'Sunday Morning Futures' on COVID origins, vaccines, Virginia gubernatorial race

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Sen. Rand Paul claims Dr. Fauci 'fails to acknowledge' coronavirus lab leak possibility

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., argues 'Democrats love Dr. Fauci so much that they will not have one hearing to investigate the origins of this virus.'

This is a rush transcript from "Sunday Morning Futures," October 31, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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

Today: Democrat desperation in Virginia. No lipstick on a pig or dog and pony show can change the reality of Republican momentum ahead of Tuesday's upcoming elections, as Kamala Harris' grasp for excitement proved this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tell everybody you know to vote tomorrow. Nothing like saying, you want to meet me tomorrow? What you doing tomorrow? You got any plans tomorrow? Tomorrow's a good day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Coming up, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich on Tuesday's election and our country being run beyond Joe Biden.

Then: changing the conversation. Nancy Pelosi racing to get a vote on the massive Build Back Better boondoggle ahead of the election results out of Virginia, as the smoke and mirrors show continues in Rome, as Joe Biden pushes a climate agenda he's unable to get through his own party, despite the theatrics at the Capitol last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No one got everything they wanted, including me. But that's what compromise is. That's consensus. And that's what I ran on.

I've long said compromise and consensus are the only way to get big things done in a democracy, important things for the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Of course, there was no consensus. No Republicans are voting for it.

And for the Democrats, they're pushing a fake so-called framework to fool people into believing an agreement has been reached on spending trillions of dollars to fundamentally change the country.

Coming up, Senator Rand Paul on where the negotiations stand now, as the administration ignores China's cover-up of the origins of the deadly COVID- 19 pandemic and Anthony Fauci's disgusting cruelty to animals.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon says ISIS may attack the United States within six months. Afghanistan veteran and Texas Congressman Michael Waltz is here on the foreign policy deadly mistakes of the Biden administration.

As the deadlines approach for first responders to be forced to get a vaccine or lose their jobs and benefits completely, Dr. Ben Carson is here on the unconstitutional rulemaking out of the Joe Biden administration and the science behind 3-year-olds getting the jab.

All that, right here, right now on "Sunday Morning Futures."

And first this morning, look over here, not over there.

Democrats in the House and Senate are pushing trillions of dollars in new spending this weekend, creating a fake narrative that there is some kind of an agreement to fundamentally change America with a Green New Deal and a welfare state.

The Democrats also ignoring China's role in the origins of COVID-19 and its cover-up, A.G. Merrick Garland instead this week defending his threat to sic the FBI on soccer moms, while ignoring the potential real crime of perjury by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

This week, several GOP senators demanded A.G. Garland resign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Your directive, your performance is shameful.

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: That's not...

COTTON: Thank God you are not on the Supreme Court. You should resign in disgrace.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): It's wrong. It is unprecedented, to my knowledge, in the history of this country. And I call on you to resign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: This -- this just weeks after Anthony Fauci misled Senator Rand Paul when asked if he sent taxpayer money to Wuhan to test whether viruses can become more deadly in gain-of-function research.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: I totally resent the lie that you are now propagating, Senator, because, if you look at the viruses that were used in the experiments that were given in the annual reports that were published in the literature, it is molecularly impossible...

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): No one's saying those viruses caused it.

FAUCI: It is molecularly...

PAUL: No one is alleging those -- virus caused the pandemic.

What we're alleging is that gain-of-function research was going on in that lab, and NIH funded it.

FAUCI: That is not...

PAUL: You can't get away from it. It meets your definition. And you are obfuscating the truth.

FAUCI: I'm not obfuscating the truth. You're the one...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Joining me right now is the senator himself, Senator Rand Paul. He's the ranking member on the Senate's Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

And, Senator, good morning to you. Thanks so much for being here this morning.

PAUL: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

BARTIROMO: So, you stuck to your guns. You had facts on your side. Anthony Fauci has been exposed.

Will there be any accountability here, Senator?

PAUL: Even the NIH admitted this week that basically they did merge viruses, and they became more dangerous. That's gain-of-function. They gained lethality.

I don't think Fauci is ever going to admit it. You have seen Merrick Garland performing live, I don't think he's ever going to prosecute him. But this is a big, big question. If this came out of the lab in Wuhan, what if a worse virus comes out of a lab?

There's a professor at MIT, Kevin Esvelt, who's not a partisan, who wrote in The Washington Post recently, not a conservative journal, but he wrote that this type of research could threaten civilization. And there hasn't been one hearing.

I have been asking Democrats to have a hearing on gain-of-function research, so this doesn't happen again. We do this research in the United States. This is a big, big question. This disease we're facing has a 1 percent mortality. What if we got a contagion that leaks from the lab that has a 50 percent mortality?

They're actually doing experiments as we speak with viruses that have 50 percent mortality. That shouldn't be happening.

BARTIROMO: And aren't we still sending money to the EcoHealth Alliance? Aren't we still sending taxpayer dollars?

I know that Anthony Fauci will be testifying again in front of you and your colleagues this upcoming Thursday. What do you want to ask him? And what can you tell us about this latest intelligence assessment of COVID-19, where they did say it was like -- one element assessed that it was likely a laboratory-associated incident?

PAUL: Well, realize they won't even tell us that they're still funding Wuhan. We learned that through Freedom of Information Act, when The Intercept got these e-mails and got this information.

They have not been forthcoming. But what we understand is that there's a research project still with EcoHealth Alliance that goes through 2025 with Wuhan. So we're still funding the lab in Wuhan.

I introduced an amendment a month-and-a-half ago, and it passed unanimously, to stop all funding to the Wuhan lab. But it has not been signed by President Biden yet and has not gone through the House. So, yes, this is a big problem. Money still flows to Wuhan.

But, even worse, here's the judgment of Dr. Fauci. He continues to say, when asked, should we be funding this research? He says, yes, that's where the viruses are, we should be funding research in China.

But he fails to address the question of whether or not the Chinese Communist Party, the generals in the lab, the military's involvement in the lab, whether they're to be trusted, and he fails to acknowledge that this could have come from the lab, and he continues to lie about the idea of whether gain-of-function research was going on.

And his one pushback is this. He says, well, the viruses that we see could not molecularly be COVID. No one's alleging that. So he's saying something. He's pushing back with a straw man argument, because we're not alleging that.

We think, if the virus came from the lab, guess what? The Chinese never told us the sequencing of that virus. So we don't know anything about the virus that came from the lab, other than it looks like it could have been COVID-19.

BARTIROMO: Well, I mean, we don't know how long the gain-of-function research was going on before it leaked from the Wuhan lab and caused this pandemic.

Could this happen again?

PAUL: Yes. And the thing is, is that there are worse viruses. The virus they have been using in the Chinese lab is SARS. It caused a pandemic. It's a coronavirus. It caused a pandemic in 2004, much smaller than what we have, but it has a 15 percent mortality. But it's not very transmissible.

So the experiments they have been doing in Wuhan are taking an unknown -- an unknown virus from a bat cave, combining it with a virus that we know has 15 percent mortality, but doesn't transmit to humans well. They put them together and say, hey, wonder if we could infect some humanized mice cells? Wonder how good this new virus that doesn't exist in nature could infect humans.

That's the experiment. And Dr. Fauci says, well, if they don't know in advance, it's not gain of function.

My goodness, we are experimenting with something that could cause the demise of 15 percent of the planet. This needs to have a discussion. Not one hearing.

BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.

PAUL: Democrats love Dr. Fauci so much that they will not have one hearing to investigate the origins of this virus.

BARTIROMO: And Joe Biden spoke with Xi Jinping several times in the last few months, and not once did the origins of COVID come up.

What -- is he that compromised over China, money going to him and his family and his son, that he will not bring it up? I mean, what is going on that they will not bring this up?

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: It's hard with President Biden to know whether it's corruption or incompetence.

But Dr. Quay looked at 9,000 -- or he looked at -- the WHO looked at 9,000 samples of blood from 2019. If this came from animals, Dr. Quay, who's written several good and interesting articles on this and studied the issue, said that, of the 9,000 samples of blood you looked at, there should have been several 100 of them that were positive for COVID-19. They found zero.

All of this points towards the lab; 80,000 animals were looked at. None of them had COVID-19. So, when Dr. Fauci gets on left-wing media and says, oh, we -- it still could have come from animals, the chances of it coming from animals are becoming very, very small. But all of the evidence is pointing towards the lab, and yet Dr. Fauci is still for funding the lab.

BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.

PAUL: This is a real problem. And we need to get to the head of it. And that's what will happen on Thursday.

BARTIROMO: I want to get your take on two more items, so I want to move on.

But I want to show your letter that you sent it to Anthony Fauci on Friday. You and five other GOP senators sent a letter to Fauci requesting more information about the cruel, inhumane experiments conducted on puppies.

What did he do in terms of beagle puppies? It's so disgusting, I can't even talk about it very long, but it involves severing beagle puppies' vocal cords, injecting them with bacteria. What can you tell us?

PAUL: Yes, there's got to be better oversight on this.

The puppies are so tortured and in such pain that they cut their vocal cords, so the researchers don't have to hear them cry and bark and whine.

BARTIROMO: Oh, my God.

PAUL: And they apparently anesthetized them, so their blink responses reduced, and then they infect their eyes with sand fleas.

And it's one thing if we're going to save the planet from something, and we have to test it on a few animals. But the FDA doesn't require that it be dogs. You could go to a lower animal where there's less human attachment.

But the other thing is, I have now introduced legislation that doesn't make it mandatory. Right now, it's mandatory that there be some animal testing. I have legislation to actually make it optional.

But this goes to the lack of judgment by Dr. Fauci. Dr. Fauci apparently thinks this kind of experiment must be necessary. But he always sides on the side of, oh, we will do whatever, instead of saying, well, what are the possible problems with torturing?

We don't even do it in this country. He farmed it out to Tunisia, where it's probably more acceptable in Tunisia than it is here in this country. But it shouldn't happen.

BARTIROMO: I can't believe this.

PAUL: He needs to be reviewed. But, really, he needs to be out of office, because just such what poor judgment or lack of judgment he has.

BARTIROMO: Well, we will watch your hearing on Thursday.

Let's -- real quick, a word on this Biden -- quote, unquote -- "framework." I know the Democrats are trying to change the conversation away from Virginia, because the Republican, Glenn Youngkin, is in the lead there.

But we have got a graphic here on the new reconciliation framework. It's $555 billion in climate investments. It's been gutted. What can you tell us about the prospect of nothing getting done for Biden's agenda because of the disarray within the Democrats?

PAUL: I think it's been good that there have been some, like Senators Sinema and Manchin, who have pushed back so it's less bad.

I still can't vote for it, because it could add at least a trillion, trillion-and-a-half, almost $2 trillion worth of debt. It also does some funny shenanigans with accounting. It sort of says, oh, we're going to have free pre-K schooling for everyone in the country. It's really going to cost nothing, and then we're going to end it in one year, the funding for it.

Well, none of that's really true. It's a game. And so it's going to go on and on and on, and it will cost enormous amounts of money as it becomes a mandatory spending kind of item in the budget.

So I think, all along, the Democrats have realized that it's two for one. So they're not going to pass the infrastructure bill. They're holding it hostage to this bill. And I think that the progressives will get their way. The Bernie Sanders socialist wing of the party is going to get it all. There's going to be a ton of spending.

But we're seeing the ramifications of this, already 5 percent inflation. And the inflation this year I think is from last year's borrowing. We're borrowing even more this year. So I suspect inflation gets worse over the next year.

BARTIROMO: Wow.

And then, of course, there's the moms and the bullying. You were attacked yourself because the neighbor -- your neighbor did not agree with policies. I mean, the Democrats use mobs and bullying to get their point across. They interrupted a wedding that Senator Kyrsten Sinema was officiating this weekend.

And, of course, we know that they followed her into the bathroom, tried to get her to change her policies on this massive spending. Your thoughts on the use of mobs and bullying to get their way?

PAUL: Yes, there's got to be a better way.

I had six ribs broken, part of my lung removed. I still suffer from the pain inflicted from someone who attacked me from behind without any kind of realization that I was getting ready to be hit very hard from behind. And so it was motivated by politics.

My wife and I have been attacked by a mob. Our lives were saved by the police in D.C. one evening early one morning. But, yes, there's got to be something done about the dialogue. I have criticized and condemned people who would go in a bathroom to film Senator Sinema. I mean, I think it's abhorrent.

And, really, we have to arrest some of these people.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

PAUL: We have had people trying to kill us, but we have had them -- they need to be arrested.

BARTIROMO: Senator, thank you so much.

Great to have you this morning, Senator Rand Paul.

We're going to take a break and then get back to the desperation in Virginia and karma in Atlanta.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: It's a close election. And it is a bellwether for what happens in the rest of the country.

The last time I was standing with Terry, I saw a bunch of signs. And they said "Don't Texas Virginia."

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: Right. Let's not Texas Virginia.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: Because, you see, what happens in Virginia will in large part determine what happens in 2022, 2024 and on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Well, there you have it.

Kamala Harris and the Democrats are getting very worried about what Virginia's razor-tight governor's race will mean on Tuesday and what it will mean for the party's majority next year and the presidential race in 2024, as the cost of basic goods keeps going up and President Biden's approval rating keeps spiraling down.

Joining me now to weigh in as the former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. He is a FOX News contributor. He has a new book which will be out on shelves this Tuesday. "Beyond Biden" is out Tuesday.

And, Newt, congrats on the new book. Good to see you this morning. Thanks for being here.

NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: It's great to be with you.

I think, if Youngkin wins...

BARTIROMO: Your thoughts on what you just heard from Kamala Harris?

GINGRICH: Well, if Youngkin wins, which I think he will, I suspect Republicans will replay Kamala's comments over and over again, because she just said, basically, if Youngkin wins, it means a disaster for the Democrats in '22 and '24.

I happen to think she's right. There will be a disaster because they're too far to the left. They're spending too much money and they're too alienated from the American people, something which Salena Zito wrote a brilliant column on this morning, that they just don't get it.

And I saw this yesterday. I was watching Georgia win over Florida. Sorry to say that to my Florida friends. But I watched a lot of commercials for both of Terry McAuliffe and for Glenn Youngkin.

And what was fascinating was, McAuliffe's commercials are very political. Glenn Youngkin is talking about real life. He's talking about jobs. He's talking about children. He's talking about safety. He's talking about schools.

So, the difference in the two commercials, the sets of commercials -- I saw about 12 or 14 of them -- was remarkable, and I think partially explains why McAuliffe is losing. He's lost in a world of fantasy that really matters to left-wing Democrats, but doesn't matter to the average Virginian.

BARTIROMO: Yes, it's interesting, because you said that he's focusing on issues that are important to the state, like school, and that comment that McAuliffe made that parents should have no role in what their kids are learning, or perhaps inflation, where Virginians are noticing how expensive things have become.

GINGRICH: I mean, so no matter how blue you are as a Democrat, the green you're paying at the gas station -- I filled up my truck yesterday, and it was $79.

Callista filled up her car the day before, and it was $72. I mean, we're both -- we're looking at that and thinking, this ain't working. And I think that sending them a message is going to be a big factor both in New Jersey, by the way, which is much closer than the public polls, and in Virginia, where I think Youngkin is pulling away.

And I think that McAuliffe had the disadvantage of reality coming out. So after he makes this really bad comment that parents shouldn't be involved in education, you suddenly have the Loudoun County school board turns out to be liars. Turns out that they knew about the rape of the young girl in the girl's room by a guy in a dress.

They transferred the guy to another school, where he then assaulted another girl. And they have internal messages that have now become public where they clearly knew all this while they lied to the public and they lied to the parents about it.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GINGRICH: All of that undermines McAuliffe.

And you saw the poll numbers shift very dramatically.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GINGRICH: As the school -- the violence in schools became bigger, McAuliffe went down.

BARTIROMO: Absolutely.

I want to get your take on potential fraud in Virginia, because you just mentioned those dirty tricks. We will also get your take on Biden arriving in Europe empty-handed.

We will be right back with more from Newt Gingrich. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): But we do need the text, and we do need the vote on both bills in the House at the same time.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): And we need a little bit more than an IOU.

REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): If a vote on the BIF is held today, I'm a no. I felt a little bamboozled because this was not -- this was not what I thought was coming today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Well, there you go. Progressive Democrats are not ready to play ball, despite President Biden's plea to vote for his scaled-back social spending package on Thursday.

I am back with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

And, Newt, you know Nancy Pelosi is trying to change the conversation here, take the attention away from Virginia, and, instead, try to get a vote. What do you think about her getting a vote on the books?

And then I want to ask you about these dirty tricks?

GINGRICH: Well, look, I think that, first of all, big government socialists don't realize that they're only about one out of every six Americans now. And they get together in their own little caucus, and they pump each other up and it's like a cheerleading session.

But the truth is, in the country at large, as people face higher and higher prices, overwhelmingly, Americans think these big spending bills are bad. And as Senator Rand Paul was pointing out, the bill only gets to a lower number by lying. It says, oh, this is only going to be for one year.

Well, the scoring process is 10 years. Everybody understands that the stuff they want to do the first year, they're going to keep doing. So the whole bill is a lie.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GINGRICH: And I'm not sure she can get the votes on Tuesday. She's failed every time she's tried.

And it may be that this is this is one more downer for the Democrats in Virginia.

BARTIROMO: So, if they don't get their way, they're going to lie, they're going to steal, they're going to cheat.

Let me ask you about potential cheating in Virginia, now that we know that these FOX News poll show Youngkin so far ahead. You mentioned that -- theatrics that they put on the other day that they got busted for. They were trying to smear Glenn Youngkin.

What other dirty tricks have the Democrats tried going into this election? I know they wanted more days to vote, right? Tell me what happened.

GINGRICH: Right.

Well, I think that got knocked down, and the governor refused to go along, to his credit. But I think what you're going to see, my biggest fear is Fairfax County, which has already announced that it's going to report late. It's the biggest single voting county in the state.

I watched in Georgia as Fulton County was clearly corrupted and cast votes that were clearly illegal. And I worry a great deal about Fairfax, although I have been told by the Youngkin campaign that they have a number of lawyers who are already on the site, are already deeply monitoring it.

But if I were worried about losing the election to fraud, I would start with Fairfax. I would go to the city of Richmond, one or two counties down along the coast. They're only about four places. And I frankly think that McAuliffe is fading so badly that probably it's not stealable.

There is a point where the margin so big, you just can't do it. And if that's what happens, you will see that the counties return earlier and more honestly. They're only going to attempt to steal it if it's possible, because it's dangerous. I mean, these guys can go to jail for the kinds of things they're trying to do.

BARTIROMO: Yes, it's amazing that they wanted to extend voting for five days. But the governor held strong on that.

GINGRICH: Right.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GINGRICH: Which, by the way, I don't think help him any.

I think McAuliffe is losing ground every day. So five more days, it would have been even an bigger rout.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

Newt, Joe Biden is losing ground every day as well. You wrote a book. It will be out this upcoming Tuesday.

Tell me about "Beyond Biden." What are you communicating here? I know you have been testing certain phrases as well. Tell me about the book.

GINGRICH: Well, we have we have a project called the American Majority Project.

And we're really trying to find ways to bring the American people together. We have found, for example, that free market capitalism beats big government socialism by about 59 to 16. We have found that, when you talk about the content of your character vs. the color of your skin, the Reverend Martin Luther King's formula, gets a 91-6 approval that people care about the content of your character.

So, "Beyond Biden" starts with the premise this is like the Jimmy Carter years, which were followed by Ronald Reagan and a generation of booming economy. I think that Biden is a one-term president. I think they're all going to collapse. I think Kamala Harris was right. Virginia is a signal of the future.

The signal is going to be for Republicans, for Republicans, by the way, like Youngkin, who offer real solutions about real life, and go beyond just political ideological language.

And I think that there's a real opportunity in '22 and '24. And "Beyond Biden" is a series of chapters explaining what we can do in education, what we can do in the economy, what we can do in national security, what we can do with crime, where we know from Giuliani and Chief Bratton how to control crime. They did it brilliantly in New York.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GINGRICH: And every left-wing Democrat has thrown away the book, and has led to a huge rise in murder rates.

BARTIROMO: And that -- yes.

GINGRICH: So, "Beyond Biden" is a book for everybody who's concerned about the country.

BARTIROMO: And that phrase that you have been testing relates to the Democrats' policy. It just doesn't work.

GINGRICH: It just doesn't work.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

GINGRICH: I think that will be the slogan for '22 and '24.

And you watch Kamala Harris, and you know it's true.

BARTIROMO: Newt, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks so much.

GINGRICH: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: All right, Newt Gingrich joining us this morning.

GINGRICH: Thank .

BARTIROMO: Coming up: an ISIS terror alert in Virginia, as China sets up shop in Afghanistan, and another massive caravan heads toward our Southern border.

I will be talking with Congressman Michael Waltz on how Biden's wokism and wasting taxpayer dollars are making Americans less safe.

And then I hope you will join me tomorrow morning on FOX Business on "Mornings With Maria." I will have an exclusive interview with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. That's from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern on "Mornings With Maria" on the FOX Business Network.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA): Unfortunately, we can't counter hypersonic missile launch with better pronoun usage and a deeper understanding of why rage won't rescue Americans stranded in Afghanistan.

I'd argue that woke obsessions are the proper jurisdiction of faculty lounge Marxists, not our national security agencies. We have real enemies, and they mean to do us harm. They have no interest in global warming, or race, gender intersectionality. They closely watch us every day to find weaknesses that would enable attacks on our citizens and our homeland.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

That was House Intelligence Ranking Member Devin Nunes slamming top intelligence chiefs at a hearing on Wednesday for legitimate threats from our enemies, including China, which is now said to be building a $10 million military base along its border with Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

My next guest warned us right here on this program back in August that Beijing would capitalize from botched -- the botched withdrawal out of Joe Biden's government.

Mike Waltz is an Afghanistan veteran. He's the only Green Beret in Congress. And he joins us right now.

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

You heard your colleague Devin Nunes referring to the fact that China was launching hypersonic missiles while we were having -- the State Department was celebrating Pronoun Day.

Your thoughts on this ISIS-K warning? What did you hear from the Pentagon with regard to the potential for another attack on America?

REP. MICHAEL WALTZ (R-FL): Well, Maria, thanks for having me on.

And, remember, it was just a few months ago that Joe Biden stood before the world and said we have accomplished our mission in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda is not in Afghanistan, nothing to worry, we have over-the-horizon counterterrorism, we will be -- we will be fine.

Yet now, just this week, we have the number three official in the Pentagon saying ISIS will be capable -- they already intend to do so, but they will be militarily capable of striking the United States again within six months. So that's one piece.

Number two, you still have Al Qaeda out there that intends to do the same thing. The intelligence has been clear all along. Now you have the U.N. saying 8,000 to 10,000 foreign fighters are migrating to Afghanistan because the Taliban now has their caliphate and we have a terror superstate.

And, lo and behold, we have a terror warning in Northern Virginia with very credible threat reporting on North Virginia malls. And the thing is, Maria, as we have talked about, the military, the intelligence community looks at whether these terrorist groups are able to have training camps, whether they're able to infiltrate. We do have an open Southern border. So I think that's a lot easier.

But the thing that they're missing is how this victory, this notion that jihad has won and America has lost inspires terrorists, many of which may be right here in the United States already to launch attacks. And it's those inspired attacks that led to San Bernardino, that led to Pulse nightclub, and that's going to Ohio State, where you had a student, a terrorist, get into a van and mow people down.

And it's that symbolic victory that Biden gave the terrorists that I think is going to inspire attacks in the near term.

BARTIROMO: Well, it's absolutely extraordinary that you're expecting inspired attacks.

We see these threats from ISIS-K and others potentially. And yet the administration calls all of the intelligence officials down to testify this past week.

WALTZ: Yes.

BARTIROMO: And the Democrats focus on diversity. They title the hearing diversity, rather than the actual threats that are right here in plain sight, very similar to the fact that they do not care about U.S. taxpayer money.

And you have to say that, based on what we know.

WALTZ: Yes.

BARTIROMO: The headline of the last week was this new proposal that the White House is examining whether to pay $450,000 per head of families separated at the border. We're talking about a million dollars per family. This is the taxpayer money that is up in smoke.

That's just one idea. There's also 80-plus billion dollars in weapons sitting on the ground in Afghanistan now in the hands of the Taliban. You have got $100 million-plus of unused border wall materials in Texas because Joe Biden canceled all of the remaining contracts to build the wall.

You have got private jets secretly flying migrants to private airports in the middle of the night. And now they're pursuing a $2 trillion spending plan with tons of gimmicks that actually really cost close to $4 trillion, $4.5 trillion.

So, taxpayer money going up in smoke left and right, as they're focused on things like pronouns and diversity, and not on adversaries. Why?

(LAUGHTER)

WALTZ: Yes.

Maria, I could tell you this, having been in combat in multiple theaters. The enemy's bullets, the terrorists' bullets could care less about black, white or brown. All they care about is whether we're wearing an American flag on our shoulder or not. That's it.

And that's all we should care about. You're either -- you're either with us or you're against us. You either mean to do us harm or we mean to defend freedom.

But on this -- on this spending spree, it's out of control. I mean, the printing presses are white hot in Washington, D.C. On top of everything that you listed, there was a trillion dollars unspent from COVID when Biden came in. There's still over $120 billion sitting down at the states unspent.

And we're trying to get that -- those monies reallocated to infrastructure. It's sitting there. All we have to do is say, you can now use it for infrastructure if you haven't had to spend it on COVID. But Nancy Pelosi won't even take it up.

So this is about -- this is about buying votes and about flooding the zone with money in their favorite programs, because they know, once they get those programs in place, it'll be impossible or clear -- close to impossible for us to vote them out.

BARTIROMO: Well, I mean, I don't understand why she doesn't take up any of these issues. You're right about the money that now could be used for infrastructure.

If she cared about infrastructure, could put that -- put that money to work.

WALTZ: Right.

BARTIROMO: And then there's this other bill that passed the Senate barring U.S. Federal Communications Commission from issuing new licenses for electronic equipment deemed to be national security risks.

So, in other words, we can't buy equipment from Huawei. We can't buy equipment from ZTE. Would that ever pass the House? I mean, will they take that up?

WALTZ: I don't see them taking it up.

We're trying to get measures like that into the defense bill, so that at least we can protect our military supply chains. And we can't have these chips or hardware made in China be infected by the Chinese, so that, later on, they can take out our communication infrastructure.

But, look, while we may be able to protect that within our military, if they could take it out nationwide or even portions of it, that's a huge problem. We will keep banging the drum, Maria, but I just can't at this point get the Democrats to wake up to this threat.

BARTIROMO: Well, I mean, finally somebody in the NBA comes out with some moral courage to tell the truth.

WALTZ: Yes.

BARTIROMO: Enes Kanter tweeted out: "The genocidal Chinese government and the insecure tyrant behind it all, Xi Jinping."

What is this going to mean for him? What's your take on what we saw out of the Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter? Let's show the tweet here.

He's showing these sneakers: "No Beijing 2022," the Olympics this February.

Congressman, what's your take on this tweet from Enes Kanter saying no to Beijing 2022, he writes?

WALTZ: Well, I just -- I can't praise him more highly for having some moral courage.

Finally, we have a celebrity or a sports star willing to put their money on the table for what they know is right. And he also calls out LeBron James. He calls out Michael Jordan. He calls out the head of Nike, who is looking at 20 to 40 percent of their future growth in China.

The CEO of Nike said, we are a company for China. At the end of the day, Maria, we have talked about their military buildup, their manufacturing base. They're launching hypersonics. They're doing it with our money. Between Hollywood, between sports, between Wall Street, firms like BlackRock that are telling people to triple their investments into China, enough is enough.

I want people to make money all day long, but not when it comes at the expense of U.S. national security and when the head of China is talking about replacing the American dream with the China dream. Enough.

But good on him for also calling out the Olympics. You have these woke corporations that want to boycott Georgia. You have Nike that wants to laud and put up on a pedestal all kinds of sports stars like Colin Kaepernick, but yet they want to turn a blind eye to modern-day slavery that is happening right now.

So, good on him for calling them out. But you know what? I call on all Americans, when you see made in China, put it down. If you care about social justice, well, let me tell you where slavery is happening. It's happening right now, where women are being abused. They're being imprisoned. They're being forced to be sterilized.

It's a genocide going on as we speak. But because everybody is drunk on Chinese money, including the Olympic sponsors that are happening in February, then everybody wants to turn a blind eye.

Well, good on him for calling out the hypocrisy.

BARTIROMO: Well, I'm wondering if that drunk on money is also happening within the Biden family.

I mean, Joe Biden refuses to bring up the origins of COVID-19 when he speak with Xi Jinping. And what's wrong with these Wall Street guys, Larry Fink, BlackRock, Ray Dalio, investing and managing the CCP's money?

Do they not understand that their kids and their grandkids and their kids will not have the same opportunities and upbringing that they did under a Chinese empire?

WALTZ: Yes.

And you know what? You're going to have future soldiers, sailors and airmen possibly in conflict, possibly dying at the hands of the military...

BARTIROMO: All right.

WALTZ: ... equipment that Larry Fink bought with his money.

BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.

Congressman, good to see you this morning, Congressman Michael Waltz.

WALTZ: All right.

BARTIROMO: We will be right back with Dr. Ben Carson.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): In Florida, not only are we going to want to protect the law enforcement and all the jobs. We're actually actively working to recruit out-of-state law enforcement, because we do have needs in our police and our sheriff's departments.

So, in the next legislative session, I'm going to hopefully sign legislation that gives a $5,000 bonus to any out-of-state law enforcement that relocates in Florida. So, NYPD, Minneapolis, Seattle, if you're not being treated well, we will treat you better here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: And they're headed to Florida.

That was Governor DeSantis last week on this program. Ron DeSantis announced plans to offer out-of-state law enforcement officers $5,000 to relocate to Florida. He is suing the Biden administration now over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees, saying that it threatens the state's economy.

Joining me right now is retired neurosurgeon and former HUD Secretary Ben Carson. He is the founder and chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute.

And, Dr. Carson, it's always a pleasure to see you. Thanks so much for being with us.

BEN CARSON, FORMER U.S. HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: Thank you, Maria. It's always a pleasure to be with you. Thanks for having me.

BARTIROMO: Your reaction to what's going on.

Dr. Carson, I saw in The New York Post today the cover story is that 26 firehouses have been shut down in New York. The deadline has arrived for all federal and first responders to get their vaccine. Thousands of them are saying, I'd rather freedom and liberty in terms of what goes in my body than staying on this job. They're quitting.

CARSON: Well, absolutely. Absolutely.

You look, a couple of weeks ago, it the Southwest airline pilots. It's been medical workers. It's first responders. These are brave Americans who are actually standing up for our rights. This is really not so much about vaccines, about COVID-19. It's about the rights of the people, as guaranteed by our Constitution.

The reason that our forefathers spent so much time and effort on our Constitution is because they know that the natural tendency of governments is to grow, to infiltrate and to control. So we're not seeing anything that's unusual.

But what we do have is a Constitution and brave people who are willing to use it to preserve our freedoms. And the same thing with the parents who are standing up to the schools in Virginia and across the country. These are the people who are going to guarantee freedom, liberty and justice in this nation.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

And instead of giving and keeping to the Constitution, this administration is giving foreigners money, $450,000 a head, to families that were separated at the border, Dr. Carson.

I mean, obviously, a million dollars a family is just going to trigger more people to come to America and try to get -- jump the line and get in illegally.

CARSON: Well, of course it is. And, obviously, the reason for that is so that they can change the voting dynamics.

I think most Americans can actually see what's going on. And I would not be surprised to see some major upheaval starting on Tuesday in Virginia, and moving further than that. It's really not about Republicans and Democrats. It's about American ideals, American values. It's about freedom. It's about manipulation.

And our people are a lot smarter than a lot of people in the media and in government think they are. They're seeing right through this. And they're going to react appropriately.

BARTIROMO: I want to take a break, but, when we come back, I want to ask you about natural immunity, as well as now this prospect of giving your 3- year-old a vaccine.

Dr. Ben Carson is with me. And we will be right back with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

We are back with Dr. Ben Carson.

And, Dr. Carson, you headed the pediatric neurosurgery unit at Johns Hopkins. Do you agree with the CDC's decision to vaccinate children 5 to 11 with the Pfizer vaccine?

CARSON: Absolutely not.

The fact of the matter is, the mortality rate for children from COVID-19 is 0.025, which is very similar to the rate for seasonal flu. And we haven't been for years and years going through all these things for seasonal flu.

Plus, we don't know what the long-term impact of these vaccines is. So this is really sort of a giant experiment. Do we want to put our children at risk, when we know that the risk of the disease to them is relatively small, but we don't know what the future risks are? Why would we do a thing like? It makes no sense whatsoever.

And, also, getting to this whole ideal of natural immunity, there have been a number of studies that have shown that it is very, very effective. You look at the Cleveland Clinic study, 1, 300 of their health care workers who had been previously infected, none of them got reinfected.

So, I know the CDC is coming out with their recommendations and trying to spin things their way.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

CARSON: But we ought to look at all of the data.

And then, with the finances -- just one more point -- to count to a million, it would take you 12 days. To count to a billion, it would take you 31 years. To count to a trillion, it would take you 31,000 years.

BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.

CARSON: So, just to put that in perspective.

BARTIROMO: Dr. -- yes. Dr Carson, thank you so much. It's great to see you.

I will see you tomorrow on FOX Business.

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