This is a rush transcript from “The Story with Martha MacCallum," August 21, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Recovered from Wilmington, and looking forward to seeing you on Sunday as we kick off another big week, Bret. Have a great night.
BAIER: See you then.
MACCALLUM: You bet. OK, everybody. So, we've got now 74 days until the 2020 election. Good evening, everybody. I'm Martha MacCallum, and this is THE STORY.
In the past 40 years, an incumbent candidate has unseated - has been unseated only twice. Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter with an optimistic vision of the country, a message that he delivered when he accepted his party's nomination in 1980. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The American people, the most generous on earth who created the highest standard of living, are not going to accept the notion that we can only make a better world for others by moving backward ourselves and those who believe we can have no business leading this nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: See, that's what it sounds like when people are actually there fighting in the audience. Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. Bush. Bill Clinton presented himself as the man from Hope. He ushered in a new era of American politics when he accepted his party's nomination in 1992. Here's what that looked like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have news for the forces of greed and the defenders of the status quo. Your time has come and gone. It's time for a change in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Now, Joe Biden hopes that he can do the same thing coming on the heels of his acceptance speech. Some called it the best speech of his political career. Here's a piece of last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I'll be an ally of the light, not the darkness. It's time for us, for we, the people to come together. And make no mistake, united, we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Very tough to do these speeches to an empty room, so did last night's speech give the former vice president the momentum that he would need to defeat Donald Trump? This race is tightening, tied right now in Minnesota and in Pennsylvania. Just to give you an idea, Katie Pavlich and Jessica Tarlov standing by to debate. But we begin tonight with the White House Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany. Kayleigh, thank you very much. Good to see you tonight. We heard a little bit of the president's - great to have you.
We heard a little bit of the president's reaction. One of the big themes throughout the course of this week was that the president is unfit. Many of the speakers said and they said that he is not up to the job. We heard that from Michelle Obama and a lot last night about leaving the darkness behind and going to a place that is lighter. What is the White House response to those to all of that?
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Yes, that could not be more off base. I'm with the president in the Oval Office as he makes decisions in real time. And I can tell you this. He has one singular priority and it is not the politicians that operate in this town. It is the American people. I've seen him make decisions on COVID, on the economy and what he has done each and every day to say, I don't care what the politicians are saying, I don't care what the establishment is saying. I'm working for the American people on a V shaped recovery, on a vaccine.
By the end of the year. It will be the fastest pace for a vaccine, for a novel pathogen in history. That is his priority and its entirely off base the things you heard this week and I think next week you'll hear an entirely different story.
MACCALLUM: What about - I think almost every single speaker that we heard from said that Joe Biden was a decent, good man. This was one of the major themes that we heard, the suggestion being that President Trump is not those things. They obviously have very different styles. And the president has said many times, if you don't like my tone, there's not much I can do about that. Does he try to counteract that in any way? Does he try to show himself in a different light at this convention or not?
MCENANY: Well, here's the thing you get with President Trump, you get authenticity. And look, I've watched him interact with parents who have lost their children because of crime on the streets. And I've watched him interact with families who lost their children to police brutality. We think most police are great, hardworking men and women in this country. But I've seen him on both sides of the issue, and I've watched him express empathy and come out of that room and be very affected by it.
But I've also seen this, and it's something you don't always see from presidents, a president who looks the American people in the eye and says, I'll stand up to Iran, I'll stand up to dictatorships. I will fight for America first on the world stage. And I've watched him sit across from foreign leaders and not be afraid to say, how does this help America? How does this put the United States men and women first? He's unafraid. He's unabashed, and I'll fight for the American people aggressively. It's something he won't apologize for.
MACCALLUM: So, obviously, the whole issue of the mail in ballots and what Democrats are saying is an effort to slow down the wheels at the post office so that fewer votes actually get where they need to go once those mail in ballots are sent out. Here's Hillary Clinton on MSNBC today talking about her concern.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm really worried that there will be direct interference with the election through the manipulation of the Postal Service. I don't think there's any doubt that any sensible person should have that there's a deliberate effort to sabotage vote by mail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: So, she says clearly there there's a deliberate effort on the part of the president to sabotage the U.S. mail service.
MCENANY: Yes, not in the slightest. The president signed into law the CARES Act, which provided a $10 billion line of credit for the post office. We offer $10 billion in negotiations to which Nancy Pelosi didn't accept and left town and now has manufactured a crisis.
The real crisis here is this. When you have Nevada in their primary mass mail out voting, not mail in, mailing out to their entire voter rolls, ballots, which ended up in trash cans piled up in trash cans and the Las Vegas Journal Review did great reporting on this and pinned to the boards of apartment complexes that undoubtedly opens ourselves up to fraud. We saw charges in Paterson, New Jersey. There were charges in L.A. County. This is a system subject to fraud and this president will fight for the integrity of our elections.
MACCALLUM: So, we've seen here in Paterson, New Jersey, they're going to redo that election of the one that you just mentioned. The president has said that he believes that that the only way he will lose is if this is a rigged election. Does he think that that is going to happen? It feels like both sides are preparing already for a post-November 3rd argument over who won and who lost. Do you think this thing goes on for some time?
MCENANY: We certainly hope that doesn't happen. The president wants an election with integrity. But when you look around the country, it's not just Nevada, it's not just New Jersey. We saw this in Pennsylvania as well when the system which was created and designed for absentee voting, voting for a reason when you're unable to vote, when it is flooded with a mass influx of ballots, what we see is what happened in New York, where it took more than six weeks to determine the outcome of Carolyn Maloney's race. And you had about 20 percent of ballots rejected.
We want a system that enfranchise these people, that enables people to vote, and that ultimately captures the will of the American people. And that's what the president will fight for.
MACCALLUM: So, there was a lot of attempt during the last week at the Democratic National Convention to show themselves as a very diverse party. That was clearly one of the thrusts of all of the videos and a lot of the things that they that they put on the screen.
There's a story that just came out a little while ago on Politico that that claims that there's a leaked audio of President Trump speaking with black civil rights leaders at a meeting and saying that he was glad that voter turnout, black voter turnout in 2016 was low. He said that that was great for him. Have you seen or heard this audio? Do you think it's of concern or is there different context that you think it should be seeing in?
MCENANY: Yes. Literally, as I was walking out here so probably 60 seconds before I joined you, I had someone flagged that story for me. And what I was told is the broader context of this audio suggests that the president said it's a good thing that black voters realized that Hillary Clinton was not the candidate to advance their interests. In fact, it was President Trump who brought black unemployment to its lowest rate, brought extended funding, permanent funding for HVCUs, criminal justice reform. He's fought in for black men and women around this country. And I believe the election will tell that story in a very palpable way when you see the number of black men and women who show up to empower this president.
MACCALLUM: Just before I let you go, and I know you work at the White House and not in the campaign, but the big night is going to be at the White House. Is there anything that you can tell us about how the tone or any part of this is going to be very different given the virtual nature of all this than what we've seen so far?
MCENANY: Yes, it's a really good question. And I can tell you there's going to be a big difference. In the last convention, in the Democrat convention, you saw a whole lot of politicians. This convention, you're going to see a whole lot of American people. This is the president who's for the people, he's an outsider. And you're going to see the American people featured in a way that was deftly and toned deftly absent from the Democratic National Convention.
MACCALLUM: While I'm sure they would say they had a lot of real people in there too. But we'll be covering all of it and we look forward to it in Washington next week. Kelly, thank you very much.
MCENANY: Thank you, Martha.
MACCALLUM: So, joining me now, Katie Pavlich, editor at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__Townhall.com&d=DwICAg&c=cnx1hdOQtepEQkpermZGwQ&r=tgDLkJy54PfJyWJwul3dKe54qGxqO7b7d5vjo7RcZds&m=9A1hOk-kPnkBBx9TT7Sn2yvGxK-iChHgeLiFJRTtC8U&s=AWHcurGlo57QGSsKjDjJc-gpWmimde9awfT5ikTKQiQ&e= , and Jessica Tarlov, Senior Director of Research at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__Bustle.com&d=DwICAg&c=cnx1hdOQtepEQkpermZGwQ&r=tgDLkJy54PfJyWJwul3dKe54qGxqO7b7d5vjo7RcZds&m=9A1hOk-kPnkBBx9TT7Sn2yvGxK-iChHgeLiFJRTtC8U&s=IcBAs3jWbqUcSmDfaeoY-LSawL5PiIECBKyqeoHji0c&e= . Both are Fox News contributors. Good to have both of you with us. I want to start with a sound bite, Steve Hilton just did an interview with President Trump. And hi there. And here's what he had to say about Joe Biden's speech last night. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's what he didn't say. And he got through the speech and I thought he got through it in a very decent manner. It was the shortest speech they say ever made of its kind. So, it was short, didn't talk about law enforcement, didn't talk about what's happening in all these Democrat run cities like Chicago, New York, Portland, and many others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Jessica, that that was a very glaring omission to not talk at all about the scenes that we have seen in the inner cities across this country and obviously the suburban voter, which are people who live very close to these cities and follow what goes on there very closely is a very important element in this. So, do you think that that was a mistake, to not acknowledge what's going on there?
JESSICA TARLOV, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__BUSTLE.COM&d=DwICAg&c=cnx1hdOQtepEQkpermZGwQ&r=tgDLkJy54PfJyWJwul3dKe54qGxqO7b7d5vjo7RcZds&m=9A1hOk-kPnkBBx9TT7Sn2yvGxK-iChHgeLiFJRTtC8U&s=XbG03qXy16wBrUHc0iUD53LgBntFfAqqwXL69jeekRE&e= : I'm not sure I would call it a mistake so much as a missed opportunity. I do think there was a way to gracefully talk about the difference between peaceful protest in honor of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement and rioting and looting that's going on between 1 and 4 o'clock in the morning in cities like Portland.
Lori Lightfoot was part of the convention, the mayor of Chicago. She has spoken out about the violence, raised the bridges over the last weekend for the first time in a very long time. We certainly could have had that discussion and in that way honored the good police officers and said the bad apples have no place in this dialogue.
But I would say that this election comes down to health care and what's going on with COVID-19. And the contrast couldn't be starker than listening to Joe Biden talk to the families of the 170,000 Americans who lost their lives versus Donald Trump when asked about the COVID death toll, saying it is what it is, which has become a catchphrase across all of the DNC with Michelle Obama, most notably on Monday night using it.
So, I think that Joe Biden did a great job with the contrast of light versus darkness. I completely take your point there, but I think that we know who is really fighting for the soul of this nation and is the empathetic party, which is the Democrats.
MACCALLUM: I mean, two very big topics right now. When I think of darkness, though, I do think about a lot of these videos that we're seeing. I think about this man getting kicked in the head outside of his truck. I think about the former police officer in New York City that we just showed last night who was kicked and beaten by someone in the middle of broad daylight on 39 streets.
So, I just do feel that there's an ignoring of this issue. And I don't think that voters like it when they feel like they're being told to sort of like, hey, look at this shiny thing over here. When something is happening right in front of them that they want to know how - what they're going to do about that.
KATIE PAVLICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Look, it is not empathetic to ignore rioting and burning down of businesses of the very people that Democrats claim to be standing up for, like immigrants in Minneapolis, for example. An African immigrant who came here, saved all of his money, was a firefighter in Minneapolis to open a sports bar. It was closed for COVID-19 and he was about to reopen it. And then it got burned down. And Democrats didn't have anything to say about that. It's about the Ethiopian immigrant who owned a furniture store in Minneapolis. So, Democrats claim to be standing up for, but are completely ignoring on this issue.
Yes, COVID is at the top of mind of all Americans, but so is law and order and safety. And for Democrats just to completely ignore it and then stand on the soapbox of empathy doesn't really add up when it comes to policy positions and what they would actually do. And in terms of dealing with the pandemic, last night, Joe Biden talked all about how it doesn't have to be this way. He would have handled the pandemic differently but didn't give any details. And when he said that he would engage in PPE and testing.
Well, the Trump administration has done a lot of that. The testing is a little slower than it should be. But they created a test from scratch, pulled off a lot of government regulation to do it. And Democrats are the party that likes to put a lot of regulation onto private industry when the Trump administration has taken it off to fight this virus. And COVID isn't just about fighting the virus, by the way. It's about people's economic livelihood. It's about children's education. It's about suicide rates. It's about overdoses. So, the president has talked about all of those things and doing more than one thing at once. And Joe Biden hasn't addressed any of it in detail.
MACCALLUM: OK, so, Jessica, there were - we also didn't hear a lot about specifics about how jobs would be created. I know that obviously Joe Biden talked about wanting to build back better and to build people's jobs. And one of the things that I think is tough on that front is when you talk about raising taxes at the same time, is that a difficult hurdle for Democrats in this election?
TARLOV: It wasn't for Bill Clinton and everybody looks pretty favorably on the economy of the 90s. I talked to a lot of Republicans who yearn for the days of Bill Clinton. I think Joe Biden has been pretty exclusive--
MACCALLUM: Bill Clinton wasn't coming off of the COVID-19 pandemic and 30 million people unemployed.
TARLOV: No, but Barack Obama was actually far worse circumstances coming out of the Great Recession, and he brought the unemployment rate down by over 10 percentage points. He got millions of Americans back to work. He bailed out the industries that needed to be bailed out. He invested in infrastructure and in clean energy and created millions of jobs and on top of it got tens of millions of Americans health care.
There is a formula for this, and it comes from the Obama-Biden administration. President Trump likes to run around talking about how great his record is. He built on the successes of Barack Obama. And it's time that he started admitting that from job creation to the black unemployment rate, it all started with Barack Obama.
MACCALLUM: OK. Final quick thought, Katie.
PAVLICH: Barack Obama had the slowest economic recovery since World War II and he lied to the American people when he said, if you like your health care plan, you can keep it and stripped millions of Americans of their health care plans that actually made health care more expensive in this country. So, if Barack Obama wants to endorse Joe Biden and Biden wants to run on the record that they had, they're going to have to answer for answer for a lot of the policies that put a lot of Americans in a very difficult economic situation.
MACCALLUM: Going to be very interesting few months--
TARLOV: Health care plan.
MACCALLUM: Jessica Tarlov, Katie Pavlich, thank you.
PAVLICH: Thanks, Martha.
MACCALLUM: Good to see you both.
TARLOV: Thanks, Martha.
MACCALLUM: Thank you, guys. Thank you. So, we just talked about the violence unfolding in the cities like Chicago and the people who live there who fear for their lives or their homes or their goods in their stores that you see being marched off on the left hand side of your screen. So, did you know that the mayor of Chicago has banned demonstrations, however, on her block?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D-IL), CHICAGO: I think that residents of the city understanding the nature of the threats that we are receiving on a daily basis, on a daily basis, understand that I have a right to make sure that my home is secure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Charlie LeDuff joins me on that and the growing unrest across the country, next.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right here is another example of white men feeling comfortable. I bet you've never had a struggle in your life. Your flag does not represent justice and liberty for all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: So that video purported to be from a Portland neighborhood this week, one of the many cities that are run by a Democrat that has been plagued with unrest and with demonstrations. And we've seen a lot of that across the country. Some of them have turned quite violent.
Just last night, protesters in that city faced off with federal agents outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in the 80 days since these protests began. Police in Portland have been forced to declare riots 17 times, which gives them a little bit more authority to move in.
And in the city of Chicago, local reports state that the unrest, the violence and the looting, there may be one of the reasons that police officers are retiring at unusually rapid rates, which is something we're seeing in many cities as well.
So meanwhile, you've got the mayor of Chicago coming under fire now after the Chicago Tribune reported that she had banned protesters from demonstrating on her block.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIGHTFOOT: That's given the threats that I personally receive, given the threats to my home and my family. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that they are protected. And I make no apologies whatsoever for them.
I think that residents of this city, understanding the nature of the threats that we are receiving on a daily basis, on a daily basis, understand that I have a right to make sure that my home is secure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Here now Charlie LeDuff, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of the book show The Country Is Collapsing and the ratings are great. Charlie, thank you. Always good to have you with us. Thanks for coming in tonight. I'm struck. Obviously, everyone understands that public officials, the President of the United States, mayors do deserve some protection. She has a police protection that's always in front of her house. That's a normal thing that comes with the job. But what do you think about extending that perimeter to the whole block? And what do you hear when she talks about her need to want to protect her family?
CHARLIE LEDUFF, PULITZER PRIZE WINNING JOURNALIST: You know how it is to have these jobs now. I mean, in a way, I understand she's scared. One, you have a responsibility to us, however, to explain the nature of these threats, so we can assess the necessity for this.
Two, I call my people in the Chicago Police Department. You've got cops in your home; you have them outside your home. To extend it out is to pull cops from that district so everybody else gets less. So, in a way, it's hypocritical, you know what I mean? You have 80 percent approval rating, and yet you feel besieged by a really serious (ph) minority that we're seeing tear up as all over the country.
And I just think at this point, it's just not credible. You took the job. You're not allowed to cordon off the world when the rest of us want exactly what you want. We would like the police to respond to us. We would like professional police to protect us. And when you do it, we don't have it. So, I guess this is up to Chicago to deal with it. But if it was to be done in Detroit, the guy would be laughed out of town.
MACCALLUM: Yes, I'm reminded of what she said during COVID when everybody across the country was struggling with something different was just that they couldn't get to do the things that they normally do. And here's what she said about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIGHTFOOT: I'm the public face of this city, I'm on national media and I'm out in the public eye and, I'm a person who I take my personal hygiene very seriously. As I said, I felt like I needed to have a haircut. I'm not able to do that myself. And so, I've got a haircut.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: I mean, how many people felt that way during COVID? Right.
LEDUFF: And I needed to be manscaped. Did I go? No. We've got our own barber shut down here, just outside the state capitol because other people wanted haircuts. You've got to know when you're a public figure in this country, you've got to live like the rest of us. You do. So, what, you're on TV, put a hat on. That's what you do. Or like our governor said, look it up on Facebook or Google, how to cut your own hair. Because I coined a new old saying, if you don't live in a gated community, make yourself one. Just get the cops to come around. We don't have enough cops. I don't know.
MACCALLUM: I mean, I would think about the people that you talk about in the inner city who want more police officers on their block, because we talk about defunding the police and you have done great work talking to people who just say, look, I really I'm afraid on my block and I'd like to see some more police officers here. What did you think about the fact that we didn't hear that subject discussed too much at the national convention for the Democrats this week, Charlie?
LEDUFF: It was a whiff. It was a complete and utter whiff because this thing really does depend on that great middle. It does. It depends on - it is about health care and everything, but it depends on the great mill (ph) and what you're saying about it. So, I just thought it was an opportunity lost. Obviously, it's in front of us. That's part of the great anxiety of the country. And you missed.
And I don't understand what's going on in Portland because what you have to know about Portland is that's the whitest big city in America. It's exactly the opposite of Detroit. It's 80 percent white. We're 80 percent black. It's five percent black. We're 80 percent black. Our average income is 25,000 a year. Portland is 65,000 a year. Our average home is worth 40,000 a year. They're 400.
So, if you can't get whatever you're saying, like bad cops out, it's not going to work anywhere. So, my friends in Portland, what I would tell you is busy yourself with the police commissions and the city council meetings and take it to city hall, not to some strange guys house, call him a white privilege guy, because you're all white privilege guys. Come on, man. Don't threaten each other, because we all can have cops around our house, they don't come. And they don't do folk songs about people that go to city council meetings, you know what I mean like we can do better than this.
Yes, they should have talked about it, they did not, and I really fully expect them to, because I'm--
MACCALLUM: I'm not sure what's going on at the city council even in these days. But we'll pick it up next time. Charlie, thank you. Great to see you as always.
LEDUFF: Thank you, Martha.
MACCALLUM: Have a great weekend. You bet.
So, coming up next, former Republican national security officials declaring Trump unfit to serve and endorsing Joe Biden. Will that make a difference and how similar is that list of the same list we saw in 2016? President Trump's former acting director of national intelligence, Ric Grenell is up next.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We shouldn't have gone to Iraq. Once we did, the way they got out was a disaster. Our failed Washington establishments have spent $6 trillion on wars in the Middle East and now it's in worse shape.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Keeping U.S. troops out of foreign conflicts was a big part of President Trump's campaign to American voters in 2016. At the time, he was rebuked by 50 Republicans, national security officials who signed a letter that read in part. Donald Trump would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our country's national security and well-being. But they stop short of endorsing Hillary Clinton.
But now, four years later, that list of GOP officials has grown. There are now at 73 names on that list and they have signed another letter echoing the same concern. Only this time, they did offer an endorsement as well.
Quote, "Trump lacks the character and competence to lead this nation. It is in the best interest of our nation that Vice -- that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next president of the United States."
Richard Grenell worked closely with the president as the former acting Director of National Intelligence, was the ambassador to Germany and also worked at the United Nations under many different ambassadors for years. Ric Grenell joins me now. Ric, good to have you with us tonight.
(CROSSTALK)
RICHARD GRENELL, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Some of whom signed this letter, Martha.
MACCALLUM: Thanks for being here from California.
GRENELL: Thanks. I was saying some --
MACCALLUM: Excuse me?
GRENELL: -- some of my old bosses who signed that letter.
MACCALLUM: Yes. Exactly. Of course. You know, so what do you think of that and you know, what do you think of the fact that we see a group of these individuals, you know, Colin Powell, John Kerry, all getting together to complain about Trump's foreign policy and to advocate for something that, you know, President Obama said he wanted to get us out of the wars.
GRENELL: Look, this is nothing new. They all attacked candidate Donald Trump, many of those people made it clear that they were endorsing Hillary Clinton. Some of them e-mailed me to say that they were not going to be supporting candidate Donald Trump back then.
Look, their argument is the same, they don't like Donald Trump saying he's not going to start any new wars and he is going to bring our troops home. Many of these same individuals freaked out when we decided that we would move the U.S. troop level in Germany from 34,000 to 25,000. It's crazy to think that 25,000 troops in Germany is not enough.
And so, the question has to be asked, at what point are these individuals going to be able to say that something new and different needs to happen? We've had foreign policy failures. I find it quite ironic, Martha, that this group endorses Joe Biden on the seventh anniversary of the biggest failure of Joe Biden's career when in Syria, Bashar al-Assad gassed children after the Obama-Biden team said they would do something about it.
We saw this gassing of children, a genocide by all accounts, and nothing was done. So, I find it really troubling that this group which really pushes war inc. in so many ways, wants to somehow say that the return of Joe Biden and the return to the status quo is going to be better. It's really troubling to many Americans.
MACCALLUM: Yes. It's very interesting.
GRENELL: We know longer have a problem of Republican versus Democrat. We have a problem of Washington versus the rest of the United States.
MACCALLUM: It's interesting way to put it. I mean, we all remember President Obama talking about the red line that would be drawn if they started moving chemical weapons around or using them in any way and then that red line went unanswered which is, you know, a very significant moment in that administration.
Here is John Kerry the other night at the DNC. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: For the eight years of the Obama-Biden administration, we lead by example. We eliminated the threat of an Iran with a nuclear weapon, we built a 68-nation coalition to destroy ISIS. We forge a 195-nation agreement to attack climate change.
Donald Trump inherited a growing economy and a more peaceful world, and like everything else he inherited, he bankrupted it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Your response?
GRENELL: I mean, look, he has been panned for that. It's the rewriting of history. He has played footsie with the Iranian regime. We -- we're trying to ensure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon and what John Kerry and Joe Biden did is literally take $1.5 billion of cash in the dead of night and put it on pallets and gave it to this homophobic regime that supports terrorism. This is outrageous.
We are not going to be lectured to by John Kerry who had a front row seat to a genocide in Syria and sat in his chair the entire time. I mean, don't forget during this red line in Syria, the decision not to go in and help children who are being gassed, Barack Obama told us that the last person out of his office before he made that decision was Joe Biden.
MACCALLUM: Before I let you go, you have said that President Trump is the most pro-gay president in history and I expect that we may hear more about that this week. Final thought on that before I let you go, Ric.
GRENELL: Barack Obama and Joe Biden --
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: Because some people disagree with that as you know.
GRENELL: -- twice ran for president against the gay marriage, President Trump entered office for gay marriage. He's been fantastic. He tries to make these issues a nonissue. We don't want this to be a partisan issue. We want to move on from this. The other side tries to make it as partisan as possible.
So, I'm really proud to work for this president because he really is the president who thinks of people as people and doesn't put them in boxes.
MACCALLUM: Ric Grenell, thank you. Very good to see you tonight. Thanks for coming by.
GRENELL: Thanks, Martha.
MACCALLUM: So, the Boston bomber who helped kill three people and injured more than a dozen more said that he wanted to die before a court overturned his death sentence. Now Attorney General Bill Barr wants to change the course of that. Howie Carr here, next.
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MACCALLUM: Attorney General Bill Barr pushing to reinstate the death penalty for convicted Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after a court last month overturned his death sentence that was handed down in 2015. Jurist ordered Tsarnaev's death by lethal injection after seeing mountains of evidence including a note recovered from the boat where they ultimately found and who can forget that search and that night when he was found.
The note was riddled with bullet holes and stained in his blood and it read in part, I'm jealous of my brother who was shot and killed by the police. You are fighting me who looks in the barrel of your gun and seas heaven. How can you compete with that?
Here now, Howie Carr, host of the Howie Carr show and columnist for the Boston Herald. Howie, good to have you with us.
I mean, this, this memory is seared in the hearts of people across this country no more so than the people of Boston though, who remember this chilling episode that they all lived through. What do you think is going to happen here and what do you think is the people of your community would like to see?
HOWIE CARR, COLUMNIST, BOSTON HERALD: I think the people, most of them, not all, but most want to see him back on death row. I mean, he deserves it. He and his entire family came here they were seeking the so-called political asylum from religious persecution, they came here. They got everything handed to them on welfare, they were just small-time grifters who became terrorists. And you know, there is no reason for him to still be, you know, eating up the resources.
This trial, Martha, it caused untold millions. he had -- he had a team of warriors for the trial for his appeal. He had a jury selection specialist which I guess they do in all capital cases. They even had a poster for his defense that was taking surveys of where he can get the most fair trial, and for this just to keep going on and on and on.
And you know, the worst thing is the judge who wrote the decision said well, don't worry, he's going to remain in prison for the rest of his life but, you know, how do we know that that? Who the -- how do we know who is going to be the president in 40 years? I mean, Bernie Sanders during the campaign already said, you know, I think voters should vote and that includes the Boston marathon bomber. So, I think people want him back them.
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: Yes. In fact, I asked him that question in our town hall in Pennsylvania and I was amazed that he was able to answer that that way, you know. I think it says so much about our justice system the way that you described how much, how people have been over backwards to make sure that he has the fairest possible representation.
CARR: Right.
MACCALLUM: And I think about, you know, a terrorist like that who hates our country so much and now is being given this incredible legal team an opportunity to get every bit of justice that we can offer him. This is also found its way into the Ed Markey-Kennedy race that's going on right now in Massachusetts with regards to the death penalty, right?
CARR: Right. It's a very contentious race, Joe Kennedy is the grandson of Bobby Kennedy, he's a congressman, he's trying to take out the junior senator, Ed Markey, who was in the House for 37 years and now has been in the Senate. He's 74 years old. I don't think Joe Kennedy is even 40. They are going after this.
MACCALLUM: Yes.
CARR: But the bigger, the bigger point in this case is, ed Markey has kind of, you know, gotten in with AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez --
MACCALLUM: Yes.
CARR: -- who was very popular in Democrat circles anyway, and she's endorsed him. She has come up the campaign, she's a graduate of Boston University up here. And so now Joe Kennedy --
MACCALLUM: Right.
CARR: -- has retaliated by getting the support of Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker. So, the irony there, Martha, as you know, is that Nancy Pelosi said I don't want my members getting involved in primary races against incumbents. And now -- now she has --
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: And then there she is, right in the middle of it.
CARR: -- she's done the same thing. She is fighting -- she is fighting him in combat. It's great.
MACCALLUM: it's great. It's great. So, politics are great. Watch this. This is a crazy moment from the debate. I want to get this in real quick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman Kennedy, when was the last time you cried?
REP. JOE KENNEDY III (D-MA): Yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, when was the last time you cried?
SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): It was on Sunday at an event when I heard a statement that was made that was just so powerful that I could not stop and my emotional reaction to it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: My gosh. This is the most ridiculous moment, Howie. I mean. And then, you know, they ask the question and then not even to find out why. Like, now I want to know what made you cry? And we never knew the answer.
CARR: A silly -- yes, a silly question. I'm going to guess that Joe Kennedy was crying when he got through the results of the latest polls which showed that as a Kennedy, he was still two points behind Ed Markey of all people.
And I'm going to guess Ed Markey was crying when he thought about it, if he loses the race he is going to have to move back to Massachusetts from the beltway after 43 years down there. So, those are just my theories about what they were talking about.
MACCALLUM: You know what, I bet if Joe Kennedy said that, I cried yesterday when I saw the polls, he probably would have won the election.
Thank you, Howie. Great to see you. We'll be watching that Massachusetts.
CARR: Thank you, Martha.
MACCALLUM: So just ahead, of the 75th anniversary of the end of world War II, or during that period the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient who is a marine who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima is here to share his heroic story. I will talk with Woody Williams, next.
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MACCALLUM: What was a somber day today at the White House as the Trump family said goodbye to Robert Trump, the president's brother during a private service at the White House this afternoon.
Here are some of the scenes from those moments, as you see the front steps of the White House the president and the first lady with the family behind. Robert Trump was the youngest Trump brother. He died Saturday after being hospitalized in New York with an undisclosed illness. He was part of the family business at one point, as a top executive in the Trump organization and he is the person that the president had described as his best friend.
He tweeted just a short time ago, Robert, I love you. Rest in peace. Robert Trump was 71 years old.
You can hear the bagpipes there, sort of memory of their Scottish heritage in the family. President Trump's mother was -- her ancestry came from Scotland. So, we send our condolences to the family of course on this -- on this occasion today.
So, coming on Sunday night, we start the whole new cycle with the Republican National Convention up next, and Bret Baier and I will kick off the whole week with a Sunday night special at 10 o'clock Eastern. We'll do that live in Washington, D.C. as we get ready to cover four nights of the Republican National Convention, some of it virtual, some of it live with a big event on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday night when the president gives his big speech. And we expect to see some fireworks there as well, and hopefully some fireworks throughout the week to report on for you as well.
That's THE STORY of Friday, August 21, 2020. But as always, THE STORY continues as you know. So, we will be here for you on Sunday and throughout next week. Have a great weekend, everybody. Good night.
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