welcome back to "face the nation." we return to our conversation now with wyoming republican senator john barrasso.

senator, you are the whip. you count the votes. does pete hegseth, the pick to run the pentagon, have them? >> well, he certainly has the qualities that we need to lead the pentagon. he knows about a fit fighting force. he is very qualified. in my opinion, he has a record -- a distinguished record of service in the military. every senator gets to speak for themselves, and they will do that. the meetings have gone very well. things are heading in the right direction. the hearings start tuesday, and they're going to be consequential. people will listen and make their own decision. people have already had chances to ask questions and they're going to continue to do so. i expect he will have quality answers to the questions that they ask. >> well, your colleague senator joni ernst, who is a sexual assault survivor herself, did say last month that she wanted the fbi to vet the claims against mr. hegseth that were made by an accuser who said that he raped her.

he denies that that assault happened. he claims it was consensual sex despite her filing of that police report. she also asked that the results be presented to the committee. is that fbi vetting being shared with members of the armed services committee? >> well, joni is a warrior. she is a patriot. i know she's had a chance to meet with the nominee at least twice and advise and consent is about giving advice as well as asking consent. she will ask additional questions at the hearing on tuesday before ultimately making her decision. with regard to the fbi report, it's reported today that the chairman and the ranking member of the committee have seen the report already. traditionally those reports do not get shared with the other members of the committee. that goes back four decades back when john mccain was chairman of the committee, and i support the chairman in that decision. >> well, that's why it is so

notable such a prominent member and other senators are asking to see fbi vetting. do you prefer that the details of that sexual assault be disclosed in a public hearing, or would you support that those private investigative details be shared with members at the discretion of the chairman? >> well, the chairman is going to make that decision, and i support the chairman. i also support pete hegseth. if you take a look at the current nominee compared to who has been in the pentagon the last four years where they had a woke military, where recruitment went down, morale went down, i think pete is going to be terrific in terms of recruitment, in terms of morale, in terms of returning america to a fighting force, which is what the american people really want. they want to make sure if our military is called upon, they're ready to go. that they're ready to fight and with intimidating fire. >> to correct myself, alleged sexual assault. let me ask you about another

nominee or nominee to be, one to run the intelligence community and oversee all the agencies. it appears the only member of mr. trump's national security team that doesn't have a real scheduled hearing is tulsi gabbard. is it the fbi background check that's holding things up, or is it the ethics disclosure that's a problem? >> i support tulsi gabbard. she is amazing in that she has been a member of congress and a combat veteran, a decorated combat veteran for work under fire in iraq. you're right, it's a paperwork problem right now with the office of government ethics. we had hoped to have the hearing later this week. it looks like it will be the following week. but she continues to have promotions in the military. she's a lieutenant colonel. she now has top-level security clearances. she is the right person to keep america secure and safe. >> she took the unusual measure of releasing a public statement reversing some past policy

positions she had taken when it came to surveillance. are you concerned that you don't have enough republicans who are willing to vote for her? >> i'm not concerned at all about that. senator tom cotton, chairman of the intelligence committee, has met with her on numerous occasions. she will have a hearing. she has to raise her right hand, take an oath at the time. she will be telling the truth, and the issue that you just raised, which is foreign surveillance, she is now in the mind and position that is consistent with the chairman of the committee and republican members of the committee. >> you mentioned shock and awe on day one of mr. trump's new term with executive orders, but some of this action is also going to require congressional help. this week president biden banned new gas drilling in 625 meters of the ocean -- excuse me,

miles. are you going to reverse that in the first reconciliation bill that leader thune told us about? >> well, what president biden just did by executive order, i expect that president trump will eliminate with executive orders as well. in terms of the reconciliation bill, we need results. the results are what matters. we were sent here and president trump says he doesn't care if it's one bill, two bills, three bills, he wants results that we are united on securing the border, bringing down costs for american citizens. we want to make sure tax cuts don't expire. we want to make sure that the country is safe and strong. those are the issues that the american people elected us to do. that's what we're here to do. >> just to follow up there, mr. trump has said one big beautiful bill is what he wants. it seems procedural but we know from the senate side you would prefer two different reconciliation bills at two

different times to tackle some of these big agenda items. when you hear that the speaker of the house says it's got to be one, because he can only get one thing through, doesn't that underscore just how difficult unified republican leadership is actually going to be? >> no. results matter. we're united with the results, and when president trump met with us for a couple hours, the senators, this past week, he said, i don't care how many bills. we just want to get it done. there are urgent needs that i would like to get addressed immediately. you take a look at what happened this week in the senate. there was actually bipartbiartisan ship because the first bill we brought to the floor, the laken riley bill, about a wonderful young woman, 22, a nursing student in georgia who was out for a jog, brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant, somebody who was a criminal in this country. should have either been in jail or deported, but he was -- neither of those were done under the biden administration. we have bipartisan support even

though chuck schumer blocked the bill last year. >> and we're going to talk about that with one of the democratic senators who supported it later on in the program. senator barrasso, thank you for your time this morning. we'll be right back. ♪ i take once-daily jardiance... ♪ ♪ ...at each day's start. ♪ ♪ as time went on, it was easy to see. ♪ ♪ i'm lowering my a1c! ♪ and for adults with type 2 diabetes... ...and known heart disease, jardiance can lower the risk of cardiovascular death, too. serious side effects include increased ketones in blood or urine, which can be fatal. stop jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, trouble breathing, or increased ketones. jardiance may cause dehydration that can suddenly worsen kidney function and make you feel dizzy, lightheaded, or weak upon standing. genital yeast infections in men and women, urinary tract infections, low blood sugar, or a rare, life threatening bacterial infection between and around the anus and genitals can occur. call your doctor right away if you have fever

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we turn now to arizona democratic congressman mark kelly. good morning to you, senator. >> good morning, margaret. >> it's going to be a very busy week in the senate. before i get to those confirmation hearings, i want to follow up on what the fbi director told our scott pelley there in describing some of the chinese hacking and what incoming national security adviser was called cyber time bombs throughout u.s. infrastructure. what needs to happen? what are the consequences need to be for china having done this and remaining in our infrastructure? >> well, we have to be strong in

standing up to them and explaining to them and, in some cases, i think, consequences need to be serious. there are things that we can do. we have the tools. but i would say even beyond that we have to figure out a way to get them off of the infrastructure. with regards to the telecom system, multiple companies, chinese, cyber software, are currently on those systems and we're working to try to fix this. some of this is going to require that the telecom companies upgrade their infrastructure that could be costly. we're working with them to do that. >> it's pretty incredible that this espionage happened in the first place and expelling them is so hard to do. i want to also ask you about another chinese question, and that has to do with tiktok, because the attorney for the company said they will go dark next sunday.

unless the supreme court intervenes and stops this national security law from taking effect or delays it as mr. trump has asked the court to do. what do you think is going to happen here? >> well, based on the oral argument in the case two days ago, it looks like the supreme court -- i mean, i don't really want to speculate, but it does look like they're going to uphold the law that we pass. so i think on the 19th, one day before the inauguration, tiktok on our systems, on our servers, become something that's now been banned by congress. so i imagine there will be a disruption on the 19th. i know this is controversial. i know folks earn a living on tiktok, but it has a national security risk to it. one is the data.

the thing i'm more concerned about is their ability to manipulate the population of the united states, especially in time of a conflict. so it was the right decision. i voted for it, and it looks like the supreme court will uphold the legislation that we passed. >> we'll track that story. i want to follow up on something senator barrasso brought up, which was the laken riley act. you say you support this. it's a bill that would require federal authorities to detain undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes rather than releasing them on parole. this bill was introduced last congress. didn't go anywhere. was it wrong for democrats not to take it up? was it election year politics that made democrats concerned about bringing it forward? >> well, in the last year we've been working with republicans on bipartisan border security, legislation with the hope of getting that passed and then moving on to comprehensive immigration reform. i think we can do that. i think there's a lot of --

there's an effort. i think that's going to continue. right now this is certainly bipartisan. i voted for cloture on the motion to start talking about it. >> but do you regret not doing that, not taking that position earlier? if democrats were more muscular on this issue, which was such a live issue during the campaign. >> well, i mean, the laken riley act is very specific. it does one specific thing. we were working on something that was much more comprehensive. money for border patrol agents and hiring and infrastructure, policy changes and policy changes you have to do in a bipartisan way. we can't do that through the reconciliation process you were talking about. so there is -- i think there's going to be an effort ongoing. this is bipartisan. you're right, we can't do this a year ago. maybe we should have, but we were working on bipartisan

border security legislation. we weren't able to get that across the finish line. i hope we can in this congress. >> i want to get to two of the picks here. you sit on the armed services committee. typically only the ranking chairs get to see the fbi background check on a nominee but, as you know, many senators are asking for more information on pete hegseth here. do you hav any information from the ranking member of the committee, from senator reid, that you will get access or any information from that fbi background check? >> margaret, let me start by saying there is not a job that's more serious and more critical to our national security than secretary of defense and we need a qualified individual in that job, and he just does not seem to have the qualifications. on top of that you look at his personal conduct when he was managing veterans for freedom and concerned veterans of america, these two organizations

were financially mismanaged. there was reports of being intoxicated on the job and creating an environment where there was some issues with sexual harassment. so i think it's in the nominee, mr. hegseth's best interests if he wants to be confirmed for this job for us to have all the information. the information from these organizations but also the fbi background check. right now, as you say, the chairman and the ranking member are going to get it, that's an agreement with the white house. there have been exceptions made in the past for certain nominees. this clearly -- because it is bipartisan. across the aisle, folks want to see the fbi background check, i think we should have an opportunity to take a look at it. >> "the new york times" is reporting that the ranking member had been briefed as of friday. you're saying no information has

been shared? >> yes. >> do you think it will be before tuesday? >> not yet. i don't know. i think we will have an opportunity. i will talk to the ranking member, and i also talked to the chairman about this, about his nomination in general. more so the discussion i had with roger wicker was about meeting with mr. hegseth. we've reached out to him multiple times. have not been able to schedule a meeting in my office, and he's not meeting with any other democrats on the committee other than the ranking member. more information is better if he wants to be confirmed for this job. i think it's in our best interest to have everything out on the table. >> former democrat tulsi gabbard, she is controversial as well. republican senator kapita was on fox and said when she met with tulsi gabbard she pressed her on that trip to syria that came in

the wake of a chemical weapons attack carried out by dictator bashar al assad against civilians. gabbard told her, she said, that she didn't even know she was going to syria, that she intended to go to lebanon on the scheduled visit and ended up in syria. is that a credible answer? >> i talked to congresswoman gabbard this week, met with her in my office. we talked about the trip to syria. she didn't tell me that part. i think it's kind of unusual that you wind up in one place that wasn't part of the plan. but what concerns me more, especially about that trip, is it was common knowledge that assad was gassing the civilian population, using chemical weapons against the population multiple times and she didn't argue about those, but she took the time and the effort to make a case and she used experts that

were not credible to try to prove that he was not using chemical weapons in those two instances and i have a hard time understanding why you would want to do that to use your political capital to try to prove something when there are multiple cases. and, you know, on top of that, when you look at what's in russia with misinformation, she does seem to have a predilection for misinformation. and for not having presenting a case -- >> my producer is yelling in my ear. i have to go, senator. i'm so sorry to cut you off, but we will see when the hearing gets scheduled. we'll be back in a moment.

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we go now to naples, florida, and former house speaker newt gingrich who has a new documentary airing on pbs that shows how nine american immigrants have shaped our country's history. welcome to "face the nation." >> good to be with you. >> in this documentary, you tell the stories of these individuals who immigrated to the u.s. and they were very successful, people like albert einstein.

when you look at einstein and you look at henry kissinger, they were refugees to this country. donald trump set refugee admissions at very low levels first term. he's talking about block refugee admissions this term. is that a mistake? >> well, i think we're going through a period of, frankly, reacting to an extraordinarily disastrous immigration policy, so you're going to have some twists and turns. in the long run, we do want to have an ability to allow legitimate refugees to come here. we also, and participate of the reason callista and i made this documentary for pbs, we believe strongly that illegal immigrants are a major contribution to america's success and to its exceptional nature and we want to make sure that as many americans favor legal immigration as oppose illegal immigration. it's very important to distinguish the two, and we want to strongly communicate that legal immigration in a variety

of forms, refugees is one and another is various work permits, but we want people to be able to come to america if they do so legally. >> you said immigrants inhabit the very soul of what it is to be an american. when you say legitimate re refugees, what do you mean? >> well, i think people can stand up and say i have now decided i'm a refugee. i feel threatened. the question is, is that true or not? are they really threatened? >> claim asylum, you mean? >> -- their way of getting into the united states. to claim asylum. i think there's a big difference between somebody who genuinely faces a potential loss of life or freedom and someone who wants to come to america and decides to claim that status. >> economic migrants. let me ask you, someone else you finish in here, zalmay khalilzad who brokered trump's deal to exit the afghanistan. as you know with that chaotic

exit, there were tens of thousands of afghans scattered, some of them still separated from their families. many of them worked for the u.s. government. should mr. trump extend the legal process of this program and bring those afghans here? and would you ask congress to raise the current cap they have on the number of them coming? >> i think the afghan refugees who actively fought on the side of americans, saved american lives, tried to help win against the taliban, i think they deserve an unusual level of support and treatment, and i worked all during the period of president biden's insanely disastrous withdrawal. i tried to work with various people and did podcasts with people who were trying to get folks out of afghanistan who should legitimately have been helped by the u.s. government. when somebody is totally your ally, and this happened with the vietnamese in the vietnamese war, when someone is your ally

and risk their lives side-by-side with you, you shouldn't abandon them. that's a pretty straightforward rule. >> well, one of the things the biden administration blamed the trump administration for was the difficulty in making those fast arrangements to bring those afghans here and that's a story for another day, but the person they put their finger on as making it more difficult is steven miller, who is now the top policy adviser to mr. trump. he did add new requirements to visas, other things that made it harder to legally come here. have you spoken to him about some of your concerns? >> no. i know steven very well. steven was responding to a disastrous level of immigration that's not sustainable. i think virtually every american agrees you can't have an open border. you can't have venezuelan gangs or el salvadorans gangs and

you're going to get some overreaction, but it's an overreaction caused by people like president biden who were totally irresponsible in allowing people into this country by the millions in a way that was totally illegal. it was outside the law. >> pardon me. i don't know if our viewers heard an alarm that went off here so it interrupted some of what you said there. donald trump has chosen your wife, callista, who helped make this documentary with you to be the next ambassador to switzerland. are you advising the president-elect in any capacity right now? >> well, i chat with him and members of the team. i've had experience as an activist on things like getting through the tax cut bill. i work with everybody in the house, senate and the white house. >> speaker -- former speaker, thank you for your time. we'll be right back.

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that's it for us today. thank you for watching. until next week, for "face the nation," i'm margaret brennan. heidi covey: so, i have an eye disease that causes blindness. i have moments where i get a little bit sad because i just can't see things that i used to. dr. stanley taught me to trust in the lord even when you don't want to. god is such a faithful father. nothing that happens to us isn't without his eye upon it.

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