Peter Navarro blasts 'poll-driven plagiarist' Joe Biden's economic plan

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Peter Navarro blasts 'poll-driven plagiarist' Joe Biden's economic plan

Assistant to the president for trade and manufacturing policy Peter Navarro accuses 2020 hopeful Joe Biden of 'blatantly ripping off' President Trump's economic agenda on 'Sunday Morning Futures.'

This is a rush transcript from "Sunday Morning Futures," July 12, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARIA BARTIROMO, ANCHOR: Good Sunday morning, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo.

Joining us straight ahead right here on "Sunday Morning Futures": a crime at the epidemic sweeping the United States and cities across the country, amid calls to defund the police. The murder rate spikes in California, New Orleans, Los Angeles, with shootings in Chicago jumping 75 percent in June alone.

Coming up, America's mayor, Rudy Giuliani, with a message for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, shootings there up 130 percent, the violence unfolding against the backdrop of the 2020 election, now just 113 days away.

What's President Trump's plan to get us out of this? White House trade adviser Peter Navarro is here to lay out POTUS' second-term agenda.

We will also hear from Donald Trump Jr. this morning on the one issue he thinks will determine the winner, all of this as John Durham continues his deep dive into the origins of the Russia probe. Will he finish his investigation before the election? Congressman Jim Jordan, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, will weigh in.

Also here this morning, Senator John Barrasso with breaking news on the next stimulus package and when to expect it.

All that and a lot more, as we look ahead right now on "Sunday Morning Futures."

And we begin with Joe Biden unveiling his $700 billion buy America plan last week, with an emphasis on U.S. goods, jobs and manufacturing.

Biden's proposal may ring the bell for viewers of this program.

Here's White House trade adviser Peter Navarro just a few weeks ago on the president's first plan back on March 15.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER NAVARRO, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF TRADE AND MANUFACTURING POLICY: It's a three-pronged strategy consistent with what President Trump has done from the get-go in terms of onshoring jobs.

It's buy American, it's deregulate, and it's innovate technology. The buy American issue, Maria, is, we have HHS, the VA and DOD as large consumers of pharmaceuticals. We have got to get them to buy American over the long term, so we have a stable source of demand, so that that will attract investment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: And joining me right now is Peter Navarro, back with us. He's assistant to the president for trade and manufacturing.

Peter, it is good to see you this morning.

NAVARRO: Hey, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Well, obviously, Joe Biden agrees...

NAVARRO: Yes. Yes.

BARTIROMO: ... with your plan to buy America.

Your reaction to the former vice president's economic plan released this past week.

NAVARRO: A poll-driven, plagiarist, buy China Joe Biden.

I was astonished by that, given Joe Biden's history. I think everybody remembers back in 1988, when Biden ran for president, and did the trifecta of plagiarism, when he ripped off JFK, RFK and Neil Kinnock in speeches and had to withdraw from the race in shame and embarrassment.

And now he's just blatantly ripping off the president's buy American agenda, which goes back to the president going down the escalator with beautiful Melania. It started back then. Guess what?

I have personally been at the president's side when he has signed at least seven buy American orders. That's seven more than Biden signed or Obama signed during their term. And every one of those has worked to create American jobs.

We dramatically reduced the waivers, increased the amount of buy American in-government procurement. We upped the amount of iron and steel to close to 100 percent.

And so, listening to Joe Biden, I thought it was a really bad judgment. And whoever wrote that speech and put that in the puppet's head there, I think they might be looking for a new job soon.

BARTIROMO: Well, Peter, he also said that he will take the corporate tax rate back up.

The president, of course, in his tax legislation of 2017 cut the corporate rate to 21 percent. Biden says it should be at 28 percent. Wall Street seems to think Elizabeth Warren is the key economic voice in Biden's plan. She wants to raise taxes on everyone and also institute a wealth tax for the wealthiest individuals.

And he's also talking about changing -- he said he wants to change shareholder capitalism.

NAVARRO: Sure.

BARTIROMO: What do you make of all of that?

NAVARRO: Well, I think that's a good way of talking about what President Trump is going to do in his second term, because what President Trump is going to do is finish what he started.

And the whole four points of the policy compass going back to the campaign was deregulation, cut taxes, dominate in energy, and have fair trade deals.

And everything that Biden wants to do and is running on is directly opposite that, directly opposite to the direction of growing the economy. So, that's what the president is going to do.

And we got to a point with this president, best jobs president in history, where he had the best economy in American history, in middle of January, we had the unemployment rate down for record lows for blacks, Hispanics, Asians, women.

And we were cruising along, until the Chinese Communist Party basically hit us with that deadly virus, that weaponized virus. And I don't think it's any coincidence that the first year that China had a down economy was the same year now that they're coming after us in all sorts of ways.

And Joe Biden is the candidate of the Chinese Communist Party. Trump, buy American, Joe Biden, buy China.

BARTIROMO: All right.

Let me ask you about China, because, of course, we saw now a pushback in terms of sanctions on individuals in China responsible for taking away Hong Kong freedoms. People are waiting for the president to sign that in terms of the sanctions on those individuals.

Why should the U.S. be acting aggressively on Hong Kong?

NAVARRO: Yes.

BARTIROMO: Do you want to open borders for Hong Kong citizens to come to America? What's the plan?

NAVARRO: For decades, the Chinese Communist Party used Hong Kong as a weapon to attack the American manufacturing base and vacuum jobs and capital back to the Chinese mainland.

Do you know what, Maria? We put up with that, in support of a free and Democratic Hong Kong.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

NAVARRO: But now that China has taken away their economy, they have effectively turned it just into another concentration camp, like Xinjiang, Tibet, and the rest of the Chinese mainland, now that that has happened, President Trump, going back to a speech in the Rose Garden at the end of May, said, we're going to strip them of all preferential treatment, so that they can't harm American workers anymore, and we're going to punish those responsible.

And so you can expect, early this week, the president to sign both the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and an executive order which will complete the process that the president started on May 29 in the Rose Garden. We cannot let Chinese Communist Party use Hong Kong anymore to attack the American economy.

BARTIROMO: OK. Yes.

NAVARRO: So that's coming.

The other thing that's on the table that we need to talk about is this whole TikTok, WeChat social media thing.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

NAVARRO: Here is the thing, Maria.

What the American people have to understand is, all the data that goes into those mobile apps that kids have so much fun with and seem so convenient, it goes right to servers in China, right to the Chinese military, the Chinese Communist Party, and the agencies which want to steal our intellectual property.

Those apps can be used to steal personal and financial information for blackmail and extortion. They can be used to steal business intellectual property and proprietary secrets.

The worst thing they use them for, besides surveilling and tracking Americans, the worst thing they do is engage in information warfare against the American people, against this president. The Chinese Communist Party wants Joe Biden more than anything right now, and the American people should not be subject to information warfare.

The other thing about TikTok, for example, and WeChat...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

NAVARRO: ... even what -- this is really interesting. They're running the same playbook as Huawei, right? Put an American puppet in charge of Huawei as the CEO and say, hey, everything is going to be fine. We're going to be separate.

They're trying that game with TikTok. Not going to work. TikTok is the biggest -- TikTok and WeChat are the biggest forms of censorship on the Chinese mainland. And so expect strong action on that. Expect action, action, action from this president on buy American, on China, on jobs.

And this is the president that gets things done for the American people.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

You know, you mentioned the person running TikTok. It is actually extraordinary. This is -- this was the number two guy at Disney, Kevin Mayer, who is now the CEO of TikTok...

NAVARRO: Yes.

BARTIROMO: ... an American, but, obviously, the Chinese -- the Chinese individual...

NAVARRO: Running dog puppet.

BARTIROMO: ... who is a Communist member is the chairman.

But this is what I thought was really interesting. This week, we had a headline that says Democratic National Committee is warning that campaign - - against campaigns on using TikTok.

NAVARRO: Yes. Yes.

BARTIROMO: Even the Democratic National Committee is voicing concern.

NAVARRO: Yes.

BARTIROMO: Amazon, of course, we know already banned TikTok from employee phones.

NAVARRO: Actually, Maria, they didn't.

BARTIROMO: So, you say these are data collectors?

NAVARRO: Yes, Amazon actually...

BARTIROMO: He said he was going to, Jeff Bezos.

NAVARRO: Yes. Yes. They announced it, and then they backed away from it, which shows the power of the Chinese Communist Party on corporate America.

And that's the problem. This guy who is running TikTok now, a Disney executive, who is more compromised than the Disney kingdom over in China? Because they want to sell all their Disney World tickets over there. They want to sell all their Disney content.

And so what -- if TikTok, if it separates as an American company, that doesn't help us, because it's going to be worth -- we're going to have to give China billions of dollars for the privilege of having TikTok operate on U.S. soil.

BARTIROMO: Well...

NAVARRO: So, TikTok, WeChat and -- India banned 70 of these things. So TikTok and WeChat, I suspect that the president is just getting started with those two.

BARTIROMO: Well, that's what I was just going to say, because India has banned TikTok. Is the president going to?

NAVARRO: I never get ahead of the president, but we are looking very closely at this problem.

BARTIROMO: OK.

NAVARRO: And just run through the checklist.

BARTIROMO: OK.

NAVARRO: The information warfare, surveillance and tracking, stealing your data.

No American -- the parents -- their kids are sitting there with TikTok. I mean, data right out of the household is going to the Chinese Communist Party.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

NAVARRO: What can go wrong there?

BARTIROMO: Peter...

NAVARRO: So, what we need to do -- jobs and China, that's what this campaign is about.

(LAUGHTER)

BARTIROMO: All right, we will be watching.

Great to talk with you, as always, Peter. Thank you so much, Peter Navarro from the White House this morning.

Coming up: Will John Durham complete his investigation into the origins of the Russia probe in time to impact the 2020 election?

The ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, will weigh in after this break.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Well, welcome back.

Attorney General Bill Barr told me that the Russian collusion narrative was the closest the U.S. has ever come to a coup since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Yet, according to a new Rasmussen poll, most voters do not know there's evidence that Barack Obama and Joe Biden were even involved in it.

A.G. Barr recently spoke to me about the status of John Durham's investigation on the FBI's probe into the Trump campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: He's pressing ahead as hard as he can. And I expect that we will have some developments hopefully before the end of this summer.

But, as I have said, his investigation will continue. It's not going to stop because of the election. What happens after the election may depend on who wins the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Congressman Jim Jordan is the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee.

Congressman, it's always a pleasure to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): You bet. Good to be with you.

BARTIROMO: Where are we on the John Durham investigation, sir? What do you know?

JORDAN: Well, we know what Bill Barr has told us.

Now, the attorney general will be in front of the Judiciary Committee in two weeks. I'm sure he will get asked about this and a number of other issues.

But the attorney general has said that he expects something this summer. We're obviously -- we're hitting the summer, so let's hope it happens. Let's hope it happens before the election.

I will tell you this, Maria. The number one question I get, whether I'm in the Fourth District of Ohio or traveling around our state or traveling around the country, the number one question I get from people is, they will walk up to me and says, when is somebody going to jail?

And the reason they say that is because they're sick of the double standard, this idea that there's one set of rules for the politically connected in D.C. and a different set for us regular folks.

So let's hope we have the investigation done before the election. Let's hope that someone is going to be held accountable for the major wrongdoing that took place when they targeted the president's campaign and spied on the president's campaign.

BARTIROMO: Well, it's pretty extraordinary.

And we know that there was always criminality done, whether it's leaking confidential information, or changing a document of evidence, which is -- one of the FBI agents already did that. They changed a document.

JORDAN: Yes.

BARTIROMO: Or maybe it was entrapment, lying to investigators.

So, how come we haven't seen any charges yet? I mean, there are, what, 14 referrals of criminal charges already from you and your colleagues?

JORDAN: Yes. I mean, who knows.

But here is how bad it was. Michael Flynn, 38 different people 49 different times unmasked Michael Flynn's name between Election Day 2016 and Inauguration Day in January 2017. So, in that short two-month time period, 49 separate times, they were unmasking his name, even though they already knew, all these people already knew that there was no basis for the investigation to begin with.

And how do we know that they knew there was no basis, there was no proper predicate? Because, when they testified, they told us that. Ric Grenell released the testimony of Comey and Clapper and Brennan and Rice and Samantha Power, released all of the testimony.

And they all said the same thing: We never saw any evidence of any type of coordination, collusion, conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. But they investigated it anyway, even up until the time when Bob Mueller was named special counsel.

Jim Comey, when we deposed him in the House last Congress, when we deposed him, he said: After 10 months, we didn't have anything.

But Comey does what? Leaks his memo, so we get two years of Bob Mueller, leaks his memos for the express purpose of getting a special counsel named. And then we had the 19 lawyers, 40 agents, 500 subpoenas, 2,800 or 500 witnesses, 2,800 subpoenas, and $30 million to tell us what we already knew, what they already knew, that there was nothing there.

So let's hope that, ultimately, someone is held accountable.

BARTIROMO: Do you think there will be indictments?

JORDAN: I hope so. I mean, I have said this all along.

I think Jim Comey is the biggest culprit here. It was the Comey cabal, this small handful of people at the top of the FBI. And then, remember, Bill Barr, the first time he testified, said there was a failure of leadership at the upper echelon of the FBI

Comey, McCabe, Baker, Strzok, Page, they all left or had to be fired as the key people...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

JORDAN: ... who ran the Clinton investigation and the Trump-Russia investigation.

Comey is the ringleader here. I hope they give him a second look. And I hope he's ultimately held accountable.

BARTIROMO: Let me ask you.

Let me switch gears, ask you about your committee, the Judiciary Committee's closed-door testimony of Geoffrey Berman. I have in front of me your takeaways from the committee's transcribed interview with Berman.

Nadler says that Barr dealings with Berman often came close to bribery. Your reaction? And tell us what you can about that closed-door hearing.

JORDAN: Well, first of all, Mr. Nadler's statement is ridiculous.

When we deposed Mr. Berman, he said very clearly -- we asked him about his meeting with Bill Barr on June 19 in New York. We said, did you talk about any cases? No. Did you talk about any suspects? No. Did you talk about any witnesses to any cases? No. Did you talk about the president? No,.

There was nothing there. The attorney general and the president of the United States are entitled to have the people they want as U.S. attorneys around the country. That's all this was.

The Democrats, because they don't like the fact that Bill Barr is trying to get to the bottom of what took place in the previous Justice Department, the Obama-Biden-Comey Justice Department, because they don't like the fact that he's trying to clean up the politics that existed in the previous administration, they continue to go after him, so much so that they filed articles of impeachment against the attorney general just a week-and-a-half ago.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

JORDAN: That's how ridiculous the Democrats are.

BARTIROMO: Congressman, I have got to ask you about tech tyranny and the upcoming hearings that you're going to have in Judiciary.

We will hear from people like Apple's CEO, Google's CEO, Facebook, Twitter in a hearing on July 25 or 28. Tell me about your letter to Jack Dorsey about the president's tweets and what you're expecting out of technology, big tech.

Are they going to try to sway the election in November?

JORDAN: Well, Maria, I always start with this simple question. Why is does always seem that it's just conservatives who get censored or shadowbanned by these big tech companies?

Why was it two years ago that there are 435 members of the House, there are 100 members of the Senate, 535, but only four were shadowbanned, Gaetz, Meadows, Nunes, Jordan?

Interesting four. I always say -- when we send a letter to Jack Dorsey, when we brought this to his attention, he indicated that, oh, it was just a glitch in our algorithm, to which I responded, glitch in your algorithm? What did you put in the algorithm, the names Gaetz, Meadows, Nunes, Jordan?

I mean, it's always conservatives.

(LAUGHTER)

JORDAN: Why is it only the president -- why is it only the president who gets censored? You never see them going after Joe Biden.

Why is it just -- why was it The Federalist that Google tried to demonetize?

BARTIROMO: Yes.

JORDAN: You never see a liberal news outlet trying to be demonetized.

So, that, to me, is the fundamental question. And that has got to change, because, in America today, if only one side is allowed to talk, that's not the First Amendment. You got to have a real debate. And this cancel culture mob and the impact they have on these big tech companies is a scary road we're traveling down.

And it needs to stop. And that's what we're going to focus on as Republicans in these hearings.

BARTIROMO: Congressman, it's great to have you this morning.

We will be watching, certainly, closely. It's so wonderful to get your take on all of this, Congressman Jim Jordan.

Coming up, Rudy Giuliani is here on the Supreme Court decision that President Trump should turn over his tax returns.

That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: The Supreme Court making headlines on Thursday, ruling that President Trump's financial and tax records are fair game for New York prosecutors.

The president since calling decision not fair. But is it really the slam- dunk victory his critics were hoping for?

Joining me right now is former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York for six years.

And, Rudy, it's always a pleasure to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK: Always a pleasure, Maria, yes, absolutely.

BARTIROMO: So...

GIULIANI: So, that case is really terribly decided.

But go ahead.

BARTIROMO: No, about the tax returns.

GIULIANI: Oh.

BARTIROMO: Are you going -- are you going to be responding in any way? Will the tax releases have any bearing on the election, in your view?

GIULIANI: Well, first of all, there's still room for opposition.

You could make the argument that they have no particularized need for it. You could also make the argument that they are not investigating any particularized crime.

They have no reason to believe that there's anything wrong with his tax returns. I mean, all these tax returns have been, by and large -- maybe not the last one -- but all of them have been audited. All of them have been either passed on or settled.

And there should be something in your tax returns. In other words, we get audited, we make a deal, we pay the government, you don't come after me forever for that.

And, also, this is the president of the United States. There are literally 400 -- 4,000 prosecutors who can now come after his records. I don't think the court ever thought of that.

So there may be a chance to revisit this. The burden this would place on the executive, like, if you had an opposition party -- and look at the DAs we have now. We have Soros-elected anarchist DAs. They're not there to prosecute the law. They are there to undermine the law.

He put them there. Why would Soros pay for DAs, other than to undermine our government?

BARTIROMO: Wow.

GIULIANI: He got people elected who release criminals, don't prosecute cases. In Philadelphia, they won't even bring a case to the DA, he's so anti-police, pro-criminal.

Five years, Soros has been funding these. And nobody paid attention to it. But he had a reason. It's to undermine our government. And I think we have a chance to revisit this.

Also, we can argue that they have no need for it. This is a fishing expedition. I mean, I think we fight them right down to the wire.

BARTIROMO: Let me ask you about what's happening to our cities, Rudy.

You oversaw New York City becoming the safest city on your leadership because of the moves you made. Look at New York City right now, shootings soaring to 205 percent. What will it take to get this city back with law and order? Shooting incidences up 130 percent, murder up 23 percent, burglary up 118 percent.

What is your reaction to Mayor de Blasio's new plan, he says, to take back the blocks, relying heavily on community members on the streets?

GIULIANI: Well, I mean, the reality is, he's already amended that plan, because it was -- I mean, it's stupid throughout, but he was going to have community leaders accompany the police, until, last night, he had another night of violence that was unreal.

So now the community leaders are not going to accompany the police. I think they got an idea, hey, Mayor, you go with them. Maybe we don't want to go, because they shoot at us. We had a terrible situation with a domestic violence thing last night.

I mean, it's a disaster, Maria. I have never seen it like this. I mean, there were more murders in the city under Dinkins, 2,400, 2,200, but we never had this total disrespect for the police. Even in those bad old days, nobody was going to spit at a police officer, nobody was going to punch a police officer.

And they took advantage of the no choke hold last night in an incident that I have a videotape of, where the police officer couldn't get ahold of him. The guy put a choke hold on the cop and almost killed him, and he couldn't defend himself.

BARTIROMO: Oh, my God.

GIULIANI: I mean, we're going to get a cop killed with that stupid no choke hold thing, the way it's interpreted.

We're getting cops killed. And the reaction -- the reality is, it's worse because this is a breakdown in general respect for the police, for our government, and hatred for our country.

And there's a purpose to it. These people are Marxists. They want to take over our government. When are we going to wake up and realize that? Just go read what they write.

BARTIROMO: Well...

GIULIANI: Look at the fact that the woman who is taking in the money for the BLM is a convicted terrorist who should be in jail for 58 years, except crooked Clinton pardoned her, a terrorist who was involved in police killings.

She is handling the money for the Black Lives Matter. This is a woman dedicated to the overthrow of our government.

BARTIROMO: And, look, Mayor de Blasio obviously cut the budget for the NYPD by a billion dollars.

You said the last time you were with me that Governor Cuomo can replace Mayor de Blasio. How come he hasn't done it yet then? The New York A.G. is recommending de Blasio should no longer have the authority in New York enforcement matters. Is that enough?

GIULIANI: Well, you know, I will give him the citation.

It's Article 1, Section 9 of the New York City charter, which I pretty much have memorized. It says that the governor can remove the mayor. You don't even have to have cause. Now precedent would say it would have to be corruption, like they attempted to remove Jimmy Walker, but he resigned.

Or it could be gross incompetence. Or it could be putting the lives of New Yorkers in jeopardy. Bill de Blasio, through his incompetence, has killed New Yorkers. His negligence in dealing with COVID is outrageous, the things he didn't do and the things that he encouraged.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GIULIANI: They criticize President Trump for being late. He was telling people to go to gyms two weeks into it, two weeks after the president made it clear, this is very dangerous.

BARTIROMO: Wow.

It certainly feels like a different city today, I will tell you. You just don't feel safe in New York City.

I want to switch gears. You were the A.G. for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989, where Ghislaine Maxwell is now being indicted. Reaction to the charges. Do you think she's going to name names? What's your reaction to this Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell situation?

GIULIANI: Well, I don't know all the people there now, but the person in charge, Audrey Strauss, was a colleague of mine. And she's a very, very -- she's a very good lawyer and a very honest and down-the-middle-kind of prosecutor.

I can only guess what Maxwell has. And it sounds like she's got tapes, and it would not make sense if they didn't. I mean, they were pretty smart people. They have been protected for a long time. There must be a reason for that. They must have a lot of things on a lot of people. And it's going to be really interesting to see.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GIULIANI: You can't argue with a tape. You can't argue. There's got to be a lot of people very scared over the last couple of days.

And I'd like to keep her alive, guys. I mean, you know, she is in a prison.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GIULIANI: You can keep somebody alive in a prison.

BARTIROMO: All right.

GIULIANI: And if they need any help, if they need any help on how to keep somebody alive in a prison, I used to also run the Bureau of Prisons. I think I could show them.

BARTIROMO: All right, Rudy, it's great to see you this morning.

Thanks very much for joining us.

(LAUGHTER)

BARTIROMO: Great to see you.

GIULIANI: You know you're the best.

(LAUGHTER)

BARTIROMO: Coming up next: Donald Trump Jr. is here with his reaction to the Black Lives Matter mural in New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio helped paint right outside of Trump Tower this week, where he works every day.

We are going to get his reaction when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

New photographs this morning of President Trump wearing a mask publicly for the first time yesterday during his visit to Walter Reed Hospital.

The president, who met with wounded soldiers and medical workers, told reporters he loves masks in the appropriate locations, but still believes they have a time and place.

Joining us right now with reaction is the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, Donald Trump Jr.

And, Don, it is good to see you this morning. Thanks very much for joining us.

DONALD TRUMP JR., EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: It's my pleasure, Maria. How are you?

BARTIROMO: Yes, great.

Interesting to see your dad donning a mask. Obviously, things are serious. You have got the potential of a second spike.

How is Kimberly doing? We know that Kimberly has contracted COVID, along with a top convention person. Is she OK?

TRUMP JR.: She's 100 percent fine.

She's -- zero symptoms, zero anything. We're in quarantine, obviously, and I am too because of proximity. But, other than that, you really wouldn't know that there's anything even going on.

So, it's been good. I -- under the circumstances, it's as good as it can get.

And I also saw my father looked pretty good in the mask the other day.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP JR.: And I think what people also have to realize, when he talks about there being a time and place, anyone who comes into proximity with him is literally tested that day, is literally tested moments before they allow access.

So he's obviously going to be much less susceptible to this than anyone else, because, literally, there is a daily screening process if you're going to even be within proximity to him.

So I think that's important for people to note. But when he's going to Walter Reed to visit our sick and our wounded soldiers, he's going to take that very seriously.

BARTIROMO: Yes, but people are taking seriously the idea that we are seeing a second wave potentially, and spikes in some hot spots across the country.

What does that mean for the convention, Don? And what about the idea that, look, the Democrats have already said they're going to do a virtual convention? There are polls that have Biden either tied with Trump or actually leading Donald Trump.

Your thoughts of all of these worries going into the convention and then, of course, the election?

TRUMP JR.: Well, I think, for the Democrats, of course they want to do a virtual convention, because there's no enthusiasm for Joe Biden. He can't get people to show up a rally, if he was able to do rallies.

So this whole scenario is really the ultimate best-case scenario for Joe Biden and his campaign. They don't want him on the stump. They don't want him speaking to reporters. They don't want him ad-libbed. Honestly, they don't even want him on a teleprompter, because he can't even get that right.

So, for them, it's sort of the ultimate. I think, with our convention, there's a lot of people that want to do it. They want to be enthusiastic. But we can do that and we can do it safely. We can take the necessary precautions. We can protect the people that are going to be there. We can implement things that you wouldn't necessarily normally implement at a convention to do so.

So, they're going to take it very seriously. We're going to do a great job with it, and it's going to be an awesome event.

BARTIROMO: What does the president need to get these numbers up? Are you buying these polls? It looks like one after the next. It is a real tight race. And, in many cases, Biden is leading the president.

TRUMP JR.: Well, listen, I think, when you have the media onslaught, where a media has just totally abdicated their position to objectively look at both sides, they're not looking into any of Biden's past.

They're not looking into any of his history. They're not looking into his family's graft. They're not looking into how insanely soft he's been on China throughout his entire career. And let's not forget, this is a 50-year career in Washington, D.C.

They're trying to run him like he's a moderate outsider. This guy is the epitome of the swamp. So they want to do whatever they can to keep the American people from actually seeing Biden.

He hasn't been defined. And the media is trying to make sure that no one gets to define Joe Biden, because, once he is, you will see how terrible this notion could be for America.

BARTIROMO: Which is why you're out with a upcoming book, "Liberal Privilege."

You're going to talk a lot about Biden in this book, right? You're self- publishing a book? When is it coming out, Don?

TRUMP JR.: A hundred percent.

I guess one of offshoots, one of the only positive things of quarantine for the last few months was, I had a lot of free time. And I was looking into it, and actually went on and hired a researcher just to do it myself, because I said, if the media is going to totally neglect this guy, this history, these terrible trade deals, especially now, in the post-COVID-19 world, where we are going to actually have to deal with China and deal tough with China, which is what Donald Trump's -- that's his wheelhouse.

That's his forte. He's the only guy to do it in the modern American history. That Joe Biden can sell this notion of, well, now we're going to be buy American, after 50 years of legislation that sent our jobs, that sent our American dream to China, it's asinine.

But I'm sitting there looking, whether it's Hunter Biden, whether it's Joe's brother, whether it's the sister -- the entire family has enriched themselves off of Joe Biden's publicly funded office.

He won't release his documents from 30-something years in the Senate that are sitting at the University of Delaware. These aren't like private notes that he had as a citizen. This is while he was a senator in the United States, paid for by the American taxpayer, and, somehow, that's magically off-limits?

Brett Kavanaugh's high school yearbook was not off-limits, according to Democrats.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

TRUMP JR.: His high school yearbook.

But Joe Biden's Senate papers, no, no, no, we can't touch this.

BARTIROMO: Yes. Yes.

TRUMP JR.: so, it's about hypocrisy. It's about the double standard.

And I called it "Liberal Privilege," because we hear a lot about privilege these days, but liberal privilege is the ultimate...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

TRUMP JR.: ... because they can say one thing, do the other, and never get called on it.

BARTIROMO: Hmm.

Well, look, in the meantime, the critics of your father continue stepping it up. Just in the last two weeks, you had the mayor of New York actually painting a Black Lives Matter mural right outside of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

This is where you work every day, right?

TRUMP JR.: I...

BARTIROMO: Do you pass this new mural here? Here is the shots of the mayor actually painting it right outside of Trump Tower.

Your reaction?

TRUMP JR.: Well, listen, it would be nice if the mayor actually did something to help the people of his city.

He's busy there playing arts and crafts, but what has he actually done, other than oversee the destruction of New York City? The guy is -- it's literally gross incompetence, but he will go there for a photo op.

What happened to the billion dollars, almost a billion dollars that were literally just lost on him and his wife's pet projects in New York City? Now he wants to defund the police, take $1 billion out of New York City's police department's budget.

What do you think is going to happen with that? You see police officers retiring in droves. You want to stop senseless killings, like George Floyd? Guess what. The answer is not driving experienced, dedicated, loyal police officers into early retirement, and filling those -- that void with inexperienced people who may not have qualified otherwise, but are only getting the job because you need someone there.

The guy doesn't know what he's doing. It's gross negligence. And, honestly, it's worse. It's just sheer incompetence. But, again, he can play arts and crafts for the photo-op, and it's as though all of the things and all of his failures are totally forgotten. But the media will give him that benefit of the doubt.

BARTIROMO: Yes, but it's going -- it's going to keep going.

And, in fact, de Blasio, Hillary Clinton, they all want mail-in voting. I want to talk to you about the, at because there was a city councilman among four people facing voter fraud charges in New Jersey.

We have got umpteen stories of this delusion, mail-in ballots forcing election officials in New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky to take two times as long to count votes in primary elections.

How much of this election is going to be mail-in voting, do you think, Don?

TRUMP JR.: Well, the Democrats would like it all to be mail-in voting. You have seen that.

How often have Republicans won after the fact when people show up? Oh, look, magically I found a bucket of ballots in my car, they're all Democrats, four days later.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

TRUMP JR.: It's truly disgusting.

Over the weekend, we saw a cat, a cat that has been dead for 12 years, since the end of the Bush administration, got a voter regulation form in its home in Atlanta.

BARTIROMO: Oh, my goodness.

TRUMP JR.: This is what's going on.

A mail -- a mail clerk, someone who worked for the U.S. Postal Service...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

TRUMP JR.: ... pleaded guilty over the weekend for altering ballots.

You think the Democrats aren't going to take full advantage of this? They are running around bragging that they were able to manipulate Trump rallies on TikTok.

BARTIROMO: This is -- this is...

TRUMP JR.: But they are not going to take advantage of mail-in voting.

Democrats have even said it's terrible. But now, when it seems to...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP JR.: ... work against Trump, it's over.

BARTIROMO: Yes. This is really serious stuff going into the election. You're right.

All right, real quick, final question here, Don. Will you run for the mayor of New York?

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP JR.: No.

My only focus right now is making sure that my father wins in 2020. I see the policies that he's done. I see the economic results. We have seen it in the job numbers.

Donald Trump did the impossible. Donald Trump accomplished the Holy Grail of American politics, raising the job numbers for people, raising the minimum wages for the lowest-income earners, watching their wages go up for the first time in modern history.

Donald Trump did it all before. He's the guy that can do it again, clearly not swamp creature Joe Biden, who has an accomplishment record that is nonexistent in 50 years in Washington, D.C.

BARTIROMO: So, maybe you will consider it after the president wins, then, Mayor of New York Donald Trump Jr.

TRUMP JR.: I don't know. That's not really my kind of job, but who knows.

BARTIROMO: All right, good to see you, Don.

Thanks very much for being here.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

On July 20, Congress will return to Washington, with just one objective, hammering out the next stimulus bill.

The bipartisan talks happening just as the extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits is set to expire at the end of the month.

Joining me right now is Republican Conference Chairman Senator John Barrasso.

And, Senator, it's always a pleasure to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO, R-WYO.: Thank you, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Tell me what the plans are in terms of the CARES Act or the next part of the CARES Act, another stimulus plan.

BARRASSO: Yes, there's a consensus we need to do another bill. That will be in the next couple of weeks.

And let me just tell you what I believe needs to be in it. And I think your viewers will agree.

Number one, it has to focus on getting people back to work and children back in school.

Number two, it has to focus on saving lives. And, to me, that means more testing, better treatment, and then, of course, a vaccine. And, finally, we need to provide the liability insurance for our health care workers, for our mom-and-pop small businesses, and for our schools, so they can all open in a good way.

Now, the Democrats have a proposal already. They passed it a month or so ago. And it's Nancy Pelosi living in handout heaven. It's direct checks to illegal immigrants. It's bailouts to big city and state pension plans that are run by Democrats.

We're not going to do that. The focus of this bill has to be getting people back to work and paychecks back into their pockets.

BARTIROMO: So, you're back on July 20, but then there's another recess beginning on August 8, right?

Do you think, in that three-week period, you're going to get another stimulus plan passed and signed before you leave again August 8?

BARRASSO: Well, there are a couple of deadlines, as you mentioned.

One is the enhanced uninsured -- unemployment insurance benefits that run out on July 31. The other is the Paycheck Protection Program, which has been so successful. That runs out on August 8. That's helped keep about 50 million people on their -- on a payroll. And, in Wyoming, we had 13,000 of those loans.

So, yes, there's an urgency to get this done, a lot of different things in the components of it. The question is, should it include additional relief checks for people who have still not been able to get back to work, certainly in hard-hit industries, whether it's the service industry, the hospitality industry?

BARTIROMO: I see.

BARRASSO: You know, we did that once before, but that was at people up to $95,000. We're looking at a lower number there.

BARTIROMO: OK.

BARRASSO: And then the unemployment insurance, as you raised, these are enhanced benefits, where they have been paying people $600 a week above their own state unemployment benefits.

BARTIROMO: To make -- right.

(LAUGHTER)

BARTIROMO: And some of them are making more to stay home, rather than to go to work.

Stay with us, Senator. I want to ask you about masks and whether it should be a policy in that next act as well.

We're talking with Senator Barrasso. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

And we are back with Senator John Barrasso.

And, Senator, I want to ask you about masks and whether or not that should be part of your CARES Act. There are some states that have made wearing a mask a policy. Should it be a national policy?

BARRASSO: Well, let me just say, Maria, as a doctor, I want to congratulate President Trump for wearing his mask yesterday in public for the world to see. I think that sends a very strong message to everyone.

We know that masks lower the risk of infection. We know it lowers the risk of death. And in this recent uptick, I just think it's even more important than ever.

And when it comes to opening schools, these are going to be local decisions, state decisions. But I just think, in terms of good planning and good health, as people try to resume their normal lives, masks, personal hygiene, washing their hands, socially distancing, that's all part of this as we continue to fight this disease.

BARTIROMO: All right.

And real quick, on the next CARES Act, when you get back on the 20th, it doesn't sound like you're going to leave on August 8 without anything getting done. Should I assume we will have another -- another stimulus package in that three week period?

BARRASSO: There is general agreement we need to work to that end, and we need to deal with the issues affecting our nation.

There are still people who can't go back to work, through no fault of their own, because of the disease, because of maybe medical conditions.

BARTIROMO: Right.

BARRASSO: We need to make sure that they are cared for.

But we cannot continue to pay people more to sit at home than to go to work. And we have so many help wanted signs around Wyoming and the country.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

BARRASSO: We need to do all we can to get people back to work and help them earn that paycheck

BARTIROMO: Senator, real quick, before we go.

The Senate unanimously passed that bipartisan bill to sanction Chinese officials who threaten Hong Kong's authority, but the president hasn't signed it yet, right? What message does this send to the Communist Party? And will we see this get signed into law, do you think?

BARRASSO: Well the communist Chinese are not our friends. There is no question about it.

My message to the Chinese is, never again. Never again will we, as Americans, be dependent upon you, the communist Chinese, for medicines, for materials, for minerals.

BARTIROMO: I see.

BARRASSO: But what you're seeing here with what they're doing, Maria, with this group, with Hong Kong...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

BARRASSO: ... with their -- the Chinese incursion into the South China Sea, it's all a part of their big plan to the -- to be the military, the economic and the technological superpower of the world.

BARTIROMO: I know.

BARRASSO: We cannot allow it.

BARTIROMO: Thanks. Senator, thank you.

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