‘Your World’ on Biden withdrawing troops, Florida recovery efforts

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This is a rush transcript of “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on July 8, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION:  Do you trust the Taliban, Mr. President? Do you trust the Taliban, sir?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  Are you — is that a serious question? 

QUESTION:  It is absolutely a serious question. Do you trust the Taliban? 

BIDEN:  No, I do not. 

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) the country to the Taliban? 

BIDEN:  No, I do not trust the Taliban. 

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION:  Is the U.S. responsible for the deaths that happen the Afghans after you leave the country?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION:  Mr. President, will you amplify that question, please? Will you amplify your answer, please, why you don’t trust the Taliban? 

(CROSSTALK)

BIDEN:  It is a silly question. 

Do I trust the Taliban? No. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR:  The president digging in on pulling our troops out.

Welcome, everybody. I’m Neil Cavuto. This is “Your World.” 

And it almost seemed like a Donald Trump press conference, with angry reporters trying to get a simple answer from the president, and their agitation showing, as the questions and the nonanswers went on, all of this at a time U.S. forces are moving rapidly ahead of schedule. Better than 90 percent now have left Afghanistan. 

And we could see them all out well before the 9/11 deadline that the president has set. But he says he’s not going to change his mind. And he says that, after 20 years, Afghans must look after themselves. 

Jennifer Griffin has more from the Pentagon. 

Hey, Jennifer. 

JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT:  Hi, Neil. 

Well, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby just gave a bleak assessment of where things stand in terms of what the Taliban has taken over in recent days, telling reporters here at the Pentagon that the Taliban have taken dozens of district centers in Afghanistan and currently threaten the provincial centers as well, even though the president said during his remarks that there are no intelligence assessments suggesting the government of Kabul of Kabul will fall anytime soon.

He added the 300,000 Afghan security forces that the U.S. spent billions to train should be able to handle approximately 75,000 Taliban. However, in the past few days, the Taliban has taken three important international crossing points, including those into Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN:  Nearly 20 years of experience has shown us that the current security situation only confirms that just one more year fighting in Afghanistan is not a solution, but a recipe for being there indefinitely. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN:  The president defended his decision to pull all U.S. troops out, which he said would be done by August 31. He said that the moratorium on attacks on U.S. troops was slated to end May 1, which left him little option. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN:  The status quo was not an option. Staying would have meant U.S. 

troops taking casualties, American men and women back in the middle of a civil war. And we would run the risk of having to send more troops back into Afghanistan to defend our remaining troops. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN:  The president made news by suggesting that the U.S. would welcome the translators and special immigrant visa holders who helped the U.S. and now face death threats from the Taliban. 

He suggested flights to remove the translators could begin this month. But the logistics and third countries where they would be flown to for processing have not been hammered out — Neil. 

CAVUTO:  Jennifer Griffin at the Pentagon, thank you very, very much.

Want to go to Dave Sears, decorated retired Navy SEAL commander. You name a hot spot, he’s been there. 

Commander, always good to have you. 

What do you make of this move, 20 years in the making? The president says, look, enough, enough. What do you say?

DAVE SEARS, FORMER U.S. NAVY SEAL COMMANDER:  Yes, I’m supportive of it.

I don’t necessarily agree with the timeline. I mean, I wouldn’t have picked September 11. That seems to be a pretty poor messaging optic to get out of there, but, overall, to leave and withdraw the troops, it’s the old cliche of just ripping off the Band-Aid. It has to be done. 

There’s a lot of forces behind this that are slow-rolling it and that benefit monetarily and economically and geopolitically from us being there. 

So, I like that he’s fighting against it and he’s sticking to his guns and withdrawing. 

CAVUTO:  You know, it’s interesting too, Commander, given the Taliban’s moves to take lands and to be kind of back and shoving it in our face, taking guns from departing soldiers and all that. 

Does that concern you? Is this showing sort of a provocative behavior that is really got to go on steroids once all our troops are out?

SEARS:  I think it will go on steroids. You’re absolutely right. 

But it’s also what we have been denying this whole time, that the Taliban really controls the outskirts of the country, and we just had minimal control over it. So, the major cities, we sort of de facto controlled, and the Afghan government controls it.

But Afghanistan is a tribal society. It’s not a central government society. 

It’s never worked that way. And we have tried to install and sort of mirror-image our form of governments and how the United States works or the European Union works on top of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan was fighting in a civil war 20 years before we got there. And it will continue on fighting the civil war. It’s the nature of some of this tribal society regions. 

CAVUTO:  Who fills the vacuum? There’s always talking about Russia, even China. What do you think?

SEARS:  Which is real interesting. 

Russia wants — this, actually, in my view, creates problems for Russia, China and Pakistan. We have been providing some stability and security there. But, remember, Russia came in 1979, not only to support a communist regime, but because it didn’t want the Muslim extremist problem coming over into all the Stans and the satellite countries of the Soviet Union.

So they have legitimate concern with Muslim extremism. China is trying to develop its bridge here — its Belt and Road system, and take over economically, and they need that to come through Pakistan, and they need security in Pakistan, and they’d like to have some in Afghanistan.

They’re going to have to take a piece of that. And every — throughout history, every intervention in Afghanistan leads to a quagmire. And why you would get involved in it is beyond me. It’s going to create problems for Russia, for China, and a lot of these unemployed Taliban fighting the U.S. 

are going to turn and look into Pakistan, and start to cause problems in Pakistan as well. 

So, I say, let them deal with the problems, instead of us. 

CAVUTO:  I’m just curious, Dave, what you make of what Afghanistan will look at.

The argument for keeping the troops there is, we have not had any follow-up attacks on our soil over the 20 years since 9/11. This puts us at risk because the Taliban can reform again, not worry about us being there, and launch still further attacks. What do you make of that argument? 

SEARS:  It’s really hard to prove a negative. So I don’t buy that argument. 

There’s enough ungoverned and space that are there. Number one, UBL, Usama bin Laden, was in Pakistan, and found there, and running operations from there, not Afghanistan that we occupied. We probably should have left the day after we kill Usama bin Laden. 

That said, you have Libya that’s unstable. You have Syria that’s unstable, Yemen that’s unstable. There’s plenty of these other places that are unstable. So even if the Taliban takes over the government, then who’s to say that they are going to again enable those type — now, remember, Taliban and ISIS were going at it and are still going at it for power and control in that region. 

So, Taliban is probably killing more ISIS than we are, frankly.

CAVUTO:  Scary stuff.

Dave Sears, thank you very much, and more for your incredible service to this country. 

Again, the president making very, very clear that nothing is going to change his mind to get the rest of these troops after, that, after 20 years, Afghans are going to have to see for themselves whether they’re up to the fight against the Taliban. Early indications are they are not. 

Things could change, but, right now, it looks fairly bleak in that regard. 

We’re going to keep you updated on that. 

Also keeping you updated on the virus variants that are out there right now and some that are getting so worrisome we are making a renewed pitch to make sure everyone gets vaccinated. But a database to keep track of that?

After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CAVUTO:  Well, it looks bad, but let me tell you, it could have been worse, the Dow halving its losses, when it was off more than 500 points, down about 259 points, and all because of what you see on the right side of your screen, a 10-year-note, a key bond, interest rates that’s pegged to everything from car loans to mortgages, dipping to the lowest it’s been since February, 1.287 percent. 

Now, you might have noticed that interest rates have been holding fairly steady in the face of all of these upward pressures and prices you pay at the grocery store for cars and what — you name it. 

Now the growing fear is that maybe, maybe rates are coming down because the market fears something worse, like a slowdown, even a recession. Whether it’s justified or not, that was the concern today 

I want to talk to my buddy Charles Payne about it just a minute.

In the meantime, keeping you up to date on what’s going on, on the virus front and the variant front, and the fact that it’s rattling the world, and apparently rattling authorities here in this country, amid calls to get more folks vaccinated. 

Now the talk is that they’re going to force the issue. But how do you do that? 

To Connell McShane chain right now at the White House. 

Hey, Connell. 

CONNELL MCSHANE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  Hey there, Neil. 

Well, the they won’t be the government. It would still be the private companies, as far as I understand it. I know there’s been a lot of debate about how much the government could get involved in forcing people to get vaccinated. What is the role of the private sector?

I just had a conversation about 10 minutes ago with the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, about this very topic. And the White House position all of this is that they’re not going to be the ones to require, say, vaccine passports. She says what they will do and what they have done is, they will encourage private companies to do whatever they think is best. 

And, yesterday, she talked about that. I will put up the quote. She said: 

“There are a number of private sector entities, universities, institutions that are starting to mandate. And that’s an innovative step that they will take and they should take.”

In terms of government involvement today, she added this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY:  The federal government does not have a database of who has been vaccinated. That is not our role. We don’t maintain a database along those lines. 

And we have no plans to. We do know where there are rates of vaccination across the country. And we know, as I just listed in some of the data, that there are tactics that are powerful and impactful. And so I will say the thing that is a bit frustrating to us is that, when people are critical of these tactics, it’s really a disservice to the country and to the doctors, faith leaders, community leaders and others who are working to get people vaccinated. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCSHANE:  Right.

And that’s the idea. Maybe you have heard about people, say, going door to door, those faith leaders, community leaders, she says. And we have seen a lot of private companies get out front on all of this, and prominent institutions as well.

University of California system, for example, which is huge, they have like

280,000 students, back in June, they said, hey, you want to come back to school in the fall, you have to be vaccinated. Private sector, a lot of examples. You want to go on a cruise with Royal Caribbean, you need to be vaccinated before you do it. 

We’re seeing more and more of that. But direct involvement, Neil, from the government would be something different. And so far, the Biden administration has said it’s up to the private companies to set the tone. 

They will do what they can to encourage on their end, but no vaccine mandates or mandates for vaccine passports coming from the government — Neil. 

CAVUTO:  Got it.

Connell, and just to be clear, this talk of a database of that’s being established to keep track of who has not yet been vaccinated…

MCSHANE:  Yes. 

CAVUTO:  … that’s not the case, that’s not true?

MCSHANE:  No, she said it’s very clear — and you just heard the quote today. And I spoke to her about it a few minutes ago — said, we’re — that’s not being done, is what she said, on the government side.

Again, that’s not a — there’s no database that the government is keeping, according to this White House, to keep track of that kind of thing. So, when you hear people talk — and I think the health secretary may speak more about this tomorrow — about officials going door to door and things like that to see if people have been vaccinated, they say that’s not government officials.

As she said earlier, they say that’s — could be a community leader, church leaders, those types of people. Some of that may come with government funding, but it’s not government officials that are actually carrying it out, as far as we understand. 

CAVUTO:  All right, got it. 

Connell, thank you very, very much.

To Katie Cherkasky now on the legality of all of this, whether it is the government or private entities, and therein lies the real difference, right, Katie?

Now, you’re a former federal prosecutor. Just how far can an entity — let’s start with companies — to force the issue, you must be vaccinated before you return to the office, or if you’re going to work in this building, you must have had your shots? Can they legally do that and force that issue? 

KATIE CHERKASKY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR:  Yes.

And, in fact, this is already faced litigation. There’s been some rulings from the lower court district judges that private employers can absolutely require vaccination as a term of employment, barring, of course, any exceptions that already existed for anything under the ADA that qualifies for disability or for religious exemptions for sincerely held beliefs there. 

But, barring that, it is considered a condition of employment at this point. The EEOC has also issued guidance that says that private companies can in fact force that issue. So, it may not stop the litigation, but I think it’s going to be an uphill battle for anybody trying to sue on those grounds. 

CAVUTO:  Now, the big difference is, when the government, if it tried to force that issue, there, it’s on a slipperier — I guess a more riskier slope, right? 

CHERKASKY:  Well, the government has different requirements, and can only do things in a more potentially short-term period for like emergency purposes, in terms of requiring immediate restrictions on things like that. 

But in terms of the private sector, there’s going to be really no limitation whatsoever. So, yes, it’s a big difference between the type of employer that you’re seeing in the hospitals, for example, are the ones looking to take that step. But it’s really more of a business decision than it is a legal decision really, at this point, because the law is very clear as it stands at this moment. 

CAVUTO:  All right. So, if the government is relying on — you see all the time, Katie, celebrities who do PSAs and all to urge people to get vaccinated. They’re even talking about religious types who might go door to door, go to people’s homes to strongly advise that they get vaccinated. 

There’s no problem with that?

CHERKASKY:  There’s really no — nothing that would stop that, legally speaking. 

And, I mean, people do need to make their own decisions. 

CAVUTO:  Right. 

CHERKASKY: Because, even if your employer’s requiring something, you may be able to go elsewhere. There are some health care systems that are not requiring it. So it’s not the entire industry necessarily. 

But I think, even if that were the case, there are choices to be made. And, unfortunately, the government — or not the government, but the private sector has a lot of power in that regard to make that a condition of employment. 

So, people are going to have to make their choices and see if there’s other areas that are maybe not following that particular path. But, for now, it seems pretty straightforward that companies can, in fact, force that issue. 

CAVUTO:  And, for now, in this country, even for those who have not been vaccinated, this problem seems well under control.

I guess what folks fear, Katie, is if we get what’s been going on in Israel, in Moscow, some of these other countries, Malaysia, Indonesia, where they have seen a spike in cases, and they then take more forceful actions, is that the force majeure that governments talk about when they take such actions? 

CHERKASKY:  I think that’s a huge concern, of course.

And I think, ultimately, these businesses need to decide what’s going to be worth it in the long run. It’s a cost-benefit analysis to a lot of them, because they’re going to have other options to maybe mitigate the risks that don’t require a vaccine for people that don’t want it, if it can be shown that that would be effective.

And I think that’s the big question here is, is the vaccine the only answer? Is there other things that can be done? And on the business side, I think a lot of employers would be wise to consider those alternate options if they’re going to be equally effective. And we just don’t, I think, have a lot of that information now, but hopefully that will curb a lot of the mandates. 

CAVUTO:  Yes, I got it. 

All right, Katie Cherkasky, very good catching up with you. Much appreciated. 

CHERKASKY:  Thank you. 

CAVUTO:  All right, let’s turn our attention to what you see on the bottom right-hand portion of your screen there, a big sell-off in the Dow. 

I tell you, it was a lot worse earlier, when we were slip-sliding better than 500 points. So, we halved those losses, a lot of it, though, on lower interest rates. Now, you might hear low interest, that’s good news. But it seemed to be built on the notion things could slow down, and that maybe these various variants that you have heard so much about of COVID that are ravaging much of Asia and Europe are going to come here and slow the whole global economy down. 

Charles Payne following it very closely, the host of “Making Money” on FOX Business, which, if you don’t get, you should demand it. If Charles and I have to tell you this, we will keep reminding you.

(PHONE RINGING)

CAVUTO:  All right, Charles, I know that’s your agent on the phone. 

So, welcome. It’s good to have you. 

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO:  Let me — you knew I wouldn’t let you pass, right? 

CHARLES PAYNE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR:  I know. I know.

CAVUTO:  Let me you, Charles, is this fear justified that we’re slowing down? 

PAYNE:  It might be, Neil. That’s the crazy thing. Let’s go back a little bit, right, because we saw bond yields, they were just — they were low. 

They were nothing, right? They’re 1 percent, the 10-year Treasury. 

And it went to 1.74 percent, which is not a lot. But it was the velocity, the speed that it went there, 74 percent in just two months, everyone on Wall Street said, this is it. This is the big inflation scare we have been worried about. Batten down the hatches. The Federal Reserve’s going to have to change course.

And all of a sudden, we’re going the opposite way almost as fast, and people are scratching their heads. And you’re taking a second look at the market, which is hitting all-time highs. But almost every day, it’s fewer and fewer stocks. And the way it’s constructed, all you need is a few big names, right?

If Amazon and Apple and Microsoft are hitting new highs, the whole market more or less is hitting a whole new high. But 50, 60, 70 percent of these names are starting to drag. And so we’re in a real confusing place right now.

You layer on top of that first we got two weeks of headlines about the Delta variant. Then we saw countries going at it. And you look at a country like Australia, which was heralded for its great COVID response, having to batten down the hatches. We see what happened in Japan. Investors on Wall Street woke up to Japan now declaring an emergency in Tokyo, no spectators at the Olympics. 

All of this is driving a brand-new narrative that maybe we will shut down again, maybe our economy after this initial boost will go into some sort of

— not a freefall, per se, but this amazing economy that we have been anticipating — and, remember, most economists said, every month, we were going to get a million jobs every month. That was the Wall Street consensus four months ago. That hasn’t materialized. 

So people are really going back to the drawing board trying to figure out where our economy is now and where it will be next year. 

CAVUTO:  You know, sometimes — and you follow this stuff so closely and well, Charles — I often think that it’s in response to a singular event or a singular fear, and that the trend remains the market’s friend.

This market has run up a lot. And you report on it every day. And that some give-back is in order, and that we might have seen that play out today. 

Again, we halved these losses. What do you think? 

PAYNE:  I agree one million percent, Neil. I try my best to get folks to know that and believe it. It is so hard. 

Also, when you see 500 Dow points, it’s not like 10 years ago, right? We are so high right now. 

CAVUTO:  I know.

PAYNE:  It’s a very small percentage getting lost. But investors have become somewhat spoiled. We have come almost straight back since March of 2009. We snapped back from the fastest bear market with the fastest recovery ever last year. People feel like this market is invincible.

And any time it shows just the smallest hint of vulnerability, they really do panic a little bit. They’re not selling, but they are asking a lot of questions and worried.

CAVUTO:  All right, thank you, my friend, very much, Charles Payne, “Making Money.”

PAYNE:  Thanks.

CAVUTO:  He is the host, getting it done, 2:00 p.m. each weekday on FOX Business. 

If you don’t get this, you would be clueless about this, but, of course, you do get it and you’re not clueless about it. We’re just refreshing your memory. 

All right, we have a lot more coming up, including this broad daylight looting going on out of Neiman Marcus. This wasn’t in a bad or questionable neighborhood. This was in the heart of San Francisco. 

And so businesses are wondering, where were the cops? By the way, where was the store security? And why has no one been apprehended? And why now are local business officials saying, you’re damn right we’re going to cut back on hours?

After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CAVUTO:  Now it’s happening in broad daylight, and some California businesses are concerned by these daytime looting incidents, like stores that — Neiman Marcus.

What can be done? A California top businessperson wonders — after this. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CAVUTO:  All right, it’s gotten to be played so much and so often and so much of a concern that now California businesses are worried that, if it can happen at a Neiman Marcus in broad daylight in a pedigree neighborhood, it can and will happen anywhere.

Stores like that and Walgreens, a host of others, considering cutting back hours as a result of this. Cutting back hours cuts back business, potentially cuts back workers. 

And the California Retail Association president, Rachel Michelin, telling me it’s getting worse. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

RACHEL MICHELIN, PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA RETAILERS ASSOCIATION:  We’re coming out of a pandemic. We’re trying to find our economic recovery here in California, particularly in San Francisco, which had some very strict restrictions on businesses in terms of capacity limits. 

So we’re doing everything we can to bring customers back into the store. 

When these videos come out, but, more importantly, think about the customers and the employees that were in the store at the time that happened. Think of the impact on them. They’re the victims that no one’s really talking about. 

And when you hear stores closing, when you hear stores making an economic decision to shut their doors early, what does that tell you about the situation in San Francisco?

We have a district attorney who has said he won’t prosecute these crimes. 

We have a police department that’s doing everything they can, but they can’t make the arrest to make these cases to put these people behind bars. 

These are blatant criminals who are using the proceeds from these crimes to fund really awful things. And we need to find a solution to it. California, we’re a big state. We’re the fifth largest economy. We’re a hotbed for this type of action. And the Retailers Association and my member companies are raising our hands saying, we want to help solve it. 

Unfortunately, in San Francisco right now, it’s falling on deaf ears. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO:  And that’s the problem.

These stores are continuing having to take matters into their own hands, their own security, feeble in the face of these attacks, and cutting their own hours. And some of them think that the worse this gets and the more the government ignores things, well, the more are going to have to close down, maybe even lay off people down the road. 

James Craig is back with us. Of course, you remember him, the former Detroit police chief.

And, Chief, I was thinking about — knowing I would have you on today, I was looking forward to it, but also remembering what you were telling me even a year ago, that this could be the reality, the more this defund police movement spread and looking the other way in the face of crime. 

And now it’s happening in a lot of places, and the violent stuff, too. What do you make of it? 

JAMES CRAIG, FORMER DETROIT, MICHIGAN, POLICE CHIEF:  You know, Neil, thanks again for having me on your show. 

First of all, clearly, the reason why this is happening, we have progressive governance in some of these cities. there are no consequences. 

So, yes, stores are going to start shutting down early. In fact, I will make a prediction, Neil. 

I think, in San Francisco, these high-end stores, they’re going to leave and go to places like Florida, go to places like Texas. Look, we know 17 Walmarts have closed because of blatant thefts over the last five years. 

And so what impact does that have. It impacts jobs and opportunity. And so, as your last person indicated, who talks to the victims? And so this is a big deal. 

I remember when I was a chief of — in Cincinnati, and I met with some local businessmen. It was a crime-ridden area. They said, look, we want to do development, but we can’t do it as long as crime is going on. So I made a commitment, we’re going to reduce crime and eliminate it. In fact, we’re going to put our officers on foot beats. We did that. 

And right now, at least when I left, it was a very thriving area. It was not crime-ridden. So when you look at some of this progressive governance in places like Portland, like Seattle, it’s not surprising that businesses are leaving. They’re going to continue to leave. 

CAVUTO:  But it must be something that some are hearing you, Chief.

And New York, in New York City, Eric Adams, a 20-year veteran of the police department, who has just captured the Democratic nomination for mayor, and he was asked about the crime situation and how Democrats in power have left people down. 

I want you to react to this. This is from Eric Adams. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE:  We have abandoned our cities. What’s happening in New York City, it’s taking place in Chicago’s South Side.

It’s taking place in California, in Atlanta. You’re seeing the Democratic Party, basically, they have thrown up their hands, and we’re continuing to see the same problems in our inner cities. We need to turn it around. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CAVUTO:  In fact, later on, he was critical of Governor Cuomo in New York for belatedly responding to this crisis and even acknowledging it.

But he won that primary. If you think about it, Chief, that’s a liberal base of voters, for whom crime was the number one issue. What do you think? 

CRAIG:  Well I look at Detroit. It’s primarily a Democratic city. And the good people who live and work in the city, they want one thing. They want a safe city. 

Again, these progressives are not talking with the people that live there. 

I agree with the former captain. And this is a big issue. Look at what’s going on in New York. They had proactive policing focusing on criminals carrying guns. They say the gun problem.

I hate when political types make statements, well, let’s go after the guns. 

No, let’s go after criminals with guns, but, more important, when we arrest them, prosecute them. There has to be consequences. 

So, when you look at all this misgovernment that’s going on in New York, defunding the police, ending qualified immunity, certainly, it’s got to have an impact on police officers de-policing, so they’re not out doing the kind of work that needs to be done to reduce violence. And minimal prosecution and talking about closing prisons? 

I mean, what have we become? And thank God I was in a city that supported the kind of work that we do here in Detroit. And we didn’t have riots here in Detroit over the past summer. We didn’t have burning and looting. But it’s sad what you see.

I was in Chicago down the area where they have all these high-end shops. 

You go there now, Neil, police officers work in each shop. Some of them are still boarded up from last summer’s events. What’s going to happen in Chicago? 

Again, we have a mayor there who’s progressive, and it’s not working out. 

And then she blames the pandemic, or she blames it on race issues, really? 

CAVUTO:  All right.

CRAIG:  Take responsibility. 

CAVUTO:  It’s incredible, incredible. 

Chief, I want to thank you, as always, for the exemplary work you did in Detroit. 

CRAIG:  Thank you. 

CAVUTO:  I know a lot of people are asking you to run for office to take off on that. That’s for another interview. 

James Craig, thank you very, very much. 

By the way, we did reach out to San Francisco’s district attorney. We have as yet to hear. Keep you posted on that.

Keep you posted as well on the ongoing recovery — that’s what they’re calling it now, recovery efforts in Surfside outside that condo collapse. 

It happened two weeks ago. The recovery continues. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): The work is going to go on.

And, obviously, they’re going to identify every single person. And we obviously want to do all we can for the survivors and the family members to get them on their feet as best as we possibly can. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO:  All right, so the recovery effort — that is indeed what they’re calling it now — continues outside that Surfside condo collapse. 

It could go on a while. It happened all about two weeks ago, as you recall.

Phil Keating with the very latest from Surfside — Phil.

PHIL KEATING, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  Hey, Neil.

Day one of the search-and-recovery mission on that huge pile of rubble, which was a 12-story condo tower. And the new priority here is to find the remains of those who perished, for their families to have proper closure that they want and arrange for proper funerals. 

The current numbers are 60 confirmed men, women and children killed, and up to 80 remains to be found. 

Here is the county mayor earlier today. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIELLA LEVINE CAVA (D), MAYOR OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA:  Our teams paused their work on the pile this morning around 1:20 a.m. for a brief moment of silence to honor the two-week mark since the collapse.

And we have now officially transitioned from search-and-rescue, from search-and-recovery. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEATING:  After yesterday’s announcement that it is simply next to impossible to find anyone still alive, there were multiple tears and total silence. 

Surfside searchers, families of the missing and local leaders shared a somber moment of silence for the victims buried in the rubble last night, as the search-and-rescue mission transitioned to a recovery mission. 

Several prayers were said. And everyone watched from the rubble pile over to the memorial wall to reflect in sadness and tragic reality that, officially, the hunt for survivors after two weeks is now over. 

Now that this is a full-on recovery mission, everything really on scene has speeded up. More heavy equipment is on the scene. More than seven million pounds of concrete has now that hauled away. The effort is extremely tough, hands and knees at times, hot and humid South Florida summer, all really backbreaking work. 

The estimate for how much longer it will take to totally clear this site, find all the remains and remove all the rubble, the best guess is — quote

— “weeks from now.” As for the cause of what caused this collapse two weeks ago today at 1:30 in the morning, that will likely take months — Neil. 

CAVUTO:  Phil Keating, thank you very much. 

We will have more after this. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB (D-MI):  We must eliminate funding for CBP, ICE and their parent organization, DHS. 

Time after time, we have seen it, as advocates on the ground, as human services agency on the ground, to continue to see over and over again that these agencies are inept, to humanely guiding migrants through our immigration system, and further continue — instead, they further continue to terrorize migrant communities located within our communities. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO:  All right, forget about defunding the police.

How about defunding anyone who has anything to do with the border, from ICE, to the Department of Homeland Security, the Border Patrol, you name it? That was the view of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who says that it’s long overdue. 

Brandon Judd, I’m sure you support all of that, the Border Patrol Union president.

What do you think of that? 

BRANDON JUDD, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL:  I’m absolutely beside myself. 

I look at this and I say, did she not learn anything from the defund the police movement and how criminality has completely skyrocketed and how citizens in this country are just a lot less safe because of this movement? 

Now we’re going to talk about defunding the border and defunding how we’re able to secure the border for the safety and protection of the American public?

This is — seriously, this is crazy talk. And it’s going to lead to more crime in this country.

CAVUTO:  Now, we reached out to Congresswoman Tlaib’s office. We have not heard back. Hope springs eternal. Maybe we will. 

But their view is that the numbers aren’t nearly as dire as, you know, people have been saying and reporting and folks like you have been saying. 

And yet I look at these daily, weekly, monthly numbers, and they’re still at or near record levels. 

So when you go through a period where migrant minors, for example, the number of them are down, you get a new wave. And the fact is that so many of these migrants, thousands by now, have come into the country and sort of fanned out pretty much all over the country. So, I’m hoping we’re keeping track of all of that. But I wonder if we are. What do you think? 

JUDD:  We’re not. DHS doesn’t keep track of where everybody is going to, how they’re being dispersed. 

But let’s go back and let’s look at the numbers. And let me give you just one example of something that happens on a daily basis. In Yuma, Arizona, we had a group of 156 people cross the border illegally. We only had two agents that were able to respond to that group of 156 people.

Those two agents were only able to take 19 people into custody. The rest of them were able to abscond and get away. That’s — and when we talk about defunding the border even more, there’s not going to be any agents that are going to be able to respond to groups like that. 

And we again do not know who these people are. We don’t know what their intentions are here in the United States. Yet Congresswoman Tlaib is talking about taking funds away from something that is national security?

Again, it makes absolutely no sense. 

CAVUTO:  I was just wondering too.

Regardless of people’s politics on this, and then casting the blame on Border Patrol and others that they’re mistreating migrants, they’re in the role of being baby-sitters now for migrant minors and policing, trying to deal with large facilities that can house these record numbers who are coming in. 

So, when I hear the inhumane treatment, I mean, when I heard cages under Donald Trump and all that, that was a big a huge, huge issue, now, under this president, not so much, just the security and personnel at the border who are not doing what they should be doing. What did you make of that argument? 

JUDD:  Well, you and I like to deal in facts. We like to deal in truth. And we like to have — present evidence.

If we’re going to make a statement, we’re going to present the evidence. 

And Congresswoman Tlaib did not present any evidence. In fact, if you go back and you look at any complaints or anything like that, there is no inhumane treatment that is taking place as we speak. There hasn’t been inhumane treatment. We take these people into custody. We abide by the laws.

We do everything that we’re supposed to do. Yet we get political rhetoric from the far left that says we’re treating them inhumanely. But they don’t give any facts or any examples of that rhetoric that they’re spewing. 

CAVUTO:  Yes, all of these cases are being adjudicated on our soil now, rather than in Mexico in the past, and we’re trying to handle this as best we can. 

I just don’t know whether cutting funding for groups that are handling that load is the wise idea right now, as the load gets bigger. 

Brandon Judd, thank you very, very much. 

Again, to Congresswoman Tlaib, we’d love to have her on to talk about this. 

We will see. 

All right, in the meantime, talking about, well, modern times. You like pizza at college? You’re a student? You love it? How about a robot to bring it to you? 

A continuing trend that now is picking up steam — after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CAVUTO:  Here’s one way to handle a labor shortage, get a robot to do it. 

Grubhub is teaming up with the self-driving group Yandex. So the idea is to reach 250 college campuses to deliver pizza to kids and all the rest. If you’re spotting a trend here, you should. We will get into the details a little bit later here. But more and more stores, restaurants are utilizing robots to get the job done. 

We decided to do — talk to two human beings about this, Kat Timpf, FOX Nation “Sincerely Kat” host, FOX News contributor, and Mike Gunzelman, Internet radio sensation. 

Thanks, guys, for coming. 

Kat, what do you think of this? 

KATHERINE TIMPF, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  Look, I think it’s a long time coming, honestly.

I have always said anybody who wants a very, very high minimum wage, you got this thing called the robot problem. And people say I’m crazy. But there’s a lot of these things that robots can do. And they can do it more cheaply. And they can do it easily. Now, when you have the this exact thing of being accelerated with the labor shortage, so people are making more money to stay home, they’re bringing out the robots. 

So, I told you so. 

CAVUTO:  Now, Gunz, you’re probably wishing they had something like this when you were in college, which was about eight months ago. 

(LAUGHTER) 

CAVUTO:  But, I mean, what do you make of it? 

MIKE GUNZELMAN, FOX NEWS HEADLINES ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER:  Well, what do I can’t wait that — for all the social media videos to come on from the frat houses ordering a robot on a Saturday night. Instead of hazing each other, they’re going to be hazing the robots and tipping it over and pouring things on it and all of that. 

But, in all seriousness, though, Neil, I hate this. I understand that A.I. 

and the automation, that’s inevitable, that we are going this direction. 

But I — that doesn’t mean I have to really appreciate it or like it, because I don’t.

I think, especially coming out of the pandemic, the fact is that who kept us going the last year-and-a-half? It wasn’t politicians. It wasn’t the bosses of companies. It was the essential health care workers. And it was those showing up to grocery stores and restaurants and delivery people. 

And now GrubHouse (sic) is saying, oh, thanks for everything you did, delivering food during the bit of a pandemic, when we didn’t know what was happening. But we’re going to give your job to a Russian company. And, oh, yes, you’re replaced by robots.

I think that’s a bad look. I don’t like it. 

CAVUTO:  OK. Well, you have got a lot of anger issues there. 

But, Kat, this has been happening all the time. Remember, a few months ago, in the middle of pandemic, and just coming out of it, all these restaurants that were trying to stay open were using robots to deliver food to folks.

TIMPF:  Yes. 

CAVUTO:  I think we had some of that and all.

So it’s — I just think it’s a sign of the times. 

TIMPF:  It’s absolutely a sign of the times. And things change, obviously.

Where are all those people that know how to work a phonograph, right? 

Things obviously change.

(LAUGHTER)

TIMPF:  But this is a little different, because there are certain things that delivery people can do that maybe a robot can’t.

Like, for me, I’m a big marinara gal. Like, if I order like anything, I need a side of marinara, extra parmesan cheese. I can like call them and be like, please make sure I get my marinara. Robots, they don’t want to chat, which is good, but also could be bad, depending on what your marinara situation is. 

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO:  Well, that’s a very good point. 

But look at the bright side, Gunz. You don’t have to tip a robot. I don’t know what happens if you complain about the pizza to robots. 

TIMPF:  Right. 

CAVUTO:  I said, pepperoni, you cafone, and all of a sudden you have got cheese. I understand. 

But, I mean, that might not be too shabby. 

GUNZELMAN:  Well, here’s the thing.

I just don’t know, because it’s going to start with just the delivery system. But already, in Paris, a couple pizzerias over there now have robots cooking the pizza, slicing it, and putting into boxes. 

CAVUTO:  Wow.

GUNZELMAN:  So it’s only beginning with delivery. And it’s going to continue going everywhere. 

We see Amazon testing out the aerial drone delivery systems in different parts of the country. It’s going that way. But when it comes to food, you know what happens if — every single burger patty is not going to be perfect, but a human would recognize that and wouldn’t cook that one. 

But now, when you’re dealing with automation and robots…

CAVUTO:  Really? Really? Have you ordered food sometimes? 

TIMPF:  Yes.

CAVUTO:  I’m not knocking these people.

(LAUGHTER)

TIMPF:  Not always.

CAVUTO:  But come on. Humans — right, Kat? Come on.

TIMPF:  Yes. 

GUNZELMAN: Sometimes. 

TIMPF:  Yes.

CAVUTO:  All right. All right, guys.

GUNZELMAN:  I just don’t trust the robots. I trust humans. 

CAVUTO:  Yes. All right. All right. 

TIMPF:  Trust no one.

CAVUTO:  Open the pepperoni door, HAL. All right. 

Thank you, guys. You were terrific. 

That was a “2001: A Space Odyssey” reference. They’re too young to have gotten it. 

All right. But this is the way the world. Let me know how you feel about it. You can e-mail us any time, none of the personal nasty questions and all that stuff, but I would like to know what you think of this. 

That will do it here. 

Here comes “The Five.”

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