Sen. Kennedy: Hunter Biden implied US foreign policy could be bought

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Sen. Kennedy: Hunter Biden implied US foreign policy could be bought

Louisiana Republican discusses the federal probe into the president-elect's son on 'The Story'

This is a rush transcript from "The Story with Martha MacCallum" December 9, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Santa never had any problem bringing
those to my house. Good to see you Bret. Good evening, everybody. I'm
Martha MacCallum in New York and this is THE STORY. Breaking tonight, we've
got two very big stories for you. Both of them are related to China.

Hunter Biden is indeed under investigation by the DOJ and top Federal
Prosecutor in Delaware. The son of the incoming President is now set to be
investigated by his Father's own Justice Department, Senator John Kennedy
standing by on that. Also Lisa Boothe and Deroy Murdoch ready to way in.
Also this evening, what are the facts around this story? The relationship
between California Congressman Eric Swalwell a member of the House
Intelligence Committee and an accused Chinese spy.

The young woman who goes by Christine Fang or Fang-Fang as she was known in
the United States, specifically, what did Nancy Pelosi know about this
investigation? It all happened under her roof as speaker of the house. The
spy reportedly closed it up to Swalwell and at one point he even raised
money for his campaign. So here is what we do know. She entered the United
States as a college student back in 2011. She spent 4 years getting close
to several United States officials. She had affairs with at least two of
them in an effort to get United States Intelligence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): I was shocked. It's over six years ago I was
told about this individual and then I offered to help and I did help. And I
was thanked by the FBI for my help and that person is no longer in the
country. And I was a little surprised to read about my cooperation in that
story because the story says that there was no - there was never a
suspicion of wrong doing on my part.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So now, the House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy wants Swalwell
off the House Intel Committee and wants the matter to be investigated to
make sure that the Congressman was never compromised in any way. Watch
this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA) HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: This is only the tip of
the iceberg because remember what we are hearing. These are Chinese spies
that go down to the level of a Mayor. They quote and help a City
Congressman become a Congressman. This Congressman now gets on the Intel
Committee? Why is he still on the Intel Committee let know why he is still
a Member of Congress? Did Adam Schiff know as a Chairman of that committee
that he had this problem?

(END VIDEO CLIP)
 
MACCALLUM: So, strong charges there from Kevin McCarthy. Eric Swalwell, who
claimed very loudly and often, that the President was quote a Russian
agent. Now says that he feels like a victim of weaponized politics, an
interesting charge to say the least given his role in the collusion
investigation where evidence was an afterthought to charges.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
 
SWALWELL: At the same time the story was being leaked out is the time that
I was working on impeachment on the House Intelligence and Judiciary
Committee. And if this is a country where people who criticize the
President are going to have law enforcement information weaponized against
them and that is not a country that any of us want to live in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: I think a lot of people are going to see some irony there.
Tonight, a Former Intelligence Officials tell Fox that the Chinese for
years have been doing exactly these routine, sending spies into "sleep with
less unknown members of congress and staffers". Swalwell has not commented
on whether he was ever romantically involved with this woman. We have
invited him here and promised that he will have an opportunity to tell his
whole side of the story and clear up the facts. We hope that we will take
us up on that offer. Here he is back on this program in March of 2019.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Do you still believe that the President is a Russian agent?

SWALWELL: I think he acts on Russia's behalf and he puts Russia's interests
ahead too often of American's interest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So what do they said on at that point. We begin with Senator
Marco Rubio, Florida, a Member of the Senate Foreign Relations and
Intelligence Committee, Senator, good to see you tonight. Thank you for
being with us.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): Thank you.

MACCALLUM: What was your reaction to this story?

RUBIO: Well, first of all, a tremendous irony, right? And I think that this
is an example. I mean he is now claiming that he wants to be treated
fairly. But he as a member of the Intelligence Committee was going around
telling people the President was an agent of a foreign government and
obviously when people hear that from someone who was on the Intelligence
Committee, they think he must know something. He must know something the
rest of us don't know. And in fact, that has become a habit from a lot of
people. They will go around saying, while, there are things you don't know
that we can't tell you but it's bad.

So a lot of stuff was going on. It was very unfair on the President. I
think hindsight we see that it was all not true. And so I think you can't
go around behaving that way and expect you're going to enjoy the benefit of
the doubt. There are legitimate questions. I'm not accusing anyone of
anything. It is perhaps exactly the way he says and I hope he takes up your
invitation to come out and explain it. But the broader question here is
there are a lot of legitimate questions that I think are important to
answer. Just as a member of congress at his constituents. But in the house
if he wants to continue to serve in this important role, and I'm not saying
that he doesn't have good answers. I don't know. But there is a tremendous
amount of irony, obviously.

MACCALLUM: Yes. And as I said, we would be absolutely happy and open to
hearing all of his side of the story. The other thing that really strikes
me is the defensive briefing that he was given as soon as they figured out
that she was trying to get information out of him, they went right to him
and let him know. And President Trump was not afforded that information. He
was basically treated as a target during the course of the investigation to
his campaign. Why is the treatment so different?

RUBIO: Well, obviously there are different time periods, different agents
probably, uncertainty those briefings and in fact, we know that as part of
the President's briefing there were people at that defensive briefing after
get become President-Elect who were there simply to observe him to see how
he reacted as he was totally sort of, things. So they used the defensive
briefing for investigative purposes. We know that now. We didn't know that
then. So obviously that is a practice that the FBI I hope has corrected.

And the broader issue of the Chinese espionage issue is a huge issue. This
is exactly what they do. They do recruit Mayors. They do go down and try to
get close to two students per activist, but also through people and
business and others. They try to get close to local leaders. They play the
long game and this is a prototype of exactly the kind of efforts they try
to carry out. They get to know you when you are a city councilman and hopes
that one day you might be a U.S. Senator a Member of Congress and Member of
the Cabinet and in a position to help them.

At a minimum because you have a pro-China view of things, pro-China
narrative in your head, but also potentially because you have compromising
information on you that they can use to get you to vote or support
initiatives that they want. It's very troubling. And I know that this
isolated to this one story unfortunately.

MACCALLUM: No. Probably not and that remains the lingering question about
any compromise. And that was the big question that all of these same people
had about the Trump campaign. Where they are compromise? And those same
questions need to be answered in this situation. This is Christopher Wray
talking about the big picture as you suggest, Senator.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: We have now reached the point where the FBI
is opening a new China related counterintelligence case about every 10
hours. Of the nearly 5,000 active FBI counterintelligence cases currently
underway across the country, almost half are all related to China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So that's essentially what you were bringing up in terms of the
scope of this, which brings me to my next question. There is suggestion
that the Former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, is on the
shortlist to potentially becoming the ambassador to China. This is
obviously one of the most important diplomatic relationships that are on
that list of countries that you deal with. And you know, one of the other
famous ambassadors to China was President George H. W. Bush, who by that
point had been shot down in World War II over the Pacific and earned a
metal for his valor in that situation. He had been a member of congress. He
had been an ambassador to the United Nations. And he went to become the
Head of the CIA. It is Pete Buttigieg qualified for that role?

RUBIO: No, he's not. Look the - and it's - no disrespect towards the Mayor
of the City, but frankly, he just doesn't have the breadth and depth of
experience interacting with China, in fact his only experience to China as
to my understanding is he worked at McKinsey, the consulting group that
actually has this China related issues in regards to them and some of the
companies things they have supported. It doesn't mean he's not qualified to
be an ambassador to some way, I just personally believe that you are
dealing with the second largest economy in the world.

It is the second most powerful military in the world and near-peer
competitor of the United States. The country with whom the relationship we
have will define the rest of the 21st century. I think it's important that
we send someone to that post that has some depth of understanding about all
of the issues related to that country and our relationship with them. And
again, with all due respect to Former Mayor South Bend, Indiana, I just
don't think that's what gets you ready for it.

MACCALLUM: Yes. All right, Senator, thank you. Always good to have you
here.

RUBIO: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: Senator Marco Rubio good to see you tonight, sir. Joining me
now, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Former White House Press Secretary and Fox
News Contributor, she traveled to China and North Korea with the President
as his Press Secretary, Sarah, good to have you here tonight. First things
first, what is your reaction to the Eric Swalwell story? He was obviously a
very outspoken critic of what he saw as a deep and tangled web of Russia
collusion within the
Trump campaign. He talked about it all the time.

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, it sounds
like Eric should have been paying a lot closer attention to his own foreign
dealings than attacking the President so much about Russia. It was
outrageous and irresponsible the way that he conducted himself in the
attacks that he made against President Trump. But knowing what we know now,
it is even more absurd and ridiculous that he was so willing to do that
when he had his own situation. And I certainly think it deserves to be
tapped into and looked into deeper. I commend Kevin McCarthy for his
leadership on pushing back and asking that we look whether or not he should
even be on, the committee looking into this, particularly within his own
association.

MACCALLUM: Yes. Lance Gooden, a Republican Congressman from Texas says
Chinese nationals should not be allowed to intern in the United States
Congress. The CCP is our greatest threat. We cannot allow them to
infiltrate the offices of our legislators. I will be introducing a bill to
ban this shortly. Do you agree?

SANDERS: Yes. You know I haven't seen that legislations certainly before, I
would weigh in on anything like that. But I do think we have to really
aggressively lean on the Intel Community and whether or not this is
something we can do a lot more on. Look, one thing is extremely clear.
Either the United States or China will lead in the 21st century. They are
our number one national security threats and our biggest economic
competitor.

President Trump was right to hold a hard line against them. He was the
first politician in decades to stand up, stop appeasing China, and say
enough is enough. Joe Biden has proved he is weak on that and now we find
out information that he started your show with that Hunter Biden is being
investigated in his dealings with China by the Justice Department, which I
think also proves to be very problematic.

MACCALLUM: Yes. I mean, obviously it's the China link that is the most
concerning in that whole story and we now know that that investigation has
been going on for some time. It was covert during the election and now it's
over, which means that Hunter Biden is now clearly aware of that
investigation.

With regard to your travels and your work on those trips to China, to North
Korea, which are obviously very linked and your thoughts on the person who
should be the ambassador to China, it was Jon Huntsman during the Trump
administration, the Former Governor of Utah, who had a lot of excessive
international experience as well, what about Pete Buttigieg in that role?

SANDERS: I'm more qualified, infinitely more qualified than Mayor Pete. Who
has had no interactions that I am aware of at a high level with Chinese
officials or you know, shown and or demonstrated a great depth of
knowledge. I think the President was right to put people in those roles
that had a large understanding they had relationships and understood what
they were going into.

Again, Donald Trump was the first person in decades to stand up and fight
back and hold a hard line against China. We have to make sure that that
continues. Donald Trump has been right in that. We are at a great
crossroads in how we deal with China and it needs to be very, very
aggressive in making sure that America continues to be the leader in this
coming century.

MACCALLUM: We know that Pete Buttigieg is very intelligent. He served in
Afghanistan. He speaks several languages. But from what we could find, one
of them is not mandarin. So that is not one of the reasons that he might be
considered. But just politically, Sarah, he did well in Iowa. And there is
sort of an obligation it appears to give him some prominent spot. You know
talk about the pressures of that, how all of that gets figured out in the
beginning of the administration.

SANDERS: Look, I think President Trump is still fighting and using every
legal process available to him. I think he should keep that fight up. I
think we will see how all of those things unfold and make sure that any
fraud that exists, make sure that they route that out and get to the bottom
of everything, every legal vote is counted. And when that process is fully
completed, then I think we can lean into those decisions. Certainly, I
think he has a right to put whoever he wants in place at the correct time
and we will see what happens. But I don't think that he is qualified if it
comes to that, to be the ambassador to China.

MACCALLUM: Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Good to see you, Sarah. Thank you.

SANDERS: You bet. Thanks, Martha.

MACCALLUM: So as we were just, we're talking about tonight, we are getting
brand-new information coming in this evening. We have more on THE STORY.
Joe Biden on Hunter, back in the news he is now under investigation and in
fact has been for some time for his business dealings in China and other
countries. And it looks like his Father's Justice Department will be taken
up that investigation. Senator John Kennedy is here in a moment also
Boothe, Murdoch and Fowler on Xavier Becerra's pick to run HHS in the
coming months of the COVID-19 crises.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: For Secretary
of Health and Educations I nominate Xavier Becerra - you know Xavier
Becerra, excuse me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): We are talking about a Major Party Nominee for
President of the United States of America with an election right around the
corner and every single solitary response from news organization needs to
be investigating the veracity of these allegations and these emails.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: You remember that back in October? That was Senator John Kennedy
pleading with the media to do its job and look into the Hunter Biden story.
We did. Most of them did not. But tonight we are learning that the Federal
Government was on it. They were taking action. Joe Biden's son Hunter is
under Federal Investigation into money laundering and tax violations that
look into and make inquiries about his business dealings in China and in
other countries while his father was the Vice President under Barack Obama.

So all of this is going to be investigated now by what will be most likely
for all intensive purposes January 20th. His Father's Department of Justice
and his administration, Senator Kennedy will join me in just a moment to
get his thoughts on this tonight. First, Correspondent Richard Edson gets
us to speed from Washington tonight. Hi, Rich.

RICHARD EDSON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Martha. And Hunter
Biden is under investigation. He says the U.S. Attorney office in Delaware
informed his lawyers yesterday that they are looking into his tax affairs.
In a statement, Hunter Biden says "I take this matter very seriously but I
am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will
demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately including
with the benefit of professional tax advisors". His father's presidential
transition team says "President-Elect Biden is deeply proud of his son who
has fought through difficult challenges including the vicious personal
attacks of recent months only to emerge stronger.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Delaware says it refuses to comment on an
ongoing investigation. The source familiar with the matter tells Fox News
the investigation into Hunter began in 2018. http://Foxnews.com, Brooke Singman
reports a source saying the investigation was predicated in part by a
suspicious activity report from transactions in China and other foreign
nations. She also reports the two sources familiar with the investigation
say this inquiry regards looking into the laptop that was connected to
Hunter Biden.

Fox News first reported in October that the FBI subpoenaed a laptop and
hard drive connected to Hunter with a money laundering investigation in
late 2019. President Trump spent months on the campaign trail criticizing
Hunter Biden as he pursued international business ventures while his father
was Vice President. Hunter Biden served on the Board of the Ukrainian in
Energy Company, Burisma and sought a joint business venture in China. The
investigation into Hunter could very likely be ongoing when his father is
President of the United States. The President-Elect has previously said
that the Justice Department would remain independent under his
administration. Martha.

MACCALLUM: Thank you, Rich. So here now Republican Senator John Kennedy of
Louisiana Senator, good to have you with us tonight. Thank you for being
here. I think it is worth mentioning also that this investigation began
before Attorney General Barr was in place and has continued all through
that period and continues now. What are your thoughts on the fact that we
are just learning about it, you pushed for. There are to be sunlight put on
this whole situation in the middle of election?

KENNEDY: Well, perhaps, Martha, we now know what the FBI has been doing
with Mr. Hunter Biden's laptop, which it has had for a year. Look, just
because you are accused of something doesn't mean you did it. But this is
serious. I would describe it but its grave and in part because of the
allegations, if you will, or money laundering and tax fraud but also
because the Biden campaign disclosed it. I think if this were much ado
about nothing, they wanted have felt the need to say something. And I think
at this juncture, both Mr. Biden's are going to have to offer a full
disclosure to the American people. This case is always troubled me, not
because of alleged money laundering or any of that. I don't know about
that. I don't know what the facts are.

But we do know this. President Obama put Vice President Biden in charge of
the foreign affairs of two whole countries, China and Ukraine. And that's a
fact. It's also a fact that in both cases, his son, Hunter Biden walked
away with tens of millions of dollars of contracts from connected people in
those two countries. And they are at the very least, there was an
appearance that America's foreign policy could be bought. And that has
always bothered me as much as anything else. I think this issue or this new
disclosure rather is going to raise the issue again of how and why many
major news organizations and social media platforms tried to tap down "The
New York Post" story about the laptop and the things on it.

MACCALLUM: You make a great point. Twitter and Facebook tried to block the
story. They said that it was in story. It's clearly a story for exactly the
reasons that you state and that's why we looked into it extensively at the
time and we continue to cover it. It's about the President, the future
President of the United States' son and it is now going to be a DOJ
investigation under him. This is not about a family member who robbed the
cornerstone that is not related to geopolitical events. In this case, there
is a very good reason to take a close look at it and as you say, innocent
until proven guilty. But it's obviously a story, obviously something we
need to dig into.

I want to ask you about something else because we are getting very close to
these vaccines rolling out. Today, 3,000 Americans died of a record,
terrible record that we recognize and we pray for all of them today. Joe
Biden is selecting Xavier Becerra to be the Head of HHS. He will stop in at
a time when this issue is going to still be in crisis mode. What are your
thoughts on his selections?

KENNEDY: Mr. Biden ran as a centrist and he really also ran sort of, his
America's grandfather who was going to amend our differences. I think Mr.
Becerra is not a centrist's choice. You have to be pretty insipid not to
see that he is going to be controversial. He doesn't have a background in
health care, number one. Number two. He supports single payer government
run health insurance, which means 190 million Americans if he could
implement it would lose their on-the-job employer provided health
insurance. But also, and especially his position on abortion, you know, it
is - it's one thing to believe, as many Americans do, that a woman's right
to choose to have an abortion. But it's quite another to encourage
abortion, to be an abortion enthusiast.

MACCALLUM: How do you back that statement up, senator? How has he done
that?
 
KENNEDY: Well, those charges will be made and I want to make it very clear
that I'm not saying I agree with him, but if you look at his record, he
voted and opposed the bill when he was in the House of Representatives to
prohibit someone from getting an abortion because they didn't like the sex
of their child. That is called sex-selected abortion. When Mr. Becerra was
Attorney General he pressured catholic hospitals to perform abortions. He
clearly favors tax payer funded abortions.

When he was Attorney General Mr. Becerra pressured pro-life pregnancy
crisis centers to actually advertise abortions. Now, I'm going to listen to
Mr. Becerra's confirmation hearings and I am going to have an open mind.
But as I say, you would have to be pretty insipid not to see that the
allegation against him is going to be not just that he supports a woman's
right to choose, that he is an abortion enthusiast. And I will say a final
point.

MACCALLUM: Yes, sir.

KENNEDY: Look, religion is at the center of many American's lives and that
for many of them involves abortion. And I worry the charge will be made
anyway, that Mr. Becerra will try to enforce his own point of view on
people who's religious beliefs tell them to believe otherwise.

MACCALLUM: Senator Kennedy, thank you, very good to have you here tonight,
sir.

KENNEDY: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: So let's bring in Lisa Boothe, Deroy Murdock Contributing Editor
at National Review Online and Richard Fowler Senior Fellow at the New
Leaders Council. All are Fox News Contributor welcome to all of you. Good
to have you here tonight. So, let's start there and go backward with
Becerra and then I want to talk to all about Hunter Biden. Deroy let me
start with you. Joe Biden and Xavier Becerra differ on a lot of things.
They differ on Medicare for all, which Becerra is clearly a proponent of
and that would have to be passed through Congress.

Going into the teas before, we played Joe Biden botching his last name. And
we didn't do that just because to make fun or to say oh, he messed up. I
think a lot of Presidents, when you are dealing with all of the staff
members and new people. But this is something has been around for a long
time. Which raises the question, how well does he understand? How well does
he know this person? How well does he understand Xavier Becerra and what he
stands for what he's is all about?

DEROY MURDOCK, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  The fact that he couldn't pronounce
his name certainly raises that question. You know, Beccaria (Ph), not very
smooth and you think he would sit there if you didn't know the name, you'd
rehearse it a few times or something like that. It obviously gives his
opponent something to discuss rather than whatever Biden is trying to
present.

I agree, this is not a centrist choice. This is not a moderate choice. This
isn't the kind of choice that is going to bring us together or unify the
country. It's going to divide the country and split the country.

And I heard Senator Kennedy earlier say that a lot of people are religious
and that's why they feel the way they do about abortion. I'm not a
religious person but I do believe that if a woman has an abortion, it's a
child, it is a human being that has been killed.

And frankly, if you are a crisis, crisis pregnancy center, it is not
appropriate for the government to tell you that you need to advertise
abortion any more than I would expect the people from the Democratic
National Committee to be forced to run ads and wide tax cuts are great
idea.

So, there is a real first amendment problem there. There is a freedom of
expression problem there. And a choice like this is not the kind of choice
that brings Americans together. It's the kind of choice that splits
Americans apart.

MACCALLUM:  So, Richard, you know, all of the things that we just discussed
are part of the reasons that he has been elected. There are a lot of people
that are in favor of the policies that Xavier, Xavier Becerra stands for.

But with regard to the, you know, bringing people together, and the sort
of, there were a lot of people out there when we went across the country
that said, you know, I think things will just calm down if Joe Biden is
elected. It won't be so chaotic. Is that what is reflected in a pick like
this?

RICHARD FOWLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  I don't think you can look at the
Becerra pick in a vacuum. I mean, what you're seeing from the Biden sort of
transition team is that they are interesting, these teams. Teams of
individuals that will handle this issue.

So, Becerra as part of the COVID-19 team, he's joined by Dr. Fauci, by Dr.
Murthy, Dr. Nunez, and these individuals will lead the effort on how we
tackle COVID-19 and how we deal with a broken health care system. And the
reason why I say our healthcare system is broken is because here's what we
know.

We know that our healthcare system cannot handle one percent of the
American population being sick. One percent of our population being sick
and our healthcare system is completely overrun. So, you are going to need
to reimagine how we do healthcare in this country. Which means you need
somebody who understands how Capitol Hill works.

One thing that this, that Xavier Becerra understands is how Capitol Hill
works. He understands how to get bills passed. He spends a lot of time
there. He knows how to work through the courts. And so he provides a
valuable asset to the team of folks that will be dealing with COVID-19, the
aftermath of this pandemic and how you move the country forward, or as Joe
Biden put it, how you build back better and how do you build a better
healthcare system that works for all Americans.

And so, he's going to be part of this team that includes with medical
professionals, that includes --

MACCALLUM:  I got you.

FOWLER:  -- epidemiologists, that includes legislatures.

MACCALLUM:  Yes.

FOWLER:  He is just part of a broader team.

MACCALLUM:  Well, and then for exactly that reason I think it's really
important that people know where he stands on the issues and that they
understand what they are going to get before he goes through the Senate
confirmation period. That is exactly what that whole process is about.

Lisa, I want to turn you to the question of Hunter Biden and the
resurfacing of the story. What's your reaction to what we now know tonight?

LISA BOOTHE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  Well, I think it's certainly a blackeye
for the mainstream media. As you pointed out, Martha, you covered it. Fox
covered it. But most in the media did not. So, it's a blackeye for the
media, as well as big tech that suppress it. And that did have a profound
impact on the election.

The Media Research Center did a study of 1,750 Biden voters in seven swing
states and found that 45 percent had no idea about the Hunter Biden scandal
and 9.4 percent would have abandoned Biden for Trump had they have known,
which would have changed the outcome of the election, which I still have
questions about.

But point being is that it was ignored and it was intentionally ignored
because most of the media knew that it would impact the electorate against
Joe Biden. And that to me is actually even a bigger scandal than any of
these revelations about Hunter Biden.

MACCALLUM:  Well, the investigation is ongoing. We don't know what the
outcome is going to be. Deroy, what do you think?

MURDOCK:  Yes. I think a number of things are interesting about this. One
is the timing. Even though the story is coming out now, people might think
that it's all a revenge plot by Trump against Biden.

This investigation started in 2018. Biden wasn't even running for president
at the time.

MACCALLUM:  That's right.

MURDOCK:  So, somebody backed two years ago or so thought that there was
some there-there and started looking at this. I also remember during the
impeachment hearings, it came out that when people were talking about the
Ukrainian Burisma and so forth, that they actually went to Vice President
Biden's office and talked to his staff and said we believe that Hunter
Biden's activities in Ukraine are distraction and interfering with American
diplomacy in the Ukraine.

So, this is something that isn't just popping up now. It's something that
has been a problem. People thought it was a problem. people thought it's a
problem. This problem it goes, it actually predates Vice President Biden's
candidacy.

MACCALLUM:  It's a great point. Richard, we know that the Obama
administration had problems with his involvement in these businesses as
well. Do you stand behind this investigation and the good reasons? Do you
believe there are good reasons to learn more?

FOWLER:  Yes, I think we will see how it pans out. I think it's very
important now as you sort of see that the vice president or the president-
elect, rather, excuse me, has not picked an attorney general which this
will sort of fall into their purview.

And when you have somebody like Merrick Garland on the short list who is
currently on the district court of appeals, a person who you know is going
to come in with a clear mind, who will not be persuaded by politics and
will actually look at this and what the laws are, and knowing that the
president-elect has also said that the Justice Department has the role as
an independent arbiter that this case will play its course out.

Abd if it results in Hunter Biden being found guilty, then so be it. And I
think Joe Biden is very clear on this that the Justice Department will be
independent and it will do its job without interference from the White
House. And I think they will be no different whether it's his son or it's a
regular citizen.

MACCALLUM:  yes, I want to get a quick thought from you, Lisa and --

(CROSSTALK)

BOOTHE:  But, Martha --

MACCALLUM:  Go ahead, Lisa.

BOOTHE:  Yes. Well, it also raises questions about Joe Biden. What did he
know about his son's overseas business dealings? How involved was he? And
did it impact his foreign policy decision-making --

(CROSSTALK)

FOWLER:  Well, we -- there are sources out there that has indicated --

BOOTHE:  No, no. Richard, I'm not finished.

FOWLER:  -- that Joe Biden is not connected to this.

BOOTHE:  Richard, I'm not -- let me talk. Richard, you have already spoken
twice.

MACCALLUM:  Go ahead.

BOOTHE:  And did it impact his decision-making as vice president and moving
forward? We know that he met with the Burisma official less than a year
before he got the top prosecutor investigating Burisma fired.

And on the issue of China, Tony Bobulinski. the business partner of Hunter
Biden had said that he met with Joe Biden about a possible business venture
with China and all of this comes on the heels of the revelations that you
have been covering on your show tonight about China's involvement in
infiltrating top circles of the United States government. So, all of this
should be concerning for the Americans at home and we should want to get to
the bottom of all of it.

MACCALLUM:  Yes, it will be an interesting reflection, Deroy, on how much
attention this story gets all across media.

MURDOCK:  It will be. Let's see if they cover it now. They didn't cover it
back then. Another interesting aspect. This is a tax investigation.

MACCALLUM:  Yes.

MURDOCK:  Very often the way that people get in trouble is not for their
underlying crimes but the fact that they, or the notion that maybe they
didn't pay their taxes. So, we'll see if Hunter Biden, for example paid
taxes on that $3.5 million that he got from the former first lady of
Moscow, the wife of the mayor of Moscow.

MACCALLUM:  Yes.

MURDOCK:  That sounds like Russian collusion. Let's hope that he paid his
taxes on that $3.5 million payment. If not, he could be in very big trouble
not just for getting that money but for not paying his taxes on it if
that's what in fact happened.

MACCALLUM:  All right. We got to go. Thank you very much. Richard, thank
you. Deroy, thank you. Lisa, thank you.

BOOTHE:  Thanks, Martha.

MACCALLUM:  Good to see you all tonight.

MURDOCK:  Thanks, Martha.

MACCALLUM:  So, more on this investigation coming up with Jonathan Turley
who observes the son of the incoming president will now be investigated by
the Justice Department after January 20th. So, we are going to talk about
that.

The baseless claim from a Chicago teachers union suggesting that sexism and
racism and misogyny are what is fueling the push to get students back in
the classroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS
DISEASES:  The safer place to be for the children would be in school.

BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES:  You don't have to close schools.

ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION:  The
public health interest for kids in K through 12 is to have them in face-to-
face learning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM (on camera):  It's pretty much unanimous. So, the nation's health
-- top health experts agree that schools are safe to reopen. But a Chicago
teachers union is disputing the science and they are digging in their heels
on a plan that was set in motion for the kids to begin going back in
January.

The union Twitter account tweeted and then deleted, quote, "the push to
reopen schools is rooted in sexism, racism, and misogyny." But a flood of
evidence in a new study shows that sadly it is black and Latino students
who are suffering the most from not being in their classrooms every day.

Quote, "students of color could be 6 to 12 months behind compared with 4 to
8 months for white students while all students are suffering, those who
came into the pandemic with the fewest academic opportunities are on track
to exit with the greatest learning loss. It's been called a generational
learning loss that would devastate an entire generation over time."

Joining me now, Robby Soave, associate editor at Reason. Robby, great to
have you back on the show tonight.

So, what kick to this tweet into motion was that the Chicago school system
was laying out their plan. They said that on January 11th, the
kindergarteners would go back and the kids with moderate to severe special
education needs would go back after January 11th and then K through 8 were
going to return their return hybrid model on February the 1st. And
basically, they filed an injunction, the teachers union, saying that they
thought that this was arbitrary and they were manipulating the statistics
to justify their decision. They really don't want to go back, Robby.

ROBBY SOAVE, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, REASON Yet, teachers unions everywhere
have pulled out all the stops to prevent schools from reopening. In my own
city of D.C., I believe they dumped fake body bags in front of the district
official's headquarters.

MACCALLUM:  Yes, I saw that.

SOAVE:  Terrible. And it's actually, it's not surprising. In left-wing sort
of activism, it's become very common to ascribe everything that you
opponents do to sexism and racism.

But here, what is so interesting is the effects of keeping schools closed
are so obviously sexist and racist. You talked about the harm to
underprivileged disproportionately minority students. It's also true that,
I think according to studies 800,000 women have had to drop out of the
workforce to take care of their kids while they are not at school. So, you
can't say the people who want schools to reopen are guilty of these things.
It's exactly the reverse.

MACCALLUM:  Yes. I mean, it seems, you really just have to ask the
question, why are they so averse to getting back to the classroom when
you've had several studies in Lancet, the Journal of American Medical
Association, you've got the three top officials that we just heard from,
all saying that they have had very minimal transmissions by students in
school.

Now, if there is a teacher who has a very clear medical problem, there is
no doubt in my mind that there can be some kind of compromise worked out to
work from home. But you know, it -- one of the things that has been brought
up by Randi Weingarten a lot when I spoke with her, is we just don't have
the money. The money is not in place to prepare these schools. Eight
hundred billion dollars of the original, of the original CARES Act still
hasn't been spent, Robby. What is at the root of this?

SOAVE:  Money is not an issue. Public schools, especially in large
districts get so much money. Per-pupil funding for New York students is
north of $20,000. Can you imagine if instead of the public education system
spending that money you just gave $20,000 per kid to every family? You
could get, you know, your kid and like four neighbor's kids together and
you could hire a tutor and pay them a six-figure salary.

MACCALLUM:  That's right.

SOAVE:  And that would probably be better for all of these kids than
certainly than Zoom learning which we know is such a farce. We know it's
not working. Everyone agrees and virtually everyone agrees we can go back
to class safely and they won't let it happen.

MACCALLUM:  Yes, a lot of families would love to have that $20,000 to, you
know, make the school choice they want to make. They could probably get a
good school for 10 or $11,000. A lot of the Catholic schools are around
that price range. So that kind of affordability would give parents a lot of
freedom with that money that they would love to have.

Robby, thank you. Always good to have you here.

SOAVE:  Thank you.

MACCALLUM:  Great piece. Thank you.

So, coming up, an exclusive interview with Missouri's Attorney General Eric
Schmitt, who is joining a handful of other state attorney generals in an
effort to challenge the battleground election results.

And then Jonathan Turley on the federal criminal investigation into Hunter
Biden's suspicious foreign transactions next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM (on camera):  Late today, President Trump asked the Supreme Court
to allow him to join the Texas lawsuit seeking to stop Joe Biden's election
win. That, after the Republican attorneys general of 17 states led by
Missouri filed a brief supporting -- a brief supporting the Texas election
challenge. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton telling Fox what his state
wants to block four other swing states, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania,
and Wisconsin from casting their electoral votes for Joe Biden. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN PAXTON, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS:  These elections in other states
where state law was not followed as required by the Constitution affects my
voters because these are national elections. And so, if they are fraudulent
activities or things that affects an election, and state laws not followed
as, as this required by the Constitution, it affects, it affects our state.
It affects every state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM (on camera):  Joining me now exclusively Missouri Attorney
General Eric Schmitt who says that his state is in the fight. General,
thank you very much. Good to have you here tonight.

ERIC SCHMITT (R), MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL:  Good to be with you.

MACCALLUM:  So, you know, obviously, the polls show that there are enormous
numbers of people across the country who feel the way you do, that there
was something wrong with this election. And it was articulated moments ago
by Ken Paxton that the laws that were changed in a lot of states prior to
the election may have -- you know, their belief is that it was done
unconstitutionally. Is that what you feel is the strongest argument here?
And explain to everybody how you feel, what you think.

SCHMITT:  Yes, and I think today as you mentioned, Missouri along with 16
other states joined the fight for election integrity. And that's really
what this is about. Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of this
republic. And it's important that every legal vote is counted and every
illegal vote is not counted.

And if we don't do that, if we, you know, aggregate that responsibility, we
disenfranchise millions of voters, including voters in Missouri, including
voters in Texas and other places.

And so, the Constitution is very clear, the elector's clause specifically
grants to state legislatures the ability to designate time, place, and
manner of those elections, right? Nobody else. Just the legislature. So,
essentially the claim here is that the laws were very clear in these
states.

And I'll use Pennsylvania as an example. Pennsylvania said we are going to
expand mail-in voting. But an important safeguard is that all ballots are
counted on election day. Well, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said well, we
don't actually believe that. You can count them three days after. Even if
they're not postmarked on election day, we'll assume they were cast or
mailed on election day. That's not what the legislature designate. In
places like in Wisconsin, they allowed --

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM:  Well, let me just jump in on Pennsylvania because the Supreme
Court chose not to hear that case. And it seems, you know, based on the
logic that you are putting forward, and just on the principle that going
forward we want to make sure that all of the Constitutions have been
adhered to, why do they shoot it down? Why didn't they hear it if it was
such a good case?

SCHMITT:  Well, this is a little different theory. This is essentially that
under the constitutionality of the elector's clause which designate the
state legislatures to make those laws, the courts changed it.

Another example that cited here is in Milwaukee, for example. In Democrat
counties, they change, they ignore the law and allowed voters in those
Democratic counties to sure the ballots. They were open before election
day. They weren't supposed to be able to do that.

In Wayne County in Michigan. They just forgot about it and ignored the
signature requirement. What we know is, look, this is a bipartisan issue.
The Carter-Baker Commission from 20 years ago said mail-in balloting create
the most opportunity for fraud --

MACCALLUM:  Yes.

SCHMITT:  -- if you don't have important safeguards like counting them on
election day and having signature requirements. All of those were parts of
the law in those states. They were just simply ignored. So, the claim is
that it violates the electors clause. It's unconstitutional.

MACCALLUM:  So, what do you say to those, you know, I mean, you can look on
any channel, anybody covering the story and they are just going to throw
cold water all over this. It's over. It's done. You know, get over it, move
on. What do you say to them?

SCHMITT:  Look, it's about -- it's about this election, Martha. It's also
about the integrity of our election process moving forward. If you have
people who are not the state legislature unelected folks or other elected
folks who can change the rules of the game in the middle of --

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM:  But didn't they do it legally? They voted on it, right?

SCHMITT:  No.

MACCALLUM:  I mean, that's the -- and there were cases that were agreed to
by the courts in all of these states. They had, I think, 75 cases across
the country that were brought by the Democratic Party.

SCHMITT:  Well, that's the point, is that the state legislature set forth
the rules.

MACCALLUM:  Yes.

SCHMITT:  These local counties in many instances ignored the law and that
has disenfranchised voters across the country.

MACCALLUM:  I hear you.

SCHMITT:  And that's why you see 17 states weighing in here. We are
standing up for the voters in our state saying look, this needs to be
remedied.

MACCALLUM:  Concerned about the future and about the fight and about the
constitutionality of it. Thank you very much. Good to see you tonight, Eric
Schmitt from Missouri.

SCHMITT:  Good to be with you.

MACCALLUM:  So, let's bring in George Washington University law professor
Jonathan Turley on that, and also on the breaking news tonight on the
investigation into Hunter Biden. Jonathan, good evening. Great to see you
as always.

JONATHAN TURLEY, LAW PROFESSOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY:  Good
evening.

MACCALLUM:  What's your take on this? As I said, you know, you can watch
anywhere on cable news. They are going to say it's ridiculous. It's over.
It's too late. I know you feel that the runway is very short. But when you
do hear about this complex between the state legislature, which is supposed
to have governance over how elections are run in each state being
overridden by courts that are largely elected in these states, it does feel
like it raises constitutional questions.

TURLEY:  These are not frivolous concerns. And certainly, they are
important going forward. We do know that there were illegal orders given.
We do know that there were votes negated. We do know that there were votes
not counted.

But this is unlikely to succeed because of the relief that is being sought.
This is sometimes called the Hail Mary filing. It doesn't quite capture it.
This is not Aaron Rodgers throwing a touchdown from midfield in Lambeau.
This is Aaron Rodgers throwing a touchdown from midfield in Dallas for a
score in Wisconsin.

I mean, this is a feat that would be very difficult to achieve. It hasn't
been achieved in the past. And part of the problem is this sticker shock,
that they are asking for relief that would effectively negate the
certification of millions of votes. And that has not succeeded.

And you were right to note about the Pennsylvania case. There was not a
single dissenting vote. In order to accept the case like this you are going
to need five justices. So, you could lose Chief Justice Roberts but you got
to bring along all five of the other conservative justices. Not one of them
filled a dissent when the Pennsylvania case was dismissed.

MACCALLUM:  Yes, and they don't want to overturn the certification of the
vote. There are still some questions out there about the existing decision
that was made and overrode by the state legislature and may be down the
road some of those will be dealt with by them. It's an open question as I
understand it.

TURLEY:  That's right.

MACCALLUM:  Hunter Biden, what do you think about all this tonight?

TURLEY:  Well, this is an extraordinary development. You know, back in
October, Senator Ron Wyden and Chuck Schumer were asking the Justice
Department not to investigate Hunter Biden. You know, many of us have been
following the story for a very long time. There has been a blackout in the
media. They've just refused to really press Joe Biden on it.

What we do know is that there is an investigation going forward, that's not
that much of a surprise because the laptop was subpoenaed. They don't just
do that for recreational purposes. And on the laptop were some really
disturbing e-mails.

And as a lawyer, you look at it and there was an informality, a fluidity to
these business deals that were being discussed. Millions of dollars
involving Hunter Biden, his uncle and references to Joe Biden. There were
gifts like a diamond that came from China. All of these things tend to
worry you as an attorney, because there is so much of this in play. And it
is easy to violate laws including tax laws.

The other thing is that when you have a tax investigation that is, that
ultimately looks at all of these transactions --

MACCALLUM:  Yes.

TURLEY:  -- all of this money and whether you pay taxes on what you
received.

MACCALLUM:  Yes. We have no idea if Hunter Biden is guilty in this case but
the investigation is ongoing and as you say, Al Capone it came down to the
taxes in the end. So, we'll see --

TURLEY:  That's right.

MACCALLUM:  -- where this case goes. Jonathan Turley, great to see you.
Thank you, sir.

TURLEY:  Thanks, Martha.

MACCALLUM:  That is THE STORY of Wednesday, December 9th, 2020. We thank
you very much for being here tonight. THE STORY will continue tomorrow
night. We hope you'll join us then at seven o'clock. Tucker Carlson is up
next. Good night, everybody.


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