'Special Report' Ohio town hall with Senate candidates Tim Ryan, JD Vance

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Rep. Tim Ryan: We need tax cuts to put money in people's pockets

Ohio U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan proposes how he would work to reduce inflation and more in an exclusive town hall on 'Special Report.'

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," November 1, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR (voice-over): One week from election night.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR (voice-over): And Ohio's open Senate seat is up for grabs.

REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH), SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: We have to be committed to bringing it home.

JD VANCE (R), OHIO SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to send this guy home. We're going to take this country back.

MACCALLUM: It's a battle between seasoned politician Democratic Representative Tim Ryan.

RYAN: Thank you so much.

VANCE: Tim Ryan had his chance. It hasn't worked out. It's time for new leadership.

BAIER: And lawyer, author and political newcomer Republican JD Vance.

VANCE: Let's get to work.

RYAN: He's not going to win. We're going to win this race and they're going to get more and more desperate.

MACCALLUM: Both candidates are here to answer the tough questions tonight from voters in their state.

BAIER: This is the Ohio town hall.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BAIER: Welcome to Columbus, Ohio. I'm Bret Baier with a great crowd.

MACCALLUM: We have a great crowd here tonight. I'm Martha MacCallum.

BAIER: Welcome to a special edition of "Special Report" with limited commercial interruptions, thanks to our sponsor this hour, Tunnel to Towers.

We are coming to you tonight live from The Fives event venue.

MACCALLUM: Congressman Tim Ryan and JD Vance will both join us live here in a moment.

Both nominees will have equal time. And our audience of Republicans and Democrats and independents will be asking them questions throughout.

BAIER: First, we want to give you a look at some of the other headlines today.

The latest FOX News power rankings shows Republicans with 49 possible seats in the Senate after next week's midterms. Those are the projections, Democrats 47, four races we call toss-ups. We have shifted two contests toward Republican contests -- candidates, rather, Washington state still considered likely Democrat. Florida's now in the likely Republican column.

MACCALLUM: The House forecast is 223 Republican, with 186 Democrat; 26 are still in that toss-up column. We have six races in this recent power rankings that just came out today that have moved towards the Democrats, and 12 that you see on the right-hand side of your screen have been deemed to have moved towards Republicans.

BAIER: In governor's races, six are considered toss-ups. Two of them, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, are moving toward Democrats. New York is moving toward the Republican candidate.

MACCALLUM: We are releasing brand-new FOX News polls tonight.

Republican Kari Lake is now in the lead in the Arizona governor's contest, and Democrat Katie Hobbs is one point behind, so it's a very close race there.

(APPLAUSE)

BAIER: Also, in the Arizona Senate race, it is tightening as well. Republican challenger Blake Masters has moved within two points in our latest poll tonight of Democratic incumbent Senator Mark Kelly.

MACCALLUM: And, in Wisconsin, incumbent Republican Ron Johnson is up by three to Democrat Mandela Barnes.

BAIER: Meantime, a White House spokesperson says the U.S. is concerned about threats to Saudi Arabia tonight from Iran and will not hesitate to respond if necessary.

This comes after The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia has shared intelligence with the U.S. warning of an imminent attack from Iran on targets in the kingdom.

MACCALLUM: The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted a temporary hold on Senator Lindsey Graham's testimony in a Georgia investigation of the possible illegal interference in the 2020 election by then-President Trump and his allies.

The High Court left no legal impediments in the way of Graham's appearance before a special grand jury, which is now scheduled for November 17.

BAIER: The markets today, the Dow lost 80, the S&P 500 fell 16, the Nasdaq was off 97.

OK, JD Vance is standing by live. We will speak to him near the bottom of the hour. And there you see him live.

But we begin tonight with Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan.

We wanted to get you updated on all the headlines. And now let's go.

What do you say?

RYAN: Let's do it.

BAIER: Welcome, Congressman.

RYAN: Thank you. Welcome to Ohio.

BAIER: All right. Thank you.

Our first question is from Valerie from Deerfield.

Valerie, go ahead.

UNKNOWN: Hello, Congressman. Thanks for coming.

Can you look me in the face and tell me that government expenditures on green energy subsidies through the Inflation Reduction Act that increase our national debt are in any way lessening my burden at the gas station and the grocery store?

RYAN: I could not say that right now in the present moment.

I think the investments that were coming in to the Inflation Reduction Act, especially what we did in natural gas -- there was a huge natural gas component in the Inflation Reduction Act which I supported and worked to get in there. I think natural gas is the bridge fuel that we need to move forward.

I was responsible for helping land two natural gas power plants in my congressional district. We're working on a cracker plant in Eastern Ohio that will create thousands of union construction jobs. So, in the short term, no.

I think, when it comes to inflation, we need a tax cut. We need to put money in people's pockets if we're going to weather the storm here, so a tax cut in the short term, but then move to natural gas, all in, streamline. I supported Senator Manchin's permitting bill to streamline permitting.

You want to permit some of these projects, it takes five or six years. You have to deal with 11 federal agencies, which is insane. We have got to streamline that process as well. But we do need to move into electric vehicles, solar panels.

Just in my congressional district alone, Foxconn bought the old General Motors plant. The plant was empty. There are now five products in Youngstown, Ohio, outside of Youngstown, Ohio, being made in that plant, a truck, three cars and an electric tractor, all-electric. Across the street is a battery plant.

In Toledo, we have solar panels that are being made. They have made hundreds of millions of dollars in investments into Ohio. Honda just announced a $4 billion battery plant here, based on what we're doing moving into the clean energy space.

I want Ohio to be the manufacturing powerhouse of the world. If it's not us, it's China. So we have to go all in on these products of the future. But where I think I'm different as a Democrat, I think we go all in on natural gas. How do we create union construction jobs here in Ohio?

How do we streamline the permitting process? And then how do we export it to our friends in Europe, so we can stick our finger in the eye of Vladimir Putin, this bully and what he's doing in Ukraine, and then eventually get it to China as well? And we can address a lot of our climate goals doing that.

BAIER: But, Congressman, your party--

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BAIER: Your party is not there. Your party overall is not there.

You have voted with your party, your critics say, 100 percent of the time. So you may push for those things, as Senator Manchin has, but your party overall is not there and is in control.

RYAN: Well, we have got too many politics happening.

Look, I helped get the natural gas provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. I publicly supported Senator Manchin's permitting bill to streamline permitting. It was the Republicans, Bret, that deep-sixed the permitting bill. He was able to get almost every Democrat aligned.

And this was what Republicans wanted too. Who's not for streamlining government. Who's not for reducing it from five or six years to permit a natural gas or even a clean technology project, streamline it down? Eleven agencies, it's nuts.

It was Republicans who pulled the plug on that. I want to stop all the stupid politics here. There's no reason they shouldn't have supported that. And we could be exporting this stuff to our allies.

BAIER: Let me ask a question to everybody in the audience here, a show of hands.

How many here think inflation and the economy is the number one issue in this race?

And you're one of them as well?

RYAN: I'm one of them, yes, of course.

BAIER: OK.

MACCALLUM: But her -- this woman's question was about the Inflation Reduction Act. And you said, yes, actually, it's not changing your life right now.

RYAN: In the short term. I said in the short term.

MACCALLUM: And you voted for trillions of dollars in spending that you're now, I think, saying isn't working right now.

RYAN: Well, here's it -- that's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying, in the short term, we need a tax cut. We have to put money in people's pockets. Child tax credit, advance it. Earned Income Tax Credit, advance it. Put it in people's bank accounts.

BAIER: How are you going to get it through your party?

RYAN: Well, you're asking me what I'm -- what I would like to do. I don't have control over everybody else.

I think this is the solution. I have been screaming at Democrats too for a year-and-a-half to pass a tax cut. That's the short term. My point was, that's not going to help you today. That's why we need a tax cut. It will help us bring supply chains back. It's going to create tens of thousands of union construction jobs here.

Like I said, Ohio is right in the middle all this, because, once we passed that, we saw huge investments into the solar industry. Honda's putting a $4 billion battery plant there. We have a battery plant up in Youngstown. We have five vehicles, soon to be more, at Foxconn, natural gas in the southeast. Like, Ohio is so primed for this. We just got to stop the stupid politics on this.

BAIER: Let me--

MACCALLUM: But you have voted against fracking in the past on federal lands, and you said you wanted it banned.

So, now the president is saying that he wants to tax energy companies, a windfall tax, because of the profits that they have made. So, the same kind of thing that you're arguing with green energy, that you have to make that investment now, why not make that investment in making us energy- independent?

Because, right now, we are far from it.

RYAN: I'm 1000--

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: I'm 1000 percent for that, 1000 percent.

I'm just saying, you can't -- we -- I don't want -- we don't want to do fracking on federal lands. I'd like to do it wherever else we can, do it in an environmentally conscious way. If we can export this natural gas from Eastern Ohio to Eastern Europe and eventually to China -- China's building one coal-fired power plant a week.

If we can export this to them, we will dramatically meet our climate goals and create thousands of union construction in Eastern Ohio. It's a great--

BAIER: What about the windfall tax that President Biden mentioned, a tax on oil companies' profits? Are you for that?

RYAN: I haven't looked at exactly what he wants to do. I think the fact that oil companies are making huge profits and having stock buybacks right now, while an average person here is paying nearly $4 a gallon, I think that's wrong.

And I think we need to crack down.

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: We need to crack down on it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BAIER: We're going to move on. We're going to move on.

But, obviously, critics say, have you ever seen something that you tax that you get more of it?

RYAN: No, probably not.

BAIER: Yes.

All right, let's go to Johnny from Sunbury.

Johnny, are you here? Yes.

UNKNOWN: Congressman Ryan, thank you so much for being here tonight.

I'm a senior at Cedarville University studying political science. And one of the things we have been talking about is rising crime. All over the country, we're seeing judges let criminals, not innocent people, but criminals, out on bail with little or -- little or no bail.

And community safety is put being put at risk. There's a constitutional amendment on the ballot in Ohio this year about a case that happened in Ohio. So, if you're elected to the Senate, what exactly will you do to address this issue and prevent criminals from being released in our cities with no incentive to prevent them from committing another crime or return to court?

RYAN: Well, I'm -- that's a great question. Thank you. It takes a lot of guts to stand up here. So I appreciate you doing that.

I support making sure that judges have the right in the constitutional amendment -- I'm voting yes on that -- to be able for the -- for the judges to be able to balance their decision with regard to public safety. And crime is an issue. I don't care what anybody says about that. And we need more cops. We need better paid cops.

And we need to make sure that we invest into police training. And that's why we put hundreds of millions, billions of dollars into the rescue package for state and local government, so that we can fund the police.

Over the course of my career, I have brought back $500 million to the state of Ohio for police, for staffing, for technology. And we also have to figure out, how in the hell are all these criminals getting their hands on all these guns? How does that happen?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

RYAN: So, again, it's not an either/or thing.

That's why I keep saying we got to stop these stupid fights. This is a real problem. Some of the answer is going to be conservative. Some of the answer may be a little more investment and progressive. But we're never going to know if we don't talk to each other.

And that's what I want to bring to the Senate for Ohio, the conversation. I'm not going to agree with everybody on everything. I mean, I'm married. We don't -- my wife and I don't agree with every -- each other on everything. Like, you are too.

But we're Americans. We have to solve these problems. And that means adult discussions that are thoughtful, and not politicized. And crime is a perfect example of that.

(APPLAUSE)

MACCALLUM: But let me ask you a quick follow-up on that.

You have said in the past that you would be for eliminating cash bail, and a lot of people see people getting arrested. The next day, they're back on the street again. You also said that you thought that nonviolent criminals should be released from prison. And a lot of people fall into that nonviolent category, including drug traffickers, including drug possession, including people who distribute child pornography.

So all those people should be let out?

RYAN: Well, what I'm talking about here is marijuana crimes.

I think we need to legalize marijuana. I think--

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

MACCALLUM: Well, you said all nonviolent criminals out, for sure.

RYAN: I'm sorry?

BAIER: You said all.

MACCALLUM: You said all nonviolent criminals out, for sure.

RYAN: I think the focus is marijuana crimes, in my mind, right?

We spend -- this may be this stupidest expenditure of federal money and public taxpayer money in history of our country. You get caught with marijuana, then you end up in prison. And that is insane for us. We should take -- we should tax the marijuana, and we should put it into addiction treatment. We should use it to keep fentanyl and these hardcore drugs out of our country, out of our society.

We should invest in the shop class. We should invest into early childhood education. There's so many better ways to spend in this money than locking somebody up for marijuana crimes, and especially when -- when white and black people use marijuana equally, black people are six times more likely to go to prison -- like, that's an unfair system.

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: I'm sorry, it just doesn't make any sense to me.

BAIER: Congressman, I want to turn to another issue that comes out a lot in this race, your ads, your supporters' ads about the issue of abortion. In Ohio, abortion is banned after 22 weeks. I've asked you on "Special Report" before, what is your limit?

RYAN: I believe, if it's later in the term, that there should not be an abortion unless there is a medical emergency, like, at that point, you know, people are -- they have a nursery; they have binkies; they have blankets. They have names picked out. They're ready to have a party.

If it happens late in term, that's tragedy. It's absolute tragedy. And so I don't think we should have abortions later in the term unless there's a medical emergency. And what's happening now in Ohio, Bret, is sad. Because we see a story or two every single week of people, women, who are in this tragic situation; their life becomes at risk; they have to go to Illinois. Now, JD Vance wants a national abortion ban, and he wouldn't be happy with these people going to Illinois. He wants them to have to get a passport and go to Canada. He called rape "inconvenient."

BAIER: This is after 15 weeks, is what he's talked about? We're going to ask all these questions.

RYAN: After 15 weeks.

BAIER: So what's your number? What's the -- you say you don't want it afterward. Is there a number?

RYAN: I think we go back to Roe v. Wade.

BAIER: Which--

RYAN: Roe v. Wade was in the third term--

(APPLAUSE)

-- in the third term -- in the third term of Roe v. Wade, you could only do it if there was some kind of medical emergency. We don't want JD Vance and Ted Cruz and all these guys in the doctor's office.

BAIER: And do you think that the Democratic bills to codify, so-called codify Roe v. Wade, have some sort of limit in them?

Because we haven't seen it. The one that was in the House did not have a limit.

RYAN: I -- my--

BAIER: So do you have a limit?

RYAN: My personal view is we go back to Roe v. Wade. We move away from this chaos that we're in now. We had 50 years of case law. We had stability. And now we have women -- and we have doctors, Bret, who won't -- won't perform what they need to perform on a woman whose life is in jeopardy, and then the doctor says, "I'm sorry, I have my own kids at home and I'm not going to prison over this stuff."

MACCALLUM: So, I guess, at what point -- 22 weeks is the law in Ohio right now. That's -- that's more than four and a half months. It's five months pregnant. I mean, five months is a long time of being pregnant. So that's not an OK time to -- 22 weeks? You don't agree with your state law?

RYAN: I just -- I think we -- no, I don't agree with our state law at all, because, if you get raped in Ohio, it is a state mandated pregnancy.

MACCALLUM: But you'd have five months to have that abortion in Ohio?

RYAN: Well, you would. But sometimes -- sometimes, if there's a medical necessity; if there's a medical problem, you don't know that until the end. And here, the point is, this is America. This is a country built on freedom, right? And this is the largest governmental overreach into the private lives of individual citizens in the history of our lifetime.

(APPLAUSE)

And -- and, look, you have -- you know, I thought my friends on the other side were, like, against big government, against invasion into the private lives of people.

This is the largest thing ever. It completely steals personal freedom and liberty away from women. I think it's anti-American. And I think we need to go back and just codify Roe v. Wade as it was, and let's all move on with our lives.

BAIER: And we're going to move on.

(APPLAUSE)

MACCALLUM: Let's -- this is actually a tweet that came in from Paul. And Paul asks, why did Ryan -- "What did Ryan mean about 'kill and confront,'" when you said this in a statement with regard to MAGA, the movement, is what you said specifically. "In today's political climate, shouldn't you apologize and retract that statement?" says Paul.

RYAN: I will say that this extremist movement absolutely needs to be confronted.

BAIER: But "kill?"

RYAN: I think -- well, to kill the movement. And maybe that wasn't a great choice of words. Absolutely confront and absolutely stop the extremist movement happening. And we just saw -- and as I was watching the previous show on Fox, what happened to Paul Pelosi, I think, is an absolute tragedy, OK? I don't care what your politics are. I really don't. I don't care how you feel about Nancy Pelosi and her politics or anything. She is the third- ranking constitutional officer in the United States of America -- president, vice president, speaker of the House. Her husband is 82 years old and got beat over the head with a hammer. And that is wrong across the board.

But now we have people saying, "Well, it's wrong, but maybe if you're a Democrat." We had right-wing talk radio show hosts saying that they should go bail this guy out. What Donald Trump, Jr., posted, he posted a pair of underwear that, you know, a grandpa would wear, with a hammer on it, and said "This is my Halloween uniform. I'm going as Paul Pelosi."

That is -- that is an atrocious thing to do.

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: I don't care -- I'm sorry--

(APPLAUSE)

Look, I'm sorry -- I'm sorry, I don't care what your politics are. It's not about that. Is this the kind of country we're going to leave to our kids and our grandkids, where it's OK, if you disagree politically with the speaker of the House, that you can go in there and beat up her -- her husband with a hammer? If that was a republican, I would -- I would absolutely condemn it.

MACCALLUM: But that's -- that's obviously an extreme situation.

RYAN: JD Vance said nothing about this.

MACCALLUM: Well, we'll ask him about when he comes out.

RYAN: You should ask him, because Rob Portman did, and Mike DeWine did, and JD Vance was silent. And I just think this is a tragedy, and regardless of politics, we've got to get back to being Americans first.

MACCALLUM: I -- I think that everybody would agree with you that that was a tragedy.

(APPLAUSE)

I could point to a number of horrific attacks in my home city, in New York, that are also absolute tragedies, where people were beaten to a pulp by crazy people who had just been let out of prison. So, you know, there's a lot of violence going on.

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: There is.

MACCALLUM: A lot of violence going on.

(APPLAUSE)

MACCALLUM: But I just want to ask you, what is--

(APPLAUSE)

What is your definition -- when you say that the MAGA movement should be killed and confronted, who is in that category?

RYAN: The guys who stormed the Capitol on January 6th.

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: They are the lead -- they are the leaders.

(APPLAUSE)

They are -- they're the leaders. This is what I'm saying. They stormed the Capitol on January 6th. They beat up 140 police officers, killed one, OK? They killed one.

(CROWD BOOING)

RYAN: We all--

UNKNOWN: (inaudible)

RYAN: We all watched--

UNKNOWN: (inaudible) liar (ph).

RYAN: We all watched the video.

UNKNOWN: Liar (ph).

RYAN: We all watched the video.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: All right, guys. Let him speak. Let him speak.

BAIER: Let him finish, please.

RYAN: And I work -- I'm happy to have this conversation. I'm not afraid to have this conversation. These are the conversations we need to have this in this country. I welcome you guys. Let's just be respectful. But I'm not afraid to stand here and defend my position.

On January 6th, 140 -- I sit on the subcommittee that funds the Capitol Police. These are my friends. One hundred forty of them got hurt. And some of them still can't go back to work because they were beat up with lead pipes. They were sprayed with pepper spray. They were beaten with flag poles. OK? They were trying to overthrow the government. They were trying to stop the peaceful transition of the government. What else were they doing there? They're going to kill Mike Pence, right? They wanted to kill Nancy Pelosi. Now somebody's beaten up Nancy Pelosi's husband with a hammer. JD Vance raised money for the insurrectionists. He made several social media posts to raise money for them. Now, again, I don't care what your politics are. But Americans should say no. We have to say no to that.

(APPLAUSE)

BAIER: We're going to try to get as many questions as we can from the audience.

(APPLAUSE)

BAIER: We've got Colin from Portsmouth. Colin from Portsmouth, go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you for being here. Fentanyl is coming across the border from Mexico, flooding our communities. And you've accepted that this is a problem. It's a big problem in Portsmouth, where I'm from. But yet you voted against funding for border security. You voted against funding for the border wall. You voted against funding for drug enforcement. And you called for defunding ICE. Why?

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: I absolutely never called for defunding ICE -- not one time -- not one time.

No, you can laugh all you want, not one time, OK? Never. And I have voted to increase funding for border security. I think we need more border patrol, not less. I have a resolution in the House of Representatives that would designate Fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.

(APPLAUSE)

So that would allow us -- that would allow us -- that would allow us to use the whole-of-government approach to provide the resources necessary to stop this junk from coming in. We need to be tougher on China, where this comes from. We need to be tougher on Mexico, who processes it and sneaks it over the border and finds a million different ways to get it here.

So we need more Border Patrol. I have voted to support a barrier in certain places. The problem with the wall is that El Chapo can dig under it. And people could put ladders up and climb over it. Is it a piece of it? Yes. I started what's called the Border Security Technology Caucus. We need to marshal all of the technology that we have in this country and apply it to the border so that we can keep this junk out.

There's 8 billion people in the world. Most of them want to live here. We need an orderly process for how to get them into the United States. And we should be big-hearted enough to take refugees whose daughters may get raped and thrown into the sex trade or sons may get beat up and thrown into gangs -- like, we should be big-hearted enough to do that.

But we need an orderly process so people come here the right way.

BAIER: Congressman, one thing you did vote for--

(APPLAUSE)

And this is what your Republicans critics said, is that you did vote for tens of thousands of IRS officials and agents to be added to the IRS--

RYAN: Um-hmm.

BAIER: -- instead of sending more Border Patrol to the border. That's what your Republican critics say. And you did vote for that. So how do you explain that?

RYAN: Well, this is why I'm glad you're here. Because you have a very smart audience. And -- and I appreciate you. I really do. It's not an either/or. It's not an either/or. We are back -- so 40,000 IRS agents are going to retire in the next 10 years. So this is over 10 years. We're going to replace those people. But we also have a lot of Fortune 500 companies and a lot of really rich people who have teams of accountants, teams of lawyers; they don't pay any taxes. I think, if you should be able to build yourself and fly yourself into space, you should pay your fair share in taxes.

(APPLAUSE)

RYAN: So we need enough agents -- we need enough agents to be able to go after these billionaires who are avoiding taxes at all cost. There is a protection in there that nobody under 400,000 is even going to get touched. I would never vote to increase taxes, which is another line in this campaign, on working class people. I come from working class people. I represent working class people. I don't want them paying any more in taxes. I've been calling for a tax cut. So a lot -- a lot of things flying around in the campaign, as you know.

BAIER: I understand.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: I understand, I'm just -- that's why we appreciate--

RYAN: You could do the border and you can do -- you can do going after the billionaires.

BAIER: We are going to keep it exactly to time for each one of you. So we appreciate your time, Congressman Ryan.

Thank you for all the questions for Congressman Ryan.

RYAN: Thank you.

BAIER: And we'll be following the race closely.

MACCALLUM: Thank you, Congressman.

RYAN: Thank you. We're going to shock the world. We're going to win this one.

BAIER: When we come back--

MACCALLUM: Thank you very much. Good to have you here.

BAIER: -- we talk live with Republican Senate nominee JD Vance.

(APPLAUSE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(APPLAUSE)

BAIER: Welcome back to our Ohio special town hall. In our last segment we talked with Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan, running for Senate. Now the Republican Senate nominee, JD Vance.

(APPLAUSE)

MACCALLUM: Good to have you with us. We have a great crowd here tonight.

BAIER: Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

MACCALLUM: Thanks, everybody -- and a lot of applause.

(APPLAUSE)

BAIER: Let's get to our first question.

MACCALLUM: Let's get to our first question so we can get a lot of questions in with Mr. Vance here. Lisa (ph) from Hilliard, Ohio. Lisa (ph), take it away.

UNKNOWN: Hi. It's Hilliard.

MACCALLUM: Hilliard.

UNKNOWN: As a single mom one of my greatest concerns is the high cost of groceries and the high cost of prescription medications. So what will you do to help lower those costs so that people are literally not having to choose between buying food and buying their medications?

VANCE: Sure. Sure. Well first of all, thank you, Lisa, for the question and thanks for being here and thank you guys for having me.

You know I was raised by a single mom, too. I was raised by my mammaw (ph) in big part, my grandmother, because of some of the issues that we had our family. But I certainly know the struggles that working families are going through. And I'd say a couple of big things, right?

So one of the reasons why we have this terrible inflation is because the Biden administration, backed by Tim, supported a lot of borrowing and spending, throwing fuel on the fire which has caused the price of everything to go up.

Now we have to remember, Biden said that he wouldn't raise taxes on middle class. But if you are a family right now dealing with the grocery prices and the energy prices, certainly you feel like your taxes are gone up a lot because the cost of living and good life in this country has gone up a lot.

The other really crazy thing is that we really went to war against America's energy sector. So, energy goes into everything, right? It goes into the diesel fuel that the trucks use to take our food to the grocery store. It goes into the manufacturing process. And so when you have energy getting so, so expensive, that raises the price of everything else as well. And so I think we get those two things under control. We stop the borrowing and spending, and we actually get -- open up Ohio's energy markets and then we will start to bring those prices under control.

I also think that, look, I mean, I'm not going to disagree with the Democrats on everything. I think one of the good things that came out of the Inflation Reduction Act, maybe the only good thing to come out of the Inflation Reduction Act, is that it does empower Medicare to actually negotiate with some of the prescription drug providers on prescription drugs. That's a good thing.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: It brings down costs -- brings down costs for families. And look, you know, we're the greatest country in the world. You should not be able to -- you should not be unable to afford insulin in the greatest country in the world because you can't afford it. That's got to change, and I think we are making good progress there.

(APPLAUSE)

BAIER: JD, President Biden has been out on the trail lately saying that if Republicans win that their policies will cause more inflation. Understand that Republicans think totally opposite than that. But to Lisa's point, from Hilliard, is it like the dog catches the car and do you worry that you can actually pass, even if you have the Senate and the House, something that can affect Lisa's life directly?

VANCE: Well, I think we absolutely have to work together, OK? And that's one of the things Tim talks about working together but when Republicans win the majority as I think that we do, we have to act like we have the majority. We have to do things not just talk about doing things. And we have to accomplish some important things for the American people.

Now, what can we do immediately to make Lisa's life better? Well, one thing we can do is open up the pipelines and open up our energy industry. That will cause a reduction

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: That -- that will cause a reduction in prices pretty immediately. And again, if you stop borrowing, if you stop the spending, you will actually reduce price pressures on the overall economy. That's a big thing that will lead to immediate relief as well.

(APPLAUSE)

MACCALLUM: All right. So immigration of course is a big issue in the Border States and a lot of states across the country but also a factor in this election in Ohio. This evening we hear from a man who wants changes. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNKNOWN: Hey, guys.

BAIER (voice-over): Jackson based Larry Kidd owns a staffing firm called :hire in Southeastern Ohio. :Hire helps its clients find employees across the variety of sectors, but recent worker shortages have created major problems for Kidd's business.

LARRY KIDD, FOUNDER, PRINCIPAL, AND CEO, :HIRE: There was a talent shortage prior to the pandemic and the pandemic only exasperated that. One of the ways to fix this problem is fix the immigration problems.

BAIR (voice-over): Kidd hopes for policies that bring workers from other countries to the U.S. on a legal basis.

KIDD: There just simply aren't enough workers in the United States to fill the jobs that are open.

BAIER (voice-over): But he wants to put the GOP Senate candidate on the spot to see what policies Vance has in mind to address worker shortages.

KIDD: What's your stance on immigration and how can we help solve the employment issue in the United States?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAIER: All right.

VANCE: Great. Well, great question. And first of all, I've come out in favor of -- we're talking about legal immigration here. I have come out in favor of Tom Cotton's the RAISE Act. He's a senator from Arkansas. And here's what the RAISE Act would do. So step back a little bit. What our immigration policy does right now is it ask the question, who do you know, and how -- if you know somebody, then that's how you get into the United States legally.

I think the immigration policy in the United States should be about what skills and what attributes do you bring to the table that's going to enrich the entire American nation. That's what the RAISE Act would do. That's what most other First World economies actually do. You let people into your country based on merit. Not on who they know, based on merit and I think that's where we need to take the immigration policy in this country.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: Now -- now, this is really important, Bret. So, the illegal immigration question -- I know the question was about our legal immigration policy. But the illegal immigration side of this is really important, too because we know that the fentanyl -- and I've been affected in my family very personally by the opioid problem. But when the fentanyl is coming into our country at such an extraordinary degree, brought in by the Mexican drug cartels, that's actually one of the reasons why we have the labor shortage.

Of course, we think about it most of all because it kills our citizens, we think about it most of all because it orphans our -- our children, that's obviously very important. It also creates labor shortages because this fentanyl takes people out of the workforce, makes them unable to work in good jobs. So I actually think that the question really if we get control of the illegal immigration, that will actually help this problem as well.

(APPLAUSE)

MACCALLUM: You know, we talked a lot about inflation, about the economy as being the number one and two issues really in this election. How many of you believe that the border is secure in this group?

BAIER: Show of hands.

MACCALLUM: Is the border secure? Our southern border?

BAIER: I don't think --

MACCALLUM: There's one person back there who thinks it is, one person over there thinks it's secure.

VANCE: A couple.

MACCALLUM: You know, I mean, that -- that's pretty phenomenal because you've heard from the applause tonight, we have people who are Democrats here, Republicans here --

VANCE: Sure.

MACCALLUM: -- and 99 percent of them don't think we have a secure border.

VANCE: Yes.

BAIER: So Loretta (ph) has a question about the border. Loretta (ph), here you go.

VANCE: Sure.

UNKNOWN: Yes, I think you partially answered this but what would you do to stop the crisis at the southern border, to stop the criminals, the human trafficking, and the drugs from entering? What would you do to stop the drug crisis that's killing our young Ohioans?

BAIER: Specifically, if you are a senator with a president from another party?

VANCE: Yes. So, one, I've had such a good time campaigning across the state of Ohio, but one of the really sad parts is that every single stop that we make I meet somebody who's lost a son, a grandson, a daughter, a granddaughter to the opioid problem. We really got to get control of this. It's killing our people. It's totally unnecessary and it's a totally self- inflicted wound.

A couple of things that I think we can do -- and I want to talk about this question, Bret, what can you do with a Democratic president. So two things we really need to do is -- we actually learned over the last six years border walls work. We need to finish the border wall and actually complete the southern border.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: Now the other crazy thing is that we know that the drug cartels are actually destabilizing Mexico. Like, our Mexican allies don't like what's going on with the cartels right now. I think they would love it if we declared the cartels a terrorist organization and actually brought the full force of American law against them.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: Now, fair, OK, maybe Joe Biden doesn't want to do some of this stuff. But I actually think there is a good chance because, look, the country is not going in the right direction. I think probably 65 percent of people in the state of Ohio would say that Joe Biden's policies are not working for the state of Ohio.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: I think that if we -- if we get Republican majorities in Congress, the Democrats are going to be forced to work with us on a couple of things. OK? And we need to be willing to reach across the aisle and say, look, if you are willing to get things done for the sake of this country, of course we're willing to work with you. The immigration issue and the border crisis and especially the energy crisis I think those are two issues where Joe Biden and some of the democrats might be willing to do some work with us. I hope they will those are the two biggest crises and they're the two most self-inflicted problems we have in our country right now.

MACCALLUM: Let me ask you this because your critics say that you started, after you wrote your book, which was so famous and well received that you started our Ohio renewal.

VANCE: Sure.

MACCALLUM: And to help people who had drug problems in Ohio. And they say you shut it down shortly after you got the nomination. What do you say to those critics?

VANCE: Well, first of all, it's one of the things that really frustrates me. I'm not here to beat up on Tim Ryan. I'm here to talk to all of you and everybody who's watching on TV. He's run millions of dollars in negative ads saying that I took money out of the nonprofit. I put $80,000 of my own money into that nonprofit. OK. And we did help people and we did do some good. And I'm proud of the good that we did.

Why shut it down? Because it's very expensive. And I'm about to enter a world of public service where I'm going to have to take a big pay cut. It's a worthwhile pay cut because I want to do good for the people in this room and we got to accomplish a lot of good things. But that also means I can't continue to fund the nonprofit by itself, I can't continue to focus on it. And so that's why we decided to wind it down.

BAIER: Melissa (ph) from Gahanna. Yes.

UNKNOWN: Gahanna.

BAIER: Gahanna, I'm so sorry.

VANCE: Gahanna.

BAIER: We're going to get there.

MACCALLUM: Gahanna.

VANCE: These guys aren't from Ohio.

BAIER: I'm sorry.

VANCE: So we'll have to give them a little credit.

BAIER: I'm very sorry.

VANCE: It's OK.

UNKNOWN: It's fair. It's fair.

VANCE: Hilliard and Gahanna.

BAIER: I know, we'll get there.

UNKNOWN: Do you believe in the integrity of Ohio's elections and what will be your message to Ohioans after the election if you don't win?

VANCE: Yes, ma'am. Very important question, I appreciate you asking it. I do believe in the integrity of Ohio's elections. I think we have great elections in the state of Ohio. I think, frankly, our secretary of state, if I can put a little plug in for Frank LaRose, does a great job of administering our elections in the state of Ohio.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: So I expect to win. I expect to get the great honor of going to Washington, D.C. and representing the people of Ohio in the United States Senate. But, of course, if things don't go the way that I expect, I'll support the guy who wins and I'll try to be as supportive as I possibly can, even accepting that we are going to disagree on some big issues.

I will say just on this question of election integrity. I think there is a lot that gets caught up in the back and forth and the political, you know, we have a country with a really high temperature and so let's just be clear about the things that I think we can do to make our elections a little bit more secure.

I think -- again, I think Ohio is in a great place. But I think some other states could do a lot of work here. One is why don't we have universal voter I.D.? If you are going to vote, you ought to be able to present a voter I.D. you know, 80 percent of Americans across different demographic groups, across political parties agree with that and I think that there is some commonsense things that we can do to make our elections more secure to make sure the world's greatest constitutional republic stays that way.

And I think that advocating those commonsense measures does not mean, as some folks in the media say, that you are somehow an election denier. I just want our elections to be as good as they possibly can be. Ohio is a great model but I think other states could do a lot better.

MACCALLUM: So you have said that you think the last presidential election was stolen. So define what you mean by that.

VANCE: Yes, I -- look, I have said that, and I won't run away from it. And here is particularly what I mean by that and here is what I worry about. So two things in particular.

Number one, a number of state courts, including lower courts in the state of Pennsylvania have found they didn't conduct their election in accordance with their own state constitution, in accordance with their own state laws. That's not me making it up. That's actually what these lower courts have held.

Well, you want important battleground states to do what Ohio has done, which is run free and fair elections, consistent secure elections that's really, really important. The second thing that I really worry about, and you hear a lot in America people worried about our democracy worried -- about threats to our democracy. I happen to think the biggest threat to American democracy today is big technology companies in bed with the communist Chinese who are censoring information about American politics.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: And this is -- this is really, really important because, look, Facebook, Twitter, you know, all these companies are now the digital public square. If those companies, which some of them have financial stakes in Communist China, if those companies are censoring information in a way that helps one political party or hurts another political party, I don't care if it's my political party being helped or hurt, I don't want these companies interfering in our elections and I think that happened in 2020.

(APPLAUSE)

BAIR: I assume -- I assume you heard Congressman Ryan before, and he had a lot to say about violence and about January 6th.

VANCE: Sure.

BAIER: About Paul Pelosi, about other things. Not getting specific here but do you want to reply to any of those things that he brought up?

VANCE: Well, first of all, I mean Tim should hire better researchers here.

(LAUGHTER)

VANCE: What happens -- look, what happened to Paul Pelosi was disgusting. And I think everybody, whether we're Democrats or Republicans or somewhere in the middle are very glad that it looks like he's about to make a full recovery. Hopefully he is doing well. Certainly our thoughts and prayers are with Paul Pelosi, but I have condemned the violence against Paul Pelosi from the very beginning.

I think it's preposterous, I think it's disgusting, and I think it's all -- something that all of us should condemn. What I've also said is that I think the effort to turn this into a political issue actually is a real problem here. Because Paul Pelosi was attacked --

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: Look, Paul Pelosi was attacked by a person who is an illegal alien in our country, should have never been here in the first place. My view very simply is that we need to deport violent illegal aliens, OK?

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: And when an illegal alien attacks Paul Pelosi it's tragic and it's terrible but it's not reflective of Republicans. It's reflective of the fact that we let way too many violent people live freely in our country.

(APPLAUSE)

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: Let me ask one more follow-up on just because this is what Tim Ryan brought up as well with regard to abortion. He said you want to ban abortion in Ohio and across this country. Is that true?

VANCE: Look, I'm pro-life. I am pro-life.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: The bill that I've -- now, look, there is a very, very important question about whether this should happen at the federal level or at the state level. And I happen to think it should be a little bit of a mix. In other words, 90 percent of abortion policy is going to be made by the state of Ohio. I think that's absolutely the right way it should be. Ohio is going to want to have a different abortion policy from California and I think every person in Ohio, whether you are pro-choice or pro-life, like I am, absolutely should be able to make that decision.

Now, there is a federal piece of legislation moving through the Senate right now and here's what it does. Very simply, it provides reasonable exceptions, but it also sets a minimum national standard.

And I think that that's a good idea. We should not in this country be aborting babies who can feel pain, who are fully formed.

That's my view and I'm certainly willing to support legislation that would make that a reality.

(APPLAUSE)

BAIER: I'm going to go to Allan.

Allan from Twitter writes this: Maybe the chaos in society these days is a product of how our leaders behave towards one another. Maybe more civility towards each other and genuine attempts to understand opposing views might be helpful in turning this nation around.

What could you contribute towards that end?

VANCE: Well, that's a great question, Allan, and I appreciate it.

I guess the most important thing that maybe I could do as a United States senator representing the great people in this room is -- is just to listen and communicate it a little bit better. You know what, I think one of the things that I worry about -- and, by the way, I mentioned the big tech issue earlier, I think the big tech industry has made this worse is, we don't talk to one another, OK?

We assume the very worst about everybody who disagrees with us. We assume that the people we see on television are reflective of everybody else who holds that particular viewpoint.

And one of the things that I hope to bring to the Senate -- look, I'm a conservative, I'm pro-life, I think the inflation crisis is terrible and Joe Biden and Tim Ryan's policies have caused it. I also think that I can listen to people and have a conversation with people and that's unfortunately something we do way too little of in this country. Hopefully, I can make that better.

(APPLAUSE)

MACCALLUM: All right. Let's get back to the audience. Joe has a question for you.

Joe?

BAIER: We're not going to say your town, Joe. Just not going to say it. Go ahead.

VANCE: Looks (ph) like a Cleveland guy who -- they beat up on the Bengals last night. So, you're just feeling pretty good, Joe.

UNKNOWN: So, every year teachers like my mom from all over Ohio face challenges -- low pay, increasing pressure to accommodate parents, being overworked.

What are you going to do in the United States Senate to make sure that teachers are helped out and that we have better schools for -- in all over Ohio?

VANCE: Yes, sir, yeah. Great question.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: So, Joe, please send your mom my appreciation, I was actually brought up in a public school. And I think that one of the reasons why I came from a poor family and one of the things worked out pretty well for me is not just because of my mammaw (ph) and other people in my family, but because I had a lot of school teachers who took special interest in me, and I appreciate what people like your mom are doing all across the state of Ohio for kids who grew up like I did.

I think, obviously, a lot of our public school teachers could use better pay. They could use more resources. I have talked to a lot of public school teachers in the last couple of years who've talked about just how miserable the job is when you have federal mandates that have nothing to do with reading, writing and arithmetic but have to do with really ridiculous --

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: Have to do with cultural issues that I don't think the schools should be involved in one way or the other.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: You know, I talk to a lot of teachers who feel like the COVID pandemic actually -- not just the COVID pandemic but our leadership's response to it actually made it really hard for them to build good relationships with their kids and with the parents in the schools.

And I -- and I hope that, look, I'm not here to cast blame. I'm not here to sort of say, look, we made a lot of mistakes the last couple of years, all of us agree with that. I'm not here to blame the people who made the mistakes.

But we need to accept that we made a lot of mistakes that made kids' lives more miserable. It made teachers' lives more miserable. And I hope that we can learn and go forward and not repeat those mistakes in the future.

And again, I think we combine that with some resource support for our teachers. We'll hopefully have the next 20 years much better for our school teachers than the last 20 years.

(APPLAUSE)

BAIER: I think we have a teacher.

MACCALLUM: Yeah, we do have a teacher here with us who has a question.

BAIER: Linda (ph)?

MACCALLUM: Linda (ph)?

BAIER: Here you go.

UNKNOWN: Hi. Mr. Vance, tell me about the most challenging manual labor job you ever held and what it taught you about life.

VANCE: That's a good -- well --

MACCALLUM: That's a teacher question.

VANCE: That's a teacher question, Linda (ph). That's right.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: You're a teacher, of course.

MACCALLUM: I know. Thank you, Linda (ph).

VANCE: That's -- that's -- that's a very good question.

So, right after I -- I graduated from college, actually, I worked at a tile distributor. And if you know, floor tile is really, really heavy and probably that was the most challenging manual labor job that I've had. Though I've had a couple of manual labor jobs in my life.

And what did it teach me? I mean, I guess what it taught me is that -- look, you know, I went to college, I went to law school. I'm running for the United States Senate -- a lot of people that I talk to assume that people who work in manual labor jobs aren't that smart and they're just wrong. OK? That's one of the things that I learned, is that figuring out how to load 17 different types of floor tile on the same exact pallet requires a lot of smarts. OK?

(LAUGHTER)

VANCE: You got to be brawny, but you got to be smart, too.

And it also taught me that, you know, the business that I worked at was a great local business in southwestern Ohio where I grew up. And the people who worked there earned really good wages and had a path to promotion and a path to betterment.

I think one of the worries that I have with a lot of the jobs that exist in our society today, because we did ship a lot of our manufacturing base off to China, is that people don't see a pathway in their jobs, right? You shouldn't just have a career pathway if you went to college. You should have a career pathway if you didn't go to college, OK?

And that, to me, is something that I learned at that job and, you know --

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: Unfortunately, I hate to say it, but I think a lot of our service sector jobs maybe don't provide that pathway or at least they don't make that pathway as clear to a lot of people that are out there.

But when you do that, I mean, people work harder, they feel like they've got a stake in what they're doing. They're much happier at work.

It was a cool place to work, I really enjoyed it. I had a great time. But I also spent time with people who were working their rear ends off but felt like they were doing something valuable.

And if we -- we make workers feel like they're doing something valuable because they all are. The question is whether we compensate them the right way. The question is whether people like me and other leadership send the right message.

If we do that, then I think we can have a very, very healthy working class in this country and that's what we want, because if you don't have healthy workers, you're never going to have great American success stories.

Isn't that what we all want in this country? No matter where you came from, no matter who your parents were, you get to live a good life in this country. It's really simple.

(APPLAUSE)

BAIER: Being in the Marines was a little --

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: Manual labor there as well.

VANCE: Yeah, that's true. I -- but you actually gave me a softball.

BAIER: Yeah --

VANCE: What I should have talked about was the Marine Corps.

Look, obviously, a lot -- a lot of manual labor in the Marine Corps. And I guess the thing that I learned from the Marine Corps is that you really can, if you have good leadership, you can take a Puerto Rican kid from the Bronx and a white hillbilly from southwestern Ohio and make them feel like they're part of the same team. That's one of the great things about (inaudible) --

(APPLAUSE)

BAIER: All right. That's leaves us for our last question and that is -- it's more of a process question and it's a little in D.C. question. But it comes from Twitter. A Twitter question here that says: will JD Vance vote for Leader McConnell for GOP leader in the Senate?

It would be one of your first votes as U.S. senator --

VANCE: Maybe my first vote, yeah.

BAIER: -- if you win.

VANCE: Well, I'm certainly not voting for Chuck Schumer, OK? That's -- that's my view. So --

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: Look, I expect to win this Senate seat. I'm certainly working my rear end off for the next seven days to win this seat.

If Mitch McConnell is the only person that runs, that makes it a very easy decision, OK? We'll see what happens when I get to Washington, D.C. but, at the end of the day, I'm going to represent the people of Ohio and I plan to be an independent voice for the people of Ohio.

Whether you're Republican, whether you're a Democrat, whether you're an independent, nobody is going to own my vote card. Nobody is going to own how I actually represent the people of Ohio. That's the thing that I intend to keep in mind.

BAIER: JD Vance, we wanted to keep it exactly the same time and we have effectively done that. We appreciate your time. Thank you very much, sir.

VANCE: Thank you, guys.

MACCALLUM: Thank you, JD Good to see you.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

BAIER: When we come back, a special Ohio town hall discussion for big issues and what we've heard so far tonight. Keep it here.

MACCALLUM: We'll be right back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: A show of hands, how many here think inflation and the economy is the number one issue in this race?

And you're one of them as well (ph).

RYAN: I'm one of them.

BAIER: OK.

RYAN: Yeah, of course. When it comes to inflation, we need a tax cut. We need to put money in people's pockets.

VANCE: One of the reasons why we have this terrible inflation is because the Biden administration, backed by Tim, supported a lot of borrowing and spending, throwing fuel on the fire which has caused the price of everything to go up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Welcome back to our town hall in Ohio. Just heard from Congressman Tim Ryan and JD Vance, the Republican Senate nominee.

Let's bring in senior political analyst Brit Hume.

Brit, let's get your thoughts on tonight.

(CROSSTALK)

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it was an interesting exchange --

(CROSSTALK)

BAIER: Oh, also we've got Haley BeMiller --

MACCALLUM: Haley BeMiller's with us --

BAIER: Hold on -- hold on, Brit.

Haley BeMiller of "USA Today Network", the Ohio bureau of political reporter, and Nic Evans, reporter with "The Ohio Capitol Journal".

OK, Brit, your thoughts?

HUME: Good exchange. Both men conducted themselves effectively. Very competent candidates, both of them.

It was interesting, though, Congressman Ryan, it seemed to me, had a bit of an additional burden because his party is unpopular and his president is unpopular. So what you saw him do is to try to run away from his party on some issues, for example calling for a tax cut. When is the last time you heard a Democrat do that? And running toward on others such as on abortion, for example.

The issue I thought might burden his challenger, JD Vance, was Trump. But Trump's name was never mentioned. So JD Vance, who got pretty well snuggled up to Trump, has been able to move away from him, I guess, at least in terms of the emphasis in his campaign and I think he had a pretty good night.

All in all, you can see why this race is close. Two competent candidates.

MACCALLUM: Yeah, with regard to that, Brit, you know, Mitch McConnell talked about candidate quality. And in that group were a number of people who are running for Senate who have now pretty much tied things up in places like Pennsylvania and Georgia and here in Ohio. What do you think about that in this stage of the game?

HUME: Well, it's interesting to see that happen. But it's -- look, if you look at the playing field, Martha, in terms of the issues and circumstances of this election, it's not surprising to see Republicans gaining ground at this stage of the race and earlier as well. That's where the -- that's where races are usually decided.

We are so polarized, however, Martha, that may help overcome the advantage Republicans enjoy in terms of the circumstances --

BAIER: Yeah.

HUME: -- and the landscape that we all face at this time.

BAIER: Thank you, Brit.

Haley, your thoughts tonight as this town hall and what came out of it?

HALEY BEMILLER, POLITICAL REPORTER, USA TODAY NETWORK OHIO BUREAU: You know, really not surprising that economy and inflation were top of mind. It was also interesting to hear Ryan clarify his views on abortion a little bit more. He had been hesitant to discuss, you know, his thoughts on what should happen later into the pregnancy. He made it clear tonight that he does not support abortion late in a pregnancy unless there are medical emergencies.

Inflation, abortion, those have been two big issues for Ohio.

BAIER: You know, it's interesting. When you follow a campaign, you listen to those nuances, the things that change. Nick, did you hear other things tonight?

NICK EVANS, REPORTER, OHIO CAPITAL JOURNAL: It was interesting to hear Vance bring up the RAISE Act. I hadn't heard him mention that before. The - - his three-part plan for the border he's been talking about since January. So it was interesting to hear that come back up.

It was interesting to hear Tim Ryan talk about Issue 1. That has to do with whether or not judges have to consider the amount of cash when they set bail. They can already think about public safety when they -- when they set terms. But they don't -- they don't get to use public safety to determine the cash amount.

So, that was interesting to hear him go with the opposite of what the Democratic Party in the state is backing.

BAIER: Well, it's fascinating.

MACCALLUM: We heard that a few times, yeah.

Thank you very much, you guys.

BAIER: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: Haley, Nick, good to have you with us.

So, that concludes our special Ohio town hall tonight. We want to thank our sponsor this hour, Tunnel to Towers. Donate $11 a month to Tunnel to Towers at t2t.org. It's fantastic organization.

And we want to thank Congressman Tim Ryan and JD Vance for being with us tonight, for taking all the questions from our audience.

And we want to thank our fantastic live audience for joining us tonight.

BAIER: Very nicely done. Very nicely done.

(APPLAUSE)

BAIER: Thank you for inviting us into your home tonight. That's if for "The Special Report" -- fair, balanced and unafraid.

"Jesse Watters Primetime" starts right now. And we are one week away from election.

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