'Fox News Sunday' on April 9, 2023

This week on 'Fox News Sunday,' host Shannon Bream welcomed Sen. Ben Cardin, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and more to discuss the week's top political headlines.

This is a rush transcript of "Fox News Sunday" on April 9, 2023. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN DUFFY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Good Sunday morning, everyone, and happy Easter. Welcome to "Sunday Morning Futures." I'm Sean Duffy, in for Maria Bartiromo.

Today: Republicans take the lead on confronting China and defending freedom against the CCP. A bipartisan group of lawmakers are on their way back from a visit to Taiwan led by House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul. He called for more weapons to Taiwan, saying he's not intimidated by China, and comparing Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Hitler.

He also told our Aishah Hasnie, sending U.S. troops is on the table if China invades Taiwan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AISHAH HASNIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: So Speaker McCarthy and yourself have said that multiple times now, that we need to arm Taiwan now before there's any sort of invasion.

What about U.S. troops?

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): I think then you're talking about an authorized use of military force that would come out of my committee or a declaration of war, which we haven't utilized since World War II.

HASNIE: Would you support that?

MCCAUL: I think if China, communist China, invades Taiwan, I think that is certainly -- if the American people support this, the Congress will follow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: This visit came days after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other lawmakers met with Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. McCarthy says the country's support for Taiwan is resolute and unwavering.

House China Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher said moments after the meeting that Washington shouldn't be scared to have these kind of meetings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE GALLAGHER (R-WI): Some who have failed to learn from decades of CCP behavior have been wringing their hands, wondering if we're being too provocative.

But I would submit to you that, if the duly elected leader of one of our most important democratic partners can't meet with American leaders on American soil, that we're merely feeding the crocodile that will eventually eat us. We must not be intimidated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: China has responded this weekend with military drills around Taiwan that the military calls a stern warning.

Coming up, Mike Gallagher joins us to discuss how the party is taking it to China and will not waver.

We will also talk with Bob Fu, a pastor who is helping Christians escape the regime through his China Aid organization.

Plus: American crime crisis. Two juveniles, including a 12-year-old, are facing murder charges in the killing of three teenagers in Florida. During a press conference announcing the arrest, the sheriff put the liberal media in its place, telling them to blame the suspects for the girl's death, not the guns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY WOODS, MARION COUNTY, FLORIDA, SHERIFF: There are individuals out there viewing, and including some of you media, that want to blame the one thing that has no ability or the capacity to commit the crime itself, and that's the gun.

These individuals committed the crime.

QUESTION: Do we know how the suspects got ahold of the weapon?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Car burglaries.

WOODS: Car burglaries. Yes. Yes. Ain't that right? All the gun laws we got in place didn't prevent it, did it? Neither will any new ones, because here's the fact. The bad guy is going to get a gun no matter what law you have put in place.

These juveniles shouldn't even possess a handgun, but they did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: Plus, newly released surveillance video shows the final moments for Cash App founder Bob Lee. Lee had recently moved to Florida, telling his friends he didn't feel safe living in San Francisco anymore, but he had to come back for a business meeting. Now he's dead, and his suspect is on the loose.

We will take it up with former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker.

Then: shocking video near the Southern border, as an alleged human smuggler leads Texas Troopers on a high-speed chase and almost running over an officer. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just tried to run over the Trooper. Damn it.

Damn, that was close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke and Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez join us on the crisis at the Northern and Southern border.

Plus: America's one-time energy independence thrown away by President Biden in favor of his radical climate agenda. The EPA is reportedly forcing new regulations to push the sale of electric cars. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is taking President Biden to court on energy, as well as the border crisis and taxes. Now he joins us on his run for governor.

It's all right here, right now on "Sunday Morning Futures."

We begin this Sunday morning with the party of freedom confronting the -- confronting the threats of China as they oppose the U.S. national security, Republicans meeting with leaders in Taiwan, in defiance of the CCP, while the GOP looks into President Biden and his family's extensive financial links to Beijing.

America's sovereignty has become breached by communist China, by the spy aircraft that President Biden allowed to hover from Alaska to Montana all the way to South Carolina for more than a week, plus the flood of fentanyl from China coming from the Southern border, and the rise in apprehensions of Chinese nationals.

Despite all of this, President Biden has said the U.S. relationship with communist China, it hasn't changed.

Joining me now, the chairman of the House Select Committee on China, Wisconsin Representative and former Marine serving two tours in Iraq Mike Gallagher.

Congressman, happy Easter and thanks for joining me on "Sunday Morning Futures."

GALLAGHER: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it, Sean.

DUFFY: Yes, it looks like you have a beautiful Wisconsin background there.

So, Congressman, I want to dive into what happened in the meeting with Taiwan. You were there with Speaker McCarthy, and you now have seen a retaliation from the Chinese with their live-fire act around Taiwan, but, also, you have seen Taiwan come out with -- I'm sorry -- trying to come out with a statement from their L.A. consulate, where they said that their common enemy, they're going to be more resolute in fighting, that common enemy being the United States of America.

GALLAGHER: Well, Sean, clearly, the Chinese Communist Party is trying to intimidate us. They're trying to bully us. They're massive bullies on the world stage.

They would like to reunify Taiwan with the mainland, by force, if necessary. Xi Jinping keeps saying this, and a lot of people in the elite Wall Street world, in the elite big tech world, in the elite Hollywood world keep discounting it, despite the fact that he keeps saying it.

But, of course, Xi Jinping would love to achieve that reunification without force if possible. And the way to do that is through psychological warfare. It's through economic coercion. It's through political warfare. And that's really what President Tsai of Taiwan has been warning us about.

It's what she calls cognitive warfare. So it's important for the American people not to be intimidated. And the fact that the Chinese were throwing a temper tantrum about the speaker of the House meeting with the democratically elected leader of Taiwan on American soil just shows you how sensitive they are.

We need not to back down. We need to stand up for freedom. And we need to support our friends in Taiwan, specifically by giving them the weapons that they have purchased from us, which have been backlogged. We have a $19 billion backlog of weapons. That's unacceptable, Sean.

We need to be moving heaven and earth to surge power out to the Indo- Pacific before it's too late, before we have another war on our hands.

DUFFY: Well, what more can be done, Congressman, to make sure those weapons actually do get to Taiwan so they can defend themselves should China attack?

GALLAGHER: I think, if you look at the $19 billion, there's many different items involved in that.

I think the Harpoon anti-ship missiles are the most important. I remain convinced that there's more we can do to move Taiwan to the front of the line, ahead of Saudi Arabia, for example, when it comes to Harpoon deliveries, as well as take the Harpoon missiles that we're putting into deep storage, that we're de-milling, and change around a few aspects of them so that we can deliver them to Taiwan.

We could also explore licensing certain weapons systems so the Taiwanese could produce them domestically. But, at the end of the day, it just comes down to energy and focus and prioritization from the executive branch. We need the secretary of defense himself to get involved, to make this a daily priority for the backlog to get cleared.

And I have seen no evidence of that from the Biden administration thus far.

DUFFY: I want to go back to the Taiwan meeting, because China trying to use our laws and our norms to protest.

They were paying $400 per protester to go to the Ronald Reagan ranch and break up, bust up your meeting, try to show that people were organically opposed to you all meeting with the Taiwan president.

GALLAGHER: Yes, this is a perfect microcosm of the way the Chinese Communist Party operates through something called United Front Work.

They basically bribe people on American soil to do their bidding. We have seen this in industry after industry. We have seen this in higher education. We have seen it in Wall Street. We have seen it in a variety of domestic institutions that have been corrupted by the Chinese Communist Party and by economic incentives.

So, we have -- in many cases, we have become addicted to access to the Chinese market. And so, luckily, those protesters didn't disrupt the actual event. The event was a very positive one. It was a bipartisan event. We had legislators on both sides of the aisle. Speaker McCarthy did a fantastic job standing up to CCP coercion.

And, again, it gets back to the basic point. We can't allow ourselves to be intimidated by these united front work tactics. It's just -- it's not going to work here in America. That's the message we need to send. The other thing, Sean, it's further evidence that this isn't just an over-there threat. This is a right-here-at-home threat.

DUFFY: Yes, no doubt about that.

All right, let's pivot. I want to talk about Afghanistan, because John Kirby this week came out and said, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, it wasn't chaotic. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, NSC COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: So I'm sorry, I just won't buy the whole argument of chaos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: Mike Gallagher, was it chaotic?

GALLAGHER: I'm almost speechless, Sean.

DUFFY: It's unbelievable.

GALLAGHER: I don't know what universe Kirby is living in.

I mean, it was the definition of chaos. It was dishonorable. It was shameful. It was humiliating. And Kirby, as a military officer, should know better. We're talking about 13 Americans dead who didn't need to die, Sean, hundreds of Americans that we abandoned behind enemy lines.

And for them to minimize this, for them to try and just dump this report on a Thursday night, hoping nobody would notice, and then, if you read the contents of the report, it's quite literally insane, Sean, trying to gaslight the American people.

I cannot fathom just their willingness to do this. And look at what happened on the world stage after our shameful surrender in Afghanistan. Well, Vladimir Putin took one look at that and decided, you know, America looks really weak right now. I'm going to invade Ukraine.

And for them to brag about the success of our effort in Ukraine ignores the simple fact that deterrence failed in Ukraine. And even in the best-case scenario, tens of thousands of people are going to die, hundreds of thousands of people are going to be displaced, and hundreds of billions of dollars are going to be lost because deterrence failures are costly.

And as the old saying goes, Sean, war is hell. This is nothing to brag about. This is just complete, shameful lies from the White House that we're seeing on Afghanistan.

DUFFY: And in the report that you mentioned, the Biden administration doesn't take responsibility themselves. They blame you know who. It was Donald Trump's fault.

Well, I had Kash Patel, who was at the DOD at the time, on our show on FOX Business, and he said: Listen, the Biden administration didn't follow any of our plans that we had as we did the transition in January from the Trump to the Biden administration. They basically ripped them up. They didn't do anything that we said. And, by the way, they also gave up Bagram Air Base, when we said we should actually keep.

GALLAGHER: Yes, Trump was in fact not the president on February 20 -- at the time of the Afghanistan surrender.

So, I don't know what they're talking about. And, of course, Trump did not box them in into abandoning Bagram, which was a massive mistake. So this blaming of Trump, this passing of the buck to the previous administration, we have seen it time and time again.

And here's why I think this is very important, Sean. It's not just a matter of the blame game. It's a matter of learning the right lessons from the failure of deterrence in Ukraine, so that we don't repeat those same mistakes in Asia across the Taiwan Strait. We need to understand why deterrence fails, so that deterrence can hold in Taiwan, so we don't find ourselves fighting a kinetic war with the Chinese Communist Party, which is far more powerful than Russia right now.

Russia is merely Xi Jinping's junior partner in a new Cold War that they have launched against the West. And so, if we refuse to learn these lessons, we're doomed to repeat them in a far more difficult military environment across the Taiwan Strait.

DUFFY: Michael, I want to pivot with you to Wisconsin, a place that we both love and care about. You're there right now.

The Supreme Court race in Wisconsin was won by the liberals. It's going to change the control of the court from conservative now to liberal. Wisconsin matters not just to us, but to America, because it is a swing state.

What impact is this election and this switch of the court going to have on Wisconsin?

GALLAGHER: It's a massive loss, Sean. I'm not going to try and sugarcoat it. We need to recognize that. We need to figure out how we do better going forward.

I mean, we're talking about a liberal state Supreme Court that can now overturn all the things that Wisconsin conservatives have fought so hard for, all the reforms of the Walker era. I mean, we're talking about Act 10. We're talking about redistricting. I mean, this is a very concerning situation.

So how did we lose, Sean? We need to figure that out. We're getting outraised by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. We need to figure that out. We obviously missed an opportunity to do commonsense election integrity reform because we lost the governor's race in the last election.

And, honestly, we need to figure out how to get our people to vote through early voting, through absentee voting. I know that makes a lot of conservatives mad, but that's what the Democrats are doing right now. And until such a day as we reform our election system in Wisconsin, we have to get more votes than the Democrats do.

So, this is a time for short soul-searching, because we also need to take action, so we don't continue to lose statewide elections.

DUFFY: Yes, we're going to lose voter I.D. in Wisconsin, and the issue of abortion will also be affected.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

DUFFY: So, is your point this is not that Wisconsin is turning more blue; it's that just Republicans didn't execute, didn't raise enough money, maybe didn't have the best candidate, weren't right on the issues?

GALLAGHER: Who knows if the other candidate in the primary would have won.

I mean, the most obvious things I see are the money and the ground game. And we need to do better on both accounts. I mean, it's not just abortion laws in Wisconsin. We're talking about control of the White House going forward. Obviously, Wisconsin is going to be a pivotal state for the 2024 presidential election.

So we need to get our act together so that we can put this in the win column going into 2024. And, obviously, every issue is on the line in the 2024 presidential race. So now is the time for conservatives, not just in Wisconsin, but nationally, to unite behind a coherent plan to make sure that we are ready to fight come Election Day 2024.

DUFFY: Congressman Mike Gallagher, Happy Easter to you and your family. Thanks for joining me. I appreciate it.

GALLAGHER: Happy Easter. God bless, Sean.

DUFFY: All right, coming up: a Florida sheriff's impassioned plea to focus on the actions of three minors that authorities say killed three teenagers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOODS: There are individuals out there viewing, and including some of you media, that want to blame the one thing that has no ability or the capacity to commit the crime itself, and that's the gun.

These individuals committed the crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: Former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, he's going to join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Do we know how the suspects got ahold of the weapon?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Car burglaries.

WOODS: Car burglaries. Yes. Yes. Ain't that right? All the gun laws we got in place didn't prevent it, did it? Neither will any new ones, because here's the fact. The bad guy is going to get a gun no matter what law you have put in place.

These juveniles shouldn't even possess a handgun, but they did. Do I have to spell it out to you? What do you think they were doing? They're associated with a gang. Gangs don't go to church on Sunday and then preach the Gospel for the next six days. They're gangs because they commit crimes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: The sheriff in Marion County, Florida, lashing out at the liberal media for trying to make the murder of three teens about gun control as he announces the arrests of two boys, ages 12 and 17. The search is on for a third suspect.

Meantime, the murder of a tech executive in San Francisco fueling calls for change from some of his friends who are fed up with violence in the city. And crime-ridden in Chicago had a chance to make a change, but voters weren't interested. They voted for a further left candidate instead, that being Brandon Johnson, as their next mayor.

The Washington Examiner writing -- quote -- "The incoming mayor may turn out to be a worse mayor than Lori Lightfoot. Johnson's occupation is an organizer for the teachers union. What does this mean for Chicago's municipal government? Will now be a fully owned subsidiary of the Chicago Teachers Union. Can you imagine what the union contracts are going to look like? This is in a city where roughly two dozen schools, zero children can read or write at a proficiency level."

For more, let's bring in former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker.

Matt, good to see you.

So, here, I have got to tell you what. I love the statement from that sheriff, finally, an elected official standing up and going, you know what? Gun laws don't save lives. Guns aren't the problem. It's people who pick up guns and cause the crime.

MATTHEW WHITAKER, FORMER ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Yes, it's good to be with you. Happy Easter, Sean.

What's happening in many of our places, including our major cities, is you do have this eruption of crime, and a lot of it's because of exactly what the sheriff points out. It's bad guys with guns who aren't going to ever follow any laws, even if you pass more laws.

But it's also a lack of enforcement of the low-level -- what the left would call low-level crimes like burglaries, how these people obtain this gun in the first place? And you -- as a prosecutor, Sean, you know that it's those early crimes in a criminal's career that, if they're punished for them, and if that -- if they understand that there are consequences for their actions, that you might be able to change the behavior.

But if they're allowed to develop into ruthless, lawless thugs, then you're going to have a hard time preventing these horrific crimes like you saw in this county in Florida.

DUFFY: And it's disappointing, because, if you want to save lives, you should go to the root cause of the problem. What's happening in society that's causing young people or any people to pick up a gun and take someone else's life?

I think this by the Democrats is just to take the freedom of our ability, our constitutional right to own a gun, away from us, to defend ourselves away from us. And I go -- where do they do this, Matt? They did it in the old Soviet Union. In China, you can't have a gun. In Cuba, you can't have a gun. In Venezuela, you can't have a gun. And they don't want you to have a gun.

WHITAKER: No, you're absolutely right.

And that's what their whole agenda is. It's taking the law out of -- the guns out of law-abiding citizens from places like where you're from in Wisconsin, places where I'm from in Iowa, where we have lawful gun owners that respect each other's rights, but protect themselves and are also sportsmen.

So I'm just worried about what the left is trying to do, especially nationally.

DUFFY: I'm concerned about the kids of America as well. You have a 12- year-old who is involved in this shooting

And when kids behave poorly maybe when I was young, they were smoking cigarettes or they were shoplifting, Matt. But, today, they're picking up guns and killing people. Something's happening in our culture. Something's happening with the way that we are raising our children that are forcing them or bringing them to such violence.

They're angry. They're detached. What's going on here? If you can get through that cough you have going on. Sorry about that.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITAKER: Yes, I'm sorry. It's a late winter, late spring, early spring cold.

But what's happening, Sean, is, you're having a breakdown in both the communities, families as well. You're having a breakdown in our schools and education systems. And it's conspiring to really disserve our children, disserve our families, and lead to these horrific crimes in many of our cities.

DUFFY: And, Matt, when people have a chance to change direction like they had in Chicago, they don't go for a candidate who's going to bring you more police, more security, and more safety. They actually vote for a left- winger who's going to team up with a teachers union and give you less cops on the street, but more social workers on the streets.

It doesn't make any sense to me.

Former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, thanks for joining me, and good luck with that cold or cough, whatever you have there. And happy Easter.

WHITAKER: Yes. Thank you, Sean. I appreciate it.

DUFFY: All right, coming up, we look at Biden's border crisis from the north and the south.

Congressman Ryan Zinke from Montana and Congressman Carlos Gimenez from Florida, they both join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. DAN PATRICK (R-TX): this is all part of the Biden plan. This is the leftist infiltration of America by allowing us to be invaded, not by an armed army, but an army of people that include terrorists, that include criminals, sex offenders.

And they know exactly what they're doing. And they played out this string, played out this game: Gee, I don't know. I don't want to call it a crisis, because that would mean we have to leave our mission, as he just testified about recently.

And when you say seven million -- I'm sorry -- when you say, yes, about seven million have been apprehended, remember, in the last several years, that's the ones we catch, Maria.

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Right.

PATRICK: Our border is 1,200 miles in Texas with Mexico. So if we catch one out of two, that's 14 million people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: That's Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick talking to Maria on a wide-open border, as Title 42 is set to expire in about a month.

This fiscal year, more than one million migrants have been apprehended at the Southern border. The Texas Public Safety Department just released new video of a human smuggler near the border almost running over a Trooper during a high-speed chase. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just tried to run over the Trooper. Damn it.

Damn, that was close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: That was close.

And the Northern border is wide open as well, with over 100,000 migrant apprehensions in fiscal year 2022, compared to just 27,000 the previous fiscal year.

Let's bring in two congressmen from the northern and southern parts of the country, Ryan Zinke from Montana and Carlos Gimenez from Florida.

Gentlemen, thanks for joining me. Happy Easter.

Congressman Zinke, I want to go to you.

REP. RYAN ZINKE (R-MT): Great to be with you, Sean.

DUFFY: Thank you.

I want to go to you first, Congressman Zinke. And I want to first go to this meeting that you were at with the president of Taiwan. And you said that we have peace through strength, you know, playing back to the old Ronald Reagan adage.

But you look at this administration, it seems all they do is project weakness. How do we get back to a place of strength to get these rogue actors back in line like China and Russia?

ZINKE: Well, as you point out, I hand it to them on Easter. They are consistent. They're consistently wrong.

And you look at the process. First of all, Afghanistan, you saw the report. Blame it on Trump. Afghanistan was a colossal failure. That probably led to Putin getting a green light in Ukraine. We have no plan in Ukraine. We're just -- have a blank check, as you know.

And then you look at Taiwan. I thought Speaker McCarthy did a great job. China should not dictate who the speaker of the House talks, but to engage to prevent a conflict in the South China Sea, I think, was encouraging. There's actions we need to take.

But this administration only looks through two things. They look through globalism, that America should not have sovereignty. We should be one of many flags, rather than the leader of the West. And they look at global warming. Those two lenses are what directs this administration. And both lenses have flaws.

But this is where this administration wants to head. And we see the consequences of that action.

DUFFY: Carlos, I want to talk about fentanyl in the country, because it is an epidemic, as we all know here.

And the president of Mexico reached out to China, where the chemicals come from, and said, hey, listen, can you help us out with this fentanyl crisis that we're dealing with, because the American president is putting pressure on us?

And China said this: "The root cause of the overdose lies in the U.S. itself. The problem is completely made in the USA."

So, in essence, Carlos, China is saying, hey, you know what? Not our problem. We're going to keep sending drugs in, and if America uses it, tough luck.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): Yes, I look at that letter as just a way to cover somebody's behind. And that's what the president of Mexico is doing.

We have stepped up pressure, and we have called for action by the United States to stop this flow of fentanyl coming into our country, which is killing tens of thousands, if not over 100,000 Americans every single year. There's 300 Americans that are dying from fentanyl overdoses every single day.

Can you imagine, if a terrorist group came over here and killed 300 Americans every single day, what we would be doing about it? Well, the president of Mexico is starting to fear that. And so he sends this letter saying, please stop all these shipments that you're giving to our cartels over here, and they're producing the fentanyl, which -- and then they're shipping it over to the United States and killing Americans.

That has to stop. And the president of Mexico is doing absolutely nothing about it. But, again, neither is President Biden. And so the blame lies -- I do agree with China. It does lie with the United States, because President Biden is not doing a damn thing about it.

DUFFY: Yes. And, to that point, Ryan, I mean, instead of the president of Mexico reaching out to China to say, hey, please stop sending the drugs, where's Joe Biden?

Joe Biden should be putting pressure on Xi Jinping to go, you know what, there will be real consequences if you continue to allow those drugs from your controlled economy to come through Mexico in the United States and kill American citizens.

ZINKE: Well, there's no doubt that fentanyl is a crisis, but we have a crisis on our border because there is no border.

I mean, you have human trafficking, sex trafficking, child trafficking, drug trafficking. The cartel -- the cartels are now probably stronger than the federal government of Mexico. And then, of course, you have the Northern border. There isn't no border up north.

So, if you don't want to travel across the desert, why don't you get on a first-class flight to Calgary and just walk across? Because I can tell you, it's a lot easier to get into Canada and then go to a B&B and have a wonderful trip into the U.S. because no one's looking.

So our assets -- most of the problem is down South. I think that's recognized. But we have a problem up North because no one is looking. Our Border Patrol agents, they're discouraged. Their morale is at rock bottom. They can't do their job. They're told not to do their job. And so, basically, they're just observers at both the North and South border.

DUFFY: Carlos, Mexico is turning into a narco-state. The cartels control 40 percent of the land in Mexico. They're the huge drivers of the economy in Mexico.

Should the U.S. government call the cartels a terrorist organization, classify them that way?

GIMENEZ: Yes, look, either a terrorist organization or something like a terrorist organization, terrorist organization, brings some other things with it.

But it doesn't matter. They're a terrorist organization. We should treat them like a terrorist organization. They're killing Americans. We need to go get them. The Mexican government won't. We need to do that. That's our duty. It's the duty of the president of the United States to protect American lives.

And American lives are being lost every single day because of his inaction. And we need -- and we know where they are. We know who they are. We need to go and stop them and take them out if that's what is necessary.

DUFFY: Ryan, Montana has taken action in your state government about Chinese companies or shell companies coming in and buying land that are near sensitive military assets from the U.S.

Where does that go? Are you going to be successful in Montana prohibiting these kind of purchases, which, by the way, the U.S. government should stop that, but thank God that Montana is trying to get that job done?

ZINKE: Well, you look at across the board, right?

China is not only buying land. They have critical minerals. They have the control. We're vulnerable in pharmaceuticals. We're vulnerable across the board. So I think Montana did action, take action, said, enough is enough. We need to protect number one, the U.S.

Two is, we need to protect Montana and our sovereignty. And what we're seeing with this administration, for some reason, they have a blind eye of what China is doing. And, look, China is the number one polluter. China -- 90 percent of the plastic in oceans comes from four rivers in China. China is the world's largest violator of fishing, and they harvest organs from political dissidents.

I mean, come on. We have to look at what China is. China is a great nation. They are emerging and impressing, but they're also a very aggressive nation. And, lastly, you look at our policy. Our policy is one China, two systems. But what happened and what we see in Hong Kong, it's one China, one system, and, if you're not part of that system, we're going to go after you and, in some cases, harvest organs.

I mean, come on. This is China that we should -- we -- this administration needs to push back hard.

DUFFY: Congressman Zinke, I love your celebration of Easter with kind of a Fourth of July-esque celebration with fireworks going up.

(LAUGHTER)

DUFFY: One last question for you both.

Should we impeach Mayorkas? He's not doing his job on the Southern border. Should the Congress impeach him, yes or no?

Congressman Gimenez?

GIMENEZ: Yes. But he's only going to be replaced by somebody else who's going to do Biden's bidding. So nothing is going to change.

But he should be impeached just to show -- teach him a lesson. But, again, I don't expect much things to change. Look, never -- never listen to what the Biden administration is saying. Always see what they're doing. They talk tough, but then they're really, really weak.

And so, even though I think he should be impeached because he's not doing his job, we're not going to -- it's not going to get any better, because whoever they replace him with is just going to do Biden's bidding.

DUFFY: Congressman Zinke?

ZINKE: Gross negligence. Impeach.

DUFFY: All right. Get the job done, Gentlemen.

Thanks for joining me. Happy Easter. Appreciate it.

GIMENEZ: Happy Easter.

ZINKE: Thank you. Best to you, Sean.

DUFFY: Thank you.

All right, coming up: how President Biden's war on fossil fuels has impacted the economy and hurt America's energy independence. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, he's coming up on Biden -- taking Biden to court. And now he's running for governor.

He joins us coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DUFFY: Chinese activists critical of the CCP claim the regime has been part of a recent harassment campaign against him. They found that anonymous perpetrators booked and paid for dozens of expensive rooms around the world under their name, then called in fake bomb arrests and threats to try to get them arrested.

One of them is our next guest, Bob Fu. He was a student leader during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989, and he and his wife later on -- later on, the church -- were imprisoned -- OK -- the church -- they were in prison for illegal evangelism in China. After his release, he had his wife -- he and his wife fled to the United States as religious refugees.

In 1997, they founded China Aid, a nonprofit that assists Christians and other people of faith persecuted in China.

Bob, good to see you. Happy I got through that read. A little crazy there on the teleprompter.

So, Bob, tell me what's going on. You're saying the CCP is actually behind this idea of booking rooms in your name and others' names, and then calling in bomb threats?

BOB FU, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, CHINA AID: Yes, thank you, Sean, for having me. Happy Easter.

DUFFY: Happy Easter.

FU: As the millions of Americans are going to church with their children this morning for Easter celebration, the Chinese Communist Party has forbidden any 18 to even attend a church service. It's illegal to even organize a Sunday school.

So the Communist Party leader, Xi Jinping, declared a war against the faith, basically, against God. And they're not only satisfied by enslaving millions of Chinese, including concentration camps, but also they are -- extend their long arm beyond its border.

So the kind of transnational threats against me and others have already reached to the American shore, and they have established even overseas police station. All of a sudden, I was contacted by MIPD, AOEPD, FBI for the so-called bomb threats, and even taxis were booked on my behalf.

And, basically, this is one new way of tactics to harass those who speak against the CCP's aggression. So, it shows the CCP wants to use its own economic power, because it costs a lot to book a hotel, and from New York to Houston to L.A.

So...

DUFFY: No, it's incredibly disturbing to think that the CCP isn't just concerned about constraining speech and voices in China.

They're willing to go to the U.S., and whether it's against you who speak out against China or Kevin McCarthy and members of Congress who might go to Taiwan or hold a meeting with the president of Taiwan. Really disturbing.

But I want to talk on this Easter Sunday about a success story, because Christians were able to escape. As you mentioned, they're persecuted in China. They were able to escape to Thailand. And in Thailand, they were arrested. We thought they would be sent back to China, where they would be tortured, imprisoned, a very rough life for them.

You and other organizations participated to get those Chinese Christians out of Taiwan, and you got them to the United States. Tell us the story.

FU: Well, thank you, Sean, for asking that story. It's really a beautiful, miraculous Easter story, because, barely a week ago, there was a group of 63 members of the persecuted Chinese Mayflower Church were still in a Thailand prison.

And they were about to be facing the threat to be expelled back to China. And the lord has showed his mercy and his miracle. And especially in the past 24, 48 hours, the -- under tremendous international pressure, and the Biden administration had negotiated a deal with Thailand government, allowed all the 63...

DUFFY: It is.

FU: ... to be freed from their prison.

And the -- yesterday, on the Good Friday, they landed at the land of free, the home of the brave at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

DUFFY: Bob, that...

(CROSSTALK)

FU: ... partner, Freedom Seekers International, and many other members of Congress. We're so thankful,

DUFFY: Bob, that is an amazing story. It is a great Easter miracle. We got them here. They can practice their faith freely.

Thank you for all your good work. Stand tough. And happy Easter.

FU: Thank you. Happy Easter to you too.

DUFFY: All right.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DUFFY: Energy independence, we once had it under President Trump, but it has been thrown away by President Biden's radical climate agenda.

Now the EPA is reportedly forcing new regulations to push the sale of electric cars. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has taken President Biden to court on fuel economy standards for vehicles, and now he's running for governor.

And he joins us right now.

Attorney General, good to see you.

So, you're running for governor. What do you hope to accomplish as the next governor of West Virginia?

PATRICK MORRISEY (R), WEST VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, first of all, Sean, thank you for having me on. And happy Easter to you and everyone watching.

DUFFY: Happy Easter.

MORRISEY: I think there's so many things that we need to do here in West Virginia and nationally.

I'm the only proven conservative running for governor with a big record of getting things done. And one of the things we're going to do is, we're going to leverage energy jobs in our state. Many people watching may know that we took on the EPA. We have defeated large chunks of the Biden Green New Deal radical policies that would really target our jobs here in West Virginia.

So, one of the things we're going to do is going to leverage and build on those energy jobs. When people talk about the amount of electric cars that might come into the marketplace, how do people think that that those cars are going to get fueled up? You're going to need good old-fashioned coal. You're going to need natural gas. You're going to need a lot of the fossil fuels that are currently online.

And so, in West Virginia, we produce with abundance. So one thing we do is, we leverage our energy resources. Then we're going to drive educational attainment and work force and population growth. And, Sean, probably the biggest thing of all, we're going to make sure that all those woke and federal overreach ideas, they stop at the border in West Virginia.

DUFFY: Oh, I hope so.

Let's talk about your lawsuits against President Biden. What are they, and what are the odds of success?

Attorney General, can you hear me? Wondering about the lawsuits that you have going against President Biden? And can you be successful in court?

All right, it looks -- it looks like we have lost the attorney general.

But it's fascinating to see what they're doing going after President Biden, not legislatively, but going after President Biden through the courts. It's a plan out of the liberal playbook, but the courts can be very useful, very effective.

Also in West Virginia, it's going to be fascinating to watch if Joe Manchin runs for reelection as the next senator of that state. He was one who voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, which has nothing to do with inflation reduction. It actually is Joe Biden and AOC's effort to bring in the Green New Deal. He voted for it. He brought it. And now it's affecting his home state, West Virginia, interesting state to watch as we come into the 2024 elections.

Well, that does it for us on "Sunday Morning Futures." I am Sean Duffy, in for Maria Bartiromo.

The news continues with Dagen McDowell and me on "The Bottom Line" weekdays at 6:00 p.m. Eastern on the FOX Business Network. It is a great show. You do have to check it out. And check out my podcast, "From The Kitchen Table," that I host with my wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy. It's available for download at FoxNewsPodcasts.com.

I hope you all have a blessed Easter Sunday.

And, to all you Christians, he has risen.

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