Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Rep. Lee Zeldin on release of American from Venezuela
Interview
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REGAN: Let's bring in New York Congressman Lee Zeldin. He sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. It's good to have you here. It's good to see you.
REP. LEE ZELDIN, R--NEW YORK: Good to see you as well.
REGAN: Happy Memorial Day weekend.
ZELDIN: Thank you, you too.
REGAN: Certainly a nice weekend for that missionary's family. That's a big deal. He was held in Venezuela for two years. Who does the congratulations go to?
ZELDIN: First of all, to Josh Holt and his family. Congratulations and welcome home. The timing couldn't possibly be any better for him. I'm sure that he would have rather it been two years ago but he's here. For the whole state of Utah, you've seen how they've rallied behind Josh Holt for him to be here now with his wife. For our whole country, we get to celebrate. Again, we just had three Korean-Americans return home from their captivity in North Korea and now we have Josh Holt and his wife returning from Venezuela, and Americans feel good about it. But congratulations and thank you to the President, to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the State Department, Senator Corker, the Utah Congressional delegation. A lot of people really worked really hard for this.
REGAN: Yes. What does Venezuela doing taking Americans? I mean, I've traveled to Venezuela many times reporting stories there. Not during the Madura regime but back during Chavez's era. They're retaking Americans? I mean, this guy is just down there trying to do his missionary work and he winds up in jail?
ZELDIN: It's -- so other countries. They operate very differently than we do here in the U.S. and it is unfortunate that this happened. Unfortunately, we've got into the point where Josh Holt is released. Venezuela is in a world of hurt. I mean, they just came off of an election that was not a Democratic election. You have a presidency --
REGAN: Maduro won again, by the way, surprise, surprise.
ZELDIN: Surprise, surprise. The presidency actually is a dictatorship, their economy is in ruins. There is really no voice of opposition that allows them to take over with their ideas, to move their country in a better trajectory. So their nation doesn't really need to keep adding to that world of hurt by holding hostage and wrongfully imprisoning a United States citizen.
REGAN: OK. So speaking of all these sort of rogue nations or rogue regimes if you would, this brings us of course to North Korea. And the big question is whether or not this summit is actually going to happen or not. Maybe it's back on. Here's the President speaking about North Korea, watch.
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REGAN: Congressman Zeldin, let me just ask you about why is this been so touch-and-go? I've gotten word that perhaps the Chinese had something to do with this. General Keane telling me recently that his sources which are quite good are telling him that the Chinese have begun trading with the North Koreans again and that they are trying to bring the North Koreans back into the fold and they don't like the idea of us having this summit. So are they really mucking things up enough that the summit might actually be off?
ZELDIN: Well, it looks like if the answer -- that question was being asked a few days ago after the President made his announcement and looked off.
REGAN: Right.
ZELDIN: Over the course of the last couple of days, it seems like North Korea's reaction has been one of saying hey, listen we want this summit to take place. They have sent signals that we're receiving overnight that they are in favor of a full denuclearization according to the South Korean President. China played an important role in 2017. You remember in August there was a unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution but where even China and Russia voted -- it was unanimous to effectively cut off over one-third North Korean exports. China played an important role in getting North Korea to the point where they wanted to summit realizing they need a different trajectory for their country, but then we heard that the Chinese leader met with the North Korean leader and then all of a sudden North Korea's rhetoric changed, their behavior changed which led to President Trump deciding to walk --
REGAN: OK, but now it's changed again. So why is it -- are they are they like figuring how maybe the Chinese aren't what we thought they were? I just -- yes, it's great that their language is changing again but you know, when you go into a negotiation, you need to do so in good faith. And I think them sort of bailing on this or seeming to bail on it and ratcheting up their rhetoric only to then get slapped down by us and now they're coming back to the table, I mean, goodness I mean, why can't they just you know, be an adult and have a normal negotiation process here.
ZELDIN: I think -- I think North Korea watched the way the United States approached our negotiation with Iran and there's no similarities. This isn't Barack Obama as the President of the United States. This isn't John Kerry as the -- as the Secretary of State. Why that -- why is that important? In Iran, they were using rhetoric during the negotiations illegally test-fire intercontinental ballistic missiles, calling us the Great Satan, pledging death to America on their holidays, doing a lot of bad things, the rhetoric was terrible. North Korea started doing that, and when North Korea did that President Trump said no summit.
REGAN: Yes, enough. Yes, and that's the way it should be. That said, you know what really bugged me, and I know it bugged you because I heard you this week and I heard you talking about how you know, look we need to remember that the President's success is all of our success as Americans.
What bugged me was that many members of the left and many members of the mainstream media almost rejoiced seriously, in the idea that the summit was off. Here's some of the Democrats on the withdrawal from the summit. Watch.
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REGAN: A giggle fit, the art of diplomacy a lot harder than -- you know what, we know diplomacy is hard. The President knows diplomacy is hard. But why act like I told you so. I told you so. I mean, isn't it good for the world? Isn't it good for our country? Isn't it good for the entire Peninsula that this summit happened?
ZELDIN: So Nancy Pelosi was wrong. Bob Menendez -- Bob Menendez' point is well-taken. The -- you know, the United States of America did not elect Nancy Pelosi President of United States. It is a certain way of diplomacy or approaching foreign policy that led to this issue in the first place.
It was a temporary shot. That actually was proven false within days. Clearly Kim Jong-un wants this summit. North Korea needs to pursue a different path for their nation. The current one's not working. Their country is in shambles. And if they take a step back and reflect on some of the words that they've used, this is some people in Congress, some of the media, some all throughout our country, people who wakeup in the morning, they're laying their hair on fire and taking whatever talking points they're being fed as far as how they're supposed to oppose this President on everything and anything today, and if they reflect on what they say, there have been times were they root for North Korea against the United States. They have they have rooted for Hamas against the United States and our allies. When the market has a bad day, I've seen them celebrate. I told you so. Celebrating our economy --
REGAN: Well, that is messed up because we are all Americans first. Before we are left, before we are right, before we are anything, we are Americans. Don't go anywhere, Congressman. Congressman Zeldin is going to stay right here because coming up, we're going to discuss President Trump's comments about the MS-13 gang. Why critics are slamming the President on his rhetoric? Is it justified? You can follow us on Twitter @SundayFutures, so stay with us here as we look ahead on SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES. We'll be right back.
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REGAN: That's New York Congressman Lee Zeldin reacting to President Trump speech last week in Bethpage, Long Island on illegal immigration and the violent Ms-13 gang. But critics are saying that the President is unfairly conflating the crimes committed by the ruthless gang and I mean ruthless, with all illegal immigrants. Mr. Zeldin, you were there at the event, I don't -- I think it's pretty clear when he's talking about animals that he's referring to the gang members because he was talking about MS-13 and some of the horrible things that they have done, and you know you've probably given animals too much credit to call those people that do these horrible, horrible, horrible -- we don't even need to go into it but you know what I'm talking about -- to do that and then they're saying, well no he's referring to all immigrants when he says that. That seems like kind of a leap, right, if you would. I mean, taking things out of context and I think this is partly why Americans are so frustrated with the media and so frustrated with those that are trying to pull him down. What do you think he meant, sir, with those comments?
ZELDIN: That is a leap. That's a leap off the side of a cliff and falling on your face because the California Sheriff was clearly asking at the White House about MS-13 and the President directly, immediately responded to that comment referring to them as animals. And then you have members of Congress and the media and others who are trying to conflate that to him talking about all immigrants. I mean, they weren't big. They went broad. Now, what's important, and you pointed out being at -- the calling of animals is a nice way of putting it. You could actually call them much, much worse. What's very interesting was while we were at this roundtable, you had two parents, two sets of parents there for the childhood best friends were murdered by MS-13. And the animals remark came up a few times and describing an MS-13's behavior and their lack of humanity, their lack of character. The reaction from these parents are all the confirmation that the victims, their families, the people most impacted by MS-13, they're the ones who can absolutely validate that that MS-13 are in fact made up of animals. They -- we hear about the high profile crimes, we had those two best friends, you had four people also just before that murdered with machetes and centralized of ball field --
REGAN: And ripping the hearts out and the horrendous gang rape, it's -- I mean, it's really bad and this is an extremely violent group. I had one guest tell me, you know, they look make the Mafia look. You know like Disney or something because it is that bad. And they are extraordinarily ruthless, unlike anything we have ever seen historically. And so, with that in mind and also knowing as some of the people there on that panel pointed out that a lot of people are coming into this country as youths and they haven't been properly vetted and they're here illegally. And if you're trying to actually control crime in certain neighborhoods and throughout the U.S., if you're trying to control drug trafficking, why wouldn't you control your borders? Why would you allow people in and give them the potential to do this enormous harm and join a gang like MS-13?
ZELDIN: The right policy will be better border security, better interior enforcement, ending catch and release, to end the visa lottery, to -- also with the UAC, the Unaccompanied Alien Children, that program, we have these individuals who are set up for failure the entire time. The Obama Administration actually was encouraging parents of the Central American countries to turn their kids over to these coyotes for this dangerous mission in the United States. The UACs, they end up coming to -- buy the way, some of them are held at gunpoint in order to be able to cross the border. I have to do bad things, carry narcotics to get across the border. But then they come into communities where the gangs are targeting UACs for recruitment. So for that parent, the right thing for United States to be doing, the right policy would be to tell that parent not to turn their kid over.
The Trump Administration recognizes that, the U.S. Attorney, the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, other local levels of government, everyone realizes that there are flaws in UACs and other programs. We need to fix it, we want to fix it. We're up against some opposition, some obstructionism in Congress but we have to fight through it and we just need to shame these Democrats if they're not willing to do the right thing on their own. All right, let me get to another hot topic right now, and that's whether or not there's going to be a second special counsel to look into what may have happened with the FBI, how on earth that FISA warrant was issued based on a dossier that nobody had bothered to even check and see who had financed it. You are calling for a second special Council. I actually applaud that because you know what, as a journalist I want answers. As an American, I want answers. I think the world deserves answers. The United States of America, everybody who votes deserves an answer. Are you going to get it?
ZELDIN: We have gotten a lot of transparency. What we've seen in this resolution, the House Resolution 907 calling for a second special council,25 original co-sponsors. It details a lot of facts with regards to misconduct to the highest levels of the DOJ and FBI with regards to the FISA abuse, how and why the Hillary Clinton e-mail probe ended? How and why the Trump Russia probe began? And what's amazing, I was on with you a few days back and over the course of the last few days in the entire country, no one has been able to poke a single hole in a single word of this resolution. So this is filled up with facts. Now, what's very telling is Congressional Democrats and others don't want the American public to have more information. Congressional Republicans, the White House, others want the American public to have as much information as possible so they can form their own independent judgment.
REGAN: I mean, I think we deserve it. We need the information. There's still a lot of questions out there. No matter how it shakes out if we get the information and I get it, you got to redact certain things to protect certain people but at least let people make their own conclusion.
ZELDIN: The White House should declassify the FISA application. If you need to redact some of the sources and methods, that's fine. The fact is, as you read through this resolution, we now have a lot of answers. And now--
REGAN: Oh, we're getting there.
ZELDIN: And now we need accountability.
REGAN: Congressman, it's good to see you.
ZELDIN: It's great to see you as well.
REGAN: It's great to have you here.
ZELDIN: It's great to be here.
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