Border Patrol getting no help 'down here' from federal government, says Union VP
Chris Cabrera speaks out about the COVID-19 surge at the southern border and the lack of federal assistance on 'Your World'
This is a rush transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," August 10, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
CHARLES PAYNE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: The Senate officially unveiling its $3.5 trillion human infrastructure. The bill is chock full of freebies things like a free pre-K, free two years of community college, expanding health care benefits, money for job training and green energy. But who's paying for all of this, and with Americans already seeing prices spike on everything from airfares and rental cars, to hotels and high gas prices, is all of this DC spending going to keep inflation going?
Welcome, everyone. I'm Charles Payne in for Neil Cavuto and this is YOUR WORLD. We're going have more on this inflation threat in a moment. But first to Hillary Vaughn on Capitol Hill on where all the spending pushes coming from. Hillary.
HILLARY VAUGHN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Charles. With all this money going out the door, the US government says they need more money to cover the cost or at least more credit to cover it. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen saying today if Congress does not raise the debt limit, they're in trouble. But Democrats debuted their plan for $3.5 trillion in more spending on human infrastructure without plans to raise the debt ceiling, but did include pricey provisions like universal pre-K, free community college, a civilian climate corps and a pathway to citizenship. And Republicans are already blasting this new spending plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL HAGERTY (R-TN): Set a $3.5 trillion debt bomb that's going to be launched on society. It's also the major component of Joe Biden's transformation of America. This is a social reformation of our nation like we've never seen before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUGHN: There is growing pressure amongst some moderate Democrats in the House to make sure that $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan is paid for. A letter circulating from some moderate House Democrats to Speaker Pelosi pleading with her to not rush a reconciliation package before they know how it's paid for writing this. "Before the House adopts of budget resolution, members of Congress should be able to review a detailed scope of spending levels and revenue raisers. These specifics are crucial, particularly given the combined threat of rising inflation, national debt."
And, Charles, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell put the perspective this way. He said that Democrats trying to pressure Republicans to raise the debt ceiling, but also deciding to go along without Republicans to push this reconciliation package is kind of like a friend telling you he's going to Vegas to blow all his money, but wanting you to give him a loan before he goes. Charles.
PAYNE: And of course, the name is in your postcard. Hillary, thank you so much. So with all of this spending building inflation and continue really to drive prices up for everything that we see, we want to know if this continues. We brought in Fox News Contributor Liz Peek along with Democratic Strategist Johanna Maska.
Liz, I let you -- you've talked about this morning than no one else, so I'll let you take the floor here. But we want to remind folks, inflation is the number one concern of everybody in this country right now more than anything else. And there's no way the heck $3.5 trillion dollars won't make it worse, Liz.
LIZ PEEK, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think, Charles, that's exactly right. We've seen so much spending from the government pushing prices up, basically, very simply, too much money chasing too few goods. Yes, there were some speed bumps as we came out of the COVID-induced recession, some supply chain issues and everything else. But basically, you're talking about a fed balance sheet now up $4 trillion, which is extraordinary, so much money floating around.
And, look, the most offensive thing about this $3.5 trillion bill, in my view, is not to -- going to continue to spur inflation, which it will undoubtedly do. And by the way, the New York Fed just came out with a report saying consumer expectations on inflation are the highest in eight years. And that's a very worrisome sign because consumers kind of get it right usually.
This is just sort of progressive wish list that has nothing to do with the economy. The economy is on fire. In the second quarter, nominal GDP up 13%. Why in the world do we need to spend another $3.5 trillions? The answer is we do not and we should not.
PAYNE: We just came off a very good jobs report and we found out there 10 million job openings.
Johanna, also on Friday, Senator Manchin sent a letter to the Federal Reserve, but it read like he was sending it directly to Nancy Pelosi. He was saying he cannot support any more this medicine at the patient is well. We're doing good. No more spending, no more Federal Reserve spending, no more federal government spending. Why the urgency now?
JOHANNA MASKA, PRESIDENT, GLOBAL SITUATION ROOM: Yes, I think a lot of women my age would actually disagree with that assessment. So, look, I appreciate Republicans now concerned about our spending, but just to be clear during the Trump administration, the national debt rose $6.7 trillion.
And right now what we're looking at after capital infrastructure investment is an investment in our human infrastructure. And then its includes for my generation, who's been saddled by student loan debt and paying for their child's early childhood education, which is more expensive than our student loan debt, and paying for everything. This is an investment in our generation and in our future.
It's an investment in our elderly care which right now many of us are taking on the burden of that elderly care. So, I think that the Republicans -- the White House has already signaled that they want Republicans at the table, and they'll want Joe Manchin at the table, so they're going to need to come to some consensus. But I think that they would be smart for our generation to look at these investments.
PAYNE: You know, here's the thing, Liz, you know, and the whole thing with President Trump. I mean, the COVID did appear under President Trump's watch and we did emergency measures that everyone agrees were necessary. And when you force an entire economy to shut down, you've got to compensate for that.
We're past that now. The urgency factor, the notion that, hey, you know, what college -- we need to pay college loans, for the people that make the most money have the lowest unemployment rate in this country. It's just spaces, that's all I'm saying.
I know, it's a wish list. And by the way, I don't know what a civilian climate corps looks like. It sounds intriguing. I don't want to pay for it, though, Liz.
PEEK: I think a lot of people won't want to pay for it. Look, Charles, the more the government takes over of the economy, and we're now approaching 50% of our entire GDP being accounted for by government spending, you're encouraging fraud, inefficiency, less productivity, which means less wage gains. This is all extremely negative for those sort of organic growth of our country.
But I think the biggest thing that Democrats should be worried about, consumers are connecting the dots between these big spending packages and rising prices. And by the way, with rents soaring and other elements of the CPI, the consumer price index, going inexorably higher over the next year to two years, we're not going to see better inflation numbers for some time.
PAYNE: Sure, sure. And, Johanna, that's the main thing I wanted to ask you. Are you concerned that all of this money pouring into the system that it does in prices higher, and negates all the good things that are happening. Because when you adjust for inflation, all the wage gains for every single month this year are actually negative. So in real life, when you go to the store, you've got a bigger paycheck, but you come home with fewer bags.
MASKA: Yes. The thing about investing in infrastructure is you're actually building expanding capacity for the economy to grow, so the prices should come back down. So I disagree with the consensus. And I understand that short term, we've seen some prices increase, specifically in areas where you've got supply chain issues, and we've got to rectify that, absolutely. We do not want price increases for American families.
We want to see price decreases, but this attack the very thing that we're spending the most money on, which is child care, our education, things that every developed economy is investing in, and we do not want America to fall behind. So I would encourage Republicans and Democrats to come together and find ways we can actually increase that capacity and increase our future so that our kids have the America that we want to maintain in the future.
PAYNE: Yes. Yes, I would love tougher curriculum. I think we start to you both are fantastic, Liz and Johanna. Thank you both very much.
PEEK: Thanks, Charles.
MASKA: Great to join you.
PAYNE: So as the open border becoming open season for COVID, now you've heard border officials give us this warning for weeks and weeks, and weeks. Well, now you're going to meet the border doctor sounding the alarm. What he's saying that everyone should be hearing. Then, protesters rising up against vaccine mandates. Well, they're wrapping up everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS (in unison): We will not comply. We will not comply.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAYNE: The migrant surge showing no signs of slowing down. We'll talk to a doctor on the border who says it's sending COVID cases way up. But first, new reports on July totals showing the new number of border crossings isn't letting up. Fox News Jonathan Hunt is live in La Joya, Texas with the latest. Jonathan.
JONATHAN HUNT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Charles, La Joya, Texas is at the heart of the Rio Grande Valley and the Rio Grande Valley is at the heart of that migrant surge. The river itself is just about a mile behind me here. And down this dirt path, a short time ago, Border Patrol had a helicopter up and spotted a group of migrant families coming through from the river up this path as they do almost all day, every day.
They sent Border Patrol vehicles down there. They send a bus standard there to pick them up. They bust out at least a dozen or so migrants. And we just seen another bus go down this path behind me right now.
As I say it happens all day. Look at this video from Sunday afternoon, several dozen, we thought maybe 70, as many as 70 or 80 migrants, coming along this path and then processed by Border Patrol agents here. It happened at night too when we arrived here last night, several dozen again being processed through the night by the Border Patrol here.
And that's why this surge keeps on getting higher and higher. Take a look at these numbers. Overall, US authorities stopped around 210,000 migrants or interacted with 210,000 migrants in July at the border. That compared to just around 41,000 in July of last year, that have caused more than a fivefold increase. There's also concerned about the increasing number of COVID-19 cases among the migrants and the spread of that to agents. Sources telling us that several dozen agents in this area have in fact contracted COVID-19.
And according to Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council, there is no telling how many migrants with the virus are entering the US. Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDON JUDD, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL: About 40% of the total number that we're taking to custody we're releasing without testing, so we just don't know what is being spread into the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: And looking down this path towards the Rio Grande River again, you can see Border Patrol agents down there. They believe that there are more family members, more groups of migrants in among the brush down there. They just sent another bus down to pick them up. They too will be brought out, process and then taken likely to one of the various holding centers.
There is, of course, one in Donna, Texas. We saw pictures of that over the weekend. It is badly overcrowded. We're also hearing that they are being bussed further east, in Texas, to the holding facilities and Eagle Pass for instance.
But whatever way you look at it, Charles, the Biden administrations predictions that this was seasonal, that this would slow down during the summer months. That simply is not the case. You look at those numbers and you look at the pictures that we've been showing you every single day, emphatically this surge is not slowing down. Charles.
PAYNE: Thank you, Jonathan. With more migrants at the border, soaring COVID cases at the Border Patrol custody are also of course spiking. And that has local health officials raising the alarm. Rio Grande City Physician Dr. Antonio Falcon is saying, it's taking a toll on his community and he joins us now.
Dr. Falcon, thank you so much. Just what you're seeing on the ground there with respect to the threat and how rapidly it's becoming more dangerous.
ANTONIO FALCON, PHYSICIAN, RIO GRANDE CITY: Well, it has accelerated significantly to --
PAYNE: OK. So I think we have an issue right now with the doctor's microphone. So let's -- we're going to try and fix that.
I want to bring in Chris Cabrera. He's the Border Patrol Union Vice President here. Chris, thanks for joining us.
We just heard something very alarming, and this was all day long on social media. There was a sort of back and forth about the crisis at the border. It was reported by a reporter at another network that 100% of the migrants coming through our southern border are tested. I assert that Judd say it's only 40% being released without being tested. What's the real number?
CHRIS CABRERA, VICE PRESIDENT, BORDER PATROL UNION: Yes. As far as Border Patrol goes, it's very rare we test anyone. The only time somebody gets tested in our custody is if they're showing signs and symptoms, or they have some other medical emergency. So very few get tested in Border Patrol custody.
When they go over to HHS, Health and Human Services or ICE, some of them will get tested there. But the vast majority, the vast majority are untested when they leave our care. I don't know who that other network is but I did read something like that this morning. And that's just untrue.
PAYNE: Yes. I mean, you guys have such a tough job. And I just feel so badly that every time you do your job, it's boiled down to something that has nothing at all to do with the service you're trying to do, not just for the to protect our country, but for the folks who want to get into this country. We don't know why they want to be here. So, I just think it's tough.
I'm reading where Mexico, right now, as of yesterday, there were 7,500 new cases of COVID. The seven day average is 16,000, above 16,000. To put that in perspective, on May 25rh, there are only 2,400 new cases and a seven day average of 2,000. So there's no doubt that the COVID crisis is raging even in that southern border. And so, what help are you getting from our federal government to make sure everyone is safer?
CABRERA: That's the million dollar question right now. I mean, we've gotten nothing. Nobody has lifted a finger to help us out down here. They haven't lifted a finger to help our border patrol agents. They haven't lifted a finger to protect our communities down here from this disease, or this virus that's coming in from the southern border. Granted, there are cases that are from here, but the vast majority of stuff we're seeing coming across right now is, you know, we have so many people that are coming across that are sick way higher than the numbers we're seeing from other cities and other states. I think it's somewhere around 10% or 12%. We're looking at 20%-25% down here.
And, unfortunately, the administration just turning a blind eye to our communities down here and they're not doing anything to protect us down here. We're going on six months, seven months now of this, and nobody's lifted a finger.
PAYNE: Chris, thank you very much. I really appreciate it and keep up the job. It's often thankless but believe me, millions of people appreciate what you're doing and the sacrifices you're making.
I want to go back to Dr. Antonio Falcon, a Rio Grande City, Texas physician. Dr. Falcon, again -- we've got him on the phone now. Just what you are seeing there? You're a physician, you're on the ground, you're near the border. Describe to the audience what you're seeing.
FALCON: Well, we definitely have seen a very significant increase in the number of cases of COVID, to the point that the rural hospitals are now having difficulty transferring patients. The upper tier hospitals that normally take our severe cases are unable to take them because they're full, for different reasons, but including the number of cases. So it's having a significant impact in our community, without a doubt.
PAYNE: Yes. We were talking numbers and a number that jumped out at me is that, the region has reporter a 900% increase in a number of detainees who have tested positive for COVID in the last month. Where do you put the folks who have COVID? Obviously, you're dealing with the people who live in your town? And now you, of course, have the migrants on top of that. Are there even facilities or are we putting them in hotels and things like that?
FALCON: It's my understanding that they're trying to use different sources, including hotels and tents. But I'm really not an expert in being able to answer that question fully. So that would probably be a question for Immigration and Border Patrol.
PAYNE: Let me ask you, doctor, what would you like to see done? What would you like to see the federal government done?
FALCON: Well, I think one of the things that we immediately need to do is try to slow down the number of people that are coming across because it's totally overwhelming our system here. If we listen to what the mayors have to say from the different cities, everybody is asking for help and everybody's getting desperate. So we were being overrun by an uncontrolled number of people,
PAYNE: Do you -- have you personally made this request there? Do you have any channels yourself to make these requests? Because we know lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in Texas have done this. And so far, they're all saying they're not getting any real response.
FALCON: I have had contact to different elected representatives, but certainly I do not have any ability to contact anybody at the White House.
PAYNE: Well, doctor, we really feel for your plight and all of those that you're trying to help. We appreciate you coming on. Obviously, you're overwhelmed and we hope that someone hears this message. It's about humanity. This has nothing to do with politics. Thank you so much, sir.
FALCON: Thank you so much for having me.
PAYNE: So later in the hour, are Democrats starting to get nervous about this border crisis combined with a massive inflation threat? We've got some details from a new report. But first, vaccine and mask mandates are ramping up now folks are lowering up, but do they have a case?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAYNE: The battle hitting up over vaccines and mask mandates. The White House said to be considering withholding federal resources from institutions to push for more vaccine requirements. Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy is in Wilmington, Delaware with the very latest. Peter.
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Charles, officials are saying that these talks about possibly keeping federal money away from places that don't require employees to get vaccinated against COVID are only happening right now at the staff level. But these vaccine mandates have some very big fans very high up in government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: You clearly believe that vaccine mandates could make a difference?
FRANCIS COLLINS, NIH DIRECTOR: I do believe that can make a difference. I understand how that can sometimes set off all kinds of resistance. But isn't that a shame?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAYNE: The Biden DOJ has already said it is legal for employers to require vaccines even though they are not FDA approved yet. But that part won't matter for long. Dr. Anthony Fauci says full FDA authorization is coming within weeks as he also tries to explain what he thinks is the safest way to protect K through 12 students from the Delta variant and it does involve masks for the vaccinated
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISOR: With those who can be vaccinated, whoever they are. Teachers, personnel in the school, anyone, get them vaccinated, so protect the kids with a shield the vaccinated people. For the kids who can't get vaccinated, that's the reason why we're having a strong recommendation that in the schools, everybody should wear a mask whether or not you're vaccinated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOOCY: The President has been keeping an eye on all of this from his house here in Wilmington, Saturday, Sunday and today. We have not seen him on camera, but he did put out a statement supporting the Pentagon's decision to require all service members to get vaccinated against COVID. He says that is one way to make sure America's fighting force is always ready. Charles.
PAYNE: Peter, thank you very much. So with those mandates ramping up, lawsuits while they're starting to pile up. Several New York lawmakers announcing Friday they're planning to sue New York City over its coronavirus vaccine mandates saying it's infringing on citizens rights. But do they have a case?
Fox News Legal Analyst Mercedes Colwin is with us to break it all down. Mercedes, I mean, we're learning some hard lessons, I guess, here about what our own civil rights are. It feels like maybe we're also in uncharted territory. From your legal thoughts, what do you think?
MERCEDES COLWIN, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Great to be on with you as always, Charles. Here's the big sticky week for all the employers and all these businesses out there. The government has huge latitude when it comes to public health. And that really is very, very difficult to overcome.
So in order to establish it, any of these mandates are unconstitutional. You have to say to the court that it's unreasonable and time, place and manner. And oh, by the way, the fact you have this overriding a problematic pandemic was killing hundreds and thousands of people just in the country alone, it's going to be a very hard decision for that judge to say, you're right, the mandate is unconstitutional.
It is something that you will see. And you're exactly right, there's going to be lots of these lawsuits around the country, especially where these mandates are occurring. But at the end of the day, it's going to be very difficult to overcome what the government is putting in place.
PAYNE: Mercedes, some are going to say to the judge, hey, this is an experimental vaccine, has not received full approval, and therefore we don't think it might be well-being -- well-meaning and -- but we are concerned, you know. And certainly a lot of mothers have expressed concern for their children.
COLWIN: Right.
PAYNE: Is there some sort of legal way there to say this is not even a true federal FDA-approved vaccine that we normally maybe, you know, pass the rigorous that you just described.
COLWIN: Well, one of the weathervanes was that lawsuit not too long ago, just a couple of weeks ago with the mask action brought by those individuals in the hospital, where they said exactly that argument saying we believe that we shouldn't be required to be mandated to be vaccinated. Why, because it's not FDA approved. It is experimental. We're concerned for our health.
And the judge really did a smack down against the plaintiffs and said, this is not dangerous. It has had multiple layers of approval, maybe it doesn't have the final approval, but it's approved for emergency basis only. And as Dr. Fauci said, this past weekend, when he was on the air on multiple shows, he said that you can expect the FDA to get that approval in early next year.
So all of this could be mute. Well, obviously, they're going to make that argument and I think it's an excellent argument that you're proposing. But frankly, I think it's going to be really difficult to overcome the mandate.
COLWIN: If you spoke to a judge and said, a certain amount of states do not have these mandates. Therefore, in other words, there's no overarching national, you know, that it can go vary from state to state. So hence, there's got to be something different thinking with respect to the urgency or need for them, or just how much they infringe on someone's civil rights. Is that a legal avenue?
COLWIN: I mean, honestly, Charles, you're definitely suggesting a lot of avenues that individuals can take. But when it comes to public health, it is such an overriding significant issue and one in which the government has really seized upon to make these types of mandates. I mean, that's -- in the early 1900s, there were cases where smallpox vaccination were required. When they were challenged, in the state of Massachusetts it was challenged, it was required for those individuals to have that vaccine.
So really, it is the tentacles of public health are so significant and so beneficial to the country at large. A lot of the judiciary will shrink away from overcoming any of these mandates, even in the face of lawsuits.
PAYNE: Yes. That's why we bring you on, Mercedes, that you have all the avenues covered. We had to go down them. You hit them. We talked about them, I appreciate it. Hope to see you again real soon as something a little bit happier, perhaps. We'll talk to you soon.
COLWIN: My pleasure.
PAYNE: So as the next vaccine mandate coming for all flyers, we're going to go live to Hartsfield International in Atlanta with a live report and a test program to taxi drivers by the mile tucked into that 2,700 page infrastructure bill that's making its way to vote. So will you be tax, I don't know, every time you get behind the wheel? We'll be right back.
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PAYNE: Well, if you plan on flying, don't forget your ID, your boarding pass and if one lawmaker gets his way, your vaccine card. New York Democratic Congressman Richie Torres is leading a push to require vaccines for all passengers hitting the skies. Steve Harrington is live in Atlanta is Hartsfield Jackson with the latest. Steve.
STEVE HARRINGTON, NBC CORRESPONDENT: Charles, this is just the very start in Congress of trying to make sure people are vaccinated before taking any flight, domestic or international. We talked to people here at Atlanta's main airport to see how they felt about that. A number of people said they're OK with having to get the COVID vaccine before flying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROLINE BAUGUS, TRAVELER: Personally, I really don't have an issue with it. I mean, I don't mind everybody having to get vaccinated before they fly.
BRETT RAWLS, TRAVELER: The goal is to have more people vaccinated so it's safer for us to carry on our normal activities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRINGTON: Other people told us they were pretty dead set against any mandate to get a COVID vaccine before flying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT BENSON, TRAVELER: I think that's a horrible idea. I think it's invasion of privacy.
JUNIO JULES, TRAVELER: I think taking the vaccine should be a personal choice. And I don't think it should be mandatory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRINGTON: So a lot of mixed views here in Atlanta. Right now, about 30% of US adults have not had any COVID vaccine. Charles, back to you.
PAYNE: Steve, before I let you go, throughout the most of the half, second half of last year, all of this year, the airlines really stress that it was the most safe way to travel because of the ventilation systems and other things. Any word on how they might feel about this vaccine, potential vaccine mandate?
HARRINGTON: Well, we've already seen some major airlines requiring their own employees to be vaccinated to come to work. So it looks like the trend could be going towards mandatory vaccines, Charles.
HARRINGTON: Steve, thank you very much. Folks, a new video, it's really tough, a brutal Seattle attack. It's a 22-year-old tourist being beaten and robbed in broad daylight. More on this crime wave that will not let up. Also Axios calling it a "GOP Gusher," inflation spiking aren't Democrats worrying?
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PAYNE: You're looking live in Albany, New York where the state's Judiciary Committee says its impeachment inquiry into the Governor Andrew Cuomo while conclude in the several weeks. Now, this coming as Cuomo's top aide resigned and he's refusing to do the same.
Bryan Llenas has been following this closely. He's in Albany right now with more. Bryan.
BRYAN LLENAS, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Charles, good afternoon. Well, Governor Andrew Cuomo's top aide and confidant Melissa DeRosa, she abruptly resigned last night. The New York Times reporting she did it when she came to the conclusion, after coming to the conclusion, that there really wasn't a path forward for the governor to stay in office.
Now, look, the Attorney General report that came out last week mentions DeRosa's name 187 times. In fact, the report alleges she fostered a toxic work atmosphere, retaliated against Cuomo's accusers, and even helped create a protocol that kept young female staff members away from Cuomo.
This as executive assistant number one, Brittany Commisso, spoke out in her first TV interview today. She says Cuomo broke the law and needs to be held accountable. She claims Cuomo groped her twice and kissed her. The Albany Sheriff's Department says they could arrest Cuomo on misdemeanor charges.
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BRITTANY COMMISSO, ANDREW CUOMO ACCUSER: These are not hugs that he would give his mother or, you know, his brother. These were hugs with the intention of getting some personal sexual satisfaction out of, and then when he went to go kiss me on the cheek, he'd quickly turned his head and he kissed me on the lips.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LLENAS: The State Assembly Judiciary Committee says they will hold public hearings in about a couple of weeks but plan on being done with their investigation, actually, as soon as by the end of this month. Even if Cuomo does not resigned, the committee says impeachment is still on the table.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES LAVINE, CHAIRMAN, ASSEMBLY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: That for a moment, but the end result would be because he's already out of office, and impeachment itself is going to be moot. But there would be the opportunity in the court of impeachment to prohibit him from ever again occupying statewide office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LLENAS: There was a report, a local report, that Governor Cuomo was trying to broker a deal with top state officials that would eventually what essentially have him avoid impeachment in exchange for him not seeking reelection. I asked the top Democrat, the Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie whether or not he was in any of those negotiations. He says, he's not negotiating any deals, he hasn't heard about any of that, and he doesn't plan on negotiating any kind of deal that will have him stave off impeachment. Charles.
PAYNE: Bryan, thank you very much. Switching gears now, we're getting a new video of a 22-year-old beaten and robbed in Seattle as the crime surge across this country continues. Aishah Hasnie is live with more on this wave of attacks throughout the country.
AISHAH HASNIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Charles. Yet, a warning too to everyone at home, this video is very tough to watch. It is graphic. But you can see in this video, it shows that 22-year-old, a young man, a tourist and a photographer known as Caliber Visuals. You can see him being brutally beaten unconscious and then robbed by that stranger. It happened in broad daylight. And he is reportedly still spitting up blood and suffering headaches from that assault.
Meantime in Chicago, Charles, that city is mourning. A police officer killed in the line of duty, 29-year-old Officer Ella French shot in the head during a traffic stop there. Her partner is still in critical condition at this hour. That shoot out, part of yet another violent weekend for the city, 86 people injured there in 54 shootings over the weekend, 13 people murdered. Mayor Lori Lightfoot facing some pretty intense criticism right now but some Chicago City Council members also laying blame on the likes of Congressman Cori Bush who is still out there, pushing the defund the police movement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY NAPOLITANO, CHICAGO CITY COUNCIL: You have a socialist movement that has been demonizing the police, and now you have the brazen attitude of people on the street that have -- are going after the police. They're actually making the police the enemy on the street right now in this is your end result.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HASNIE: And, Charles, back here in New York City, a teenager is among two people killed here. Three injured in two shootings in Brooklyn over the weekend, while another man reportedly stabbed in his head by a random stranger in Brooklyn, excuse me, in the Bronx, again, another day here in New York City. Charles.
PAYNE: It's so tough to watch that, you're right. Aishah, thank you very much.
Crime, border crossing, prices, they're all surging. Now, new report shows how much one party is worrying.
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PAYNE: All right. Folks, so we talked about this mileage taxes snuck -- they tucked right into this infrastructure bill. It's a test pilot but is it more than just a test? And if it's not, what is it going to cost us?
We've got Gary Kaltbaum who does fear what it means for drivers down the road. Gary, I saw this too. And by the way, it was -- I also saw where President Biden had the big event where he talked about the intentions of at least half of the cars in his country not being combustion engines by 2030. It sounds like it's going to cost a lot of money just to drive a car.
GARY KALTBAUM, FOX BUSINESS CONTRIBUTOR: Charles, the most amazing part of the story is Grady Trimble reported that they are spending 125 million of our tax dollars just to study this. So they're going to pay people when all they got to do -- they can send me a box the yodels and I'll give them all the ideas why it's so bad.
First off, it hits the lower income and middle class. It hits the rural people. There's a privacy issue. What are they going to have people sitting by checking out your mileage in your car? And the other part of the equation is, this isn't even on my list of taxes that they have proposed. And to debate, I have to add this one in there.
It's just -- it's a horrible thing. I don't even know where to start with this, where to go with this. Reagan once said if it moves taxes and they are finding everything that is moving, my friend.
PAYNE: One of the issues I think is that they were trying to find ways to raise the gas tax but then you've got folks driving Tesla's who, by the way, get thousands. I mean, thousands of taxpayer dollars to buy Tesla. So the richest people in America, we have to subsidize them buying the car they would buy anyway. You can't really put a gas tax on that.
But this seems like a really harebrained alternative. And to your point, it's going to crush people who are just driving to work. If you work at the Walmart, and it's 10 miles away from your house, you may have to quit working.
KALTBAUM: Exactly. And, you know, I was reading where people that live in rural communities will travel 20, 30, 40 miles. And then there's the question of what do you do with Uber and Lyft drivers? What do you do with taxis? What do you do with truck drivers? What do you do with anything that gets them a car? Were they going to carve that out? That beats the heck out of me just a real bad idea. And I hope they rolled it back and not spend a dime on it.
PAYNE: Ay-ay-ay. I mean, yes. I wonder who's going to get that $120 million. Gary, thank you so much.
In the meantime, folks, inflation spiking, crime running rampant and our border crossings are just simply surging to record numbers. Axios reporting, if you add all of that up, it's a nightmare for Democrats in the midterms. So how worried should the party be?
With me now, Washington Examiner's Kaylee McGhee White, Democratic Strategist Ari Aramesh, I'm sorry. And let me start with you. Kaylee. It's -- the article has a photo, a picture, if you will, of an elephant, a King Kong-sized elephant with a leg over a donkey. I mean, they're not just saying that the Republicans are going to win. They're saying that if this stuff keeps up, they're going to annihilate. They're going to take this shellacking that President Obama talked about and magnified several times. Should the Democrats take this seriously?
KAYLEE MCGHEE WHITE, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Well, if we've learned one thing over the past several years, it's not to underestimate how much voters care about immigration and the economic issues that affect their wallets directly. So, Democrats can dismiss these things, says, oh, Republicans are just pouncing on the stories of COVID positive immigrants being shipped out to border towns or, you know, they're just -- inflation is just temporary.
But the fact is, that these are the kinds of stories that start ringing those alarm bells in voters' heads and make them think, wow, what's going on. And the problem is for Democrats is that the Biden administration doesn't seem to want to do anything about it. He wants to spend his way into an inflation crisis with no regard for how it's going to affect the economy. And the border crisis is just as big of a problem today as it was several months ago.
PAYNE: Now, Ari, this seem now that the Democrats were upset with this. They were upset with Axios. I mean, that's what I saw more in social media than anything else. I didn't see a lot of pushback about the article, just how could Axios be such a turncoat organization, particularly after that fabulous jobs report. Are the Democrats taking it seriously?
ARI ARAMESH, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, if they're not they should. We have an uphill battle to plan for the midterms, every sitting president, I think President Bush and way back when FDR where they've lost seats in the midterms. So yes, it's an uphill battle. We're holding on to the threat to the House of Representatives. It's 50-50 in the Senate. The vice president is the tiebreaker.
But while I think it's an uphill battle, I don't think the data itself is indicative of a very, very tough year for Democrats if -- the economy is getting better, there's no doubt about it. If we manage to actually push the President's message ahead, and also the Republicans have a huge problem on their hands, and that's President Donald Trump.
He's really not popular in a lot of those suburbs, in a lot of places he has lost. So overall, if we're counting on that Independent voter to come out and vote, I think the Democratic Party will not happy, terrible year in 2012.
PAYNE: You know, Kaylee, outside of the White House, the Republicans didn't do that bad last year. But to the point on what the Democrats need to counter this, it feels, and you brought it up, that maybe if they can keep printing money, keep sending out checks, maybe that will be the difference maker. Because I can tell you right now, there are signs in the market, without getting too wonky like the yield curve that suggests we could see a slowdown in this economy when all that money runs out.
MCGHEE WHITE: Well, that's the problem is, you know, free money sounds really great. The COVID stimulus checks were a great idea until you start seeing the consequences later on. And we're starting to see those consequences now. And people are starting to get the idea that, wow, this is really going to be affecting our budget and our bottom line at the end of the day.
So that's why, you know, the spending proposals, even the bipartisan infrastructure proposal, how much of this spending is really necessary and how much is Biden going to keep trying to push through? I mean, I think that that inevitably will affect Democrats at the ballot box.
PAYNE: Yes. I mean, it's a tough calculus. There's absolutely no doubt about it. And also the President's got to be careful. He takes victory laps, and at same time he says he can't. That we still need to push through $3.5 trillion in spending.
Ari, we lost you for a moment. We got you back but we ran out of time. Thank you both very much. I really appreciate it, Kaylee, Ari.
And that'll do it for me, folks. Neil will be back tomorrow. In the meantime, you can catch me on Fox Business at 2:00 p.m. on "MAKING MONEY." "THE FIVE" starts now.
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