DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us.
They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people.
BREAM: The controversial comments on immigration that led Macy’s and NBC to sever ties with real estate mogul turned presidential candidate Donald Trump.
It is time now for our Sunday group: Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume, syndicated columnist George Will, Jackie Kucinich of The Daily Beast, and Fox News political analyst Juan Williams.
Brit, I’ll start with you. What does the GOP do with this?
BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I don’t think the GOP has to do anything with this. I think Donald Trump by his behavior and by the flamboyance of his manner, sets himself apart from the rest of the GOP field, and he has a niche following and will probably continue to.
But people don’t look at him and say, ah, that’s the face of the Republican Party. So, I think the GOP let’s this unfold however it will. I don’t think Donald Trump will go far. But he’ll be with us for a while, and he’ll make news and he’ll get attention.
But you don’t hear people saying, what is the Democratic Party going to do about Bernie Sanders and he’s going to become the face of the party? He’s going to ruin image of the Democrats. It just doesn’t work that way.
BREAM: Yes, Democrats aren’t as often asked to answer for somebody else in their party for a comment they made. We do have some reaction on both sides of this issue from other GOP contenders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TEXAS: When it comes to Donald Trump, I like Donald Trump. I think he’s terrific. I think he’s brash. I think he speaks the truth. I think NBC is engaging in political correctness that is silly and that is wrong.
FORMER GOV. JEB BUSH, R-FLA.: He’s doing this to inflame and to incite and to draw attention, which is — seems to be his organizing principle of his campaign, and he doesn’t represent the Republican Party or its values.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: And, George, Jeb went to say, he took this personally. His wife is from Mexico.
GEORGE WILL, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well, Brit is right that there’s a double standard here. That Republicans are uniquely identified with the unfortunate people in their own party.
But ask yourself this thought experiment. If Donald Trump were a Democratic mole placed in the Republican Party to disrupt things, how would his behavior be different? I don’t think it would be. There’s all this talk but it’s something to it about the Republican brand.
Picture him on stage in Cleveland. He says something hideously inflammatory, which is all he knows how to say, and then what do the other nine people on stage do? Do they either become complicit in what he said by their silence or do they seriatim have to attack him?
The debate gets hijacked. The process gets hijacked. And at the end of the day, he’s a one-man Todd Akin. And he’s Todd Akin with 10 different facets. That’s the gentleman who in 2014 election said some unfortunate things about rape, and every Republican was asked about them from then on.
BREAM: And for now, Trump sits atop a lot of the polls along with Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, who, by the way, released this week more tax returns than any other presidential candidate has ever done.
Jackie, what does that do now as far as pressure on Hillary Clinton to give us similar access to what we know about her?
JACKIE KUCINICH, THE DAILY BEAST: It does create a pressure. We have some financial data from Hillary Clinton over a number of years because of her various positions in the government. But, yes, this does increase the pressure on her to release more because it — we do, we have access to all of Jeb Bush’s records at this point when it comes to taxes. So, you know, we’ll see if she responds.
But it also puts pressure on other Republican candidates — everybody in the race — because of this level of transparency.
BREAM: I mean, one, he’s done very well financially over the last few years. Not as well as the Clintons. But he knows he’s going to take heat as much as Romney did for being somebody who has done very well, has had privilege and may be out of touch.
JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: But he paid a lot more taxes than Mitt Romney because he wasn’t doing it through capital gains. He was doing it through speeches and some of the speeches came through companies that he had dealings with while he was governor and helped them. So, there’s some questions to be raised there.
And also, you’ve got to remember, you know, when you look at his earnings, he decided that he wanted to take advantage of the fact that he was Jeb Bush. And so, I think it raises questions about the Bush/Clinton dynasty and money and how the political class in this country enriches themselves often times at the benefit — at the cost of saying, I’m using my experience as an elected official to then go off and enrich myself. And that raises a question at a time when there’s so much populist questions about income inequality in the country.
BREAM: Well, there’s so much — there’s so many questions about calls for transparency with these tax returns, also with Hillary’s e-mails, there have been more developments on that this week.
Here’s a little bit of what State Department spokesman, Admiral Kirby, had to say about some of the e-mails we’re not getting from Clinton’s history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: A small number that are being withheld for executive privilege purposes. That is not uncommon. It’s not atypical.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: Some of them we’re not going to see also because we’re told now they are confidential although, Brit, they might not have been when they were sent. But we know there’s a gap. There’s some that we’re not seeing.
HUME: Yes, I suppose it was a fun wish, a dream, that we were going to get to see everything. Obviously, we’re not. Everything that we get has already been selected by Hillary Clinton for being — not to be deleted. So, we don’t know even if we got everything that was left, we wouldn’t get everything.
And this is so Clintonesque, you know? It’s always — you never quite get the whole truth. You never quite get full disclosure. You never quite catch them in violation of the law, but you almost never catch them being totally ethical either.
BREAM: But, George, will it affect her — in polling?
WILL: The biggest word in the English language is “if.” If the people American are paying attention to the arcane of this back and forth, then it will hurt her. But, of course, they’re not. They have better things to do with their time.
She altered some of the e-mails she did submit. Now, the State Department joining the IRS as complicit in another scandal, the State Department is withholding some that the Congress has sought, so the scandal just keeps growing more legs.
I think the Clintons operate, Brit, on the way the old Chicago Democratic machine did. If you have a different scandal every week, no one pays attention.
(CROSSTALK)
BREAM: Well, something that the Clinton campaign will — is getting a lot of questions about today, if you all saw this yesterday, a lot of candidates were out Fourth of July parades. A lot was made by members of the press who were trying to follow Hillary Clinton, and essentially at one point during the operation, there were staffers that put a rope around them.
We know rope lines do happen. This one seemed unusual because it was the middle of the parade and literally the rope appeared to be wrapped around journalists at some point who are trying to cover the former secretary.
Jackie, it may be nothing more than a PR issue today, but memes went crazy on the Internet last night with this image.
KUCINICH: Well, this is clearly the newfound relationship with the press. It’s better, right? I mean, now, they’re a pen.
This looks silly. It should be treated as something that’s silly. It looked ridiculous putting cameras behind those ropes. And there has to be — there are security concerns. We all get that. But, you know, come on, guys.
BREAM: Another image getting a lot of attention the last couple days, Bernie Sanders. I mean, he is drawing thousands. He’s pulling up in the polls and in fundraising as well, not anywhere approaching Hillary Clinton on those two fronts, but certainly, Juan, with respect to people turning out and wanting to hear what he has to say, you know, they say there’s Bernie-mentum. Do you agree?
WILLIAMS: Bernie momentum, I like that.
BREAM: Bernie-mentum, yes, something like that.
WILLIAMS: Bernie-mentum, OK.
So, he’s within ten points of Hillary now in New Hampshire. And I think that’s got to raise some eyebrows. Who ever thought Bernie Sanders, Mr. Socialist, would be that close to the Clinton brand in American politics? But he is.
Now, the downside is he’s just raising money. He doesn’t have any organization in key states, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada. And you got to remember also, he doesn’t have the name ID that Hillary does.
So, Hillary is not interested in big crowds at this point. She’s interested in saying, I can go out and talk to people. I can be your friend on an individual basis.
Bernie needs the big crowds.
So, don’t get fooled by the short-term illusion here.
BREAM: All right.
All right, panel. We’ve got to take a break. We’ll see you all in just a little bit.
Up next, is the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage a threat to religious freedom? We’re going to discuss it with two key guests on opposite sides of this issue. And what do you think about protections for the First Amendment and religious liberty? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter @foxnewssunday. And of course, use the hashtag throughout the show, FNS.