Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Mike Lee

Interview

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MACCALLUM: Well, that first person was William weld, not a Democrat who is running against the president, in fact on the Republican side.

But here now is Utah Senator Mike Lee, author of the brand-new book, "Our Lost Declaration: America's Fight Against Tyranny from King George to the Deep State." Senator, good to have you with us this evening.

SEN. MIKE LEE, R-UT: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: You know, you hear this sort of, grand, dire proclamations about the fact that the president is undermining American values, and literally the country itself is in deep danger if he continues to be president. What do you make of that and what do you think it is, you know, what's the underlying evidence that you see playing out in the country of that?

LEE: I think they are engaging in paranoid fantasy. Look, there isn't a single shred of truth to what they are saying. The real threat to liberty in this country relates to the power that's been excessively delegated by the people's elected lawmakers in Congress over the executive branch.

Yes, there's too much power in the executive branch. That is not Trump's fault. This was true decades before Donald Trump ever came down on that escalator. This is not his problem. It's Congress' problem. It's one of the reasons I wrote this book, "Our Lost Declaration" is to remind the American people that we fought a revolution in order to disaggregate power. In order to put it back in the hands of the people.

But this is not a threat to liberty by Donald Trump, it's a threat created by Congress.

MACCALLUM: Well, give me some examples of where you think the executive branch has too much power and you find that to be dangerous.

LEE: Over the course of many decades, about the last 80 years, we've seen a gradual shift of power from lawmaking power and the issuance of federal regulations costing the economy $2 million a year to war making power, emergency power, all of these things have been delegated away by Congress, sometimes by an express act of Congress.

In other cases, by in action by Congress in response to executive action. But in every circumstance, this is a result of Congress' failure, not Donald Trump's. These people are wrong to say that Donald Trump is a threat to liberty. Congress is the problem.

MACCALLUM: Well, you know, when you look at liberty, you look at the justice system, you look at opportunity in America, basic freedoms in America, have any of those things been undercut? Either by the president -- I mean, is anybody less free or more constricted in their lives and their abilities in the American way now than when they were when the president was elected? And if so, are any of these things due to the executive power that you see that has been, you know, collected unjustly?

LEE: No, I don't believe so. If anything, I believe the American people have more freedom today than they did the day before President Trump was sworn into office.

One of the reasons for that, we look at the fact that this is an administration that in every instance has taken out at least two regulations for every new regulation it's issued. This president has done more to restore liberty than any president in recent history. We should be grateful for that we should, again, point the finger back at Congress for the fact that Congress has relinquished power.

MACCALLUM: So, one of the things people point to is that what they call the admiration, the apparent admiration that the president has for leaders like Putin and Kim Jong-un, we just saw the two of them meet today in a historic meeting actually, Russia, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia.

Do you think that that is true, as, and if it is true, do you think that that undercuts American values? What he has said about those leaders?

LEE: I don't think that a president being willing to engage in an open dialogue with foreign leaders represents a threat to our liberty. Quite the contrary, I think needs to be praised when a president wants to reach out and wants to make sure that he doesn't want to insult foreign leaders. We shouldn't be denigrating him for trying to do that, for trying to make our foreign relations better.

MACCALLUM: Here is a piece from -- sound from Bernie Sanders talking about that because we're going to hear a lot about this in the upcoming campaign. Watch.

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SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The very concept of democracy is under attack by a president who seems intent on emulating the authoritarian leaders in Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and elsewhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: When you look at some of those examples that he gives, and we all know that there have been moments when the president has been more complementary than we've heard in the past of some of the leaders of these countries.

And you know, it appears most of the reason for that is kind of opening the door to have some discussions some negotiations, and we've seen that kind of -- those kinds of comments on presidents in the past when they wanted to do similar things. Whether it be with Iran, or other countries. But have we seen the president try to emulate the kinds of power that those leaders have in those countries?

LEE: Not at all. I can't think of a single example of where he has done that. Now when he mentions Saudi Arabia, perhaps Senator Sanders is referring to the fact that we are fighting a war as co-belligerence in support of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Yemen. It's a war that hasn't been declared.

That was, I would remind Senator Sanders, was started by President Obama. He got us into this. President Trump hasn't gotten us out of that. But there again is an example of Congress relinquishing its power. It's supposed to be Congress that declares war. And it's a shame that Congress doesn't exercise its power anymore.

MACCALLUM: Interesting.

LEE: One of the reasons I wrote "Our Lost Declaration," I want to reconnect the American people with this basic notion of civics. With the notion that part of the reason why we had a revolution in the first place was to put power back in the hands of the people because it had been abused in the hands of King George III and his predecessors.

MACCALLUM: Senator, thank you very much. "Our Lost Declaration: America's Fight Against Tyranny From King George to the Deep State." Good to talk to you tonight, sir. Thank you.

LEE: Thank you.

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