Fox News Sunday

Interview

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Good morning, Shannon. Good to be with you.

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I'm not worried at all. You will remember who you are talking to. I'm someone that does not believe in polls. They're a snapshot in time.

I told all of you in 2016 that I thought Donald Trump could win, and that Donald Trump is going to win, and even on election night, I was debating whether he was going to win. And headline that night (ph), I was right.

So, you know, when I'm out there, I'm talking to people. And I'm in communities and they don't -- you don't know who he's going to be running against.

In the Midwest, people think Joe Biden understands their challenges. They think that he is someone that cares. And when we are in the midst of a campaign, I think you will see strong enthusiasm and passion for the outcome of the election next year.

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So, I have two messages here. I want to be very clear that raising the debt ceiling is a separate discussion from spending. It is making sure that we pay our bills. We did it three times in the Trump administration.

And both President Trump and President Reagan said you should not play games with raising the debt ceiling, honoring our bills. It hurts us internationally with where we are now.

So, let me be clear -- we need to pay our bills, we need to honor `em, and if we were to in any way, shape, or form default on our spending, our working men and women across the country would have immediate consequences of increased credit card bills, auto payments, mortgage payments, et cetera.

Do I think that people should sit down? Anybody who knows me, so let's get the debt ceiling done. Let's not play games. Let's not -- we shouldn't be doing it and it's already hurting our in -- what's going to happen in our economy, threatening it, et cetera?

Do I think that we should all be talking about how do we cut our spending? I'm always somebody that says sit down at the table, talk to each other, listen to each other. I think it's very important.

I'm concerned about the budget that they put forward this week, and I'm not sure he's got the votes for it or not because I don't think there are some Republicans want a vote to cut education, reduce veterans spending by 22 percent.

That's going to hurt veterans' health care. It's going to hurt Meals on Wheels. It's going to hurt cancer research. It's going to hurt law enforcement, first responders.

And I do think that we've got to look at who should be paying their fair share. I want to bring manufacturing back to this country. That budget is going to continue to support offshoring.

But I want to sit at the table. I want to have discussions, because Joe Manchin is right, President Biden is right, everybody is right. We got to work towards reducing our spending, but doing it in a right way that it doesn't hurt working men and women in this country, and help the billionaires and corporations who aren't paying taxes.

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So I do want to see people get back to work, if they can. We do have job openings, but I want to talk about the challenges that people are facing in the workforce. You just talked about it.

And, you know, women are the ones that left the workforce during COVID more than anybody.

Childcare isn't available. It's too expensive, 54 percent of people over 50 in this country are caring for someone that is older -- is elderly. We have to have the support system in place so people can go back into the workplace.

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Look, we got to -- there may be people -- look, I think everything should be on the table. That's why we go to the table to talk about it.

But I also want to say there are people that want to work that aren't able to work either. So, let's sit down, let's talk about how you do it.

But I really want people to understand -- I have talked to so many people who want to go back into the workplace, but for many different reasons cannot do it. And I think we've got to address that as well. Caregiving being I think the biggest issue. The president this week laid out addressing that issue.

But caregiving makes all other work possible and we have a crisis in this country.

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Well, I sincerely hope that our money is not flowing to terrorism. I think Pentagon has got to do a better job showing us that that is not happening, but I am worried about -- I spent so much of my career trying to help the women in Afghanistan and what is happening to them now makes me so devastated that we need to ensure that those dollars are going where they're intended to do in a way that we can get them there, and I think we need to ask questions and get answers.

But I -- we have a lot of people in Afghanistan that helped us as Americans when we were there and we need to be helping them.

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So I have two different things that I want to say. One, I want to make it really clear that President Biden has made it clear since he went into office that there should be an independence of the Justice Department in any investigation. I think he has tried to make that clear.

I support whistleblowers. As a matter of fact, I think whistleblowers should be able to come forward, give us information, protect their identity, and I've led information to put protections around them.

I don't know what the facts of this case are. I have to no details. And I'm not going to speculate on things that I don't know.

But whistleblowers play an important part in our government if they believe that there is wrongdoing and they do need to be protected.

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The number one priority of the FDA needs to be about patient safety. I don't think the Supreme Court, and I think they made that clear this week, you had conservative justices joining with others that sent it back to the courts and have said, let the FDA do their job.

You know, I think a lot of people don't understand that they wanted to ban a drug that also is used in Cushing syndrome. I was a woman that suffered from endometriosis and was trying to get pregnant. It helps fibroid urine endometriosis.

FDA is the scientific agency that is supposed to ensure that patients are safe and studied these drugs. I'm certainly not in a position to know, I'm not a medical expert, nor do I think the Supreme Court justices are, and we have agencies designed and set up to do the scientific process, and that's where I think the responsibility belongs.

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Thank you.

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