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maria: good thursday morning, everybody. thanks very much for joining us. i'm maria bartiromo. i hope you're having a good morning. it's thursday, february 8, 7:00 a.m. on the east coast. time for the hot topic of the hour. the senate is voting on a bill that will provide billions of dollars in military aid to ukraine, israel and other allies. after the senate failed to pass the border bill yesterday. only foreign senators support this bipartisan bill. in the house, speaker mike johnson is vowing to try to impeach alejandro mayorkas again after the failed vote on tuesday. here's the speaker yesterday. >> on impeachment, it's a setback. democracy is messy. we have a divided government. we have a razor thin margin. every vote counts.

mayorkas needs to be held accountable. we will pass the articles of impeachment. we'll do it on the next round. maria: matt fin asking mayorkas about the impeachment efforts during a super bowl safety are press conference yesterday. watch this. >> republicans have indicated they may hold another vote and they might have the numbers at that point to impeach you. if that happened, would you consider stepping aside? >> no, i would not. maria: no, i would not, todd. he's not going anywhere. >> he's not going anywear. does this really matter? you know the strings are being pulled by somebody in the biden administration. the administration is telling mayorkas what to do. getting rid of him had, i don't think it's going to matter one way or another. where i come down on this, it's such a bad look for the organization of the republican party that they could not get on board with this. who is whipping these votes? they the had should know they do or do not have the votes before they bring it this far.

and you are being gifted the 2024 election by the democrats. why do you then do things that look a gift horse right in the mouth? steal defeat from the jaws of victory. when it comes down to it, the average american that's trying to feed their familiarly today, go to their job, are they following the ins and outs of what's going on in d.c. take away, the republicans failed on something that everybody thought they were going to do easily so how can this party govern? it's a bad look when you should be crushing the democrats. maria: it's the point that i keep making. that is, who told the senate republicans to come up with some ggiant immigration policy. you're about to see a partial government shutdown. you'll get all the appropriation bills done, otherwise we see a shutdown. we have a massive border with terrorists coming in and you want to come up with an immigration policy in an

election year and jam it in, instead of doing what the republicans' priority was from day one which was secure the border. they say let's do a standalone bill to send money to taiwan, ukraine and gaza. >> especially in washington you don't want to see how the sausage is made and an effective party and effective working coalition will make sure that they roll out one bill or the entire process is open. this is the worst of both worlds. democrats were leaking the entire time. republicans felt iced out of the process, house republicans, whose mandate they need even though they have a two seat voting majority. i believe steve scalise is still in cancer treatment. by the time the bill gets ruled out, it's not the bill as written -- some it reverting to trump era standards that are discretionary. but the problem is, there's no trust here about the biden

administration's enforce machine. because we know they have used the prosecutorial discretion to do catch and release on a scope that obama wouldn't have tried, catching and releasing without court dates, then finding people, it's like oh, court dates in they 2031. there's no trust there. and why would you pass a bill that still grants the executive branch this much discretion. it's up to them. you can't let perfect be the enemy of the good but it's not good when you still have mayorkas in power. republicans still can't whip the votes to get rid him. there's no recourse. maria: cowen and company writes election year politics seems to have blocked the competing bills with the senate on the eve of taking the two week president's day recess. the good news, the analyst writes, there will be no less than two must pass bills on march 1 and 8 that can serve as legislative vehicles. if those bills don't pass we'll get a partial government shutdown p. shutglown well, our government s

dysfunctional. i expect that. when you look at the house right now, speaking johnson mentioned that there's already a razor thin majority. they're missing kevin mccarthy, they're missing -- even matt gaetz is missing kevin mccarthy. can you imagine that? >> he is conceding under ronna mcdaniel who spent more money on limousines than on tv ads that he's missing kevin mccarthy. maria: one of the many ironies is the failed impeachment t vott vote was short by one of two votes. the white house is attempting to turn it around on you, republicans. they're using the failed senate border bill to blame house republicans for the border crisis, saying i.c.e. will have to reduce deportations. >> congressional republicans are choosing partisan politics over our nation in nail security

and refusing to pass the bipartisan national security agreement that includes significant border reforms and funding over the coming weeks. i.c.e. will be forced to he reduce operations because of budget shortfalls. when i.c.e. can't conduct these operations, our medication nail nationalsecurity and public safl be harmed. speaker johnson and congressional republicans should be held accountable. maria: yeah. but no accountability for joe biden who walked into the oval office in january of 2021 and reversed all the security of the border which donald trump had in place. by the way t way, the white hous joe biden is not planning to visit the border. >> will the president go to the border. >> the president was at the border last year. i want to make that clear. maria: he took a walk for an hour and didn't actually see what was taking place at the border. i remember the time he was in his car, driving around el paso.

>> he saw trump's wall. he took a picture in front of it. >> this is the underlying problem, though. democrats play chess. republicans i don't know what game it is but it's certainly not chess. if you s sat the average americn down and presented them with the republican versus the democratic path, every average american would say the republican policies are great but that's all irrelevant if you can't work out the details, if you can't figure out how to work congress, how to work d.c. you have a disadvantage, it's a democracies testimony. i get that. you have to figure it out. you're not doing well right now, didn't do well 2022, 2023. it comes down to this year. figure it out. otherwise this country is going down further. maria: they come up with an immigration policy bill to take off the blame from democrats on the open border. >> it's insanity. maria: let's fix that before the election. good job, republicans. markets are on the of move this morning. the dow vills down 30, nasdaq

down 32, the word on wall street panel is here with their take on earnings season. you're watch "mornings with watching "mornings withmaria" l. ♪

maria: welcome back. time for the word on wall street. top investors watching your money. joining me is chief investment strategist, marianne bartels. also with he me is mark tepper. thank you for joining the conversation. good to see you. >> wonderful to see you. thank you for having me. maria: the market is under selling pressure. we are looking at a rally underway year-to-date. dow is down 18, nasdaq is down 30 points. the s&p 500 yesterday closed in record territory, it's now close to 5,000 on strong fourth quarter earnings. the s&p up almost a percent yesterday.

the nasdaq up 147 points, about a percent yesterday as well. tapa underarmour beat on earninn sales. we are waiting on ralph lauren in the next hour. we've got the stocks moving, under armour is up better than 7% right now, ralph lauren is up 1 and two thirds percent. what is your reaction to tensioner season so far. how would assess the fundamentals behind the market? >> maria, the fundamentals are very positive. i mean, the economy is growing. the consumer is spending. and that's being reflected in earnings. and of course, we have a whole technology revolution going on with a.i., artificial intelligence. and we came into this year calling this year the year of the bucking bull. we do think markets are going to have a great year but we will see some volatility. our target on the s&p this year is 5200 to 5400.

i do think markets could be a little stressed here. i wouldn't be surprised if we get a little bit of pullback. what we're telling our clients is any pullback in the market is a buying opportunity and even if you buy the march today, maria,-car market today, maria, i think by the end of the year clients will be really happy. maria: when you look at allocations where you want toal allocate capital. eli little lilly is exceeding tt this point. tesla is asking manager which jobs are critical, igniting fears of he potential layoffs there. mark, your thoughts on this discrepancy. he eli lilly, higher market value than tesla. >> it's wild. what you're seeing play out here is a complete polar opposite in demand. you've got eli lilly with monjaro which is supposed to be more effective than ozempic for weight loss. they're rolling out zepboung for

people that are trying to lose weight with a bmi that exceeds 27, which is a lot of people out there. there's a lot of demand for the drugs, those are game changing drugs. a lot of people are interested, trying to see how it can help them in many ways outside of weight loss. you look at the ev landscape which is a challenged landscape. you had 38 auto dealerships at the end of last year write a letter to president biden asking him to roll back ev mandates because they had a bunch of evs sitting on their lots that they couldn't sell. there's no demand for evs. on top of that, with regards to tesla, they are being targeted politically. you look at the $7,500 ev tax credit that for tesla, because their best selling model three, because the battery is not made in north america, the tax credit goes down to 3750. what the government has done, they've taken the number one ev

maker in the worldnd a of they've made them number two. byd in china has overtaken tesla, they're delivering more vehicles than tesla right now all because this administration essentially declared war against elon musk. maria: so joe biden is fine with that, the fact that a i chinese ev maker is selling more vehicles than tesla. >> well, yeah, because they don't like elon musk and they don't like the fact that tesla is a nonunion automaker. he'll talk about gm or ford, non-stop, but you never, ever, ever hear him say anything nice about tesla. maria: marianne, your thoughts on the fed and how that fits in here. do you expect cuts this year? >> i do believe that they're going to cut rates but maria, this is going to be a very unusual environment. it looks like the economy will continue to grow, employment's going to remain strong. we're used to a fed that's cuting in a recession or moving

towards a recession and we don't see that in the cards at all of. this is going to be a very different environment and they'll be able to do this because inflation numbers continue to come down. now, we're going to get revisions in cpi and they're going to be very interesting to look at. but our outlook is that inflation will come down to levels that well allow the fed to be automobile to cut rates and -- allow the fed to be able to cut rates and that will stimulate assets for investors. the leadership in the market remains, particularly semiconductors. although earnings are growing, they'll remain scarce and you want to stay with growth versus value. maria: great plan. marianne, good to see you. thank you so much. mark, you're sticking with us all morning long. we're grateful. thank you. quick break and then the war in the middle east is continuing. the u.s. taking down a high ranking commander in baghdad involved in the attack that killed three american troops. congressman brian mass is here to talk about that.

head to my instagram and x accounts to ask me a question. we'll answer it at the end of the show of. hope you'll play with us on that. you're watching "mornings with maria." back in a minute. ♪

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maria: welcome back. a u.s. drone strike in baghdad last night killed a high ranking hezbollah commander. iran's ambassador to the united nations is admitting that tehran has been arming and empowering palestinian resistance groups in the region. he claimed the terrorist groups are making their own decisions. joining me is florida congressman brian mast, a member of the house foreign affairs committee, a recipient of the bronze star and purple heart medal. we thank you for your service to our country. is iran trying to mislead here, saying we armed everybody but its their decision if they want to use it in a terrorist way? >> of course they are. they're constantly trying to mislead, whether it's their support of the houthis, whether it's their support of hezbollah, of hamas, of take your pick of the entities.

they're going to present their hands are off of it, and this going on in the midst of israel and hamas meeting together in cairo, you have blinken speaking with them, trying to pressure israel to do a multi-month cease fire in a moment that you had just days ago announced that there were an additional 34 hostages that were killed and the woubodies aren't being retu. ism glad that the commander, that i know personally, capable individual, has the targets, has the capability to destroy the targets. at the same time he has the capabilities, he has the president constantly speaking out of both sides of his mouth where we'll kill those participating and then he'll say we don't want war with them, we don't want this. every instance is dealing with the president messing it up politically because he's going to speak out of both sides of his mouth. that's the hamstring. maria: it's true. because he's supposed to be acting tough, that he's going to

retall hereyates -- retaliate bs we don't wand a widening war. >> we used to have a policy of selective am bi ambiguity. we'll strike at the time and place of our choosing. we're not going to worry about proportionality. you should have the fear of god in you if you provoke an american attack. that's not what we have out of the administration. they're going to do the bear minimum of attack, not hit every target they can, do it after there's already an attack, instead of hitting the individuals that might be planning an attack. you don't have selective ambiguity. you have a transparent weakness. maria: you brought up a great point earlier, secretary of state antony blinken is in tel aviv right now, he appears optimistic that a peace deal between hamas and race israel cd

be reached. >> what i can tell you about the discussions, while there are clear nonstarters in hamas' response, we do think it creates space for agreement to be reached and we'll work at that relentlessly until we get there. maria: yeah, i mean, look, the u.s. wants israel to do a cease fire. tiana, jump in here. despite the fact that it's retaliating for an attack on them which was unprovoked. >> it's as though they're terrified that israel is about to written the war, they control 75% of the gaza strip, hamas is correctly terrified. and yet you have blinken meeting with abbas in the west bank, saying we're still pursuing purl palestinian state hood. i'm not saying that's a bad goal in a vacuum but in hamas succeeding on the attack, you don't reward them for that.

gaza doesn't this. the palestinians don't think abbas is radical enough. they want hamas in power. that's why hamas has to be destroyed. it's the administration wants 16 billion for israel but also working against their interests, isn't bebe totally right to say no, let's just win it. maria: congressman, consider are the republicans rolling over here and they're debating this money to ukraine and money to gaza and forget the border, the white house is attempting to use the failed senate border bill to blame republicans nor the border crisis. your thoughts. >> clearly the president can't secure the border -- can secure the border if he wants. it's in violation of the order for all military, i will guard everything in my post and quit my post when properly relieved. they have no interest in it. thank god the republicans in the senate decided they weren't

going to take up the bill that was being offered. this is another example of both sides of the president's mouth as well. clearly republicans aren't to blame. we do everything we can to push them to secure the border which they can do. he'll say no, it's secure, it's safe, it's humane, all of these things while everybody is watching on video people pour across through or them cutting down fences or telling texas to take down containers that are physically blocking people from coming through. it's all both sides of their mouth. maria: i spoke with president trump about this the other day in an exclusive interview and he's questioning why biden is saying anything about his response to iran. cwhy warn them? watch this. what should be the response from the united states and what do you think about biden's response. >> if you don't want a widening war you have to be tougher. maria: showed his cards. >> he shouldn't be talking about what he's going to do, he shouldn't say he's going to do anything, he's going to do much or very little. but he's incompetent. everybody knows it.

maria: todd piro, your reaction. >> i mean, that is the overall point. but congressman, the first 90 minutes of this program, i've been pretty hard on republicans today. why aren't all republicans in lock step with these general notions? i know you're on board. but it seems like there are too many members of the republican party -- like i used the phrase earlier, looking this gift horse in the mouth. all the issues are on your side. why can't the republicans get the ball over the finish line and realize we have a chance to win the election and bring our country back? >> this is the best answer that i can give you, and it's partially a nonanswer. don't ask me to explain the unexplainable. it's beyond me personally why everybody is not on that same page because of the facts that have been laid out for all years of the biden presidency, because of the stark contrast that you can see of what success looked

like under the trump administration with his policies and what failure looks like under the biden administration with his policies. it's beyond me and i cannot explain the unexplainable. that's the best i can do. maria: no one can explain it, why joe biden is so soft on our number one advairly, china, no one can explain why biden did not enforce sanctions on iran, allowing them to generate billions of dollars in oil revenue and back these maniacs, hezbollah and hamas and their effects on israel. where is this going? you've got deadlines coming up. >> we got to see president trump in action and enforce all of those policies and see what it did for america. that's why he will go down as the greatest foreign policy president because he did not allow foreign intelligence

agencies to know what he was going to do or even be able to calculate what they think he might do. was he serious about doing this or was he bluffing? they would never know. they knew the domestic policy was in lock step. it didn't matter how much the mainstream media was trying to bash him and he create chaos around him and his policies, securing the southern border, preventing terrorists from coming into the united states of america, dealing with kim jong un and north korea, doesn't matter how successful the policies were. the mainstream media barbed him, tried to make chaos and he still did and prevented the foreign adversaries from being able to calculate what he was going do o do and that's where we had the strength. maria: it's great to see you. tanks so much. quick break and biden's border crisis spirals out of control, 1 million migrants have crossed the border since october.

the senate border deal is failing. lieutenant christopher olivarez is here, he'll give us the facts from the ground in texas coming up. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. ♪ bl ♪ i have type 2 diabetes, but i manage it well ♪ ♪ jardiance! ♪ ♪ it's a little pill with a big story to tell ♪ ♪ i take once-daily jardiance ♪ ♪ at each day's start! ♪

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witnesses are asking to see a copy of the draft before it's released. the attorneys are concerned the investigation may have missed proper factual context provided by his clients. well, former hunter biden associate tony bobulinski is going to testify next week behind closed doors as part of the impeachment inquiry of president biden. a source telling fox news digital he's going to appear tuesday, february 13, 10:00 a.m. for a transcribed interview with the house oversight and judiciary committees. he could be there for the eight hours, maybe more. in december, bobulinski accused president biden of lying about a meeting that bobulinski said took place in may of 2017. the walt dizzy any corporation s buying a stake in epic games, a collaboration of properties like star wars, marvel and a avatar, thanksfans will be able to watcp and play with characters within the game, there will be a connection to the theme parks.

bob iger says this marks their biggest entry into the world of games and offers opportunities for growth and expansion. disney announcing taylor swift movie will be coming to disney plus on march 15th. on the heels of her winning album of the year, breaking a record, announced a new album and she's going to the super bowl on sunday because she will be cheering on her boyfriend, travis kelce. first it was your gas stove, your gas powered vehicle and now, drum roll please, according to tiana lowe they want to get rid of balloons. environmental activists say the release or public release of balloons should be banned. they threaten p h sea creaturesf or waterways. they account for part of the litter in the ocean. p bepeta has a new target, animl

themed carousels. they say they celebrate animal exploitation. >> wow. >> it's hard to read this with a straight face. they say there should be cars, airplanes or bulldozers. >> yo how is that better thana fixal pony or horse. >> they don't care about the environment. they care about the animals. >> being on a carousel made me want to get a horse. >> it's how to treat a horse nicely. >> it's a war on children's birthday parties. they want to take away everything fun in your life, no more balloons, carousels, no more straws in your juice boxes. >> have you ever tried to use a paper straw. >> they disintegrate.

>> have we confirmed this is real. >> there are statements from peta people that i could cite. maria: how about the issue of national security? i mean, come on. >> it's all a distraction. maria: thank you. we're going to focus on national security. new customs and border protection data revealed nearly 9,000 illegal migrants from 73 different countries crossed the san diego border in one week. yes, 9,000 in just a week. cpb customs and border protection sources telling fox news migrant encounters have exceeded 1 million for the fiscal year and the fiscal year began in october. joining me from the texas department of public safety is lieutenant christopher olivarez. thank you for being here. thank you for all you're doing at the border. can you tell us what you're seeing, what are the most important trends we should understand about the southern bordertoday. >> a lot has trans fired the transpired in lastseveral month.

we've seen a significant drop of illegal border crossings in texas. by fortifying areas along the river, we saw the challenges we were facing in texas, legal battles from the federal government trying to stop us by cutting wire and wanting us to remove barriers. governor abbott was not going to stand for that and we continued to hold the line and because of that we're seeing a shift in illegal border crossings in areas such as arizona, you mentioned san diego, they're seeing an influx from individuals from all over the globe china, they've seen a significant increase in those type of illegal immigrants in those areas. we're making it more difficult, more challenging to enter the state of texas. that's what we're facing right now. nonetheless, we are still focusing on criminal activity. we're still dealing with human smuggling, drugs, cartel members. this gives us the opportunity for state troopers to focus on those threats, the threats to

public safety and national security. maria: it's basically proof that borders work, that protection at the border works. put up the fencing and border crossings were down. but where are they going? is the activity shifting to san diego, to arizona, as those numbers obviously are rising. so what's happening in terms of -- they're not going back to venezuela, not going back to honduras, right. >> no of course not. they're not going to go back, especially when they make the journey from their country. they're going to make it through somehow, whether texas, arizona or san diego. what we've been doing in texas, we didn't create any laws, we simply followed the rule of law and reinforced laws in texas. it goes back to having strong leadership in texas from governor abbott to our legislature, everyone within texas that's been able to stand and actually take this fight to the federal government so that's

why we talk about had this group, this border bill that was about to pass, but it didn't, there's no need to have negotiations to secure the border. there's already laws on the books. the problem is that the federal government failed to enforce those laws and they reversed every policy that was slowing the flow of illegal immigration. all it takes is executive action to put the policies back in place and we wouldn't be dealing with this problem right now but because of what we've been doing, we're seeing the activity shift to arizona and to san diego because there is no consequences there. there is no no physical barriers, no law enforcement there to actually deter some of that activity. maria: so the shift now is moving to san diego and to arizona, lieutenant. but you mentioned the security bill and it failed, of course yesterday. even in the impeachment of alejandro mayorkas failed yesterday. you've got republicans voting against it. tell us what the impact is on texas. >> well, one thing that stood

out to he me as far as from an operational perspective is the fact that they were are going to allow 5,000 illegal immigrants a day, 1.8 million a year, not including got aways or illegal immigrants that will be processed at a point of entry, over 2 million a year, i can't comprehend how that will be sustainable for anyone to think about passing. you can't allow thousands to come across the border and codifying illegal acts by breaking the law and not only that, one thing that stood out to me, the fact that it's still okay for people for illegal immigrants to cross a river in order to seek asylum. there's nothing in the bill to prevent people from entering the river to go to a land port of entry. i don't understand how that can become a normalized situation where you allow illegal immigrants to cross the river and seek asylum. we've had a record number of illegal immigrant deaths in the last three years. nothing to you address security,

barriers, going of after the cartels or the p fentanyl coming across the borders. maria: that was supposed to be the priority, secure the border. that's all the republicans kept saying, secure the bore doctor and yet we've got this huge package that they've got to debate. it's been one year since the launch of operation lone star, governor greg abbott launched it, the texas department of public safety and national guard working together to fill in the gaps at the southern border that president biden refuses to close, led to 500,000 illegal apprehensions, 40,000 criminal arrests. we spoke with the governor on it recently. here's governor abbott on that. >> biden says he needs congress to give him the power to do what he needs to do to secure the border. the fact is as we saw from what president trump did, the president of the united states has the power. i must emphasize this. there is an obligation, there are laws in the united states

that require the president to deny illegal entry of any i illegal immigrant and then if they do get into the united states, he has a legal obligatin to detain those illegal immigrants. joe biden is failing at both of those duties and that's exactly what gives texas the authority to make sure that we can step up and secure our own border and protect our own state through self-defense. maria: yeah, and lieutenant, that's what you're doing. i guess the word was was that yes the supreme court said that the federal government does have the ability to take down that wire fencing that we're looking at behind you but they're probably not going to do it. is that how you see it? go right, maria. as far as the agents at the ground level we have great relationship with them. they're not looking to interfere with our operations. i can tell you one thing, if they cut the wire we'll put more wire in, make it more difficult. that's not going to change. it's not going to stop us from what we're doing and the governor is on point when he

said the federal government has the obligation to protect the country, protect fellow americans but they refuse to do it and that's why governor abbott stepped up, going to year four with operation lone star to protect texas and protect the nation. maria: let me get your take on who is coming in. i know one area with the fencing the crossings have stopped or slowed down quite a bit. but we talk all the time about the chinese nationals coming in, 20,000 at the end of last year. and whether or not they're being directed by xi jinping. what's the makeup of that group? are they largely military aged men? what else are you seeing at the border in terms of who is coming and how much they're paying. they're paying the drug cartels to get here, right? >> well, absolutely. that's been a significant change, uptick as far as chinese nationals that entered the border. we saw a significant increase in the rio grande valley in texas last year. that act activity shifts. it's based on the cartel. they control the flow in mexico.

you're talking about chinese nationals that are paying 35,000 to 50,000 a person to get across the border. that is big money for these cartels when they deal with special interest aliens from these countries so of course they want that he flow, they want the individuals to cross through those areas where there's less law enforcement, less consequences, no deterrence. makes its a lot easier and not knowing who the individuals are, single aged men, have you no idea what their intent is. there's no data shared from china with the united states. so we don't know what the backgrounds are of some of these individuals and what their intent is once they're in the country and of course it's going to have a detrimental impact in near future when we allow so many individuals across the globe to enter the country unvetted manufacturevetted. maria: unbelievable. thank you very much. thanks for all of your work. >> appreciate it. thank you, maria. maria: all right, quick break and then steelworkers are sounding off on the u.s. steel

deal, lydia hu has all the details. llydia. >> reporter: the mill behind me has been in operation since 1875. it would be part of a -- the steelworkers are not happy and we've got their side of the story. ♪ it's a beautiful day. ♪ there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. voya provides tools that help you make the right investment and benefit choices. so you can reach today's financial goals. and look forward to a more confident future. voya, well planned, well invested, well protected.

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and i have a new lease on life. golo is the only thing that will let you lose weight and keep it off. who loses 138 pounds in nine months? i did! golo's a lifestyle change and you make the change and it stays off. (soft music) maria: welcome back. well, u.s. steel will be a acquired by japan's largest steel maker for more than $14 billion but the deal is facing criticism from steelworkers as well as president trump. fox business' lydia hu is live in braddock, pennsylvania with more. lydia. >> reporter: good morning, maria. we're in front of a steel plant that's been in operation for almost 150 years, powering the american industrial revolution, powering america through world war ii, be becoming an integral part of the economy. this plant and about two dozen other plants would be sold to

ajapanese company. nipon steel plans to buy u.s. steel and since talks of selling u.s. steel were made public in august shareholders have certainly seen a boost but the steelworkers are outraged. we talked with members of the steelworkers union who worry about their jobs and their future under a foreign company. watch here. >> it was the workers that drove the force for the profits to be made and at the end of the day they sold off to the highest bidder to line their own pockets and left these guys kind of holding the bag with an uncertain future. >> i feel like they already haven't put america first by selling out to a foreign entity. >> reporter: now, u.s. steel said in a statement nipon steel investments will strengthen the

steel industry for the benefit of american customers, employees and communities. nipon steel is promising no layoffs or closures but concerns about the sale are reverberating across washington and on the campaign trail. the white house said that president biden wants serious scrutiny of the deal whereas former president donald trump has said he would block this merger. he talked to you about this in an interview on sunday morning futures. watch here. >> maria: how strong is china's influence on american politics, american business? is it possible to decouple or is it just tariffs the way you dealt with it? you used tariffs and sanctions against china. >> i want to get w along with china. they've taken advantage of our country. we put tariffs on steel. japan is buying u.s. steel. it's the most important name.

50 years ago there was no company like u.s. steel. now japan is buying he it. i don't think i would let that deal go through, by the way. >> reporter: japanese media is reporting that nipon steel's ceo is brushing off the concerns and saying the deal will proceed but u.s. steel did disclose in the recent annual report that litigation and union grievances and disputes could possibly prevent the merger. we'll follow every twist and turn. maria: lydia, thank you important story. mark tepper your reaction. >> sounds like trump would block the deal. it's supposed to happen q2 or q3. it's sad when an iconic american company gets bought by foreign country. when you look at the steel industry overall, the biggest company is now chinese, the second biggest is chi chai -- japanese and we're somewhere in the mix. it's sad to see where it's

headed. maria: your thoughts. >> for all the talk about republicans embracing more national conservatism, only three republican senators wrote to yell ye yellen asking her tok the deal. maria: we'll take a short break and come right back. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. i love your dress. oh thanks! i splurged a little because liberty mutual customized my car insurance and i saved hundreds. that's great. i know, right? i've been telling everyone. baby: liberty. did you hear that? ty just said her first word. can you say “mama”? baby: liberty. can you say “auntie”? baby: liberty. how many people did you tell? only pay for what you need. jingle: ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ baby: ♪ liberty. ♪

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