Rep. Devin Nunes: DNC lawsuit 'must be a joke'

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Rep. Devin Nunes: DNC lawsuit 'must be a joke'

The DNC sues the Trump campaign, Russia and WikiLeaks over the 2016 election; House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes reacts on 'Sunday Morning Futures.'

This is a rush transcript from "Sunday Morning Futures," April 22, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Good Sunday morning everybody. Thanks for joining us. New controversy surrounding James Comey after his private memos about meetings with President Trump go public. Another California County joins the Trump administration in the legal battle over the Golden States immigration laws. And celebrating a life well lived, President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush reflect on the passing of Barbara Bush as they sit down with me. Hi, everybody thanks for being with here. I'm Maria Bartiromo, welcome to 'Sunday Morning Futures.'

Key lawmakers say that James Comey's memos about his conservation with President Trump prove he was politically biased while the Inspector General recommends criminal charges against Comey's ex-Deputy Andrew McCabe. This is where the I.G.'s next report in the Clinton email investigation, reaction on all of that from the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes coming up. A revolt is underway in the Golden States, San Diego, the very latest county to back the Trump administration's lawsuit which challenges California sanctuary state laws. We speak with one leader from that county who says enough is enough. And remembering a woman of grace and grit, we will highlight the extraordinary life and legacy of Barbara Bush in my exclusive interview with President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush as we look ahead right now on to 'Sunday Morning Futures.'

President Trump taking Jim Comey to task over newly-released memos. The former FBI Director kept to document his conservations with the President. The Justice Department Inspector General is now investigating if Comey mishandled classified information by giving some of those documents to a friend who then shared them with a reporter. The President calling that move illegal and saying it raises questions about the Mueller-Russia investigation. Meanwhile three GOP committee chairman out with a scathing statement on the Comey memos accusing him of political bias in his interactions with the Obama-era officials versus President Trump. I'm joined right now by one of those lawmakers House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is live this morning at the world AG Expo in California and Congressman Nunes is also a Member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Congressman, it's good to see you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.

REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF., CHAIRMAN, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Always a pleasure, thank you.

BARTIROMO: I want to get to that memo, the letter that you have written after the Jim Comey memos were out but first let me start here. Let's pick-up where we left off the last time we spoke, Mr. Chairman. You joined us four weeks ago on this program. At that time you said you wanted to get the electronic communication from the Department of Justice and the FBI, you wanted that electronic communications to understand exactly how the Trump investigation into collusion even began. You've now since seen the electronic communication, yes?

NUNES: That's correct. So it took us a long time to actually get this what's called the electronic communication as we know it now for your viewers. What that is, is the original intelligence, the original reasons that the counterintelligence investigation was started. Now this is really important to us because the counterintelligence investigation uses the tools of our intelligence services that are not supposed to be used on American citizens, so we've long wanted to know well what intelligence did you have that actually led to this investigation. So what we found now after the investigators have reviewed it is that in fact there was no intelligence. So we have a traditional -- we have a traditional partnership with what's called the Five Eyes agreement. Five Eyes agreement involves our friends in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and of course us. So long time process and procedures in place where we move intelligence across. We are not supposed to spy on each other's citizens and it's worked well and it continues to work well.

And we know it's working well because there was no intelligence that passed from Five Eyes -- through the Five Eyes channels to our government and that's why we had to see that original communication. So now we're trying to figure out. As you know, we are investigating the State Department. We think there's some major irregularities at the State Department and we're trying to figure out how it is that this information about Mr. Papadopoulos of all people, who was supposedly meeting with some folks in London, how that made it over across the FBI's hands. We know a little bit about that because of what some of the State Department officials themselves have said about that. So we were glad to get this behind us, but now of course as we peel another piece back, it leaves more unanswered questions which we're trying to get to the bottom of.

BARTIROMO: Mr. Chairman, you've got to explain what you just said. I think this is extraordinary that you're telling us that in order for the FBI, the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into so-called collusion between President Trump and the Russians, there was no official intelligence used, then how did this investigation start? I don't understand, sir please explain.

NUNES: Well, I think that is the point. We don't understand. We've never understood because you know, we have -- we have access to these finished intelligence products and we've never seen one. We have never -- so we thought well maybe there was one that went through a different channel that was kept really quiet, that was secret, it was kept from the Congress and other folks. Well, in fact, after our investigators reviewed this, that's -- that is not what happened. There was no Five Eyes intelligence product as it's been reported, there was no product. And I think that's a major problem because we have to have trust with our -- with our partners with our allies. We have to make sure that our agencies talk, and they work out problems. We have to make sure that they don't spy on either American citizens or that we're not spying on British citizens. These are all things that have been around for decades. So -- and this is even more critical. Let's just -- let's just -- at the highest level, what is this? What is this about? This was about a counterintelligence investigation that was at the height of a political campaign where you opened up an investigation using these intelligence services to spy on the other campaign. It's really serious stuff.

BARTIROMO: It's quite extraordinary. So you're investigating the State Department. Does that mean it was Hillary Clinton pulling the strings? I mean, here you have Hillary Clinton former Secretary of State, she's the other candidate. Is she pulling the strings on an investigation launched on her opponent, her political opponent, Donald Trump?

NUNES: Well, we don't know that yet, but what I can tell you, I can tell you what we do know. We do know that long-time associates of Hillary Clinton including Sidney Blumenthal and another person I think Cody Shearer were actively giving information to the State Department that was somehow making its way to the FBI. This is from -- this is from two people within the State Department who have now publicly come out and said this in I think in major news publications. So we know this, we know this was at least from at least two witnesses who have publicly said this. And so what we're trying to do is we're trying to piece all that together. We now know there was no official intelligence used to start this investigation. We know that Sidney Blumenthal and others were pushing information into the State Department so we're trying to piece all of that together and that's why we continued to look at the State Department.

BARTIROMO: We are awaiting the I.G. report as it relates to James Comey, as it relates to the handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. We got these Comey memos this week. Tell me what you got from these memos, what struck you most?

NUNES: Well the main reason we wanted them out is because the mainstream media and the Democrats have been running around talking about collusion, collusion, collusion. When they figured out there was no collusion, they moved on to obstruction of justice, obstruction of justice, obstruction of justice. What Mr. Gowdy who was able to review these along time ago and Mr. Goodlatte had said and now we know this from reading them is that once you read all of the Comey memos, it becomes exhibit A in a defense against that there was no obstruction of justice. So this would -- so I think when you read all of them, good legal minds review these, when you have the President of the United States saying look, investigate all of my people, if anybody in my campaign was colluding with the Russians, I want to know and they need to be brought to justice. Something of that nature is in the Comey memos. So this is why the Comey memos needed to get out because if there is obstruction of justice, we want to know about it, but clearly, there wasn't and that's what the Comey memos prove. Now I think for Mr. Comey when you match up his memos with what's in his book, with the interviews that he's giving, I think he's got a lot of problems coming in the future as it relates to what the I.G. is looking at into his behavior during the Clinton email investigation.

BARTIROMO: Well what kind of problems? I mean we know that the I.G. has recommended criminal charges against his former deputy Andrew McCabe, where does that go? What does that mean criminal charges? Where do you -- where do you see that going and is that the same fate that we will see for Jim Comey?

NUNES: Well, it's hard to say right now but we know that -- so Mr. McCabe has been recommended that he face criminal charges. Now his lawyer and he has a right to his lawyer, his lawyer has said no this is not true what the I.G. Mr. Comey is lying essentially is what Mr. McCabe is saying that Comey did give him the right to go talk to the press. So you know, this all has to be fleshed out. Clearly, the I.G. doesn't believed -- the I.G. believed Mr. Comey that Comey did not give Mr. McCabe the ability to go talk to the press. Now as it relates to Mr. Comey, you've got the added problem now that the memos that he wrote, the seven memos that he decided to write on President Trump, never wrote memos on any of the other meetings that he had with the other president or the A.G. or anyone else prior to this, but he wrote -- kept seven memos, four of those were classified. He decided to lander them to a friend who then leaked them to the New York Times. If those memos contain classified information, he purposely did that, he purposely leaked them in order to get a special counsel started after he was fired. He leaked pieces of these so we need to figure out exactly what is it that he leaked. Who did he give these memos to and was it just the friend that leaked them to the New York Times or were there others? I believe there were others. I think -- I think that these Comey memos were actually given to several people, it contained classified information. The irony is the very thing that Mr. Comey cleared Mrs. Clinton of.

BARTIROMO: Real quick -- we're going to take a break right here but with all of what you're saying whether it's no official intelligence, the president pushing to find out the truth, no obstruction of justice, are these reasons to shut down this Robert Mueller special counsel probe?

NUNES: Well look, I, in the beginning, I actually supported special counsel because I thought OK, Mr. Mueller will come in, long time FBI guy, he will quickly see that there's no evidence of collusion which because we had not seen any. Just like I said, we've not seen any intelligence product that shows that there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, but that he would quickly go after the felony that occurred when General Flynn was talking to the Russian Ambassador and all of that information was leaked out which is a major felony at the highest level. So I thought great, we'll have a special counsel, they'll close those leaks, we'll figure out who that was. Well, that never happened. It appears like this was clearly what started as a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign. They drilled a bunch of dry holes, never found any collusion, they moved to obstruction, they've got a special counsel, and now, God knows where this is going to go. But I think the American people are getting sick and tired of it.

BARTIROMO: Well, they did manage to raid Michael Cohen's office, and home and hotel room let's not forget. Chairman Nunes, stay with us. We've got more to talk about and I want to get your reaction to this next story. The same people who helped fund that salacious and unverified Trump dossier now have some new targets in their sights. The Democratic National Committee filing a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Trump campaign, against Russia, WikiLeaks and others. They're alleging there was a conspiracy to keep Hillary Clinton from winning the election. Yes, that's what they're charging. Follow me on twitter @MariaBartiromo, @SundayFutures, let us know what you'd like to hear. Devin Nunes continues when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back. The Democratic National Committee filing a lawsuit on Friday against the Trump campaign, Russia and WikiLeaks alleging conspiracy to undercut Democrats in the 2016 Presidential Election by stealing tens of thousands of e-mails and documents. We're back with Congressman Devin Nunes, Chairman of the House Intel Committee and Mr. Chairman, your thoughts, your reaction to this lawsuit.

NUNES: Well my first thought is that is this some kind of joke? This must be a joke. I mean, we know who colluded with Russians. They don't want to admit that they colluded with Russians, but they hired Fusion -- they hired a law firm that hired Fusion GPS that hired a British spy that went and colluded with Russians. So I don't understand why they didn't just open up a lawsuit against themselves. They should name themselves and sue themselves so that they can get to the bottom of what do they have on their servers? Why didn't they give those servers to the FBI? This is nothing more, nothing less than a continuation of fundraising off of this scandal. This is made to play to the far left in this country so that the far left will continue to write check because they don't believe that President Trump won the election fair and square. Because the media, most of the media in this country has continued this narrative that there was collusion, there was obstruction that Trump was somehow involved with Putin and Putin helped to steal this election. We've now looked at all of this and none of that is true. But the Democrats need a way to keep their base motivated to turn out in November and they need a way to continue to raise money. And they're raising millions and millions and millions of dollars to target Republicans over this Russia fiasco.

BARTIROMO: It's incredible.

NUNES: But yet there's -- the only place where there's a Russia fiasco is with them.

BARTIROMO: So this is a fundraising exercise. Why doesn't the RNC come back and say we're suing you for the same exact reason given the fact that we know the bias at the top of the FBI, we know that they would have already been felonies, we know about the leaking and the fact that the FBI, the DOJ, and perhaps the CIA were all in it to try to get Hillary to win and keep Donald Trump from winning. I mean, it's the same thing, once again, they're pushing on you what they're doing isn't that right?

NUNES: That's right. Well, I always -- I always like to say whatever the left accuses you of doing, they're doing themselves and that's exactly what we have here.

BARTIROMO: By the way, what about those servers? Mr. Chairman what about those servers? I mean, remember when --

NUNES: I don't know about the servers --

BARTIROMO: When the democratic -- when the Democratic National Committee got hacked, you would think that the DNC wants that might and the power and the strength of the U.S. government behind them to find out who hacked, how come all these emails are out in the public's view and yet they didn't do that at all, they didn't give the server to the FBI. They hired a private company to look at their servers.

NUNES: Exactly. So the obvious question here is that you know, once you were notified by the FBI that maybe somebody had hacked into your system, for sure once those emails became public, right, and they became public I think July -- in July, mid-July, you'd think you would immediately call the FBI in to try to figure out and get to the bottom of what had happened. But that didn't happen. There must be a reason why they didn't want the FBI to come in. I think we probably know the reason why there's probably a lot of bad things that were on that -- that were on that system.

BARTIROMO: Real quick Mr. Chairman, let me switch gears. Tomorrow we've got the vote from the Senate Committee on Mr. Pompeo in terms of becoming the new Secretary of State. Your thoughts on what we'll see tomorrow out of this vote for Mr. Pompeo.

NUNES: Well, Mr. Pompeo should have been confirmed weeks ago. This is really the number three person in our government. We have high-level negotiations going on with the -- with North Korea now and South Koreans trying to solve that long-standing conflict. Mr. Pompeo was already confirmed as the Director of the FBI. He's a good man. He knows what he's doing. The President trusts him. This is about our nation's national security and the United States Senate should stop playing politics with our national security. So a President has a right to hire whoever he wants, especially as it relates to someone in national security. We should not let domestic politics get involved in this decision and the Senate should do its job and do it quickly.

BARTIROMO: All right. Well, we'll see what happens tomorrow then. Mr. Chairman, good to see you, sir. Thanks very much for joining us this morning.

NUNES: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: We will be watching the developments. Devin Nunes, there are growing number of communities in California meanwhile fighting with the Trump Administration against the state's sanctuary laws. My next guest comes from the second most populous county in the Golden State, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back. President Trump expressing his thanks to San Diego County after the board of supervisors voted to support the federal lawsuit against California sanctuary policies. The 3:1 vote last week is rejecting a state law that limits local police collaboration with federal immigration officials. Joining me right now is the Chairman of that board, Kristin Gaspar. Kristin, good to see you. Thanks very much for joining us.

KRISTIN GASPAR, CHAIRMAN, SAN DIEGO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: Why are you pushing back?

GASPAR: Oh, boy, we have a governor whose rolling out the welcome mat for MS-13 gang members in the State of California. We have a governor who consistently lets criminals walkout on our streets and pardons others. It's all packaged in the interest of neighborhood and school safety. But in San Diego, we're saying enough is enough to Governor Brown and his unsafe policies including SB54.

BARTIROMO: So what has been the impact of these open door policies? I mean, I'm scratching my head. I don't understand what the pushback to federal law really is. Any country wants to have borders, and immigration, legal immigration should be front and center as opposed to illegal immigration. So I don't understand why the pushback and tell us what the impact of it has been, these open borders from your standpoint.

GASPAR: Sure, we're left in San Diego wondering where has all the common sense gone. Since January alone we're talking about 284 criminals now walking our streets. In the State of California, since this policy was passed,142 gang members released back into sanctuary states. California took the brunt of it with nearly 90 criminal gang members released back into California. These are the numbers. People need to understand the facts. This is one to three people released each and every day in San Diego, not tracked at, all just back out into our community

BARTIROMO: So you think this is really ideology, this resist movement, this has nothing to do with common sense, this is just let's pushback on anything President Trump says or does.

GASPAR: If people have an interest in public safety, I don't know how you argue it. It's important to know that you hear a lot about well we can't have people who are in our country illegally not reporting crimes, being fearful of contacting our deputies. It's important to understand this was never the case. When our deputies went out and responded calls by law enforcement, they were never even asking about citizenship status, so this argument does not hold up at all.

BARTIROMO: So where does this go now do you think? I mean, you're pushing back. There are a lot of people including your governor who says no, we are not going to tell law enforcement when we know illegals are here and when ICE is out after them. So where do you think this goes from here?

GASPAR: Well there's a movement and you can see it up and down the State of California and it's really important because each and every community needs to tell the narrative of the direct impact of SB54 and the next steps are in the hands of the courts. But we can file briefs. We can share that narrative and our briefs that we're filing with the courts tells our individual stories and our communities so it's incredibly important that this movement continues.

BARTIROMO: All right, we'll be watching. Kristin, great to have you on the program. Thanks very much for weighing in this morning. We certainly will be watching your county. 11 Congressional Republicans are demanding Attorney General Jeff Sessions open criminal investigations into Jim Comey, Hillary Clinton, and others. One of those lawmakers House Judiciary Committee Member Ron DeSantis joins me next about his expectations. We're looking ahead to Sunday morning on 'Sunday Morning Futures' back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back. 11 Republican Lawmakers writing a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting an investigation of Hillary Clinton, along with some former FBI and Justice Department officials. The Congressional leaders are claiming potential violations on a range of topics including a handling of the Clinton e-mail probe, the funding for the anti-Trump dossier, and the Uranium One controversy. I'm joined right now by one of those lawmakers behind the letter to Sessions. Congressman Ron DeSantis is a Member of the House Foreign Affairs, as well as Oversight and Judiciary Committees. He's also a Member of the House Subcommittee on National Security. And congressman, it's good to have you on the program this morning. Thanks for joining us.

REP. RON DESANTIS, R-FLA., HOUSE OVERSIGHT AND JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Good morning.

BARTIROMO: Tell me why you wrote the letter.

DESANTIS: Well look we have a special counsel going on looking into Trump Campaign collusion. There's been no evidence of that. But yet in the course of us conducting oversight, we've had a lot of evidence that statutes have been violated. Andrew McCabe for example, I was pleased that after we've referred McCabe that the Inspector General the next day followed through and formerly referred him for lying to the FBI. You look at somebody like Jim Comey, he testified before us in Congress that he did not decide to exonerate Hillary until after her interview and yet subsequent efforts of oversight unearthed a memo that he wrote two months before he interviewed Hillary that was an exoneration memo. And then I think with this Michael Cohen raid supposedly about the FEC violation, it made a lot of us question OK, Hillary Clinton's campaign they paid a law firm who then laundered the money to Fusion GPS who then paid a foreign national Christopher Steele who then colluded with Russians to create this anti-Trump dossier and yet there was never any FEC case that I'm aware of that was open so does the law apply equally to everybody or is it just anyone whose associated with Trump gets nailed and anybody else in high positions of authority, you know, they get a pass.

BARTIROMO: Well it seems so extraordinary, Congressman. I mean everything you've just lined up, everything we just spoke to, Devin Nunes about the fact that there was no official intelligence whatsoever used to launch an investigation into Trump. I don't understand how Robert Mueller is not looking at any of this. I mean, they authorized a raid of Michael Cohen's home, office and hotel room and yet no interviews, no you know, examining what has taken place with regards to the bias at the FBI and the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Could that be possible that Robert Mueller is not -- is just going to ignore all of this?

DESANTIS: Yes, I think that's what he's doing. Look, you look at who he hired. I mean, he handpicked a lot of people who could be you know, in the general counsel's office at the Democratic National Committee. I mean, that's just what he did. I think that was a huge mistake. I think it has hurt the credibility of his investigation. But here we are, Maria, the whole investigation on collusion was not based on intelligence. The main FISA application was based on opposition research. To this day there's no evidence of any type of conspiracy between anyone on Trump's campaign and the Russian government. So I'm glad he brought Mayor Giuliani on and I think we do need to negotiate an end to this. I don't think the president should fire Mueller because I think that would cause a lot of problems politically but this needs to come to an end. It's hurting the country at this point and let's move forward and let's hold the people accountable throughout this whole mess who actually did violate law.

BARTIROMO: So what are you going to do? I mean, have you heard back from Jeff Sessions? I mean, how are you going to prove to the American people that in fact, we do have a fair and just judicial system? Because right now it looks like you know, it's just it's really unfair depending on who you are just as you just noted.

DESANTIS: Exactly, and so ultimately you need the Department of Justice to follow the lead of what we're laying out. We're a legislative body. We don't have the authority to initiate criminal prosecutions. But I will say McCabe has been referred not only by us but by the I.G. The I.G. investigation into Comey, now I think that's just the beginning. I don't think they're going to be able to say he maliciously leaked these memos, two of which were classified and we're just going to -- going to let that go. I think at this point that's going to see through and I think that should be a criminal referral. And then you also have to do oversight over when he met with President-elect Trump about this dossier. Clapper and him had a conservation. They meet. Comey writes in his notes they need a news hook to be able to put it out. So what did Comey do? By briefing Trump, he gave CNN the news hook and then they put it out a couple days later. That whole thing stinks. He was not honest with Trump about the dossier. He didn't tell him that Hillary's campaign funded it and he didn't go into all of the other things the dossier was alleging. He just focused on the one salacious sex thing which is -- which is totally unsubstantiated. Man, it seems like he had it out for Donald Trump from day one.

BARTIROMO: Yes, it really does seem that way. All right, and I wonder if Comey is going to be able to see those servers that the FBI never got to see from the DNC.

DESANTIS: He didn't have much of an interest in getting those servers did he, Maria? Really, no interest in that. Man, they really want to get Michael Cohen's office but they didn't have interest in those servers.

BARTIROMO: This is so extraordinary congressman. Real quick before you go. North Korean leaders says we no longer need nuclear and missile tests. Wow if North Korea is giving up its nuclear capability, this is also an extraordinary move and obviously, we have to look at the President's treatment of North Korea and say what an incredible job he did if this is true. Do you believe this?

DESANTIS: Donald Trump has shaken this up. He has Kim Jong Un on the defensive. I think that's why you're seeing this. I still think we're a long way from actually getting there, but man, we have a pathway now because this president is the first president in a generation to actually take this problem on head on and say I'm not just going to put my head in the sand and let the problem get worse. So boy if we could get that done, that would be one of the best achievements I think since Ronald Reagan helped end the Cold War.

BARTIROMO: It's just absolutely incredible so we'll be watching that. Congressman, good to see you, sir, thank you.

DESANTIS: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: We will see you soon Congressman Ron DeSantis. We are remembering the life and legacy of former First Lady Barbara Bush this morning. What her son President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush had to say about her, a day after her passing. My exclusive interview with the two of them coming next as we look ahead on 'Sunday Morning Futures.'

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Former first Lady Barbara Bush laid to rest yesterday in Texas in an emotional and poignant ceremony. Family members took turns speaking about her wit, devotion, and literacy and generosity. Earlier this week the day after Barbara Bush passed away, I spoke with her son, President George W. Bush, and former First Lady Laura Bush about this remarkable woman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARTIROMO: Thank you so much for being here. Mr. President, Mrs. Bush, my condolences to you.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well thank you, we appreciate that. There's a lot of condolences pouring in and Laura and I and our entire family are very grateful for people's prayers and sympathies. It's you know, the end of a beautiful life

BARTIROMO: It was an incredible life, a life well lived but it's never easy. I know that and you know, all of the comments this morning about your mother are about how warm and wonderful and what a leader she was but also tough as nails.

G. BUSH: She was warm and wonderful until you got out of line, then she wasn't too warm and wonderful but she was awesome.

LAURA BUSH, FORMER FIRST LADY: She was funny and fierce and said her mind. She's a great role model for me for sure. I learned how to be a first lady

BARTIROMO: I was just going to say I was reading that when you were First Lady. It was easier for you than it would have been because you had your mother-in-law.

L. BUSH: I had my mother-in-law and of course I'd watched her the whole time she was First Lady and when she campaigned with the President Bush so that -- I actually had the conservation with her early on when he first started to run, that she would work on literacy, that she thought that was the most important. If everyone could read and write a lot of problems would be solved.

BARTIROMO: And you picked up that.

L. BUSH: I picked that up as well.

BARTIROMO: And kept running with it, literacy, education for women and did so much for women.

L. BUSH: Well, thanks.

BARTIROMO: And Mr. President, let me ask you. I know you saw this coming. We know that Mrs. Bush said that she did not want any more medical attention and she wanted her comfort care but were you able to say goodbye?

G. BUSH: Yes, in person, and then on the phone. Laura and I went over to see her a week ago Saturday and we had a wonderful visit. She was strong, lucid.

L. BUSH: Funny still.

G. BUSH: Funny. She and I were needling each other and the doctor came in and she turned to the doctor and said, do you want to know why George W. is the way he is and the doctor look somewhat surprised and she said because I drank and smoke when I was pregnant with him.

BARTIROMO: That's hilarious.

G. BUSH: Yes, she's funny and we -- I had a beautiful visit with her when it looked like about yesterday morning on the phone, and she didn't say much, but I told her I loved her and here is the thing. She had great faith. She truly believes that she is, there's an afterlife, that she'll be wonderfully received in the arms of a loving God and therefore did not fear death. And as a result of her soul being comforted on the deathbed, my soul is comforted.

BARTIROMO: Wow. I love the fact that she was married to your father for 73 years.

G. BUSH: Yes. And he was by her side by the way when she passed which is sweet.

BARTIROMO: And we have a love letter that he wrote to her that we have been talking about this morning from World War II in 1943, penned by your father and it's going viral this morning obviously and it says, it reads in part, "this may sound melodramatic but if it does it is only my inadequacy to say what I mean. Bar you have made my life full of everything I could ever dream of, my complete happiness should be a token of my love for you." Were they just sort of just like a love affair all the time? I mean --

G. BUSH: Yes, it seemed that way, you know.

L. BUSH: They really were, a great example.

G. BUSH: So here's the thing. We got this leadership forum and my mother would say make darn sure that you participate fully in the leadership forum and you know, in other words, don't sit around and feel sorry for me or yourself more importantly but move on with life and that's what we're doing. We thank you for being down here because this Bush Institute is very important to us and we've got some programs that we think are very transformative and helpful for the future of the country.

BARTIROMO: Yes, why do you like (INAUDIBLE)

G. BUSH: It's mind-expanding. It's doing something I never dreamt I would do. Tell them your line.

L. BUSH: He was actually an art agnostic. He never even looked at art and we lived in the White House with a really beautiful art collection. The White House has a great collection of American art but he didn't really look at it but now he does.

BARTIROMO: Do you also paint, Mrs. Bush?

L. BUSH: No.

G. BUSH: And she's not a very good subject.

L. BUSH: No, I haven't been really --

BARTIROMO: You haven't painted?

L. BUSH: He’s done of me.

G. BUSH: Well I tried once and believe me --

BARTIROMO: Well it better be good. It better be good.

G. BUSH: It's not good enough.

BARTIROMO: I bet. The painting that -- we're showing some pictures right now. The painting that you did of Vladimir Putin is great.

G. BUSH: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: I have a picture of it and I remember the line that you looked into his eyes and saw. Some people feel like if there's anybody who knows Putin, the best out of everybody it's you.

G. BUSH: Yes, I know him pretty well

BARTIROMO: Are you surprised at what has taken place?

G. BUSH: Well what happened was when I looked in his eyes and saw his soul, Russia was broke, I mean, short-term broke and the price of oil goes up and Putin changed. And look, he's a very smart tactician. The problem is his whole attitude on most issues is I'm going to win and U.S. is going to lose and so I'm not very surprised. I mean he is a very aggressive person who wants to reinstate Soviet influence even though the Soviet no longer exists. And therefore, I always felt it was very important for the United States to be very forceful in dealing with Putin, not belligerent but forceful.

BARTIROMO: Mr. President let me ask you a little about the news because of course, last week we saw President Trump pardon, Scooter Libby.

G. BUSH: Yes, good.

BARTIROMO: Your reaction?

G. BUSH: My reaction is I'm happy for Scooter and his family.

BARTIROMO: Did you see the Wall Street Journal headline saying Scooter Libby was the soldier left on the battlefield?

G. BUSH: No, I didn't see that but you know, I'm sure he's got some friends in the editorial board there and you know, as I said, I'm happy for his family and for Scooter.

BARTIROMO: Mrs. Bush, you remained one of the most popular and loved first ladies of all-time.

G. BUSH: All right.

BARTIROMO: And you have your own incredible leadership style. Do you want to pass on any words of advice to our current First Lady Melania Trump?

L. BUSH: Well, no, I wouldn't give her advice but I've met Melania. She invited me to tea at the White House and she's a beautiful woman and very, very lovely.

G. BUSH: So are you honey.

L. BUSH: Oh, thank you, darling, and I think she -- I think she will do very well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BARTIROMO: My thanks to President Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush and my thanks to the George W. Bush Presidential Center. We will take a break. When we come back does the DNC lawsuit against Russia, WikiLeaks of the Trump Campaign have any merit? We're debating that with our panel. We're looking ahead on 'Sunday Morning Futures' right now with the panel on deck.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back. President Trump firing back at Democrats after the DNC filed a lawsuit against the Trump Campaign, WikiLeaks, and Russia for election meddling. The President pointing fingers at former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz for refusing to give the FBI access to computer servers that the DNC says were hacked in 2016 to spread stolen information and smear the Clinton campaign. Let's bring in our panel on that. Ed Rollins is a Republican Campaign Advisor and former Campaign Manager for the Reagan-Bush ticket in 1984. He's a Fox News Contributor. Christopher Bedford is with us this morning, Editor in Chief at the Daily Caller and Author of the Art of the Donald. Good to see you both.

ED ROLLINS, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning.

BARTIROMO: Your thoughts on this lawsuit.

ROLLINS: My thoughts, one of the stupidest things the Democrats could have done. They can open up a can of worms that they don't want to have to open up. This guy was on the hill in the land of the blind and the one-eyed man is king. And he and his whole family had total access to all of the Democrats information on the Hill, all of the information that Debbie had -- Wasserman had at the DNC, and I think they're going to find -- it was -- it was a real source of the leaks.

BARTIROMO: Well this is the Awan Brothers and you've done so much reporting, great reporting on this at the Daily Caller Christopher, so thank you for that.

CHRISTOPHER BEDFORD, EDITOR IN CHIEF, THE DAILY CALLER: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: Where does this -- why aren't we hearing about this anymore? This guy was making $165 million -- I'm sorry, $165,000 a year, one of the higher-paid. All of his brothers and his wife were making high salaries as well, and you don't hear what happened. What do you have for us?

BEDFORD: Well it's a complicated story. It's a difficult story. You're one of the few places that have really been following it carefully and there's a lot of shade, there's a lot of mystery around it just like the President tweeted last week who is this mystery man from Pakistan. We know the I.G. said he had the keys to the kingdom. We know that he traveled in Pakistan with an actual armed escort. We know that he claimed to have the power to change the president and we know that he claims that of course. And we know that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is terrified of something that he has. She's been tying up the laptop that has her username that he had a passwords to for months and legal limbo and the Republicans have been really hesitant to come after this. The President last week gave them a push to say figure this out.

BARTIROMO: I don't understand why the Republicans are so hesitant.

ROLLINS: I don't either because it's nothing that we did. It's there's and this guy had access to everything and he had been fired by a couple of Members of Congress from misbehavior and put his whole family in there. And again, as I said, they understood the system where most members of Congress have no clue what's on their system and I'm sure every single thing they wanted they got and everything that the Pakistanis wanted is probably the most unsafe country in the world basically wanted our intelligence and I'm sure they got it through here and through the DNC.

BARTIROMO: Well they arrested him while he was fleeing the country

BEDFORD: For bank fraud, that's what they're holding him on. And it seems like it's just a bookmark here. There's definitely something beyond bank fraud that the FBI is interested in. But they're not doing the interviews, they're not -- they're not executing the search warrants. For example, after the -- after the Democratic Caucuses server was hacked or was leaked, this is a piece of evidence. It physically disappeared. It was removed and somebody basically stole it, no search warrant was ever executed on that and this is what the Republicans have been doing. This is what Speaker Ryan has been doing. He says hey guys this is just a theft investigation. It's way bigger than a theft investigation. He has -- Imran Awan had the access to the very intimate e-mails and communications of the entire -- almost the entire Democratic Caucus and he appears to be a bad player.

BARTIROMO: There was also some speculation Ed, it could have been ties to terrorist groups, Muslim brotherhood, not bank fraud. You say that this is just a marker?

ROLLINS: I'm saying, he's a mystery man and not clearly the sponsors here with the Pakistani government. And I think to a certain extent, he and his family had been fired, maintained access until February after Trump had been inaugurated. I'm sure they have every single thing that they could possibly want to get secret documents, DNC documents what have you, and I think it's a scandal of major, major consequences.

BARTIROMO: I think you're right because I just don't understand why then the DNC got hacked, Christopher, they wouldn't want the FBI to investigate it. Show the servers to the U.S. government so that the U.S. government can investigate this. No, they hired a private company to actually investigate and lock at those servers.

ROLLINS: This was about Bernie Sanders I think they basically tipped the scale against Bernie Sanders and I think they are afraid of what they would find relative to Bernie Sanders' internal Democratic politics as opposed to national security.

BARTIROMO: So is it -- is it likely that we're going to be hearing a lot more about this if the Democrats push on this lawsuit?

BEDFORD: They might have just made a serious error here because just as you said, they didn't want the FBI involved. They didn't want the government looking into these servers. There was a lot of shady business. Debbie Wasserman Schultz had to step down after that was exposed. They said it was because the election was too important. That's why they didn't want to give access. That's obviously ridiculous. That's not true. And now, if they push on this and the President gets to do discovery and return on them, we're going to learn a whole lot more.

BARTIROMO: That's incredible. Real quick on the Pompeo hearing tomorrow, your thoughts on the vote.

ROLLINS: I think he's not going to make it through the committee but I think they certainly should do everything they can to get him out and give him the 50 votes.

BARTIROMO: But you don't think he'll --

ROLLINS: I don't think -- I don't think they'll get him on the committee.

BARTIROMO: All right, we will leave it there. Ed Rollins, Christopher Bedford, great to see you both.

ROLLINS: Thank you.

BEDFORD: Good to see you.

BARTIROMO: Thank you for joining us. A lot going on, man. It is incredible. That'll do it for us in 'Sunday Morning Futures.' Thanks for joining me. I'm Maria Bartiromo. Join me tomorrow morning first thing, 'Mornings with Maria' 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern on the Fox Business Network. Stay with Fox News right now 'Media Buzz' with Howie Kurtz is up next after this short break. Have a great Sunday, everybody.

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