Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Interview with John Barrasso

Interview

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BARTIROMO: So now, if you're vaccinated, you could be spreading it?

Joining me right now is Wyoming Senator John Barrasso. He is the third- ranking member in the Senate Republican leadership. He is also a medical doctor.

Senator, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks very much for being here.

And, of course, I want to get your thoughts on COVID in a moment.

But I have got to start off by asking you, if COVID is this urgent threat that we face once again with the Delta variant, why are you and your colleagues negotiating another spending bonanza of $7 trillion on everything from senior care to a Green New Deal, education, and maybe, if you're lucky, roads and bridges?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): Well, Chuck Schumer has said, before the August recess, he wants to pass two bills through Congress.

One is the true infrastructure bipartisan bill that people are working on. We still haven't seen it. It's going to be a big piece of legislation.

But more concerning to me, Maria, is this massive spending bill, the liberal wish list. It is the largest spending bill in the history of the United States. And if this passes, people are going to suffer significantly. They're going to feel the heavy weight of the taxes, the ongoing inflation problems, and the debt.

It is going to chew away, eat at people's paychecks. It's going to eat at their savings. People are already paying, because of inflation, higher dollars for gas, housing, you name it.

And, Maria, this is spending on top of the $6 trillion already spent in coronavirus relief. Plus, it is loaded with liberal policies, including amnesty for illegal immigrants. It also includes a civilian climate corps. They want to hire a million people who would, many, be protesters against things like the Keystone XL pipeline.

Look, Chuck Schumer says nobody goes home for August recess until these two things pass. I say I'm willing to stay in Washington until hell freezes over if I can stop these bad things happening to our country.

BARTIROMO: This is just incredible, Senator.

Look, we have got to get into the details of this bill and really what's in it. I know that it's almost 3,000 pages. I'm talking first the infrastructure bill.

What's in the infrastructure bill? Tell us that.

BARRASSO: Yes, there's actually a bipartisan bill that folks are working on. Last night -- as of last night, apparently, it's at about 2, 700 pieces. Bits and pieces are starting to come out. People are seeing a little bit of it. We're looking forward to seeing the whole thing.

It really is supposed to focus on roads, bridges, ports, airports, broadband, things that people need and they want and there is value in it. Republicans want to make sure that it's actually paid for. And we want to read it. This can't be the old Nancy Pelosi first you have to pass it, then you get to find out what's in it.

BARTIROMO: OK.

BARRASSO: The best way to pay for this is to repurpose COVID relief funds that have already been committed, but not yet spent.

BARTIROMO: So, just...

BARRASSO: From the parts that I have seen, I still have concerns about it.

But the biggest problem is, Nancy Pelosi has said she's going to handcuff the two together...

BARTIROMO: Right.

BARRASSO: ... the real infrastructure with this spending monstrosity, which is reckless tax and spending.

BARTIROMO: So, just to be clear, this is a bill almost 3,000 pages' long, and you haven't seen much of it? You haven't -- you don't really know what's in there?

BARRASSO: Well, we're still looking for the details of it.

The parts I have seen that are concerning to me -- and I'm from Wyoming, an energy state. Again, this is a bipartisan bill. I have concerns about the energy component, where the Democrats have insisted that the model for energy ought to be the California model.

Well, Maria, in California, electricity prices are the highest in the country. They have their ongoing blackouts. They have this approach that I think is not the right one for America. We have gone from an energy- dominant nation now under President Biden. We are becoming much more energy-dependent.

And I think it's the wrong direction to go.

BARTIROMO: All right.

Look, it's just extraordinary to me that you really do not know what's in the infrastructure bill. That's a $1 trillion -- everyone -- there is common ground on that, and yet you don't really know the details of that one. And then you're negotiating. Nancy Pelosi wants to tie it to the other massive spending bill, which has plenty of gimmicks in it.

Is it valued at $3.5 trillion or $5.5 trillion?

BARRASSO: Oh, I think it's a much higher number. Everything I have read, Maria, it looks like it's going to be much higher than what the Democrats are admitting to, at a time that we just can't afford it.

You look at the runaway inflation we're living in. Now to put more spending on top of that makes it a lot worse. But Nancy Pelosi said, look, not a penny for roads or bridges or ports or airports unless and until the Senate passes this much bigger, as you say, $5 trillion bill.

This wasn't a negotiation with Nancy Pelosi. This was a hijacking. And this would be terrible for the country, for the economy. And she's not just a hijacker. She is also an arsonist, because this is putting additional jet fuel on the flames of inflation. And we know who's going to be hurt by this.

The people that are going to suffer under this are people living on a fixed income. They are our seniors. They are people working getting by paycheck to paycheck. All Americans are going to pay for this through inflation, through taxes.

Joe Biden says, well, we're only going to raise taxes on businesses and some people making a lot of money. You cannot fund something this expensive without everybody in America getting hit.

BARTIROMO: It's just extraordinary. I want to go back to this in a moment, because I want you to detail the kind of tax increases that are in that bill.

But, first, let's talk about the urgency at hand, because while you are in this jam session, the next two weeks, Schumer wants to get both of these major bills through, we're also hearing confusing and panicked reaction from the CDC with regard to the Delta variant.

You are a medical doctor. What is the CDC telling us now? You just heard Joe Biden say, well, if you have been vaccinated, you can spread it. And you're supposed to wear masks indoors now?

BARRASSO: The only message should be the one that I know is the right message, which is, vaccines work.

If you want to protect yourself and your family, the best thing you can do is get vaccinated. I'm a doctor. I have been vaccinated, as has my wife, my adult kids. It is protective. If you have questions, talk with your doctor.

Now, for the chaos coming out of the CDC and Joe Biden, they ought to be sued and found guilty of medical malpractice. They have flip-flopped. What, May 13, if you have been vaccinated, you don't need to wear a mask anymore. Now they're saying, no, no, you need to go back to the mask.

How are you going to encourage people to get vaccinated if you say, hey, even if you get vaccinated, you still have to wear a mask? And a lot of the anger that I hear and -- is the fear that this administration, since they flip-flopped on masks, are they going to flip-flop on a shutdown? Are they going to shut down schools again?

Our students have lost an incredible amount in a lost year. To think about the possibility of shutting down schools again is just awful. And what's happened in Congress? Nancy Pelosi tells the Capitol Hill police to arrest vaccinated staff members if they're not wearing a mask in the United States Capitol.

At the same time, Maria, you have a wide open Southern border, 180,000 undocumented unvaccinated people each month coming to the United States with a wide open border policy carrying diseases, most about every conceivable disease in the world, bringing them into America unchecked.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

Senator, it's all quite convenient, with about a year to go before the midterm elections. It doesn't appear that the Democrats can win on policy. So what are we going to do, have a lockdown in the summer of 2022, so that we ensure mail-in ballots are flowing from empty parking lots and dead people?

BARRASSO: Well, I think you're right on line on that, Maria, which is why I see what the Democrats are trying to do now.

They have a two-pronged approach. The one is these very liberal policies that are coming forward on amnesty and on the civilian climate corps, the things that are expensive, that we can't afford, that are bad for the country, bad policy.

And then there's this second track, which is to undermine elections and the integrity of elections in this country, making it easier for Democrats to cheat. What they want to do, that's their number one priority bill was S.1., which said, OK, you don't need to have voter I.D. anymore. Oh, and let's have ballot harvesting where they have their paid operatives go door to door and pick up ballots.

And then, of course, they want the government to fund the elections. All of these things undermine the elections. And on top of that, they want to make the District of Columbia a state with two more Democrat senators, making it much harder for Republicans to take the Senate.

And then, finally, they're talking about stacking the Supreme Court. And under that circumstance, they want to put -- they have legislation to put four more justices on the Supreme Court now, which would then take you to 13. Of course, they'd be four liberal justices put forth by President Biden.

That's how they undermine the structure and the stability of the United States.

BARTIROMO: Well, meanwhile, the DOJ is warning the states, don't even think about auditing anything about election 2020, the department warning states to tread carefully in auditing elections.

Are they getting political?

BARRASSO: Well, it does sound that way to me.

Look, the integrity of the elections comes to the states. The states need to make their own decisions. Part of what the Democrats are trying to do with S.1 is take the power for elections away from the states, give it to the federal government, so they can have unilateral control, making it much easier for them to cheat and determine the outcome of elections.

BARTIROMO: Wow. What a state of affairs, just extraordinary.

John Barrasso, thanks very much for walking us through it all. It's great to see you this morning.

We will be watching this next two-week crunch time, for sure, and whether or not you get a summer recess.

BARRASSO: I don't care about the recess. I care about the future of the country.

Thanks, Maria.

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