This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," May 26, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: You can plug it right here, keep going No, it's all right. OK, next time.
Thanks, Jesse. Good evening, I'm Bret Baier. "Breaking tonight", signs the economy may be recovering, Wall Street had a big day on the strength of news about the testing of a vaccine for coronavirus.
Consumer confidence is up, businesses are reopening across the country. Some are speculating the worst may be over, but there are plenty of obstacles remaining as the death toll in the United States approaches 100,000.
Chief White House correspondent John Roberts starts us off tonight on the North Lawn. Good evening, John.
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS HOST: Bret, good evening to you. The worst may be over in terms of closures and the impact on the economy, but the coronavirus remains naggingly difficult to defeat and continues to cast doubt on when America can get fully back up to speed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: As the stock market soared on the promise of a coronavirus vaccine, five more states took another step toward reopening, rolling back restrictions in place since March. The president leading the cheer, tweeting, "States should open up ASAP. The transition to greatness has started ahead of schedule. There will be ups and downs, but next year will be one of the best ever."
The president and White House officials still are predicting a robust bounce-back in the economy. But at the same time, warning the $600-plus up in unemployment insurance could hinder small business reopenings.
LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER: The trouble with the $600 plus up and maybe we needed it in that emergency period. But frankly, it's a major disincentive to go back to work and we don't want that, we want people to go back to work. I frankly do not believe the $600 plus up will survive the next round of talks.
ROBERTS: The pace of reopening throwing into question the Republican National Convention set for the end of August in Charlotte. The president and RNC officials pressing Democratic Governor Roy Cooper for a decision on whether crowds can gather at the Spectrum Center.
RONNA MCDANIEL, CHAIRWOMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: The president's right to say to the governor, you need to assure us before we lock in all these hotel rooms and we bring all this revenue to your state that you're going to let us have this convention.
This governor is up for re-election, he hasn't given us the assurances we need.
GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): It's OK for political conventions to be political, but pandemic response cannot be.
ROBERTS: Other states are eagerly trying to pry the convention away from North Carolina. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp putting on the hard sell. While the mayor of Jacksonville, Florida tweeted, his city safely hosted a live UFC event in the midst of COVID. Tweeting, "We would be honored to host the Republican National Convention in that same world-class facility."
The White House is also putting new pressure on China over its increasingly authoritarian posture toward Hong Kong. The White House warning China it would be a grave mistake indicating Hong Kong's special status could be in jeopardy if China over steps.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He is displeased with China's efforts and that it's hard to see how Hong Kong can remain a financial hub if China takes over.
ROBERTS: President Trump, also increasingly infuriated with China for letting coronavirus out. So much so that he's number one issue with China, trade, is not the number one issue anymore.
KUDLOW: I mean he's so miffed at what the Chinese have done regarding the virus and other matters that the trade deal is not as important to him as it once was.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: (INAUDIBLE) asked President Trump in the Rose Garden in the last hour if he plans out imposing sanctions against China in response to their actions against Hong Kong, the president refused to say today but did say he will have something to say about it later on this week. Bret.
BAIER: Also, John, late today, Twitter placed a fact check notification on a tweet from the president about mail-in ballots What about that?
ROBERTS: And this is something highly unusual. The president sent out this tweet at 8:17 this morning -- and I don't know if you can see, but at the bottom of the screen, it says, get the facts about mail-in ballots.
If you click on that, up comes a message that says, on Tuesday, President Trump made a series of claims about potential voter fraud after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an effort to expand mail-in voting in California during the COVID-19 pandemic, these claims are unsubstantiated.
According to CNN, the Washington Post, and others experts, say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud. In the last hour in the Rose Garden, the president again went off on the idea of mail-in ballots, saying that spied to do absentee balloting. But if you did it across every state to every voter, it could result in fraud.
But five states currently, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington State, and Utah, all have all mail-in ballots, and there doesn't appear to be any particular problem with that.
Now, the fact that Twitter sources, CNN, the Washington Post, and others, watch for the President to respond to that. Bret.
BAIER: All right, John. As always, thank you.
As we told you earlier, the Dow had a very big day today gaining 530. The S&P 500 finished ahead 36, the NASDAQ was up 16.
Outgoing acting Director of Intelligence Richard Grenell has declassified a new batch of Russia probe documents that leaves the decision on whether to make those files public up to the newly sworn-in director, John Ratcliffe.
The documents include transcripts of phone calls that then-incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had with the Russian ambassador. Fox News has learned, Grenell also completed the declassification review of other documents related to the origins of the Russia probe, including one that a senior intelligence official told Fox was, "very significant in understanding how intelligence was manipulated to support launching the Russia investigation." More to come on that.
A top official with the World Health Organization is tempering optimism tonight. Saying, the first wave of the pandemic is not yet over. That statement comes amid optimism about a possible vaccine. Correspondent Jonathan Serrie has the story tonight from Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN SERRIE, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: U.S. biotech company Novavax is injecting 131 healthy volunteers in Australia with an experimental vaccine that has shown early promise in animal tests.
Researchers want to determine whether it's safe and effective in preventing COVID-19 in humans. It is one of roughly a dozen potential vaccines in the early phases of research and development, each using different technologies in hopes of increasing the odds one or more will work.
DR. GREGORY GLENN, PRESIDENT, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, NOVAVAX: We are making vaccine in anticipation that we'll be able to show it's working and be able to start deploying it towards the end of this year.
SERRIE: As coronavirus cases surge in new places, including Brazil and India, international health officials warned, the world is still in the middle of the first wave of the pandemic.
DR. MICHAEL RYAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HEALTH EMERGENCIES PROGRAMME, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on the way down now that it's on -- it's on -- it's going to keep going down, and then we're going to get a number of months to get ready for a second wave. We may get a second peak in this way.
SERRIE: Still, economies are trying to reopen cautiously. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange, which reopened its floor to 25 percent of its in-person traders, and enhanced safety protocols.
Tomorrow, the governor plans to meet with President Trump, to discuss infrastructure improvements as a way of revitalizing the economy.
But health officials are concerned about growing numbers of people ignoring social distancing guidelines. Viral video of vacationers crowding in Missouri pool bar prompted St. Louis County health officials to issue this travel advisory. "Any person who has traveled and engaged in this behavior should self-quarantine for 14 days or until they receive a negative test result for COVID-19."
An Atlanta private school, reports several students who attended a drive- through graduation ceremony on May 17 have tested positive for coronavirus. However, it remains unclear whether they became infected at the Lovett school event or an off-campus gathering not sanctioned by the school.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SERRIE: And the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, quote, school officials confirming that an infected student held a private gathering after attending that drive-through graduation ceremony, and then, went on an out- of-town trip with friends. Bret.
BAIER: Jonathan Serrie in Atlanta. Jonathan, thank you.
"BREAKING TONIGHT", four Minneapolis police officers are out of their jobs tonight. The dismissals come after an African American suspect is shown pleading for his life during arrest that went terribly wrong.
Senior correspondent Mike Tobin picks up the story tonight from there. Good evening, Mike.
MIKE TOBIN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Bret. And what is very clear in this video is that while a white police officer is kneeling on this man's neck, he makes it very clear multiple times that he's having difficulty breathing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE FLOYD, KILLED BY AN OFFICER PINNING DOWN BY HIS NECK: I can't breathe, officer. They're going to kill me. They're going to kill me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TOBIN: Ultimately, you see the man identified as George Floyd, stop moving and become unresponsive. While onlookers shot -- shout at police that he has stopped the breathing, he's limp when paramedics arrived for load Floyd onto an ambulance.
The reason he interacted with police was suspicion of forgery. Well-known civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump has intervened of the case, and issued a statement, reading, "This abusive, excessive, and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained for questioning about a non- violent charge."
The head of the NAACP in Minneapolis called this a lynching but said instead of a rope, the officer used his knee. Four police officers involved in the incident have been fired from the Minneapolis police force, the mayor said he backs the decision of the police chief.
JACOB FREY, MAYOR OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: I will say simply that I support your decision. 100 percent, it is the right decision for our city. The right decision for our community is the right decision for our Minneapolis Police Department. We've stated our values, and ultimately, we need to live by them.
TOBIN: Demonstrators have already been out in the streets. The head of the Urban League of the Twin Cities is demanding the release of all bodycam footage from the officers, the release of their names, and an independent investigation.
The FBI confirms an investigation is underway to determine if the Minneapolis Police Officers deprived George Floyd of his civil rights. Bret.
BAIER: Mike Tobin in Chicago. Mike, thank you.
TOBIN: Yes.
BAIER: Law enforcement is still hunting at this hour over a three-state area for a suspect in two brutal murders. Family members are pleading with the young man to turn himself in. A young man considered armed and dangerous by authorities. Correspondent Alex Hogan has the latest tonight from New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LT. JOHN AIELLO, COMMANDER, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: My message is to Peter directly. Peter, we've talked to your family. We've talked to your friends and your roommates, all of them have said the same thing that this behavior is out of the ordinary for you.
ALEX HOGAN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: The multi-state manhunt bringing together the FBI and law enforcement around the Northeast to tracked down a 23-year-old accused of a vicious crime spree.
Police say, with an only five days, Peter Manfredonia killed two men, held two others captive, and stole guns and cars. The Newtown High School grad from Sandy Hook is a University of Connecticut senior. His family says he has a history of mental health problems and they're begging him to give up.
MICHAEL DOLAN, ATTORNEY FOR MANFREDONIA FAMILY: Peter, if you're listening, you are loved, your parents, your sisters, your entire family loves you. Nobody wants any harm to come to you. It is time to let the healing process begin. It's time to surrender.
HOGAN: The family of the first victim from Willington, Connecticut speaking out about their loved one. Ted DeMers was about to become a grandfather. Police, say Manfredonia chose his victims randomly, but DeMers' family says he clearly planned the attack.
PAT JONES, SISTER-IN-LAW OF TED DEMERS: This man came to Myrtle Road with a purpose. You don't just put a machete in your backpack and get on your motorcycle and drive to a dead-end road.
HOGAN: The crime spree sending police on a hunt from Connecticut to New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. There in East Stroudsburg, a camera caught him walking on the railroad tracks about 200 miles from where this all began.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOGAN: Friends and family of Manfredonia, say they can't believe these actions of someone that they know and love. Still, police say that he is armed and dangerous. And now, U.S. marshals of Pennsylvania will be there to find him. Bret.
BAIER: Alex Hogan in New York. Alex, thank you.
Up next, final preparations for the first manned space flight to originated from U.S. soil in almost a decade, if the weather allows it. We'll bring you there.
First, here is what some of our Fox affiliates around the country are covering tonight. Fox 5 in San Diego with a local church making an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying that its First Amendment rights are being trampled by the State of California and local regulations keeping it closed to worshipers.
The request goes to Justice Elena Kagan, based on geography. She can then decide alone or refer to the full court.
Fox 32, our affiliate in Chicago with the city's deadliest Memorial Day weekend since 2015. Shootings left 10 people dead, 39 others wounded. They happened despite a statewide stay at home order aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
Fox 38 in Corpus Christi, Texas where the FBI has announced it believes there was no second person involved in last week's shooting at the Naval Air Station. All evidence points to the shooting being a terror-related incident they call it, and the investigation is ongoing.
And this is a live look at Detroit from our affiliate Fox 2, one of the big stories there tonight. Four Midland County homeowners file a class-action lawsuit against the state alleging it did not keep residents safe by failing to repair a dam before it collapsed last week.
The dam broke after heavy rain records indicate federal regulators had continually cited the structure as in need for repair. That's tonight's live look "OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY" from SPECIAL REPORT. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: House Republican leadership aides tell Fox News, GOP lawmakers plan to file a lawsuit against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to block the proxy voting system imposed during this COVID-19 coronavirus. They are expected to contend, proxy voting is unconstitutional and leads to the dilution of member's votes and constituents' representation.
Attorneys for the GOP leadership, say they do not anticipate it stopping proxy voting from going forward tomorrow, recognizing it will take some time to have this adjudicated.
The number two official in the Pentagon's Office of inspector general is out tonight. Glenn Fine resigned today, several weeks after he was effectively removed as head of a special board to oversee the auditing of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic relief package.
A spokeswoman for the I.G.'s office, says Fine was not asked to resign. Earlier this month, President Trump fired the state department's inspector general. In April, he dismissed an intelligence community I.G.
A summer vacation officially begins for many school students. The grades are coming in on distance learning programs necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic. Tonight, correspondent Doug McKelway, tells us many of those grades are not so good.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOUG MCKELWAY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Senior, Max Wolschlegel is so done with high school. He's off to work at Chick-fil-A in the Ford Crown Vic with 140,000 miles on it that he bought with his own money. It's got a great radio.
Max is banking his cash and he's bid good riddance to school and distance learning that by almost all accounts has been a failure here in Fairfax County, Virginia.
MAX WOLSCHLEGEL, STUDENT IN VIRGINIA: I chose to kind of stay away from the whole distance learning thing. I know personally that I am not a very good learner when it comes to learning through a computer screen. I learned a lot better when I -- when there's a physical human in front of me.
MCKELWAY: That's a common experience. Some school districts in Georgia, Nebraska, Texas, D.C., and elsewhere have ended the school year early as a result. Yet others, like Arlington, Virginia are already planning to continue distance learning in the fall.
TOMMY SCHULTZ, VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING, AMERICAN FEDERATION FOR CHILDREN: So, in some ways it's no surprise that families are at home, wondering where the $15,000 in spending is going per student in this country.
ROBIN LAKE, DIRECTOR, CENTER ON REINVENTING PUBLIC EDUCATION: Something is better than nothing. And so, if we can keep kids learning during this difficult time and keep them connected with their teacher and their friends at school, somehow, that's a -- that's a great -- a great thing right now.
MCKELWAY: In the worst cases, distance learning has suffered from poor planning, badly designed programs, no face-to-face contact with teachers, and socio-economic hardship. Some students lack high-speed Internet and parental support. All factors that are driving some parents to seek alternatives.
SCHULTZ: We just commissioned a poll, and 40 percent of families said that they are considering homeschooling or virtual schooling.
MCKELWAY: It's not all bad, distance learning has opened some new doors.
LAKE: You know, teachers are really finding that there are a lot of tools out there that they didn't know existed that are making them better teachers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCKELWAY: Adding to the uncertainty, the nation's two largest teacher's unions have threatened to strike if districts reopen without proper caution. Including temperature checks, protective clothing, and contact tracing. Bret.
BAIER: Doug, thank you. The U.S. Supreme Court is rejecting an emergency appeal from the Justice Department over a lower court order requiring a federal prison in Ohio to start releasing vulnerable inmates to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The low-security facility near Kenton could see the release of more than 800 elderly and medically vulnerable inmates at risk of contracting the virus. Many of those inmates could be confined at home. About 160 inmates and seven staff have contracted COVID-19. The facility holds about 2,400 individuals. Nine have died, so far, from the pandemic.
There are questions tonight about whether the first manned spaceflight to originate from U.S. soil in almost a decade will go off as planned tomorrow. The weather could be a problem.
Tonight, correspondent Phil Keating is at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for an exclusive interview with the man in charge at NASA.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BRIDENSTINE, ADMINISTRATOR TO NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION: What we're doing today is very different than anything we've done in the past.
PHIL KEATING, FOX NEWS CHANNEL NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, met us exclusively this morning at the spot. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will walk out to their Tesla version of the old Astro Van, to drive out to the launch pad for tomorrow's historic SpaceX launch, which if successful, could forever end America's reliance on the Russians to get U.S. astronauts into space. He admits, personally, he's a little nervous.
BRIDENSTINE: My concern is making sure that we've done everything we can possibly do to minimize the uncertainty, to minimize the risk, and to be ready to go. And of course, we've done the flight readiness review, we've done the launch readiness review, and everybody is a go. Right now, everybody is it go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ignition, (INAUDIBLE) sky --
KEATING: SpaceX's Crew Dragon has only flown to the space station once before, January of last year with Ripley, the space test dummy. Tomorrow, SpaceX and NASA hope to do it with humans on board. Astronauts Behnken and Hurley did their final dress rehearsal at the launch pad, Saturday.
DOUGLAS HURLEY, ASTRONAUT, NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION: It's just an amazing vehicle. It is definitely not the space shuttle in many ways. It's much smaller, but it's a capsule, it's state-of-the-art from a technology standpoint, and we are so excited to be in a real spaceship, and not the simulator.
ROBERT BEHNKEN, ASTRONAUT, NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION: But one thing that we could have put on our list of dream jobs that we would have gotten to have someday, it would have been to be aboard a new spacecraft, be conducting a test mission aboard that spacecraft.
KEATING: And in March, the final real safety tests of this SpaceX launch system proved, if something goes wrong on the way up, the capsule can jettison from the rocket and safely splashed down in the ocean.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEATING: And looking live at historic Launchpad 39A, from which the Apollo 11 launched to the moon, that is the SpaceX rocket and capsule stacked all ready for blast-off.
President Trump and the vice president, both intend to be here tomorrow to watch it live in person if it happens. The launch time is set for 4:30-3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. But the weather forecast as it is right now at that time just 60 percent favorable. Bret.
BAIER: All that's -- well, that's a good chance. Phil Keating, live at the Kennedy Space Center. Phil, thanks. Neil Cavuto will have full live coverage of that launch. Thank you.
Up next, a look at Joe Biden's possible strategy against President Trump during the campaign. First, "BEYOND OUR BORDERS" tonight. Brazil's federal police searched the official residence of Rio de Janeiro's governor as part of investigation into the alleged embezzlement of public resources in the state's response to COVID-19.
An ongoing investigation points to irregularities in contracts awarded for the construction of emergency field hospitals.
The U.S. military is accusing Russia of deploying fighter planes to conflict-stricken Libya to support Russian mercenaries, aiding rebels attacking the capital of Tripoli there. U.S.-Africa Command, says Russian military aircraft were repainted, camouflage to hide their true origin.
The United Nations, says both North and South Korea violated their armistice during a recent exchange of gunfire. The May 3rd incident was the first shooting inside the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the DMZ in about 2-1/2 years.
And the Afghan government, says it will free 900 prisoners as part of a peace agreement with the Taliban. The announcement comes as a three-day ceasefire with the insurgents draws to an end.
Taliban officials, say they are considering an extension of the ceasefire. Late today, President Trump reiterated his desire for a full military withdrawal by U.S. military. He says, he has no target date yet for that.
Just some of the other stories "BEYOND OUR BORDERS" tonight. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: In tonight's Democracy 2020 report, a glimpse into a possible strategy for Joe Biden strategy and how it could possibly backfire. Plus, the continuing fallout over the presumptive Democratic nominee's statements about black voters. Here is correspondent Peter Doocy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: The long weekend has come and gone, and Joe Biden is still cleaning up after his comments that African- Americans who might vote for Trump, quote, "ain't black."
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was a mistake, number one. And I was smiling when he asked the question. I shouldn't have been such a wise guy. He was being a wise guy and I responded in kind. I shouldn't have done that. It was a mistake.
DOOCY: That comes as Biden's most consequential primary endorser, who helped him beef up his firewall and win in South Carolina, distanced himself from Biden's comments, Congressman James Clyburn.
JAMES CLYBURN, (D-SC) HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP: I cringed, no question about that. I go about my business every day comparing Joe Biden to the alternative, not the Almighty.
DOOCY: Does that mean Biden support is soft? Because one prominent progressive now says she's going to vote for him, but she does believe the woman accusing him of sexual assault, Tara Reade.
REP. ILHAN OMAR, (D-MN): There's obviously parts of what she has said that has been corroborated, parts of it that hasn't.
DOOCY: November's election may hinge on how the post-COVID economy is doing. Former Obama economist Jason Furman forecasts a quick V-shaped recovery, which has another unnamed former Obama official telling Politico, quote, "This is my big worry."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you expect a V-shaped recovery?
BIDEN: No, I don't.
DOOCY: The Trump campaign now claims "It's no wonder is supporting blue state lockdowns that could drag down the economy and preaching sit down and shut up economic misery while laughing off experts who may predict otherwise. A booming economy would be bad news for Biden's campaign, a campaign where the candidate just left the house for the first time in ten weeks.
BIDEN: Surge is relative. So if you're losing tens of millions of jobs, and we're well over -- millions and millions of jobs. And you gain back a quarter of that or half of that, it's going to look like there's real growth.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOOCY: Biden also says he won't stoop to the president's level when it comes to saying outrageous things, but he did call the president a name while discussing the president's criticism of Biden for wearing a mask in public. He called the president a fool. Bret?
BAIER: Peter, what's the latest on the controversy surrounding Michigan's governor, Governor Whitmer?
DOOCY: Governor Whitmer this afternoon, Bret, confirmed a story that started bubbling up over the long weekend that even though she told residents of Michigan not to go to lake houses if they don't live there full time, her husband did that. And he wanted the family boat put in the water pronto despite Memorial Day backlog, asking somebody, according to "The Detroit News," "I am the husband to the governor. Will this make a difference?" It did not make a difference. The boat did not go into the water early ahead of everybody else. The governor now says that her husband was just getting and that he wound up raking leaves instead. Bret?
BAIER: OK, Peter, thank you.
An old rivalry is renewing tonight. The animosity between President Trump and his former attorney general Jeff Sessions did not end with Sessions' departure from the administration. They're at it again. Here is correspondent Mark Meredith.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK MEREDITH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is refusing to drop out of the runoff race for his old Senate seat in Alabama, even as President Trump continues to trash Sessions on Twitter and television over the decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Jeff Sessions was a disaster as attorney general. He should have never been attorney general. He's not qualified, he's not mentally qualified to be attorney general.
MEREDITH: As recently as Thursday, Sessions repeatedly praised the president. Now he's arguing that it's time the president get over his hurt feelings, tweeting, quote, "Look, I know your anger, but recusal was required by law. I did my duty, and you're damn fortunate I did. It protected the rule of law and resulted in your exoneration. Your personal feelings don't dictate who Alabama picks as their senator. The people of Alabama do." The president has already endorsed Sessions primary opponent, former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to overtime, and I know somebody who knows how to win in overtime.
MEREDITH: A survey taken this month by a Republican polling group found Tuberville had a 23-point lead over Sessions, and political experts say that the latest Trump-Sessions feud is not likely to change voters' minds.
STEVEN TAYLOR, TROY UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: I don't think these tweets will have much of an impact. I just can't imagine that, especially with the gap that we see in the polling, that this is going to shift one way or the other.
MEREDITH: While Sessions is rebutting the president's latest criticism, he is not distancing himself altogether from the Trump brand. Sessions says if elected he still plans to support the president's agenda.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MEREDITH: Primary voters will get the final say about Sessions when they had to the polls on July 14th. Whoever wins the primary will face off against Democratic Senator Doug Jones this November. Bret?
BAIER: Mark, thank you.
Up next, President Trump promotes a conspiracy theory that a TV News personality is guilty of murder, and now the pushback.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: President Trump is going to new levels to discredit a television personality with whom he has long feuded. The allegations tonight are far more serious than just political bias. FOX News media analyst and host of FOX's "Media Buzz" Howard Kurtz shows us tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOWARD KURTZ, FOX NEWS MEDIA ANALYST: President Trump was once good friends with ex-Congressman Joe Scarborough and his wife Mika Brzezinski, doing many interviews. But his relationship with MSNBC's morning host turned bitter in 2016 and is increasingly toxic. The president has been tweeting about his unfounded conspiracy theory involving the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, a 28-year-old aide in Scarborough's Florida office. A medical examiner ruled an undiagnosed heart problem caused her to block out, fall, and hit her head. No foul play was suspected.
Responding to harsh attacks on "Morning Joe," Trump tweeted "When will they open a cold case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida? Did he get away with murder? Some people think so." Also, "And guys like Low Ratings Psycho Joe Scarborough are allowed to walk the streets? Open Cold Case!"
That prompted Brzezinski to urge Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to ban the president.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC HOST: You're a sick person. You're really a cruel, sick, disgusting person. And you can keep tweeting about joe, but you're just hurting other people.
KURTZ: Lori's husband, Timothy Klausutis, tells Dorsey in a letter published today by "The New York Times" "These conspiracy theorists, including the president of the United States, continue to spread their bile and misinformation on your platform, disparaging the memory of my wife and our marriage."
JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: He says in the letter that the president has taken something that doesn't belong to him -- the memory of his dead wife - - and has perverted for perceived political gain.
KURTZ: Trump said today the theory didn't start with him but still questioned "whether or not Joe could've done such a horrible thing. Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total nut job. So many unanswered and obvious questions, but I won't bring them up now. Law enforcement eventually will?"
Scarborough didn't object when Don Imus once joked about the death.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They have dragged his family through the mud. They've made false accusations that I won't go through.
KURTZ: Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger told Trump to stop spreading what he called a "completely unfounded conspiracy," "stop creating paranoia." Dorsey rejected Klausutis's request to delete the tweets, the company saying "We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements and the attention they are drawing are causing the family."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KURTZ: It's a dilemma not just for social media but for journalists coping with such an unsubstantiated rumor. The president and the cable host are accustomed to public combat, but a man who lost his wife years ago never wanted the spotlight. Bret?
BAIER: Howie, thank you.
FOX News confirms tonight federal investigators have ended inquiries regarding securities trades by California Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein, Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler in Oklahoma Republican Jim Inhofe. Again, Jim Inhofe, all of those scrapped. But FOX is also confirming the FBI is still looking at trades made by North Carolina Republican Richard Burr. That investigation, we're told, continues.
Next up, the panel on some encouraging signs for the economy during the coronavirus pandemic and the push to reopen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are battling the virus on every front, speeding relief to our workers and pursuing therapies and vaccines at record speed. We are safely reopening our country while aggressively protecting the vulnerable, especially our seniors.
DR. MICHAEL RYAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We need to be also cognizant of the fact that the disease can jump up at any time. We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on the way down now that it's going to keep going down and that we are going to get a number of months to get ready for a second wave. We may get a second peak in this wave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: May get a second peak. But there is no feeling that, as more and more states reopen, the economy is starting to churn. The Dow had a big day today, 530 points. The markets feel good about the prospect of a vaccine.
Let's bring on our panel, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at "The Federalist," Amy Walter, national editor for the "Cook Political Report," and Guy Benson, political editor at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__Townhall.com&d=DwICAg&c=cnx1hdOQtepEQkpermZGwQ&r=tgDLkJy54PfJyWJwul3dKe54qGxqO7b7d5vjo7RcZds&m=MxlMONYL8G8bt_qfz87PeV0Fb8wpGWWihdy-mVdZFtM&s=259EbkX1NdPeag_27xxBn-O2Dc_gavKuDeSmkWjW5dE&e= , host of "The Guy Benson Show" on FOX News Radio.
Mollie, your sense about where we are. Obviously there's the chance that things could slide, but there is some growing optimism it appears, starting this week.
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE FEDERALIST": It's absolutely true that this virus will be with us for some time, but it's also true that we know a lot now that we didn't know a few months ago when we embarked on a mass shutdown. It is good news that the virus is not nearly as deadly as we thought it was when we first saw this, or that hospitals are not overrun like that we thought they were.
But I was interested in an article that was in "Politico" today about how Democrats say that their nightmare scenario is that the economy might get back up and running before the November election. And I do think there is a political concern here that people don't want to reopen in part because they are worried that a strong economy is one of Donald Trump's best arguments for his reelection and that they don't -- and they think that hurting the economy might help Democratic prospects. And so it's important people care about public health and not keep the economy locked down for political reasons.
BAIER: To that end, it seems like this is going to be, Amy, big part of this election. And the Biden camp out with an ad. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should stop rewarding wealth and start rewarding work a little bit. Let's raise the capital gains tax for people making over $1 million a year to ordinary income. Let's reverse the Trump tax cut. Nobody making under $400,000 should have their taxes raised, period. Bingo. Let's get people back to work.
The idea of putting people back to work is going to occur when we begin to really invest in America, when we invest significantly in infrastructure. When we invest significantly in all the research and development that has to be done to compete with not just China but around the world.
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BAIER: That ad there obviously playing on the president playing golf as the numbers hit 100,000. Thoughts?
AMY WALTER, NATIONAL EDITOR, "COOK POLITICAL REPORT": So the economy has been the centerpiece question from the very beginning, long before this pandemic. The question was, why is an economy that's doing so well not benefiting the president politically? We saw at one point he had approval ratings on the economy close to 60 percent. And yet when you looked at it the overall approval ratings, they were still mired in the 40s, and matched up against Joe Biden he was still losing.
So the challenge for the president has long been that the economy in and of itself isn't really the issue in this election. A lot of what this election is going to hinge on, that we are in the middle of a crisis, so let's just put into perspective. We may be in another health crisis by the time October or November comes around, we may not be. We will certainly be in an economic crisis regardless. Even if the economy does come back pretty well, there are going to be a lot of people still hurting economically.
But the real question in my mind has long been, how are voters squaring their perception of the president and how he serves as president, the behavior, the way he conducts himself, versus what he's doing on the economy per se? It is true, most residents who are running in a bad economy tend not to get reelected. But this is not a typical type of recession, and this president has not seen, unlike other presidents, a big bump when things are good.
BAIER: Right. But why, then, Guy, are Democrats, including the former vice president, openly worrying about the V-shaped recovery that may come as the bounce back here in the third quarter? "Politico" had a big piece today. Joe Biden was asked about that in a CNN interview in which he said yes, these people coming back to work and the economy churning is going to look a lot steeper in the recovery right around the election.
GUY BENSON, POLITICAL EDITOR, https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__TOWNHALL.COM&d=DwICAg&c=cnx1hdOQtepEQkpermZGwQ&r=tgDLkJy54PfJyWJwul3dKe54qGxqO7b7d5vjo7RcZds&m=MxlMONYL8G8bt_qfz87PeV0Fb8wpGWWihdy-mVdZFtM&s=7-6QwMZFPizAmCrdAYUyfEAqVjA3KavrWQB9Gq7m2mM&e= : And I feel like if the Democrats are put in the position where they appear to be rooting against the recovery or a strong recovery for political reasons, that's not going to play well, because Americans, regardless of political stripe after what we have been through will be very eager for things to return to somewhat normal, for the economy to begin to thrive, again, regardless of where they come down in the political spectrum because it's been such a painful experience for so many hurricanes.
Look, I think that a lot of this comes down to the question, to Amy's point, will President Trump have a narrative that is sellable heading into November? And I don't think we are really going to know that until September or October. It's going to depend on the facts and the realities on the ground for actual voters, slogans. They can talk about pivoting to greatness or the great American comeback. If those don't feel real, if they sound like empty words to people, then the president can say them until he's blue in the face, it's not going to matter.
But if it lines up with the reality that people are living every day, and they're like, OK, maybe we have gotten through the public health crisis. Maybe it wasn't handled perfectly but we are recovering now, and perhaps we are starting to recover also on the economic front and I am starting to feel that, then those slogans, those catchphrases would resonate. And I'm not sure what the response of that will be from Democrats without sounding like they are trying to talk down a comeback from a very dark place, which, as I said, is not a great look.
BAIER: The hope, Mollie, is that this is not political and the decisions being made are based on numbers and what governors are seeing on the ground. But it is seeming, more and more, like it is a stay-at-home-order versus an open-the-government battle. Even the site of the Republican National Convention, the president threatening that Charlotte, if North Carolina, the governor can't give them an answer, maybe he will move it, and Georgia is already pitching, saying bring it to Georgia.
HEMINGWAY: Right. You are definitely seeing a partisan divide in how governors are handling like this, even if it's not a perfect partisan divide. And you're also seeing that reflected in polls about what individuals themselves want in terms of reopening the economy or keeping it shut down. There are so many questions going into the summer about sporting events, conventions, and whatnot.
But we are in a much better place now than we were a few months ago. I do think it's important that the media be much better about accurately describing who is really at risk from this. They seem to overhype the general risk of what's happening to the population while under-hyping something day-in and day-out, which is that nursing homes have absolutely been ravaged by the coronavirus. Half of all deaths are in nursing homes, maybe even more. That's not just in the United States but worldwide. And so the more that we do general things that don't matter, like shutting down the outdoor spaces but not taking care of nursing homes, is not good for us.
BAIER: All right, panel, wish we had more time. Thank you. When we come back, the brighter side of things, some good news.
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BAIER: Finally tonight, some good news, the brighter side. A mother hospitalized for COVID-19 in Massachusetts has finally met her son for the first time four weeks after he was born. Sarah Chama gave birth prematurely via emergency C-section while she was sedated and fighting the virus. Both of them, mother and son, spent the next four weeks in the hospital. But now mom and son Alex have recovered enough for her to hold him for the very first time. So that is some good news.
Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for the SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and still unafraid. "THE STORY" hosted by Martha MacCallum starts right now. Hey, Martha.
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