'Sunday Morning Futures' on Texas' economic wins, COVID origin reports

This is a rush transcript from "Sunday Morning Futures," May 23, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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

Coming up: not so Neanderthal after all. The country follows Texas, where masks are off and COVID-related deaths, hospitalizations and cases continue to go down.

Governor Greg Abbott on COVID, the border and the Biden agenda coming up, with new weapons ammunition and narcotics seized at the Southern border this week, along with 178,000 people apprehended in the month of April.

Then ,from Texas to the Middle East, to Russia and China, Joe Biden's foreign policy blunders. Former national Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe on the advice he gave the Biden administration on the way out and why they ignored it. Plus, in Gaza today, will the cease-fire hold?

Then breaking news: The clock is running on Joe Biden's summer plans to jam through as much tax-and-spend policy as possible. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton on where the radical agenda stands, including Biden's plans to give the U.S. Treasury direct surveillance of the flows in your bank account.

Then: surveillance, theft and deadly experiments from the heavy hand of communist China.

Here's Congressman Devin Nunes on this program last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA): I think they're sitting on and suppressing a lot of intelligence that we, the American people, should see in order to know how to move ahead over the coming next few years, as China continues to gain control of the life science arena and the life science global economy.

They're trying to move all this technology back to China, while, at the same time, not answering basic questions about the origin of this virus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: World Health Organization adviser Jamie Metzl on the growing chorus of voices demanding answers on how the pandemic started and why China is trying so hard to stop that investigation, as Dr. Fauci now says, well, maybe COVID did not develop naturally after all.

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

And first this morning, Texas reached a major milestone last week, recording an entire day without any COVID-19 deaths for the first time since March of 2020.

The good news does not stop there, the Lone Star State also with the lowest number of COVID related hospitalizations in more than 11 months, and the lowest seven-day positivity rate since this pandemic began.

This leaves President Biden with egg on his face, after he criticized Governor Greg Abbott for dropping the mask mandate and reopening Texas in March. Take a watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way in which we're able to get vaccines in people's arms.

We have been able to move that all the way up to the end of May to have enough for every American, to get every adult American to get a shot.

And the last thing, the last thing we need is the Neanderthal thinking that, in the meantime, everything's fine, take off your mask, forget it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Joining me right now is the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.

And, Governor, it always a pleasure. Thanks very much for being here.

Congratulations on your leadership and good judgment.

Give us an update on where Texas stands today.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): Listen, the numbers just continue to improve.

To put all of this in context, from the very beginning, many businesses remained open. And then, back in October, businesses opened up at 75 percent. And then, as you pointed out, in March, we had the entire economy open up 100 percent and no more masks.

And, of course, President Biden and the Democrats railed against it. You heard what President Biden said. Other Democrats said that I had issued a death warrant. And then, as you pointed out, we continued to have a decline in deaths after we opened up 100 percent, until we reached that mark of a day with zero deaths.

And hospitalizations continue to go down even more. The number of cases and positivity rate continue to go down even more. Yesterday was the lowest positivity rate that we have had on record during the history of the entire pandemic. And so it shows that the right move was to make sure that we did open up, get things back to normal.

Also, one thing that I did last week was to make sure that students would all be back in school, no more masks in school. It's time to get back to normal, both with regard to business openings, as well as children back in schools with no more masks.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

And, Governor, connect the dots for us in terms of the economic story that is also flourishing in Texas. I know that Texas is one of 22 states to now pull back on this $300-a-week federal unemployment benefit.

But you have got businesses opening, small businesses once again getting back to thriving. And that's coinciding with a big boom in terms of jobs and growth. Walk us through what's happening for the economy of Texas right now as well.

ABBOTT: Well, the economy is booming.

And one reason why we withdrew from the federal unemployment benefit addition, which is on top of the Texas unemployment benefits, is because there is such high demand for workers. In fact, according to the Texas Workforce Commission, we have as many job openings as there are people who are seeking unemployment, in addition to a very important fact.

And that is about 18 percent of the people filing unemployment claims turned out to be false. But here's what's going on economically. From last April to this April, Texas added about a million new jobs, according to the Dallas Federal Reserve. Throughout the remainder of the year, we will be adding about another 800,000 jobs.

The last report for the state gross domestic -- gross domestic product, Texas was second in the United States, with a very robust 7.5 percent quarter-over-quarter increase in gross domestic product.

I have got to tell you this, Maria. Consumer spending is through the roof. As you know, consumer spending is about two-thirds of the economy. According to the Dallas Federal Reserve, consumer spending now is above where it was before the pandemic even hit.

And you see this in busy stores. You see it in crowded roadways. You see it in restaurants and things like that. But one thing that is powering the economy is because so many businesses are fleeing shutdown states.

You know about the Tesla Gigafactory. Oracle moved its headquarters from California to Austin. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise moved its headquarters to Houston. You had CBRE, the Fortune 500 real estate company, move its headquarters to Dallas. And, earlier this year, Charles Schwab opened up its headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

And so we see so many businesses coming to the state of Texas. And that is one reason why Texas was recently recognized by the CEOs of this country in CEO magazine...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

ABBOTT: ... as the best state for doing business. It's why Texas ranked number one in the nation than last year for the most new economic development projects.

And one last factoid real quick, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

ABBOTT: And that is, here's what happened over the course of the COVID year. Texas moved from 10th to ninth globally as the ninth largest economy in the entire world.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

Well, that's terrific. I know that you're seeing a lot of people and businesses move to Texas. You just look at the income tax, no state income tax. And that is certainly one of the allures, as President Biden efforts raising taxes pretty significantly for business and individuals.

Where does the Texas voting law stand? I want to ask you that. You mentioned CEOs. You had a lot of CEOs balking over the voting laws going on in other states. I want to get your take on what you're doing in Texas and when you will sign it.

Let's go through the election bill that passed the Texas House on May 7 prohibiting sending unsolicited mail ballot applications by election officers, banning paid vote harvesting activity, protects poll watchers' right to meaningly observe what's happening.

When will you sign this bill?

ABBOTT: So, it hasn't finally been passed. It should pass this coming week. And I will be signing it immediately.

What this law really does -- and so, in Texas, every session, we focus on making sure we have safe and secure elections. And this has absolutely nothing to do with the past presidential election. But one thing that we do know in Texas, and that is that mail-in ballot -- mail-in ballots are rife with fraud, as well as ballot harvesting.

And I got to tell you this very quick, Maria, and that, it's not me talking. It's a federal judge appointed by Barack Obama in Texas that made a ruling that said that ballot harvesting and mail-in ballot fraud happens in abundance in the state of Texas.

Barack Obama himself, with Joe Biden as vice president, they investigated and prosecuted a ballot harvesting scheme in South Texas, where they were using cocaine to buy votes. We're just trying to make sure that we crack down on voter fraud like that.

BARTIROMO: Yes, that's unbelievable.

And yet, even as Obama and Biden were behind that, the Democrats are pushing forth H.R.1. And that has mail-in ballots becoming the standard.

Governor, before you go, we have got to talk quickly about the border and how you assess things today. I was grateful to take a helicopter trip with you on the Black Hawk Helicopter and be able to view the border in broad daylight. And we see groups of five, 10, 15, 20 people on that road right next door to the Rio Grande as a regular occurrence right now.

And you tweeted this weekend about the seizure of weapons and ammunition yesterday. There was a seizure of weapons and ammunition by the Department of Public Safety. Tell me about the seizures that you're seeing in terms of illicit narcotics and guns at the border.

Have you seen any change in terms of the border and the apprehensions and the people coming into Texas?

ABBOTT: So, there's been a dramatic increase in the amount of drugs coming across the border that is very dangerous to people across the entire United States.

The Texas Department of Public Safety patrols the border every single day. And they have seen an 800 percent increase in the amount of fentanyl coming across the border. They seized this year enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman and child in the entire state of New York.

And so we are cracking down on this because this is very dangerous. What happens is, pills or other drugs that people may buy off the street are laced with this fentanyl, and it's killing more and more people. Americans need to wake up to this crisis.

The border issue is not on the Rio Grande Valley. It goes all the way up to New York or to Minnesota or Chicago, places across the country. And what the border crisis is doing that Biden has opened up, it is enriching the cartels, who profit off of moving fentanyl and other drugs into the United States.

BARTIROMO: Yes, and we had 90,000 overdoses in America in the last year, largely due to fentanyl.

I don't understand why Biden and Harris are not doing anything about it, as is the releasing by ICE of illegal immigrants into the country. That's also increased dramatically. So, you're right. What happens in Texas doesn't stay in Texas. It goes from the border into the interior of our country.

Governor, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks very much.

ABBOTT: Thank you, Maria. Take care.

BARTIROMO: All right, we will be watching the development, Governor Greg Abbott.

Coming up, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe is here on how Biden's weak foreign policy is emboldening America's most dangerous enemies, making the country less safe.

And why is Biden nominating a former legal adviser to Huawei as the next general counsel in the DNI's office?

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We worked for four years to create peace and stability in the Middle East. And we made clear to the Palestinian Authority, we're not going to underwrite you. We're not going to send American taxpayer money to the Palestinians while you're still committed to wiping Israel off the face of the Earth.

This administration came in and immediately began underwriting the Palestinians again. They handed billions of dollars over to the Iranians, in terms of absence of enforcement of sanctions. The Iranians are underwriting the very terrorists who are firing rockets into Jerusalem and Tel Aviv today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: That was former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on this program last week explaining how President Biden's foreign policy is inviting violence in the Middle East.

My next guest warned us right here in March that negotiating with Iran would set the United States onto a very dangerous path. That is exactly what has taken place.

John Ratcliffe is the former director of national intelligence. He joins me right now.

And, John Ratcliffe, it's good to see you this morning. Thanks very much for joining us.

JOHN RATCLIFFE, FORMER U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Good morning, Maria. Good to be with you.

BARTIROMO: Thanks very much for joining us.

I know you didn't want to be right. Tell me how this all happened. A month after Joe Biden sent aid money to the Palestinians, suddenly, we see a similar scene that we saw under the Obama administration's, rockets fired at Israel.

Do you believe this cease-fire will hold?

RATCLIFFE: Yes, Maria, as I was listening to you talk to Governor Abbott about the crisis at our Southern border, it struck me that, when we look at national security and foreign policy mistakes by the Biden administration already, chapter one is how to create a crisis at your Southern border by reversing policies that are clearly working.

Chapter two would be what we're talking about in Iran, how to jeopardize Middle East peace by emboldening Iran. And the clips that you just showed very clearly reflect that.

I got to tell you Maria, watching Joe Biden two days ago take credit for a cease-fire was like watching an arsonist show up to try and take credit for putting out a fire that he helped start.

Let's be real clear about this. Those 4,000 rockets that went into Israel were not Hamas rockets. They were Iranian rockets. They were paid for or built by or put together by Hamas militants trained by Iran in aerodynamics and propulsion necessary to attack Israel.

You don't have to take my word for it. The Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, two days ago took credit for the victory, what he claimed was the victory over Israel by Iran. And Hamas' leader thanked Iran for its help in that victory.

So, to watch what the Biden administration and how they have emboldened Iran, when, as you said, we warned them specifically, look, if you reverse these policies and embolden Iran, you're going to jeopardize this hard- earned Middle East peace.

And to your question about whether the cease-fire will hold, Maria, that remains to be seen. But the path that the Biden administration has chosen with respect to Iran means that there's going to be chaos and war in other places in the Middle East besides Gaza, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq.

If you give Iran more money to fund terrorism, like they have done in the past with the $100 billion that the Obama/Biden administration gave them in the first failed JCPOA agreement, they're only going to do that again.

And I think it's really troubling, Maria, that the approach that the Biden administration has taken is to take our sovereign ally in the Middle East, Israel, and bring them down to the same level where they have raised Hamas, a terrorist organization, and said...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

RATCLIFFE: ... both parties are at fault.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

RATCLIFFE: I think that's really a tragic and troubling foreign policy approach.

BARTIROMO: Yes, as if it's an equal comparison.

Look, you have got the Israeli Iron Dome, obviously, incredible technology. But how much can the Iron Dome take? There is now a debate in the Congress. The Squad does not want to send -- sell any arms to Israel, even after we know that the Obama administration gave Iran to -- that it's now using to train and arm Hamas, as you just said.

And yet they're pushing Joe Biden not to sell any arms to Israel.

RATCLIFFE: So, the Biden administration seems so concerned.

What you haven't seen in this 11 days of fighting is any condemnation or attribution to Iran for this, because the Biden administration is so concerned. They want to bring Iran to negotiate a failed sequel to the failed original JCPOA agreement that gave Iran the $100 billion to fund this kind of terrorism.

And no air defense system is immune from numbers. It's science. And so what Iran has tried to do, and once they get the resources to do it, if sanctions are lifted, is again...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

RATCLIFFE: ... to create platforms to be attacked from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Afghanistan, Iraq, all of these places, to target Israel.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

RATCLIFFE: And the Iron Dome can't withstand that.

And the Israelis know that. And we should be helping Israel, not hurting them. And this foreign policy hurts Israel.

BARTIROMO: Real quick on Russia, because the administration has also waived the sanctions on the company operating the Nord Stream II.

What kind of hypocrisy is this that we're allowing the Nord Stream II pipeline to go double its efforts in terms of sending gas to Europe, and yet he kills the pipeline in the U.S. the XL Pipeline, even as his administration members are saying, yes, the safest way to transport energy is through pipelines?

RATCLIFFE: Yes, I'm really, really, really surprised at this.

For all of Biden's talk about being tough on Russia and Putin, when you when you look at what's happened -- look, our administration -- I can tell you, Maria, I sat in the Situation Room with Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser O'Brien and others talking about, how do we stop Nord Stream? And we did stop it.

We told the carriers involved, the countries of the ships of origin and all of the companies and parties involved, look, you can do business with Russia or the United States. You pick. And we put sanctions on to ensure that this pipeline wouldn't be finished. And it wasn't for the past year.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

RATCLIFFE: So, it's really strange.

When you look at this, Maria, I mean, you don't have to be great at math to look at this. Joe Biden kills the Keystone pipeline. Russia wins. The Colonial Pipeline gets shut down by Russia. Russia wins. And now the response from the Biden administration is to give Vladimir Putin a brand- new shiny natural gas pipeline, Nord Stream II.

BARTIROMO: Yes. Unbelievable.

RATCLIFFE: Russia wins again.

So, it is. It's really hard to believe how we have gone from America first to America worst in such a short period of time on these foreign policy...

BARTIROMO: China...

RATCLIFFE: ... national security issues.

BARTIROMO: I want to get to China. I want to get to China.

We will take a short break and then ask why Biden is still not bringing up COVID-19, and it originated in China.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: We are back with former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.

This week, President Biden actually quoted Mao Zedong. He is the longest running communist dictator of China, only competed for that title by Xi Jinping, the current dictator. It was the third time that Biden parroted Mao in a year.

Amazingly, this time, he did it during a commencement address to the U.S. Coast Guard. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We have to make sure that women have the chance to succeed and thrive throughout their careers.

There's a saying we use in a different context, a Chinese saying, that says women hold up half the world. It's an absolutely stupid position not to make sure they represent at least half of what we do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: I understand the point on women, but to quote Mao while the U.S. Coast Guard is actively battling communist China principles right now in the South China Sea, Mao principles, where the CCP is trying to dominate and bully neighbors.

John Ratcliffe is with us this morning.

And I have got to ask you your reaction. Why quote a communist dictator while speaking to the very men and women defending our coasts and our country? Do you think this is what he's expecting to fend off China's bad behavior?

RATCLIFFE: Well, it's incredibly poor judgment. It's why he's going to continue to be criticized about being soft on China.

I mean, Mao Zedong is the founder of the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party, there is no group that is treating women worse than the Chinese Communist Party is treating Uyghur women right now, millions of them. And so it's really just poor judgment.

And, again, it's going to continue to open up the Biden administration to criticism as they continue to make soft policy decisions that are good for China and not stand up to the Chinese Communist Party.

BARTIROMO: And it seems like another policy decision is sort of highlighted every day.

I mean, look, President Biden's -- now his worst move, arguably, is giving the U.S. vaccine technology to China, waiving any protections that our vaccine makers had on the secret to the vaccine. And then there's this. This week, this last week, the Senate had confirmation hearings about the Office of the DNI general counsel, nominating the general counsel for the head of intelligence apparatus.

This person who they're nominating did work for Huawei. Can you explain that one?

RATCLIFFE: Again, really poor judgment. Why they would do that, I don't understand.

Listen, Huawei is under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party, which means lawyers for Huawei are under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party.

So, if you agree with me, as many people have, that China is our greatest national security threat, why would you put one of China's lawyers in charge of our intelligence community to be the highest lawyer within the intelligence community to deal with our greatest threat? It doesn't -- it doesn't make any sense.

And to the point about COVID and China's role with respect to that, Maria, the Biden administration put out a 200-page strategic plan on COVID-19, and not a single word, not one word on the origins of COVID-19, even though there's increasingly intelligence and evidence that indicates that the origins was a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

But yet the Biden administration refuses to confront China on that issue, and other issues like Uyghur genocide, what they're doing -- what they have done in Hong Kong, their aggression in the South China Sea. Again, the Biden administration is going to continue to get criticism for being soft on China.

And they're not helping themselves by putting people in that have had ties with the Chinese Communist Party or doing work for China and the Chinese Communist Party into this administration.

BARTIROMO: I don't understand any of this, John. I don't understand why the issue of the origins of COVID never came up during Joe Biden's conversations with Xi Jinping, didn't even come up in that Alaska meeting.

I don't understand why they want to get the United States back into the Iran deal. That's obviously not in the best interests of America. The COVID situation, back in December, you were with me on this program, and you warned us, because you wrote it in your op-ed, that China is trying to biologically enhance its soldiers.

This week, a Chinese professor with close ties to the CCP declared this. He said China defeated the United States. They won in a biological war in 2020.

We also had news a couple of weeks ago from another reporter out of Australia, who said that the idea of using a biological weapon was talked about five years before the pandemic occurred.

So, what are your thoughts on all of this, as, by the way, The Global Times is recommending that the CCP bomb Australia? And we know that The Global Times is a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party. They're out with a piece saying, oh, yes, the CCP should bomb Australia.

Australia, of course, has been one of the courageous countries to push back. They want answers on COVID and the origins.

RATCLIFFE: Well, my thought on that, Maria, is, this is exactly why I did something that DNIs don't typically do or had never done when I wrote an op-ed last year saying China's our greatest national security threat.

And I laid out many of the same things that you just accurately laid out, Maria. And, as you recall, a lot of people mocked me for that and said, oh, no, Russia is a much greater threat, and there are greater threats, and China's not that bad.

And now the majority of national security experts agree with me, for all of, again, the reasons that you have outlined. And yet it's inexplicable that this administration isn't confronting -- almost 600,000 Americans died last year as a result of, whether by accident or otherwise, a virus that the Chinese Communist Party very clearly negligently allowed to be exported around the world.

And the fact that the Biden administration will not confront them on the origins of this and hold them accountable is really disrespectful to every American that lost a loved one as a result of the worst pandemic of our lifetime.

BARTIROMO: And this behavior forces us to go back to the issue of conflict of interests.

Is it because the Biden family has conflicts with the Chinese Communist Party because of all of the money that they made?

Thank you so much, John Ratcliffe.

We will be right back. Stay with us for Senator Tom Cotton.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): If it is confirmed that roads around that lab were shut down for a number of days in mid-October, it is highly coincidental that there was a major shutdown of those roads at about the time one might have expected this virus to first get transmitted to humans, whatever the origins may have been.

But this would be another piece of piece of circumstantial evidence that there was some kind of accident or outbreak from those labs, not from the seafood market or anywhere else. That's why it's so important we get to the bottom of this data.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: And that was Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton on this program in May of last year addressing something that he picked up, that there was no cell phone activity or major road activity -- they were all closed -- around the Wuhan Lab of Virology in October of 2019.

This is a very busy area of Wuhan. To have no cell phone activity is a real red flag.

Congressman Devin Nunes calls this shutdown exculpatory evidence in his new report on the origins of COVID-19. We told you about that report coming out. It was released this past Wednesday.

Joining me right now is the first lawmaker to go on the record right here in -- on this program back in February of 2020 and suggest that COVID-19 could have leaked from that Wuhan Lab of Virology, Senator Tom Cotton.

Senator, you have done great value for our viewers by your honesty and telling it like it is. Thank you for that.

Do you still stand by what you said, and what have you learned in the last year about this situation?

COTTON: Yes, Maria, it's hard to believe it's been 15 months since you and I first discussed what I think most Arkansans think is a very commonsense proposition, that is surely as a big coincidence that this virus started not up in some remote mountain village with caves full of bats, but rather in downtown Wuhan, a city larger than New York, just a few blocks up the road from labs that was researching bat-based coronaviruses.

And, since then, every bit of circumstantial evidence, to include evidence that came out in the final days of the Trump administration, that some employees and staff at these labs may have had coronavirus-like symptoms as early as October or September of 2019, continues to point to these labs as the origin of this virus, not that food market that the Chinese Communist Party used as a cover story from the very beginning.

That's why it's so imperative that the Biden administration hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable and demand answers for all of these questions.

BARTIROMO: But he's not, Senator. You know that.

We're talking about all of the things that's coming out of the Biden administration. You're going to be debating another bill this week on not having people invest in Chinese companies that are tied to the military.

And yet the administration just removed one technology company from the Trump blacklist, and it pushed out, postponed the ban on trading stocks of companies that are tied to the Chinese military. What's going on? The Biden administration keeps giving the Chinese Communist Party a break and rolling over for the CCP.

We have a timeline of events here on the history of the gain of function research. And what we have on our timeline is that there was a pause in this research, and then the pause was lifted in 2017.

Let's take a look at this research and funding of gain of function, which you raise in a letter that you sent to Director Francis Collins of the NIH. Tell me what you want answered. You have got 17 questions here. You and six other senators signed this letter to Francis Collins.

COTTON: Well, Maria, Joe Biden's been rolling over for aggressors around the world, not just China, but Russia and Iran. And, this week, he seemed to draw moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas when he began to demand a cease-fire.

But the letter that I joined Senator Ron Johnson and a handful of other senators on very specifically asks the National Institutes of Health why they were funded -- funding gain of function research in these Wuhan labs.

Now, Dr. Fauci has been to Congress, and he said this absolutely did not happen. But Dr. Fauci is playing word games. So, the money that the NIH gave went to an American organization, which turned around and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to these Wuhan labs to investigate coronaviruses and, yes, to find ways to make them more contagious and more dangerous.

And we asked Francis Collins, who's Dr. Fauci's boss, to come clean, to tell us exactly what was happening, why this research was being funded, as you point out, Maria, during a time in which the Obama administration had explicitly banned this kind of gain of function research, research into making some of the world's deadliest pathogens even more dangerous.

And I think that there could be an example here of these public health bureaucrats thinking that they know better, that they're not going to answer to political oversight and accountability, even in the Obama administration. And they went ahead with this research that could be very dangerous.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

COTTON: That's why it is imperative that the NIH come clean and tell us exactly what happened.

BARTIROMO: You talk about those word games that Fauci was playing.

In fact, we know that a gentlemen named Peter Daszak was running or runs the Health Eco Alliance, the alliance that -- the nonprofit that took money from the NIH and sent it over to Wuhan.

Here's Peter Daszak, who runs that alliance, talking about coronavirus. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: You say these are diverse coronaviruses and you can't vaccinate against them. There are no antivirals.

What do we do?

PETER DASZAK, PRESIDENT, ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE: Well, I think coronavirus is a really good -- I mean, you're a virologist. You know all this stuff. But they -- you can manipulate them in the lab pretty easily.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: You can manipulate the coronavirus easily, he's telling us in December of 2019.

And, by the way, after I spoke with you and others who suggested it likely came from the lab, I sent out a tweet talking about to promote our show and the things that I found out, and Peter Daszak trashes me on Twitter, saying I know nothing.

Meanwhile, here we are, a year later. Obviously, it's likely that it came from the lab. What do you make of what took place here?

COTTON: Well, I think a lot of these so-called experts and scientific bureaucrats are trying to cover their tracks.

And, yes, this could be a genuine scandal. This could be public health bureaucrats violating explicit direction from the Obama White House to continue research that is highly, highly dangerous, and potentially susceptible to escape from a laboratory, especially laboratory in China that has notoriously bad safety practices.

But, of course, a year ago, Maria, Donald Trump was still in the White House, and the press didn't want to say anything that would maybe help him get reelected or to confirm what people like I was saying, if they -- since they say don't like my politics.

I guess, now that Joe Biden's in the White House, they're willing to investigate a little bit deeper. It's just an example once again of how the press has become deeply partisan in our day.

BARTIROMO: Senator, real quick, before we go -- we only have a couple of seconds here -- but in terms of the domestic policy, President Biden is talking about more requirements for the financial services sector, which, initially, giving $80 billion to the IRS is his idea, which would help the banks give the Treasury direct access into our bank accounts.

What's going on here? Does he want surveillance of our bank accounts now?

COTTON: Yes, he wants to give tens of billions of dollars to the IRS, the organization where Lois Lerner used the bureaucracy to persecute Christian groups and conservative groups, so they can track the money that you have in your checking account or your savings account or your 401(k).

Suffice to say, I don't think many Republicans are going to support that in the Congress.

BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.

Senator, we will keep talking with you. Got to catch up with you on finding out where all of this legislation is going.

Thanks very much for being here this morning, sir.

COTTON: Thank you, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Appreciate it, Senator Tom Cotton.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER NAVARRO, FORMER DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF TRADE AND MANUFACTURING POLICY: What we know is that the ground zero for this virus was within a few miles of that lab.

If you simply do an Occam's razor approach that the simplest explanation is the -- probably the most likely, I think it's incumbent on China to prove that it wasn't that lab.

So, that's number one. But ,more importantly, we know that, for a critical six-week period of time, China used its influence at the World Health Organization to hide the virus from the world. This was a time where that virus could have been contained in Wuhan.

Instead, five million Chinese people went out from Wuhan and propagated the virus around the world. That was a critical time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: And that was former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on this program back in April of 2020 exposing China's coronavirus cover-up.

Here we are, more than a year later. We still do not have official confirmation on where that virus originated. And Joe Biden won't bring it up.

Last Sunday, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told us that all the signs continue to point to where we expected, the Wuhan Lab of Virology.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POMPEO: We worked to get every bit of evidence that we could.

We tried to deliver this. The CDC tried to work with the Chinese. They covered it up terribly. But every piece of evidence that we saw throughout the entire time I was there suggested that this originated in that laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

I haven't seen a shred of evidence that suggests anything to the contrary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Joining me right now is Jamie Metzl.

He is an adviser to the World Health Organization. He served on the U.S. National Security Council during the Clinton administration. He has a Ph.D. in Asian history. And we are happy to have him on this morning.

Great to see you, Jamie. Thanks very much for joining me.

JAMIE METZL, ADVISER, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: My pleasure, Maria.

BARTIROMO: So, where are we on all of this?

I know that the World Health Assembly, an annual meeting of world leaders, will happen this week. Will this issue come up?

METZL: I think it will come up.

But the big question for our government and all governments around the world is, are we going to do everything possible to demand the kind of accountability from China and, frankly, from ourselves, but most significantly from China, to get to the bottom of how this terrible pandemic began?

From day one, China has been engaged in a massive cover-up that's involved destroying samples, hiding records, imprisoning citizen journalists asking tough questions.

And it's established a universal gag order preventing Chinese scientists from saying or writing anything publicly without Chinese government approval. And millions of people are dead as a result of this cover-up. It's got to end.

And I think our government and governments around the world will have an opportunity at the World Health Assembly, when it opens tomorrow, to demand a very, very significant change.

BARTIROMO: Yes, but look what happened to Australia when it demanded some information.

Australia was among the more courageous countries to say, look, we want to see how this started. Now there are articles in The Global Times advising the CCP to bomb Australia.

Will Australia speak up at this meeting?

METZL: Yes. Yes.

So it's really outrageous. I'm glad that you mentioned that, Maria, because Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison early last year was raising some pretty tough questions about COVID origins. And China blasted Australia. They cut back on imports into China of Australian copper and beef and wine and many other of Australia's essential exports.

BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.

METZL: And they were delivering that message, hey, don't ask tough questions, or you will be punished.

BARTIROMO: Oh, that's exactly right.

METZL: And then the Australian proposal for a tough resolution at the World -- it got completely watered down.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

METZL: And that was kind of the -- what I have called the original sin, because we have had this shambolic not even investigation.

BARTIROMO: Hold on. Hold on, Jamie.

METZL: Yes.

BARTIROMO: Because we know -- because we know there's retribution.

Hold on. Stay with that thought.

We will take a break and come right back with Jamie Metzl. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

And I'm back with Jamie Metzl. He is senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. He's written a fantastic op-ed this morning in The Hill. His book is "Hacking Darwin," which you should check out.

Real quick, Jamie, the final question here. Why is China trying so hard to cover up the coronavirus origin?

METZL: The reason is, if it turns out -- and nobody who at least who I know knows -- if it turns out that the origin of the pandemic stems from an accidental lab leak, followed by a criminal cover-up, the implications for China nationally and globally would be massive.

We could even imagine Xi Jinping possibly being overthrown, people all around the world demanding reparations from China and many other things. And that's why the Chinese government will really stop at nothing in its ongoing effort to cover this up.

And that's why everybody, we're all together, we should be united as Americans, as humans, understanding, wanting to understand how this pandemic began, so we can address our greatest vulnerabilities.

BARTIROMO: Absolutely.

Real quick, before you go, you have done such great work on the history of Asia. Characterize Mao for us.

METZL: So, Mao is a monster. Everybody in the world should recognize that.

People in China know that Mao is responsible for the deaths of some 47 million Chinese people.

BARTIROMO: OK.

METZL: The problem is that the legitimacy of the Chinese government depends on its connection to Mao and the revolution.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

Jamie, it's great to have you this morning. Thanks very much, Jamie Metzl.

You have got to come here for a longer time next time.

Have a great Sunday, everybody.

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