Trump did something no other president has done in 47 years: GOP lawmaker

Joining us is Senator Dave McCormick from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who also served our country in uniform. Welcome, Senator, and thank you for your service to our country. Where do you think the MOU stands now? Well, good evening, Trey. We got to start with sort of setting the stage. President Trump did something that no other president has done in 47 years, which is go into Iran and take back their nuclear weapons program and really confront the worst sponsor of state terror, the country that's killed more Americans. Our military did a fantastic job of eliminating much of its military capability, and that and the blockade got us to this point for the MOU. We never expected the MOU to be without some bumps, and the president's made it very clear. What we need to have is the elimination of the nuclear program, the turnover of the enriched uranium, a wide-open strait of Hormuz. And if the Iranians embrace that path, there's going to be a great agreement that can ultimately bring prosperity to Iran. If they don't, the president's made clear he's going to use military force to achieve those objectives. We'll have to see. It's confusing, the fog of war, because there's lots of different groups in Iran. Their communication's unclear. But the president's made clear it's tit for tat. If they're going to impose violence and weaponry on the strait, that they're going to get hit back, and they're going to get hit back hard. So hopefully, cooler minds will prevail in Iran, and we'll be able to proceed through the MOU and achieve the objectives the president's made so clear. All right, Senator, let's come back a little closer to Capitol Hill. The filibuster has been around for 200 years, although admittedly it's been altered. Are you convinced that Democrats would honor the rule if and when they're in the majority? Because I know that's the president's fear, is that the moment they take the Senate, whenever that is, they'll change the rule. So that's why there's pressure on Republicans now to do it. Well, when I was campaigning, I campaigned against eliminating the filibuster. The Democrats were saying they would make Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. states four new Senate seats that would be Democrat, packing the Supreme Court. Now that I'm in the Senate, I'd have to acknowledge it is incredibly frustrating that the Democrats have been such obstructionists, and they've been, in a number of ways, paying our Border Patrol, paying our military. They're willing to shut down the government. It's really been outrageous. And the Save America Act's another example of that, where we've got to keep the pressure. It's so frustrating that a body of 100 can't get 60 to vote for something that's 80-20 in terms of the electorate. And no one feels this more strongly than me. I lost an election by 900 votes. I won an election by 15,000 votes out of 7 million. No one can tell me that every single vote isn't absolutely critical. So my view on this is there's not votes to eliminate the filibuster. I'm pretty confident in that. But there is a potential path on the Save America Act. We need to keep the focus on the Democrats, make them defend the indefensible. We need to look for ways, mechanisms, possibly reconciliation, to get all our parts of the Save America Act passed. And we need to stay on offense all the time. This is something that everybody I see in Pennsylvania wants. It shouldn't be a partisan issue. And we've got to get people to have confidence in our elections again. So that's why I've been pushing so hard on it. All right. Let me ask you about your defense summit, and particularly in this AI world that we find ourselves in. Why have the defense summit? And tell us about the one you have upcoming. Well, we had a big summit last year in Pittsburgh, which was energy and innovation, and the president came, and we had incredible turnout of CEOs and big investments in Pennsylvania. This year, it's the Defense and Innovation Summit. And I couldn't think of a better time to have this. The president will be joining us, a number of his senior members of his team, CEOs from across the defense industry, big investors. And it's because we're completely revamping our entire defense industrial base. We need to alter the way we go to war to accommodate the changes we see in the battlefield in Ukraine and Iran. Pennsylvania needs to be the point of the spear in doing that. This is going to require our government, our private sector to come together. And to your point about AI, many of those big technology companies and AI companies last year are the same people that will be at the Defense and Innovation Summit, because AI innovation is really underpinning a lot of these dramatic changes in autonomy and drones and robots. The battlefield's changing. For America to maintain its leadership in the world, we need to change our military along with it. President Trump's been leading the way, and Pennsylvania can lead the way with him. Well, happy July 4th to you. Thank you again for your service to our country and all the ways that it's manifested itself. And also, happy July 4th to your bride, of whom I am a huge fan. Thank you for joining us on a Sunday night. Thank you, Trey. Thanks for having me. Catch full shows streaming now on FOX1.