Fox News "Sunday Morning Features" - Transcript Interview with Tim Scott and Kevin McCarthy

Interview

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GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott are both keynote speakers. Leader McCarthy is also the RNC chairman.

They join me now with their first ever interview together.

Good morning, gentlemen. It's great to have you.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Good morning, Maria.

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): Good morning. Good to be with you.

BARTIROMO: So, Congressman, I want to start with you, because you are in Washington.

The speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, called everybody back to vote on the post office funding. What can you tell us?

MCCARTHY: Well, she created this problem that wasn't there. She called us back for a special session of Congress, saying that the post office was in dire need.

But when you talk to the commissioners and others -- they're not Republicans, but just go to Ruth Goldway, who is an 18-year commissioner, a Democrat appointed by Bill Clinton. She said the post office has no problem. They could deliver all the mail.

If you delivered all the mail that you wanted when it came to elections, that's only three-quarters of what they do in a regular day.

But Nancy Pelosi said they were out of money. But when you looked at their bank account, they had $14 billion that can fund it all the way to August of next year. But in our CARES bill, we also gave them another $10 billion through the Treasury if they need anything.

This was a made-up problem that was not there. But what's worse about all this, Maria, the Republicans put on the floor funding to combat COVID. We put funding in there for the small businesses that you know all those people who are out of work to help them with the PPP program...

BARTIROMO: Right.

MCCARTHY: ... and also funding for police, because we're watching our major cities.

But you know what? That was defeated. And the worst part about it being defeated, it got defeated because Nancy Pelosi now allows Democrats not to show up for work; 68 Democrats didn't even show up for this special meeting. They stayed home. And they were still being able to be paid. That is what's wrong with Nancy Pelosi being speaker.

BARTIROMO: OK.

Well, I saw that in one of your tweets, that 68 Democrats didn't show up. I was struck by that. Let's talk about the RNC this week.

Senator Tim Scott, you're...

SCOTT: Yes, ma'am.

BARTIROMO: ... one of the highlighted speakers.

Tell me what you want to achieve and what you're expecting this week.

SCOTT: Well, I'm excited about speaking tomorrow night. I'm expecting a fantastic conventional week long tomorrow night.

Tomorrow night, I will focus on growth, hope, and opportunity. If you looked at last week's Democratic Convention, you left shaking your head. What do they believe in? What do they want?

Other than defunding the police, Medicare for all, raising taxes, we have no clue what they're going to do with a $7 trillion ask.

Here is what we are going to do. We are going to focus on growth. The Trump administration pre-COVID-19 created seven million jobs. And they did it in an inclusive way, the lowest unemployment rate on record for African- Americans, Hispanics, Asians, 70-year low for women.

If President Trump is reelected -- and he will be -- we can expect more growth. Hope. When you think about kids born in poverty looking for choice -- chance, there's no question that educational choice is one of the fastest ways to level the playing field in America.

And we're going to talk about the importance of school choice and quality education in every corridor of this country. And, finally, opportunity. The president and I worked hard on Opportunity Zones and produced $75 billion in the private sector for the most distressed communities.

That's a lot better than what the Democrats are proposing, more Section 8 vouchers, more government spending, a guaranteed position at the bottom, if you vote for the Democrats, and opportunity to reach your highest objectives, your highest dreams if you vote for the Republicans.

It has never been more clear and more simple on why we should support the Republican ticket, led by President Trump.

But we will hear next from the greatest marketing mind in all of Congress, Kevin McCarthy.

(LAUGHTER)

MCCARTHY: Tim is being a little kind there, because Tim is no better example of the party of Lincoln, of why he is a Republican.

But we're going to talk a little bit about what President Trump promised before he became president, because he kept those promises building that economy, securing our border.

Remember -- remember those chaos that we had down at the border, the caravans and others, about rebuilding our military? He's been able to do that as well.

Or what about criminal justice reform? This president has kept every single promise he made. But how do we make tomorrow better than today? So, we're going to be celebrating America. The difference, it's not going to be cynical, like the Democrats. We're excited about our convention.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

MCCARTHY: You know why? Because we know America is exceptional.

And we're going to have people on the stage that understand America is exceptional, understand America is one nation under God, understand that everybody -- that this nation is conceived in liberty and dedicated that everyone is equal.

And, with that, you will harness the ability to every generation before us to improve like we improved before. So we're going to rebuild our economy.

BARTIROMO: Well, I...

MCCARTHY: We're going to tackle China, something you didn't hear about Joe Biden, but this president is able to do. We're going to change our supply chain.

You know what? We don't make penicillin, we don't make vitamins here anymore. We're going to change all of that. And those are some important elements.

BARTIROMO: I think you...

MCCARTHY: And we're going to make these cities safe again.

BARTIROMO: Yes, I think you make really good points in terms of the solutions of what we didn't hear last week at the DNC, because, while they talked a lot about empathy, they all trashed Donald Trump, but there wasn't really anything to sink your teeth into in terms of, this is what I'm going to do.

I know that he wants to raise taxes by $4 trillion, but nothing more.

Now, Senator Scott, you just said school choice. This is real important, especially women, families out there, they want to make sure they have the choice to have their kids have the best opportunity that they can have.

You don't hear a lot about that. Is this going to be critical for, you know, mothers, housewives, African-American community? Talk about that, because I know that the African-Americans community is a key vote for the president. How do you see it?

SCOTT: Maria, there's no doubt about it, when you look at President Trump's accomplishments.

Here is the most interesting thing we should see last week vs. this week, promises made, promises kept on our side, and a lot of hot air on their side. When you think about the president's State of the Union, he's had that young lady, 11 years old, beautiful little girl from Philadelphia, who has been trying to get into a quality school for years.

He promised that she would get an opportunity to go to a charter school of her choice, and he delivered. When you think about school choice, the closest thing to magic in America is a good education, and too many kids in too many zip codes, in too many neighborhoods do not have that chance.

President Trump supports school choice. And I will tell you that two-thirds or more of African-Americans and Hispanic parents support school choice, because they know that, if you want an opportunity in America, it comes through education. And we can deliver on that promise, just like he delivered on the promise for the highest funding in the history of the country for historically black colleges and universities.

And, at the same time, during the last administration, under Joe Biden's leadership, they actually attacked the HBCUs and reduced funding. You can look at all the articles from 2013 to 2015 on the failures of the Obama administration and Joe Biden as it relates to HBCUs.

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In addition, it was Joe Biden who brought us the 1994 crime bill that locked up millions of black people. And, fortunately, for all of us, President Trump delivered on the criminal justice reform that made up for the terrible atrocities and mistakes brought to us by Joe Biden.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

SCOTT: And let us not forget that it was Joe Biden who says $4 trillion of new taxes?

That means lower revenues to the Treasury, not higher revenues to the Treasury. There's an inverse relationship that we simply can't see on the left. But we see it, after 2017, when our revenues to the Treasury went up, not down, with the tax cut.

BARTIROMO: Yes, that's right. The tax legislation really did move the needle on economic growth.

SCOTT: Absolutely

BARTIROMO: Real quick, cap us off here.

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Congressman, final word. The president's speech on Thursday night is going to be a big highlight. But he's going to speak every night, right?

MCCARTHY: Yes, he's going to speak every night, just like, during the Democratic Convention, where Joe Biden wouldn't go anywhere, the president traveled this country.

That's what we need, a leader not afraid to get out there. He's going to speak every night, because he has a lot to tell about this nation, how we're going to rebuild it, restore the American dream, and rebuild the economy bigger than we have ever had.

He's not into defunding the police or dismantling America or destroying us by raising our taxes. We understand that tomorrow is going to be better than today. And you just heard from Tim Scott.

BARTIROMO: All right.

MCCARTHY: He's going to be on that stage.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

MCCARTHY: One day, I think he should be on that stage accepting the nomination for our party as well. And I look forward to helping him do that one day.

BARTIROMO: All right, awesome.

Gentlemen, thank you so much. Great preview. We will be watching all the developments.

Tim Scott, Kevin McCarthy, thank you, gentlemen.

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