D-Day veteran remembers invasion of Normandy on 75 years later

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D-Day veteran remembers invasion of Normandy on 75 years later

World War II Army veteran George Ciampa landed on Normandy Beach on D-Day.

This is a rush transcript from "The Story," April 23, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, HOST: Thanks, Bret. All right everybody. Breaking tonight, my exclusive interview with Rush Limbaugh who was with President Trump this weekend as he began to move past the Mueller report, and look ahead.

And now, Joe Biden believes if he can beat the president in the race for the White House, he's reportedly just days from jumping into the race now, but the start is looking a little bit rocky. The date may be a moving target. We'll speak to someone later in the show who was close to his campaign.

Good evening, everybody. I'm Martha MacCallum, and this is “The Story.”

The president tweeting up a storm. Here is the latest one from just moments ago. He says, "You mean the stock market hit an all-time record high, and they're actually talking impeachment? Will I ever be given credit for anything by the fake news media or radical liberal Dems? No collusion!"

Just for good measure with an exclamation point there. Here now exclusively tonight on “The Story,” Rush Limbaugh, host, of course, of the "Rush Limbaugh Show". Rush, thank you for being here tonight. Great to see you this evening.

RUSH LIMBAUGH, HOST, THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW: Thank you for having me. It's -- this is the one hour on Fox, I haven't done in a while. So, it's great to be here.

MACCALLUM: It's great to have you back. You know, I want to start with Joe Biden. You've seen him run for president twice before in 1984 and 1988. What version of Joe Biden do you think we're going to get this time, and how do you think he'll do?

LIMBAUGH: Well, Martha let me say, as I sit here tonight in my palatial EIB southern command studio, I remain stunned and amazed that the Democrat Party and the media still do not understand who Donald Trump is.

They don't understand how he won. They don't understand how he's going to win again in 2020. They don't understand the people who voted for him or why. They hold all of that in contempt.

Here is the thing, Joe Biden is probably the best chance they've got, and he doesn't have a chance. They're probably -- I mean, Joe Biden and crazy Bernie, and Mayor Pete? Then we get three white guys, two of them are brontosauruses from Jurassic Park, and that isn't going to sit well with the rest of this party which has gone so far left.

I don't think -- you know, Biden's putting off this announcement. I don't know how badly he really wants this. And you have to really want this if you're going have any chance of winning it.

MACCALLUM: All right. Let's -- speaking of the other folks who are running, let's listen to Elizabeth Warren, talking about relieving 95 percent of college debt. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are going to roll back student loan debt for about 95 percent of students who have debt. And part two is to make sure that we never get in this mess again on student loan debt. And that is to make college universally available with free tuition and fees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So, there's a lot of free stuff in a lot of these plans. Medicare for all, Rush, free college tuition, your debt goes away, the president and the latest approval numbers is down around 39 percent. So, is he vulnerable to all of these promises from all of these Democrats?

LIMBAUGH: No, the polls right now don't mean anything, Martha. Does anybody remember the poll two years before 2016? They all had Hillary winning in a landslide. There's way too much that's going to happen. Pocahontas is not going to be the nominee. But you know, these Democrats are all in the process are trying to out left this throughout liberal each other. And they're in a contest to who can give away the most.

But with Elizabeth Warren forgiving college loans, forgiving that debt. And then, promising free college and Medicare for all in a Green New Deal. Why is anybody going to need to go to college because nobody's going to need a job because the Democrats are going to be giving everybody a universal basic income? So why does any of this matter?

None of this is real. None of this can happen. This is disinformation and it's really -- I think it's an indication of just how little they think of their own voters. That their own voters don't even want to work. They don't even want to achieve, they don't even want to pursue excellence, they just want to have their hands out, and vote for whoever is going to give them the most. What a way to ruin a life.

Nobody would raise kids this way, why in the world does the Democrat Party think? Well, I can answer that too. Sometimes the best questions I get are those I ask myself. And why do they care? Because they can't win on policy. They can't win on anything of substance. So they have to demonize, they have to criticize, they have to impugn and destroy the credibility of all of their opponents, and then, promise to give everything away. Promise to be Santa Claus.

And it's not going to work against Trump. It might work against to Romney, or it might work against a traditional Republican, but it won't work against Donald Trump.

MACCALLUM: Well, let me ask you this then. Because it seems that when you go to high schools and college campuses, and even in Hollywood and other places that Democrats have won the argument to a certain extent. There's a feeling in this country among a lot of people that this is the way we should -- we should live.

So, you know, it really breaks down the country in terms of those who think that we should be given all of these things and the people who are Trump supporters.

LIMBAUGH: Martha, if you would go to the places in this country that are not on the coasts, not in the elite big urban areas. If you would go to the areas that Donald Trump won the election, traditional Democrat, white working class, and even blue-collar neighborhoods, you're not going to find that kind of attitude. These are the people that Democrats used to rely on. They are the people the Democrats have lost. These are the people that vote for Trump and they love Trump even more than they did in 2016.

The majority of this country is not yet at the place where it wants everything given to them. Of course, young people want things given to them. Kids always do. People that are not yet mature, haven't lived enough. But we're doing a great disservice to our kids by shortchanging their humanity, shortchanging their opportunities to excel. To become something, to become larger than themselves.

They're nothing more than pawns that can be bought with votes. And I don't think that there is a majority of our population that -- up against Donald Trump is the key element here. I don't think there's a majority population that is serious about thinking this is the way the country ought to be run.

You know, the student -- the student loan forgiveness. What about people who took loans and paid them back? What are we going to do? Give them reparations? Are they going to ask for refunds? I mean, where does all of this stop?

It isn't going to happen in the first place. That's -- it's all of this is disingenuous and dishonest, and it doesn't get anywhere near the heart of the problems that we are having in this country which I happen to think to revolve around the dissipation of our culture, the dissolution of our society, and so forth. And they are the culprits for this, and they need to be stopped. And this kind of stuff is not their route back.

And the fact that they're talking about Joe Biden or crazy Bernie who is leading everybody at this stage, I think is a testament to how bankrupt they actually are.

MACCALLUM: All right. I want to play something for you from Hillary Clinton at the Time 100 conference that she was speaking at.

(CROSSTALK)

LIMBAUGH: Oh, good. Hillary Clinton.

MACCALLUM: Where she says, as I know how much you love the Time 100 conference, and how much you love Hillary Clinton. So, here she is -- here she is talking about why she believes that President Trump should be indicted. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's enough there that any other person who had engaged in those acts would certainly have been indicted. The whole matter of obstruction was very directly sent to the Congress. I mean, if you read that part of the report, it could not be clearer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Well, what's going through your mind as you're listening to that, Rush?

LIMBAUGH: I was trying not to listen to that. You know this is the irony. Hillary Clinton is who tried to rig a presidential election, Martha. Hillary Clinton and her pals in the Obama Department of Justice and the FBI, they are the ones who colluded with the Russians. They are the ones that gave us this entirely totally bogus Steele dossier.

For Hillary Clinton, but irony, for Hillary Clinton to be talking about impeaching Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton needs to be investigated, she needs to be indicted, and she needs to be in jail. And many of her co- conspirators in this whole sordid affair which amounted to nothing more than a silent coup to overturn the election results of 2016.

Hillary Clinton demanding at Trump? You talk about sour grapes. This is a woman who's been rejected by the American people twice. Rejected by her party in 2008, she had to rig the primaries against crazy Bernie in 2016 to get the nomination.

She is the last person who ought to be listened to about what ought to happen to Donald Trump. She hasn't accomplished anything, anywhere near what Donald Trump has accomplished. She is in no position here to sit here and say what she saw in the Mueller report.

She can say it, she's an American. But she doesn't have any credibility underneath this as far as I am concerned, and I'm not alone there.

MACCALLUM: Well, Jared Kushner also spoke at the conference today. And I know you talked about this today. Here he is talking about how much the Russians actually did on Facebook.

(CROSSTALK)

LIMBAUGH: I love this. Oh, this is great.

MACCALLUM: Yes, let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT: I think the investigations and all the speculation that's happened for the last two years, has had a much harsher impact on our democracy than a couple of Facebook ads. And I spend about -- I think they said they spend about $160,000. I spend $160,000 also on Facebook every three hours during the campaign.

So, now, if you look at the magnitude of what they did and what they accomplished, I think the ensuing investigations have been way more harmful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Very interesting to hear from him today on that, and a lot of other things, Rush.

LIMBAUGH: Well, here's the thing. He is right, Martha. Everybody, America, please, there was never any evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia. The collusion as I said, was Hillary, the DNC, and the Russians via Steele. But the Russians -- when Mueller announced the indictments of the Russian troll farm, what action was Rosenstein and without -- and announced him.

And nobody pay the attention to this. But he said at the end of the announcement, nothing in these indictments suggests a single vote was changed. Nothing suggests the outcome of any election was changed. No American is named in the indictment having to do with it. But that there was never any evidence for this.

There was never -- Mueller never -- when he got the file from Comey, it was empty. All they have was the dossier.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: We have no, it's a great point.

LIMBAUGH: And we all know that it was made up. It was opposition research. This was not even an investigation of Trump. What it was, was an attempt to overthrow the 2016 elections. In the Mueller investigation, I believe was actually many things including a cover-up, and a distraction to keep people from understanding what really happened.

Donald Trump accomplished one of the greatest achievements of his life against all odds with no assistance. His own party wasn't even that much behind him. He has done something that few Americans will ever do, and they're trying to take it away from him, and they're trying to sully his reputation, simply because they don't like him.

This is a sordid situation. I think our country was at great risk during this whole thing, and there needs to be an investigation. I hope the attorney general, serious. Because these people need to be investigated, we need to be told who they are what they did even though we already know. And they need to be indicted. The people who did this need to be held accountable.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: As you say, the attorney general is on it --

LIMBAUGH: Because they came close, Martha, to throwing away the United States Constitution. Unelected people came close to actually pulling off what is a coup, and it should never ever happen again. The American people some of them who watch what "The Five", at what CNN, don't know it.

And the New York Times is even trying to back off the dossier. And I said, "Well, maybe it was Russian descent, but no kidding, Russian listen for me, they've known that for a year and a half. Everybody in the media has known that they have been lying to the American people about this in an effort to get rid of Trump. But he survived it. And if they think they're going to take him out after all of this, they are delusional.

MACCALLUM: As you say, the New York Times is now looking into the dossier. They say that Mr. Steele's Russian informants could have been pressured to feed him disinformation which is something that we reported some time ago.

(CROSSTALK)

LIMBAUGH: Oh, come on. Russian informant. There's the collusion.

MACCALLUM: But they are -- they're just getting into that idea. But hold on.

LIMBAUGH: Steele, Russian inputs, who's it -- who is it work? Who is working with Russians? Steele, Hillary's guy. They're working with the Russians.

MACCALLUM: Absolutely.

LIMBAUGH: Now, the Russians may have just Bob Woodward.

MACCALLUM: And as you --

LIMBAUGH: I said the other day that we need to get to Bob, and he's trying to link the dossier to Putin, not Hillary. The dossier traces right back to Hillary and her campaign in the DNC. Don't doubt me.

MACCALLUM: Well, they paid for it, and that, that much we know. So, I want to touch you a little bit about a Joe Lockhart wrote a piece today, the former press secretary for Bill Clinton. And he talked about don't going on the impeachment road.

LIMBAUGH: Oh, yes.

MACCALLUM: We don't need to go down the impeachment road. He said because it's going to be good enough fodder as we move forward that the president will be under continued constant investigation -- you know, all these subpoenas are out there.

But here is what he said about you, Rush. He said, "Republicans today are the party of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson, a coalition that in the face of every demographic trend in America will mean the long- term realignment of the federal government behind the Democrats. What say you, sir?

LIMBAUGH: I'm honored that they think this. It's not -- you know, some days I'm just an entertainer, some days and I has been. Now, I am the faceoff and the reason for the Republican Party.

I think that all of this just adds up the fact that they're frustrated. They haven't been able to "defeat me" in 30 years. They can't defeat Trump, they haven't able to stop him. And I think they're frustrated. They've thrown every weapon they have in their arsenal at Donald Trump, and nothing's worked.

Things that they have used over the years that have been readily available to get rid and take out any Republican they want, they have bounced off of Trump. And I think they're really frustrated. The Republican (INAUDIBLE), Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson, we are not in politics. We are media titans but we're not in politics. That's a party of Donald Trump right now and the Republicans that don't realize that had better get on board.

MACCALLUM: Well, that's interesting because I know that you said that you are frustrated by other Republicans in your party who you feel should be rejoicing right now, they should be fundraising off of this Mueller report finding and you don't think they're doing that.

LIMBAUGH: Well, I thought it was strange that you know, after the -- I mean, for two years everybody's waving with bated breath and biting their fingernails, what's Mueller going to do, is Mueller going to -- and then here comes the news, no collusion, no collusion, no obstruction. Where is the Republican Party with the celebratory e-mails to their voters, even fundraising or just celebrating the victory? Where are they? You don't hear them?

The reason is, Martha, that this is a battle not between the two parties. This is a battle between the Washington establishments, some of the deep state, I call it the administrative state, and outsiders and Americans who feel disenfranchised or unattached, and it's -- the fact that the Republican Party, there's still many people in there just like Mitt Romney says he was sickened. He was sickened by what he read in the Mueller report.

This is the same guy, Mitt Romney, who they said didn't care when an employee's wife died of cancer, same guy that they said didn't pay his taxes for ten years, the same guy who they said beat up somebody in prep school, the same guy who said he had a file of nothing but women. They destroyed Mitt Romney and here he is on their side. What does that tell you?

It's strange and I think the Republican Party -- I know the first nine months of Trump's term they all thought this Russian stuff was real, they're afraid to get behind him. Now that's gone, there's no reason not to get behind Trump unless you don't like his voters. And that is I think where the key to understanding this is.

MACCALLUM: You know, I'm curious. I saw the pictures over the weekend that you played golf with the president on Easter Sunday. And you know, I guess I think everybody would like to hear a little bit about what his mood was really like and what he wants to focus on now, and you know whether or not he's concerned about these subpoenas.

LIMBAUGH: Actually it was Friday. It was the day after the Mueller report came out. And Lexi Thompson who is so just -- she just sweet -- she's an LPGA pro, and I thought when we showed up there's no way I'm in Trump's cart, not with Lexi Thompson in the group. But I was in Trump's cart, Lexi had her own.

The thing about -- everybody had a great time. There were five of us in the group including Dana Quigley from the -- from the PGA Tour. He -- for those of you who like Donald Trump and have never met him and would like to, I'm just going to tell you, he's everything that you would hope he would be.

He makes everybody the focus of attention. Everybody has a great time. He is a tremendous host. He's funny. I mean every hole, he talks about that greens better than any green on any other golf course except his other courses. He's just -- he's a -- he's just -- that lake, that lake, that's better than anything they got at Pebble Beach, everybody knows it. He encourages you when you don't hit the ball well. He's -- he just makes everybody just have a great time.

And it features breakfast beforehand and lunch afterwards, and he -- there's not a whole lot of policy talk --

MACCALLUM: But Rush, did you win? Did he -- did you win?

LIMBAUGH: Not -- well, I'll tell you the first time I played with him.

MACCALLUM: That was the hardest question so far.

LIMBAUGH: And he took away my stroke on the back because I didn't deserve any. He said I was a playing too. Did I misunderstand your question?

MACCALLUM: No, that's my question. I want to know if you won.

LIMBAUGH: Oh, I was on his team. He picks who as playing the best and puts himself on their team. And it may -- he may change teams two or three times in a round. It's just fun, Martha. There's nothing -- it's not like when you golf with the guys, you're playing and you're teamed against each other. There was it's a faux competition but it's just fun.

If somebody hits a bad chop, he tells them, drop another ball. We're out here having fun. That's -- there's no stress in it.

MACCALLUM: So let me ask you one last question that is -- I'm curious if you felt you know when you're with him that any of this stuff is weighing on him. I know that the Elijah Cummings wanting to dig into eight years of financial records. It's something that some in the Trump camp are not happy about and they're pushing back on hard. Did that come up at all?

LIMBAUGH: He -- no. He's to me and around me, he was one of the most confident people. He talks about this stuff. I mean, I -- but he does not at any moment express any concern, certainly no fear. He's reassuring the people. He knows who he is. He knows how people see him. He knows he's the president. He knows people are reluctant to speak. They're going to be respectful and so he anticipates things that they're thinking or wondering about and he will provide answers to things.

But mostly it's -- he didn't at any time sit down and tell me what he thought of Mueller or what he thought of this or that. He doesn't -- he can't tell who's going to leave there and speak and who isn't. But it -- that wouldn't -- that wouldn't go along with the recipe for these things which is fun, but he doesn't hide from any of this.

I mean, he was telling at lunch after the round, he was telling Lexi about the golden shower story and how as it is and everybody was laughing about it. And the fact that the media believed it, the fact that people actually thought that Trump went to hire some prostitutes to urinate on a bed because Obama had slept in, we're laughing ourselves silly over this as he tells the story. So it's a great time with him. It always is.

MACCALLUM: I'm glad that was the one story that came up. Rush, thank you so much. Great to talk to you tonight, and thanks for spending so much time with us. Good to see you, sir.

LIMBAUGH: Thank you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: You bet. Andy McCarthy is coming up next. More story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I'm really of the mind that the Mueller report is part of the beginning, it's not the end. Maybe as Churchill famously said, it's the end of the beginning because there's still so much more that we should know and that we should act upon. And obviously, that's what the Congress is trying to figure out what to do right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Hillary Clinton echoing the calls for other Democrats who want to keep the investigations going into President Trump choosing to probe each and every facet of the president instead of going all-in on impeachment. Joining me now is Andy McCarthy, a former Federal Prosecutor, and Fox News Contributor. Andy, good evening. Great to see you tonight.

You wrote a very interesting piece today about the Trump Tower meeting, but first I want to get your reaction to what Hillary Clinton said there.

ANDY MCCARTHY, CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think it's -- she's an interesting person to have that message coming from since the Justice Department obviously tanked a case against her. But I think she's just giving voice to what we're hearing from the Democratic base and why I think the real trajectory on the impeachment fight is going to be more on the campaign trail than on Capitol Hill because the base wants Trump impeached.

So you know, anybody who wants to get that kind of attention is going to you know, call for impeachment. It's not that surprising.

MACCALLUM: Yes. I mean, you know, just thinking back through her whole story as you say, I think about you know, the destruction of servers with hammers and all of that stuff. And you just have to wonder if it's you know kind of an uncomfortable subject for her to talk about having been investigated for such a long time herself. She certainly knows what that - - what that feels like.

Philip Bump today in the -- in the Washington Post says why impeach. In other words, when an investigation could swing the 2020 election, why try to persuade a dozen Republican senators to boot Trump from office when you could take a much easier path of convincing American voters to do so.

MCCARTHY: Yes. Martha, I don't see why those things are mutually exclusive. But I've never thought that the impeachment effort was about actually impeaching Trump. I've always thought impeachment is a political process and it's part of an array of political tools here I think, and it's always been about -- you know, obviously if something falls out of the investigation that looks like it's you know five-alarm impeachable they may go for it. But I think what they're trying to do is gradually drive his numbers down so he's unelectable by the stretch run of the campaign next year.

And therefore you don't really have to make a choice. They can -- you know, they -- some of them can pretend to take the high road while Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff and the rest of the guys and the committee's you know, do the scut work.

MACCALLUM: There's also a piece today by Andrew Cohen. Donald Trump is no Richard Nixon, he's worse. And that sort of is a continuation of that narrative. Do you think -- do you agree with that statement first of all?

MCCARTHY: I do think we ought to prove something against them first. You know, I mean, Nixon if you think about it, Martha, the history of the United States, Nixon is the only president who really would have been impeached if he had -- if he had hung on and tried to stay in power. We've never otherwise had an impeachment.

We've now just had a two-year investigation where a federal prosecutor found no crimes against Trump. Now, I know we're going to have this argument about obstruction but we're only having it because Congress has a different standard when they're looking at impeachable offenses than federal prosecutors do. But I think they ought to prove a crime on them first.

MACCALLUM: Well, you could just write “The Story,” apparently. Andy McCarthy, great piece today. Thank you very much. Good to see you tonight, sir.

MCCARTHY: Thanks, Martha.

MACCALLUM: We'll see you soon. You bet. He is definitely running. That is the line from former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell who is preparing a big donor fundraiser for his friend Joe Biden. So while there's a lot of confusion ahead of this big announcement, Ed says, it is definitely happening. We'll ask him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: After months of anticipation, controversy, and a little bit of confusion, former Vice President Joe Biden, we understand today, will enter the 2020 race. He is expected to announce via video message on Thursday. He's going to make his first official stop at a union hall in Pittsburgh a few days later.

Joining me now, Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary and Fox News contributor, and Ed Rendell, former DNC chairman and Pennsylvania governor, who is helping to organize the fund-raiser for the former vice president on Thursday. Good evening to both of you. Great to have you both here.

ED RENDELL, D-PENN., FORMER GOVERNOR: Good evening.

MACCALLUM: Ed, let me start with you. There's a lot of, you know, everything you pick up and read on this says we think it is going to be Thursday, first it was going to be Wednesday in Charlottesville, then it was going to be Thursday, and then there was a little tenuousness about that, as well. What's going on here?

RENDELL: Well, I can't tell you. Listen, I am not really an insider in the campaign. I was asked to help with the fund-raiser, which is at David Cohen's house, and I said that I would. We've been getting great responses on the fund-raiser. I think among Democrats, there is a real desire to have Joe Biden not only be a candidate, but be the next president of the United States.

MACCALLUM: So, is there any part of you, Ed, that feels like it might not happen on Thursday? I mean, I know you say you are not an insider, you said you spoke to the vice president about 10 days ago about helping out with this. You know, how solid do you feel about Thursday, as an announcing day?

RENDELL: As an announcing day? Well, I suspect something will happen on Thursday because we wouldn't be having the fund-raiser event until he was formally announced, so the fund-raising event is in the evening, in the early evening. I'm sure there will be something on Thursday.

MACCALLUM: All right. Ari, what did you think about the fact that there was discussion about a Charlottesville announcement on Wednesday, what do you make of this rollout so far?

ARI FLEISCHER, CONTRIBUTOR: Not crisp. You know, Martha, if there is one day a candidate gets to control, it's the announcement day. That is totally 100 percent a plan day, under the candidate's control, under the campaign manager and the staff's control, and it just doesn't feel right if it is still maybe Wednesday, maybe Thursday, no Charlottesville, we're going to do something else.

And the focus on the fund-raiser is the other thing that is just a little bit odd. You want your folks to be more grassroots, not money.

MACCALLUM: So, Ed, what you say to that? And what do you say to the, you know, sort of the union, rollout, some people look at that and say it feels, you know, a little bit more like something you might have done a decade ago, but not necessarily the way things worked, the way things happen today.

RENDELL: Well, first of all, I don't think anyone who votes starting February of next year will remember what the rollout was. Good banner and differ.

MACCALLUM: Probably true.

RENDELL: Secondly, secondly, I think for the Democrats, we have to win back. The Democrats who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, those working-class Democrats from mostly the middle part of the state, from around Pittsburgh, et cetera, a union hall with union workers is a good message to send.

It's a message to say hey, Donald Trump has lied to you about what he said he would do for you, I'm the real deal.

MACCALLUM: All right. Guys, we've got to leave it there. I know we're going to have lots of time to talk about these races as you say, Ari, in the early going. Ari and Ed, great to see you tonight. Thank you for being here.

Still ahead tonight, breaking news on the 2020 candidate that he says checks all the boxes for the Democratic Party, and it's not Joe Biden, actually.

Plus, a story exclusive with 93 year -- with a 93-year-old World War II hero who looks about 72, I would say. He served on D-Day, and also the Battle of the Bulge. Do not miss meeting him, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: The White House today confirming that the president will travel to the United Kingdom and also France in June to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing.

“The Story” will be there, as well, and so will my next guest.

George Ciampa is a World War II army veteran. He was among the 73,000 American soldiers who landed on the shores of Normandy on June 6th, 1944.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE CIAMPA, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: I was a skinny kid when I landed, a little, skinny, 18-year-old when I landed on D-Day. It was very frightening for me, and I had a horrible job.

My job was to help gather the dead, and we initiated temporary cemeteries at Normandy and throughout France, Belgium, and Germany. We initiated about 17 temporary cemeteries and handled about 75,000 dead soldiers, that's American and German because the Germans didn't pick up their dead.

So, it was a -- I don't have much time to talk, I understand, so I will just tell you it was a very frightening experience because I was a nervous little kid growing up, trying to get into the air corps. My eyes weren't quite good enough, and so I got put in security registration company as a replacement for the company that was short one guy.

So, I ended up over there in England for a couple of months, and then we lost 18 of our guys on an exercise just before the invasion. We had six survivors, lost 18 of our first platoon, and so then we knew there was a war on when we heard that, there was no dry run.

And so, then we had a few moments, frightening moments on the way over to Normandy, I almost got torpedoed by a torpedo plane, and a navy gunner shot them down before we could release the torpedo. But that was a big explosion and we're done in a whole sleeping and the ship rocked and rolled, we all went up on deck and find out what happened.

Anyway, I was in five campaigns throughout France, Belgium, and Germany, including the Battle of the Bulge, and then we ended up about 100 miles from Berlin, where we had a temporary cemetery there that was disinterred right after Memorial Day.

Our government didn't want any cemeteries left over there, no temporary cemeteries, so those bodies had to be disinterred. I know we had German prisoners digging the graves, we had re-identify the remains, and they were putting in boxes and send back to Holland and Belgium. So, --

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: George, you know, the kind of work that you did is the kind of work that a lot of 18-year-olds did, and you saw so much in all of these campaigns.

And you say that about 10 years ago, when you are 81, you became a filmmaker at that stage of their life.

CIAMPA: Yes.

MACCALLUM: If you could just give me -- you know, 30 seconds, half a minute or so, on why you decided to do that. Then I'm going to try to talk to you when we're in Normandy again so we can continue. Go on, sir.

CIAMPA: OK. OK. Well, there was a lot leading up to this, but in 2006, I started a 501c nonprofit, 100 percent nonprofit. I was only going to do one film, and on my web site, you can read what my mission was to teach young people about the high price of freedom.

Because people like me, that did the work we did in the medics don't get much credit for what they did, we saw what the high price of freedom is. Every day, for 11 months, our company collected the dead. So, I saw bodies in all shapes and forms, and it really bothered me.

I never forgot it, so I tell people, when they hear those words the high price of freedom, you got to really think about what that means. That means seeing American soldiers, 18, 19, 20, like I was, 18, that are dead. In all shapes and forms. And you never forget that. You see some really terrible situations.

MACCALLUM: Yes, I'm sure you don't. It's amazing, and I encourage everybody to go to her web site, which is Letfreedomringforall. And I know that you're raising money to bring these veterans and also history teachers, young history teachers, so that they learn about the sacrifice that was made.

So, we wish you the best of luck, and I do hope that we are going to see you in Normandy, sir. Thank you so much for your service and thanks for being on THE STORY tonight.

CIAMPA: Thank you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: You bet.

CIAMPA: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: We'll see you there.

CIAMPA: Bye-bye. OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACCALLUM: My thanks to George. There are now 19 announced candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, but Brit Hume says there is one who stands out from this pack. He's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: So as White House hopefuls jockeying to position on the Democratic side, one name is surging a bit right now ahead of the pack, and the new polls shows Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, kind of moving up into a solid third place right now in the first primary states.

These are the poles that actually are the most interesting, I think, when you look at New Hampshire, when you look at Ohio -- at Iowa.

So, he is in third place at 15 percent right now, trailing only behind the political heavyweights of Bernie Sanders, and just barely, Joe Biden, who is supposedly going to announce later this week.

Now Buttigieg garnered attention on the national stage as well, establishing himself as a smooth political operator and one to watch. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG, D-IND., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think he has made it pretty clear that he deserves impeachment.

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: I'm going to leave it to the House and Senate to figure that out, because my role in the process is to try and relegate Trump-isms to the dustbin of history.

People susceptible to xenophobia and racism, when they feel out of touch with political environments that they are in, overall, and we better pay attention to that. I would not be running for president today if I hadn't come out.

We get that one of the things about scripture is different people see different things in it, but the very least, we should be able to establish that God does not have a political party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Here now, Brit Hume, Fox News senior political analyst. Brit, good to see you tonight. Do you think that this young man, this mayor of South Bend, has staying power?

BRIT HUME, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I do. I don't know that he will have enough to go all the way this time around, but I think the 37- year-old Mayor Pete is a very big talent, and I think you got a taste of that in the clips that you just showed, he is self-possessed, he's confident, he seems thoughtful, he has kind of a different take on Trump.

Yes, he thinks he deserves impeachment, but he is not going to urge that on the House or Senate, that's up to them. And then you heard him talk about some reasons why people would feel alienated and might have gone for Trump.

And he has repeatedly said, you know, Martha, that he thinks it's more important than attacking Trump for people to try to figure out why so many people voted for him. I think that's a shrewd bit of political analysis, it's the right way to look at this, from the point of view of Democrats.

You know, his off-the-cuff responses, Martha, seem to me to be -- you know, signal some real -- you know, he's a very, very good on his feet. I mean, he was asked, he was at a rally in Iowa the other day, I'm sure you saw the clip, where somebody that peeps yelled Sodom and Gomorrah at him, you know, he is gay.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: We have the clip, Brit. Yes. We have that. Let's take a quick look, and then we'll get you on the other side. Let's watch it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: Yes, the good news is, the condition of my soul is in the hands of God, but the Iowa caucuses are up to you.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Yes, that's the moment, Brit, that you were referring to. Go ahead.

HUME: Yes. And that's pretty good -- I mean, that's for -- look, he might have had that in his hip pocket, anticipating something like that.

MACCALLUM: Right.

HUME: But it didn't sound that way, did it?

MACCALLUM: No.

HUME: He's poised. That was a good answer. That was, politically speaking, that was pure gold, that answer. So, look, personally, I have all kinds of disagreements about him on the issues, but I'm just trying to assess him just in terms of pure talent. He seems intelligent to me. He seems knowledgeable. He seems thoughtful. He seems pleasant, somebody you like him.

And you got Bernie Sanders out there, he's got a big following, but he seems to make no effort whatever to be pleasant or likable. Buttigieg seems to me to be likable.

MACCALLUM: He doesn't -- yes.

HUME: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: I dealt with that at about four feet away from him the other night, so I know what you are getting at.

HUME: Yes. I know you got the full brunt.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

HUME: You know --

MACCALLUM: There was an interesting moment, one other Buttigieg moment, when he responded to this back and forth that he's had with Mike Pence. And I did an interview with Ric Grenell, who kind of went after him, saying he was launching a hate hoax against Mike Pence, and here is how he dealt with that in this town hall. Watch this at home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: The current Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, he's also gay, he weighed in on this, saying that had been, quote, "pushing this hate hoax along the lines of Jussie Smollett for a very long time now, several weeks." How do you respond to that?

BUTTIGIEG: I'm not a master fisherman but I know bait when I see it, and I'm not going to take it.

COOPER: All right.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Do you think he's going to have to answer that more fully?

(CROSSTALK)

HUME: Well, I don't think he -- well, it will come up again, I'm sure. Look, I don't think that was -- when Pete Buttigieg went after Mike Pence who had, you know, they were both in Indiana when Pence was governor. And they had a good relationship, and Pence had praised Buttigieg and called him patriot or whatever.

And then he went after Pence. I think he was trying to purchase himself a little bit of victim status, which doesn't hurt when you're a Democrat. I think it was a bad moment for him. I think the question that he got there was inevitable, and I don't think he had a good answer. But I think, I mean, to the substance of the question, but I think the answer he gave there was pretty darn clever.

MACCALLUM: Yes. So, there's got a -- Chris Wallace has a town hall coming up with Pete Buttigieg on Sunday, May 19th, so we will be watching that, Brit.

HUME: OK, Martha, I will, too.

MACCALLUM: Thank you so much. Good to see you tonight.

HUME: You bet.

MACCALLUM: Brit Hume in Washington.

HUME: You bet.

MACCALLUM: More of “The Story” next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: That is “The Story” on this Tuesday night. E-mail us, let us know what you thought of tonight's show, the interview with Rush Limbaugh. I love to get your feedback there. “The Story” continues from New York tomorrow night at 7 p.m., so tune in for that. Tucker Carlson is coming up next.

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