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This is a rush transcript from “The Story with Martha MacCallum" September 18, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
Good evening, everybody. I'm Martha MacCallum and this is The Story
tonight. Moments away now from President Trump arriving in Bemidji,
Minnesota. See, the crowd gathering there, as I pointed out. Pretty good-
sized crowd out there at the airport. He should be landing shortly. Vice
President Joe Biden was in Duluth, Minnesota today. This was his first trip
to the state since 2017.
President has been there four times since taking office. Biden went to
Duluth in the Iron Range area of Minnesota. Now this is a region that
Hillary Clinton won in 2016. Here's what he had to say this afternoon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: How many people across the Iron Range?
How many empty chairs around those dinner tables? Because of his negligence
and selfishness. How many lies said, and lives lost?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: In fact, no Republican has won Minnesota since 1972. But
President Trump worked hard to win them over. Opening up mining projects
that were banned by President Obama in the area and giving aid to farmers
strapped by the trade imbalance. Now he seeks a big turnout in the rural
vote, and he has secured the support of nine Democrat mayors in the Iron
Range area. There you see Air Force One landing on the tarmac there.
So, the suburbs - in the suburbs though in 2018, there were two Trump
districts that turned blue in 2018. So, as you can see this is shaping up
to be a pretty fierce battle for Minnesota. Minnesota of course is also
ground zero in the fight over police brutality after George Floyd died in
Minneapolis triggering months of protests and violence that still grips the
country. Homicides are up 90 percent in Minneapolis. And arson is up 80
percent from 2019.
It was in Minnesota that the City Council began the defund the police
movement. Remember this from city council president in Minneapolis Lisa
Bender in June - in May.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What if in the middle of the night my home is broken
into, who do I call.
LISA BENDER, MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT: That comes from a place of
privilege because for those of us for whom the system is working, I think
we need to step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in
that reality where calling the police may mean more harm is done
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Now in an ironic and sad and some might say pathetic turn around
those same council members including Bender are now crying out for the
police to keep them and everyone else safe after vilifying the police force
for months.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENDER: And we have officers on the street telling people that they're not
enforcing crime, what do we do?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: What do we do. So, in moments former Minnesota Vikings player
Jack Brewer who lived in Minneapolis for 10 years has businesses there and
family there as well. He joins us. And Senior Fellow of the New Leaders
Council Richard Fowler joins us as well.
But we begin tonight with Brian Peters, the Executive Director of the
Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. Mr. Peters, thank you so
much for being here.
BRIAN PETERS, MINNESOTA POLICE & PEACE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION: Good evening.
MACCALLUM: You know you listen to Lisa Bender there. She was talking about
how it's just your white privilege that makes you expect police officers to
show up in middle of the night. Now she would like to know where the heck
the police officers are and why crime is escalating so dramatically, sir.
PETERS: Yes. The city council and the mayor are absolutely delusional. They
have no concept of reality what is happening every day on the streets. And
what I would challenge them to do instead of naming a street after Mr.
Floyd, how about getting in a squad car, and seeing what is happening day-
after-day on the streets. How about going to the family of Andre Connolly,
a 17-year-old who was shot dead in North Minneapolis at 4:30 in the
afternoon. How about going and visiting that family and explain to them why
their child is dead. They have absolutely no idea what is happening in that
city right now. And the citizens and the businesses are being absolutely
lied to.
MACCALLUM: So, speaking of businesses, this is up from a small business
owner in Minneapolis who reached out to the precinct in his region, in his
district for help. And this is the email that he got back from the third
precinct inspector - excuse me, Sean McGinty.
As far as a long-term plan, I don't have one. I have lost 30 percent of my
street officers since the end of May. A potential cadet class stated for
January of 2020 was also eliminated. Reinforcements aren't coming any time
soon. We are doing everything we can with what we have. What kind of exodus
is this producing both in the police precincts and also in the
neighborhoods, sir?
PETERS: Well, in any police department, you're always going to have
retirements every year. And what we're seeing in Minneapolis is people are
leaving, they're fed up, they're leaving in droves. And as the inspector
pointed out, they've already canceled the cadet class. They've canceled the
class that was supposed to start in 2021 and it takes about a year to get
an officer on the street.
So, if you're losing 150 to 200 officers, where are the replacements.
Again, I go back to - this is an absolute failure of leadership at the city
level to realize what they're up against. And the problem is only going to
get worse and you pointed the crime. The crime is through the roof, but
nobody is talking about it. The mainstream media is not covering it. And
the streets of Minneapolis are starting to look like a war zone.
I was just downtown earlier this week. You have businesses that are boarded
up. Nobody is there. And again, nobody is talking about the reality of what
is happening with crime and what is happening at a staffing level at the
Minneapolis Police Department. It's absolutely sad. And again, the city
council and the mayor just don't have a clue.
MACCALLUM: Mr. Peters, thank you. We're talking about it and we know a lot
of people are very interested in what's going on in all of our cities. We
thank you, sir, for being here tonight.
So, as we await President Trump to take the stage, we can all see that Air
Force One is there. They're bringing the steps up to the side of the plane
right now. Jack Brewer is with us, former Minnesota Viking and CEO of the
Brewer Group, and Richard Fowler, Senior Fellow at the New Leaders Council,
and a Fox News Contributor. Great to have both of you with us tonight. I
want to bring up first this video that I think was a real turning point in
this story. And this video shows the police cars leaving the third precinct
in Minneapolis, exiting, abandoning ship, leaving their precinct.
And after that, the windows were broken, people flooded in there. And
Richard, I think that was a real turning point. I think that after that, we
saw such a dissolution of so many of these police departments and the
feeling of safety and so many of our cities. I mean, what do you say when
you go back to that moment, given what you're now hearing and watching and
seeing in Minneapolis?
RICHARD FOWLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, thanks for having me, Martha. I
think that the truth of the matter here is what needs to happen now more
than any time before is everybody needs to come to the table and figure out
how do we create a meaningful solution to deal with the fact that there's a
breakdown in trust in communities of color when it comes to policing. And
now police are feeling this sort of pressure of how am I able to do my job?
I think the place where you see this happening most poignantly is in
Louisville, right. The Breanna Taylor family and what they did in that
settlement was actually quite powerful. And it was actually something that
we should all aspire to. They brought all the parties to the table and they
said, how can we make this better? So, now cops not only have to wear body
cameras, they're forced to turn them on. They're hiring more mental health
care professionals. So, when their mental health calls, there's actually
somebody who's who spends years and years training on how to de-escalate
those situations. On top of that, they're incentivizing police to live in
the communities where they work, all steps to work on pushing that reset
button--
MACCALLUM: But Richard--
FOWLER: When it comes to how we do policing in there.
MACCALLUM: I agree with you and we do need to find solutions. There's
absolutely no doubt about it. But when you look back at what they allowed
to happen in Minneapolis and other cities across the country, don't you
look back at that now and say, we vilified all police in a way that was
destructive to the safety and sanctity of these cities.
FOWLER: Listen, I don't think anybody wants violence in their cities.
Nobody wants to see windows broken or small businesses shut down. Right.
But I think you have to remember how we got to many of these conversations,
right. How we got to this pressure point.
We got to this pressure point because there's been a long call for police
reform in this country and that call has gone unanswered. So, peaceful
protesters took to the streets and demanded that. And folks and
provocateurs and whatever you want to call them, used those peaceful
protesters voices and their stage to create havoc in the streets. And that
has to stop. And it stops by listening to peaceful protesters and working
on creating meaningful reforms.
MACCALLUM: Yes, and Jack Brewer, come on in here, what do you think as you
look at the city that you love in Minneapolis and the fact that people are
terrified in those communities of bullets coming through their windows and
potentially hitting them even in their homes?
JACK BREWER, FORMER MINNESOTA VIKINGS SAFETY: So sad. I mean, this city is
not normally like this. This is Minneapolis, a place where, it's Minnesota.
Nice. Everyone loves each other.
I agree with Richard and I don't agree with a lot of things that he says.
But I think you've got to look back at where the problem started, and
you've got to hold some people accountable. Why are we not holding them
accountable? If this had been Republicans doing this, everyone would be up
in arms. But no, its Democratic leadership starting from over 17 years.
When that man kneeled on George Floyd's neck, he had so many violations
behind him, any of us would have been fired from our jobs.
But no, the Democratic leadership, the attorney general's offices, even
Senator Amy Klobuchar, all of them overlooked all of these discrepancies
through the police department where they were mistreating people of color.
So, let's start looking at the actual cities, the police chiefs and the
folks who are really at fault here. And let's start holding folks
accountable, just like every other American is held accountable in their
job. These are elected officials and elected officials have a job to do in
this nation. And we can't just point back at protesters in this and that.
We have to look at root cause.
We have root causes across our nation, and they start with spirituality.
They start with when you go into the same neighborhoods across Minneapolis,
they're pulling God out of the schools. Yes, fatherlessness that's rising.
You have a double. The crime rate has double when it comes to murders. The
crime rate has almost doubled when this comes to shootings. This is
ridiculous. We have to take a stand in our nation and save our streets and
get law and order back. But most importantly, get godly order, get the rule
of law, and get people with the fear of God back in them.
MACCALLUM: Richard, what do you say to that?
FOWLER: Listen, I think Jack brings up some very good points, right? I
think we do have to have a conversation about how we return law and order
and law and order is a two-way street. Right. And when a pastor in many
communities can walk out of his church with a suit on and be treated with
respect, that same pastor when he has a hoodie on or sweatpants on, is
treated as a threat. And I'm not making this up because the polling says
that.
A recent Gallup poll found that one in five African Americans feel that
when they interact with police, they're treated with courtesy, respect, and
dignity. And we've got to turn that around and turning that around starts
with everybody engaging in the conversation. And that means if it's a
national problem, where is the Department of Justice? Where is that level
of oversight coming into these police departments saying your policies and
practices are not as good as they should be, they're not up to the
standards of what America should be, they're not up to the standards to
what law and order should be in this country, which means fair law and fair
order for everybody. Equally distributed and equally just.
MACCALLUM: I'm thinking back to the comments, Jack whereby Attorney General
Bill Barr this week talking about the number of unarmed African American
men per year who are killed in these interactions with police officers. And
we all want that number to be zero. He said, it's closer to 12.
But the reality is that the other huge issue that we're seeing in these
cities is black-on-black crime and children. There are three teenagers that
were killed in recent weeks in Minneapolis. So, I think we need to have the
broader conversation and to understand that that when black lives matter,
those black lives need to matter, too. And everyone needs to bring that
part of the conversation into what we're discussing here in terms of
solutions, do they not?
BREWER: We have to, they're not mutually exclusive. We cannot continue as a
nation to pick the few police officers that are bad apples. Let's get rid
of them and let's hold them accountable. But at the same time, you can't
expect police to go into these communities where we have war in the
streets, where you have hundreds of black men shooting at each other every
weekend. There has to be some accountability there, too. And we can't keep
these things mutually exclusive. We have to have the broad conversation and
talk about the root cause. And the root cause is fatherlessness. I keep
saying it.
You're 20 times more likely to go to prison and have a run in with the law
enforcement if you're fatherless. The people we see, the reason why these
police officers are scared and people like myself don't want to be police
officers. And most people who have something to say, most pundits don't
want to go into these same streets and police them.
And I'm a black man. I have black kids. And, yes, I wear baseball caps and
I wear sweats and everything else, too. But when a police officer pulls me
over, I don't talk smack to them. I say, Yes, sir, no, sir. And I respect
authority. These are the same things that are happening in our schools. We
have kids that don't respect their teachers because we put fathers out of
the homes and we've we did everything we can to water down masculinity
across America. We need to get Jesus Christ back into our schools, back
into our society. It's the only thing that can solve our racial divide.
The Bible doesn't talk about race, that's manmade. This is a spiritual
battle that we cannot fight with flesh and blood. We need to get back to
the blood of Jesus and the word of God. And Martha, thanks for having me on
this show to be able to talk about this, because these issues have come to
a boiling point in our nation. And I know a lot of Americans agree with me
right now that we need to do something about this and just talking about it
is not enough anymore.
FOWLER: Mr. Brewer, I want to push back on something he said there, because
I was - I'm from a single family, my mom, I had a single mother my whole
entire life. And she's kept us in church more days, more days than we were
out in the streets playing. Right.
BREWER: Amen.
FOWLER: And I think there's something that I want to push back on there,
right. Because I think the ideal of the notion that just because I didn't
have a father in the home, I'm more of a threat to society just seems to me
to be a little bit flawed.
BREWER: Richard, but you just said, you had a father. You just said that
your mom kept you in church, so you have the spiritual father.
(CROSSTALK)
BREWER: And that's the only father that matters. And that's my point.
FOWLER: Wait a minute, Mr. Brewer.
BREWER: When you don't have a father in the flesh in the home, you're less
likely to have a mother. You're lucky--
FOWLER: We're talking about taking - you're talking about taking fathers
out of the home, we have to understand there's a larger systemic problem in
this country. But to say that because you just have a mother in the home,
you are more likely to be a threat.
BREWER: That's not what I said.
MACCALLUM: No, I don't think that's what he was saying. We've got to go.
Jack Brewer and Richard Fowler - that's right. He's talking about the
statistics that when you look at the people who commit crimes, the
statistics are that there is a larger portion of them who did grow up in a
home without a father. And those statistics prove out. Gentlemen, thank you
very much. Richard Fowler and Jack Brewer, thank you.
As you can see, everybody at home, the president is deplaning Air Force One
and getting ready to speak to the crowd. He lost this state of Minnesota in
2016 by less than two points. Tonight, he is in Beltrami County, which is a
county that he won. And he hopes, of course, that he will win again. All of
both candidates hope that they're going to win back the places that were
won before and to expand. And that's why you saw both candidates, Joe
Biden, and President Trump, in the state today.
President Trump. Look at that from 2016. So basically, every single one of
those rural counties was red, but he lost the state, the population centers
obviously, Minneapolis, St. Paul. And then you've got that northeastern
area, which is the Iron Range section of Minneapolis, which is such a huge
focus of this part of the election when you look at Minneapolis.
So, he's vowing to make the country, the manufacturing superpower of the
world, to open up mining in that area, to end reliance on China. As I said,
Joe Biden was also in the state today as they try to drum up support there.
And here's how the vice president spent his time today and here's what he
talked about. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Hello Minnesota.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: All right, so that that is earlier today. That was Joe Biden as
he talked to some of the manufacturing folks here in the state of
Minnesota. I'm joined now by White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro, who
joins me now. Peter, good to have you with us.
You know, when the former vice president spoke with Anderson Cooper, he
talked about China and he said that he saw China as a competitor and not as
an opponent. I think China is probably the - we do have that sound now,
let's play that and then we'll get your reaction to it, sir. Hang on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Do you view China as an opponent, because the
president says you've been too cozy with China, too accepting of them in
the international community.
BIDEN: I'm not the guy. Look, China, we now have a larger trade deficit
with China than we've ever had with China.
COOPER: Do you view China as an opponent.
BIDEN: I view China kind of as a competitor, a serious competitor. That's
why I think we have to strengthen our relationships and our alliances in
Asia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: All right. Peter Navarro, a competitor or opponent or enemy,
what's your word?
PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE TRADE ADVISER: Let's do a fact check first.
First, our trade deficit since 2018 has been going down with China because
of Donald Trump. Of course, they're an enemy. This is Joe Biden as his
worst. Couple of months ago, he's saying, don't worry, they can't eat our
lunch. Come on, man. I find it interesting that he was actually in the
Mesabi Iron Range. I didn't know. I didn't think he knew where it was.
But let me tell you, Martha, why Donald Trump is going to win this state.
The steel and aluminum tariffs, which Joe Biden opposes, basically have a
renaissance in the Mesabi Iron Range. I've stood on the docks in Duluth
seeing the taconite pellets go on the boats to the Great Lakes, out to the
steel mills. And what Donald Trump is going to do is also turn that into
the copper range, the nickel range, the palladium range, the cobalt range.
He's going to make logging great again in that state. And you're going to
see that whole eastern part of Minnesota go strongly for Trump. In
Minneapolis, you've got 3M making all our N-95 masks and you've got the
USMCA helping farmers in Minnesota and Jack Brewer for mayor, by the way.
MACCALLUM: We look at the polling. We know what happened in Minnesota. We
just broke it down a little bit last time around. The president got, I
think, 350,000 more votes in Minnesota last time around. Then President
Bush got, and they have about 3 million voter contacts between Dornoch and
InterAction's on the ground from the Trump team. And the president is there
tonight. We're going to listen in, and we'll dip in and out of this. But,
Peter, stand by if you would. Here's the president.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Thank you. Well, I just
want to say hello, Minnesota, we love you, Minnesota, you're great. We're
going to win Minnesota because they did nothing for Minnesota except close
up that beautiful iron ore territory, they closed it up with a pen. Do you
remember that one day, you didn't have your jobs? Then I came along, and I
opened it up. So that's critical.
But I'm thrilled to be here with the beautiful, great, hardworking people
of this incredible state. You're really hardworking American patriots that
what you are. And a lot of people haven't been treated right until I came
along, and we've done a lot of work and a lot of good work. And you had
your best year ever last year. The state had the best year.
46 days from now, we're going to win Minnesota and we're going to win four
more years in the White House. One of the most vital issues in this
election is the subject of refugees, you know it, you know it perhaps
better than almost anybody. Lots of luck. You're having a good time with
the refugees? That's good. We want to have Omar. He said, Omar, that's a
beauty. How the hell did she win the election? How did she win?
It's unbelievable, every family in Minnesota needs to know about Sleepy Joe
Biden's extreme plan to flood your state with an influx of refugees from
Somalia, from other places all over the planet. That's what's happened, and
you like Omar, don't you?
Biden has promised a 700 percent increase in the manifesto with Bernie,
right? A 700 percent increase in the importation of refugees from the most
dangerous places in the world, including Yemen, Syria, and Somalia.
Congratulations, Minnesota. A 700 percent increase. Good luck, Minnesota.
Enjoy yourselves. Because if I'm not here, if I don't win, I don't know
where I'm going to be. But maybe I'll come over to see, Mike. I'll come and
see, Mike.
Your state will be overrun and destroyed if Biden and the radical Left win.
That's what's going to happen. I've been watching it for years. They
haven't treated you right. They have not treated Minnesota right. Thank
you. I'll tell you; these hangars are great.
Remember this, it's a friendly protest, please remember, this is not a
rally. You're not allowed to have political rallies of any kind. You're not
allowed to go to church. You're not allowed to do anything. The only thing
you're allowed to do is run wild through the streets, burn down
storefronts, blow up stores and kill people because that's considered a
protest. And yet they allow you to have - you don't have to wear masks at
protest. So, I said, we can't have a rally. The most we can have is 10
people. But why don't we just go on a protest? Because this is a protest.
It's a protest against stupidity. And speaking about stupidity, Sleepy Joe
will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp, think of it, 700 percent increase.
So, you're not happy now? Look at that guy over there. He's not too
thrilled when he hears this. 700 percent increase is what they have in the
manifesto, now maybe they don't honor it. But I would say they'll go
substantially higher than that number. Biden will overwhelm your children's
schools, overcrowd their classrooms, and inundate your hospitals. It'll
happen.
Biden has even pledged to terminate our travel ban. Jihadist regions,
Jihadist regions. They've already been doing that to you, haven't they?
Opening the floodgates to radical Islamic terrorists. My administration is
keeping terrorists, extremists, and criminals the hell out of our country.
We don't want them. We've got enough of them. We've got enough of them.
Just today, we deported, as you know very well, dozens of Somali nationals
charged or convicted with very grave crimes, including rape, assault,
robbery, terrorism, and murder of course. These hardened criminals are back
in their country where they can do all the complaining they want. And your
children are much safer as a result. Thank you, President Trump. Thank you.
If it were up to Biden, and it's not it's the people that surround him,
they are seriously radical Left Democrats and they're very dangerous and
the offenders are very dangerous. And they'd be running all over your state
only by voting for me. Are you going to say, but I hate to say this? I did
it with your iron ore. I did it with some other things, and I'll do it for
you again. I'll do it for you again, but if you vote for me, I'm the
difference and I'm the wall, you know the wall that we're building on the
southern border. I'm your wall between the American dream and chaos.
Joe Biden is wholly owned and controlled by the Left-wing mob. He has no
clue where he is. This is not a sharp guy. Years ago, I said to a certain
senator who I was very friendly with a Democrat who is the dumbest senator,
who's the smartest senator? He gave me a name for the smartest. I said,
who's the dumbest? Joe Biden. You didn't know that? That was 25 years ago.
That was in prime time. This is no longer prime time for Sleepy Joe.
And they do disinformation, they make things up and they make commercials,
they make things up, I've never seen anything like it. Everything they make
up. First of all, I'm the one protecting your Social Security. They say
Trump, remember four years ago, they used to say, Trump will get rid of
social, I have protected your Social Security. They're going to destroy
your Social Security. Another thing, Big Ten football, did I do a good job?
Your team better do well, you're on the spot. They better do well. Are
they're going to do well this year? I think so, right. And I brought it
back, but I saw that, you know, what I did it actually, it sort of
energized me. Sleepy Joe did it that I was against football, that I was
against Big Ten football. Give me a break. I was against it. When I saw the
ad, I said, what's the problem with Big Ten football? They said they're not
going to open, why? And they say some stupid reason.
I said, these are strong young people. They're going to do great. Let's get
going. I called the commissioner, Kevin, good guy. And we sort of started
something and we got it rolling. We had big opposition from a few of the
Democrat states and governors, but we rolled over the opposition. And you
have Big Ten football. Congratulations, congratulations.
When the Far-Left rioters rampage across Minneapolis and they rampage
across your state, how about your police department? Let's just run for
your lives and it's not their fault, they were told to do that. You have a
good police department, you have good police, but they're not allowed to do
their job. They're not allowed to do their job.
Remember that, they were told to leave the precinct, leave it, and then
they knocked the hell out of that precinct, and they had a great mayor,
great mayor, it's a real power. Remember, did you ever hear of a man,
Fiorello LaGuardia? Did you ever - I don't think that happened with him.
New York. I don't think it happened with Rudy Giuliani. Did it? What a
great job. Rudy did. You realize, Rudy just now really being appreciated.
People forgot how good he was as a man. He was a great man.
Joe Biden called the peaceful protesters. He said these are peaceful
protesters as opposed to sending in the National Guard, they didn't want
the National Guard, Joe Biden said you shouldn't send the National Guard
and this went on day after day after day.
I pushed and I got it approved. The National Guard and it ended within what
would you say, a half-hour?
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: It was about half an hour. You wouldn't have Minneapolis. You better
remember this when you go and vote. And your voting starts tonight, please.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: You'd be saying, do you remember when we had a city called
Minneapolis? Do you remember? It used to be over there, it's all ashes now.
That place was coming down. That was -- you didn't have anything. But
wasn't that a beautiful sight?
Look, all of a sudden, you saw one guy in a black uniform, then another,
then another, then another on the street. Remember that street, loaded up
with CNN reporters, remember Alie Velshi -- shaved head, nice hair, shaved
head, some people said I should do that. Shave the head just get it up.
Can't do it.
Now we polled it, I'd go down about 22 points. We polled it. They want to
poll everything nowadays. I don't believe in polls. They poll everything.
But Alie Velshi, I don't know anything about the guy but I, you know, I
know he was standing there, this is really quiet a good scene, it's a
friendly protest, everyone is acting and behind him, the entire city was
burning. It was like black, it's one of the great pictures of all time.
The entire city was burning down, that was your city. And it's a shame it
took so long but the governor finally did it at least. You know, if you
take a look at Portland, the governor can't quite do it, she can't get
there, I speak to her all the time. Come on, governor. I can straighten out
Portland, give me less than an hour. Just let us have it for, you know,
because we have to get, the state has to ask for it, they have to request.
It's such a shame. It's such a shame. But in your case, we went. And all of
a sudden, it was really, that was going to be a bad night, too. Right?
Remember that? About seven o'clock, then they see this guy walk out with
about a $250,000 outfit on, that's because they had more computers and this
and that, got the tear gas deal, he's got the whole deal. Pepper spray, got
everything. The finest outfit you can buy, believe me. We just paid for him
and they'll very expensive.
So, we see one, the helmet, how about the helmet with the goggles, you can
see at night, you can see in day, you can see whenever the hell you want.
So, there's one, I said, that's only one guy. Then you said, no, they're
three, then four, then you see another 10, just getting out of the buses,
coming from very friendly territory.
And then you have a line and they were very tight together, there was no
social distancing at all which we're going to have to speak to them about
that. No, they were touching.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Sure, they were touching, right? So, you had the first one. And then
you had the second, then you had the third one, and then you had a -- and
then they said march, I remember this guy well. He got hit in the knee with
a canister of teargas and he went down. He didn't -- he was down. My knee,
my knee. Nobody cared, these guys didn't care, they moved him aside. And
they just walk right there. It was like, it was a most beautiful thing.
No, because after we take all that crap for weeks and weeks that we take
this crap and then you finally see men get up there and go right through
them, didn't -- wasn't it a beautiful sight?
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: It's called law and order. Law and order? Portland would be easier
because it's more confined. We just go being that would be it. But, you
know, so they had four or five lines then they had lines in different, and
everybody did the same thing.
Did they ever even move one step back? I don't think so. Right? It was just
a slow walk right forward then they started walking faster, faster, faster,
put a lot of guys in jail, Tom, right? He put a lot of guys. Great
congressman by the way, he put a lot of guys in jail.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Great. Not good, great. They put a lot of guys in jail that night,
Tom, and that was the end of it, I don't think you had any problem after
that. If you had any flareups, we'll send them in again. But that's all you
do.
These are Democrat-run disasters. Look at Chicago, look at Portland, look
at you with Minneapolis, these are disasters. But the way, they are still
trying to get rid of your police force in Minneapolis, that's what I heard.
See, they never learn. They never learn.
They don't -- look at this, I love it you got a lot of people here.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: There's a lot of people. I actually like this, you know, we have the
arenas, we've always fill them up, it's been great and the arenas are good
but usually you have to travel like 45 minutes. This thing, you have a
hanger, the plane becomes your backstop, right, it's like your curtain. You
know, it's a curtain. You get a free curtain.
We are outside which actually makes people happy and it even makes the
people that sometimes not everybody here likes happy because outside is
better, you know, it's better. And we are rounding the turn on COVID, by
the way our vaccines are coming. A lot of things --
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: We're rounding the turn. We've done a great job, we've done a
phenomenal job, we don't get credit for that but we'll discussed that in a
minute. But when you look at it, when you look at it, our country is
amazing, it's an amazing country. We love this country and we're not going
to let --
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: -- we're not going to let radical left socialist/communist takeover
our country. OK?
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: They use the word socialist and socialists aren't great but
communists are a hell of a lot worse and that's where it would be headed.
And we're standing in the way of them, this group of people, but you have a
lot of groups of people just like this. Every place we go, last night, you
know where we were -- you saw that it was all over the place. Right? That's
a big state, that's a great state and then I see the fake polls.
You know, I just saw a poll here, Minnesota down nine. I don't think so. I
mean, I just don't think so.
(CROWD BOOING)
TRUMP: I don't think so. No, they said. I don't think so. Right? I don't
think so. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen.
(CROWD CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like a (Inaudible).
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: President Trump is down nine in Minnesota.
MACCALLUM: This is a Fox News alert. I'm Martha MacCallum in New York.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died at the age of 87
due to complications from pancreatic cancer according to the information we
are getting the court. The court says that Ginsburg was sworn in from -- as
an associate justice back in 1993, appointed by Bill Clinton. She was the
second woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
She is the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court. A New York
native born in Brooklyn, New York. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she received her
undergraduate degree from Cornell University, she then received her law
degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University. She was the first
female member of the Harvard Law Review and she graduated at the top of her
class from Columbia.
She was sworn in as a judge on the U.S. Circuit of Appeals from the
District of Columbia circuit in 1980 after being nominated by President
Jimmy Carter. She served until 1993 when she replaced Justice Byron White
on the Supreme Court. She was nominated for that post by President Bill
Clinton.
Justice Ginsburg served more than two decades on the Supreme Court and was
one of only four women ever appointed to the high court. During her tenure,
she was a fierce advocate for women's rights.
Shannon Bream takes a look back at her long and distinguished career.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUTH BADER GINSBURG, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED
STATES: I, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, do solemnly swear --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: She might have seemed small in stature but
as a second woman to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg was a trailblazer for women's rights and a champion for civil
liberties.
Ginsburg was born Ruth Joan Bader on March 15th, 1933 in a working-class
neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. The daughter of Nathan and Celia Bader.
Ginsburg's mother died when she was just 17, the day before she graduated
from high school.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINSBURG: It was one of the most trying times in my life but I knew that
she wanted me to study hard and get good grades and succeed in life. So,
that's what I did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: She finished first in her class at Cornell where she met and married
Martin Ginsburg, an aspiring lawyer and, quote, "the first boy I dated who
cared that I had a brain." Like her husband, Ginsburg pursued a law degree
enrolling in Harvard after the birth of daughter Jane, then at Columbia Law
School where she graduated of the top of her class.
She stayed in the world of academia and while a professor at Rutgers
University, she gave birth to a son James. But she soon left Rutgers for
Columbia University to become that school's first female tenured law
professor. She described the 1970s as a fruitful time for women's rights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINSBURG: I was fantastically happy to be born when I was, and to be in the
right place to help advance this movement for women's equality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: She went on to create the American Civil Liberties Union Women's
Rights Project and as general counsel for the ACLU, Ginsburg began
appearing before the Supreme Court. She argued six cases for women's rights
before President Jimmy Carter nominated her to serve on the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. circuit.
Then in 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated her to the nation's highest
court. She was only the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court and the
first Jewish woman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What a long way we have come in this nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: After a series of hearings, the Senate confirmed Ginsburg to the
post by a vote of 96 to 3.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In Ruth Bader Ginsburg
I believe the nation is getting a justice who will be a guardian of liberty
for all Americans and ensure of equal justice under law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: On the bench Ginsburg was known to lean left of center but favored
caution and restraint in her decisions. While she never claimed to have a
favorite opinion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINSBURG: My favorite opinion when it's a little bit like asking me which
of my four grandchildren.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: Ginsburg said the ruling in the Virginia Military Institute case
which prohibited the state from operating an all-male institution with
taxpayer dollars gave her tremendous satisfaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINSBURG: That was a very satisfying opinion for me to write.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: And her dissent in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire was a precursor for
the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which Congress passed into law in 2009 to
address the perceived pay gap between men and women. But she suffered
losses too. In an interview with New Republic, she said if she could
overrule one decision it would be the 2010 Citizens United ruling that
allowed corporations and unions to financially support candidates running
for office.
Ginsburg said, quote, "I think the notion that we have all the democracy
that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be,
so that's number one on my list."
In her personal life, Ginsburg battled four separate cancer diagnoses. In
1999 it was colon cancer, a decade later, pancreatic cancer. In 2018, she
underwent lung cancer surgery, and in 2020, she announced she was
undergoing chemotherapy for liver cancer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINSBURG: My colleagues so rallied around me and made it possible for me to
go on and not miss a day in court.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: Outside of court, Ginsburg loved opera, a passion she shared with
conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and was famously serenaded by Placido
Domingo in 2011 at Harvard University where she earned an honorary degree.
She made exercise a staple in her life even into her 80s working out twice
a week with her trainer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINSBURG: My father came to the United States when he was 13. And he came
from a small town, shtetl outside Odessa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: She was also very proud of her Jewish heritage and the advances made
for American Jews.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINSBURG: For so many years, Jews were careful about saying who they were,
but today you can say it openly and with pride. That's -- that's I think
something I witnessed in my own life span.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: And throughout her life, she remained an optimist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINSBURG: We still have a way to go to ensure that all people in our land
enjoy the equal protection of the laws but considering how far we have
come, there is good cause for optimism about our country's future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Ruth Bader Ginsburg dead tonight at the age of 87.
Shannon Bream host of Fox News at night who put together that piece for us
joins me now. Shannon, obviously, she has had so many health challenges
over the years, but she has been such a fighter, and such a courageous
member of this court showing up in the middle of all of those procedures
and doing her best to live her life as a justice to the very end. Your
thoughts on this obviously very big news story on so many angles tonight.
BREAM: Yes, it's shocking, any time that we get news that one of the
justices has been passed away, we have been through so many roller coasters
with her following, as you said, so many challenges to her health over the
years and she has fought back and been so incredibly strong.
I remember being struck by the death of her husband. They were extremely
close. And just devoted to each other and when he passed away a few years
ago, I was in court the next day and I was stunned to see her there. But
she was so devoted to the court, to her job there, to her life's work
there. She was dedicated and she was not going to let anything stop her.
She had long said when people would nudge her or push her into retirement
and try to suggest she would say nope, as long as I feel like I can do this
job mentally and physically, I'm going to keep doing this job and that's
what she did years and years and years.
She was the second female appointed to the Supreme Court. She has had such
an enormous impact, it's hard to overstate it at this point. It is a shock
tonight because she has overcome so much in her life and been so incredibly
strong. And she's had prayers from around the world, as she has gone public
and she is one of the justices who has been very open and honest with us.
As member of the press corps covering the Supreme Court, each time that she
was hospitalized or had an issue, she wasn't somebody that tried to hide it
from us. She was public in sharing these different struggles that she had.
And so, we knew a lot of what was going on, there was a lot of talk with
her last time with the recurrence of cancer about her ability to continue
to fight. And she had said she was undergoing chemo and that was going
well. This was just a matter of weeks ago, she felt hopeful about that.
So obviously in these last few days and weeks, she did privately come to
terms, I can only assume, and with her family about the fact -- you know,
the fact that her life was coming to a close, we're told she was surrounded
by her family tonight, they were with her. She's got two children and
several grandchildren, and she was incredibly devoted to them too, and so
very, very proud of them.
She just spoke glowing of her family and she had shared over the years
about what it was like to be a young woman in law school. During the time
that she was in law school and how she was expected to juggle things with a
husband and with children eventually and that she was treated differently
in those days when she was coming out of school, one of the top graduates.
And yet, being viewed by some employers as somebody who might be a
liability because she was a woman who valued her family, her marriage, and
her kids and she blazed a path. And she was somebody who showed us that you
could be incredibly committed to your professional life, to fighting fights
that to her were exceptionally important and to raising a family as well.
So, it is a shock to the system tonight because she has done so well in
rallying so many past, you know, past difficulties but we know that, we're
told she was at peace with her family. And that is the news tonight, at 87
years old that she has passed away.
MACCALLUM: What a remarkable life. And as you point out so perfectly,
Shannon, she really had it all. I mean, she's a woman who had it all. She
was extremely successful, Ivy League education and her law education, and
she worked through all of that while, you know, raising her family over the
course of those years.
And then as you say, being so, you know, she struck such a great balance, I
think, in terms of being human and also being this great legal mind and
someone that so many people looked up to. And the other thing that I think
of when you mentioned in your piece, that she shared her love of opera with
Antonin Scalia is that the camaraderie on the court and how well respected
she was by all of the members of the court.
And obviously they had differences in the way they approach the
Constitution and approach these cases but she was part of that family. She
was a pillar of that family.
BREAM: Yes. And there's really, you know, we talked to the justices and you
know -- the truth is that nobody understands what their life is like except
for those who have served on that bench. Nine at a time that they do become
like family.
There was so much discussion of her relationship with the late Justice
Scalia. Also, one of those nights the shocking news that we got that he was
gone that they had such a friendship, that they bonded over all kinds of
different things. They enjoy spending time together. They are families
together.
They could not have been more opposed on, as you said, the way that they
viewed interpretation of the Constitution and many of the key critical
decisions that came down from the court, and yet, in the midst of that they
were able to forge this very genuine, very close friendship over things
that they did have in common.
And you know, the justices have lunch together on a regular basis and one
of the things is, they don't talk politics, they don't talk about the
cases, they talk about their grandkids and opera and travel and the things
that do bond them.
And a lot of people saw the two of them as an odd couple. They made no
apologies for it, they were very close and it was a beautiful thing to see
that you could be so opposed ideologically on a number of key issues and
yet, have a genuine affection and love for each other.
MACCALLUM: Yes. You know, you have captured her life in such a great way,
and obviously, you know, moments away the discussion will turn to what
happens now. But I just want to give this moment to Justice Ginsburg, to
her legacy, to her incredible life, and to her family that she leaves
behind as we all send condolences to the offspring of this remarkable,
remarkable life.
And thank you, Shannon, so much for doing such a beautiful job documenting
it, and obviously your close coverage of the Supreme Court and
understanding of all of its workings is a huge value to us tonight.
I know we're going to hear a lot more from you as we continue through the
process of this very big development tonight. Shannon, I thank you so much
for being with us.
We are going to return our local Fox stations to their regular programming,
please tune in to Fox News Channel for the continuing coverage of this
breaking news story on this Friday evening, the death of Supreme Court
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
I'm Martha MacCallum in New York.
Joining me now to continue our discussion of this huge development tonight
is Marc Thiessen, AUE scholar and Fox News contributor. Marc, thank you so
much for being here.
MARC THIESSEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good to be with you.
MACCALLUM: Obviously, there are a lot of questions now that come up with
this huge news this evening. But first your thoughts on the passing of Ruth
Bader Ginsburg, just an enormous life, an enormous pillar of the court.
THIESSEN: Well, any one, any time a giant of our democracy dies, it's a
heartbreaking moment, the passing of an era. She was truly a legal giant
who, I mean, I disagreed with her judicial philosophy, I disagreed with her
on a lot of things but she was an incredible Supreme Court justice, an
incredible innovator for the reason.
And also, she was such a wonderful model for us in these times where
partisanship has become almost toxic in our political ecosystem. Her, as
Shannon was just saying, her best friend on the court was Antonin Scalia,
someone she almost never joined in opinions with, disagreed, they had
vigorous discussions about weighty issues, and yet, they managed to love
opera together and love each other.
It's -- that's something to hold onto and to remember, because sadly, the
timing of her passing, we are going to see probably the in the next weeks
or months the greatest period of political vitriol in a modern history as
the debate over filling her seat takes on.
MACCALLUM: Yes. We're 46 days away from a presidential election. The last
time we went through this process was in March of 2016. An election was
coming, Mitch McConnell said that it was too close to an election to fill
that seat, President Obama put forward Merrick Garland and that was a
hugely controversial moment.
You know, as we continue to respect this moment of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's
passing tonight, and so much will still be said about her biography and her
incredible life. Your thought though on, as we look a little bit forward in
this situation tonight, Marc.
THIESSEN: It's almost uncomfortable talking about it so soon but it has to
be discussed. You know, the reality is, yes. I would be shocked if Senate
Republic -- if Donald Trump didn't nominate somebody to replace her and if
the Senate Republicans didn't confirm that person before the end of the --
before the end of this term and probably before the election.
I interviewed Senator McConnell in 2018 about this and I asked him
specifically if another Supreme Court justice vacancy came up during an
election year, would you confirm them? And he said that absolutely yes. He
said that if the rule is, McConnell rule, is that, if the Senate is of the
different party than a president and a vacancy occur in the presidential
election year it doesn't get filled. That's what happened with Merrick
Garland.
I guarantee you, Martha, that if President Obama had a Democratic Senate in
that -- at that time, he would've confirmed Merrick Garland and Merrick
Garland would be on the Supreme Court today. President Trump has just
recently put out a new list of candidates and because he's gone through
this twice now, according to people on, he's vetted a lot of people who
came very close to getting picked, so it should not take them very long to
put somebody forward.
And because the Democrats made the mistake back in 2014 of getting rid of
judicial filibuster and then filibustered Neil Gorsuch who was supremely
qualified for the Supreme Court out of anger over Merrick Garland, they
created a situation where Republicans only need a simple majority.
So, I would -- I would say the likelihood is that her replacement will be
put forward by the president and confirmed by the Senate in pretty short
order.
MACCALLUM: Yes. You know, she was a remarkable woman, a remarkable justice.
She was the second woman to be chosen for the Supreme Court after Sandra
Day O'Connor was chosen, and of course, we have two women Elena Kagan and
Justice Sotomayor who have been chosen after that.
THIESSEN: Yes.
MACCALLUM: You know, she was a fighter for women's issues. She was an
advocate of, as I said to Shannon, of someone who really had it all. She
was a mother. She was a great legal mind, as I've said. You know, when you
look at the importance of that and the balance of the court and all of
those issues, what goes through your mind tonight, Marc?
THIESSEN: That she is in many ways irreplaceable. That, there are -- I
mean, she was -- she was, as you say, she was a legal giant, she was an
intellectual giant, she was -- you know, we talk about in history -- they
talk about great men, the Churchill's of the world and the FDR's and all
the rest of it, she was a great woman. She was a person who achieved --
MACCALLUM: She was.
THIESSEN: -- enormous things for our country and for the legal system. And
she will be replaced but she really can't be replaced.
MACCALLUM: Yes. You know, I think about RBG, the documentary about her life
and the movie that was made recently --
THIESSEN: Yes.
MACCALLUM: -- about her life. And I'm so glad that there was the
opportunity for so many young women across the country to see her as a
young woman and to see what it was like for her coming up through the ranks
and to appreciate that.
I hope a lot of people are going to revisit those parts of her story as we
remember her life.
Marc, thank you very much. Great to have you with us tonight.
THIESSEN: My pleasure.
MACCALLUM: Marc Thiessen. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died at the age of 87.
Joining me now by phone, Bret Baier, host of Special Report. Bret, great to
have you back with us this evening. Your thoughts on this very, very big
story tonight.
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: It is, Martha. Good evening. Obviously, rest
in peace Justice Ginsburg. She was quite a figure not only on the court but
here in Washington. I recently saw her a few months ago at an event. And
you know, she was really about getting out and about, this is pre-COVID
time. And she's just a figure that had this following.
You just mentioned the movies that had come out and I commend those to you
as well, RBG and the life story is just really inspirational to a lot of
people. And all that she fought for as far as women -- women's rights, and
change the way the country deals with a lot of big issues.
Obviously, she came from the left but she had this relationship with
Antonin Scalia on that court who was obviously from the right and they got
along fabulously. And I saw them together at an opera in Washington and it
was quite something to see when they were both on the court.
MACCALLUM: You know, she talked about her faith, she was the first Jewish
woman on the Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia obviously a very strong Catholic
but they were both people who I think cared so deeply about their religious
culture and background, and of course opera which has been mentioned that
was something that they shared.
And she was such a remarkable figure and someone who was so admired, I
think by so many people. She was herself. She had a great sense of humor
and obviously just an enormous intellect.
So, Bret, obviously, you know, it feels you want so much to just be
remembering her life and we will do that over the course of the next
several days and covering her legacy, but we are within a breath of an
election in this country. And as Marc Thiessen just pointed out, the
president does have a Republican Senate.
So, your thoughts as we are 46 days away from a presidential election given
the history of what has happened in the past in these situations.
BAIER: This is truly remarkable as far as timing. Forty-six days to an
election. Senator McConnell, the majority leader has said if that happens
before the election, he would move forward. And you know, we talk about
what moves an electorate? This potentially moves an electorate but you
could play it, Martha, both ways.
Tonight is about the life and legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but make no
mistake about it. Filling that seat and who does it is going to be a major,
major part of this election.
MACCALLUM: It absolutely is and it will be the subject, you know, we have
said this many times, but there are so many huge news events between now
and this election and this is clearly a significant, significant moment as
we head towards this. Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Bret, thank you so much. Great to have you with us. Passed tonight at the
age of 87.
That is The Story of Friday, September 18th, 2020. The Story continues, so
we'll see you back here on Monday. Stay tuned for continued coverage of the
passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We'll see you back
here on Monday. Good night, everybody.
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