Are Democrats sitting on claims to derail Barrett nomination?<br>
Senate Judiciary Committee member Chuck Grassley joins 'The Story' with his thoughts
This is a rush transcript from “The Story with Martha MacCallum " October 14, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: We do have a busy night for you folks. Good evening, everybody. I'm Martha
MacCallum in New York and this is THE STORY. As we sit 20 days before this
presidential election of 2020, President Trump has been crossing the
country this week. In moments, he will touch down in Iowa. And we are told
by our own reporter John Roberts that the president on the plane has been
reworking a huge chunk of his speech tonight. He will be as you might
expect focusing on this news story, a bombshell report published by The New
York Post reported by them earlier today.
So that report reveals alleged emails between Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden
and a Ukrainian businessman that discussed a meeting with the former vice
president. The Biden campaign pushing back on this report tonight.
Otherwise though they were not on the campaign trail throughout the course
of today.
We're going to have much more on this story, including the president's
speech as soon as he takes the stage there in Des Moines, Iowa tonight, so
we can hear his response. It'll be the first time he's really reacting to
any of this. So, stay tuned for that newsworthy event in just a little
while.
So, tomorrow, both Joe Biden and the president will have town halls on the
night that was supposed to be the second presidential debate. So that
leaves just one more matchup between these two individuals and that will be
next week in Nashville, Tennessee.
So, let's swing our attention for a moment here back to Capitol Hill today.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett now done with the question and answer, two very
long days throughout which she was very composed and answered those
questions in a very solid manner. I think both sides would say over the
course of this process, we're going to kick off with an observation that
was made at the beginning of today by the chairman of the committee Senator
Lindsey Graham.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): This hearing to me is an opportunity to not
punch through a glass ceiling, but a reinforced concrete barrier around
conservative women, you're going to shatter that barrier. And this is
history being made folks. This is the first time in American history that
we've nominated a woman who is unashamedly pro-life and embraces her faith
without apology. And she's going to the court. Seat at the table is waiting
on you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Lindsey Graham says she is going to the court. The vote has not
happened yet, as you know and is expected to wrap up at the end of the
month. So, the talk will shift to how the court will change in this new
composition. Barrett's approval rating did tick higher, as Americans
watched her over the course of the last two days. Senator Durbin bookended
Lindsey Graham's comments about making history, but his take on how that
history was being made went this way. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): You're making history. You were the first nominee
for a vacancy on the Supreme Court to be considered after July 1st of the
election year. In fact, you're the first nominee to ever be considered in
the midst of an election. There is a political agenda here. And whether you
are privy to it, part of it, notwithstanding it has to do with the
Affordable Care Act. Unfortunately, that is the cloud. The orange cloud
over your nomination
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: That from Senator Durbin. Joining me now is Chairman Chuck
Grassley. He sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. And of course, he was
the chair of that committee during previous nominations for Kavanaugh and
Gorsuch now justices, and he joins us now. Senator Grassley, thank you.
It's always good to have you with us on the program.
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA): Thank you.
MACCALLUM: I'd like to start if I may because we saw Senator Durbin
suggesting that she might be privy to some plan to change the Obamacare ACA
as it is known. And here she is expressing her complete independence as a
judge. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMY CONEY BARRETT, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: I hope that you aren't suggesting
that I don't have my own mind or that I couldn't think independently or
that I would just decide like, let me see what Justice Scalia has said
about this in the past because I assure you I have my own mind. But
everything that he said is not necessarily what I would agree with or what
I would do if I were Justice Barrett. That was Justice Scalia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: So, I think the Justice Kavanaugh hearings a scarred a lot of
people's memories. And you were right in the center of that, it was really
raucous from the very beginning. Everybody remembers Kamala Harris jumped
in, I think within seconds of you gaveling down to start opposing even the
proceedings going forward. How do you feel about how this process has
reflected on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator?
GRASSLEY: Well, for everybody on the committee, the fact that it was more
peaceful than Kavanaugh, I think it's going to really satisfy people from
that standpoint. I think from the standpoint of people not being able to
find, particularly Democrats on the committee, not being able to find any
fault wrong with her qualifications because they're impeccable. They tried
to make a pretty much a political campaign out of this, reflecting things
that they think will help them between now and November the 3rd.
But overall, I think that this is much better a public image of this
committee in this process than Kavanaugh was. And without a doubt, the
difference between night and day.
MACCALLUM: So, as we all remember, when you look back at the beginning of
the Kavanaugh process was very smooth and the overall impression was that
he was going to be approved without any major speed bumps. And the speed
bumps came after the part that we all just finished in this process. Do you
have any indication because the vote isn't until the end of the month that
Democrats are sitting on any information that they have anything up their
sleeve? Or do you think it goes smoothly this time all the way through?
GRASSLEY: The only - I can't really answer your question except referring
back to what Senator Schumer said over the weekend, that they might not
even show up to make a quorum on the day that we vote on this. And if he
would go through with that, then things would be different. But you're
absolutely right. Everything up until about the first week of September on
Kavanaugh was very peaceful. And then just soon as they couldn't get - lay
a hand on him, they came up with all the things with Dr. Ford, et cetera,
et cetera. And we haven't seen any of that this time, but we aren't going
to know until tomorrow.
MACCALLUM: Do you anticipate that politically they would assess that not
producing enough senators for the quorum and the full Senate vote would be
advantageous to them?
GRASSLEY: I think everybody goes to work for their job. We get paid about
$175,000 a year. They expect us to work. I have - I've got the best record
of any senator in the 240 years history of our country of not missing a
vote. I'm going to be there. I think every senator should be there. I think
the taxpayers expect and be there.
But for reasons that they might think that they would at least satisfy
their very progressive base, which if you look at their Twitter, some of
that progressive base isn't very happy with the way Feinstein and other
people in the Senate handled this. In other words, they weren't tough
enough. You don't know what they might do to satisfy their progressive
base.
MACCALLUM: In fact, Dianne Feinstein really complimented her on her
explanation of severability. She said, wow, that was pretty great. It was a
very honest, I think, answer in the moment. This is Kamala Harris, who was,
I believe, just down the hall in her office. You know, and after I play
this, I'd like to hear about why you believe she was there instead on the
floor, which was basically empty by that point. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA) VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I just want to
understand, are you saying that you refuse to dispute a known fact or that
you refuse to agree with a known fact?
BARRETT: Senator, I'm not exactly sure what you're getting at with asking
me to endorse the fact or whether any particular practice constitutes voter
discrimination. I'm very happy to say that I think racial discrimination
still exists in the United States, and I think we've seen evidence of that
this summer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: What was your thought on that exchange, sir?
GRASSLEY: Well, first of all, I think she would look better if she had been
in the committee room with us. Secondly, the reason she wasn't there, I'm
told, is because of protection from the virus, which is legitimate. But I
also heard that some people are getting in the elevator with a massive
number of people. So, I don't know whether the distancing was a very
important factor. There was some other reason, she wasn't there.
MACCALLUM: Interesting. All right. Speaking of Twitter, this story that
came out, The New York Post reported that they got their hands-on emails
between Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian businessman that don't look very good.
The first one that came out was from April 17th, 2015, and it says Dear
Hunter, and this is from Vadim Pozharskyi, an adviser to Verismo. He says,
Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to D.C. and giving me an opportunity
to meet your father and spend some time together. It's really an honor and
a pleasure.
And then a previous email that sets this up is back in May of 2014 asking
Hunter for advice on how you could use your influence on our company's
behalf. Now, Twitter restricted this story. They shut down the story in
some way, shape or form. And even people's accounts who were tweeting this
story got a block on them. And now, Senate Republicans have put out a
response to Jack Dorsey of Twitter. And there's a look at that showing the
block of this story on Twitter and saying, see you soon, Jack, referring to
the chairman and founder of Twitter. What do you think about all that, sir?
GRASSLEY: Well, this this censorship by these platforms is a bigger thing,
but this is a perfect example of where there's some evidence of things that
I and my investigation and Johnson's investigation has been suspicious of,
for a long time and it kind of backs up our suspicion. All I personally
know about it is what I read in the post, but it does give some credence to
things we believe for a long time, like we know for instance, money from
the mayor's wife of Moscow paying some millions of dollars to some firm
connected with Hunter Biden.
I don't want to say for sure that we've got absolute proof that this is
going on, but it sure goes down the same direction that we had been
suspicious of for a long period of time. Well, I have not received this
material. Senator Johnson has received it. And I'm going to wait until
Senator Johnson gets some review of it.
MACCALLUM: All right. Fair enough. We will speak, I believe we're going to
speak to Rudy Giuliani tomorrow about this, and we will be speaking with
him tomorrow night. And we'll reach out to Senator Johnson as well to get
the facts. And we do hope that there will be questions asked about it
obviously, at this town hall, tomorrow night would be the first opportunity
to ask the former vice president about it.
So, Senator Grassley, thank you very much, sir. Always good to see you.
GRASSLEY: Thank you.
MACCALLUM: Thanks for being here.
GRASSLEY: Thank you.
MACCALLUM: So, we do expect President Trump is going to take the stage, a
big crowd in Des Moines, Iowa this evening. We're told that he has reworked
a large portion of his speech tonight and he's going to focus it on this
New York Post story, which is now also become a story about Facebook and
Twitter, who don't want you to see this story because they say that it's
not substantiated. So that back and forth is also a big part of this. We
will take you there when that gets underway.
And also, one of the biggest unanswered questions raised by this New York
Post story is the man who turned over these emails which were on a laptop.
Where did he get them? That man speaks out to our own reporter at Fox News
after this. Stay with us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who specifically are we talking about when you say
you're fearful?
JOHN PAUL MAC ISAAC, OWNER OF COMPUTER REPAIR SHOP: I mean, you read the
article, there is compromising material on the drive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, the Biden's? You're afraid of?
ISAAC: That's, that's the fear. Sure.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACCALLUM: So, The New York Post dropped a bombshell report today. The
reporting lays out purported emails between Hunter Biden and Ukrainian
businessmen. In the emails, they're discussing with then a meeting with the
then Vice President Joe Biden and how Hunter could use his influence in
those business dealings.
Now, the Post reports that the emails came from a laptop that was dropped
off at a computer repair shop in Delaware back in April of 2019. And now
the focus has turned to the owner of that shop and his connection to Rudy
Giuliani, who ended up with one of the hard drives. So, correspondent
Jacqui Heinrich spoke with the owner of this computer shop today and she
joins us with that report from Wilmington. Jacqui.
JACQUI HEINRICH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Martha. Well, the
owner of this shop is legally blind. He uses a monocle to repair computers
from a working distance of about eight inches. So, he cannot confirm that
it was Hunter Biden who, in fact, dropped off the laptop here, he says,
back in April. But he says while he was in the process of transferring data
from that computer, he found some disturbing items, including pornography.
By June and July, impeachment was in the headlines. And after 90 days
passed and Hunter Biden still had not paid for or picked up his laptop. The
owner, John Paul Isaac, who is a registered Republican keywords, searched
through the emails and found what appeared to be an email from Burisma
board member asking Hunter Biden for advice on how he could use his
influence on the company's behalf.
Another purported email asks Hunter to set up a meeting with Vice President
Biden. Isaac said with the impeachment ongoing, he used an intermediary to
inform the FBI who took the computer. He says he saw no substantial follow-
up. So, the intermediary reached out to three lawmakers who he says also
did nothing. Later, they went to politicians, including Rudy Giuliani's
lawyer. He says this intermediary is an American citizen and a longtime
friend. And in light of Burisma being hacked by the Russians and concerns
those emails could have been planted, Isaac said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any thought in your mind that this could not -
that this might not have been Hunter's, that might have been somebody
trying to set Hunter up?
ISAAC: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEINRICH: Isaac believes the FBI covered up the investigation, claiming at
one point they said nothing happens to people who don't talk. He was
frustrated by the impeachment over President Trump's alleged efforts to
discover such information as he had in his shop and said he was in fear of
his life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISAAC: There's a lot of players in this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Ukrainians? Is that who you're talking about?
ISAAC: I mean, don't put that in there. The guy's got a hit squad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's who you're afraid of, you're afraid of the
Ukrainians?
ISAAC: I'm afraid of somebody wanting to not make sure that I don't extort
them for money or that I don't do, you know, things with the computer. They
would silence people, too. So, I was afraid for the owner. I was afraid for
the people that are involved, the contents of it. And I just wanted it out
of my shop.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, you're afraid for Hunter Biden? Not of the Biden
family.
ISAAC: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEINRICH: And the owner clearly stated that he took action because he was
frustrated by the impeachment. But he says it wasn't about getting people
to vote one way or another, Martha.
MACCALLUM: Very interesting. Jacqui, thank you very much. Jacqui Heinrich.
So, here now, Deroy Murdock, contributing editor for National Review
Online, and Katie Pavlich, news editor and Richard Fowler,
Senior Fellow at the New Leaders Council. All are Fox News Contributors.
Deroy, let me start with you. What's your reaction to Jacqui's story and to
the New York Post story?
DEROY MURDOCK, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Amazing. The whole thing sounds like a
spy novel with this gentleman who only can see eight inches in front of him
and dropped off laptops, all this other stuff.
I think this really goes to the questions that we heard during the whole
Ukraine great situation. That Hunter Biden was often his own thing. He
never - I think Vice President Biden said he never talked with his son
about his business dealings. And this is all his own son's separate world.
And now we learn that his son is bringing this Ukrainian businessman to
meet with none other than Vice President Biden. So, it seems like there's
that connection.
And I think the most mysterious thing about this is this trip to Moscow
that Hunter Biden took. I was in Moscow some years ago. I came home with
some matryoshka dolls and some postcards. Hunter Biden came home with $3.5
million from not just from some investment, but from the wife of the mayor
of Moscow. I'd like to get more information on that. That sounds like
Russian collusion to me and certainly a very unusual situation to go to
Moscow and come back with $3.5 million from the wife of the mayor of
Moscow. Very unusual. We need to know a lot more about that.
MACCALLUM: So, I want to go to Richard, but let's pull up these emails that
were printed in The New York Post today that are purported to be between
Hunter Biden and a Burisma adviser named Vadim Pozharskyi. I'm probably
mispronouncing his name. So, this was the first one. This is May 12th,
2014. And this is from the Burisma adviser to Hunter Biden.
We urgently need your advice on how you could use your influence to convey
a message, signal, et cetera, to stop what we consider to be politically
motivated actions, he writes. And remember, he was making $50,000 a month
to be an adviser to Burisma with no former experience in the energy
industry business.
So, then let's go forward a year to April 17th, 2015. And this is another
email to Hunter Biden, purportedly from this Burisma adviser, Pozharskyi
saying that it was nice to meet Biden's father. He says, Dear Hunter, thank
you for inviting me to D.C. and giving an opportunity to meet your father
and spend some time together. It's really an honor and a pleasure.
So, let me - now I also want to point out the Biden campaign response to
this. The New York Post never asked the Biden campaign about the critical
elements of the story. They certainly never raised that Rudy Giuliani,
who's discredited conspiracy theories and alliance with figures connected
to Russian intelligence have been widely reported, claim to have such
materials. Moreover, we have reviewed Joe Biden's official schedules from
the time and no meeting has alleged by The New York Post ever took place.
Richard, your thoughts?
RICHARD FOWLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, thanks for having me, Martha. A
couple of points on this, I think this is just another attempt by Senator
Ron Johnson, who two weeks ago, his committee came out with a 70 some odd
page report indicating that both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden had no
wrongdoing here. So, let's be very clear. Did Hunter Biden make some
mistakes in his career? Absolutely. Are those mistakes worthy of another
Homeland Security Senate investigation? Absolutely not.
Ron Johnson should be more concerned about ensuring that the American
people are kept safe during this global pandemic in which 36 states are
seeing an uptick in COVID cases, instead of this witch hunt of a story, as
the president would call it, because that's what it is here. There's
misinformation. The chain of custody of this particular hard drive seems to
be a little bit murky. And once again, I think this is just a Hail Mary by
Republicans who are losing. The president's having a rally tonight in Iowa.
You know why? He won that state handily in 2016, but now he's behind.
MACCALLUM: Yes, he won Iowa by 10 points, that's a valid point, and it
looks like it's neck and neck right now. Just on that Twitter story,
because this is the other element here. And Katie, I just want you to weigh
in on everything, but they've also locked down Kayleigh McEnany's account
at the moment because she also tweeted this story out, which is just
extraordinary, the coordination between these social media companies that
have decided that this thing is so hot and that they have to make sure that
they block it. Katie, decent questions raised about the validity of this
story, but what's your take?
KATIE PAVLICH , EDITOR: Sure. Well, the bottom line is that
questions about Hunter Biden's Burisma ties and whether Joe Biden was
involved and he repeatedly says that he knew nothing about his son's
foreign business dealings, his investments, especially when he was
overseeing the Ukrainian profile and portfolio for the Obama
administration.
Now, if these emails turn out to be valid, well, that was a lie. And the
issue is what people are saying, you're going after Hunter Biden. It's a
distraction. This is about Joe Biden. This is about Washington, D.C.
politicians selling out the American taxpayer and using their government
position to gain financial or other benefits for their own family members.
That is what this is about.
And the question is for Hunter Biden, did he register as a foreign agent,
as a number of people have been required to do? Why is it that he was
allegedly taking members of the Burisma board, who by the way, witnesses
during the impeachment trial said there was a major conflict of interest
and questions from the State Department about the conflict of interest
because Burisma was so corrupt. Did that meeting take place?
And the Biden campaign's response to say, well, it wasn't on the official
calendar is not really a denial that it happened. And the bottom line is
that today Joe Biden called let around 10:30 AM, because he doesn't want to
answer questions about this topic and he should answer questions because
it's about the American people being sold out in favor of Hunter Biden's
$83,000 a year or a month rather, from a very corrupt entity while the vice
president is now running for president. What would he do in the Oval Office
when it comes to corrupt companies like Burisma that his son may be on the
board of?
MACCALLUM: It's a good question, and I certainly hope that he gets asked
that question at the town hall tomorrow night, because there are answers to
these questions Deroy. One is a question that Hunter Biden could definitely
answer. Did you drop off your laptop at this place? And did you have emails
between you and this individual on that laptop? That is a question that he
should definitely know the answer to. And one of the issues that comes up
here, Deroy, is the lack of hard questions that Joe Biden has faced. And he
hasn't because of COVID-19, he hasn't faced that many questions at all over
the course of the last several months.
MURDOCK: No, that's absolutely right, and one question I'd ask is, Mr. Vice
President, what did you know and when did you know it? And ask him very
specifically, what did he know about his son's dealings with these people?
Did they, in fact, have a meeting in the White House or elsewhere where
this Ukrainian businessman who apparently sent a thank you note for that
meeting, did they in fact, meet together with the vice president?
Another question I'd ask is, I believe this came out a bit during the
impeachment hearings back late last year, I believe it was George Kent of
the State Department said that there was some effort to meet with the vice
president's staff regarding Hunter Biden, who they believed was a
distraction and an embarrassment, and it was hindering American diplomacy
in Ukraine, in Eastern Europe. Did that get up to the vice president's
attention? Did he learn about this?
If he did, did he do anything about it? If he didn't hear anything about
it, that may say something about his management of his own office. And if
he had heard about it and didn't, it was not forthcoming with the American
public, then he's dishonest. If it never got to him because his staff was
not sharing the sort of thing then perhaps, he's incompetent. So, either
one is not very encouraging for a man who is running for President of the
United Status.
MACCALLUM: I think about the Amy Coney Barrett hearing today and her
talking about the fact that no one is above the law and that the rule of
law has to apply equally. And I think about General Michael Flynn. I think
about others who were caught up in the Russian collusion scandal and that
turned out to be to go nowhere, according to Mueller report, after two
years of investigation.
But registering yourself as a foreign agent, doing work in a foreign
country is one of the things that they were charged with and went to jail
for, Richard. So, is that a question that you would, given that situation,
that it is quite fair to ask and press Hunter Biden on at this point?
FOWLER: Look, I think we all had troubled family members. And what you have
here is Hunter Biden, who seems to be a troubled member of the Biden
family. But remember, just two weeks ago, like I said earlier, there was a
Senate report that investigated all of these things, that asked all those
questions, that got all those answers. And when that report came out,
almost 80 pages of it which I had the chance to read, it shows that there
is no wrongdoing by either Vice President Biden or Hunter Biden. That's
where the story should begin, and that should be where the story should
end.
These e-mails were probably already asked and answered. And not to mention
the fact that the chain of custody on those e-mails are problematic. Why
didn't the shop director call the FBI?
MACCALLUM: He did.
FOWLER: Or why didn't he call the FBI directly. Why he didn't get to Rudy
Giuliani? Why didn't Rudy Giuliani had it before the --
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: He did. He extended to -- no, he said he went -- well his
story, and I -- you know, I'm with you. I mean, there's -- there is a lot
of digging that needs to happen on this, and I do hope that Vice President
Biden at least during a portion of tomorrow night is going to be asked to
some of these questions because they are very valid questions than he has
said in the past that he had no knowledge of these things.
So, at the very least, he must be pressed on the knowledge that he had and
whether or not his memory has changed on any of this. But that is -- that
is completely fair game in the questions for the vice president. And he
has, you know, really gotten off it very lightly on all of this.
Here comes the president down the staircase. Katie, your thoughts -- your
thoughts on this before we --
KATIE PAVLICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, to say that these questions
about Hunter Biden's behavior and the connection to Joe Biden when he was
vice president that they all have been asked and answered is completely
dishonest.
Hunter Biden hasn't testified in front on any committee about this issue,
he hasn't talked to the FBI about this. There are still a number of
questions that have never been asked. And this were to happen to any former
vice president who is --
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: Well, Katie, there was an 80-page report.
PAVLICH: Excuse me, Richard, do not talk to me -- talk over me. I am
speaking, I didn't interrupt you. If this were a Republican vice president
--
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: I'm just saying there was an 80-page report that you're not
acknowledging.
MACCALLUM: Hold on. Don't talk over each other.
PAVLICH: If this were a former -- if this were a former vice president who
happened to be a Republican, there would be another special counsel
investigation launched to get to the bottom of what happened.
And the bottom line, too, Martha, you asked earlier about Twitter and
Facebook censoring this type of information, the idea of the double
standard of their promoting a number of Russia conspiracy theories for
years that ended up not being true shows that there is a double standard,
that they are a publisher not a platform as they continue to claim.
MACCALLUM: All right. Richard, quickly what were -- what were you trying
to say?
FOWLER: I'm just saying that there no -- there's been no acknowledgment of
this 80-page report that was produced by Ron Johnson as the committee of
the chair.
PAVLICH: When did Hunter testified?
FOWLER: So the fact that now he is -- it doesn't -- the report who had
Senate investigators it was produced and signed by Ron Johnson, so for him
now to go back and say, I want to look at more information seems to be
incredible to me especially when the chain of custody of this data --
(CROSSTALK)
PAVLICH: It was an initial report --
MACCALLUM: OK.
FOWLER: -- that are being in question.
MACCALLUM: Katie, hold on. All right. Deroy, you know, with regard to
Twitter and Facebook and Katie's point about this, it feels just wrong. I
mean, I know that some members of the Senate, Senate Republicans have said
that they want Jack Dorsey to explain what's going on over there.
But to put a block on the story which was printed in the New York Post this
morning, anybody can get their hands on it, and their fact-checkers are
making a judgment on freezing these accounts that are passing along the
story which, you know, you can bring issue with it and Twitter is full of
both sides of the story, as it should be.
DEROY MURDOCK, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: The American people should be allowed
to look at the story, judge it a pro or con as they wish. And it's yet
another example of these companies that are behaving this way and basically
censoring things --
MACCALLUM: Yes.
MURDOCK: -- while at the same time enjoying the protection of the
Communications Decency Act section 230.
MACCALLUM: All right.
MURDOCK: So basically, they can protect themselves from lawsuits.
MACCALLUM: I want --
MURDOCK: They behave like this. They should lose that protection.
MACCALLUM: All right. I want to squeeze in very quickly while we're
waiting for the president to come up here. This moment with Nancy Pelosi
and Wolf Blitzer yesterday, because, Richard, I know you wanted to talk
about the COVID stimulus bill -- this moment got a lot of attention. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), UNITED STATES SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I don't know
why you are always an apologist and many of your colleagues, apologists for
the Republican position. You really don't know what you're talking about.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN: It's not about me, it's about millions of
Americans who can't put food on the table, who can't pay the rent and --
(CROSSTALK)
PELOSI: And we represent them.
BLITZER: We're having trouble --
PELOSI: And we represent them.
BLITZER: Who are troubled getting by --
PELOSI: And we represent them.
BLITZER: -- these long food lines that we see
PELOSI: We know them.
BLITZER: I know you are. I am sensitive to them because I see them on the
street begging for food, begging for money. Now Speaker, thank you so much.
PELOSI: Have you fed them? We feed them. We feed them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: She feeds them, Richard. You know, this -- the White House is
at, I believe 1.9 trillion, she is at 2.2 trillion. So, you've got at least
1.8 trillion, 1.9 trillion that is agreed upon. So why not get it out
there?
FOWLER: Look, I want to deal just like the next person. And I think it's -
- I think what you have to remember here is for Speaker Pelosi, she's had a
deal in place since May. And since May, Republicans have dragged their feet
while 30 million Americans were unemployed, they drag their feet while
small businesses close their doors. They dragged their feet while school
have been totally reopened and --
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: There been already trillions of dollars that have gone out,
Ricahrd. In fact, 500 billion of it hasn't even been spent yet. That's the
first thing that Congress needs to do --
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: Well, this is --
MACCALLUM: -- just authorize the spending on that money that's already
there.
FOWLER: Absolutely. Absolutely. But this goes back to administrative
mismanagement. Remember, two weeks ago, Donald Trump called off
negotiations altogether. The president's strategy on this has been
terrible. And when it comes to Speaker Pelosi, since May she has had a bill
in place and Republicans refused, they refused to take it up.
MACCALLUM: All right. We're going to dip in here. He's talking about this
Hunter Biden situation. Let's see what the president is saying in Iowa, Des
Moines, Iowa tonight.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- his son's
corrupt business dealing.
(CROWD BOOING)
TRUMP: And this is a big smoking gun, the newly uncovered e-mails revealed
that a top executive from the highly questionable Ukrainian company, it's
an energy company which paid Hunter at least $50,000 a month, but it's now
looking like it could be $183,000 a month, that's a lot of money. Would
anybody in this audience take it? I'll take it. We'll take it.
Despite the fact that he had absolutely no experience, knew nothing about
energy -- wrote to Hunter arranging for a meeting to meet with Vice
President Joe Biden. I've been saying this for a long time with that
family, the same Ukrainian energy executive even sent Hunter an e-mail
saying, quote, "we urgently need your advice on how you could use your
influence."
In other words, Hunter was being paid for access to his vice president
father who was specifically put in charge of Ukraine and Russia.
(CROWD BOOING)
TRUMP: How about the Russia hoax? It turns out that they were the ones
that did the Russia hoax. It was them. No collusion. No collusion.
These e-mails show that Biden's repeated claim that he has never spoken to
Hunter about his business dealings were a complete lie. It was a total lie.
He lied to you over and over because he's trying to cover up a massive pay-
for-play scandal at the heart of his vice presidency. And everybody knows
it. Everybody in Washington knows it. We've known it for a long time.
The fact is, there was never an administration more corrupt than Obama-
Biden administration. There was never. Never.
(CROWD BOOING)
TRUMP: Just weeks ago, Joe stood before the American people in a
presidential debate and told you that these claims have been totally
discredited and that his son did nothing wrong. But now that turns out to
be a total lie.
Now we can see clearly that Biden is a corrupt politician who shouldn't
even be allowed to run for the presidency.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: I was pressing Joe Biden to tell the truth because the corrupt
mainstream media, right back there, all of those cameras right back there -
-
(CROWD BOOING)
TRUMP: They are corrupt. And they refused to write the story. There wasn't
one time in almost four years during my presidency -- during the greatest
political scandal in U.S. history, a witch hunt, a horrible, horrible,
disgusting witch hunt that should never, ever happen to another presidency
again. And people should pay for the crimes they committed.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: Which turns out to be a totally illegal hoax that false and
libelous stories every day. False and libelous stories, and they knew they
were false, too. They knew they were false. They were never taken down by a
Twitter or Facebook or the mainstream media, never once.
Yet, with Biden today they take negative posts down almost before they even
go up. They're trying to protect them. They are trying to protect Biden.
They take him down. And I was just getting off that magnificent plane
behind us, Air Force One.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I had heard and I just don't know this for a fact, but they say
Kayleigh McEnany -- you know Kayleigh, right?
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: Kayleigh McEnany. Good Kayleigh. She is so great. She is
incredible. They close down her account. She is the White House press
secretary.
(CROWD BOOING)
TRUMP: Because she is reporting the truth. They close down her account.
So, let's see what's going to happen. And did you hear the news? Bruce Ohr
is finally out of the Department of Justice.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: Bruce Ohr, him and his wonderful wife Molly. She wrote all of this
stuff and then he goes and he works the Department of Justice, and he took
-- didn't he bring it to the FBI? The wife writes it, she gets paid a lot
of money.
Bruce Ohr is finally out of the Department of Justice. That's good, a
couple of years too late that's all. He should be not only in the
Department of Justice outbox. He should be someplace else. OK?
Eight months after his alleged meeting with the Burisma executives. So,
these Burisma, Burisma, they say pronounce it Burisma, a real beautiful
company. Vice President Joe Biden went to the Ukraine and threatened to
withhold $1 billion in aid if they did not fire the prosecutor that was
investigating his son and the company that his son worked for. That's
Burisma.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: The documents also show that before one of Joe's trips to Ukraine,
Hunter e-mailed his business partner saying his lucrative contract should
begin now. Think of that. Should begin now. Right now. It's got to begin.
It's -- the whole thing is so incredible.
He's -- look, let's just put it in simple language. He got thrown out of
the military, that's unfortunate. He didn't have a job for a long time. His
father becomes vice president and he is making millions and millions and
millions of dollars a year.
Think of it. No, think of it. Think of it. It's like the Hillary stuff, the
crooked Hillary, and it's the crooked Joe.
You know when a Democrat voted here in Iowa, asked Joe last year, you
remember his son raked in money in exchange for providing access. Joe
called that man a damn liar. You're a damn liar. The kid is making millions
of dollars. He had nothing. He didn't have a job. Thrown out of the
military, sadly, but thrown out of the military. And he knew nothing about
energy, he knew nothing about investments, knew nothing about China.
How about he walked away a billion and a half dollars to manage for China.
They don't do that with the most brilliant people on Wall Street. Vice
President Biden, you owe the people of America an apology because it turns
out you are a corrupt politician. OK?
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: Joe Biden must immediately release all e-mails, meetings, phone
calls, transcripts and records related to his involvement to his family's
business dealings. Influence patent around the worlds including China and
including Russia. Including Russia.
Hunter raked in a fortune from China while Joe Biden was giving China all
of our jobs. They came -- you know where they came from, Iowa and plenty of
other places, but they came from Iowa. He was giving them. They were taking
our jobs, they were taking our factories, they were taking everything. They
were taking her wealth.
And I gave you $28 billion. You say, thank you very much, President Xi. It
came right out of China. Because of that, everybody is happy in Iowa. I
just hope you remember that on November 3rd.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: I hope you remember. Nobody else would've done it. Nobody else
would have done it.
The Biden family treated the vice presidency as a for-profit corporation
flying around the globe, collecting millions of dollars from China and
Ukraine and Russia and other countries. In fact, the wife of the mayor of
Moscow gave Hunter Biden a check for $3.5 million in cash while his father
gave away the store to Russia including Crimea. Remember Crimea?
The Biden's got rich while America got robbed. By contrast, and this is so
true and so easily true, and I'm so proud of it in so many ways. I have
given up billions of dollars to serve as your president. It is my greatest
honor of a lifetime. So true.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(CROWD CHANTING)
TRUMP: I ran for president because I could not sit back any longer and
watch the terrible injustices being done to the American people. And it's
true. And by the way, before the China plague came in, we had the greatest
economy in the history of the world, and now it's going right back there.
Our stock market is very close to a number that was even higher. Does
everybody have your 401K ready? Because it's going through the roof. We are
going to have the best year we've ever had. And we're going to have tax
cuts not tax increases. They want to increase your taxes.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: They want to increase your taxes so they can spend it on the Green
New Deal.
(CROWD BOOING)
TRUMP: So, I know that beauty. I cannot sit idly by and watch career
politicians like Joe Biden continue bleeding this country dry. And that's
what it is. You know, you can say whatever you want, you can say whatever
you want but when you have a kid that follows with his father -- and by the
way take a look at his brother, his brother all of a sudden is building a
big housing development in Iraq. Have you ever built a development before?
No, I haven't.
Take a look at the whole family, it's a corrupt family. Joe Biden
personifies the selfless and corrupt globalist who got rich and powerful at
your expense. Take a look at the people that are funding his campaign.
People assume that they'd be funding my campaign. I don't want them. We
don't want them. We never needed them. We don't want them.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: But they betrayed American workers, disparage American values and
crushed our middle-class. For decades, Biden and his cronies laughed while
they shipped millions of your jobs to their friends in foreign countries,
and countries that you've never even heard of.
They live behind gated walls and they flooded your communities with illegal
immigration, deadly drugs, MS-13 savages that assault, rape, and murder
innocent Americans.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: They force our fellow citizens to live in crumbling inner cities
while they spent trillions of dollars on never ending foreign wars. They
just never end ended. But you know, we are bringing all our soldiers back
home. You know that. We've been doing it for a long time.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: And it's not easy. Not easy. The military industrial complex, not
the easiest thing. But we are bringing them back home. We're almost
finished in Afghanistan, coming in, we are dealing, we're down to a small
number coming home by the end of the year, hopefully, by the end of the
year, shortly thereafter.
In Syria, we're out, totally out. And by the way, we crushed. Before I did
this, we crushed 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: One hundred percent. We crushed a 100 percent. We have the greatest
military in the world, and by the way, we have built the greatest military
in the world.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: So, I just tell you from Iowa, you know, you are very powerful
state politically, you're a big state to me, big in your heart. But you
have a tremendous influence and a tremendous power and you've never let me
down. You just came in and we won by so much.
You know, they say if a Republican win by one point, I think I won by 11,
right? Eleven.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: That was early in the night, remember that? They said, Donald Trump
has won the state of Iowa. Then they said, man, he won by 11 points, what's
going on? That was just the beginning.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: Then we won Ohio, we won Ohio by eight points. They said, what's
going on? You know, that's one thing you want to say. But when you win by a
lot -- and that was the beginning of something. And I'll tell you what, we
have more enthusiasm now than we ever did four years ago. There really is.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: And we have great poll numbers. Although, you know, you see a lot
of the fake poll numbers. They're doing -- they'll do anything they can,
they're called suppression polls.
(CROWD BOOING)
TRUMP: Yes, there they go. Look. Look at the red lights, they start to go
off as I start to point. You know, in one way they want the ratings, in
another way, they don't want the ratings. And you're telling CNN that they
are fraud and they're broadcasting.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: That was one of the greatest -- that was one of the greatest
evenings ever. There were those who would say it was a most exciting
evening in the history of television, highest rated evening in the history
of television.
And you know what? The election we have coming up on November 3rd is
actually more important. It's actually more important.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: In 2016, you voted to fire the failed and decrepit political class
and you elected an outsider as your president, and I finally put America
first. It's called make America great again.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(CROWD CHANTING)
TRUMP: It's windy out here. If you can wear the hat, I can wear the hat.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: Should I take off the tie or not? What do you think? I don't know.
Maybe, yes?
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: That feels so much better. That feels better. That feels good. Now
we can just relax and have a good time. No, but it's a -- it's great to be
with you. Seriously, we've had a great history here together. What we've
done for you and what we've done for the farmers and what we've done for
everything.
You know, two weeks ago, you have the largest order of corn in the history
of our country. Right?
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: Two weeks ago, you had the largest order of soybeans in the history
of our country and the largest order of beef. But you know why? Because
China wants to keep me happy. That's why. It was from China because they
know what they've done to us should never have been allowed. They could
have stopped it. They didn't stop it. They should've stopped it.
The only reason I'm your president is because the previous administration
did a poor job. So poor in fact that I said, I'm going to run for
president.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: And you know what, if they did a good job, I wouldn't have run. And
if they did a good job, I guess I wouldn't have won. What you think. I
wouldn't have run and I wouldn't have won. But they were so bad and it
turns out they were so totally corrupt.
We did not come this far to overcome this much and fight this hard only to
surrender our country back to the depraved Washington swamp.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: You know, when I would say drain the swamp. I used to say it, you
know, drain the swamp and people like it. I hated the expression. I hated
it. I hated it. I said, this is a hokey expression. And I put it in one
speech the place went crazy.
I said, I'm starting to like that expression. Then I put it in another
speech and they went crazy. I said, you know, I really like it. I really
like it. But you know, when I say drain the swamp, I had no idea the swamp
was that dirty, that disgusting and that deep. It's true.
If I don't sound like a typical Washington politician, it's because I'm not
a politician. Thank God.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: And I don't want to insult our great politicians, because you had
some great ones with us tonight. But I don't always played by the rules of
Washington and Washington establishment it's because I was elected to fight
for you harder than -- and I'll tell you what. I fight for you harder than
any president has ever fought for anyone. It's not easy.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: But I love it because we are making tremendous progress. We are
making tremendous progress. And the fact is that no administration in their
first three and a half years have ever done as much as this administration
has done. You take a look at the list.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: And you know, it's amazing because they always challenge you, they
challenge you and everything. They never even challenged me on that
statement. I make that statement all the time, they just stand and they
think, they say he's right. We might hate him but they say he's right.
Right now, I'm fighting to eradicate the virus, rebuild the economy and
save our country from the radical left. And that's exactly what we're
doing.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: As a candidate, Joe Biden has made yet another corrupt bargain in
exchange for his party's domination. He handed control to the socialist and
Marxists and the lunatic left-wing fringe that are really running that
party. He is not running it.
Let's face it. Joe is shot. Whether you like it or not, we can all be nice,
it's going to be my turn someday, it's even going to be your turn someday,
my friends, someday. But you know when it is your turn, you can't be
president.
One thing I've learned, President Xi of China he's a 100 percent. Putin of
Russia, 100 percent. Kim Jong-un, by the way, whatever happened to that war
we're supposed to have? Kim Jong-un of North Korea, 100 hundred percent.
These people are sharp and they are smart. Joe has lost it. And his best
day, he wasn't a smart man. Everybody knows that. But Joe is gone. If he
wins, the radical left will be running the country, they are addicted to
power. And God help us if they get it. We'll never be the same country and
we will never be able to recover and we are --
MACCALLUM: All right. The president is touching a pretty heavily in the
beginning part of the speech on this Hunter Biden, Joe Biden story that was
reported by the New York Post today. And we have gone through those e-mails
between the Ukrainian businessman and the origins of the e-mail or
purportedly according to the New York Post from a laptop that was found in
Wilmington, Delaware.
So obviously there's a lot that needs to be dug into. On that story I want
to be -- I want to bring back in our guest tonight. Our panel Deroy
Murdock, contributing editor for National Review online, Katie Pavlich,
news editor at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__Townhall.com&d=DwICAg&c=cnx1hdOQtepEQkpermZGwQ&r=66NL-BOo471AGSm_KnwRE_qfHEjM19jJhbDYidH1S1U&m=7g9wYo0tBbCvcoDL3Q6U5oS6m-G-CcUAChPq3gLmFlk&s=OVNf15OcffhctaAQa5GF3m-wLvXo4iiBBBOyoGssvS4&e= , and Richard Fowler, senior fellow at the New
York -- at the New Leader's Council. All are Fox News contributors.
I actually would like to start by playing by getting back to the meat of
this race and playing a sound bite. Earlier this week, there was a very
interesting poll from Gallup asking people are you better off now than you
were four years ago. And 56 percent according to the Gallup poll said they
were.
And obviously, that's the argument that Trump is making out there in Iowa
tonight. And then Joe Biden was asked about it, and here's what he said.
Here's his response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So why should people who feel that they are better off
today under the Trump administration vote for you?
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well if they think that they
probably shouldn't. They think 54 percent of the American people are better
off economically today than they were on our administration. Well their
memories are not very good quite frankly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Richard, what do you think about that?
FOWLER: Listen, I'm not sure if I would've answered the same way the vice
president did. But I think this is just a -- it's just one poll. I think if
you look across what's actually happening in the economy, you will see that
there are many people that are suffering tonight. Right? There are many
business owners that have had to close their doors and they might not
reopen them again.
There are many families that are trying to figure out how to make ends meet
because mom or dad might be unemployed because they were a service worker
they might not be returning to work.
MACCALLUM: Yes.
FOWLER: And while Donald Trump says he's trying to eradicate COVID-19,
what you see here is a mass gathering where some people are wearing masks
and some people aren't where nobody is socially distanced. And this is
happening when there are 36 states that are moving in the wrong direction
when it comes to this virus.
MACCALLUM: All right. Katie, what do you say?
PAVLICH: Well, this is going to be an election about whether people want
to go back to an Obama-Biden presidency. Much of Joe Biden's platform has
been about citing what he worked on with President Obama. Whether people
want to go back to anemic GDP growth from quarter to quarter or the slowest
economic recovery since World War II, or whether they want to go back to
the beginning of the Trump administration and what the administration was
able to do in the first three years in office.
The president has used the line off and on the campaign trail that he has
done more in his first term than Joe Biden did in 47 years in Washington,
D.C. And so that's going to be the economic choice that people have moving
forward.
MACCALLUM: Yes.
PAVLICH: And for Joe Biden to stand in front of two vote signs and tell
people not to vote for him doesn't -- really is a reflection of the
enthusiasm that people have for his campaign.
MACCALLUM: Final thought, Deroy Murdock, on where this election stands
with 20 days to go.
MURDOCK: I think that the census bureau came up with some very interesting
information a couple weeks ago, which is under President Trump and his
policies we achieve the highest level of median national -- median
household income and the lowest poverty level in U.S. history.
All of that unfortunately was interrupted by the China virus. And now we
are bouncing back. The economy is returning. And the question is, do we
want to go back to the policies we have that made this country so effective
and so prosperous before the coronavirus, or do we want to go to back to
policies of Obama and Biden where we basically struggled around and barely
move forward for eight years.
I hope the American people vote for the policies that had us in excellent
shape until COVID-19 arrived and created such total havoc.
MACCALLUM: Well, the polls are definitely not looking in the president's
favor right now. Today, Politico talked about three races at the Cook
Politico report moved a little bit further to the left in Alaska, in Texas,
and in Georgia for the Senate races. So we will see where thing goes. It's
going to be an intense 20 days.
Thank you very much to all of you. Good to have you with us, Deroy, Katie,
and Richard.
(CROSSTALK)
PAVLICH: Thanks, Martha.
FOWLER: Good to see you, Martha.
MACCALLUM: Always great to have you with us tonight. Thank you very much.
So that is THE STORY of this Wednesday, October the 14th, 2020. THE STORY
continues tomorrow night so I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
We are going to dig in to this Biden story that we have been discussing.
We've got Mayor Rudy Giuliani with us. We've got Senator Ron Johnson to
answer some questions about his previous report. And we will see you back
here tomorrow night. Have a great night, everybody. We'll see you then.
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