New Hampshire fishing fleet seeks support from 2020 Democrats

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New Hampshire fishing fleet seeks support from 2020 Democrats

Fishermen feel their concerns have been ignored by candidates.

This is a rush transcript from "The Story with Martha MacCallum," February 7, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Airtime for Fox News Sunday. We will be heading out to New Hampshire tomorrow. We'll be there Monday for Special Report. Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for this Special Report. Fair, balanced and still unafraid. Here's Martha. Have a great weekend. Hey, Martha.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I'll see you in New Hampshire.

BAIER: You bet.

MACCALLUM: All right. So, one hour from now, Joe Biden will be center stage at the New Hampshire Democratic debate tonight. That center spot reserved for the candidate with the best polling averages and that is still Joe Biden in New Hampshire tonight.

But Pete Buttigieg will be two to the left of him. He comes into New Hampshire with some growing momentum. Look at this brand new Suffolk University poll of the Granite State shows a surge from the former Mayor of South Bend who is now well within the margin of error to topple Bernie Sanders who has to be wondering how to deflect Mayor Pete's advance at this point, practically on his home turf in New Hampshire next door to Vermont.

Joe Biden is fourth in that poll, but Biden is trying to fight his way back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have great respect for Mayor Pete and the service of this nation. But I do believe, it's a risk to be just straight up with you, for this party to nominate someone who's never held high office higher than mayor of a town of 100,000 people in Indiana.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So, in moments, Biden Campaign Senior Adviser Symone Sanders after shakeups to the campaign in the wake of Iowa and ahead tonight Congressman Matt Gaetz, why he says Nancy Pelosi broke the law when she tore up the State of the Union. We will talk about that and whether that's the case. Byron York on the President's next move post-acquittal and Gloria Allred, she represents one of Harvey Weinstein's accusers. And she joins me exclusively tonight as that trial saga continues.

So, let's begin in New Hampshire tonight with Fox News Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich live on the ground ahead of the Democratic debate tonight. Hi Jacqui.

JACQUI HEINRICH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey Martha. Well, former Vice President Joe Biden took some time off the campaign trail to prep for a critical chance to win back support after a lackluster performance in the Iowa caucuses. Biden acknowledged Iowa was a gut punch and tonight in a pre-debate call, campaign officials talked fund raising concerns, strategy on the debate stage and in the primary states. And also, a staff shakeup his campaign reorganizing its leadership, elevating within the team.

A former Obama White House Communications Director. It's an important move especially for donors. Biden started the year with a smaller war chest than any of his main rivals. He also faces pressure ahead from mega billionaire candidate Michael Bloomberg who pitches himself as a Biden alternative and begins his campaign in earnest Super Tuesday.

Tonight, Biden will try to wrestle the spotlight away from Senator Bernie Sanders and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg who are locked in a virtual tie both declaring victory after the Iowa caucuses separated by only a tenth of a percentage point. Buttigieg in a fundraising email touted his surge of new donors and has seen a recent spike in New Hampshire polls.

But Biden like his rivals will also have to pitch himself as the best choice for America against a positive job report out this morning. A good reflection on President Trump. In January, employers added 225,000 jobs more than analysts expected.

A senior Biden official said tonight debate watchers can expect a fiery defiant Biden trying to remind voters that he is the best candidate in a match up against President Trump and also that he is more experienced than Pete Buttigieg and less radical than Bernie Sanders. Martha.

MACCALLUM: It's going to have to have a good night tonight. Jacqui, thank you very much.

Joining me now exclusively is Symone Sanders, Senior Adviser to Joe Biden's presidential campaign. Symone, welcome back. Good to see you tonight.

What do you say to the questions about--

SYMONE SANDERS, BIDEN CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Thanks for having me.

MACCALLUM: Why the former Vice President has been off the campaign trail preparing for this debate. A lot of people saying you know there's just too much time being wasted on the ground in New Hampshire because of that.

SANDERS: You know I would push back on those folks, Martha. Look, the reality is when we left Iowa on Monday night, we flew straight to New Hampshire. We had a day full of events on Tuesday, a day full of events on Wednesday. And when Vice President Biden was not in state yesterday, Dr. Biden was here doing events, doing OTR, she did some local press.

And today, Vice President Biden is back and--

MACCALLUM: And there are reports that she was very small gatherings there. Is that true?

SANDERS: Well, I think the reality is that New Hampshire is a state where we like to focus on retail, frankly. And I think retail politics is actually what helps win elections. And Joe Biden is the greatest retail politician in America. And let me say people shouldn't sleep on Dr. Biden either.

So, we are proud of the operation, we're running here in New Hampshire. We believe that we will be very competitive on Tuesday night, but we also believe that Iowa and New Hampshire are part of a package of the first four states and the first four states should be judged together. And so, we have Nevada coming up and South and South Carolina. But we are not giving up here in New Hampshire, Martha.

We are all in and I think we're going to be competitive.

MACCALLUM: I mean a lot of people say you know that that sounds like you're managing expectations which is what also happened in Iowa. There's no doubt that Pete Buttigieg kind of went up that side lane and surpassed Joe Biden with a lot of the voters that would have been his voters. And that he is losing ground to this young mayor from South Bend, Indiana in the polls going into New Hampshire as well.

What is your campaign doing to try to counteract that with this debate tonight?

SANDERS: Well, I think you heard part of what Vice President Biden strategy will be tonight in the sound that you played in the opening of this spot. The reality is that this isn't - we took some lumps in Iowa. Yes. But this is not the first time Vice President Biden has had to fight. It's not the first time he's been knocked down. I mean he's used to fighting for the things that he wants.

So, tonight on the debate stage, you can expect Vice President Biden to draw contrasts between himself and the other candidates on the stage. When it comes to health care, when it comes to experience, when it comes to who's ready to lead on day one.

And look, we think voters need to get real about this election. If anybody watched the State of the Union the other night, there are two things that came out of that. One, Donald Trump is going to be really hard to beat actually. But also, number two, we've got to beat Donald Trump. So, we can't take a risk in this election by nominating folks who are not battle tested and there's one thing about Joe Biden, he has been through the ringer. He is battle tested.

MACCALLUM: Here's what President Trump had to say about Joe Biden. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's very sad what happened with the Biden's. And it's also very sad how he's doing, how he's doing in the polls. Now I understand the votes are fried in Iowa today. They couldn't even take a simple tabulation. And yet they're telling you how to run the country and how to run health care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So, the President saying that it's very sad how Joe Biden is doing in the polls. And there's also some speculation in some quarters that there have been discussions about him you know considering dropping out of this race. What do you say to those?

SANDERS: I'd say to those people that Joe Biden is here to stay. We are here to fight. He said that on Wednesday and I would also point people to Martha, Wednesday was an important day for our campaign because it showed why voters still believe Joe Biden is the best person to be our nominee and take on Donald Trump.

You saw him in the morning very fiery and forceful, talking about the need to fight, talking about the contrast between himself and the other candidates. But you also saw him that evening at a town hall for another network where you saw the empathy the Joe Biden that connects with people, the Joe Biden that speaks very passionately and knowledgeably about everything from health care to cancer initiatives, that is the Joe Biden people love and now Ambassador Joe Biden is on the campaign trail this week.

MACCALLUM: Understood. One last question, the campaign canceled $150,000 worth of TV ads in South Carolina. The polls show him narrowing his lead over Bernie Sanders there to five points and move that spending to Nevada. You want to explain why that happened?

SANDERS: Well, I'd just like to know for folks we are up in South Carolina. We are up on paid advertising on both television and digital. We have some great news spots running that detail Vice President Biden's history of fighting for communities, his history of getting things done that tell his story and his bio talk about how he was a young public defender that left a good job to be a public defender before he ran for office.

So, we're up in South Carolina. I know there are some reports that we were down. I'm here to tell people we're up, we're here to compete. We're looking forward to New Hampshire on Tuesday, Nevada, South Carolina and Super Tuesday, Martha.

MACCALLUM: We hope to see you in New Hampshire, Symone. Thank you very much. Good to have you with us.

SANDERS: We'll be here. Thank you.

MACCALLUM: OK. Thanks. Symone Sanders. Breaking tonight on this Friday evening, President Trump cleaning house, recalling ambassador Gordon Sondland, escorting Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman off the White House grounds and his brother and that is not all. Congressman Matt Gaetz here to react to this late breaking story this evening. Plus, what Adam Schiff plans to do next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: Breaking right now, President Trump cleaning house tonight after being acquitted this week on both articles of impeachment. The President appears to have decided to let go several of the people involved to have worked for the White House, including Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the Democrat star witness was escorted off White House grounds today. His twin brother who worked at the National Security Council as well. Also, out of a job tonight.

And just moments ago word that U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland revealed that he has been recalled from his post as Ambassador to the EU. Remember his role in all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GORDON SONDLAND, AMBASSADOR TO THE EU: I know that members of this committee frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question, was there a quid pro quo. As I testified previously with regard to the requested White House Call and the White House meeting, the answer is yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Joining me now is Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Congressman, thank you for being here. Good to have you here tonight.

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): Thanks for having me.

MACCALLUM: I mean that was definitely one of the biggest moments during the House testimony when Gordon Sondland said that yes, he saw the exchange for a meeting and an investigation as a quid pro quo. Tonight, he is out of a job. Your thoughts.

GAETZ: Well, he saw it that way remember that was largely a presumption, but impeachment investigations undoubtedly create second and third order effects. Of course, we all know a lot more about Hunter Biden than we would have if Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff had not started this investigation. We also know a lot more about Gordon Sondland and we learned a lot more about Colonel Vindman.

For example, Tim Morrison, who was a senior official to Lieutenant Colonel Vindman at the NSC said that Vindman frequently used poor judgment and that he often couldn't trust the conclusions that he came to that information was ripe into a higher degree because of the impeachment. And I think if you looked at Gordon Sondland, no one really viewed him as central to the delivery of U.S. policy. I think we'll still be able to get by in the delivery of United States foreign policy, absent Gordon.

Sondland, he was viewed as a inter meddler and you often heard people talk about how the Gordon problem would emerge as he was outside of the normal work of an EU Ambassador. So, the President has the authority to remove these folks if he chooses to and I think that largely the impeachment--

MACCALLUM: But the reason that they said that Congressmen was because they were surprised that he was working on Ukraine policy because he was the Ambassador to the EU.

GAETZ: Right.

MACCALLUM: So, the people who were assigned to the Ukraine issue wanted to know why Gordon Sondland was involved in it at all. And it turned out that they were - he was working with Rick Perry and Rudy Giuliani. So that was why they said isn't that why they referred to the Gordon problem?

GAETZ: Right. But I mean I think that there was continued lack of confidence in his diplomatic work throughout the depositions and hearings and whether that meant exceeding the scope of his authority or whether it meant just sort of the bungling of assignments. I don't think he came out of the impeachment looking like some great diplomat. So, I don't think it's a surprise to see the President choose to make a change there and also Lieutenant Colonel Vindman.

MACCALLUM: I mean Lieutenant Colonel Vindman's lawyer says that he is saddened to not be able to serve the country anymore. Here's a quick sound bite of his testimony to remind everybody.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN, FORMER EXPERT, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: It is improper for the President of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen and a political opponent. Frankly, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was probably an element of shock that maybe in certain regards my worst fear of how our Ukraine policy could play out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: You know a lot of people looked at that. I mean obviously people took it different ways. But as that they had some pretty deep policy differences in terms of the way that things should be carried out in Ukraine. And although, Vindman has expressed his sadness at being pushed out of his position tonight, you wonder why he would want to work for the President if he had such deep disagreements with him and thought the way he was handling it was wrong.

GAETZ: Many of the eruptions that gave rise to this impeachment were rooted in policy disagreement, a different approach, a different style, at times even a different outcome for various elements of the Ukraine policy and I can't imagine we would outside of the world of impeachment have the opportunity to really, I think kind of tease at those divisions more than in this impeachment.

And so, in this world, I think we were able to see disagreement perhaps some discord between Lieutenant Colonel Vindman and others at the NSC who held a different view. And now we're going to move forward.

If you look also at what Mr. O'Brien has done at the NSC. There have been a lot of changes there. It very well may have been the case that Vindman could have been out before impeachment but obviously during impeachment you don't want to make a change like that to make it look like retribution and now, with a lot of changes at the NSC, I think we'll have a better crew.

MACCALLUM: It is interesting because Robert O'Brien, the new Head of the NSC, the National Security Adviser to the President has said days ago that he wanted to thin the ranks of the NSC dramatically and there had long been a question about whether or not everybody who was there, some of the holdovers were supportive of the policy of the White House, correct?

GAETZ: There have been a lot of concerns that the NSC may have emanated other leaks and you know I mean that's obviously never something you always are able to track down and fully prove and evidence.

But I think that you want a President or National Security Adviser that have full confidence in the NSC, if freshening up that team going into this new post-impeachment era is helpful to the country, then I'm all for it.

I will say the delivery of U.S. foreign policy is going pretty well. I'm so proud of the President for taking out the al-Qaeda leader in Yemen. That group in Yemen had claimed responsibility for killing my constituents in Pensacola. So, when you look at the foreign policy outcomes, it sure is a great thing.

MACCALLUM: All right. Congressman Matt Gaetz, thank you. Good to have you here tonight.

GAETZ: Thank you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: So, President Trump's striking a defiant tone in the wake of his acquittal. Byron York is up next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And you have to understand we first went through Russia, Russia, Russia. It was all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should the House expunge your impeachment in the future? Should they expunge your impeachment?

TRUMP: They should because it was a hoax. That's a very good question. Should they expunge the impeachment in the house? They should because it was a hoax. It was a total political hoax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So with impeachment now in the rear view mirror, well President Trump take a page out of President Bill Clinton's book after the Senate acquittal, he barely mentioned impeachment after that, racked up some wins during his two final years and left office even more popular than when he came in.

Here now, Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent for The Washington Examiner and a Fox News Contributor. Byron, if acquittal was one of the most beautiful words that President Trump had ever heard, I'm thinking he likes the word expunge on this Friday night that was brought up by that reporter?

BYRON YORK, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Well, the reporter actually gave him the idea.

MACCALLUM: Yes, exactly.

YORK: That sounded pretty good. I don't think that is a possibility. I don't see it happening. But you know as far as whether the President will follow the Clinton model on this. Yes and no, I do think with independent audiences when he's trying to expand his reach a bit, it is time to talk about the economy. 225,000 created. The things are going very well economically. That's a strong case for the President to make.

And he does make it and every rally that he attends. But as far as with his true believers, with his base supporters, the President has a bond with those supporters and they - it has been strengthened from their point of view.

MACCALLUM: Absolutely.  YORK: By their feeling that the Democrats and the media have unfairly treated this President. I saw that in Iowa went to the Trump rally in Des Moines and also to a Republican caucus on caucus night and there were people there who felt even more enthusiastic about the President, who felt more strongly about the President because they felt he had been mistreated in Washington.

MACCALLUM: Yes. It feels like there is a renewed vigor to stick up for him because he has been under assault in the minds of those who are very deep supporters of the President. Just to go back down memory lane. This is February 12th, 1999. We just witnessed the speech in the White House, the President taking a victory lap there tonight. We've got the firing of some of the individuals who testified against him and I want to ask you about that in a second. But here's Bill Clinton, February 12th, 1999.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people. This can be and this must be a time of reconciliation and renewal for America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Very different approaches from these two presidents, Byron.

YORK: Very different. I was not at the White House that day in 1999, but I was there yesterday for the President's performance and these were very, very different things. And by the way, it's not just impeachment. When you listen to the President, he is bitter about the way he has been treated by the Democrats and by the intelligence community throughout his presidency going back before that.

I mean he really brings up crossfire hurricane. The investigation, the FBI started into his campaign at the end of July 2016 and it goes on from there to the appointment of Robert Mueller, his firing of James Comey and all of that. So, the President really views this as one big campaign to drive him from office. So, you really saw a lot of the bitterness about that coming out yesterday.

MACCALLUM: And what do you make of the firings late today Lieutenant Colonel Vindman and his brother both gone from the NSC and Gordon Sondland who I think a lot of people wondered how he lasted as long as he did.

YORK: Not a surprise for any of them. With Ambassador Sondland, I mean how tenable is that for him to remain in office after the testimony that he gave and by the way he changed his testimony and seemed to embellish it a little bit as he went on. Democrats were happy with those changes.

MACCALLUM: He had new recollections as he went along--

YORK: Exactly.

MACCALLUM: He remembered things that he didn't remember before.

YORK: Right. And he had to admit that a lot of it was presumption on his part, but that's what he said. As far as Lieutenant Colonel Vindman is concerned. First of all, I mean he's detailed to the White House from the Pentagon. And so, the White House assigned him back to the Pentagon. So, certainly wasn't fired, he's not losing his job or anything like that, but he is leaving the National Security Council at the White House, going back to the Pentagon.

And a lot of Republicans and this is true inside the White House believe that Lieutenant Colonel Vindman was part of this kind of back channel effort that ended up in the effort to bring down the President. Did he have contact with the person who became the whistleblower. Republicans wanted to know.

MACCALLUM: He said no.

YORK: Republicans wanted to know about this during the investigation and Adam Schiff, Chairman of the Intelligence Committee refused to let Colonel Vindman answer these questions. I don't know if he would have answered them or not, but he didn't get the chance because Schiff always jumped in and stopped Republicans from asking those.

MACCALLUM: Byron York, thank you. Great to see you tonight.

YORK: Thank you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: We'll see you soon. So, President Trump's critics can try to argue that it is worse than it looks. That argument got a whole lot tougher today. Andy Pastor (ph) is coming up next on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This morning, the brand-new jobs numbers came in. We smashed expectations and created 225,000 new jobs last month.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Very big numbers. Today President Trump touting a better-than- expected jobs report, yielding as he said 225,000 new jobs, I think the expectation was about 158. Labor participation ticked up to its highest rate in more than six years.

But perhaps more surprising is New York Times columnist Paul Krugman who predicted a global recession under President Trump now admitted in a piece that, yes, the economy is strong, writing, quote, "it is needed a strong economy. It is indeed a strong economy, I should say, but if we ask what lies beneath that strength the main answer is an explosion in the federal budget deficit which exceeded one trillion last year. And the story of how that happened, he writes, has deeply disturbing implications for the future of U.S. politics.

Joining me now is Andy Puzder, author of the "Capitalist Come Back" and former CEO of CKE Restaurants. Andy, good to see you. Thank you for being here tonight.

ANDY PUZDER, FORMER CEO, CKE RESTAURANTS: Good to be here, Martha. Thank you.

MACCALLUM: So, I would also remind everyone that on the night that President Trump won the election, Paul Krugman famously said that if you are asking when the markets will recover, the short -- the first past answer is never. Never. He said that they would be devastated for years and years to come. And of course, in the last few years, the Dow Jones Industrial average is up about 50 percent, Andy.

PUZDER: Yes, it is. Well, he's been the chicken little of economists ever since President Trump was elected, predicting the sky would fall. And it's really no surprise that he now tries to credit government spending for economic growth because he's been known as the albeit (Ph) interpreter of John Maynard Keynes, the man side economist where the government spends more than economic growth.

It's a terrible system supply-side economics is much better, what President Trump did with tax cuts, deregulation, and a focus on domestic energy.

But you have to remember during President Obama's term, the deficit went from about 11 trillion to 20 trillion. So, it almost doubled. And we didn't get the kind of dynamic labor market or economic growth that we're seeing with President Trump. That's because President Trump's economic policies, a reversal of Obama's, a reversal of what Krugman wanted, again with the tax cuts, deregulation, and a focus on domestic energy.

That's what's really driving this economic growth, it's not what Krugman says. He's a one economist who is very -- always confident and almost always wrong.

MACCALLUM: And I would also point out in that piece he says that he thought that President Obama's stimulus was woefully weak. That it was not nearly large enough. He wanted the government to spend a lot more on that renewal project than it actually did.

But he does bring up this issue of the deficits and says that, if we continue at the rate we're at right now, in 10 years the GDP, the debt to GDP ratio would be at 98 percent of GDP, Andy. And I think that, you know, that the deficit does concern a lot of people even fiscal conservatives. Are we going to see any, anything done about that if there is a second term for President Trump?

PUZDER: Well, sure. Number one, it concerns me and it concerns the president. But we had to rebuild the military. We had, you know, five, six years under President Obama where the military was neglected. Our planes didn't fly, we didn't have proper protection for our troops.

He had to rebuild the military. He did. It's been rebuilt. So that's an expense that's basically behind us. We need to maintain it, but the rebuild is done.

And secondly, what we need to control is nondiscretionary spending. We need to control the government programs where the costs go up no matter what the budget says, no matter what Congress or the president does. We need to revise those programs.

That will actually take some unity of action between Congress and the presidency.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: We hope for that.

PUZDER: And so, I'm hopeful, you know, if we can get Republicans in the House, and I think Nancy Pelosi has done a lot to really encourage me that that could happen in this next election, if we hang on to the Senate, we may be able to get something done with respect to the deficit in the second term. That's the time to deal with it. There's a lot less political risk.

MACCALLUM: One issue, you know, as they get towards the budget discussions that I thought was interesting today, is that the White House says that they want to increase A.I. spending and R&D funding of A.I. to nearly $2 billion from $973 million going up to 2022. What do you think about that investment, and what do you think is triggering that decision?

PUZDER: Well, I think we need to remain competitive. We need to remain competitive with China.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

PUZDER: We need to remain competitive with other nations. If we don't do that, we are going to pay a bigger price down the road. There are reasons for governments to spend money but there are also a lot of programs where we simply spend too much, we're not efficient, and they're kind of the third rail of politics this government transfer programs where you can't touch them.

And I'm not saying we should reduce government benefits but if we were more efficient about them, more practical, maybe something like the earned income tax credit you're trying to replace a lot of these programs, we could cut our spending. We need to focus on where we can cut, where we can reduce without hurting people. And I think we can do that.

MACCALLUM: Thank you, Andy. Always interesting to talk to you. Good to see tonight.

PUZDER: Thanks, Martha. Good to be here.

MACCALLUM: So, the prosecution in Harvey Weinstein's sex crimes trial has rested its case following two weeks of testimony from six women detailing allegations ranging from sexual assault to rape against the movie mogul. We speak exclusively to attorney Gloria Allred who represents some of those women, coming up next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIMI HALEYI, HARVEY WEINSTEIN'S ACCUSER: Women have the right to say no. And no is a no regardless of the circumstances. And I told Harvey no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: The prosecution in Harvey Weinstein's sex crime trial now rest after weeks of testimony from six women who recounted the movie producer's alleged assaults in graphic detail.

Weinstein's criminal charges stem from allegations made by two of those women including a former production assistant Mimi Haleyi who told the jury of her allege 2006 assault, quote, "I was kicking, I was pushing, I was trying to get away from his grip."

In moments, Mimi's attorney, Gloria Allred who also represents other accusers joins me exquisitely tonight.

But first, chief breaking news correspondent Trace Gallagher. Hi, Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Martha. The prosecution case took two weeks with 28 witnesses including six women who claim that Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted them. But the charges in this trial are based only on the testimony of two women with partial testimony from a third.

The sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra who testified that Weinstein raped her in the winter of 1993 and '94. Then there's an aspiring actress Jessica Mann who testified the movie producer raped her twice during an abusive relationship.

And Miriam Mimi Haleyi who claims Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006. Haleyi says Weinstein invited her to his Manhattan apartment and made a move on her while she sat on his couch, and though she rejected him he kept pulling him toward him before he backed her into bedroom, pushed her on the bed and held her down. Haleyi said she repeatedly said no, even telling him she was on her period. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEYI: I would not have wanted anyone to do that to me, even if the person had been a romantic partner. I remember Harvey after he was rolling over on his back saying, don't you feel we're so much closer to each other now?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Weinstein claims the sexual encounters were consensual, and his defense attorney continually pointed to messages that women sent to Weinstein after the alleged attacks.

For example, to years after Haleyi claims Weinstein sexually assaulted her, she sent him a note that reads, quote, "hi, Harvey, how are you? Great to see you in Cannes." The letter goes on to talk about an idea Haleyi had for a project a few years prior and the note ends with Haleyi writing, quote, "lots of love, Miriam."

Meantime, the New York Times is reporting that in the 90s Weinstein admitted to a former Miramax employee who also accused him of sexual misconduct that he didn't always know when the sex was consensual.

Quoting here, "Things confusing for me too. You may not believe that. Sometimes don't know when it's consensual. Trying to learn. Maybe I don't recognize my power in these situations."

Weinstein's attorneys say those words were never spoken. Martha?

MACCALLUM: Trace, thank you very much.

Here now exclusively tonight, Gloria Allred, an attorney for -- who represents three of the women who testified against Harvey Weinstein. Gloria, good to see you tonight. Thank you for being here.

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY FOR WEINSTEIN ACCUSERS: Thank you for inviting me, Martha. And yes, I am so proud of these three witnesses that I represent. Mimi, Annabella Sciorra, and also Lauren Marie Young who testified this week.

MACCALLUM: So, the prosecution has rested, as we said the defense is about to begin their case. And one of the things that they'll bring up which is already brought up in the Mimi Haleyi case is that two weeks after the alleged assault, she had consensual sex with him, and she said she felt stupid and like an idiot for letting him do that, but that yes, that's what happened. How do you respond to that? Why would she do that?

ALLRED: Well, OK. Number one, I don't think she classified it as consensual. She did say she didn't resist. She froze. But, she is not charged with that. He's charged with the initial act that you described at the beginning of the segment which is essentially that he forced himself on her, that she said no, that she said no, I'm on my period, that he then, and she testified to this, forced her onto the bed and while she is trying to fight him off, pulled out her tampon --

MACCALLUM: I mean, it's just --

ALLRED: -- and orally copulated her.

MACCALLUM: It's disgusting. And you know, I mean, some of the details in all of this case are just so graphic and so gross that, you know, it's hard to talk about.

But by the same token, you know, just, you are the defense, you are on her behalf, and the defense attorneys are claiming that a lot of the evidence in this case shows that she continually went back to this relationship.

And their argument is that she was essentially transactional in her relationship with Harvey. He was paying for flights to her back and forth to London, she has notes in her diary, you know, her journal for work, call Harvey about the tickets that turned out to be plane tickets.

She then says that she was totally bummed that she missed seeing Harvey and the assistant when they were all in London, and then in '08, she reaches out as Trace had in his story there, to say that I'm, you know, she wanted to see the Cannes film festival but was sorry that it didn't work out, you know.

So, all of these interactions suggest, this is what the defense -- his defense is saying that they had a strange, you know, horrific relationship in many aspects, but that it was -- it was transactional between the two of them. What do you say to that?

ALLRED: Well, I say first of all, let's focus on the charge and the charge has to do with what you and I discussed, the allegation that he forced himself on her originally.

Second, we are talking about a business relationship, an employment relationship. That's much more complicated. This is not about a stranger assaulting a woman, raping her in a dark alley, where you never expect to speak again.

In Hollywood they are often, there are employment relationships, there are business relationships, there's a, you know, show me any script if you -- if you want me to review a script and see if I can produce it --

MACCALLUM: Right.

ALLRED: -- type of relationship. It doesn't mean the initial act of misconduct or a crime didn't happen. And, by the way, she, you know, she has actually very few e-mails afterwards. So. But even if she did, it doesn't mean that the initial act didn't occur.

And Dr. Barbara Ziv who was in expert on rape and sexual assault has testified in this case for the prosecution and that she says it's quite normal for there to be contact between the rapist or the sexual assaulter after the rape and --

MACCALLUM: Yes.

ALLRED: -- the victim. It's not unusual at all.

MACCALLUM: Well, this is a -- it's a fascinating case and horrific for everybody involved. Gloria Allred, thank you very much. Good to see you tonight --

(CROSSTALK)

ALLRED: Thank you, Martha. You too. OK.

MACCALLUM: So, the stage in New Hampshire, we will speak to a group of voters who said the candidates have completely neglected them. A special -- a Story investigation, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: Seven Democrats are gearing up to take the debate stage in New Hampshire tonight and one group of voters there say their concerns have been largely ignored by these candidates.

The state's Yankee Atlantic fisherman telling us they feel passed over, forgotten, even cast aside in this new year's -- in this year's primary. There used to be dozens of active commercial ground fisherman here in New Hampshire. But today there are fewer than 10 boats still fishing full time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSHUA FORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE LOBSTERMAN: It's not easy, it's very, very hard. It's very hard on people. It's very hard on families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Thirty-five-year Joshua Ford has spent 17 years working on fishing boats on the New Hampshire sea coast. He is now one of the youngest here to own his own boat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORD: I am very proud.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: But these days, up and down the state's 18-mile Atlantic Coast, fish and lobstermen like Joshua are sounding the alarm warning their industry is in trouble with some concerned it may be dying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORD: It's become too expensive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guys just can't make it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just can't survive. We are the last of free-range buffalo hunters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty years ago, this was all full of (Inaudible) and draggers. There was a lot of draggers. It was close to home and it was profitable. I'd say at least 75 percent of the people are out of the industry.

FORD: What you seen the worst of is the opioid epidemic. You see more and more of that. People get depressed, I think and they turn to whatever. Because expenses are going up. Profit margins are going down. People are making less money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Money point to what they call a drastic increase in environmental regulations in recent years, including government catch limits on fish like Atlantic cod.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER FLANIGAN, RYE, NEW HAMPSHIRE: The government decided they were going to save the industry, save the fishery and put on all these regulations. I went from being able to fish 365 days a year to five days. I have five days a year that I can catch fish.

DENISE HUNT, YANKEE FISHERMEN'S COOPERATIVE: Before we would have 15, 20 boats in and out of this harbor every day. Ground fishing, gillnetting lobster. Now the reality of is the regulations are so tough that they just can't even go out and fish. It's not worth it for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: The government's NOAA Fishery Service says Atlantic cod have been declining for years. And even after an emergency closure of the fishery in 2014, the population remains at 2 to 3 percent of what it should be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BORDEN, NEW HAMPSHIRE FISHERMAN: We're all for conservation. That's what keeps the whole thing going. We are actively involved in that every day. We see it more than the regulators ever see.

HUNT: As you go out there and you get on the back of the boat and you're catching these fish and they're telling you they're not there but you are seeing these fish come up, there is something wrong there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: And there is more concern on the horizon as the federal government is now working to develop new regulations to protect white whales, citing entanglement in fishing gear as the lead cause of whale deaths.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORDEN: We've been facing a lot of challenges but they don't seem to end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: New Hampshire's Yankee Atlantic fishermen as they are proudly known are historically a coveted influential voting bloc, garnering plenty of face time from presidential candidates seeking first in the nation primary support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John McCain was here in North Hampton when he ran and Mitt Romney met with us in Portsmouth when he was running. They are the last two I came face-to-face with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: But with their numbers now dwindling many here acknowledge their docks are no longer seen as the crucial campaign stops, they once were.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORDEN: Any voter base is important. We have a lot of owner-operators here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: In fact, heading into the final stretch of this primary cycle only Beto O'Rourke paid a visit to their docks before he left the race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORDEN: It's an important business to me, to my family, to my friends. But, in the whole scheme of things, we probably don't amount to that much. And that's probably why they don't focus on us much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: The fishermen say this primary comes at a time when they could really use the help from this field of candidates who they're watching from afar to campaign on stepping up environmental protections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: We just need help rebuilding the fishing industry. Who sets the regulations? Are they really out there on the boat or they're just behind a computer screen?

FORD: You have people that are willing to go to work. Want to go to work. Why is seafood one of the biggest imports in this country? Why is that?

BORDEN: The guys who grew up in the industry may want to have passed this down to their family as they did in the past. They can't afford to live here anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: They know their business of those folks. In a statement, the government fishery service says, in part, "working with fishermen to sustain America's ocean resources is a top priority." Noting, Congress has recently approved additional funding targeting a tackled some of those issues."

This is The Story Friday, February 7th, 2020. But as always, "The Story" continues. We will see you back here on Sunday, 6:00 p.m. for "Democracy 2020: New Hampshire Primary Special" alongside Bret Baier. See you then, everybody. Good night.

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