♪ intellectual. dagen: we've got to go. sean, two-thirds voted for your wife. >> from the studios in new york city, this is maria bart row eau's -- bartiromo's wall street. maria: welcome to the week that was and helps position how you for the week ahead. i'm maria bartiromo new

information is coming to light, deafen arch devon archer is set to give bombshell testimony to the a house committee on monday. he claims to have witnessed joe biden on speakerphone during his son's foreign business calls thiess two dozen times. -- at least two dozen times, this after the sweetheart plea deal collapsed s in court this week. joining me right now in a fox business exclusive is texas senator ted cruz. >> great to be with you. maria: assess where we are. >> the white house realizes they're in trouble. for five years joe biden has said i've never talked with hunter about his overseas deals. that has been their talking point for five years. this week when karine jean-pierre was asked about it, she said i've been asked a thousand times, i'm going to give you the exact same answer i've given you every time, joe biden was not in business with his son hunter.

now, obviously, it's very different to say you're not in business with him than to say you've never talked to him about it. maria: right. >> and the reason is what you said, devon archer, hunter's business partner, is getting ready to tell the house of representatives that joe biden, dozens of times, talked with hunter and with the foreign oligarchs and foreign business partners about these corrupt deals. maria: give us your reaction to the collapse of that sweetheart deal. the judge giving us some refreshing honesty. >> well, this was an extraordinarily bad week for joe biden and the biden white house. thankfully, the hunter biden plea deal fell apart. i say thankfully because that deal was absolutely disgraceful. it was a sweetheart deal, it was meant to be a slap on the wrist for hunter biden. it was meant to give him zero jail time despite a long pattern of criminality, much of which he admits now. and it was designed to insulate him from any further liability. but all of that is secondary to

its core purpose. the core purpose of that plea deal was to insulate, to protect joe biden to cover up his involvement and criminality and to end all further inquiries. and it really, it was a manifestation of just how politicized and weaponized the department of justice has become under joe biden. but i've got to say the level of scrutiny that was on the plea hearing this week rose to a high enough level, and you had a federal judge that actually forced the prosecution to go on record, and that resulted in the entire deal collapsing. maria: i mean, can you imagine the arrogance that hunter biden a's lawyers had that hay walk into that room thinking that because he is going to plead guilty to tax evasion, that he's going to be the immune from anything else even as all of these details and evidence from bank records have been coming out of him taking money from foreigners. >> well, and it's even more than that. the two tax evasion claims that he was pleading guilty to, which he's unquestionably guilty of, were two of the less serious tax

evasion claims that he committed. one of the problems, one of the many problems with the doj investigation if into his misconduct is that as two irs whistleblowers have now testified before congress, the department of justice did not go after the more serious transgressions, the ones with long jail time including illegal possession of a firearm by a drug user which typically carries serious jail time. they were going to give him a slap on the wrist and no jail time. but, look, here's what changed. if this plea hearing had been the day after the plea deal was announced, i think it would have been agreed to by both sides and likely entered into. what happened is several weeks transpired. and in those weeks, a number of thingses developed. number one, as i just mentioned, we had two irs whistleblowers come before the house of representatives and testify as to the d to oj cover-up -- doj cover-up, testify as to merrick garland lying under oath, a felon ifny, testify as to

merrick garland and the department of justice committing obstruction of justice, protecting both hunter and joe biden. that ratcheted up the pressure significantly. and then we had, secondly, last week the fd-1023, the fbi report that was written when a confidential human source gave credible information alleging that joe biden as vice president of the united states had received a $5 million bribe, had solicited and had received it from from a ukrainian oligarch in exchange for official favorses as vice president of the united states. that's bribery, that's a felony. and given both of those, i think what happened, maria, is with when we got into the courtroom and the judge asked the prosecutor does this mean hunter goes scot-free on everything, there are going to be no prosecutions for anything, the prosecutor realized that they would look like idiot withs if -- that the patsies they were playing would be transparent to everyone given this mountain of new evidence.

that they said, oh, no, we're not going to look at any of that evidence. so they said, well, yes, we are still investigating. at which point hunter's lawyers lost their minds and said, well, the deal's off. and i almost, i really was waiting for hunter to stand up and say do you know who my father is? because that's really their defense, is daddy's the oval, so none of this counts. and really it's all about making sure nobody looks to the big guy for his involvement. that's why this is an issue of public concern. tests t not one -- it's not one troubled soul with a drug problem, it is the president of the united states who the evidence suggests has made a business for years of selling favors to foreign oligarchs and enemies of america. maria: yeah, i mean, house oversight committee chairman james comer has said many times this is an investigation of joe biden. that's where we're investigating. >> yes. maria: and all of this, what you're saying, appears to lead to the level of impeachment. these are impeachable offenses.

house speaker kevin mccab think says he's -- mccarthy says he's open to the possibility, but my question is what happens in the senate? will it die in the senate? you've got to house republicans pushing for the impeachment of al hand alejandro mayorkas as well as attorney general merrick garland. here's how the democrats are responding. watch this. >> impeachment may be an excuse or a distraction from the real work the house has to do and the senate as well. >> this is just a complete distraction. and speaker mccarthy knows it. and the absence of talking about important policies that reduce costs for everyday americans, this is what we're left with. >> they want to impeach secretary mayorkas, they're going to impeach president biden, all their nonsense. maria: senator, your thoughts. what's your reaction? do they not care that the evidence shows the president has been accepting money from foreign adversaries like communist china? >> yeah, they don't care at all.

look, i believe the house should pursue three separate impeachments. number one, alejandro mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security. i believe they should impeach him today, right now. his conduct has been atrocious, it's created the worst humanitarian crisis on our southern border in the list erie of our -- history of our nation. 7 million if illegal aliens, 853 migrants died last year crossing illegally, over 1000,000 americans died of drug overdoses. the body bags are piling up x they need to impeach mayorkas because he is utterly defying federal law. that's number one. the second impeachment inquiry that should be opened is of the attorney general, and the reason is simple. the irs whistleblowers, if their testimony is accurate, then merrick garland committed multiple felonies. now, it may not be accurate, that's why it needs to be an inquiry, he deserves the chance to present a defense, but if what they alleged is true, than

the attorney general lied under oath to congress in response to questioning from me and actively engaged in obstruction of justice. both of those are felonies for which he should be impeached. but third, joe biden, i agree with speaker mccarthy. i think the house should open an impeachment inquiry. i went through the fd-1023 in detail. the allegations in that document from the fbi are that that joe biden directly received a $5 million bribe and got another bribe for his son hunter in exchange for favors from the vice president of the united states. if that is are true, he should be impeached. now, likewise, just as with merrick garland, the house should have an inquiry. joe biden deserves a chance to present a defense to argue it's not true. it hasn't been proven, these are allegations. maria: democrats blocked your amendment this week to the national defense authorization act. it would have allowed service members who were dismissed for not getting the covid-19 vaccine to be reinstated or to have their discharge status changed.

why did democrats block this amendment? >> it's infuriating. there are at least 8,400 servicemen and women when were discharged from the military because they declined to get the covid vaccine. the democrats are happy with that. now, last year we successfully ended the covid vaccine mandate in the military. that's manager i've been leading the fight for -- something i've been leading the fight for for a long time. that was a major victory. but that's only prospective. that's for servicemen and women today. we've got a huge recruiting problem in the military. the woke policies of the biden administration are causing young men and young women not to want to serve. and we've got at least 8,400 experienced servicemen and women, officers, people with some of them 10, 15 years' experience in the military. my amendment was very simple, it's called the americans act. it would let them enter the military again if the reason they were terminated was because of the covid vaccine mandate that is no longer department of

defense policy. tragically, every single democrat voted no -- maria: wow. >> and i hope every democrat senator when they see a young soldier or sailor or airman or marine who signed up to defend this country, who risked their life to defend this country and were terminated under an arbitrary and abusive policy, i hope they're held to account. maria: that is the unbelievable. senator, thanks so much. >> thanks, maria. maria: texas senator ted cruz. president biden, meanwhile, touting the merits of bidenomics as gdp comes in stronger than expected, but the former ceo of home depot and chrysler is only at vanguard, you're more than just an investor, you're an owner. our financial planning tools and advice can help you prepare for today's longer retirement. hi mom. that's the value of ownership.

meet the team all using chase to keep up with their finances. smart bankers. convenient tools. boom. one bank with the power of both. chase. make more of what's yours. maria: welcome back. now look at where markets ended the week after the federal reserve raised interest rateses by a quarter point this week. the pce price index show prices rising at the slowest pace in nearly two years, and and an initial reading on the second

quarter gdp came out better than expected. the economy growing at a rate of 2.4% on an annualized basis is. but former home depot and chrysler ceo bob nardelli is very concerned about the state of american businessed today. it's great to see you, bob. you say this is the most challenging time you've seen in more than 50 years in business. tell us about it. >> yeah, that's correct, maria. thank you for willing me on -- for having me on. it is the inconsistency and predictability and the multiple of challenges i think we're facing across corporate america that i sense every day in talking to both large, small, medium-sized companies both public and private, maria. i mean, if you think about the recent interest rate, right, 11th rate increase, 5.25-5.5, and you put a multiple on top of that, so not only is the rate higher, but there's a lot more difficulty in securing debt today given the concern and the lack of predictability. companies in the past used to be able to have some sense of, you

know, what are the issues and what we're going to do about them. but again, this inkeu7b9 city is just causing havoc. we're seeing a lot of companies that were paying $2 million in interest rates, now they're a paying 12. if you think about what's happened, maria, coming out of covid, you know, we really switched from a production to a services enterprise here economy in the form of air travel and in the form of hospitality where demand is outstripping capacity because they've resized during the covid period. so we're seeing that issue out there. we're seeing fund raising a problem. there's the over 3,000 people trying to raise funds out there, gone from 9s to 21 months. they're -- 9 months to 211 months. -- 21 months. st it's extremely difficult, maria. we're seeing multiples come down appropriately because a lot of these companies thought the trees had no tops. they got caught in this downturn. they thought they would make it through this downturn, now they're running out of cash, so

there's a lot of fire sales and a lot of multiples coming down, maria. maria: yeah, but, bob, look at these markets and expectations. expectations seem to be going up in terms of the ability for the economy to do a soft landing. you've got the markets up strongly year to date, the nasdaq up, what, 35% year to date. the s&p 500 up 18%. year to date. are you not seeing any of that optimism? >> you know, it's what i said earlier. i mean, it's the dichotomy here, i've never seen, maria, where where the market is performing so well and some of the companies are so challenged. i mean, that's part of the challenges that we're facing out there in trying to understand do we wig or wag going forward. do we invest, do we not invest. again, if you think about what's going on here, maria, the only arm of the administration that's trying to dampen inflation are the feds. there's no policy being done other than they're flooding the market with cash that is allowing some of in this inflation to go on.

yeah, it's come from 9 down to 3, you know? the fed has always targeted 2. so if this thing goes to 2.9, they may back off, or they may have to reposition their position about we're going to keep raising rates until we get inflation under control at 2%, maria. maria: yeah. >> it is one of the most challenging periods i've lived through, as you said, in 52 years. maria: that's incredible. bob, it's great to get your insights. thanks so much. >> thank you, maria. maria: all right. bob nardelli joining us. meanwhile, an epa spending spree underway. a new watchdog report follows billions of taxpayers pouring into the environmental protection agency under the biden administration including spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on guns, ammunition and military equipment. open the books' ceo is here with i'm saving with liberty mutual, mom. they customize your car insurance

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more welcome back. billions of tax dollars i fueling a spending and hiring spree at the environmental protection if agency as the biden administration is pushing its green agenda and that climate agenda forward. watchdog group open the books reporting more than $100 billion has been funneled into the epa in just the two years. they have reportedly spent over $600,000 in the past four years on guns, on ammunition and military-style equipment. for more than 130, quote-unquote, special agents with the power to carry guns and make arrests. joining me now with more details is open the books' founder and ceo. adam, it's great to have you this weekend. thanks very much for being here. these numbers are stunning. can you explain to us why the administration would be spending all this money on the epa, on ammunition and guns? [laughter] >> well, when the number one

national security threat is climate change, i think that gives you more license to do a lot of different things. one of those things is to taffe up, lawyer up -- staff up, lawyer up and arm up. march cra, what we have is congress throwing so much money at the u.s. environmental protection agency that they don't even have the projects to spend it on, and their auditors, the inspector general says they don't even have the resources to actually audit huge chunks, up to $40 billion, of their budget spending. maria: let's go through some of in this, because the average epa salary is $124,000. 77% of agency's employees make more than $100,000 a year. and they've got 223 public affairs officers. i'm trying to understand many what scenario any of these people would need guns and ammunition. [laughter] >> well, you know, to go after the muter s, to go of -- the polluters, to go after the people that are the violating

the epa regulations. and so, maria, you have a situation here where you have the blurring of the lines between a civil administrative agency, you know, to protect the environment and then a law enforcement agency. and so those people that are involved in the regulation should not be involved on the law enforcement side. that's for are traditional law enforcement agencies underneath the department of justice, underneath the department of homeland security. but what most people don't even know and we didn't know it before we found it in our, on our oversight investigation, was that the epa has also spent over $700 million on their criminal law enforcement division, and they have the epa's version of homeland security. so it's mission creep. homeland security at the epa was founded after 9/11, you know, to defend critical infrastructure like water supply in the united states against terrorists, but now it's involved in pandemics, it's involved in cyber attacks

and natural disasters. maria: this is incredible. no wonder the republicans are trying to get the appropriations process to hold back some money. let's talk a bit about what they're doing and where this money came from. this is $100 billion of new money that's been siphoned into these agencies. it's not just the epa. the irs is also arming it agents with guns and spending money on am education in. ammunition. tell me what heir doing with that money and where this money came from. >> so in terms of militarizing the federal agencies, at open the books.com we've been the subject matter experts since 2016 when we put our piece up at the "wall street journal" why does the irs need guns. just since 2006 the internal revenue service has spent $35.2 million on guns, ammunition and military-style equipment including just since the pandemic $10 million that's been peak years, they've purchased a

million dollars worth of ar-15 smith & wesson rifles and shot guns, for example. maria:s that is extraordinary. adam, thanks very much. we're going to keep a spotlight on this and continue this conversation. we is appreciate your time. we know that congress is going away, many left already this week for a 37-day reaccess. but when they come back, they're going to be dealing with these appropriations bills, and this certainly will be among the topics. thank you, adam. >> thank you. maria: i've got one important thing you need to know

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the company, anheuser-busch will lay off hundreds of corporate employees. you've also got big earnings from if apple and amazon coming out next week. that happens on thursday. could be a market mover. of we'll be following all of that on "mornings with maria," weekdays 6-9 a.m. eastern right here on fox business, and i'll see you over on the fox news channel on sunday, "sunday morning futures" is live at 10 a.m. eastern. exclusive interviews with chairman james comer, house intelligence committee chairman mike turner, the prime minister of italy, and harvard law professor emeritus alan dershowitz join me live on sunday. that'll do it for us here on fox have a great rest of weekend, and i'll see you again next time. ♪ ♪ ♪ jack: welcome to "barron's roundtable" where we get behind the headlines and prepare you for the week ahead. i'm jack