MARIA-02
Famous Under Scrutiny After Panama Papers Leaked; Villanova Wins NCAA
Championship; U.S. Commerce Secretary on Global Economy; Billionaire Space
Race - Part 1>
Kaminsky; Elizabeth MacDonald; Jared Max, Sandra Smith>
Business; Stock Markets; Corruption; Sports; NCAA; Wisconsin; Politics;
Polls; Elections>
MARIA BARTIROMO, FBN ANCHOR: Good Tuesday morning, everybody; welcome back. I am Maria Bartiromo; it is April 5th. Your top stories right now, 7:00 a.m. on the East Coast: (HEADLINES) All that coming up in the program this morning.
With me this morning, FOX Business Network's Sandra Smith; "The Wall Street Journal's" Matt Murray; and "Wall Street Week" Co-Host Gary Kaminsky. We have a great lineup this morning -
SANDRA SMITH, FBN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks.
GARY KAMINSKY, CO-HOST, "WALL STREET WEEK": Good morning.
MATT MURRAY, DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Good morning.
BARTIROMO: Thank you so much for being here. Trump campaign National Co- Chairman, Sam Clovis is with us; U.S. Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker is here; also, Apollo Astronaut, Buzz Aldrin; and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. Also with us this morning is Washington Wizards Owner Ted Leonsis. You don't want to miss it. Joins us for all of that.
Wisconsin polls are opening in less than an hour, right now, from the crucial primary vote in the Badger State. Blake Burman is live right now in Brookfield, Wisconsin with the latest. Blake, good morning to you.
BLAKE BURMAN, FBN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Maria; good morning to you, here on election day in Wisconsin. The town of Brookfield is where we are; this is a suburb just outside of Milwaukee. The polling locations all across the Badger State set to open here in an hour, and they are expecting major turnout all across the state today.
On the Republican side, 42 delegates are in play for Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and John Kasich. For Cruz, he was in this state early and often. The polling suggests he might have a slight lead here heading into election day. The numbers have been coming down just a bit, according to polling for Cruz.
For Donald Trump, he has made a last-second pitch all across the state here, campaigning feverishly in the last couple days, including bringing his wife, Melania Trump, out onto the campaign trail.
For John Kasich, he pretty much picked up and left a few days ago. He has been exclusively in the Northeast the last few days.
Ted Cruz sat down with Megyn Kelly last night, in Wisconsin, and he sounded pretty confident heading into election day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED CRUZ (R-TX) REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Here in Wisconsin, listen. Let me point out, the media has been saying for weeks and weeks that Wisconsin was not going to be a good state for us; that this was a natural state for Donald Trump; that Wisconsin was a purple to blue state; that Wisconsin, there were not many evangelicals here; that it's a heavily manufacturing blue-collar state. I can't tell you how many media analysts I heard saying well Donald Trump is going to run away with Wisconsin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURMAN: On the Democratic side, 86 delegates will be awarded tonight and the polling suggests this is going to be yet another tight state here in the Midwest between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Sanders has done well in this area, winning out west, in Minnesota, and east, in Michigan, and being competitive all around, in Iowa and Illinois, as well. By in large, Maria, the headline heading into today, as you've got the two front- runners, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, potentially staring down loses tonight in Wisconsin. Back to you.
BARTIROMO: Big night, it sure is. Thank you so much; Blake Burman, thank you. Meanwhile, Donald Trump making a push to take delegates away from rival Ted Cruz and boost his support with female voters along the way. Trump's wife, Melania, joined her husband in Milwaukee last night to campaign for the GOP front-runner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I brought somebody very special along. I would like to introduce my wife, Melania.
MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: It is wonderful to be here today with you and with my husband. I am very proud of him. He is a hard worker. He is kind. He has a great heart. He is tough. He is smart. He is a great communicator. He is a great negotiator. He is telling the truth. He is a great leader. He is fair.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Joining us right now is Trump Campaign National Co-Chairman and Chief Policy Advisor Sam Clovis. Sam, good to see you, sir; thanks for joining us.
SAM CLOVIS, NATIONAL COCHAIRMAN & CHIEF POLICY ADIVSOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Well thanks for having me on, Maria; I appreciate it.
BARTIROMO: So, Melania coming out, is she going to be doing more campaigning?
CLOVIS: I think so. I think Melania is a great asset for Mr. Trump. I think she's a wonderful person once you get to know her. I mean, she is really a delightful person. As beautiful as she is on the outside, she is equally as beautiful on the inside.
BARTIROMO: Well that's terrific. She certainly came across well. I've got to ask about Donald Trump's comments on the economy, Sam, because this is really being debated across business right now. He made a bold prediction the us would go into recession if he loses in November; listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: we are in a massive bubble; we have money that is the cheapest money we ever had, yet nobody can borrow it unless you're very rich. I mean, if I want to borrow money, I can borrow all the money I want to borrow but if you are not really rich you can't borrow money. So, did you ever hear of cheap money nobody can get? We are sitting on a bubble. The stock market is very inflated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Sam, obviously that's a pretty bold call.
CLOVIS: Right.
BARTIROMO: And he also said that he's going to be able to eliminate $19 trillion in debt in eight years. I have got a report from The Committee for A Responsible Federal Budget in front of me. They say absolutely not. Gross debt, currently at $19 trillion, will reach $28 trillion by the end of 2025. To save that much money would require cutting all spending by two-thirds or achieving 16-percent annual growth, Sam. It sounds like it is out there to say that you could eliminate the debt in eight years.
CLOVIS: I think that the opportunity for us is to start buying down the debt in eight years and I think that that is very much within reach. I think that those are the opportunities that are there. I don't think that it will take too much structural change. Our tax reform plan is an excellent one.
I think - in fact, I was in meetings yesterday discussing this very issue. We were going over all the features of it, discussing all the aspects of it, looking at refinements we could make to this that would make it even better. I think that when we finish this up and get a chance to presented this to Congress in 2017, I think we'll have the opportunity to move the ball; and I think we're going to see pretty dramatic growth.
As we look back at the Kennedy tax cuts and the Reagan tax-cuts, those first several years were very dramatic in the amount of growth that we can get. We have so many things that have to be accomplished. So structural tax reform has to be at the very highest part of that priority list.
BARTIROMO: But, Sam, just to be clear - I want to close the loop on this before we move on to another subject,
CLOVIS: Sure.
BARTIROMO: -- because Mr. Trump has said he's not going to touch social security right now, but if you exclude social security, he is going to have to cut government spending by 93-percent in order to do what he is saying he is going to do. So, 93 percent?
CLOVIS: I think you hit the nail on the head there: we won't touch social security right now. I mean, those are the factors that we have to look at. We can't do anything until we get this economy back up on its feet and running at the proper level. I do agree. I mean, I've been teaching this in my classes for the last several years, that I think the equity markets, because of quantitative easing, are incredibly inflated and I think what we are looking at potential, with fragility of markets across the world, and taking a look at where we are with oil and a lot of other issues, I've been fascinated watching your show this morning.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
CLOVIS: I think all these factors are there.
BARTIROMO: Here's Gary Kaminsky, Sam.
CLOVIS: Gary, how are you?
KAMINSKY: Sam, the recession - good morning, Sam. The recession call, one of the reasons why Trump has caught on is he is a business person. Is he making the recession based on what he sees at Trump Enterprises? In other words, is he seeing signs that he would as a businessperson, that he is preparing his own company right now for a recession later this year?
BARTIROMO: That is a great question
CLOVIS: I think it is a great question and I think it is absolutely right. You have to take a look, he is a person that has the volume of business to be able to look in to this and see those indicators for him.
KAMINSKY: Has he told you -
CLOVIS: It may not be another -
KAMINSKY: Has he told you -
CLOVIS: It may not be another slice of the economy but it certainly is for him.
KAMINSKY: Well I think it's very important, so has he said - has he told you and the rest of the team what he sees in the business? He did mention, obviously, the fact that it is very hard to get a loan right now, but what other factors is he seeing? What other data it he seeing that tells him the recession is right around the corner?
CLOVIS: I think what we are seeing is slow growth here. We've had 1.38- percent growth in GDP for the last 11 years. I think that what he sees there is also what is the psychological aspect of this, Gary, and we don't ever talk enough about that, what people are doing with their money are not doing with their money. So this becomes a - we're a consumption economy. If people are slowing their consumption or they're looking at other things, we're going to get an overstock of inventory. That is exactly what happens. We have this multitude of errors coming there, so we end up having to clear those inventories at some point, and that means layoffs. So this is what really leads us to those recessions.
BARTIROMO: Hey, Sam -
CLOVIS: I think we've been in a flat recession for a long time; it's just that the numbers don't -- we don't get to the technical qualification of it.
SMITH: Hey, Sam, this is Sandra Smith. I wanted to go back to Trump and women because his unfavorability with women are over 3:1 according to the latest "New York Times"/CBS poll -
CLOVIS: Right.
SMITH: -- but it is not just a Trump and women problem, it's a Republican Party and women problem and, quite frankly, Hillary Clinton is having a hard time with women as well.
CLOVIS: Right.
SMITH: What is his strategy there? I mean, he brought his wife out on the stage last night for that Town Hall with Sean Hannity. At 6:00 hour we had David Drucker on from "The Washington Examiner" who said he brought her out here to say things that everybody knows: that when attacks he will punch back 10 times harder. David was making the point we didn't need to hear that from her. Could he be using her in a better way, considering his strategy to attract women has not been working?
CLOVIS: Well I think what we really have to do is take a look as we go through the campaign, we are concentrating right now on every state. In two weeks we have a great array of states coming up for us. A lot of it has to be a shifted message as we go forward, to make the economic case to men and women regardless of where they are. If we make that economic case, we make that case for America, I think that the people will come around to that because they -- what we find here is every time you hear the word leadership mentioned at one of his rallies the place explodes. This is really what they are looking for.
BARTIROMO: Yes, for sure. You're right.
CLOVIS: Absolutely; Donald Trump is different. He is different.
BARTIROMO: Go ahead, finish your thought Sam.
CLOVIS: No, I just think that this is really -- at the end of the day this is what people are looking for. They are looking for people who have the skills. He has created tens of thousands of jobs. He is a leader. He is a charismatic leader and I think people are looking for leadership and it's because we have had a void of that, frankly, for the last 30 years.
BARTIROMO: What has he said about this construction worker in Vancouver hanging up the Mexican flag atop Donald Trump's Vancouver hotel? He is basically sending a message to Donald Trump, Sam, saying look, I am hanging this Mexican flag on Trump Vancouver to tell him something.
CLOVIS: I don't think Mr. Trump is going to get involved in dealing with an individual employee on a project in Vancouver, Canada. I think that will be left to the site manager up there to deal with.
BARTIROMO: So Trump has not reached out to this construction worker then?
CLOVIS: As far as I know. Nobody has talked to me about it.
BARTIROMO: Sam, good to have you on the program this morning.
CLOVIS: As always.
BARTIROMO: Appreciate your time; Sam Clovis there.
CLOVIS: You bet.
BARTIROMO: Make sure you tune into the FOX Business Network today for our special coverage of the Wisconsin primary. It all kicks off tonight, 7:00 pm Eastern; right here on the FOX Business Network. Neil Cavuto, Lou Dobbs, everybody you want, tonight.
A passenger jet burst into flames after colliding with another plane on the tarmac, the details coming to you next; then, new developments on the Panama Papers leak. Protesters filling the streets in Iceland, calling for the country's prime minister to step down. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome bac; North Korea is threatening an attack on Washington again. Cheryl Casone with the details and the headlines; Cheryl.
CHERYL CASONE, FBN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Maria, the Kim Jong-un regime says it's ready to hit Washington D.C. with nuclear weapons. (HEADLINES) Finally, Maria, some of the world's rich and famous are now under scrutiny after 11.5 million pages of leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm show possible tax evasion and criminal activity using offshore accounts. Among those documents are close friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin and relatives of the leaders of China, Britain, Iceland, Pakistan, even the President of Ukraine has been names in this. There are calls for Iceland's prime minister this morning to resign; he walked out of the interview.
Maria, the Panamanian law firm at the center of the scandal denies any wrongdoing as does Credit Suisse, HSBC. Those firms dismiss suggestions they were using offshore structures to help their client's cheat on their taxes. Back to you.
BARTIROMO: All right, Cheryl; thanks so much. Elizabeth MacDonald joins us right now following. Liz has been following this story closely. Liz?
ELIZABETH MACDONALD, FBN CORRESPONDENT: So, we are seeing three banks popping up, and here's where the U.S. Government can take this, it's a sanctions probe. It's not just - by the way, let me back up.
You know whole governments set up tax avoidance policies, like Ireland. This is really about two things: it's about public officials looting the public coffers and using shell companies and also, you know, where the U.S. could really take this, and this is what we're hearing from government sources, is doing business with companies and countries that are on the blacklist for the U.S.
So what we're talking about is 33 companies are popping up that are blacklisted. Three banks, HSBC, UBS and Credit Suisse are thought to be working with these alleged blacklisted companies. HSBC was one of the heaviest users of this law firm; 2300 of the 15,000 plus shells were found ordered up by HSBC since the `70s.
So let me back up, and here is where they are zooming in, four fronts: terrorism; nuc weapons financing via these shells in North Korea and the Middle East; the use of one of the shells to help fuel the airplanes in Syria that did the barrel bombs. So that company is called Pangates International. That was the shell company that had the jet fuel going into Syria; the third is drug kings and queens in Mexico and Guatemala, on the blacklist; again, nuclear proliferators in North Korea. So that is where the concern is.
So we are talking Iran, Sudan, even Cuba. We know that a number of banks already, Maria, have been hit by the Justice Department with fines and deferred criminal prosecution for working with blacklisted companies. So the thinking is this is where the probe can lead.
BARTIROMO: Yes, in fact, UBS and Credit Suisse have settled, right, Matt?
MURRAY: Yes, but the probes are continuing. I mean, what I want to know, Liz is how open a secret was this before all this came out, and how revelatory is it? Did everyone know about this law firm and know, they just didn't have the evidence?
MACDONALD: Right, that's a great question; and so it is an open secret that this stuff goes on, right, but they didn't have the names of the shell companies and who were being used as the middlemen. We are counting 617 U.S. middlemen that were - basically that the U.S. could start looking at. So it's not banks -- it's not just banks. It's also law firms and trusts and foundations.
BARTIROMO: All right, we'll leave it there. Liz, great to see you. Thank you so much.
MACDONALD: Sure.
BARTIROMO: Coming up, fresh off of her historic trip to Cuba, Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker will join me in a FOX Business exclusive; and, speaking of history, the first buzzer beater to win the NCAA Championship in over 30 years, got the highlights for you next; back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back; an historic finish last night at the NCAA Men's Championship Game. Jared Max with all the highlights right now; Jared, what a game.
JARED MAX, FOX CORRESPONDENT: Wow!
BARTIROMO: Yes, wow!
MAX: You could not ask for a better ending to the Men's College Basketball Season. Championship game at Houston: North Carolina Tar Heels versus Villanova Wildcats; late first half, Carolina led Nova by 7. Wildcats try to pull closer, Phil Booth would go for the jumper with just a couple seconds to go in the first half. He finished with 20 and led Villanova, who trailed by 5 at halftime.
Second half, Carolina's hot shooting touch went cold; barely shot 40- percent the second half and Villanova heated up. The Wildcats made 58- percent of their shots after halftime. One stretch they scored 19 out of 26 points.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
MAX: So with under five minutes to play, the Wildcats led by ten. Carolina came all the way back, and was in position to tie the game when Marcus Page would make this acrobatic three-point shot with just a couple of seconds left to go. Look at this shot by Marcus Page. Nobody expected this to go in. You figure, okay, we're going to go to overtime. Carolina ties it to 74.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
MAX: Now it's great. They go into the huddle. Villanova Coach, Jay Rice, says I didn't have to say anything. I just told them the name of the play and they knew exactly what to do.
So look at what Villanova does in this final chance, bringing the ball up the court, looking for Chris Jenkins, bang! That is what Coach Jay Rice said. He knew he was going to hit it; Bang!
BARTIROMO: Awesome.
MAX: 77-74; it's the first buzzer beater in the NCAA, to win it all, since Lorenzo Charlie did it in 1983. The celebration at Villanova went on throughout the night just outside Philadelphia.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FBN CORRESPONDENT: I'm not even a Wildcats fan and I want to do lapse around this studio; that was so exciting!
MAX: The game winner, Chris Jenkins. Let's hear what he had to say after the contest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS JENKINS, VILLANOVA WILDCATS: Like Coach said, he made the perfect pass. He said every time I one-two step it's definitely going up. So that was going up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAX: The man who hit that, who he got the pass from, Ryan Arcidiacono, was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. He's a kid who also grew up as a Villanova fan and received such praise from the men who hit the shot, Jenkins, saying, look, here is this senior, has an opportunity to go for the game-winning shot and he passes it back, and then the game-winner.
BARTIROMO: So much fun.
MCDOWELL: People -- Gary is being awfully quiet because -
[Cross Talk]
KAMINSKY: Listen, it was a great game and the one thing, also, not only does he make the pass, not only does he make the pass he, it's a legal screen there, but he actually screens out for Jenkins. So it was an amazing play.
MAX: They work on that exact play all the time, and it's an amazing play because you're making the pass and you're creating a legal screen; unbelievable. Look at this. I mean, look at that.
BARTIROMO: So you thought Carolina was winning, Gary, until the final seconds. You were like, yeah, this is going the way I thought it would go --
KAMINSKY: My son James, who is a graduate of the school, I was pulling for them, as any good father would do. So -
BARTIROMO: All right.
KAMINSKY: -- I am disappointed for him -
MAX: More people picked Villanova to lose in the first round against a 15 seed than they did to win the entire tournament, in the ESPN brackets.
BARTIROMO: Is that right?
MAX: So this is a big upset, right?
MCDOWELL: I am glad the Heels beat Syracuse because Syracuse crushed the Cavaliers.
MAX: You've got Syracuse and Connecticut for the women's game tonight.
BARTIROMO: We've got to talk about baseball. Washington Nationals star, Bryce Harper, wearing a controversial hat after yesterday's game. The hat resembles Donald Trump's campaign gear reading "Make Baseball Fun Again." I love it.
MCDOWELL: Baseball is the worst professional sport.
BARTIROMO: Oh, come on. How can you say that?
MCDOWELL: It is so slow.
MAX: Who's being told to rep?
[Cross Talk]
MCDOWELL: It is so slow.
MAX: Yes, it is slow.
BARTIROMO: It's got the oldest demographic of any sport.
MCDOWELL: 53 is the average viewer of baseball.
BARTIROMO: What does that mean?
KAMINSKY: The average viewer --
BARTIROMO: Your grandfather watching baseball and the kids are watching soccer and basketball, bottom line.
MAX: And then, Maria, they're watching this.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
MCDOWELL: It matters. It matters to advertisers.
SMITH: Uninteresting. Uninteresting to those who didn't grow up with it, A, or, B, those who don't understand it.
MCDOWELL: I grew up with and played softball in high school and I still hate it.
MAX: You're still bored, because they found a direct correlation, if you played baseball or softball growing up, you are much more likely to watch baseball. That's why they are finding baseball has such an age problem -
BARTIROMO: Right.
MAX: -- because participation at youth baseball and softball is down like 40-percent. So people -- we need people like Bryce Harper, one of the younger faces in the game, saying let's make this fun. Can we be goofy and not have all of these (inaudible)?
MCDOWELL: Well here's the -- don't look fit, half of them. It is slow. Pick it up. Let's go, let's go. Games should not be that long.
BARTIROMO: Bill Cosby. Dagen McDowell, Jared Max, thank you. Tell us how you really feel, please, next time.
MAX: I like it.
BARTIROMO: Up next, a megadeal under pressure. Why new Treasury Department rules could derail the Pfizer and Allergan $150 billion merger. We're going to tell you about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back. I'm Maria Bartiromo. Good morning to you. Tuesday, April 5th. Your top stories right now at 7:30 a.m. on the East Coast.
Decision day has arrived for Wisconsin. Polls opening in less than two hours.
High stakes on Republican side of the race. Ted Cruz holding a wide lead over Donald Trump, John Kasich still fighting for votes, despite calls for him to drop out of the race.
For Democrats, the race much tighter in the Badger State. Hillary Clinton facing growing pressure from Bernie Sanders, but she's still looking toward the general election.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I hear Donald Trump or Ted Cruz with those offensive comments they make about Muslims, it's not only wrong, it's dangerous. Because what we've got to do --
[APPLAUSE]
-- is make sure everybody feels comfortable and welcome to pick up that phone or to go on to their computer to report something.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BARTIROMO: We'll take you live to Wisconsin coming up in the program.
A helicopter crash in Tennessee leaving five people dead. The accident starting a wildfire. We've got those details coming up for you.
And the space race is on. Jeff Bezos scored a major win with a perfect landing for Blue Origin this week. Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin is with us weighing in straight ahead.
Markets this morning under pressure. Take a look at where we stand. End of day losses on Wall Street is what we're expecting. The futures are indicating a decline of about 100 points on Dow Jones Industrial Average. We've got weakness this morning in Europe as well as overnight in Asia.
The Treasury Department taking aim U.S. corporate tax dodgers that move their headquarters overseas in effort to lower corporate tax rate. The department's latest round of regulations may derail the deal between Pfizer and Allergan. It's $150 billion merger.
Joining us right now in a Fox Business exclusive is U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. Secretary Pritzker, good to see you.
PENNY PRITZKER, U.S. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: Good to see you.
BARTIROMO: Thank you so much for joining us. I know you're just back from Cuba with the President, so I want to ask you about your trip and about trade.
But let's first begin on this story in terms of the Treasurer new rules.
PRITZKER: Yes.
BARTIROMO: We had treasury second Jack Lew on at the end of last year. And he was very clear. We do not like when companies leave America to go find a better tax rate. We're going to make it much tougher. Why not just go back to the tax code and change the tax code rather than piling more rules after more rules?
PRITZKER: Well, right now, you know, we don't have a lot of flexibility to be able to change the tax code. And so what the President's doing is taking action against folks who are trying to move their about headquarters for tax purposes.
BARTIROMO: Right, but don't forget this that at the end of the day the reason that they're leaving is because we have got highest tax rate in the industrialized world? So rather than, you know, putting more rules on, is it smarter to just lower the corporate tax rate? How come that's so difficult to do is really the question.
PRITZKER: Well, once you address the tax rate, and obviously, the Secretary of Treasury is the person who's the expert in this, is, you know, it's very complex. And there are winners and losers, so it's a hard thing to get through Congress.