the lebanese militant group hezbollah still launching rockets into with northern israel, gradually drawing heavier responses and threatening a full scale war with the jewish sate. and in yemen, iran-backed houthi rebels have maintained attacks against red sea shipping lanes, causing the united states to launch four new strikes next week hitting missiles that were being prepared for launch. diplomatic efforts are unfolding with oversight from the united states, but with each passing day the possibility of a broader regional conflict increases. san noon? shannon: trey yingst in tel aviv, thank you very much. that is it for today. thank you so much for joining us. i'm shannon bream. have a great week. weal see you next "fox news sunday." ♪ ♪

maria: the 45th president defiant on friday. >> so this is russia, this is china, this is what what you've been reading about all your lives, and it's happening right here in our country. thank you very much. we will stop it, we will make america great again. you have my word. maria: coming up, president trump's daughter-in-law and the host of the right view podcast, lara trump, on the millions of dollars her family is being forced to pay up after a new york judge's verdict and when she's about to step up in the rnc. if then, texas senator and judiciary committee member ted cruz on the two applications of the law after witness testimony

corners president joe biden alleging bribery and the doj hits back at a biden whistleblower who said joe and hunter biden were paid $5 million apiece by ukraine. then, the setup exposed. blockbuster details on the biggest political scandal of them all first exposed right here on "sunday morning futures" on how the fbi and cia set up trump advisers. former trump campaign adviser george papadopoulos here. he lived it all, and he's here to tell us about the dirty tricks of the weaponized intelligence agencies. plus, the impact on america's national security. house homeland -- house armed services committee member and florida congressman michael waltz on the impact of playing politics amidst foreign adversaries working against america. it's all right here, right now on "sunday morning futures." ♪ ♪

maria: quote, they're lying, it's a blatant lie. you have stacks of evidence that show joe biden showed up at meetings, shook hands, participated in phone calls all the way back to last summer. just him being on the phone is evidence of involvement and enabling the transaction, says bobulinski, whose testimony also coincides with another hunter biden business associate, rob walker, who told the committees joe biden attended a meeting where officials from the chinese energy company cefc were present. while walker simultaneously denied biden was involved in their business affairs. meanwhile, special counsel david weiss charged a longtime,

trusted fbi informant with making false statements after he testified that joe and hunter biden received $5 million apiece in bribes from the ukrainian energy company burisma. in a statement the, house oversight committee chairman congressman james comer said fbi director christopher wray refused to release the form detailing what the informant said, claiming it would jeopardize the safety the of the confidential human source who they said was invaluable and was being paid six figures by the bureau e. comer shot back saying, quote, the impeachment inquiry is not reliant on the fb fbi's fd-1023 form but, rather on a large record of evidence including bank records and witness testimony revealing joe biden knew of and participated in his family's business deals. here's comber with me on -- comer with me on thursday on fox business saying he sent a subpoena to american express suggesting china was paying the credit card bills for the biden family. >> we know that there was a pretty extensive money

laundering scheme. we know that they used a complex series of transactions through what i consider shell companies, a shell company is, as your with viewers know full well, is a company with no assets or no known purpose. and this was a complex way to try to deceive the irs and to operate in the shady manner that they operated. one of the things that you'll notice on all of the bank statements is a lot of payments to credit cards, and and there were various credit cards. maria: then after all of this, late friday judge arthur engoron released his evictor in new york attorney general leticia a james' fraud trial against president trump, ordering trump to pay more than $355 million in fines while barring trump from serving as an officer or or director of any new york corporation or other legal entity in new york for a period of three years. of course, new york where he's built his empire. joining me right now in this "sunday morning futures"

exclusive is texas republican senator ted cruz. great to see you this morning, thanks for being here. >> great to be here. maria: your to all of this. >> look, i think we are seeing a systematic and sustained assault on the rule of law. we're seeing an assault on the constitution, and we're seeing fundamentally an assault on democracy. what has happened in washington, it's really frightening and it's really sad. democrats have become radicalized, and they have decided that partisan politics matters more than the rule of law. they're willing to weaponize the department of justice, they're willing to utterly abuse government power to try to stay in power. the judge's decision in new york is an outrage. this was a partisan democrat judge adjudicating on a case brought by a partisan democrat attorney general. she campaigned, letitia james campaigned on saying i'm going to get donald trump. she got in front of this smirking, sanctimonious, partisan democrat who then in that case, understand this judge just ordered donald trump to pay over $350 million for an offense

that had no victim, that involved giant international banks that made money, didn't lose money and that were eager to loan more money. and the entire thesis of it was, well, they say trump overstated the value of his real estate. the last i checked, these banks were not percentage if jill, vulnerable if consumers. they were eager to make the loan. they made money on it, they wanted to make more. but what this is about, this is about power and trying to destroy donald trump. why? because ultimately, this is about attacking democracy. they want to stop the voters from voting for donald trump. it is dangerous, the braise withen cynicism with which they're willing to abuse the justice system to try and stay in power at all costs. maria: well, i mean, all of this as it is so clear that there is a serious or difference between the priorities between the republicans and the democrats. >> yes with. maria: right now your colleagues are sending or wanting to send more money to ukraine, and you have yet to secure the southern

border where we are watching potential terrorists come in or fentanyl come in, chinese nationals coming in. we don't know what's behind that. what is the fate of this $95 billion package with $60 billion going to ukraine? >> well, i think the foreign aid bill that was rammed through by democrats in the senate, i think it's going nowhere in the house. they know that. the bill was all about political camouflage. it was all about giving chuck schumer and democrats the ability to pretend to want to do something on the border while at the same time doing nothing. and understand the border issue and the abuse of the rule of law and the department of justice, they're ultimately the same issue. which is the willingness to put partisan interests of democrats above everything else. we've seen an invasion at our southern border under joe biden. we've seen 10.4 million illegal immigrants cross the border, invading principally my home state of texas, but coming to

every state in the union. and the democrats affirmatively want that, they're okay with that,ting they're fine with the body bags, with the people who are dead, with the children who are assaulted, with the women who are raped. they're fine with the 100,000 americans who died of overdoses last year. all of those are acceptable consequences to democrats because they look at that 10.4 million illegal immigrants and they see future democrat voters and partisan power is all that matters. let me commend the house of representatives. they impeached alejandro mayorkas. that was the right thing to do. and i believe the senate should convict him. why? because he actively aided and abetted the criminal invasion of the united states. he a aided and abetted mexican drug cartels that have made billions of dollars exploiting human beings, undermining public safety in america and posing an incredible national security threat. and joe biden and congressional democrats are accomplices in this chaos that is unfolding in

our country. maria: then who's to blame in the senate? because it seems like all of the republican efforts die in the senate. we know what's going to happen to this impeachment of mayorkas when it get to the senate -- gets to the senate, it's going nowhere. we know that the house did h.r. 2, it went nowhere in the senate. is that that mitch mcconnell? who's responsible? >> sadly, it is. look, it's chuck schumer, number one. and chuck schumer is helping drive the train. listen, we know joe biden's not driving the train, so it's a come by mission of left-wing congressional democrats and, i think, barack obama that are driving the train, and joe biden is mr. magoo just wandering around confused. you look at the senate, senate democrats want to do nothing to fix the border. they want to do nothing to turn the economy around. they want to do nothing to stop the crime we're seeing. and i gotta tell you, with the mayorkas impeachment you know what schumer wants to do, he doesn't even want to have a trial. he doesn't even want to have senators vote on guilty or not

guilty what he's trying to do is simply table it, just put it aside. in over 200 years of our nation's history, the senate has never once tabled articles of impeachment. that has never happened. every single time the senate has voted, has voted on either guilt, innocence or the house has a withdrawn the impeachment. in this instance joe biden wants to protect even every senate democrat from voting whether mayorkas is guilty or not. he is guilty. ultimately, joe biden is guilty, but mayorkas was the lead henchman in opening up the southern border. and i've got to say, you know look, if republican leadership in the senate doesn't like the criticism, here's an opportunity to demonstrate some backbone. they could stand up and say let's have a trial. they could stand up and say you cannot refuse to even follow the constitutional process for impeachment, you can't dodge responsibility. that's what schumer and the democrats want to do. maria: do you believing mitch mcconnell will not run for

re-election should donald trump win in 2024? >> you know, i don't know. that's a decision for membership to make. -- mitch to make. obviously, there's a lot of bad blood between mitch mcconnell and donald trump. mitch will have to make that decision. what i want to see is i want to see republicans in the senate stand and lead and fight. i believe november's going to be a very good election. i think we're going to see donald trump reelected as president of the united states. i think we're going to see republicans keep and grow our majority in the house and, critically, i think we're going to win the united states senate. now, i will say my race here in texas is a battleground with race. the democrats are spending over $100 million. chuck schumer's made clear i'm his number one target. george soros is pouring millions of dollars into the state of texas. my last race, as you know, maria, i won by less than 3 points because i'm the democrats' top target, and so i'm grateful for the people all across the country that go to tedcruz.org, that make

contributions, that support support our campaign. i'll give you my word with, i'm going to keep fighting for the rule of law, for the constitution, for the bill of rights, and i'm going to keep fighting to secure the border even as we see these radicals undermine our safety. maria: as you seek your third senate term this no, are you concerned about the weaponization of government which is where we started this conversation? are you concerned about election integrity for this upcoming election? >> look, of course. we have seen that the democrats willing to cross any line, cross any boundary. you know, it's really striking, leftists, if you look at their rhetoric, what they accuse their opponents of doing is what they're doing. what's the favorite line of democrats right now? they say, assault on democracy, assault on democracy. this is literally simultaneous ifly -- simultaneously while they've brought four indictments against the leading republican candidate for president, simultaneously while two different states have tried to throw donald trump off the ballot.

maria: yep. >> why? what is the purpose of all of this? to stop the voters from voting for their opponent. literally, their rhetoric assault on democracy is press -- precisely what they're doing. democrats and a lot of folks in the corporate media are fond of saying, well, trump been a can be will be a dictator. the irony is joe biden as repeatedly ignored the law. he did things like vaccine mandates that were blatantly illegal, the supreme court struck them down, but he didn't care. he tried to give away over a trillion the dollars in student loan forgiveness that was blatantly illegal, the supreme court struck it down, but he didn't care. maria: that's right. >> and so it is dangerous, the willingness of democrats to weaponize government, and they put partisan politics above national security or and above the safety of americans. maria: yep. senator, thank you very much for being here this morning. we so appreciate your time. senator ted cruz in texas this morning. >> thanks, maria. maria: thank you, sir. quick break and then new, explosive details on what we have been reporting for six years, the russia collusion lie

and the roles former president obama and former cia director john brennan if had. former trump campaign foreign policy adviser george papadopoulos lived it all, and he is here with exclusive reaction. stay with us. ♪ ♪ chronic migraine - 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting 4 hours or more - can be overwhelming. so, ask your doctor about botox®. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine before they even start. it's the #1 prescribed branded chronic migraine treatment. so far, more than 5 million botox® treatments have been given to over eight hundred and fifty thousand chronic migraine patients. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there's a skin infection. tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of

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>> we know that sid sidney blumenthal and others were pushing information into the with state department k and that's why we continue to look at the state department. many of the trump campaign people were targeted. they know that they used a dossier that was paid for by the clinton campaign to go after and use it in a fisa warrant against the campaign. >> in the obama justice department and at the fbi, at the end of the day i think that was the policy that dictated a lot of these decisions and why they were willing to violate or suspend fbi and department policies to get to the a place that they wanted to to investigate donald trump, someone who they didn't think should be president, would be president. and once he became president, they didn't want him to continue in that role. maria: oh, yes, a blast from the past. that was former house intelligence committee chairman congressman devin nuñes followed by then-judiciary and intelligence committee member

john ratcliffe back on this program in 2018 exposing the origins of the trump-russia collusion lie and how the fbi and the cia spied on and ran into trump advisers. this week more details emerging on the extent of that hoax with multiple sources confirming to reporters michael shellenberger, matt taibbi what we first reported here in 2018, that under former president obama the intelligence community including the cia and fbi illegally targeted trump advisers, long before the summer of 2016 is, or with the help of foreign intelligence agencies. the reporters added, quote, after public and racket had been told that john brennan had a identified 26 trump associates for the five is to target, a source confirmed the intelligence community had identified those people as people to bump or make contact with or manipulate. they were targets of our own intelligence community and law enforcement targets for collection and misinformation. joining me right now, one of the

people that was swept up in the whole hoax, former trump campaign foreign policy adviser george papadopoulos. george, great to ceo after all of these years -- to see you after all of these years. thank you so much for being here. >> good morning, maria. maria: george, i want you to start with the story of the $10,000 which we talked about so many times back in 2018 and then were slammed on social media because we talked about it. back in 2017, you were in israel and you were approached and given $10,000 in cash. can you tell us about that? >> yeah. this really goes to the heart of the bombshell story that was just released haas week regarding the -- last week the overt collusion between the obama administration, cia, the u.s. intel agencies and foreign-allied intel services. it was a profound indictment, and it was incredibly devastating for them.

and it goes exactly to the heart of this $10,000 question and various other setups. you're absolutely right. in the summer of 2017 at a time when i'm leaving the trump transition, i'm going back into the energy business that i was a consultant in, i'm offered $10,000 to go to israel to basically have a project, right? a, quote-unquote, project. this individual named charles tadwell presents himself as some sort of executive in the energy business and presents me with $10,000 in cash. now, of course, as an american citizen in a foreign country i don't speak the language, i don't know exactly what's going on, what does any normal person do? they give it to their lawyer before they go back to the united states. but what happens when i get back to the united states, maria? i'm intercepted by about eight fbi agents. they're all rummaging through my luggage looking for money. today don't know what to do with me at that point because the entire setup failed. and it really goes to the heart of how this entire scandal was not part of a spontaneous

investigation the way that the mainstream media wanted you to believe. it was all predetermined, it was all fabricated, and it was all a part of an entire man by the obama administration to subvert our democratic process. if. maria: this is so extraordinary, george. thank you for relaying that story once again. i think about that story often. again, you were given $10,000. you ghei the money to your -- gave the money to your lawyer. you boarded a plane back to dulles to go to washington. as you touch down in dulles airport, eight fbi agents come on your plane if going through your stuff. what did they say when you said to them, hold it, guys, i don't have any money? why are you looking for $10,000 in money? how did they connect -- i mean, you were trying to connect the dots that, yeah, somebody did give me $10,000, but i didn't accept it. it's with my lawyer. what was their answer? >> look, they're not going to sit there and tell you to your face that we're setting you up. but, you know, anybody can connect the dots and realize

what was going on at that a point. and, you know, going -- you know, the recent information came out that around 26 trump officials were bumped by cia and all of these various foreign intelligence agencies, you know? and i started a off my we work in the ben carson campaign. i realize that dr. ben carson, unfortunately, was one of these 26 individuals that was targeted by the cia, so it made pleat sense when i left carton's campaign and before even "the washington post" knew if i joined the trump campaign, that all of these assets at the heartover this entire scanned scandal were -- scandal were dumping -- bumping into me, trying to set me and other people up. it really just shows you the entire thing was fabricated from the very beginning because if they had two objectives, maria. they wanted to, first, spy on the trump campaign by any means necessary. and, secondly, to handcuff him from actually properly governing the country. and and that's really what happened here.

once comey failed, what did he do? he released this memo to get mueller there. mueller was all about covering up what they were doing during crossfire hurricane. that faded. it continued to impeachment 1.0, 2.0, trump fought back and the country's much stronger because of that. of we need to continue to understand, maria, that this isn't a 2016 story that we're talking about here. this affected now three different u.s. presidential elections. maria: yes. >> 2016, 2020 when you have the cia willfully suppressing the hunter biden story and, of course, this new information now that was just released in this past week is going to have a major impact moving forward in 2024. so domestically, congress has to act. you have fisa renewal up for debate right now. you have the power of the purse that congress has to use to rein in the intel agencies. and globally, you have now this war raging with russia, you also have to look at how the five is intelligence agreements that the united states has is going to be affected moving forward. because if you or i or anybody

if as a foreign policy adviser in diplomacy cannot trust our allies in conversations because you think that they're going to spy on you or relay information to the opposition, that is deleterious for foreign policy, and it cannot continue. maria: well, you know, you were very smart and very fortunate to give this -- the money to your lawyer. obviously, this is an extraordinary story. and when we first broke this news back in 2017 and '18, we were all slammed by the lunatics on twitter. but with let me get your take on the other way they tried to set you up, because you call it a honey pot situation. one international spy dropped something in your ear saying russia has e-mails on hillary clinton. then a few months later another international spy came to ask you about that very comment. tell me about that and what you call a honey pot, george. >> yeah. so the story basically is that right when i joined trump's campaign before even "the

washington post" knew that i was officially part of this campaign, the man at the heart of this entire scandal including comey's investigation, horowitz, mueller, durham and potentially new investigations, joseph miff sudden, this professor who was introduce canned to me by this company that that we now know was connected to mi-6 tells me later on, hey, did you know that the russians have hillary's e-mails? of course, that was obviously speculated all around the global media at that point, i didn't think anything of it. but shortly thereafter, that's when these various foreign governments started to connect with me, started to ask me questions, oh, what do you know about this, what have you heard about that. all these type of rumors. maria: right. >> and you could answer that that a from march until july they were just looking for any way possible to get a hook into the trump campaign -- maria: wow. >> and they actually went out of their way to exploit their own assets to do it, and it failed. maria: we will leave it there. george, i know the honey pot was

a woman who they made believe wanted to flirt with you with, etc., to get information from you. thank you so much, george, for being here this morning. george papadopoulos lived it all and is still standing to tell us about it. thank you, george. quick break, and then former president trump's efforts to change the top of the rnc on his way to securing a third consecutive presidential nomination. trump's daughter-in-law and the host of the right view podcast, lara trump, is here on the latest verdict against her family and the possibility of her joining the new leadership team coming in to the rnc. that's coming up. stay with us. ♪ ♪ right through my glass. so when my windshield cracked, i chose safelite. they replaced the glass and recalibrated my safety system. that's service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ only sleep number smart beds let you each choose your individual firmness and comfort. your sleep number setting. and actively cools and warms up to 13 degrees on either side. now, save 50% on the sleep number limited edition smart bed.

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>> he likes wine, i don't a really like wine to be honest with you. i like grey goose. these people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. i'm not on trial no matter how a hard you try to put me on trial. i don't need anything from a man. a man is not a plan, a man is a companion. i don't need anybody to foot my bills.

the only man who's ever foot my bills completely is my daddy. maria: and that was fulton county district attorney fani willis taking on, taking the stand on thursday over allegations of an improper personal relationship with special prosecutor nathan wade and a potential misuse of federal money as both are leading the prosecution of former president trump over allegations of election interference in 2020. willis defending the money that she and her lover spent on trips and and on wine and on grey goose vodka claiming that she paid him back for everything in cash, so there are no receipts or records of it because it was cash. hours later a judge in new york ruled on letitia james' case against the 45th president with new york judge arthur engoron ruling trump must pay $355 million in fines and be banned from serving as director or other than of any business in new york for three years. trump's sons, erin trump and donald trump jr., also ordered to pay $4 million apiece for allegedly falsifying business

records. despite president trump facing these legal issues brought by biden's department of justice and democrat prosecutors, trump is closing in on his third consecutive republican presidential nomination heading into next saturday's south carolina primary. trump leads nikki haley in her home state by double digits in the latest poll. a victory in the palmetto state will give trump his fifth straight primary win. now changes are expected to come to the republican national committee following the south carolina primary with ronna mcdaniel out as chairwoman and lara trump possibly in. trump has recommended mcdaniel be replaced with north carolina gop chairman michael watley as the new leader of the are rnc with his daughter-in-law, lara trump, serving as the cochair. joining me now is the woman herself in this "sunday morning futures" exclusive, the host of the right view podcast, lara trump. thank you so much for being here. >> thank you, maria. great to be with you. maria: first, your reaction to the verdict against your family on friday. >> what do you even say to something like this, maria? this is insane is.

obviously, everybody knows that letitia james ran for attorney general on a platform of one thing, not protecting the people of the state of new york, not going after actual justice, taking down donald trump. she said herself, i look forward to going into the office of attorney general every day suing trump and going home. judge engeron made his decision before the first word of the first day of trial was ever spoken. it didn't matter that a there was a mountain of evidence to show actually how well run this company truly was. that these banks didn't lose a single dollar. they had to use a fraud statute in new york that didn't require fraud. they had to go so far out of their way. these banks said not only did we make hundreds of millions of dollars, we wanted to do more business with the trump organization. and then, of course, every person in this case testified to the fact my husband eric and his brother don had nothing to do with anything alleged here, but slap them in there, give them a

$4 million charge as well. it is insane. i think what people have seen with this case is that they are doing everything possible not just to insure that donald trump doesn't become the 47th president, but to personally destroy him. this company was his life's work. they want to take that down. they want to take down his family. any collateral damage they can possibly find in the wake of what they want to do to him is great on their side. but people see now more clearly than ever that donald trump is standing in the gap between us keeping our country together and losing america, losing the america we have always known. he is holding the line. he will not stop. maria: yeah. >> it doesn't matter how much nonsense is thrown his way, everyone can see how insane this situation truly is. maria: lara, i want to move on and get your take on the infrastructure around the republican party and and whether or not you are about to step up as a cochair there. what are your expectations here, and what would be the timing of,

in fact, you taking a role in the leadership of the rnc? >> well, the committee has to ultimately vote me in, if that's what they decide to do, i'd be honored to have this position because, look, maria, i think there's no time to waste. we have ten months to go really before what i think we can all feel in this country the most important election any of us have ever seen. we are poised to lose the country, like i just said. everyone sees it, everyone feels it. the world destabilized right now because you have bad leadership at the tom. -- top. we need donald trump to be back in that white house. we need to expand our lead in the house. we need to take back the senate. and you don't win a presidential campaign without the aid of the republican national committee. and so if i am choseen as cochair, what i can tell you is that we really do have a lot of work to get done. now, there are things that have been done. they have an election integrity division at the rnc that no one has heard much about. they have 78 lawsuits to

overturn those, you know, those laws that were changed during the 2020 election under the guise of covid that changed how you vote in so many states. they have people who are actually trained poll watchers, these are people who are going to go into precincts, maria, and not just stand there and watch things happen, they physically can count the ballots coming in and how many ballots are coming out of a precinct. there's a lot that's been done, but there's a lot to be done. we need the strongest ground game that this country has ever seen. we need to make sure we are doing legal ballot hard a vesting. that's something we've really never done as republicans, democrats often do it, questionable to some. we will do it the legal way. we need to have an election day operations all across this country like we've never seen. and and we need to make sure that nothing is left to chance, that on november 5th of this year donald trump will, indeed, become the 47th president of the united states. maria: so i'd like to know what your planning should you get the opportunity to lead in the rnc

because people are concerned about election integrity. tell me specifics in addition to that ballot harvesting, things that you think are needed and that you will do to insure a free and fair election come november. >> well, first of all, i think we need to raise a lot of money. we know the democrats have a mountain of it right now, and and we need to do the same. so i think you need to reestablish that people can feel good about donating to the rnc which right now, you know, some people aren't really sure how is their money being spent. what i can assure you is if i am there, i will make sure that every single penny donated to the rnc goes to electing donald trump and, again, extending our lead in the house and taking back the senate. look, we need poll watchers in places all across this country. if you want to volunteer, go to donaldjtrump.com and sign up to be a volunteer. the truth is we really need to have people in place, legal people in place on election day

so that if there are any challenges, anything questionable at all, we are ready to strike at a moment's notice. and we really have to hit this thing head on. we have a lot of work to do. there's a little time to go between now and november 5th, and, look, we're going to hit the ground running as soon as -- and if i am elected as cochair of the rnc. maria: and fell the me what you've studied from to 20 -- 2020 to be able to take forward for 2024, and do you believe that these judgments against your father-in-law, against president trump will in any way stop him or slow him down in terms of running and, as a he expects, winning. >> yeah, they're not going to slow him down at all. he is probably, has the most energy of any person i've ever seen in my life. he's incredible. nothing will top him. and, look, these are designed to make him rethink what he's doing. obviously, all of these indictments. well, donald trump's going to say i can't do it.

absolutely not. he's going forward because i think he knows, maria, he is truly the only person who can do the job that we need to bring this country back, to put us back on the right tracker so stabilize the world. -- to stabilize the world. we have to play the game differently. i think we've all seen that a from 2020 and years beyond. the democrats have been playing chess, and we have been playing checkers, and we have to reverse those roles. we have to be steps ahead of them and far enough in the game so there is no ground to make up. it would be great, maria, if we had one day of voting in this one -- country, we had paper ballots, everybody got the day off of work. we don't have that. the day that your state allows for early voting, go vote, and then you take people with you every day thereafter to vote. we have to have such a lead going into election day that we're not if making up ground, that there's no catch-up to play because we know via states like arizona, sometimes there are problems in the system, sometimes the lines are very

long. go vote, get people in to vote with you because really this is a must-win election for us. maria: well, or we'll be watching to see if there are efforts to try to muddy up your name as a you -- >> oh, stay tuned, absolutely. maria: maria: -- as you aspire to another level in the are rnc. we'll be watching that because i know that has been the case for others. lara trump, thank you. we'll be watching your work. >> thanks so much. maria: quick break and then new front if tiers of hostility against -- frontiers of hostility and the role of the u.s. space force in protecting america following an intelligence report that indicates russia has obtained a dangers weapon that could set modern societies back hundreds of years. house intelligence committee member, florida congressman michael waltz is here on the impact biden's foreign policy has had on u.s. foreign adversaries and america's national security. it's up next. stay with us.gr ♪ am -ugh. -here, i'll take that.

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>> we rebuilt the military. we created space force which is now turning out to be very essential. i said it's going to end up being maybe our most important force because it's all going tout -- out to space now, if you look. we were way behind when i came. we had no space force. people thought it was a joke when i created it. now they're saying, wow, what a great job you did. maria: and that was former president trump speaking with me in an exclusive interview earlier this month on the creation of the u.s. space force on his watch. that move was widely panned by political pundits at the time but now is seen as pioneering after the white house confirmed that russia has obtained an anti-satellite weapon for use in space. if used, the weapon has the potential to cripple modern societies and militaries that depend on technology for everyday use. the news coming as the house is weighing a $95 billion foreign aid package that include money for ukraine but still no money for border security and no policy changes at the border here at home. joining me right now is florida republican congressman michael

waltz, a member of the house armed services, house foreign affairs and house intelligence committees. it's great to see you, thanks very much for being here. >> yeah, thanks, maria. good to be with you, as always. maria: walk us through the details, if you can, whatever you can tell us, about this anti-satellite weapon that russia has obtained. >> well,ing first, to your point, maria, president trump knew that you can't be number one on earth if you're number two in space. he also knew that every shot in all of our war game, the first shots were fired in space and in cyberspace. so he absolutely created the space force. they needed the budget, they needed the equal seat at the table in the pentagon, and once again trump was right despite all of the punditry and all of the jokes at the time. and, look, once again we're seeing this, you know, these kind of chickens come home to roost. what happened in the intelligence committee this week was that the chairman, mike turner, was very frustrated after sending multiple

classified letters to the administration asking what are you going to do to stop this threat, to deal with this threat, and it won't surprise you we got radio silence. so the committee voted unanimously, republican and democrat, so say -- to say all members need to be aware of this threat. this threat is so serious, so grave, or all members need to be aware. obviously, you had this, you know, kind of blow-up. but guess what? the director e of national intelligence and the national security adviser were on the hill the next day giving us a strategy and telling us what they're going to do about it. if this weapon is allowed to fully deploy, it could completely blind our economy, it would take out our gps, it could blind our military -- maria: wow. >> it is incredibly serious. it's a weapon of mass destruction. not just us, countries all over the world -- maria: wow. >> and the fear is that putin has calculate ared we are far more dependent on space than he

is, so that perhaps this would be at his advantage or that he could use it as a serious deterrence to keep us from doing what we need to do. maria: i mean, theg of chairman mike turner's upset and worry over this is being challenged and being questioned. mike turner is being criticized for raising this now, and some people say that he's doing so to put some speed behind getting money to ukraine. >> yeah, it had -- maria, i can tell you it had nothing to do with ukraine with, it had nothing to do with fisa. fisa, actually, the 702 section of that informs all kind of intelligence. without getting into details, there was some new information that confirmed some things that we were, had suspected, and it was the radio silence that, the appearance that the administration was sleep walking as this threat continued to grow. that's what a really drove it. and, again, it was a unanimous

vote, all sides from the committee. maria: congressman, i want to talk with you about the botched withdrawal from afghanistan which you have mentioned many times as a trigger in rig therring our adversaries on the march. i also want to get your take on current policy in the white house. let's slip in a short break and come back. we've got a lot more with florida congressman michael waltz right here. stay with us. ♪ ♪ some risks. with type 2 diabetes you have up to 4 times greater risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. even at your a1c goal, you're still at risk ...which if ignored could bring you here... ...may put you in one of those... ...or even worse. too much? that's the point. get real about your risks and do something about it. talk to your health care provider about ways to lower your risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. learn more at getrealaboutdiabetes.com she runs and plays like a puppy again. his #2s are perfect!

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maria: welcome back. i am back with florida congressman michael waltz. congressman, moments ago you were talking about the national security threat that this country faces from russia, also from if china, by the way. why are we not doing anything about it? i want to get your take on the capital lever to push; that is, sanctioning or knocking off some of these company on our major exchanges. there are chinese companies, russian companies that, by the way, are actually space companies that trade on the new york stock exchange if and the nasdaq and u.s. exchanges, and doesn't that enable american investors to ultimately fund the expansion of our adversaries? why are we doing this? >> it's insane, maria, and we are having some -- [laughter] i can tell you knockdown can, drag-out debates and conversations on how to deal with this. i think they should be with

delisted, we should be blocking outbound flows, our money from going into those companies on their markets. i've talked to you about the fact that the military's 401(k) plan, $800 billion in assets, was investing our mill tear 's retirement into the -- military's retirement into the chinese stock market. but these interests have their tentacles everywhere. and it really is the epitome of the swamp. we're fighting through it. you've got to dry up the cash. and until we do in washington, i'm asking every individual investor out there, sit down with your financial advisor, comb through your funds and make sure you're not investing in our greatest adversaries. maria: well, what is president biden doing about the aggression coming out of communist china, for example? >> well, we don't -- [laughter] you know, he was, we don't know how compromised he is and how compromised his son is in terms of taking money. maria: right. >> but i'll tell you the thing that is driving me insane is the

fact that his climate agenda, his green new deal is not only compromising with china -- maria: right. >> -- but it's making russia, it's making rush that wealthy, it's making iran wealthy. maria: okay. congressman, thank you. >> our allies are trying to buy maria: it's a good point. k you, michael walt. >> he's shutting down our own lng. i want a massage, in amalfi, from someone named giancarlo. and i didn't live in that shoebox for years. not just— with empower, we get all of our financial questions answered. so you don't have to worry. i guess i'll get the caviar... just kidding. join 18 million americans and take control of your financial future with a real time dashboard and real live conversations. empower. what's next.

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