that's what you wanted. [laughter] you don't have to. hey, thanks for joining us. guys, thanks for being here all weekend long. keep working out. have a great sunday, everybody. go to church. >> go to rowhouse.com! ♪ ♪ maria: good sunday morning, everyone m welcome, i'm mara mart romo, welcome to "-- bartiromo, welcome to sunday morning futures. president trump in florida today looking to rev up his base at the daytona 500 this afternoon. coming up, he called it first on this program, former white house chief strategist steve bannon is reacting to a report michael bloomberg is considering hillary clinton as his running mate, something ban nontold us back -- bannon told us back in august. also kevin mccarthy is here, he will be campaigning with the president in his home state of california next week. we'll catch up with him and education-fbi official andrew

mccabe escaping criminal charges for allegedly lying to the feds about media leaks. we will talk with trey gowdy about that. exclusive details it is on john durham's probe and the bombshell evidence that could change everything coming up from trey gowdy. also congressman matt gaetz on the house judiciary and armed services committees as a.g. barr gets ready to testify in front of that committee. plus, arkansas senator tom cotton is here on china's coronavirus epidemic. new information on that this morning. all that and a a lot more as we look ahead on "sunday morning futures." ♪ ♪ maria: and if we begin with this, michael bloomberg reportedly considering hillary clinton as his running may not bloomberg's campaign responding to the news saying this: we are focused on the primary and the debate, not vice president speculation. joining me right now, normer white house -- former white house chief strategist steve

bannon, the man who called this back in august on this program. it's great to have you here. >> thanks for having me. maria: so you knew hillary clinton was going to come into this race. you said it, and everybody was thinking, what? are you kidding me? but you were right if this is true. assess the combination of bloomberg and clinton. >> look, matt drudge put his name on this, this was original reporting from matt drudge. if he puts his name on something and there hasn't been denials, it's money good. there are clearly discussions going on. you really haven't had a denial from the bloomberg camp, and you certainly haven't had a denial from the hillary clinton camp. and i think this goes back to the heart of why the democratic party has lost its way, the democratic party does not understand today, eight months from election day, why they lost 2016 is. they don't understand about managed decline of our leaks. they've spent three years trying to destroy trump, they've failed to destroy him. eight months from the election

they have nothing, so now they have a moderate republican mayor oligarch of new york combining with a globalist, multi-time failure presidential candidate to try to do a combination. and i think this shows you the desperation of the democratic party and really the personal vendetta that the clintons and michael bloomberg have against president trump. this is not about taking the country forward or to the next level, not about helping working class people. this is a personal vendetta. and democrats -- and i come from family of democrats -- the democratic party should be ashamed of itself that it's in this situation. maria: you say oligarch, i thought it was interesting when the news first broke that he's considering choosing hillary clinton, a lot of people quelled, wait a second, you're not supposed to have two candidates from the same state. they're both from new york. so that was very quickly changed by michael bloomberg saying, apparently, i've got a home in colorado and florida, i'll change my address to say that

i'm florida. can he do that? >> this is what oligarchs do. on tuesday night, march 3rd at midnight when the california polls close out west, the democratic party will have a democratic socialist and a liberal mayor -- republican mayor of new york as the two top guys running for the primary. there won't be any democrats around. i believe that bill clinton's fingerprints are all over this. i think you can see bill clinton trying to get hillary back in the game, and i said back in august and i've said for a year since -- remember, trump would be impeached if michael bloomberg hadn't put the $100 million up for the house seats. you know, it just show you they have been thinking this through. there was always going to be a reaction to bloomberg buying the democratic party. he's doing a leveraged buyout of the democratic party. and the people -- there was going to be a counterreaction. he's trying to get in front of that by co-opting the clintons and working with the clintons. the bernie people, the bernie

movement have to understand now they are detested and despised as the deplorables are in the trump movement. and i think this is a wake-up call for all of bernie's people to say, hey, we are detested by bloomberg, by the clintons, here we are, the front-runner, they don't give us any respect. the liberal media doesn't give us any respect. i think the bernie people now have to tart to look for donald trump as their voice. maria: look at this, he's in the lead, bernie is. they don't want him in the lead. the hillary clinton camp keeps trashing him, hillary herself said nobody likes him. why do you think bill clinton's fingerprints are all over this? talk to us about that. >> first off, i think back in '16, bill clinton was one who said the hipsters in brooklyn do not understand what donald trump's doing, he's going into michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, he's talking about returning america to its greatness built upon the shoulders of the middle class. clinton saw that donald trump was resonating with working

class democrats and would win those states. the hipsters in brooklyn are, this is why hillary clinton never went. the hipsters in brooklyn thought they could micro-target this thing, and that's why clinton has been seething, just like hillary has, from that time. but here's the important point, they haven't learned the lessons of trump. all they've done for three years is try to destroy president trump. they haven't tried working with him on trade, work with him on, you know, bringing jobs back to america. maria: they want to ill peach him again. look, i'm not questioning your thinking because you've been so spot on throughout all of this -- >> we were pretty mocked when we said bloomberg and clinton. maria: incredible. you were spot on. but this is also coming a day after a washington post story about michael bloomberg, and the post story said this: mike bloomberg for years has battled women's allegations of profane, sexist comments. i actually had dipper with a woman from bloomberg the other

night, and she said, march what, it's horrible. they're so misogynystic. i didn't realize it was that bad, but this article is bad for michael bloomberg. are you sure this whole trial balloon of hillary clinton just not to distract from this article? >> the timing of this is definitely a takeoff of both "the washington post" and the new york times. here's the thing about the bloomberg thing i think is so shocking, and once again, it's going to test the core principles of whether they're going to have an oligarch. they're supposed to be about the me too movement and time's up movement and here's what you have. different than president trump's offhand remarks, the locker room talk triggered him and they went nuts, the problem with bloomberg, it's premeditated and it's cruel. what he said to these women about aborting their children, about their looks, what he said to these women about the african-american nannies, this was cruel, it was premeditated, and it's over years and years and years. this is not offhand comments and locker room talk. that's where you've got to have a gut check with the democratic party to see if somebody like in

that's had a history of this, you come in as an oligarch and buy the democratic party, and the bernie people ought to be outraged. the democratic apparatus and establishment has no respect -- maria: he's willing to spend up to $2 billion to take out president trump. he doesn't want any billionaires, by the way, in america anyway. how much of a threat is clinton/bloomberg together against donald trump? >> listen, anytime -- he said $2 billion, and he's not the nominee. unlimited amount of money. he has a personal vendetta against the president, so does hillary clinton. as long as they don't get to the thesis of why donald trump won, which is return to greatness and focus on working class people and middle class issues, donald trump's going to win. but this is teeing up to be the nastiest, most brutal campaign in american history. people say it's the most important election. i don't know if it's the most important, but i can tell you it's going to be the nastiest and most brutal. and the trump campaign, you have to go no huddle offense. every day like your last day, you have the play hard.

president trump is going to win and should win, but i gotta tell you, bloomberg's money, the clinton apparatus and the mainstream media selling out, remember if the mainstream media had done their jobs, for the last year that have we've been told biden, warren, biden, warren. they're non-events. they try to destroy him, try to prop up other people that can take him on. the democratic party sold occupant to an oligarch -- maria: and you said this is an incredible new york story. president trump, bloomberg, it's unbelievable. real quick, in terms of this coronavirus, now "the new york times" reporting that xi jinping was on it early. >> like you've been saying, also the foxconn's announced they're not opening the factories tomorrow. this virus is very important. the's taken great action so far, but i think people have got to start focusing on the impact to the economy. the chinese economy, i think, is imploding. maria: steve bannon joining us.

coming up, i will talk to house minority leader kevin mccarthy next. catching up with president trump on fundraising. stay with us. ♪ , knowing we're prepared for the future. surprise! we renovated the guest room, so you can live with us. oooh, well... i'm good at my condo. oh. i love her condo. nana throws the best parties. well planned, well invested, well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement.

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everything your trip needs for everyone you love. expedia. ♪ ♪ maria: welcome back. breaking news this morning, white house hopeful michael bloomberg is making headlines this morning. the former new york city mayor reportedly considering hillary clinton as his running mate after internal polling found that the combo would could be, , a formidable force. let's bring in california republican congressman, house minority leader kevin mccarthy. congressman, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. maria: let me get your take on that. let's start there. bloomberg/clinton, how do you see it? >> first, it tells you that bloomberg realizes he cannot win the nomination against bernie without cheating. remember, hillary cheated bernie last time to win the nomination. the chair of the party had to

resign the night before the convention because they were caught. secondly, it tells you about bloomberg himself, that he believes he can manipulate democracy. remember what he did as mayor. he changed -- he got the city council to change term limits. he doesn't believe the 12th amendment applies to him, he'll just move to colorado. and thirdly, it also means the hypocrisy of democrats themselves. they cry about money, but they took more than $1 is 00 million from bloomberg last time to buy congress. and what dud it buy 'em? a new congressman by the name of t.j. cox out in california. he just got $144,000 tax lien for the irs. he doesn't want to pay his taxes, but he votes to raise yours. you've got bernie sanders who's a millionaire who doesn't believe anybody else should have money. it's those three major things that is wrong with this democratic party and why president trump has built a strong economy and will win regardless who the democrat, if they cheat bernie and have somebody else, the best thing the democrats should do for theiren convention is have a

pay-per-view, because it's going to be the most interesting fight internally and cheating that we've ever seen in politics. maria: within the democratic party, some of them don't want bernie, we know that. hillary clinton's trashing him all the time. some of them don't want bloomberg either because of all of that money. how far will that money go, congressman? we know that he gave the democrats 100 plus million dollars last year, and it worked. they took the house majority. >> you know what's most interesting, follow the tweets of michael bloomberg. he tweeted that he became a democrat just days before he released the $100 million. was he trying to buy a nomination a few years later to run for president in interesting question and wonder why he did it. but what's interesting here is the democrats who are afraid of bernie sanders because he's a socialist, i don't know why. speaker pelosi has already surrendered to the socialists. more than half of their entire conference has already cosponsored medicare for all, socialized medicine. think also that they have a

majority of them who have already supported a green new deal that will destroy our economy. maria: okay. let me ask you about your money because gop fundraising has been going well. i know you're going to be catching up with president trump, and you will travel to california. you're going to bring the president to bakersfield, your hometown, got a big fundraiser coming hosted by larry ellison. what kind of reaction are you getting from donors post-impeachment? >> the thing we're seeing most of all is the importance of winning the house, because if we do not change the house, they'll continue to impeach this president. look what they just spent their entire timeawaying this majority, and now you have eric swalwell, adam schiff still talking about impeachment. if you want enough to that stop -- of that to stop, go to take the house.com and make a difference. because michael bloomberg will write at dollar 2 billion to try to not only keep the house, but inthe presidency. the president goes out to the american public, and he's setting new records, but what's

more important is on turnout. democrat turnout is down, and this president's breaking not only republican turnout, but any president running for re-election in iowa and new hampshire. now, i've been able to raise some money, but the democrats have set new records as well. that's a concern. if you want to stop this and actually have a congress that works with president trump but more importantly works for america, you've got to take the house.com and do something about it. maria: all right. let me can you about the announcement you're going to be making with the president. you're doing a big effort around water. your county is, what, the number one agricultural county. >> curran county is number one in value of agriculture, and if there's anything that coronavirus should actually follow what we need, the security of our food supply. making sure that it's grown in america, that it's safe and secure. we have a real concern in california because we send most of our water out to the ocean and sending it town to southern california to our farmlands in the san joaquin valley and

others. this president has worked greatly using science, not based on politics, but on science, to allow to have more of that water stay with the californians in america to make sure we're secure in our food supply. maria: there was a meeting that nancy pelosi had, she said she wants the conversation to start shifting to the economy. what can you tell us about that behind the scenes meeting that nancy pelosi -- is she changing her tune to be actually talk about what's important to the american people now? >> well, that's a real, that's a real sign that the civil war inside the democratic congress, they are very upset that they have nothing to run for re-election upon except impeachment. and so they got together, they said, what should we do? well, pretty -- politically, we should go after the economy. but another thing, they're continuing to lie about it when we're flourishing in the economy. 61 percent of americans are better off than they were three years ago. no president running for re-election has ever seen these

numbers. 91% of americans are happy with their life. this is a real concern for the democrats, so they have 30 democrats sitting in seats trump carried, and they're going to lose, and it only takes 18 to change the house. maria: congressman, thanks very much for being here this morning. >> thank you, maria. martha: kevin mccarthy joining us from florida to go to california with the president. straight ahead, exclusive details on john durham's probe and the bombshell evidence that could change everything. former congressman trey gowdy is here next, live. ♪ ♪ it's the next one. you always drive this slow? how did you make someone i love? that must be why you're always so late. i do not speed. and that's saving me cash with drivewise. my son, he did say that you were the safe option. and that's the nicest thing you ever said to me. so get allstate. stop bossing. where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me. this is my son's favorite color, you should try it. [mayhem] you always drive like an old lady? [tina] you're an old lady.

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from the doj in its investigation in his lack of candor and leaks in the hillary clinton investigation. joining me right now is fox news contributor, former south carolina congressman and former house oversight committee chairman trey gowdy. trey, thanks very much for being here. >> yes, ma'am, thank you. maria: we are lucky to have you this morning as you are one of only two congressmen that were able to see the redacted information, two congressmen from the gop, that had seen the redacted documents that were so important to both of those investigations, the hillary clinton investigation and the trump collusion/russia investigation. why do you think mccabe is getting off here from the doj? he's already admitted to lying, right, trey? is there something we don't know that the doj is clearing andrew mccabe? >> well, andy mccabe not being indicted for a are discreet fact pattern -- a very discreet fact pattern which is simply the leaking of information to bolster his own credibility in the terms to of the clinton

investigation. that's it. and we should have known weeks ago when they were having trouble getting an indictment, if you having trouble, there's no way you're going to get a conviction. you've seen a change in the u.s. attorney's office in the district of columbia. so he escapes indictment for that narrow fact pattern. but that has nothing to do with fisa and the initiation of russia and any other potential misconduct that andy mccabe may have engaged in. that's a really narrow, discreet fact pattern that he's not being indicted for. maria: so it could actually be that he's cooperating with john durham or that he's looking as a suspect in the now-criminal probe, is that right? >> well, he's certainly somebody john durham would want to talk to. it could go the whole range from he didn't do anything wrong, and he did admit to misrepresentations, but that's a little bit different than intentionally misrepresenting an intentionally false statement. it could be that he's just simply not guilty. it could be that he's

cooperating with john durham, or it could be that he's still under investigation for other fact patterns not related to that discreet one with the leak and the clinton investigation. maria: let me ask you about john durham and what he is looking at now, because we're all waiting to see what's going on, and we understand that he's been looking at john brennan's communicationings as well, then the head of the cia. in your view, what is john durham looking at? >> maria, the factual predicate for this russia investigation, and i'm not talking about the summer of 2016, i'm talking about stuff that happened in late 2015 and early 2016. remember, the doj and the fbi told paul ryan and devin nuñes and myself repeatedly and exclusively that nothing happened before june of 2016. finish no payments were made, no contacts with the trump campaign. i'm sure john durham is looking to see whether or not that's true. he's also looking at the fisa process and misrepresentations

made to the fisa court. i think he's also looking at that ica, that intelligence community assessment that john brennan got done towards the end of the barack obama tenure to make sure whether or not that was thoroughly investigated and whether or not all the right information made its way into that ica. three important things, three separate things. maria: and you were among those questioning a number of witnesses to try to get to the bottom of this. you actually questioned john brennan, and john brennan told you straight out the dossier had nothing to do with the fisa process. we now know that was one of the single things they used, the dossier, to actually get those fisa warrants. but i also want to show this counterintel activity timeline that we have put together here, and it shows that general flynn was paid to speak in moscow in december of 2015. and george papadopoulos was invited to a conference in rome in march of '16. and then joseph misfud told

papadopoulos in april of 2016 that russia had hillary clinton e-mails. the list goes on and on, april, may, all the way up to july 31st when the actual counterintelligence probe started according to the fbi. so what about all this other stuff happening at the end of '15 and early '16 that these are serious informants running up against trump campaign people? how do you explain that if the investigation started in july, trey? >> well, thank good i don't have to. the folks at the fbi and the doj, they're the ones that are going to have to explain whether or not michael flynn speaking in russia was manager they were looking at -- something they were looking at separate or whether or not they were looking at that because he was an adviser to the trump campaign. i could not be more clear, we asked the doj and the fbi repeatedly did anything happen before june of 2016. we asked 'em at justice, we

canned them in the basement of -- asked them in the basement of the capitol, and the answer was always the same, nothing happened before june of 2016. and if something did happen, then either the fbi misrepresented facts to us, or it wasn't the fbi, it was another agency that was doing it. both of those are important to know, and john durham, i hope, is going to be able to answer that question. maria: and, of course, if it's the cia, we know why john durham looking at john brennan as he was all over tv saying that the president committed treason when, in fact, he was running the cia. perhaps the cia was sending these informants in. gotta ask you about the exculpatory evidence that you have seen, you broke the news on this program over a year ago, you said that there was a transcript of a conversation between george papadopoulos -- i said that, not you -- and an informant where basically george said to the guy, no, i would never do that, that's treason. what else do we need to know about that exculpatory piece of

evidence? >> well, i want you to imagine this hypothetically, maria. imagine that you're accused of a crime, and this is your response. number one, i didn't do it. to factually, that's pretty important. number one, i didn't do it. number two, i would never do that because it is a crime for which you can be put to death, and it is a crime against a country that i love. if that's your response to an accusation that you engaged in improper conduct, that is textbook exculpatory evidence. you really can't draw up a better piece of exculpatory evidence than i didn't do it, i would never do it, it's a crime to do it. so if that happened, then the court needed to know about it. maria: this is more information that you gave us in so many words that is that transcript that you have to believe john durham is looking at, and everyone is looking at in charge because it was not given to fisa court to get those warrants. they said that two of the four warrants were unlawful. i'm putting my money that perhaps more than two of them were with unlawful.

congressman trey gowdy, good to see you this morning, thank you, sir. >> yes, ma'am. maria: still ahead, senator tom cotton on china's coronavirus epidemic. we've got news on it. stay with us on "sunday morning futures." ♪ ♪ and hey, we got somethin' ♪ ♪ just for you (sniffing) ♪ it's a cup of your favori-i-i-ite... ♪ (loud splashing) (high-pitched laughter) dang woodchucks! with geico, the savings keep on going. just like this sequel. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

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president xi jinping as taking early action to fight krone are that virus according to -- coronavirus according to today's new york times. but in doing so, they're admitting that he was aware of the virus before he first publicly spoke about it. meanwhile, arkansas senator tom cotton has been calling out china, suggesting the virus may have come from their biological warfare program. the chinese ambassador to the united states responded this: it's very teenagers -- dangerous to start suspicion, rumors among the people. for one thing, this will create panic, another, xenophobia, racial discrimination that will harm our joint efforts to combat the virus. of course, there are all kind of speculation and rumors. so far at least 69,000 people have been infected with coronavirus, over 1600 have died. joining me right now is senator tom cot month himself, he has been -- cotton himself, he has been speaking out about china's response to this fatal virus. senator, it's good to have you

today, thanks very much for being here. >> thanks for having me on, maria. maria: and you were among the first lawmakers to really raise the red flag on krone, warning -- coronavirus a, warning your senate colleague nearly two weeks ago this is worse than chernobyl -- your words, not mine -- that china has been lying about it from the very beginning. a's the situation as you know it today. >> maria, the situation is grave in part because, as you say, china was lying from the beginning, and they're still lying today. and also because there's so many unknowns about this virus. for example, how many people one person can infect once they have the virus are, the extent to which it's contagious or the mortality rate. that's why i've been saying that an ounce of prevention worth a pound of a cure, to quote benjamin franklin, and why the president was so smart to ban travel coming from china just a couple weeks ago so we didn't have more than 20,000 people landing in our country every single day from mainland china.

maria: you know, that's pretty extraordinary, and then they criticized the united states for putting that travel ban in effect. and the fact is, is they're criticizing us for the travel banker but isn't it true that they're got people locked down in their home? >> maria, they have more than 70 million people now under quarantine x you've probably seen the videos online from social media sites, as have i, of the chinese communist party's police beating people who they think might have coronavirus or trying to keep them locked inside of their apartments or quarantining them in large hospitals or what have you. they have not been transparent at all, and they need to be. maria: and this is one of the issues because you had initially the doctor who was a whistleblower, in effect, who said, look, start wearing protective gear because we've got this coronavirus happening. he was arrested, he was shamed in the press and, unfortunately, now he's dead.

>> yeah. it's a tragic story. dr. we think who was an on the molls. the chinese communist party threatened punishment. he later came down with the virus and himself has died, leaving behind a pregnant wife and a young child. he's become something of a martyr among the chinese people who, let's remember, are the first and worst victims of the chinese communist party's dishonesty. maria: at the same time, we need to really understand why these diseases keep coming out of china. i mean, we remember sars and mers, and now it's coronavirus. we've been told that this originated in an open seafood market with you've got a market that you've got bats and cats and pigs and all sorts of animals all at once. but there is also speculation that perhaps it did not originate there. tell us what you know. >> yeah. so, maria, here's what we do

know, this virus did not originate in the wuhan -- epidemiologists who are widely respected from china who have published or studied in the international journal of the lancet have demonstrated several of the original cases did not have contact with that food market. the virus went into that food market before it came out of that food market. we don't know where it originate ld, but we do know we have to get to the bottom of that. a few mile away from that food market is china's only biosafety level iv super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases. now, we don't have evidence that this disease originated there, but because of china's duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says, and china right now is not giving any ed on that question -- evidence on that question at all. maria: so this super lab that you referred to, it's the only one of its kind in this area, in

wuhan, in the province -- that area. and what do they do at this super lab? >> it's up clear, maria. -- unclear. we have such laboratories ourselves in the united states run by our military in large part done for preventive purposes. we're trying to discover vaccines or to protect our own soldiers. china's obviously very secretive about what happens at the wuhan laboratory. we don't know, again, where this virus originated, that's why it's so important that we at least ask the questions and get the evidence. but china continues to block our ability to ask those questions and get that evidence. maria: but in terms of getting to the bottom of it, the centers for disease control wanted to go into china. the u.s. has offered a lot of help including sending the cdc in there to investigate exactly where this originated and how severe it is. but they said no, right? >> that's right. the chinese government has consistently blocked american scientists who are obviously the very best in the world from

going to wuhan, going to try to provide assistance to make sure that this virus is contained to the greatest extent possible, discover its origins, to shed light on a what that may mean for successful testing and vaccines. but the chinese communist party continues to refuse that offer of assistance from the united states. maria: now, the chinese ambassador called the notion of biological warfare, quote, absolutely crazy. finish accusing you of trying to spread misinformation and panic. what's your response there? i mean, we don't want to create panic, but at the same time people need to be educated in terms of what exists in this region in china. >> well, the burden of proof right now is on the chinese communist party and the ambassador of china and his fellow communists. they have lied consistently about this from the beginning, so we should not take their word at face value. and, no, we don't want to have a public panic, but we do want to

err on the side of caution when so much is unknown. and that's consistently what china has not done, by consistently lying to its own people and to the world, they have created a situation where we have not been able to take the preventative measures that we might have, and we have not been able to err on the side of caution. maria: tell we what the downplague of this has done. in other words -- downplaying of this. in other words, the chinese knew about the coronavirus back in november of 2019. they sent a delegation to the white house to shake everybody's hand, to do a face one china deal. they sent the largest ever delegation to davos at the end of january. do you think the downplaying of this virus has actually exacerbated it? >> oh, there's no doubt about that, maria. the first cases indicated in early december which meant they were transmitted sometime in november. china finally fessed up to the who on december if 1st that they had taken -- 31st the entire

world might have been better protected. this is just a pattern of chinese dishonesty from the very beginning which continues to this very day. just a few days ago we went from a situation where they were reporting only a couple hundred more cases to almost 14,000 cases in a single day. that wasn't the result of a scientific discovery, that was a political decision to finally reveal what they knew to be true. yet they are still covering up and in all likely another the number of cases and deaths of coronavirus inside of china. maria: and do you think there's anything that we should be doing here in america to, hopefully, avoid what sounds like it's a pandemic coming? >> well, again, i want to commend the president for shutting down travel from china. that was the most important preventative step we could have taken. it's very important that we empower our local and state health officials to test at the broadest possible criteria for anyone who's been to china or been in contact with someone from china who's showing any

indication of the symptoms of coronavirus. it's so critical that we do that and that the cdc develop effective and quick testing protocols as well so so we don't have a situation where people are infected with the coronavirus but are told they're not infected as, unfortunately, happened just a few days ago in san diego. maria: senator, thanks very much. >> thank you. maria: senator tom cotton joining i. we'll be right back. let's get down to business.

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let me just get your take on andrew mccabe. is he off the hook at this point entirely? my audience has been waiting for accountability. andrew mccabe, it looks like, is off the hook according to the doj, and you say? >> i think trey gowdy put it right, the department of justice did not issue a statement saying that they were done investigating andrew mccabe. this revelation came as a consequence of the d.c. u.s. attorney sending a letter to mccabe's lawyer saying that on the very narrow fact pattern of mccabe's lies, leaks and lies about his leaks that that would not result in a criminal prosecution. but i think it's far more insidious, the conversion of a counterintelligence investigation that should have been intended to help the trump campaign fend off russian interference efforts into a criminal probe to try to delegitimize the president. i obviously believe based on the testimony from peter strzok and lisa page that the insurance policy created in andy's office was preare icily that --

precisely that effort to try to give people an effort to delegitimize the president before and after his election. maria: it sounds like you agree, yes, he's off the hook in terms of the leaks to the media specifically to the hillary clinton investigation, but he's obviously going to be questioned or is a witness for john durham and maybe he's even cooperating with john durham? >> i don't know how andrew mccabe wouldn't be central to the durham probe because andrew mccabe was the acting fbi director. and remember the text messages between strzok and page where they talk about the need to open up investigations during mccabe's tenure as the acting fbi director because they didn't think they could get that maybe in the future if someone else were brought in. so he seems central to that probe. i believe he should have been prosecuted for the lying because of the double standard. we see mike flynn, roger stone, george papadopoulos all charged with misstatements and mccabe not charged, it sort of makes

people believe that an old fbi business card may be doubling as a get out of jail free card, and that's what we want to see the attorney genre foot, acknowledge there is still some swamp to be drained at the the president of justice. maria: and don't forget the obama appointee, amy jackson, he's going to be the judge assigned to peter strzok's wrongful termination suit. i want to jewish ask you what you want to ask a.g. barr when we come back. stay with us, matt gaetz. ♪ ♪

maria: welcome back. i'm back with congressman matt gaetz, member of the house judiciary committee where a.g. bill barr will be testifying on march 31st. congressman, some of your colleagues on the left want to impeach bill barr. finish what specifically are you

and your colleagues trying to solicit from bill barr? >> well, i want to know why bruce ohr is still working at the department of justice, again, getting back to the point that i think we've got a lot of the new senior leadership in place to disengage from politics. i think the mainstream media has cast this incorrectly. they would suggest that bill barr has infected the front-line prosecution teams with politics when the reality is they were engaging in, i think, political retribution against roger stone, michael flynn and maybe to some extent george papadopoulos as well. i think barr has reoriented those front-line prosecutors to the overall goals of the administration, and that's entirely appropriate because if they're all members of the executive branch. and i think we'll see that in the questioning. what democrats will do, maria, is try to showcase some white house connection to the decisions being made. but if anything, the decision not to prosecute andrew mccabe woulden exonerate the white house from any type of involvement in those

investigative decisions. maria: it's interesting because the the president of justice now reviewing rudy giuliani's information as it relates to ukraine and what he says is astounding corruption on the part of democrats in ukraine. where does that stand, and, you know, lindsey graham has said repeatedly on this program that this is a foreign affairs situation where you have to have people like hunter biden and the whistleblower and adam schiff appear at the foreign affairs committee to testify, not the judiciary committee. which is it? are you guys ever going to call these people down to testify? >> i love lindsey graham, he's got a big old gavel in the judiciary committee, and i sure hope he'll use it to try to bring these matters before his group. i don't believe that this is a foreign affairs question because it goes to work and the decisions at the department of justice and whether or not they review these cases appropriately in making their prosecution and declination decisions regarding these particular defendants.

we've already seen that it was the fbi and department of justice infected with politics that caused this corruption russia investigation -- corrupt russia investigation to begin, so it only seems appropriate we would want to approve that through the judiciary committee. go get 'em, lindsey, we're all behind you. maria: we'll see. i've asked him on this program, and he's said it's his colleague in foreign affairs. you're on both committees. >> look, i think that senator graham sought the judiciary chairmanship precisely because he wanted to help us continue draining the swamp. i know lindsey's made a great deal of mention ant that work, i think there are a lot of us in the house that would like to see the committee work begin now that we have the inspector e general's report to be the underlying documents to inform on those decisions. maria: real quick, the senate has passed the iran war powerses resolution this past week, one of three house gop offers to --

gop-ers to vote yes, you were, and isn't this a message to iran, oh, we're going to clip the president's wings while they continue to provoke this country? >> that's nonsense. iran would never be free from this president's actions as a consequence of the he has under article ii of the constitution and under the war powers act. he can act even preemptively to defend our interests, our allies, our troops. but no president should be able to drag our country into another multi-decade war, and that's why i'll be voting for the iran resolution again. maria: all right. congressman, it's always a pleasure to see you, sir. thanks very much. >> thank you. maria: congressman matt gaetz. that'll do it for us on "sunday morning futures." make sure to continue the conversation with me, join me this upcoming week on "mornings with maria," 6-9 a.m. eastern monday through friday, weekdays on fox business. we will continue this conversation, and we hope that you will be with me as well. thanks for being here. have a great rest of your sunday

on "sunday morning futures." ♪ ♪ ♪ upbeat music transitions light under control. ♪ upbeat music transitions signature gen 8, available now in 4 new style colors. transitions.

>> on this sunday, media earthquake has the bar who overruled prosecutors and urging a liar second for roger stone told abc that he wants president trump to stop tweeting about his investigation. >> to have public statements and tweets made about the departme department, about people in the department, the men and women here, about cases pending in the department and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me too do my job. >> he will not be bullied by the president. >> sounds tough, sounds independent.