FEMA chief warns Gulf Coast residents ahead of Hurricane Delta

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FEMA chief warns Gulf Coast residents ahead of Hurricane Delta

Storm expected to make landfall Friday; FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor joins 'Your World' to discuss.

Oct. 8, 2020 – This is a rush transcript from “Your World" October 8, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Well, there is a big debate over whether we're going to have any more debates, the president making clear that, if they're pushing for the next debate to be virtual, he is a definite no, all of this coming at a time, then, even the second debate could be in doubt.

So, in other words, could we be at the point of one and done for the presidential candidates, after the vice presidential candidates wrapped things up? What are the implications for the campaign, the race, the markets, the economy, you name it?

Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto, and this is "Your World."

The president making clear that, if it's going to be virtual, count him out. Now there are talks behind the scene that maybe this was a negotiating tactic to push a debate back, an in-person one, at that. So much, we don't know.

But I have the feeling John Roberts knows a lot more than we do, John at the White House.

Hey, John.

JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know a little bit, Neil, but I'm not sure that we know the full story yet, because I don't think the full story has been told.

What we do know is that the Commission on Presidential Debates today, early today, made a unilateral decision that, next Thursday the 15th's debate would be a virtual one because of lingering questions about the president's health status and whether or not he is still testing positive for coronavirus or whether he is well on his way to recovery.

Certainly, the president's put out a couple of videos in the last couple of days to suggest that he believes that he is doing fine.

But when this idea of a virtual debate was floated, the Trump campaign and President Trump said they wanted nothing to do with it. The president has been looking forward to being in Miami next Thursday, and he doesn't want to do it over a computer.

Here's what Joe Biden said when their campaign was told about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You don't know what's the president's going to do. He changes his mind every second.

So, for me to comment on that would be irresponsible. I think that I'm going to follow the commission's recommendation. If he goes off and he's going to have a rally, I will -- I don't know what I will do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Well, that was shot early this morning.

Since then, the Biden campaign has said, well, let's push the town hall debate back to October the 22nd. That was the debate -- date, rather, for the third debate. And then they said, OK, so that's it. We have the 22nd, and then we're done, to which the Trump campaign said -- quote -- "We agree that this should happen on October the 22nd. And, accordingly, the third debate should they be shifted back one week to October the 29th. The Commission on Presidential Debates and the media cannot hide Joe Biden forever. Americans deserve to hear directly from both presidential candidates on these dates, October the 22nd and October the 29th" -- Bill Stepien, the Trump campaign manager, today.

Now, at the same time, all of this is going on, down the street, on Capitol Hill, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, saying, well, listen, I have got some concerns about President Trump's health, because we don't know when the last time he tested negative for coronavirus was and we don't know what his current coronavirus status is, so we're going to have discussions tomorrow about presidential succession.

Listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Tomorrow, by the way, tomorrow, come here tomorrow. We're going to be talking about the 25th Amendment.

Mr. President, when was the last time you had a negative test before you tested positive? Why is the White House not telling the country that important fact about how this spread into -- made a hot spot of the White House?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Well, they're still trying to figure out how the White House became a hot spot and how it became the source of an outbreak. They haven't figured that out completely yet.

But the president, if he doesn't go to the debate in Miami next Thursday, he says he's going to hold a campaign rally. Again, Neil, the White House opaque about his current coronavirus status, though we are led to believe that his physician, Dr. Sean Conley, may have some sort of an update later on this afternoon or this evening.

So, stay tuned. We will bring that to you -- Neil.

CAVUTO: So, John, just a hypothetical. But let's say he does eventually, assume, test negative for the virus and probably a follow-up test that says the same. They're already looking at pushing this back, at a minimum, to the 22nd.

Do both debates go through or, the best-case scenario is only one goes through?

ROBERTS: Well, Larry Kudlow was saying earlier today that he believed -- he was sort of intimating that this was a negotiating tactic.

And if the Brexit president does test negative for coronavirus -- and, don't forget, Sunday will be 10 days from the onset of his symptoms. And according to Centers for Disease Control guidelines, that's when you can end your isolation. Not sure everybody would be comfortable with that.

But if he does have a couple or three negative coronavirus tests before Thursday, there really is no reason why the president could not be there.

And the logistics are all set for next Thursday, because the moderator was going to be there.

So there may be an argument to be made that, if the president is out of the woods, he is clear the virus, you could hold it an in-person town hall.

CAVUTO: Yes, it's possible.

Thank you, John, very much, John Roberts at the White House.

So, who does it hurt more if this debate, the next one, at least, doesn't go on, and maybe both don't go on?

John Bussey of The Wall Street Journal, the associate editor, with me right now, Deneen Borelli, FOX News contributor, and Bernard Whitman, a Democratic strategist.

John, what do you think? Who needs it more? Now, you could look at the general polls, and I know the president is suspicious of them, but the trend is not his friend with those polls, suspicious or not. So you could make the argument he needs these debates more. What do you think?

JOHN BUSSEY, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I think that's right, Neil.

Our poll over the weekend showed him now 14 points behind Biden nationally, and weakening among many very important demographic groups to him. Over 70 million people watched the first debate. It's a terrific opportunity for the president to get out there and get his message.

He also doesn't want to appear weak. That is one of the concerns, I suspect, about having a virtual conference, caused to be virtual, not in person, because of the president unable to keep the coronavirus out of the White House.

And the broader message there being, if I couldn't keep it out of the White House, this is why I couldn't keep it out of your house, 210,000 people dead in the country.

The message for the president also has been complicated. He hasn't gotten off-message, masks still optional, Vice President Pence's wife joining him on stage after last night's debate not wearing a mask. So, he remains controversial on this topic. The coronavirus is really driving the debate at this point.

CAVUTO: You know, Deneen Borelli, long before COVID-19, back in 1960, 60 years ago, John Kennedy and Richard Nixon had four debates. Their third one was a virtual one. They didn't call it that at the time.

But John Kennedy was in New York, Richard Nixon was in L.A. The debate went off without a hitch. It was a very powerful debate, didn't have the popularity or the ratings of the first one, which many said was a game- changer for JFK. But it went OK.

So do you think the president should consider it, that it's not the end of the world to go virtual? And you can make some powerful points. The irony with that third debate is, many people who watched it thought Nixon got the better of JFK. He still lost the election, but it worked out OK for him, that particular debate.

What do you think?

DENEEN BORELLI, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I think it should be an in- person debate, Neil. That was years ago, of course.

Looking at the technology that we have today, sure, one would think that would be a possibility. But I think it would be more effective for the candidates to be on stage, face to face, especially when there are allegations of Joe Biden using a teleprompter and being assisted just in regular interviews in his basement.

He needs to be questioned. He has not had any hard-hitting questions, Neil.

And I got to tell you, I question the timing of the release of this committee wanting to change the rules, because this is dominating the news.

We're not talking about the V.P. debate that happened last night. And Kamala Harris was not on her game, and she refused to answer important questions, especially, will the Biden/Harris ticket stack or pack the Supreme Court?

CAVUTO: All right, many can disagree about that. I mean, you could also argue that the game completely changed with the president testing positive for the virus.

But, having said that, Bernard Whitman, you could also make an argument that...

BORELLI: But they could delay the debate.

CAVUTO: OK.

But you could make an argument, Bernard, and from the Democratic point of view, that it would be good for Joe Biden to do what he was not able to do in the first debate with the president, to expound on his positions.

Or, or is the thinking that I'm sitting on a lead, I don't want to blow this lead, I don't want to risk this lead, so all the better if we don't have those remaining debates?

What do you think?

BERNARD WHITMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, I think it's bizarre. It makes absolutely no sense. It runs counter to the president's self- interests, which is sort of what his voters do when they vote for him. They vote counter to their self-interests.

President Trump needs this debate. He is a dozen points or more behind the polls. He came into behind in the polls last week, which seems like a month ago. He needed to shake things up. In fact, he did shake things up, much to his own dismay.

Joe Biden won that debate by 2-1. He's now winning among women 2-1. He's winning among seniors 2-1. President Trump is clearly afraid. He's afraid to debate. He's afraid he's going to lose the election. He's afraid to face the American voters.

Remember, this vote -- this debate was going to be a town hall. So ordinary voters were going to be able to ask the president some questions. He's afraid of, obviously, facing the voters. He's afraid of facing Joe Biden, because Joe Biden shellacked him in the last debate.

I think he's perhaps afraid of becoming...

CAVUTO: Well, neither gentleman, neither gentleman really comported himself in Winston Churchill fashion.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITMAN: By 2-1, he lost that debate.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: I just think this idea that there was some big winner vs. the other in that one, it was more or less a circus.

WHITMAN: Well, the American...

CAVUTO: John, I guess what I'm asking, when we go forward here, you could make a credible argument now that maybe the Democrats are thinking, this is a good place to be. We're not eager for a debate or mess this thing up.

They could be playing it conservatively.

I'm talking about the style they're going to go here, but they don't want to risk that. So who needs this more?

BUSSEY: I think, in a situation like this, Neil, the candidate who's not doing as well needs it more. They need to get their message out.

So, in this instance, because the president is running behind in the polls

-- and, again, the polls are just polls. We know that they can be fallible.

But there's a certain consistency to them. And the margin appears to be over the last few weeks widening.

So, the president needs it more. And I don't think that this discussion is over. We might find the president changing his mind and deciding that a virtual debate is just as cool. He might not like the fact that a moderator could technologically cut him off a little bit easier.

But he might decide that the size of the audience is critical right now for him to reach. And his political consultants are probably advising him to that point as well.

(CROSSTALK)

BORELLI: And, Neil, I would argue that the system is rigged.

CAVUTO: Well, all right, you might think that way, but, Deneen, the fact of the matter is, that virtual debate, that virtual debate, whatever you want to call 1960, worked. I was there. I covered it. I didn't.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: But -- and don't even get me started on Lincoln-Douglas, and how they did that remote...

(CROSSTALK)

WHITMAN: He may be afraid of his own health.

CAVUTO: There's a lot of conjecture, a lot of conjecture, guys. Let's see what happens.

In the meantime, we're updating you right now what's happening in the Gulf, with Hurricane Delta expected to hit somewhere along the Gulf Coast as either a strong Category 2, up to a Category 3. All guesses and bets are off, because this thing has sort of defied conventional wisdom, as has the entire hurricane season.

For Louisiana, which is battening down the hatches and already declared a state of emergency, it is the sixth time this year it's dealing with something like this.

The FEMA administrator and what's in store -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, very much following Hurricane Delta right now, did a whole lot of damage in Mexico, now heading in the Gulf of Mexico. Where, ultimately, she lands, they're trying to get a good idea, but it's over a wide swathe.

Rick Reichmuth now taking a close look -- Rick.

RICK REICHMUTH, FOX NEWS CHIEF METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Neil.

Yes, so the storm is really growing in its size. So the center of it not changing that much, but the size is changing. It is growing a bit. And that means kind of a broader area of concern.

This is the latest visible satellite image of the. You can see the center of that right there, looking fairly healthy. What we're going to watch as it moves forward towards the north and eventually towards a landfall in the Louisiana coastline, I think we have very good idea and very good agreement of a landfall somewhere across Southwestern Louisiana.

About six weeks ago, we had a Category 4 hurricane, Laura, make landfall and cause all kinds of damage, especially around the Lake Charles area. I think we have most good agreement that we're going to see this go just to the east of Lake Charles, which ultimately is good news. They're not going to have the storm surge that they saw.

But there's a lot of people who just now got power back and a lot of people who still have just tarps up for their roofs. Now they're going to definitely have some very strong winds, maybe hurricane-force winds, and a lot of rain from this, not good news at all.

Obviously, this is going over where a lot of the oil platforms are as well.

Take a look at the ocean temperatures, though. One thing we do know, water temperatures cooling down a little bit as it gets closer towards the coast.

I think we're also going to start to see some shear work out a little bit.

So, we probably have about a 12-to-18-hour window where you could see some strengthening of the storm. And then, after that, before it makes landfall, I don't think we will be talking about a strengthening storm, which would really be good news, if we can see that happen.

Probably though, Category 3, maybe Category 2, making landfall sometime just over around 24 hours from now around the Louisiana coastline.

And, Neil, I think, when we're done with this, we're probably going to see that landfall maybe around 10 to 15 miles away from where Hurricane Laura came onshore just a few weeks ago, so an incredible time across parts of Southwestern Louisiana. They have been hit so hard.

If there's any bright news, where this is coming onshore and just to the east of it, there's certainly some population there, but there's also a lot of swampy land that can kind of absorb the storm surge that comes on.

And that storm surge, with this storm, probably seven to 11 feet at the worst of it. When we saw Lake Charles with Laura, they saw storm surge of

17 feet, so this hopefully a little bit lower than what we saw with that storm.

Nonetheless, two of these big storms coming on shore in such a short period of time, not good news for the folks in Louisiana -- Neil.

CAVUTO: Just incredible.

All right, Rick, thank you very, very much.

REICHMUTH: Yes.

CAVUTO: I want to go to the FEMA administrator about what's in harm's way here and what they're going to do.

Peter Gaynor, of course, is the FEMA administrator, as I said.

PETER GAYNOR, ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Hey, Neil.

CAVUTO: And joining us right now.

Very good to have you, sir.

And thank you for taking the time. What are you telling folks right now?

GAYNOR: What we're telling everyone is, do not be complacent. Take this storm seriously. Take the time that you have left today to make those preparations.

We all know it's been a long hard hurricane season, especially if you live in Louisiana. We know that. We feel it for you. But don't waste time. Take it seriously. Don't put yourself in danger or your family in danger.

CAVUTO: Administrator, what is the rule of thumb?

Surges generally warrant evacuations, not so much winds or any of that. But if these surge predictions are right, that's a lot of people who have to clear out of a lot of areas, right?

GAYNOR: Yes, well, the rule of thumb is, listen to your or heed the advice of your local authorities, your local emergency managers, your state emergency manager, your local officials. They know best.

So, if they tell you to evacuate, whether it's voluntary or mandatory, please take that seriously. We don't want you to put your life in danger.

So, tune in to your local news, your reports from your local parishes and state.

And if told to evacuate, I would highly recommend you do so.

CAVUTO: And you and I have gotten into this before, but, in this COVID year, a lot of people are afraid to evacuate or go to these storm shelters and the rest.

Some states in the area have accommodated by opening up hotels and motels in the area. But what do you tell people who are just leery, because they're afraid of going from the frying pan into the fire? Trying to avoid a hurricane, they might get COVID. They get really anxious.

GAYNOR: Yes, well, you got to weigh your risks, right?

So, if the risk is higher that you may lose your life by staying in your home, then you should evacuate. If the risk is lower, then you're going to make a decision.

But, again, please heed the directions of your local officials. We have made great strides this hurricane season with putting people in non- congregate sheltering, so hotels and motels across the country. It works.

You might have to go a little farther if you live in Louisiana, because, again, we have had Laura, we have had Sally, and many people still in hotels from those storms.

But, again, it's about making a really great decision for yourself and your family. Don't put yourself in danger.

CAVUTO: Do you -- when you see what's been happening, particularly this hurricane season, Administrator, which is, I guess, the soonest we have had so many storms named, 25 by last count. We have gone into the Greek alphabet right now.

What's going on?

GAYNOR: Yes, there's a lot going on this season.

So, whether it's wildfires, or it's hurricanes, derechos in Iowa, the weather systems have become more frequent, more intense, more damaging, more costly.

And, again, one of the things that we're proud of at FEMA is, we have been investing more money in pre-disaster mitigation. We just rolled out our brand-new program called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, BRIC program, $500 million available today for states across the country to reduce the risk of those threats in their communities.

CAVUTO: All right, I wish you luck, Pete Gaynor, the FEMA administrator, in FEMA studios here.

GAYNOR: Thank you.

CAVUTO: We want to keep you abreast of a couple of COVID-19-related developments. There are a couple of key companies right now that are seeking emergency use approval of their treatments -- they don't call them out-and-out vaccines at this point -- that are bearing very, very promising results, including one that the president was on, and he was personally touting on FOX Business this morning.

An interesting development, and speeding the process of at least emergency care for those who want it and need it. They're trying to say, FDA, help us make sure that they can get it.

Stay with us. You're watching "Your World."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: Louisiana Governor Edwards is now outlining plans in a state of emergency for Louisiana, as it prepares for its sixth major storm or hurricane of the season. He's telling people, take it seriously, it's a monster.

More after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The big thing that happened is, we have -- I call them cures. I don't call them therapeutics.

But between Eli Lilly and Regeneron -- these are two different companies -- you take it. It's an antibody drug. You take it and it beats the hell out of it.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CAVUTO: All right, the president clearly a big fan of Regeneron's antibody cocktail drug that had, he said, enormously positive results for him.

Separately, that company, along with Eli Lilly, had been moving very quickly to try to get emergency use authorizations from the FDA, because of some of these early promising results, in the case of Regeneron, for no less than the president of the United States.

Dr. Amesh Adalja joins us right now at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, expert here.

Doctor, a fast-track approval or for emergency use, it's few and far between that companies get a request like that honored, but apparently both Regeneron and Eli Lilly are saying, there are enough positive developments here to warrant it.

Do you agree?

DR. AMESH ADALJA, INFECTIOUS DISEASES SOCIETY OF AMERICA: I do think that these are promising ways to treat COVID-19.

We haven't seen all the data, because it's mostly been in press releases.

There hasn't been a peer-reviewed medical journal article yet to know exactly. But what we have seen does seem to be consistent with the fact that these drugs do decrease the amount of virus in your body. They decrease the amount of symptoms that you have.

And they may prevent you from getting into the hospital, which would be an important advance, because we don't have a Tamiflu equivalent for COVID-19.

So, monoclonal antibodies have been something we have thought about for a long time as a bridge until we get a vaccine.

CAVUTO: How do you think -- and I know you're looking at him on TV and seeing his demeanor and hearing how he sounds and all. How do you think the president is doing?

ADALJA: It's very hard to make any kind of medical diagnosis from afar, and I don't like to get into that.

But he does seem to be on a good trajectory. He was discharged from the hospital. He's not wearing supplemental oxygen. He's able to talk in complete sentences. It seems he's getting close to his baseline.

But, again, it's very hard to say for sure. And we want to wait a couple of more days to make sure that the gains that he's made are going to be sustained and he doesn't have a backslide. Some patients of my own have had a backslide after six or seven days of illness.

Hopefully, that won't happen because he has had good treatment with the Regeneron drug, remdesivir, dexamethasone. But you want to be careful (AUDIO GAP) president.

CAVUTO: Doctor, there's also this issue about whether there are any side effects we should be aware of, or whether it's safe for the president to try to get back and normalize his duties.

Obviously, the Presidential Debate Commission decided that an in-person next debate wouldn't be advisable. So, they suggested a virtual one. The president rejected that.

How soon, under normal circumstances, recovering from a positive diagnosis, is it safe for the president to be in the company of people?

ADALJA: Usually, it's around 10 days from the start of symptoms. And that's when people have a mild or moderate case.

Severe cases, we sometimes have self-isolate for 20 days. There's also a way to do two negative tests and allow yourself to be able to discontinue isolation so long as you have gotten better as well.

But the problem is, is that we don't have full information about when the president developed symptoms, when his first negative -- his first positive test was, when his last negative test was, how severe he was, what was the lowest his oxygen went. We heard not the low 80s, but did it go into the 80s, to be able to gauge exactly what type of isolation procedure is necessary for him.

So it's at least 10 days. It could be up to 20 days. But, again, the opaqueness with how much we know about his actual condition makes it very difficult to know, unless you're involved, when he could be medically cleared.

CAVUTO: Doctor, thank you very much, Dr. Amesh Adalja joining us on that.

Meantime, take a story in Chicago that is just bizarre and pretty scary, six people charged in an alleged plot to kidnap, maybe even kill the governor there.

Garrett Tenney has much more on that -- Garrett.

GARRETT TENNEY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Neil, this was much bigger than just Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Federal prosecutors say that these suspects who have ties to militia groups wanted to storm the state capitol building and overthrow the state government for, in their view, violating the U.S. Constitution.

Whitmer was their top target, though, largely due to the strict restrictions she'd put in place during the pandemic. According to the criminal complaint, the group decided to kidnap the governor at her vacation home.

Over the past few months, members of the group allegedly conducted surveillance of that residence on at least two occasions, while training for the operation with combat drills and rehearsals, while also gathering materials to make explosives.

The criminal complaint states that, once the group had taken Whitmer hostage, they planned to move her to a secure location in Wisconsin for a -

- quote -- "trial."

This afternoon, Whitmer think law enforcement for their work on this case and suggested President Trump is at least partly responsible for this group feeling emboldened to carry out this kind of attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): When our leaders speak, their words matter.

They carry weight. When our leaders meet with, encourage, or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions, and they are complicit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TENNEY: More than a dozen people have been arrested as part of this investigation.

The FBI says four were arrested Wednesday, when they met up to pay for explosives and to exchange tactical gear for the operation which they plan to carry out before Election Day -- Neil.

CAVUTO: Incredible.

All right, Garrett Tenney, thank you very much for that.

Well, remember when President Trump rattled the markets when he tweeted out he was walking away from those stimulus talks? Rattled a whole bunch of people, more than just the markets. Today, today, it was Nancy Pelosi's turn. Different results.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: I have been very open to having a stand-alone bill for the airlines or part of a bigger bill. But there is no stand-alone bill without a bigger bill. There is no bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: All right, a lot of people were confused after that one, because it looked like Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, was open to a smaller, leaner measure, a stimulus measure that would maybe include some stimulus checks to Americans, much as we saw back in the early days of the pandemic, and really for the airlines, a $25 billion relief package, and that would be it.

Today, hinting that no, no, no, it's got to be part of something bigger.

People confused.

Chad Pergram still talking about the math where the two sides differ, I guess, huh, Chad?

CHAD PERGRAM, FOX NEWS CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Neil.

Well, you're absolutely right. They're continuing to talk here, even though the president to put the kibosh on these conversations a couple of days ago, the House speaker and the secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin.

They had another conversation around 3:00.

And this is from Drew Hammill, who is the spokesman for the speaker. He says -- quote -- "Their conversation focused on determining whether there was any prospect of an imminent agreement. The speaker trusts that the secretary speaks for the president."

Now, again, as you say, Pelosi said: I'm willing to do a smaller bill, but I also have to do that bigger bill, $2.2 trillion.

Here's the speaker:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: When the president did his strange tweet that said, we're walking away from the negotiations, it was like, what?

We have all been working very hard to find our common ground. I think he surprised a lot of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: ... individual bill for the airlines.

For days now, Pelosi called President Trump's decision to cancel the talks

-- quote -- "strange."

One thing, though, still separates the sides from an agreement. That's the price tag.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The one thing I think we all agreed on was that another rescue package was a good idea.

But, as you can imagine, we were a lot closer to the election. And you have watched it back and forth over what is appropriate to do at this particular time.

The speaker insists on an outrageous amount of money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: Calio is with Airlines For America, it represents most major U.S.

carriers.

Calio says air travel is off by 70 percent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLAS CALIO, PRESIDENT AND CEO, AIRLINES FOR AMERICA: In a sense, it's really hard when you're negotiating because of the politics and the different people involved.

But -- I hate to say it. It's not rocket science, if you want to come to a deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: Calio says that he is hopeful that they can get somewhere, but he is not necessarily optimistic. And it's hard to see how they get this done before the election, Neil.

CAVUTO: This is a dumb question my part, Chad, but I noticed the speaker was wearing a mask when talking to reporters today.

I don't remember seeing that, at least recently.

PERGRAM: That's right.

She usually comes into the press gallery wearing a mask. This is the first time for the entire press conference, except once when she took off her master take a sip of water. She kept her face covering on the entire time, along with the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee in the House of Representatives, Frank Pallone. He did as well.

There was a letter that was sent out from the Radio Television Correspondents Association this week urging more cooperation from members like that, saying, look, keep your mass on during the press conference. She usually comes in and takes it off. This time, she left it on for the duration.

CAVUTO: All right, interesting.

Chad, thank you very much, my friend.

Speaking of masks, what they're already calling something like mask-gate. I don't think it's that big a deal, but the controversy that Mrs. Pence, the vice president's wife, was joining him on stage after the event, not wearing a mask, and yet Douglas Emhoff, Senator Kamala Harris' husband, was.

Some confusion. Did someone violate the rules? Well, second lady Karen Pence did not wear a mask, we're hearing from his office, when she walked out to congratulate her husband. Kamala Harris' husband did. But Mrs.

Pence's office says that both campaigns had agreed prior to the debate not to wear masks at the end.

So, Mr. Emhoff did. The intrigue ends there. I am done with mask-gate.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: We will have more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is supposed to be a debate based on fact and truth. And the truth of the fact is, Joe Biden has been very clear. He will not raise taxes on anybody who makes less than $400,000 a year.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He said he's going to appeal the Trump tax cuts.

HARRIS: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.

PENCE: Well...

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: I'm speaking.

PENCE: It'd be important if you said the truth. Joe Biden said twice in the debate last week that he's going to repeal the Trump tax cuts. That was tax cuts that gave the average working family $2,000 in a tax break every single year.

HARRIS: That is absolutely not true.

(CROSSTALK)

PENCE: Is he only going to repeal part of the Trump tax cuts?

HARRIS: If you don't mind letting me finish, we can then have a conversation, OK?

PENCE: Please.

HARRIS: OK.

Joe Biden will not raise taxes on anyone who makes less than $400,000 a year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: Got a little -- that got a little nasty, right?

Bottom line, there's a big difference between the two parties and the two candidates are running and their bosses for president and vice president, respectively, this idea one wants to raise taxes. That is the Biden camp over those $400,000 or more, even though Vice President Pence said, if you want to rescind all the tax cuts, you would envelop a lot more people than that just that crowd.

Charlie Gasparino on the fallout from all of this.

Charlie, what do you think?

CHARLIE GASPARINO, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: I thought the vice president did very well last night, particularly on economic issues.

Listen, the markets right now are trading higher because they believe that it's better to have a non-contested election than to have a contested one, because the markets really believe Joe Biden's going to win, and win on election night. And that's one of the reasons why there's less volatility.

There was that trade in commodities, in the futures markets that was a volatility trade over this contested...

CAVUTO: Why would that be good news for those -- why would that be good news for investors, because it runs counterintuitive?

I get what you're saying. But they don't like uncertainty. If it looks more and more that we could have this concluded, and it's a potential big Biden win, at least that uncertainty is gone, even though they might not get the results they like?

GASPARINO: Yes.

CAVUTO: Interesting.

GASPARINO: Yes, that's what we're saying. That's what I'm saying.

I mean, that's why the markets are trading up right now, not on Joe Biden's fiscal and economic policies. They're trading up right now on us not having a contested election, that the volatility that would -- that would go with that contested election. It would be obviously all over the place.

And you saw that initially priced into futures trading, OK? So that's dissipating. That's why the markets are up somewhat. They're also up a little bit on talk about stimulus, even though there's -- as Chad Pergram just mentioned, and my sources confirmed, I believe, earlier in the day, that there's probably not going to be a stimulus plan.

But the talk of it gets headlines going and algorithms trading. Here's the real problem with markets in, I think, the long term if you're an investor here -- or the shorter long term.

If Joe Biden does get elected, if the Senate does turn Democrat, his tax plan is aimed directly at investors. There's no two ways about it. Yes, you can make a great case that people that are making $400,000 a year or less aren't specifically targeted with higher taxes, although let me tell you something, Neil, you start raising corporate taxes and other taxes, you start bringing people into that -- into those categories.

But it is aimed squarely at companies and investors, at capital gains, all the things that could disrupt stocks and markets. And so there's going to be, at some point, just logically, if the Democrats get the Senate -- and they obviously are going to keep the House -- and they win the presidency, there's got to be some trade, a Biden trade involved in these -- in stock prices.

They have to reflect lower price/earnings estimates that will be -- that will come, because you're just going to have many more taxes, companies paying a lot more, a lot more regulation...

CAVUTO: All right.

GASPARINO: ... and maybe even a breakup of certain companies.

One of the things people forget is that the Trump DOJ Antitrust Division green-lighted a lot of mergers and acquisitions. Yes, there was certain feuds that he picked with his Antitrust Division. AT&T, Time Warner, he tried to break up that deal because he didn't like CNN, which was part of the Time Warner part of the deal.

But, generally, they green-lighted a lot of deals. That's generally good for the markets. That's not going to happen if Biden gets in there. He's going to have a much tougher regulatory...

(CROSSTALK)

GASPARINO: ... in the antitrust department.

CAVUTO: We shall see, my friend. Anything can happen. Anything can happen.

GASPARINO: Yes.

CAVUTO: It's still early, but, again, Wall Street's fascinating. They will adjust to almost any scenario.

Charlie Gasparino, thank you.

We're talking about the virus too, and the effect it's having on the economy and the movie industry. We're learning that "Jurassic World,"

because of a breakout of COVID-19 cases on set, they have delayed production.

So that's another movie that's going to be delayed with its release. Add it to "The Batman." The "James Bond: No Time to Die" sequel that is now pushed back a year from what it was originally to be. "Dune," "Godzilla vs. Kong"

-- "Godzilla vs. Kong" is delayed.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Hang in there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, you don't see this very often, both campaigns, the Trump and Biden campaigns, making a push in the same state, in Arizona, some nearly miles apart.

Peter Doocy with the latest right now from Phoenix -- Peter.

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, good afternoon.

Biden and Harris are on the ground. They're keeping their distance from each other. And they say they're not sweating that second debate falling apart because President Trump doesn't want to go virtual.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: It's not surprising.

I mean, I will ask a rhetorical question none of you can answer. Were any of you surprised?

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: I mean, who knows?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY: A Biden campaign official explains their thinking like this:

"Trump's erratic behavior does not allow him to rewrite the calendar and pick new dates of his choosing. We look forward to participating in the final debate scheduled for October 22, which is already tied for the latest debate date in 40 years. Donald Trump can show up or he can decline again.

That's his choice."

While the press pool traveling with Biden and Harris was waiting for them at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, they watched the Mike Pence motorcade speed by. He is also here in the Phoenix area, after spending last night in Salt Lake City.

We understand his motorcade just arrived at the event location. We should hear from him soon.

Right now, Biden and Harris are meeting with Native American leaders here in Phoenix. They're also -- they were greeted by Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Senator John McCain, Republican, who has endorsed Joe Biden in this race.

And within the next couple hours, we do expect Biden and Harris here at this location, where they are going to launch the Soul of the Nation bus tour ahead of a trip to Nevada tomorrow -- Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, trains last week, buses this week. Got it, my friend.

Peter Doocy following all that.

Lee Carter on the importance of Arizona right now.

Like so many of these states that the president won last time, he's having a devil of a time now. How does Arizona stake out?

LEE CARTER, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: So, Arizona is really interesting. It's a very, very tight race.

But Arizona has started to swing more Democratic over the last few years.

Romney won Arizona handily. Trump ended up winning by 3.5 points after trailing Hillary Clinton for some time. He did have an edge at this time in the election, but you have to remember, it was about this time in 2016 that he had the "Access Hollywood" tapes.

Similarly, he's having a moment where things -- the polls are dropping, and they're not being as good to him as I'm sure he would like them to be. He's lost three points nationwide in the last three weeks.

Now Arizona, as much as it's close, it's only three points apart. If you look at the Senate race with McSally and Kelly, Kelly's ahead by 10 points.

So what this tells me, actually, is that Trump's doing better than I would expect.

If you think that people are going to vote all the way down a ticket, that's not what we're seeing there. There are people who are looking to support Trump and also support Kelly, which is opposite sides of the ticket.

So I think it's going to be closer than you might think.

CAVUTO: You know, Lee, we're watching Karen Pence right now in Arizona.

She's taking the stage here.

And a lot of people think her husband did very, very well in the debate. Of course, we see things oftentimes through the prism of our politics and bias, but that the general argument you hear is that the vice president stabilized things a little bit, after last week's presidential debate.

Do you agree with that? Is it -- it's way too early, I'm sure, to sort of gauge the polling reaction, but what do you think?

CARTER: I think he did.

Now, I think that -- I'm not sure how much of a difference it's going to make. I think that more people were watching the V.P. day debate for -- than usual.

CAVUTO: Right.

CARTER: But what I heard from voters who reacted last night was that, yes, Vice President Pence did a good job, yes, he was a calming force, but minds weren't really changed.

And Kamala Harris, she didn't necessarily change minds either. I think a lot of people are waiting to hear, what are Kamala Harris and Joe Biden going to do for America? And that case was not made last night.

CAVUTO: You know, Lee, polls are fleeting. You always remind me of that.

But if they are and end up being where they are now, the president would lose the popular vote in a landslide. And given the fact that he is drilling either by a little or a lot in a lot of these battleground states, he would lose the electoral vote in a landslide.

Are people in the Trump camp feeling that, worried about that? Or is it back to, it's all fake news, the polls don't register, they weren't -- they were wrong four years ago, they're wrong now, the methodologies haven't changed, they're biased against -- what?

CARTER: I think that the true Trump supporter right now is feeling pretty good and still feeling that this is very similar to 2016. The polls are wrong. There's a lot of people who are going to go ahead and vote for Trump that aren't talking about it, because it's so difficult to say out loud.

We know that more than 60 percent of Americans right now are afraid to share their political beliefs in public because of all of the division in this country. So I think there's a lot of people out there who are confident.

I do think that this is a very different race than 2016, despite the polls being very similar. In 2016, Americans who supported Donald Trump knew exactly what he was going to do for them.

I think, right now, there's a lot of confusion about, what does everything look like under Donald Trump? What's he going to do? What are his big plans? What's he going to do on health care? What's the economy really look like?

CAVUTO: Right.

CARTER: There's a lot of uncertainty right now. And I think he still has to make that case.

CAVUTO: All right, and three-and-a-half weeks to go, so a long way to go.

Thank you very, very much on that, Lee.

Here comes "The Five."

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