‘Fox News Sunday’ on May 15, 2022

This is a rush transcript of “Fox News Sunday” on May 15, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I’m Shannon Bream.

Mass shooting at a supermarket in New York, and abortion emerges as a flash point in the midterm elections, as Pennsylvania prepares for its turn in the primary spotlight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BREAM (voice-over): A march to the steps of the Supreme Court after a leaked draft opinion signals justices are poised to overturn Roe.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We will stand with the American people, stand with innocent life.

BREAM: While a move by Democrats to pass a bill making a right to an abortion national law fails to pass.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This vote clearly suggests that the Senate is not where the majority of Americans are on this issue.

BREAM: Now the debate shifts to the states. This hour, we’ll talk with two state leaders, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, where abortion is now banned after six weeks. And Colorado’s Jared Polis, whose state has expanded abortion with virtually no limits.

Plus, a nationwide shortage of baby formula has parents and Washington scrambling for answers.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Baby is crying. The baby is hungry. We need to address it right now.

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): This administration should be looking at everything and anything. We have heard absolutely nothing.

BREAM: We’ll ask the Sunday panel about the political fallout over formula.

And —

DAVID MCCORMICK (R-PA), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: The stakes are high. Stakes are high.

BREAM: The Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary now a three-way race as a conservative candidate suddenly surges.

KATHY BARNETTE (R-PA), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: If I lose, you lose.

BREAM: We’ll ask Kathy Barnette about her last minute surge and scrutiny from fellow Republicans.

And we talk to voters in our road trip across the Keystone State in this week’s “Road to the Midterms.”

ALEX HOFF, FOX NEWS REPORTER: Do you think people are going to take what’s happened to their wallet and go to the polls and then try to —

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope they do.

BREAM: All, right now, on “FOX News Sunday.”

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BREAM: And hello again from FOX News in Washington.

We will get to the national debate over abortion in just a minute but first, breaking news.

A horrific scene of violence in western New York. Authorities saying a white 18-year-old gunman wearing military gear opened fire on a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, killing 10 people, wounding three others. The suspect livestreaming it all with a helmet camera.

Let’s go straight to the scene for the latest from Alexis McAdams — Alexis.

ALEXIS MCADAMS, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Shannon, that’s right. A horrible scene here in Buffalo, New York, as this community continues to grieve the loss of so many innocent lives. Investigators say this was a racially motivated attack here in Buffalo, New York. Sources are telling us that the gunman had an online manifesto detailing this attack and his plans that he had posted online.

Take a look on your screen. This is a photo of the suspected gunman now given to us just last night by police. Buffalo police say they’ve identified the gunman as 18-year-old Payton Gendron. Just hours after that shooting, the teen was arraigned on first degree murder charges.

Investigators say he drove more than three hours from his small rural hometown down state to carry out the deadliest mass shooting in Buffalo’s history.

Now, the shooting happened around 2:30 Saturday afternoon at this Tops Grocery Store in Buffalo. You can see that crime scene there. First, police say Gendron shot three people in the parking lot and then 10 more inside. Officers say he was armed with an assault rifle and dressed in tactical gear from head to toe.

Investigators tell us of the 13 people shot, 11 were Black.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN GARCIA, ERIE COUNTY SHERIFF: This was pure evil. It was straight up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community, outside of the city of good neighbors as the mayor said, coming into our community and trying to inflict that evil upon us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCADAMS: Tonight, the suspect will be behind bars and will be back in court on Thursday.

President Biden did condemn the shooting in a tweet saying, in part, we must do everything we can to end hate-fuelled domestic terrorism — Shannon.

BREAM: Alexis McAdams, reporting from Buffalo — Alexis, thank you.

Now, the debate over abortion breaking wide open with the leak of a draft majority opinion that indicates the Supreme Court could soon overturn Roe v. Wade. Pro-choice proponents marching to the steps of the high court this weekend. Democrats retooling their midterm message and now the fight shifting to the halls of Congress and statehouses across the country.

In a moment, we’ll be joined by two governors whose states are dealing with the issue very differently, Jared Polis of Colorado and Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma.

But, first, let’s turn Lucas Tomlinson at the White House with the latest from the Biden administration — Lucas.

LUCAS TOMLINSON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Shannon, Justice Clarence Thomas has called the leak, quote, kind of an infidelity that has shredded the trust among the justices. At rallies across the country, protesters voiced their outrage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOMLINSON (voice-over): Crowds descending on the national mall and in major cities across the country, spurred to action as a direct result of the leaked draft opinion.

Democratic lawmakers attacking the court’s conservative majority.

REP. BARBARA LEE (D-CA): Now, we all know that this is a crisis moment. The radical Supreme Court justices and right wing extremists are making it clear that they won’t stop until a nationwide ban is enacted.

TOMLINSON: Protesters continue to march in front of the homes of conservative justices.

Many Republicans and some Democrats want President Biden’s attorney general to stop them.

STEFANIK: It is unlawful. It is against the law in this country to protest a sitting judge.

HARRIS: The motion is not agreed to.

TOMLINSON: Democratic leaders tried to make abortion a constitutional right. The 51-49 vote falling well short of the 60 needed to clear a procedural hurdle.

HARRIS: Sadly, the Senate failed to stand in defense of a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.

TOMLINSON: Red states planning to target the procedure. Blue states rushing to protect abortion rights. In six states, including Colorado, there are no abortion restrictions.

A baby formula shortage now the latest problem for the White House, on top of record setting inflation that remains close to a 40-year high. Empty shelves sending parents scrambling, in some cases calling friends and family in other states to check availability.

In her final news conference as press secretary, Jen Psaki claims the White House saw this latest crisis brewing.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What I will note is that there has been work ongoing on this for months.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TOMLINSON: Two weeks from now, House Democrats plan to hold a hearing to discuss the baby formula crisis — Shannon.

BREAM: Lucas Tomlinson reporting from the White House — Lucas, thank you.

Joining us now from Oklahoma City is Republican Governor Kevin Stitt.

Governor, welcome to “FOX News Sunday.”

GOV. KEVIN STITT (R), OKLAHOMA: Thanks, Shannon. Thanks for having me on.

BREAM: All right. With the appearance from this leaked draft opinion, if it remains and becomes the majority opinion, that Roe may be going down. You’ve signed a trigger law that would make it a felony to perform abortion punishable up to 10 years in jail and up to $100,000 in fines.

Dr. Maya Bass, who performs abortions there in Oklahoma, says this: These laws are being created by people who have no medical expertise. They’re not being created with patient safety or medical outcomes in mind. They’re created entirely to control bodies.

Your response?

STITT: Well, my response is I represent 4 million Oklahomans. I don’t know how much clearer we can be. We believe life begins at conception and we’re going to protect life in Oklahoma.

You know, there were 5,000 — just in Oklahoma alone, 5,000 unborn children that were killed last year. And we don’t believe that in Oklahoma. Other states can do things differently, but we’re going to stand for life in the state of Oklahoma.

BREAM: OK. A group called the Frontier, a journalistic group, has looked into what they say some fact checks on what you’re saying about how people in Oklahoma feel about abortion. They cite a Pew Research study. They say that most recent numbers they have from 2014 found that 51 percent of Oklahoman respondents believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

So within the last few years, they say your state was pretty evenly split actually on this issue.

STITT: Well, some of those — your — some of those different facts or those newspapers that you’re quoting are not what we find with the people in Oklahoma. These bills, the representatives are elected from all over the state of Oklahoma, probably 80 percent to 90 percent passage in our state. So, I totally disagree with those numbers.

BREAM: OK. So, let’s talk about another law that you signed much like in you’re your neighboring state Texas has done, allows for private causes of action for anyone who attempts, completes or facilitates an abortion. This could be including someone who pays for one after a heartbeat is detected, roughly six weeks.

We’ve got brand new FOX News polling on this and how people feel about at that six-week mark. About 50 percent they say at six weeks abortion should remain legal.

Now, your law as I understand, it has no exemptions for rape or incest. And the argument is a victim may not know at six weeks that she is pregnant.

So, what do you say to a woman who finds herself in that situation, lives in your state and feels like she’s got no options?

STITT: Well, first off, super compassionate about that. I have daughters, cannot even imagine what that would be like and that hardship.

But you have to choose — that is a human being inside the womb. And we’re going to — we’re going to do everything we can to protect life and love both the mother and the child. And we don’t think that killing one to protect another is the right thing to do either.

And our heart is super compassionate about that. We want the churches, we want all the services, the state, the nonprofits to come around with adoption services and that is — that’s super, super hard. And we’re going to do everything we can to help them.

But aborting that child, we don’t think, is the right thing to do.

BREAM: Ok, let’s talk some — through some of those issues because as you know, it’s one of the main critiques of the pro-life position. So, in Oklahoma, to look at the stats of what a woman is facing there with a child, 21.3 percent of children live below the poverty line, 71 percent of SNAP participants are in families with children, and Oklahoma ranked 42nd overall in child wellbeing.

A “Washington Post” opinion headline puts it this way: The GOP roars about abortion. Then they abandon the children.

So what is the plan in Oklahoma to help women if you’re advising them to carry through on these pregnancies when they are up against some real challenges?

STITT: Well, I mean, here’s the deal. Is the answer to the socialist Democrat left to abort poor kids? I mean, that’s just ridiculous to even kind of quote those types of stats.

We have a free market in Oklahoma. We believe that God has a special plan for every single life and every single child, and we want everybody to have the same opportunities in Oklahoma. And aborting a child is not the right answer.

BREAM: I want to ask you how this may tie in with a recent Supreme Court decision. The McGirt decision from 2020 says, basically, crimes that are committed that take place on a reservation. They will be — by Native Americans. They’re going to face prosecution in a tribal or federal court. It’s not going to be something that the state can prosecute.

Now there are questions about, do you think there would be doctors who would say, well, we can get around these state laws, we can perform abortions on reservations. People can come to us if that’s the care they want to seek.

STITT: Well, that’s something that a lot of Oklahomans, we’ve heard the rumblings as well.

You know, the tribes in Oklahoma are super liberal. They go to Washington, D.C. They talk to President Biden at the White House. They kind of adopt those strategies.

So, yeah, we think that there’s a possibility that some tribes may try to set up abortion on demand. They think that you can be 1/1,000th tribal member and not have to follow the state law. And so, that’s something that we’re watching.

But I’ll tell you this, Oklahomans will not take — will not think very well of that if the tribes try to start up abortion clinics, abortion on demand in eastern Oklahoma because the expansion of tribal lands includes the city of Tulsa now which is a million person MSA.

BREAM: I want to talk further of this issue of the tribal lands, the separation there. Nearly half of all Oklahoma land, at least big swaths of it, are part of a reservation. You vetoed a bill that would have required the state to recognize tribal convictions in the same way it acts upon convictions from, say, state municipal courts. It had 96 percent support from your legislature.

The Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes said this: It’s unfortunate that governor vetoed the public safety bill. We welcome opportunities to collaborate and work together. Our governor continues to be uncooperative and unwilling.

So I want to give you a chance to explain why you vetoed that and what’s going on there.

STITT: Yeah, first off, that wasn’t a bill that I requested. That wasn’t a bill that the Department of Public safety requested. That was a tribal bill that they were trying to get across the finish line, and it didn’t reciprocate.

They were wanting the state of Oklahoma to accept all tribal convictions whether they had jurisdiction or not, but it wasn’t reciprocated. They weren’t willing to take on the state side as well.

And so, we’re not going to expand tribal jurisdiction in the state of Oklahoma. We want to have an honest conversation. Really the question should be asked, why were the tribes fighting the state of Oklahoma to protect Native victims in the U.S. Supreme Court Castro-Huerta, we just got before — argued before the Supreme Court? The tribes fought the state from trying to protect and prosecute a bad guy that wasn’t even native to protect the Native victims.

So again, we’re for law and order in eastern Oklahoma. They’re trying to confuse the situation. Oklahomans want to protect and we want to be able to prosecute the crimes in eastern Oklahoma and right now, they’re telling us we don’t have that right.

BREAM: Governor Stitt, we appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining us today.

STITT: Thanks, Shannon.

BREAM: Up next, another state, another perspective. Colorado Governor Jared Polis joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BREAM: Six years before Roe v. Wade became the law of the land, Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion. And now, it finds itself on the front lines once more.

Joining us now from Boulder, Governor Jared Polis.

Welcome back to “FOX News Sunday”, Governor.

GOV. JARED POLIS (D), COLORADO: Good morning, Shannon.

BREAM: OK. This is what you’ve recently signed into law, the Reproductive Health Equity Act. It states simply, a pregnant individual has a fundamental right to continue their pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion.

I don’t see any structures related to weeks or trimesters. Does that mean in Colorado now there’s a right to abortion up to birth?

POLIS: What we did here is we preserved essentially the Roe versus Wade protection in Colorado because fundamentally, Shannon, what we believe is this is not about the government making that decision. It’s about women making that decision. And to sort of win this battle, it’s about the hearts and minds of women. Not the laws of men.

BREAM: Is there a limit on abortion up through nine months in Colorado?

POLIS: It’s the same as it has been the last several decades. People face gut-wrenching decisions every day, whether it’s rape or incest. They’re often having to choose between the life of the mother and child.

For the government to insert itself in that conversation between a doctor and a woman, a faith leader and a woman, is simply wrong. I think we need to approach this a different way. I think there’s a lot of common ground around reducing unwanted pregnancies, empowering women and men with birth control.

And really generating a culture of responsibility about what it means to be a parent.

BREAM: OK, and I will take that as a yes, that there is an option for abortion up to birth.

Let’s talk about that because when “AP” polls specifically by trimester frameworks, and they asked people, should it be legal or illegal — at 80 percent, when we get into the third trimester, people say it should usually be illegal.

Even “The New York Times” noted in an article updated this May, the United States is one of over a dozen countries that allows abortions for any reason beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy. “The Times” goes on to note that includes North Korea and China.

Is that the company that Coloradans wants to be in?

POLIS: So, this was on the ballot in Colorado just a year and a half ago, overwhelmingly rejected banning third trimester abortions and that’s because, you know, people know how painstaking and difficult that is. When you know that, you know, you might be near birth and you find out your baby doesn’t have lungs and won’t live for more than a few minutes outside of the womb — I mean, this is a really difficult thing that women face.

And the right answer is, of course, to make sure that we trust people to make that decision and people have the freedom to do that. We don’t say big governments are going to insert itself and tell them how to handle something that sadly really doesn’t have a right answer.

BREAM: We asked simply, do people think that abortion should be legal or illegal? Just straight up question and our latest FOX News polling, 44 percent said legal, 54 percent said illegal. That’s the lowest number we’ve tracked for legal and it’s the first time illegal has polled above 50 percent.

So, there in Colorado, conservative leaders say these are the kind of numbers that are their side.

Jeff Hunt, director of the Centennial Institute, says: My contention is the trend is with us. We may lose the battles but we will win the war in the state.

They’re talking about ballot measures for 2024.

Are you worried about your work being undone in coming elections?

POLIS: Not particularly. It’s been on the ballot, as I said, as recently as a year and a half ago. Voters agreed that the government should not interfere with this basic freedom, this basic decision.

It really is in the realm of conscience. It’s in the realm of how women understand that there’s options. And, by the way, that includes adoption.

We implemented free preschool in Colorado. We’re making daycare more affordable. We want to make sure that people know about these things.

And, of course, we want to make sure that we can increase access to birth control and — for both men and women, and really build that culture of responsibility and also, understanding the importance of consent for both men and women to help reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

BREAM: A federal law bans picketing and parades outside of the homes of judges in the midst of making decisions and intent of influencing them. “The Washington Post” has come out now against these pickets and demonstrations at Supreme Court justices’ private homes. One of the top Democrats in the Senate, Dick Durbin, has done as well.

What’s your position on these demonstrations?

POLIS: Well, I certainly don’t think that they’re effective in persuading judges. In fact, it might further alienate them from a particular cause to be that aggressive.

I think our judges, the men and women on the Supreme Court, are really the embodiment of our highest and best judges are very thoughtful about how they look at the information. They look at the record. They make a decision.

I’ve read a number of their decisions over time. And I think we want to keep that in the intellectual realm rather than drag them further into the political realm.

BREAM: Let’s talk about the economy which continues to poll as the top concern for Americans across the board, across party lines, backgrounds, ages, all of that. There in Denver, specifically, they have got an inflationary pain that’s above the national average which is already pretty tough for folks, the seventh highest among U.S. metro areas.

I want to take a look at some of the numbers that you’re dealing with out there. Food prices up over 9 percent, utilities up over 17, and housing about 8 percent.

What more do you think the administration could be doing to deal with inflation?

POLIS: Well, here, we’re focused on tax relief, fee relief. We cut property taxes by $750 million. Every Coloradan is going to get a $500 rebate check.

What I think that Washington can focus on is, of course, fiscal responsibility, monetary policy. In addition to that, I’d like to see them drop some of the tariffs which add an additional inflationary pressure for consumer products across the country.

BREAM: During COVID, you were a bit of an outlier, and that you took heat from the left. They thought you were a little bit too permissive with — when it came to things like masks and lockdowns and mandates.

Do you regret any of the decisions that you made now that we’re closing in on a million COVID deaths here in the U.S.?

POLIS: You know, we value freedom in Colorado. We never sugarcoated it. We always gave people the best information we could about the importance of wearing a medical grade mask indoors around others. We did an enormous statewide vaccination campaign and the risks are 10 times less if you’re fully vaccinated.

So, again, it’s been a difficult challenge everywhere. I think it’s tragic that we’ve lost a million lives to this pandemic. But without being trusted purveyors of information and making that vaccine widely available, we’d be talking about several million people right now.

BREAM: And, Governor, I’ve got to ask you something totally random. I saw when we were prepping for the show.

You said this about the unsolved JonBenet Ramsey case from 1996, a few days ago. You said: I can say one thing, the killer of JonBenet Ramsey should not rest easily because I’m still optimistic that he or she will be apprehended with technology that exists today in five years or in 10 years.

Do you think that case will ultimately be solved, Governor?

POLIS: We’ve had several great cold case breakthroughs in Colorado, successfully prosecuted with our Colorado Bureau of Investigations and technology is emerging every day that can take existing evidence and analyze it in new ways.

I don’t think anybody that committed a capital crime, 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago should rest easy because technology is making improvements and makes it likely to be able to apprehend the suspect. And I’m very optimistic on that front.

BREAM: Governor, on a wide array of topics, always a pleasure speaking with you. Thanks for being here today.

POLIS: Thank you.

BREAM: Up next, both Democrats and Republicans think they’ve got a shot at Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat. Come Tuesday, we could know a lot more.

Plus, one candidate’s surprise late surge over big spending rivals is catching many folks by surprise. Kathy Barnette joins us live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BREAM: “FOX News Sunday” is on the road to the midterms. Today in Pennsylvania where it’s a three-way race for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat left open by retiring Senator Pat Toomey.

Here is the latest FOX News poll showing Mehmet Oz, David McCormick and Kathy Barnette in a statistical dead heat. But it was a much different picture in March with Barnette pulling in just in the single digits.

And when it comes to enthusiasm, the subgroup of voters who say they’re extremely interested in this election, Barnette nearly tops both Oz and McCormick who have collectively outspent her by millions. In just a moment, we will speak with Kathy Barnette about her sudden surge.

But, first, Alex Hoff takes us on a road trip across the Keystone State where she catches up with voters and campaigns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID STACHE, BRADDOCK, PA, RESIDENT: This town was so prosperous. There were stores and restaurants. This was like Times Square.

ALEX HOFF, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Braddock, Pennsylvania, sits just east of Pittsburgh in what was once known as the Steel Valley.

STACHE: But once the mills went, I think a lot of sense of pride of the families went, too.

HOFF: The Edgar Thomson Steel mill is a rare survivor of the industry’s 1980s collapse. While still operational, its days as the town’s lifeblood have long gone. Directly across the street is what used to be a prominent car dealership.

(on camera): You had some experience with that, right?

STACHE: My dad bought a car there in the mid-’50s.

HOFF (voice-over): It’s now the home of Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman.

LT. GOV. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: We need to keep making (expletive deleted) in this country.

HOFF: Fetterman is, shall we say, an outsized political figure in Pennsylvania, a winner, perhaps in part, because he didn’t look the part. He spent 13 years as Braddock’s mayor and then became lieutenant governor.

FETTERMAN: Pat’s or Geno’s, those are more tourist…

HOFF: Fetterman has so far held a comfortable lead in the primary race even as his opponent, Conor Lamb, has called him too progressive. A PAC backing Lamb ran a short-lived ad calling Fetterman a Democratic Socialist.

(on camera): Does that hurt the party as a whole, him using words like that?

FETTERMAN: It’s Conor’s story, he can tell it the way he needs to. You know, neither he nor I are socialists, obviously. But I guess, you know, when, you know, you have, you know, trouble in polls and money, you know, you say things that are desperate.

HOFF (voice-over): The voter demographic in Pennsylvania is nearly identical to the United States as a whole, with the looks and leanings of each region differing greatly. So as the candidates put in the miles, so did we.

(on camera): These campaigns, a lot of them have been traveling for like 100 days now. So you want to go to the VFWs, get to the diners, and hope that the local officials along the way will endorse you.

DAVID MCCORMICK (R-PA), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Who is introducing?

HOFF (voice-over): We caught up with Republican Senate candidate David McCormick at a campaign stop outside of Philadelphia.

MCCORMICK: It’s going to be close. So thank you for being here.

HOFF: A former hedge fund CEO, McCormick is facing a very tight primary race.

MCCORMICK: Stakes are high. Stakes are high.

HOFF: For the majority of this campaign, McCormick has been polling neck and neck with a pretty distinct character, celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz.

(on camera): When you’re making the case to those who are still avid supporters of former President Trump, how are you balancing winning them over still without the endorsement?

MCCORMICK: He’s very popular, and Mehmet Oz isn’t very popular. And the reason he’s not popular is because his positions don’t line up with primary voters.

HOFF (voice-over): Road-tripping to the other side of the state, we would discuss this with Dr. Oz. But first, we paid a visit to someone within a group of increasingly coveted voters. Beth Ann Rosica is a suburban mom.

BETH ANN ROSICA, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: So I had been liberal Democrat for 34 years.

HOFF: But that changed during the pandemic as she felt COVID school closures and mask mandates dealt too heavy of a burden on families. Because of that, she says parents’ eyes were opened to policy and curriculum issues.

ROSICA: If they had just opened the schools, all of us parents would have just gone back to our jobs and our lives and we would have stopped paying attention.

HOFF: She says crime and inflation have also become issues weighing heavily on families.

ROSICA: I went to the grocery store, you know, I had three little bags of groceries and it was over $100.

HOFF: The latest Monmouth University poll puts inflation at the top of Republican voters’ concerns, followed by illegal immigration, which many see as contributing to drug smuggling and worsening a glaring opioid epidemic.

A less than two-hour drive west and the contrasts within the commonwealth become more vivid. Lancaster County is home to the country’s largest Amish population. They shy away from showing their faces on camera, but in recent years have broken tradition by showing up to the polls, almost always in favor of Republican candidates. And further west where there are a lot more cars to fill up…

UNKNOWN: Just working class people, blue collar people.

HOFF: … rising costs overall begin at the fuel pump.

UNKNOWN: You have to get diesel which is expensive and so you have to make sure that you can afford your food overall (ph).

HOFF (on camera): Do you think people are going to take what has happened to their wallet and then go to the polls and try to…

UNKNOWN: I hope they do.

HOFF (voice-over): Among Democrats, the issue of abortion also suddenly re-emerged as a rallying cry.

UNKNOWN: You can’t just sit back and relax and assume that things will continue on the same way that they have.

UNKNOWN: I think it should be a very concerning moment for all Americans and I’m hoping it will bring people out to the polls.

DONALD TRUMP, 45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Pennsylvania, we’re going to have a lot of fun.

HOFF: On the Republican side, a different rallying cry.

TRUMP: Dr. Oz!

HOFF: Former President Donald Trump throwing his weight behind Dr. Oz.

DR. MEHMET OZ (R-PA), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Thank you for the endorsement.

UNKNOWN: I’ll probably be voting for Dr. Oz, you know, even though I heard that he is a liberal as far as abortion is concerned.

HOFF: Back in western Pennsylvania, Oz greeted fans and undecided voters, assuring them that he believes life begins at conception.

OZ: There are kinds of people who are confused because after $30 million of negative ads have run against you, you can confuse people.

HOFF: Prior to our sit-down interview, I mentioned that I had felt light- headed early in the week and in true form.

OZ: Let me feel your pulse.

HOFF: Despite a career in medicine and TV, Oz says the former president’s backing proves he’s the right choice.

OZ: Said I am smart, tough, I will never let you down. He wrote that to address the folks who are saying what you’re saying, which is, you know, Oz is, you know, Trump-endorsed but is he really the right person? Yes, he is.

HOFF: But in recent weeks, another serious but far less well-funded Republican contender has emerged, former congressional primary candidate Kathy Barnette.

(on camera): People didn’t expect this, these other candidates were too busy in-fighting, and that you’ve now seen this surge.

KATHY BARNETTE (R-PA), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: I haven’t been vicious. I’ve been focused, right? And they’re mad now that I’ve ran a far superior campaign. Little old me. They didn’t expect it.

HOFF (voice-over): Off the campaign trail in Pennsylvania’s eclectic commonwealth of communities, life still churns and politicians have made promises before.

STACHE: There’s still manufacturing. It’s never going to go back to the ’50s and ’60s. If it did, that would be one of the greatest miracles of my lifetime.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BREAM: Alex Hoff, reporting from Pennsylvania. Joining us now, Kathy Barnette, one of the Republican Senate candidates.

Ms. Barnette, welcome to “FOX News Sunday.”

BARNETTE: Thank you so much for having me, Shannon.

BREAM: So we showed in the polling, especially among those who are most interested in this race, you are surging at just the right time on a shoestring budget compared to the other two top contenders. But former President Trump has weighed in on this race. He has plenty of good things to say about you but also offers this: “Kathy Barnette will never be able to win the general election against the radical left Democrats. She has many things in her past which have not been properly explained or vetted.”

And here’s what Dr. Oz said to me about that when I asked him Thursday on “Special Report.”

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OZ: She has raised questions in her own candidacy that she has refused to answer. This is a candidate who lost by 20 points when she ran for Congress 18 months ago. So she’s not going to do well in the general election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: OK. So I want to give you a chance to answer some of these questions and your critics. Let’s start with your military record. You have now released a couple of forms related to your service. Your website, your bio says you served for 10 years. Critics say those forms do not prove that out. Your response?

BARNETTE: That is not true. Those forms do prove just that. I have never — I have not embellished on my record, on my time in the military. And I’m very grateful that I had the wonderful opportunity to serve our country.

BREAM: Where were you an adjunct college professor?

BARNETTE: Yes, you know, and in fact, let me just make this really short for you and to your viewers. You can go to my website at barnetteforsenate.com, we’ve placed right there on the front page, you will see my family and around my family is a wheel, and we place there the things you want to know about Kathy Barnette. You know, I’ve been running this race now for about 13 months. And if you listen to the mainstream media, you would think I crawled from under a rock yesterday. I did not. We’ve been out here for 13 months. We started off doing about 900 miles a week, then bumped it up to 1,000. Now, these last couple of months, we’ve been traveling over 1,500 miles every single week. So I have been out here stomping the ground, getting to understand what the issues are in Pennsylvania. And the media was derelict in their duty.

I’ve been in — I’ve been in a statistical tie for first place not just one week but for about four weeks. So I’ve been out here doing the hard work. The numbers have been showing it. No one paid attention to me. They were too obsessed with the two men in this race and didn’t bother to take a look at what it is that we were doing.

BREAM: So now you’re getting that attention because you have surged, for you, at the right time. So is the information about your work as a professor on the website then now?

BARNETTE: It is.

BREAM: OK. When did you move to Pennsylvania?

BARNETTE: Yes, we’ve been — we’ve lived here for nine years, going into our 10th year.

BREAM: OK, so now let’s…

BARNETTE: I’ve raised two of my babies here.

BREAM: Mm-hmm, it’s a great state. As I told you during the commercial, I married into a Pennsylvania family and it’s a great place to have a family. So let me ask you about…

BARNETTE: I love it. I love Pennsylvania.

BREAM: … social media posts because you have said some of these are taken out of context. I want to give you a chance to respond to them, then. A tweet in 2014…

BARNETTE: Yes.

BREAM: … you said “if you love freedom, Islam must not be allowed to thrive under any condition.” You’ve got tweets about former President Obama, one of them in 2016 says “Obama is a Muslim doing Muslim-like things.” He has said that he is not, he is a practicing christian. So any context then for those particular tweets?

BARNETTE: Yes, let me just say in almost all of those tweets, you know, especially when you look at the time frame we were living in at that particular time, we had the Obama administration bringing in a lot of Syrian refugees at that time. I was watching the former FBI director, James Comey, testify, I believe, in front of the Senate, saying we can vet until the cows come home and we won’t know who these people are. And yet, Obama at the time was telling the American people, don’t worry about it, we’re going to vet everyone. And what we were watching as Americans was very unnerving. And I’m sure the people will remember that. We were looking at the Pulse nightclub shooting. We were watching people take vehicles, weaponize them, and run people down in the street. We were looking at the San Bernadino shooting. We were looking at some very unnerving things that as Americans we thought would never happen here.

And at that time, I was hosting a show called “Truth Exchange,” and I would have all kind of ideas, and was leaning into helping the public begin to have those conversations. And so those are some of the — that’s the context around a lot of those tweets. The overwhelming majority of the tweets that are now being presented are not even full thoughts. They’re not even full sentences. And yet, people take it and they begin to build their own narrative around it. So I can’t provide a lot of context because, again, it’s almost 10 years ago. That’s how far they have to go back to try to find anything on me.

What I can say — although I can’t provide a lot of context to that because it’s a half thought and everything is not there for me to be able to speak to it. What I can say is that I love my country. And I have always loved my country. And I have always been willing not to blink in the face of difficult discussions. We’re facing a lot of difficult discussions. And on those 1,500 miles traveling all around the commonwealth, people feel squeezed and no one is asking me about my tweets. What they’re talking about are the illegal immigration, we’re on track for 4 million unlawfully present people this year alone. They’re talking about inflation. I had someone call me the other day saying they’re driving over an hour because they heard a rumor about baby formula milk.

We have some very real issues and that is what — that is the reason why I’m surging and doing so well is because throughout this entire time I’ve kept the main thing the main thing and that’s Pennsylvanians.

BREAM: OK. You know that if you win this primary, your Democratic opponent, Mr. Fetterman, is going to bring up these things and more. So they haven’t come to light until now because you have done so well and your opponents feel you are a threat. How will you answer him because he will not, you know, pull punches on these many things?

BARNETTE: Yes, yes, you know, listen, you know, people ask me all the time, are you afraid to run against Fetterman? And my response is generally as long as I’m not running while Black, and many of your listeners will know that he is — he not only accused but he did hold a Black man up with a shotgun. You know, so Democrats have their own issues and I truly believe that as we continue to move throughout this year, the American people, and specifically Pennsylvanians, are going to again begin to prioritize their — their kitchen table issues above a lot of the other noise that we’re hearing right now.

People are unnerved. People are just afraid. They — I think most people know something has gone fundamentally wrong with how our nation is being governed. And while my two primary opponents were spending $60 million attacking themselves, refusing to go to the base, we had seven debates and Mehmet Oz and David McCormick only showed up to two. We had a number of forums and I can only recall them showing up to two. And then while they were attacking one another on television, I was out here with the people.

We spent less than $2 million and they’re mad. They’re mad because I didn’t ask for permission to be in this space. I just walked in because this is my country. And our country is in trouble. And I don’t believe we have anymore room to elect warm bodies with an R next to their name and say hey, check, Republicans win. We don’t win. It’s not working out for us.

BREAM: OK. And as to that incident you refer to with Mr. Fetterman, I confess not familiar with that allegation. I will dig into that and make sure we get some information out.

BARNETTE: It is there. It is there.

BREAM: OK. Ms. Barnette, thank you for your time today. We will follow the returns and we’ll see what happens for you on Tuesday.

BARNETTE: Thank you so much for having me.

BREAM: Up next, the Biden administration tries to dodge the political fallout from rising gas prices. Now a nationwide shortage of baby formula impacting parents and the political landscape. We’ll bring our Sunday group to discuss what’s on voters’ minds as they head to the ballot box.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: Last year Attorney General Garland’s Justice Department was quick to treat the concerned parents of America like potential domestic terrorists. But curiously, I haven’t heard any announcement about how the DoJ may handle these intimidation tactics aimed directly at federal judges.

JEN PSAKI, OUTGOING WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I know that there’s an outrage right now, I guess, about protests that have been peaceful to date. And we certainly continue to encourage that outside of judges’ homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: The debate over demonstrations at conservative Supreme Court justices’ homes, one of the political fault lines from the leak of a draft opinion that indicates the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade. It is time now for our Sunday group. FOX News contributor Charlie Hurt, former DNC Communications Director Mo Elleithee, FOX News contributor Guy Benson, host of “The Guy Benson Show,” and Catherine Lucey, who covers the White House for The Wall Street Journal.

Welcome to all of you. All right, Charlie, what do you make of these protests? And we’ve had a number of, you know, prominent Democrats come out, including Dick Durbin this week, to say, don’t do it.

CHARLES HURT, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, well, Dick Durbin’s comments were a little late and maybe — actually, his were fairly forceful. But unfortunately out of the White House they were late or actually kind of nonexistent which is — reveals a terrible double standard. But the real problem is that it — of course, it is actually illegal. You’re not allowed to do this sort of thing. And so where you have a lot of concern about our institutions, which is a good thing to have, this sort of blithe disregard for a real attack on an entire branch of government trying to work through a very complicated issue is not — is not good for the country.

BREAM: Yes, we got the text of the law, just edited to the relevant parts. It says “whoever with the intent to interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge in the discharge of his duty, pickets or parades in or near a building or residence occupied, or used by such judge, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year or both.”

So, Mo, why isn’t the Justice Department getting involved? They get involved in a lot of things but don’t seem too interested this time.

MO ELLEITHEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, look, I’m not a lawyer, I’m not a prosecutor. So I don’t — I’m not going to pretend to know why the DoJ is or isn’t doing anything. I will say politically I’m against these protests outside of their homes for a number of reasons. One, I just think it’s wrong. Number two, I just think it is not going to be successful, right? They’re not going to sway any justice. But number three, we spent the last couple of minutes talking about the protests outside of justices’ homes instead of talking about the content, instead of talking about the real threat to Roe v. Wade. And if — and as a supporter of having access to abortion, of Roe v. Wade, I’d much rather be having this conversation than whether or not we are protesting — where we are protesting.

BREAM: Well, so Senate Democrats this week tried to pass something that they kept calling it — it kept being entitled the codification of Roe v. Wade, but many people think it was far beyond that. The World News Group has a piece entitled “More Radical than Roe,” said the proposed law was much more extreme that: abortion on demand for any reason and at any point up until birth. For the first time in our nation’s history, Schumer’s law would have done away with religious liberty protections for medical providers who object to performing abortions on religious or conscience grounds. It would have also allowed for sex-selective abortions. So even pro-choice Republicans, and they were joined by Joe Manchin, said they cannot go that far.

GUY BENSON, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Right. I think that the Senate bill was actually appalling. It goes far beyond anything that really approaches just codifying Roe. A few senators were asked questions about that on the Democratic side. And Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said, let’s not get bogged down in the details. Well, the details actually matter quite a lot and the details were disgusting. They’re actually quite similar to the bill just recently signed into law by Governor Polis, your guest earlier in the program. He was sort of dancing around your question.

BREAM: What it actually is.

BENSON: Right. The answer was yes, unfortunately. But he didn’t really want to spell that out. He did say that this issue, abortion, should come down to the hearts and minds of women, not the laws of men. Well, he’s a male governor who signed a bill into law that, according to a new YouGov poll, flies in the face of 65 percent of what American women believe on this question. So I think that you saw, in these two governors on the program today, very different approaches that represent in each case a pretty small segment of the American electorate and sort of public opinion, whereas many other people, there’s a messy middle here on a lot of these issues, that doesn’t really seem to be getting a lot of attention from some of the loudest voices.

BREAM: So, Catherine, how does the White House then assess this? The president is upside-down on almost every issue that we poll on. The Democrats really need something to rally around for the midterms. Do they feel like this is it?

CATHERINE LUCEY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, certainly Democrats do think that this is potentially a galvanizing issue. They think this motivates women voters, some of those key groups that they think are important, you know, in some of these tough districts in the fall. You know, suburban women. But they are now hoping that this will help, you know, bring people out, you know, get people energized in an election that is looking very, very challenging for Democrats. The president’s numbers are really low. People are frustrated by inflation. They’re frustrated now about, you know, the shortages of baby formula, for example, which is a real issue for parents.

The question is how much this does. You know, what I’ve heard from a lot of analysts and from pollsters is that Democrats still need an economic message. They need an economic message. They need to be able to talk to people about inflation. They need to be able to show that they’re doing things on this. But people do think that this could help on the margins.

BREAM: Well, and to the economy, seven in 10 Americans told Pew Research, in a poll released this week, inflation is, quote, “a very big problem for the country today.” Mo, as we talked about, I mean, the president is upside-down. Democrats are upside-down on these things. And people vote with their wallets. Do you think it’s salvageable, the midterms, this issue with the economy?

ELLEITHEE: This is actually a fairly messy election season, I think. And there’s so many unknowns that are still coming in, right? How does Roe v. Wade play into this? How does any number of issues play into this? How does yesterday’s tragic shooting in Buffalo and the issues that come from that change sort of our collective thinking? Having said all that, yes, inflation is a big problem. It is going to be the number one issue. And that’s why you see the president out there over the past week being much more assertive and aggressive in talking about the issue and trying to, number one, say here’s what Democrats and my administration are going to try to do; and number two, increasingly drawing a contrast with Republicans, increasingly drawing a contrast with how Senator Rick Scott’s tax plan will negatively impact people.

BREAM: Even though no Republicans have embraced it but him.

ELLEITHEE: Right. But you’re seeing them start to try to draw a contrast between the two sides. And look, they’re even beginning to see how they can try to connect the economic argument to issues like Roe v. Wade. You brought up some great statistics in your interview with the governor of Oklahoma a little while ago. He didn’t seem — he seemed to be caught a little flatfooted by some of those, economic impact of some issues. So I think you’re going to see Democrats lean into it a lot more, but they’re — they’re facing some serious headwind in…

(CROSSTALK)

BREAM: Yes?

LUCEY: Well, also, I think one of the challenges for the White House, right, is they’re trying to, as Mo said, create a choice for voters, say, look, it’s us versus the Republicans, here’s what Republicans would do. Republicans will raise taxes. But it’s typically very, very hard to shift a midterm election from what is a referendum on the party in power.

(CROSSTALK)

BREAM: Well, especially when we’ve got this issue of moms who can’t find formula, Charles.

HURT: Yes. And also, you know, with inflation in particular, you know, the White House also denied that that was a problem for a very long time and tried to — tried to pretend it away. And the fact that they are grasping at something like Roe v. Wade, I think, also underscores just how desperate they are for an issue that, as you point out, galvanizes things.

But go back to something that Mo said I think is very interesting talking about, you know, how you would rather be talking about Roe v. Wade. Well, you know, I’m on the opposite side of this issue. I would rather be talking about the issue as well. And that’s really what the beauty of — if this does, in fact, get overturned, it puts this out for a debate so that…

BREAM: Back to the states.

HURT: … people — people’s elected legislatures can have these arguments and suss out these differences and arrive at things that — arrive at decisions at laws that make sense to people.

BREAM: So, Guy, final word to you.

BENSON: I would just say, the president gave a speech last week. A lot of blame for inflation. Not a lot of proactive plans. But he did say his policies are helping, not hurting. That was his assertion. Polls show the American people do not believe that.

BREAM: That’s not their perception of it, anyway. OK, panel, thank you very much. We will see you next Sunday.

Up next, a final word on the week ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BREAM: All right. Big primary challenges coming up this week in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. We will be tracking all of those around the clock. That is it for us today. I’m Shannon Bream. Keep it here at FOX News Channel for the latest on all those primary nights coming up. You can join me weeknights, 12:00 Eastern, 9pm on the West Coast for “FOX News at Night.” We’ve got Supreme Court coverage with opinions coming in the morning. Have a great week, what’s left. We’ll see you next “FOX News Sunday.”

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