Rep. Goodlatte: Firing McCabe was the appropriate decision

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Rep. Goodlatte: Firing McCabe was the appropriate decision

Andrew McCabe has called his firing an attempt to discredit the Mueller probe; Rep. Bob Goodlatte shares his reaction on 'Sunday Morning Futures.'

This is a rush transcript from "Sunday Morning Futures," March 18, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Good morning. A war of words erupting in Washington this weekend after the firing of ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia makes a historic visit to the White House and billionaire technology venture capitalist Peter Thiel explains why he backs President Trump and why he thinks Trump will win again in 2020. Good morning everyone, I'm Maria Bartiromo, welcome to 'Sunday Morning Futures.' Andrew McCabe fired for leaking to the media. Could his response afterwards put his old boss, Jim Comey in hot water? House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Newt Gingrich and former Assistant FBI Director Jim Kallstrom join me live on that.

Plus, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman set to meet with the President this week at the White House. The threat posed by Iran likely a hot topic of discussion. I'll talk to former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Robert Jordan. And billionaire investor venture capitalist Peter Thiel sits down with me for an exclusive one on one interview at the Economic Club of New York. Why he supported President Trump in2016 plus he tells us what company he believes is the most ferocious company in America. We are looking ahead right now on 'Sunday Morning Futures.'

And the top story of the weekend, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe breaking his silence following his firing by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday night. McCabe claiming his dismissal is part of an attack on the FBI and on the Mueller Russia Investigation. Meanwhile we are also learning that McCabe kept notes on his interactions with the President, similar to the memos kept by former FBI Director James Comey. Joining me right now is House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, good to have you on the program this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.

REP. BOB GOODLATTE, R-VA., CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Good morning Maria. Good to be with you and your viewers.

BARTIROMO: Your reaction to the firing of Andrew McCabe.

GOODLATTE: Well, I think the Attorney General did the right thing. It was the appropriate decision given the reports of his having leaked internal information to the media and then giving false information about that misleading information to those investigating the matter. These are very serious concerns and they tie into the overall concern about how the FBI handled investigations into the elections last year, so the steps are appropriate.

BARTIROMO: Now there are a lot of pushbacks posts and tweets this weekend from the left. Let's go through the fireable offences here and why specifically Andrew McCabe was fired. We know that the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility recommended that McCabe be fired. They cited findings from the Justice Department's Inspector General report which is going to be made public we understand in April. McCabe made unauthorized disclosure to the news media. He ordered the disclosure of information to the Wall Street Journal about an on-going investigation into the Clinton Foundation. He lacked candor under oath on multiple occasions, was not forthcoming, and in the end violated Justice Department policies. How did he lack candor? Is this suggesting he lied under oath?

GOODLATTE: Well again, we won't know until we see the Inspector General's report and hear other information but lacking candor definitely suggests that he gave false information to those investigating the matter.

BARTIROMO: You have been working -- you have been investigating the FBI along with the Oversight Committee and Trey Gowdy investigating the FBI and its handling of the Clinton e-mail scandal. We know that there are 1.2 million pages of text. How many of those texts, those documents have you seen?

GOODLATTE: Yes, there are more than texts, there are other documents as well in the 1.2 million but we've only seen a tiny percentage of that and that's regrettable because quite frankly, while the work of the Inspector General is important and we're looking forward to seeing his report, his responsibilities and the Congress's responsibilities in conducting oversight over the nation's most important premier law enforcement organization is also important and we need to have those documents. The Department and the Bureau have been slow, I would say now very slow in getting them to us. The last time I was on your program I expressed confidence that we would have those documents forthcoming and here we are several weeks later still don't have them, so this is coming to a head.

BARTIROMO: Congressman let's be clear, there are 1.2 million documents, you've only seen 3000 of them. You've been stonewalled for five months.

GOODLATTE: We have seen some documents. We've seen more than we saw from the Obama administration Justice Department but we need more documents and we need them now and we need them unredacted by the way, Maria. These latest revelations about Peter Strzok and Lisa Page talking about a federal judge, a Judge Contreras who was appointed to serve on the FISA Court and they're talking back and forth about how good that is and how Peter Strzok needs to be catching up with him and talking to him. That was made available to us earlier in a redacted form. It was only just recently that we had the opportunity to see that text unredacted. That clearly does not draw any conclusion about what that judge and Peter Strzok may have done or not done but is clearly material to what was going on in the FBI regarding how they were treating this court.

BARTIROMO: So again let's be clear here. Normally when there are redactions, they redact things because they are a point of national security. But in fact what was redacted because then you saw the unredacted material was a text about going to a cocktail party with this FISA judge, Judge Contreras.

GOODLATTE: That's correct, and that's information, that's material to the investigation. Not drawing any conclusions about it but we should know it.

BARTIROMO: And that's not national security, that's not national security?

GOODLATTE: That's correct.

BARTIROMO: Let me ask you because we're all waiting on the Michael Horowitz I.G. report, sir, but we know that Michael Horowitz does not have subpoena power. You do have subpoena power. If you keep getting stonewalled and you don't get this documents, are you going to subpoena these documents?

GOODLATTE: Well the answer is yes and as I say, the whole matter is coming to a head. We've had communications with the Department of Justice about this and they know that not just myself and Chairman Gowdy but many other members of the House are very concerned about the slow nature of those documents being produced. And as I say, action is going to have to take a new level here very soon.

BARTIROMO: So again, if you don't get the documents that you have been asking for, for several months, more than five months, you will subpoena those documents from the FBI?

GOODLATTE: We will.

BARTIROMO: OK, let me ask you what went on here, sir because people are wondering why there is such a pushback from the left. In fact, John Brennan former head of the CIA himself, came out this weekend and pushed back aggressively the firing of Andrew McCabe. We have his tweet here and here is what he says to the President, 'when the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scape goat Andy McCabe but you will not destroy America. America will triumph from under you.' I'm wondering about Brennan. Wasn't he working for a time at the CIA under President Obama when some of this took place? Is he involved?

GOODLATTE: Well we don't know that, but his statement is clearly overwrought. The fact of the matter is both Republicans and Democrats should be concerned about the actions taking place in the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2016 and in 2017. If I were a Democrat, I would want to know why it is that Andrew McCabe was leaking to the Wall Street Journal about the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton investigation, not about Donald Trump. If I were a Democrat I'd want to know why James Comey 10 days before the election announced he was reopening that investigation. He announced it publicly. It may have had an impact on the election and therefore, while Republicans are very concerned about his original decision and how that came about not to indict former Secretary of State Clinton, it should be equally concerning to Democrats that the manner was conducted the way it was conducted. So there is a serious problem with several people who were and I'm thankful to say are no longer but were at the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It needs to be investigated and needs to be investigated by an outside independent Special Counsel and that's why Chairman Gowdy and I conveyed to Attorney General Sessions just last week our belief that it's very important that the Attorney General appoint a Special Counsel to begin by looking into the manner in which FISA warrants were obtained by the FBI.

BARTIROMO: Well, you make a really important point Congressman because the Inspector General cannot subpoena or speak to or interview anyone whose no longer at the FBI, so that limits what he can actually do which is why you've asked -- you've sent a letter to the Attorney General last week asking him to appoint a second special counsel. Have you heard back from Jeff Sessions yet on this?

GOODLATTE: We have not heard back directly but we were pleased to see that he stated publicly in response to questions that he was taking the request seriously and I'm also pleased that a number of other individuals including four prominent Senators led by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley later also joined us in calling for the appointment of a special counsel. I've been told by many people including some who were skeptical about the earlier call that I and others in the House made for the appointment of special counsel now agree that because that counsel has powers separate and apart from the Department and the Bureau and because they can look into matters that go beyond the Department, there are allegations about things going on in the State Department as well. So this is an important thing that needs to be looked at in a serious manner by someone with independent and subpoena power and prosecutorial power.

BARTIROMO: Mr. Chairman, I want to ask you about what Andrew McCabe said after he was fired this weekend and he said that he had 'authority' to share information with the press with the knowledge of the Director. That statement is entirely inconsistent with Comey's May 2017 congressional testimony which obviously was under oath when he was asked have you ever authorized anyone to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump or Clinton investigations. He said no, never. Does that create perjury for James Comey?

GOODLATTE: Well, I don't want to reach that conclusion because I'm not sure which of them is telling the truth. However, it creates a clear conflict in Mr. McCabe's statement and Mr. Comey's sworn testimony and that again is one more reason why an independent counsel needs to look into this matter. And I say this because as we said at the outset, the FBI is the premier law enforcement organization of the world and tens and thousands of great men and women every day keep us safe. They fight crime, they prevent terrorist attacks and they have been besmirched by this scandal at high levels in the FBI. It needs to be investigated from the outside so that the facts can be made known, corrections made. Obviously the personnel are now being removed and that is a very important step and I applaud Attorney General Sessions for removing Mr. McCabe. However, we need to make sure this does not happen in the future and therefore the Congress which has the legislative power and the oversight responsibility needs to have all of the facts.

BARTIROMO: Yes, how long are you expecting this to go on? Let's say there is a second special counsel comes in. What would be your timing on that?

GOODLATTE: I couldn't control that and that is definitely a downside to investigations is they take some time but you do want to get all of the facts and you do want to conduct it in a professional and impartial manner. But we need to get about doing it. It should have been started months ago if not before that.

BARTIROMO: And by the way, Mr. Chairman, do we know how high up the ladder this goes? I mean we know that Loretta Lynch then-Attorney General told Jim Comey refer to the Clinton e-mail investigation as a matter, not as a criminal investigation, and that's exactly what he did. He called it a matter, not a criminal investigation. Did President Obama direct Loretta Lynch to do that? Do we know how high up this goes?

GOODLATTE: We do not know whether that is indeed the case or not, but there certainly is a question about who exactly Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State was sending classified emails in an unprotected manner. And as that is further investigated, it may be revealed that other people were aware of this situation that we do not have confirmation about at this point in time.

BARTIROMO: Yes, I think it's really extraordinary that Andrew McCabe took all these notes when he met with President Trump but there are no notes about Hillary Clinton. I don't even think that the interview that the FBI did was on the record. Mr. Chairman, I hope you'll come back soon and thanks for joining us.

GOODLATTE: I will. Maria, just let me say that last point you just made about bias is an absolutely critical issue, the difference between how these two investigations were conducted is shocking.

BARTIROMO: Thank you so much, sir. We'll keep on it. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back. More now on McCabe's firing at the FBI. Fox News Contributor and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich joins me now to weigh in. He's also the Author of the number one New York Times bestselling book Understanding Trump. Mr. Speaker, it's always a pleasure to see you. Thank you for joining us.

NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you, let me just say that I think that you and Chairman Goodlatte just had an extraordinary interview that not only made news but really helped people understand how compelling it is to get to the heart of the corruption that was going on in the Justice Department. I thought it was very, very important interview.

BARTIROMO: Thank you so much Newt, and you know, it is extra ordinary when you look at the FBI and we all -- I said this earlier on 'Fox & Friends,' when you see a situation happen and the guys with the FBI jackets walk in, you feel better, you feel like there's such trust in the FBI and unfortunately, all of those thousands of people have been besmirched by a group at the top that went rogue, Andrew McCabe included.

GINGRICH: Well, I think that's why it's very, very important to get to the heart of this and find out what went wrong. We rely as a country on the rule of law and you look at some place like Venezuela or Zimbabwe or Cuba, you understand how really important having faith in the rule of law is to a free society and the FBI has historically done an outstanding job and there are thousands of hardworking agents all over the world doing the best they can. But we have as a country an obligation to root out the cancer that was clearly at the heart of the Justice Department as you pointed out in your interview may well have gone above the FBI to the attorney general and beyond her. So I think this story is going to continue to unfold. And my experience back in the Watergate years when I was first running for Congress was these things kind of unravel and each week you learn something new and that leads you to something new and that leads you to something new and I think the report on McCabe is just one more piece of the unraveling. And frankly, the Peter Strzok stuff may be as important as the McCabe stuff because at least based on initial copies we're getting in the text messages, he clearly had some kind of relationship with the judge who they went to for the FISA Warrant to go after General Flynn. And I think that puts in doubt the entire process of Flynn's case and begins to setup an argument for giving Flynn a pardon and in racing that entire case.

BARTIROMO: Well the other thing is the fact that they redacted that. So they have a conversation on text about the fact that Judge Contreras is going to a cocktail party, should I -- I'm going to go meet him at the cocktail party and that was what was redacted. That's not of national security, that's just you don't want anybody to know that Peter Strzok went to a cocktail party with the FISA Judge.

GINGRICH: No, you know, part of this and I'm beginning to think about maybe next year as all of this begins to unfold actually trying to put together just a chronology, a history of it because it's so complicated. But part of what you're seeing happen here is the deep state protecting itself by redacting things that are political, they're not national security. And that's -- and your point is exactly right and I'm with you. When you got -- when you got Chairman Goodlatte to admit that out of a 1.2 million documents he's only gotten 3000? It makes you wonder how much more we're going to learn when we see the rest of those documents.

BARTIROMO: Right. But we're going to talk more this morning about the I.G. report which we are expecting in April which has all of the facts in it. Newt, it's always a pleasure to talk with you. Thanks for weighing in this morning.

GINGRICH: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: Newt Gingrich there. The White House gearing up for a high profile visit, meanwhile, next week from the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. We'll talk about that and then get back to the Andrew McCabe firing with Jim Kallstrom from the FBI next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back. President Trump scheduled to host Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman at the White House this upcoming week. The two leaders had their first face to face encounter in Riyadh last May. Joining me right now is the former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan. He's the former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia under President George W. Bush. Ambassador, it's good to see you this morning. Thanks for joining us.

ROBERT JORDAN, FORMER UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO SAUDI ARABIA: Hi Maria. Good to be with you.

BARTIROMO: What are you expecting from this meeting next week?

JORDAN: Well, this is a very big deal. Crown Prince Mohammed is I think seeking American support to continue pressure on Iran. He's no big fan of the Iran nuclear deal and so when we see some discussion about that, I think the President and our administration will want to talk with the Saudis about what's going on in the war in Yemen. It's a tremendous humanitarian catastrophe and I'm sure there's building pressure particularly within the Senate to curtail that conflict. But I think fighting Iran on various fronts throughout the Middle East is going to be a very important part of it and also this blockade of Qatar which has created a real rift in the Gulf Cooperation Council. We very much need these Gulf monarchies to be on the same page and so I think there's going to be a lot of discussion about that. And then, of course, it's really important that Crown Prince Mohammed is sort of taking off on a whistle-stop tour throughout the United States. He's going to San Francisco, to L.A. to meet with movie executives, to talk with Google and Apple. This is completely unheard of and I think it signals a completely new approach by the Saudis to engaging with the west and certainly with America.

BARTIROMO: It sure does. And when I was in Riyadh in October of last year, I had the chance to interview his Royal Highness and he said, look, we want to live like normal people. We want to live the way we lived before the Iranian revolution in 1979, and that is the same place I guess that the President is on. You mentioned two things that the President disagreed with Rex Tillerson about, the Iran deal and the situation in Qatar.

JORDAN: Exactly, and so I think this is going to be a chance for them to check signals, to be sure they are on the same page, and also to see where it goes from here, because even though the Saudis have continued this blockade of Qatar, it's not really serving anyone's interest and has actually driven Qatar into the arms of Iran and Turkey. So there's some major strategic issues they've got to sort out here.

BARTIROMO: Are you expecting the President to renew the deal, the Iran Deal when it comes up next?

JORDAN: My guess is he will not and I think that secretary designate Pompeo will support that. The Europeans are frantically trying to figure out a way to cobble together some fig leaf that will look like a renegotiation of the deal. But none of it has much to do with anything other than additional sanctions. So I'm not optimistic that we're going to see a breakthrough and it sounds to me as if the President will probably not certify it.

BARTIROMO: Meanwhile there is a growing thought that there is a connection between Tehran and North Korea. Do you see a connection?

JORDAN: Yes. I haven't seen evidence of it yet but it wouldn't surprise me if there were communications back and forth. Certainly, there's also been rumors the North Koreans had communications with Pakistan some years ago, so all of this is a very dark area that we don't have much visibility on.

BARTIROMO: And when you say, you know, conversations obviously we're talking about the availability of nuclear weaponry.

JORDAN: Certainly technology if not weaponry itself and so I think that's something we very much want to closely follow, our intelligence organizations need to work seamlessly together to try to sort this out and find out what we can.

BARTIROMO: You know, in terms of the Saudi Aramco deal that is now delayed until next year, do you expect that this deal will not come to the United States because of the opportunity for the victims and the families of 9/11 to sue, be able to sue the Saudi government because my theory is it's not going to come to America at all because of this recent legislation that allows the victims to sue the Saudi government.

JORDAN: I think that legislation is an impediment. There has been some talk within the Senate of a bill that would give the President discretionary power to wave the ability to bring those suits. And if that's the case, then we may see a resurgence of that opportunity. But right now I do think listening in America is going to be a problem in light of that legislation.

BARTIROMO: All right, we will leave it there. Ambassador, it's good to see you. I know, I'll see you next week on the Fox Business Network as we assess the Crown Prince's meeting. Thank you, sir.

JORDAN: Thanks, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Robert Jordan joining us. Back to our top story, Andrew McCabe is out at the FBI, breaking news from House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte this morning. Right here on this program he just told me he will subpoena the missing documents he's asked for from the FBI. He says the FBI has been stonewalling Congress. Former Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom is joining me next live as we look ahead on 'Sunday Morning Futures' this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back. We want to get right back to our top story, the McCabe firing at the FBI. James Kallstrom is former Assistant Director of the FBI and he joins me right now. And Jim it is good to see you.

JIM KALLSTROM, FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FBI: Nice to be here.

BARTIROMO: You had 27 years at the FBI. I know how important and pride that you have for the FBI. How do you think the FBI is taking it this morning that the number two guy, Andrew McCabe has been fired?

KALLSTROM: I think it's a -- it's big sigh of relief and a good feeling about the fact that an FBI element, an organization in the FBI recommended that he be fired.

BARTIROMO: Right, the office of --

KALLSTROM: As opposed to them being mute and having someone else make that recommendation. So I think they're very happy about that. I mean, I don't know for a fact but I'm guessing that that's the case. And they're just gnawing at the bit to actually get involved in a real investigation, not a phony investigation like Jim Comey conducted, you know, a fraudulent investigation.

BARTIROMO: I don't understand what was driving them, Jim. Let's put this in context for a moment. You've got ten people at the top of the FBI and the Department of Justice that have been either fired or reassigned. Obviously, this is no coincidence. Do you think somebody was directing them or do you think they just came to the conclusion on their own this leadership at the FBI and the Department of Justice that they wanted to change the outcome of the election, they wanted to protect Hillary Clinton.

KALLSTROM: I think we have ample facts revealed to us during this last year and a half that high-ranking people throughout the government, not just the FBI, high-ranking people had a plot to not have Hillary Clinton, you know, indicted so that she could remain the flawed candidate that she was which in my view is stupidity. And they also had -- and even this Strzok guy talked about this -- they had a backup plan to basically frame Donald Trump. And that's what's been going on, this whole thing in my view is just total phony. I mean, how would you feel if someone out there in America land or somebody that just had a phony scheme about you and went on for months and months and months and that's what's going on.

BARTIROMO: Well the special counsel is in place and now you just heard Bob Goodlatte Chairman of Judiciary wanting a second special counsel. I want to get your take on how high this goes up because I'm wondering if Andrew McCabe just perjure James Comey and what the culpability is of Jim Comey. So Andrew McCabe in terms of pushing back on this firing said I was authorized to share information with the press and that was known among many including the Director, OK? But here's what the Director, James Comey said back in May of last year when asked this specific question. Here Is Jim Comey under oath. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, R—IOWA: Director Comey, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?

JAMES COMEY, FORMER DIRECTOR, FBI: Never.

GRASSLEY: Question two on relatively related. Have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?

COMEY: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Never and no and yet Andrew McCabe on Saturday morning had a lengthy statement saying I was authorized to share this information and the Director knew about it. Your thoughts?

KALLSTROM: Well I read that statement and obviously, you know, he's puffing up his few feathers that he has left. I think nothing that he said was truthful from my understanding of his role in the FBI. What kind of an investigator he was, what kind of a supervisor. You know, he was lacking in so many ways, that's my understanding. And you know, statements like that were penned by CNN or somebody else, you know, they're just going to add more trouble to him.

BARTIROMO: How independent do you think was Andrew McCabe versus Jim Comey? I mean could he have done all this without Jim Comey knowing?

KALLSTROM: You know -- you know, I wonder that myself. I wonder that myself with how much McCabe was doing that Jim Comey knew about or didn't know about. You know, to me that's a little bit of a question.

BARTIROMO: Why, what do you mean?

KALLSTROM: Well, I just don't know. I mean, the stupidity of some of these things was so -- was so, you know, rampant that it almost makes me question. Although James Comey is not a stupid individual, I think he's naive as an eagle the size of the Empire State Building. I mean, he has a lot of other faults that got him into this trouble. But I mean, I could be wrong. They could have been absolutely totally in lockstep, but there's no question that he and McCabe and others in the FBI and the Justice Department and we're going to find out the State Department and the National Security Adviser to the president and the Deputy National Security Advisor and John Brennan. Did you see John Brennan's remarks yesterday?

BARTIROMO: We ran this with a tweet at the top of the show. There was real animus in that tweet against President Trump.

KALLSTROM: The animus and the malice against Trump --

BARTIROMO: There it is right on the screen.

KALLSTROM: It's a prime aphasia really exposure of how he felt about Trump pre-election and how he was -- you know, my sources tell me that he was leaking almost weekly and daily. You know, and he was taking that bunch of phony crap supposedly from Russia, you know, and peddling that through the Congress all of his buddies in the media. He was one of the active people, you know. I've known him a long time.

BARTIROMO: So you think he's involved?

KALLSTROM: Oh, I think he's involved, absolutely. And it goes right to the top quite frankly, Maria.

BARTIROMO: You mean, President Obama?

KALLSTROM: I think it goes right through the top and it involves that whole strategy they were going to win, nobody would ever know any of this stuff and they just unleashed the intelligence community. Look at those unmaskings so wehaven't even heard anything about that yet, right? Look at the way they violated the rights of all of those American citizens, right? You know, and General Flynn, I hope General Flynn sues a lot of people because he was handled so bad.

BARTIROMO: Well, people have gone to jail for lying to the FBI. That is a felony.

KALLSTROM: He didn't lie to the FBI.

BARTIROMO: No, I know.

KALLSTROM: And they didn't even interview him about a crime. I mean, he was in his -- he was in his legal authorized, you know, mode when all that happened.

BARTIROMO: But it was a felony to leak his conversation with the Ambassador to Russia to the press.

KALLSTROM: That was a felony, his unmasking we found out --

BARTIROMO: We know that from Jeff Sessions, told us that on this program.

KALLSTROM: There's no question. They are the people that have committed felonies not the General and they've ruined that guy, you know. And because they threatened his son, you know, they bankrupted this guy that gave his life to this country. You know, and just the whole dealings. Look how they didn't deal with the IRS, you know, there's so many things that they've done badly.

BARTIROMO: Well, you know, it now feels like it's opening up and things are coming out. We will see. How close do you think Jim Comey was with Loretta Lynch? I mean Loretta Lynch directed Comey to call it a matter, not a criminal investigation, it's exactly what he did. You can go through so many of the misdeeds, it's actually extraordinary.

KALLSTROM: Well, it is. I mean, I think he was in lockstep and as I've said in the past, you know, there's musical chairs going on and Loretta Lynch was the leader of the band but you know, this whole business of special counsel, now here's another thing if you've got a moment. You know, I would wish we didn't have to have a special counsel but we've got the Attorney General who is a good guy but he just hasn't --

BARTIROMO: Well, he recused himself from everything Russia.

KALLSTROM: Yes, I mean, are we going to depend on the deputy attorney general to pick another special counsel? When he picked Bob Mueller when he appointed a special counsel in violation of the enabling statue of special counsel statute that says you must have and set out the predicate crimes that you want investigated and you must make the point that these are crimes that the Justice Department cannot investigate because they're conflicted. Well, he did none of that. He put the guy that's conflicted like the Jersey Turnpike from end-to-end.

BARTIROMO: Which is why it's really important that Bob Goodlatte just told us he's goes to subpoena for the other documents because Michael Horowitz and the Inspector General does not have subpoena power and it's important that there's a big voice now pushing for a second special counsel.

KALLSTROM: Right.

BARTIROMO: An independent counsel.

KALLSTROM: And how does the Deputy Attorney General remain the Deputy Attorney General? My humble view, when he signed the last continuation of a FISA order there was replete with lies.

BARTIROMO: All right, we will leave it there. Jim Kallstrom, it's great to see you.

KALLSTROM: Nice to be here.

BARTIROMO: Thank you so much for your insights. We so appreciate it, James Kallstrom. Coming up my exclusive interview with billionaire technology investor and venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Why he supported President Trump in the last election, why he thinks he will win again in 2020 as we look ahead right now on SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES. Back in a moment

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Renounced billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel sitting down with meat the Economic Club of New York this week. I spoke with him about his support for President Trump and the company that he says is the most ferocious in America.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER THIEL, ENTREPRENEUR, VENTURE CAPITALIST: I've often said that our greatest political problem is the problem of political correctness and I think there are, you know, any of a number of issues where it is good to rethink things, you know, the very big tax reform that was -- that was pushed through at the end of last year I think is a very good thing and it reflects that we're living in a very different world where we have to ask very hard questions about how do you get American companies to compete globally. The last big tax reform was in 1986, before that we sort of had simplified and had you know, sort of uniform taxes and that made sense in a non-globalized world which is much less globalized in 1986. And then by 2017, our tax code was set up in such a way that American businesses were seriously disadvantaged and this was an incredibly healthy reset. And so I think there are, you know, any of the number of topics where it's very good to be asking these questions and then it's been yes, it's been obviously all sorts of things that are somewhat disappointing and at the same time, I don't know how much one can expect. So that's -- I think -- I think you know, I still think that it's better than the alternatives by far.

BARTIROMO: Hillary Clinton.

THIEL: Yes, or Bernie Sanders.

BARTIROMO: Or Bernie Sanders. It does seem like every industry is using A.I., and if you're not using A.I., you will be at a disadvantage. So there are these sophisticated things like A.I. and then there are things that are really basic like online shopping and really good delivery and getting something delivered in two hours like Amazon is doing and Amazon is trying to take over -- can anybody beat Amazon?

THIEL: I do think Amazon is the most ferocious company in the U.S. at this point and if you were it is probably the company that you don't want to be competing against. The -- you know, I think -- I think there's always this very big difference between companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, where the core businesses are quite high margin and the internal conversation is always well, we can expand into this other business but we're only going to expand into other businesses that are equally high margin. And so you end up -- these are actual -- this come -- it end up being not that aggressive on the expansion side, and they talk about it a lot, they think about a lot of things but then most of the time, the calculus always is does our margin go down if we do this and if we do it maybe we shouldn't. I'm not sure -- by the way, I'm not sure that's the right way to think about it. Maybe the right way to think about it is you know, earning 1.5 percent on your money in the bank account if you do better than that by investing in other things.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BARTIROMO: More on my interview on foxbusiness.com with Peter Thiel, plus, after a short break, more on the fallout over the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Our panel is on next to discuss as we look ahead on 'Sunday Morning Futures' right here. Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Now, our political panel weighs in. Ed Rollins is the former Campaign Manager for the Reagan-Bush ticket in 1984 and former New York Senator Al D'amato with us, both are Fox News Contributors. Gentlemen, good to see you both.

ED ROLLINS, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: An extraordinary week, Ed Rollins.

ROLLINS: When you look back when historians look back on this week at this administration, this is one of the great weeks both on a negative way and positive way. You had obviously changes in the administration, Tillerson gone, Cohn gone, new team coming in losing a very critical seat in Pennsylvania and I think what's going to happen at this point in time having run the Congressional Committee many years ago, these members of Congress are going to be panicked and they got to basically not always be supportive of the President at a time when he really needs support.

BARTIROMO: Well the Democrats have to have a message going into the midterm. You're saying the Republicans are going to rethink?

ROLLINS: Well, they're -- and what I argue very strenuously is the message for Republicans is not Nancy Pelosi ends up being (INAUDIBLE), that doesn't work. What it is one on one. I'm running against Al D'Amato, which is why I'm better for your district than Al D'Amato is and elect me, I'll go to Washington and help Donald Trump get his agenda through. That's the message, not Nancy Pelosi.

BARTIROMO: But you know, Senator, I mean, you've got two storylines on the Republican side going into the midterms. On one hand, the economy is doing better. By the way, the Federal Reserve is probably going to raise interest rates next week. In their two day meeting, we're expecting the Feds to raise rates Wednesday by the way because the economy is doing better. And the second storyline is this potential massive abuse of power at the highest halls of government, the FBI and DOJ.

AL D'AMATO, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CONTRIBUTOR: It's not getting through. That message has not gotten through. Jim Kallstrom did an incredible job. But how many people follow that? In other words, you have either McCabe lied or the former -- Comey lied, one or the other. Did Comey authorize the release of information? He says no.

BARTIROMO: He said never. Yes, under oath.

D'AMATO: So did he lie? Should Congress have a hearing? Should they determine, should there be an investigation? There certainly should be. The corruption that took place in the Justice Department is undeniable and it really is. But getting back to the election, my friend, Ed Rollins has hit the nail on the head. Talk about the economy and what we've moved forward and make sure you have candidates who can stand up to it. Our candidate in Pennsylvania, he didn't carry a message. He really didn't.

ROLLINS: Well the critical thing here is what does the president do now? And the president obviously is very frustrated by what's going on with Mueller and what have you and I would not be shocked in the next two or three weeks he fires him. And if he does that then obviously you've got all kinds of consequences.

BARTIROMO: That would be huge for the left. They would say that is obstruction.

ROLLINS: Don't underestimate that and I think -- I don't think he's got the best legal advice, I think that a very precarious situation here and it's all about (INAUDIBLE). And what occurred is that Justice Department for the eight years of Obama was very slanted towards Hillary's re- election. Once that didn't occur, then obviously they did everything else to tip -- at least the hierarchy -- tip the balance against Trump and making Trump successful.

D'AMATO: I'll tell you one other thing and again, I agree with Ed. I get rid of the Deputy Attorney General.

BARTIROMO: Rod Rosenstein.

D'AMATO: Absolutely. Take a look at the appointments that he is responsible for, Mueller and his team. And Mueller, let me tell you is just after anything he can get.

BARTIROMO: Well, we'll see about that. By the way, I am being told that right now Eric Holder and President Obama are in a project to do all this redistricting. They are doing redistricting in Pennsylvania isn't that right?

ROLLINS: Well, but they don't control what occurs there what controls the state legislature.

BARTIROMO: Can they do a redistricting that captures more Democrats?

ROLLINS: They already have. They have a plan and that will give them four more seats. The reality is redistricting doesn't come until after the census but right now it's four seats have changed in.

BARTIROMO: All right, we're going to leave it there. It's a pleasure to see you both.

ROLLINS: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: Thank you so much, Ed Rollins, Senator D'Amato, we'll see you soon. That will do it for us here on 'Sunday Morning Futures.' Thanks for joining me this morning. I'm Maria Bartiromo. Join me tomorrow morning first thing 'Mornings With Maria' on the Fox Business Network 6:00-9:00. I'll see you then.

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