Rep. Duffy on why congressmen are reluctant to support Trump
Republican representative from Wisconsin provides insight on 'Sunday Morning Futures'
This is a rush transcript from "Sunday Morning Futures," May 8, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Good morning.
Donald Trump, the last man standing in a formerly crowded GOP field, as his rivals drop out one by one. But the fight for his party not over yet.
Hi, everyone. I'm Maria Bartiromo. Welcome to SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES.
For the first time in more than half a century, a Republican speaker of the House withholding his support for nominee, this as some of Trump's former rivals, including Jeb Bush, publicly announced they will not support him in the general election.
Trump firing back at a rally last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't like when a Jeb Bush, who signs a pledge, doesn't honor the pledge, and then he says, "No, I'm not going to honor the pledge, you know." He's not going to -- I mean, they signed the pledge. And I'm the one they wanted to sign it.
I'm -- like, I honored it. I'm not a fan of Jeb. He said he's not going to come to the convention. Who cares? And -- who cares? You know how many votes I'm going to lose because of Jeb not coming to the convention? I actually think I'll gain votes, if you want to know the truth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Let's talk more about it with Republican Congressman Sean Duffy from Wisconsin this morning.
Congressman, good to have you on the program. Welcome.
REP. SEAN DUFFY, R, WISCONSIN: Good morning, Maria. Thanks for having me on.
BARTIROMO: Wow. You know, you see these fighting words back and forth. Let me start off with you talking to our viewers a bit about what the reticence is in the house. Why are so many congressmen, senators, so afraid or reluctant to get behind Donald Trump?
DUFFY: Yes. So, Maria, you have a lot of us who are in tough races. You and I both know, and your viewers, that Donald Trump says some things that are -- can be outrageous, can be construed as offensive to some folks.
And the problem is, if you endorse Donald Trump, the liberal media will try to attribute all the statements to House members who have tough races or senators. Though Donald Trump can say some of the things he does and get away with it, a lot of House members aren't quite sure they can get away with it. So, they want to a top of the ticket like Donald who can lead the party, who can do well, bring out voters, but they want to leave a little space.
So, if Donald says some things or changes some policies that they disagree with, that they can actually keep a little room from him and they're going to need to if they're going to be able to win their own races and keep a majority of the house and hold onto the Senate. But there's a real reticence there because they're not quite sure that they can survive some of the comments that Donald makes.
Now, on the other hand, you know, Bernie Sanders and Hillary can say things and the liberal media doesn't try to attribute that to Democrats but they do that to us. That's a big part of the concern that House members have right now.
BARTIROMO: So you want --
DUFFY: One thing Donald can do, Donald really hasn't come to the House and talked to us. He's going to be in D.C. this week talking to Paul Ryan. He should come to the Republican house conference, sit down, talk to us, take questions.
We need to start building a relationship. This is almost like an arranged marriage. We thought we were going to marry somebody else. We're now going to marry Donald Trump.
Let's sit down, let's get to know each other, let's start talking to each other. A lot of us haven't even met him yet. So, he can do a lot to make members feel comfortable with his candidacy.
BARTIROMO: I do want to talk about this meeting upcoming this Thursday with Paul Ryan for sure, but let me ask you this, Congressman, because the reality is the reality, right? Here we are, Donald Trump is
the presumptive nominee. Will you support him?
DUFFY: Absolutely. My district in the central northern Wisconsin, they voted for Donald Trump. He's our candidate. He's way better than Hillary Clinton. He's going to nominate Supreme Court justices. He'll do a better job of that than Hillary Clinton.
And I do have some confusion that conservatives are so angry that they would rather give the candidacy, the election, the presidency to Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump. They might not like him. They may
not think he's a great, strong conservative.
But, my gosh, he's better than a liberal Hillary Clinton. Everybody needs to get on board. This talk about a third-party candidacy will be an absolute disaster for our party. I think it will change the party forever when Hillary Clinton makes the next Supreme Court nominations. It will be a disaster.
BARTIROMO: Look, I think there's something very nice and wonderful about the moral convictions of the party. And you have to stick to your convictions. But let me say something that I've been thinking recently and I just had a conversation about it on "Fox & Friends" in the previous hour, and that is, do you think all the Democrats like each other?
I mean, come on. Of course not. The Obamas and Clintons cannot stand that. We know that. There have been plenty of people that have been stumping for Hillary Clinton over the last three months that are doing it holding their nose and kicking and screaming. They really don't want to because they don't like her.
But they don't show their cards. They get in line. Yet the Republicans, they play it out on FOX News and CNN. Is that smart?
DUFFY: The media likes to do that, too, Maria. The media likes to showcase the dysfunction and the argument inside the Republican Party --
BARTIROMO: Because it's there.
DUFFY: You're right.
BARTIROMO: But the dysfunction's there.
DUFFY: Look, it is, but the kind of support that -- that Bernie Sanders has had from the left and the passion from the left and what's going to happen at the Democratic convention, I think it's going to be explosive. The media doesn't want to cover that story.
But, you know, listen -- back to your original point, we don't have a choice. We have two candidates, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. You can't -- you can't manufacture a different presumptive nominee for your party. You have two choices. You're going to -- if you're a true conservative and you're principled, you still have -- you still have to pick the lesser of two evils.
And if you're a conservative, that is Donald Trump. Get on board, help save your country, save your party. It's going to be imperative that we get actually a partial conservative at least in the White House as opposed to a radical liberal like Hillary.
BARTIROMO: So, what can be done to help Donald Trump? What do you want to hear at this meeting on Thursday? What do you want to hear from Donald Trump in terms of how he will evolve and what can Donald Trump teach Paul Ryan and Paul Ryan teach Donald Trump on Thursday?
DUFFY: So, we in the House under Paul Ryan's leadership have been working on aggressive legislation we think will fix our economy, make us stronger overseas. We have to have a conversation about what part of those ideas does Donald Trump agree with? What doesn't he agree with us on?
And let's start to have a conversation and come to some agreement on where we to want take the country. But these are ideas we've been working on for a long time. We don't want to give them up and let Donald Trump take us in a different direction.
Even this morning, you know, he's talking about changing his tax policy and raising taxes. He's talking about wages and changing his position on wages. We want -- we want to button him down and say, where are we going to go, Mr. Trump, if you're president? How can we work together?
Let's make sure we have a complete and full understanding of where the two of us are going to go. I think that will go a long way to making people feel comfortable.
And with Paul Ryan, you know, we talked about him withholding his endorsement. In the end, Paul will be on board with Donald Trump. Maybe he's taking a page out of "The Art of the Deal", holding back and using that as a negotiation tactic when they meet later on this week to talk about how he gets Donald Trump onto this conservative House agenda.
BARTIROMO: What did you think of Sarah Palin's comment this morning, as a result of what Paul Ryan said, he's going to be Eric Cantored?
DUFFY: Well, listen, I love Sarah Palin. She endorsed me in my race for Congress. Have the utmost respect for her. But Paul Ryan is a big thinker. He's a conservative thinker.
Any conservative, whether it's Sara Palin or Michelle Malkin, who I like as well, thinks a House would be better off without Paul Ryan, it's a foolish statement. They should have conversations with Paul. They should let their opinions be known. But to say that you're going to, you know, go for Paul Ryan's primary opponent, I think, doesn't make any sense.
The country is better and the party is better with Paul Ryan winning his race, and he will, and continue on in the speakership.
BARTIROMO: Congressman, before you go, I know you've been working on Puerto Rico a lot and have been knee-deep in terms of what to do next for this struggling situation. What is the next catalyst in terms of Puerto Rico and what should we expect?
DUFFY: So, you're going to see our bill come out this coming week, that I think we're going to be able to get some bipartisan buy-in, but we're going to do two things, Maria. We're going to have a control board that is going to take some fiscal measures and budgeting measures on the islands, four Republicans and three Democrats.
Then, we're going to set up a form for which the bondholders and the island can negotiate a restructuring of the dent. If they can't negotiate, they have a path way into the courts. This is big liberal government spending. This is on the horizon for America if we don't get our act together. You see it decimate economies and throw more people into hardship and poverty.
So, I think we can get this through committee and hopefully onto the House floor and passed and we can get Puerto Rico on this path to prosperity, restructure their debt, and getting more investment in the island.
BARTIROMO: Congressman, we'll be watching. Thanks so much.
DUFFY: Thanks, Maria.
BARTIROMO: We'll see you soon. Congressman Sean Duffy there.
Be sure to tune in tomorrow morning on the Fox Business Network on "Mornings with Maria" on the Fox Business Network. I'll be talking live with Donald Trump. That's at 7:00 a.m. Eastern tomorrow morning on FBN. Check your local networks for Fox Business Network tomorrow morning for that.
Who will Donald Trump tap as a running mate? And what about Hillary Clinton, who will she select? We'll play the name game with Byron York, coming up.
Follow me on Twitter @MariaBartiromo, @SundayFutures. Let us know what you'd like to hear from Byron and Donald Trump.
Stay with us as we look ahead on SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back with Donald Trump cementing his status as presumptive GOP nominee.
The conversation now turns to who he will tap as a running mate. The campaign looking for a candidate that would give him the best chance to defeat Hillary Clinton, of course, the most likely Democratic nominee, and for a Republican back in the White House.
Trump supporter Ben Carson, who is helping with the selection process, even suggested Trump would consider a Democrat.
Let's bring in Byron York, chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, and a FOX News contributor.
Byron, good to see you.
BYRON YORK, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning, Maria.
BARTIROMO: So, what do you think? Let's -- I guess start off with characteristics of that person. Who should Donald Trump be looking at, what kind of person or characteristics do you think are most important?
YORK: Well, I think he needs to keep several things in mind. He needs first to pick somebody who will actually accept his offer. You got to -- what we've seen with Paul Ryan in the last few days tells you that a lot of top Republicans are having a little trouble wrapping their brains around the fact that Donald Trump has just won their party's nomination. So, Trump needs to give them time to figure out how they are going to treat a Trump nomination.
The second thing is, I think he needs somebody with some experience in government. I think there's no doubt that Trump has that outsider thing nailed down. He could probably have somebody who is more experienced or who has some experience at least in government.
Third thing, I think he needs to pick somebody who is well-respected inside the Republican party and somebody who could support him whole-heartedly and won't have trouble with Trump's policies like on entitlements and on trade and on immigration.
And one more thing, last thing, he needs to pick somebody who is younger than he is. Trump would be the oldest United States president, older than Reagan when he was sworn in, so he needs someone perhaps in that mid-career zone because we know Trump is going to be the senior partner on this ticket in any sense.
BARTIROMO: Interesting.
Well, he has already said, Trump has that, look, I'd like to find someone with Washington experience and also someone who has foreign policy mojo or military mojo. Who might that be, Byron?
YORK: Well, he could look at some of the people he ran against, if they can bury the hatchet. It was a pretty rough race. But you do have the other candidates. You have John Kasich, you have Chris Christie, who has endorsed Donald Trump, who has experience two-term governor of New Jersey, not foreign policy but a lot of solid governing experience. He could do that. Perhaps there's some people in the House he could pick.
But the problem with some of his opponents is that it got really -- there was a lot of bad blood.
BARTIROMO: Right.
YORK: Look what Ted Cruz said about Donald Trump that morning. He just unloaded on Trump the morning of the Indiana primary.
So, you're going to have to get past all of that. But, really, there were 15 people in that race. Many of whom had solid governing credentials.
BARTIROMO: Yes, unlikely that will be Ted Cruz, that's for sure.
Well, look, I want to ask you about Hillary Clinton, by the way, but let me stay on this one more moment, because Hispanics and women a very important vote. Does he need to have a woman? Does he need to have a Latino?
YORK: Well, obviously, he has huge problems with the Hispanic vote after some of the things he's said, especially the whole rapist thing. Not as much as tough border policies but the rapist remark.
Finding a Hispanic Republican elected official who has those other qualifications who would support him is unclear right now. We have seen the name of Susana Martinez, the governor of New Mexico, we've seen that bandied about, and she said no.
But here again, she may fall in that category of those who need to wrap their brains around a Trump nomination right now. So, we can talk about these characteristics. It's harder to find them in the body of one single person.
BARTIROMO: Right, it sure is. He said that he will announce that running mate at the convention. Obviously, he said that this week.
What about on the other side, Hillary Clinton, who might she pick as her running mate? Would she go all the way to the left like an Elizabeth Warren, like a Bernie Sanders? Or will she go to the center? She's certainly been pushed to the left by Bernie Sanders so far.
YORK: Absolutely. This primary campaign has really shown there are a lot of Democrats who are ultimately going to vote for Hillary Clinton, but they believe basically she's a tool of Wall Street. I mean, some of them think she's a right-winger. It's hard for a person on the outside to get that, but they do.
And you're right. She may need to try to shore up some of her left-wing credibility with somebody like Elizabeth Warren, although warren withheld any endorsement of Hillary Clinton. She's played hard to get in all of this.
There are other people's names who are thrown around who would probably shore up the leftist credentials but who are not as prominent. Thomas Perez, who is the secretary of labor, used to be a top official in the Justice Department.
Amy Klobuchar, a senator from Minnesota who is quite progressive and actually thought about running herself. There are a number of people who could probably fit the bill for her.
BARTIROMO: Interesting that Tom Perez is on that list for you.
YORK: Well, the name has been thrown around quite a bit. He really impressed a lot of groups. He's head of the civil rights division in the Justice Department. He's a pretty hard-charging guy. And a lot of groups on the left really cheered the kind of stuff he was doing over there.
BARTIROMO: Byron, good see you. Thanks so much.
YORK: Thank you, Maria.
BARTIROMO: We'll see you soon. Byron York there.
Bernie Sanders picking up more delegates, meanwhile, vowing to stay in the Democratic race until the convention in July. How this could affect party unity.
We're looking ahead this morning on SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back.
Well, much of the focus on this race has been on the Republican in-fighting. The Democrats are facing a growing battle of their own.
After his big victory in Indiana, Bernie Sanders says he's going all the way to the convention. This despite the insurmountable delegate math against him. So, is Senator Sanders hurting Hillary Clinton and the party by staying in the race?
Joining me right now is Luis Miranda. He is communications director for the Democratic national committee.
Sir, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.
LUIS MIRANDA, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Good morning. Thanks for having me on. And let me say happy Mother's Day to all of your viewers, including my mom, who is watching today.
BARTIROMO: Yes, thank you. Right back at you, big shout-out to all the most important people out there, the mothers.
Let me ask this about Bernie Sanders, because he's digging in. Is he hurting Hillary Clinton's campaign?
MIRANDA: I think it's actually been a good primary for us. And we're excited about where it is because we look at what the voters are saying. And in exit poll after exit poll after exit poll in Pennsylvania,
Connecticut, New York, Wisconsin, we're seeing a trend where, you know, seven out of 10, 75 percent of our voters are optimistic or excited about both of our candidates. Three-fourths are saying that they think that the primary has excited the party and has been energizing.
So, we feel good about that. We don't think it's a problem. We think it's good our candidates have been out there in every state so far campaigning, talking to voters, engaging with them.
BARTIROMO: So, why do you think --
MIRANDA: And we think that we're going to come together at the convention.
BARTIROMO: So, Luis, why do you think then voter turnout is so weak? I mean, when you look at the voter turnout numbers, the Republican voter turnout is up 60 percent. Democratic voter turnout is down 20 percent.
MIRANDA: I'm really glad you brought that up, and it speaks to the dismal voter turnout among Republicans generally. If you look at our turnout, it's actually up over our norm. We're well above where it normally is, 2008 being the exception.
But I think the biggest and most important numbers, are when you get to the vote total, and you have Hillary Clinton with more than 13 million votes, far ahead of Donald Trump where he ended up, and you see Bernie Sanders had more votes than Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
So, we have had actually very good voter participation. And we think if there's an enthusiasm gap, it certainly favors us because, again, our candidates have had more voters come out and support them.
BARTIROMO: But this is what it's all about, right? If you see voter turnout the way it is running -- you say it's good but it's way down obviously from Barack Obama. But we know that was a special year and that was really incredible voter turnout. I get it.
MIRANDA: Well, again, 13 million votes is far more than Donald Trump has. But more importantly, if you look at the exit polls for Republicans, half of their party feels -- more than half feels their primary has been divisive. So, we're seeing 75 percent and majorities who would support either candidates.
You have Republicans who don't want to support their front-runner, you know, 40 percent of the voters in one state felt that a Donald Trump presidency would be dangerous. We happen to agree with that. A third would rather stay home, not vote or vote for an alternative rather than support him.
So, I think we have a situation where the voter turnout isn't going to be what defines the election in that same way. And from the primaries, it's going to be the issues.
BARTIROMO: Pardon me, Luis. How would you characterize the Democratic Party today? I mean, I feel like with the emergence of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, certainly President Obama, the party has moved further to the left. And that, in fact, has pushed Hillary Clinton further to the left.
I mean, when you -- I mean, it's interesting to look at the fact that Sanders is trailing Hillary Clinton by 774 total delegates and yet he's still there and he's going to get a big platform at the convention, Bernie Sanders will. Is that because the party has moved much further to the left than, let's say, I don't know, before Barack Obama?
MIRANDA: Well, this is an inclusive party and we're going to make sure both of our campaigns are represented at the convention and in terms of our platform. But, overall, I think the party is intense and intent on dealing --
BARTIROMO: Has it moved further to the left? Has it moved further to the left?
MIRANDA: I think there's an interest from a large portion of our base to look at, how do we address some issues better, like the pay gap and wage gap and the wealth gap that we're seeing in the country. But this is also a party that one of the reasons we're energized, and you see three-fourths of us are excited about our primaries, because we recognize we're moving in the right directions.
Just yesterday, we had 74 -- excuse me, Friday, we had 74 straight months of private sector job growth. Almost a million of those in manufacturing, precisely because this Democratic administration has put us
on a path towards coming out of the Great Recession and building an economy that works for everyone and creates opportunity.
BARTIROMO: And yet, Luis, West Virginia on Tuesday, and West Virginia has lost about 12,000 coal jobs. We know what Hillary Clinton just said the other day. She said she was misquoted when she said, we're going to put a lot of coal miners out of work. Coal miners took her to task on that.
How are you feeling going into West Virginia knowing that so many people have lost their jobs because of the regulations that the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton have pushed forward because of the contribution to greenhouse gas? We're going to speak with the CEO of a coal company on the program coming up.
MIRANDA: Well, I think it's a really good issue and it's an important one because it speaks to our changing economy and the fact we do have to invest in new industries. You know, we went from producing about 2 percent of the world's renewable batteries in 2008 to producing about half
of them just six or seven years later.
So, you see that that's the kind of investment in infrastructure and manufacturing that helps build the economy. Not for the short term or to try to save old jobs that are going to go anyway, but to make sure we're investing in the type of job training and retooling our manufacturing and retooling different sectors so they're actually able to participate and take advantage of the new economy. And that's the kind of thing we need to do across the board.
Look, one of the things we see when we hear Republicans talking about smaller government is that it's about really broken government because it's a government that can't deal with the reality of how do we retool a West Virginia to be successful? How do we make sure that cities like Flint isn't falling behind? How do we make cities like Katrina that have federal emergency management that can respond when things happen?
And the smaller government that Republicans have been pushing for is really broken. So, from the Democratic perspective, we want to invest in those cities, those states in a new economy so that our workers are doing well. I think that's the message we have to get across in West Virginia
and across the country.
BARTIROMO: It sounds like you agree, there will be more coal jobs cut, more losses in the coal industry then?
MIRANDA: Well, we need to make sure that they have new jobs to take in the renewable energy sector. That's part of the challenge we have --
BARTIROMO: What do they know about renewable? These guys and gals have been working in a coal mine. That's what they know. They're going to have to be retrained. They're going to -- I mean, they don't know about renewable energy and what to do there.
MIRANDA: We've got to create opportunities --
BARTIROMO: They've had a career and feeding their families on coal for decades. Now they're out of a job.
MIRANDA: And we need to make sure they have opportunities. That if those jobs aren't there, that there is something for them to move into. That's the challenge of good government, of effective government, is to make sure they have job training and alternatives.
BARTIROMO: Luis, before you go, real quick, Ed Rendell I thought was really an interesting quote he said, the chairman of the convention, the Democratic Convention. He says, "Sanders supporters better behave themselves when he loses."
So, it's a slam dunk, I guess. Ed Rendell says it.
Do you think they'll behave themselves? What do you think that meant?
MIRANDA: I think, like we said, we're committed to making sure both sides are represented. We do think -- every side is going to behave themselves because ultimately, we know the damage we would get from a Republican administration and we're going to be united coming out of this convention.
We're going to be in a place where we go to Philadelphia and come out stronger and, you know, we feel confident about that, especially because of what we're seeing on the Republican side.
Just this morning, Sarah Palin said Paul Ryan is going to be Cantorized. They're on an all-out civil war. We don't have that on our side. We want to build on the progress we've made. So, I feel pretty good
that we're going to come out of Philadelphia united.
BARTIROMO: It sure is an interesting moment in time. Luis, good to have you on the program. We'll see you certainly in July at the convention as well. Luis Miranda, we'll see you soon, sir. Thank you.
MIRANDA: Thank you.
BARTIROMO: Up next, the battle for coal country where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton stands as the race turns to West Virginia this Tuesday. How one CEO feels about?
We're looking ahead on SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES. We'll be right back.
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BARTIROMO: Welcome back.
We're looking ahead to this Tuesday and Donald Trump earning a key endorsement ahead of this West Virginia primary on Tuesday. The West Virginia Coal Association throwing their support behind the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Trump casting Hillary Clinton as anti-coal while vowing to revive the
coal industry.
Robert Murray is the CEO of Murray Energy Corporation. He joins us me right now.
And good to see you, sir. Thanks so much for joining us.
ROBERT MURRAY, CEO OF MURRAY ENERGY CORPORATION: Good morning,
Maria.
BARTIROMO: Look, we heard Hillary Clinton when she was taken to task by one of the coal miners this week and she said she was taken out of context. What's your stance in terms of what we will see in West Virginia, given it is a big coal country?
MURRAY: Hillary Clinton is untruthful. On March 13th in Columbus, Ohio, she said, we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business. Bill Clinton last weekend said, she does what she said she will do.
She cannot backtrack on that. She's destructive, she's untruthful and she's evil. She said she will continue the policies of the Obama administration, destroying these lives and destroying low-cost, reliable electricity in America, Maria.
BARTIROMO: And the policies, of course, have included heavy regulation against the coal industry because the president has said the coal business contributes to greenhouse gases. So, let me ask you about that.
First of all, I think it's about 5,000 jobs have been cut from the coal industry in the last five years. About 1,200 jobs have been cut just in West Virginia in the business in the last year. To what do you attribute this decimation to the industry?
MURRAY: Actually, Maria, before the election of President Obama, there were 200,000 coal miners in West Virginia. Today there are only 60.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
MURRAY: That's just one state.
Regarding so-called climate change, the earth has actually cooled for 19 years. When Mr. Obama went to the Arctic some years -- some months back, saying that fossil fuel caused the melting of that glacier. That glacier has been melting since 1815. We used wood in 1815, didn't use coal for another 100 years. The Antarctic ice cap is larger than it's ever been.
This is a political movement to get control of the electric power grid. It has absolutely nothing to do with the environment. It's a cover for them.
I'm very concerned, ma'am, because this is a human issue to me. I know the names of the lives who Obama has destroyed and Hillary Clinton has vowed to continue his same policies in this destruction. And to say that we'll retrain them for something else is just not factual.
If these folks own anything, Maria, it's their homes. When they are out of work, they have no one to sell their homes to. And those people economically can't leave the area. These people who just want to work in honor and dignity are denied that. They go to the negative side of the ledger, Maria, for the rest of their lives.
This is not the America I cherish, ma'am.
BARTIROMO: So, what you're saying is there were 200,000 coal mining jobs and now those jobs are down to 60,000.
MURRAY: That is correct.
BARTIROMO: And you say this is not an environmental issue. This is just politics, because the regulatory environment has changed quite a bit. The EPA has come out with a whole string of new regulations. As part of those regulations, what do you deem is the most onerous, sir?
MURRAY: There are two regulations. All of the six regulations against the utilization of coal which Murray Energy, as you know, on February 9th got a stay before the United States Supreme Court joined by 29 states, of these regulations against the use of coal. And then there's regulations, Maria, on the mining of coal.
So, they're in two categories, all intended to eliminate the use of coal. All supported by the Sierra Club, the National Resource Defense Council and the collusion between the U.S. EPA and other agencies and environmental radical organizations which no one should support if they care about the cost and reliability of electricity in the future.
BARTIROMO: Well, we know that coal miners are going to come out to vote on Tuesday. We'll be watching the results, sir. Thanks so much for weighing in on this. We appreciate it.
MURRAY: Thank you, Maria.
BARTIROMO: Bob Murray joining us.
Let's take a look at what's coming up top of the hour, "MEDIA BUZZ",
Howie Kurtz standing by.
Howie, good morning to you.
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, MEDIA BUZZ: Good morning, Maria.
Well, we've got an all-star lineup including CBS's Lesley Stahl and Fox's Trish Regan to look at a whole bunch of media questions, such as, in portraying the political comments by Paul Ryan against Donald Trump are the media going too far as decrying this as a revolt, a crisis, a meltdown. Also, Donald Trump hitting back against Hillary Clinton by attacking Bill Clinton and his affairs. We thought he wasn't going to do that at least this early.
Finally, why should people believe the pundits about the fall election when so many people in our business were wrong about Donald Trump during the Republican primaries?
BARTIROMO: Well, they certainly missed that, that's for sure. We'll see you in about 20 minutes, Howie Kurtz.
The sparks flying this week between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, meanwhile. With the general election still six months away, just how ugly could this get. Our panel is here next to weigh in. We're looking ahead right now on SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES. Back in a moment.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Can you imagine another four years of the Clintons, seriously? Can you imagine, seriously. It's time to move on, folks. We've got to do it right. It's time to move on. And she's totally controlled by Wall Street and all the people that gave her these millions of dollars.
HILLARY CLINTON, D, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I think about what's at stake, even if I weren't running for president, I would be doing everything I could to make sure that the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party never gets near the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: It has begun. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are ramping up their rhetoric this week as it appears more and more likely that she will be facing off come November.
In what looks to be a knockdown, drag-out fight to November, we want to bring in our panel on this. Ed Rollins is former principal White House adviser to President Reagan and FOX News political analyst. Mary Kissel with us, member of "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board. And Garry Kasparov joining us this morning, chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation and former world chess champion.
Good to see everybody. Thanks so much for joining us.
ED ROLLINS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
BARTIROMO: Well, now, the knives are out. Is this what we're going to see? Are we going to see more ramping up? Ed, what are you expecting from Trump versus Hillary, and vice versa?
ROLLINS: First of all, this thing got over so quick. I don't think anybody sitting on this show last week or the audience anticipated it being all over Tuesday. It clearly happened so quickly that a lot of people now are trying to figure out what if means and some of the party types are having a hard time swallowing.
Trump won just as he needed to win and he beats some very good candidates I think the strong field I've seen since 1980. He now has to put an operation together, make his case against her, which I think he
will, and I think at the end of the day, we're going to have a knockdown, drag-out campaign. Both candidates begin with very negatives, and we probably end up at the end of this with rubble, and I think the people that underestimated Trump have underestimated all the way through. And my sense is this is something we can't predict and the old rules may not be valuable.
BARTIROMO: Mary, what are you expecting?
MARY KISSEL, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, there's no doubt that this is going to be an extraordinarily ugly campaign. Trump has made this election about himself. In fact, he said that. He told one of my colleagues at "The Wall Street Journal," this is not about the Republican Party. This is about me.
And there are many Republicans who say, it's not about you. It's about the ideas that are going to help America prosper and keep us safe.
There are many Republicans out there wondering, does this man have the temperament to be president but does he also have the ideas that would further those goals? Sixty-one percent of Americans say -- Republicans, rather, say they will support Trump for president.
Now, that's bad for Trump because he has to win pretty much all Republicans and a large portion of independents. There are more Democrats and independents. There are more Democrats than there are Republicans out there.
It's going to be a nasty battle. Trump will attack. Can he actually mature and convince these people that he has the stuff that he needs to be president?
BARTIROMO: What do you think, can he do it?
KISSEL: I don't see any indication of it so far, but we'll see.
BARTIROMO: Garry?
ROLLINS: A long ways to go.
BARTIROMO: A long ways to go.
Garry, what do you think?
GARRY KASPAROV, CHAIRMAN, NY-BASED HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION: No way. This election is not for, it's against.
BARTIROMO: Yes, that's true.
KASPAROV: Trump won not because, you know, he's so good, but because many Republican primary voters, they hated the establishment and they vote against them, supporting somebody who was so different.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
KASPAROV: Now, Trump, you know, he's moving to a different territory, something that propelled him in the Republican primaries, will destroy him in the general elections because it's against. His negatives are much higher than Hillary Clinton's.
And most of the negative stuff about Hillary Clinton we already know. I'm sure we'll be living in a reality show and Democrats will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to tell us about juicy stories from Trump's biography, and frankly speaking, no one is a better screenwriter for Democrats than Donald Trump. You know, every speech of Trump is ready-made commercial for Hillary Clinton.
ROLLINS: No disrespect. This race is not even begun. No one has been attacking her.
You say everybody knows -- what we know about her is she's not an honest person. She's got a 30-year history of not being honest. She's got a full FBI investigation going on right today on a variety of things, and they haven't even gotten into the Clinton Foundation, which was hanky-pank.
I think this race would be much closer than anybody anticipates. I think Trump can project himself as a leader. She can't at this point. I don't think anyone views her as a significant leader.
She may know where all the bedrooms are in the White House but she certainly doesn't know foreign policy and I think --
(CROSSTALK)
KISSEL: But this race is not just about Trump. It's not just about attacking and denigrating Hillary Clinton.
BARTIROMO: Right.
KISSEL: It's about ideas. We don't really know where Donald Trump stands other than he's anti-trade, he's anti-immigration. He said he may want to raise the minimum wage, which would throw people out of work.
He's basically for bigger government. He hasn't talked at all about entitlement reform. He seems to go with the wind. He's not for policies that would advance our growth and prosperity and security.
BARTIROMO: You make a good point --
KISSEL: That's why it's going to be tough for a lot of independents and Republicans to get behind him.
ROLLINS: But Hillary is going to be four more years of Obama. I mean --
BARTIROMO: She's said that.
KISSEL: I don't know. She's more free trade than Trump is. She's better on immigration than Trump is. She has a stronger foreign policy than Trump. At least right now, we'll see what happens in the debate.
BARTIROMO: Foreign policy is debatable because of what her experience has been. When you look at things like is having gotten stronger under her watch.
ROLLINS: Benghazi, Syria, what-have-you. I mean, whatever highlight of the last four years. I think the story -- the Ben Rhodes story and whether they sold -- lied to the press, manipulated the press to sell the Iran deal is the policy of this administration through and through. And I think it's a policy of the Clintons in the past.
KASPAROV: But Trump already made statements supporting Brexit. He is questioning NATO, the transatlantic alliance, he's basically ready to cut any deals with Putin, all the dictators. I mean, he already said it. It was before even getting close to the White House.
So, I think this election is about the crisis of a two-party system. We could see the fringe groups dominating the primaries on both sides. It's quite troubling because we're talking about Republicans now, but on the Democratic side, we saw, you know, such a drastic move to the left. They don't want to acknowledge it, but the party is almost a socialist party and little doubt that Hillary's VP. will be somebody from the progressive side.
BARTIROMO: You think so?
KASPAROV: I'm sure. And I think, you know, it's most likely, you know --
BARTIROMO: Like an Elizabeth Warren?
KASPAROV: No, I think much younger. They need a younger Sanders.
BARTIROMO: Younger Bernie Sanders?
KASPAROV: Younger Sanders who will run in 2020. Hillary will be one-time president and watch what will happen with a young, charismatic Bernie Sanders rallying millennials.
BARTIROMO: All right. Hold that thought. I want to take a short break and come right back, because the FBI questioning one of Hillary Clinton's top aides over her private email server. Could the presidential hopeful herself be next? We're hearing it could be the next couple of weeks.
Back with the panel ahead on SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back.
Hillary Clinton could reportedly be questioned by the FBI about her private e-mail server within the coming weeks. The bureau investigating with the sensitive information that flowed through her e-mail server when he was secretary of state was mishandled. The FBI already questioning one of the Democratic frontrunner's closest aides, Huma Abedin.
Bring back our panel, Ed, Garry and Mary.
Mary, what do you think comes out of this in terms of the FBI?
KISSEL: Well, we'll see. Looks like the FBI has taken many, many months to do a comprehensive investigation here, I believe it's not just about the e-mail server but also about the links of the Clinton Foundation to the State Department.
In his book "Clinton Cash", Peter Schweizer laid out some very sketchy arrangements between government donations to the Clinton Foundation and subsequent actions that the State Department took. So, that's what I'm looking for when we get more information about this case.
BARTIROMO: Can it undo her, Ed Rollins?
ROLLINS: Certainly if they indict her on something which is difficult. I think at the end of the day when she's questioned if she lies to the investigator, the FBI director is going to question her if there's a perjury charge and you can't basically duck a perjury charge. I don't think this administration is going to basically take her more for it and not get into the Clinton Foundation, which is I think criminal activity.
So, my sense is she's going to be damaged but may not get indicted.
BARTIROMO: Gary?
KASPAROV: It's possible as Ed pointed you out, the Clinton Foundation it is untapped --
BARTIROMO: And they're looking into that.
KASPAROV: Yes, but --
BARTIROMO: That may come to light later.
KASPAROV: I think it could be a paradox. But her indictment will help the Democratic Party because she is the worst candidate they can have. Imagine she's indicted, they will bring Vice President Biden.
BARTIROMO: They can't. The problems you got Bernie Sanders here.
KASPAROV: Bernie Sanders will accept VP --
ROLLINS: I don't think so.
BARTIROMO: He may not accept it. He is mad as hell.
ROLLINS: He is not an establishment guy.
KASPAROV: Look, you know, I think the Democratic Party is much more united now than GOP. All we need to do is win this election and prepare in 2020 a good candidate, a young Bernie Sanders. So, if Hillary out and Biden is in and he doesn't have the same -- you know --
ROLLINS: He doesn't get to just walk in. I'm telling you if you didn't have Bernie Sanders maybe you could do that, but you have Bernie Sanders and millions of young people voted for him.
KASPAROV: We'll see.
ROLLINS: We'll see.
BARTIROMO: How did this happen on the Republican side? How is it possible now the Republicans have Donald Trump and many of them don't want Donald Trump, how did this happen?
ROLLINS: The voters who voted wanted Donald Trump. And he basically went out --
BARTIROMO: So the Republicans --
(CROSSTALK)
ROLLINS: That's how it works here, a minority does get the pick the nominees. In our history of our country, Congress used to pick it, bosses used to pick it, then we went to a democratic process and now the people get to pick it. The people have chosen this candidate.
KASPAROV: Fine. And they will reap the benefits of having this candidate because the Republicans will lose presidential election, they lose the Senate and, God knows, maybe lose the House as well.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
KISSEL: You know how it happens. President Obama gave us a 2 percent economy, massive government, global disorder. The Republicans should have been attacking him and his record, instead you had guys like Ted Cruz and the freedom caucus saying we just need to say, no, we need to attack the elite, they turned on themselves.
BARTIROMO: Right.
KISSEL: That's how you get a guy like Donald Trump.
BARTIROMO: Quick break. We will be right back. More with our panel. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Well, I want to wish a happy Mother's Day to all the real heroes out there. There's my mom. Thank you for raising such a beautiful family. Mom, I love you, happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's day to all of
you, Gary, to your wife, Ed, to your family.
ROLLINS: Thank you.
BARTIROMO: Mary as well.
KISSEL: And to my mother Patricia in South Florida, happy Mother's Day.
KASPAROV: My mother is in Moscow.
ROLLINS: And my mother is in heaven.
BARTIROMO: Thank you so much for all that you do. That is the important stuff out there and the heroes to all of us.
We'll be back next week with the panel and with SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES. Have a great Mother's Day, everybody. I'll see you tomorrow. Join me tomorrow with Donald Trump live on "Mornings with Mario" on the Fox Business Network, tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. Eastern. Join me on the
Fox Business Network for that interview.
MEDIA BUZZ begins now.
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