Operation Warp Speed chief adviser: Hope to immunize 100M people by 1st quarter of 2021

close

Video

Operation Warp Speed chief adviser: Hope to immunize 100M people by 1st quarter of 2021

Dr. Moncef Slaoui provides updates on the coronavirus vaccine with Chris Wallace on ‘Fox News Sunday.’

This is a rush transcript from “Fox News Sunday” December 13, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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

The first Americans could begin receiving the Pfizer vaccine tomorrow as
the FDA gives the green light.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  Our nation has achieved a
medical miracle.

WALLACE (voice-over):  Billions of doses from Pfizer to all 50 states.
We'll track plans to distribute the vaccine and get it to the Americans who
need it most.

We're joined by Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp Speed, only on
"FOX News Sunday."

Then, a last push for COVID relief before Congress adjourns for the year.
We'll ask the leader of the bipartisan Gang of Eight, West Virginia Senator
Joe Manchin, what's holding up a compromise.

Plus, the federal investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes, Congressman Eric
Swalwell's links to a suspected Chinese spy, and President Trump's push to
overturn the election -- we'll discuss at all with a number two Republican
in the House, Steve Scalise.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT:  They bring deep experience and bold new
thinking.

WALLACE:  President-elect Biden introduces more of his cabinet and White
House team. We'll ask our Sunday panel about push back to his picks from
both the right and the left.

And our "Power Player of the Week," how the social network app Parler is
drawing conservatives focusing on freer speech.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (on camera):  And hello again from FOX News in Washington.

There are real signs of hope today in the long fight against the
coronavirus pandemic as emergency doses of a vaccine just 11 months in the
making are headed to the American public.

The first doses -- doses from Pfizer expected in states tomorrow morning.
Limited supply means the first in line will be frontline health care
workers and nursing home residents.

But, this promising news comes as the nation sets another record for COVID-
19 daily deaths, passing 3,300 on Thursday.

We'll talk with chief advisor to Operation Warp Speed, Dr. Moncef Slaoui,
in a moment.

But we begin with Mike Tobin live from the Pfizer plant in Portage,
Michigan, where the first shipments are leaving today -- Mike.

MIKE TOBIN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  And, Chris, about a half-hour ago, we
saw the first trucks, both FedEx and UPS, leave the Pfizer facility here in
Portage, Michigan, a joint effort with partners ranging from doctors to
researchers and factory workers led to this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOBIN (voice-over):  The first shipments leaving by truck to be flown to
regional hubs around the country, then distributed to hospitals and local
pharmacies.

GEN. GUSTAVE PERNA, OPERATION WARP SPEED CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER:  D-Day
was the beginning of the end and that's where we are today.

TOBIN:  The army general overseeing the logistics operation saying it's go
time.

PERNA:  Now, we'll begin distribution of safe and effective vaccines to the
American people.

TOBIN:  Shipping giant FedEx will ship to the west, UPS, the east,
utilizing a sophisticated super cold shipping chain is the vaccine needs to
be kept at negative 94 degrees Fahrenheit. Distribution of doses based on a
state's population. A large state by California getting by 330,000, a small
state like Delaware about 8,800.

The FDA stresses corners were not cut when it came to safety or research
and denied reports that its chief was threatened with his job.

DR. STEPHEN HAHN, FDA COMMISSIONER:  Science and data guided the FDA's
decision. We worked quickly based on the urgency of this pandemic, not
because of any other external pressure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TOBIN (on camera):  Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says 100
million doses will make it to the public by February, with shots going into
arms as early as tomorrow -- Chris.

WALLACE:  Mike Tobin reporting from the Pfizer plant. Mike, thank you for
some very good news.

TOBIN:  You got it.

WALLACE:  And joining us now, Operation Warp Speed chief advisor, Dr.
Moncef Slaoui.

Doctor, I want to begin by saying congratulations to you and your team for
this remarkable accomplishment.

DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, OPERATION WARP SPEED CHIEF ADVISER:  Good morning,
Chris, and thank you for having me and thank you for your nice words.

Of course, thousands and tens of thousands of people have participated to
this first critical milestone. I want to congratulate Pfizer and BioNTech,
who are really the key players in delivering this vaccine. And I'd say it's
a very good day for America and for the world.

WALLACE:  I want to ask you questions about both the short-term and the
long-term.

How long before your first two top priority groups, health care workers on
the front line and nursing home residents, before they're fully vaccinated,
get both of their doses of the Pfizer vaccine?

SLAOUI:  So we planned to have about 14 million doses of vaccine available
to us and distributed in the U.S. by the end of this year, so by the end of
December. Those would be both Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine. And
the next month, we will have about 50 million to 80 million doses
distributed in January, and another same number in February.

So, all in all, we hope to have immunized 100 million people, which would
be the long-term care facility people, the elderly people with
comorbidities, the first line workers, the health care workers. It's about
120 million people. We would have immunized 100 million people by the first
quarter of 2021 with two doses of vaccines. So, that's 200 million doses of
vaccine.

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE:  Right. Now my long-term question. How long before we have herd
immunity from the vaccine where enough people have been vaccinated that we
really feel that the pandemic has turned a corner, and you and I will feel
safe going out in a crowd?

SLAOUI:  So we need to have immunized about 75 or 80 percent of the U.S.
population before herd immunity can really be established. We hope to reach
that point between the month of May and the month of June.

It is however critical that most of the American people decide and accept
to take the vaccine. We are very concerned by the hesitancy that we see,
the level of hesitancy that we see. But we hope that now that all the data
is out and available to be discussed in detail, that people will keep their
mind open to listen to the data and hopefully agree that this is a very
effective and safe vaccine, and therefore take it.

WALLACE:  I want to get to these questions of public doubt in a moment, but
I want to first talk about questions about supplies. Pfizer says, yes, it
is going to keep its commitment and deliver 100 million doses of the
vaccine in short order, but that it can't deliver anymore doses, another
hundred million or more until the summer because of contracts it has with
other countries.

And the main company, the one that we were betting on most, AstraZeneca, is
well behind schedule in its tests.

So the question I have is, is there a possibility that come spring, we're
not going to have enough supplies to go around to continue this very
ambitious distribution plan that you just talked about?

SLAOUI:  Well, I think -- so the short answer is most likely no, and the
reason is really our plan from day one has been to have a portfolio of
products. We have six different products being developed. Pfizer is one of
them.

Moderna, which likely will be approved by Friday probably this coming week,
is able to produce 100 million doses in the first quarter, and we just
announced on Friday that we committed to acquire another hundred million
doses. This will be delivered in the second quarter of 2021.

Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson company, is in the last stages of conducting
their phase three trial with their vaccine. It's a one stop vaccine. That
vaccine is likely to be ready for authorization late in January or early in
February, and by then we will be able to have anywhere between 20 million
and 60 million doses already in the month of February available to start
immunizing and then going forward, many more doses on a monthly basis.

AstraZeneca is one of them. We expect them to potentially be approvable
somewhere late in February and then we have two more coming afterwards.

So, Pfizer is not the sole supplier. But having said that, we are working
with Pfizer to continue helping them and supporting them achieve the
objective of providing us with another hundred million doses in the second
quarter of 2021.

WALLACE:  I want to pick up, Doctor, on the issue that you raised just
before this. While Operation Warp Speed has had some remarkable
breakthroughs, there is this question of public doubt about taking the
vaccine.

I want to put these numbers up on the screen. In a recent poll, 27 percent
of Americans said they are, quote, not sure they will get the vaccine, and
26 percent said they will not get it.

I understand it's early in people's minds may change, but if more than half
of Americans didn't get the vaccine, what would that mean for the pandemic?
Would it continue?

SLAOUI:  I -- unfortunately, I think it would and I think there will be a
lot virus circulating, a lot of people dying, a lot of people in hospitals.
I think it would be a very, very unfortunate outcome.

Frankly, I'm very concerned by this level of hesitancy that is not anchored
in any facts or data. Unfortunately, there was so much politics around in
the context of developing this vaccine, there's been a confusion between
how thorough and scientific and factual the work that has been done is, and
the perception that people are thinking that we cut corners or anything
like that.

I can guarantee you that no such things have happened, that we follow the
science. It's actually a remarkable achievement of science, academia, the
industry ecosystem and the U.S. government working together relentlessly
that has allowed this to happen.

And please, just keep your mind open, look at the data. Look at the people
who get the vaccine and how they will be protected and be safe, and I hope
most people will finally decide to take this vaccine.

WALLACE:  But let me pick up on that, Doctor. You rightly say one of the
concerns people have is that this vaccine was pushed through for political
reasons and there was some -- a new data point, if you will, on that just
this week.

On Friday, the White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows called in the FDA
commissioner, Stephen Hahn, and reportedly said to him, approve the vaccine
by the end of the day or at least raise the possibility that he might lose
his job. And that same day Friday, President Trump tweeted this: Get the
damn vaccines out now, Dr. Hahn. Stop playing games and start saving lives.

Question, sir, is that helpful in persuading people that this vaccine is
all about the science and not about politics?

SLAOUI:  I think, first, those are rumors. I can't -- I can't know if they
are right, true or not.

I do think it's not helpful because it's not needed. The day before on
Thursday, this past week, it was actually a remarkably transparent
discussion over the whole day transmitted on TV live, of all the data of
the Pfizer vaccine.

There was a vote by independent experts who said yes, this vaccine is safe
and effective and should be used in people that are 16 years of age and
older.

And next day, the FDA was going to look specifically in some more points
and more importantly, after they go through administrative steps and
approve the vaccine. If that phone call happened, I think it was useless
and unfortunate, and so are some of the tweets.

WALLACE:  So, you're -- finally, as a doctor, your prescription for getting
this vaccine out and people taking it would be tell the politicians to keep
quiet?

SLAOUI:  I would say so, or just don't pay attention to that. I could tell
you that for the last seven months, we have worked super hard in the
operation with the companies, with scientists, with everybody involved.

There was a lot of noise on top of us in terms of the politics and the
tweets and, you know, the campaigns, et cetera, on all parties, but that
did never translate into any kind of interference of any sort. And I would
assume that the FDA behaved exactly the same way.

People can talk on top of the news, et cetera, but the experts are working
and doing their work in the relentless way, just focusing on the science
and the data.

WALLACE:  Dr. Slaoui, thank you. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us
and again, sir, congratulations on the remarkable work by you and by your
team.

SLAOUI:  Thank you.

WALLACE:  And thank you, sir.

SLAOUI:  Thank you, Chris.

WALLACE:  Up next, lawmakers scramble to approve a plan for COVID relief
before they leave town and benefits expire for millions of Americans. We'll
talk with the leader of the bipartisan group pushing a compromise, Senator
Joe Manchin, about the issues that still divide the parties and what's at
stake for all Americans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE:  A week ago we told you about a bipartisan group of lawmakers who
put together a compromise package for coronavirus relief. It looked then
like it might sail through, but no longer.
 
Joining us now from West Virginia, Senator Joe Manchin, a leading member of
the Gang of Eight pushing that plan.
 
Senator, is the Gang of Eight's compromise, $908 billion, is that plan now
dead and is there a chance that Congress may leave town for the year
without passing any COVID relief at all?
 
SEN. JOE MANCHIN, (D) WEST VIRGINIA:  Well, first of all, Chris, the plan
is alive and well and there's no way, no way that we are going to leave
Washington without taking care of the emergency needs of our people. And
that's all over our country and my state of West Virginia too. They are all
hurting everywhere.
 
WALLACE:  But it seems you've got -- and I'm going to get into some
specifics in a minute -- you've got the president --
 
MANCHIN: Sure, sure.
 
WALLACE:  -- pushing one plan, the Senate Majority Leader McConnell pushing
another, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats a third. You know, it seemed, as I
say, a week ago like maybe they were all going to come together behind your
plan. There's an awful lot of talk that negotiations have fallen apart.
 
MANCHIN:  Well, here's the thing, it hasn't fallen apart. We've been
meeting day and night for the last month. We were on a call all day
yesterday, we get on a call again this afternoon to finish things up. We'll
have a bill produced for the American people tomorrow, $908 billion.
 
Now, Chris, the bottom line is there's a lot of parts to this bill and in
the spirit of compromise, you have to work through all of that. But at the
end, you can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. There's going to
be -- individually, if you put a bill up, there's (ph) -- some of the
members wouldn't vote for certain parts of the bill but when you put them
altogether and look at the good it does for our country, in the most
emergency way that we need it, this is only until April the one (ph).
 
We are trying to get through the toughest first quarter of our country that
we've ever faced and we've got people without nutrition, we have people
without shelter, we have people without paychecks, they're unemployed. We
have -- hospitals are being overburdened. We have health care workers. We
have schools that need to be attended to.
 
This covers all of that and we give all the small businesses a chance to
survive until the first quarter. By then we should start to come out with a
vaccine that should be helping us and Joe Biden will be our president and
make a determination what more's needed. This is strictly an emergency
measure.
 
WALLACE:  But I just want to make it clear, the bill you're talking about
tomorrow is a bill that the Gang of Eight agrees on. You don't have
majority support in the Senate. You don't have majority support in the
House. Let me ask you about some of the alternatives that are out there now
and let's -- if you don't mind, a lightning round, quick questions, quick
answers. 
 
President Trump says forget -- President Trump says forget the unemployment
benefits, just send a single stimulus check, $600, to each American. Is
that a good idea? 
 
MANCHIN:  It's a bad idea and I hope he reevaluates that statement because
basically if you're sending stimulus check of $600 or whatever it may be,
it was 1,200 before, you're sending it to people that still have a paycheck
and still have a job. If you send a check to an unemployed person, you are
sending a person that has no lifeline, it's done at the end of this month.
They've got nothing. We're going for $300 extended for 16 weeks. I think
that's much more reasonable, practical, and much-needed. 
 
WALLACE:  All right, Republican leaders still want some liability
protection for businesses so people, when they go to a restaurant or a
school or whatever, can't then sue and say you gave me COVID. Democrats
still want a lot of aid to cities and states, but the Republicans don't
like the Democratic idea, the Democrats don't like the Republican idea. Is
that still the hold-up?
 
MANCHIN:  Well, the spirit of compromise is this, everybody's not going to
get what they want. We can get something we could all live with but we are
putting a product forward. It's going to go forward with both -- with
everything hopefully in it. You will see a complete bill tomorrow before
the end of the day. 
 
Then you can choose if you like it or not. Vote for it or vote against it.
Look at that good it does as a whole, not an individual piece. There's
nobody that wants a business to be litigated out of business. They are
going to be tough enough just surviving. On the other hand, we don't want
to throw caution to the wind that the businesses aren't safe places to
work, the workers not protected, and the people that patronize these places
of businesses are not in a safe environment. 
 
We have to take all that into consideration and do the best we can. I
remind you this, it's for a short period of time. A short period. We are
not changing the tort laws forever. We're just trying to get through an
emergency period of time.
 
WALLACE:  All right. Some senators are saying, look, liability is an issue,
aid to cities and states is an issue, let's forget about both of those in
this bill and just stick aid specifically to unemployed workers and aid to
small businesses on the bill that you've got to pass to keep the government
running to avoid a shutdown. Forget about that other stuff for now. What to
think about that idea?
 
MANCHIN:  Chris, that's the easy way. That's the easy way out. We can
forget about the tough things. That's what we've been doing for 10 years or
more. No one wants to take a tough vote. They are all afraid it's going to
hurt them in the election. We are here to take tough votes. We're here to
help our country that's having a tremendous hardship going on right now and
it's going to get worse before it gets better. 
 
So with that being said, that's the easy way. We can drop off both
liability and drop off aid to states, but states and municipalities
especially, they are on the front line. You want your services to go,
essential services, first-responders, firemen, policemen? You want all
those to be in jeopardy? The services that we depend on and need, to let it
fall apart and then think we can pick it back up? You want the airlines to
collapse? 
 
You want all these things to go by the wayside? We don't. We are going to
make the tough selection. Now if the rest of the caucus won't go along with
it, they will decide what they can throw out. If the leaders can come
together -- but we worked as a bipartisan group and we've grown over the
month. We got a good product that has been vetted in so many different
ways. 
 
And the only thing I can tell you, we've done what this place is supposed
to do. We've worked together. We didn't work apart and condemn each other
and point fingers. We've got a good product and we want the American people
to know that in America, we can do it in a bipartisan way. We can do it and
we are going to do it.
 
WALLACE:  Senator Manchin, you've done a very good job of selling your
plan. You have not done a good job of convincing me though it's going to
get passed by Congress in the next week.
 
MANCHIN:  Well, there's no guarantee. There's 535 people that have to vote,
535. I can't guarantee they're all going to vote for it and pass it. But I
can tell you one thing, what's the alternative? What are you going to do?
We would give them one month, day and night, our staffs have worked around-
the-clock. We've done everything we can to put an all-inclusive product
together.
 
Pick whatever parts you like, whatever parts you don't like, put it all
together or take it as a whole. We are going to give it to you the way we
think the American people need it. In an emergency situation, we need this
legislation. 
 
WALLACE:  Senator Manchin, I want to switch to just one other subject.
We've got a little...
 
MANCHIN:  Sure. 
 
WALLACE:  We've got less than two minutes left. Do any of Joe Biden's
nominees, members of his team, give you heartburn? For instance, you --
back when Barack Obama appointed Dr. Vivek Murthy as surgeon general, you
opposed that. He is now being renamed by Joe Biden, Dr. Murthy, for surgeon
general. You've got Xavier Becerra for HHS.
 
Is there anybody that he has named so far that you think, I'm not sure I
can vote to confirm them?
 
MANCHIN:  Well, let me be very clear, I've been very deferential with
President Trump, President Obama's before, and I will be very deferential
with President Biden.
 
I think a president ought to put their team together. Unless that person
has done something wrong or totally runs amok of what I believe and what I
represent the state of West Virginia, then basically I always have said OK,
put your team together.
 
Their will and pleasure. If they screw up and they're bad, you're going to
be held accountable and in four years, the people can atone that.
 
So I've been very deferential. I'm going to look at each one of them. There
might be some that I don't agree with. I will be able to let the Biden
administration know how I feel but we haven't done the personal interviews
yet before we confirm. I look forward to that.
 
WALLACE:  Senator Manchin, thank you. Thanks for joining us and good luck
this weekend coming up with a relief package, Lord knows the country needs
it. Thank you, sir.
 
MANCHIN:  Chris, we are going to do it. People believe in America. This is
a great country and the people need help right now so we can be great
again, and we'll make it happen, we will.
 
WALLACE:  Well, the power of positive thinking. Thank you, sir.

Up next, the investigation into Joe Biden's son Hunter complicate the
president-elect's choice of the new attorney general. Top House Republican
Steve Scalise joins us. That's next.

(COMMERRCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE:  Coming up, Republicans accuse a Democrat on the House Intel
Committee of jeopardizing national security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER:  Eric Swalwell should
take it upon himself to resign for Intel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE:  We'll ask a top House Republican, Steve Scalise, about Swalwell's
involvement with an alleged Chinese spy. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)


930
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Democrats are playing defense with
President-elect Biden's son under investigation for his tax dealings and
Republicans demanding answers about Congressman Eric Swalwell, a member of
the Intelligence Committee, and his ties to a suspected Chinese spy.

Joining us now, the number two Republican in the House, Congressman Steve
Scalise.

And, Congressman, welcome back to FOX NEWS SUNDAY.

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): Good morning, Chris. Great to be back with you.

WALLACE: So the Electoral College votes tomorrow. When the electors, 270 of
them, vote in favor of Joe Biden, and he becomes the president-elect, will
you stop contesting this election?

SCALISE: Well, Chris, look, there has been a lot of contesting of the
election in multiple states. The president's done it, other groups have
done it too, and that's because of the concerns people had. When you look
at massive vote swings days and weeks after the election, millions of
people feel very frustrated with this process. And, look, there -- there's
going to ultimately be a conclusion to this, but for now I think, if you
just discount the fact that millions of people wonder, why is it that in
some states Florida, Texas, large states, they had the results by 10:00
that night and then in other states it was days and weeks. And during those
days and weeks you saw massive vote swings that just cede a lot of
distrust. That's got to get resolved. We've got to start getting back to
the point where we can resolve elections on the night.

WALLACE: But -- but -- but -- but -- but -- but, Congressman Scalise --
Congressman Scalise --

SCALISE: Yes.

WALLACE: There -- the reason that there were these votes swings was because
in a lot of states they weren't able to count the millions of mail-in
ballots until election night. And everybody knew that -- and, in fact, it
happened in Florida, it went the other way. They were able to count the
mail-in ballots early, so it favored Biden early and then it swung to
Trump. In Pennsylvania, they had to count the mail-in ballots late, so it
started pro-Trump and then it swung to Biden.

I mean what -- let me put it this way, the -- the attorney general of the
United States, Bill Barr, appointed by Donald Trump, said he had his
federal investigators go out, there was no vote fraud.

SCALISE: Well, Chris, first of all, look at New York, right? The Claudia
Tenney race in New York. She's up by 12 votes. Just the other day they
found 55 votes in a desk drawer. You know, this kind of stuff -- people
look at this and go, what is going on? This is the United States of
America, it's not Venezuela. That's what gets people irate. You know, why
is this still going on?

Let's have a chain of custody. Let's get back to making sure that everybody
can have full confidence in our elections. But just to look the other way
and say, hey, look, you know, three weeks later they pulled -- they pulled
the corner like -- people are very frustrated with this. There's still an
election in Georgia on January 5th. And three weeks from now, we need to
encourage people to go back out, but also to have a system where there's
going to be more confidence than what they saw back in November.

WALLACE: But, you know, there have been thousands of lawsuits and they've
been rejected by state courts, by federal courts, by federal courts, by
judges appointed by Donald Trump. And on Friday night the Supreme Court
threw out a lawsuit that was brought by the attorney general of Texas and a
number of other attorney generals. And 126 Republicans in the House,
including you, sir, signed onto that lawsuit. The -- the Supreme Court
threw it out without even listening to it. This was a lawsuit that was
going to throw out the -- the votes in four swing states, Georgia,
Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. I mean you were talking about
disenfranchising the 10 million Biden voters who supported the president-
elect in those four states. Do feel comfortable throwing out millions of
votes of your fellow Americans?

SCALISE: Well, nobody wants any votes thrown out, Chris. And, the fact, the
70 plus million votes that are also at stake for President Trump.

WALLACE: But that's what your lawsuit would have done, sir.

SCALISE: Well, no. What -- if you look at the Texas lawsuit, what it was
saying if, there are some states that didn't follow the laws that were on
their books. The Constitution is very clear that it's state legislatures
that set the process for -- for having electors. Some secretary of states
changed those rules.

WALLACE: Well, with -- with all due respect, sir, the Supreme Court -- the
Supreme Court threw -- the Supreme Court threw that out. They didn't even
hear it. They didn't think it even merited a hearing.

SCALISE: Well, the Supreme Court said they weren't going to take the case.
They said Texas didn't have standing. They said Texas didn't have standing.
They didn't say they were going to address the merits.

Look, the Supreme Court, I think a lot of people know, didn't want to be
anywhere near this court. They don't like getting in the middle of disputes
between other branches of government. And that's just something they've
done throughout history.

WALLACE: So -- so, bottom line, even though the electors tomorrow are --
more than 270 of them are going to say that -- that Joe Biden is the next
president of the United States, you're not willing to recognize him as the
president-elect, and you're not willing to stop contesting this election?

SCALISE: Well, hold on, Chris. First of all, Joe Biden has been going
through a transition that even President Trump supported, while he's also
following what the court allows. There are legal challenges allowed. Nobody
said back during Bush v Gore, prior to the Supreme Court finally resolving
it, and ultimately there -- there was an -- you know, electors met, there
was a swearing in. Nobody disputed that. Maybe some of the Democrat side.
But you didn't see people ask prior to that to pass judgment before it was
fully resolved. Let the legal process play out.

But if you want to restore trust by millions of people who are still very
frustrated and angry about what happened, that's why you've got to have the
whole system play out. There will be a president sworn in on January 20th,
but let's let this legal process play itself out.

WALLACE: All right, let me switch to another subject.

We learned this week that the Justice Department is investigating the
president-elect's son, Hunter Biden, for his financial dealings with
foreign countries. We also learned this week that -- that Attorney General
Barr knew, of course, about this investigation and decided to keep it
secret before the election in conformance with Justice Department
guidelines, not to interfere in elections.

Do you think Barr was right to do that?

SCALISE: Look, again, this is one of those things that -- that sows more
distrust. You know, President Trump was laying this out. A "New York Post,"
this was the infamous "New York Post" front page story that Twitter blocked
because Twitter said it wasn't valid. I think you yourself even said you
expressed concern about this story. Many of the mainstream media were
mocking people who were putting this story out there and it turns out it
looks like it was true. And, again, this -- this is something that's very
serious. We need -- and I think people deserve answers to what really
happened here.

WALLACE: But, well, wait -- sir, they -- we don't know -- we don't know if
anything is true or not. We -- we just know that there's an investigation
going on.

Let -- let me ask you a different question. Here is what president --

SCALISE: Right, but -- but even -- yes, but that was being laid out and
that's where Twitter blocked even the story by "THE NEW YORK POST."

WALLACE: I never blocked it. I -- I, you know, I reported on it.

SCIUTTO: No, Twitter did.

WALLACE: I -- I just said we need -- yes, I understand.

Here's what President-elect Biden says about the Department of Justice in
his administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT FOR THE UNITED STATES: It's not my Justice
Department. It's the people's Justice Department. So the persons or persons
I pick to run that department are going to be people who are going to have
the independent capacity to decide who gets prosecuted, who doesn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Do you trust Joe Biden -- excuse me -- to continue this
investigation when he becomes president and his attorney general is in
charge after January 20th, to continue the investigation of his son?

SCALISE: Well, I'm sure whoever would be put up for attorney general would
be heavily scrutinized by the United States Senate. That is the advise and
consent role that they would play.

But, again, these are concerns that were laid out during the campaign,
including yourself, other people in the media expressed concerns about that
story and Twitter blocked the distribution of the story and it turns out
there's a lot of merit to it. Whether it's completely true or not, we're
going to find out, but it's being much -- much more widely reported now
after the election and it's another reason that people have real distrust
in -- in the mainstream media.

WALLACE: Again, just quickly, one of the people who didn't report that
story was Attorney General Barr, who purposely kept the investigation
quiet.

Do you blame him for doing that?

SCALISE: Well, again, it's very frustrating and I'd love to hear his reason
why. But at the same time, you know, you see a lot of these things that are
going on and the president was talking about him, other people were talking
about it too. But then, for various reasons, you saw the mainstream media
who would block the distribution of those stories.

WALLACE: OK, finally, there's -- there's a lot on the plate here.

Congressman Eric Swalwell, who was warned by federal investigators back in
2015 about his association with Christine Fang, a woman who raised money
for him, and he was warned that she was allegedly a Chinese spy.

Here's what your House leader, Kevin McCarthy, set about that this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): This man should not be in the Intel Committee.
He's jeopardizing national security. What is being said in those meetings
inside the SCIF that we don't want other people to hear or listen

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Final question, I've got less than a minute left, Congressman, do
House Republican Leader McCarthy or you have any evidence, hard evidence,
that Eric Swalwell gave -- did anything wrong in his relationship with this
woman, knew that she was a spy before he was warned about it and ever gave
her sensitive information?

SCALISE: Well, Chris, these are questions that Eric Swalwell himself needs
to answer, and Speaker Pelosi. Did she know about this before she put him
on the House Intelligence Committee? He got on there in just his second
term. That's not common. You look at all of the relationships with Chinese
spies in the bay area going back to Dianne Feinstein as well. Why did this
happen? Why, by the way, did Speaker Pelosi block what Kevin McCarthy and a
lot of us were working on in a bipartisan way to get a Chinese task force?
She was initially supporting it and ultimately she pulled back and blocked
the Chinese task force that was looking into activities by China.

So there are a lot of very serious questions to be raised. But at a
minimum, and I agree with our leader, Kevin McCarthy, Eric Swalwell should
not be on the House Intelligence Committee. And we need some answers now
that they, for whatever reason, are hiding. They're very quick to go to the
microphone and accuse others of being Russian spies. Turned out they were
the ones that were associating with Chinese spies.

This is a real alarming revelation that just came out.

WALLACE: Congressman Scalise, thank you. Thanks for coming in, sir. Always
good to talk with you.

SCALISE: Great to be back with you, Chris. Thanks.

WALLACE: Up next, we'll bring in our Sunday group to discuss President
Trump's continuing battle to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, I worry about the country
having an illegitimate president. That's what I worry about. A president
that lost. And lost badly. This wasn't like a close election. You look at
Georgia. We won Georgia big. We won Pennsylvania big. We won Wisconsin big.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: President Trump talking with Brian Kilmeade at the Army-Navy game
yesterday, refusing to give up his fight to overturn the results of the
November election.

And it's time now for our Sunday group.

GOP strategist Karl Rove, Fox News correspondent Gillian Turner, a former
member of the National Security Council under both Presidents Bush 43 and
Obama, and Charles Lane from "The Washington Post."

Karl, as we noted, the Electoral College votes tomorrow and then on January
6th the Congress actually counts the votes and formally declares a winner.

Do you expect President Trump to continue to contest the election past
tomorrow, maybe even past January 6th, and do you think he's either helping
or hurting both himself and the country?

KARL ROVE, FORMER BUSH WHITE HOUSE ADVISER AND FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well,
I believe that he will. I wouldn't be surprised to see tomorrow that there
are maybe attempts to disrupt some of the voting in the six contested
states. I wouldn't be surprised to see expressions of public support for
the president's position from Trump electors and states that he carried. I
wouldn't be surprised on January 6th -- I fully expect that one senator and
one representative at minimum, that's what's required, can file a statement
contesting the Electoral College results, but I don't see that it's being -
- going to be overturned tomorrow and I don't see that it's going to be
overturned on January 6th.

As to your second question, it depends on -- you know, the answer to that
depends upon what's his goal? If his goal is to lay the predicate to come
back in 2024 and run again, he's helping himself at least gain the
nomination, but I think, in the long run, he's not helping himself or the
country. America likes comebacks, but they don't like sore losers. And he
is on the edge of looking like a sore loser and probably will look like it
after January 6th.

WALLACE: I want to put up the results of a new Fox poll. Let's put it up on
the screen. Was the election stolen from Trump? The third of all voters,
all voters, say yes, as do 77 percent of Trump voters and 68 percent of
Republicans.

Gillian, how bad for the country, when -- if you believe those polls,
millions of Americans are not going to believe, on January 20th, when he
takes the oath of office that Joe Biden is the legitimate president?

GILLIAN TURNER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's more evidence of the two
Americas that we currently live in, Chris. I will say that the thoughts and
views and feelings of the Americans represented in that poll do matter.
Public opinion really counts in American politics, as it should. We don't
want to discount that.

But here's the rub. In light of that, the Trump legal team had a very
specific job to do in the courts in order to get those views represented.
And court after court after court has now said the Trump legal team failed
miserably to get that job done. We now have Trump judges, Obama judges, and
W. Bush -- George W. Bush appointed judges who have all said they failed to
provide compelling evidence. The type and amount of evidence that would be
needed in order to disenfranchise their other fellow Americans. So that's
really what drives the day here.

It's not going to be, unfortunately for these Americans represented in this
poll, their feelings. That's the way that it is, because they don't believe
that President Biden won this election fair and square does not mean that
by default President Trump is going to get a second term.

WALLACE: Chuck, how do you answer the Trump supporters, and we just showed
pictures, there were thousands of them out in the streets in demonstrations
in D.C. yesterday, how do you answer those Trump supporter that say,
listen, before you -- you get all upset about what we're doing to Joe
Biden, remember the millions of supporters of Hillary Clinton and the key
figures in the intelligence community, and the FBI, and the Justice
Department who were undercutting Donald Trump even before he took office?

CHARLES LANE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, I mean, you could even go
further and say there were some Democratic numbers of the House who
proposed challenges to the electoral vote during the count, just as Karl
suggests will happen this time.

But I think the best answer to them would be that the president had it
within his control to assuage, to some extent at least, the concerns of
people who were willing to give him a hearing and the benefit of the doubt
at the beginning of his term. And if you look at the polling data and --
and the record from that time, there will were people, notwithstanding
those you may have mentioned, out there in America who were willing to give
President Trump a chance, and President Trump did nothing during his four
years to reach out to people who were at all persuadable and instead
catered exclusively to his base. He lashed out in vicious terms even
against his own appointees, like Jeff Sessions.

And so, you know, it may be -- may well be true there was a resistance,
hashtag resistance, but the president, through his own actions, did -- did
absolutely nothing to, in a way, disprove --

WALLACE: Right.

LANE: To those people that they needed to resist.

WALLACE: So we're beginning to run out of time. I'm going to need quicker
answers.

I want to talk about Joe Biden, who is putting together his team. Here he
is this week announcing his choice for secretary of defense, retired
General Lloyd Austin.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT FOR THE UNITED STATES: I want to thank you,
General Austin, for once more stepping forward to serve your nation. This
is not a -- a post he sought, but I sought him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Karl, relatively briefly, what do you make of Joe Biden's picks?
What do you make of their political leanings? What do you make of their
prospects for confirmation?

ROVE: Yes. Most of them are comfort food. They're people that he knows for
a long time and he feels comfortable having them around. A few of them are
throwaways to the hard left, Neera Tanden at OMB, the -- Xavier Becerra,
the attorney general of California, are -- are in the hard left of the
Democratic Party, and he's got to have a couple of them. And my sense is
he's going to have trouble with both of those nominees. And then he's going
to have sort of a bipartisan problem with General Austin, who's a
remarkably gifted individual, don't get me wrong, but he has been out of
the military for, I think, four years. The requirement under the law is
seven years. So you have to get a specific waiver from Congress. All those
Democrats who voted against giving a waiver to General Jim Mattis to be
secretary of defense are now going to be subject to cross pressure. But
sort of three boxes. People he's -- most of them are people he's
comfortable with. Some of them are people who are technocrats and some of
them are sort of, you know, I've got to appease the left of the Democratic
Party. So even if they don't have any experience with, say, Health and
Human Services, I'm going to make Becerra the HHS secretary. Lots of
fireworks.

WALLACE: Chuck, in a somewhat shorter period of time than Karl, what you
make of the Biden team and someone this week said, you know, instead of a
team of rivals, he's appointing a team of retreads because so many of them
come from the Obama administration.

LANE: Well, it's a -- it's a mixed bag. I thank a lot of what Karl said is
true. Probably the biggest retread in if -- in that sense is Tom Vilsack,
who has been Agriculture secretary for eight solid years before and now is
up for another four. He is trying to thread a needle, which is diversity,
loyal to -- to himself, an ability to do the job. And I think he has felt
that confirmability, strangely, is -- is sort of taking a backseat. I think
Neera Tanden's going to be tough to confirm and General Austin as well.

WALLACE: Real quickly, about 15 seconds, Gillian, you -- who -- who's the
one that's in the most trouble getting confirmed?

TURNER: Well, I -- I want -- probably Neera Tanden, but I wanted to just
say quickly, I kind of disagree with Karl, they're not comfort food, these
people, they're picked for a very specific reason, and that is their
government know-how. The Biden team's entire MO is to try and scale back
and undo as many Trump policies as they can.

WALLACE: Go to go.

All right, we're going to work with all of you on the lightning round.

Thank you, panel. See you next Sunday.

Up next, our "Power Player of the Week." A new social media platform
causing a stir in the name of free speech.  

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Twitter has millions of users. FaceBook has billions. But there's
a relatively new kid on the block that's creating quite a stir by doing
things differently.

Here's our "Power Player of the Week."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN MATZE, CEO, PARLER: Parlor is a paradigm shift when it comes to social
media. So the idea is that people have the power on social media rather
than the central authority of the company itself.

WALLACE (voice over): John Matze is CEO of the social networking site
Parler.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Parler, it's a fun, new social media app.

WALLACE: In a field dominated by tech giants, it provides a new and
unconventional choice.

MATZE: The idea is free speech, privacy, and data sovereignty. The idea
that you own your own data and your own experience.

WALLACE: Matze compares the platform to a town square where people can
engage without intervention. Conservatives have flocked to the site as an
alternative to FaceBook and Twitter, which they say censored their voices.

WALLACE (on camera): How is speech more free on your platform than some of
the others?

MATZE: On Parler, when you say something, it goes out to everybody that's
following you instantly. And in the order that you've set it. Other places
don't do that and they give preferential treatment to some content over
others.

WALLACE (voice over): Parler does have a few rules, like banning
communication to commit a crime. But here's what you won't see.

MATZE: Censoring people like you would on Twitter, kicking them off like
they did, you know, "The New York Post."

WALLACE: The platform also talks a different language.

WALLACE (on camera): Instead of a tweet on Parler, it's a --

MATZE: Parlay.

WALLACE: And a retweet is a --

MATZE: Echo.

WALLACE (voice over): Over the past two months and the election, Parler
membership has exploded, from 4.5 million accounts to more than 12 million.

WALLACE (on camera): Why do you think that is? More than double.

MATZE: I think recently it's become more clear to people the differences in
social media, but it's -- it's more of a movement.

WALLACE (voice over): One that has come with controversy.

WALLACE (on camera): The flipside of free speech is that you get racist
slurs, you get violent threats, you get pornography. Any problem with that?

MATZE: So things that are illegal in the United States are not allowed on
the platform. Thanks that people don't like in society, nasty racial slurs,
things of that nature, that doesn't get picked up.

WALLACE (voice over): President Trump is demanding Congress eliminate
Section 230 of the Communications Act, which gives social media special
protection for its content. This is one area where Matze joins Twitter and
FaceBook.

MATZE: Section 230 is the only thing protecting free speech online now. Are
there ways to fix it? Possibly. But I don't think a universal removal of
230 is -- is the right answer.

WALLACE: But as social media and political divides continue to grow, Matze
believes Parler's separate path is the right one.

MATZE: For me, it's getting discussion back into the people's hands. Let's
see people communicate. Let's do it in the spirit of, you know, the First
Amendment. Let's do it in the spirit of what our republic is about and
really, you know, change things.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Matze says Parler will soon release a new feature called "Dens" to
help expand discussion on the platform beyond politics.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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