This is a rush transcript from “Your World with Neil Cavuto," August 5, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: All right, well, we could be waiting for back to normal in New York, John.
The scene right now, as the city prepares for quarantine checkpoints, I kid you not, along all major five boroughs. They want to make sure that you're not carrying anything, so they're going to check you out.
If you go into Penn Station in New York, you even have to fill out a form to say where you travel, and whether there could be anything suspicious going on. You don't heed the form and fill it out, the $2,000 fine, and you could be quarantined for just not cooperating for 14 days.
That is just for starters.
Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto. And this is YOUR WORLD.
And what in the world is going on, where we have to have quarantine checkpoints for those trying to get into the greater New York City area, as if it isn't even tough enough for business right now?
The latest from Alex Hogan on what they're cooking up and what you might be in store for if you're coming into the city -- Alex.
ALEX HOGAN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Neil.
The city says that one-fifth of the new cases come from travelers who are coming to New York City from outside of the state, so Mayor Bill de Blasio saying this is not optional. So, now checkpoints will go into effect at all of the major bridges, tunnels, and train stations across the city, reminding those entering from some states that there is a 14-day mandatory quarantine.
Travelers entering New York will need to fill out a form with their information to support contact tracing; 35 states are on the list. They are also exception -- making exceptions for essential personnel. But failing to comply with this could mean up to $10,000 in fines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: The checkpoints, I think, are going to send a very powerful message that this quarantine law is serious and important and crucial, and people have to follow it.
So, even if we're not going to be able to reach every single person with a checkpoint, I think it's going to help really get the message across.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOGAN: Of course, one of the big questions for drivers is, this -- will this cause a traffic nightmare?
Well, the city today saying that they're thinking of moving around some of these checkpoints, and even staggering how many cars are stopped, so all things that we will have to simply wait and see -- Neil.
CAVUTO: I could imagine that could cause a bit of a traffic jam.
Alex, thank you very, very much.
Well, first of all, forget whether all of this is legal. Constitutionally, could it cause problems down the road, whether it is or not?
Deborah Blum, a New York attorney, joins us now via Skype.
Deborah, what if I'm coming in, let's say, to the train station, and I don't feel like filling out a form one of these folks is giving me? According to this, I can be fined on the spot and put in a mandatory quarantine right away. Can they do that?
DEBORAH BLUM, ATTORNEY: Well, that's a civil penalty.
The first question that we have to examine here is whether Governor Cuomo's quarantine executive can stand. Currently, there is a federal lawsuit challenging this executive order. And, as you know, executive orders don't have the force and effect of law. It's a policy, yet it's acted upon by state officials, like you just brought up, and law enforcement.
So, the lawsuit compares quarantine to 14-day house arrest. As somebody has gone to many prisons, it's definitely not the same as being in a prison, but in violation of Equal Protection Clause of the federal Constitution.
Federal powers are generally supreme, but, like anything else in the law, there are carve-outs. But that argument that it's arbitrary and capricious because you're allowed to go between New York and New Jersey, that doesn't hold a lot of weight because of the fact that there's a legitimate governmental objective.
The bottom line here is that there is a legitimate governmental objective. The governor, who I want to point out, personally went to a COVID hot spot to deliver respirators and gear, argues it's legal.
And he says that the state constitution gives him broad powers to respond to emergencies. But when Trump wanted to say that New York state and the Tristate area had a quarantine, Cuomo said, no, you don't have that power.
So, this is really, in my opinion, a lot of push and pull and changing positions. And, ultimately, I think that if this went into court, because of safeguarding public health during the pandemic, it would be likely to be upheld, this specific checkpoint
CAVUTO: But, Deborah, what just seems weird to me, I could see some of the municipalities and all that now are insisting on masks, everyone wear masks, we got used to that.
This seems like another layer of Big Brother here. Everyone obviously wants to do the right thing and be healthy, but to dictate for everyone coming in through the various checkpoints, leaving aside the possibility you can get to everyone, because, obviously, thousands do even now.
I'm just wondering whether this leads to still other kind of just personal liberty intrusions.
BLUM: Well, that is a big argument.
Whether this would be great brought in state or federal court, you would argue that this is restricting your constitutional rights.
CAVUTO: Right.
BLUM: But then it gets to the point that state law does allow for checkpoints. So, we have D.W. checkpoints.
But, at the same time, the police or other members of law enforcement aren't allowed to just stop you and ask you your whereabouts. And, again, this is a directive. It's a policy, so it's not a law.
So this is a really big gray area. But the federal court in New York recently ruled in favor of executive orders, such as a moratorium on landlords not being able to evict commercial business tenants.
CAVUTO: So, you go to do it. You're saying you got to do it. Do it now. Don't argue. Take your case to court later. But you got to do it, right?
BLUM: I wouldn't personally say that, because I'm somebody who defends constitutional liberties.
CAVUTO: Right.
BLUM: And I do, like you just said, believe that this is a strong intrusion your constitutional liberty.
Then you're going to have the honor system.
CAVUTO: All right.
BLUM: I mean, people knowing that this is an effect could make up where they came from. So I don't know how effective this could be.
CAVUTO: All right. We will watch it very, very closely.
Deborah, great catching up with you. Thank you very much.
BLUM: Thank you.
CAVUTO: I thought of my buddy Kat Timpf and whether she would go along with this. She's a rebel that's a riddle and a conundrum here. So she's already off to jail, as we speak.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Kat, I'm kidding.
But what do you think of this? Now, you would be coming, let's say, if you visited outside the city -- you live in the city now -- but you come back into the city. They're free to the check and make sure, where have you been, what have you been doing, and check on you, and force the issue with fines and/or demanded quarantines if you don't cooperate.
KATHERINE TIMPF, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, let me just say, if I had somewhere else to go, if I was one of these multiple homes people, and I got out of the city, there's no way I'd be coming back just to smell the trash on the street, with nothing else to do but smell the trash on the street, or maybe try to eat outside a restaurant while smelling aforementioned trash.
But, again, Bill de Blasio, so many things about him drive me nuts, right? And one of them is how consistently full of it that he is. When he was talking about this measure, he's saying, well, this is for educational purposes. I don't want to penalize anyone.
Well, then why is there a $10,000 fine attached? He says he wants to set the example. Well, then why were you in the gym when all of these health experts were saying social distancing, social distancing? Just hours before that became the law, why were you doing that, then, buddy?
I mean, he's just so -- and then, again, the enforcement is going to be very difficult, right? So I am a little suspicious...
(CROSSTALK)
TIMPF: Yes.
CAVUTO: You know what I also think, though, Kat?
To your point, though, think about -- and it's true what you just said. If people are already leery of going back to work, if they're lucky to have an opportunity to go back to work, and they hear about stuff like this, and they have heard about the crime shooting up in the city -- I believe homicides of the rest are up over 118 percent from where they were a year ago -- this is not exactly endearing the Big Apple to those who either have to work there or were thinking about working there.
They're not going to want to do anything related to being there.
TIMPF: Certainly not.
New York Times came out this week and said up to a third of small businesses in the city may not survive after this.
CAVUTO: Yes.
TIMPF: And it's not just de Blasio either. Cuomo is doing the same sort of thing, going after bars for not serving enough food with the drinks.
People are really, really struggling with small businesses that are their livelihoods. They have sacrificed. They have worked hard. I get that this is complicated. I'm not saying I know all the answers. I'm not an expert. And not even the experts really know how to perfectly open safely for everyone.
But there's some pretty simple, easy things that you should not do as if you're trying to purposely clobber businesses, if I didn't know any better. I just don't understand. Like, maybe if you're one of these people that's into hyper-regulation, you just can't quit it, even -- if it's some sort of addiction.
I really don't understand. But we don't need any help devastating the economy in New York, especially when it comes to small business owners.
CAVUTO: There are a lot more demands and sort of Big Brother-isms here, from the mask thing, the glove thing, the check your I.D. thing, check your temperature thing. It really is a little bit of George Orwell "1984" stuff.
Kat, thank you very, very much. Behave yourself. I don't want to see you getting hauled away here.
(LAUGHTER)
TIMPF: I hope not.
CAVUTO: After all, you're an engaged woman now.
TIMPF: I sure am.
CAVUTO: And there are great expectations there.
TIMPF: Thank you.
CAVUTO: Kat, thank you very much.
In the mean -- we did put out a call, by the way, to Mayor Bill de Blasio. He heard that Kat Timpf was on and said, that's it. I'm not coming up. No, no, he just didn't return our call.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: But it happens. I call my home sometimes, and then I don't get a return call.
All right, so we're following that.
We're also following what was happening today, big run-up in the stock market, a lot of optimism about vaccines, but all this talk of stimulus, they're meeting right now to get stimulus going.
That has made gold very attractive. Now, I know that a lot of people say, oh, there go the gold bugs again talking about that. With that lift in prices today, gold is now at its highest levels ever. Now, there are a lot of people who will add, well, inflation-adjusted terms.
You're absolutely right. But with today's run-up, gold is up close to 35 percent on the year, dwarfing almost any other type of investment, including the Dow, the S&P, and the Nasdaq.
So man, oh, man, something is glittering there. We will get into the details, why that is.
Also taking a look again at the spending on that stimulus that has gold bugs going nuts right now, because they think it's going to benefit gold.
And no one's keeping track of the cost of all of this, except Rand Paul. He doesn't like what he sees.
He's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, they're closer to a deal than anyone thought. I'm talking about the coronavirus stimulus measure that's being ironed out between those principal players, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
The devil is in the details, but they're confident that, by Friday, they just might have something together.
Is that wishful thinking? Let's ask Chad Pergram. He's on Capitol Hill.
Chad, what are you hearing?
CHAD PERGRAM, FOX NEWS SENIOR CAPITOL HILL PRODUCER: Well, they seem to be getting a little bit closer. We don't have a report out of today's meeting.
Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general, was in the session today. He just left a couple of moments ago. As you say, they imposed this Friday deadline. And when you put an artificial deadline in place, Neil, sometimes, that amps up the pressure to get something done.
Keep in mind just how long it's going to take to get this bill, a gargantuan bill, into legislative form, and then sell it to both the House and the Senate. And that's why there's a lot of skepticism here on Capitol Hill, starting with Mike Rounds, Republicans from South Dakota.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): Huge number of differences. I'm still not real optimistic that we're going to get a deal done in the short term.
But, once again, we're still talking and still hoping that there is some movement on the part of the Dems to maybe move off their $600-per-week requirement for unemployment benefits.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERGRAM: Now, the offer from the Trump administration includes extending unemployment benefits at the rate of an extra $400 a month, until just before Christmas. That's less than the additional $600, which expired in July.
And it appears there's an agreement on evictions. That's according to the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: The administration has finally come around to the view that we should extend the moratorium on evictions, but they continue to refuse to provide actual assistance to the renters themselves.
What good does that do?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERGRAM: Now, there are some sticking points also on nutrition aid, money for schools, also for state and local governments, tens of billions, nay, hundreds of billions of dollars at stake there.
That's why this is so hard, Neil. And that's why it's going to be very hard to get this together by the end of the week, possibly vote next week.
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, says the Senate will, in fact, be in session next week -- Neil.
CAVUTO: So, even if you do cobble together a deal, and that's still a Herculean effort, you got to get this thing voted on and approved. That's a jump, right?
PERGRAM: Right, absolutely.
And this is where I talked about the financial crisis in 2008. Remember, they put together TARP, the Troubled Assets Relief Program. That was a big lift to put that together, more than $700 billion.
CAVUTO: Yes.
PERGRAM: And the first vote failed on the House floor, despite the crisis.
CAVUTO: Yes.
What I also remember of that, the Dow fell 770 points right after that. So, they quickly got back together. They did get a package through. The Dow kept falling thousands of points in the months that would follow. So, be careful what you wish for, right?
PERGRAM: Absolutely.
And that's where they're concerned. That's where you talk to people like Mike Rounds and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and they say, look, we have coffee shops closing in our districts and states. We have restaurants closing.
They are very concerned about the economic fallout if they don't get something passed through the House and Senate very, very soon. They're very concerned about the fall and winter.
CAVUTO: Thank you, Chad. Very good job, as always, my friend, Chad Pergram.
Want to go to the White House right now, Kristin Fisher now.
Kristin, if memory serves me right, the president was kind of holding out there the possibility he could act unilaterally through executive action to put something together to deal with this, if Congress failed to.
That seems less likely now, but what are you hearing?
KRISTIN FISHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Trump is still floating the possibility that he would act unilaterally if they cannot cut a deal on Capitol Hill.
But the preference is definitely for Republicans, namely, his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and the Treasury secretary, to be able to cut this deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
While those negotiations are going on, right now, over here at the White House, President Trump just finished meeting with the governor of Arizona. And President Trump really used that meeting to point to Arizona as a place where the coronavirus got out of control, but is now getting better, after the governor made some course corrections, after lifting his stay-at-home order in May and the Trump administration surged PPE, masks, gloves, remdesivir and whatnot, to the state.
But that conversation that you're seeing right there, it quickly turned to his problems with mail-in voting in Arizona's neighbor Nevada. The Trump campaign is now suing the state for a law that was just signed on Monday which would allow the state to send in ballots to all active and registered voters.
And President Trump explain why he had a problem with that moments ago. Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Absentee voting, great. But this mail-in voting, where they mail indiscriminately millions and millions of ballots to people, you're never going to know who won the election. You can't have that.
And Nevada is a big state. It's an important state. It's a very political state. And the governor happens to be a Democrat. And I don't believe the post office can be set up. They were given no notice. I mean, you're talking about millions of votes.
No, it'll be a -- it's a catastrophe waiting to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FISHER: But, Neil, before we can get to November, we first have to get through these conventions.
And President Trump still has not decided where he is going to be accepting his party's nomination from. One idea that he just floated today was going to be to do it right here at the White House, specifically on the South Lawn.
He said it would be a beautiful place. It would be very simple in a pandemic, because he wouldn't have to leave the White House and bring all the Secret Service with him.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a big problem with that. She accused the president of degrading the White House, of politicizing it, just said it was simply not appropriate to use this backdrop, the people's house, as a place to deliver a speech like that -- Neil.
CAVUTO: But he does live there.
You could make the argument he does live there.
FISHER: He does live there.
CAVUTO: We have already heard from Joe Biden, right? Joe Biden is going to obviously skip going out to Milwaukee to do, presumably, the address from Wilmington home. So, there is that, right?
FISHER: And it sure is pretty.
And you can -- I don't know if you can see behind me, but they're actually cleaning it up.
(LAUGHTER)
FISHER: I don't think it's for the convention, but it'll be looking nice and white and shiny and pretty if they do indeed decide to have it here.
CAVUTO: Yes, OK. That is wild stuff.
Kristin Fisher, thank you very, very much.
Want to bring Senator Rand Paul into this debate here.
Senator, if you don't mind, I want to touch on that back-and-forth as to where the president should deliver his address when he is nominated by your party.
Nancy Pelosi said, the White House would be a bad venue, because it shouldn't be politicized. What do you think of that?
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): You know, I haven't really thought it through.
There are restrictions on what the White House can do, whether it can be used for political purposes or not. I'm not sure what the exact rules are on the White House.
I think the optics of it would be better to do somewhere else, if it's going to be a political -- I don't know what it's going to be. A political speech?
CAVUTO: Yes.
PAUL: There is no real convention. It's sort of a disappointing time, that the excitement of the political conventions surrounding a presidential nomination aren't going to happen.
So -- but I don't have strong feelings one way or another on whether they use the White House or not.
CAVUTO: Got it.
I know you have very strong feelings on this spending that's going on here, and the fact the two sides are getting closer together on writing off on what will be, at the very least, Senator, I'm sure, a trillion-dollar-plus stimulus measure, on top of the $10 trillion we have already spent between congressional relief and Federal Reserve rescues to just keep everything humming.
If they are close to a deal that has a package cost of a trillion dollars or better, are you -- are you going to vote for it?
PAUL: Absolutely not.
It's funny that people say, well, Washington, Republicans and Democrats never compromise and can't get along. That's actually the opposite of the truth. Republicans and Democrats compromise every day of the year to spend money we don't have.
So, we were already running a trillion dollars short just with our normal budgetary expenses for the year. We added $3 trillion. Now they're talking about another $1 trillion to $2 trillion. We're going to borrow $5 trillion in five months.
I remember when conservatives complained about George W. Bush borrowing $5 trillion in eight years. We're going to borrow $5 trillion in five months?
Look at gold. Gold's over $2,000 an ounce. People are worried. The politicians are out here saying, oh, no, we just have to buy more voters by flooding the economy with money.
Well, guess what? What if conservatives or libertarians that vote Republican decide, the hell with it, you're acting like Democrats, we're either staying home or voting for a third party? You know what? They might just lose this election because they're acting like Democrats now.
And so I'm very upset with my colleagues. They went eight years. They should apologize now to President Obama for complaining that he was spending and borrowing too much. He was a piker compared to their borrowing that they're doing now.
So, yes, these Republicans, they should have to apologize, and they should, by law, be forbidden from ever saying that they're fiscally conservative. That's just tongue in cheek.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: Well, part of that cowing to the spending, whatever -- whatever you want to call it, is this new plan that calls for extending the federal unemployment benefit, right now at about $600 a week.
A lot of your colleagues are apparently closer to letting that continue. The only issue is for how long. What do you think of that?
PAUL: Well, here's the thing.
They're once again making President Obama look conservative. What did they do in 2008? They simply extended the benefits, but they didn't ramp up the benefits. When you increase the benefits and you pay people, the government pays them more for not working than they were getting for working, you institutionalize unemployment.
Even President Obama didn't do that. They extended unemployment, which is actually something I would vote for, to extend unemployment at the level that it is, has always been decided to be, not adding to it at the level that the states have decided they can afford. That, as a temporary measure, would have been OK.
But you can't keep doing this. We can't keep borrowing another trillion dollars every couple of months. The only way to fix this government- mandated depression is get rid of the government mandates and let the economy function as it did normally.
We had a great economy, until the government mandated this depression.
CAVUTO: Real quickly, Senator, University of Connecticut, as you heard, has canceled its football season. It could be a continued drip, drip, drip of major college sports actions that have been shelved because of the virus.
And I know you have been concerned about the way a lot of colleges are debating opening up or not opening up. And you have extended it to what happens at lower levels, the high school, middle school, where a lot of people are really gun-shy about where to go, what to do, how to handle this.
And the government response has been inconsistent, but where are you on this?
PAUL: I think the scientific evidence is very, very clear on this.
Under age 18, the death rate is extraordinarily rare. Some statistics show it as low as one in a million. So, the chances mortality for age 18 and under is close to zero.
The transmissibility of this disease in asymptomatic or kids is also close to zero. They have done contact tracing studies in China, the Netherlands, Britain, and Iceland, nationwide contact tracing studies, very thorough. And they find that transmission from kids to adults is very rare.
The reason, these kids aren't coughing and hacking and spreading germs, because they're not very sick. They don't have any symptoms. And so I think the kids should go back to school, and then you would monitor the situation, like we do normally with the seasonal flu.
And if you have an outbreak in your school, you may close down for a week or two. That's what we typically have done historically. That's what the scientific evidence points towards.
But, instead, we now have teachers saying they will go back to school when we defund the police. So, we have gotten into this absurd situation. I think schools should be declared essential. We keep hospitals open. I think we ought to keep schools open, because I think they're essential to our society.
CAVUTO: All right, we will see, because half the school systems right around in the country are, at best, doing it a bit of mixed, virtually and in-person.
Senator, thank you very much, Senator Rand Paul joining us from Washington.
Now, we touched on this at the outset here, that the vice president -- the former Vice President Joe Biden will not be going to Milwaukee to make a statement to the Democratic crowd there. He is going to be doing it from home. He's going to be doing it from Delaware, this at the same time the United States will not be going to his convention to address Republicans.
This is the first time this has ever happened in this country's history. We came close in 1860, but Abraham Lincoln decided, what the heck, I'm still going to address them. I remember that, because I covered that.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: After this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: We still don't know what triggered that they Beirut blast that claimed 135 lives and more than 5,000 injured.
The president last night calling it an attack. Growing signs right now he had it wrong. Does he?
After this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: Can you Skype your address to receive your party's nomination?
Well, former Vice President Joe Biden has indicated he will not be going to Milwaukee to accept his party's nomination for the presidency of the United States. Instead, he will likely be doing it from home.
At the same time, the president is skipping out on his convention to make the address, we thought at first, maybe from the White House, but certainly not from the convention site itself.
Peter Doocy has been following these developments, and, with the former vice president, what this means right now -- Peter.
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, we just got the first reaction from the vice president himself to that canceled convention speech in Milwaukee.
It was at his only event of the day, a virtual fund-raiser closed to the press, except for a print reporter, who sent this quote.
Biden said: "I think it's the right thing to do. I have wanted to set an example as to how we should respond individually to this crisis. From the start of the process, we have made it clear, science matters. I think it's going to be an exciting convention."
We know Biden is going to stay in Delaware for his acceptance speech at a to-be-announced location. He's home today trying to figure out who to choose as a running mate. Whoever she is will also skip Milwaukee.
And, remember, Democrats selected Wisconsin as convention host because they wanted to signal to voters there Biden is more serious about earning their support than Hillary Clinton, who never visited there during the general.
So, now the Trump campaign is taunting Biden, saying that they think, by pulling out of in-person events in Milwaukee, he is repeating the same mistakes Clinton made in 2016 -- Neil.
CAVUTO: The president also skipping out on his. So, it's weird, right? It's a weird year for conventions, where the big marquee name isn't there.
DOOCY: And particularly, Neil, remember, the Democrats, when they postponed their convention in the spring, they wanted to buy themselves a couple more weeks, so that they could figure out exactly how to do it safely.
CAVUTO: Right.
DOOCY: But now that we know it's going to be all virtual, they could have probably just kept it last month, as planned.
CAVUTO: You know, Peter, the big issue, though, everyone's talking about regarding you, young man, is that you helped your sister's wedding go off without a hitch, because you didn't have a priest available.
So, you -- which I didn't realize until I was listening to your dad earlier this morning -- are -- have a minister license; is that right?
DOOCY: I got ordained online for $40 last year, because my friend and colleague Pat Ward...
CAVUTO: Oh, man.
DOOCY:... who is manning the camera right now, asked me to officiate his ceremony.
And my poor sister, she had everything go wrong for a bride in 2020. There's the pandemic. There was a hurricane happening. And during the delay from her wedding, her -- the priest who was going to do it, very sadly, passed away.
CAVUTO: Oh, my.
DOOCY: And so she needed an officiant. And I was able to do it.
And now she is on her honeymoon. So, it stuck.
CAVUTO: You saved the day.
And I know I was talking to your parents not too long ago as they were planning for that, and everything, obviously, with the pandemic went crazy, but you saved the day. Did they even know you had this training? Because that could come in handy for a variety of things, confessions, you name it.
(LAUGHTER)
DOOCY: I think they did, Neil.
And, actually, now that you ask, when you get ordained online, they give you a credential of ministry. And I have been carrying it around in my pocket for about a year. I pull it out from time to time. So they knew that I was available.
CAVUTO: That you were -- well, you are that soulful presence on the stump. And you did save the day.
Father Peter, thank you very, very much.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Forgive me, Father, because I have really sinned.
DOOCY: Thanks, Neil.
CAVUTO: But that's another day.
Peter, thank you very, very much.
DOOCY: I do confessions. Neil, I will take your confession during the break.
CAVUTO: I know. We will talk. We will talk. Your father alone can keep you busy. All right, thank you very much, Peter.
Is that a great story, to save the day? The sister ended up getting married, and just a beautiful story.
David Spunt with us right now. He has a lot of beautiful stories to tell, but, right now, he's focused on the big debate over mail-in vs. absentee voting and whether things could get delayed and pushed back.
But, David, this is a thorny issue, where the president says that, depending on the state, it's either working or it's not, right?
DAVID SPUNT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Neil, he really is.
And President Trump has confused many people talking about absentee and voting in Florida, saying that that's going to be OK. Elections experts say that absentee ballots are essentially mail-in ballots. The president, though, is trying to make a distinction saying it's what is mail-in voting.
I want to pull up a thing that says, universal mail-in voting, according to the president's team, is when registered voters, unsolicited, get a live ballot in the mail. Absentee voting is when registered voters request a ballot, fill out the proper forms. That's what some experts believe is the distinction.
Now, eight states, plus Washington, D.C., will actually mail live ballots to voters. Several states just joined the list because of the pandemic. More are expected. You see them California, Colorado, D.C., Hawaii, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.
But other states, like Ohio and Michigan, send ballot applications to voters who want to vote absentee. The Ohio secretary of state, Frank LaRose, I spoke to him. He says he's encouraging his constituents to vote absentee, and the votes are processed as soon as they come in.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANK LAROSE (R), OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: Unfortunately, our friends up the road in Michigan don't. They're going to have a real situation on their hands, where they can't even start opening the envelopes until Election Day.
And so it may take days for them to get results.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SPUNT: Now, as far as fraud is concerned, election experts admit, sure, there has been fraud in the past, but it is not nearly as rampant as the president would suggest. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE LAPERRUQUE, PROJECT ON GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT: There are checks in place to make sure that attempts at fraud will not succeed.
I think, for voters, I worry much more about electronic voting machine that doesn't have a paper trail than I do about a mail-in ballot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SPUNT: Now, to combat fraud, states that send ballots to voters require checks. Officials look at home addresses, registration status, death records, and signatures to verify accuracy.
Neil, over the next few months, the Department of Homeland Security will heavily be involved. But you look at these universal mail-in, where people are just getting ballots unsolicited, in the state of Washington, for example, they have been doing this since 1983. That's when they started during a special election.
So, many of these states have been doing this for a long time, not new at all -- Neil.
CAVUTO: All right, David Spunt, thank you very, very much.
And we live in an age where things, if they're caught on tape, well, they get a life of their own. The story of the husband of an L.A. district attorney facing charges of pulling a gun on Black Lives Matters protesters outside the house.
Uh-oh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LACEY, HUSBAND OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY JACKIE LACEY: I will shoot you. Get off of my porch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: Caught on tape pulling a gun on protesters, but it was who was caught on tape that's getting a good deal of attention.
Jonathan Hunt with more in Los Angeles.
Jonathan, what happened here?
JONATHAN HUNT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Neil, it actually happened on March 2, just before dawn.
Protesters from Black Lives Matter showed up at the home of Los Angeles district attorney Jackie Lacey. Her 66-year-old husband, David Lacey, opened the door, waving a gun, and saying this.
Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LACEY: I will shoot you. Get off of my porch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're recording you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you tell Jackie Lacey that we're here?
LACEY: I don't care who you are. Get off of my porch.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will get off your porch. Can you tell...
LACEY: Right now.
(CROSSTALK)
LACEY: We're calling the police right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Now, DA Jackie Lacey is the first black person and first woman to run what is the country's largest local prosecutor's office.
She's been targeted for nearly three years by Black Lives Matter protesters, who claim she's failed to hold law enforcement accountable in fatal shootings. Lacey has charged one officer in a fatal on-duty killing, but has declined to file charges in more than 300 other deadly shootings.
Lacey apologized at the time of the gun-waving incident for her husband's actions, but tried to explain them in a statement issued yesterday, saying in part -- quote -- "My husband acted in fear for my safety, after we were subjected to months of harassment that included a death threat no less than a week earlier."
Her husband's attorney said David Lacey is disappointed that he's been charged with these three misdemeanor gun charges, but he is confident in the justice system and that eventually it will bring about what he calls -- quote -- "the correct result" -- Neil.
CAVUTO: I had not realized it happened back in March.
Jonathan, thank you very, very much.
I want to get the legal view on this.
Mercedes Colwin, should the husband be worried with the charges now against him? Was he within his rights doing what he did from the front porch of his house?
MERCEDES COLWIN, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: I think that there is this whole castle doctrine which allows individuals to protect themselves, Neil.
And it's very clear that there has been a history for this couple in particular, where they had felt that they had heard threats of their public safety.
And the castle doctrine is very, very different state to state. It's usually, where does your property begin? But you can protect yourself and your property, but it's key that you felt threatened by the activity that prompted you to use this type of force.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: All right.
Mercedes -- I'm very, very sorry, Mercedes. We're having some audio problems with you. That's not your fault. But we apologize here.
But we're going to be looking at the legal implications of all of this.
We're also going to give you an update in a little bit on what happened in Beirut and what they think happened in Beirut, but this notion, as the president said, that that explosion was somehow an attack, so far, it is not looking like that. So why did he say that?
After this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: For those in the Northeast, this tropical storm was sort of like Superstorm Sandy all over again.
That was nearly a decade ago, but the damage and the winds, well, that's sounding very familiar to that 2012 storm then.
Aishah Hasnie now with the very latest from Queens, New York -- Aishah.
AISHAH HASNIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Neil.
Yes, the damage is super severe. Take a look behind me. You won't believe the sight. This is a large tree that was knocked over by hurricane-force winds up to 70 miles per hour. And you can see the concrete slab on the sidewalk ripped apart with it.
That tree -- then walk with me over here -- fell on top of not only one, but two, three, four, five, and then a sixth car that you can't even see because it's covered by tree branches. About 2,000 trees came down across the city here, including one that killed a 60-year-old man.
He was sitting inside of a van when a massive oak tree snapped and then crushed the vehicle.
In New Jersey, no one died when at least two tornadoes reportedly touched down, but, this morning, tragic news, a 60-year-old man killed, possibly electrocuted by downed wires while he was doing yard work. Another 60-year- old, a woman, is in New Hampshire, also dead, killed last night when a tree fell on top of her apartment building.
Now, a big issue this morning is power, power outages. Take a look at this map. About 2.6 million customers are without power across the Northeast. New Jersey's Governor Phil Murphy says residents could be in the dark at least until Friday, while New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is calling for an investigation of the power companies, calling their performance simply unacceptable.
But, as for the cleanup, Neil, far from over. We have heard over and over from residents saying that they have called the city, asking them to please remove the tree off of their cars, so they can move on to getting their insurance claims, and, still, 24 hours later, looks like that -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Just incredible, Aishah Hasnie.
Thank you very much, Aishah. Good catching up with you on this.
And, again, there's a lot of damage there. It looks like a storm scene, but nothing like Beirut. If you saw that explosion yesterday, you would wonder, like, the casualty counts are as low as they are. And they're still very high, 135 known dead, more than 5,000 injured.
What we don't know is whether it was an accidental explosion or, as the president said last night in some remarks, some generals telling him that it was an attack.
Trey Yingst now has the latest from Tel Aviv.
Trey, what are we learning?
TREY YINGST, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, good afternoon.
What we know right now is that officials in Lebanon are trying to get to the bottom of this explosion. They have actually detained a number of port officials who are involved in this warehouse where this ammonium nitrate, according to the prime minister and president of Lebanon, was being stored.
As for the president of the United States' claim that this was a bomb or an attack, there is no evidence, according to Pentagon officials that spoke with FOX News overnight, that that is true.
What we do know from the Red Cross today, at least 135 people were killed in the explosion in the port city of Beirut yesterday. There were more than 4,000 people injured. And right now, there are still search-and-rescue teams going through the rubble looking for survivors.
There were some small moments of hope today, as people were pulled from the wreckage in the collapsed houses that we saw across the city. But, again, Beirut is a city that has been suffering for months. They have been dealing with rolling blackouts.
And if you went up the coast from where we are standing in Tel Aviv right now, just about 130 miles, it would be difficult to see Beirut. Most of the buildings there do not have power right now.
But, despite that, there are international rescue teams and many aid organizations looking for survivors in the rubble, hoping they can keep that death toll low, as they try to figure out what exactly caused this explosion in that port city -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Trey Yingst, thank you very much, my friend.
In the meantime, the president will be addressing folks with another press session today at 5:30. Now, it was at last night's that he raised that attack issue, that it was an attack that generals were telling was behind that Beirut blast. He might update that in just a few minutes.
We will have more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): When you heard about the interview, you got upset, didn't you?
SALLY YATES, FORMER ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I was upset that Director Comey didn't coordinate that with us and acted unilaterally, yes, I was.
GRAHAM: OK.
Did Comey go rogue?
YATES: You could use that term, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: All right, with Tom Dupree on the significance of the former Obama Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates not really showing that she was a big fan of James Comey.
What do you think of that, Tom?
TOM DUPREE, FORMER JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes, Neil, I was shocked when I heard that testimony.
I mean, look, the stunning thing here is that, by the waning days of the Obama administration, it has now become clear that Sally Yates had effectively lost control of the Justice Department, at least as far as the Michael Flynn investigation is concerned, and that she literally has, by her own admission, a rogue FBI director on her hands conducting what was effectively a sting operation against the incoming national security adviser.
CAVUTO: The more that stuff that comes out on Comey, the more the sort of the late version has changed, that sort of sanctified by many in the media, but he has since been pretty much tarred by all of this.
DUPREE: Yes, it is fascinating to see the way that this has played out.
I mean, what strikes me, Neil, is that you would think that, in this situation, where you're talking about investigating senior incoming administration officials of the new presidential administration, that this is something which would get close scrutiny, not just by the president and vice president, but by the attorney general, the deputy attorney general.
But none of that seems to have happened here. It seems to have been effectively a rogue operation, one carried out with very little senior supervision.
CAVUTO: Bizarre, bizarre.
All right, Tom Dupree, thank you very much.
I apologize for our limited time with all this breaking news, my friend. We will hope to get you back very, very soon.
Quick final peek at the corner of Wall and Broad of what we did today, stocks up on promising talk of a vaccine in the making. I talked to the chairman of Novavax, which has an antibody treatment that could be ready as soon as December, and millions of doses available shortly thereafter, we hope.
Here comes "THE FIVE."
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