Bill Weld: People all over the country don't like to hear about President Trump
Republican 2020 presidential candidate Bill Weld on the impeachment inquiry.
This is a rush transcript from "Your World," October 23, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAXINE WATERS, D-CALIF.: You plan on doing no fact-checking on political ads?
MARK ZUCKERBERG, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, FACEBOOK: Chairwoman, our policy is that we do not fact-check politicians' speech.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you going to do to shut it down, Mr. Zuckerberg?
ZUCKERBERG: We're working with law enforcement in building technical systems to identify...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, you're not working hard -- hard enough, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to be making powerful burglary tools and letting your business partners commit the burglary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's almost like you think this is a joke, when you have ruined the lives of many people, discriminated against.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Zuckerberg, good morning. How are you?
ZUCKERBERG: I'm doing OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was honest. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEIL CAVUTO, ANCHOR: Wow.
That went well, huh? Well, what the Zuck, right? In your Facebook.
I'm talking about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg facing an incredible bipartisan bashing on Capitol Hill today. Did anything come of it? Everything from worries about the upcoming elections, to human trafficking, civil rights, a new cryptocurrency that has lawmakers on both sides crying foul. And that was the good part.
Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto.
And have at it. The CEO one of the largest social media companies on the planet, as well as one of the richest men on Earth, testifying in a very feisty give-and-take that comes back to how much influence that company and that man should have going forward.
Hillary Vaughn on Capitol Hill, where it was all going down today -- Hillary.
HILLARY VAUGHN, CORRESPONDENT: Neil, three House lawmakers told Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that actions speak louder than words.
And House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters kicked off this hearing today reading a rap sheet of Facebook's bad behavior, ranging from Russian meddling in the 2016 election, to data privacy concerns with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, to conservative censorship on their platform.
Zuckerberg showed up today to make the case that Facebook should be allowed to make its own currency and also roll out its own global payment platform.
He admitted, though, Congress may not think he is the ideal messenger, based on his company's past.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you leave behind your children's inheritance in Libra? I think it's a fair question, because...
ZUCKERBERG: Yes, I think it's...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... you have proven that we cannot trust you with our e-mails, with our phone numbers. So why should we trust you with our hard- earned money?
ZUCKERBERG: Well, Congresswoman...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Reclaiming my time.
If you can answer yes or no, would you leave behind your children's inheritance in Libra?
ZUCKERBERG: Congresswoman, I would.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUGHN: Zuckerberg defended his decision not to censor political ads by fact-checking them, saying that he doesn't believe that his platform should be in the practice of censoring politicians.
Maxine Waters addressed this with him. And, also, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just asked him about that. He admitted that he does think lying is bad, but at the end of the day, in a democracy, he says they shouldn't be in the role of censoring politicians on their site.
And, Neil, to give you a picture of how heated some of this grilling got with lawmakers, multiple congressmen took time out of their five-minute question-and-answer period to ask Zuckerberg how he was doing.
He said he was holding up OK -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Yes, I like the one who said, I don't have time for your answer.
All right, Hillary Vaughn, thank you.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: He's still testifying, by the way. I was surprised to hear that. So this will probably be going quite late tonight.
By the way, you hear this talk about Libra. It's a digital currency that Facebook is working on, in concert with a couple of dozen others around the world, to rival the dollar, rival some of the established currencies out there backed by the dollar, backed by a host of other goods.
But, again on Capitol Hill, they don't want to let him try it.
Now, by the way, this is just an opening salvo here. This is the first, but hardly the last tech titan, to catch politicians' wrath, and on the right and the left.
Republican strategist Lauren Claffey joins us, Democratic strategist Kristen Hawn, and market watcher Frances Newton Stacy.
Frances, end it with you, begin with you.
You can make the argument here that this is sort of like the appetizer, and that we have seen both sides, Republicans and Democrats, want to target these tech titans that have gotten essentially, in their eyes, too big for their britches, whether they're going to look at Amazon, whether they're going to look at Google, whether they're going to look at Facebook or what have you.
But it's going to be nonstop, isn't it?
FRANCES NEWTON STACY, OPTIMAL CAPITAL: It's going to be nonstop.
And I think the public sector sort of tries to control the private sector for the benefit of all. I think it's a very dangerous concept actually to bring currency into the private sector, because currency is so part and parcel that every piece of our lives. The money supply has to be managed. Credit has to be managed. The risks have to be managed.
This is supposedly backed by a basket of currencies that is loosely based on the U.S. dollar. But the problem is, all of those assets move every second of the day. And if you don't have some serious finance people and some bankers and some old guard and some regulators watching those things, it becomes very vulnerable very quickly.
CAVUTO: Indeed.
And even the Facebook CEO himself was quick to say right at the outset, "I know this is something that needs to be built," referring to this currency. "And I understand we're not the ideal messenger right now."
Kristen, that was probably the understatement.
KRISTEN HAWN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: It really was.
And, I mean, he's got a lot of problems on the right and the left. And I think you saw manifest itself today. I mean, at the end of the day, Facebook just hasn't been the great -- done the greatest job at protecting its users' information.
And so you have got to have regularly buy-in on this new currency, this digital currency. And right now it doesn't have it. And it's a real problem.
CAVUTO: You know, Lauren, another thing, though.
I found it interesting when Maxine Waters started this, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, to which he spoke, that he got into a big hullabaloo here when he said that he wasn't going to fact-check political ads. She was obviously angry about that.
But what he was trying to say -- and he never got it out -- was, I'm not going to check -- fact-check Democratic or Republican ads.
So it's in the eye of the beholder here, but that wasn't received well by either side.
LAUREN CLAFFEY, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yes.
And it's just crazy to me that politicians are sitting there telling a tech company that they want them to screen and censor their speech. I mean, the whole point is that this is a communications platform and that Facebook wouldn't be responsible for any of the content in that -- in -- the political content in -- that is put on the platform.
And I don't think that we want to go through a instance where we have -- we're allowing a tech company to censor any speech whatsoever. And it really runs afoul of a lot of First Amendment rights.
So I think that anything that they do, especially with the political ads topic, they're going to have to be very careful that they don't just criticize and target Facebook, that they look at this holistically, if they're actually going to do anything, and make sure that they are following the First Amendment rights and that they do not infringe on anyone's speech.
CAVUTO: You know, he's in a no-win situation there, Frances, as you kind of touched on at the outset here, because to say, I'm not going to fact- check ads in response to a Democrat saying that he should when it comes to Republican ads, he should have just added, and the same applies any ads that you come up with, Chairwoman, or anyone in your party.
But they have it out for him. And a lot of people are targeting with whom he has dinner. The other night, it was with some conservatives. Before, it was allegations from no less than the president of the United States that he's biased against him, the president of the United States.
So this guy, I don't know what this proved today, but he was taking the arrows.
NEWTON STACY: Absolutely.
I think at the crux of this is that neither party trusts him to have a public company with so much power. And if you give this -- I mean, I'm sorry -- a private company with so much power. And if you give this private company this power, who's coming next?
Is Google going to come out with a cryptocurrency? Is Amazon going to release a cryptocurrency? How many cryptocurrencies, how many currencies that are backed by the U.S. dollar do we need?
So I think also they're worried about this avalanche kind of coming forward, and that he's not going to be loyal to either party, so neither side is willing to take the bet.
CAVUTO: You know, Kristen, I did notice that he has a fondness for some of his people that he's passed along to Mayor Buttigieg for his campaign.
Sheryl Sandberg, his COO, is apparently very, very close to Elizabeth Warren. So I don't know where that splits, but the rap is that he leans left to begin with, but not that that's material here, outside of saying, no matter what, he says someone's going to be annoyed.
HAWN: I think that that's it.
I mean, no matter what he does, who he has dinner with, the right or the left, I think that it's correct to say that everybody's just nervous that he has so much power. And actually, you have to give credit where credit's due. It actually is pretty difficult to place ads, particularly political ads, on Facebook.
I mean, you have to disclose exactly who you are. So there is a pretty rigorous process there. But I do understand. I'm pretty sure, if I remember this panel, even though they were supposed to be talking about this -- this digital currency, that I would use this opportunity to question as well.
CAVUTO: Yes, my favorite part was, again, I don't have time for your answer.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: All right, ladies, thank you all very, very much.
By the way, that hearing is wrapping up. They must have wanted to catch our coverage on said hearing. But it is wrapping up on Capitol Hill.
So one of the world's richest men can finally get off the hot seat, before he likely returns to Capitol Hill for the next time he's on the hot seat.
Meanwhile, I want to take you to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, right now. President Trump is making remarks at a shale energy conference. If this whole Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, thing rings a bell, that's because, just earlier in the day, Joe Biden was in the same state, a very crucial state.
He was in Scranton, his birthplace, to remind people, I'm with you.
The president now following up on that, no, no, I'm with you.
After this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: I have had the Mueller witch-hunt, the Russia witch-hunt. I have witch-hunts every week.
I say, what's the witch-hunt this week?
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: They can't beat us at the ballot box. They cannot beat us at the ballot box. So they want to try and beat us the old-fashioned way, which is not very nice. They are a nasty group of people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: All right, moments ago, the president making these remarks at this shale energy conference going on in Pennsylvania. It's a key battleground state, as you know, where Joe Biden made an earlier appearance today in Scranton.
Kristin Fisher with the latest from Pittsburgh.
Hey, Kristin.
KRISTIN FISHER, CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Neil.
Well, right now, President Trump is making his pitch to a key industry in this critical battleground state. And he's talking about how, the last time that he spoke at this conference, the Shale Insight Conference, was back in 2016, when he was the candidate, and he was promising to be a champion of the oil and gas industry.
Now, as president, he's back to highlight all the things that his administration has done to encourage and increase domestic energy production, to roll back regulations, create jobs, and encourage fracking.
Now, fracking is becoming a bigger and bigger issue on the campaign trail. A few of his Democratic rivals, like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, are now calling for a nationwide ban on fracking.
And President Trump says that that would hurt the economy here in Pennsylvania and across the Rust Belt states, states he desperately needs to secure his reelection.
But, right now, the fight in front of him is on Capitol Hill, as Democrats move forward with their impeachment inquiry. And, today, Quinnipiac University was out with a new poll showing that a growing of -- Americans support this impeachment inquiry; 43 percent disapprove of it, while 55 percent approve of it.
That is a new high. And in six of the biggest battleground states, including Pennsylvania, a New York Times poll found similar results; 50 percent supported the impeachment inquiry, while 45 percent didn't.
But here in Pittsburgh, Neil, President Trump continuing to call it a witch-hunt -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Kristin, thank you very, very much.
And, by the way, we're only three months away from the Iowa caucuses, but who's counting? Some big money Democratic donors are already looking for new candidates, because they don't like the 300 who are already running -- well, maybe not 300 -- 290.
Anyway, Peter Doocy in West Point, Iowa, with that.
Hey, Peter.
PETER DOOCY, CORRESPONDENT: Two-ninety is closer, Neil.
And if Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren are the co-front-runners, then Democratic donors are not happy, according to a report in The New York Times, that explains there are still some big names on the sideline who could jump into the race late to try and appeal to unsatisfied Democrats.
Among those names, Michael Bloomberg, Eric Holder, Sherrod Brown, and Hillary Clinton.
And we had a chance to ask Elizabeth Warren here in Iowa what she thinks about all these big names in her own party skeptical of her chances of winning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... run for president.
We have a country that is working better and better and better for a thinner and thinner and thinner slice at the top. 2020 is our chance to turn that around. That's what we're going to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOOCY: If Hillary Clinton wants to get into the primaries, she'd have to deal with Tulsi Gabbard, who keeps pushing back against Clinton's claim that she's a Russian asset.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TULSI GABBARD, D-HI, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Long past time for you to step down from your throne, so that the Democratic Party can lead with a new foreign policy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOOCY: Joe Biden is running late today, but we are here in Iowa waiting for him.
And despite all the recent missteps and the bad headlines about his campaign, he is in his strongest position against the rest of the field, according to a brand-new CNN poll -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Peter, thank you very much -- Peter Doocy.
Now I'd like to introduce you to something that's sort of like akin to a dinosaur these days, a moderate Democrat, the former Obama fund-raiser and friend Don Peebles.
I'd say that half-jokingly, Don. It's good to have you.
But the fear among those who are looking at the candidates in the race is, it's an unelectable bunch, that, as things stand now, that it's a problem- plagued bunch.
Now, the impeachment stuff could change that, but the big spending plans, the soak the rich, the Wall Street types, that might get you nominated, but it isn't going to get you the grand prize. What do you think?
R. DONAHUE PEEBLES, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, PEEBLES CORPORATION: Yes, I think that that's pretty much the case.
I think everybody was thinking this was going to be a short primary season, Biden was going to get into the race, and he would close things out pretty quickly, because he's the best resume. He's got the best name recognition and the best of ability to govern the country.
CAVUTO: And in this bunch, he looks moderate, right?
PEEBLES: He looks extreme -- yes.
CAVUTO: But he does want to raise corporate taxes. He does want to go after some wealth kind of taxes, right?
PEEBLES: But he's not going to attack the entire free enterprise system, like Bernie Sanders is.
I mean, Bernie Sanders is talking about wholesale change. You just heard Elizabeth Warren talking about wholesale change.
CAVUTO: Right.
PEEBLES: Neither one of them, though, can relate to the most important core constituency in the Democratic Party, African-American voters.
Super Tuesday, I mean, is going to be a very difficult day for Sanders and Warren, especially right before Super Tuesday, when they go to South Carolina. I think it's going to be very difficult.
CAVUTO: Well, that's the Holy Grail for Joe Biden. He's got to win South Carolina. Right?
PEEBLES: Yes. And I think he will.
CAVUTO: Because he's given up, it seems, on Iowa and New Hampshire. Is that true?
PEEBLES: I mean, I don't know.
I think he could still be competitive in New Hampshire and Iowa. I think the problem right now is that it's so many candidates out there. He's been the victim of attacks.
CAVUTO: Yes.
PEEBLES: And he's also not the best orator.
And I think that he's got a real challenge in terms of just getting people comfortable. But if he wins Iowa, or does -- comes in even second in Iowa, does well in New Hampshire, and does well in South Carolina, I think you will start seeing the field thin out, and people will focus on Biden.
CAVUTO: No one knows who finishes second or third, though, in those contests, right?
(CROSSTALK)
PEEBLES: No. I mean, no.
And I think also -- but Democratic donors are looking for alternatives, because they're panicking right now, because they're seeing Biden not performing well fund-raising wise and not performing well in the debates.
And they're seeing Warren surging and Sanders after a heart attack coming back.
CAVUTO: But is this party recognizable to you, Don?
For folks who don't know you, you were being seriously considered -- you pooh-poohed it -- running for mayor of New York, because you cross a number of bridges in that you have moderating positions. I think it's fair to say you're fiscally conservative, more socially liberal, which in a city like this used to be key ingredients to getting elected.
But I dare say that a Mayor Bloomberg or someone, that couldn't happen again. He may be your close friend, Barack Obama. He would have a tough time getting nominated for president in this party right now.
PEEBLES: Well, I think the party would be -- would nominate Obama again for president, given -- especially given the field that we have.
But I think the challenge is, is that the party has moved so far to the left, that they're becoming the party of advocates, as opposed to governing.
CAVUTO: But you have been warning. You're very powerful in the party, I mean, still.
And, obviously, you have great financial interests there. But I hear this panic from a lot of your friends and colleagues that they say, this is our year, we can easily do this, and we're throwing it away. Do you think they're throwing it away?
PEEBLES: Well, I think you look at it -- I do think they're throwing it away.
But if you look at it from the far left perspective, this is their best shot.
CAVUTO: Well, they say that's where the passion is. And that passion goes to the polls.
PEEBLES: Well, the polls can't vote by text messaging.
So the reality is, is that constituency is not going to vote any way near how they register in polls. So I think, in the end, the Democrats want to be -- they want to nominate someone who's a bit more moderate, and who can govern.
But the far left says this is their best shot to sell this horrible product that they want to sell, which is to...
CAVUTO: But do they share that view, Don, that capitalist is a bad term?
I mean, Bernie Sanders cites Elizabeth Warren, she's a capitalist.
PEEBLES: Well, I think what -- Bernie Sanders has some points in terms of Wall Street pay and management pay.
CAVUTO: Right. And he's been consistent at that.
PEEBLES: Yes. And he is...
CAVUTO: But is it that much of a dirty word to call someone a capitalist in the Democratic Party?
PEEBLES: I mean, this is a cap -- a democracy built on a foundation of capitalism.
So the very fiber of our nation is about capitalist.
CAVUTO: Do you feel like an odd man out in your own party?
PEEBLES: Yes, I do. And I'm concerned about it.
And I'm afraid that they're going to create an environment which will probably be good for the country to have a third party.
CAVUTO: Wow.
PEEBLES: I think that we need to have more moderate views. And I think that, right now, where we are is, it's hard to have one.
CAVUTO: OK.
All right, Don, thank you very much for your honesty and service to the city and beyond, trying to make this political process more humane.
Meanwhile, the president's touting a cease-fire in Syria that ended the fighting after -- after he pulled our troops out. So what happens now?
After this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We were supposed to be there for 30 days. That was almost 10 years ago. So we're there for 30 days.
And now we're leaving. It was supposed to be a very quick hit, and let's get out. And it was a quick hit, except they stayed for almost 10 years.
Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: All right, President Trump taking a bow for a cease-fire he is convinced the Turks will honor, so much so he is lifting the sanctions that the Turks really feared.
Now, it's good for the Turks, good for Turkish President Erdogan, and good for the Russians, who will be patrolling the very same Northern Syria land once policed by American forces.
To The Hudson Institute's Rebeccah Heinrichs.
Rebeccah, it's just -- I'm not here to disparage the president. It just has a look of the fireman who caused the fire celebrating the fact that he -- that he soaked it out. What do you make of that?
REBECCAH HEINRICHS, THE HUDSON INSTITUTE: That's accurate. I think it's also premature to have any kind of celebration, because we really don't know the full effects and the full fallout of this yet, Neil.
A couple of things. The president said that it was a blood-soaked area of sand. And he's right, but it's soaked with the blood of the Kurds, over 11,000 Kurdish fighters who were fighting with us, for their own sake and for their own security, but fighting with the United States.
American forces lost single-digit deaths. Now, every single American life lost was precious, with a family, but single-digit American casualties, when the Kurds lost more than 10,000 fighting alongside us.
And so it's crucial now that, even though there is a cease-fire, if the cease-fire does hold, just in the few days since the president announced that the United States wasn't going to stand in the way of Turkey, there's been over 150,000 Kurdish civilians displaced, hundreds of Kurdish fighters dead.
CAVUTO: You know, the response has been, we get ourselves involved in wars without end, and there's never an ideal time to leave.
So we leave. The rap against the president was that he tweeted out this announcement and caught a lot of people off-guard, at least the timing of it. And now sanctions that were threatened against Turkey are waived, even though Turkey invaded right after we said that we would leave.
So we're rewarding them, in an odd way, for not sinning more.
HEINRICHS: That's right.
And if you look at it -- it seems to me as though the president was caught off-guard by the reaction, both by what Turkish forces did in terms of, they didn't just stick with the area that they said that they were going to invade. They continued to invade further into Syria.
At one point, our own forces that were still there were quickly trying to evacuate.
CAVUTO: Right.
HEINRICHS: And they were -- they were so concerned that Turkish forces were going to move on them, that we had to send fighter jets and Apache helicopters to deter Turkey against us.
So I think the president tried to walk it back. If you look at the initial White House statement that came out, it was several days later that President Trump sent that letter to Turkish President Erdogan threatening him that, if he had all of these mass casualties, that there was going to be consequences.
So it seems as though President Trump tried to literally stop the bleeding once it already had begun.
CAVUTO: Why is Turkey a NATO member then? And then why do we countenance that?
Now, I know we don't want to listen to the Russians, but he's in bed with the Russians, as are Russian soldiers, who will now be patrolling around Northern Syria. And it just seems weird to me, Rebeccah.
HEINRICHS: Geography is the short answer.
And we have tried to pull Turkey into our camp and away from the Soviet Union -- away from Russia for as long as NATO -- as long as Turkey has been part of NATO. We want them for Black Sea security. We want them to cooperate with Central and European allies. We want them for intelligence- sharing.
There's a key Air Force base there, Neil. There's American strategic weapons based there. But this raises another question. The narrative coming out of senior defense officials at this point was that President Trump, it wasn't that he paved the way for Turkey to invade. It was that Turkey was going to invade either way, and so that he had to pull American forces out of there.
If that's true, it means Turkey, a NATO ally, was willing to go to war with the United States, even if we're not willing to go to war with it, which means that the alliance is effectively only on paper and doesn't really exist in real life anyway.
CAVUTO: They would never have invaded if our troops were still there.
HEINRICHS: So that -- so that is what many people are saying.
CAVUTO: Yes.
HEINRICHS: That is what senior officials who have retired have been saying.
And it's something that -- again, it's either that they wouldn't have gone. We didn't have that many forces there to begin with.
CAVUTO: No, you're right. You're right.
HEINRICHS: But now then -- but even the fact that the American -- senior Pentagon officials are saying that, what it is, it's an implicit admission that, one, President Trump doesn't have control over Erdogan, and perhaps Erdogan is in the driver's seat, and not the president of the United States, in that particular area.
CAVUTO: All right.
HEINRICHS: But, also, it's remarkable.
For having such small -- we had a very small troop presence there that was helping with Kurdish forces. So it's a pretty serious matter.
CAVUTO: You're quite right. You're quite right.
All I know is, if I'm President Erdogan, I got everything I wanted. It's pretty clear.
Thank you very much. Good seeing you again, Rebeccah.
HEINRICHS: Good to see you, Neil.
CAVUTO: Meanwhile, did you hear the one about more than three dozen Republicans barging into a closed-door Democrat-run impeachment hearing? Well, it actually happened. Apparently, they were demanding transparency.
Guess what happened next?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, we are in the middle of earnings seasons, right?
And a biggie just reporting, Microsoft, numbers that beat both when it came to profits and it came to revenue, but some disappointing growth with Azure, its cloud-based service here. That's weighing on the stock a teeny bit.
More after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, the scene earlier today, as Republicans were forcing Democrats to delay for hours the testimony of a defense official in this whole impeachment inquiry, after storming from the hearing room demanding more transparency. Did they get what they wanted?
Republican House Intelligence Committee member Brad Wenstrup.
Congressman, did you get what you wanted?
REP. BRAD WENSTRUP, R-OH: Well, I wouldn't say, did I get what I wanted? I wasn't really part of that group. Matter of fact, I didn't even know that was going on, until I got down to the Intelligence Committee, after things that already -- already happened.
But I think it's a sense of frustration that you're seeing by so many of the members who have been shut out. They have been told that they can't participate in this process, when it's supposed to be an impeachment on our president. And they're going to have to vote on that.
Now it's even been made tougher for even members of the committee to review the transcripts of these depositions or interviews, whatever they may be.
We're not even sure if this is -- has to do with the Intelligence Committee or impeachment as we go through this every day.
So, there's a sense of frustration that's taking place with a lot of members. And, frankly, Neil, it should be frustrating Democrats too who are being left out of the process as well.
CAVUTO: They say that you're not -- not you, sir, but Republicans are not left out of that process.
WENSTRUP: Yes.
CAVUTO: Oftentimes, you're in on the same interrogation normally done at the lawyer level, and that it's not as if Republicans are being blindsided here.
I don't know what the truth is, but what do you say?
WENSTRUP: Well, let me put it this way.
When we had our Russian investigation, when we issued subpoenas, they were voted on by the full committee. Nobody on the Democrats' side was left out. We haven't been able to select anybody to come in and talk on this issue.
But Democrats were allowed to do that when we were doing the Russian investigation. So the rules have clearly changed under Adam Schiff. I don't even know why impeachment is in Intelligence Committee, to begin with.
CAVUTO: But are Republicans allowed to even question, then, witnesses when they come, whether it was William Taylor yesterday or today?
WENSTRUP: Sure.
CAVUTO: How is that going?
WENSTRUP: Yes.
So that process is -- is done on an equal basis.
CAVUTO: OK.
WENSTRUP: There's no doubt about that. But we don't get to select who comes in.
And I will tell you the other thing that's been happening, quite frankly, and it's no secret to anybody. They have been leaking constantly. As we come out of these, we keep our mouths shut, as we are instructed to do.
And these are not -- this is not even a classified setting, per se. These aren't -- these aren't classified interviews or depositions. We keep our mouths shut, as we have been instructed to do. And you get leaks every single day.
You get leaks while the person being interviewed is still in there. And they aren't leaks that are in favor of President Trump. They are leaks in favor of Adam Schiff's narrative that he's trying to promote.
So you can see where the frustration is going to build up to.
CAVUTO: Well, is the frustration to the point that all the Democrats are saying they hope to have it wrapped up by the end of the year?
By that, I assume what they're saying an impeachment the process finished in the House by the end of the year.
WENSTRUP: Well, I will be curious to see if Republicans are part of that process. And, if so, how much are they part of that process?
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: Well, they have the votes without you, ostensibly, right?
WENSTRUP: Well, I don't know. We will wait and see.
But all I can tell you right now is even Democrats are being barred from this very important process that should be taking place with all members of Congress. People want to go home to their districts and talk to their constituents about what's taking place in this impeachment process.
CAVUTO: Right.
WENSTRUP: And -- if that's what it is. We don't even know. And they're being left out.
And I think that members of Congress are being denied the right to do their job. And that's what we're seeing.
CAVUTO: All right.
WENSTRUP: And it's been very fixed in one direction, as you can tell.
CAVUTO: All right, Congressman, we will watch it closely. Thank you for taking the time.
WENSTRUP: My pleasure. Thanks.
CAVUTO: So, you think only Mitt Romney is a Republican not keen on this president?
I want you to meet the other big-name Republican who is already challenging him for president -- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, another day, another key figure in this whole Ukraine mess detailing what the president said and when he said it and to whom he said it.
Today, it's the deputy assistant secretary of defense, Laura Cooper, yesterday, of course, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor, now, different testimonies, but to hear Bill Weld tell it, it's the same story, tweeting earlier: "This is precisely the abuse of presidential power the founders feared when they drafted the impeachment clause of the Constitution."
Weld, of course, is the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, and now perhaps the president's most prominent challenger.
Governor, good to have you.
BILL WELD, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, Neil. Always a pleasure.
CAVUTO: Is this impeachment back and forth -- how is that affecting the race, do you think?
Like, when you go out on the hustings -- you're in New Hampshire. You're in these other states. How is it -- what do you...
(CROSSTALK)
WELD: Well, things are moving in New Hampshire.
I came up 28 points against the president in the head to head in the last 30 days. And I have been able to feel that on the ground the last two months.
And the president doesn't help himself when he goes three for three on making America look like an unreliable ally. It's the Kurds, and then it's Ukraine, and then it's Iran, where he -- now he's begging to get back to the table to get what he already had. He's saying, I will lower the sanctions.
And he's just all over the place.
CAVUTO: Is that resonating in New Hampshire?
Now, you would benefit, of course. You're a neighboring state, were governor and all. Or are they just a feisty bunch there and they're -- they're hedging their bets?
WELD: No, I don't think they're particularly foreign policy experts.
It's the -- it's the multitude of things. And people really all over the country were -- and I'm all over the place. They don't really like to hear too much about President Trump. They already know enough.
But all of my movement in New Hampshire...
CAVUTO: He's very popular in the Republican Party.
WELD: That is true, but, still, 28 points in one month is a lot. And that movement...
CAVUTO: What is he at...
WELD: That movement...
CAVUTO: ... in the same survey? He's double you, right?
WELD: Oh, more than that.
But that's a -- that's a big move. And it all came from...
CAVUTO: Well, you're hoping for a Lyndon Johnson-type '68 moment, when he did win the state, but Eugene McCarthy scored enough, that it -- well, we know what happened. He ultimately took himself out of the running. Bobby Kennedy entered the race.
It was a different year, a different time.
WELD: No, but if we...
CAVUTO: Are you looking for that?
WELD: I'm looking for 50 percent, not 40 percent.
And Pat Buchanan got 37. Gene McCarthy got 41. And they knocked people out of the race. But I have in mind Super Tuesday, which comes right after New Hampshire. And that's Massachusetts and Vermont and Wisconsin and Virginia and other states that could be very interesting.
CAVUTO: Governor, the president's people always come back to say, you impeach me, you impeach this bull market, you impeach this strong economy, record low unemployment, so, if you want to do that, have at it.
What do you say to that?
WELD: You know, what I see happening is, if the president makes the Republicans in the Senate walk the plank -- and he will -- he doesn't really care about them. He cares about himself. I think that's a safe statement.
And they back him up, and then all the terrible evidence comes in, in the trial, my -- my -- I won't even say my belief -- my fear for the Republican Party is that those senators who stick with him and go through the draining exercise of defending the indefensible are going to lose their seats, which is what happened to the House members in the Nixon impeachment in the '70s.
CAVUTO: But a lot of Republicans are scared of him, right, Governor?
I was not meaning to be rude. I was looking down at a quote from the president, where he said Republicans who oppose him are human scum.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: He had called Mitt Romney an ass.
WELD: Yes.
CAVUTO: What do you think of that?
WELD: Well, he doesn't play on a very high level. That's not my principal objection, though.
I think that he just is so unreliable and can't stick to a story, and particularly not a true story. And I think -- you talk about the framers, the founding fathers, they were most scared of two things, foreign interference and someone using their own office for private gain.
Well, Mr. Trump doesn't even try to hide the fact that he's trying to do that. And he's there in living color with Ukraine trying to do that. And he's there in living color trying to defeat his political opponent through foreign interference, which is a thing of value to him.
CAVUTO: Well, he's saying that's not the case.
You know his story. And they will adjudicate this out in Congress, however they're going to handle it.
But then how do you respond to Republicans who tell you, you're ruining it for the party, the Grand Old Party is going down because you're not a loyal team player, blah, blah, blah?
WELD: I just think what's happening is so obvious.
Someone told -- some lawyer told the president, you have to deny that it's a quid pro quo. Then you can say whatever you want.
CAVUTO: No, I'm asking about you.
When people say this about you -- and they have great respect for you, governor of Massachusetts. You were a very progressive guy, fiscally conservative, socially more liberal.
WELD: Yes. Well, that...
CAVUTO: So, they say you're ruining it for Republicans.
WELD: Yes, they say everyone's got to be loyal and rally around the flag.
And as I once said in a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, too often, particularly in Washington, D.C., loyalty is nothing but an excuse for doing the wrong thing.
CAVUTO: Would you rather a Democrat than this president, if you don't make it as the nominee?
WELD: Oh, I think this president is completely unacceptable.
I could certainly take another Republican besides myself.
CAVUTO: I know that, but if it's not a Republican, would you have Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders over Donald Trump?
WELD: Well, that's a tough one.
I think those two people are not currently electable in the United States of America. So I don't think that's a live risk..
CAVUTO: But Donald Trump would be over them?
WELD: Yes.
No, I just think the president is too, too out of control for this country, and perhaps a bigger risk than those two Democrats, who wouldn't be able to get anything through Congress.
CAVUTO: All right, Governor, we will watch it very closely.
Thank you for stopping by, Bill Weld, the 2020 presidential candidate.
He was entering this race when no one was paying attention. Some of his numbers bear at least paying a little attention.
Meanwhile, no reading, no writing, no arithmetic, because, thanks to a teachers strike in Chicago, there is no school either. The walkout that has kids locked out -- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: Chicago public school classes canceled for the fifth straight day, as a teachers strike continues.
FOX News correspondent Mike Tobin is in Chicago with the latest.
Hey, Mike.
MIKE TOBIN, CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Neil.
By the thousands, Chicago teachers descended on the business district known as The Loop in Chicago. And with that strike now a week-old, it looks like classes are going to be canceled for a sixth day, unless something unexpected breaks out of negotiations.
Now, the march was timed with the unveiling of a budget by Chicago's freshman Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The mayor's promised teachers a pay increase of 16 percent and up, but the teachers have a long list of demands, starting at guarantees for smaller classes, a nurse and a librarian in every school and a supplement for housing.
The mayor said today the city's looking at an $838 million budget shortfall. She already told the teachers there's no money to meet their demands. And under Rahm Emanuel, the people in Chicago were already hit with a property tax increase.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LORI LIGHTFOOT, MAYOR OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Residents don't want to see their property taxes increased. And who can blame them?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TOBIN: Now, the teachers have a lot of public support, but so does Mayor Lightfoot. She was elected not too long ago by a landslide -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Mike, thank you very, very much.
Meanwhile, Boeing says it has a timeline for the return of its 737 MAX. Investors were very impressed with that news.
Forgive my next guest, who lost their daughter in a 737 crash, for having a slightly different reaction -- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: Boeing is hoping to get its 737 MAX back in the air by the end of the year, but not if Michael Stumo and Nadia Milleron have anything to new about it.
You see, the couple lost their daughter Samya when an Ethiopian Airlines jet, a 737 MAX, by the way, crashed shortly after takeoff back in March of this year. All 157 on board were killed, including Samya.
Now mom and dad want answers. And they're letting authorities know do not let that jet fly until they get those answers.
Michael Stumo and Nadia Milleron on with us now via Skype.
Folks, very good to have you, I'm sorry under these circumstances, as they're showing victims of this plane crash.
Maybe, Nadia, I could begin with you.
You heard what Boeing wants to do. It's confident there's a timeline to get the 737 MAX flying again. What do you think?
NADIA MILLERON, DAUGHTER KILLED IN ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES CRASH: We have amazing groups of experts, including foreign experts, that are reviewing this whole situation.
The most recent report that came out is JATR, Joint Aviation (sic) Technical Review board, and they made very important points about correction and process in this plane.
And none of that is being addressed by the FAA. The process that they are going forward with doesn't include their own -- our country's own technical experts appointed by Elaine Chao, secretary of education.
What -- not...
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: Of transportation.
(CROSSTALK)
MILLERON: I'm so sorry, secretary of transportation.
CAVUTO: No, please.
MILLERON: You know, what disrespect and idiocy for our country to have these very important reports produced, and then ignore them.
CAVUTO: So, Michael, when you hear this talk and think about your daughter and the better than 300 who have died in two 737 MAX jet crashes, your daughter included -- she looks like a beautiful woman. And I don't even know where to begin.
You don't want to see that fly until it -- the issues that killed your daughter and the 156 others on that plane and the 150-plus others on the prior 737 MAX, you don't want to see that happen again.
MICHAEL STUMO, DAUGHTER KILLED IN ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES CRASH: Absolutely.
After the first crash in Indonesia, Boeing blamed the pilots. And the FAA just issued an incomplete advisory. If someone had stood up and found out what was going on then, maybe our daughter wouldn't have died.
But Boeing rushed this plane to service. It placed undue pressure on its engineers involved with certification to certify different aspects of the plane. It hid this maneuvering -- this MCAS software system, and minimized its effect by -- hid it from the pilots, minimized its effect, so that FAA didn't include it in the airline training manual.
And this is the first self-hijacking plane in the history of our country. The Joint Authorities Technical Review committee had pages upon pages of recommendations. They found undue pressure. They found misapplication of rules. They found erosion of safety culture at Boeing.
We have asked today to the FAA to revoke something called organization designation authority from Boeing, which allows them to perform self- certification activities, because you need, as a manufacturer, a history of trust and competence and confidence in order to do this.
And we don't have it with Boeing anymore. So they can't rush this to service again. It wouldn't be for -- it would be for Boeing profit, not for safety.
We need to avoid a third crash and fix the problems now.
MILLERON: Also, all the people, except Administrator Dickson, are the same personnel as caused this crash, both on the regulatory side and also on the business side in Boeing.
And all of those decision-makers should be out before this plane is.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: Well, the head of their commercial business plans that has been terminated. The CEO has lost his dual chairman job.
You just see more that has to go, right?
MILLERON: The whole board should -- the whole board should resign. The CEO shouldn't be working for Boeing anymore in any capacity.
The people at the FAA, including Ali Bahrami and his whole team that supposedly is concerned about safety, but allowed the plane to keep flying after the Indonesian crash, all of those people that made those decisions that caused our daughter's death and all of these people's death that I'm holding their pictures now, those people shouldn't continue making decisions, because that puts the population, the flying public at risk.
CAVUTO: All right.
STUMO: No one at FAA has been held accountable.
And the sacrificial lamb of McAllister at Boeing is insufficient so far. The toxic culture of profits over safety still exists.
CAVUTO: All right, Michael, Nadia, thank you so much. You represent your daughter well and her memory well.
That will do it here. More after this.
Content and Programming Copyright 2019 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2019 ASC Services II Media, LLC. 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 ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.