Rep. Jim Jordan: Democrats are criticizing President Trump for following the Constitution

close

Video

Rep. Jim Jordan: Democrats are criticizing President Trump for following the Constitution

Rep. Jim Jordan discusses the impact of the Supreme Court vacancy on the 2020 election and former FBI Director Comey to testify before Senate Judiciary Committee September 30.

This is a rush transcript from “Sunday Morning Futures” September 20, 2020. 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.

Flags across the country are at half-staff this morning to honor the life and legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away on Friday at the age of 87.

Take a look at a growing memorial outside of the Supreme Court, flowers, candles and signs blanketing the steps to mourn the feminist pioneer and liberal icon, who was the second woman confirmed to the high court bench.

President Trump celebrated Ginsburg's 27 years of service, calling her a trailblazer, an inspiration to all Americans.

As we remember her this morning, we are reminded also of what's at stake on November 3.

Senator Ted Cruz underlined the importance of the next disappointment when he joined me just last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS:  The dissenters are literally erasing the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights. And we are one vote away.

BARTIROMO:  Unbelievable.

CRUZ:  If Joe Biden wins, the odds are very high, depending upon what appointments he gets, that that four votes will become five votes, and the Second Amendment will be erased from the Bill of Rights. That's the stakes of this election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO:  Straight ahead on "Sunday Morning Futures," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is here, weighing in on Ginsburg's passing just days after President Trump presided over the historic signing of a Middle East peace agreement at the White House that could earn him a Nobel Peace Prize.

This as anticipation over John Durham's criminal probe reaches a pitch, with House Democrats now calling for an emergency DOJ review of his investigation. Senate Intel Chairman Marco Rubio and Jim Jordan, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, are here with their expectations for the report and more high-profile indictments.

Also, this hour, NFL legend Herschel Walker will join me with his message for all Americans, as they prepare to elect the next president in just 44 days.

All that and a lot more this morning, as we look ahead on "Sunday Morning Futures."

But, first, this morning:  President Trump declared the dawn as a new Middle East on Tuesday, after presiding over the official signing of the first peace agreement between Israel and an Arab state since 1994.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo toured the region last month and witnessed the geopolitical implications of this treaty firsthand.

He joins me right now.

Secretary, good morning to you. Thanks very much for being here.

MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE:  Maria, it's great to be with you.

Thanks for having me on the show this morning.

BARTIROMO:  I want to discuss the magnitude of this agreement in a moment.

But, first, I do want to get your thoughts on Justice Ginsburg's passing this morning.

POMPEO:  Well, we always mourn the loss of life.

She was an amazing, hardworking woman committed to her vision of America.

And we pray for her and her family. And her service to America is unquestionable. She was doing her best every day to try and deliver on the things she cared about deeply, and she had a real impact on our country.

BARTIROMO:  She sure did.

And there's such conversation this morning about that impact.

Secretary, I want to ask you about this incredible Middle Eastern situation, the significance of Tuesday's signing, how it will make the Mideast better. Walk us through how this all came about. Why now?

POMPEO:  Yes, so, it's the right question.

These overnight successes, as you know, Maria, in life are from years of hard work. For three years, President Trump has taken a fundamentally different approach.

The establishment Middle East policy was that you had to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians first. The president came to understand quickly that the real threat to these countries was the Islamic Republic of Iran. So we flipped the narrative.

We worked to deliver a coalition to get the Gulf states to work together, to convince them that they could, in fact, work alongside and partner with and do commerce with the state of Israel and recognize them and that they would be safer, their people be more prosperous.

Those are the central underpinnings. It then took action. It took principled action on behalf of President Trump and our administration to convince them that the Americans would be there. And whether that was the decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem, to acknowledge that the Golan Heights properly belong to Israel, all things previous presidents has just said were nuts, that you couldn't do, it was against the establishment's vision for how to create stability in the Middle East.

And then the work we did to kill Qasem Soleimani and take down an enormous threat to everyone in the region. I think those things gave these Middle Eastern states the trust, the confidence that the United States would stand behind its commitments and have created the space for not one, but two agreements, the first two in over a quarter-of-a-century, between Israel and the UAE and between Israel and Bahrain, that will make the lives better for each of the people of each of those three countries.

It's really quite a momentous day. We hope there's more to follow.

BARTIROMO:  And the American negotiations have tried this for years, decades, and with no success.

What was it about this administration's prodding this administration's laying out the potential for peace and progress that really moved the needle here? And are there other countries lining up to perhaps engage in a similar deal to normalize relationships with Israel?

POMPEO:  Yes, Maria, there will be other countries that will make the right decision to recognize that Israel has its right to exist, and they will want to do business with them, and they will want to connect with them, and they will want their people to have exchanges.

I saw the number of LinkedIn exchanges between the United Arab Emirates and Israel off the charts the day after this announcement. The people of those countries understand that this historic rejection of Israel and its right to exist was the wrong thing to do.

So, I think you will see more nations follow and make the right decision.

What created the opportunity was the recognition that the way to create stability was to make Iran more isolated. And we have done that. It's been talked about how America has been isolated in the region. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Israel has now more partners, more friends. The United States now has more partners and more friends in the region than at any time in recent history.

And they did that because they came to trust President Trump and his team would be there with them, would do the right thing by them, and that we would support them when they made the right decision to recognize the state of Israel.

BARTIROMO:  Are you expecting retaliation of any sort from Iran? And what has been the reaction from the leaderships of these countries in the face of pushback from Iran? Are they getting bullied by the Iranian officials?

POMPEO:  Well, remember there's two things going on.

One, we had this deal. And then ,last night at midnight, the U.N. sanctions snapped back, putting in another increasing restraint on the capacity for the Islamic Republic of Iran to create harm in the Middle East.

We now, the United States has led and will prevent arms trafficking by Iran. It was -- the previous deal Secretary Kerry and Vice President Biden signed off on was to allow the Iranians on October 18, just a couple weeks from now, to traffic in weapons. Again, it's nuts, absolutely nuts.

We have stopped that. We stopped it last night with action at the United Nations. We will talk more about that tomorrow.

But Iran has been fomenting terror in the region for 40 years, since the resolution. There's no reason to expect that, in the short run, they have any way of getting out of the box and changing their ideology and their theocratic, kleptocratic nature.

And what President Trump has said is, we're going to deny them the resources. We're not going to send crates of cash. We're not going to allow them to do business in the world. We're not going to allow them to create the very wealth that destroys the opportunity for peace in the region.

I will give you another example. Everyone wants Lebanon to get better.

President Macron is leading an effort there. And yet the Europeans have not joined us in stopping arms trafficking. Those weapons -- those weapons that Iran will sell will end up in the hands of Hezbollah and make life tragically worse for the people of Lebanon.

But the world needs to unite around the central idea that the Islamic Republic of Iran is the greatest threat. And when that regime changes its behavior, we have a chance to create true global stability in the region.

It's what we have been working on. It's what President Trump asked us to do.

And now, three years in, we can show the fruits of that effort.

BARTIROMO:  Yes, where is Europe in this? Similar situation as it relates to China. You have got 30 countries pushing back on Huawei. And we're still waiting on any resolution in Europe. The same with Iran.

Can you talk about that a bit? And just give me the practical changes that we will see as a result of this snapback in sanctions on Iran.

POMPEO:  So, the second question, is it practical, for instance, there will be a whole lot more things that would have taken place, absent the U.N.

Security Council resolutions coming back into effect last night.

Arms sales, tanks, air defense systems, all of those in a couple weeks would have been permitted to have been sold. And the Europeans have not joined us in this. They know we're right. They tell us privately, we don't want the arm sales to come back. Indeed, they put it in a letter that they are very concerned about these arms sales.

But they haven't lifted a finger. They haven't done the work that needs to be done. They have no option, no alternative to what we have done to ensure that that doesn't happen. I hope they will join us. I hope they will get to the right place.

They are still wedded to this silly nuclear deal that was signed now five years ago. I hope they will come to understand that, if you really want to lead, if you want to be part of a global coalition to reduce risk in the Middle East, then you need to join us. We need these sanctions to snap back.

Europe is getting better, Maria, with respect to how they're thinking about China. We have spent a couple years just sharing the risks with them. We will begin an E.U.-China dialogue before too terribly long, where will begin to have conversations about how we can, together, put down this threat from the Chinese Communist Party that it presents to the freedom, to religious freedom, to commerce and trade, all of the things that Western nations value...

BARTIROMO:  Yes.

POMPEO:  ... all of the value sets that we hold.

We will push back. And I'm hopeful that the Europeans will get on board.

Many of the countries have already. I hope the larger ones will join us in this as well.

BARTIROMO:  Well, you have done an incredible job on this.

Real quick, before you go, China -- and you -- we have spoken about this so much over the last several years. And you have been the first administration, because of your work, the president's work, on pushing back on the bad behavior of China.

They're still doing business with Iran. And now the president is giving his blessing to this deal between TikTok, Oracle, and Walmart.

Can you explain how this is not a national security risk, Secretary, because ByteDance, the Chinese company, still going to own 80 percent of this TikTok global? And we know that, if the Chinese company -- the Chinese Communist Party wants that data of American citizens, they're going to get it, given the civil-military fusion laws in China.

So, how is this not a risk?

POMPEO:  Yes, Maria, listened, you have nailed the right point with respect to WeChat and TikTok and all the other Chinese telecommunications companies. We have been working on Huawei for years now.

The single rule is this:  We don't want American data in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, for the exact reasons you describe. It will end up in the hands of their MSS, their security apparatus, their military, their civil-military fusion program. So that's the rule President Trump laid down.

As for the transaction around TikTok, I have seen the outlines of it. The president now has said he's conditionally OK with what they're doing. This deal, if approved, in the end, if ultimately approved, will ensure that no Americans' data has any access to anyone in China that has any capacity to move this to a place we don't want it.

We will ensure that that firewall is real, that the protection is serious, that the data resides in places that are connected to the Chinese information system. Whether there's still some Chinese ownership, where they still collect a royalty check from the benefits of the business, there will be an American headquarters, it'll be controlled by Americans, and the data, most importantly, the data, the very reason we have gone after TikTok, that data will be in a place that we have confidence that no American will have the risk that their data will end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.

BARTIROMO:  Not accessible by the company that owns 80 percent of the franchise, ByteDance, Chinese company?

POMPEO:  No, think about oil deals. I used to do oil deals all the time. I didn't have any access to the company's information. I just got a royalty check, right? That's the situation.

BARTIROMO:  OK.

POMPEO:  Just a passive shareholder who collects money and -- or writes a check if the company is not doing well.

No access to the company, no decision-making authority, no ability to peer into what they're doing, just a passive shareholder.

And President Trump has made clear, he will make sure that this is solid, that it is locked in. He's not going to leave open the possibility this information will get into the hands of the very people that we went after this to make sure they did not have.

BARTIROMO:  Secretary, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks so much for your leadership, sir. We appreciate your time today.

POMPEO:  Thank you, Maria. Have a good day.

BARTIROMO:  I will see you soon. And to you.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

An outpouring of tributes to late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg continues this morning, with makeshift memorials like this one springing up across the country.

We will take a short break.

Then Congressman Jim Jordan is here to reflect on her extraordinary legacy and the role it will play in the upcoming presidential election.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO:  Welcome back.

This morning, we pause to remember Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's extraordinary life and 27-year legacy on the bench.

A feminist icon and the leader of the Supreme Court's liberal wing, her passing has the potential to dramatically transform our country's future over the next 44 days, leading up to the 2020 election.

Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan is the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. He joins me now.

Congressman, good morning to you. And it is great to see you this morning.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH):  Good morning.

You too, Maria. Good to be with you.

BARTIROMO:  Your reflection on Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing, and where we are today?

JORDAN:  Yes.

Well, I think the president said it best. This was an amazing individual who led an amazing life. You think about tops in her class in law school, first woman to make law review, then professor, and, of course, then nominated and confirmed to the highest court in the land.

It's truly an American story, where you have someone who had these lofty goals, worked hard, made them all happen, accomplished things of meaning and significance and lasting value, and, of course, raised a family while all that's going on, so just an amazing individual.

I think -- as I said, I think the president summed it up with those words last night.

BARTIROMO:  Well, you know that the president's critics and skeptics are insane over the president potentially naming another Supreme Court justice.

I want to be respectful here...

(CROSSTALK)

JORDAN:  Yes.

BARTIROMO:  ... but also take note of the fact that it is 44 days away from a presidential election.

And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the president have tweeted.

The president said that it is an obligation for him to name a replacement and to have a vote, Mitch McConnell saying the same thing.

And Schumer said: "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president."

JORDAN:  Yes.

BARTIROMO:  Your reaction to what we have heard?

JORDAN:  No, they are criticizing the president for following the law, for following the Constitution.

The president's job is to nominate someone for the Supreme Court. It's then the Senate's job to advise and consent and go through the process. Now, what's happened historically -- he's not only following the law, Maria.

He's following the historic norm.

Nine out of 10 times when the party in the White House is the same party that's controlling the Senate, nine out of 10 times during an election year, you put someone forward, they get confirmed.

But only once out of eight times has someone, when the party -- when there's a difference in who has the White House and who has control of the Senate, only one in eight times when someone's been brought forward in an election year.

So this is following the law, following the Constitution, and, frankly, following the historic norms of our country. So, I hope we move forward, and I hope we put someone in there who is going to respect the Constitution, follow the Constitution, understand the First Amendment and Second Amendment are critically important.

That's the kind of justice we need.

BARTIROMO:  Two names have emerged from the list of Supreme Court contenders that President Trump is said to be considering following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the judges Amy Coney Barrett in Chicago and Barbara Lagoa in Atlanta said to be the top of the list.

Your thoughts on a replacement and on a vote?

JORDAN:  Well, yes.

BARTIROMO:  What's the timing on this? Will this vote take place next week in the Senate?

JORDAN:  Well, I doubt it's next week, but that's up to the Senate. That's up to Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and the Senate. I hope it happens as quickly as possible.

I think those two individuals be great. But what's most important to me is someone who is going to follow the Constitution. Understand where we're at right now. I think about what we see in the last six months.

Democrat -- Democrat governors, Democrat mayors have said, you can't go to church, you can't go to work, you can't go to school, but you can protest, riot, and loot. So there's all been kinds of limits on your fundamental liberties, your fundamental rights.

We need someone on the court who will respect those liberties, who understands how important the Bill of Rights and the Constitution really are. That, to me, is what's most important. So, I think that's what we should focus on. Those two individuals fit that.

I think they would be great, great selections and great additions to the court. I hope we put people on the court in the Scalia, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, mold and, frankly, not in the John Roberts mold. I hope that's what happens.

But we should move forward with this. I think it should happen as quickly as possible.

BARTIROMO:  Well, this morning, Nancy Pelosi said she's ready to impeach the president if he actually moves forward with this.

We're going to talk about that when we come back. Let's take a short break, Congressman.

After the break, I have got to ask you about what could be another game- changer for the 2020 election. And that's the findings of John Durham's criminal probe and this constant effort to take down Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi talking about impeachment once again this morning.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO:  Welcome back.

It is the testimony we have all been waiting for. This week, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham announced that James Comey will publicly appear before his committee on September 30. Graham promised viewers of this program that he would subpoena the former FBI director, along with every ex-Obama official who signed the FISA warrants used to illegally spy on Carter Page and the Trump campaign.

Here is what he told us last month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC):  You got Rosenstein, now Sally Yates saying, if they knew then what they knew now, they wouldn't have signed the warrant application, which means they are running away from Crossfire Hurricane.

They're dumping it all on Comey. And that's probably the right thing to do.

Eventually, I'm going to call Comey in and ask him, how could you keep signing warrant applications against Carter Page in April and June of 2017, when your agency knew in January and March of 2017 the dossier was a bunch of garbage?

BARTIROMO:  Right.

GRAHAM:  How could you keep doing that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO:  And I am back with Congressman Jim Jordan this morning.

Congressman, it's September 20, 2020. We have been waiting for some kind of a resolution of what took place in 2016 for a long time now. We will hear from Jim Comey.

JORDAN:  Yes.

BARTIROMO:  But this effort to take down Donald Trump just keeps going.

JORDAN:  Yes.

No, look, when Mr. Comey comes in, I'd want to ask him about the January 5,

2017 meeting, because remember what happened here. They spied on the Trump campaign. They tried to stop President Trump from winning the election. He won.

Then priority number one becomes, how do we cover up what we did? And they had to focus on getting rid of Michael Flynn. And that all happened there they plan and structure how they are going to take down Michael Flynn in that January 5 meeting in the White House, Obama, Biden, Comey, Yates, Rice all in that meeting.

They plot and strategize how they are going to take down Michael Flynn, because they had to, because Michael Flynn, as former defense intelligence and now as the incoming national security adviser to President Trump, was going to figure out what they did.

So I'd want to ask him, what all took place in there? Remember, Joe Biden brings up the Logan Act in that meeting. We have the notes that show that.

So I'd want to ask Jim Comey about that meeting. Frankly, I would want to ask Susan Rice at some point, why did you send a memo to yourself? Why did you send an e-mail to yourself? You ever done that before?

Because she obviously does that on the 20th on Inauguration Day, reflecting back on that January 5 meeting. So, I would really want to focus on what took place in that meeting on January 5, 2017.

BARTIROMO:  I know.

But, look, we know already that there was criminal it. There was leaking confidential information to the press. There was lying to Congress. There was entrapment.

JORDAN:  Yes.

BARTIROMO:  There was falsifying documents that were used in front of a FISA court to get illegal, unlawful wiretaps on a political opponent.

Why are we still talking about this? And let me ask you this. This is a public hearing that Jim Comey is going to be speaking in front of.

JORDAN:  Yes.

BARTIROMO:  Is this a whole sham? Is this just for the public to say, oh, yes James Comey testified?

JORDAN:  Well...

BARTIROMO:  You know he can come in a public hearing and say, sorry, that's confidential, I can't talk about it.

JORDAN:  Yes.

BARTIROMO:  Isn't that what we are going to hear a lot of when we hear this...

(CROSSTALK)

JORDAN:  Well, we don't know. We don't know.

And there's some great members of that committee who are going to press him, I think, pretty hard, I think -- which I think is entirely appropriate, because I think he's been at the center of all of this.

Never under -- we should back up, though. Clinesmith pled guilty. That doesn't just happen. You have got an FBI lawyer pleading guilty to falsifying a document that was used to go get the warrant, so they can spy on the Trump campaign.

That is significant. So, I appreciate what the attorney general has done.

We're just going to have to wait and see, Maria. We're just going to have to wait and see what Mr. Durham brings forward.

BARTIROMO:  OK, but the Democrats and the president's skeptics said that he colluded and he obstructed.

So, far I see a whole lot of collusion with the Democrats and the Russians.

They paid for the dossier. And now I'm seeing obstruction as well.

Here is this case in point. Dozens of government-issued phones used by members of the Robert Mueller team were wiped clean. So, what...

JORDAN:  Yes.

BARTIROMO:  So, is that OK?

JORDAN:  No. No, of course not.

BARTIROMO:  All those phones were wiped clean; we don't have any evidence of what they were talking about during this sham investigation?

JORDAN:  No, of course it's not OK.

But understand we in the legislative branch, we can only do what we have been doing. We have been doing it now. You have been doing it in the media for three years, bringing forward the facts, the truth as best we can.

The only one who can indict is the Justice Department. And we are going to have to see what Bill Barr and John Durham do. I hope they do.

I think Jim Comey has been at the center of all this. He's in every important meeting. He was the guy who went from one administration to the other. He's the one who designed the cover-up. He's the one who pushed when he leaked his memos to get Bob Mueller, the special counsel, appointed, which, in fact, happened.

The very people on that team wiped their phones, as you just indicated. So, Comey is the key to all this. I'm glad he's coming in. I'm sure he's going to get some tough questions.

But if I were a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I would focus a lot on that January 5, 2017, meeting. I want to know what Joe Biden -- what he was doing there as well.

And, frankly, I would ask Jim Comey this question.

BARTIROMO:  And that's not...

JORDAN:  I would ask him this question.

BARTIROMO:  Yes.

JORDAN:  What did Joe Biden know about this whole thing?

Because, remember, we had this impeachment, and it was so much about Ukraine. I'd want to know, what did Jim Comey know about Hunter Biden's involvement with Burisma? I mean, we know the State Department personnel were concerned about it and failed to raise it.

Did Jim Comey know about it? Did he raise it with Joe Biden, or did he fail to raise it as well? So, I think that's an important question, not directly related, but certainly important for the American people to understand.

BARTIROMO:  Real quick on Christopher Wray.

Should he still stay in this job? We know that the FBI knew that the dossier was garbage. In January of 2017, they did an interview with Igor Danchenko, the subsource. And yet, a year later, under Christopher Wray's watch, they testified in front of the Senate or had a briefing to the Senate to say that, we have a reliable source.

That was Chris Wray's leadership. What's the status there?

JORDAN:  Well, I mean, look, that's up to the president of the United States who he wants as director of the FBI.

But I will tell you this. Chris Wray testified in front of our committee, the Judiciary Committee, and told us everything was fine with the FISA process. A few weeks later, Michael Horowitz issues a report and says the

29 FISA cases that he looked at, in a random sample case that he looked at, there were major problems with every single one.

So, that is a concern to me, when you think about the history of what took place when they when they used the FISA court to get the warrant to spy on the Trump campaign, and then what may have happened since then with these

29 other cases.

So I have real concerns there. Chris Wray really hasn't helped us get information. It was Ric Grenell and others who made these testimonies, the transcribed -- the transcripts for us to see, where we learned that there was never a proper predicate for launching the whole darn thing when they did back in 2016.

BARTIROMO:  Yes.

All right, we got to jump.

Quick second -- last final seconds here, Congressman. Your thoughts on what Nancy Pelosi said this morning. She's not against trying to impeach A.G.

Barr and President Trump...

JORDAN:  Crazy.

BARTIROMO:  ... if, in fact, they move forward with a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

JORDAN:  I don't think the American people like to be threatened.

I mean, Jerry Nadler said, if you move forward with this -- with this nomination and the Senate is won by the Democrats in the election, that they're going to pack the court. They're going to add six new seats to the court and take it from nine to 15.

Pelosi says today she's going to go with impeachment if they move forward.

I don't think the American people like being threatened. I think they like the president of the United States following the law and putting someone on that court who's going to respect the Constitution.

BARTIROMO:  All right, we will leave it there.

Congressman, it's good to see you this morning. Thank you so much.

JORDAN:  You bet.

BARTIROMO:  We're going to take a break.

JORDAN:  Thank you.

BARTIROMO:  When we come back, I will speak with Senator Marco Rubio.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO:  Welcome back.

Both candidates hitting the campaign trail this week, with President Trump holding rallies in Nevada and Wisconsin, and Joe Biden making stops in battleground Florida, where, according to a new poll, he holds a narrow five-point lead in Florida.

Biden tried to widen that gap on Tuesday with this appeal to Latino voters at a Hispanic Heritage Month event in Kissimmee. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:  I just have one thing to say.

Hang on here.

(MUSIC)

LUIS FONSI, MUSICIAN:  There you go. Dance a little bit, Joe. Come on.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN:  I will tell you what. If I had the talent of any one of these people, I'd be -- I'd be elected president by acclamation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO:  Latino voters make up 20 percent of Florida's electorate and could be a deciding factor come November.

Joining me now to weigh in on this is Florida Senator Marco Rubio. He's chairman of both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Senator, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks very much for joining us this weekend.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL):  Good morning. Thanks for having me.

BARTIROMO:  So, what do you think about Florida? Tell me how you see it.

You're out and about talking with voters and constituents.

What do you think the race looks like, now that we see Biden is still leading?

RUBIO:  Well, first, I could save people a lot of money on polling.

Florida is going to be a one-point state, half-a-point state in one direction or another. It's going to be close. That's the way -- that's where it's going to wind up.

I actually feel pretty good for the president's chances here. He's overperforming in areas like Southern Florida, where, traditionally, where, if he's going to lose, like Miami-Dade County, it's a big Democratic county, where -- down where my home is, but he's going to lose by less than he did in 2016. And he's going to narrow margins, and that helps him.

And he's just be as strong, if not stronger, in other parts of the state.

So I feel pretty good about the trend lines for the president, you know, in Florida, but it'll be a close race.

BARTIROMO:  New information this weekend, the Commerce Department blocking WeChat and TikTok transactions.

Of course, this could go away on TikTok should a deal happen with Oracle.

But what are your thoughts on the proposal being presented so far? The Communist Party wants to own a majority stake in this TikTok agreement with Oracle. The U.S. wants to own it.

How -- what do we need to know about this situation? Because we already know that the Communist Party is trying to get swathes of people's information and mine that data of American citizens.

RUBIO:  I think Oracle has worked really hard to put together the best deal possible.

My concern remains this. If that code, the code that gives the instructions to the system on what to do, if China continues to control the code, as I understand they would in this deal, they could put in that code an instruction to secretly send data back to China, to the mainland. No matter where the actual data is housed, there can be something embedded in that code that sends it the other way.

Oracle says, no way, that they know enough about this that they can prevent it from happening. I think we have to be very careful in looking at that provision, because if anything -- if there's any opportunity whatsoever for China to continue to collect personal data on Americans, then we can't be supportive of that deal.

So that's the core and the crux of it that we are going to be looking at.

BARTIROMO:  Yes.

All right, I want to ask you another question about our intelligence. And that is having to do with the -- what I call the coup that failed. In my new book, that's what I call it, the coup that failed. And that is this effort to take down Donald Trump.

We have spoken with your colleague Senator Ron Johnson many times on this program. And we know that Ron Johnson is trying to get documents from the Senate Intel Committee, but the Senate Intel Committee denied Johnson and Senator Grassley access to the documents that they need to see to continue to investigate the transition period from the Obama administration to the Trump administration.

Why not just release those documents, Senator?

RUBIO:  Well, two things.

The first is, they're not asking for documents. They are asking to review the transcripts of interviews. And when that deal was put together, I wasn't chairman at the time, but Senator Burr and Senator Warner told the witnesses that we won't turn over your testimony to our committee unless you agree to that.

So, that's the problem. That's the crux there.

The second thing about the Intelligence Committee everybody has to understand is, unlike these other committees, where a chairman can do whatever they want, both the co -- the vice chairman and the chairman have to agree.

The third is, they have -- if they want to interview these people, they most certainly have the right to issue subpoenas and interview whoever they want.

BARTIROMO:  Yes, but, at the same time, look, a lot of people, our viewers know exactly what happened here.

I mean, Jim Comey is going to testify in front of Senator Lindsey Graham's committee, the Judiciary Committee, where he's chairman. That's happening on September 30. And now we know that there are -- there is more of a likelihood that we will see other subpoenas as well from Obama administration officials.

It doesn't appear that your colleagues on the left, Mark Warner included, really want to get to the bottom of this. But we know that they used our intelligence agencies as weapons, Senator, didn't they, against their political enemies.

RUBIO:  Well, I think the key actually would be -- well, in fairness, I think the real weapon was the FBI individuals in the FBI.

And the report says that. Our Russia report makes it very clear that the FBI's -- and it wasn't the Russia report -- the 2016 election report makes very clear that the FBI behaved very poorly with -- the things they did in

2016 in the aftermath of that election were terrible.

We pointed out to -- those things, for example, the reliance on the dossier that actually the intelligence community, including the CIA, told the FBI not to use those documents, that they weren't reliable. Every single one of the intelligence agencies, separate from the FBI, said that the dossier was not the kind of document they should be relying on, we shouldn't even be talking about it, because it could very well be something the Russians completely made up and put out there, sort of the information, in order to create all sorts of havoc.

The implications here are frightening. And that is, you can go and hire some former spy from anywhere in the world to go up and make up stories and put it in this document and get someone in the U.S. government to put the official seal of approval on it as something that is serious and have it leaked on the eve of an election...

BARTIROMO:  That's right.

RUBIO:  ... and influence the outcome of an election.

That is the implications of what could have happened here. It all happened post-election. We have spent two years fighting off the ridiculous things that were in that dossier. And the intelligence community told them, this -

- we don't know what this thing is. Some of the stuff doesn't even add up.

Don't use it.

And they insisted on using it anyway for their own internal purposes, and went to a court and relied on it for a court. So there was clearly wrongdoing. And that's in the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee. And that's why I'm glad Senator Graham is taking it on, and we will learn more here.

BARTIROMO:  Yes, I mean, that's the point.

They knew that it was garbage, and yet they used it to re-up a warrant to spy on an American citizen two more times. They knew in January of 2017, and yet just a couple months later and then a couple months after that, they got two new re-ups for the renewals for that warrant to spy on Carter Page.

We will see what John Durham has to say about this.

RUBIO:  Right. That's right.

Here's the bottom line.

BARTIROMO:  Senator, it's good to see you.

RUBIO:  Some people in the FBI wanted it to be true.

BARTIROMO:  Good -- yes, go ahead.

Yes, that's right.

RUBIO:  No, some people in the FBI wanted that document to be true. That's the fundamental problem. And it wasn't.

BARTIROMO:  Fundamental problem, but is that -- is that criminal?

RUBIO:  Well, I think it is. Certainly, when you lie to a court, it is.

When you knowingly lie to a court, it is.

And we will learn more. I have a feeling that there are things that they did that we don't even know about yet that are far worse than what's been publicly revealed. We will find out. It's just a feeling.

But given some of the body language I'm seeing, I have a feeling that they're the some of the conduct goes beyond anything any of us know yet.

BARTIROMO:  So, should there be indictments, then?

RUBIO:  Well, that's what the prosecutor's office is looking at now.

And, ultimately, I believe that already a couple people have pled guilty to charges. And, usually, when you plead guilty to charges, it's because -- I'm speculating here, but it's because you're cooperating.

So, I anticipate that we will see some criminal charges here. Clearly, there was perjury and lying to a court. But the question goes deeper than that, is, was it knowingly? Was it part of a broader effort, a coordinated effort, where a bunch of people in law enforcement, sworn to uphold the law, colluded to violate it?

Look, we will let the facts speak for themselves. We will find out soon enough, I imagine.

BARTIROMO:  All right, Senator, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks very much.

RUBIO:  Thank you.

BARTIROMO:  We will be, of course, watching the developments.

Senator Marco Rubio joining us.

This week, NFL legend Herschel Walker took to Twitter with this Maya Angelou quote: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

He's here this morning to tell us who he was calling out.

That interview after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURGESS OWENS (R), UTAH CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE:  The last three years, black Americans, Hispanics, Asians, women, veterans are finally realizing we have a president who just doesn't talk the talk and give promises. He's getting results.

So, we're experiencing things that we have not experienced in decades. And because of that, black Americans are waking up, and we're leaving the plantation.

The greatest thing that President Obama did was that he was such a lousy president that people woke up one day and say, what happened?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO:  That was Utah congressional candidate Burgess Owens on this program last week talking about a recent shift toward the right in minority communities that could be the tipping point for President Trump come November.

NFL legend Herschel Walker is part of that movement. He's been friends with the president for over 30 years. He wants the country to know the truth about the kind of person he is.

Herschel joins me right now.

Good morning to you, Herschel. Thank you so much for joining me.

HERSCHEL WALKER, FORMER NFL PLAYER:  Hey. Thank you for having me on.

BARTIROMO:  So, I was really struck by one of your tweets, when you quoted Maya Angelou.

And my whole life, I have been following her. And I love that quote. It's my favorite quote: "When people show you who they are, believe them the first time."

I repeat that quote all the time, so I really -- it really resonated with me. Tell us what you were referring to, Herschel.

WALKER:  Well, what I was referring to is, I have heard something about BLM many times, probably a million times, and it didn't hit me until I happened to be sitting at my desk, and I watched the co-founder of BLM.

In a statement she made, she said that they were trained Marxists. And this little voice in the back of my head said, did you hear what she just said?

And then I felt so guilty. I felt so guilty, because I always consider myself a person to tell the truth.

And I said, I haven't been telling the American people the truth, because I did not know that -- well, I didn't hear anyone ever tell me that she was a trained Marxist. And so I said I need to tell the American people, all you athletes out there, all you companies, all you professional teams that's promoting BLM, are you telling me that you're promoting someone that said they are a trained Marxist?

And if you are, which is OK, because you're in the United States of America, but let the American people know, because trained Marxists do not believe in American ways, do not believe in a nuclear family, do not believe in religion, even though they said that they did.

But if you believe in religion, what you believe in is togetherness. You believe in forgiveness. And I said, I cannot let that stand.

You know, one of the reasons I spoke for the president had nothing to do with the president of the United States, but it had to do with, I want the people to know the truth.

I was hearing so many things said about this man that was not true, because I have known him for 37 years, that I wanted the people to know the truth.

The truth is, he is not a racist. The truth is, he loves the United States of America.

I'm tired of people listening to his tweets, saying that that's the type of man he is, because he's not. Look at the action that he does. You know, I can tweet that I'm the best basketball player in the world, but, unless I prove it, it doesn't mean anything.

BARTIROMO:  Yes.

WALKER:  This guy has proven the things he's going to do for this country.

I'm a guy that believes in the lord Jesus, I believe in my family, and I love America. So I'm going to fight for it. I'm going to do whatever I can to tell the people the truth.

BARTIROMO:  So, how has BLM been able to resonate and not actually be transparent in terms of what we're talking about?

I want to take a short break, Herschel, because I want you to tell me, really, what the support is for the minority communities for this president and why. What has he done?

Let's take a short break, and then we can run through that.

Herschel Walker is with us this morning. And we are going to take a look ahead, when we come right back here on "Sunday Morning Futures."

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO:  And we're back with NFL legend Herschel Walker.

Herschel, before we went to break, you were talking about the man that President Trump is.

Do you believe your message, Burgess Owens' message, is resonating with the minority communities?

WALKER:  Well, I know it's resonating with the African-American community, because I hear them talking about it now.

You know, I think they're stopping and looking at what's going on. They're stopping and looking at everything. They are stopping to look at it, study it, and get into the history of what's going on.

And I'm not going to take anything away from former President Obama, because he showed all people of color you can be president of the United States.

But I go back and I say, guys, look at, what did he do for the African- American community? I'm sorry. What did he do?

Well, President Trump has done incredible things for the African-American community. And he didn't do it for a vote. That's what people don't realize. He didn't do it to try to get a vote. He did it because he said it was the right thing to do. He did it before this election even came about.

And he was doing it for the American people, not just for African-American community, but for the American people. This man has been fighting for America since he got into office, with all these obstacles standing in his way.

You want to talk about the pandemic? During the pandemic, what he was dealing with? He was not only dealing with that. He was dealing with the Russian probe. He's dealing with impeachment. He's dealing with these leakers. He's dealing with all these different things that we domestically is throwing on him, along with the pandemic.

And this man has been doing a heck of a job. And I think people got to give him recognition for it.

One of the biggest things that have happened that no one seems to want to talk about is this historical peace deal. Why is no one talking about that?

Well, this is historical, but no one want to talk about it. They only want to talk about the election.

Well, let's talk about this election. What I believe in is the Constitution of the United States. Well, it seems that this party, the Democratic Party, want to go against the Constitution of the United States.

And I'm saying, guys, we need law and order. I believe in law and order.

BARTIROMO:  Yes.

WALKER:  This country was built on law and order. And we need to get back to that.

BARTIROMO:  We just showed a graphic of a map of unemployment rates in Democrat-run cities, Herschel.

Before we saw COVID-19, the policies that this president put out actually sent unemployment to the lowest level ever in some communities. So, obviously, in some regard, it's working. And you see these other Democrat states being run -- being run into the ground.

Herschel, we...

WALKER:  Well, that's what I think people do not want to recognize.

BARTIROMO:  Yes, exactly.

Herschel, it's so great to talk with you. I hope you will come back soon.

This was not enough time. And I really need to hear more of this.

You are great to join us this weekend. Thank you, Herschel Walker.

Have a great Sunday, everybody.

I will see you tomorrow on "Mornings With Maria" on FOX Business.

Content and Programming Copyright 2020 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2020 ASC Services II Media, LLC.  All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.