Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Orrin Hatch

Interview

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BARTIROMO: Senator, it is always an honor and a pleasure to see you. Thanks for joining me.

SEN. ORRIN HATCH, R-UTAH: Well it's always nice to be with you, Maria. You -- you cover things pretty darn well.

BARTIROMO: Thank you so much, sir. What are your -- what are your reactions to Judge Kavanaugh? How tough a battle do you think this will be?

HATCH: Well I've known him for a long time, but it's -- isn't it unique that here's a -- here's a young fellow who's been around here for a long time, everybody knows him, they know he's honest, they know he's a very talented, very -- very intellectually profound and yet it's the same -- same routine. (Inaudible) start to try and destroy him right off the bat.

But he can handle it. He's a very, very fine young man. Very smart and that's had a lot of experience.

BARTIROMO: The Democrats are trying to make this about an abortion issue, Senator. They --

HATCH: They always do.

BARTIROMO: They -- they keep mentioning Roe v. Wade and this is going to be overturned. What is this about, from your standpoint?

HATCH: Well Kavanaugh said that -- that Roe v. Wade is a -- it's set of law (ph). And I suspect that that's probably the way it's going to come out under whoever of our (ph) nominated there. It'll settled law (ph).
But they're -- they're going to -- they don't have anything else to throw at him other than that maybe he'll -- he'll do something on Roe versus Wade. Well, be honest with you, the man is a straightforward guy, he's a -- I -- I've known him for a long time.

I've watched him on the court. He's had 12 years of experience on the second highest court in this land, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is no small achievement.

BARTIROMO: That's right.

HATCH: And he's respected by everybody who's worked with him, including the Democrats.

BARTIROMO: Do you think you're going to need Democratic support?

HATCH: Well we want Democratic support. I think it's ridiculous that you can't get Democratic support for somebody as good as he is. And I think we'll get some, but -- you know, they've made every appointment to the Judiciary (ph) (inaudible) which is unfortunate. Because you know, they may get the presidency one of these times and they're going to want to have a -- a decent Republican side to work with them to get their nominations through.

And -- and I think they ought to -- when you -- when you have people that are very high quality, that are A.B. (ph) lawyers -- in other words, the highest rated lawyers for legal ethics and ability and who clearly have a reputation for being honest and straightforward and knowledgeable about the law, then -- you -- to throw out the -- these kind of arguments against somebody like -- like him is just crazy.

BARTIROMO: So -- so size up the Senate for us. I mean, you need 51 votes here to get him through. We saw a pretty positive statement from Susan Collins on -- on Kavanaugh as a pick. We haven't heard from Rand Paul, we haven't heard from Jeff Flake. Do you think you're going to get the votes?

HATCH: I expect every Republican to vote for him and I also expect a number of Democrats as well. I think they've got to break through that we're against everything attitude. They hate Trump so badly that -- you know, it's all against Trump. It isn't -- well, I think it's against any Republican judgeship nomination. But -- but they really hate Trump and they really want to do everything they can to hurt Trump.

You know, he won the election. All I can say is if Hillary'd won, I'd be doing everything I could to help her to be a great president, if -- if -- if I can . And they ought to be doing the same for him. And -- and if they will, this is a fellow who 10 years ago -- 8 or 9 years ago was a liberal from New York. I mean, they're so stupid they don't realize that they could win him over if they really tried.

BARTIROMO: That's a funny -- that's very funny and a good point.

HATCH: Well that's a great point.

BARTIROMO: You know, they hate him so much despite the fact that the outcomes are pretty good. I mean, let's take a look at some of his outcomes, Senator, because you know, you -- you led, obviously, the tax reform that -- that we saw really -- moved the needle --

HATCH: That was no small thing. That was no small thing.

BARTIROMO: No small thing. And now we're talking about --

HATCH: And -- and --

BARTIROMO: -- four percent economic growth when we get the GDP numbers in-- in about a week's time.

HATCH: Yes, we haven't had that in a long time. And he's leading -- and look, by any measure, he's been a very successful president. He's -- he's a little bit bombastic from time to time, but I like that too. I -- I think it's just great that he gets out there and doesn't take any crap from anybody. But he -- yes (ph) but he -- but he's -- he's done really well for somebody who's never been in politics before.

I'm starting to think maybe we ought to get more of those people who've never been in politics before.

BARTIROMO: But you are not as confident about the trade issues. I want to get into those trade issues, because I think most people understand that China has been stealing from us -- for us -- from us, rather for decades.

And they want somebody to get China to stop stealing intellectual property, stop the transfer of -- of technology to Chinese firms, and also open up the Chinese economy. So that I understand, the aluminum and steel tariffs, well that's a different story. What do you say?

HATCH: Well I don't think they're going to help anybody, I think they're just going to hurt American businesses and, you know, my home state -- my home state's going to be hit very hard because of these tariffs.

Now be that as it may, if they were good for the whole country, I'd be -- you know, I'd be nullified (ph). But the fact is, I think our country's not going to do well because of these tariffs.

I'm not a big tariff fan, and I'm disappointed that the president has taken that -- that route, and I hope that he gets off of it pretty soon. Now he's had some, in my opinion, very bad advice, but he actually believes that too.

BARTIROMO: Real quick before you, Senator, do you believe you can get Kavanaugh in place before the Supreme Court's new term starts October 1?

HATCH: That's our intention, and we should be able to do that. It's going to be hard for the Democrats, but they lost the election and they can't just keep throwing up these scare tactics all the time.

And -- and thinking they can get away with it.

BARTIROMO: Yes, there certainly is a lot of that. Senator, it's good to see you this morning, thanks very much.

HATCH: Well it's really great to sit with you, you're great.

BARTIROMO: Thank you very much, Senator. Coming up next, Democratic leaders demanding that President Trump cancel tomorrow's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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