And we turn now to Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso, who joins us from Casper, Wyoming. Good morning to you, Senator.
Well, it's great to be here in Wyoming. I'll be hitting the trail again tomorrow. It was interesting listening to Chris Murphy, ignoring the craziness of the Democrat candidates for the Senate. And that's why I'm going to be out talking about the difference between the common sense Republicans who I'm supporting and our party is, and the crazy Democrats who've been nominated and are now causing the direction of their party to go way to the left.
Well, I understand you are headed to the Midwest and the West. Of the 10 Senate battleground races CBS is tracking, six are Republican-held seats. How challenging is this midterm going to be for your party?
Well, I'm optimistic with opportunities to pick up seats. New Hampshire, Michigan, Minnesota. You talk about corruption. That's what we're seeing in Minnesota in their state run by the Democrats. In Michigan, I don't know if you saw the debate this past week, Elissa Slotkin was on the Democrat nominee for the Senate in Michigan against Mike Rogers. He was asked who's more of a threat to the United States, Iran or Israel. He could not answer and refused to answer the question. Everyone in the world knows that Iran is much more of a threat to the United States. They chant death to America. Israel is our friend and ally. He would not admit it. Iran is at war with the United States. They've been killing Americans for 50 years. And the candidate in Michigan is so extreme that he will not even admit the reality of what the American people see.
Well, the Republican candidate in Michigan has tried to distance himself from the very war you're talking about, though. Mike Rogers has talked about the Iran war has got to end. He's acknowledging that the high fuel prices related to it are a problem for him. How do you explain that?
Well, everyone wants the war to end. Everyone wants fuel prices to come down. Who's a Republican? Democrats don't seem to want fuel prices to come down. They like high fuel prices. They were a lot higher when Biden was in office than they are today. And when you look about the lawsuits that the Democrats are bringing, you look about the fact that in California this past year, they shut down two refineries. They are against fossil fuels. Last week at the Supreme Court, there was a lawsuit to say we want to sue. They do. The Democrats sue oil companies for making gasoline because they say it contributes to climate change. Democrats want high gas prices. They want us in electric vehicles. And that's the difference. That's the difference between common sense Republicans and these crazy Democrats who've been nominated all around the country.
I don't mean to cut you off. I want to let you finish this in a minute when we have more time. So stay with us while we take the commercial break and we'll talk on the other side.
Welcome back to Face the Nation. We return now to our conversation with Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming. Senator, we're talking about those upcoming midterm races and the pressure of higher fuel prices. We saw President Trump on Friday announce he's going to start importing Russian diesel fuel to help American farmers, ranchers, and truckers, as he put it. Congress banned Russian energy imports back in 2022. And even more recently, they put in place more possible financial penalties to the buyers of Russian oil. Doesn't the president's action violate the laws? And how do you justify giving Vladimir Putin a lifeline?
Well, the president is focused on getting down the cost of energy. He's focused on ranchers, farmers, truckers. As you said, I'm right in the middle of that here in Wyoming. This is cattle country. I heard it last night at an event that I was at, the high diesel prices that are impacting everyone. The president is balancing and has to make tough decisions. He's balancing his effort to stop and end the war of Putin's war in Ukraine and lowering prices for American families. What we really need to do long term is produce more American energy, but we're running into a problem with the Democrats who want us to produce less American energy and want high energy prices. So, I know what the president is trying to do. I agree. We need to lower the prices. And the problem is the Democrats are blocking us long-term from doing what's going to be best for the American people.
We all want this war to end. We want to do it as quickly as possible in a way that Ukraine is protected with long-term peace and that energy prices come down. And the sooner that happens, the safer America will be and the lower prices will be for American consumers. But letting Russia sell oil would seem to put money and more mobility to Vladimir Putin and not necessarily make a dent in diesel prices according to most energy analysts that I've read. Former Vice President Pence said the decision to lift sanctions on Russian fuel makes no sense and is a betrayal to the legacy and leadership of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. He's talking about that Graham law you voted for. And I know you've got to make a decision by October 18th, at least the president does, about putting in place the powers you helped to give him to punish buyers of Russian oil. Doesn't the president's action make a mockery of that law you just passed?
We passed that law to give the president the flexibility and the firepower to use another tool against Vladimir Putin. We want to end this war. We want to get fuel prices down. The president wants that as well. This is just another point of leverage for the president to use against Putin in an effort to get a long-term solution in that part of the world. So, I want him to. I voted for that law. The president signed that law and he needs to use that because he now has the flexibility to do it in the best interest of world peace and lower energy prices here in America.
I want to ask you about your role on Senate Foreign Relations. You have oversight there. The Wall Street Journal has had a series of reports about the US ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle. Can you confirm at all that there is an investigation on some level into her actions? Perhaps an inspector general probe, if not something more on the ethics front.
Well, what we've seen in the reports is very troubling. It's concerning, and I'm sure there's going to be an investigation. I would assume the State Department would be conducting that. I know that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will have oversight and look into that as well, but I think the public has a right to know what is found and it is quite a bit of concern.
Yeah. I mean, among the things that were made public by a Trump donor were text messages in which she asked him to give her $100,000 to pay off credit card debt and asked not to put some of these things in writing because it could endanger her job. Are you comfortable with any US official asking someone to pay off debt in exchange for access to government officials?
No. No, I'm not. And you know, we're going to be back after the elections, but for the next three weeks, we're going to be out campaigning across the country, and I'm sure we'll discuss that later. But the focus today is making sure that the American people know just how far to the left the Democrats have gone, and they are now the party, and they have a manifesto. And you highlighted one of the candidates from Florida, the Democrat nominee in Florida. They want to eliminate Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Open the border. They want to open the prisons, put these people into our communities. They want to defund the military, defund the police, raise taxes to pay for health care for illegal immigrants and have boys and girls locker rooms. And when you were on with Murphy and you asked about the military, the Democrats have blocked the National Defense Authorization Act. He says, 'Well, we ought to not fund things.' This is the first time in 65 years that we've not passed a National Defense Authorization Act, which funds the military, make sure they have what they need to be able to be the war fighters that they are, and yet the Democrats are all voting no on supporting our military.
He said that he did want more information. He said that briefings weren't being shared, details weren't being shared. So, approving money without those briefings is something he said he was not willing to do. Would you ask the administration to be more forthcoming and give details including on these damage to bases?
Well, you're talking appropriation. I'm talking about the actual authorization act to make sure the military has what they want. The Democrats in the Senate are so afraid of these candidates who have won nominations and primary elections that when those candidates in their manifesto calls for defunding the military, all of the Democrats in the Senate voted against the National Defense Authorization Act and that's just wrong.
Senator Barrasso, we will watch what you get done on the campaign trail and when we get back to work in November. Thank you for your time. We'll be right back.
We turn now to Congressman Chris Pappas who's running for the US Senate in his native New Hampshire. He joins us this morning from Manchester. Good morning.
Hi Margaret. Good morning.
Well, CBS projects that New Hampshire is no longer a tossup, but lean Democrat. So, what are you focused on in these final weeks of the campaign?
Well, we're taking nothing for granted in this race because New Hampshire is a purple state and we're an all-election day state where we don't have early voting generally in New Hampshire. So, it's focused on how we get to those independent swing voters, how we energize the base, how we reach out to Republicans over the next 23 days to win a tough race. Our Senate race in 2016 in New Hampshire was decided by 17 votes. I'm up against a candidate with a very famous political pedigree in New Hampshire. He's been a US senator before, but this isn't about going back to the failed politicians with failed ideas from the past. It's about looking ahead to the future. How we muster the courage to stand up to a reckless administration that's making life more expensive. How we fight to lower costs. How we connect with everyday Granite Staters about the kind of future we can build together. So, I'm hopeful about where we're going to end up at the end of this thing. But, we've got to put in the work over the next 23 days in order to change things in Washington and deliver the results New Hampshire deserves.
Well, Democrats do seem nationally to be running on an anti-Trump agenda. In your particular race, you mentioned John Cuneen, your opponent. He doesn't make that strategy easy because he used to be a never-Trumper. He criticizes the trade war with Canada. He doesn't like Trump sending $5,000 checks out. He said it was a mistake to start the war with Iran without a strategy for the Strait of Hormuz. I mean, he has distanced himself in some ways from the president, though he is endorsed by Mr. Trump. How do you split that in the minds of the Republicans that you are trying to win over?
John Cuneen has said it out loud. He said that this race is important to Donald Trump's agenda and to protect the gains that Donald Trump has made for the American people. Now, I don't know what those gains are because if you're paying a thousand bucks to fill up your home heating oil tank or 6.50 to put diesel in your car for every gallon or housing costs that are through the roof, you're not feeling like you're winning right now. So the fact is Donald Trump has said this, that pretend I'm on the ballot. He's on the ballot through candidates like John Cuneen who will maintain his majority in the US Senate will make it harder for us to hold this administration to account to address the culture of corruption in Washington and fight to lower costs for New Hampshire families. So John Cuneen who stands with Trump in this campaign. He's been supporting his agenda. The fact is the last time he was in office he stood with George W. Bush for forever wars, privatizing social security and tax cuts for the rich. That didn't work for New Hampshire then and he doesn't represent the kind of future we need to lower cost and get this economy working for everyone.
But if Democrats flip control of Congress, what specifically does the party want to do to stop Mr. Trump as you just laid out? I mean, is that impeachment? Is that investigation?
Certainly there has to be accountability and the American people deserve to know what's going on in the government and any sort of corruption has to be rooted out. But we have to focus like a laser on the economic challenges that people are living right now. We have to put some wins on the board for workers and the middle class. We can do that by building on the success of the housing bill that we passed to invest in the affordable housing stock that we need to work to end this war and lower energy prices to restore the cuts to health care that are kicking thousands of Granite Staters off of their health insurance and making it harder for people to access the care that they need. So, we do have to focus with everything we've got on the affordability agenda that starts in January. And I think that's both a short, medium, and long-term strategy to take on the way this economy has been rigged and deliver results for middle class families and workers.
You said restore cuts to healthcare. I think you mean in the enhanced premium subsidies. So, you want more government spending on health care. Is that your platform?
I want New Hampshire families to be able to get a health care premium that makes sense for them, that will allow them to provide for their families. 17,000 folks in my state have dropped their insurance because of the failure to extend the ACA premium subsidies. And we're looking at a huge cut with respect to Medicaid that's going to devastate our hospitals, health centers, and nursing homes. Cynically timed to kick in just after this election. So, it's a focus both on making the Affordable Care Act work, taking the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies to account to lower prices and making sure we're backstopping these cuts to Medicaid so that rural health care, health care for people in underserved areas doesn't get disrupted and destroyed by these MAGA cuts that were part of the big beautiful bill last year.
Well, if Democrats do take control, there's also going to be that question of what is the unified vision for the party and can you unify your party? There's been a lot of focus on ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. You've sponsored a bill that would redirect $75 billion in ICE funding to local law enforcement agencies. You say ICE needs reform. That's different from some of your Democratic colleagues who are saying disband ICE entirely, including just right next door in Maine where Troy Jackson, who's running for Senate, says you got to break it up. Why is he wrong? Why is your approach the way to go?
Well, we have to be realistic. Donald Trump's going to be president for the next two years. We got to find every point of leverage we possibly can to rein in the disgusting abuses we have seen from ICE from next door in Biddeford, Maine to Minneapolis to Texas. This is unacceptable to people in New Hampshire and it's unacceptable to voters across the political spectrum. So, we need accountability. We need to take back the extra money that they were given in that slush fund last year, $75 billion, with no strings attached by Congress with no meaningful oversight. We need to make sure that ICE officers are conducting themselves like our trusted local law enforcement does. Making sure that they're identified, that they have de-escalation training, that they have body cameras. All of that would be a step in the right direction. But the fact is this is a nation of immigrants and we have to make sure that we are going after the worst of the worst criminals that are violating the law while also respecting due process rights and making sure that immigrants are part of our extended American family. And people in New Hampshire support that. And I hope we can get to the point where we're talking about immigration reform that will allow immigrants to follow a path to work hard to earn their citizenship and to ensure that our businesses can benefit from that.
Right. And then you'd have to work with a Republican president on those things. Thank you very much for your time. We'll be back in a moment.
For another perspective on artificial intelligence, we spoke Friday with Shyam Sankar, the chief technology officer for the software company Palantir. We spoke about how the rapidly advancing technology should be regulated. 50% of those polled by CBS say AI will create more problems than it solves. 29% say it'll solve more than it creates and 21% just really don't know. Like 45% of Americans want the government to restrict use and development of AI. Is your position there should not be any guardrails at this moment?
No, not at all. That's not my position. I think the burden is absolutely on the technology industry to show the American people that there are real benefits to AI and not kind of ephemeral sort of benefits like it can help me schedule travel but actually meaningful benefits that result in job growth and prosperity for the American people. I think one of the things that's really complicated in the current discussion is that there's an unseen force driving the narrative around AI safety and it's really this millenarian doomsday cult meets messianic complex called effective altruism.
The other part of this argument would be the people who don't want guardrails are simply in it for commercial reasons. They want to keep selling chips or they just want access to market. So that would be the counterargument to the idea that, you know, what you're saying, which is an ideological opposition to guardrails.
Maybe we could just back up and who's on the side of no guardrails?
