Dr. Ben Carson: Attitude on COVID from White House 'fostered lack of trust'
Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson argues mandates are 'not America,' but rather 'the precursor to some type of dictatorship.'
This is a rush transcript from "Sunday Morning Futures," August 1, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Good Sunday morning, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us. Welcome to "Sunday Morning Futures." I'm Maria Bartiromo.
Today: changing the subject. The Southwest border is wide open, ripping with lawlessness, one million apprehended this year already, tens of thousands others get-aways, fentanyl, now COVID cases up 900 percent.
And yet, in Congress, it's crunch time ahead of the Senate's August 6 recess. Senator Chuck Schumer wants an agreement on potentially $7 trillion in new spending in the next two weeks. Will he get his 60 votes?
Coming up, Wyoming Senator John Barrasso on why he will vote no to free college, free health care, checks in the mail, amnesty for illegals, and a far left climate agenda in that $5.5 trillion shakedown.
Then: The DOJ targets Texas on transporting migrants who may have COVID former. Trump adviser Stephen Miller on why Title 42 means life and death in America during a surge in COVID cases.
Then: The gloves come off as the masks go back on. Nancy Pelosi calls GOP leader Kevin McCarthy -- quote -- "a moron" to reporters, as she threatens the rest for maskless vaccinated Capitol staffers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Leader McCarthy -- Leader McCarthy says it's against the science.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): He's such a moron.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Coming up, former neurosurgeon and HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson on the science behind the Delta variant and the politics behind the loss of liberty and freedom.
Plus: The Chinese Communist Party crackdown collides with corporate America. Former President George W. Bush's economic adviser Larry Lindsey on China, debt and U.S. policy, all right here, right now on "Sunday Morning Futures."
But first this morning: super-spreaders of panic and confusion.
The CDC and President Biden with loaded words and backtracking on masks and COVID this week. Here's the first story we heard and then the about-face this past week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing.
Based on the continuing downward trajectory of cases, the scientific data on the performance of our vaccines, and our understanding of how the virus spreads, that moment has come for those who are fully vaccinated.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The CDC recommends you wear a mask when you're in public and indoors, like work or in a grocery store. That's true for both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.
Why? Because, even if you have been fully vaccinated and protected from severe illness from COVID-19, you could have the Delta variant in your system and spread it to someone who isn't vaccinated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: So now, if you're vaccinated, you could be spreading it?
Joining me right now is Wyoming Senator John Barrasso. He is the third- ranking member in the Senate Republican leadership. He is also a medical doctor.
Senator, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks very much for being here.
And, of course, I want to get your thoughts on COVID in a moment.
But I have got to start off by asking you, if COVID is this urgent threat that we face once again with the Delta variant, why are you and your colleagues negotiating another spending bonanza of $7 trillion on everything from senior care to a Green New Deal, education, and maybe, if you're lucky, roads and bridges?
SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): Well, Chuck Schumer has said, before the August recess, he wants to pass two bills through Congress.
One is the true infrastructure bipartisan bill that people are working on. We still haven't seen it. It's going to be a big piece of legislation.
But more concerning to me, Maria, is this massive spending bill, the liberal wish list. It is the largest spending bill in the history of the United States. And if this passes, people are going to suffer significantly. They're going to feel the heavy weight of the taxes, the ongoing inflation problems, and the debt.
It is going to chew away, eat at people's paychecks. It's going to eat at their savings. People are already paying, because of inflation, higher dollars for gas, housing, you name it.
And, Maria, this is spending on top of the $6 trillion already spent in coronavirus relief. Plus, it is loaded with liberal policies, including amnesty for illegal immigrants. It also includes a civilian climate corps. They want to hire a million people who would, many, be protesters against things like the Keystone XL pipeline.
Look, Chuck Schumer says nobody goes home for August recess until these two things pass. I say I'm willing to stay in Washington until hell freezes over if I can stop these bad things happening to our country.
BARTIROMO: This is just incredible, Senator.
Look, we have got to get into the details of this bill and really what's in it. I know that it's almost 3,000 pages. I'm talking first the infrastructure bill.
What's in the infrastructure bill? Tell us that.
BARRASSO: Yes, there's actually a bipartisan bill that folks are working on. Last night -- as of last night, apparently, it's at about 2, 700 pieces. Bits and pieces are starting to come out. People are seeing a little bit of it. We're looking forward to seeing the whole thing.
It really is supposed to focus on roads, bridges, ports, airports, broadband, things that people need and they want and there is value in it. Republicans want to make sure that it's actually paid for. And we want to read it. This can't be the old Nancy Pelosi first you have to pass it, then you get to find out what's in it.
BARTIROMO: OK.
BARRASSO: The best way to pay for this is to repurpose COVID relief funds that have already been committed, but not yet spent.
BARTIROMO: So, just...
BARRASSO: From the parts that I have seen, I still have concerns about it.
But the biggest problem is, Nancy Pelosi has said she's going to handcuff the two together...
BARTIROMO: Right.
BARRASSO: ... the real infrastructure with this spending monstrosity, which is reckless tax and spending.
BARTIROMO: So, just to be clear, this is a bill almost 3,000 pages' long, and you haven't seen much of it? You haven't -- you don't really know what's in there?
BARRASSO: Well, we're still looking for the details of it.
The parts I have seen that are concerning to me -- and I'm from Wyoming, an energy state. Again, this is a bipartisan bill. I have concerns about the energy component, where the Democrats have insisted that the model for energy ought to be the California model.
Well, Maria, in California, electricity prices are the highest in the country. They have their ongoing blackouts. They have this approach that I think is not the right one for America. We have gone from an energy- dominant nation now under President Biden. We are becoming much more energy-dependent.
And I think it's the wrong direction to go.
BARTIROMO: All right.
Look, it's just extraordinary to me that you really do not know what's in the infrastructure bill. That's a $1 trillion -- everyone -- there is common ground on that, and yet you don't really know the details of that one. And then you're negotiating. Nancy Pelosi wants to tie it to the other massive spending bill, which has plenty of gimmicks in it.
Is it valued at $3.5 trillion or $5.5 trillion?
BARRASSO: Oh, I think it's a much higher number. Everything I have read, Maria, it looks like it's going to be much higher than what the Democrats are admitting to, at a time that we just can't afford it.
You look at the runaway inflation we're living in. Now to put more spending on top of that makes it a lot worse. But Nancy Pelosi said, look, not a penny for roads or bridges or ports or airports unless and until the Senate passes this much bigger, as you say, $5 trillion bill.
This wasn't a negotiation with Nancy Pelosi. This was a hijacking. And this would be terrible for the country, for the economy. And she's not just a hijacker. She is also an arsonist, because this is putting additional jet fuel on the flames of inflation. And we know who's going to be hurt by this.
The people that are going to suffer under this are people living on a fixed income. They are our seniors. They are people working getting by paycheck to paycheck. All Americans are going to pay for this through inflation, through taxes.
Joe Biden says, well, we're only going to raise taxes on businesses and some people making a lot of money. You cannot fund something this expensive without everybody in America getting hit.
BARTIROMO: It's just extraordinary. I want to go back to this in a moment, because I want you to detail the kind of tax increases that are in that bill.
But, first, let's talk about the urgency at hand, because while you are in this jam session, the next two weeks, Schumer wants to get both of these major bills through, we're also hearing confusing and panicked reaction from the CDC with regard to the Delta variant.
You are a medical doctor. What is the CDC telling us now? You just heard Joe Biden say, well, if you have been vaccinated, you can spread it. And you're supposed to wear masks indoors now?
BARRASSO: The only message should be the one that I know is the right message, which is, vaccines work.
If you want to protect yourself and your family, the best thing you can do is get vaccinated. I'm a doctor. I have been vaccinated, as has my wife, my adult kids. It is protective. If you have questions, talk with your doctor.
Now, for the chaos coming out of the CDC and Joe Biden, they ought to be sued and found guilty of medical malpractice. They have flip-flopped. What, May 13, if you have been vaccinated, you don't need to wear a mask anymore. Now they're saying, no, no, you need to go back to the mask.
How are you going to encourage people to get vaccinated if you say, hey, even if you get vaccinated, you still have to wear a mask? And a lot of the anger that I hear and -- is the fear that this administration, since they flip-flopped on masks, are they going to flip-flop on a shutdown? Are they going to shut down schools again?
Our students have lost an incredible amount in a lost year. To think about the possibility of shutting down schools again is just awful. And what's happened in Congress? Nancy Pelosi tells the Capitol Hill police to arrest vaccinated staff members if they're not wearing a mask in the United States Capitol.
At the same time, Maria, you have a wide open Southern border, 180,000 undocumented unvaccinated people each month coming to the United States with a wide open border policy carrying diseases, most about every conceivable disease in the world, bringing them into America unchecked.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
Senator, it's all quite convenient, with about a year to go before the midterm elections. It doesn't appear that the Democrats can win on policy. So what are we going to do, have a lockdown in the summer of 2022, so that we ensure mail-in ballots are flowing from empty parking lots and dead people?
BARRASSO: Well, I think you're right on line on that, Maria, which is why I see what the Democrats are trying to do now.
They have a two-pronged approach. The one is these very liberal policies that are coming forward on amnesty and on the civilian climate corps, the things that are expensive, that we can't afford, that are bad for the country, bad policy.
And then there's this second track, which is to undermine elections and the integrity of elections in this country, making it easier for Democrats to cheat. What they want to do, that's their number one priority bill was S.1., which said, OK, you don't need to have voter I.D. anymore. Oh, and let's have ballot harvesting where they have their paid operatives go door to door and pick up ballots.
And then, of course, they want the government to fund the elections. All of these things undermine the elections. And on top of that, they want to make the District of Columbia a state with two more Democrat senators, making it much harder for Republicans to take the Senate.
And then, finally, they're talking about stacking the Supreme Court. And under that circumstance, they want to put -- they have legislation to put four more justices on the Supreme Court now, which would then take you to 13. Of course, they'd be four liberal justices put forth by President Biden.
That's how they undermine the structure and the stability of the United States.
BARTIROMO: Well, meanwhile, the DOJ is warning the states, don't even think about auditing anything about election 2020, the department warning states to tread carefully in auditing elections.
Are they getting political?
BARRASSO: Well, it does sound that way to me.
Look, the integrity of the elections comes to the states. The states need to make their own decisions. Part of what the Democrats are trying to do with S.1 is take the power for elections away from the states, give it to the federal government, so they can have unilateral control, making it much easier for them to cheat and determine the outcome of elections.
BARTIROMO: Wow. What a state of affairs, just extraordinary.
John Barrasso, thanks very much for walking us through it all. It's great to see you this morning.
We will be watching this next two-week crunch time, for sure, and whether or not you get a summer recess.
BARRASSO: I don't care about the recess. I care about the future of the country.
Thanks, Maria.
BARTIROMO: As do we.
Thank you so much, Senator John Barrasso.
Coming up: COVID or no COVID, the DOJ says, keep the flow of migrants coming in, as the Department of Justice takes aim at Texas on border moves and any other state who dares question election 2020.
Former Trump aide Stephen Miller is here on the unprotected border and its impact, later, Ben Carson your liberty and freedom under attack.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): Under the Trump administration, they pretty much had cross-border illegal immigration shut down.
All that Biden had to do was to continue the Trump policies, and we would have no problem on the border whatsoever. But now it's getting worse because Biden is opening the floodgates for people who are coming from countries where there's an extremely low vaccination rate, and there's an extremely high number of people coming across the border who do have COVID.
And our goal is to continue to arrest people coming across the border, but, at the same time, surge more National Guard, more Texas Department of Public Safety officers to make sure that we're doing everything that we can as a state to secure the border.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back.
That was Governor Greg Abbott on this program last weekend.
The number of coronavirus cases among migrant detainees are now up 900 percent year over year in the Rio Grande Valley sector. That is just the ones who have been tested. In June, 39,000 got-aways were seen on surveillance -- we don't know if they have COVID or not -- likely escaping into the interior of our country. We don't know what their intentions are.
Joining me right now is the architect of President Trump's immigration policy. Stephen Miller is the founder of America First Legal, a nonprofit that's fighting back against the Biden agenda.
Stephen, it's good to see you.
STEPHEN MILLER, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.
BARTIROMO: Thanks very much for being here this morning.
You heard Governor Abbott. And you know that COVID is coming across, as well as human trafficking and drugs. Your thoughts on where we are in this crisis at the border?
MILLER: Yes.
Well, first of all, Governor Abbott is entirely correct. Under President Trump's courageous leadership, there were functionally zero releases at the Southwest border in 2020. In other words, if you crossed the border illegally, you were stopped, you were sent home.
A central part of that strategy after the pandemic hit was an authority known as Title 42. You may hear this a lot in the news. It's a public health authority exercised by CDC, and in this case carried out by Border Patrol and ICE.
And the principle of it is very simple, which is that, during a pandemic, if you come into this country, your very presence here, if you enter unlawfully, is a threat to our public health, full stop. You go home. There's no process. There's no procedure. There's no asylum.
You are removed either to Mexico or to a third-party country or your home country. That's it, because to take you in, to keep you here, to process you, to put you into the system, you will infect other migrants, you will infect agents, you will infect members of the community, you will infect ICE officers. If released, you will affect -- infect the country.
There is no way to safely conduct illegal immigration during a pandemic. In fact, it is the most unsafe form of travel.
What President Biden has done is, he has suspended the application of Title 42 for all minor aliens traveling alone, which is about the size of one American city per month comprised entirely of illegal alien minors, plus the vast, vast majority of illegal alien families.
So these groups are entering the country, unrestricted, illegally, being resettled by our border agencies, and spreading the disease throughout the country. One very important point about this, even if you test illegal immigrants, without Title 42, you are not safe.
Why is that? Because let's say you have 6,000 illegals show up one day at the border. And let's say 10 percent of them test positive, or 600 people. And let's pretend this administration quarantined those, which they're not doing. Let's just pretend that they did.
You release the balance of the 6,000. You don't think that there's a huge number of those who are going to be positive the next day, the day after, the day after that? Testing is just a one small snapshot in time. This virus can live in your system for four days, five days, six days, seven days, 10 days, before you get that positive test.
So even people who test negative, they have been living with other positive illegal aliens crammed into unsafe, unsanitary conditions.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
MILLER: Bottom line here, Maria, to bring this -- to bring this home, this administration is bringing variants into this country, bringing disease into this country, bringing COVID into this country...
BARTIROMO: Yes.
MILLER: ... for the sole purpose of facilitating lawbreaking.
This is an attack on the health of every citizen.
BARTIROMO: No wonder we're worried about putting masks back on and the threat of the Delta variant. We have got to continue digging in because I want to know why.
Stay with us. More with Stephen Miller after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back.
And we're back with Stephen Miller, the founder of America First Illegal.
And, Stephen, you have explained Title 42 really well. And we appreciate that, because this is the crux of the really deterrent for people to come. And there isn't any deterrent right now.
John Solomon is reporting that there is a bipartisan call for Biden to appoint a new border czar, apparently, Kamala Harris being criticized if she continues to search for the root causes of this illegal migration.
Representative Henry Cuellar and Senator Lindsey Graham are asking President Biden to appoint former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to a special executive position to manage the border crisis, according to John Solomon.
Your thoughts on what Kamala Harris is doing in the face of all of this?
MILLER: Yes, well, for one thing, I think it's pretty clear that the vice president's political ambitions are effectively destroyed as a result of her administration of the border.
But it's important for people to keep in mind that she is not the one making these policy decisions. These policy decisions are being made by the faceless radicals throughout the Biden administration who are running the show. There are White House staff, there are DHS staff, most of whom will never be known to the American public, who are making these truly, truly deadly decisions that are resulting in drugs, disease, crime, as well as just large-scale illegal immigration that drains our finances and that destroys American jobs and wealth.
And so I completely agree the vice president should be replaced. But, ultimately, she's only being used as the fall person behind a scheme that staff has put together.
BARTIROMO: Well, look, at the same time, you have crises at the border blowing up with regard to illicit narcotics, human trafficking, COVID cases, and yet look what we're focused on as a country and in Congress.
They're debating literally $7 trillion of new spending. And you have got the Department of Justice sending warning shots out to states, saying, don't even think about doing an audit of election 2020.
We spoke with Blake Masters here on this program last week. He's running for the Senate seat in Arizona. Here's what he said about what's taking place right now in his home state.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLAKE MASTERS (R), ARIZONA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: I'm glad we're auditing.
I come from the business world. We audit businesses every year, all the time, as a routine good practice. And that's when we don't even suspect anything is amiss. And so this idea that so many people from the journalist class, from the Democratic establishment, even from the Republican establishment in Arizona, they're reflexively anti-audit.
They were anti-audit before it even got started, which makes no sense, because, like tens of millions of Americans, probably even 100 million Americans and some Joe Biden voters, if we're being honest, I look at what happened in the 2020 election, and I see a lot of problems.
They want to say it was a perfect election with the perfect result. Maybe. But it didn't look perfect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Well, the DOJ doesn't agree.
They're saying to states, tread carefully in auditing elections, especially 2020, Stephen.
MILLER: Yes.
Well, first of all, on the first point that you made, it is insane to me that we were having a conversation in Washington, D.C., right now about infrastructure, when the border is melting down before our very eyes and the sovereignty of this country is being wiped out.
The Republican Conference ought to have the position that there will be no negotiations with this president over any of his signature policy priorities as long as he is failing in his fundamental constitutional obligation to protect this nation's borders, in fact, doing the opposite, which is working assiduously, through his radical staff, to eliminate, erase and invalidate our nation's borders.
On the point about the election audit, anybody who opposes a forensic audit of the election is in favor of fraud. It's that simple. You cannot have an election, not ever, in which people can mail thousands of ballots in, and there's no effort to link the ballot itself with an actual registered, lawfully registered voter, just nameless ballots disconnected entirely from any real verified voter.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
And, by the way, big tech is right there with the DOJ. Let me just tell you that, earlier this week, Twitter suspended all Maricopa County audit accounts for -- quote, unquote -- "violating Twitter rules."
As a forensic audit approved by the Arizona Senate winds down in the state, they're keeping you off of social media, Stephen.
MILLER: Big tech election interference is a crisis in this country.
We saw it in the form of suppressing the very, very severe allegations against Hunter Biden. We saw it in the form of Facebook spending -- well, I should say, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help administer our country's elections. And we see it in the continued form of suppression about invaluable election security measures, like audits, like voter I.D., and reforming the mail-in ballot system in this country.
So we should all be terrified about the prospect that a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires can control how we administer, operate and talk about elections in this country.
BARTIROMO: Stephen, it's great to get your insights, as always, on all of this. We will keep a spotlight on it.
Thank you very much, as you pursue your lawsuit against the Small Business Administration. We will follow that as well and get to that in the next time.
Stephen Miller, great to see you this morning.
MILLER: Thank you so much.
BARTIROMO: Thank you.
MILLER: Thank you.
BARTIROMO: We will take a break.
When we come back, Dr. Ben Carson is here weighing in on the Delta variant. It is real, and it is going to show us the impact. And trust in the CDC, during the pandemic era, it has plummeted. Plus: the rising number of vaccinated getting COVID. Why won't the White House release more details about who's getting COVID and what vaccination they had gotten beforehand?
Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: This administration has long claimed that you're trying to be the most transparent in history. If that's the case, why won't you just release the number of breakthrough cases that you've had of vaccinated staffers?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I think, first, we're in a very different place than we were six to seven months ago as it relates to the virus.
And as many medical experts have said inside and outside of the government, those who are vaccinated are protected from serious illness. Most are asymptomatic, if they are individuals who are vaccinated who get the virus. And we are in a different place in terms of the impact of individuals who may have, as you said, breakthrough cases.
QUESTION: But why not just provide the number? Are you trying to hide something?
PSAKI: No, but what is the -- why do you need to have that information?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Why do you need this information?
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki telling a reporter she doesn't need to know about so-called breakthrough COVID cases among staffers. That means people who got COVID even though they were vaccinated.
Joining me right now is retired neurosurgeon who served as the 17th U.S. secretary of housing and urban development. Dr. Ben Carson is the founder and chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute.
And, Dr. Carson, it's always a pleasure to see you. Thanks very much for being here this morning, sir.
BEN CARSON, FORMER U.S. HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: Thank you for having me, Maria. Thank you.
BARTIROMO: What do you make of this? I mean, really, Jen Psaki will not release the number of people who have gotten COVID who were vaccinated. We don't know what vaccination they got. Was it the Pfizer vaccination? Was it the Moderna vaccination that they got? We thought they were protected, but they got COVID anyway.
And now we're worried about the Delta variant. You see that the White House and Nancy Pelosi want masks back on indoors for vaccinated people. What can you tell us?
CARSON: Well, it's that attitude, I think, that has fostered the lack of trust in the CDC and in our government, when they think that the people are not smart enough to be able to work with the information, so we don't even have to give it to them, because they can't process it.
That's not America. That's the precursor of some type of dictatorship. We don't want that.
The fact of the matter is, the vaccines are very effective. And I think, if you would give that information and give people the real statistics, yes, there are breakthrough cases, but those are generally very mild. And the ones who have died, which are very, very few, by the way -- your chances of dying if you have been vaccinated are about the same as being struck by lightning.
And we don't change everything we do for lightning strikes. People get killed by lightning, but we don't say you have to stay in a house now whenever it rains. So, give me a break.
But it is natural for viruses to mutate. So, having variants is a natural thing. This variant, the Delta variant, is very contagious, but it's not very virulent. That means it's not very powerful, like the initial class of coronaviruses that we dealt with.
So, we need to take that into account when we're dealing with real science. We also need to recognize that your likelihood of getting it is very, very small if you have been vaccinated or if you have had the disease.
Now, our CDC and the present administration won't even acknowledge natural immunity, which is every bit as effective as getting the vaccination. And between the two, about 85 percent of our population has immunity.
So, we need to be dealing with that and working with that and giving people that actual numbers and letting them make decisions. Mandates, that's not what America is about. It never should be what America is about. America came into existence because people wanted to escape from governments who mandated things...
BARTIROMO: Yes.
CARSON: ... who tried to tell them how their lives should be lived from cradle to grave. We cannot allow that. This is the beginning edge of it, and we can't allow it.
BARTIROMO: And yet, Dr. Carson, you have got President Biden out every day blaming the unvaccinated. He says we're in a pandemic of the unvaccinated. And you have got new mandates coming.
Nancy Pelosi says that anyone without a mask on in the Capitol will be arrested. Your thoughts on the bigger picture here and how this is affecting people's freedom and liberty?
CARSON: Well, that's the very point.
When we have people using this as an excuse -- and that's what it is, because, again, the vaccinations are very effective, and a lot of people have already gotten immunity. So -- and very, very few people are dying. It really is a matter of how you present it.
If you had two people who died, and now you have four people who died, you say there's been a 100 percent increase, this thing is just raging. Or you could actually give the statistics, which show that we really are much better off than we were a year ago.
But you can use that to frighten people and to control people. And that's what we have got to be careful about. Yes, we have made tremendous progress. There's no question about it. And kudos go to our scientific community for coming up with effective vaccines. But we also have to give people the real information and let them make decisions and not mandate things.
BARTIROMO: Well, how much of this is political, really, in the background, politics?
We have seen the politicization of the FBI, the weaponization of the DOJ. We're seeing the CDC also get questioned, questions about CRT, critical race theory, in the military. Broadly speaking, what do you see happening? And what about the credibility of the CDC at this point?
CARSON: Well, I hate to see the CDC's credibility being questioned. I have known over the years a lot of people there, really good people.
But what we have seen recently is the injection of politics into medicine and into science. And that has distorted tremendously that trust. And it's going to be a long time before that comes back.
But in terms of your other question, critical race theory, how that's infiltrating all of our institutions, I think that is disastrous also, because what it basically says is that the primary determinant of what happens to human life is your race. It's something that you have no control over.
And that was Dr. King's very point, when he said, I long for a time when people are judged by the content of the character, which is something you can control, vs. the color of your skin, which is something you can't control. If you really want to talk about fairness, let's talk about things that can be controlled, not things that you can't control. It makes absolutely no sense.
And then the whole concept of systemic racism, if we're systemically racist, please tell me why Nigerians, Ghanaians, people of that nature come into this country and do just as well as everybody else, there's no wealth gap, and yet they're black. Tell me how that works. They can't explain that.
There's a whole lot of stuff they can't explain because it's propaganda. And we have a wonderful country. We have made tremendous progress. Let's look forward. Let's look at how we can work together. Let's not let a bunch of people convince us that we're enemies of each other just because we have different opinions. That makes no sense.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
CARSON: Jesus said, at first, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Abraham Lincoln echoed it. That's what's going on.
BARTIROMO: Well, you make great points, Dr. Carson, but, unfortunately, this president makes everything a civil rights issue.
Real quick, before you go, I want to tap into your medical expertise. You are optimistic about America, despite all of these challenges, because of the innovation we're seeing in health care. Give us a word on that. Where are we? Look ahead for us. Let's end on what you see as the most promise.
CARSON: Well, thank you for asking that question, because it's absolutely incredible, the things that have happened in medicine.
Just looking at one area like cancer, which is still a devastating thing in our society, and we use surgery, we use chemotherapy. But what's really interesting is that combination immunotherapy is starting to have an impact on some of the diseases that we never could control before, because we're learning to work at the molecular level, looking at things that inhibit the immune system from effectively destroying cancers.
Galectin, Galectin-3, is a protein that facilitates tumor invasion and metastasis. And there are companies like Galectin Therapeutics that are coming up with ways to modify that.
I begin to associate with some of these companies. It is absolutely fantastic. And I think, 20 to 30 years from now, cancer will not be the scourge that it is right now.
BARTIROMO: I love it.
Dr. Carson, not only -- not only do we get freedom and liberty from you, but also the beauty and innovation that this country is known for.
Thank you so much for being here. Please come back soon.
Dr. Ben Carson joining us.
CARSON: Thank you, Maria.
BARTIROMO: We're going to take a short break.
When we come back: the Chinese Communist Party crackdown, people jailed, billions lost, and as the CCP lays down new regulations in its plan for more power.
The warning to U.S. companies dancing with communist China from the former counsel, the head of the Bush economic policy, Larry Lindsey, coming up.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back.
Well, yet another new crackdown from the Chinese Communist Party this past week.
It is widening its scope of regulations, from Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent, to ride-hailing company DiDi Global, and, just in the past week, the education technology industry with new rules against foreign investment, causing steep losses for many Chinese company stocks and U.S. investors.
Joining me right now is Larry Lindsey. He is the president and CEO of The Lindsey Group. He is the former director of the National Economic Council under George W. Bush.
And he is out with a new novel called "Currency War." It takes a look at Beijing's aspirations to replace the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world with the Chinese yuan, among other challenges the U.S. faces from the CCP.
Larry, good morning to you. Congratulations on the new book. It is a great read.
And I am so thrilled to have you here to talk about China and economics as well.
I want to start off with your thoughts on what we heard from the CCP these past couple of weeks on the regulatory crackdown. What's going on?
LARRY LINDSEY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE LINDSEY GROUP: Well, what Xi is all about is control.
His predecessors tended to focus on wealth creation. That's not what he's interested. He wants to assure the dominance of the Communist Party and, oh, by the way, himself as head of the Communist Party.
And, for example, on the education crackdown, Chinese parents, like parents throughout the world, want their kids to get ahead. They hired private tutors in order to do so. But if you're the Chinese state, you don't want the independent private tutors telling the kids what to think. You want the state schools to do so.
And so what they did was, they said you can't do tutoring for profit, which really means that large companies can't get involved. And you had U.S. and foreign investment in those companies, which made them almost subversive, in the eyes of Xi.
So, he simply banned foreign investment and banned profit-making in the tutoring industry. Again, it's about control. That's what he was driving at.
BARTIROMO: Well, control and also overtaking the United States as the number one superpower in the world.
How real is this threat?
LINDSEY: Oh, oh, it's quite real.
The -- I mean, he's stated it. You can go back and take a look at his speeches over the last three years, the most recent that I urge people to read is his speech celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
And what he talks about is, first of all, again, the need for the Communist Party to lead China, and, secondly, its revenge for what he calls the deep humiliation China suffered at the hands of the West in the last 150 years.
So, you know...
BARTIROMO: Yes.
And, as part of that speech, as part of that speech, Larry, he said anyone who challenges the CCP will have their heads mushed to dust, smashed to dust.
We're going to take a break. I want to ask you about investing in these companies that are tied to Xi Jinping's plans.
Back in a moment with Larry Lindsey.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back with Larry Lindsey, president and CEO of The Lindsey Group.
Larry, let's talk U.S.-China policy for a moment.
There was a movement to push back on investors investing in Chinese companies, particularly those tied to the Chinese military, to fund the CCP's expansion. Your thoughts?
LINDSEY: Well, I think it was -- it was quite appropriate.
And for -- investors should watch their own money. And anyone putting their money in China should take a close look at what happened to Jack Ma. He was disappeared for three months, their version of canceled. And then, since then, he has lost half of his fortune, half. And that was basically eight months ago.
So, that's what's going to happen to your money sooner or later, if you invested in China.
BARTIROMO: Why did you write this book?
It ends, interestingly, without a shot fired. But is that the realistic situation that we're watching? The book is "Currency War," a must-read.
LINDSEY: Well, you're always supposed to end the book on an optimistic note. You don't want to end it with a bummer. And so that was the only way to end it.
But it is a work of fiction. It bears no resemblance, necessarily, to reality or to the people in it. But why don't we call it the best outcome we could expect?
(LAUGHTER)
LINDSEY: No, I do not expect the actual world to end that easily.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
LINDSEY: China is out to get us. That's all there is to it.
BARTIROMO: That -- you have got to get the book to understand that clearly. Wow.
Larry, it's great to see you. Thank you, sir. Larry Lindsey, good to see you. Come back soon.
That will do it for "Sunday Morning Futures."
I will see you tomorrow morning bright and early on FOX Business, "Mornings With Maria."
Content and Programming Copyright 2021 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2021 VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox