Fox News "Fox News Sunday" - TRANSCRIPT 'Fox News Sunday' on January 22, 2022

Interview

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Joining us now, co-chairs of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, Democratic congressman of New Jersey, Josh Gottheimer, and Republican congressman of Pennsylvania, Brian Fitzpatrick.

Congressmen, welcome back to "FOX News Sunday".

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ): Thanks for having us.

REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): Thanks for having us.

BREAM: OK. So, let's start here. The headlines overnight are not the ones the White House wants to see. Yet another discovery of classified material at the president's Wilmington home.

Jonathan Turley, well known to our audience and a legal professional, a professor and constitutional scholar, tweets this: With the latest discovery, there's no real question that the Biden documents were grossly mishandled. There only remains who was responsible. However, the discovery of documents at yet another location used by the president is crushing for his defense team.

He says he's done everything right, he has no regrets. Congressman Gottheimer, should he, at this point?

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BREAM: So, also in contrast is the fact that there have been on going negotiations with this Justice Department, with the Biden White House and legal team. And there was an agreement for them to be there together Friday during the search, but what we found is leading to more questions than answers for a lot of folks.

Andy McCarthy, former federal prosecutor, tweeted this out: It's not six classified documents, this latest discovery. Awkwardly worded statement by Biden team, i.e., spin is favorable to Biden as possible, were six items consisting of documents with classified markings and we don't know what they meant by item. Box, envelope or how many classified documents in each item.

So, there is a special counsel investigations already under the way -- under way. You heard Lucas Tomlinson say, maybe some Democratic senators are also interested. House oversight has already said that it's going to investigate.

Congressman Fitzpatrick, any word you have that the GOP is going to overreach on this or look like they're politicizing it?

FITZPATRICK: I don't believe so, Shannon. Two things are true. Number one, classified documents can never be taken out of the SCIF ever. I'm both a former FBI agent and I'm currently on the House Intelligence Committee. That's number one.

Number two, we need equal application of the law. And that's what we're going to make sure that we ensure. We're going to do a deep dive into the circumstances surrounding the prior administration and the current administration, both dealing with classified documents and making sure the law is applied equally across the board. That's what the American people are demanding.

BREAM: So the Wall Street Journal had reported on conversations between the two teams, and the Biden side, and the DOJ side about whether or not FBI agents or others should be doing these searches now that we're on umber five.

And up into the point on Friday, they had agreed to let the Biden team handle it. "The Washington Post" also has this, that the White House was hoping to keep this quiet. The White House was hoping for a speedy inquiry, planning to disclose this matter only after Justice issued its all clear.

But the approach would end up prompting accusations that the Biden's team had purposely kept the public in the dark.

Congressman Gottheimer, we know all of this started before the midterms. Do you get the perception that some people have that there are differences in the way the DOJ handles Republican and Democrat cases?

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BREAM: Well, you as members of Congress may have more of a hand in that in the coming weeks and months.

There's this, you know, piece again -- Andy McCarthy speaking out on this saying after the White House has said there are no logs there, this is the personal home, where in the past they said the president does work from there. There are questions about whether there are logs of visitors or people who would have been there.

Andy McCarthy writes this: I'm very confident that if the agency, meaning the Secret Service, believed it was in the interest of the president's security that the information would be produced for the bureau would be produced at warp speed.

We've got at least one source saying to us the Secret Service is prepared to come forward with some information about visitors there but Congress is going to have to ask.

Congressman Fitzpatrick, will you do that?

FITZPATRICK: We will, Shannon. There's multiple ways to gather evidence and conduct investigations. Obviously, visitors log would be very helpful. If that doesn't exist, you go to other forms of evidence, video surveillance, physical surveillance, witness interviews. There's a whole host of ways to collect evidence.

So, I have no doubt that certainly we're going to make sure of this, that the bureau does their job investigating this case. And again, they got to apply the law equally. That's very, very important for people in America to have faith and confidence in our justice system.

It's a system I have worked in. It's very important for me that they do things the right way so that the American public has confidence in it. And that requires equal application of the law, consistent standards on investigations. That's what we're going to make sure happens.

BREAM: Okay. You all are trying to make sure something else happen, which is that we don't default on our credit ratings. And you're negotiating and talking actively about the debt ceiling in a deal that could possibly come together.

The White House says no negotiations at all. We know that's not practical given some of the demands that House GOP members that spending cuts and other things be included in order to get their vote.

Our Edward Lawrence over at FOX Business has been reporting, Congressman Fitzpatrick, you've been working on something that would be a debt to GDP ratio, potentially. If you hit a certain number, then automatic cuts kick in.

Can you give us any sense of where those negotiations are? What would be the ratio? How in the world do you decide whose programs automatically get cut in that scenario?

FITZPATRICK: Yeah. Well, first thing that has to happen, Shannon, Speaker McCarthy has made several overtures to the White House. He wants to sit down and work a reasonable solution out.

I hope the White House accepts his offer. In fact, it was White House that offered Speaker McCarthy the opportunity to come in. I hope that happens. And the White House's position cannot --

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BREAM: Yeah, but they say it's not going to be a negotiation over the debt ceiling. They say that is not what's going to happen.

FITZPATRICK: That's a -- that's a problem. That's a problem and that's not leadership. When you have a divided government, four-vote Republican margin in the House, a one-vote Democratic margin in the Senate, divided chambers, you have to negotiate.

That's what the American people elected us to do, is to work this out. So nobody should be taking the position that we're not going to negotiate. That's very irresponsible.

Pertaining to your question, Shannon, one thing that we're just going to offer up as a possible bridge-building solution is to go right at the 1917 law itself that established the debt limit. It established it as a number, a numerical dollar amount, which doesn't make any sense. We think that more practically speaking, it should be a debt to GDP ratio.

In 2008, our debt to GDP was about 40 percent. In 2018, it was about 70 percent. It's now at 125 percent. That's not sustainable.

So, when you have a child that has a spending problem, you do two things. You pay their bills, and take away their credit card. You don't do one, you do both.

That's what has to happen here. So what we're going to propose is whatever negotiated amount we can agree on on a debt to GDP ratio and have a cure period there after. If that cure does not happen, certain budgetary reforms automatically kick in on the discretionary side.

So, we're still putting the meat on those bones. Me and Josh are going to work through our proposed solution. But the first thing that's got to happen, Shannon, the president has to sit down with Speaker McCarthy. Speaker McCarthy offered to negotiate in good faith. I hope President Biden does as him (ph).

BREAM: OK. So, "The Washington Post" is quoting a senior Democrat over in Congress that says he had a conversation with Ron Klain, White House chief of staff who may soon be leaving. But he essentially said, no holds barred, there will be no negotiations. You've got to make it look like we're the responsible ones and that the Republicans are essentially irresponsible, trying to kill entitlements, and those kinds of things.

Congressman Gottheimer, can you work with that? If that's the strategy, if that's the theory, how do you move the ball at all?

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BREAM: OK. Quickly, Congressman Fitzpatrick, with that in mind and the potential departure of Ron Klain, knowing what his strategy reportedly is, do you think his departure changes the way that you are able to work with this administration?

FITZPATRICK: I don't think so. Again, we're going to let our speaker take the lead on this with his negotiations and then Josh and I are going to offer our solution that hopefully can be constructive. But I don't believe it's going to affect our relationship with the White House, Shannon. We've had a constructive relationship with them.

That's our job as representatives, no matter what party we're from, is to do our part to make government work. And we've worked well with a lot of people over there and I expect that to continue.

BREAM: Well, the American people wish you well in trying to find solutions at the most treacherous problems we have now.

Congressmen, thank you both for joining us.

GOTTHEIMER: We'll get it done.

FITZPATRICK: You bet. Thanks.

GOTTHEIMER: Thanks.

BREAM: Up next, the president's downplaying concerns about how he handled classified materials from years ago as yet another batch is found at his Wilmington home. And a special counsel is ramping up to investigate. We're going to bring in our Sunday group to discuss all this, next.

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