the highest construction of new homes in the nation. coming up, governor ron desantis is here on covid, freedom and opportunity. then we take a visit to president trump's stomping ground in palm beach, the mar-a-lago club. my exclusive interview with 45 on covid, china and the potential rematch with hillary clinton in 2024 as president trump reacts to the crime spree plaguing our country. >> they have to be met with force. we have to give the police back their dignity and their respect. maria: then, confusion and in-fighting. more questions about who is running the country. even joe biden cannot seem to get straight who is the president, and he refers to the vp once again as president. >> now, when president harris and i took a virtual tour of the center in arizona not long ago -- maria: plus, the democrats' massive tax and spend boondoggle is pushed into the new year, but questions about joe manchin's pushback forced kamala to explain away once again who's running the country. >> the real prime minister of this country, is it joe manchin or joe biden? >> come on, charlie, it's joe biden. no, no, no, no. it's joe biden. and don't start talking like a republican about asking whether or not he's president. and it's joe biden, and i'm vice president, and my name is kamala harris. maria: it has been 11 months, and why are they having so much trouble explaining who's in charge? plus, nancy pelosi is clueless about crime across the country despite her and her colleagues pushing to defund the police. >> what it is, it's absolutely outrageous. obviously, it cannot continue. but the fact is, is that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from i don't know where. maybe you do. ♪ maria: ah, the hypocrisy of it all. coming up, florida congressman byron donalds joins us on that and whether congressional insiders should be allowed to buy stocks that move on policy changes and whether biden's radical agenda passes in in thew year. all that right here, right now on "sunday morning futures." ♪ ♪ maria: but first, an about face on covid. just as big cities were beginning to normalize, new closings and lockdowns to report. in new york new cases are at the highest level since january. many schools, restaurants and entertainment venues closed once again. employees being asked to work from home as the omicron variant rips. in europe, the netherlands among the first countries to shut down altogether, and this upcoming tuesday the white house is planning to announce what it is calling new tools to combat covid while president biden tells unvaccinated americans to expect a stark winter. florida has been reporting some of the lowest numbers of covid cases, but governor ron desantis says to expect a seasonal increase in new cases this winter even as he continues to push back on any virus mandates that he says will threaten individual freedoms and liberties. joining me right now is the governor of the great state of florida, ron desantis. governor, it's great to have you this morning. thanks so much for being here. >> good morning. good to see you. maria: we do have new worries about the omicron variant. what have you seen in florida? >> well, maria, first, i would say that if you look at what's to happened in the north in some of these states, they've had record covid hospitalizations. that is being driven by the delta variant. and, yes, we are seeing omicron throughout florida and throughout the country. for. [applause] nate9ly, omicron is not -- fortunately, it's not shown to produce the same hospitalizations. now, we'll see if that change, but the numbers in south africa, i thought, by and large, didn't justify the hysteria you saw by a lot of folks in corporate media. at the end of the day in florida, floridians know we will not let anybody lock them down, we will not let anyone take their jobs, we will not let anyone ruin their businesses, and we will not let anyone close their schools. so people are going to be able to live life, they're going to be able to make their own decisions. i cannot believe that something that started with 15 days to slow the spread now almost two years later you're seeing lockdowns and closures. there are places, maria, some of these universities they force everyone to be vaccinated, they force them to wear masks, and they still lock down because you have these cases going up. and so in florida people are going to be able to make those decisions. we do put a lot of emphasis, unlike most states and certainly unlike the biden administration, on early treatment when people do get infected s. and it's not just unvaccinated like they like to say. our monoclonal antibody clinics that we set up across the state, the majority of people that go to those are fully vaccinated, high risk people. so since we've rolled out the clinics, we've had one of the lowest hospitalization rates in the country. so we're going to continue focusing on early treatment, and we're going to continue protecting people's individual choices and freedoms. maria: governor, a federal judge, an appeals court on friday allowed president biden's vaccine mandate for private employers to take effect as new york and california are reimposing these mask mandates. it looks like this is going to the supreme court. you recently talked about that monoclonal treatment from astrazeneca, right? >> yeah. well, first of all, the osha mandate, i thought it was a terrible decision. now, this is just a three-judge panel. i thought the whole circuit in the sixth would certainly have struck this down. i do think we're going to get positive relief from the u.s. supreme court on that. but, maria, what we did in florida is we didn't leave it to chance. we passed substantive protections in a special session for floridians so that they are able to have generous ability to opt out of these types of mandates. and so we feel like we've done what we needed to do to protect our employees. i think it's important from a legal and constitutional matter that something like the osha mandate not be allowed to stand. they reached back decades, found some statutes and are using that to force vaccinations. that's never been done in the history of our country. and so i think it's a massive expansion of federal power that goes beyond the constitution. so we absolutely need to win that case at the supreme court. and, yes, we had another monoclonal, this is more for preventive for very high risk people. you take it, and then you've got about six months of really good protection. and we should be talking about all this stuff. all you hear is the same stuff about masking and lockdowns. we should be talking more about early treatment. fortunately, in florida we are, but that has been a huge problem for the last year when we've had available treatments, and they've not been touted by the powers that be. maria: yeah. i mean, governor, we're not even sure what fully vaccinated means anymore. the other day dr. fauci said, you know, it could be that fully vaccinated means three shots which is two shots for the vaccination and then one booster shot. have you gotten the booster? >> so i've done -- whatever i did, the normal shot and that, at the end of the day, is people's individual decisions about what they want to do. but these boosters in terms -- now florida, we ban vaccine passports, we won't let 'em fire ya. even private businesses over this. because we don't think that's appropriate. but one of the reasons why we took those steps is because we knew the definition of vaccination would be a shifting target. and i predicted this a month and a half ago, and people said that i was wrong. and now we're starting to see it come to fruition. so there's going to be people who have done, you know, maybe two pfizer shots who are not doing booster, and they could be considered in certain parts of the country to be unvaccinated and denied the ability to participate in society like everybody else. it's gone way, way too far, and that is a decision that people should make for themselves. but they should not have their rights, freedoms or liberties restricted based on these boosters. maria: governor, i want to talk about the incredible economic performance that you are overseeing in florida. you just recently gave your budget. you were an attorney in the u.s. navy, and you know all about what has happened in terms of jobs in this country because of these mandates. we are losing first responders. tell me about the 50,000 job opportunities that you've talked about within your budget. you just recently passed your budget and you're, obviously, a smaller budget than new york, but you've got much more success at the end of the day. walk us through your budget. >> well, first of all, november job report nationally, about 200,000 jobs nationwide. in florida alone in november we did over 50,000 new jobs created in florida. so that's over 25% of the total job output just in one state. my budget is about $99.7 billion. i mean, you mentioned new york. new york's budget's, like, $230 billion, and i think most people that come here would say we have better roads, infrastructure, services, our k-12 schools perform higher, we have the number one rated public university system in the country, and we do all that with no state income tax and, in fact, the lowest per capita tax burden in the country, and we have over $15 billion in surplus revenue. i mean, just think about what washington's doing by printing trillions and trillions. we have over 15% of the amount of money we're spending in budget reserves. and so that is something that's setting up florida for the long haul. yes, we have less taxes and that's part of the reason people have been drawn here, but i think, maria, since covid people know in florida their freedoms are going to be respected. people know they can invest here and not have their businesses shut down. people know they're going to be able to get jobs here and not be forced out based on mandates. i think the fact that we've really stood for freedom in addition to have having good tax and spend policies has really caused people to want to come work in florida. and we -- we're producing more jobs per capita than other states, but we have hundreds of thousands of job openings because the economy, you know, is performing well. maria: governor, before you go, we're about to talk with president trump. we didn't -- we don't know if he's going to definitely run in 2024. will you be running in 2024? >> i just filed for re-election last month in the state of florida for governor, so if people want to support that, go to rondesantis.com. we think it's going to be an important race, and so that's been my focus. i've got 22.5 million people, maria, and on any given day in this season until may, we probably have 25 million people in the state with the tourists and the snow birds. so we've got our hands full, and we're looking forward to a successful re-election next year. maria: we are just back from florida, and i could feel the energy in the air. congrats to you. good to see you, sir. thanks very much. >> thank you. maria: governor ron desantis joining us. quick break. from tallahassee to palm beach, we're taking you to president trump's home in florida, the mar-a-lago estate and club. 45 is coming up on vaccines, china and election 2024. he's next. ♪ ♪ your job. >> there's room to grow... >> ...and lots of opportunities. >> so, what are you waiting for? >> apply now... >> ...and make a difference. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ >> man, i love that song! fine, no one leaves the table until your finished. fine, we'll sleep here. ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. ♪♪ maria: welcome back. the omicron variant is proving to be much harder to pin down than expected. even if it is less virulent andless sickening, for many it is playing out with mild, flu-like symptom. the virus has sickened millions across the world and has killed more than 800,000 americans in the last year and a half. and yet president biden refuses to press chinese president xi jinping about its origins and how it leaked from that lab. we traveled to palm beach, florida, this weekend to catch up with president trump, and i asked him about the virus. >> i think the origins are so obvious. they came out of the wuhan lab, and i think if anybody thinks anything differently, they're just kidding themselves. so you can ask -- china hasn't paid. they have to do something. they have to pay reparations. and china doesn't have the money to pay those reparations. i believe that worldwide -- i'm not just talking united states, worldwide -- $60 trillion of damage. 60 trillion. china doesn't have $60 trillion. but they have to do something to make up for what they've done. what they've done to the world is so horrible. it's been horrible. all over the world. and it doesn't stop. remember, biden was going to do a wonderful job on covid, right? he was going to do a wonderful job. he's done a horrible job. look at what's gone on. today we set a record on cases, a record. this was supposed to be a -- this would have been gone. and one of the reasons people don't take the vaccine is they don't trust biden. if you remember, they did the pause on johnson & johnson. that sounded so bad. you understand. they did the pause on johnson & johnson, and even during the debates, i will never talk the vaccine if trump produces it, and then i produced it. and nine months -- less than nine months, and it was supposed to take 5-12 years, i did it in 9 months. and the first one to get it, he got it in early december. and then even then he made a speech where i think it was his opening, he said that he came up with the vaccine. this guy got the vaccine during my administration. they are big disinformation people. maria: would you have boy continued the 2022 china olympics? >> no, because i watched jimmy carter do it, and it was terrible. hurts the athletes. there are much more powerful things we can do that than, much, much more powerful things. that's not a powerful thing. it almost makes us look like, i don't know, sore losers. we're doing so badly. maria, our country is no longer respected. no, i wouldn't do that. i'd like to see our great athletes go over and win every single medal. went this was done by jimmy -- when this was done by jimmy carter, i remember it so well, the athletes were devastated. they were hurt so badly. no, i'd like to see the united states go over, which i think they will, and win all of a sudden gold medals -- all the gold medals and do well. maria: do you think china will take over -- [inaudible] >> no, i was never -- so there were six of them. i was going to bomb five and keep bagram. the reason was because of china. it's one hour away from where they make their nuclear weapons. it has the largest runways, the most powerful runways, mine, for heavy, very powerful, thick. like, in some cases 8 feet of concrete. nobody ever heard of anything like that. we spent billions of dollars building it years ago, long before me, and it's right next to china, and it's right next to where they make their nuclear weapons. and we gave it up in the dark of night. we left the lights on, and we did leave the dogs, by the way. remember how people said, oh, we didn't really -- they left the goings. and the taliban doesn't like dogs. more m makes me think of fauci. a few u chi, anthony fauci misled the senate when he said that the n nih did not function the gain of function -- the -- fund the gain of function research. should you have fired fauci? >> a lot of people ask me that. if you did fire him, i didn't listen to him. if you think about it, he wanted to keep our country open to china, and i closed it. he wanted to keep our country open to europe, and i closed it. he talked about masks being no good -- well, i'm not a huge mask believer, but i think they have some purpose. and now he's a radical masker. everything he's done -- he's a great promoter. he's a bad pitcher. he was telling me what a great athlete he was. i said, you can't throw a baseball 15 feet. other than president obama, it may have been the worst throw i've ever seen. no, i think i did the last thing. less of a firestorm, now he was right because he's been wrong so often, but if you think of it, he wanted to keep our country each to all these places -- open to all these places, and i didn't do it. maria: right after this president takes on build back better, the border crisis and speculation of a 2024 rematch between president trump and hillary clinton. more of my exclusive interview coming up, stay with us. ♪ ♪wi (wife) hi, honey! 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(burke) seventeen-car garage you got there? ♪we are farmers♪ ♪bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum♪ hey, angie! you forgot your phone! hey lou! angie forget her phone again? yep. lou! mom said she could save up to $400 on her wireless bill by switching to xfinity internet and mobile. with nationwide 5g at no extra cost. and lou! on the most reliable network, lou! smart kid, bill. oh oh so true. and now, the moon christmas special. gotta go! take the savings challenge at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes switching fast and easy this holiday season. maria: welcome back. the congressional midterm elections now just 11 months away and many lawmakers have been meeting with president donald trump in hopes of getting his endorsement. i asked president trump why he's been so active in endorsing candidates. he began by scrutinizing current gop senate leadership. >> look, membership mcconnell's a disaster -- mitch mcconnell's a disaster. he allowed this to happen. the uninfrastructure bill, it's only 9% infrastructure. that means you take 90%, 91% of the money that we're raising is going to be thrown out the window in order to get 9% infrastructure. there was no way that that should have been passed. it should have been 100% for infrastructure. so what's happening is we had a thing called the debt ceiling, and he could have used that to win everything, and he chose not to. and we have a bigger problem because they have a so-called voting rights bill which is voting rights for democrats because republicans will never be elected again if that happens, if that passes. maria: let me ask you about all these people you've been supporting recently. we're entering the election year. the primaries in march. you've already endorsed several candidates for re-election. what are you looking for? let's go through some of these contests that are toss-ups. senator mark kelly in arizona, senator raphael warnock in georgia, maggie hassan, new hampshire. what are -- >> they're a disaster. they're for open borders, they're for defunding the police. they're for crime, in other words, they're for crime. they're for taking away your second amendment. they want to talk away your police and then take away your right to protect yourself when you think of it, right? these people are a disaster. and they should all lose. sometimes i'm going a little outside of the box with some because we have candidates that are not strong, they're rinos and they're not strong. they're mitch mcconnell-type guys, and he's a disaster. so we need tougher people. we need people that are going to be able to win for our country. not only for me, by the way, win for our country. and we have some great candidates. maria: the other day hillary clinton said that if you win again, it is the edge of democracy. the end of democracy. will this be a rematch? >> oh, i have no idea. i hope so. i mean, i'd like that. look, the woman's crooked as can be. she cheated on the election. they spied on my campaign. remember i put out that little statement, they're spying on my campaign, and all hell broke out. you know why it broke out? because they knew i was right. they knew i was right. and all of these things that happened, let's see what happens now. let's see what happens to hunter, let's see what happens to all of it. maria: just today he called kamala harris president again. do you think someone else is directing him? >> well, i never called mike pence president. i'll tell you, i can't imagine what's going on. it's hard to believe. maria: who's running the country? >> well, think of it, it was so obvious in this case because 450,000 -- he was incensed. he was very upset by that question, asked by a very good reporter, actually. but he was very angry at that question. like, how dare you, what a stupid question, of course. the next morning he was saying how, yeah, this is something that we think is excellent. that really means in the truest sense that he is not running the country, because there's no way you go from indignation to, oh, that's wonderful. and i hope you had a good interview. maria: what do you think the strategy is around the border? 2 million people apprehended this year, 600,000 others getting away. the amount of illicit narcotics coming in is incredible. fentanyl, we had 100,000 overdoses just in the last year, largely from fentanyl. >> hundreds of thousands. 100,000 but hundreds of thousands of people are dying. you know, if this were a war and if we lost 2, 300,000 -- because i think that's the real number with drugs, and much of it's coming through the southern border -- there's never been a war that anybody lost numbers like this. we're losing hundreds of thousands of people a year to drugs. we had it at a level that they haven't seen in years because they couldn't get in. and when we have an open border, we're not just talking about the people, as we said, we're talking about the drugs that are coming in, the human trafficking mostly in women. they traffic in women, children to a much lesser extent, but they traffic in women. and what they do, they'll put six women in the trunk of a car. i mean, what they do, these are animals. and we had it really largely stopped. it would have been just about stopped, and then these people got into office, and they've destroyed it. they're destroying our country. maria: coming up, crystal chandeliers, golden luxury, this is the room president trump hosted xi jinping just two months into the new president's term. coming up, 45 on china, russia and the national security threat to america right now. ♪ ♪ bill, mary? 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>> well, not only china, but chai from from an -- china from an economic standpoint is massive. russia's not from that standpoint, but they're a military power. and china's a great military power. but china economically has been ripping us you have around if many year -- us off for many years. $500 billion a year. and i'm the first one, we were taking in billions, tens of -- hundreds of billions of money from china, and i was giving a lot of it to the farmers, manufacturers. or farmers are rich now because of the deal i made with china. but once covid came along, or the china virus as i call it because it's a much more accurate term, once that came along, you know, i had a great relationship with president xi. i really believe he liked me, i like him -- maria: he's a killer. >> he is a killer, but once covid came, it was a different story. not only this country, they really destroyed the world, the whole world. if you look at what's going on, and biden said i will solve it. well, he couldn't solve the h1n1 which was another very minor by comparison, that was a disaster. and everybody knew that. but he said he's going to solve it. well, as you know and everybody reports it, even the fake news sometimes, but there are more deaths this year than there were -- and we have all of these vaccines, and we have all of these incredible therapeutics. they're not doing their job. they don't know what the hell they're doing. the mandates are killing our economy -- maria: but joe biden still has not brought up the origins of covid -- >> no. maria: -- to xi jinping. why do you think that is? >> because he's afraid of them. and i think he's afraid of the fact that they gave billions of dollars to his son -- more more so they have something on him. >> of course they do. they gave billions of dollars. i ask friends of yours, the biggest people there are in terms of wall street, can you go into china and walk away with a billion and a half dollars? these are people that you interview once a month, okay? the real, the real people on wall street, the smartest guys, the guys with the big companies that run the big companies, wall street firms. they said nobody does that. nobody. most sophisticated guy on wall street can't walk in and walk out in ten minutes with $1.5 billion. walked out -- and tens of millions of dollars. maria: why do you think our adversaries are doing all of this now? you've got a buildup of troops at the ukraine border -- >> none of this happened with me. you didn't have bombers flying over taiwan -- maria: why are they doing it now? >> you didn't is i have any threat of anything meaningfulness in ukraine. now, before that they took over a section of ukraine. you understand that. under the biden administration, they took over -- the obama administration, and essentially the two of them, they approved it. i think biden was in charge. and under obama's administration, they took over a very big part of ukraine, as you know, where they had the submarines, where the russians now have their submarines. it's hard to believe, actually. you know -- maria: weakness. >> the other countries? maria: our adversaries. >> even the ones that are our friends are taking advantage of us on trade. look, the european union is almost as bad on trade as china is. i say that to people, say -- they say, oh, you know, the european union's so nice. they ripped us off, you know, like few others. we lost $187 billion when i was coming into office with the european union. now, with china, it was $507 billion. this is, it's not sustainable. and what i did with the taxes and the tariffs on china, taking in hundreds of billions of dollars, we never took in ten cents. and the funny thing is biden, you saw him, but they haven't taken the tariffs off. you know why? it's so much money. and not only that, companies were moving back into the united states. but now they've stopped because they think he's going to take the tariffs off, and that's a shame. maria: if you were to run and win again, are you going to be better at your with appointees? i mean, you've got anthony fauci, you had jim comey, you had christopher wray. all of these people on your team, and you didn't fire them. they were all against you. >> yeah. but i had great people too. i rebuilt the military. i got the largest tax cuts in history, i got the largest regulation cuts in history. i created the greatest economy in the world, lighthizer and all my guys. we had great people, and we had some bad ones. i mean, sessions was bad. you know, a lot of them were fine, and then they're politicians. as an example, i had no real problem with milley until he did the walk, and the radical left said it was a bad thing to do, and he apologized for it. and then also when he said it's cheaper to leave the equipment in afghanistan, i said, you got a that be kidding. -- gotta be kidding. he's a politician, and he goes the way the wind is blowing. we had great people, but we had some bad ones. so does every administration. you know, we appoint thousands and thousands of people. 10,000 people get appointed from the white house. maria: these were people in key positions, and you kept them on, and they were against you. >> sure. they were recommended, all of them, they were recommended by people. now i know everybody, i know people in washington that are so great. but when i got there, i was in washington 17 days my entire life, i went there 17 times in my entire life, never stayed overnight, and all of a sudden i became president. and i had to rely on people. and some of the people, i will tell you, who recommended them, but some of the people that were recommended -- and some of the people you mentioned are not bad. but i'll tell you what, we had great people too. we had people that created the greatest economy in history. we had people that rebuilt the military. i rebuilt the entire military. i got rid of isis from iraq and from syria. 100% of the caliphate. we did things that nobody has ever done. nobody's done what this administration has done. with that, i could have made some people, some choices, but isn't that true with every president? you could go back to obama, you could go back to reagan. you put people in, you think they're going to bed good, they're -- be good, they're not doing the job. sometimes they do a better job. maria: my thanks to president trump. we continue my interview with the president tomorrow morning on "mornings with maria" on fox business for more of his thoughts on cryptocurrency and mrs. melania trump's new nft, nonfungible token. we will hear more tomorrow morning on fox business. join us. coming up, one of florida's rising stars, congressman byron donalds, on the fate of biden's build back better in the new year and why senator joe manchin may not be the only obstacle the agenda is up against. we'll be right back. do you re? where the more you discover... wow! ...the more you come together. i can see... the nose... this holiday, give the gift of family. give the gift of ancestry®. meet jeff. in his life, he's been to the bottom of the ocean. the tops of mountains. the er... twice. and all the places this guy runs off to. like jeff's, a life well lived should continue at home. home instead offers customized services from personal care to memory care, so older adults can stay home, stay safe, and stay happy. home instead. to us, it's personal. more you said adam schiff lied. he also altered a text message -- >> that's right. maria: -- for the january 6th commission. the committee admitted that he altered the text message -- >> he should be thrown out of congress, and he should be thrown out of congress also and prosecuted for what he said about me. because he created -- first of all, he created the whole russia, russia, russia scam which turned out to be nothing, it was all a hoax. paid for by hillary clinton and the dnc, the democrats. and adam schiff would walk out knowing -- think how bad this is -- he knows it's a scam. they made it up. maria: president trump reacting to house intelligence chairman adam schiff altering, doctoring the text message that congressman jim jordan forwarded to former white house chief of staff mark meadows one day before the capitol riots on january 6th. schiff has yet to be held accountable for misleading the american people repeatedly over the last several years about russian collusion, impeachment and other things. but could that change if republicans take back the house in 2022? byron donalds joins right now. good morning, congressman, thanks for being here. >> good morning, maria. merry christmas. maria: and to you, merry christmas. your reaction to adam schiff altering that message. >> first of all, this is outrageous, and something has to be done. unfortunately, nancy pelosi's going to cover for him the way she covered for eric swalwell. she will not do anything to had him accountable because he's carrying her water especially on this january 6th committee. but when we take back control after next year in the 118th congress, we need to hold him accountable. in a legislative body, you cannot have people who are knowingly lying not only to their colleagues and also to the american people because they simply cannot be trusted especially with something as sensitive as this where the democrats are just trying to push a narrative because everything hay touch has basically been a disaster for our country. maria: what are your thoughts on the current spending agenda? we know that joe manchin has said he is not going to vote for this bill in its current form. will this pass in the new year? >> it's not clear. it doesn't look like it's going to, because the realities on the ground are very, very simple. we have a major inflation problem. we have a major labor shortage in the united states. that bill that joe biden says was going to help everybody would make things ten times worse for small business owners because the social spending aspects of that bill would make it harder for small business owners to actually get people to come to work and stay at work, work full shifts, work a 40-hour week. i think joe manchin is right to not vote for this bill. and it's worse than that, the democrats were lying to the american people because they were starting these programs for one year or two year and cutting them short not realizing the full cost of this bill. so i'm actually happy the cbo came out with a score that demonstrated that the full cost over ten years is a little oh $5 trillion. -- over $5 trillion. and if they estimated that, you know the costs are much higher than that. maria: and we already have significant inflation. let's take a look at food prices in america ahead of the holiday, the christmas holiday. you're talking about milk, eggs, fresh fruit, bacon, coffee, not to mention gasoline up 60% year-over-year. would this plan stoke inflation even further? >> it absolutely would because we would be putting far more money into our economy than is needed. right now we have an issue where there is too many dollars out there, not enough people actually working to produce the goods and services for the people who are buying stuff. so if joe biden had his way, and let's all hope he does not, but if he had his way, our inflation would be much worse. the purchasing power for working families, for seniors on fixed incomes would be destroyed even more than it already has. but what else is new? you're dealing with a president who has been wrong on every single issue so far. maria: congressman, i know that you're an insider. you make policy. nancy pelosi was asked if congress should be able to trade stocks. how does an insider get to trade stocks and buy stocks knowing the policy that you just put in place? i want to take a short break, but i want to get your take on what nancy pelosi said about rejecting any ban on congress trading stocks. we'll take a break and come back with that. congressman byron donalds is with us, and we'll be right back. and enjoy the ride a little more. now, get new lower auto rates. you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower rate today. my daughter has yotype 2 diabetesnds with allstate. and lately i've seen this change in her. once-weekly trulicity is proven to help lower a1c. it lowers blood sugar from the first dose. and you could lose up to ten pounds. trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. it isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. it's not approved for use in children. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, changes in vision, or diabetic retinopathy. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. taking trulicity with sulfonylurea or insulin raises low blood sugar risk. side effects include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. ask your doctor about once-weekly trulicity. >> of course, president harris is a proud howard alum. maria: well, it must be the second or third time that joe biden, on friday during a commencement speech at south carolina state university, referred to kamala harris as the president. i'm back with congressman byron donalds. congressman, what do you make of this? >> i have no idea. i don't understand why the man can't get his job title straight. he, unfortunately for everybody, is the president of the united states. he has the nuclear football. to keep can referring to her as the president demonstrates, in my opinion, some of the mental lack of faculties that the president seems to be exhibiting on a day-to-day basis. i think this is a cause for concern but, of course, nobody cares about this because he's a democrat president, and the big media just love him. maria: congressman, on friday nancy pelosi was asked if congress should be faced with a ban on trading stocks. of you know, i mean, you and your colleagues in the house and in the senate, you make policy. and, for example, this big boondoggle of a spending plan. half of us don't know what's in it until it's actually in, and then it will move stocks, the green companies or whatever spending is focused on. those companies will move. should you and your colleagues be able to buy stocks? nancy pelosi said, no, there should not be a ban, and we know her and her husband have made millions buying things like microsoft just a few weeks before there was a contract with the t. of defense. >> well -- the department of defense. >> well, you can tell why she doesn't want a ban. but congress should not be allowed to trade stocks. maria, i was a securities trader. with the level of information that i have, i have no business being near a trading desk. i don't want to trade stocks. my wife shouldn't trade as well. there should be a ban in congress because we have information that is not readily available to the more than public, and we can -- to the american public, and we can literally shift the way our economy flows by what we do on capitol hill. it's very interesting and actually quite sad that the speaker of the house doesn't understand that when she's been there for so long. i wonder why. maria: yeah, it really is, congressman. let me ask you about this crime spike across the country, these smash and grab situations. i mean, president trump told me he feels this needs to be accountability, but many of your colleagues on the left wanted to defund the police for years. they were attacking the police. your thoughts on how to put an end to this theft, organized theft. >> listen, the first thing is you need district attorneys to actually enforce the law and prosecute people. if law enforcement goes out there and makes arrests but the district attorney chooses not to prosecute, that puts law enforcement in a worse place, and it puts people's security and safety on streets in america in a worse spot. secondarily, this whole rhetoric of defunding the police has been a disaster for the left. they know that. that's why their mayors are now reversing course, but that's a joke. one thing about the internet is it keeps everything forever, and their talking points have been very clear about how they wanted to destroy policing in the united states. and no american wants that. maria: yeah. congressman, it's great to see you this morning. have a merry christmas. thanks very much. congressman byron donalds. thank you so much for being here. i'll see you tomorrow morning, join me for part two of my interview with president trump on "mornings with maria" tomorrow on fox business. have a great sunday, everybody. thanks for being here. ♪ autoglass came right to me... with service i could trust. right, girl? 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