Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Interview with Vice President Mike Pence

Interview

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MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT: Frankly, I was -- I was pleased to see the special counsel announce that the investigation is over. It's case closed. The special counsel sent his report.

And he concluded that there was no collusion. And after review of the facts, the Department of Justice confirmed there was no collusion, no obstruction.

And I think the American people have -- the American people want to see this Congress move on, move on to the things that are making a difference in their lives.

BARTIROMO: But he said -- he said, "If we knew that the president did not commit a crime, we would have said so."

And that is stoking more impeachment talk. Are you expecting impeachment proceedings?

PENCE: Well, I wouldn't know why there would be. I really wouldn't.

I mean, this president's been delivering for the American people. These questions were raised about election interference. And we know that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections. We don't believe it affected the outcome in any way. But we have held them accountable for that. We have taken steps to ensure that that doesn't happen again.

But there were other questions raised about collusion. Now, even the special counsel confirmed that there was no collusion between our campaign and the Russians. And the Department of Justice has confirmed that there was no collusion, no obstruction. The matter is entirely over. It's entirely closed. The American people got the answers.

I -- and I couldn't be more proud, Maria, of the fact that, for more than two years, hundreds of witnesses, millions of pages of documents, full operation with the special counsel. This president and our office, and our entire administration fully cooperated. And the American people now know that the investigation is at an end. They have their answers.

But what I think the country wants to see us do is focus on the things that are now most important to them. And that is jobs and security. We're -- we're in discussions right now about a budget agreement that will allow us to continue to make historic investments in our national defense.

We have got a crisis on our southern border. You traveled there very recently. You saw it firsthand, as did your viewers on this program. I mean, we're on track to have more than a million apprehensions at our southern border.

And yet -- and yet Congress, some in Congress continue to focus on investigations, baseless allegations, while -- while literally, last month alone, more than 118,000 people were apprehended at our southern border, and Congress continues to refuse to act to close the loopholes that are being used by cartels and drug traffickers to entice people to make the long and dangerous journey north to our southern border.

The American people want to see a Congress focus where this president and our team are focused. And that is on their security, on securing our border, on closing loopholes, bringing about asylum reform, and advancing the kind of policies that will continue to create jobs in this booming economy.

BARTIROMO: Well, what we saw at the border was actually quite extraordinary, the children in these dangerous positions. Women are renting out their kids, $140, apparently, so the smugglers can bring the children over the border.

Are you expecting real reform on immigration? Will the Congress actually take that up, in terms of changing the Flores decision, the asylum standards? Is that even doable this year?

PENCE: It has to happen.

President Trump has taken decisive action to call on Mexico to take further action to intervene in this massive flow of people that are coming north from Central America to our border to come into our country and take advantage of those loopholes.

And the president's also going to continue to call on this Congress to pass the kind of commonsense reforms. Look, we have a humanitarian and a security crisis at our southern border. I mean, the drug cartels and human traffickers -- you heard it firsthand -- they are telling people in Guatemala and El Salvador and throughout Central America about loopholes in our laws, and that if they come up with a -- with a -- with children, that they will have the opportunity to come into our country.

And that's just unacceptable. We ought -- this Congress ought to be willing to set politics completely aside, and, at minimum, bring about the kind of changes in our asylum laws that would fix this immediate problem overnight. We're building the wall. We're building hundreds of miles of wall over the next several years.

The president's kept his promise in that regard. We're providing resources for Customs and Border Protection. But we have to close the loopholes in our law. And the action the president has taken and will continue to take are all designed to say that -- that Congress needs to step up and bring about the kind of reforms that will close these loopholes and end that magnet that drug cartels and human traffickers are using.

And we will continue to call on Mexico and take actions necessary to see to it that Mexico does their job to ensure that this mass exodus and humanitarian crisis comes to an end.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BARTIROMO: More of my exclusive interview with Vice President Mike Pence.

We will talk China and the complicated relationship the U.S. must balance with the country, not just as a trading partner, but as a national security threat. We're going to talk about that next.

Stay with us.

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BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

New this morning, the Chinese government is blaming the United States for the ongoing trade dispute, accusing U.S. negotiators of -- quote -- "resorting to intimidation and coercion" to get what they want.

In my exclusive interview with Vice President Mike Pence, he tells me the standoff with China is much more than just a trade war. As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told us, it is about national security, theft of intellectual property and espionage.

I asked the vice president how President Trump plans to work through not only his stalemate with Beijing, but now also efforts to ratify the U.S.- Mexico-Canada agreement.

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PENCE: I would tell you that it's been -- it's been amazing to watch this president and the way that he's forged relationships with leaders around the world, being with Prime Minister Trudeau here in Canada, seeing the way we -- he was able to negotiate the USMCA with Canada and Mexico.

And it all begins with President Trump with personal relationships. And I have witnessed it. That relationship people saw with Prime Minister Abe in high relief that now has us talking about a free trade agreement with Japan.

The president will be traveling to the U.K. just in a few days. And you will see that relationship, writ large, as he visits with the queen and as we continue to talk to the E.U. about -- about the possibility of a free trade agreement, even as Brexit continues to work its way through for the U.K.

But, with regard to China, I can attest firsthand that the president's forged a good relationship with President Xi. But we have our differences. And it's not just the structural or the -- it's not just the fact that China is half of our international trade deficit.

It is those structural issues, intellectual property rights, forced technology transfers, the -- essentially, the respect for private property that, at this point, China has not reflected in their practices.

And we need to see reforms in that regard.

Now...

BARTIROMO: Yes, these are the big-ticket items, I know.

PENCE: These are the big-ticket items.

And we have made it very, very clear with the Chinese leadership that these are the things that have to be addressed.

President Trump will be meeting with President Xi when he goes to the G20 in just a few short weeks. And we remain hopeful that China will step forward. They were coming our direction. We have made great progress.

But, as the president said last week, they started to step backwards. And so the president called it off. And we believe we're in a very strong position with the tariffs that we have imposed. We could more than double those against China. But president hopes for better.

He hopes we can make a deal with China that will reset our relationship, put American jobs and American workers first, and really level the playing field in ways that it's never been leveled in the modern history of our relationship with China.

BARTIROMO: It was interesting see how aligned you were with Justin Trudeau on China, given the fact that you both discussed the -- what you called the wrongful detention of two Canadian citizens after the CFO of Huawei was arrested.

Have you gotten a response from China on this? What are you expecting in terms of these two citizens that are being detained?

PENCE: China knows where we stand on the wrongful detention of two Canadian citizens.

And Prime Minister Trudeau and I discussed it at length today, that it -- just it's unacceptable. And the United States is going to continue to stand with Canada until those Canadians are free and hopefully back home in Canada.

But the whole issue of Huawei is -- it's an issue of national security. I mean, Huawei is, in effect, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party. And to have Huawei operating as a 5G network in our country or in our allies' countries, we believe represents a fundamental compromise of our national security and the privacy of millions of citizens.

So we're going to continue to communicate that message very strongly to our allies in Canada and all over the Western world. But we're also going to continue to promote alternatives for 5G networks.

Look, this is the most dynamic, innovative economy in the history of the world. We know we can meet that global need for 5G with enterprises that respect our values, respect privacy and individual rights, intellectual property, and preserves our national security, and will continue to drive that.

BARTIROMO: Is the president considering some kind of a TPP arrangement, now that we see how difficult it is to do a deal with China?

PENCE: President Trump made the right decision to withdraw the United States from the TPP.

I mean, what this president really understands -- and he talks about it a lot -- is the importance of bilateral negotiations and the ability to be able to fight for our nation's interests when we're negotiating at arm's length with one other nation.

Now, the circumstances will be different. We hope to enter into free trade agreement with the European Union. That's a different arrangement. But President Trump really believes, whether it be China or Japan or any other nation in the world, that, with just a couple of exceptions, the American worker and American jobs and the American economy are better served if we can enter into bilateral trading relationships.

And then we're better able to hold our trading partners accountable to the promises that they've have made.

BARTIROMO: So, how concerned are you about these retaliatory tariffs and these retaliatory moves from China? Because it's not just the fact that they're going to put on the $60 billion this weekend.

Are we going to see prices go up for things like coffee, beef, salmon, flowers, fruits, vegetables? But there's also the other things, like bullying FedEx, or bullying American companies who are trying to operate there, or threatening that they will halt rare earth material imports into the United States.

How concerned are you about those that China is now fighting back with?

PENCE: The United States is the most powerful economy in the history of the world.

We have every confidence that the United States and the American economy have the ability to do what's necessary to reset this relationship with China and other nations.

Look, the president has been very clear. He believes, for far too long, we have tolerated trading relationships that are much more of a one-way street for the United States.

We see nations that have broad access to our marketplace and give us limited access to their marketplace. And those days are really over.

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BARTIROMO: Up next, the vice president on the U.S. trade deal with our neighbors directly to the north and the south.

Also, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy joins us.

Stay with us.

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BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

More now of my exclusive interview with the vice president, Mike Pence, on how President Trump plans to get the USMCA trade agreement across the finish line, whether the surge of apprehensions at our southern border, one million now expected by the end of the year, could derail the deal.

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PENCE: Well, first and foremost, let's recognize that the American economy is booming, 5.8 million new jobs, in the last quarter, 3.1 percent growth.

More importantly, wages are rising at the fastest level in more than 10 years. And we have seen 500,000 manufacturing jobs created. And the president's done all that because he drove for tax cuts. He's been rolling back federal red tape.

We have been unleashing American energy. But, also, a central pillar of President Trump's vision for this growing economy is the kind of free and fair and reciprocal trade that we have negotiated in the USMCA.

And I think the American people see that. And they see that the president drove a hard bargain. We put American agriculture first, American workers first. And we're just taking that message, not just to Capitol Hill, but I have literally been traveling all across the country, carrying that message to farms, to factories.

And we have every confidence that, as the American people let their voice be heard, that the USMCA will be approved by the Congress of the United States. But we're just determined to carry the message of what this will mean for jobs, for growth, for opportunity.

And we think it's absolutely essential, just like they're doing here in Canada, that the Congress move on approving the USMCA, and approving the USMCA this summer.

BARTIROMO: You want this approved by the summer, but Speaker Pelosi has said she's not even sure that she's going to bring it down to the floor for a vote.

So, how do you convince her to actually bring it down for a vote, assuming that it does pass once it gets down on the floor?

PENCE: Well, we -- look, we have been in regular consultations with Democratic leadership in the House, the Republican leadership in the Senate.

But we have been talking to the rank and file as well and what the USMCA is going to mean in their districts. I think the American people know that trade means jobs. But when it comes to NAFTA, we saw lots of jobs head south of the border since the 1990s, when that was signed into law.

The president took this issue before the American people, like many of his predecessors had. You know, it's -- it really is interesting. As I talked -- as I talked to some leaders here in Canada, they noted that many people who had been elected president in the past have been critical of NAFTA, but it was only President Donald Trump that stepped up, rolled his sleeves up, and renegotiated our trading relationship with Canada and Mexico.

And we believe, as we carry that message forward to the rank-and-file Democrats, we carry it forward to the American people, that the Democratic leadership in the Congress -- and we know we have strong support of Republican leadership in the Senate -- will move this bill to the floor.

And if it's put on the floor of the Congress, we know the USMCA will pass.

BARTIROMO: But some Democrats that I have had on the program have said that they want a stronger enforcement mechanism in place, so that Mexico in particular keeps its promises when it comes to labor laws.

PENCE: Yes.

BARTIROMO: They also want changes to the drug patents, the biologics getting 10 years of patent protection. They see that's going to keep generics out and impact pricing of pharmaceuticals.

Have any of those things been addressed? Have you made changes to the to the treaty as a result of these demands?

PENCE: Well, let me say the discussions are all under way with leaders on Capitol Hill about what's called the implementing legislation.

And we're in negotiations with Democrats in the House of Representatives to bring about some of the changes in the way that the USMCA will actually be unpacked for the American people and the economy, and those are ongoing.

But when it comes to drug prices, I will tell you, you never met anybody more determined to lower drug prices for the American people than President Donald Trump. And we're so proud of the reforms the president has already advanced. We know it's going to -- it's going to result in a lowering of drug prices over the counter to the American people.

And so, as we work through all the deals with USMCA, the American people can be confident this president is going to continue to fight to lower drug prices for them.

BARTIROMO: Mr. Vice President, let's go through some of the most important issues and some of the most important things that USMCA does, relative to what NAFTA was doing.

PENCE: Yes.

BARTIROMO: It's eliminating some of those barriers that prevent farmers from selling into -- in Canada and Mexico. It's boosting wages.

But you tell me what you think is most important about USMCA and how it impacts the American people.

PENCE: Well, let's go back to what NAFTA did. There were elements of NAFTA that actually created an incentive for companies to build factories in Mexico and outside the United States.

And what we have done in the USMCA, by creating a wage level that's commensurate with the American wage level, we're literally protecting American jobs. We're removing the incentive for companies to, in effect, go south of the border to chase lower wages. And that that's going to help American workers protect American jobs, but also it's also going to, we believe, bring wages up in our neighbors to the south.

I mean, the simple fact is that, in my home state of Indiana, we literally saw almost entire communities hollowed out as you saw factories closed, automotive factories close, and go south of the border. Those incentives are out of the USMCA.

It's a huge win for American workers and American jobs.

BARTIROMO: So, what is the timing on this? When will the president officially submit USMCA to the Congress? And then they have got 60 days to vote on it. You want this done by this summer. When do you expect the president to push this through officially?

PENCE: We're in those discussions as we speak.

The U.S. trade representative will be on Capitol Hill when Congress reconvenes this coming week and in discussions with members of the Democrat majority about that implementing legislation.

But I can -- I can tell you, President -- President Trump is ready to go.

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