'Sunday Morning Futures' on Biden's ability to handle foreign policy issues

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Sen. Cruz: US will pay price for Biden's 'weakness, incompetence' for years to come

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, discusses Secretary Blinken's testimony, the impact of the Biden administration's Afghanistan withdrawal, Gen. Milley's alleged phone calls and China's growing aggression.

This is a rush transcript from "Sunday Morning Futures," September 19, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Good Sunday morning, everyone. Welcome to "Sunday Morning Futures." I'm Maria Bartiromo.

Coming up: Was it an order from the CCP? Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweets out that the U.S. stands with Hong Kong, only to take it down soon after.

Coming up: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is here on the China threat and the consequences to come from handing over the strategically located and fortified Bagram Air Base to the Taliban, as Congressman Michael McCaul told us on this program last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): The reason why it was -- it's so important is because it's a national security asset for the United States, or it was until the Taliban took it over.

This provided eyes and ears, not only in Afghanistan, but Russia, China and Iran, our adversaries. They are now emboldened. We can't see. We are going dark now. And that's very dangerous.

The administration talks about over-the-horizon capability. This is like six, eight hours away in Qatar, UAE. Bagram -- the loss of Bagram, I can't emphasize how destructive this is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Then, as the Biden administration promises new green cards for Afghan refugees, the Southern border is overflowing with migrants.

Now there are 15,000 people waiting to get apprehended under that one bridge in Del Rio Texas. Joe Biden's refusal to close the border as terrorist wannabes join the fight. Will they try to access America through Mexico, threatening our safety, as Afghan vet and Congressman Michael Waltz predicted last week?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHAEL WALTZ (R-FL): We are on a road to future attacks.

The same team that's around Biden was around Obama that yanked us out of Iraq and led to the rise of the ISIS caliphate. I think you're going to see that in the next year with Al Qaeda 3.0 partnered with Haqqani and the Taliban.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Coming up, Texas Senator Ted Cruz on the consequences of wide open borders and giving victories to adversaries in Joe Biden's America.

Plus: special prosecutor John Durham issuing an indictment to a Hillary Clinton lawyer for allegedly lying to the FBI during the Trump-Russia hoax.

Eric Trump, the first one to take the calls from reporters about the phony narrative, is here with his never-before-told side of the story.

Then: The Democrats are trying hard to change the conversation, as Nancy Pelosi scrambles to find the votes she needs for her $5.5 trillion dollar spending plan.

House Budget Committee ranking member Jason Smith on the Democrat disarray on their tax-and-spend plans.

All that right here, right now, as we look ahead on "Sunday Morning Futures."

But first this morning: The U.S. military has finally admitted what we reported right here one week ago, that a U.S. drone strike mistakenly killed innocents, instead of their intended target, 10 civilians dead, including seven children, in Kabul last month, not two ISIS-K fighters, which the Pentagon originally told us.

That brings the total number of lives lost that we know of to 23 dead, including the 13 service members killed in the airport attack.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken about that strike on Tuesday. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): The guy the Biden administration droned, was he an aid worker or an ISIS-K operative?

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The administration is, of course, reviewing that strike. And I'm sure that a full assessment will be -- will be forthcoming.

PAUL: So, you don't know if it was an aid worker or an ISIS-K operative?

BLINKEN: I can't speak to that. And I can't speak to that in this setting in any event.

PAUL: So you don't know or won't tell us?

BLINKEN: I don't know because we're reviewing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Joining me right now is the former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Secretary, it's good to see you this morning. Good morning to you.

MIKE POMPEO, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Good morning, Maria. Thanks for having me on the show this morning.

BARTIROMO: Your thoughts on that missed target, drone strike killing civilians, innocents, the latest upset from this withdrawal from Afghanistan that was obviously botched and not planned?

POMPEO: Well, Maria, it's obviously a tragedy that civilians were killed.

To those families and those around them, their friends, my apologies. We pray for them.

This is just another example. It looks like they were in a rush. They were in a hurry. You could see the political pressure. And if there was one thing that drove this failed evacuation was the arbitrary political deadline that President Biden set, the arbitrary cap on the number of troops could be there, so we could secure American departure and the departure of our equipment.

Those things, these were all political decisions driven down to the military. And I'm confident that the military was under enormous pressure. President Biden had said, we're going to strike back at the folks who killed the 13 Americans. And we had a strike that clearly failed, failed to deliver to protect America and killed civilians.

This is a -- just another piece of an evacuation that was driven by politics and not putting America first and America's national security.

BARTIROMO: Yes, that's right. He wanted to have good headlines on September 11 to say, I brought everybody home, no matter what it took.

Secretary, how do we get out of this at this point? We know that there are long-term consequences for abandoning Bagram Air Base. Secretary Blinken was interrogated over the last week in those hearings.

What's next? How do we get out of this? And what is the future as a result of this misstep?

POMPEO: So it's very difficult to imagine how this administration is going to turn it around, because they seem so deeply desirous of just making this go away, as if there weren't still Americans that are being held hostage by the Taliban instead of Afghanistan, if we still didn't have promises out to some of the folks who had helped us for these past 20 years.

They just want it to go away. So I don't see how the Biden administration gets back from this space. I hope -- I hope they will begin to recognize that the their credibility around the world was damaged deeply by how they executed this withdrawal, the failure to work alongside allies, to deliver, make sure we got our allies and friends out of the country, and that we abandoned a partner in a way that didn't deliver on security for our friends in the region as well.

They need to show -- they need to find places they can show real resolve, determination, make clear that we're not going back to what we were doing for the last eight years of the Obama administration, which is weaknesses on the world -- weakness on the world stage.

If they will do those things, we can improve our lot in Afghanistan and the ability to do counterterrorism in that region. And then there are a handful of tactical things. There are still fighters in Afghanistan. We should provide moral support to them as well. This was a takeover by a group of terrorists. And we should make doubly sure that we never recognize the Taliban as the rightful leaders of Afghanistan.

BARTIROMO: Well, this is a really important point that you're making, because this is what I have been saying the last few weeks. This was a coup. The Taliban came and took over Afghanistan.

Are we supposed to be recognizing them as a real government, given the fact that this is a group of terrorists who are attached to other terrorists like Al Qaeda, and they just pulled off a coup?

POMPEO: Yes, there's no way we should recognize them.

Think about this. I heard Secretary Blinken say there was no plan. No, there was a detailed plan. They just chose to tear it up and put a political constraint, where we had a conditions-based security model for how we were approaching the risk from terrorism in Afghanistan, just very different ways of thinking about the problem set.

And so, when you when you talk about this coup, this takeover, we tried to get all the players at the table. We had women's groups, NGOs, the Taliban, folks from the north, the Afghan government itself, all at the table, trying to get a transition, where we could someday -- maybe it'd be 10 years -- to get reconciliation among the Afghans.

They just permitted the Taliban to throw all of that away, to throw normal diplomacy away, the hard work that we were engaged in, and allowed terrorists to take over this country. They -- we shouldn't recognize them. And, most importantly, Maria, and what I most worry about is, I think there may be American taxpayer dollars that are headed for the Taliban as well.

We will bribe them, we will pay them, we will coerce them through using U.S. taxpayer dollars to convince the Taliban either to allow Americans out or for something else, where we have no leverage today because of the decisions that this administration made.

BARTIROMO: And they have already been going through pallets of cash that we left behind, pallets of cash, as well as the $86 billion in weaponry.

Was that a payment for the Taliban? Do you think we are going to just send aid to the Taliban? And, I mean, it's absolutely extraordinary that the United States of America is being held hostage by a terrorist group. And we're supposed to make believe we think them -- that they are the rightful government of Afghanistan.

POMPEO: Maria, the folks that are around President Biden today in his White House talking about foreign policy are the same leaders -- a fellow named Brett McGurk sent $150 billion, pallets of cash, to the Iranians, who are hosting the senior Al Qaeda leadership in Tehran today.

They're the same people who have now reversed the Trump administration's policy. And they are now paying the folks in the West Bank who are conducting terror and paying martyrs to go kill people inside of Israel.

It wouldn't surprise me if this administration didn't blanche at paying the Taliban, these terrorists, these massive violators of basic, the most fundamental human rights, it wouldn't surprise them if they would use American taxpayer resources to exert leverage over them.

BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.

Meanwhile, China waiting in the wings. We had been reporting on this program in the last couple of weeks that we understand China is negotiating a status of forces agreement to move into the Bagram Air Base, so strategically located near China, a very short distance from where the Uyghurs are locked up in the Xinjiang region, a very short distance from where China is expanding its nuclear facility.

And then you have got -- you have got this tweet from Antony Blinken. I want to show you this tweet, put this up on the screen.

In this tweet, he says: "We stand with the people of Hong Kong and continue to support their human rights and fundamental freedoms."

A short time after this was posted, the State Department took it down. And they said, oh, it was a mistake. That tweet was meant for somebody else. And then this tweet was put up. And, obviously, that key sentence was taken out. "We stand with the people of Hong Kong and continue to support their human rights and fundamental freedoms" was not in the replaced tweet of Antony Blinken.

And, instead, it was put into the spokesperson's tweet, Ned Price.

Your thoughts on what went on here? Did the CCP just pressure the U.S. government to not say, we're standing with Hong Kong? Do we stand with Hong Kong?

POMPEO: Well, the simple answer to the last question is the most important one. The statement that Secretary Blinken originally put out is absolutely true.

The United States must stand with the people of Hong Kong every day, always. We must demand that their rightful place that the Chinese Communist Party had itself agreed to for 50 years be restored. It doesn't appear that's where the Chinese Communist Party is headed. But the United States must continue to stand strongly with them, just as we do with the people of Taiwan.

I don't know what happened. I don't know why this tweet was taken down. The original tweet that Secretary Blinken had posted was perfectly in line with what I believe the United States policy should be. So I don't know if it was the craziness that can happen inside the State Department's bureaucracy. I certainly saw that.

I can't tell you what the administrative challenge was. But, as a substantive matter, as a matter for protecting Americans and putting our country first, a simple statement by America's secretary of state that we stand with the people of Hong Kong should seem pretty straightforward.

BARTIROMO: Yes, even as The Global Times, the mouthpiece for the CCP, is promising that the U.S. is going to see another terrorist attack on its own soil in another -- in a different tweet.

Why was the State Department running this Afghanistan operation, and not the U.S. military? I know that, under your watch, you created a special unit that could have played a significant role in terms of the evacuation effort.

But a senior State Department official tells us that they disbanded that unit, all in the face of Americans being left behind.

POMPEO: Maria, we did create a unit. It was really well done.

It was an important team that we had put together under amazing leadership. It was in response to what I had seen when I was a young congressman, when we saw an American diplomat killed in Benghazi, Libya. We knew we needed State Department resources capable of getting people out of harm's way at a moment's notice to be able to put resources on the ground.

This administration will have to explain why they didn't want to follow us down that path.

Look, as for why the State Department was in charge, it makes sense to put the State Department in charge of getting diplomats and resources out. But more importantly than who's in charge, in the end, the commander in chief is in charge. It was President Biden's responsibility to provide the resources and the political freedom and the space for our military and our State Department to make sure we got every American out, every American diplomat...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

POMPEO: ... every American citizen, and every American military personnel.

And they simply failed to do that and, frankly, are failing to do that even as we sit here today.

BARTIROMO: Secretary, real quick before we go, it is U.N. Assembly week this week in New York.

In the next two weeks, the U.N. General Assembly begins, where President Biden will speak. He's going to be standing there on the world stage with allies and adversaries. What are they saying right now about this debacle, as the U.S. also announces this submarine deal with Australia, a decision to cancel a multibillion-dollar deal from the French in favor of U.S. submarines?

Is that a positive?

POMPEO: Well, I'm happy about that. It's a good decision the Australians made. I think it'll be great for the alliance between the United States and the Quad.

And, obviously, this deal was with the Australians and the United Kingdom. Good on the administration for making that happen. Those American submarines will prove important in deterring Chinese Communist Party aggression.

But, Maria, they will only do that -- you talked about the U.N. General Assembly this week. That's a bunch of leaders coming to say words. That's great. It's important to hear what people are thinking around the world.

But, in the end, the leaders who saw what the United States has done in -- with Iran, in Afghanistan, they see American weakness. We don't need more words from President Biden saying we're strong. We need demonstrable evidence...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

POMPEO: ... that, in fact, this administration will continue to put American power in play.

BARTIROMO: Secretary, thank you.

POMPEO: Thank you, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Thank you so much, Secretary.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

Special counsel John Durham this weekend indicted Hillary Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann, who Durham said lied about working for the Clinton campaign to construct the now-debunked memo alleging that computer communications between a server at the Alfa Bank in Russia and the Trump Tower in New York were going on.

The prosecutor said that he lied to the FBI when he said he was providing the information between the Alfa Bank and Trump Tower solely as a good citizen, not on behalf of any client. In fact, Clinton was paying him.

It was Eric Trump who heard from reporters first who were leaked the made- up story.

Eric joins me right now. He is the executive vice president of the Trump Organization and, of course, President Trump's son.

Eric, it's good to see you this morning. Thanks very much for being here.

Were you surprised to see John Durham come out with that indictment this week?

ERIC TRUMP, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I was, Maria.

And I remember the story like it was yesterday. I got a e-mail from The New York Times -- this was September 28 of 2016 -- saying that we had servers connected, Trump Organization has had servers connected to some Russia bank that was being funded by Putin.

I go, no, we don't go, guys. They said, yes, you do. We have got a tip. It's very, very credible.

And I didn't know until literally Durham invited Michael -- indicted Michael two days ago that this whole thing was actually done by the Clinton campaign. We had no idea where it came from. We worked with the FBI for a year, a year-and-a-half. All our I.T. vendors worked with the FBI.

They wanted one thing, Maria. They wanted a headline in The New York Times or The Washington Post saying Donald Trump or the Trump Organization under investigation by the FBI for ties with Russia, which is exactly what they got.

For the two years that went past that, Pulitzer Prizes were won by literally writers all over the country about their great reporting on the collusion between Trump and between Russia.

And we all know now that it was funded by Hillary Clinton. It's an absolute disgrace. It makes our country look like a banana republic. And it just shouldn't have happened.

BARTIROMO: And, once again, it was the Democrats actually colluding with Russia, Nancy Pelosi dealings with Russia, Hillary Clinton accepting $145 million from the Russian company in her campaign.

And yet they were doing what they were charging Donald Trump to be doing, and, in doing so, creating an entire media scandal across the country, where people were saying Trump colluded.

E. TRUMP: Well, that's exactly right. And where is Hillary Clinton in this conversation? Where's her voice?

I mean, you better believe, if Donald Trump had one of his lawyers going in to make up lies to the FBI to try and smear another campaign, you would have -- you better believe that he would have been on every paper around the world. Where is she? Why isn't she answering these questions?

BARTIROMO: Yes.

E. TRUMP: She paid for a person, a lawyer from one of the biggest law firms in the country to go in and lie to the FBI. That's what she did.

And guess what? No one even rings her doorbell. No one even asks the question of her. And that's the problem, Maria, with the Democrats. The problem with the Democrats is, they dig so deep that they always find themself.

And the reason I'm frustrated about this is, every single day since my father ran for president, my father and our entire family and our company has been under investigation.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

E. TRUMP: Every single day, Maria, we get subpoena after subpoena after subpoena.

I mean, they have weaponized the entire system in this country. They have weaponized the DOJ.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

E. TRUMP: They have weaponized our military. They have weaponized the educational system in this country.

BARTIROMO: That's right.

E. TRUMP: They have weaponized the medical system in this country.

The Democrats weaponize absolutely everything they can to use against their political opponents.

BARTIROMO: Yes. I want to talk more about this.

We will take a short break and come back and talk more about the Biden agenda and its impact with Eric Trump.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's a requirement for people at a business with more than 100 people, and it's not a requirement for migrants at the Southern border. Why?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: That's correct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: That's correct, no checking on COVID at the border.

We are back with Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization.

That was White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitting to FOX's Peter Doocy the Biden vaccine mandates do not apply to migrants at our Southern border.

Eric, I wanted to bring this up with you, because you know that, on day one, when Joe Biden got into office, he reversed all of President Trump's border policies. And look what we have got this morning.

Senator Ted Cruz going to join us in a little while, but he shared this footage of now we're up to 15,000 migrants standing under this one bridge in Del Rio, Texas, on Thursday and Friday. The number is now all the way up to nearly 15,000. Ted Cruz said Border Patrol has not tested any of them for COVID-19.

Your reaction eight months into this new presidency?

E. TRUMP: My reaction is just the irony, Maria.

You remember this story very well. Trump is putting children in cages. Remember, Obama actually built the cages that they were talking about. But Trump is putting children in cages. Now you look at this mess, and they completely ignore it. You look at 15,000 people, as you said. They stopped the construction of the wall, which worked just tremendously well.

I mean, this administration is a mess. And in terms of the COVID shot, you also have to remember that the executive branch isn't getting the COVID shot. You have to remember that Congress isn't required to get the COVID shot. But -- and illegal immigrants aren't required to get the COVID shot.

But yet small businesses in this country are. The hypocrisy of this administration is really unbelievable. And they're failing at everything that they're doing. They failed in Afghanistan. They're failing with the military. They're failing with, frankly, our economy. We have got rampant inflation.

People can't get workers. Manufacturers leaving again, because it's getting more expensive to manufacture, so that everything my father did is kind of getting reversed. I mean, I could go down the list. This guy is an absolute disaster.

And, frankly, I mean, you saw what happened with France. You just reported on it. We're losing the respect of our allies around the world. And that's the most damaging thing that could happen to the United States of America.

BARTIROMO: And yet the attacks keep on coming from the left, as they continue to charge any defectors, any detractors with exactly what they're doing.

The Democrat Party, of course, has been hijacked by the progressives.

E. TRUMP: That's right.

BARTIROMO: And listen to what Nancy Pelosi said this week about the GOP. Same story. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The Republican Party, the Grand Old Party, is -- made tremendous contributions to our country, founded by Lincoln, but, over the years, tremendous contribution to our country. Don't let your party be hijacked by a cult.

This is not conservative, which is, of course, a very, more than legitimate position to hold. This is radical right wing, off the spectrum, anti- governance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Just as they push through new voting laws, Eric, that they want to federalize elections, and you can't say anything about it, because social media is on their side.

We saw what happened to Nicki Minaj this week. She's facing backlash for tweeting to her 22 million followers that a friend of her cousin had issues with the vaccine. And now she -- they're trying to cancel her.

E. TRUMP: Well, that's exactly right. They will try and cancel everybody.

I mean, I have lived cancel culture probably better than any person in the world, right? I mean, they have weaponized the system. I talked about this in the last segment, but they have weaponized the media, and they have weaponized the legal system, and they have weaponized the judicial system, and they have weaponized the military.

And they have -- they have weaponized the hospital system, the medical system, in this country. And you go down the line, they do weaponize these systems. And if you speak out against them, if you disagree with them, they cancel you, they try and arrest you, they try and prosecute you.

It's amazing, kind of the unjustice in this country. And America was always this country that stood for equal weights of justice on both sides.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

E. TRUMP: I mean, it's a national symbol of ours, the scales of justice.

We don't have that anymore. The way the left is treated vs. the way the right is treated isn't even comparable right now. And it's because they have weaponized all of these systems. And it has to stop.

And it reminds me of a banana republic, Maria. It really does. This isn't the United States of America that we're looking at right now. It has to change, and it has to change really quickly.

BARTIROMO: All of this as China is waiting in the wings, hoping to overtake the United States.

Eric, let me ask you. I think your father came too close to the fire in terms of corruption, the corruption fire. He figured it out real quick that there was incredible corruption. And once he figured it out and started talking about it, they wanted him out.

Do you want your father to run again?

E. TRUMP: You know, I do, because, honestly, he's the only person who can save this country.

And it is an incredibly corrupt system. I see it every single day. It's incredibly corrupt. And my father returned respect to this country, returned the greatest economy our nation has ever seen, rebuilt the military, did all these great things for America.

America was prosperous and respected. And under this guy, I mean, what's happening in Washington is truly -- and I hate to use the word -- but it's a clown show. It's an absolute clown show.

This country deserves better. The citizens of this country deserve better. This goes beyond Democrats vs. Republicans.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

E. TRUMP: This is just a pure American red, white and blue. We deserve better, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Eric, thank you so much.

We're going to take a break, because 10 warplanes entered Taiwan this week.

E. TRUMP: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: We're going to tell you about it.

Eric Trump, thanks very much for being here this morning.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JAMES RISCH (R-ID): As recently as yesterday, in mid-sentence, he was cut off by someone in the White House who makes the decision that the president of the United States is not speaking correctly.

So, I'd like to know who this person is. Is this a puppeteer act, if you would? And we need to know who's in charge and who's making these decisions. And the only way we're going to get that is when we have people like you come in and answer -- answer questions.

Who made the decisions on this? Was it the president of the United States?

BLINKEN: Ultimately, the president makes the decisions. That's correct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Can I hear this?

(AUDIO GAP) really calling the shots at the White House, and if it is President Biden, what should the accountability be for the deaths of 13 U.S. service members, abandoning Americans in Afghanistan and creating a safe haven for terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS in Afghanistan?

Texas Senator Ted Cruz also interrogated Blinken this past week and got him to admit that the State Department did give the Taliban what's akin to a kill list of Americans and allies as they walked out. He joins me right now.

Senator, good morning. It's good to see you. Thanks very much for being with us.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Good morning, Maria. Good to be with you.

BARTIROMO: I want to get your take on some of the things that you zeroed in on with the secretary.

But, first, your thoughts on what we heard from your colleague in terms of who's making the decisions? President Biden's microphone apparently looked like it was cut off at one point this past week. Do you believe he's making these decisions on Afghanistan and these leadership missteps?

CRUZ: Well, I would say it's a disturbing pattern, where it seems they cut off his microphone any time he might say something that his handlers don't want.

There's no doubt that President Biden's capacity is severely diminished. And his White House handlers amplify that impression when they keep him locked up in a basement all day long.

Whether it is Biden himself, or the political operatives around him, every decision about Afghanistan and, sadly, about just about every foreign policy and domestic policy issue that's come before this White House has been decided as a matter of pure politics.

When it comes to Afghanistan, Joe Biden and his administration have presided over the worst foreign policy catastrophe in a generation. They put politics in front of everything else. They abandoned Americans behind enemy lines, and it was a disaster.

We were routed there because Joe Biden surrendered. He surrendered the Bagram airfield to the Taliban. He fled and left hundreds, if not thousands of Americans in harm's way. And we're going to be paying the price, our nation is going to pay the price for the president's weakness and incompetence for years to come.

BARTIROMO: Senator, I have got to ask you about General Mark Milley.

You will get the chance to question him...

CRUZ: Yes.

BARTIROMO: in about a week, when he testifies in front of your committee.

What do you want to know? And let me just point out that, this past week, we had some major stories happening. There were Chinese warships spotted sailing just outside of U.S. coastal waters in Alaska, off of Alaska. You also had Chinese military ships entering the space of Taiwan.

There's an op-ed in The Journal this past week, how to stop China from invading Taiwan. Your thoughts on the China element here and what exactly General Milley was doing when talking to his counterparts there.

CRUZ: Yes.

Yes, well, listen, I have known General Milley for about a decade now. I have always liked and respected General Milley. I knew him ever since he was a three-star general and he was the commanding general at Fort Hood in Texas.

I have to say, General Milley is a very capable guy, but he's someone who responds to whoever's in power. When Donald Trump was president, he was very, very close to Donald Trump. He did what Trump wanted. As soon as Joe Biden came into power, it was dizzying how quickly Milley -- Milley spun around.

And I got to say, Milley's conduct in Afghanistan, the disaster of Afghanistan, abandoning Bagram, abandoning Americans behind, there are a lot of reasons General Milley and Secretary Austin and, ultimately, President Biden and Kamala Harris need to be held to account.

But the report this past week that General Milley called the lead general in China and said that he would prevent President Trump from carrying out any military orders, I very much hope that report is not true.

Bob Woodward includes it in the book. I don't know if Woodward's quote is accurate or not. I think General Milley deserves the benefit of the doubt. He deserves the chance to address it and answer...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

CRUZ: ... is that quote true? Is that what you said?

If it isn't, Woodward should be ashamed. If it is, then Milley would have committed a gross dereliction of duty. He would have violated the chain of command. Under our Constitution, there is one commander in chief. And it is not for the military generals to reach out to our enemies and defy the commander in chief. I hope the quote didn't happen.

I hope General Milley clearly and unequivocally denies it.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

CRUZ: But he deserves at least the chance to address whether that charge is true or not.

BARTIROMO: And what about China? What about the threat of China? Will we see China move into Taiwan? This has been talked about for some time, and now we're looking at military jets there.

CRUZ: Yes.

So, Maria, I have said for a long time that I think China is the single greatest geopolitical threat facing the United States for the next century. And one of -- we talked a minute ago about the consequences of Afghanistan, of the disaster, of the failure of Biden's weakness.

Every enemy across the globe saw that weakness, and they took the measure of the man. Xi in China is watching what -- how America behaves, and they're taking the measure of the man in the Oval Office.

And, unfortunately, I believe the chances of a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan have increased tenfold in the last month, because, as Xi has looked at Biden, I fear that Xi has made the determination that Biden is too weak and too unable to do anything that this is now a ripe opportunity for China to move militarily on Taiwan.

If that happens, it would be utterly disastrous. But weakness invites aggression. The way you protect Taiwan -- and I think we should absolutely protect Taiwan -- is, you protect it through strength.

You didn't see China moving on Taiwan when President Trump was in the White House.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

CRUZ: Because they knew they had a president who would stand up to them.

When you have a president who rolls over for everything, it only invites the bad guys to do worse and worse things.

BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.

Real quick, before you go, Senator, with all of these crises unfolding, whether it's Afghanistan, China and the threat that it poses, the wide open border, you have got the Biden administration trying to change the conversation.

CRUZ: Yes.

BARTIROMO: They are pushing through this $5.5 trillion spending package.

Will they get it through? Will we see all of our taxes go higher as a result of all of this? They want to change the economy fundamentally with this green new economy.

CRUZ: Look, you are right. This is the Bernie Sanders budget.

Bernie Sanders is a wide-eyed and admitted socialist. He says this is the most transformational bill in a generation. He means it. It is trillions in spending. It is trillions in new taxes. It is the Green New Deal. It is -- everyone who pays taxes in America will see their taxes go up under this massive proposal.

Individual taxes are going up. Corporate taxes are going up. Small business taxes are going up. Capital gains taxes are going up. The death tax is going up. Seniors are getting hammered, farmers, ranchers, small businesses.

It is disastrous. Whether it passes or not will defend -- depend on 50 Democrats in the Senate. Do they get Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to go along?

I can tell you, Chuck Schumer is putting a world of hurt and pressure on the two of them. I hope they stand their line -- stand their ground...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

CRUZ: ... that they have demonstrated some real courage so far standing up to the crazies in their party.

But you put your finger on what the White House is trying to do. They want to change the topic from Afghanistan. It's why Biden issued this completely illegal and unconstitutional vaccine mandate, because he wanted to change the topic from the disaster in Afghanistan.

The vaccine mandate is going to be struck down in court. They know that. But the president is defying the law because he wanted the press to start defending him and stop talking about the disasters in Afghanistan.

BARTIROMO: Right.

CRUZ: And he's counting on a bunch of big businesses, in particular, forcing their employees to comply before the matter is ever adjudicated and before the order is struck down.

BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.

Senator, it's good to have you with us. We will be watching the developments. Thanks so much.

CRUZ: Thank you, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Senator Ted Cruz today in Texas.

Up next: Joe Biden and the Democrats want to spend $7 trillion next year.

The ranking member of the Budget Committee is here, Congressman Jason Smith, on how high your taxes are going to pay for It.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

Well, Joe Biden's foreign policy mistakes have made this country less safe in the last eight months.

But he and the Democrat Party are still laser-focused on pushing through their economic agenda, including spending $5 trillion on a green new economy.

Joining me right now to discuss how you will end up paying for this by your higher taxes, the ranking member on the House Budget Committee, Congressman Jason Smith.

Congressman, it's always good to see you. Thanks very much for being here this morning.

REP. JASON SMITH (R-MO): Great to be here. Thanks for having me, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Where are we on this at this point?

We had 13 committees do their own markups of Nancy Pelosi's reconciliation bill. What did we learn from those markups? And tell me where this process stands today.

SMITH: I mean, Maria, the tax-and-spending bill that we have before us is the largest spending bill that will ever be taken up in the history of this country.

They say it's $3.5 trillion worth of spending. What has happened in the last two weeks in the markups amongst the 13 different committees actually has $4.3 trillion in direct spending. But because of using budget gimmicks, it's actually $7 trillion to $8 trillion worth of spending.

But what's even worse, Maria, is the tax increases. You have $2.1 trillion worth of tax increases in this legislation, over a trillion dollars in tax increases on families, a trillion worth of taxes on small businesses and job creators.

In fact, the tax increases will be so bad that our job creators in the United States will pay a higher tax burden than those in communist China. And when you look at all the spending that's within this bill, you're talking about record amounts of spending, when we're already facing the highest inflation in 40 years.

You talk about the price increases that everyday Americans are going to have to put food on their table, clothes on their backs, or gas in their cars, this bill will only make it worse.

BARTIROMO: So, Nancy Pelosi has pushed out a vote in the next couple of weeks.

I know she wants to get infrastructure voted on by the end of September. But you have had some pushback among Democrats throughout these last 13 committees.

Walk us through some of the things in this bill that strike you most and where the pushback was from Democrats.

SMITH: Well, what it is, is, the American public, Maria, are starting to figure out what's in this bill, and they're calling their members of Congress, their senators. And that's why you're seeing Democrat members starting to feel the pain of what they're hearing back home.

Think about this. This bill is all about giveaways to the wealthy. The Democrat Party has always said that they are the party of the working class and the low income.

But let me tell you, if you just look at this past election, where Wall Street spent millions of dollars to elect Joe Biden, and when the 10 most wealthy congressional districts in the nation are occupied by some of the most liberal Democrat members in Congress, it tells you why that they're doing this.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

SMITH: This bill is all about rewarding their political friends, allies and donors, tax breaks to millionaires for their million-dollar homes.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

SMITH: You're talking about tax...

BARTIROMO: So, it's a good point, yes.

SMITH: Tax breaks for luxury vehicles.

BARTIROMO: Let's take a break, because I want to zero in on this.

I know there's $200 million allocated to a park near Nancy Pelosi's house in San Francisco. We will take a break, and then let's zero in on some of these things that you have got Democrats pushing back on.

We're talking with Jason Smith this morning.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

I am back with Congressman Jason Smith. He is the ranking member on the House Budget Committee.

Congressman, I think our audience really wants to know if infrastructure is going to pass without reconciliation if these two bills are tied. Want to get to that in a second.

But, first, we want to drill down on all of this spending. A moment ago, you said $7 trillion, and I said as well, looking at the reconciliation and the infrastructure package, how do you get to the $7 trillion and $8 trillion number that the Democrats want to spend? Walk us through that.

SMITH: Absolutely, Maria.

There's $4.3 trillion in direct immediate spending that falls within what was just marked up in the last two weeks amongst the 13 committees. However, where you get to the $7 trillion or $8 trillion -- it's hard to even calculate -- is that the House Democrats and the Senate Democrats are using these budget gimmicks and budget tools, saying that these programs will all sunset by the year 2024 or 2025, when you know as well as I do, once that barn -- once the horse gets out of the barn, you can't get it back in.

BARTIROMO: That's right.

SMITH: Once you squeeze the toothpaste out of the container, you can't get it back in.

And that is why you're going to see that -- the true cost being $7.5 trillion to $8 trillion.

(LAUGHTER)

BARTIROMO: These numbers are mind-boggling, really, Congressman. They are.

Zero in on this specific bill. And will this -- will this get through, or will infrastructure get jammed up with it? Because you're talking about subsidies for, like you said, wealthy people in San Francisco, that $200 million earmarked for a park. You also have $109 billion on amnesty to make illegals get green cards and become legal, right?

SMITH: Yes, the spending is so outrageous.

If the American people knew everything in it, $109 billion to give amnesty to 10 million illegals. It provides all types of federal benefits, free college. When we see what's going on at the border crisis right now, Maria, this only fuels the fire, only makes it worse.

Think about this. In the amount of spending, if this bill is enacted, what's already been spending...

BARTIROMO: Right.

SMITH: ... that would be...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

SMITH: ... in the last 18 months, the entire wages of all Americans.

BARTIROMO: Congressman, it's incredible.

Thank you so much, Jason Smith, joining us.

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