Joe Biden takes a break from campaign trail ahead of Thursday debate

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Joe Biden takes a break from campaign trail ahead of Thursday debate

Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy joins 'Special Report' with the latest from Wilmington, Del.

This is a rush transcript from “Special Report" October 19, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Good evening, welcome to Washington. I'm Bret Baier.

Breaking tonight, President Trump is scheduled to speak soon at a rally in Tucson, Arizona. He will likely continue his attacks, almost certainly, on Joe Biden. And the latest e-mail controversy involving Biden's son Hunter.

With just two weeks to go until Election Day, President Trump is desperately trying to paint the Biden family as what he calls a criminal enterprise.

This evening, a top U.S. official is trying to shoot down one theory about the possible source of the Hunter Biden story. The Trump campaign is also trying to get some last minute changes to the format for the second and final presidential debate.

We have "FOX TEAM COVERAGE", we begin tonight though with senior political correspondent Mike Emanuel. And new information on that Hunter Biden e-mail story. Good evening, Mike.

MIKE EMANUEL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Bret, good evening. Today, director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, poured cold water on those seeking to dismiss the purported Hunter Biden e-mail and laptop story after law enforcement and Intelligence officials have been largely silent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN RATCLIFFE, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: The Hunter Biden's laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign.

EMANUEL: The director of National Intelligence breaking what has been silenced from the intelligence and law enforcement authorities on Hunter Biden's purported laptop and alleged e-mails.

RATCLIFFE: This has nothing to do with the Intelligence Community or Russian disinformation. If it was, I would know that. And so, to be clear, it's not.

EMANUEL: Ratcliffe's pushback appear to be in response to this attack from House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Clearly, the origins of this whole smear are from the Kremlin and the president is only too happy to have Kremlin help and try to amplify it.

EMANUEL: Fox News has obtained new images including what appears to be a receipt from the Wilmington, Delaware computer repair shop signed by Hunter Biden, which also contained an e-mail and cell phone number for him.

And documentation from the FBI's interaction with shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, which show the bureau took possession of an alleged Hunter Biden laptop and external hard drive last December.

Fox News obtained four alleged Hunter Biden e-mails last week. Two about his business dealings in Ukraine in 2014 and 2015, while his father was vice president. Two about his 2017 business activities in China, after Biden left office. And one of those China e-mails was verified as being authentic by a source on the e-mail chain.

Now, the Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman is demanding answers from top FBI officials which have been silent so far.

RON JOHNSON (R-WI): What do they know and when did they know it? But the larger question really is, if they had this information and these are genuine e-mails, and it would probably reveal all kinds of things that would have been very relevant to the impeachment case.

EMANUEL: Trump confidante Rudy Giuliani has worked with Ukraine parliament member, Andrii Derkach to gather dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

Fox News has confirmed, Facebook suspended their conscious account. "We removed this account and this page for violating our policy against the use of our platform by people engaged in election-focused influence operations."

Derkach was sanctioned by Treasury officials in August, accused of being a Russian agent in trying to interfere in the presidential election.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

EMANUEL: A group of House Republicans led by Andy Biggs of Arizona is now calling on Attorney General Bill Barr to appoint a special counsel to investigate Vice President Biden's dealings with his son and Hunter's business partners. Bret.

BAIER: Continue to follow it, Mike. Thank you.

The Justice Department says six current and former Russian military officers sought to disrupt through computer hacking the French election, the Winter Olympics and U.S. businesses.

An indictment unsealed today details a tax on a broad range of political financial and athletic targets. The officers are accused of destructive attacks on Ukraine's power grid in a hack and leak effort directed at a political party of French President Emmanuel Macron during the 2017 election there.

Indictment does not charge the defendants in connection with interference in American elections.

President Trump is in the key battleground state of Arizona tonight. You're looking live there in Tucson. Earlier he held an event in Prescott. Before that, he told reporters he feels his campaign is ahead of where it was at this point in 2016.

Chief White House correspondent John Roberts has details tonight. Good evening, John.

JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Bret, good evening to you. President Trump is running full out this week hitting battleground states all across the country in the run up to Thursday's last presidential debate in Nashville.

The president appears to have the political wind in his sails this week. A difference from how he was feeling just a couple of weeks ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 45th president of the United States.

ROBERTS: Landing in Phoenix this afternoon, President Trump predicted a big win in Arizona defying polls that show him trailing Joe Biden, and said, he expects to win the whole thing.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think we'll do better than 2016. We're way ahead of where we were in 2016 and I've done things that nobody's ever done. We've built the greatest economy in the world and we're building it rapidly again.

ROBERTS: But in a conference call with some 2,000 campaign workers this morning, the president suggesting not long ago he wasn't so sure.

TRUMP: We're going to win. I wouldn't have said that three weeks ago. Three weeks ago, two weeks ago, I don't know, I wouldn't have said it. It was tougher for me.

ROBERTS: President Trump kept up the drumbeat about Joe Biden's son Hunter and what Biden knew about Hunter's overseas business dealings. The president indicating there is more to come.

TRUMP: He should be in jail, he's a -- he's a criminal, and he should be in jail.

Joe Biden has a scandal coming up that's going to make him almost an impotent candidate, the scandal is so big.

ROBERTS: The president also taking aim again at his top infectious disease expert, after Dr. Anthony Fauci said he was stunned to see a lack of social distancing and mask wearing at the Amy Coney Barrett nominating event.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS

DISEASES: When I saw that on T.V., I said, oh my goodness. Nothing good can come out of that. That's got to be a problem. And then, sure enough it turned out to be a super spreader event.

ROBERTS: On the campaign call this morning, President Trump insisting people have COVID fatigue.

TRUMP: People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots, these people

-- these people that have gotten it wrong.

Every time he goes on television, there's always a bomb, but there's a bigger bomb if you fire him. But Fauci's a disaster, I mean this guy, if I listened to him, we'd have 500,000 deaths.

ROBERTS: This afternoon in Arizona, the president slightly more charitable.

TRUMP: Dr. Fauci's a very nice man, but we let him do what he wants to do.

I don't want to hurt him, he's been there for about 350 years.

ROBERTS: With the last presidential debate looming on Thursday, the Trump campaign lashed out again today at the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Complaining the Commission was ignoring the tradition of having the final debate focused on foreign policy by announcing it would be about a variety of topics.

In a conference call this afternoon, campaign adviser Jason Miller accusing the Commission of favoring Joe Biden.

JASON MILLER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: We believe this is the request of the Biden campaign that does not want to talk about Joe Biden's support for endless wars, his support for sending those pallets of cash to Iran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: This afternoon in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, the Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien writing, "For the good of campaign integrity, and for the benefit of the American people, we urge you to rethink and reissue a set of topics for the October 22nd debate, with an emphasis on foreign policy."

The Trump campaign told me this afternoon, the Commission has received the letter, but at this point, that doesn't appear to be any reason to see that they would change the subject of the debate to a single topic for the multiple topics.

And just before he left Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport this afternoon few minutes ago, President Trump said Bret, he believes that the FBI should be investigating Joe Biden. We'll likely hear more about that in Tucson.

BAIER: We'll have some more of that sound later in the show. John, thanks.

Joe Biden is not campaigning as we begin the next to the last full week of the election cycle. His campaign, saying the nominee had a full lead until Thursday. His number two, vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris is returning from COVID quarantine for events in Florida today.

Correspondent Peter Doocy is in Wilmington, Delaware tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Joe Biden spoke with great urgency this weekend.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The very soul of the nation is at stake. Folks, as my coach used to say, colleges go time.

DOOCY: But he's not going anywhere for a few days. No public events on his schedule until Thursday's meeting with Trump in Nashville.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have another debate coming up.

DOOCY: In the last day, there have been Biden campaign press releases about President Trump's closing message, President Trump's trip to Arizona and growing wildfires in Colorado. Still nothing explaining questions about conflicts of interest raised by files found on laptop reportedly belonging to Hunter Biden. The one request for a response was shutdown.

BIDEN: I know you'd asked it. I have no response. It's another smear campaign, right up your alley. Those are questions you always ask.

DOOCY: New Biden T.V. ads are hoping to reach football fans in must win areas, like this one featuring the former linebacker who retired after a spinal injury, Ryan Shazier, that aired is his former team played Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

RYAN SHAZIER, FORMER PLAYER, PITTSBURGH STEELERS: In 2016, I didn't vote. I didn't think it mattered. I won't make that mistake again.

DOOCY: There may be a mistake in Biden's math, because Andrew Biggs from the American Enterprise Institute writes in the Wall Street Journal, Biden's tax plan would eventually raise rates on anyone making more than

$137,000 a year, even though he's repeatedly promised no new taxes if you make less than 400,000.

BIDEN: I'll give you my word, is about you have nothing to worry about if you make less than 400.

DOOCY: The Democratic nominee ignored a shouted question about a forthcoming Wall Street Journal story President Trump is teasing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What scandal do you have coming?

DOOCY: -- just an answer about a snack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What flavor did you get?

BIDEN: We got one vanilla, one chocolate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DOOCY: So, the only scoop Biden wants to talk about is the one in his milkshake. The only time he left the house today was to go tape an interview that's not going to air for another six days.

We don't know if we will lay eyes on him in person or virtually before Thursday's flight to Nashville. Bret.

BAIER: We'll be there. Peter Doocy live in Wilmington. Peter, thanks.

"DEMOCRACY 2020", now more than 28 million people have already voted as we begin the last two full weeks of campaigning.

Early in-person voting is under way in Florida, while the issue of mail-in voting continues to spark controversy throughout much of the nation with more potential legal challenges ahead.

We have "FOX TEAM COVERAGE" tonight. Hillary Vaughn in Wisconsin looks at the factors Americans are considering as they decide how to vote.

First, correspondent Phil Keating is outside a poll location in Miami. Good evening, Phil.

PHIL KEATING, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Good evening to you, Bret.

The very first day in Florida of early in-person voting wraps up in just about 50 minutes for most of the state. The Panhandle is on Central Time, so they'll do another hour.

It's been a steady stream of voters all day with lines wrapping around some location even in the rain early this morning. This is a live look right now, it's a democracy in action.

Early voting in the big battleground state of Florida which both campaigns believe it's critical on their road to the White House. The Trump campaign today predicted they will win Florida. Former Vice President Biden last week in South Florida said if he wins Florida, it's all over.

As always in the largest swing state, presidential election are razor tight and could go either way. Here's the scene early this morning at the Jacksonville, solid line with social distancing in place.

The same was true in Palm Beach County as well. Their voters stood outside with their umbrellas, but they stayed in line regardless to get their vote in early reflecting Florida's voter enthusiasm.

In Orlando, the supervisor of elections had this advice to Orange County.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL COWLES, FLORIDA ELECTIONS SUPERVISOR, ORANGE COUNTY: We've seen the lines at all of our site which is an encouraging sign that voters are ready to cast their ballots. And my message to people who want to early vote, do it sooner rather than later because when we get to the end of the 14 days, it's going to be much more crowded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEATING: Also, in Orlando today, as well as Jacksonville, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris hitting the two cities to urge all Florida voters to get out, show up, and vote early.

Coming down the Florida Peninsula, voters are also taking their mail-in ballots and dropping them off in official ballot receptacles, avoiding any problem as they fear could happen with mail ballots being lost in the mail.

Now, a big factor in shorter lines and shorter wait times for early voting which lasts two weeks is this fact, about 2.5 million Florida voters have already voted by mail and that's roughly a little bit more than 25 percent of the expected voter turnout entirely for this election. And so far, registered Democrats have outpaced registered Republicans in voting by mail, Bret.

BAIER: Phil Keating live in Miami. Phil, thanks.

Voters are confronted with many options this year, the traditional in- person method, voting early at a designated location, or mailing it in, as you just heard.

Fox Business correspondent Hillary Vaughn has a closer look tonight at the controversy over how people are voting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY VAUGHN, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CORRESPONDENT: This election in issue that splitting swing state voters is voting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rules have been set years ago. Everybody knows what the rules are, OK? And also, on this year all the rules are changing. There is something going on.

VAUGHN: Waukesha County Wisconsin is the swingiest part of the swing state where Democrats are on defense for the first time in two decades after Trump became the first Republican to flip it since 1988.

BEN WIKLER, CHAIR, WISCONSIN DEMOCRATIC PARTY: We've been in a legal battle with the Republicans for some time to try to make sure that people who send in their absentee ballots, that those ballots are going to count.

VAUGHN: The Supreme Court will decide in a few days if the deadline for mail-in ballots should be extended so that ballots that show up six days late are still counted. In Waukesha, feelings about it are mixed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Different circumstances than past years for voting, so I mean, that's I think the best that we can do right now. (INAUDIBLE) everybody to -- so, people vote without risking their life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think people have had more than enough time to get out and mail in that ballot or walk it in or however. And if you haven't, well, you snooze, you lose.

VAUGHN: This spring, Democrats filed seven lawsuits leading out to the April 7th primary to change voting rules. And election officials are worried that last-minute litigation could create complications in November.

MEAGAN WOLFE, ADMINISTRATOR, WISCONSIN ELECTIONS COMMISSION: I think the thing that worries me the most is, of course, changes. Like we saw earlier this year when changes do happen, it's always a challenge to communicate those changes to voters and to local election official.

VAUGHN: But Republicans say, they're ready.

ANDREW HITT, CHAIRMAN, WISCONSIN REPUBLICAN PARTY: We'll be able to drop into court within an hour, probably. We will have complaints pre-drafted.

We're going to be prepared for everything.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUGHN: In-person early voting in Wisconsin kicks off tomorrow, but election officials are figuring out how to deal with a poll worker shortage in some precincts. One backup plan is of the National Guard fill in. Bret?

BAIER: Hillary Vaughn in Waukesha. Hillary, thanks.

Up next, how Iran could figure into this week's presidential debate. We'll explain. First, here is what some of our Fox affiliates around the country are covering tonight. Fox 31 in Denver, as nearly 3,000 people are forced to flee from a fast-moving fire in north-central Colorado.

Authorities believe many homes will be lost there. The fire started around noon, Saturday, and was pushed by strong winds in the area. Evacuations were ordered and by Sunday morning, the fire had burned nearly 14 square miles.

Q13 Fox in Seattle covering Alaska. A tsunami warning remains in effect for parts of southern Alaska, after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck-off Sand Point late today. So, far, fortunately, no word of any damage.

And this is a live look at San Francisco. Take a look at this picture. You can barely see the Golden Gate Bridge from our affiliate Fox 2. What a great shot.

One of the big stories there tonight, the San Francisco zoo's missing lemur is returned, and a suspect has been arrested. The 21-year-old male, ring- tailed lemur was reported missing Wednesday. Thursday afternoon, a 5-year- old boy spotted him at a playground in Daly City. A suspect was arrested Friday and faces four felony charges. The 5-year-old, by the way, has since been rewarded with a lifetime membership to that zoo.

That's tonight's live look "OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY" from SPECIAL REPORT. What a live look it is. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: "BREAKING TONIGHT", the Senate Judiciary Committee will try to prepare subpoenas Thursday for big tech executives related to how social media firms handled the Hunter Biden story and are handling it.

It will come the same session in which the committee is supposed to consider the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Fox told it's unclear which issue will come first, the subpoenas, or the Barrett nomination. It's possible Senate Democrats could ask that consideration of the subpoenas be held over for a week.

Rush Limbaugh says there has been some advancement of the stage-four lung cancer that he's been fighting for some time. Limbaugh updated listeners during today's program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, HOST, THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW: It's tough to realize that the days where I do not think I'm under a death sentence are over. We have some recent progression, it's not dramatic, but it is the wrong direction. The idea now is to keep it where it is, or maybe have it reduce again. We've shown that that is possible. If it happened once, it can happen again. So, that's the objective of the current treatment plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Limbaugh, says when he was first diagnosed in January, he did not think he would see the first of October. He is fighting and says he had to go backwards a bit, but is, "still running the bases".

A lot of people are pulling and praying for you, Rush.

President Trump says the government of Sudan has agreed to pay $335 million to Americans and their families who have been victims of terrorism. The president says once the money is deposited, he will take Sudan off the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The deal could set in motion talks toward the establishment of diplomatic relations between Sudan and the Israel.

National security is one of the announced topics for the second and final presidential debate this Thursday in Nashville.

And Iran presents a major difference in messaging between the two sides.

The U.S. is currently putting huge pressure on Iran in the form of sanctions, but Iran is also dealing with serious consequences from the coronavirus pandemic.

Senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot has that story tonight from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREG PALKOT, FOX NEWS CHANNEL SENIOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: COVID-

19 is turning out to be one of the toughest enemies Iran has dealt with.

Announced today, 337 dead there from coronavirus, a one-day record. At least 30,000 of fallen victim, the worst death toll in the Mideast. A resurgence in cases overwhelming hospitals. Officials blame the public.

SIMA LARI, SPOKESWOMAN, IRANIAN HEALTH MINISTRY (through translator): The current situation of the disease in our country is the result of negligence in following the health protocols. Less usage of face masks, as well as high-risk social behavior.

PALKOT: Another reason for the crisis, experts say, is a reluctance of Tehran to lock down an economy hard hit by U.S. sanctions, following the Trump administration 2018 pull out from the Iran nuclear deal. The Iranian currency fell to a new low amid new U.S. measures against Iran's banks.

With the expiration of an international conventional arms embargo against Iran, more threats from the U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo, tweeting, "No nation that desires a peaceful Middle East should contemplate arms sales with Iran. Every weapon the regime buys will be at the disposal of its radical ideology. We are prepared to use domestic authorities to sanction individuals, or entities contributing to these arms sales."

The Iran claims it's making its own weapons. Its role in regional conflicts like Syria and Yemen seems to underscore that.

BAHMAN KARGAR, HEAD OF THE FOUNDATION FOR PRESERVATION OF SARED DEFENSE We are now militarily self-sufficient, and we even help other countries, and this is proven.

PALKOT: Still, experts say Iran wants new tanks, planes, and other weaponry off-limits for years. Money, perhaps better spent helping an Iranian public battered by conflict, embargoes, and this year, a deadly pandemic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am generally against military facilities. Arms are not good for any country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PALKOT: Iranian security forces are now being deployed domestically to enforce COVID-19 restrictions, maybe saving some lives instead of causing more deaths. Bret.

BAIER: Greg Palkot in London. Greg, thanks.

Up next, an ominous warning about what lies ahead in the coronavirus pandemic. But first, "BEYOND OUR BORDERS" tonight.

A top U.S. official met Syria's national security chief last week In Damascus to talk about Americans missing in that country. Senior administration official tells Fox News, hostage discussions with Syria have not progressed considerably, and the Syrian government has offered no concrete proof that freelance journalist Austin Tice is still alive. The Assad regime has demanded the U.S. remove all of its troops from Syria.

France's interior minister, says police operations are underway into dozens of people who allegedly issued messages of support for the terrorists who beheaded a history teacher near Paris last week.

The minister says, at least 80 cases of hate speech have been reported since Friday's attack. Police fatally shot the suspect.

And Australia will join three-way naval exercises involving the U.S., Japan, and India. The announcement could provoke criticism from China, which has denounced similar joint exercises as destabilizing.

Just some of the other stories "BEYOND OUR BORDERS" tonight. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER:  The world's number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has now surpassed

40 million, and a leading infectious disease expert here in the U.S. says things are going to get worse, perhaps much worse, before they get better.

Correspondent Jonathan Serrie has specifics tonight from Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN SERRIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  The global pandemic has topped

40.2 million cases and 1.1 million deaths, with roughly one in five of both here in the U.S.

DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH:  We do have vaccines and therapeutics coming down the pike, but when you actually look at the time period for that, the next six to 12 weeks are going to be the darkest of the entire pandemic.

SERRIE:  As Wisconsin sees its highest case numbers, a judge has reinstated a disputed 25 percent capacity limit on bars and restaurants. A field hospital has been set up at the state fairgrounds. Record cases in Utah are prompting some hospitals to adjust work schedules.

DR. RUSSELL, VINIK, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH PLANS:  What we have to do is stretch our staff even more than we are currently doing, and that's not good for patient care.

SERRIE:  Until a vaccine is in widespread use, Dr. Anthony Fauci says masks and social distancing are the way to go, not a national lockdown. Fauci says he plans to vote in person during the November election.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: 

If someone asked me, I'm 75-years-old, I have hypertension, and I'm a little bit concerned, alleviate your anxiety, do an absentee ballot, no problem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:L  But they could vote in person if they were careful.

FAUCI:  Right.

SERRIE:  Twitter removed a tweet from White House coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas in which the doctor questioned the effectiveness of facemasks. "The Daily Mail" reports Pfizer has already manufactured hundreds of thousands of doses of a potential vaccine or rapid distribution once regulators approve it. A senior administration official tells FOX News a vaccine distribution network will be in place by early November.

Today CVS announced it will hire 15,000 employees over the remainder of the year, including 10,000 pharmacy technicians who could help provide coronavirus vaccinations and tests.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERRIE:  And today, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the creation of an expert panel to review all federally approved coronavirus vaccines before they are given to anyone in his state. And China, where the pandemic began, is now experiencing an economic recovery after bringing its own outbreak under control, Bret.

BAIER:  Jonathan Serrie live in Atlanta. Jonathan, thanks.

Time is running out for Congress and the Trump administration to agree to a coronavirus belief package before the election. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office says she and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke on the phone for 53 minutes today. They plan to speak again tomorrow. The office says the two continue to narrow their differences.

Stocks were down on fading hopes for a stimulus deal before the election, perhaps. The Dow lost 411, the S&P 500 dropped 57, the Nasdaq fell 193.

Up next, we're just two weeks away from Election Day. We'll look at where the campaigns are as we look live in Arizona. Air Force One has landed in Tucson. Everybody has got their camera up, big crowds there in Arizona for the president of the United States. We'll be there when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  We're going to win. I wouldn't have said that three weeks ago. Three weeks ago, two weeks ago, I don't know, I wouldn't have said up. It was tougher for me. But when we're leading in Michigan in the early votes, that's unheard of.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE:  I'm a competitor. I always like to win, but I've never felt such an obligation, because four more years of Donald Trump will fundamentally change the nature of this country for several generations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  President Trump again in Arizona today, just landed in Tucson, now facing a race, the national polls, the average of recent polls according to Real Clear Politics average has Biden up 8.9, but if you look at the key battleground states, Florida, North Carolina, very tight, Arizona, where he is today, Biden up 3.1. You can see the rest of them.

But take a listen to a Biden campaign memo from this weekend, quote, "the reality is that this race is far closer than some of the punditry we're seeing on Twitter and on TV would suggest. In the key battleground states where this election will be decided we remain neck and neck with Donald Trump."

With that, let's bring in our panel, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at "The Federalist," and Chris Stirewalt is politics editor here at FOX News, waiting for Harold Ford, Jr., get that hooked up. When he's there we will bring him in.

Chris, let me start with you. The dynamics of this race as we are coming down to this final push, obviously President Trump is going to push hard in all of these key battleground states.

CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS POLITICAL EDITOR:  And Democrats will too, and everybody. It's interesting --

BAIER:  I mean campaigning.

STIREWALT:  -- the studied contrast -- the studied contrast between Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. In 2016 Hillary Clinton didn't want to admit that the race was close because she thought -- I don't want she -- honestly, I've looked back many and not been able to figure out what the heck she was thinking the way that they conducted that odious 2016 campaign.

The Biden campaign goes the other way, which is smart. Instead of saying oh, yes, we're real super big, awesome winners all the time, people are saying we're the very bestest ever, they say we're quite nervous and we want everyone to be nervous too, because that's how Biden can make sure that he wins, which is to make sure that every Democrat is anxious that Donald Trump might pull off an upset one more time.

BAIER:  Mollie, meantime, in the middle of all of this is this Hunter Biden email story as we continue to dig in and every day getting some piece of the puzzle. The puzzle is not completed for us, as you look live at Air Force One. But take a listen, Democrats like Adam Schiff, Joe Biden saying it's a smear, and the DNI reacting today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF, (D-CA) CHAIRMAN, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE:  We know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin. That's been clear for well over a year now that they've been pushing this false narrative about the vice president and his son.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE:  I have no response. It's another smear campaign. Right up your alley.

REP. JOHN RATCLIFFE, (R-TX) HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE:  Let me be clear.

The intelligence community doesn't believe that because there's no intelligence that supports that, and we have shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden's laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign. It's simply not true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  The Director of National Intelligence on with Maria Bartiromo today. That is not a traditional role for a DNI, Mollie, but your thoughts on this story?

HEMINGWAY:  Right. Well, also not traditional would be Adam Schiff spending the last several years falsely claiming that he had personal knowledge related to Russia that is not true. And so when someone is continuing to do that, I think it is incumbent upon our intelligence chiefs to pat that down so that people don't get the wrong impression based on fraudulent information from Adam Schiff.

It's interesting, this negative stuff about Joe Biden, because Donald Trump has actually done fairly well with the positive stuff. His voters could not be more enthusiastic. He's got the momentum going in his direction. As Chris points out, he's behind in the polls, but he's expanding his base of operations. He has more minority, black, Latino voters that he did in 2016.

All of that is going well.

But you do see that Joe Biden has had, because the media have basically run the Joe Biden campaign and not allowed any negative information about their preferred candidate, he has fairly high favorables. And so having this kind of story come out at this time, at a time when it's coming down to the wire, at a time when the battleground states are very much in contention according to the Real Clear Politics average, and of course the battleground states are where it matters, is not what the Biden campaign wants. And so they are just desperate to keep people saying, falsely, that it's Russian disinformation so they don't have to deal with the actual substance of these emails, which show how the Biden family has traded on access to Joe Biden for family wealth gains. And that is a legitimate story, and it's something that the media definitely need to look into.

BAIER:  Let's bring in former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford Jr. We should tell you we reached him by Facetime. We finally established the connection. We can do it in this day and age. Harold, we are getting ready for a debate here in Nashville. We'll be down there in Nashville, and this is a big moment. Probably more than 70 million people will tune in to that debate, the final pitch.

HAROLD FORD JR. (D) FORMER TENNESSEE REPRESENTATIVE:  A lot of what's been said throughout the show -- and thanks for having me on -- I think as you get near the end of a campaign, I think voters are weighing which of these candidates can guarantee them, their families, their communities, their cities, their towns, a better and brighter future. And I think if you end the campaign the way the president is ending after having served for four years, I think it's revealing and it tells something about how the president feels about his performance.

Put aside how we may complain about the media. I've never seen a person who had such a house -- a vacation house, a plane, a helicopter, complain so much. If he is serious about leading another four years, he should lay out what that predicate will look like.

I think these questions about Joe Biden and his family, the public temper tantrums the president shows around it, I'm not convinced that that's the way to end it. If he has four years, a plan to generate more jobs and growth and ensure that every American gets a vaccine, that's what he should be talking about. The more Joe Biden talks about those things, the more successful his campaign will be in the more likely it will be that he wins this race in the next two weeks.

BAIER:  Yes, we are looking live at the president coming off of Air Force One, accompanied by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and Arizona Senator Martha McSally, Chris, in a tough reelection battle herself. As we go back live, Arizona is a key part of the Trump campaign. Arizona, North Carolina, key states as they get ready to approach the podium here.

STIREWALT:  Arizona has been so weird, because here's a state, this is Barry Goldwater's home state, this is John McCain's home state, this is a Republican, Republican, Republican state, and Trump did just fine there in 2016. But there's no state that has taken such a sharp turn not just against drum, but in collateral damage down ballot for candidates like McSally. I have remained a little skeptical that a state could swing so hard, but survey after survey have reinforced it, and it has a lot to do with coronavirus. You have a lot of older voters and you have a lot of suburban families in Arizona who, like a lot of Americans, have been aghast at the way the president has dealt with this. They've punished him for it.

And his message there has to be that he's going to do better and get better at this, and soon.

BAIER:  As we listen in to Tucson, I will say, it's tough to judge enthusiasm in this COVID-19 time, but each one of these stops has had thousands and thousands of people, and the Joe Biden campaign operates differently. They've had cars in parking lots and honking, but they haven't had crowds like this. It's a different campaign structure, how they are designed to do it.

We're going to had to break. When we come back, a comparison of the two candidates tax plans as you listen to Lee Greenwood, "God Bless the USA."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  So we're cutting your taxes. He's increasing your taxes. Just those two things. Isn't that sort of the end of the election?

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE:  I'm not going to raise taxes on a single, solitary American making less than $400,000 a year. You won't pay a penny more, it's a guarantee.

MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT:  The American economy, the American comeback is on the ballot.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, (D-CA) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:  Joe Biden has been very clear, he will not raise taxes on anybody who makes less than $400,000 a year.

PENCE:  He said he was going to repeal the Trump tax cuts.

HARRIS:  Mr. Vice president, I'm speaking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  She was speaking there. But the issue is taxes, and "The Wall Street Journal" had an interesting op-ed, and I'm going to get in the weeds here by reading this, but bear with me. "The hidden trap in Biden's tax hike. Social Security is financed by a 12.4 percent levy on earnings up to $137,700. Mr. Biden's Social Security plan, analyzed this month by the progressive leaning Urban Institute, would retain the $137,700 payroll tax ceiling, but impose the 12.4 percent tax on earnings above 400,000. The doughnut hole would spare the upper-middle-class from higher taxes, but only temporarily. With each passing year the doughnut hole shrinks. The payroll tax ceiling already increases annually with nominal wage growth, but Mr. Biden's $400,000 threshold isn't indexed. This means that over about three decades, the payroll tax ceiling would be phased out. High earners would be hit immediately with an effective tax increase of 12.4 percent of their wages, but with time and wage growth, the Biden plan would raise the tax for employees earning above $137,700 by the same 12.4 percent of income."

Thanks for bearing with me. Back with the panel. Mollie, when the vice president, former vice president, says on the trail I will not raise taxes for anyone making less than 400,000, that shoots a hole in that.

HEMINGWAY:  Right. This has been interesting that no matter who is doing the analysis, whether it's progressive or independent or conservative analysts, they say that various aspects of former Vice President Biden's plan would raise taxes on people who make less than $400,000 a year. It's not just with things like Social Security issue, but also that he has said that he would come on his first day in office, repeal President Trump's tax reform and tax cuts that were done early in his administration, which of course lowered taxes on the vast majority of Americans. And so if those were to be done away with, that's significant.

So too are changes to regulations, which has been another key part of the Trump administration, pulling back regulations that limit businesses. And then finally, the issue with trade and whether China can continue its unfair practices that harm American workers and companies. And so all of these things are very different between the two candidates, and they will affect the American worker.

BAIER:  Harold, we haven't gotten into the weeds of this, we are only two weeks away from election, and yet this hasn't been the primary back-and- forth on the campaign trail.

FORD:  Well, a couple things. I'm surprised we have not gotten into it more. When you analyze the Biden tax plan, here's what's clear. There are

335 million Americans who will not see their taxes go up. In fact, they will see a tax cut more likely than not. That analysis is based on what the conservative leaning American Enterprise Institute has said, and Moody's.

We can go back and forth with competing think tanks and others that may say one thing, but one thing everyone agrees on, we may disagree on whether or not that payroll tax goes off in 30 years, I'm not convinced of that. But we can all agree that about 17 million of the 350 million Americans may see a tax increase. So if we're going to play the politics around whose taxes goes up whose taxes go down, if you're one of the 333 million Americans, which means 95 percent of Americans, your taxes will go down under a Biden presidency.

BAIER:  If you don't go down this road that we just went down. Chris, let me wrap with you. One of the things is definitely a top corporate income tax rate of 28 percent, raising that to 28 percent, and also, as Mollie mentioned, the regulations changes, which we don't really know the extent of.

STIREWALT:  And that's really been for the Trump campaign has failed to make its closing arguments, where there are all of these voters who are Republican attitudinally or conservative attitudinally when it comes to low taxes, low regulation, all of that stuff. And you're not going to bring them back with Hunter Biden's dirty pictures, or you're not going to bring back with yelling at Anthony Fauci. You're not going to bring them back with that other stuff. These are the core bread-and-butter issues that won

2016 for Trump by keeping the Republican base with him. I don't know why they don't talk about it all the time.

BAIER:  All right, panel, thank you very much. We're going to end it here because the president is talking in Tucson.

Thanks for watching SPECIAL REPORT. We'll keep it fair, balanced, and unafraid, two weeks to Election Day. This is the president of the United States in Tucson. Martha will pick it up at the top of the hour.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  The only thing Biden wants to do is get as much as he can for himself. Have you been watching this whole thing play out? I didn't know anything about it. Here's the picture of Biden playing golf with these people. I didn't know my son was taking money from Burisma. I didn't know my son got $3.5 billion from the mayor of Moscow's wife. I wonder why. And then you see all the things, right, that we have to give the man 10 percent. We have to give the man 10 percent, right?

CROWD:  Lock him up! Lock him up! Lock him up!

TRUMP:  Oh, boy. I'll tell you what. Nobody has ever seen -- and the media, right, and big tech.

(BOOS)

TRUMP:  They won't allow it. Charlie Kirk, you know Charlie Kirk, great guy.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  They shut down his site because he mentioned it. Look, he's a corrupt politician, this guy. He's a corrupt politician. To get the power, Biden has made a corrupt bargain. In exchange for his party's nomination, he has handed control of his party over to the socialists, the communists, the Marxists, and the leftwing extremists, and that's before we get to his own personal corruption, which is more than anybody in history.

I say this. It's the second biggest scandal politically in the history of our country. Number one was spying on my campaign and getting caught. Biden even chose as his running mate the most liberal senator in America.

(BOOS)

TRUMP:  Kamala. Kamala. Senator Kamala Harris is a sponsor of the socialist Green New Deal and legislation to strip away the private health plans of

180 million Americans. And you know, her and Bernie Sanders want to do something in Arizona, they have some deal in Arizona where your taxes are going to go way out. You know that, right?

(BOOS)

TRUMP:  Your governor, who is right over here, your great governor was saying he's not happy with it. But Bernie Sanders, the second most liberal person -- you know she's first, right. She is considered first. They want to raise her taxes 8.5 percent. So I'm glad -- right, governor? He is saying more. It's probably more. What is the name of that, governor? Rule what? Right, you know about it. OK, you can't have them in, because they control Biden 100 percent. Biden is shot. You know he's shot, right? He's gonzo.

Harris also urged her supporters to donate to a fund that bailed out the rioters, the ones that knocked out your towns, your cities. Not in Republican areas, by the way, all in Democrat areas. You look at Portland, how about that. We would have taken -- 15 minutes we could have solved that. We told the governor, Democrat, let us in, we'll solve that problem.

We went into Minneapolis, it took us a half-an-hour. That was over with.

Unfortunately they could have called a little earlier. And in Seattle they gave up when they heard we were going in the next morning. But we were tough.

Look, all Democrats areas, New York going to hell. I feel so sad with New York. Crime is up 200, 250 percent, Cuomo. A terrible thing has happened in New York. Look at Chicago, Democrat, again. Crime is through the roof. They had a weekend, 87 people were shot and 16 died, OK? We're in Afghanistan, you don't lose many people. We are coming out, by the way. We're all coming back home.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  But you've got warzones you don't have that. And we could solve it so easily. Thank you. Thank you.

CROWD:  We love you! We love you! We love you!

TRUMP:  Thank you. You know, there's never been that chance before, seriously. We all like Ronald Reagan. I guess he'd be --

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  But he never had that chant, "We love you." Thank you. We love you.

You're going to make me cry. Don't do that, I don't want to cry.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  I don't want to cry.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  You make me cry, you'll destroy my image, and then you won't love me anymore. That will be terrible. I appreciate it. I do. And I feel the same way. That's why I'm doing this. I had a good life before I did this stuff, believe me. My life was very simple and very nice.

The Democrat Party's war on cops is inciting riots and putting police officers and American families in very grave danger. Unlike Joe Biden, I will always support the heroes of law enforcement.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP:  And I was endorsed by almost every law enforcement group in the United States --

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