sort of an appendage to anything else

we were talking about.

But, it's back.

- Where schools are concernedthe CDC has also relaxed

its guidelines where physical barriers

between students are concerned.

Now, it's still callingfor six feet of distance

between students in certainsituations where the masks

come off like chorus orband, or even lunchtime.

John and Jenna or Tara, I should say.

- Eric, thank you so much.

Well, by now, you are probablyfamiliar with these folks.

There they are.

So, stick around for our special Friday

"Faith Nation" politicalpanel, after this.

- [Presenter] Too often, wecarry baggage from our past.

You know what it's like.

It affects everything andevery one in our lives.

It's always there weighing us down

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- I'm Efrem Graham and this is "Studio 5".

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- The fact that Ryan Coogler was going

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- He says, "Well no, youalready have a pulpit."

- [Presenter] Watch "Studio5" Wednesday night at 9:30.

- [Presenter] (foreign language)

- [Woman] This is our nature as a country.

- [Presenter] To makethe world a better place.

- Literally we felt the earth shaking.

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- Welcome back, time now

for our Friday "FaithNation" political panel.

Joining us today, JuliaManchester with the Hill

and CBN chief politicalanalyst, David Brody.

Welcome to you both.

Julia, starting with you today,

the vaccination effort Biden set the goal

of a 100 million vaccinesin his first 100 days.

We hit the Mark today,day 58, your thoughts?

- You know, we all alreadyknew going into this goal

before Biden took office

that it was a conservative estimate.

So, I guess at the ratewe've been going so far

it's not a surprise thatPresident Biden hit that rate

when he did, obviously there was already

a vaccination effort in place before

President Biden took office.

And we've also seen a number of states

whether that's Connecticutor West Virginia,

some states more successful

than others at distributing the vaccine.

And we're obviously approvingmore and more vaccines.

You got the Johnson and Johnson vaccine

in addition to Madrona and Pfizer.

We know that the AstraZenecavaccine there's a debate

as to whether to allowit in the United States.

We know that they are considering applying

to be approved by the FDA.

So, we're starting to getmore diversity in vaccines.

And we're seeing states workingwith the federal government

to really get this out.

- Certainly some unwanted attention today

the president stumbled three times today

on his way up Air Force One.

Some are comparing it topresident Gerald Ford's infamous

stumblings during his presidency.

And of course, presidentTrump took a lot of flack

for his gingerly descentdown a West point ramp

after a speech.

To the both of you andstarting with David first,

David, why is this making headlines?

- Well, I think it's a visual on a couple

of different levels, right?

First of all, we knowabout some of the concerns

that Joe Biden has regardingthe gap machine narrative

but also there are serious concerns

in some circles about his mental health.

You put that together, plusin tripping up the stairs

not once twice, but three times.

It's a bad visual for himand it leads to a narrative,

and a narrative it's out thereand probably will gain steam

is not just who's incharge of the White House,

I think there's some concernsin some circles about that,

but where are the documents?

Where are the latestmental health documents

regarding Joe Biden?

We haven't seen anything in over a year

since December of 2019.

So, I think this storywill continue to grow

as we move along.

- And to you, Julia.

- I think you're goingto see it grow definitely

in media that isn't asfavorable to Joe Biden.

Whenever a world leaderlet alone the president

of the United States fumbles or trips

it's going to get national headlines.

So, people are lookingat that, but you know

I think what we really need to walk away

from the news day today

is that Biden took a trip to the CDC.

As we're growing more concerned

about the increase in COVID-19 variants.

On top of that, he's going to meet

with the Asian Americancommunity in Atlanta

as we're seeing Asian-Americans

in this country have been targeted

in very brutal racial attacks.

So, the tripping that's one thing

but I think Biden is making news

that so much more impactfuland meaningful going forward.

- David, a quick thought the White House

says Biden is quote, "Quitebusy after Putin invites him

"for a live chat."

What do you make of that?

- Well, I think this is asituation that I clearly Biden

was trying to get tough with Putin

and now they're kind ofback at an (indistinct).

But, we'll see how itdevelops bottom line is,

is that you've got even Mike Pompeo

the former secretary of state saying

that Biden was probably right.

That Putin is a killer.

So, I don't think he's going to have

too much politicaldamage for him, for sure.

- All right, David and Julia

thank you so much for your time today

for Friday's "FaithNation" political panel.

- Thank you.

- Thanks.

- All right, coming up, makingthe light out of darkness.

How a beloved musician turnedhis loneliness into alone time

with his faith, next.

- It's the new Superbook Bible app.

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CBN honors the men andwomen in our military

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- Finally, tonight, theloneliness from lockdowns

led many to despair byone singer and songwriter

used the solitude tocreate a new album for God.

- Harry Connick Jr. capturedhis emotional connection

to his faith during the pandemic

and a new album called"Alone With My Faith".

♪ I'm eternally faithful ♪

♪ So I am never alone ♪

- Sounds pretty good to me.

While Connick has been inthe entertainment business

for 30 years, the past year was the first

he was unaccompanied inthe recording studio.

Connick said while he was physically alone

he's eternally thankfulfor the Lord's presence

which reminds him he's never truly alone.

And that is a good messagefor all of us Tara.

- Time well spent.

- Well, thank you so much for watching

this edition of "Faith Nation".

- Have a great weekend, everybody.