FEMA official on Irma recovery: This is a massive effort
On 'The Story,' coordinating officer says the agency will be in Florida for the long-haul
This is a rush transcript from "The Story," September 12, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MARTHA MACCALLUM, "THE STORY" HOST: Anger is boiling over and Hurricane Irma evacuees are running out of patience tonight; they're facing food and gas shortages. Many of them are stranded in their own state and they're unable to get to the shelters, they're unable to return home. I'm Martha MacCallum and tonight "The Story" is unfolding in all of Florida and for tens of thousands of people across the southeast who are still doing battle with the hurricane named Irma. Look at this devastation. Really, today, we really got a better look at it than we've had the entire time. There are residents who are irate, as you might imagine, because they really want to get in there and get home and see what they've got.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, we don't know where to go.
(SHOUTING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no gasoline, sir. We can't go to shelters. There's no gasoline. There's no gasoline anywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's nothing open. I have no food. I have no water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Wow. The statistics are sobering, at least 12 deaths in the United States blamed on the storm. Dozen more deaths in the very hard-hit Caribbean. In the Florida Keys, FEMA estimates that 90 percent of the homes were damaged or destroyed, 90 percent. 94 thousand people are still in shelters. Across the state, more than five million have no power and it may take up to two weeks, we're told now, to restore their service and it comes ahead of a heat wave. In moments, we will talk to Tito Hernandez who is the most Senior FEMA Official on the ground in Florida. But we begin with Fox's Phil Keating who is in the Florida Keys again tonight in Islamorada. Hi, Phil.
PHIL KEATING, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Martha. This is the view why people live here in the keys. This is the view why people come here as tourists to fish the keys. Those are the Florida straits, absolutely gorgeous. But when Hurricane Irma slammed down the Cudjoe Key, the winds there: 130 miles per hour; the winds here, probably, 120. Those were devastating enough. But the storm surge here was six to eight feet, pushing everything that was closer to the ocean side way up here into Darryl Potter's trailer, crumbling it as well as all of their stuff. Of course, you see the sign up on the pole. It was Potter's paradise. Won't be that again for weeks, months, maybe even longer, if ever.
Look at all the debris just ruined about kitchen sinks, they're over there, washers, dryers smashed up, personal belongings, golf carts upside down. Just absolute devastation and a heartbreak for residents coming in this morning to check out the damage. Now, just up the street here on U.S.-1, we met with Clay Cotter -- Clay Crocket, rather. He came in with us at 7:00 a.m. when the road block opened up in Florida City after being evacuated, stuck in Boca Raton for a week. Well, when he looked at his place, he saw debris damage, devastation everywhere. Foliage totally gone. His home, his little bit of paradise, totally lost. And here is his natural first reaction when he pulled up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLAY CROCKET, RESIDENT OF ISLAMORADA, FLORIDA: I can tell the surge came up to at least here, which means I'm going to be flooded inside there. Yes, I can tell I've got flooding inside already. Oh my God!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEATING: About 80 percent of this 100 Trailer, Trailer Park is now destroyed. Not even salvageable. The ones that you actually could clean up and live in, well, it's not certain anybody would want to. These are in every trailer. Spray painted by law enforcement and search and rescue teams. This is the date they searched for a body. This is what they found inside, zero. To date, no bodies have been found in the keys. But the true story is down in the lower keys, the lowest 20, 25 miles of the keys down to Key West, search and rescue teams are still just now getting in there. The damage and destruction are just devastating down there. In fact, just moments ago, FEMA estimates that 25 percent of all homes from Key Largo to Key West, that's a nearly 100-mile stretch, 25 percent of those homes are now gone -- totally destroyed. Martha?
MACCALLUM: Unreal. Phil Keating, thank you very much. Here now: Tito Hernandez, FEMA's Federal Coordinating Officer for the Florida Disaster and a man who's got a lot on his hands tonight. Mr. Hernandez, thank you very much for being here. You listen to that man's reaction when he walked into his home and you hear that 25 percent of those homes are gone, give us an update on what FEMA is doing tonight and what your biggest priority is?
TITO HERNANDEZ, FEDERAL COORDINATING OFFICER FOR FLORIDA DISASTER, FEMA: Well, thank you for having us on your show. Right now, this is a massive effort for families here for the long haul. We will be here for a long time. This is going to take time. Right now, we have thousands of people that have been displaced in shelters. We have millions of people without power. We have a lot of losses in the coast from Florida, from the Keys to Jacksonville. We have a massive storm that impacted the whole state. So, we're committed to staying here for as long as it takes.
MACCALLUM: Give us a sense of the plan -- I'm sorry to interrupt. You know, when you hear Phil Keating say there are 25 miles of the keys that they haven't even gotten into beginning search and rescue, and to see if there are any fatalities down there, what's the time frame on getting through those 25 miles?
HERNANDEZ: Well, right now, today, we were able to verify that the road is passable. We had flown a lot of air breeze through the keys. We had search and rescue teams. We have communications assets coming in. We had a lot of food and commodities and water coming into the keys. And we're working 24 hours with the state of Florida, the search and rescue teams. Coordinating to get food to that particular area and we expect to have progress tonight. We're working 24 hours to complete the mission of looking for survivors. Once we do that, then it's time to then work to get the families that lost their losses into the path of recovery.
MACCALLUM: I know you guys are working very hard and working all night long in many cases. You hear the frustration in the voices of those people. They're saying we have no gasoline. We have no food. Nothing is coming in or going out. What do you say to them?
HERNANDEZ: We are coordinating strongly with the state of Florida, with the private sector. We are bringing in commodities to the shelters right now. We want people to register to assistance on FEMA and disasterassistance.gov, so that -- we want to know where you are, what's going on with your family. We want to provide you with assistance. We have a variety of assistance that we can provide you from rental assistance, repair for your house. We have transition and sheltering assistance which is basically taking you out of that particular shelter and putting you in a hotel. And so, we have a strategy that is comprehensive and is designated specifically for the family. So, we want to have everyone go to the web in disasterassistance.gov --
MACCALLUM: And register.
HERNANDEZ: And register.
MACCALLUM: So, that's the first step.
HERNANDEZ: Yes.
MACCALLUM: You got 94,000 people in shelters. And as you point out, they're going need hotels and temporary housing to go to after that. Tito Hernandez, thank you very much. Thanks for being here tonight, sir.
HERNANDEZ: Thank you for having us.
MACCALLUM: You bet. Good luck to you. All right. So, coming up tonight, we are also going to speak in a moment with Senator Corker. Still ahead this evening, we will be looking to that as well. So, earlier today, I spoke to Senator Corker while they've been managing hurricane recovery in two states, as you know. The president is trying to deal with tax reform this evening. In fact, right now, he's hashing out a plan over dinner with these six individuals -- three Democrats, three Republicans at the White House tonight.
It comes as Fox confirms that the president will go on a cross-country tour to build national momentum for the tax reform plan. There is no bigger item on the agenda right now for the Trump White House. 13 states, seven weeks, many of them are states that he won in November, and where Democrats are facing very tough races ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MACCALLUM: Here now is Senator Bob Corker, Republican from Tennessee who just met with two White House officials who are in charge of hammering out this tax reform plan. And he said, Senator Corker earlier today, "The greatest threat to our nation is not North Korea or Russia or even ISIS. The greatest threat to our nation is our inability to get our fiscal house in order." Senator Corker, welcome. Very good to have you with us tonight, sir.
SEN. BOB CORKER, R-TENNESSEE: Thank you, Martha. Always good to be with you. Thank you.
MACCALLUM: So, you know, you look at that list of people that are included in that dinner this evening, and it's quite clear the president is reaching out across the aisle as he did with the debt ceiling issue. Why do you say that you believe our debt is a bigger issue than North Korea or ISIS or Russia?
CORKER: Well, it's because we have 20 trillion in debt today, and over the next decade we'll add another 10 trillion. And every military leader that we have tells us that, again, that's our greatest threat. Countries, great countries like ours over time, fall if they don't deal with these types of issues -- the fiscal issues, the economic issues. On tax reform, what I hope we're going to be able to do and I'm glad the meetings are taking place tonight at the White House and today here in the capital. What I hope we're going to be able to do is generate growth that will help generate income that will help deal with some of these fiscal issues. But we've got to get it right when we do it. I'm all for pro-growth tax reform. We need to make sure when we do it, we are taking into account the deficits, and what we do over time reduce those. But I'm glad the president is reaching out and going to be putting out the effort.
MACCALLUM: Let me ask you this. When you spoke with Gary Cohn and Steve Mnuchin about that, are they interested in that line of thinking and that was there any discussion about cutting spending or cutting this enormous 20 trillion-dollar debt that we have? Are they interested in that?
CORKER: So, they're definitely interested in creating growth through tax reform as I am. And, you know, we're going to be looking at some follow-up numbers over the next couple of days to see, you know, if the assumptions that are being made will work relative to also not increasing the debt. But, Martha, you just hit the nail on the head. There's just no appetite here to deal with the spending side. 70 percent of what we spend, Martha, is not even part of the budget; it's called mandatory spending. And if you show up, you get it. The fastest growing line item is, believe it or not, with these low-interest rates, it's the interest on the debt. And so, we're not really -- we're not in any way dealing with these issues.
MACCALLUM: I want to play for you some things that President Trump said on the campaign trail. Watch this.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would bet, we could save 20 percent of our budget.
We will also have an efficient and responsible federal budget; no more waste. No more throwing away taxpayer dollars.
My theme today is five words: under budget and ahead of schedule. That's what we do.
We're going to win today and we're going to Washington D.C. to drain the swamp.
MACCALLUM: So, these are ideas that resonated with a lot of people across this country. And I think there's a lot of folks out there -- and maybe you're among them -- who are very concerned that President Trump that we heard in those sound bites that are not involved in this particular version of tax reform. Is that true or not?
CORKER: Well, what happens, Martha, look, I'm all for cutting waste and being more efficient, all for it. But the big money and let's do that, let's do that. But it really says to Americans is there's an easy way out of this. All we have to do is cut the wasteful spending in Washington. Well, the fact of the matter is, Martha, 70 percent of the spending that we do is, again, mandatory spending. It has nothing much at all to do with the waste. It has to do with the fact that we've got this huge demographic group of people coming through the system that is participating in this.
And the fact is that during the presidential race, neither candidate really wanted to ever address that issue because it involves changing things. It involves a degree of sacrifice.
MACCALLUM: Yes. Well, I think a lot of people wanted to see a shakeup and that's what they feel they voted for, and they're going to watch this process to see if they get that. You had said earlier today that you may not run again. And you've had some tweets back and forth with the president sort of, you know, referencing whether or not you're going to run again. Are you going to run again?
CORKER: Well, Martha, I'm going to decide soon. I want to be responsible for our state. I've been up here 10 years and eight months and have thrown myself into this job. And we'll see.
MACCALLUM: What's your deciding factor? What will be among your deciding factors here?
CORKER: A lot of things, Martha. I mean, a lot of it is a life decision. But, let me just say this: I have no reason whatsoever to believe that the White House would try to oppose my run. So, I know people refer to that in tweets. I just have no sense whatsoever that would be the case. The president and I have an unusual relationship. It's very frank. We know each other very well. We play golf together. He talked to me about being secretary of state and being vice president. So --
MACCALLUM: Yes, we remember that.
CORKER: So, you know, none of that has anything whatsoever to do with this decision.
MACCALLUM: Senator Bob Corker, thank you very much for your time, sir. And we will stay tuned for the answer to that question with everybody else in the nation. Thank you, sir.
CORKER: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACCALLUM: So, still ahead tonight, Hillary Clinton answers the big question about 2016 with the title of her book: what happened. Is she rewriting history? Top campaign officials from both sides, David Bossie and Adrian Elrod face off next. And remember Bill Ayers, the man who justified violent protests in the 60's now has something he wants to say about Antifa. Plus, one Democrat hits below the belt at General John Kelly and now the president's chief of staff responds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: You could put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorable, right?
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Well, remember that? That was Hillary Clinton's now infamous remark just last year. It feels like a lot longer than that, doesn't it? Today, her new book: What Happened? A look back at the 2016 election finally hits book stores it feels like it's been out for several weeks already, doesn't it? And it turns out that she blames a lot of different people for her loss, except the one that she sees in the mirror every day when she wakes up in the morning. Fox News Chief National Correspondent Ed Henry, live at the White House with the inside story tonight. Hi, Ed.
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good to see you, Martha. Hillary Clinton reveals among other things that she's given up her dream of ever serving here at the White House as president after two failed bids. But yet she's not really moving on. Promising her critics that she is not going away and is going to try to stay in President Trump's face. And Clinton is still waving that long list you've mentioned of at least a couple dozen things that she blames for her loss to the president -- from James Comey to Russia and fake news. But perhaps, in a surprise for her critics, she is adding herself to that list and admitting some mistakes.
Clinton admitting that having a private e-mail server was a dumb mistake, though, she claims it was also a dumb scandal because she thinks it was blown out of proportion. Clinton allowing that her messaging was off because voters were so angry about the financial crisis and all she did was offer a series of plans when they "wanted me to share their anger." Clinton also acknowledging her comment that she wanted to put coal miners out of business is the one she regrets the most. Because without context, she says, it sounded heartless. Now, the coal controversy is one of many difficult moments from that campaign where the candidate tried to explain it away. And that's why the White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders today said she thinks it's sad that Clinton is releasing this and trying to prop up book sales.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BO COPLEY, COAL MINER: I just want to know how you can say you're going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs and then come in here and tell us how you're going to be our friend. Because those people out there don't see you as a friend.
CLINTON: I know that, Bo. And you know, I don't know how to explain it other than what I said was totally out of context from what I meant. Because I have been talking about helping coal country for a very long time.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I am not sure, but I would think that he's pretty well versed on what happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: So, the president is not going to read it. Clinton also has voter I.D. laws to the list of blame items, charging voter suppression may be to blame for a shocking loss to Wisconsin, except she uses a study by Priorities USA -- a liberal group to bolster her case. Politifact has declared that that study is mostly false. Martha.
MACCALLUM: Ed, thank you very much. So, here with more: David Bossie, who served as the Deputy Campaign Manager for the Trump Campaign, he's also a Fox News Contributor; and Adrian Elrod was the Strategic Communications Director for the Clinton Campaign. Welcome, to both of you.
ADRIAN ELROD, FORMER STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN: Thanks, Martha.
MACCALLUM: And Adrian, I want to start with you. When you listen to that list of reasons why she lost, is there anything that you would like to say that she's leaving out or any one of those that you think was really the most important?
ELROD: Sure, you know, first of all, Hillary Clinton has more than earned the right to define her own narrative in terms of why she lost. So many people -- other people have been out there writing books, writing articles. Pundits have been on television devising reasons why they think that she lost. So, she has more than earned her right. She does take a lot of the personal blame in this. She talks about the fact that we had a very difficult time breaking through the noise in terms of our message. She talks about how that she wishes she used two different e-mail devices, and that she didn't have a private e-mail server. She goes into a lot of that. But she also, and I'm so happy that she did this, because, again, a lot of us on the campaign wanted to know what was going through her head during a lot of these pivotal moments. She talks about Russia, she talks about, a lot about James Comey reopening the investigation 12 days before the campaign without any context. So, I'm glad that she's talking about this. She's more than earned her right.
MACCALLUM: All right. You know, the thing that jumps out at me the most, David, is when she says that wished that she hadn't said that to the coal miners. And I think that maybe there's nothing else that touches on the lack of ability to connect and also, she has a long record. So, you know, that made it very difficult for her.
DAVID BOSSIE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR AND DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Yes, OK. That's terrific. She's a desperate person looking for relevancy. That is all this is about. And it's obviously about propping up her book sales. We are so grateful. I'm going to send her a thank you note. We're so grateful that she stays out in front of the Democratic Party to be a leader that has been rejected multiple times. So, she's doing no one any favors on the Democrat Party side by doing this.
And so, look, the arrogance of this book is startling. Look, Al Gore, who lost an incredible race and had an incredible thing happen with him with the Supreme Court, no book. John McCain, no book. Mitt Romney, no book. Hillary Clinton feels that she needs to be the first person, everybody needs to focus on her. She failed. She failed in her campaign. She failed to articulate a message.
ELROD: She got 65 million votes, David.
BOSSIE: She failed. She failed at every level.
MACCALLUM: Let me ask you this --
ELROD: She did not fail.
MACCALLUM: Hold on.
BOSSIE: Donald Trump was a better candidate.
MACCALLUM: Perhaps what matters the most --
ELROD: She absolutely did not fail.
BOSSIE: She lost.
MACCALLUM: Adrian, hold on. What matters most for the Democratic Party is that they need to have a message going forward. They're having a tough time. They lost a lot of special elections. They're having trouble raising money. And so, in many ways, I wonder, you know, a lot of Democrats are saying that they want her to move on. They want her to not repeat the mistakes of the past. So, you know, do you feel that way?
ELROD: No, I don't. I mean, first of all, she is moving on. We're all moving on. This book is about the future. She talks about how she will be a player behind the scenes in large part in terms of helping raise money for organizations that are promoting democratic causes that are helping to bring our country together. But she, again, I will go back to what I said earlier, has more than earned her right to share her story.
MACCALLUM: Absolutely. I mean, she has a right to write a book there's no doubt about it. But someone who wants to be a leader, the question is it helpful or is it a cathartic sort of, you know, personal experience that really doesn't benefit anyone else at this point? She's written a lot of books about her life. David, go ahead, your turn.
ELROD: Sorry.
BOSSIE: Look, I think it's great. You know, she's going to continue to be a face to the Democrat Party and it is going to be rejected. Look, the Democrats are moving further to the left. Instead of listening to these election results of 2016 or 2014, they are continuing to lurch to the further to the left and that is a mistake and I commend Hillary Clinton for allowing that to happen.
MACCALLUM: Very quick, last thought. Go ahead, Adrian.
NAME: No, again, I want to reiterate the fact that so many people, pundits, reporters, plenty of people in the Trump administration have given their own narrative in terms of what they think happened in this campaign and why we lost. She has more than earned her right to do that. And I've heard somebody who is in the trenches very beginning of this campaign, I want to know what she had to say and what she was thinking during that time. I think it's part of the healing process. I think we have a lot to learn from this last election. And I'm glad that she's contributing to that debate.
MACCALLUM: Thank you, Adrian. Thank you, David. Good to see you both. So, breaking tonight, a brand new tonight a brand-new court ruling just in on President Trump's travel ban. Perhaps, nothing has been more controversial than this, which he laid out, really, right out of the gate. Judge Andrew Napolitano on what's going on with this tonight. Big news coming up. Also, there is this, this evening. Bill Ayers back in the news with the former proud domestic terrorist and professor is saying about the violence we saw at Berkeley and now Antifa. Bill Bennett joins me to respond in a moment, next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has been documented they have engaged in violence often unprovoked. Is that something you would support or condemn?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it depends, doesn't it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: What do I think of the anti-fascist movement? I think that, as I understand it, they're fighting fascism and that's a good thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: That was leftist activist Bill Ayers voicing support for the violent actions of Antifa. It comes as the group becomes emboldened as another scholar gives them more fuel, encouraging them to use weapons in their protests. Trace Gallagher lays it all out for us from our west coast newsroom tonight. Hi, Trace.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS: Hi, Martha. Antifa activist maintain when it comes to violence they're simply engaging in self-defense, though there are numerous documented incidents where Antifa either provoked the violence, or in the case of this year Berkeley's riots, severely beat up opposition protesters without cause. And now, the anti-fascist group is getting a few pats on the group from influential voices like Bill Ayers, a founder of the weather underground, a radical leftist group in the 1970's, conducted a series of bombings including the Pentagon, U.S. Capitol building, and police stations in New York and San Francisco. Ayers wasn't prosecuted because of a technicality, and later became a professor at the University of Chicago. Here's more of his conversation with political commentator Jamie Weinstein. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: It's been documented they have engaged in violence, often unprovoked. Is that something you would support or condemn?
BILL AYERS, UNIVESRITY OF CHICAGO: Well, it depends, doesn't it, because when John Brown invaded Harper's Ferry, unprovoked violence, I agree, I support that, don't you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: Ayers is referring to the abolitionist who tried to start an armed revolt against slavery. Ayers also condone Antifa violence by drawing a modern day parallel, the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AYERS: The reality is we live in a society steep in violence. It's steeped in structural violence. And when people stand up and object, then they somehow are the violent ones.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: Of course, the Obama justice department said the shooting of Michael Brown was justified. Now, Mark Bray, the man who wrote Antifa, the anti-fascist handbook is on his book tour that Fox News attended, where he appears to be advocating that Antifa take it to the next level. Quoting here, I don't think it's ludicrous that if white supremacists start carrying guns that anti-fascists might want to carry guns, too. Bray says nonviolent resistance to fascism in the past has not been effective. Martha.
MACCALLUM: Trace, thank you very much. Here now with more, Bill Bennett, who served as education secretary under President Reagan, and as a Fox News contributor. Bill, good evening. Good to have you with us as always. What do you think of bill Ayers' comments there, Bill?
BILL BENNETT, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, they're not isolated, that's the problem. And Professor Bray, who Trace talked about at Dartmouth, not isolated. In the 70's, Martha, before you were born, I was voted one of the most repressive college administrators in the country by a group called the revolutionary communist youth party. They were very fringe. The problem with Antifa is not just Antifa itself, it's that they're getting some measure of broader support. I notice the nation magazine kind of blessed them. Slate looks -- smiled on a couple of their violent incidents. And now you have this faculty member at Dartmouth who is all for Antifa. When he gave his -- when his book came out and he gave his interview, the president of Dartmouth to his credit said that's not the way we operate. We operate in the marketplace of ideas, civil discourse.
Well, a hundred members of the faculty at Dartmouth wrote a letter on whose support do you suppose they took? They took the support of the faculty member, not the president. So, if you've got 100 faculty members at a so- called leading ivy-league university saying, you know, we're with this Antifa guy, that violence is fine against people with whom you disagree, then you've got a problem that is spreading. Not only is the doctrine noxious, the support of it in some circle is noxious. And what constitute fascism in their view? That's seems to be a creeping definition as well.
MACCALLUM: It's almost as if they don't need to specifically define it or to say that the elements of fascism that they see, specifically, on the rise in this country. You know, another thing that Bill Ayers said in this interview was, well, because fascism is on the rise in this country. White supremacy is on the rise. The Ku Klux Klan is on the rise. The Nazis are on the rise, he says. And then you've got this comment from an ESPN reporter, anchor, Jamila Hill, let's put up what she said. Donald Trump is a white supremacist who largely surrounds himself with other white supremacists. And here's the ESPN statement on this, the comments on twitter from Jamila Hill regarding the president do not represent the position of ESPN, your thoughts?
BENNETT: Yeah. Well, two things or three things. One, ESPN has got a problem here. I don't know this woman at all. But ESPN is getting more and more into social and political commentary. You remember this is the company that, ridiculous as it may seem, said a man name Robert Lee couldn't do the football game at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville because of his name. He's an Asian. This is the company that fired Curt Schilling, the Red Sox pitcher, because he said, I think, boys ought to go to boys rooms and girls ought to go to girls rooms. But on this one they just said she made an error.
But again, she talked about Donald Trump being a white supremacist. Put the two stories together, Martha. If he's a white supremacists and all those around him are white supremacists, according to the doctrine of Antifa violence can be used. Indeed, violence can be recommended. I have a program recommendation for you. Can I give it to you?
MACCALLUM: Absolutely.
BENNETT: I think this is a great opportunity for Fox Sports One to jump in to sports programming. My wife was just a few feet away from me, will tell you on weekends, I spend more time with ESPN than I do with her and to my regret. But I am a football nut. But ESPN has so much an overload of this political stuff that those of us who are watching, and I don't believe it's a lot of Antifa people who are watching, yearn for another place to go. Please, I volunteer to be the Lee Corso of the Fox Sports One. Do you know who Lee Corso is, Martha?
MACCALLUM: No, tell me.
BENNETT: Now, a functional literacy, Martha.
MACCALLUM: I'm sorry.
BENNETT: He's one of the hosts on college game day. He's a former football coach. But there's serious point here. Why is ESPN mucking things up with all these political agenda when the people who tune in and watch it are males, you know, 18 to 55, a great demographic, they buy a lot of beer, they buy a lot of pretzels, and they love their sports.
MACCALLUM: Well, their interest of freedom of speech is limited apparently. We've got to go. Bill Bennett.
BENNETT: Absolutely. But we've got to watch the encroaching definition of white supremacy. That's going to be the real problem.
MACCALLUM: I totally agree. Bill Bennett, always a pleasure. Thank you so much. We'll join you for some football next time.
BENNETT: Thank you, Martha.
MACCALLUM: Good to see you. So there's dramatic new fallout tonight after Democrat attacks one of the most revered generals of our time. You won't want to miss what General John Kelly has now said about Congressman Luis Gutierrez, who called him a disgrace to the uniform. Plus breaking tonight, the Supreme Court has just handed President Trump a win on the travel ban, but we need to iron all this out and figure out where this is headed. Who better to do that with us than Judge Andrew Napolitano who joins us to explain it all on The Story, coming up next.
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MACCALLUM: All right. Back with a Fox News alert, so the travel ban that President Trump tried to put in place, there is news on it tonight, but is it good or is it bad? It kind of depends on who you ask, so here now to explain it all, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst. So, you know, we've been going through everything that's been coming across here.
ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX NEWS SENIOR JUDICIAL ANALYST: We had a decision from the Supreme Court of the United States.
MACCALLUM: What happened?
NAPOLITANO: . 30 minutes ago. So I've got to give you a little bit of background. This is the second executive order which was interfered with by a Hawaii federal judge and then by the ninth circuit. Then the Supreme Court said we're going to keep the travel ban in place except for people from the six countries that the president wants to bar who have, quote, bonafide relationships, closed quote, with Americans. Justices, Thomas Alito and Gorsuch said, wait a minute, guys, who are we to rewrite the president's executive order? And what does bonafide relationship mean? Well, the DHS interrupted bonafide relationship to mean that much, and a federal judge in Hawaii interpreted bonafide relationship to mean that much. And the ninth circuit increased it even more. And today, the Supreme Court shrunk it down to that. Bottomline?
MACCALLUM: Why do they keep ruling on it? I mean, why don't they just leave it alone until the Supreme Court in October, as you say, is going to decide whether or not it can be upheld.
NAPOLITANO: Because there are people trying to come to the United States through Hawaii and the state of Washington, whose attorney general have taken the lead in being adversaries against the Trump administration. And those states are trying to help those people get in the country by unique and creative interpretations of what the Supreme Court has done. So the decision tonight, which is unsigned and we don't know what the vote is, let's stay in place the hole that the Supreme Court wrote in the president's executive order which was expanded by the Hawaii federal judge to include relationships like a job offer or a college admission. It doesn't have to be a blood relative.
MACCALLUM: So if you are from one of those countries, say you're from Syria.
NAPOLITANO: Right.
MACCALLUM: . and you want to come here to study and you have relatives here, you're OK?
NAPOLITANO: Yes. If you have a job offer, you're OK. If you have an offer to give a speech here, you're OK. If you have an offer of admission to any.
MACCALLUM: You have an offer to come give a speech here?
NAPOLITANO: At a university, yes.
MACCALLUM: OK.
NAPOLITANO: That's part of the exception to the ban crafted by the judicial branch of the government. So, is this a win for the president or a set back? I think the president is being very patient here because he knows all of this is going before the Supreme Court on October 10th. And all this preliminary skirmishing will be just a footnote for history once the Supreme Court rules with certainty and with finality.
MACCALLUM: in October?
NAPOLITANO: Well, they'll hear the argument in October. We expect a ruling before Christmas.
MACCALLUM: Very good.
NAPOLITANO: The ban will be nearly a year old at that point in time.
MACCALLUM: The first thing he did.
NAPOLITANO: One of the first things he did.
MACCALLUM: After January 20th. Thank you, judge.
NAPOLITANO: You're welcome.
MACCALLUM: Everyone understand that at home? All right, good. Thank you, judge. So coming up next, one Democrat clearly going after General John Kelly in a way that many people find despicable, and now the president's chief of staff is responding for himself. Mark Thiessen and Richard Fowler here on that when we come back.
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MACCALLUM: Developing tonight, White House chief of staff John Kelly is now firing back at Illinois Democrat congressman, Luis Gutierrez, who took aim at the retired four star general after the White House rescinded DACA. Gutierrez said this. General Kelly is a hypocrite, who is a disgrace to the uniform he used to wear. He has no honor, and he should be drummed out of the White House along with the white supremacists and those enabling the president's actions by, quote, just following orders. So now, General Kelly tells foxnews.com, exclusively, this with regard to that. As far as the congressman and other irresponsible members of congress are concerned, they have the luxury of saying what they want as they do nothing. And as my blessed mother used to say, empty barrels make the most noise. Joining me now, Mark Thiessen, American Enterprise Institute scholar, and Richard Fowler, nationally syndicated radio host, both are Fox News contributors. Gentlemen, good to have you with is tonight.
MARK THIESSEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good to be with you, Martha.
RICHARD FOWLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good evening, Martha.
MACCALLUM: I think a lot of people felt that that initial statement from Congressman Gutierrez was inexcusable to call a retired four star general, who lost his son in battle. He's a gold star parent who's served for 45 years in the United States military. Richard, your thoughts?
FOWLER: Yeah. I think there's a big problem. You should never attack a gold star family. I think the president learned the lesson of never attacking a gold star family. And here's the thing. I think the blame for repealing DACA lands squarely on one person's feet, right? And that is in one person's hands, or however you want to put it, and that's President Trump, right? President Trump was the person who made the decision to repeal DACA. And I think the president regrets that decision. We found out today from Politico that the president told Leader Pelosi that, you know, he would sign any bill that comes out of congress that would provide any type of permanent replacement to DACA, or any type of bill that would allow for permanent.
MACCALLUM: Well, he said he's going to give congress six months to work it out. It's going to expire anyway. President Obama said it was temporary. So I don't know what's so evil about saying that we're going to take it off the books and we're going to come up with a solution. And you're saying it's evil, evil, evil.
FOWLER: Let me be very clear.
MACCALLUM: Yeah.
FOWLER: Because the reason why there is some evilness in this is that you have 800,000 people who came into the country at no fault of their own, some of them were infants when they got here, and you're playing political football with your future.
MACCALLUM: I will get into it. But, Mark, I want to go back to General Kelly's response because I think it deserves a response from Mark Thiessen, you know, if you're measuring class in terms of the way you express yourself, I think General Kelly was the winner in this showdown.
THIESSEN: Oh, no doubt. And look, that statement from Congressman Gutierrez, that wasn't like an off the cuff remark that he made in a fit of anger, that was a written statement he put out. He thought about that, put pen to paper and put that out, which is absolutely appalling. His statement was outrageous. But quite, frankly, what I found outrageous is this famed liberal, you know, anguish over the DACA decision. Donald Trump is pro-dreamer. He said from the very beginning, before the inauguration, he wants to work something out to help the dreamers stay. DACA is unconstitutional, OK? Even Barack Obama admitted he doesn't have the authority to suspend deportations as the president of the United States with executive action.
So it was being challenged by attorneys general that we're going to sue and it could have been overturned in the courts. So what Donald Trump has done, he could have just gotten rid of it and started then, and let the chips fall where they may, instead he gave congress six months to do its job and to pass some legislation. He said that he wants to work with congress, wants to work with Nancy Pelosi. I don't see what's evil about that, Richard. It's time for the resistance to grow up. The president of the United States had reached out his hands to Democrats and said let's work something out to help the dreamers. Do you people hate Donald Trump so much that you're not even willing to do that?
FOWLER: Let's be clear, this is not about the resistance, this is not about Democrats.
THIESSEN: Yes, it is.
FOWLER: No, let me be very clear, President Obama has tried to pass the dream act and Republicans stood in the way of passing the dream act. It's Republicans.
THIESSEN: This is Donald Trump.
FOWLER: Let me be very clear, it is Republicans.
THIESSEN: Please.
FOWLER: It is Republicans that have stopped the dream act from passing when President Bush was in office. It is Republicans that stopped the dream act from passing when Barack Obama was in office. And now, Republican congress is stopping the dream act from passing right now.
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: Before I run out of time. I guess, where does the line get drawn is the question, right? So eventually you have to say, and then after that point, we will not allow people to come in, you know, illegally into this country, and they will not be grand fathered in if they came in with their parents. I mean, at some point the legislation has to articulate where the boundary is on this program. Or else you might as well not have any boundaries at all. Mark first.
THIESSEN: That's what needs to be negotiated. That's why we need six months for congress to do something. By the way, Donald Trump even gave away his leverage and said that if we don't work it out in six months we'll revisit the issue. I mean, his hand is outstretched to work something out that is constitutional unlike this executive action. That will be sustainable and that will help the dreamers. So, you could go on and on, Richard, as much as you want about George Bush and the Republican congress. You've got a Republican president right now saying let's work together.
(CROSSTALK)
FOWLER: There's no need to negotiate here. The word dreamer is the negotiation. These are individuals that came to this country from age 0 to 15. They have committed no crime, right? Most of them are either in school. They're working or they're serving in our military.
MACCALLUM: So sometime this year or the year after, Richard, in the same circumstances, they're OK?
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: I've got to go. Take me down here, guys. Thank you very much. Still to come, quote of the night after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACCALLUM: So today, breathlessly, Apple announced the newest iPhone, it's the iPhone X, I said it first, but don't say that. It's the iPhone 10. It's a Roman numeral. So what happened to number 9? There's no Apple -- iPhone number 9. So the big feature of this thing is that it relies on facial recognition. You have to stare at it to open it. No more home button. No more thumb print. So this is good news for teenagers, it is bad news for parents. And you know what I mean. The cost, $999, you know people are going to pay up. As Apple CEO Tim Cook puts it, in our quote of the night, no other device in our lifetimes has had the impact on the world that the iPhone has. That is the truth. For better or worse, folks. So also tonight, we want to congratulate Eric and Lara Trump on the birth of their first child. Eric tweeted out today that he was excited to announce son, Luke. Grandpa now has 9 grandchildren. Good night, everybody. See you tomorrow.
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