Biden is leading in Minnesota, many states in the Midwest: Amy Klobuchar

close

Video

Biden is leading in Minnesota, many states in the Midwest: Amy Klobuchar

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar joins Chris Wallace on ‘Fox News Sunday.’

This is a rush transcript from “Fox News Sunday" November 1, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.  

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I'm Chris Wallace.

In the final hours of election 2020, Donald Trump and Joe Biden barnstorm the country and await the verdict of the American people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A vote for me is a vote for massive tax cuts, regulation cuts, fair trade, strong borders.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We can build back, and we can build back better.

WALLACE: Trump and Biden go head-to-head in the key battleground states.

TRUMP: Sleepy Joe declared war on American workers.

BIDEN: Donald Trump has waived the white flag, abandon our families and surrender to this virus.

WALLACE: And lay out their visions for handling the pandemic, reviving the economy and the future of America.

We'll discuss how the president plans to pull out another come-from-behind victory with senior advisor Corey Lewandowski. And we'll ask Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, a member of Biden's inner circle, about his path to 270 electoral votes.

Then -- with less than 48 hours to go, we'll bring in our Sunday panel for a look at what new FOX polls tell us about the state of the race.

And our "Power Player of the Week," the head of the FOX News decision team, calling the winners and losers on election night.

All, right now, on "FOX News Sunday".

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And hello again from FOX News in Washington.

In these closing hours of the 2020 campaign, Donald Trump and Joe Biden are making the traditional last-minute blitz of swing states. But there's nothing traditional about this year. More than 92 million Americans have already voted. That's 65 percent, almost two-thirds of the total votes cast in 2016.

But the candidates are still trying to win over the millions who will vote on Election Day.

We have new FOX polls on the state of the race.

Who the voters trust to do a better job on the big issues facing the country?

When it comes to the coronavirus, they trust Biden by a decisive 56 to 40 percent margin.

On the economy, the president leads by one point, 49 percent to 48 percent.

And when asked which should be the government's top priority, voters choose limiting the COVID spread over restarting the economy, 61 percent to 36 percent.

In the presidential horse race, Biden maintains an eight-point lead, 52 percent to 44 percent, down from ten points in early October.

We begin this hour with FOX team coverage. Peter Doocy is traveling with the Biden campaign, but let's start with Kristin Fisher at the White House -- Kristin.

KRISTIN FISHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Chris, in the closing days of this campaign, President Trump's strategy is looking very similar to what it was four years ago, despite the pandemic. Once again, his signature rallies front and center, 14 rallies in seven states in the final 72 hours before Election Day and almost half of them are in Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: I guess it has something to do with Pennsylvania. I'm going to be here all day today.

FISHER: President Trump spending the final Saturday before November 3rd entirely in Pennsylvania, a sign he knows it may all come down to the state's 20 electoral votes.

But the president's path to 270 starts and ends in Florida. If he loses his newly adopted home state, then he will almost certainly lose a second term. But if he wins Florida and Pennsylvania, a state he won in 2016 by only 44,000 votes, add in Iowa and Ohio, and President Trump is well in his way to 270.

Another possible path --  

TRUMP: And hello, Wisconsin.

FISHER: President Trump again runs the table in the Rust Belt, scooping up Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, all states that were decided by less than a point four years ago. But every scenario hinges on keeping Texas red.

TRUMP: Can you imagine going to Texas saying we are going to take your guns away and, by the way, we're going to close up every oil well that you have? Vote for me, vote for Joe.

I don't think so. I don't think so.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FISHER: Now, the Trump campaign is banking on that silent majority and a strong Election Day turnout. While they don't have a lot of money left, they do have a strong ground game and an impressive voter database. They are also trying to repeat history with another late night rally on Election Eve, once again in Grand Rapids, Michigan -- Chris.

WALLACE: Kristin Fisher reporting from the White House -- Kristin, thanks.

Now let's bring in Peter Doocy, who's covering the Biden campaign in Philadelphia -- Peter.

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Chris, Biden's strategy hinges on Pennsylvania. It's where his first events were, it's where his last events will be.

Today is going to be his 17th day here in the general, by far the most of any battleground and he is confident.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BIDEN: We're going to win this election.

DOOCY: Last night, he described the mood among advisors.

BIDEN: Very good. Very high. We're hopeful.

DOOCY: And he's relying on the Democratic Party's strongest closer.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: I love Joe Biden and he will be a great president.

DOOCY: Barack Obama.

OBAMA: On Tuesday, you can choose change.

DOOCY: Obama's role in trying to help Biden reach 270 electoral votes includes two stops Monday, Florida.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I do believe that a path to victory runs through Florida.

DOOCY: And Georgia.

BIDEN: Well, Georgia has changed a lot and there's incredible turnout.

DOOCY: Most of Biden's closing arguments is about Trump.

BIDEN: It's time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home.

DOOCY: And more than any issue, Biden's campaign has been about character.

OBAMA: He does not have a mean-spirited bone in his body.

DOOCY: Although he is unafraid to show a fighting spirit.

BIDEN: The president likes to portray himself -- I love this -- likes to portray himself as a tough guy. When you're in high school, when you've liked to take a shot? Anyway, that's a different story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DOOCY: Biden could be, in many different battleground states in the final days, but he's just going to be in this one, today trying to run up the score here in Philadelphia at an event where in pre-COVID times traditionally, they would give people leaving church a ride to go vote, Souls to the Polls -- Chris.

WALLACE: Peter Doocy with the Biden campaign. Peter, thanks for that.

Now let's turn to Trump campaign senior advisor Corey Lewandowski.

Corey, welcome back to "FOX News Sunday."

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: Thank you, Chris. Great to be here.

WALLACE: I want to start with the latest COVID numbers.

In -- on Friday, more than 99,000 new cases. Sixteen states reported single day records, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Iowa. More than 46,000 people hospitalized, that's up 25 percent, over the last two weeks.

And Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top expert on infectious disease, tells "The Washington Post" today, we're in for a whole lot of hurt. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly. He says he hasn't spoken to the president since early October.

Corey, hasn't the president failed at his biggest job this year, containing the virus?

LEWANDOWSKI: Well, no, of course not, Chris.

And look, when you look around the world, this president was the very first to act, banning flights coming in from mainland China, unless you were an American citizen or permanent green cardholder, and Joe Biden called him xenophobic for doing that and said only three weeks later that he agreed with the president's decision.

You look at what this president has been able to do. Any person who has been impacted by this disease who needed a ventilator, this administration provided it. When the state of New York and California were concerned about hospital beds, the president sent U.S. Navy ships there to serve as additional hospital resources. He turned the Javits Center in New York into an emergency care facility.

And what we saw, very candidly, was most of the time the experts were wrong. They told us that our hostels would be overrun and that you wouldn't have access to the care, and where we are today is through Operation Warp Speed, people are going to have the opportunity to have a solution to this pandemic and more importantly than that, Chris, the survival rate right now -- and I'm not belittling this -- is 99.99 percent if you're under the age of 50 years old if you get COVID-19.

So we have to be careful --

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: Well, that's certainly -- Corey, that's accentuating the positive. The fact is more than 230,000 Americans have died so far from this disease. On Wednesday, a thousand people died. On Thursday, a thousand people died.

Here's what the president had to say about that this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, our doctors get more money if somebody dies from COVID. You know that, right? I mean, our doctors are very smart people, so what they do is they say I'm sorry, but, you know, everybody dies of COVID.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: What is the president's evidence that doctors, many of whom are risking their lives treating these patients, are in fact lining their pockets by saying they are inflating the number of COVID deaths?

LEWANDOWSKI: You know, Chris, I haven't seen that evidence, but we have seen on multiple occasions instances where people have claimed that they have been died from COVID-19 and that wasn't the case.

We saw FOX News actually did a whole expose on an individual who died in a motorcycle accident. Maybe he had COVID but died in a head-on collision. They said it was a COVID-related death. FOX News exposed that entire hypocrisy.

So look, I think we are categorizing sometimes individuals who may have COVID that aren't dying from that and claiming it as a COVID death, which is not accurate.

WALLACE: But there are also, according to a number of studies, that the number of people who actually are dying from COVID is greatly undercounted.

But we are talking specifically about the president saying that doctors are inflating the number of COVID deaths.

Here's how the president of the American Medical Association responded to the president's claim -- I'm going to put it on the screen: The suggestion that doctors in the midst of a public health crisis are overcounting COVID- 19 patients or lying to line their pockets is a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge.

Does the president stand by his accusation that doctors are profiteering off this virus?

LEWANDOWSKI: You know, Chris, I haven't spoken to the president about this directly so I can't answer that but I can tell you that --

WALLACE: You understand it's a pretty serious -- it's a pretty serious thing to say about the nation's doctors who are on the front lines.

LEWANDOWSKI: Look, we have enormous respect for doctors who are serving front-line patients and they do an amazing job by and large. We know that this president has provided them the PPE equipment that they've needed to be able to do their jobs because the previous administration left our stockpiles empty.

So because of the work that this administration has been able to do, health care workers and front-line workers actually have the equipment now to help combat this virus and stop the spread of it further.

WALLACE: I want to turn to the economy. The president celebrated the GDP numbers in the third quarter, and he should, they were up 7 percent for the third quarter, which is a really sizable increase. But the fact is, we have the big drop off in the second quarter, rise in the third quarter. The economy is still 3.5 percent smaller now, right now, then it was at the end of 2019 before COVID-19.

And I want you to look at these more recent numbers. Just this week, the stock markets had their worst week since March and 750,000 more Americans filed new jobless claims.

With the virus spiking and with some more lockdowns happening as a result of that, isn't the economy still in trouble?

LEWANDOWSKI: Well, the economy is obviously on a super V-shaped return. Thirty-three-point-one percent growth is unprecedented in American history.

And more than that, Chris, people want to get back to work. They want to do so safely. They want to make sure that, you know, the leadership of this country is giving people the opportunity to provide for their families, because, listen to what Joe Biden said, Joe Biden said he would listen to the, quote/unquote, scientists and he would lock our economy down in perpetuity and you know what, Chris --

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: No, no, no. No, no, no. He meant -- Corey, I have to correct you. He has never said that. He said he would listen to the scientists and in fact he now says that if he locks down -- I'm just telling you the truth, if he locks down, it will be specific areas, it won't be a general lockdown.

But go ahead.

LEWANDOWSKI: But, Chris, the real concern is, who does that hurt, those lockdowns? So government employees continue to get their paychecks but small business owners and particularly those in hospitality and restaurant business are going out of business. We see it every day, these draconian policies from some of these governors that say you can only operate at 25 percent of your business -- you can't make a living, Chris.

And again, I'm not trying to minimize the impact of COVID. One life lost is one too many, but I tell you what, I have to be able to provide for my family and so to those small business owners who get up and sacrifice every day and go to work.

And if our front-line workers including police and firefighters and the people who work at Walmart everyday can get up and go to work, how come our country can't do that?

WALLACE: Let's -- you say that the economy is on a super V-shaped, down sharply, now back up sharply.

But let's take a look at the latest FOX poll. When asked about the condition of the economy, 36 percent said good or excellent while 64 percent said only fair or poor.

Corey, are two-thirds of Americans wrong?

LEWANDOWSKI: No, Chris, people are feeling the impact of what this Chinese virus has done to our economy and its unequivocal that before this virus hit in February of this year, we had the greatest economy the world had ever seen, we had the lowest unemployment rates amongst African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans, and we have more people working than any time in our nation's history.

And this president made the decision with the experts not that we had an underlying economic problem, we had a health problem. So we closed the economy to slow the spread of this virus and now we're opening it back up.

But some of the policies of some of these governors -- and, you know, you look at New York, some of these restaurants and businesses, they'll never come back and that is worse -- you can't have the solution worse than the disease and in some places, that's exactly what's happening.

WALLACE: OK, all right.

Finally, I want to go through some of the ways that President Trump and the Republicans are trying to limit either voting or vote counting. I have a list here.

The Trump campaign has videotaped Philadelphia voters putting ballots in drop boxes. In Texas, the governor has ordered only one drop box in each. Republicans are suing to invalidate a hundred thousand votes in Houston after officials set up driving-thru voting centers. And in Nevada, the Trump campaign is suing to get the signatures of every voter in Democratic- leaning Clark County.

Are the president and the GOP engaged in voter suppression?

LEWANDOWSKI: No, they're not, Chris. Look, we had some people who went to the Philadelphia town hall to watch some of the voting take place in a public building. The video is widely available. They were -- they were removed from the police from that from watching that transpire.

Look, this is about the integrity of the process and in a state like Nevada, to verify via signature that the person who filled out the ballot is actually the one who signed it and sent it back in, I don't think anybody in America has a problem with that.

Signature verification is something that takes place in most of the big states that do this well and particularly the state of Florida. They verify the signature on your absentee ballot. Once you've requested and one to send it in.

And by the way, I think that's a perfectly fine thing. I think most people in the country think that it should be one vote, one person and that signature should match --

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: We certainly -- we certainly agree, you only get -- we only get one vote.

I want to ask you one last question, though, Corey. Listen to what the president said this week about vote counting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on November 3rd instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate, and I don't believe that that's by our laws.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Corey, you well know that in counting ballots after Election Day, always happens. In 2016, three states that the president carried, North Carolina, Iowa, Ohio, all counted votes after election by law.

LEWANDOWSKI: You know, Chris, what the president's real concern is and the Supreme Court has made some rulings on this, is trying to get as many votes in by election as possible. The concern is when you have some states that don't require a postage mark on theirs (ph) so we don't know when they were filled out, they don't require signature verification.

And some states say they'll be counting nine or ten days after the election.

I think as the most industrialized country in the world, we can do better than that, Chris. We know that people can vote.

WALLACE: OK.

LEWANDOWSKI: We know how to count quickly. So let's get it done because I think this election is going to be won on election night with Donald Trump carrying Florida and North Carolina and Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

And if that's the case, there will be no need to continue the count because it will be a resounding victory.

WALLACE: Well, I certainly agree, we'd like to have a clear winner on election day. We may not get it.

Corey, thank you. You know, I was thinking, we first met when you were running the Trump campaign all the way back in 2015. We'll be watching how the world turns on Tuesday night. Thanks, Corey.

LEWANDOWSKI: Thank you, Chris.

WALLACE: Up next, as Joe Biden campaigns in Midwest battlegrounds in this final stretch, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar joins us to discuss if he can reclaim the blue wall Donald Trump flipped four years ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: On this final weekend of campaigning, Joe Biden left his home base of Delaware for stops in must-win Pennsylvania and upper Midwest swing states.

Joining us now from Minneapolis, Senator Amy Klobuchar, a key supporter of the vice president.

Senator, a lot of people were surprised on Friday to see not just President Trump, but former Vice President Biden in the state of Minnesota, a state that hasn't voted for a Republican for president in 11 straight elections, since Richard Nixon back in 1972.

But there's a reason. Let's look at the latest RealClearPolitics average of recent polls. Biden leads the president in Minnesota 48 percent to 43.3 percent. Pretty close. So the question is, are Minnesota's ten electoral votes in play?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): I don't believe they are and I was so pleased that Vice President Biden stopped by. He was in Wisconsin. He was in Iowa. He is, as you point out, in Pennsylvania today. He's all over the Midwest.

And, seriously, Chris, he is ahead in Minnesota in many other polls by double digits. He's ahead in Wisconsin, where I am going today, bravely going as a Vikings fan to Green Bay to meet up with Tammy Baldwin, the senator from Wisconsin. He is ahead in so many states in the Midwest.

Why? One, he's leading with manufacturing in a big way and buying America. Two, he has been willing to take on the fact that we are not two separate countries, that we must unite our nation, and that is really important right now in the Midwest, struggling big time with the coronavirus.

And the last thing I add, suburban voters in the Midwest. After your debate that you moderated where he interrupted you over 100 times, he took the stage and said, why don't suburban women like me? Well, I can tell you, as someone that grew up in the suburbs --  

WALLACE: OK.

KLOBUCHAR: They don't like the lack of civility.

WALLACE: I asked Corey about voter suppression, but I want to take a look at a case in Minnesota where traditionally votes have to be in, received by the election board, before the end of election night to be counted. But the state, this year, made a change and said that if votes are postmarked by Election Day, they can come in as much as seven days later and still be counted.

So by a two to one vote, a federal appeals court said those votes that don't come in by election day are going to be separated and kept separate until a court can rule whether they should be counted or not. That's a pretty dramatic change in the rules. Isn't that a legitimate challenge by the Republicans?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, first of all, Chris, the Republicans and the Trump campaign actually agreed to a consent decree where we would do it differently so they could be postmarked by the election because of the pandemic. Then two electors went around, Republican electors, and went to the court.

We really are focused right now on making sure people can vote. And we're just telling them, don't vote by mail anymore, take your ballot to a drop off box. We've got plenty of them in Minnesota. It's not like Texas, where people are still valiantly voting that only have one per county. And then show up in person. We have early voting going on all day today, tomorrow, Election Day.

So we still feel really good about the voting in Minnesota. We are number one in the country nearly every presidential election for voting. So we're positive about it.

But it is an example of the kind of attempts we're seeing to cut people out from voting. I think it's wrong.

WALLACE: I want to talk to you about some issues.

In the final presidential debate, Joe Biden said that he would -- these are his words -- transition from the oil industry. And during the Democratic primary debates, when you were running against Joe Biden, during one of them he said he would eliminate fracking. He's kind of tried to pull back from both of those statements.

Here's what the president said this week about Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Joe Biden confirmed his plan to abolish the entire U.S. oil industry. I said you mean no more oil, Joe? Well, that's what I mean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Biden says he wants zero net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. Fact is, if -- if you're going to really do all those things that he's talking about, it's going to hurt a lot of people who depend on fossil fuels for jobs.

KLOBUCHAR: Well, let me clarify the facts, first of all. He has made very clear that he is not against fracking. He just wants to have safety rules in place. And natural gas is a major transitional --  

WALLACE: No, no, he said -- wait -- wait -- I mean he -- day -- I mean, again, let me -- let me just -- Senator, let me fact-check.

KLOBUCHAR: OK. OK. OK.

WALLACE: He has said he will not allow any new fracking on federal lands.

KLOBUCHAR: OK, that is -- that is correct. But we're talking but existing fracking.

Secondly, what he's talking about is stopping these oil subsidies and transitioning to renewable fuel to bring down greenhouse gas emissions. Look at the fires raging on the West Coast. Our military predicted this, Chris, that this would happen. And that's what happened this past fall.

You look at all the flooding we're seeing, the weird weather events, the increase in hurricanes, the effect that has had on the state of Florida. They're still coming in. And I think that what he is talking about is shared by scientists and by actually our own military that we need to start tackling this problem. And he's going to do it in a smart way that will eventually add more jobs to America. I think that's what's important.

But I did want to get at some the economic arguments that Corey was making in his segment before I went on. I thought your reporter (ph) was fascinating from FOX.

WALLACE: All right. What -- no, no, I've got --  

KLOBUCHAR: OK, go ahead, Chris.

WALLACE: You know, I'm -- I'm -- what -- thank you.

KLOBUCHAR: You're the moderator.

WALLACE: Thank you. Thank you. I sometimes forget that.

Beyond the presidential race, the other big election news, of course, is the race for control of the Senate. The -- the current margin, 53-47. You need a net pickup of four to control the Senate or if Biden wins a net pickup of three because then vice president Kamala Harris would be able to break the tie vote.

I want to look, because you're in a close -- you have a close race. You're not in it but a close race in Minnesota, put it up on the screen. RealClearPolitics ranks the Minnesota race between the incumbent Democratic Senator Tina Smith and Republican Congressman Jason Lewis as a toss-up.

Quickly, what are the chances that Smith will win, hold onto that seat, and what are the chances the Democrats will take over control of the Senate?

KLOBUCHAR: The -- Smith holding onto a seat I put at 100 percent. A poll came out today, she's nine points ahead.

The Senate races, we are ahead in Arizona. We're ahead in Colorado. We are ahead in a number of polls in Maine. We are ahead -- the polls go back and forth in Iowa. North Carolina, we're ahead.

WALLACE: I -- so I just need a -- I need a --  

KLOBUCHAR: We are doing well, better than ever expected, in states like Georgia, South Carolina, Alaska.

WALLACE: So --  

KLOBUCHAR: You name it. So I am feeling good about the Senate. I can't give you a percentage on that.

But, remember, I just want to say to your viewers here, if you are sick and tired of a president that has not done what he has said he's done, which is not keep Americans safe when we have coronavirus spiking, pick a guy that's got a plan --  

WALLACE: OK.

KLOBUCHAR: That's listening to the science, who's going to do something about it and get the vaccine out in a way that makes sense. This is really the heart and soul of the argument here at the end.

WALLACE: Finally -- finally --  

KLOBUCHAR: Yes.

WALLACE: Senator, as you've said, I'm the moderator, or in this case the host.

Senator, Joe Biden and you ran in the centrist lanes during the primaries, but it's been interesting watching what's happened in the last few days. Elizabeth Warren is indicating that she would like to be secretary of the treasury. Bernie Sanders has talked about pushing for secretary of labor. Kamala Harris, who would be vice president, is rated the most liberal member of the Senate.

If Joe Biden wins, isn't the left going to come after him really hard after the election?

KLOBUCHAR: Chris, right now Joe Biden is focused on uniting this country. And our party had stayed united. But what I think is really important to realize, he has brought in people like John Kasich, former governor, Republican governor of Ohio. Cindy McCain campaigning for him across the country. But --  

WALLACE: Yes, but he's not going to be in the -- he's not going to be in the cabinet.

KLOBUCHAR: No.

WALLACE: I'm talking about Elizabeth Warren as Treasury secretary or Bernie Sanders as Labor secretary.

KLOBUCHAR: I -- I have no idea who he's going to pick for the cabinet. What I do know is the way he has run his campaign, the way he has said he's going to be the president, not just for the people that vote for him but the people that vote against him. That's how he's going to govern. He has got so much to do in those first 100 days and I just think that this election, if it goes down the way we're seeing with him ahead in places like Georgia, in some polls in Texas --

WALLACE: Right.

KLOBUCHAR: This is going to be the country saying, enough of the divide, enough of the fighting. We want to go together as a team. Team America and move forward and win this thing for our country. And that means taking on this virus, shutting down a virus, and opening up our economy.

WALLACE: OK.

KLOBUCHAR: That's what this is about.

WALLACE: Senator Klobuchar, thank you. Thanks for your time this weekend. Always good to talk with you.

KLOBUCHAR: Thank you, Chris. It was really (INAUDIBLE).

WALLACE: Up next we'll bring in our Sunday group to discuss which states are make or break for both candidates on the road to the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Coming up, both Donald Trump and Joe Biden sound optimistic about the chances of winning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Florida is looking really great. Ohio is looking great.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The power to vote will change the course of this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: We will analyze brand-new Fox poll's with our Sunday panel, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have to get out and vote. We are creating the greatest red wave in the history of our country.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's up to you. You hold the key. If Florida goes blue, it's over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: President Trump and Joe Biden make their final appeals to voters this week in the battleground state of Florida.

And it's time now for our Sunday group.

GOP strategist Karl Rove, pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson, and Fox News political analyst Juan Williams.

Kristen, normally we would look at the data points that we're presented with right now and by that the latest Fox poll that shows Biden with an eight-point lead, the fact that there has been this explosion of early voting, more than two-thirds of the total vote in 2016 and it seems to be trending towards Biden and the late developments like the big spike in the coronavirus cases. And I think we would generally say Biden seems headed for victory.

On the other hand, we all look back at 2016 when under similar circumstances Joe -- Donald Trump pulled off a surprise victory.

I guess the question I have is, are we over learning the lessons of 2016? Is this race really up for grabs or not?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, ECHELON INSIGHTS, WASHINGTON EXAMINER, AND FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: There are a number of things that are different from 2016, including that Donald Trump is the incumbent president. So if you are an undecided voter and crucially this year there are far fewer of them than there were in 2016, you now know exactly what a Trump presidency looks like, whether you love that or don't. So that eliminates one variable that was different in 2016 where you had a lot of undecided voters breaking for Trump at the last minute.

At the same time the favorable for the other candidate are different. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden are not the same person in the minds of many voters. And the negative feelings that many had for Hillary Clinton have not necessarily transferred to Joe Biden. So while Biden is in a strong position, as you noted, this is 2020 and the other thing that makes this year very different is the pandemic and the sky high turnout that makes me feel a little more uncertain about being confident in any prediction.

WALLACE: So, Karl, what are the chances, because we -- I pointed out and then Kristen pointed out a lot of factors that would seem to favor Biden as opposed to the Trump-Clinton race in 2016.

Tell me why we shouldn't overemphasize those?

KARL ROVE, FORMER BUSH WHITE HOUSE ADVISER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, we shouldn't, and just go to the numbers.

Take a look at this pattern. In Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio --

WALLACE: Here comes the whiteboard.

ROVE: In -- yes, Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, in the last three weeks, look how the race is close, 4.6 for Biden, three weeks ago in Florida, 1.6 today in the RealClearPolitics average. The same -- that decline almost by half in Pennsylvania. In Ohio it's gone from 3.3 in the RCP average to tide.

North Carolina, this is over the last two weeks. In Arizona, this is over the last week and a half. So -- and -- and Wisconsin --

WALLACE: So -- but let me just -- let me just interrupt -- let me just interrupt for one -- one question though. That would make sense if we were expecting most of the vote on Election Day. But when you get two-thirds of what happened in 2016 already banked, does that closing in the final days make as much of a difference?

ROVE: Well, good -- good question. And -- we do think -- there seems to be general consensus that the early vote where those people had made up their minds, ardent Democrats and ardent Republicans. So, yes, we may have a smaller percentage of the people yet to vote, but when you have that dramatic a decline in Biden's margin in some of these states, you'd -- you'd think that what that might mean is that the people who are making up their decisions at the end are more likely to vote for Trump than they are for Biden.

I mean, think about it, in Arizona, gone from, you know, way ahead to barely ahead. But we don't know a lot about this election. When you and Kristen -- I think she's right on point, there are so many intangibles in this election. We all ought to have a little humility and not be -- not be pressing for -- for an outcome. We ought to be sitting here waiting for it to come to us.

WALLACE: And let's talk about somebody who's not waiting, but running on the country, Juan. Let's talk about the Trump rallies. He is going to nine states, some of them repeats, but nine state stops and more rallies than those -- in those states today and tomorrow.

Joe Biden is going to Pennsylvania today and Pennsylvania tomorrow.

Can this final blitz by Donald Trump, similar to what he did in 2016, can that move the needle?

JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think the rallies can energize his base, Chris. I don't think there's any question about that. The issue is can it expand his base in these last few days? And as you've just pointed out, there are very few voters who are undecided according to the polls and historic numbers of people have already voted.

It's also important to note, there's no major third party candidate that he could siphon votes away from.

And one final point on this, which is that these rallies have become documented now as super spreader events, at which, as you noted in your interview with Corey Lewandowski, he's attacking doctors, saying that they're making up cases so they can make more money.

WALLACE: Right.

WILLIAMS: He's also mocking people wearing masks, including a Fox News host. I don't think that helps him with people who are moderate and who may be new to this -- to voting. I think that they think the coronavirus as their big issue and this guy is out of touch.

WALLACE: Let me -- I've got a minute left, Kristen, and I want to pick up on exactly that point.

You look at our polls, the coronavirus is the biggest issue facing voters. And now, just at this moment we're seeing this really alarming spike, almost 100,000 cases on Friday alone.

How much does that news, at this point, for the president, who's counting on a big surge of support on Election Day, how much does that hurt him?

ANDERSON: It's bad for Trump in two ways. The first is that consistently his job approval on the economy is better than his job approval on COVID, that there are some voters that like the way he's handled the economy but still disapprove of the virus. So the more it's in the news, the worse the environment is for him. But it's also stepping on the good economic news that came out earlier this week. We saw GDP growth that was huge, but the data point that feels more personal to people is worry about COVID-19. And so if that's the dominant story, that's not the most helpful political environment for a president headed into Election Day.

WALLACE: All right, panel, thank you all. We have to take a break here, but up next, we'll bring you back and we'll dive into brand-new Fox poll's to see who voters think cares more about that. That and the battle for control of the Senate when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: At every turn, Biden twisted his knife into the backs of Pennsylvania workers. While Biden was giving China your jobs, his family was raking in millions of dollars from China.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Honk your horn if you want to have civility again! And honk your horn if you want America to be united again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: President Trump and Joe Biden each making their case one more time to voters in the Midwest.

Now more from our Fox News poll.

We asked voters about candidate traits. Voters ranked Biden as more likely to care about them being honest and trustworthy, less corrupt and not as close to extremists. President Trump got higher marks for standing up for his beliefs.

And we're back now with our panel.

Kristen, I've always heard that the candidate trait that is most important in an election is who cares about you. What do you make of the fact that Biden leads the president in our poll on that subject 56 percent to 43 percent?

ANDERSON: In the exit polls in 2016, Hillary Clinton led Donald Trump on that issue by a similar margin. But Donald Trump was still able to win because only about one in six voters said that that was the most important trait to them in that election. Instead, four in ten said that the most important thing to them was, whose going to bring about change. And Donald Trump won those voters, over 80 percent to I think about 14 percent. So it depends.

If this is another change election, the problems Trump's facing is, as an incumbent, it's less easy for you to make the argument you would bring about bold change. But he was able to win last time even though he lost on that key metric.

WALLACE: Juan, I also noticed that the poll in the word "corrupt," despite the fact that Donald Trump in these final days is really going after Joe Biden hard on his son Hunter's e-mails, when voters were asked who is the - - who you associate more with corrupt, they said -- 56 percent said it applies to Mr. Trump versus 40 percent to Joe Biden.

WILLIAMS: Yes, I think that's an indication, Chris, that the Trump attacks on Hunter Biden have not gained traction. I think what is imprinted on the American mind after four years of Donald Trump is that the man who promised to drain the swamp has appointed, for example, you know, put in place in his cabinet former lobbyists, at Interior, at Defense, at EPA. You stop and think about his major legislative accomplishment, you know, a tax cut that basically went to big corporations and the top most wealthy people in the country.

WALLACE: Right.

WILLIAMS: And I think there's another point to be made here about his -- the family dealings with the hotels and the golf courses and charging the Secret Service and staff. You know, all of that adds up. And I think even hiring his own family in the White House for jobs they're not qualified for, I think that has stuck and I think that's why you see that 16-point differential.

WALLACE: Karl, you know, it's interesting, and one of the big differences from 2016 to this year, we're going to see right here, when we back then asked, would do you think is honest and trustworthy, only about a third of voters said either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump was trustworthy. But take a look at these numbers this year. The president is stuck at the exact same, 37 percent say he's honest and trustworthy, while Biden is seen as honest by 52 percent of voters.

Is that an advantage for Biden?

ROVE: Oh, absolutely. And it's a sign of two things. One is, it -- in retrospect it was brilliant to go to ground and to keep the, you know, hang out in his basement studio in Wilmington and let the entire focus remained on the president. The president was happy to have that focus. He was happy to have that attention. But it helped keep the focus on him.

And this is one of the amazing things. Think about this. We know that Hunter Biden did something really bad when he went on the board of Burisma. He had no experience in Ukraine, no experience in energy, was put on there, along with his business partner, a longtime aide to then Secretary of State John Kerry, and he, the son of the sitting vice president of the United States.

WALLACE: Right.

ROVE: And what did -- what did Joe Biden say about it? Hunter did nothing wrong. But the focus hasn't been on that. In fact, I think it's been confused here at the end by all of the sort of back and forth about these yet to be completely proved e-mails and what all that -- that means. That - - we're -- they're introducing a lot of new information at the end of it rather than keeping it focused on where I think it should have been, which is Hunter did nothing wrong. Everybody -- not too many people would think Hunter did something right by going on the board at Burisma.

WALLACE: Finally, I want to turn to the battle for the Senate. And this gets complicated, folks, but follow me here on these numbers.

RealClearPolitics rates Democrat Doug Jones' race in Alabama as likely GOP, likely to flip. And Republican Cory Gardner in Colorado as leaning Democrat. So a little less likely, but a real possibility of flipping. Then it rates these seven Republican senators, the -- that big line at the top, these are Republican senators seeking re-elections in toss-ups, along with the two Democrats in the bottom line, so nine races as toss ups, up for grabs.

Kristen, you look at all that. What's your sense of which party is going to end up with control of the Senate?

ANDERSON: Republicans have been in a tough position from day one because of the number of folks up for election this year. And the fact that there is so much overlap between these Senate contests and the general election toss-up seats, this makes it so that these candidates are ever more dependent on Trump pulling out a win in place like Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, where, as you've noted, the poles at the moment do show -- show Trump down by just a couple of points. So it's going to be very hard for Republicans. They're playing defense on so many different -- in different places that they really are going to need a lot of, I think, lucky breaks in order to hang on to the Senate.

WALLACE: Yes, I think -- and you'll tell me, Karl, if I'm wrong, that it's 23 Republican seats open in 12 Democrat seats. As it currently stands, a lot of numbers here, the Republican have a -- a majority of the Senate, 53- 47. How do you see the Senate going on election night?

ROVE: Well --

WALLACE: Understanding there may be some runoffs, but how do you see it turning out?

ROVE: Yes. Well, first of all, we have seven Republican seats in that at risk category. They need -- the Republicans need to win five of those seven. And a large impact on this will be how the president fairs in their state. Control of the Senate depends on -- does -- how many of those states, you know, Arizona, Iowa, Georgia, North Carlotta, Montana, how many of those do the Republican presidential ticket take because we're in an era, I think the number is 97 percent of the -- in the last five presidential races, the winner of the Senate seat in that state is of the same party as the winner of the White House. And -- for the -- and -- for that state. Not nationwide, but in that state. So how well Trump does in those states is going to be a big impact on whether or not the Republicans can hold the Senate.

I think the Senate is going to end up being 51-49, but I can't tell you whether that's Republican or Democrat.

WALLACE: OK. Well, we know the number, just not the team.

Thank you, panel, see you next Sunday.

Up next, our "Power Player of the Week." We go behind the scenes of the Fox News decision desk and meet the man in charge of calling winners and losers on election night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: While some of us are in front of the cameras on election night, all of us at Fox News know who the real star is. He leads the team that will be crunching the numbers and calling the races that evening. And he's our "Power Player of the Week."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARNON MISHKIN, FOX NEWS DECISION DESK DIRECTOR: I care a great deal about election night. It's sort of the night you live for.

WALLACE: Arnon Mishkin is director of the Fox News decision team, ten pollsters, statisticians, and political scientists whose job on election night is to call the winners and losers. The team is divided into two groups.

MISHKIN: In honor of the World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers, we -- the teams are called Koufax and Drysdale. Each focuses on sort of half the country and to sort of look in detail is what really is going on in that state.

WALLACE: Before they call a result, the entire team has to agree. That used to mean a lot of looking over each other's computers, but not in the age of COVID.

MISHKIN: This year we're putting in a large TV monitor to display an Excel spreadsheet. And this year we -- because of social distancing, we realized we have to make it look much more like a sports bar in terms of our -- the way we're looking at our different models.

WALLACE: One of their tools is the Fox News voter analysis, a survey of 100,000 Americans in all 50 states.

WALLACE (on camera): After 2016 we switched from exit polls to the Fox News voter analysis. Why?

MISHKIN: Historically, exit poll was slightly skewed. Younger and particularly more Democratic voters were much more likely to fill out a survey than Republican voters.

WALLACE: On election night, how will you merge the actual vote count with the Fox News voter analysis?

MISHKIN: That is really the $64,000 question this year.

WALLACE (voice over): The challenges is that millions more Americans are voting by mail.

WALLACE (on camera): How much more complicated is it going to be to call a state this year as compared to 2016?

MISHKIN: Between Democrats voting early on Republicans voting on Election Day, you can't do that traditional kind of arithmetic that we could do.

WALLACE (voice over): Understanding numbers has always been a passion for Mishkin, who graduated from Yale with a degree in mathematics.

WALLACE (on camera): The decision team is known by some of us at Fox as the nerd-quarium. How do you plead? Arnon, are you a nerd?

MISHKIN: I plead guilty to being a nerd. If you have a willingness to dig in and look at the facts and see what they say rather than just the -- listen to what the crowd has to say.

WALLACE (voice over): That principle was put to the test in 2012.

WALLACE (on camera): Do you believe that Ohio has been settled?

KARL ROVE, FORMER BUSH WHITE HOUSE ADVISER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No, I don't and it --

WALLACE (voice over): When Karl Rove challenged the team calling Ohio and the election for President Obama.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Arnon?

MISHKIN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You had this place up. You tell me whether you stand by your calling on Ohio?

MISHKIN: What we're seeing is sufficient vote in Ohio on the Democratic side to mean that Ohio will go for Obama.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Percent certainty?

MISHKIN: 99.95 percent.

WALLACE: Mishkin is a registered Democrat who voted for Clinton in 2016 and works at Fox.

WALLACE (on camera): What role will politics play in making any calls on election night?

MISHKIN: Zero. Arithmetic is more important than politics when it comes to making a decision and you've just got to check your preferences at the door and decide who has won this thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: I asked Arnon, what are the chances we'll be able to declare a winner in the presidential race on election night? Ask the voters, he said. If they make a clear decision, we'll be able to call it. But if the race is tight, we won't.

For the latest, be sure to tune in to our pre-election special tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Eastern on Fox News Channel.

And that's it for today. Have a great week and we'll see you next FOX NEWS SUNDAY.

Content and Programming Copyright 2020 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2020 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.