Pentagon says China trying to build 'world-class military' to match U.S. military by 2049

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Pentagon says China trying to build 'world-class military' to match U.S. military by 2049

Beijing now controls the largest navy in the world and is attempting to double the size of its nuclear warhead stockpile over the next decade; reaction from Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane, chairman of the Institute for the Study of War.

This is a rush transcript from "The Story," September 2, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: And here we go, everybody. Tonight we got some brand new polls for you in the battleground states, they look like this. President Trump down by 3 in these three states, I should say, down by 9 in Arizona, 8 in Wisconsin at this point, 4 in North Carolina in this current snapshot coming out of the two conventions.

So this is we saw dueling speeches today. Biden in Delaware again today talking about reopening the schools. He took some questions from the reporters. First time we have seen that in over a month from Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If President Trump and his administration had done their jobs early on with this crisis, American schools would be open and they would be open safely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: And President Trump today in Wilmington, North Carolina, amazing place to visit, he was commemorating the 75th anniversary of the day that Japan signed the instrument of surrender on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Veterans of the war including Woody Williams, who you've met here a couple of time; Medal of Honor winner from (inaudible) he was at the Oval Office. Several of them were on Air Force One to North Carolina, so a very big day for all of those heroes and we are going to have more for you on that in just a little while tonight.

But with 62 days to go, if the President is to hold on to the White House, he would have to win the state-city one last time, plus a little combination of a couple of others. Minnesota is one of those that is on the list for his campaign. He lost it to Hillary Clinton by 1.5 percentage points.

The latest real clear politics average shows the President trailing Joe Biden in the state of Minnesota by about five. Biden will try to drive up suburban voters in Minneapolis and to do that he must win the battle over who makes you feel safer in those areas. A front and center issue in this campaign.

But in the Northeastern area of the state in what's known as the Iron Range region, an area that Clinton won, President Trump has carved out and worked at this for quite some time of following there. One of the things that they are interested in is improving copper and nickel mines that were turned down by President Obama and also they are interested in law and order there as well, given what's happened in their state.

So my next guest is the mayor of a city that lies within that Iron Range area. He is an independent, former Democrat, now independent, just endorsed President Trump, along with five Democrat mayors in his state. Mayor Chuck Novak of the city of Ely joins me now. Mayor, good to have you here tonight. Thank you very much for joining us.

Why do you think that we have seen this sort of momentum shift in your part of Minnesota?

CHUCK NOVAK, MAYOR OF ELY, MINNESOTA: Hi, Martha. Thanks for having me.

MACCALLUM: Thank you.

NOVAK: In order northeast Minnesota has been primarily in mining, logging, and tourism. Our mines closed on 1967, logging has been decimated, we are down the Trump economy as at a point where median income is below $36,000. The Twin Metals project, part of them have their richest copper, nickel, precious metals ore body is being fought by environmentalists right now.

And we are asking, "Let's go forward, let's do the process, let the EPA and the other agencies get this mine plan of operation". But our economy needs to grow back to where it was, we need to be vibrant again. We need good paying jobs, $60,000, $70,000 to $100,000 a year to get over that median income deficit that we have.

The Obama administration canceled the renewal of the leases for Twin Metals. The Trump administration says "no, renew the leases, let's move forward with this". These metals are necessary for clean energy. Copper is very (inaudible) and nickel is very important, plus there are many precious metals in there. And we are just trying of always having the thumbs down on the economy (inaudible) and President Trump is the hope for us.

MACCALLUM: Interesting, very interesting. The steelworkers union in district 11 does not agree with you and other mayors who have changed their support in this election. They say, "Our union believes that these mayors are misguided and don't fully understand the nature of the economics of the industry or the iron range. Just drive down the main streets of Virginia or Eveleth and count the shutdown businesses. It hardly seems like the 'roaring back to life' that these mayors describe". That doesn't exactly sound like what you just said. What do you say to them?

NOVAK: Well, I say first off, that whether that they have said those statements from (inaudible) and I never got to see before my signature was a fix to it. I never signed it personally. That was a copy of my signature. I understand what they are saying, but on the other hand, the main leadership of the iron - the steelworkers union has joined forces with the Sierra Club, an environmental group, we talked to the workers on the ground, the majority of them are supporting President Trump, not the leadership.

MACCALLUM: Interesting. Very well, we've seen that a lot around the country. What's your feel for things, 60 some days out, do you think that President Trump will win Minnesota, or do you think it will go towards Joe Biden?

NOVAK: I think it's leaning towards President Trump for Minnesota. President Trump took northeast Minnesota by almost 16 points in his last election. So I know we are going that way along with Pete Stauber for Congress and Jason Lewis for Senate.

MACCALLUM: Very interesting and very good to talk to you, Mayor Novak. Thank you for your time tonight. We will appreciate watching this whole process play out over the next couple of months. Thank you, sir.

NOVAK: And thank you, Martha. Well, I might say happy birthday to my bride of 39 years today.

MACCALLUM: Happy birthday to her. You're going to get extra points for that tonight.

NOVAK: Absolutely.

MACCALLUM: Thank you, Mayor Novak. Good to see you tonight and happy birthday to your bride.

So joining me now, Corey Lewandowski, senior advisor to the Trump campaign; and Ed Rendell former Governor of Pennsylvania and former Chair of the DNC; also a long time friend of Joe Biden. Gentlemen, great to have both of you with us tonight.

Ed Rendell, let me begin with you. You have been watching all of this for many years. What goes through your mind as you listen to that hardworking mayor in his northeastern area of Minneapolis, an area that has been blue for decades, say that he and the other mayors in his region are going to vote for President Trump?

ED RENDELL, FORMER GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA: Well, look I can understand their frustration. But I would advise them to talk to some coal mine workers. President Trump said he was going to rise the coal industry, it hasn't happened, there are actually less coal workers employed today than there were coal miners than there were before President Trump became President. So it is things like bringing back industries depend on a lot of different variables and it's always tough to gauge whether they're going to be there or not.

I do think President Trump has a chance to win Minnesota. I think it's closer than it's been. I think anytime you see a poll, Martha, that says Donald Trump is down by five points. He is a lot closer than that, because there are people who (inaudible) pollsters. We've seen in Pennsylvania I predicted in 2016, in the line of pollsters, they don't want to admit there for the President but they are. So I think that 5 point lead is probably more like three points for us. So it is going to be real close, I think, it will go right down at the end.

MACCALLUM: Yes. Corey, your reaction to the mayor there and other mayors who agree with him, and to the polls that we are seeing tonight, which are definitely getting tighter. And you can believe them or not believe them, but they are what they are as we sit here today and look at those numbers.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, FOUNDER, LEWANDOWSKI STRATEGIC ADVISORS: Well, Martha, the state of Minnesota is changing. John McCain lost that state by about 10.25 points, Mitt Romney lost it by about 7.69, and Donald Trump lost it by 1.5 and the state is changing dramatically. We see that the Biden campaign is saying that they are going to go and start campaigning in Minnesota because I'm sure they've seen the same polling day that we seen, which is this is a pickup opportunity from 2016 to expand the electoral map.

It was a state that we came very close in, but as the mayor said, "The rank and file of people who work in these unions have historically voted and supported Donald Trump now, and they're doing so in greater numbers every day because of his economic prosperity which is coming to all corners of this country". So I think that we have a very good opportunity to winning Minnesota and expanding the map.

MACCALLUM: All right.

LEWANDOWSKI: I also think New Hampshire is a place where Donald Trump is going to do very well. I was with him on Friday there when we had 8,000 people turn out for that rally.

MACCALLUM: OK.

LEWANDOWSKI: So we are on the offense right now.

MACCALLUM: New Hampshire lost by 3,000 votes last time around and I know that you think he can close that gap. Another just note here on Minneapolis, very interesting piece today by Tom Friedman in the New York Times, talking about the community that he grew up in Minnesota and he said, "Community leaders in north Minneapolis are unnerved by the notion of dismantling the police force for a vague alternative at a time when their neighborhood has experienced a surge in gang shootings, lootings and drug dealing.

All exacerbated by the pandemic, spiraling unemployment, and demoralized police officers, who after the Floyd killing, don't always have the numbers or the will to show up".

Ed Rendell, that I think well defines the concerns that a lot of people have in the suburbs of Minneapolis and in other places across the country where they are seeing this violence. And he's referring to a coalition of black and white families together who don't want to see the police defunded. They want to see reforms put in place, definitely, but they want to make sure that there is a ceiling number of police officers, because they simply don't have enough people to patrol the streets.

RENDELL: Well, listen, Martha, Joe Biden the first time he was asked about defunding the police, said absolutely not, and your own Chris Wallace exposed in his interview with Donald Trump, he exposed that Trump lied and somehow Biden was for defunding the police. I refer it in the tape that Chris Wallace did a great job.

MACCALLUM: But just to be clear, when he was first asked about it, he said he wanted to move the money around. And so, the way that I hear it, a lot of police officers who heard that say, well, you can't move the money around without giving us a little bit less. If you want more for social workers, if you want to reorganize that money, and that is the way that they saw that. So are you saying that he doesn't want to allocate any more funding towards social work or any of those other areas and away from certain aspects of police?

RENDELL: No, I think he was talking about moving the money around within the police budget, less money for equipment and paraphernalia (inaudible) more money for police. Remember, Joe Biden gave us the crime bill, which he's attacked for now, but that added 100,000 police to the streets of America--

MACCALLUM: Well, he never talks about that, Ed. He doesn't want anybody talking about that now.

RENDELL: Well, I'm talking about it because I was mayor at the time of Philadelphia and he added 1,000 policemen to our force. So Joe Biden is not going to strip any police from their jobs. I guarantee you.

LEWANDOWSKI: Martha, I served as a police officer interesting he state of New Hampshire on the same blue line, went through the academy and stood there toe-to-toe with other men and women who protect us every day. And I can tell you every conversation I've ever had with President Trump was, he is going to defend and not defund the police.

Shifting resources away from the police department, the men and women who serve every day is defunding them? Never have I traveled around this country anywhere where someone has said to me, I want a less safe environment, a less safe school, a less safe place to worship, but that's what we get under Joe Biden administration--.

MACCALLUM: But Corey, let me ask you this before we wrap up, because I was watching a panel on another channel today of undecided voters, women who live in the suburbs, they say we think Donald Trump is just trying to scare all of us. We are not that worried about what is going on in those cities that are far away.

LEWANDOWSKI: Look, if it's me, I think every American has the right to safety and security at their homes, at their schools, at their place of worship and their businesses. But if we look at the television, we see cities being destroyed by the marauders running through the streets. That's unacceptable in a civilized society. This President is willing to stop and if he gets a phone call, the mayor just have to invite us in to do that, but we stand with the men and women who serve on the police departments around this country.

MACCALLUM: Thank you, gentlemen. Great to see you both. Corey Lewandowski, Ed Rendell, thank you sir. Good to have you here.

LEWANDOWSKI: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: So coming up the 2020 battle over COVID-19 as the CDC indicates to states that they should begin the process of getting ready for distribution of vaccines as early as November. Donna Brazile and Guy Benson coming up next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We are delivering life- saving therapies and we'll produce a vaccine before the end of the year or maybe even sooner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: Joe Biden having focused on the violence in our cities in the Pittsburgh siege, which got a lot of attention turned to schools. Again, today the former Vice President sitting down with education experts in the morning, then he went after the President this afternoon. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Let me be clear. If President Trump and his administration had done their jobs early on with this crisis, American schools would be open and they would be open safely. Mr. President, where are you? Where are you? Why aren't you working on this? We need emergency support funding for our schools and we need it now. Mr. President, that is your job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Donna Brazile is former Chair of the Democratic National Committee; Guy Benson, host of The Guy Benson show, and a political editor for Townhall.com, both are Fox News contributors. Welcome. Great to have both of you with us tonight.

Donna, I spoke with the education secretary Betsy DeVos on the program last night. There's been $13.2 billion that has gone through K-12 in the earlier stimulus bills and there's been a proposed $58 billion more. And I think a lot of people will look and most of that $13.2 billion has not even been used yet for a lot of the school budget. So I think a lot of parents look at that and say why do people keep saying that they need more money to go back to school and they're going to strike if they don't have it. The money doesn't seem to be the issue necessarily.

DONNA BRAZILE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, as an educator, Martha, what concerns me is that not only there is money being held up somewhere in the bureaucracy, but we need resources to ensure that we can clean our classrooms, give our teachers and educators the PPE that they need, and to ensure the safety of our students once they return. I am now back teaching online in a virtual space, which is, of course, my home and I'm enjoying it, but yes, we all want to go back to school but we must do so safely.

MACCALLUM: Yes, I think there's a big hang up that seems to be happening in the teachers unions, primarily, who are now saying in New York that they are going to strike if they can't go back, and you got all these families that are very much wanting to get their kids back in to the classroom.

But it seems that Joe Biden, Guy, is right when you look at these polls, because it says, "Who do you trust to do a better job on coronavirus", and you see the gap here in Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Joe Biden coming out strongly ahead of the President on handling of this virus, Guy.

GUY BENSON, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, so I think Biden is doing exactly what he should be doing. It would be crazy for him not to step back and say, "Oh, if this had been done better, things would be a lot better, we would be back to schools, we would have football, everything would be fabulous by now. If I were in-charge, X, Y, and Z".

I'm very dubious that that's actually true. I think a lot of the judgment calls that we know Joe Biden would've made based on his own rhetoric are highly questionable and I think that he's a sort of spinning a tale here for voters. But when people feel like things aren't going well and should be going better and you're the opposition party, not in charge, you have the benefit of being able to make a bunch of promises and assert a bunch of things, not necessarily provable, but it's a counterfactual where people are like, ok, that at least seems like it could be different, let's give it a shot. That is obviously what Biden is trying to do.

MACCALLUM: Yes. I mean in a couple of areas where he has said what he would do. He was asked today by Peter Doocy, "You were still having large events in March, late March, and you were talking about - and now say the President did the wrong thing". But he wasn't stopping those events at that point either, which makes him sound like he probably wouldn't have done anything differently if he was in the White House, necessarily either. And then on the mask mandate today, Donna, he said this. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: There's a question whether or not our President under the constitution could mandate everyone a mask.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So he is essentially saying, I said the other day that I would mandate everyone wear a mask in the country, but it turns out that I couldn't actually do that, wouldn't have the authority. So I'm not sure what he would've done differently.

BRAZILE: Well, the missing ingredient throughout this entire pandemic has been national leadership, the leadership that should be coming from the White House. And whether Joe Biden is elected or not, we need a national leadership, national guidance for all of our state and local jurisdictions. I'm glad that there is a mask requirement now in the District of Columbia. I wish we had had it sooner and perhaps we would not have lost over 600,000 people.

Look, we can play politics, I'm a member of the union. I'm proud to be a union member, but I'm also a member of my community and I'm also a faculty member. So I hope that we are not pitting one group against the other, because we need to follow the science and the data to ensure that we are all safe.

MACCALLUM: Yes, the point is just that he said that as President what he would do differently is that there would be a mask mandate and then today he said, well, I now realize that constitutionally I can't do that. It is actually up to the states, like D.C. did their mask mandate as you point out.

BENSON: Right.

MACCALLUM: So it's just - I'm just trying to determine what it was that specifically that Joe Biden would have done differently, because there is not a couple of these points that doesn't sound like he would've done much differently.

BRAZILE: Well, Martha, as you know Joe Biden came out while Donald Trump was still trying to call it a hoax, Joe Biden came out with a plan, Joe Biden has released several plans. In fact, he talked to Donald Trump. So if we want to take sides in this argument, I will take the side of Joe Biden and say Joe Biden did reveal a plan, he did say that here's what he would do, because he has experience in the last crisis we had in the last administration of handling this. So I do believe that we should follow the signs and the data, because this has had a disproportionate impact on the lives of Americans, my family and many other families, I'm sure your family as well.

MACCALLUM: Well, the polls show that people agree with you, that they think that Joe Biden would handle it better and this is clearly going to be a big issue in the debate. Just a super quick response from both of you on this Nancy Pelosi thing. She says she was set up. Guy, a quick thought and then I would like to get a final thought from Donna on this.

BENSON: It is so unbelievably ludicrous to say this was a setup and that she is the victim and actually a hero because she is drawing attention to the fact that people need to go back to work like she just discovered this today. Brazen, brazen line from Nancy Pelosi, but I'm not surprised and I think she believes she will get away with it because the media is on her side.

MACCALLUM: Donna, what do you say?

BRAZILE: Well, as you know Martha, I don't major in the minors and I think this is a minor conversation. Too many people are dying from this pandemic and I'm glad that she was able to get wash, blow dry, and curl and cut and clip, and I don't care, whatever. I hope she got a good price, because god knows I like to have a haircut every now and then.

MACCALLUM: We all do, but she went on TV three hours later and started yelling about--

BENSON: Right.

MACCALLUM: --how everybody should be wearing a mask, that is the problem.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: So if she were saying what people should use their judgment and do what they think is healthy and safe, then you wouldn't have - then we wouldn't have a problem with here.

BRAZILE: She has more masks than most Americans.

MACCALLUM: She does, this is true.

BRAZILE: I've seen her mask in multiple colors. She has a color wheel of masks and I like the basic blue.

MACCALLUM: Donna, thank you very much.

BENSON: Yes, for loads of different people.

MACCALLUM: Always good to see you guys. Thank you very much. Good to see you guys.

So coming up, very serious topic here. The Pentagon says that China now has the largest navy in the world, and that they plan to double their stockpile of nuclear warheads. China says that that study from the Pentagon is propaganda. General Jack Keane sorts it all out for us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: The Pentagon says that China is well on its way to its goal of becoming a "world-class military" that can match or even exceed the power of the United States armed forces. China now controls the largest navy in the world with roughly 350 ships and submarines compared to 293 for the United States, although we have more aircraft carriers, which is an important detail there.

So it's also attempting to double the size of its nuclear warhead stockpile according to this report over the next ten years. Joining me now with his thoughts on all of this, General Jack Keane, Chairman of the Institute for the Study of War and Fox News senior strategic analyst; general, great to have you with us. So what do you make of this report?

GENERAL JACK KEANE, FORMER VICE CHIEF OF STAFF, UNITED STATES ARMY: Well, I think it's largely accurate. If anything, it may be a little bit understated. China clearly is the most rapid growing military in the world today. They exceed U.S. capability. You mentioned navy ships but also offensive along and medium-range missiles and also air defense systems.

And where they are heading, strategically, on a long-range military path is by 2035 or 40 to be the super dominating military power in the world, something the United States has held ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. That's the path they are on and they are not there yet because to have that kind of domination, you would have to be able to project power worldwide and that means bases, maritime and air bases.

And they are just beginning that. The United States has 80 of those around the world and that certainly enhances our global military capabilities.

Secondly, though, and this is very concerning, at the present time they have a near-term strategy, Martha, and that is to be able to take control of Taiwan militarily and deny the United States and its allies access to be able to stop that control and that defeat of Taiwan.

And militarily, they have done very well with this in preparation for it. When we play war games and we've been playing them for a number of years now and they are out in the open press, we are challenged to win and most times we indeed lose in that very close sandbox to mainland China. The separation between Taiwan and mainland China is less than 100 miles and that's where that fight would take place.

MACCALLUM: Absolutely.

KEANE: And what -- so the Chinese are able to take out all of our bases and keep our navy at bay where they can't use their missiles as well as their aircraft against that fight to assist the Taiwanese. That is their current strategy and it is a sound one. It's what we refer to in military circles, an asymmetric strategy, focused on a very specific threat in a very specific place.

MACCALLUM: So, one of the things that came up in the interview that Attorney General Bill Barr did today with Wolf Blitzer at CNN was he was asked, you know, who presents a bigger election threat because we know that the military aspect of this is just one aspect. They try to infiltrate our elections, they try to expand their influence all through Africa and in other places around the world, but this is what the attorney general said. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Russia, China, and Iran, which is the most assertive and the most aggressive in this area?

WILLIAM BARR, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: I believe it's China.

BLITZER: Which one?

BARR: China.

BLITZER: China more than Russia right now?

BARR: Yes.

BLITZER: Why do you say that?

BARR: Because I've seen the intelligence. That's what I've concluded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: What's your reaction to that?

KEANE: Yes, he's absolutely right. It used to be Russia. Their cyber and espionage program is hard to get your head around the scale of it. There's now tens of thousands involved and there's hundreds of thousands involved in its commitment. Every single day, penetrating the United States, at every capability we have a functioning in this country, the steel intelligence, the steel technology.

Director Wray of the FBI said the majority of his counterintelligence investigations, that means against the foreign threat penetrating the United States, the overwhelming majority is China. So, we shouldn't be surprised that China would have the same intent with our elections.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

KEANE: He said -- which was pretty shocking -- he said, we on average open up a new case against China every 10 hours in this country. It's a massive threat but it doesn't mean they're going to be successful. And I don't think they will be.

The Russians tried very hard again in 2018 and they didn't succeed. And the Chinese, if they try, they are not going to succeed either because we fight back using cyber --

MACCALLUM: Yes.

KEANE: -- offensive technology, which the president had admitted to a few weeks ago.

MACCALLUM: Well, hopefully, you know, as you say, we get better and better at this all the time and we have to be on our toes. I think China is going to be a major issue in this debate. We just learned today who the moderators for these debates are going to be. And we look forward to them. Chris Wallace is going to be one of them.

It's solo moderators for each of these debates. And I know there will be some sharp questioning on how China would be handled because it's the issue that needs to be, I think front and center in foreign policy, as you have said long for a long time.

General, thank you. Very good to see you tonight.

KEANE: Yes. Good seeing you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: You too.

So, we're going to have more of this. Tomorrow night we will speak with the national security advisor, Robert O'Brien, who will be our guest here on THE STORY and we will speak with him.

Up next tonight, though, what do you call the Washington Monument or the Jefferson Memorial if the legacies of those names are no longer, quote, "consistent with D.C. values?" Good question, right? Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt says it will never happen on his watch. He's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: The DOJ confirming tonight that a Florida man has been charged with assaulting a D.C. police officer. That incident happened close to where Senator Paul was confronted by a crowd of protesters after the president's speech on Thursday night. Police say that the officer was holding a police line when 27-year-old Brennen Sermon kicked his bike and ran.

The officer got up, ran to Sermon and he was -- and then allegedly punched the officer, the man from Florida. The suspect has been arraigned on one count of assault on a law enforcement officer. It fits a lot of what we have been seeing as a lot of these people have been coming from other places.

So, also tonight, a task force that was commissioned by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser targeting iconic sites including the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial because of ties to slavery or racial oppression, recommending that some of those be removed or renamed.

The White House fired back, saying, quote, "the mayor's irresponsible recommendations will go absolutely nowhere, prompting the mayor to ask the task force to refine its proposals involving sites not under local control."

Here now, U.S. Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt. Secretary, good to have you with us tonight.

DAVID BERNHARDT, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: I want to draw your attention for us to this other quote by Mayor Bowser's administration. "Interesting to see the White House comment on an intergovernmental report about how to recognize all sides of our history. We expect the White House to help keep D.C. safe by holding the U.S. attorney for D.C. accountable for prosecuting violent crimes."

So, what are your thoughts on all of this?

BERNHARDT: Well, my first thought is that the, no one, no one will be removing or renaming the Washington Monument or the Jefferson Memorial. None of that is going to happen. It's just simply nutty, to be frank.

Secondly, in response to her comments about the U.S. attorney's office, I suggest you contact the U.S. attorney. They've responded to that letter with a pretty strong letter of their own, which lays out, I believe, that they've been prosecuting folks pretty religiously.

And I will tell you this, we have our own officers that have dealt with these matters and the U.S. Department of Justice is giving us a lot of support. So the bottom line is if you commit a crime in interior -- at interior managed properties, we're going to investigate that crime, we are going to prosecute that crime, and if you are convicted, you're going to go away for a long time for that crime and that's exactly the approach we're taking.

MACCALLUM: So, you know, the criteria that they use, was that any of these spaces should only honor individuals who exemplify the values of equity, opportunity and diversity that D.C. residents hold dear.

And here is chiming in, a Seton Hall professor who says Thomas Jefferson, for instance, was a vicious slave holder. If people become more aware of his moral shortcomings and that's what they think of when they see Jefferson statue or a school named after him, well then that becomes harmful. Your thoughts?

BERNHARDT: Well, let's take a step back into reality for a minute and recognize that each of these great individuals did great things. No one is saying that each of these individuals was a perfect human being. I think that would be hard to say, but I will say this about each monument.

Each monument was carefully deliberated upon, carefully placed on our nation's mall. The Jefferson Memorial specifically was advocated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and he was really the primary driver behind the creation of that wonderful memorial.

And if you walk into it and you see the preamble to the Declaration of Independence and other great things, I think that gives you a great sense of what American exceptionalism is about.

MACCALLUM: I stood there many times and read those and it's all under the roof area is all being fixed right now of the Jefferson Memorial. Any update on the president? He said he wanted to do sort of a garden of heroes. How is that coming along?

BERNHARDT: Well that, first off, that is a fantastic question and I really appreciate it because we've done something with the task force that the president set up on July 3rd. We have reached out to 50 governors to 1,900 county commissioners as we've looked at various sites and I was able to provide the president a report of recommended sites.

But on top of that we asked these folks for the number -- for recommendations of the heroes and we have literally received hundreds of recommendations for exceptional Americans who could be placed in a garden of heroes.

MACCALLUM: Interesting.

BERNHARDT: And we are excited about that.

MACCALLUM: I look forward to hear more about that. Secretary Bernhardt, thank you. Great to see you again.

BERNHARDT: Thank you for your time.

MACCALLUM: So, President Trump commemorating a very triumph day in America's history, the end of World War II and the heroes who lead America to victory 75 years ago today.

My Uncle Harry was among those who fought and died at Iwo Jima when he was 18 years old. His story and other heroes' stories coming up next.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We will never forget what you did for us. Your legacy is etched forever into the hearts and soul of a grateful nation.

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MACCALLUM: Today marks 75 years since Japanese dignitaries boarded the USS Missouri in Tokyo and signed after years of brutal war in the Pacific the surrender document. There they are, it's amazing to watch this video, ending World War II.

President Trump paid tribute to those who led the country to victory. More than 41,000 American servicemen were killed fighting in the Pacific. Forty- one thousand. One of them was my Uncle Harry Gray. He fought and died in Iwo Jima at the age of 18.

While writing "Unknown Valor" I learned more, a lot more about his service and about the brave men who fought alongside him, some of whom were also killed and some of whom I got to meet. They made it home.

Now 75 years after the war's end, ancestry.com has released digitized versions of 36 million of the nation's available World War II draft cards, and these have a wealth of information on them.

Ancestry senior family historian Lisa Elzey joins me now. Lisa, great to have you with us this evening.

LISA ELZEY, SENIOR FAMILY HISTORIAN, ANCESTRY: Hello.

MACCALLUM: So, this is a great thing that people can do through ancestry.com and the thing that we just had was my grandfather, Frank Boise's draft card. He did not go to the war, he was 44 years old at the point when he registered and you can see his details on this card and he writes, you know, my grandmother's name in there and everything, it's interesting to see these. But these are going to be very interesting for a lot of people.

ELZEY: Yes, there's a wealth of information on there. I mean, your card (Inaudible) great grandfather it tells where he was working. He was working 10 Rockefeller Plaza --

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MACCALLUM: He was working like right around the block from where I work, which I find very interesting. Every time I go by Rockefeller Center, I think, you know, the two of us we're right -- and right in the same neighborhood.

ELZEY: Yes. Yes, and that's his signature at the bottom of the card, so it's a little piece of him right there, his signature.

MACCALLUM: I recognize it very clearly. You also found Harry Gray's yearbook entry in the 1944 class song. In Harry's yearbook entry he said that he wanted to be an electrical engineer and he would train at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which is where my grandfather was from. And he enjoyed football and skiing. So, he and I share that too. I love football and skiing as well. So, it's so interesting to see these things that you found.

ELZEY: Yes. And it shows that he had plans.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

ELZEY: I mean, Harry had plans after. He knew he wanted to serve but he had plans when he came back. And that included, I know in your book you mentioned dot (Ph) in the book and I'm sure that included her as well.

MACCALLUM: Yes, absolutely. There is an interesting piece of a class song in that yearbook from 1944 from Harry Gray's Arlington High School yearbook and it says, we are marching to a World War, for we're the class of '44. When battles cease, we'll make a peace to last forevermore." And that's exactly what we are remembering today, Lisa.

ELZEY: Yes, exactly. And you know, when he was a sophomore in high school, that's when Pearl Harbor was bombed and his entire, almost his entire high school experience was a world at war. You know, and to be able to go and find this little bits of information about what his dreams were, his aspirations were, you know, deep-diving into those records on Ancestry kind of gives you a bigger picture of may be what his life was like at that time.

MACCALLUM: Yes. Lisa, I really do encourage and I told this to so many people when I was on the book tour, that, you know, for me, it was such an amazing experience to dig into this history, for someone in my family. And I really encourage people to find the military records of the people in their family and you can start with this draft card that is now available on Ancestry.com.

So, thank you so much for finding those amazing bits of history, Lisa. And I thank you very much for being here tonight. Great to meet you.

ELZEY: Thank you. Nice to meet you.

MACCALLUM: So, coming up next, a look back at what happened 75 years ago today, which we must never forget. Stick around. That's next.

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MACCALLUM: Sad because dozens of World War II survivors plan to be in Pearl Harbor today to be part of this whole event commemorating America's victory over Japan. COCID-19 derailed those plans. We were planning to be there ourselves actually. So, the veterans took part in those celebrations virtually. Here are some of the highlights. Watch this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The end of the greatest war.

DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, FIVE-STAR GENERAL: Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world. And that god will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed.

GILBERT NADEAU, WWII NAVY VETERAN: Winning the war meant keeping America, American freedom, and many other countries in this world keeping their freedom.

MANUEL FLORES, WWII MARINE VETERAN: You could not get a better education and going into the service and fight for your country that you believe in. There's no other place better than the good old USA.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today we gather on what was once used as an instrument of war but has instead evolved into an altar of peace and reconciliation. Those Americans showed future generations the sacrifice that we must sometimes make to preserve and protect freedom.

They demonstrate the insurmountable odds that our country can overcome when we act as one. For unity, through selflessness, America can always find a way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We cannot go wrong in following their example in the face of any adversity.

We remember those who served their country with distinction during years of hard fought battles at sea, under the sea, on land, and in the sky above. We've remembered too those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, not only for their country, but also for the friends fighting at their side. And for the freedoms that we still hold most dear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The deep respect that the veterans here with us today have for those who they consider to be the real heroes of World War II, those men who did not come home. The cost of ultimate victory must never be forgotten.

MARK MILLEY, U.S. CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Those with a firsthand knowledge of World War II are becoming fewer and fewer. And so, we all must never forget the horrific cost of the great war and the sacrifices of those that went before us.

MARK ESPER, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: From the deserts of Tunisia to the islands of Midway, and from the beaches of Normandy to the hills of Iwo Jima, these intrepid patriots stood arm in arm and shoulder to shoulder with our allies, determined to achieve total victory no matter how long it took.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The memory of our greatest generation lives on. It lives on in our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen, marines, and our coast guardsmen today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All World War II veterans who couldn't be here, we miss you and we want to tell you that we salute your service.

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MACCALLUM: We cannot go wrong in following their example in times of adversity, something to think about. We thank all those heroes. Have a good night, everybody. We'll see you back here tomorrow.

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