This is a rush transcript from “Special Report," September 11, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: A 9/11 remembrance unlike any other amid the coronavirus pandemic. We will talk live with the acting Homeland Security Secretary.
Another major Middle East agreement brokered by the Trump administration, this time between Israel and Bahrain.
And our Whatever Happened to segment looks at the return of the guardian angels. This is SPECIAL REPORT.
Good evening, welcome to Washington. I'm Bret Baier.
As Americans and the rest of the world fight the coronavirus pandemic, tonight, we remember another crisis. The September 11th attacks amid another historic deal in the region that spawned the Al Qaeda terrorist movement.
This is the 19th anniversary of that grim event that brought global terrorism into sharp focus here and inspired major changes in society that continue to this day. Today as we are 19 years to the day from that infamous day, we are 53 days to the next election here in the U.S.
Both President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden paid their respects where one of the planes went down.
Along with the grief and solemn remembrance on this day, there are also signs of hope with today's announcement of normalized relations between Israel and Bahrain. It is the second such agreement involving Israel this summer.
Chief White House correspondent John Roberts has details of all of that tonight live from the North Lawn. Good evening, John.
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Bret, good evening to you. 9/11 is typically a day to put aside political differences and heated rhetoric and come together as a nation. Both campaigns abided by that tradition today even as their political paths crossed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: President Trump and his challenger Joe Biden in Shanksville, Pennsylvania today in a speech President Trump honoring the victims of 9/11 including the 40 who stop Flight 93 from crashing into the capital.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The heroes of Flight 93 are an everlasting reminder that no matter the danger, no matter the threat, no matter the odds, America will always rise up, stand tall and fight back.
ROBERTS: Biden visited the Flight 93 memorials, laid a wreath and paid his respects to the heroes who willingly sacrificed their lives to save others.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One of the marks of being an American is understanding there are some things that are bigger and more important than yourself.
ROBERTS: As he did back in 2012, Biden also stopping by the local volunteer Fire Department where he brought baked goods, then a couple of six packs of beer.
TRUMP: This is a truly historic day.
ROBERTS: Back at the White House, President Trump announcing another Middle East deal, revealing that Bahrain will normalize relations with Israel, joining the United Arab Emirates for a signing ceremony at the White House next Tuesday.
TRUMP: There have been two peace agreements with Israel in the last 72 years. This is now the second peace agreement that we've announced in the last month and I am very hopeful that there will be more to follow. I can tell you this tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of other countries to also join.
ROBERTS: President Trump today saying there is no better response to the tragedy of 9/11 than creating new partnerships in the Middle East.
The president also highlighting the war against terrorism today, awarding the Medal of Honor to Army Sergeant Major Thomas Payne, a Delta Force operator who led the liberation of 75 Iraqi hostages being held by ISIS.
TRUMP: You embody the righteous glory of American valor. We stand in awe of your heroic, daring and gallant deeds.
ROBERTS: 9/11 remembrance is marked a pause from the increasing intensity of the political campaign.
In Freeland, Michigan last night, President Trump pushing back against criticism of his coronavirus response in the new Bob Woodward book. The president invoking the calm resolve of World War II leaders to defend what he was saying about the virus.
TRUMP: As Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. As the British government advised the British people in the face of World War II, keep calm and carry on. When Hitler was bombing London, Churchill, great leader, would often times go to a roof in London and speak, and he always spoke with calmness. We did it the right way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: President Trump is back on the campaign trail this weekend with a couple of events in Nevada, he's in Reno and Las Vegas. The president lost the Silver State by 2-1/2 points back in 2016. There's not a lot of recent public polling that would be reliable giving the Trump campaign free reign to claim their internal polls show them up by two, Bret.
BAIER: John Roberts live in the North Lawn. John, thanks.
We will have Sergeant Major Payne's story from Jennifer Griffin at the Pentagon a little later in this program.
The coronavirus pandemic forced some changes in this year's 9/11 observations. Senior correspondent Eric Shawn reports from the World Trade Center site.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIC SHAWN, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Once again, the bells were rung. Once again, the names were read.
It has been 19 years, but it seems as if not one day has gone by. This year, coronavirus casts a dark shadow over this somber day.
The traditional ceremony have been cut back because of social distancing. The 9/11 museum decided to prerecord the names of those who were killed.
Instead of continuing with victims' relatives, reading their loved one's names out loud. That set off a controversy which caused some of the victims' families to hold a separate event sponsored by the foundation Tunnel to Towers where the names were read.
FRANK SILLER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION: We can never minimize that fateful day.
SHAWN: Vice President Mike Pence read from the 23rd Psalm.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: (INAUDIBLE).
SHAWN: When he finished, he was greeted by supportive cheers.
Earlier, at the 9/11 Museum and Memorial ceremony, he and Democratic nominee Joe Biden put partisanship aside by greeting each other with a pandemic sanctioned elbow bump. Biden comforted a woman who lost her son.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It never goes away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It never goes away.
SHAWN: Before he arrived in New York, the former vice president said this is not a day for politics.
BIDEN: It's a solemn day, and that's how we're going to keep it.
SHAWN: At the Pentagon, those who were killed there and on the battlefield were remembered.
MARK ESPER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We honor the legacy of our brave service members who have laid down their lives to secure the blessings of this great nation.
SHAWN: Coronavirus has hit the 9/11 community hard. 68 types of cancers and other ailments from the World Trade Center dust, struck survivors with underlying conditions that makes them especially vulnerable.
John Mormando worked as a Wall Street banker and came down with 9/11 related male breast cancer. He survived coronavirus.
JOHN MORMANDO, CANCER AND CORONAVIRUS SURVIVOR: You got two different life- threatening things and I say, well, I might be cursed but I'm also blessed because I got through that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SHAWN: Well, tonight, the Tribute in Light, the twin beams that again will pierced the night sky echoing the vanished towers. They are a poignant and haunting reminder of what we lost and a pointed reminder also of the threat that still exists, Bret.
BAIER: Never forget. Eric Shawn in New York City. Eric, thanks.
Let's talk more about the 9/11 anniversary and where things stand right now. Chad Wolf is the acting Homeland Security Secretary. Mr. Secretary, thanks for being here.
CHAD WOLF, ACTING SECRETARY, HOMELAND SECURITY: Thank you for having me.
BAIER: 19 years after those attacks. What's the biggest threat facing the U.S. now?
WOLF: Well, let me just say, Bret, the -- it's a very powerful day. I had the opportunity to spend a little time in New York City this morning with the vice president, with first responders, with families and with survivors. And I think many of us really remember where we were 19 years ago today.
So, I just want to acknowledge today and what it means to those of us that are in the Homeland Security business and go to work every day, trying to make this country more secure.
From a threat perspective, we still see a number of our traditional threats that we -- that we battled on 9/11. Counterterrorism, some of our foreign terrorist organizations that are still certainly a threat to the homeland. But we see more of a certainly of a domestic threat here in the country as well over the last several years.
So, the threat has changed, it has morphed over the years, but we continue to do all the work at the Department to confront all threats.
BAIER: Not long ago, I sat down with the FBI director. He said they were still investigations in all 50 states in one way or another about different threats. Is the home grown threat the biggest thing you're looking at?
WOLF: It's certainly one of them. As we've had success on the battlefield overseas, we've seen your traditional Al Qaeda, ISIS, another specific threat sort of diminished in a sense. But that a lone grown or homegrown lone offender that is going to do some type of incident here in the -- in the homeland is certainly a concern for the Department. I know for the FBI and others.
So, absolutely, that is certainly the threat that we are focused on today. You've seen that in the last several years. Most of the attacks on the homeland have become from lone offenders or small cells of individuals, so that's where our focus is.
But again, we do all threats at the Department. So, while we may be focused on one, we are certainly -- we do the wide range of threats facing the homeland.
BAIER: I just want to play sound bite from the FBI director about the bigger threat from China. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, DIRECTOR, FBI: The greatest long term threat to our nation's information and intellectual property and to our economic vitality is the counter intelligence and economic espionage threat from China. It's a threat to our economic security and by extension, to our national security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: From Homeland Security perspective, do you see China as a threat?
WOLF: Absolutely. I agree with the FBI director 100 percent. But we're doing a number of things that the Department to address some of the aggressive tactics by China. We see that from an economic security standpoint and immigration security standpoint, visas.
So, there's a number of activities that we're partnering with DOJ and the FBI on to absolutely from a long-term perspective, China very similar from an economic perspective is a very much a real concern for us.
BAIER: What about the border situation?
WOLF: Yes, absolutely. Border security and immigration. Integrity -- bringing integrity back to the immigration system is also a concern.
So, we continue to build a border wall system, but we also continue to make a number of policy changes that are bringing that integrity back to our immigration system.
So, we need to make sure at the end of the day, we want to make sure that individuals coming into the country, we know who they are, that they are coming into the country at legitimate ports of entry and then they're not coming across the border illegally sneaking into the country or coming across in the middle of the night. We want to make sure we know who's coming into the country, whether that's on our southwest border or that's through airplanes and in the air environment.
So, we're -- we've done a number of initiatives over the last 3-1/2, four years but we're -- there's more to do and work hard at work on it.
BAIER: Quickly on this issue, are you concerned the longstanding issues over the border wall immigration could stymie the efforts to fund the government next month? They did before.
WOLF: Right, I think that's always a concern, but I think we're in a good place when it comes to funding when that -- for that border wall system. We have over 320 miles that have been built, about 450 will be built, constructed by the end of this fiscal year.
So, the president has secured enough funding to continue that border wall system. I mean, there's always an issue of funding the Department of Homeland Security unfortunately. Homeland Security should really be a bipartisan issue and just hasn't been for the last several years unfortunately.
So, we'll continue to keep our eye on the ball but again, the 240,000 men and women of the Department of Homeland Security are interested every day in securing this Homeland, it's what we do. We get up, we go to work to secure this homeland, so that we don't have another 9/11 type event occur.
BAIER: All right, Mr. Secretary, I want to deal with this controversy that you're facing and that is a whistleblower investigation. The whistleblower complaint in part says that you particularly told a person working under you to stop going forward with intelligence that pointed to Russia's interference in the election. I'm going to read from this complaint.
In mid-May 2020, Mr. Wolf instructed Mr. Murphy, Brian Murphy is his name, to cease providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference in the United States, and instead start reporting on interference activities by China and Iran.
Mr. Wolf stated that these instructions originated from White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien. The two men met on July 20th, 2020 at which time Mr. Wolf stated to Mr. Murphy the intelligent notification should be held because it made the president look bad.
Mr. Murphy objected, stating that it was improper to hold a vetted intelligence product for reasons for political embarrassment.
Your response, that's from the DHS inspector general.
WOLF: Right, absolutely. That complaint is completely false, it's a fabrication. We have been very clear regarding Russia interference in our elections. Russian inference at any point.
We've produced over 27 different reports over the last 12 months. I believe three alone in the month of August. We provided over 40 different briefings -- in-person briefings to members of Congress and elsewhere about Russian interference in our elections.
I've talked about it; I've talk about it on media appearances such as this. Talked about in congressional testimony and I talked about it even this week in my state of the Homeland Security address.
So, we've been very clear about making sure that we call out Russia and the administration's been very clear on this.
So, I have no idea what he's talking about. That is not the case. It's not any direction I have ever given. We've been very clear.
And again, we put out a report regarding Russia interference I believe about three days ago. So, it just -- it just doesn't make any sense.
BAIER: You know, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie Thompson just within the hour issued a subpoena for you to testify in this regard because he says you're avoiding testifying. Are you going to honor that subpoena?
WOLF: So, again, very disappointed in that. I had agreed to testify on two separate occasions in the month of August, both on worldwide threats and on civil unrest what was occurring in Portland.
Since that time, I've been nominated and there's been longstanding practice that as you go up for nomination that you don't testify (INAUDIBLE) matters. So, what we have done, we have offered the number two at the Department of Homeland Security to testify in my place. And if not, then I'm happy to testify to the committee once my confirmation process goes through one way or another.
So, we have been very accommodating to the committee and unfortunately, it's come down to this.
BAIER: So, you're saying that this Brian Murphy complaint is totally made up, totally false?
WOLF: Absolutely. I think you have to keep in mind, this is an individual - - in this office, if you go back to early August, I received credible and serious complaints that the INA office, our Intelligence and Analysis Office inside DHS was collecting information on American journalist. This individual is in charge of that office. I removed him, that's a bright line for me. While an investigation -- an OIG investigation, inspector general investigation is ongoing on this individual. He didn't like that and so we see now the results of that.
But I want to make clear that absolutely what's in that complaint is false.
BAIER: Mr. Secretary, we had to talk about it even on this day, 19 years after 9/11, we appreciate your time.
WOLF: Thank you.
BAIER: The Treasury Department says the federal budget deficit hit an all- time high of $3 trillion for the first 11 months of this budget year. The figure comes amid the government's massive spending to try to cushion the impact of the coronavirus fueled locked down and obviously subsequent recession that has cost millions of jobs.
Stocks mixed today, the Dow gained a 131, the S&P 500 was up two, the NASDAQ lost 66.
For the four-day trading week, the Dow was down 1-2/3 percentage points the S&P 500 was off 2-1/2, the NASDAQ fell four in its worst week since late March.
Tonight, a look at former Vice President Joe Biden's NAFTA problem. Like another former Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry on the Iraq war, Biden was for the controversial trade deal before he was against it. That's how he talks about it.
Correspondent Peter Doocy takes a look tonight from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: The battleground Joe Biden has visited more than any other this cycle is the state where he was born, Pennsylvania.
BIDEN: I'm from 2446 North Washington Avenue and I'm happy to be home.
DOOCY: Pennsylvania is also a state that accounts for 44,000 of the one million American manufacturing jobs lost in the decade that followed NAFTA, the trade deal Biden voted for.
BIDEN: And I am announcing my support for NAFTA.
DOOCY: Now, he's got second thoughts as NAFTA has been replaced by the USMCA signed by President Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He renegotiated NAFTA and you didn't is the point. I mean, --
BIDEN: Because we had a Republican Congress that wouldn't go along with us renegotiating.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But doesn't he deserve some credit for that? It's better. The USMCA is better than NAFTA.
BIDEN: It is better than NAFTA.
DOOCY: Criticizing Biden's vote for NAFTA is not a right-wing talking point.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT): I'm the guy who voted against NAFTA.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Wasn't here, I've been in Congress long enough to have voted against NAFTA.
DOOCY: In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania with a promise to repeal NAFTA.
TRUMP: One of the worst deals our country has ever made signed by Bill Clinton.
DOOCY: But Biden blames job losses on a different president who took office half a decade later.
BIDEN: What I say to that is number one, the Bush administration did not keep its commitment on NAFTA, number one and it was a mistake.
DOOCY: That line quickly made its way to President Trump in Michigan.
TRUMP: From his perspective, he made a mistake because he doesn't know what's going on.
DOOCY: It's not clear when Biden changed his mind about NAFTA. In 2007, he still pushed it.
BIDEN: NAFTA in my state created more jobs than lost jobs coming out of my state. And you can argue that on balance, it probably create more American jobs than it -- than it lost.
DOOCY: Biden still leads Trump by nine in Pennsylvania according to a recent NBC Marist Poll as he bets family history is more important to voters here than voting history.
BIDEN: The old joke used to be, and I was very proud of the joke that Biden was Pennsylvania's third senator.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOOCY: This is the state where Joe Biden launched his campaign at the Teamsters Temple Banquet Hall up in Pittsburgh. But despite having that venue and that audience in his first carefully crafted remarks as a candidate last year, he never mentioned trade, Bret.
BAIER: Peter Doocy live in Gettysburg. Peter, thanks.
Up next, an update on the massive and dangerous wildfire still going on on the West Coast. First, here's what some of our Fox affiliates around the country are covering tonight.
Fox 9 in the Twin Cities as attorneys for four former Minneapolis officers charged in the death of George Floyd say each client should get his own trial. A hearing today addressed several issues including defense request to move the trial away from Minneapolis. The trial scheduled for March.
Fox 4 in Kansas City as the defending Super Bowl champions the Chiefs beat Houston in the NFL season opener. Players lined up together before the game to promote social justice. Some fans there booed but largely, the socially distant crowd of about 17,000 had a good game on hand and they applauded a lot.
This is a live look at New York from Fox 5. One of the big stories there tonight, changes to fashion week because of the pandemic. A typical seven- day parade of events will be cut down to five days with online runway shows and smaller spread out audiences. Fashion week begins Sunday.
That is tonight's live look outside the Beltway from SPECIAL REPORT, we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: The number of daily deaths from the coronavirus is declining again in the U.S. after peaking in early August. However, scientists warn that a new bout with the disease this fall could claim more lives.
Meantime, Florida officials have announced that bars will be allowed to reopen at 50 percent capacity starting Monday.
A study of coronavirus infection in England indicates that the epidemic is doubling every seven to eight days there.
And France's prime minister says his governor -- government rather is not planning a new lock down despite a record for confirmed cases yesterday.
Updating a story here in the U.S., the wildfires on the West Coast, the Northern California hamlet of very creek has been destroyed with many dead and missing. 10 have been killed in California during the latest round of wildfires and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated in Oregon because of these historic fires.
Four people are dead in the state with dozens missing there and one -- a one-year old boy was killed in Washington Stat. Correspondent Jeff Paul reports tonight from Monrovia, California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF PAUL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Leaving practically everything behind, countless Oregonians now find themselves running from the flames.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lots of transformers explosions. It was -- it was nerve wrecking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything is just chaos and it just doesn't even feel real that this is actually happening to us. You know, you see it on the news in California, paradise and all of them and everything. You know, like, wow, (INAUDIBLE) but now, it's us.
PAUL: Entire towns leveled, hundreds of homes destroyed and law enforcement is now opening an arson investigation surrounding one of the fires that killed two people.
In California, more than three million acres have burned so far this year. That's an area larger than Rhode Island, Delaware and Washington D.C. combined.
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Over 7,700 wildfires, this contrast to last year where we had 4,900 wildfires, 26 times more acreage burned this year in the state of California than in 2019.
PAUL: Authorities announced the rising death toll and an increasing number of missing people after the fast-moving Bear Fire swept through the northern part of the state.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The wind was blowing so hard (INAUDIBLE) been daylight but it was dark, and the ashes were everywhere just -- and the wind was going outrageously bad and it was bad.
PAUL: While firefighters have managed to get some containment on a few of the nearly 30 major fires burning in California, heavy smoke and ash are blanketing much of the state.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't really breathe this. Honestly, it's the first time I've ever seen in my iPhone, it just says smoke for air quality.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: Firefighters here in California are hoping for a bit of relief as cooler more humid weather moves into the area. They're also expecting reinforcements to arrive from across the country and all over the world. Some of those crews coming in from as far away as Israel, Bret.
BAIER: Jeff Paul live in Monrovia. Jeff, thanks.
Up next, why was information erased from cellphones belonging to members of Robert Mueller's investigation team? We'll take a look.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: There are serious questions being asked tonight about the reported erasing of information from the cell phones belonging to members of the Special Prosecutor's team investigating alleged Russian collusion with a Trump campaign in 2016, Robert Mueller's team. Correspondent Kevin Corke tells us what we're learning this evening.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEVIN CORKE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: The long journey over the FBI's investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign and allegation links with Russia has taken yet another strange twist with fresh revelations that at least several dozen cell phones used by Bob Mueller's investigative team were, quote, "wiped clean" during the probe. Mueller's deputy, Andrew Weissmann, for example, quote, "accidentally wiped clean" his phones twice, supposedly from entering the wrong passcode too many times deleting all records of communications.
Justice Department records also cite forgotten passcodes, screen damage, lost devices, intentional deletions, and phones being, quote, "unintentionally restored to their factory settings" as reasons given for not preserving requested electronic materials. That reportedly included the phone of FBI lawyer Lisa Page whose infamously anti-Trump texts with her paramour, Peter Strzok were a key part of Mueller's focus. Republican lawmakers are demanding answers.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): If you can't manage your own phone, why should we trust you to investigate a crime? So I guess they just ran out of hammers and bleaching material. So the question is, did they obstruct justice?
CORKE: Previously, the Justice Department's inspector general claimed to have found no intentional conduct or political bias by FBI officials despite numerous errors when seeking surveillance warrants against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Still another ongoing investigation, this one led by federal prosecutor John Durham, is looking into the origins of the FBI's handling of the matter, and President Trump is hinting that Durham's report could lead to something very big.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Without knowing anything about Durham is going to release, the Durham report, we'll call it, or maybe it's going to be more than a report. Maybe it's going to be much more than a report.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CORKE: Meanwhile, late this afternoon, Bret, we learned that federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy, a top aide to Durham, resigned from the DOJ. She'd worked for him for decades. Her resignation could spell the end of the investigation. We'll all learn pretty soon, Bret.
BAIER: We'll follow this very closely. Kevin, thanks.
In tonight's "Whatever Happened To" segments, the Guardian Angels. The decades old group is back in this summer of discontent in New York City. Correspondent Aishah Hasnie shows us tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CURTIS SLIWA, GUARDIAN ANGELS FOUNDER: Guys were outside here, as many as 50, 60, carousing, fighting, drinking, shooting up. And we said, hey, party is over.
AISHAH HASNIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Curtis Sliwa and his Guardian Angles are back on the block, shooing away drug dealers and the riffraff. Forty- one years ago the Brooklyn native formed the Guardian Angels to fight back crime. Back then, they were just a bunch of kids patrolling the subways and irritating police.
SLIWA: The police treated us as if we were the gang.
HASNIE: Criminal justice professor Dennis Kenney was there, studying the Angels.
DENNIS KENNEY, CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROFESSOR: They were kind of an early version of Black Lives Matter who came to conclude the police were part of the problem, not part of the solution.
HASNIE: That eventually changed.
SLIWA: It took about 13 years for our relationship to normalize.
HASNIE: Sliwa credits then Mayor Rudy Giuliani for bringing them into the fold, and in the late 90s the Angels took a step back as Giuliani clenched his grip on crime. But this summer, Sliwa says, everything changed. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers reportedly fled the city to escape coronavirus. Gun violence spiked across the city. The city defunded the police by close to $1 billion, and nearly 10,000 homeless individuals moved into over 60 hotels across the city as they tried to prevent infections. Residents on the Upper West Side quickly began complaining about drug use and harassment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was attacked. I was spit at, coughed on. I am terrified.
HASNIE: Sliwa says they called him. The Angels have been patrolling ever since, even recruiting residents to join.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I couldn't just sit by and watch.
HASNIE: And reminding New Yorkers when times get tough, they have the strength to make the change.
SLIWA: It's not a rebirth or a resurrection. It's setting an example for what other people can do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HASNIE: Neither the NYPD nor Mayor Bill de Blasio's office have responded to our request on whether they support the Guardian Angel's patrols this summer. The city has announced it will begin to move homeless individuals out of the hotels and back to the shelter starting as early as this weekend. Bret?
BAIER: Aishah, thank you.
Drop us a line or a tweet if you have an idea for "Whatever Happened To."
up next, an American hero receives America's highest military honor.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: As we reported earlier, Sergeant Major Thomas Payne is the newest recipient of the nation's highest military award, the Medal of Honor. Payne and his fellow Delta Force members led a daring rescue mission five years ago in Iraq that helped saved the lives of dozens of people being held by ISIS terrorists. Tonight, a and look at the man and the mission. Here's national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: October 22nd, 2015, an ISIS prison near Hawija, Iraq, this helmet cam video from soldiers serving on a task force of the Army's most elite unit show them leading a daring hostage rescue raid to help Kurdish forces free more than 70 prisoners of ISIS.
SGT. MAJ. THOMAS PAYNE, MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT: When you think about it, there are freshly dug graves, and if we didn't action this target, then this hostage will probably be executed.
TRUMP: As soon as the ramp to his helicopter went down, Pat rushed into a blistering hail of gunfire.
GRIFFIN: Sergeant Major Thomas Patrick Payne is the first living member of Delta Force to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest valor award.
PAYNE: We were in a pretty intense firefight right off the bat. And we hear that there's a man down. And we know that's Master Sergeant Josh Wheeler.
GRIFFIN: The first American killed fighting the Islamic State after President Obama ordered U.S. troops back into Iraq.
PAYNE: His last words before he moved to the sound of the guns were "On me."
GRIFFIN: Payne moved toward the prison.
PAYNE: The building started to collapse. The building was on fire, and we're being engaged by enemy combatants in the backroom. And we still have hostages that we need to liberate. When we open the prison doors, you see the faces slide up. Some were ecstatic, some were crying, and they realize that they were being liberated.
GRIFFIN: The Army released this interview with Sergeant Major Payne and created a storyboard drawing of what happened that night.
PAYNE: I'm like a third base coach waving them through the initial breach point. Then I snatch an ISIS flag off the wall and stuff it into my pocket. I see that the train of hostages had stopped, so I grabbed one of the hostages and moved him through the breach point to get the train of hostages going. I run back to the building, and one of the hostages had basically given up on life, so I basically grabbed him and by the back and drug him through the breach point.
GRIFFIN: Seventy hostages made it out alive.
PAYNE: The spirit of the Medal of Honor lives inside every American, and for me, I don't consider myself a recipient. I consider myself a guardian. I just want to be a man that wears it well.
GRIFFIN: At the Pentagon, Jennifer Griffin, FOX News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BAIER: Thank you for your service.
Up next, the panel with the lightning round, the Middle East peace deal, plus the 9/11 anniversary politics and Winners and Losers. We'll see if we can get to it all later. Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: In the spirit of peace and cooperation, both leaders also agreed that Bahrain will fully normalize its diplomatic relations with Israel. They will exchange embassies and ambassadors, begin direct flights between their countries, and launch cooperation initiatives across a broad range of sectors. I am very hopeful that there will be more to follow. I can tell you this tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of other countries to also join.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: The president today on this, the 19th anniversary of 9/11. The Middle East, obviously, spawned those 9/11 hijackers. The Middle East today looks a lot different with the announcement today of a U.S. -- rather an Israel-Bahrain deal, a peace deal that normalizes relations. This after the Israel-UAE deal.
Let's start there with our panel, Kimberley Strassel, a member of the editorial board at "The Wall Street Journal," Leslie Marshall, Democratic strategist, and Ben Domenech, publisher at "The Federalist." Ben, there's so much happening day to day that something like this, two big peace deals between Israel and Arab countries, shouldn't be overlooked. They're going to have a big ceremony, but it's a really big deal.
BEN DOMENECH, "THE FEDERALIST": This is a massive deal. It's hugely important. It's a good thing for the world and for the Middle East, for Israel and for the Arab states. And it's a huge accomplishment and vindication of the approach that the Trump administration has used. They get too little credit for this, I think, because of all the different domestic focuses that we've had. But however many lengthy open letter are signed by the displaced foreign policy establishment that didn't dream big enough to try to achieve these things in the past, I think that we have to give them credit for what they've been able to achieve and reach for the good of our country and security in the region.
BAIER: Leslie?
LESLIE MARSHALL, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, it may be a good deal for Israel, it may be a good deal for the Arabs, but it's not a good deal for Palestinians. The Palestinians were not at the table. And even though you have Arabs in some media sources saying that Netanyahu isn't going to continue to rebuild into the settlements, he said right after this deal I'm not going to stop rebuilding in the settlements. So it might look very good for the UAE, maybe it looks very good for Netanyahu supporters and some, if not many in Israel, but certainly not for the Palestinian in the Palestinian territory who really feel that they didn't get a good deal out of this deal that has been --
BAIER: Kimberley, the president is teasing that there may be more, more deals ahead.
KIMBERLEY STRASSEL, WALL STREET JOURNAL: This is a recognition, Bret, among a lot of Arab countries that the dynamic has shifted in the region. Not taking anything away at all from the Trump administration, they do get credit for pointing these together, but it's partly been motivated by this new awareness of the regional threat from Iran and the need to look around and come up with different alliances and hedge against that threat.
So I wouldn't be surprised to see more people come along. We now have four countries that have normalized relations with Israel in the region, and I bet you're going to see that number grow.
BAIER: Yes, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, and not Bahrain.
OK, let's talk Joe Biden and NAFTA. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something else he did is he renegotiated NAFTA.
BIDEN: He did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does he deserve credit for that?
BIDEN: No. Remember, he wasn't the one who pushed that particular one that passed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He renegotiated NAFTA and you didn't, is the point.
BIDEN: Because we had a Republican Congress that wouldn't go along with us renegotiating it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But doesn't he deserve some credit for that? It's better, the USMCA is better than NAFTA.
BIDEN: It is better than NAFTA.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Joe Biden saying that he has the Republican Congress. Just to point out that when Joe Biden came into office as vice president, he didn't. The Senate was 57 to 41, and the House was 257 to 178, Democrats controlling both. NAFTA obviously wasn't a priority for the incoming administration, but to say he had a Republican Congress and that was the reason, that's wrong. Ben, how does this play in the rust belt?
DOMENECH: I think that this is going to be something that the president leans into on the trail. You're seeing these increasing questions, I think, for Joe Biden. He's not been well served by avoiding them to this point and treated with kid gloves by many in the press. And when he responds to these he seems to be all over the map. And frequently he has the difficulty of voting for something and then turning against it, just like with the Iraq war. I think you're going to see the president lean into this a lot more as he started to in Michigan this week.
BAIER: What about that, Leslie? Obviously, the Bernie Sanders side of the party doesn't like this whole talk about NAFTA.
MARSHALL: Oh, obviously. Senator Sanders said, look, I was against TPP prior to him not becoming the nominee, I was against NAFTA. I'm one of those Democrats who was against NAFTA even though I was a Bill Clinton supporter, voted for him twice. There were jobs that were gained, over 100,000. But that's doesn't offset the problem with wages. That doesn't offset the trade deficit that we still have. I think Joe Biden has a lot of explaining to do -- I'm sorry?
BAIER: Is this a vulnerability, I guess is the question.
MARSHALL: Absolutely, absolutely. Look at 2016. Bret, Hillary Clinton, it wasn't only not visiting. It wasn't policies that were resonating with the blue-collar working middle class. And that is an area that Joe Biden and Democrats have to definitely appease to get them not to vote for President Trump again in 2020 as they did in 2016.
BAIER: Kimberley?
STRASSEL: This is a double whammy for Joe Biden, because, as was just mentioned, you mentioned the rust belt, you go out there to Pennsylvania, to these manufacturing towns that look like ghost towns. And the voters there are the people that heard Donald Trump talking about the need to renegotiate trade deals. They blame NAFTA and trade deals for the decline that they have seen in their regions. And that was the margin of error that put him over the victory line.
So not only do you have Joe Biden, he voted for it, but then you have the knowledge that promised to fix it and never did. And like you said, totally had the opportunity. There were many things for political reasons that the Obama administration pushed aside even though they had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate for a while, and that included another one, immigration. So this is something that I think is going to be hard for him to explain away to a lot of voters.
BAIER: All right, so we didn't have time for Winners and Losers, but your winners, Kim's was the western firefighters, Leslie's 9/11 first responders, Ben, President Trump and foreign policy. Panel, thank you. Have a great weekend.
When we come back, "Notable Quotables."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: It is Friday. That means "Notable Quotables."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even a lot of the firefighters here are on standby, they don't even really know what's going on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another child has lost her life to senseless gun violence in the city of Chicago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To take all policing off is something that I think a latte liberal may go for.
TRUMP: We decided to call all of our rallies peaceful protests.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Donald Trump lied, and people died.
TRUMP: There's always a serious problem. That doesn't mean I'm going to jump up and down in the air and start saying people are going to die.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I didn't really see any discrepancies between what he told us and what we told him and what he ultimately came out publicly and said.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every president does a Bob Woodward book and gives him plenty of interviews and then later comes to regret it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think that you're going to do with your ridiculous tweets. He doesn't even spell properly. "Liar" is l-i-a-r.
TRUMP: Don't say that. I'll start to cry and that wouldn't be good for my image.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doesn't he deserve come credit for that. It's better, the USMCA is better than NAFTA.
BIDEN: It is better than NAFTA.
TRUMP: He made a mistake, because he doesn't know what's going on.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): All road lead to Putin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've sanctioned more Russians than any administration in history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NFL royalty that we are going to get an opportunity to watch on Sunday, and I'm looking forward to it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must honor those who rushed into the flames of buildings and into the cockpit of Flight 93.
TRUMP: When the moment came, when history called, they did not hesitate. Never, ever forget. God bless you all, and God bless America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for this SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and still unafraid.
Nineteen years ago what happened on this day changed the world forever. Most importantly we should never forget those lost on this day from the terrorist attacks, and the heroes lost on battlefields fighting because of it. On this day 19 years ago, I drove from the Atlanta bureau to report in front of a burning Pentagon for FOX affiliates around the country, and I never left, never went back to Atlanta. I started covering the Pentagon and then the White House, and almost 12 years ago took over for my mentor and friend Brit Hume in this chair. After all that time, 9/11 and the fallout from it is still the biggest story I've covered. It changed the world forever. We should never forget.
"The Story" hosted by Martha MacCallum starts right now. Martha?
MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: So true for all of us who covered that day, changed by it forever in our lives and in our careers and in the friends lost. Bret, thank you very much.
BAIER: You bet. Have a good one.
MACCALLUM: Good to see you tonight.
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