Cavuto Live 9_30_23 FULL END SHOW - BREAKING FOX NEWS September 30, 2023
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 leadership is floating the idea to put up a short-term spending bill, 45 days or shorter,
00:07 that includes disaster aid but not Ukraine funding and no border security. This would come up under
00:14 a suspension rule, which means that you would need two-thirds of the members. That means you would
00:19 need Democrats. Now, again, that is only if the majority of this conference behind those closed
00:25 doors can agree to this and are okay with this inside that meeting. Now, if they are okay with
00:32 this and they want to move forward, a vote could happen this morning or early afternoon, but some
00:36 folks are already saying they're not happy with it. Listen to this. If leadership brings it up,
00:43 are there consequences? We'll see, but I'm not voting for the, you know, for the clean CR.
00:49 That's what we're fighting against all the time. Border? Nothing in it for the border? So, no,
00:54 I won't be doing, won't be voting. We'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. We'll see if
00:59 leadership is going to leave behind these holdouts and move forward. Now, this comes after 21 House
01:05 Republicans took down Speaker McCarthy's attempt to pass a one-month stopgap bill yesterday. That
01:11 included cuts in spending and border security measures. Meantime, the Senate is expected to
01:16 take a procedural vote later today on a 45-day clean stopgap bill with Ukraine funding. McCarthy
01:23 has been warning the Senate, look, guys, the House is not going to accept that.
01:26 I think if we had a clean one without Ukraine on it, we could probably be able to move that
01:34 through. I think if the Senate puts Ukraine on there and focuses Ukraine over America, I think,
01:39 I think that could cause real problems. So whatever happens next, Neil, is being decided
01:45 right now in the basement of the Capitol. Neil. Thank you for that, Aisha, very much. So how is
01:50 the president of the United States reacting to all of this? Lucas Tomlinson at the White House
01:53 with more. Hey, Lucas. Hey, Neil, President Biden speaking at the retirement ceremony in Arlington
01:58 yesterday for the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley.
02:02 Biden offered the following warning. The House fails to fulfill its most basic function.
02:08 It fails to fund government by tomorrow. We'll have failed all our troops.
02:15 Our service members will keep up holding their oath, showing up for work, standing
02:20 sentinel around the world, keeping our country secure. But they won't get paid to disgrace.
02:27 President Biden is here at the White House this weekend, no doubt being kept up to date on the
02:32 looming government shutdown, which appears all but inevitable. Yesterday, our colleague
02:36 Edward Lawrence asked this key question in the briefing room. Does the president bear
02:42 any responsibility for a shutdown? Absolutely not. And by the way, the deal was to ensure that
02:49 we had a fiscally responsible plan. I think the name of the bill was the Fiscal Responsibility Act
02:53 that saved a trillion dollars over a decade. Taxpayers, too, will be impacted. National
03:00 parks will close. Getting a passport could take a lot longer. Reaching the IRS by phone won't
03:05 happen. And Americans who rely on social assistance, including food stamps, could also
03:09 be denied. And some government workers, like TSA agents, in protest over not getting paid,
03:14 may even call out sick in greater numbers, potentially creating more chaos at airports
03:19 nationwide. Now, officials say all government employees would receive back pay at the end of
03:24 this potential government shutdown. Of course, that's little consolation to Americans around
03:29 the country who are living paycheck to paycheck. We have to remind our viewers, Neil, who many are
03:33 shocked every time they're handed a receipt. Indeed, Lucas, thank you. Lucas Thompson at
03:39 the White House. Representative Troy Nell is kind enough to join us. A Texas Republican is a House
03:44 Freedom Caucus member. How do you see it right now, Congressman? Well, Neil, what I see right
03:50 now is the Senate's not willing to work with the House of Representatives. We have passed four.
03:56 We have passed four appropriations bills. I know there's 12. We've passed four.
03:59 We passed defense. We passed homeland security. We passed agriculture. We're working on agriculture.
04:07 We passed VA. And Chuck Schumer has done nothing with them. Matter of fact, we even passed FAA
04:14 reauthorization before we took our August break. And Chuck Schumer has done nothing with that.
04:19 So what makes us think anything's going to change? I'm a no on a CR because I can't, in my right mind,
04:26 allow this administration to destroy this country, destroy this country for another minute.
04:32 You know, it looks like the differences are so wide, Congressman, that they won't be settled
04:38 in these final hours. So we are going to see the government shut down. Routinely,
04:44 that's happened a lot where a government shutdown for three days or more, I think,
04:49 has happened better than 10 times or a dozen times since 1977. But it's picked up speed of late.
04:55 And normally when they start this far apart, it goes on even longer. Are you afraid a shutdown,
05:02 if it comes to that, is going to be on a while? Well, it very well could be. I think it was 35
05:07 days back in 2018 or 2019. And so, you know, what's interesting is we got those that are saying
05:14 I was one of the 21 that is shutting down the government. I don't want the troops to get paid.
05:20 I want the Border Patrol agents not to get paid. Folks, let's be clear. We sent those appropriation
05:26 bills over to Chuck Schumer. I highly recommend you get your house in order in the Senate,
05:32 pass those bills, get Joe to sign it. And 73 percent of all this discretionary spending
05:39 will be taken care of. Seventy three percent of the government will remain open. But Chuck, go to
05:44 work. Let me ask you, Congressman, there are reports out there that the speaker is going to
05:50 maybe work with Democrats and bypass members, maybe like yourself, sir, who he deems he can't
05:57 he can't win over. But if he does that, it would be very unpopular with those who are of your
06:03 opinion and that you wouldn't want him around as speaker. Is that true? Well, what I do know is,
06:09 listen, we went through 15 rounds back in January. Kevin McCarthy was going to be the speaker of the
06:16 House. I never doubted it. Is there going to be enough momentum to change that? My question is,
06:22 is there anybody else in the Republican conference that would get enough support to get to 218?
06:28 I don't believe so. I just don't believe so. So all it takes is, you know, and part of the
06:33 reason why he survived that vote is his agreement where it could take just one member to say,
06:40 you got to vacate the chair, you're out of here. Do you think that that is likely? Do you know of
06:45 any of your colleagues who if he does push working on a deal that has Democratic support,
06:51 that that alone would prompt even one to say, speaker, you're no longer speaker?
06:57 I'm going to make an assumption right now to say it may it may. Will you get the four,
07:04 three or four to agree where you couldn't get the 218? The idea that we may ask for a clean
07:11 CR right now for seven days, 14 days may trigger that as well, especially if you're going to try
07:17 to get Democrats to support it. So listen, Kevin McCarthy has an impossible job. His job is
07:24 absolutely impossible today with the environment we have in Washington, D.C. But I have to stand
07:30 firm. We got to clean and drain this swamp because it's a swamp and it's deep. All right.
07:36 We said clean and drain this swamp. And that reminded me of Donald Trump, who has been advising
07:42 Republicans bang tough on this and shut down the government. It comes to that and he'll be down.
07:46 What do you think? Well, number one, I support Donald J. Trump. He's going to come back in 2024
07:52 and he's going to win and we're going to come back. He's going to come back. We're going to
07:56 clean this place up. He just needs four more years to do it. All right. We'll watch closely,
08:00 Congressman. Thank you very, very much for that. In the meantime, I want to update you right now
08:04 on where we stand with this year, a lot about this behind the scenes wheeling and dealing that's
08:09 going on. They're leaning toward a clean two week interim spending bill. That's what this is really
08:13 all about, trying to get something, anything that could pass muster. And it might pass muster in the
08:18 House. That doesn't mean such a measure would pass muster in the Senate where they take away
08:24 Ukraine funding and the like. There would be no border security in such a matter measure. There
08:29 would be no Ukraine money in that measure. So that seems to be a no go there. But it's all about
08:34 peeling off at least the nose to get them to nine from the 21 nose the GOP was looking at on this
08:41 earlier interim bill. Again, all of this is moving pieces on a chessboard here. And there's no
08:47 guarantee that once you get that, that you get what you want. But I mentioned before the perilous
08:52 position. This puts Kevin McCarthy in because he has said that this interim measure is the best he
08:58 can think of right now to get at least past the House. It would be dead on arrival, presumably
09:02 in the Senate. But again, this is just a measure to survive another two weeks or so. There's a
09:08 separate measure out there that would keep the government lights on until around November 17th.
09:13 That is a whole nother ball of works here and no guarantee that it can work. I might also posit here
09:19 that this has been rattling the financial markets. They lost not only the day, the week and the
09:24 month, but the quarter as well. And it escalated when we had word that this latest interim approach
09:29 by the speaker had failed. And once the markets got wind of that in the middle of the trading day,
09:35 they fell off even some more. Mark Wayne Mullen joins us right now. The Republican Oklahoma
09:41 senator is a key liaison between the House and the Senate on the shutdown talk. Senator,
09:45 always good to have you. Thank you for taking the time. Thanks for having me on now.
09:49 Senator, as I mentioned, there are the markets even where we're getting anxious about this,
09:53 thinking that a shutdown isn't only on if one comes, it's going to last a while. What is your
09:57 gut say? Well, we're doing everything we can to avoid the shutdown, Neil. I do feel like if we do
10:04 have a shutdown, it could last for a couple of days until we get together. I look at the only
10:09 way I see that we get out of this thing is is honestly a clean CR. There's no way that Schumer's
10:15 bill is going to get passed over here on the House. And nor do I blame him for not passing it.
10:21 So a clean CR to give us a little bit of breathing room is probably our best bet.
10:24 Are you angry at some of these more conservative, not all House Freedom Caucus members, but
10:30 those who are sticking to their guns on this? They say that this is, you know, continuing the
10:35 Kabuki theater of allowing spending after spending. Where are you on that and on them?
10:40 No, I agree with them. I agree that we need to be cutting spending. I agree that we need to find a
10:45 path forward to to reduce spending without without doubt. And we ought to we got to work our best to
10:50 get it most conservative bill possible. But it's in the environment that we're in. We don't live
10:54 in a perfect environment where Republicans can control both chambers in the White House.
10:58 Unfortunately, we do have to work with with with Biden and Schumer. I hate it, but we do. And so
11:04 the most conservative bill that that some of these guys want, it's just not possible to get signed
11:09 in law. So what's the best path forward for us? And that's where we got to come to. If their idea
11:14 is great, then they need to be able to get their idea passed across the House with the votes. And
11:18 that bill also needs to get signed by in the in the Senate and get passed and get signed by the
11:22 president. If it can't get done, then we need to switch gears and get to what can get to 18
11:27 in the House, what can get 51 in the Senate and what can get to the president says and get signed
11:32 in law to keep the government open. That's our number one goal. But as far as what they're
11:37 trying to get done, I don't think there's any Republican disagrees on cutting spending.
11:41 We all agree on that. But we've got to be practical in the environment we work in.
11:45 You know, I'm just getting the feeling, though, Senator, that there's a huge divide between
11:49 Republicans in the United States Senate and those, of course, in the House,
11:56 and they're embarrassed by what's going on in the House.
11:59 Now, I disagree with that, Neil. I know I totally disagree with that. I think we're
12:04 all working together. That's why I'm working between both both chambers, bringing the message
12:10 that I can between both sides. I think we're all working really good together. I know Senator Thune
12:16 and Senator McCarthy is talking or Senator McCarthy, Kevin McCarthy, Speaker McCarthy is
12:20 talking all the time to really try to find the best path forward. And I think we really are.
12:25 We're working good together. The only outlier we have in this whole group is probably Matt
12:30 Gates, who's always dealing this motion to vacate over Kevin's head, which isn't policy.
12:36 It's not principle. It's just simply to get him some attention so he can self promote himself.
12:40 And that's the only one I would say that's an outlier.
12:43 All right. I wouldn't certainly put Scott Perry up your house colleague in that Matt
12:47 Gates camp, but he has some serious concerns about this center. This is when I talked to
12:52 Scott Perry a couple of days ago on where this is going. Take a look.
12:55 So it sounds like you're disappointed in the speaker. Do you think he should be speaker?
13:05 Well, I think we should have gotten the bills done. Like I said, it takes more than one person
13:10 to do that. But he wanted to be the the leader. And you can't just be in charge. You have to lead.
13:15 All right. He was one of the softer voices on. We had it with you, Kevin McCarthy.
13:20 Now, of course, you're in the United States Senate. But this this angst it's building against
13:27 Speaker McCarthy, who could lose his job for just one angry member. What do you think of that?
13:34 Well, first of all, it's to 18 to vacate the chair, not not for Kevin to lose his position.
13:39 Kevin's going to be speaker as long as he as long as he wants to be speaker.
13:42 Scott Perry, I'm sorry, Senator, was it was a process going?
13:47 One could get the process going, but doesn't mean one can get the vote.
13:52 One has a great idea, but that doesn't mean you can get to 18 to support you.
13:56 And Scott Perry looks at he's the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, which
13:59 brings back a breeze forth a lot of good conservative bills.
14:02 But remember, he also supported the bill that they've been trying to get passed over here.
14:06 And he had these few outliers. It's not so Scott's a reasonable individual.
14:10 And at the end of the day, he's just trying to get the most conservative bill he can get done.
14:15 And and the speaker is trying to get forth the best bill he can get signed in a law done. So
14:19 we're all working together. We're just not on the same boat. We're on the same direction.
14:22 Assuming you can work past this and you're quite right to point out, Senator,
14:27 we always resolve these things. You know, some last longer than others.
14:31 But the big fear is that the damage it could do to the economy, I believe the last
14:35 stoppage back in twenty nineteen shaved about point two percent off government GDP.
14:41 Hard to prove that. But there is that concern. And the White House now has
14:45 immediately turned around and said, whatever happens here, it's on Republicans.
14:49 What did you think of? Well, I totally disagree because Republicans right now,
14:53 Kev McCarthy could could pass a clean CR for forty five days. He could also pass
14:58 FAA reauthorization and maybe disaster relief on there, too. And he could get it done. But
15:04 but yesterday the White House told Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats do not support a clean CR.
15:09 He wants to hold off to get the Schumer bill, knowing it's dead on arrival.
15:13 We were negotiating with them until eleven o'clock last night, trying to get the White
15:17 House trying to get President Biden to say, let them support it, because remember
15:20 that when it comes to the House, they got to bring it in suspension with the clean CR.
15:24 So that means it's not to 18. It's going to be around to 90,
15:27 depend on how many are here today. So there's no way Republicans could vote it on,
15:31 vote it by themselves regardless. So this shutdown is going to be more on the White House
15:35 than it is on the Republicans. They can message however they want to. But if he wants to keep
15:39 the government open, then the White House needs to tell the Democrats to support a clean CR.
15:43 And how is that controversial? All right. Well, following closely,
15:46 Senator, thank you for taking the time. I know you're burning the midnight oil
15:50 well into the weekend. We'll see how all that sorts out.
15:53 I'm Mark. Thank you again, the senator from the beautiful state of Oklahoma. He's acting
15:58 as a key liaison in all of this. Meanwhile, there aren't any weatherly liaisons out there.
16:03 But man, oh, man, what we've experienced in the New York metropolitan area that affected
16:07 30 million or so in the northeast and Connecticut, New Jersey and New York,
16:13 where they were all declared states of disasters, a lot of digging out,
16:17 a lot of flushing out to that. It's not entirely over. Katie Byrne with the very latest from
16:22 Brooklyn. Katie, how are things looking now? Good morning, Neil. Well, things are definitely
16:29 getting a little bit better, but we still have some water on the roads here in Brooklyn.
16:32 This is the park circle that gets you onto the Prospect Expressway. That was closed yesterday
16:38 because it was submerged in almost a foot of water. Still some water, as you can see,
16:43 some cars trying to get through right now. But oh, what a difference. Twenty four hours makes.
16:48 It was a mess here yesterday. Streets and major highways here across New York City,
16:53 especially in Brooklyn and Queens, but also in northern New Jersey, turned into rivers.
16:58 And we had backups all day long on the roads. Not much better on public transportation,
17:03 either. Disruptions really lasted into early this morning. I'm hearing there are still some delays,
17:09 depending on if you're taking the train or the subway, too. And now we're starting to see people
17:13 cleaning up the mess. So if you walk around this neighborhood at Prospect Park, some of the
17:17 residential blocks, you're going to see furniture out front of some of these basement apartments
17:22 that got flooded out. I have seen people using vacuums to suck water out of their cars, too.
17:28 Johnny Howell, I met him earlier. He lives in the area here and he's without hot water right now.
17:34 He's just hoping his boiler still works and wasn't too much affected by the water.
17:39 There's enough water that the water boiler in the basement, the high water, the drip alarm went off.
17:45 So I'm about to find out if it shut it down or if we just shut the alarm. I do know from other
17:51 neighbors that I talked to down the block that they've had massive amounts of water.
17:57 Now, an update from the New York Governor, Kathy Hochul, this morning. The state of emergency in
18:04 New York is going to stay in effect for another six days. She says that's going to allow her to
18:09 suspend or bypass any laws or barriers that could get in the way to deploy resources.
18:14 But we know the weather is going to significantly improve really starting as soon as early, early
18:20 hours of the overnight tonight. So we've got a little bit of rain, but things are going to start
18:24 looking a lot better soon. All right. Fingers crossed on that, Katie. Thank you very much,
18:28 Katie Byrne. You know, a lot of people are saying that everyone was caught off guard in the New York
18:32 weather model there about this storm. But if you had the Fox Weather app, there's actually there.
18:35 It's because of all of the spending that he has pushed through in the economy that's raised the
18:40 inflation. It's caused by government spending. And that's why people all across this country
18:45 are suffering. By the nomics has failed. Wages are not keeping up with inflation,
18:50 disastrous economic policies that have driven up prices that have driven up interest rates
18:55 and mortgage rates. At the same time, wages remaining stagnant. They borrowed,
18:59 they printed, they spent. And now you're paying more for everything.
19:04 All right. It was a common theme in this past week's debate of Fox Business among the presidential
19:09 candidates on the Republican side, minus Donald Trump, of course, that the economy is slowly
19:15 sinking and prices are inexorably rising. And it's all on Joe Biden. They're making that pitch
19:19 in all states, California, Ronald Reagan, the last Republican to win that state.
19:24 They think it's doable this go around. Bill Melusion in Anaheim with more. Bill.
19:27 And you'll good morning to you. California has 169 delegates up for grab on Super Tuesday. It's
19:35 a big prize. And these GOP candidates want in on it. Some of them stuck around here in California
19:40 after the debate. Now they're here in Anaheim at the GOP convention and they are fighting
19:44 for those delegates. So let's talk about who's here. Take a look at this graphic right here.
19:48 Former President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Rhonda Santis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and
19:53 South Carolina, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott are all here speaking at this event, though they
19:58 are not expected to interact with each other. The convention comes as the California GOP is
20:03 finalizing a controversial delegate rule change that would transition California to a potential
20:08 winner. Take all state, which critics say would benefit Trump. Here's why. Under the new rules,
20:14 whoever gets more than 50 percent of the vote would get all 169 of California's delegates.
20:20 If nobody got above 50 percent, the delegates would then be divided up to Santa. The Santa's
20:26 allies are blasting the change while the Trump campaign supports it. Here's what some of the
20:30 candidates have had to say here. I will use all available powers to take the homeless,
20:36 drug addicted and severely deranged and get them off your streets so that law abiding citizens can
20:42 once again enjoy the parks and public spaces for which they're paying a lot of money in tax.
20:47 With all of the money we will save by ending mass illegal immigration.
20:53 Number one, if you're able bodied in America, you work. Number two,
21:01 if you take out a loan, you pay it back.
21:07 Number three, if you commit a violent crime, you go to jail. And number four,
21:20 if God made you a man, you play sports against men. You want to talk about the economy and the
21:29 budget? We know that the inflation that we're suffering under is the result of borrowing,
21:35 printing and spending over the last three and a half years that sunk trillions and trillions of
21:41 dollars into the economy, paying people not to work, doing all this other stuff.
21:46 Of course, you are going to get inflation.
21:49 And entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy will be speaking here at the convention at noon
21:56 local time. Neil, we'll send it back to you. Thank you, Bill, very much. Bill Malucian on that.
22:00 But a potential earthquake in the political world that we could get details on in the days
22:05 ahead and it concerns Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Take a look at this.
22:08 We're going to have to rewrite the assumptions and change the habits of American politics.
22:14 We're going to tap into a mighty surge of people power
22:17 and reclaim an honest, peaceful, just and prosperous America.
22:22 All right. What he is teasing there is the departure from the Democratic Party at a
22:27 potential independent run for president of the United States. The fallout of such an
22:32 announcement should have come to pass from Noelle Nick Board, GOP fundraiser Mark Penn,
22:35 Democratic pollster. Mark, what do you think if that happens?
22:40 Well, look, we don't really know what whether it's going to happen, what the potential is.
22:44 Look, I think they should have given him a debate. I think after a while he got kind of
22:50 got under his skin that the president had all the power in the Democratic Party and he wasn't
22:55 getting a chance. And so he's making this threat to go independent. You know, he's as well liked
23:00 among Republicans as Democrats, oddly enough, as he appeared a lot on Fox News. So I say,
23:06 look, let's not get ahead of the skis. You know, obviously, if he was successful,
23:10 he could pull more from Democrats and Biden is not going to want that. But maybe they'll
23:15 make a deal to that will satisfy him in the Democratic primary.
23:19 All right. And that would be a debate. And then maybe you could you could war or something like
23:23 that. But, Noelle, I'm just wondering that that is a traditional argument that he would peel off
23:28 votes from the president. But but as Mark also pointed out, he does appeal to a lot of independents
23:33 and populists, some of the very Trump voters who find him intriguing. So how would that split,
23:38 you think, if he were to run as a third party? Well, I think the problem lies in the fact that
23:45 a lot of people do not want to see this rematch of Trump and Biden. So you're going to have a
23:52 lot of people that feel like there is another avenue or another pathway, not to say that,
23:58 you know, a third party candidate could win. But the sheer fact of peeling away votes from both
24:06 platforms, because you've got a lot of Democrats or the old guard Democrats, they don't like the
24:11 way the Democratic Party is going. And that is going to be a vote for Kennedy. You've also got
24:16 a lot of people that are very turned off with President Trump and not his policies. They like
24:22 the policies, but the man himself and they feel like he's been riddled with all these legal
24:28 problems. So they might vote for him as well, because you've got to remember back in the day
24:33 when Trump was running against Biden, a lot of people were just tired of Trump. So a lot of
24:42 people pulled the lever for Biden. And I don't think they really enjoyed Biden. Now they've got
24:47 a taste of Biden. So if they've got an alternative, they might vote that way. But in the long run,
24:54 I think it actually hurts the Democrats because they're doing the same thing that the Republicans
24:59 are. They are in a fight for where their party is going. You know, Mark, you know,
25:04 we will think of Ross Perot in 1992. We got 90 percent of the vote. And you think about it.
25:10 He was an in and out candidate. Had he stayed in the race, we don't know how that would have
25:14 factored in. But he did get 90 percent of the vote, but not a single electoral vote.
25:18 So it's an uphill climb. What do you think? Well, I actually did Ross Perot's benchmark
25:24 is you recall in June he was at thirty nine percent. That's where he pulled out.
25:29 You know, so look, you look at the conditions in the country and nobody's really fighting for the
25:35 swing voters that I think that you really need to fight for. Everybody's in their camp. And as long
25:39 as everyone is in their camp and both parties nominate both of these nominees that the majority
25:46 of the country, you know, is unhappy with, there's going to be a big space there. And how is that
25:52 space going to be filled? Is it going to be a rematch or something else going to happen?
25:55 Few people remember that actually Lincoln in 1860, at that time, the Republican Party was
26:01 the third party. That's right. I remember covering that. It was a very long and involved kind of a
26:07 coverage here. But thank you for that, guys. Appreciate that. Some of you are saying there's
26:11 no way you covered Abraham Lincoln. Yes, I did. Or we have a lot more coming up, including
26:16 of the issue of crime that has risen to be about America's third biggest worry.
26:20 General Caldwell really touched on it with the tragic passing of his brother
26:25 and how he wants to keep it front and center after this.
26:29 Since my younger sister Mia called me on June 24th, screaming into the phone,
26:36 Christian is gone. I felt a giant void. All right. In case you don't think it's a
26:42 crisis with the crime thing anymore, take a look at what happened this past week in Philadelphia.
26:46 Just the latest more incidents of it. And they keep piling up. Jerry Willis with more on that, Jerry.
26:51 Philadelphia business district swarmed by scores of looters hitting stores like Apple,
27:00 Lulu, Lemon, Philadelphia police. They're saying they arrested 20 juvenile looters of 100 total
27:07 looters. They say those attacks were coordinated. I'm here in Harlem. Over my shoulder is the
27:13 Target store, one of nine that Target is closing by October 21st. And the reason why? Well, you
27:20 guessed it. It's theft. We talked to some of the folks shopping there and they say they hate to see
27:25 a store like this close. It's a real anchor of the community. But they've seen these attacks
27:31 themselves, these thefts themselves, and they're not surprised. Here's what the company says.
27:36 We cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening
27:40 the safety of our team and guests and are contributing to unsustainable business performance.
27:46 Company also closing stores in Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland and Portland. And it's not
27:52 like Target hasn't tried to stop it. They've added additional security. They've even put a lot of the
27:58 goods under lock and key, even goods that aren't very expensive. The news shared in a conference
28:02 call with Target CEO Brian Cornell, who told investors that in the first five months of the
28:08 year, thefts in its stores that involved threats of violence are up 120 percent. The company lost
28:15 $219 million in its third quarter to theft. And of course, Target is far from being alone. So many
28:22 retailers complaining about theft, what they call shrinkage. The National Retail Federation saying
28:27 in a recent study that as much as $112 billion overall were lost to theft last year. That's up
28:35 from 94 billion in the previous year. The NRF says the situation is getting even more dire,
28:43 not better. So a long way to go on this story. Neil, back to you.
28:47 Yeah, to put it mildly, Jerry, thank you for that. Jerry Willis following all of that. Well,
28:51 stealing big screen TVs is one thing. Losing human beings is quite another. Who knows that better?
28:57 My friend and our colleague, John Caldwell, who has been taking that case and the total
29:04 craziness of that case and why we don't respond to the severity of it. He had a chance to address
29:09 the House Judiciary field hearing in Chicago this past week. Gianno, how did that go?
29:14 Well, first, before we even get into it, Neil, I cannot thank you personally enough for continuing
29:21 to shed light on what's been a tragedy that has impacted my family to the to the very core.
29:28 The losing of my brother on June 24th of last year, my innocent teenage baby brother, Christian,
29:34 being murdered and so many others who have been murdered. And you've continued out of anyone to
29:40 help shed light on that issue. And I can report from June 23rd when I talked to you about this
29:47 and I asked for the FBI to get involved. I can now report to you that the FBI, Chicago Field
29:53 Office, the leadership there, I've spoken with them multiple times. They're fully involved in
29:58 the investigation of my brother's murder. So I can again not thank you enough, Neil.
30:03 Now, speaking of the substance of the event, I'm so thankful to Chairman Jim Jordan and Chairman
30:08 Biggs for bringing a congressional committee here to Chicago because the elected leaders here
30:14 refuse to do their jobs. It is so necessary for us to have a Republican majority in the House.
30:21 And I've worked on this all of last year, using my voice, going out, thanks to the Fox News family,
30:27 being able to talk to folks about violent crime and what now Speaker McCarthy said he was going
30:34 to do as a result of winning the majority they are doing. So with the substance of the conversation,
30:40 I mentioned a number of laws I think that can be funded to reduce recidivism. I think that we can
30:46 use the power of the purse around DOJ grants that local elected officials get for those who don't
30:51 want to take on their first and most important duty for any elected official, which is the
30:56 protection of his citizens. Those monies should be pulled back because they're not using them for
31:01 their intended purpose. So there's a number of issues I think on the table. They're going to
31:04 be having these hearings across the country. And thank God for Jim Jordan and the committee
31:10 for doing this, because Democrats simply put are endangering the lives systematically of
31:16 Chicagoans and all across the country in a lot of these blue cities. And that's what it is.
31:21 And it's unfortunate. But we certainly need the power of the purse in Congress to change the
31:25 dynamic here. You know what's wild about it, though, John, I say, I mean, the blue cities
31:30 remain blue and under blue control, even in the face of these crime waves. We've seen it again
31:34 in one of these big cities after another, Chicago, of course, where you tragically lost your brother.
31:40 Nothing changes. So is that why is that? I mean, you think whether you were Republican or Democrat,
31:45 conservative or liberal, and it's not working in the crime, it's still rampant that you'd be
31:49 open to say there's got to be some better way to do this. Well, I don't know why the insanity
31:56 continues and why they think it's OK if you just look at the numbers overall crime in Chicago,
32:00 according to Fox News, up 33 percent, New York, 32.4 percent, Philadelphia, 29.4 percent, Portland,
32:07 19.5 percent, Seattle, 17, Houston, 14. I mean, we are a country under siege right now.
32:14 And why won't the elected officials in those blue cities hear the screams and the cries for justice
32:21 that many people that I've met since I've been on this journey, why won't they listen to those
32:26 voices? I have no idea. But who is listening? Jim Jordan and his committee. So what I want to focus
32:33 on is the people who are willing to provide solutions, not those who are continuously
32:38 ignoring those who scream for justice.
32:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]