This is a rush transcript from "Your World," August 31, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Cut off and now ticked off.

Russia stopping the flow of gas to Europe from the Nord Stream pipeline. Now, while Russia is claiming that the move is temporary to make repairs, it's raising fears Europe's fuel supply could be cut off entirely and permanently. And while NATO allies are scrambling, should we be worrying?

We will ask National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby. He is here.

Also, Edward Lawrence on why, six months after all these sanctions, Russia appears to be in the driver's seat. How is that? And Alex Hogan and Ukraine on the growing threat from that nuclear power plant that has U.N. inspectors rushing to the scene. What have they discovered? Further, what have they done?

Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto. So glad to have you.

A lot to get to.

Let's first go to Edward Lawrence at the White House with how they're responding to all these developments -- Edward.

EDWARD LAWRENCE, FOX BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

And on a day that Russian President Vladimir Putin now has $700 million more in his pocket because of the sale of oil to other countries around the world, now a new report by the International Energy Agency says that Russia is making 40 percent more revenue from oil than a year ago.

Russia raked in $20.4 billion, largely because of a 55 percent increase in exports of oil to China, but also India.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE TUBB, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: You have seen an even more dramatic increase in India. India was hardly importing anything from Russia when it comes to oil. And in the course of the last four or five months, we have seen that increase from basically zero to 800,000 or 900,000 barrels of oil per day.

And it's again that interest of these countries to find affordable energy. And Russia is a willing supplier in this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: And NSC spokesperson John Kirby, who you're going to talk to in a moment, told me today that G7 members will talk on Friday about a Russian oil price cap, but there's no guarantee that China or India will sign on to that price cap. Now, that's oil.

Russia -- the White House told me that Russia is weaponizing natural gas again by cutting the flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Now, Russia, the gas company claims it's only for three days. We will have to see.

The U.S. has not done anything differently, but now redirected shipments meant for other areas of natural gas to Europe, then got Qatar to increase its output of natural gas to fill in the gaps there. Now, the White House trying to rely on Middle Eastern countries to help with more natural gas and oil.

Listen to my exchange about 30 minutes ago. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Will the policy change for long-term support to oil, open oil production here at the U.S. or natural gas pipelines here in the U.S. to undercut the Russian supply of oil on the global market?

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I mean, look, we think that working with our allies and making this announcement, this price cap on Russian oil is going to be very effective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: So, while the money is flowing into Russia, there has been confirmation now that there will be another round of security assistance from the U.S. to Ukraine because of the invasion.

Also, the Russians have now taken those Iranian drones that they have and they could possibly use in Ukraine -- Neil.

CAVUTO: Edward Lawrence, thank you, my friend.

The other explosive issue going on in Ukraine right now is the status of that nuclear power plant that the Russians now have full control of. Now, U.N. inspectors have arrived there, nuclear inspectors, to sort of scope things out. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Do you believe that the Russians will let you see what's really happening at the plant?

RAFAEL GROSSI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, IAEA: Well, we are -- we are a team of very experienced people. I'm bringing them here, of course, brightest. There will be safeguards in safety, in security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: All right, the hope is that they get in there and see for themselves what's going on.

To Alex Hogan in Kyiv, Ukraine, with the latest -- Alex.

ALEX HOGAN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Neil.

The IAEA arrived in Zaporizhzhia earlier today. And they say the real work begins tomorrow. And early this morning, I met with them here in Kyiv before they departed from the capital. And the director general underscored the importance and how historical this trip is.

This is the first time that these nuclear watchdogs are going into an active combat zone and going essentially into a war zone and underscoring again how dangerous this trip is, given the fighting that we have seen there in recent weeks, even continued fighting that we have seen even taking place today.

The agency expects to stay on the site for several days and even announced that representatives will stay on site to monitor the nuclear threat in the days and months ahead, which has prompted worldwide concern for potentially a nuclear disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R-OH): We must get the Russians to pull back from that plant and make it into a demilitarized zone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOGAN: Yesterday, I joined Senators Rob Portman and Amy Klobuchar on their bipartisan visit to Ukraine.

And we spent some of the time in the capital, as well as visiting destruction in some of the northern towns and discussing the threat of the invasion. The pair met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Just we were honored to meet with him and be -- make it so clear that we stand with Ukraine and we stand with democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOGAN: Meanwhile, smoke is rising in the south of Ukraine near where Ukrainian troops say that they are taking the offensive.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry says that its forces have made progress in the southern city of Kherson. And we're talking about what that progress is. It's mainly ground offenses at this point. They have said that they have managed to take more territory.

And, specifically, they're targeting Russian ammunition depots -- Neil.

CAVUTO: Alex Hogan, thank you very much for that.

So, what exactly is happening right now, particularly the status of the sort of upgraded war here and the fact that the Russians are sort of doubling down on the threats there and, indeed, the soldiers that are already arriving there?

John Kirby joins us right now, the National Security Council strategic communications coordinator.

John, good -- good to see you. And thanks for joining us.

JOHN KIRBY, NSC COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: You bet. Neil. Always good to be with you.

CAVUTO: Same here.

First, on this nuclear facility, do we know whether those nuclear inspectors have gotten in?

KIRBY: We don't, actually.

We know that they have reached Zaporizhzhia, the city. But we haven't seen an indication that they have actually gone into the plant yet. We obviously want them to get there as soon as possible, so that they can start their work and we can get some kind of readout about the safety of the operations of the plant there.

CAVUTO: Now, there have been mixed reports, John, about whether the plant is back online or not and whether, if it is back online and it's under Russian control, whether it's the Russians controlling that.

KIRBY: Yes, so we don't -- as of this morning, Neil, our assessment was that the plant was operational, not all the reactors, but at least some of them, that it's Ukrainian technical workers that are actually on the controls.

But, clearly, the plant has been for many months now in Russian military control. And, as we have said very clearly, we don't think that a nuclear power plant should be militarized in any way whatsoever. And we don't want military operations conducted from or near that nuclear power plant, which is why, again, it's so important to get these inspectors from the IAEA in there, so that we can get a little bit better readout on how that plant is being operated and what the safety protocols are in place.

CAVUTO: There were reports earlier, John, I'm sure you're familiar, that, when the Russians did seize that plant, that they tortured, now we're hearing some reports even killed, some of the plant operators there.

Do we have any confirmation of that?

KIRBY: I don't have any specific confirmation about those reports. They're very disturbing.

Sadly, they would be consistent with the other kinds of atrocities and war crimes that we have seen the Russians perpetuate here in the last six months of war in Ukraine. But I can't specifically confirm those reports.

CAVUTO: All right.

And, on Russia and now stopping this Nord Stream pipeline temporarily...

KIRBY: Yes.

CAVUTO: ... the natural gas supplies it feeds to Europe, others are reading into that it might be more than temporary. And Europeans are worried.

What are we telling them?

KIRBY: Well, we are making sure that our European allies and partners know how committed President Biden and this White House is to making sure that we can continue to provide additional supplies of LNG, of natural gas, to them as much as possible.

We have, in fact, exceeded the president's pledge of last March, in terms of our contributions to natural gas. And we're working with allies and partners across the world to try to bolster that. Germany, as I think you have seen, come out in recent days and said that they have they have met their stockpile requirements for the coming winter.

And not all nations are that far along. We're mindful of that. And we're going to continue to work to see what we can do to supplement their supply.

The bottom line here, though, Neil -- and you said this at the outset -- I mean, Putin is weaponizing energy here. And so now they're claiming they have got some maintenance issues that they have to do for the next few days. We will see how this pans out. But it's perfectly in keeping with Mr. Putin's design to weaponize energy and to punish people outside Ukraine while he can.

CAVUTO: How is he in a position to weaponize anything? I mean, I mean, when we started the sanctions and sort of isolating him economically, we thought...

KIRBY: Yes.

CAVUTO: ... we had him on the ropes. Now it appears just the opposite.

And the currency for a lot of his activity, including troops and everything else, is coming from these higher energy prices. He does seem to be in the driver's seat.

KIRBY: Now, no, I don't know if I would agree with that, Neil.

Clearly, look, the sanctions and export controls have had a dramatic effect on his economy, particularly when it comes to his defensive...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: But he still has ample customers, right, John? I mean, he's finding people for this and customers for this. And they are financing everything he's doing.

KIRBY: Absolutely no doubt that he's making revenue off of oil purchases.

And we acknowledge that, which is why the president at the G7 a couple of months ago really led the world in trying to achieve this price cap that we're still working on.

Now, the finance ministers in the G7 are meeting Friday. We think they're positively disposed to discuss this idea of a price cap and moving it forward. We will see where they end up. But there was a lot of energy behind it.

CAVUTO: Who pays for -- who pays for the price cap, though?

KIRBY: This is about limiting -- having countries voluntarily limit what they're willing to pay Russia for their fuel and their oil.

And so that will have an effect on his ability to get revenue, him Putin being, I mean.

CAVUTO: Well, he can just say, I don't need you. I have got other customers. Price cap schmap, I don't care.

(CROSSTALK)

KIRBY: We are working with nations around the world, even nations that are continuing to purchase Russian oil, to try to sign up to this price cap.

Obviously, these are sovereign decisions, Neil...

CAVUTO: Fair enough.

KIRBY: ... that these countries have to make.

But we think it's the best way to limit his ability to profit off these oil revenues.

CAVUTO: And, nevertheless, he has gone -- upped the ante, and not only has his country not talked about any, any settlement talks.

KIRBY: Right.

CAVUTO: But he's beefed it up, talk of hiring another or getting another 137,000 soldiers presumably to bring to Ukraine.

KIRBY: Yes.

CAVUTO: This sounds like it's not ending anytime soon.

KIRBY: He's got real manpower challenges, Neil.

I mean, even with these counteroffensive operations by the Ukrainians in the south, it's forcing the Russians to move manpower from the east in the Donbas down to the south to defend against what the Ukrainians are trying to do. He's got a huge morale problem, huge command-and-control problem.

And he is making drastic measures now to try to recruit and retain more soldiers for this fight. So, it is not without cost with him on the battlefield. And, again, we're going to try to make sure that the Ukrainians continue to have the systems, the weapons, the capabilities they need to take the fight to the Russians inside their country.

CAVUTO: If you don't mind, John, I would like switch to another hot spot, Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait.

KIRBY: Yes.

CAVUTO: I'm wondering, these two U.S. battleships that had gone on and ignored China's threats and sailed right through the Taiwan sector, are they still there?

KIRBY: No, they're not. It was a Taiwan Strait transit of a course over a single day over last weekend, not atypical, as you know, Neil. You and I have talked about this before.

The United States Navy is going to sail wherever international law permits them to sail. And we have done Taiwan Strait's transits in the past, and we're going to do them in the future. In this case, it was two cruisers, the Antietam and the Chancellorsville.

CAVUTO: That's right.

KIRBY: We will continue to do that as appropriate going forward, because, Neil -- and this is the real point -- that, in the wake of Speaker Pelosi's visit, the Chinese have tried to create a new normal here, to create a new status quo in and around the Taiwan Strait. And we're not going to accept that.

The Taiwan Strait is international waters. We're going to continue to sail through there as appropriate.

CAVUTO: So, Taiwan has just fired a warning shot at a Chinese drone. It's already publicly announced a counterattack if China enters its territory.

Do we support both?

KIRBY: Well, look, we don't support any unilateral changes to the status quo, certainly by force.

And the kinds of aggressive activities we have seen before and since the speaker's visit indicate that the Chinese are trying to create this new status quo, trying to create this new normal, which is not going to be acceptable to us or to our allies and partners. Nobody wants to see...

CAVUTO: But -- no, I understand. I'm sorry I wasn't clear.

But when Taiwan is saying right now, a counterattack is what we're going to do if China enters our territory...

KIRBY: Yes.

CAVUTO: ... do we support that?

KIRBY: We understand the concerns that Taiwan has over China's aggressive activities. Clearly, we understand that.

We continue to maintain that we don't want to see any unilateral change to the status quo, and there's no reason for this to come to blows, Neil. There's no reason at all.

CAVUTO: No, I understand that.

But Taiwan seems to be saying, all unilateral activity goes out the window and what...

KIRBY: Yes. Well, look...

CAVUTO: ... we have agreed to in the past. If China is attacking their territory, they are going to respond in kind.

I guess what I'm asking you -- and I'm sorry to keep asking four different ways...

KIRBY: That's OK.

CAVUTO: ... whether we would support them in that effort, that China has blown this general recognized arrangement by attacking them, and they are attacking in response, and we would support that, or no?

KIRBY: We continue to support Taiwan's ability to defend itself. That's what the Taiwan Relations Act is all about.

Nobody wants to see this come to blows. We will let the Taiwan people and their officials speak and their military speak to their capabilities and their intentions. We're not going to do that. We continue to support Taiwan's right to defend itself. And we continue to support providing them the capability so that they can defend themselves.

CAVUTO: Got it.

John Kirby, very good seeing you again. Thank you very much.

KIRBY: You bet, Neil. Any time.

CAVUTO: All right, want to take a look at the corner of Wall and Broadway.

We wrapped up a horrendous month for the markets. August is always a little problematic. It was especially so this time, the Dow swooning another 280 points. In case you're counting,I believe that's about 1,800 Dow points over the last four trading days, good enough or, shall I say, bad enough to have a pretty problematic month, with the Dow, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 all down at least 4 percent.

All right, meanwhile, on to the back-and-forth over the Trump legal team now pushing to have an assigned master, sort of arbiter to go through everything that the Justice Department went through when FBI agents raided Donald Trump's Florida home.

Where that goes -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, we have had a pretty good idea tomorrow whether this judge is going to allow a special master to review all these documents and photos like the one you're looking at right now from Mar-a-Lago showing some of the documents that were seized and found at Donald Trump's Mar-a- Lago home.

More on that in a second, but first to David Spunt in Palm Beach with the very latest -- David.

DAVID SPUNT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Neil, we are in town to cover this big hearing tomorrow on his neutral third-party arbiter called a special master.

Will that special master be appointed? Will some documents not related to this investigation go back to Mar-a-Lago, which is behind me here at Palm Beach? We don't know. We will see that tomorrow.

But, right now, we want to talk about this 36-page court filing late last night, actually just before midnight, by the Department of Justice alleging that the former president likely obstructed justice by moving some of these documents and keeping some documents, classified documents, in his desk drawer.

Let me read some of the filing: "Of most significant concern was that highly classified records were unfoldered, intermixed with other records."

Neil, you mentioned that photograph. It's the first photograph we have seen of documents taken from Mar-a-Lago. They're labeled secret, top secret in SCI, which means sensitive compartmented information, among the highest levels of classification. They're shown mixed in with a box that shows a framed magazine cover of the former president.

And, to be clear, these items were in a box in a carton inside Trump's office at Mar-a-Lago taken out by the FBI and then photographed. The document goes on to say: "As an initial matter, the former president lacks standing to seek judicial relief," meaning a special master or oversight," as to presidential records. Those records do not belong to him. The Presidential Records Act makes clear the United States has complete ownership, possession and control of them."

His team wants that neutral third-party arbiter, but DOJ says it's not needed. In early June, DOJ officials came down here to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump representatives. In fact, the former president himself came by. He says he's been cooperative all along. DOJ says that's not the case.

Meanwhile, it's up to Judge Aileen Cannon tomorrow. She's going to be hearing arguments in person at federal court, West Palm Beach -- I will be there -- from the Trump team, from DOJ over this idea of a special master - - Neil.

CAVUTO: Got it. Thank you, my friend, David Spunt, in the middle of all that.

So what will happen to that special master? Will such a arbiter ever be allowed by the judge? Well, again, to David's point, we will know tomorrow.

Tom Dupree on all of that, the former deputy assistant attorney general.

What do you think on that, Tom, the special master item?

TOM DUPREE, FORMER JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Neil, in a normal case, I would say very, very unlikely. Typically, you grant special master request if, for instance, the FBI raids, a law firm or a lawyer's office, and you know you're going to have thousands of privileged documents.

However, in this case, it is far from an ordinary case. This is a unique, extraordinary case. And I could see this judge, who, by the way, has already signaled she might be receptive to appointing a special master, saying, look, I need to go the extra mile here to ensure the president's rights are protected.

So I'm thinking she may grant it tomorrow, Neil, but we will see.

CAVUTO: Meanwhile, the release of this photo from the Justice Department showing these documents, very sensitive documents, on the floor, look somewhere in the Mar-a-Lago compounded Donald Trump's, I think the former president said something to the effect that that was not how they were left, and that maybe this was all staged. I'm paraphrasing here.

But for an organization that seemed very sensitive to releasing anything, isn't that a bit risky?

DUPREE: It is a bit risky. It's super unusual. And I think the DOJ just figured that a picture's worth 1,000 words, and that including that photograph in their brief could tell the story of what happened and their perspective on it in a far more compelling way than simply words could.

I mean, the image is striking. And, look, I take the former president's point that this wasn't the way they were scored, and maybe the FBI moved things around to kind of stage this picture. But I think, as just far as kind of a legal technique, it's pretty -- pretty -- pretty effective.

CAVUTO: I'm wondering too.

Now, of course, it's unprecedented, as you have often reminded me, to raid a former president's home, especially, in this case, if he has documents he could have had when he was president, declassified them. We had Karl Rove on a little bit earlier, Tom, saying, no, no, no, he can't take those documents home and treat them like they're his. They're the U.S. government's.

I'm just wondering if that alone is supposedly the justification for this. And, if it is, is that enough to pursue criminal charges, even if you have misrepresented, A, whether you had them, or whether they were all sensitive or, for that matter, they were the kind of stuff that he shouldn't have done?

DUPREE: I think the question of whether or not he declassified them, I think, would be relevant to figuring out if there was kind of a national security impact here.

I think, just from a strictly legal perspective, and from the perspective of the Justice Department, I don't think it matters at all whether the documents were classified or not. The federal criminal statutes the Justice Department seems to be investigating the former president for don't require that the documents be classified.

They basically, say, if you're in possession of government documents, and we ask you to give them back, you have got to give them back.

CAVUTO: So, what if you misrepresent whether you had them or not, and then said, all right, everything I gave you, I gave you?

It seems to me one area -- I was talking to a legal eagle on this in -- on FBN, which, if you don't get, you should demand, but I digress.

One of the things he was telling me was, look, that is technically lying, and that is a no-no, but that was the extent of it, and he didn't seem to think that, with a former president in this situation, it would go much further than that.

DUPREE: Well, if what you're talking about is saying, well, we gave you back documents and we still have documents, they weren't classified, it's possible the Justice Department would be willing to kind of forgive a misrepresentation.

In this context. I don't think they're going to be that forgiving, Neil. You saw their brief last night. They actually reproduced the e-mail communication that they got from the president's legal team, where they say, we did our search, we don't have any more classified documents.

And I think that they included that...

CAVUTO: That was what he was focusing on, was exactly that...

DUPREE: Yes.

CAVUTO: ... that you said everything was handed over, and that was not the case.

DUPREE: And make no mistake, Neil, that was a deliberate decision by the Justice Department to include all of that in their brief.

I think the Justice Department was trying to send the president a very strong signal that we're watching what your lawyers say to us and we're going to hold them to account if we think that they're trying to obstruct our investigation or if they're trying to lie to us.

CAVUTO: I'm just wondering, with all that was redacted when this first came out, it has to be more than just the number of documents or what was sensitive, what wasn't, that there -- maybe included in this material with something potentially explosive.

Now, we don't know. And I could be just guessing. Other legal experts far smarter than I have done the same. I'm just wondering, does just a portion that you mentioned, having documents when you said you didn't, having them when you said you turned everything over, and you didn't, misrepresenting what you said you had, is that it?

Because that alone seems to be kind of sketchy to raid a former president's home, unprecedented. You have never seen anything like it.

DUPREE: I -- Neil, I tend to agree with that.

In other words, if you're talking about a situation where kind of an ordinary civilian lies to the Justice Department and misrepresents and obstructs, the Justice Department might say, look, you broke the law, we're going to prosecute you.

But I think the analysis has to change when you're talking about a former president, not to say that you would say someone's above the law or anything like that, just that you have to take into account just the consequences for the nation if you were to indict a former president over making statements, even if those statements turned out to be false, about these documents.

CAVUTO: All right, now, you left out one thing. I'm going to show this picture going of these documents on the floor. I cannot imagine for the life of me they were left that way by the former president.

Were they doing this, what, to show that they had such documents, or that they were sloppily housed?

DUPREE: I think it's a bit of both, Neil.

I think one thing is, you could see from a lot of the documents they have got top secret headers, they have got things redacted, showing the extent of the classification. So that's part of it. I think the other part of it is the point you mentioned, that the Justice Department is at least trying to create the appearance that this is the way they were kept in the normal course, that they're strewn around.

CAVUTO: All right, Tom Dupree, thank you very much, my friend.

We will see what happens with this special master, if one evolves tomorrow.

In the meantime, what's happening at the border and what's happening with those buses, more of them?

After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: What happens when your boss tells you that all the COVID protocols are over, get your fanny back in, and fast?

It's happening in New York, and now -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, yet another bus making its way to New York, more of these buses adding up right now.

In Washington, D.C., to date, better than 7,400 migrants have arrived from the border to that city, a sanctuary city, I might point out, in New York, better than 1,500.

The latest right now on how things are looking at the border with Matt Finn in Eagle Pass, Texas.

Hey, Matt.

MATT FINN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Neil.

Texas Emergency Management now tells us that the state of Texas has spent $12 million shipping 9,000-plus migrants to both New York City and Washington, D.C. That boils down to about $1,300 per migrant. But Texas says it cannot confirm the actual cost for each passenger because the price varies and the operation is ongoing.

We're told that, right now, FEMA is not reimbursing the busing costs because the Biden administration previously denied Texas' request for disaster funding. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has requested an appeal for that denial.

And Texas Republican Governor Abbott and Arizona Republican Governor Ducey have shipped migrants to sanctuary cities, saying those cities should be welcoming migrants.

And Just some surface-level details about what we do know sanctuary cities can offer migrants. In New York City, in general, the city provides housing, food, health and legal services. The city has also made deals with at least 14 hotels to ease the burden of migrants staying there.

And in both New York and Washington, D.C., nonprofits have assisted migrants that are arriving. In general, there is no universal description of what it means to be a sanctuary city, but we have learned over the years sanctuary cities often will not comply with ICE and restrict state and local police from arresting or detaining migrants with warrants.

And the DEA is also now giving us this urgent warning, saying it has seized rainbow-colored fentanyl pills designed to look like candy in 18 different states.

And a short while ago, our Peter Doocy pressed the White House press secretary about President Biden's border policies and what he's doing to restrict fentanyl from getting into this country. And here's a portion of that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: About 300 overdoses. This is being designed to target children.

JEAN-PIERRE: I hear you.

DOOCY: Drug cartels in Mexico want to kill American kids. What is this president doing about it?

JEAN-PIERRE: I hear you.

I just -- I just laid out 200 percent of increase of drug fentanyl seizures. That is a dangerous drug that we are taking off the street. We're going to continue to focus. This is an important, important priority for this president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FINN: And the DEA saying the Mexican cartels are growing more sinister, designing these fentanyl pills to look like candy to appeal to children and young adults, Neil.

CAVUTO: Matt Finn, thank you very much.

Want to go to Jim Skinner right now, the Collin County, Texas, sheriff kind enough to join us.

Sheriff, this whole -- the drug element of fentanyl and everything else just seems to compound the tensions and the crisis building. Have you gotten any assurances from the administration, at least that part of it, the threat, the real drug threat to Americans, that they're willing and ready to respond to it?

JIM SKINNER, COLLIN COUNTY, TEXAS, SHERIFF: Well, Neil, you can't even get a meeting with these guys. Sheriffs in this country have been trying to meet with the president for a year-and-a-half, and all we have heard is crickets.

Any sheriff will tell you that the situation the Southern border is an absolute, unmitigated disaster. The drugs trafficked by the cartels are a tsunami of death crashing in the United States across the Southern border.

It's just simply an epic slaughter of Americans taking place. And the murder weapon is fentanyl. But the drug cartels are pushing into absolutely every community in this country. I'm located in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in the northeast quadrant. We're the second fastest growing county in the United States behind Maricopa County in Arizona.

And we have had a 571 percent increase in the number of fentanyl-related deaths since 2019. So, wherever you are watching this program, if you will get your numbers there, you will find a similar trend, or worse.

So, from our perspective, this is just an absolute, utter, colossal failure of leadership in Washington.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: You had called it a tsunami of death, and that's not too far off the mark.

And I do know that the homeland security secretary, Mayorkas, was in your neck of the woods in the last few days. He talked about the havoc that's being wreaked there. But he was talking about the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, and its policy of busing migrants or those caught at the border to cities like Washington and New York. What did you make of that?

SKINNER: Well, I mean, this is a -- it's a great point, right? He's making the point for us, in that his priorities are absolutely backwards.

Listen, New Yorkers are great people. And we can't thank them enough for helping us take some of the pressure off of these cities along the border that are completely inundated right now. But the reality is that when you have the mayor of New York City and Washington, D.C., complaining about this issue, instead of talking about the real problem.

The real problem is these drug cartels that are pushing this fentanyl across there are murdering Americans. Well, how many of their folks in New York City of Washington have perished by fentanyl? Why aren't they asking, what is the administration doing, right? What is the trip wire? What is it going to take for this administration to get with the program and start putting it together?

Well, we have got suggestions, if you guys will bother to meet with us.

CAVUTO: And they still haven't?

SKINNER: Unfortunately not.

But, listen, when you talk about all of these issues, you have to ask yourself, when you see as many deaths as we have seen. The president yesterday talked about tougher sentences for people that were dealing fentanyl. Well, you know what? That's a great start. But you got to do a lot better than that.

Where are the commercials on television every night and the social media campaigns warning parents and young people about the dangers of these knockoff prescription pills that are embedded, that are impregnated with fentanyl? What about funding the crime analysts and the badly needed technology that we need in order to combat these drug traffickers?

Here in North Texas, I have teamed up with seven other sheriffs, and we have seized tons of narcotics over the last couple of years and millions of dollars of cartel bulk cash money. And, listen, the government ought to be helping sheriffs across this entire country, because we all have in common long distances of open road.

And when they move dope into this country, they have to move it across the open road. So why isn't this administration helping sheriffs come up with criminal interdiction units to combat these traffickers?

CAVUTO: Sheriff, that's powerful stuff. And coming from someone who's at the front line, you would know better than anyone else.

Thank you, sir, for taking the time.

To the sheriff's point here, this is more than about migrants crossing a border. It's about deadly drugs crossing the border as well. And that is what's killing Americans. And that is something that transcends politics, you would think.

We'll have more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRBY: Putin is weaponizing energy here. And so now they're claiming they have got some maintenance issues that they have to do for the next few days. We will see how this pans out.

But it's perfectly in keeping with Mr. Putin's design to weaponize energy and to punish people outside Ukraine while he can.

CAVUTO: How is he in a position to weaponize anything? I mean, I mean, when we started the sanctions and sort of isolating him economically, we thought...

KIRBY: Yes.

CAVUTO: ... we had him on the ropes. Now it appears just the opposite.

KIRBY: The sanctions and export controls have had a dramatic effect on his economy, particularly when it comes to his defensive...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: But he still has ample customers, right, John? I mean, he's finding people for this and customers for this. And they are financing everything he's doing.

KIRBY: Absolutely no doubt that he's making revenue off of oil purchases.

And we acknowledge that, which is why the president at the G7 a couple of months ago really led the world in trying to achieve this price cap.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: All right, John Kirby at the White House a short time ago.

General Jack Keane on all of this.

General. I take nothing away from the necessity and the effectiveness of a lot of these sanctions and boycotts and everything else that were in place globally. What's remarkable, six months into this, is that Putin is getting even richer. And he's found customers for that oil and the gas and, in fact, is in such a position, that he can go ahead and stiff and cut it off to Europe as he does so.

That's a pretty powerful position.

GEN. JACK KEANE (RET.), FOX NEWS SENIOR STRATEGIC ANALYST: Yes, I mean, it -- the frustration of sanctions is, it does take time for them to have an impact.

CAVUTO: Right.

KEANE: And certainly, Russia -- obviously, their commodity that they export the most is oil and gas.

And while certainly a number of his customers are no longer going to buy from him because of his behavior dealing with Ukraine, particularly when it comes to oil, he doesn't have any trouble finding other customers, because he's discounting the price.

And it's very frustrating to see India, a country that is neutral here, and is actually buying more oil now from Russia than they ever have. And so they sustain that. And as we began to show with, I mean, Putin is -- he's increased his sale of oil 40 percent over the last year, based on the oil prices, and the fact that he's got customers out there.

When we had the maximum sanctions against the Iranians, we were pretty much able to shut down all the customer base that the Iranians had, except for two or three. And, really, it got down to a dribble. That's not the case with Putin. He really does have customers out there that we have been unable to dissuade from purchasing that. China also obviously is one of them.

CAVUTO: I also wonder about those who did impose the sanctions among so many of these NATO countries and European countries. Many of them right now might be regretting it, or at least dialing it back.

And I'm just wondering, are you worried that there's a sort of a fission in this alliance here? Now, we have paid the lion's share of the bill for the war in Ukraine, but you're getting a sense from some of these countries so dependent on this stuff that they could buckle.

KEANE: Well, Putin is counting on a few things.

First of all, the war is not going well for him. And he was supposed to take the Donbass region. He began -- he began that campaign in April, having failed to take the capital city back in February, March. And he's only taken a portion of it. And that whole operation has stalled.

And that's why, as you mentioned, he's gone to 137,000 more recruits that he needs...

CAVUTO: Right.

KEANE: ... because I think Putin has made up his mind now that this war is not going to end in a few months. It's going to go on for a few years. And he's committing himself to a protracted war.

So, he's counting on a few things. One...

CAVUTO: But he's also committing the Ukrainians to wear them out.

But I'm wondering, is he also trying to wear Europe out?

KEANE: Yes, well, he's counting on a few things.

One is, yes, wear out the Ukrainians because of, one, the impact of the war and also their economy. Number two, he's counting on the fact that the Europeans are going to buckle at some point, in terms of not enforcing the sanctions, as you mentioned, and also not providing the arms and munitions.

And he's also hoping the United States will fall into that category. We don't have evidence of that yet.

CAVUTO: Right.

KEANE: Some European nations, like France and Germany, have never provided the kind of support that they could provide. Eastern European countries are pretty much all in. The U.K. is all in.

And I'm encouraged by what the United States is certainly doing here. But Putin really does have his problems. But, nonetheless, the fact that he is still selling oil at the prices he's getting certainly is helping to sustain him.

And, lookit, I mean, the Europeans know full well now that they made huge strategic mistakes in terms of their dependence on Russia for oil and gas. And that behavior will change over time. And they recognize that they created a huge national security problem for themselves.

CAVUTO: Yes.

Now they're seeing it. They're seeing it well. They're seeing it well now.

KEANE: And they're not blind to that, Neil. They know that.

CAVUTO: You're right.

General, always good seeing you. Thank you.

KEANE: Great talking to you.

CAVUTO: All right, General Jack Keane.

In the meantime here, you know that college loan relief thing that the president's been working on, 40 million college kids having up to $20,000 of debt wiped out. Well, you don't have to worry anymore. Apparently, it's all paid for. It's all paid for, until you see the math -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: So, how do you pay for this plan that's going to forgive the college debts, up to $20,000, for some 40-plus million students, former students, college students?

Well, the administration says deficit reduction. Well, we have hacked the deficit to the degree we have, that they will pay for it, which kind of reminds me of the twisted math that you're exactly tapping a credit line that you have somehow freed up a little bit, but it is still a credit line. It is still debt.

Steve Forbes, Forbes Media CEO.

Steve, I think all of that debt is on us.

STEVE FORBES, FORBES MEDIA: Absolutely.

And, moreover, the cost of what Biden is doing has been underestimated, because they have substantially eased the payment terms. So students are going to take out more loans, because they don't have to pay him back any more, they're going to conclude.

And it also means the government is going to collect less in terms of those loans. So the costs are going to be much higher, in the hundreds of billions of dollars in coming years. So you have more costs. And what the Biden administration has done with so-called deficit reduction, raising taxes, siccing 80,000 IRS agents on small businesses in the middle class, you're going to have a sluggish economy.

Sluggish economy means less revenue for the government.

CAVUTO: Now, by the way, I know the 86,000 agents thing has been -- but, in truth, there's a lot of attrition going on here. They're not all IRS agents. They're not all armed.

But I do get your bigger point here about how you pay for this, because, if you think about it, they're heralding paring the deficit down by more than a trillion dollars, what have you, off of very high COVID levels in the first place, and then tapping that so-called savings and using that to pay for this.

Debt is debt. A credit line is a credit line. What you -- what you reduce - - and, by the way, we're hardly in a position to brag about still trillion- dollar plus deficits. But that's a weird way of looking at justifying spending down the road, because, by that math, we could dig ourselves into a financial grave.

FORBES: Well, especially as you're harming the economy.

One of the reasons we got out of the crisis, the great inflation in the 1970s, was the pro-growth policies of Ronald Reagan, tax cuts, deregulation, stable dollar and the like. So, the economy boomed, so the burden of the debt went down. And by the late 1990s, the deficit was gone.

And we can do the same thing again. But the Biden administration is doing the exact opposite, piling on new regulations, hurting small businesses, which means less revenue in the future. And that program, that student loan program, is going to cost much more than the numbers they're putting out now.

CAVUTO: Yes.

And then there's the tiny little issue whether the president can constitutionally do it. So it's a long way from resolved, but, Steve, very good seeing again. Thank you very much for joining us.

FORBES: Thank you.

CAVUTO: Speaking of Wall Street and financial developments here, a rather threatening, if not ominous tone coming from some of the premier investment banks to their workers.

All right, this COVID thing is resolved now. The protocols that are in place go away. So why don't you come back? But that's putting it nicely.

Charlie Gasparino, who is very good at putting things nicely and being very genteel and politically correct, on what he makes of that -- Charlie.

CHARLIE GASPARINO, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Neil, isn't it a weird time we live in where, if someone tells you got to go to the office and work, it's like draconian and bad?

(LAUGHTER)

GASPARINO: But that's kind of...

CAVUTO: That's an excellent point. You're right. It is...

(CROSSTALK)

GASPARINO: It's kind of where we are right now.

And the hammer is coming down on junior bankers and the entire work force on Wall Street. After Labor Day, all the big firms are going to be imploring and essentially forcing their workers to come to the office more than two days a week.

And this is going to be a five-day-a-week thing. Jamie Dimon at J.P. Morgan, James Gorman at Morgan Stanley, David Solomon at Goldman Sachs, they're all saying that we need teams together. It's -- we're a client- facing business. That's what Wall Street does. It sells stuff to people. And the only way to do that is to be in the office.

And it's hard to monitor people if they're not in the office, particularly in these highly regulated businesses. So that's what we have going on now.

The New York Post was first report that David Solomon is laying down the law, did that yesterday. Also yesterday, FOX Business was first to report that Morgan Stanley is saying, listen, we're not even going to test for COVID anymore. We're going to drop the protocols and something like a contract tracing thing, where you would have to, like, put in your phone every day whether you're positive or negative, and they were testing a lot. That's gone too.

And they also want -- Morgan Stanley also wants you in the office. And J.P. Morgan -- J.P. Morgan, the same thing, not totally set. There hasn't been a memo. I saw...

CAVUTO: But does it apply to everyone, Charlie? I could see the traders themselves. I could see.

Support staff, I'm not so sure. But so this is everybody in five days a week?

GASPARINO: I'm hearing everybody.

CAVUTO: OK.

GASPARINO: And unless you could justify it with a medical reason or something along those lines, you're expected to be in the office.

And here's the thing that they have over them, over their workers. These sort of kids came out of college very coddled, Gen Z'ers, millennials. They had safe spaces, trigger words, crazy stuff. They took that attitude to work. During the bull market, it sold.

They were able to get away with demanding that sort of coddled treatment. Now...

CAVUTO: It's not only young workers taking advantage of this.

GASPARINO: It's mostly young workers. It's not -- trust me, it's not...

CAVUTO: You're a bitter old man. You're like that old angry -- get off my lawn and get back to work!

(CROSSTALK)

GASPARINO: It's not old guys. Come on. It's not old guys like us.

CAVUTO: So, where does this go? Where does it -- I mean, where does it go? Where does it go?

Like us. Like you.

So, where is this going?

GASPARINO: I'm just saying it's not the old guys like us that are demanding safe spaces and we're -- and getting annoyed if co-workers are eating Chick-fil-A.

CAVUTO: There are old guys included in this group of people who have been doing this remotely.

And now the company is saying, we don't care who you are. Everybody, come back.

(CROSSTALK)

GASPARINO: No, it's more than that. It's a coddling. It's -- trust me. I have been covering this a while.

CAVUTO: Yes.

GASPARINO: They didn't realize how much -- how -- what type of work force they got until the pandemic hit. And...

CAVUTO: Well, apparently, there are a lot of people who still feel that way, Charlie.

There are a million more added to passing their nose at available jobs. So...

GASPARINO: Wait until the recession comes...

CAVUTO: That's what you're arguing, right?

GASPARINO: ... and their -- and the employers are in the driver's seat, just -- I'm telling you, they're in for a rude awakening when you have to compete for a job.

CAVUTO: All right.

So, this dynamic where we have 11 million-plus jobs available and no one's taking them, you think that will change fast, as will the number of people who have them, right?

GASPARINO: Well, Wall Street, listen, we're already -- we're already seeing a bear -- we're heading towards a bear market. It's not -- it's not pretty, fed interest rate increases.

Deals are drying up. I mean...

CAVUTO: So maybe these older workers and younger workers alike will read the writing on the wall and come back in happily to work, like you and I are here right now.

GASPARINO: I know they need more older workers, because they need people that actually want to work.

CAVUTO: Incredible.

All right, my demo just shot up to 85 and over.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Nothing that is wrong with that, but any young person now has heard Charlie and said, well, I can't be bothered with that.

Young people out there, I hear you. I love you. I love everyone. Charlie doesn't. Well, maybe he does.

Here's "The Five."

Content and Programming Copyright 2022 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2022 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.