You can tell a lot about members of the corporate press by the questions they ask, and how those questions sometimes change based on who they’re directed at. On Sunday, Margaret Brennan hosted Face the Nation on CBS with guests Kevin Hassett, Director of the National Economic Council, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. See if you can figure out some of Brennan’s preferred narratives by the way she asks questions of her guests, and how she uses her role to advance those narratives…

To Kevin Hassett, Director of the National Economic Council:

Russia has launched a very significant attack on Ukraine and – in Kyiv. They actually even hit a Ukrainian government building. Does the U.S. condemn the assault? And what are you waiting for now in terms of triggering those sanctions on Russia?

On the U.S. economy, there were 22,000 jobs added last month. The past two months of data were also revised down.

You’ve said in interviews this week it suggests there’s less momentum here than you thought. Has job creation stalled, and should the Federal Reserve be concerned about the jobs picture?

But you believe all that data? All those models are functioning?

Because, last month, the president fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, suggesting there was political bias, not just what you’re talking about, which is a very technical issue on how data is collected and crunched.

Did you fix the political bias or…

So you don’t trust these numbers from Friday?

But, trend line-wise, when we hear from companies like Caterpillar, Deere, Ford, Procter & Gamble that their costs are going up due to tariffs, that doesn’t suggest there’s going to be robust hiring in those sectors, right, when a company is taking on something that could hurt their productivity – or profitability, I should say.

But my point being that doesn’t forecast from these companies a scenario in which they would necessarily be hiring. Have you been able to calculate what the immigration crackdown has done to employment?

How do you prove that?

And if you know the corporations are hiring undocumented or have a pattern of it, are you prosecuting those companies?

But going after the employers?

But you don’t plan to prosecute companies who had this pattern you’re talking about of hiring people in the country illegally?

Well, we are also seeing in that data you say you don’t trust necessarily that it’s manufacturing that’s trade-related, that that is where the lack of hiring is happening. Those are the areas that the president had promised there would be new jobs.

When do those new jobs in those sectors come?

Well, we’ll wait to see if those jobs are created.

I want to ask you about the Fed, because the president, you were standing next to him in the Oval Office, said he might basically make you one of the most powerful men in the world, because he’s considering you to become the next chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Our CBS polling we just did shows that 70 percent of Americans want the Federal Reserve to make decisions independently from President Trump. But there’s a big partisan difference here; 59 percent of Republicans say the Fed should be guided by what Trump wants, 41 percent should be independent of Trump. Which Republican camp do you fall into?

Including from President Trump?

Well, Secretary Bessent went into that in an article in The Wall Street Journal this past week.
He talked about the Central Bank’s independence being under threat due to mission creep. There should be an independent, non partisan review of the entire Fed, its role in regulation, monetary policy and research.

What’s your plan to overhaul the Fed?

But you would endorse what Secretary Bessent wrote in that article fully?

And you would be prepared to implement that vision for the Federal Reserve if you are chair?

Well, it certainly seems, from one of the political appointees, the Cabinet member, to be a vision for the future of the Fed that the Trump administration would like.

What will you do if the Supreme Court does rule that the president’s tariff policy, or at least those under the IEEPA, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, are not legal?

To Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.:

You are known for your Intel work, but you’re also on a number of other committees. We were just there talking about the economy. Do you agree that, basically, the economic data that the United States releases is potentially fundamentally flawed?

Well, and there’s also a fundamental remaking of the economy if you’re talking about artificial intelligence. So, on that point quickly, there were more than a dozen tech titans at the White House this week, including some of these giants in the artificial intelligence space, Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates, Google CEO, Apple CEO, and they were all around the table praising President Trump for the investment in chip manufacturing and A.I.

Do you deserve – do you think he does deserve that praise?

Taxpayers own 10 percent of the company now.

And the White House says, oh, they’re not great chips, so, therefore we can – can sell them. That’s what the commerce secretary has said.

But on – on the Intelligence beat, as the vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, you have an oversight authority, and under law, the Intel agencies must inform that committee about their operations. The CIA has to tell you about covert actions. This is an important kind of oversight.

But, this past week, you said you were blocked from even attending a meeting at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency out in Virginia. Why do you think you were blocked? And has your Republican counterpart promised you that this isn’t going to continue?

[Laura Loomer] speaks to Cabinet members, including the secretary of state.

Right. Is Tom Cotton promising you this won’t happen again?

So, tell me about this campaign, it would seem, in Latin America, with the United States taking out this drug boat.

Secretary Rubio, your former colleague on the Senate Intelligence Committee says – quote – “If you’re on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl or whatever headed to the United States, you’re an immediate threat to the United States.” He is saying that is a national security justification to carry out a campaign with an unclear timeline.

Have you reached out to Rubio about this? Do you know anything about how it is being formulated here with the intelligence community?

But, as far as you know, this is fully a military operation; it is not using the intelligence assets of the intelligence…

Because the administration says they know everyone who was on that boat. They had great clarity and fidelity.”

No briefing on this?

Are they conducting regular information-sharing with Gang of Eight?

To Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.:

Yes. I know you were an OB/GYN in practice for, you know, decades before you ran for office. This past week the HHS secretary underwent intense questioning from both Democratic lawmakers and some of your fellow Republicans who were also doctors. Take a listen.

(Video Clip)

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK): I would say effectively we’re denying people vaccine.

(End Video Clip)

I mean that’s – that’s the Republican whip and that is the chair of the committee, Bill Cassidy. Why do you think they’re off base in their concern?

OK. I just want to unpack a few things you said there and just very – because we want to be very careful in this very heated environment.

When you say you have a problem with trusting the CDC, it was just a few weeks ago a gunman walked on to the CDC campus in Atlanta and shot the place up.

Do you care to respond to that, and do you think that we need to be careful when we are discussing the CDC and public health officials right now?

OK. OK. But just before we talk about other vaccines, specific to Covid and what you just said. With the CDC it was – the pandemic was during the Trump administration. It began during the Trump administration. And Operation Warp Speed was a presidential directive by – by Trump, which some of your fellow Republicans say he deserves the Nobel Prize for because it stopped the pandemic. So, did you trust the CDC and Operation Warp Speed under President Trump, or are you saying you don’t think the president deserves the prize for that shot?

OK, because you just said something that sounded very contradictory to that.

OK. But people do understand that when they go into their pharmacy and have a problem getting a shot, because in many states they are now told they need to go back and get a prescription, that the effect here of the Kennedy policies are making it more difficult, even if they fall into categories where they should be able to get a shot. You would acknowledge that?

Right, but what you said, he’s disrupting. Right, you said he’s disrupting, but effectively what you were hearing the Republican whip, John Barrasso, and the Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy talk about was the – the interruption of the availability of vaccines. Cassidy said, “I would say effectively we’re denying people vaccines.” So, that’s not Margaret Brennan, that’s Bill Cassidy.

No, but I think we’re conflating a few things, including the operational aspect of this. I think people get frustrated with their insurance companies. I think people get frustrated with their pharmacies and the implementation of health policy. And you know that that’s more complicated than just saying we’re – we’re changing a few things here. There are big implications. And I want to talk to you about it because you said you like the MMR vaccine, you like DPT, polio, smallpox. You don’t like hepatitis b, which is a liver infection, and you don’t think newborn kids need to be vaccinated against it.

Sen. Cassidy, who is a liver doctor, said he treated poor and underserved patients and that it can be a life-altering condition for the rest of your life. So, why isn’t it a compelling argument to you that this should be available?

OK. And I understand it can also be spread from – in a household sharing toothbrushes or razors or, for example, if her partner was not monogamous, the pregnant lady, for example.

But – but I hear your point here, that you want this to be more bespoke, like, more picking and choosing. But others would argue here that – that in doing that you are going to drive down immunization rates overall if you create broader doubt in vaccines. And that it’s a slippery slope here. Are you at all concerned that that is going to be the takeaway?

I’m asking you about what you said about the hepatitis B vaccine.

I wasn’t talking about Bobby Kennedy, or Secretary Kennedy, I was talking about you and what you said about the hepatitis B vaccine and are you concerned that picking and choosing these things like this, this bespoke concept of giving more choice, that it also has the effect of undermining confidence in vaccines?

OK. Because President Trump said he had some doubts about that Florida statement you just mentioned there, too, and that he likes a lot of vaccines.

Before I let you go, Secretary Kennedy founded this group that is arguing that women taking Tylenol or acetaminophen might be putting their babies at risk. They claim there’s a link to neurodevelopmental disorders. Would you take – tell a pregnant woman to take a Tylenol and not feel worried about it?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.:

So, you attended, as I understand it, a demonstration yesterday in Chicago where thousands of people were out on the street protesting President Trump’s vow to send in immigration agents. I know he’s also posted on social media suggesting troops will go in. Quote, “Chicago is about to find out why it is called the Department of War.”

Vice President Vance says there aren’t plans to send in troops. Do you have concrete indication now that there are plans to do so?

So – so then is this just, you know, social media trash-talk? When you say he’s declaring war, is this tongue-in-cheek?

Senator, I know you just mentioned you went out to the Great Lakes naval training session – station, I should say, and you said, the military leadership said they’ll only get office space. ICE cannot bring in lethal munitions. And the resources will not be diverted from military training. So, all of that together, did you breathe a sigh of relief and say this won’t have a real impact on the military?

So, in terms of how Democrats are responding to this rhetoric, The Chicago Tribune faulted Governor Pritzker for his threats to, quote, “not stand idly by if the Guard went in.” They wrote, “what does that threat actually mean? How about a conversation before the action or the response because it’s all potentially harmful to collective health.” It sounds like there’s a lot of tension here. Is there an opportunity to work with the administration to avoid making this worse?

I want to ask you, in your armed services role, about what is a significance geopolitical meeting this past week. You had a lot of America’s adversaries gathering together. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un of North Korea, all of them in Beijing. And China and Russia seemed to be deepening their work together. What do you think the signal to the United States here is?

Well, the unemployment rate is still low. But I hear you on a weaker than expected jobs number.

Just very quickly, there was military action taken in America’s backyard by the Trump administration. Vice President Vance says, “killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.” He was talking about a strike on a drug boat – alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela. What do you make of that show of force?