Sen. Bob Casey expects presidential race in Pennsylvania will be close, dismisses concerns over mail-in voting

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Sen. Bob Casey expects presidential race in Pennsylvania will be close, dismisses concerns over mail-in voting

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, Democratic member of the Senate Finance Committee, joins Martha MacCallum on 'The Story.'

This is a rush transcript from "The Story," September 3, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS HOST: Another beautiful story, people coming together with music in Bakersfield. Thank you, Bret. Good to see you tonight.

And good evening, everybody. I'm Martha MacCallum and this is “The Story” in America tonight. We are now 61 days from the presidential election. This race is getting tighter all the time.

Today, Joe Biden flew to Wisconsin. He met with the family of Jacob Blake there. He also met with community leaders and law enforcement. And tonight, right now in the live shot here, we just saw Air Force One land moments ago. President Trump about to disembark at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, which is the home of Rolling Rock beer. If you didn't know that. We do expect him to criticize Joe Biden for being silent on the recent rioting while playing up his law and order message that has been basically the theme of the past few days.

In 2016, he won this county handily. It is Western and it is rural in Pennsylvania. He's there tonight to drive up that vote even more in that region this time around. For the Trump team, it's not necessarily about Philadelphia where there's a high concentration of voters, but perhaps it's about the whole rest of the state to win Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes. So, let's take a look.

The most recent Monmouth poll, Biden, and Trump now inside the margin of error on that poll in Pennsylvania. Several weeks ago, back in July, Biden was up by 13 points in the state of Pennsylvania. Monmouth is a pretty solid poll, a good one to keep an eye on. So that does indicate a tightening here. We are going to be joined by Newt Gingrich, also Senator Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania, a longtime family history in Pennsylvania. His father was the governor there for a long time. Donald Trump Jr. is also with us this evening. But first, as we await the president, Newt Gingrich, Fox News Contributor and author of Trump and the American Future.

Newt, good to have you with us tonight. You wrote a piece today, America's Fight. Thank you. America's Fight, Civilization versus Anarchy, and talked about how unprecedented the moment that we're living in is. But what I thought was very interesting was how you took it back to the roots of similar riots in the 1960s and the people who sort of were born in that era or were in that era.

NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think you can literally create a sort of genealogical map and you'll find that in the late 60s we had 2500 bombings in 1971, 1972. Now, we had a Black Panther movement that openly said they wanted to kill policemen. You had radicals who were robbing banks, killing bank guards, and they literally became sort of the vanguard once they were suppressed. They went into college campuses, they went to a variety of other places, continued to educate and there's a whole new generation of district attorneys who come out of that background.

George Soros has come in and funded around the country, a whole series of district attorneys, for example, in Portland, who refused to try anybody as a criminal. So, the police can arrest them. the DA just won't try. And this has become a huge, huge problem. All of that is coming together.

And what we're now seeing, whether it's ANTIFA or if you go to Kenosha, of the first 200 people who were arrested in Kenosha, over half of them were from out of town, I think 44 different cities, it says various radicals came together to try to cause trouble and destroy things. It's a very important point in American history.

MACCALLUM: Indeed, it is. One of the questions is what is driving at this point, because back then, obviously the core of it was people who were protesting the Vietnam War. That was a real galvanizing part of that movement. I don't know how many people in this - some of these crowds could truly articulate what it is they're fighting for at this moment. But there's clearly a lot of unrest. But Joe Biden has changed his tune on this over the past several days, clearly recognizing that this is something that's happening. It's undeniable in this country. Here he is today in Kenosha. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, I think we've reached an inflection point in American history. I, honestly, God believe we have an enormous opportunity now that the screen there, the curtains have been pulled back. And just what's going on in the country to do a lot of really positive things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So, not very specific there about how he would change things, but his argument obviously is that he thinks he is the guy to do it.

GINGRICH: Martha, he sounds like Mayor Wheeler of Portland. I spent Sunday afternoon, watching the mayor of Portland's 45-minute press conference, which was beyond pathetic. I mean, here's a guy who's had 96 or 97 days of continuing violence. His press conference comes down to begging people to quit being violent.

The following day, a mob shows up at his condominium, which is a 24-story building, burns out the ground floor retail stores. He's now announced he's moving away from the condominium. So, instead of defeating the mob, the mob has defeated him and what Biden just said was nonsense. I have no idea what Biden is talking about.

He represents a party which in every major city runs the city has failed to defeat crime, has allowed ANTIFA to become a nationwide anti-American group. And that's the key thing to understand. These people are anti- American. They openly, publicly say their goal is to destroy America. And Biden has no capacity to take these people head on.

MACCALLUM: Ted Wheeler has really appeased these groups, as many leaders have in many of these cities, and I think what he found out when they came to where he lives is that that doesn't work. Appeasement does not work in these situations. Newt, thank you. Stand by if you would. We're waiting for the president to come out of Air Force One. There we are. We're going to bring in Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, Bob Casey.

Senator, good to have you with us this evening. Give us your take on your state right now as you look at this. Clearly, it's going to be a very tight race, as it often is in Pennsylvania. And the president believes that he can drive up more people in his base in these western and rural areas.

SEN. BOB CASEY, D-PA: Martha, I expected to be close because if you look at the last 20 years, other than the 10-point Obama win, it's been a three point state, so it's going to be close. I do think that Joe Biden has an advantage going into that, mostly because people know him and trust him. And they also see that he's got a plan to create jobs in a state where we've got 886,000 people out of work, 13.7 percent. In the county the president's going into its 13.5. So, I think the economic and jobs planning out is going to help. And I think they know.

MACCALLUM: Yes, we will see. In terms of this mail-in-voting statistics, I want to play this for you from an interview that Attorney General Barr did yesterday about his concerns about all of that. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The bipartisan commission chaired by Jimmy Carter and James Baker said back in 2009 that mail-in-voting is fraught with the risk of fraud and coercion. Since that time, there have been in the newspapers, in networks, academic studies, saying it is open to fraud and coercion. The only time the narrative changed is after this administration came in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So, there - your state is not a universal mail-in state, but you'll have a lot of mail-in-vote. And from the latest perspective on that, it looks like Democrats, 68 percent of them say that they will be much more likely to mail in their vote, as opposed to only 17 percent of Republicans. Given that, do you think that it could be a long time before we know or several days at least before we end up knowing how Pennsylvanians did vote?

CASEY: Well, Martha, I wouldn't expect of a definitive number election night. That was certainly evident in the primary. I think most people know that we're in a time of a pandemic and it's going to take a little longer. But the idea that there's some kind of problem here with fraud is really just the data and the studies show that's just not true. And I think it's important for the administration, whether it's the president, the attorney general, at a time of a pandemic and a real crisis to do everything in their power, to make sure that people can vote no matter what, no matter how they're voting.

And that's why the attempts to undermine the votes though, as well as other stuff they're taking are really not in further into - guaranteed the right to vote.

MACCALLUM: Well, Senator, obviously, we're in an unprecedented time with regard to those past studies. And we'll see what happens if a lot of people do this who don't usually do it before everybody wants this vote to be clean across the board. Thank you very much. I want to bring in Donald Trump Jr., Trump Organization Executive Vice President and author of the brand-new book Liberal Privilege, Joe Biden and the Democrats Defense of the Indefensible. Don, good to have you here tonight. Thank you very much for being here.

I actually want to start - your father is walking out now. I think it'll be a couple of minutes before he gets to the podium here. But I wanted to get your reaction to what Governor Cuomo said today, because this was pretty out there. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW CUOMO, NEW YORK GOVERNOR: COVID ambushed New York due to Trump's negligence, he is the cause of COVID in New York, changed his residence to go to Florida. Why? He can't come back to New York. He can't. He's going to walk down the street in New York, forget bodyguards. He better have an army if he thinks he's going to walk down the street in New York. No, New Yorkers don't want to have anything to do with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: That is a big change in tone from what he said at the height of the pandemic in New York. Don, your thoughts on that and on what we're seeing in Pennsylvania today as well?

DONALD TRUMP JR., AUTHOR OF LIBERAL PRIVILEGE: Well, listen, I think Andrew Cuomo is doing his tough guy shtick. He's had and led the biggest failed state as it relates to COVID-19 by any measure, by any medical metric. Andrew Cuomo has had a disaster here.

Now, Andrew Cuomo, Bill de Blasio, Nancy Pelosi said it was racist and xenophobic when my father shut down travel from the epicenter of a viral outbreak. So, I'm not sure how they're doing that. They wanted to keep it open to further overwhelm our systems. While he made the tough decision to shut it down, Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order that puts sick people with COVID-19 back into elderly homes, hospice care areas that killed 10,000 to 11,000 people when we all knew that the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions were the people most susceptible to it.

So, Andrew Cuomo is doing the New York thing and media will make him a darling because he'll say mean things about Trump. But, A, he was totally incompetent in his response. B, this is the typical violent type response that we're seeing from Democrats and other Joe Biden voters who've decided it's OK to burn down their country.

This is the only time in America, Martha, where you'll get in more trouble for opening your business to feed your family than you will for looting or burning down someone else's business. That's Democrat policy for you today.

MACCALLUM: All right. I've got Donald Trump dueling - Donald Trump's dueling here. So, I'm going to go over to Pennsylvania. Don Jr., thank you very much. Great to have you with us. Here's the president.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Win four more years in the White House. Joe Biden wants to surrender your jobs to China, you know that. His son walked out with a lot of money for doing nothing. He wants to surrender your nation to the radical Left-wing mob. He's trying to change now, that's not working because we're going up, but he's dropping like a rock and water.

And before the China virus, this election was over. Now I had to go back to work, that we've done a great job on it. We don't get the credit. We don't get the credit. We made a lot of governors look very good. But I will keep your jobs in America, and I'll bring rioters, looters, violent extremists, anarchists, we will bring them to justice. That's what we're doing right now.

We have over 400 right now under arrest, these are bad people. Over the last three and a half years, we've secured America's borders, fixed our broken trade deals, rebuilt the United States military, obliterated the ISIS caliphate, 100 percent. Secured American, energy independence, and built the single greatest economy in the history of the world, and now we're going to do it again, have to do it again. Got to do it again.

And it's happening, you see what's happening, job numbers, retail sales numbers are all at records. It's happening very fast. It's actually happening in the Super V, not a V, it's a super V, and you'll see that, and big numbers are coming out and have come out. And just watch your set or watch your newspaper - read your newspaper, you're seeing numbers that Congressman, we haven't seen those numbers ever before actually, we've never seen them.

And by the way, we have record stock markets. We have record everything. You're going to have an incredible economic year, next year, your stocks are going up, your 401(k)s are through the roof. Had a little pause today, people wanted to take some profits and probably somebody said something stupid along the way, but the stock markets at record levels. Think of it, in the hopefully rounding the turn of the pandemic, we're rounding that turn and vaccines are coming along great.

You know that the job that they've done, the doctors, everybody else, we're years ahead of schedule. Anybody else's president, you wouldn't be talking about vaccines for two or three years from now, I'll tell you right now. That I can tell you, Biden will never be able to protect your jobs or your family. He is a puppet of the socialist, Marxists and the cop hating extremists, and they are cop. And we love our law enforcement. We love our law enforcement.

And by the way, we have - I don't know if you saw this, if there's any way of you seeing it, we have thousands of people behind this hangar, thousands, and we're trying to get them in. And I'd love to get them in. I mean, it's an airport. Let them go to the runways, OK? Let them in.

We have - I mean, literally there, we landed. I actually thought that was the crowd. We're doing the hangar thing now because the arenas can't do it because of the pandemic for a while, a little while. But in certain ways, I like this better. I don't have to travel. I get off the plane, I make a speech, I get the hell out of here.

Now, these are great. You remember the last days before the campaign, I do a lot of them a day, get off that plane was a little different plane, it was black and white instead of the blue and white. But we had some time and that was an important - that was an important day and that was an important year, 2016. But I will tell you, the election that we have coming up is the single most important election in the history of this country.

And we had a level of enthusiasm, I mean, even look today with all going on, look at the kind of crowds we have. But we had record enthusiasm in 2016. By the way, was that the greatest evening ever? November? And now it's going to be November 3rd and we'll keep it going and we'll get it all like a tree, you move that tree, it takes a little while to plant your tax cuts. They're going to raise your taxes. They're going to take away your guns. It's really if you look, and they'll criticize me for saying this, fake news media, which is back there.

With their fake polls, it's the same as last year, we could just put it all on tape, the fake polls, the fake everything, the fake, they're called suppression polls, they're meant to make you depressed. Are you depressed? You don't look depressed.

The real numbers and we have the real numbers, we're leading everywhere, we are leading everywhere, I'll tell you, I think we're way ahead of what we were four years ago and there's far more enthusiasm, our base is bigger, it's stronger, and we've done the greatest job. Again, if we didn't get hit by the plague from China, this thing we wouldn't have even - between us. I would have canceled, Mr. Congressman, most of the rallies. I wouldn't have needed a rally. That's a little bit unfair, but that's OK. That's what China has done to our nation. They've screwed us for a long time on a lot of different ways.

Never has anybody ripped off our nation like China. And I've taken in billions and billions of dollars. We never took in $0.10 from China. And I gave 28 billion, right, 28 billion to the farmers because they were targeted unfairly by China and our farmers (inaudible). I don't think we have too many farmers in this wonderful Pennsylvania town, I know we have a lot of boilermakers. We've got a lot of boilermakers, I'll be talking about them, Look at those guys. Nobody is going to mess with them, I'll tell you, we're going to be talking about them in a minute.

But for the entire summer, Biden was silent. As Far Left rioters viciously attacked law enforcement in Democrat run cities all, burned down businesses, terrorized civilians and just recently marched through the streets chanting Death to America. This is what we have, Death to America.

And by the way, we could end it like immediately, you saw what we did in Wisconsin. It ended. Took a while for the governor, they have to ask us in, it's like otherwise we have to do something much bigger and it's totally unnecessary. The National Guard is fantastic. I went to see them two days ago. Biden went there today. There was nobody there. There's nobody there. He was a little late. I was going to say, hey, listen, we ended that problem, but we could end it in Portland. Wise guys in Portland, anarchists, they're agitators. They're looters. We could end it in Portland in a half an hour.

We did it in Seattle. We told them we're coming in. You either end it or we're coming in. Congressman, we were going in the next day. We're all set. I was actually disappointed. They ended it in Seattle. They took over 20 percent of the city. Do you believe this? And the mayor said, no, it's going to be a summer of love. These people are crazy.

So, we end them very quickly. We end them very quickly. And now what we're doing is we're holding back funds for cities that don't know what they're doing, where they allow crime to run rampant. And we put a 10-year prison sentence on anybody that knocks down a statue.

I took out an old ordnance, a very old one, because today in Congress, you don't get things like that. Today, they think that you should just have no cash bail. You know, they do the no cash bail. You kill somebody, there's no bail. Don't worry about it. Go out. But I took out an old ordnance. I gave a new executive order; it says 10 years in prison. And amazingly, amazingly, that was like three and a half months ago.

And they were having a big march on Washington, march elsewhere. And amazingly, that was the end of the statues coming down, no statues. And we're actually prosecuting people for having done it, we made it retroactive to the beginning, terrible.

And by the way, the state statues and monuments, they have to do the same thing, it's real easy, but the rioters that want Biden to win, they want him to win because their agenda is an agenda, it's what they want. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. They both want to cut funding for police. They want to end that cash bail.

They want to hire Far Left prosecutors and judges and let the criminals run wild. The radical Left district attorney in Portland, Mike Schmidt, his name has released hundreds of rioters and announced that anyone arrested for interfering with police officers, disorderly conduct, criminal trespass, rioting and other offenses will not be prosecuted under any circumstance.

Oh, it's worse, it's worse, you have somebody in Philadelphia who's worse, right? Whereas in his manifesto with Bernie Sanders, that's what it is, Biden agreed to all these things. You know, you notice now. No, no, I never said about fracking. I never said, if you don't do fracking in Pennsylvania, 900,000 jobs and your energy bills will triple. Other than that, I don't think you should have it. OK.

No, but he said in the manifesto plus he said many times, we put on the clip yesterday where no fracking. No this. No that. I mean, no guns. How about guns? No guns, no Second Amendment.

Biden has pledged to appoint prosecutors who will extend these insane Far Left policies nationwide. That's what he's done. That's called the manifesto. He agreed to all this. The craziest thing, you're supposed to bring it to the Right. He actually brought it further Left. Bernie never dreamt that this was possible. Crazy Bernie. You know, Crazy Bernie.

You know, I had a lot of his voters come to me four years ago, a big percentage. You know why? Because I agree with him and he agrees with me on one thing, trade, the trade because he knew that other countries are ripping us off and so did I. Nobody else got it, especially Biden. Never got it. He never got it. Still doesn't get it. Now he really gets nothing, I'll tell you. He didn't get it in prime time. Now he really doesn't get it.

But it's OK for them to make every city look just like Portland, which is a disaster. And again, we could clean it up, we just go right through it. 5000, 10,000 right through it. These guys are tough, they're smart, and they love our country. They love our country. We'll clean it up in one half hour. It'll be over.

Did you see this radical left, Mayor Wheeler? His name is. The radical left mayor. They chased him, Mike. They chased him out of his home last night. And all he does is be nice to them because they don't understand nice. They only understand one thing, strength. That's the only thing they - they don't understand tonight. They chased him out of his home. Unbelievable.

Biden's plan is to appease the domestic terrorists. My plan is to arrest them and prosecute them. And I will always defend law abiding citizens. That's why the rioters are voting for Biden and the law enforcement people. We have it from everybody. We just got the sheriffs in Florida. All of them. All of them. We got Ohio. We got Texas. We got North Carolina. We got South Carolina. We got everybody. I don't know if there's anybody. And I see Rick Perry right there. Rick Perry. What are you doing here, Rick? Rick Perry, one of the greats.

But they're all voting for me. This election is about safety and this election is about jobs. Today, I'm delighted to accept a very, very special endorsement from people I like sort of grew up with these people. I don't know what it is, the relationship we have with all of us, with all of us. But I'm endorsing I'm getting an endorsement tonight from some very, very special people. They work hard. They do great. We really put them back to work because this state was in trouble. And last year you had the single greatest year, economic year in the history of your whole operation, right, of your whole operation. You've never had anything like that.

This has been your greatest. This has been prior to the plague coming in. It's been the Commonwealth's greatest. Can we ever call the Commonwealth the state, you have two places? You always have to say, well, wait a minute, is this one the Commonwealth, two places you know, the other places, name it. That's right. How did you know that Congressman?

But this commonwealth, it's a great commonwealth, it's a great place, and the Boilermakers local union, local 154, they chartered in Pittsburgh. 125 years ago, none of you are around to see it. And it now represents members in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. And I want to thank John Hughes and the Boilermakers here today. It's a great honor to have you. Let me. Who's John? Where the hell is John, stand up, John?

John, we appreciate it. We appreciate it. Do you know why John is the head? You know why? Because look, he's got the worst location. I said, where's John, I'm looking in the front row. Put up your hand, John. Look at that guy. He's good. You've got my vote, John. Hey, Boilermakers, thank you. What a job you do, you're the heart of this country. You really are. Thank you very much. That's a great endorsement. That's a great endorsement.

Joe Biden spent the last 47 years shipping Pennsylvania jobs to China and foreign nations, and I've spent the last four years bringing them back home and we're bringing them back home, bringing a lot of things back home.

I ended the last administration's eight-year pure war on Pennsylvania oil and coal and fracking and national. If you look at the natural gas, what they've done to this state, what they were doing to this state, it was sort of easy. I just open it up and I said, do it. And the investment put into Pennsylvania, the investment put into the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has been record setting.

But again, you had the greatest year you've ever had, last year prior to the virus. You're going to be set now with what we're doing. I believe that this next quarter, which will be announced interestingly, just prior to the election. So, I'm putting myself on the line, but I know what's going to happen. The numbers are going to be great and next year is going to be one of the greatest years, not only for Pennsylvania, but for the entire country.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: So, Joe hiding -- we have a new one, Joe hiding. We call him Joe hiding. I have all of it. What do you like better? What do you like better? We got a number. Let's do a little poll. Can we do a poll? I save myself so much money. You know, I save myself so much money. We do these polls with thousands, and those people are coming in from the back, are they not? Yes? They are coming in.

I'm telling you, you wouldn't have believed it. I'm landing. I wasn't waving at you. I was waving at them. There's more. But I do these polls, right? And it's like a perfect poll. You know, do you ever see the companies, you give them a million bucks and they do a poll like 78 people were polled, now you got thousands of people.

So, tell me, what you're feeling, first of all in the name? What's it? You like MAGA make America great again? Yes?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: You are the one -- you are a man I'd make you famous today. You said the nicest things about me. Thank you. Did you see him on television today? I think you are great. I think you're great. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: No, he called me a great Christian and a great Christian leader.

(CROWD CHEERING)

TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you. But he did say I wasn't perfect, but that's OK. I said thank you anyway, right? That was really great. That was really great.

But if you look at it, the things they've done -- we're going to go through a couple of different polls as we go along because I love the people saying do this or do that. But one of the things I got you out of it is this thing sounds so good but it's so bad, it's a rip-off of our country. These so- called Paris climate accord. It's a disaster, a death sentence.

(CROWD BOOING)

TRUMP: It's a death sentence for your energy jobs. I took it out. I withdrew from that calamity. Biden pledged to reinstate it, it's going to cost you billions and billions of dollars. Do you know what it really is? It's a way of really taking advantage of the United States. That's what it is.

Last year, I visited the shale petrochemical plant in Beaver County. Anybody here of Beaver County?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: The largest investment in your state's history. All made possible by our pro energy policies. Biden would wipe out that entire industry killing the jobs of more than 600,000 Pennsylvania workers. It's probably 940,000, they say. Think of that.

Also, prices on everything else. Now, Biden today came out and said, no, no, fracking is OK. It's OK. Did you see that? Fracking is OK. Because he was getting killed. And now he came out in favor of law enforcement. Look at all of these handsome cops there.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And a beautiful cop. No, but how can anybody believe it? He's totally against at his speech and at the DNC, where we got much higher numbers than they did, but you know they put out that they did. They'll say anything. We got much higher by millions and millions of people. We had a great -- didn't we have a great convention?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Right? There's my guy. Good job you did. But we had a great convention, it has been really terrific. You know, I made a speech at Mount Rushmore.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And since that speech, our numbers have been up, up like a rocket. Like a beautiful rocket, the Mount Rushmore speech. I said, you know, we're getting hit by this pandemic very unfairly in the sense that hat we've done such a good job with the ventilators and all of the things. You know, you've heard it a thousand times.

And we have to get back, and I made a speech in really a great place. South Dakota, but it was Mount Rushmore -- you know, they want to blow it up? You know they want to take off Mount Rushmore?

(CROWD BOOING)

TRUMP: If you would see how beautiful -- if you would see how beautiful this is, it was like this perfect evening. The sun was setting, the faces of these great, great majestic heroes of our country, right? Heroes of our country.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And they want to blow up Mount Rushmore. But how about this one? The Democrats yesterday came out with a plan, did you see it? Now they are the D.C. Democrats, they want to change the name for the Washington Monument, perhaps take it down.

(CROWD BOOING)

TRUMP: Thomas Jefferson, pretty good, Thomas Jefferson, right? You could forget about hearing that name ever again. Abraham Lincoln, you can forget about it. They want to take down all statues and all monuments in Washington. We have some of your greatest people right here. Let me not even talk to the congressman, to heck with the congressman. The boilermakers -- how do you like --

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: How do you like the idea of taking down our statues to our great George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, all of them? I don't think the boilermakers -- you'll ring -- you will do a ring around Washington, right? Along with Christopher Columbus. He's in big trouble, I'll tell you. Except, there was one. There is a group of great Italians in New York. They tried to take down --

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: They tried to take down Christopher Columbus statue in New York. You saw it happen, right? These Italians formed a little circle, and said, come on.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: The agitators decided to leave. Let's get out of here, darling. They protected Christopher Columbus, the Italians. No, the Italians they aren't big on taking down Christopher Columbus. You take down those statues you can forget about the Italian vote. Do we agree?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Agree.

TRUMP: They protected it. When asked in a debate if there would be any place for fossil fuels including coal, fracking, and natural gas, and so many things that really fire up these big plants where many of you work and they produce, you know, just millions and millions of jobs throughout our country, Biden said no. He would absolutely not allow anything like that. We would make sure it's totally eliminated, that's what he said.

He said, we would make sure it's totally eliminated or eliminated. Now he's coming and saying, this isn't working too well. This isn't working. I made a speech a week ago in Texas. We had crowds that were unbelievable -- on the highways -- you can't get in, but the highways -- it's like incredible.

He could sell your ticket tonight for a lot of money, go to eBay. Even as a used ticket you could probably sell. But you go down the highways and you see it. I was making thinking in Texas I'm making a speech in front of obviously people that like oil, they like God, and you know what they say like? They like their second amendment, right?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: So, think about it. So, whether it's Pennsylvania or Texas or Oklahoma or North Dakota, any place you take a look at this, right, and no oil, no guns, no God. I don't think George Washington running with Abraham Lincoln as his V.P. He'll pick Abraham Lincoln as his V.P. He's going to win in Texas or in Pennsylvania or anyplace else with those three things eliminated. That's what they want to do. They want to take away your second amendment.

If I weren't president, you would either have an obliterated second amendment or it would be gone entirely. I am standing between them and your second amendment, and that's it.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: They know. They would put Beto in charge of guns. Beto is in charge, he wants to get rid of everything. Beto, that's a beauty. Do you remember he said I was born for this? Anybody that says they are born for this, remember Beto? He was on the cover of a magazine. I won't mention the magazine. They are back there. It's a total phony magazine.

But he was on the cover of the magazine and he said, I was born to run for president. He was born for it. I was born -- anybody that gets that character, that was when he was doing well. Since then, he has cratered. Ever since he made that statement, he's looked very bad. But he's a -- take a look at what he says about guns, and he got put in charge of guns.

So, I guess Biden, pretty soon, is going to be coming out saying, no, no, I never said that. Check out all of the statement he's made on everything, and now he's going the opposite way, but he's agreed to the manifesto entirely. So maybe he'll do that and then he figures later on, he'll go.

But everything he says is right. Because he has no control over what's happening. The radical left has captured the party. They even elected a person that nobody ever heard of -- a senator, it's been a while -- against a young, good-looking Kennedy by 10 points in Massachusetts. Did you know Kennedy lost in Massachusetts? You know why? Because he wasn't a radical left. He was like a semi-normal person, just slightly left.

No, but think of it. This is what's happened. And this is really what's happened. If you are not a radical lefty, meaning, guns, meaning fossil fuels. They want wind, wind. You know, to make the windmill, which are made mostly in China and in Germany, by the way, to make it, so much emission is let out that is more than you can ever save. It's just the craziest thing.

Also, I'm a big -- I am truly an environmentalist. But you have to understand when we do things, and they don't, and we clean and it's very expensive to do that, and they don't. And we have this massive planet. And China, India, Russia, Germany, all of these places it's fuming out and we are doing our job and beautiful -- no, they have to do it also. Otherwise, it just doesn't work the way it's supposed to.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: They want to ban straws. Has anybody tried those paper straws? They're not working too great. Right? They want to ban straws, I said, well, you know, I've had a couple of meals at McDonald's, et cetera, over the years, right? Wendy's, a friend of mine owns Wendy's, I'm giving it a plug. Right? Burger King.

They say they want to ban straws. I said, really? What about the carton? What about the plate? What about the knives and the spoon that are plastic? They are OK. But the straws, we've got to ban. Has anybody ever tried sushi, the new straw is made out of paper, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: It disintegrates as you drink it. If you have a nice tie like this tie, this would have no chance. By the time you get finished the straws is totally disintegrated. Does anybody walk around with a plastic straw, because it's not bad. You know, you whip it out, boom, boom, you never had to do though.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: When ask whether he would be willing to destroy the jobs of hundreds of thousands of blue-collar workers to push his anti-energy agenda. Do you know what the answer is right? It's the Green New Deal. Right? This Green New Deal, this was made by --

(CROWD BOOING)

TRUMP: This was made up -- this was made up by people that don't get it, either that or people who just don't like our country very much. But Biden replied, yes, he'll get rid of those jobs. And he famously told the voter, I want you to look in my eyes when he is not wearing the mask, because I've never seen a man like the mask.

Look, I'm all for it. We have a big weekend distance on the weekend, and all of that stuff and wear your mask when you are close together in particular, and wash your hands, all of those things. We have Labor Day weekend coming up.

But did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him? And then he makes a speech, and he always has it -- not always, but a lot of times he has it hanging down. Because you know what, it gives him a feeling of security. If I were a psychiatrist, right? No, I'd say, I'd say this guy has got some big issues.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Hanging down. Hanging down. Congressman, give me your mask. I want to have it hanging from -- I don't want to touch your damn mask. Mike, I'll never touch your mask.

No, but the new one is -- you know, I went for a physical. The doctor said to me, so would you like to go over to Walter Reed? It's incredible. By the way, the job they do on people that have just been really hurt, our heroes -- the job they do is incredible.

But he said, sir, would you like to go over and do a physical? You have some time. You know why I had some time, some deal, it was China. I decided not to see China because they didn't like the way they were doing business, OK? Does that make sense?

So, the doctor -- White House doctor, highly respected, Sean, Sean Conley. Sir, would you like to go over and do your physical or do a piece of it or finish it or whatever it was? But do a physical. I said, I don't know. I'm not in love with the idea. Well, let's -- if you do it, we don't have to do it -- OK, let's go. Come on.

So, we went. We went. And we're driving. Now you have to understand they're like, you know, 100 cars. You see what happens here. It's like the plane times 50. So, the cars are driving al lover it's about a 20-minute drive. And we get to the hospital, I get out. I was there probably for an hour and a half, two hours.

And then yesterday, I read that I had strokes. CNN, fake news, CNN right there.

(CROWD BOOING)

TRUMP: It's true. No, it's true. Many strokes they called them. I don't know what a mini stroke is, but it's not good. It could be a day and I'll admit it, I said, hey, it happened to all of us, right? Except these young ones, it's never going to happen to them. They're not looking at that.

But you know what happens, but nothing happens. So, I went in, I get that part of the physical, the end result was he's very healthy. They are very unhappy when they heard that result.

(CROWD CHEERING)

TRUMP: What you don't remember is when this took place it was a long time ago, they just started up because we wanted -- they want to try and get me to be in Biden's physical level. You know, they view me as being somebody that's -- you know, like all around.

Hey, last week, this week, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, back to Washington, let's go here, let's go there. Let's go everywhere, meetings all the time. I think I've answered more questions from these maniacs than any president in history.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And mean questions. You know, I watched Biden yesterday. He hasn't answered questions and what, two months or something? And yesterday, he took a couple, and they were set up like I've never seen. One young woman, who I think is there. One young woman is smiling. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi.

I would just like to ask you, I'm sorry to bother you with this question -- it's the most incredible. So, the doctor wrote a letter saying, no, these rumors are wrong. And I don't like, you know, rumors like that. And by the way, it if were a fact, it's fine, it should. I think it's an important thing.

But if it's not true -- my wife was like, she came to me, she said, I think I would've known better. I said, yes, I think they would've known it, too because they drove back with me. You know, the press follows me. They have a special deal of van. They followed me, and then we go in, we go out.

But if you remember last time, I go in, I spend a little time -- a physical, like we all have. Hopefully you have them. It's a good thing to have, I guess. As long as they give you a good answer. If they give you a bad answer, don't bother, possibly too late.

But I go in, I come out a couple of hours later I guess, whatever it is, a short time later. I get into the car. The press sees me get into the car. On my way home, I get a call from my wife, the first lady, who's very popular. Do we like our first lady?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: She's very popular. She's a great person, great woman. She said, darling, are you OK? I go, why are you asking? She said they are reporting that you had a heart attack. Now you have to understand, I'm driving in a car which is about what, six cars in front of the press because they have a big car. There are a lot of them. And we try to give them as little room as possible. make it uncomfortable.

But they are right behind me. So, they know I got in. And CNN reported that I had a heart attack. That was the same visit. And that didn't work.

(CROWD BOOING)

TRUMP: No, it's unbelievable. CNN reported I had a heart attack. So, my wife was concerned. I said, no, not that I know of. And if I did, I think I'd be back there. No, I'll be home in 15 minutes, darling. Thank you for caring. It's always nice. It's always nice.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: She sounded relieved, that's good. When your wife sounds relieved - - but she said, I wonder how did that happen? Why did they do that? Because they're fake news. So, I go in, and that rumor lasted for a little while, right, a day or two. It lasted for a while. No matter what I did, you know I walk -- I'm in the same motorcade. I go in, and I go out. They know I'm in the motorcade. I actually have to report it.

But I'm in the motorcade and they said I had a heart -- one of them said it was a massive heart attack. Think of it. Again, it could happen someday. OK? And when it does, I hope things work out. But they knew I'm in the motorcade, and yet they reported it anyway because they're fake news.

Now for the same visit, that was the same. You know, that was the stupidest thing. From now on, when I go for a physical or something or go to the hospital, announce it because this was a quick thing. The doctor, he got me in a lot of trouble, he's a great doctor. I said, no more surprise visits to the hospital where we do a little work because we have some time.

But, so now, the same visit, they started yesterday because some joker from the New York Times he's a third-grade reporter writes a book. And he said, the vice president was prepared to take over the reins because they thought the president was going to go -- I guess under anesthesia. Do they still call it? In the old days they call that anesthesia. It's essentially the same thing.

I don't want to get into a situation like where Biden use record player. Remember that? You go home, you turn on your record player.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: But the anesthesia. And I said, how could that be? So, remember, this is the same visit, the same visit. They said heart attack along time. All of a sudden, out of this book and he said, suffered mini strokes. Now they get a letter from the White House doctor that said, it's totally false, totally false.

But they still go with it. They go with it and they know I'm in the group with them coming back. And if you -- I don't know much about a mini stroke, but I assume, Mr. Congressman, if you have a mini stroke, you're not heading back to the White House. Right?

At least you'll spend a couple of nights at that great hospital, right? So, anyway, these are really dangerous people. They are so bad for our country. If we had an honest press, it would be so great for the USA.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: It'd be so great. It's be so great. They are just a bunch of phony people. Not all of them, you have some very good ones, like about 10 percent. No, you have some very good ones. You have some great journalists, but it's really -- they know it's phony stuff. They are doing anything they can to get this sleepy guy into the White House, and I just don't think the public is going to fall for it.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I don't think the public is going to fall for it. You know, on his best days, 25 or 30 years ago he was weak. He was weak as a senator he was weak. He was weak. He was not known as being one of the smart ones. And now, it's not exactly prime time. I can tell you that.

I just want to announce tonight, because we are joined with some very, very special warriors, Dan Meuser. Dan, thank you very much. Great job you're doing. Dan, Congressman.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: He is a congressman who have really been warriors for me. Thank you very much, Dan. Fred Keller. Fred, thank you. Great job, Fred.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: The great John Joyce. Great, thank you, John.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Guy Reschenthaler, do you know him?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Guy Reschenthaler. What are you doing over there? What happened? You don't get along with these guys? OK. That's good. Now I understand, that's good.

Glenn Thompson.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Great job. Great job, Glenn. Really great. And a real good friend of mine, right from the beginning, right, Mike? You know, we were in Pennsylvania and a friend of ours, he's a congressman long term, right, from Kentucky -- no, from actually Tennessee. Came up to us, I was getting ready to make a speech. And Tennessee has very early voting.

Remember what he said? This was four years ago, he said, I don't know what's happening in Pennsylvania, I don't know what's happening in the rest of the country. But if what's going on in the rest of the country is like what's going on in Tennessee he said, they are coming from the hills, the roadsides, the rivers, he said, they're coming. People that never really cared to vote. They are great Americans, but they never wanted to vote for the people that they will see.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: He said, they are a mile long. They've got Trump gear, Trump hats, Trump pins, right?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Tennessee, Duncan. Right? Congressman Duncan, right? Remember that, Mike? That was the first time. I mean, they said they've never seen anything like it. Tennessee has been incredible, by the way. So, Mike and I listened, and we said I wonder what that's all about. But it is true.

People that weren't really political people. They coming in, and you know, the deal here like the Ms. Universe, good old Ms. Universe. Right? Like this, they came with hats, they came with pins, they're loaded with pins. One person had hundreds of pins. They never had a pin in their life.

But they love the job that we've done, and we're going to do it even better in the next four years.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Another great friend of mine is a tough cookie and a great congressman, unfortunately he is a former because he is just -- I don't know, he's just a special guy and really has a big beautiful heart. Lou Barletta. Lou, thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: You look good, Lou. Why don't you run again?

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: The president thanking some people there in Pennsylvania. Probably pretty close to wrapping things up there. He is currently trailing former Vice President Joe Biden by four points in the Real Clear Politics average in Pennsylvania. The Monmouth polls that we showed you before show this is a very tight race in that state.

Here now with some final thoughts, they've been watching along with us, Marc Thiessen, co-host of American Enterprise Institute's podcast What the Hell is Going On, Jessica Tarlov, a senior director of research Bustle.com. Both are Fox news contributors. He likes how I say that.

Marc, your thoughts on what we have watched tonight?

MARC THIESSEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it was -- I thought it was a really good speech. I mean, look, he had his tightening in Pennsylvania. And actually, that Monmouth poll that you he said at the top of the show, if you look at likely voters it's only one to three points. So, it's within the margin of error.

And look, the ground is shifting in Donald Trump's favor. The economy, he said we're going to have, not just have a v-shaped recovery, we are going to have a super v. The next quarter is going to have 20 to 30 percent economic growth. And that's -- and people are going to -- and people are going to feel that.

And then on the pandemic, he said he use the phase, we are rounding the turn. I think that's right. The cases are going down, the deaths are going down, and as if that continues in the fall and we get a vaccine, I think that negative will turn into a positive.

And then on the violence, you know, he said this is something that clearly the Biden campaign is worried about because they are erratically changing strategy every day practically. From hide -- winning from the basement a few weeks ago to not going to Pennsylvania to going to Pennsylvania, to not going to Kenosha to going to Kenosha. They are behaving erratically because they are really worried that this violence issue is going to hurt them.

MACCALLUM: So, Jessica, you know, when you watch campaigns, as we all do. When they shift gears, it generally means that they are recalibrating. And I think it's fair to say that the Biden campaign decided that, you know, waiting until the day after Labor Day -- which is when they originally said he was going to start a battleground states sweep, they move that up by several days, and he has been out there as Marc just detailed for us. So, what do you make of it?

JESSICA TARLOV, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I think absolutely the Biden campaign was paying attention to the polls and saw that it really mattered to independents that Democrats being more forceful about the law and order element, i.e. identifying lawlessness and rioting and looting as being separate from marching for social justice. Going to be activities that happened before 9 or 10 p.m. in the activities that happened afterwards are no good.

And I think that Biden is doing a great job of that as reflected in the recent polling that shows that he is winning on the issue of law and order. Only 35 percent of Americans feel like they are safer under Trump, whereas over 46 percent say that they feel like they would feel safer under a Joe Biden administration.

But I just want to call Mars out on his generosity as a former speechwriter for saying that this was good speech from Donald Trump. It was a stream of consciousness with some of the most random phrases I could ever imagined. Like if Democrats win, you're going to have no oil, no guns, no God.

I mean, praise be to Donald Trump for coming up with something like that. But I think that we are going to be seeing a lot more of this, potentially in your hour, Martha, heading to the 7 p.m. to get into the going taking over prime time.

MACCALLUM: Well, --

TARLOV: And I think Donald Trump is raring to go and to have as many rallies as possible.

MACCALLUM: Definitely -- definitely campaign, a campaign time when you hear those kinds of phrases.

TARLOV: Yes.

MACCALLUM: What I thought was very interesting, Marc, in this venue, he said, I like doing this. You get off the plane, you make a speech, and then you get the hell out of there. I don't know how the people on the ground feel when they hear that, but that's -- we are going to see a lot of his hanger situation at works.

They are outside, and you can pull the plane up and do your thing and get the hell out of there, as he said.

THIESSEN: Well, that's like traditional campaigning. You know, the Trump rallies weren't innovation. This is going back, you know, Ronald Reagan did this kind of airport rallies. So, you know, he's going back to basics.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

THIESSEN: But, you know, I know Jessica, I'm not trying to say that this is going to go down in the animism (Ph) of presidential rhetoric of the greatest speeches of the 21st century. But you know, the people love the script. The story about, you know, going to the hospital --

TARLOV: Yes.

THIESSEN: -- and like riding in the car --

MACCALLUM: Yes.

THIESSEN: -- people just love that. He has a very charming side to him that I think is very -- that a lot of voters like. And I think he has it on display tonight.

MACCALLUM: Well, I think we got a little bit of insight into, you know, at least what he's talking about on that trip. He said, you know, I said to the doctor no more surprise visits from where we can get a little work done because we have some time. And that's the way he described what happened on that hospital visit, he says he went back on his own team to the White House right after.

TARLOV: Right.

MACCALLUM: And the doctor has said that that was not problematic.

I want to thank you guys for being with us tonight. Also, just to draw attention there's an Atlantic story that talks about the president's views on the military. That's going to get some attention. We'll talk about that on the next program. But that's going to get some attention tonight, as well. No doubt.

President Trump speaking in Latrobe, Pennsylvania this evening. And that is “The Story” for tonight, Thursday, September 3rd, 2020. But the story continues here in America. So, we'll see you back here tomorrow night at 7 o'clock. Stay tuned because Tucker Carlson is coming up right after this. As the president winds up his campaign stop in Pennsylvania, a state that is now looking more close than ever. More coverage as we continue tonight, take care everybody.

TRUMP: To protect our workers I impose (Inaudible) aluminum and foreign steel.

END

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