Barrasso: We want Iran to stop their activities, we don't want to have to attack

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Barrasso: We want Iran to stop their activities, we don't want to have to attack

Congress briefed on rising tensions between U.S. and Iran; Sen. John Barrasso weighs in.

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," May 21, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Tornadoes and flash floods and hail in some cases the size of softballs, reports of more than 20 tornadoes just today. More, many more, could be on the way.

Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto.

We're going to talk to a storm chaser who follows tornadoes in just a moment.

First, Fox team coverage and what we're looking at here.

We have got Steve Harrigan in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where they are dealing already with massive flooding, and meteorologist Adam Klotz on where these storms right now could be heading.

We begin with Steve.

What's up, Steve?

STEVE HARRIGAN, CORRESPONDENT: Neil, the tornadoes in Oklahoma are largely gone. The sun's come back out, but actually the conditions on the ground seem to be getting worse by the hour. A lot of roads like this are basically becoming rivers.

Since this morning, we have been here. We have seen crawfish, fish, snakes with their heads above the water and a pretty strong current. If you look down the road behind me, you can see some cars either completely underwater, or just the tops, just the roofs coming out of the water.

These tornadoes, though, have not been as deadly as predicted. They were expected to be extremely violent, but, as of Tuesday morning, zero casualties from the tornadoes themselves. And that is in part because people were making very quick decisions to save their lives, like this woman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So I told my son and my granddaughter to get in the bathroom. We pulled a mattress in there. By that time, we just heard, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it probably lasted maybe 30, 40 seconds.

And we opened up the front door, and I had a pine tree in my front door.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIGAN: So a lot of people like her had plans. They are experienced. They go through this every May.

But, also, the work of the first-responders has been tremendous. We have seen local fire departments out throughout the night into the early morning pulling off a lot of water rescues, often using high-water trucks and ropes.

Many of the people they rescued have been elderly, people who were actually screaming for help inside their houses. Either a tree had crushed part of the house or they were surrounded by water, some of those water rescues taking place even as late as this morning, after a very tough night for a lot of people in Oklahoma -- Neil, back to you.

CAVUTO: All right, Steve, thank you very much, my friend, Steve Harrigan.

Well, Adam Klotz was warning us about this, saying that it could be pretty serious.

Well, it's lived up to that, Adam. What are we looking at now?

ADAM KLOTZ, METEOROLOGIST: Well, Neil, this system is still on the move. So, yesterday, leading into this morning, we saw, by the time it's all counted up, likely around 30 tornadoes.

These are still being counted up by the National Weather Service. But we're still tracking this line of storms. It's moving off to the east. Now we have got tornado watches in portions of Arkansas, stretching up into Southern Missouri.

This entire line of storms is going to be a problem. Now, it's probably not going to make another 20 or 30 tornadoes. But it's going to continue to bring very strong winds and unfortunately heavy rain that's going to end up being some flooding.

We saw that there with Steve widespread, four to eight inches of rain across portions of Northern Oklahoma, running up into Kansas, that as a result becoming a real issue with flooding across the huge area.

And then tracking this system farther to the north, eventually, we're going to be talking about flooding across portions of Illinois. This ground has been absolutely saturated all spring because of rounds of heavy rain and then snowmelt a little farther north. This is not going to help that, as we're looking at a slow mover that's going to be dropping some more rain.

Here's your future radar with this system. There's your time stamp. So if you're out in front of this, pay attention to it. It's still going to bring very strong winds, possibly some hail, and an isolated tornado or two overnight, shifting its way through Illinois, eventually into Indiana, up into Michigan by early tomorrow morning.

All areas to pay attention to. Not as maybe dangerous as when we were talking this time yesterday. The system has weakened, isolated tornadoes, not widespread tornadoes. But, Neil, still, we're going to be talking about damaging winds up to 60 miles an hour, large hail, and then this flooding issue that we have been seeing. That is something that's definitely going to linger today into tomorrow morning also .

CAVUTO: Incredible. Thank you, Adam, very, very much.

Now, a lot of people, most people would be running from tornadoes. My next guest runs right at them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON JAYJACK, STORM CHASER: This is storm chaser Aaron Jayjack. And I'm currently here in Nebraska. We got a tornado on the ground here right now.

I am northeast -east of McCook.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: That's pretty close to that thing with.

With me now is Aaron Jayjack.

Aaron, you're a risk-taker, to put it mildly. But that looked like it was pretty close to you.

JAYJACK: Yes, it was kind of close.

It was probably about -- I mean, it looks -- it looks closer than it was. It's probably about a quarter-mile to a half-mile away. But, I mean, actually, if I could have, I was trying to get closer to that storm.

But I got stuck in the mud right there, and I couldn't go any further because I was a -- there's a farmer's house right there, and I couldn't get through it.

CAVUTO: Why do you do this?

JAYJACK: Well, so it all comes down to passion, ultimately, number one.

Like, you can't -- I couldn't go out there day after day and chase these storms across the country and spend just hours and thousands of miles per week chasing after the storms. It comes out of the passion. So I have a passion for storms and weather.

I just love being in it and experiencing it. And I -- and, ultimately, I like to document it as well. And documenting -- a part of the documentation is giving those warnings out to the public. And so I use Twitter. I use Twitter to get those alerts out to the public when there's a tornado on the ground, so that people that are -- potentially don't have cable TV, they only have smartphones, and they use social media, that they will maybe see that warning and be able to get out of the way of the storms.

And also the National Weather Service also watches Twitter for those reports.

CAVUTO: You know, Aaron, anything different in these tornadoes you're seeing? We're told that they're a little bit more severe, they hang around for a while, cover a wider radius, in some cases up to 12 miles. I don't know what the truth is here, but anything distinct about these latest ones?

JAYJACK: Well, they're -- certainly, tornadoes don't get as big as 12 miles. The biggest one has been about two-and-a-half miles.

But the supercell themselves, now, all those can cover counties and multiple counties, and they can be 40, 50 miles wide. And the tornado itself generally covers a little smaller area.

But, I mean, the storms, I don't think the storms are getting any worse than they potentially were in the past. They may be more frequent. But I think we see the same strength of storms. And the tornadoes are just like the trails they were several years ago. I'm not seeing anything different with tornadoes right now.

CAVUTO: So when they hit the ground -- the 12 miles, I meant to say that the area they cover once they do hit, and that that's why -- and I don't know how true that is.

But what's the process? I mean, what do you see? They zig and zag? It's hard to get an estimate of where it goes. I mean, it could come right at you, for example. But what do you see?

JAYJACK: Well, so a lot of times, most people -- like, when you're looking at a storm, you think you're going to be -- you're going to looking at the cloud, the deck of the cloud to look for that funnel to come down.

And, certainly, you should be watching for that. But, ultimately, tornadoes, usually, they show themselves on the ground first as a swirling dust swirl that looks like -- some people mistake it for smoke if they're not a storm chaser, and they don't know what they're looking at -- looking for.

So you look for that, that swirl on the ground. And the way those storms form is, I mean, you have got -- we got wind coming from multiple directions there. You got what's called the rear flank downdraft that comes wrapping back behind the storm and brings cold, dry air. And that meets that warm, moist air.

And those two air masses swirl right there. And that's ultimately how you get that tornado to start forming. And the rotation in the cloud up in the atmosphere, it's usually horizontal, but the updraft from that -- from that supercell bends that horizontal, rolling down to the ground. And that's what forms that tornado.

CAVUTO: Scary stuff. But you're apparently not scared.

Aaron Jayjack, thank you very, very much. Good seeing you.

JAYJACK: Yes, no problem.

CAVUTO: All right, please be safe.

JAYJACK: Thank you.

CAVUTO: All right, Aaron touched on this. We have seen more than 50 tornadoes touching down in a matter of days in this area, largely Oklahoma,, Texas. So is that normal?

WeatherBELL chief forecaster Joe Bastardi with me on that.

What do you think, Joe?

JOE BASTARDI, WEATHERBELL CHIEF FORECASTER: Well, we're a bit above normal this year. But it's a rare year.

Since 2011, the unbelievable season back then, most of the years have been at or below normal. And so this particular year, we're running above normal.

Now, what's interesting about this is, in the preseason, looking at it, there was so much warmth predicted by computer modeling across all of the United States, with the exception of Arizona into West Texas, that it had this signature on the models of another very low year.

So I predicted average to below normal this year. What has happened is and what's fascinating is, it seems like the long-range modeling can't detect cold air anymore. So you look at models and say -- we have these climate models go out two, three months. And it's just warm all over the place.

In this particular case, the last four, five, six, months have been brutal from Southern Canada into the Central and Northern Plains. Meantime, it's warm in the Southeast. That's the classic setup, cold vs. warm, for what you're seeing out there. So it's winding up being a bigger-than-average year.

Now, one thing I will say, Neil, is the amount of water in the ground. And people wonder, well, yesterday, there were only 26 tornadoes, but it had a high risk. Usually, a high risk has more than 26 tornadoes.

It may be that the amount of water in the ground may be capping the temperature just a bit. So we're seeing a lot more heavy rain events, getting rid of the imbalance of the atmosphere through heavy rain, hail, high winds, rather than the widespread tornadic activity.

I thought yesterday and today, we would have an over and under of 60 or 70 tornadoes. And we're well under that right now. So that is fortunate.

CAVUTO: Is that a preview as well for coming attractions or anything noteworthy about this year over prior years, what we can sort of play out will happen next?

BASTARDI: Well, the core of that tornado season -- it's like we're at the height of the hurricane season right now. Core of the tornado season is late May. Then it starts to diminish after that.

Looking at the overall pattern, though, there's still going to be a lot of chilly air relative to averages across much of the Central part of the United States. And nothing is really going to budge that that Southeast heat wave way that's going on for next couple of weeks.

So I would say that there's going to be above normal overall the next couple of weeks or so. By the way, this current feature is weakening. But look out Thursday. It comes across the Great Lakes, starts sliding east- southeast. And it wouldn't be surprising in the Northeast, New York, Pennsylvania, on to Western New England, if we saw some tornadic activity on Thursday.

CAVUTO: All right, we will watch closely, Joe. Thanks for your expertise, as always, my friend, Joe Bastardi of WeatherBELL.

Want to pass along, as Joe and I were chatting here, an item that has just come into our newsroom, that Chairman Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee is putting out subpoenas for Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director, as well as Annie Donaldson, the former chief of staff for former White House counsel Don McGahn, who has passed up an opportunity to talk to his committee.

A redacted version of the special counsel Mueller's report documented what he calls alarming misconduct on obstruction of justice by the president. Others disagree with that. Donaldson and Hicks, he says, were critical witnesses to this behavior and must be heard from.

We will have more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meeting with Shanahan, the acting defense secretary, right now on this sort of update he's been giving lawmakers on intelligence they have about Iran and what it's up to. Listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

PATRICK SHANAHAN, ACTING DEFENSE SECRETARY: We had a very good conversation with both the House and the Senate.

And we heard feedback that they'd like more conversation. They'd also like us to be more communicative with the American public, and we agreed to do more of that.

Today, I walked them through what the Department of Defense has been doing since May 3, when we received credible intelligence about threats to our interests in the Middle East and to American forces, and how we acted on that credible intelligence.

That intelligence is borne out in attacks. And I would say it's also deterred attacks. We have deterred attacks, based on our reposturing of assets, deterred attacks against American forces.

Our biggest focus at this point is to prevent Iranian miscalculation. We do not want the situation to escalate. This is about deterrence, not about war. We're not about going to war.

This is about continuing to protect our interests in the Middle East and conducting the missions that they're -- we are there to perform.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... Iran, sir? Will you speak directly to Iran?

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: There are plenty of ways that we can have a communication channel. I'm very confident in that.

Thank you all.

CAVUTO: All right, that was short and sweet.

That is the acting defense secretary, Pat Shanahan, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, briefing reporters on what they briefed senators, and earlier in the day in the House of Representatives, about the intelligence that they have that supports the beefed-up presence that we now have in the Persian Gulf on some provocative actions on the part of the Iranians.

We don't know what that intelligence is. We hope to get a sense of whether the administration succeeded at justifying this upped ante in the region with Senator Barrasso in just a second.

Ahead of that, we do want to keep you up to date on what's going on with subpoenas. Every day, there seem to be more going out. Chairman Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee issuing of subpoenas now for Annie Donaldson, a former chief of staff for Don McGahn, the former White House chief counsel, who has also been subpoenaed to testify, and has passed up the opportunity, and also for Hope Hicks, former White House communications director.

And on and on it goes.

Catherine Herridge has been keeping on top of things fast-moving developments.

A lot of subpoenas, Catherine .

CATHERINE HERRIDGE, CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Neil.

And good afternoon.

Earlier today, the hearing was short and dramatic, with an empty seat reserved for Don McGahn. The Democratic chairman, Jerry Nadler, said there will be consequences, revealing the next steps include going to court and fighting the administration the executive privilege claim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERROLD NADLER, D-N.Y.: Let me be clear. This committee will hear Mr. McGahn's testimony, even if we have to go to court to secure it.

We will not allow the president to prevent the American people from hearing from this witness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HERRIDGE: The White House had already instructed Don McGahn not to provide records to the congressional committee, based on the argument that the White House cooperated with the special counsel, allowing McGahn to speak freely about his conversations with the president to special counsel investigators, and then providing more than a million records.

The committee's ranking Republican called out Democrats, accusing Nadler and others putting speed and headlines ahead of serious negotiations to reach an accommodation with the White House for McGahn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DOUG COLLINS, R-GA: The chairman rushed to maximize headlines by issuing a subpoena. That's subpoena was the third in just four months, more subpoenas than the prior chairman issued in six years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HERRIDGE: And Collins accused the Democrats of kicking the can down the road on testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller.

Those negotiations continue. But Collins says his colleagues don't want to hear directly from the messenger. And more on these subpoenas that were issued in the last few minutes, Neil, for Annie Donaldson and Hope Hicks.

Annie Donaldson is like the note taker in chief when it comes to the special counsel investigation. She was the one whose notes documented these interactions between then White House counsel Don McGahn and the president over these allegations of obstruction. So her notes are really part of the record of the backbone of the special counsel report.

And then Hope Hicks also had a ringside seat, if you will, as the White House communications adviser and a direct adviser to the president on all of these issues related to Russia, Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, Catherine, thank you very, very much.

HERRIDGE: You're welcome.

CAVUTO: It's hard to keep track of all these subpoenas.

Judge Andrew Napolitano has a running count of them.

Judge, what do you think?

(LAUGHTER)

ANDREW NAPOLITANO, JUDICIAL ANALYST: I think there's about 80 subpoenas out now. I'm not talking about just the Judiciary Committee.

CAVUTO: Right. Right.

NAPOLITANO: I'm talking about all the committees in Congress that have oversight over the executive branch.

A lot of this is going to be resolved by a court. The argument that was made by the Justice Department yesterday as to why the president doesn't want Don McGahn to testify was an interesting one. He didn't invoke executive privilege, because I think his lawyers have understood that by letting Don McGahn speak to the FBI, and we think -- we don't know -- testify before a grand jury, the president waived executive privilege.

So they have another privilege called immunity. And the argument is this. The Congress can't subpoena the president and make him explain his thoughts. Therefore, it can't subpoena the president's inner circle and make anyone in the inner circle reveal their thoughts.

That is not the same as executive privilege. The question is, will it will it last? The last time the courts looked at this, the president lost. And it was Harriet Miers, the exact same situation, former White House counsel, now in private practice. She was White House counsel for George -- President George W. Bush.

CAVUTO: Right.

NAPOLITANO: And after many, many months of skirmishing, the court issued a very well-respected report that says, she's got to testify. Then they negotiated and she testified.

So I think, ultimately, Don McGahn will testify. He doesn't need my advice, but, if I were his lawyers, I would have told him to go there today and say, look, I'm here because I respect this body and I respect the subpoena. But I have a client, a former client, not the president, the presidency.

And that client says, I shouldn't testify. So, you want me to testify? Go to court, I'll do whatever the court says.

CAVUTO: Yes, but he wouldn't be saying anything?

NAPOLITANO: Well, unless the court tells him to, so...

CAVUTO: But he's going for just the theater of saying, this is...

NAPOLITANO: Well, it shows respect for the body that issued the subpoena.

CAVUTO: I see.

NAPOLITANO: Because the courts like to see that kind of respect.

Remember, Congress is a co-equal branch with the presidency and with the judiciary. When you go out of your way to show respect for that authority, even if you don't do what they want, you show them respect, you get a leg up.

CAVUTO: All right, so let me ask you about where this goes, because it seems to me the president or the White House says, if we let one person testify, they're all going to testify.

So they stop each and every one. Is that the strategy?

NAPOLITANO: I think that's probably the case.

If you want me to predict how this is going to go, it'll depend upon the preceding. Example, if the House of Representatives begins formal impeachment proceedings, which takes months to get going, that will narrow the president's executive privilege and expand the number of people who will have to testify and have to produce documents, because, when the House is in impeachment mode, and the target of the impeachment is the president, he can't impede that.

We know that from the Nixon and Clinton experiences.

CAVUTO: Amazing. Amazing. Thank God you're here to keep track of this.

NAPOLITANO: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: What a mess.

And a lot more coming up on this.

Socialism, meanwhile, is on the rise. There is that -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: Well, there's a new poll out that has a lot of people scratching their heads, particularly Republicans, who thought that this was a winnable issue for them, the notion that Democrats want to pursue socialism, whatever you want to call it.

It seems that four in 10 Americans polled by Gallup embrace some form of socialism. Many Republicans shouldn't then be laughing this off, because it's a palpable and real issue?

Republican strategist John Thomas, Democratic strategist David Burstein, and, last but not least, Kat Timpf.

So, Dave, to you first on this notion. When Americans were polling, even though a majority still are against it, it's only 51 percent; 43 percent don't have a problem with it. What did you make of that?

DAVID BURSTEIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, look, I think people should be a little bit less alarm than they might be by this, because I think what these things are really saying -- and there been a number of polls now that have shown this -- is that Americans are frustrated with capitalism, that capitalism is not working.

I think most people don't actually know what socialism is. So people aren't necessarily saying they want Swedish-style socialism, as the president likes to say.

But the reality is that people are frustrated, and capitalism does need improvements. And even Republicans have said this, too. As people are looking around, they're looking at their pocketbooks, they're looking at interest rates, they're looking at their dwindling portfolios, and they're saying, can't we be doing better?

CAVUTO: What's dwindling?

BURSTEIN: Well, if you are an average American worker, your fortunes have not improved at the same rate that people's fortunes have improved if they're in the top 1 percent.

(CROSSTALK)

BURSTEIN: But an economy where you can only succeed if you put all your money in the stock market. Most people can't afford to take that kind of risk.

CAVUTO: I think you're trivializing it.

I would say this, though, that one thing that's very clear is when people are polled the subject of help me pay, Kat, for my college education or -- and my debt, or health care for all, those are appealing concepts that a lot of people would embrace.

Now, when you're getting the details how to pay for them, quite another thing.

KATHERINE TIMPF, CONTRIBUTOR: Right.

CAVUTO: But should Republicans be aware that, in the middle of this booming economy, you do have people who are saying, no, this is other stuff that I want?

TIMPF: Right.

They absolutely should be aware, and the people who have said that they are sympathetic with socialism or with some form of socialism, like AOC or like Bernie Sanders, have done a good job of kind of branding it as, look at -- we're going to give you. We're going to give you these things.

They don't mention that in order for the government to give anyone anything, they have to take from someone else. And it might be some of the people who support it that they would be taking from.

So I think that Republicans need to do a better job of making that more clear, because you come off as being generous if you're a socialist. Really, in my opinion, though, there's nothing generous about wanting to spend someone else's money.

CAVUTO: I'm wondering, for Republicans, if you think about it, you think about it, because the economy, we can argue whether it's the president's doing or not.

I mean, we certainly blame the president if it's a bad economy.

JOHN THOMAS, GOP STRATEGIST: Right.

CAVUTO: So accepting that as it is, and Pennsylvania unemployment at record lows, the Pennsylvania economy booming, and yet, in the latest polls, the president is trailing Joe Biden by 11 points.

In two other industrial states that he won, Wisconsin and Michigan, a similar story, though not as big a gap. Something is not connecting them then with voters.

THOMAS: Well, I don't think the president has really started the campaign trail. He's going to officially launch his campaign in a few weeks.

And it is...

CAVUTO: Are you kidding? He talks about this stuff every minute.

THOMAS: Yes, but he hasn't hit his full mode.

BURSTEIN: He's on the trail.

THOMAS: And the TV ads haven't started to roll really making the case.

CAVUTO: But what could explain this dichotomy?

THOMAS: Well, look, I think there is a frustration.

But what you see in that Gallup survey, which is more disturbing to me, but also encouraging as just a Republican operative, is that 57 percent of those surveyed of Democrats support socialism, 57 percent.

That's going to push whoever the Dem nominee further to the left. And if this race in a general election comes up between socialism and economic freedom, my money's on economic freedom all day.

CAVUTO: All right, but if you have that high a percentage of Democrats and more than 43 percent of just general voters of that opinion and a higher percentage of independents of that opinion, you would have to be worried, right?

THOMAS: Not really, because Quinnipiac also put out a poll today that said 77 percent of Americans believe that the economy is either good or excellent.

So what Trump has to figure out is, how does he take his ballot number and move it closer to people who are feeling better economically, and take credit for that? That's his principal challenge.

CAVUTO: There is that argument too, that the economy is doing so well, that people can entertain some of these socialism issues because they think we can afford it.

BURSTEIN: Well, I think that's -- that's true.

But, also, the question of how the economy is doing is different than how the stock market is doing. There are a lot of positives signs for growth.

CAVUTO: No, I can leave the stock market out. I could look at 3.2 percent growth. I could look at record low unemployment. I could look at strong productivity.

TIMPF: Wages are rising.

(CROSSTALK)

BURSTEIN: But, yet, at the same time, there's -- that's not going to go on forever.

And there's a lot of concerns about...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: And, right now, it's a strong economy.

(CROSSTALK)

BURSTEIN: Morgan Stanley just put out a report this week that if we enter a full-blown trade war, which we're possibly on the path to doing, we will go pretty quickly into a recession.

CAVUTO: Well, would have, should have, could have.

People have been bemoaning this for 14 months. Right?

THOMAS: One thing we learned from 2016 is that the president has always had approval ratings that were underwater. He's never really been above 50. But voters can have a certain level of cognitive dissonance.

We saw it in 2016. They can vote for somebody even if they're not loving them if they think it benefits them and their pocketbook.

CAVUTO: Well, it just happened in Australia, right? It just happened in Australia. All right. We will see.

(CROSSTALK)

TIMPF: Democrats have done a good job kind of focusing on the people who are struggling a little bit more, like student debt or people who have health care decisions, especially since Republicans did bungle health care so badly.

BURSTEIN: It's a big portion of electorate.

CAVUTO: All right, good day, mates. See what I did there?

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Well, I tried.

All right, we have a lot more coming up, including that briefing just ending for senators who had a chance to hear the justifications for the buildup, the military buildup, we have had in the Persian Gulf area.

One of those at the meeting, Senator John Barrasso, with me here next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, what people worried about with China yesterday, they weren't worried about today

The fact that we're easing and postponing some of the restrictions on Huawei, so big technology names can still do business and not crater, was enough to get the buyers out.

More after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: Boy, a lot of briefings on Capitol Hill today, one that had to do with trade, another one wrapping up just now in the United States Senate having to do with Iran and the intelligence we have that has justified -- or apparently justified -- our beefed-up military presence in the region.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee member John Barrasso was at that briefing, joins us now.

Senator, good to have you.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO, R-WY: Thanks, Neil.

CAVUTO: I know you can't give away state secrets, nor should do. But I -- were you convinced that the administration's move to beef up our military presence in the region was justified?

BARRASSO: Absolutely justified, Neil.

The information I saw is credible. It is serious and has been increasing. But, remember, Iran has a 40-year history of bad actions against the United States. "Death to America" is what they chant. And this is just part of that ongoing work by them.

CAVUTO: Did you get a sense from the administration, sir, how far they go with this, what they want to see out of Iran, besides the provocative behavior they say that Iran's exhibited over the last couple of weeks?

BARRASSO: Well, certainly, they want to deter Iran from doing something stupid.

And to do that, we wanted to show that we have the capacity to attack them if need be, and we have the willingness to do it if we have to. But no one wants to do that. We want them to stop the activities that they have been doing.

We know that by the sanctions and the increasing pressure against them, they're feeling the heat. They're feeling the heat in Iran, and they're feeling the heat in terms of the money that they have been giving to their -- to the Houthis and Hezbollah and Hamas. They're not able to do the sort of terrorist activities because the money just isn't there for them anymore.

CAVUTO: You know, there have been reports that China's more than happy to get their hands on that Iranian oil.

And any concerns about how China might be complicating this?

BARRASSO: Well, of course Iran has -- part of its income is selling oil.

Now, we have increased sanctions on that oil. And that's why Iran is feeling the pressure. I know China would love to be involved and get that source of energy. Energy is called the master resource for a reason.

But, clearly, what the United States has done with sanctions against oil, against their metals, has really impacted their economy and their ability to fund the kind of terror that they're used to funding.

CAVUTO: Now, I'm going to be exploring this in a segment later in the show, but I'd love to get your thoughts on Justin Amash, the Michigan Republican congressman who thinks that -- he has read through the Mueller report and thinks there's impeachable conduct there.

And everyone in the party came down on -- like a ton of bricks. What do you think of what he said?

BARRASSO: Well, he's one man who has his own personal opinion.

I have come to a very different opinion from reviewing the documents. Look, no collusion, none. No conspiracy, none. To me, this is over. It's beyond us. If the House of Representatives wants to do what they seem to want to do, which is travel the path to impeachment, let them.

There's going to be no appetite for that in the United States Senate.

CAVUTO: Do you have any sense, though, as a fellow Republican -- obviously, you disagree with the congressman -- that the party is going too far and its attack line, that he just expressed his opinion? There may be sort of a chill between he and the White House. Wouldn't be the first time it's been reported.

But that already promising to primary the guy for departing from the president seems a bit much. What do you think?

BARRASSO: Well, anyone can get into a primary.

Neil, I was home in Wyoming this weekend. I hear nothing about this. What I hear from people is, we have a strong, healthy, growing economy. Let's keep it going. Let's keep doing the things that the Republicans have been doing in terms of lowering taxes, letting people keep more of their hard- earned money.

And the other thing I here at home is, do not take away the health insurance that I get through work, and do not put me on a one-size-fits-all health insurance plan. But I'm not hearing anything...

CAVUTO: So you hear nothing about Congressman Amash, right?

BARRASSO: Not a thing.

CAVUTO: All right.

Do you hear anything, even among your colleagues, Senator, about the president slapping down all these subpoenas for his administration officials to talk to Congress?

Some are saying that it's concerning them, that he could be setting up, maybe for perfectly valid reasons, a constitutional crisis. What do you think?

BARRASSO: Well, that's not come up with my colleagues.

We had a full lunch discussion on trade and the importance of what the president is doing on trade. But these other things have not come up. As far as the Senate's concerned, this -- the investigation is complete. This is over.

CAVUTO: All right.

We just mentioned a survey that shows socialism and the number of Americans who embrace it is surprisingly high, about 43 percent. Was that a surprise to you?

BARRASSO: Well, once you talk about what socialism means, which is one- size-fits-all health insurance, people losing their Medicare Advantage, losing their health insurance they get from work, when they see what happens -- and you saw this in the elections in Australia the other day.

People don't want to pay higher taxes and higher cost of living. They want to deal with what's going on in their own lives. And I think that the definition of socialism, once you explain what it means for people in this land of opportunity, where the government can either crush or create opportunity, and taxes and regulations, which is what socialism brings, make it a lot harder in a land of opportunity to do the kind of things we'd like to do to continue with a strong, healthy, and growing economy.

CAVUTO: All right, Senator, very good catching up with you. Thank you very, very much.

BARRASSO: Thanks. Thanks, Neil.

CAVUTO: Want to take you to Chicago right after the break here, a major protest going on outside McDonald's' corporate headquarters today.

It has nothing to do with the minimum wage and whether it ever gets to $15 or any wage. It has something to do with a very real, palpable legal issue -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: McDonald's workers are rallying outside the company's corporate headquarters in Chicago today. More protests are planned later in the week.

But it's not about the minimum wage.

FOX Business Network's Jeff Flock is there on what it is about -- Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Neil.

There, you see McDonald's corporate headquarters there behind me, the scene of the protest today by women that work at McDonald's alleging sexual harassment. Today, 20 separate complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and five lawsuits alleging everything from groping to indecent exposure to lewd comments to requests for sex.

One woman we heard from, her name is Jamelia Fairley from Sanford, Florida, said she was asked by someone she works with at McDonald's how much it would cost to have sex with her 1-year-old daughter.

Here's what else she told the protest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMELIA FAIRLEY, MCDONALD'S'S EMPLOYEE: It's time for a change, McDonald's. And that means more than just a publicity stunt.

When your feet are being held to the fire, it's time for action. And it's time for McDonald's to sit down with workers and address the sexual harassment for once and for all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: The workers today, Neil, joined by the "Top Chef" host. Her name is Padma Lakshmi. Perhaps you watch that show. She was on hand to talk about her support for the workers.

McDonald's says, well, 95 percent of our restaurants are operated by franchisees, and we can't control them. She said, no, you control what kind of pickle they put on their sandwich and don't let them do any variation from that. You should be able to enforce a no-tolerance policy when it comes to sexual harassment.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PADMA LAKSHMI, FOOD AUTHOR AND TELEVISION HOST: McDonald's needs to do way more than just encourage. We would like to see a program that doesn't just have training and a hot line, but a zero tolerance disciplinary plan put in place immediately, with accountability and lasting consequences for sexual harassment in the workplace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: Steve Easterbrook, Neil, the CEO of McDonald's, wrote a letter back to Padma Lakshmi.

I quote from it just briefly. He says: "By strengthening our overall policy, McDonald's is sending a clear message that we are committed to creating and sustaining a culture of trust where employees feel safe, valued and respected."

Employees say they have complained about this before and have -- the company's done nothing.

I leave you with a picture perhaps of another protest going on outside McDonald's today. These are the folks, McDonaldsCruelty.com. They don't like the way McDonald's treats their chickens. Apart from having people eat them, they don't think it's humane treatment of chickens.

They will be at the company's shareholders meeting, which will be Thursday in Dallas. I think McDonald's should never have left their corporate headquarters in the suburbs, where you couldn't really get out in front to protest. It was set way back off the street. Now they're here in Chicago, and, well, all bets are off .

CAVUTO: Yes, indeed, they are. All bets are off.

Jeff Flock, thank you very, very much.

Well, you know Republican Congressman Justin Amash is now going to be primaried for dare challenging the president. Now there are reports that the congressman is ready to challenge the president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: No sooner had Republican Congressman Justin Amash indicated that he thinks the president had impeachable conduct than he was already challenged, a promised primary challenge coming for him.

Maybe it doesn't matter to Congressman Amash, though he is apparently gearing up for a run against the president of the United States as a Libertarian candidate.

The Federalist senior editor, Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway on that.

Is that true?

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I'm not sure if he will be running for Libertarian candidate for president, but he certainly would be a strong contender if he did.

I'm a little surprised we're getting this much coverage of his call for impeachment, because he has been calling for impeachment of Donald Trump for at least two years. He did it in May of 2017, June of 2018. And now he's done it again.

And this case, this time, it's, I think, not even his strongest version of the argument. He didn't explain exactly why he should be impeached. He smeared William Barr unfairly, saying that William Barr had mischaracterized Mueller's Russia report, which is just not true.

He says he read the whole report and somehow came to a different conclusion than Barr, even though we all know that there were no indictments for treasonous collusion with Russia to steal the 2016 election, and no indictments for obstruction of justice.

And I know that's disappointing to people who dislike Donald Trump. But that's just the fact.

CAVUTO: I'm just wondering whether, by giving him the attention that Republicans have -- now, I understand, because much of the media is focused on this, certainly Democrats are focused on this -- but now vowing a party challenge, a primary challenge to him, that his stature is rising all the more.

HEMINGWAY: I don't know.

But just speaking as someone with libertarian sympathies, it would be good if libertarians who claimed to care about surveillance of people in the country would reflect that, when you have a high-profile case of people surveilling political opponents using wiretaps, national security letters, overseas intelligence assets, and a number of things where we actually could use some leadership from people, including people who dislike Donald Trump, to say, were these things appropriate and were they right?

CAVUTO: Yes.

HEMINGWAY: And libertarians should be excellent on this issue.

And Justin Amash is good on it when it doesn't involve Donald Trump. It would be good for him to be good on it when it does involve Donald Trump.

CAVUTO: Let me ask you about these new subpoenas that have gone out of the House Judiciary Committee, not only for Don McGahn, which you already know about, Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director, who, by the way, is the -- now the chief communications officer of Fox Corporation, and a host of others.

I mean, they're piling up like planes at La Guardia now, but what do you make of them?

HEMINGWAY: I don't know.

I think Jerry Nadler, I sat across from him on the train the day after the election, where he revealed his impeachment plans for Donald Trump on that day. So we know this is all part of an impeachment effort, which is -- that is his right as Judiciary Committee chairman, but he doesn't seem to be having a good go of it thus far.

He's had trouble getting people to actually testify, in part because I think he's being too aggressive and not working with people .

CAVUTO: And back and forth we go.

Mollie, thank you very, very much.

HEMINGWAY: Thank you.

CAVUTO: All right, for those you watching yesterday, we had an unusual open to the show to deal with addiction that has claimed already a very inspiring young man.

Now we talk to the U.S. drug czar on how we can avoid this in the future.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: He was a survivor of Columbine 20 years ago and trying to help people deal with their addictions ever since, his own included. And he might have succumbed to the same thing himself.

So now, after the tragic death of Austin Eubanks, what lessons can we learn? We devoted a good chunk of yesterday's show to it.

I'm very happy and honored to have the U.S. drug czar, James Carroll, with us right now.

James, thank you for taking the time.

JAMES CARROLL, DRUG CZAR: Hi, Neil. Thank you for having me on.

CAVUTO: We just can't get past this, can we? And it just seems it happens to the people who are trying to deal with it and teach people about it as well.

What can the government, if anything, do?

CARROLL: The president has really been focused on this since even he was running for office.

Three years ago, there was no one talking about this issue. But the president realized this was really an issue that was impacting Americans, that Americans were dying at an alarming rate. And so, since day one, the president has made this a priority.

And there's really three prongs about what we're doing. We're making sure to educate young people, so they don't go down this path. We're educating doctors, so they don't make the high-dose prescriptions that they used to.

We're getting more and more people into treatment every day than ever before. And we're also supporting our law enforcement, both at the national, state and federal level, to make sure that we're going after this in every way we can .

CAVUTO: You know, what people have discovered is, if you have an operation, or if you're dealing with stress, and you're recommended and given a painkiller, to your earlier point, you might only need six to eight, let's say, painkiller pills at -- at the moment, but you will get 25 or 50.

And therein lies this dependence. But the pharmaceutical companies come back and say, we didn't create that problem. Why are you pointing the finger at us? You say?

CARROLL: Well, certainly, the pharmaceutical companies do have a role in this. We know that.

And the story that you ran yesterday about the young victim at Columbine, that started with a prescription.

CAVUTO: That's right.

CARROLL: And the president recognized that.

We're pushing hard in my office. And the high-dose prescriptions for opioids are down 34 percent since the president took office, trying to make sure that we don't have more people going down this path.

CAVUTO: But many more are, particularly young people. That could be a lot of different issues. But are you worried that that part doesn't budge?

CARROLL: No, I think we're actually showing some signs of improvement.

One of the programs that I fund here at the White House is a $100 million grant to communities, to local coalitions to have them educate kids from 12 to 18 about the dangers of drug use.

And what we're seeing in these communities -- and it's a record level of support from any administration -- so, from this president, these drug-free communities, there are almost 800 across the country.

They're showing record levels of young people using drugs than ever before.

CAVUTO: Yes.

CARROLL: So, I really think it's beginning to pay off. And we're actually seeing it in the death rate overall.

CAVUTO: All right, well, I will have to see that data.

But, James Carroll, thank you very much for taking the time, our U.S. drug czar, joining us from the White House.

We're going to be talking to Senator John Thune about this and other subjects and how much the government can do, be expected to do, and how much we, as parents and fellow human beings, do.

That's tomorrow on "Coast to Coast" on FOX Business.

Right now, here's "The Five."

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