Murtaugh: Feel 'very strong' about Trump's Pennsylvania election case

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Murtaugh: Feel 'very strong' about Trump's Pennsylvania election case

Trump 2020 campaign communications director joins 'The Story' to discuss the latest on president's legal challenges

Nov. 13, 2020 – This is a rush transcript from “The Story with Martha MacCallum” November 13, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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

DISEASES: That help is really on the way. The cavalry is coming here.

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BAIER: One week. That's it for this Special Report, fair, balanced and unafraid. The Story, guest hosted by John Scott starts right now. Jon.

JON SCOTT, FOX NEWS HOST: Bret, good evening thanks. And good evening to you. I'm Jon Scott in for Martha McCallum and this is The Story. President Trump emerging from the White House to address the nation for the first time since Joe Biden's declared victory as America looks on to see whether the president might address the election, including today's victory in North Carolina for the Trump team and ongoing legal battles in multiple states.

Instead the president laser focused on the fight against COVID-19 as his campaign continues to battle disputes over mail-in ballots behind the scenes. In moments Trump campaign Director of Communications Tim Murtaugh and then Congressman Matt Gaetz and Marie Harf but we kick things off tonight with White House correspondent Kevin Corke. Kevin.

KEVIN CORKE, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Jon, good evening. It is not over until it is over, especially with so many questions about ballot security and frankly, a number of questions about the election software program involving dominions still swirling about and so sources here at the White House say listen, take it easy, we're going to keep working our way through this process.

However they want to work their way through the courts but the courts have not been a safe haven for the numerous challenges issued by the campaign in fact they've been a few setbacks including in Pennsylvania and Michigan and there have also been a couple of withdrawals in places like Nevada and Arizona.

So the question now becomes can the campaign prove or at least convince the court that that was enough fraud to make a difference in the states that were closed on election night and did Dominion software change ballots for example and were there thousands of ballots cast unlawfully in this election or is there sufficient evidence again to convince a judge at say the federal level that the counts need to be examined or better yet fully audited?

White House officials tell me they are checking every lead and that's the right thing to do, not just for this race but for the integrity of our elections, moving forward.

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PETER NAVARRO, WH TRADE ADVISER: We're moving forward here at the White House, with the assumption that there will be a second Trump term. I think it's really important before people's heads explode here to understand that what we seek here is verifiable ballots, certifiable ballots and an investigation into what are growing numbers of allegations of fraud undersigned affidavits by witnesses.

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CORKE: Peter Navarro earlier today here on the White House North Lawn. Now there are a number of Democrats in particular those on the presumptive president elect team that say listen the lawsuits are just going to prolong the inevitable, they're going to win this thing and they won on Election Day.

In fact the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Jon, says that this is a distraction from the business at hand which is to say to see Joe Biden in January but my administration officials tell me here that as long as there is one person and one vote, that's the way it should be and if that didn't happen on election night, they're going to keep right on fighting, Jon.

SCOTT: All right, Kevin Corke at the White House tonight. Kevin, thank you.

Joining us now Tim Murtaugh, the Trump 2020 campaign Director of Communications. Tim, thanks for being here. The appeals court in Philadelphia has denied five of your claims here regarding your campaign's claims there, regarding the election meaning that those campaign, those votes are going to stand. Your reaction.

TIM MURTAUGH, DIR OF COMMUNICATIONS; TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: Those are just individual claims with local boards of elections in counties and we were arguing that those ballots were defective. This is not part of our larger case in Pennsylvania where we're arguing that it was unconstitutionally applied.

Depending on where you were in the state, if you were a voter in Philadelphia versus being a voter in a more rural county, you were treated differently during that election. That's a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment John. In Philadelphia for example, people who voted by mail and then they had defects in their ballots, either they didn't sign the envelope, they didn't have a date on it, didn't have a date of birth on it, things like that.

The local elections people called those voters and said come on in and cast a provisional ballot just in case your other one gets kicked out. People who voted in other parts of the state did not receive those phone calls that is unequal treatment based on where you live in Pennsylvania. That is an unconstitutional violation of the Equal Protection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment. So those cases that you're talking about, those are individual fights over ballots at the county level, it's not connected to our overall case which we feel very, very strongly about.

Also, in Pennsylvania there almost 700,000 ballots that got counted while our observers were not able to be there with meaningful access to watch and so all of those ballots are an issue to.

Well mania there almost 700000 ballots that got counted while our observers were not able to be there with meaningful access to watch and so all of those ballots are an issue too and we're going to be asking for the state not to certify the election until all of those things are resolved.

SCOTT: But according to the official count, Joe Biden leads in Pennsylvania by more than 60,000 votes. Are you thinking that you can overcome that margin in Pennsylvania?

MURTAUGH: We think, we can. I mean as I was just mentioning. We have absolute legal rights to be able to have people observers in the count room while these ballots are being counted. Our people were ejected from those rooms. Their view was obstructed. They were made - when they were allowed back in, they were made to stand 25 or 50 feet away.

SOME of our people had the use binoculars to try to see what was going on at the count tables and we have done a calculation and during those hours where we did not have people in the rooms in Philadelphia and in Pittsburgh, almost 700,000 ballots were counted at that time.

They were improperly counted, they were not witnessed and that's against the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania so we absolutely believe that if we can review those, the president can make up the gap and actually win Pennsylvania. Yes.

SCOTT: George Washington University Professor Jonathan Turley says so far he's seen no signs of inaccuracies or fraud or other problems in this election, listen.

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JONATHAN TURLEY, GW UNIV LAW PROFESSOR: This is the time when you begin to pick up systemic problems that can affect a sizeable number of votes. Now does that mean there's not evidence of it? No, because there's still litigation going on but nothing we've seen so far has panned out to represent that type of systemic problem.

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SCOTT: You still think you will find that kind of systemic problem.

MURTAUGH: Sure, we just started a hand recount of the entire state of Georgia. It's the first time that's ever been done in Georgia. Just began this morning and that'll be completed by Wednesday. In Michigan, we have eye witnessed affidavits. People sworn affidavits under the penalty of perjury, they saw stacks of ballots being fed into the scanners, multiple times, being counted 3,4 and 5 times over and over again.

Batches of ballots that all bore the same signatures. These are not just irregularities. These are votes being wrongfully and illegally counted multiple times. We absolutely know they are going to be able to find these things. In Georgia, for example, we're going to be able to find felons who voted, illegal aliens who voted. We're going to be able to do signature matching to make sure that the voters who actually voted were the people who are registered to vote.

We're going to be able to detect illegal ballots harvesting in Georgia which is you know, the concept in this country is one person one vote, it is not one person and as many votes as you can carry and so we're going to be weeding out those things so we have great confidence in our recount in Georgia, in our legal case in Pennsylvania and what we have filed in Michigan and we are absolutely - absolutely still pursuing this thing.

The idea is that we want to count every legal vote and not count the illegal votes.

SCOTT: All right, Tim Murtaugh is the Director of Communications for Trump 2020. Tim, thank you.

MURTAUGH: Thank you Jon.

SCOTT: Also with us tonight Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marie Harf, Executive Director at Serve America Pac, also a Fox news contributor. Matt, what do you think about the continuing lawsuits and the fact that while there doesn't - we haven't seen yet a reason that you know this Electoral College vote count is going to get overturned or maybe even narrowed and yet, the president refuses to concede. Your thoughts on that, Matt.

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): Oh, we will have a certification of the Electoral College in this election and when that happens, we'll have a peaceful transition power. I am concerned about the voter fraud and I'm glad President Trump is fighting against it even if it's not enough to impact the outcome of an election in one state, it pollutes the legal votes of all of us when tens of thousands of people have signified an intent to change their address in the national change of address database and yet, they're still voting in their states.

It also was concerning that we allow Dominion to have such a strong impact on the election process and the concerns about Dominion aren't just Republican concerns. As a matter of fact, in December of 2019, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden and Amy Klobuchar sent letters expressing their concerns with Dominion's propensity to potentially switch the result of a cast ballot.

And so I think we should just have a bipartisan look at this and however the result comes down, we'll move forward. One thing I won't to do is delegitimize a president, the way the Democrats did President Trump the last four years if Joe Biden is ultimately deemed the winner, I'm sure that we'll recognize him as the president.

I'm also pretty sure that Donald J. Trump will be running against him in 2024.

SCOTT: Yes, Marie, you know the media sort of dubbed Joe Biden president elect. The media took a look at the electoral vote count and said OK, he's president elect but that hasn't - you know until the Electoral College votes in mid-December, it doesn't become official. What's wrong with waiting couple weeks or even a month?

MARIE HARF, EXEC DIRECTOR, SERVE AMERICA PAC: Well, media organizations including Fox news called the race for Joe Biden based on the vote counts, coming in from these states. Joe Biden will be the next president. He has won five states that Donald Trump won in 2016 and what is so dangerous Jon isn't just this idea that we should make sure there was no fraud.

Of course we should make sure there's no fraud but almost everything Tim Murtaugh just said, almost everything Donald Trump has said about this election is not true. There is no evidence of widespread fraud and what's so dangerous about it is that Donald Trump is trying to convince his supporters that the election was stolen from him, that it was illegitimate when in fact it was not.

That is very concerning for a moment in our country when we are so divided and there are real world implications to this. Right now Joe Biden should be receiving his intelligence briefing as the president elect. We know that he needs to be ready on Day 1 to confront the threats were facing because Donald Trump won't recognize the math that is sitting in front of him because he's encouraging his administration not to participate in the transition yet.

That isn't happening. He is hampering Joe Biden's ability to be president on Day 1 and that's why John Kelly, Donald Trump's former Chief of Staff came out today and said exactly that, said that the Joe Biden needs to have access to this information for national security and public health reasons to fight COVID.

SCOTT: Matt, the Speaker of the House is saying that Republicans are hurting democracy by refusing to you know by or at least that with the president not recognizing the election results. It hurts democracy. I want you to listen to this from Nancy Pelosi and then get your reaction.

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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The longer the Republicans keep up the charade, the further out of control the COVID crisis will spiral and more in danger Americans will be. I urge the Republicans to accept the facts, acknowledge the crisis and immediately come to the table to work on COVID relief.

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SCOTT: But Republicans and maybe you're among them said the Nancy Pelosi was not willing to work on COVID relief in the days before the election.

GAETZ: Here's my challenge to Speaker Pelosi. Put your coronavirus bill on the floor of the House of Representatives and open it for amendments from any member because I actually think there's a lot we could agree on, rent relief for some of our fellow Americans, extension of stimulus payments to people who by no fault of their own have seen their job rendered illegal, business payments.

But what we're not here for are payments to illegal aliens, payments that would not be able to be properly traced and permanent changes to our voting system so if we have open amendments to actually legislate, we would have a sincere effort to come to some agreement on behalf of the country but the tell for Speaker Pelosi is that this isn't really a sincere effort, she won't let us offer amendments.

She just wants to use coronavirus to try to bludgeon Republicans but that didn't really work as Marie noted on this very network. There were problems for Democrats down ballot and I think that their unwillingness to engage in sincere negotiation and discussion for coronavirus relief package in the weeks leading up to the election probably didn't help them in a lot of those swing districts, specially in Orange County where it looks like Republicans just continue to flip seats.

SCOTT: All right, Marie, 20 seconds for your response.

HARF: I would note that Nancy Pelosi's Democratic-led House has now passed two coronavirus relief packages that Mitch McConnell, the Republican in charge of the Senate has refused to take up. So Nancy Pelosi had put relief packages on the Senate's doorstep. Mitch McConnell refuses to move on them.

We'll see if anything can get done now because I think we can all agree that the American people need some more help.

SCOTT: Marie Harf, Matt Gaetz, thank you both. And still ahead on The Story journalist Charlie LeDuff on the consequences of possible COVID-19 lockdowns as President Trump delivers encouraging news on the vaccine front.

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SCOTT: President Trump spoke in front of the cameras at the White House today delivering a dose of promise with encouraging news about when a

COVID-19 vaccine might be widely available to all Americans.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The average development timeline for a vaccine including clinical tests and manufacturing can take

8 to 12 years. Through Operation Warp Speed we're doing it in less than one year. Three other vaccines are also in the final stages of trial. They'll arrive within a few weeks and they will also be mass produced and the delivery will be very rapid. We're ready to go.

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SCOTT: Dr. Marty Makary joins me now. Professor of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Also, a Fox news medical contributor. The President promised that there would be a vaccine before the end of the year. A lot of people poo-pooed that idea but it appears that it's going to happen, at least in some - I don't know if you call 20 million doses a limited number of doses, but in in some fashion we're going to have a vaccine coming.

Your response, your reaction as a physician?

DR. MARTY MAKARY, PROFESSOR, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: Well, Jon, good evening. The news is very good news. Greater than 90 percent efficacy is better than anyone had hoped for but it also begs the question. Why did we learn about this six days after the election and why did the Biden staff according to Biden's statement know about this on Sunday, five days after the election when Secretary Alex Azar said he found out about it through the media the next day.

And also, if there was a 90 plus percent efficacy in the 94 cases that they read out, there certainly would have been a greater than 50 percent efficacy in the 32 and 64 cases which would have been looked at an interim analysis weeks prior. The Pfizer CEO sold 62 percent of his stock, the day of the announcement and Lily also had a very funny story of announcing the antibody therapy was extremely effective, reducing hospitalizations by 70 percent after the FDA authorized it, after it was shipped out.

Again, we should have heard a normal read out of trials with any other normal process of readouts from clinical trials.

SCOTT: Well, it's fair to say that President Trump has not been very popular among the pharmaceutical companies, isn't it?

MAKARY: Well, that's exactly right Jon. He has been very tough, calling for the international pricing index to lower drug pricing and also calling for the domestication of manufacturing of medications. I can tell you Jon, don't matter who the president is, I hope we are never again going to be shopping for medications and PPE in China during a health emergency.

SCOTT: Well, it sounds like you're suggesting or maybe questioning whether politics is playing a part on the release of these vaccines and the good news that surrounds them.

MAKARY: Well, look, we know the president's been tough on pharma but to hear about an FDA authorization after the fact, after it's been shipped from Lily, it's very suspicious and I think if you also look at the FDA, folks there had actually created an additional eight week observation requirement for any clinical trial and they announced it six weeks before the election.

So you put the data points together, people wonder if there's been political interference with the normal scientific process, there has been but it's not been in favor of President Trump, it's gone the other direction.

SCOTT: So you're saying that this Pfizer announcement of a potentially successful vaccine, in fact a wildly successful vaccine compared to even the flu vaccine, 90 percent success rate is way higher than most apparently. You're saying that it looks to you like that was deliberately withheld so that it takes place - took place after the election?

MAKARY: It's very - it's very clear. Now you can't say with a 100 percent certainty but to have anything be more than 90 percent and they didn't say

90 percent efficacy, they said - Pfizer said greater than 90 percent efficacious. For it to be that effective and that announcement to come, that late, certainly the interim analysis would have shown a greater than

50 percent efficacy rate.

And also why did the Pfizer CEO go silent after initially speaking confidently that they would likely have a vaccine result by the end of October so there's a lot of pieces that don't fit together Jon.

SCOTT: Meantime New York's governor is not - not at all positive about today's announcement. Listen to Governor Cuomo.

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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): For half the American people are afraid that they politicize the approval process of the vaccine for political reasons during the campaign so we're in a situation now where half the people in the country are saying, I don't know if I should trust the vaccine.

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SCOTT: Is there any reason for Americans to be afraid of this vaccine Doctor?

MAKARY: Well Jon, as you and I've discussed, there's a two independent scientific boards and I'll tell you as someone who has served on a data system monitoring board, no one would tolerate any form of interference with the review of clinical trial results on those boards. Now New York said they wanted to review the results themselves because they didn't trust the federal government.

That meant that basically there's going to be a delay, if they're going to review it themselves, it's not going to happen in 20 seconds. It means that minority communities and others will have a delayed access to the vaccine.

SCOTT: Dr. Martin Makary, thanks for that information. Johns Hopkins University and a Fox news medical contributor, thank you.

MAKARY: Thanks.

SCOTT: Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Charlie LeDuff on the potential implications of COVID-19 lockdowns across America, next.

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TRUMP: This administration will not go under any circumstances, will not go to a lockdown but we'll be very vigilant, very careful.

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TRUMP: This administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully the - whatever happens in the future, who knows, which administration will be, I guess time will tell, but I can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown. It won't be a necessity. Lockdowns cost lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: President Trump making clear where he stands on a national lockdown to combat the current virus surge in America. An idea members of President- elect Biden's COVID-19 advisory board now appeared to be backing away from.

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VIVEK MURTHY, CO-CHAIR, BIDEN COVID-19 TASK FORCE: We're not in the place where we are saying shut the whole country down. We got to be more targeted. If we don't do that, what you're going to find is that people will become even more fatigued. Schools won't -- won't be open to children, and the economy will be hit harder. So, we've got to follow science but we've got to also be more precise than we were in the spring.

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SCOTT: States around the country are gearing up to re-impose restrictions with Oregon and New Mexico announcing plans for partial lockdowns today.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board warns of the potential consequences, writing the U.S. is still recovering from the spring catastrophe when the jobless rate surged in two months to 14.7 percent. The highest since the Great Depression.

Tens of thousands of businesses closed, and many will never reopen. The human cost is even worst. A quarter of 18 to 24 years old have reported suicidal thoughts and increased substance abuse.

Joining me now, Charlie LeDuff, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and host of the No B.S. News Hour podcast. What do you think about the prospect of another nationwide lockdown in this country under COVID-19, Charlie?

CHARLIE LEDUFF, AUTHOR, SH*TSHOW: Well, Jon, we never had a nationwide lockdown and that was kind of what, you know, the whole political cycle was about. You lock it down. We're going to go broke. At least the last time around, there was some PPE, there was some unemployment.

If you're looking from the middle, if you're looking around this country, I don't want to tell you out there, you know Washington has done nothing.

Lock it down now, not only will they not be presents under the tree, there won't be a tree. Firefighters and cops aren't getting battle pay nor our nurses.

The schools are starting to shut down again. And where is mom and dad going to go to work if the kids are at home? We are in a really bad spot. So, you tell me, what we do? It's not going to be lockdown and you are watching me presumptive new administration say they're going to do the same thing as the last one. It's the game.

SCOTT: Well, yes, they criticize the Trump administration pretty harshly and may have won the election in part because of it. But it's also up to local leaders and governors as to how their cities and their states handle the virus. Listen to you New York's Bill de Blasio. Here are his thoughts.

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MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: There is still a chance to turn that around obviously. But we are preparing for the possibility. And if any day, we see in the morning, the indicators come out and they're reach that level, then we will move immediately the next day schools will be shut down.

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SCOTT: So, some New York City school kids are back in class, but he is saying if the city hits a 3 percent infection rate, that's it, we are going to lock up the schools.

LEDUFF: Fair enough, but who does this really hit? It hits old people, the majority of the minority, right, the plurality of this stuff is again, the nursing homes. We have done nothing to fix the mess that they are. That's on the governors.

I don't bring props, but this was given to me by my neighbor, you know, the unemployment that Congress would not extend so Trump did it with the executive order, it comes down to the governor. My neighbors got, he put up his house for rent. Some scammers found out he's got a dozen cards in here.

Dozen, what do call these, debit cards, Mike? Debit cards. For unemployment.

Man, this is screwed. We need unemployment, we need some stimulus, we don't have any money. The working people are being overtaxed and what are we going to do? Leadership. Get rid of this, get rid of this governor. You did that. Fix the nursing homes. The kids don't get it, the old people do. And we have done nothing. That's the fact that all you out there know it and that's nonpolitical.

SCOTT: In your home state of Michigan, what are you seeing, Charlie?

LEDUFF: I'm seeing again, one more time, I'm seeing firefighters -- the Detroit Fire Department is ravaged by COVID again. They're not getting the hazard pay. The Detroit police, the nurses. I'm seeing the nursing homes being infected again.

I'm seeing you, the American people, you will not listen to a lockdown order. We won't even wear a mask. So there not going to be any of that.

We've got to be focused about where this stuff is making us sick and we haven't done it. We've been playing politics and now you, the new administration, you fix it.

You said you would, and I doubt you're going to, because there's a vaccine and you really don't want to do testing that might double the cases in the time of vaccine.

SCOTT: Fascinating time.

LEDUFF: It is.

SCOTT: Charlie LeDuff, thank you for coming on.

LEDUFF: Thank you, brother. And hey, Martha, you're the best out there. She is. She is.

SCOTT: If only she were here tonight, right?

Well, as Republicans rack up seats in the House, Democrats are clashing about whether far-left policy like socialism and defunding police alienated voters this time around. that debate with two former members of Congress, next.

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REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): It was a mandate against socialism. It was a mandate against defunding the police. It was a mandate against wasting a majority that the Democrats have done for the last Congress.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): We had a very big win in the last election. It is smaller now but it is not -- I know we still have the power of the majority. But on top of that, our leverage and our power is greatly enhanced by having a Democratic president in the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: Nancy Pelosi there playing down Democratic losses in the House of Representatives as some of her colleagues blame the progressive wing of the party for alienating moderates and contributing to Republican gain. A scenario that appears to have played out in New York where moderate Democratic Congressman Max Rose has now conceded to Republican Nicole Malliotakis.

The congresswoman-elect saying today, quote, "we need someone who is going to be a counterbalance to AOC. We need to form our own squad."

All of this leaving Republicans with what they feel is an opening to take back the House in 2022.

Chief congressional correspondent Mike Emanuel takes a look.

MIKE EMANUEL, FOX NEWS CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: House Republicans will return to Washington feeling upbeat about the future after proving the election experts wrong.

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MCCARTHY: They were all wrong. Not one Republican incumbent lost.

Republicans won from Miami to New York, to Minnesota, to California.

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EMANUEL: Some races are still to be determined in the House but 29 Republicans women so far were elected to the new Congress. One example, Nicole Malliotakis defeating Democratic Congressman Max Rose in New York.

Today, she emphasized new voices in diversity on the GOP side.

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NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-NY), CONGRESSWOMAN-ELECT: It's much needed new blood coming into the party, not only do we have more -- the most females in the history of coming to Congress from the Republicans side but we also have a number of minorities, we have immigrants who have from Korea, from Cuba, from the Ukraine, and we also have military veterans as well on the Republican side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL: Today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi downplayed losses and emphasize holding on to power.

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PELOSI: We have a majority in the House, albeit smaller, but nonetheless of a majority, 132 gavels chairs of committees, subcommittees, and the rest.

The beautiful diversity of our caucus and we see it as a tremendous opportunity as we go forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL: With sniping back and forth between moderates and progressive Democrats, newly elected Democrats are being asked if they stand with Pelosi.

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JAMAAL BOWMAN (D-NY), CONGRESSMAN-ELECT: I have not heard of any challenges, I am ready to support her bid. I don't think there will be challenges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL: Republicans hoping to win back the majority clearly hope Democrats will keep talking about black lives matter and socialism.

SCOTT: Joining us now, Sean Duffy, former Wisconsin congressman and Fox News contributor, and Harold Ford, Jr., former Tennessee congressman and chairman of RX Saver. Thanks both of you for being here.

SEAN DUFFY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, Jon.

SCOTT: Something of a victory lap, congressman -- former Congressman Duffy, I guess I can still call you congressman.

DUFFY: OK.

SCOTT: Something of a victory lap for the GOP, they were supposed to, you know, get wallop this time around and instead they added seats in the House chamber. Is that sort of a condemnation of, you know, defund the police and socialism and maybe even black lives matter?

DUFFY: Absolutely. So first of all, Republicans was supposed to lose for the professional pollsters 15 to 20 seats in the House. Right now, Republicans have picked up ten, probably 15 seats. Now I love that Nancy Pelosi has tried to put a smile on her really slim majority.

But what happens is, Republicans ran against socialism, defund the police, open borders, and ran against a party that is in favor of big business of Wall Street banks, of billionaire, of big tech. And Republicans are working for the working men and women of America. And I think that that message carried the day.

And Jon, that's with Democrats spending tens of millions of more dollars against Republicans in many of these hotly contested seats. Republicans had less money and still won. Not only that, Democrats were supposed to pick up all of these state chambers, Senate for assemblies across the country. They didn't pick up one state chamber. This was a total drumming of the Democrat Party in this last election.

SCOTT: Congressman Ford, was is the shellacking of the Democrats aside from the White House and if so, to what do you attribute it?

FMR. REP. HAROLD FORD, JR. (D-TN): first, thanks for having me on.

I think that either party that tries to view the results from last week is some sort of referendum on what may happen in 2022. It's behaving foolishly, unproductively and not listening to the American people.

I think the two things that the American people said the most loudly and clearly last week was that they want a political class in the Washington class of politicians who will focus on two things. One, having the vaccine and therapeutics out to urban and rural areas alike.

I saw a disturbing story this morning on one rival network of this network saying that rich people in this country have been in on getting the vaccine first. I hope that is not true and I hope that Joe Biden and trusted Joe Biden his team will stop that.

And two, they want an economic recovery that will propel every American forward. I think when politicians lose sight of the very basics, and I would argue that what's going to happen in Georgia, Republican or Democrats winning those Senate races, will pivot and revolve around which party, which candidates are able to suggest and confirm to the American people that they are ready to do these things for them.

So, I'm not willing to predict what will happen in two years. I know that's what we do and what I used to do and what political people do in Washington, but I think that's the wrong way to look at it. Let's look at what people want now and try to deliver for them.

SCOTT: Two sitting Democrats in the House say that the messages of this campaign season did not work for them. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The defund the police thing was a very, very bad thing for Democrats in this cycle. And it hurt us a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We keep making that mistake this foolishness about you've got to beat this progressive or that progressive. Slogan airing (Ph) kills people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: So, there you go, final thoughts from the two of you. Congressman Ford, you first.

FORD: I'm against defunding the police. I am against packing the courts. I am against socialism. I think there's a lot to be said for those two things, but Democrats maintain the majority in the House, Republicans will likely even if they win both seats in the Senate in Georgia, will have a smaller majority in the Senate. And we have a new president. The country is right down the middle and I contend what I started with. The people want answers and they want relief.

SCOTT: Congressman Duffy, the American people do seem to like divided government.

DUFFY: And they like their place too. And the party that Harold was part of, and in the 90s and the 2000s is not the Democrat Party today. I think if Democrats continued down the path of socialism and globalism, they're going to continue to lose and Republicans are going to keep picking up the mass majority of Americans which are working Americans across the middle of the country.

SCOTT: Congressman Duffy, Congressman Ford, thank you both.

DUFFY: Thanks, Jon.

FORD: Thank you.

SCOTT: Well Hillary Clinton reportedly in the running for a key post in the Biden administration. Details on that after this.

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SCOTT: Four years after Hillary Clinton failed the presidential bid, might the Democratic nominee find herself back in public service. The Washington Post reports Clinton is among Joe Biden's contenders to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The Post writes, the thinking behind the move was that it would be a way for Biden to highlight the importance of that position in his administration and that placing her there would raise the prestige of the U.N. itself at a time when global cooperation and the U.S. role on the world stage, has ebbed. Clinton did not rule out serving in the Biden administration when asked back in August.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm ready to help in any way I can because I think this would be a moment where every American, I don't care what party you are, I don't care what age, race, you know, gender, I don't care. Every American should want to fix our country.

So, if you're asked to serve, you should certainly consider that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: Here now, California Congressman John Garamendi. He is a Biden surrogate. And Congressman, as I understand it, you're also fairly close to Hillary Clinton as well.

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): Yes, both ways. But I've got her that she would be seeking an appointment nor that she might get one. However, the great part (AUDIO GAP) precisely this, who is going to get what positions? And that will play out over the next six months maybe even into the next 12 months.

In any case, Clinton certainly is a skilled individual. She certainly knows the international scene and she is quite right about the United States standing around the world. We've suffered mightily over the last four years and our relationships with our allies are end with others. So, yes, we do need to rebuild that and it will take a strong team to do that.

SCOTT: Well you might say that she's not seeking a position, but if a president or president-elect calls and says I would like you to serve, it's pretty hard to turn that down, isn't it?

GARAMENDI: Well, of course it is. But it's also hard not to focus on what we actually need to do right now. And that is with the current president and the current administration is to work together through this transition period so that do we do not waste 68 days fighting this pandemic. We've got to get it under control.

The economy is dependent upon that, actually our standing in the world is dependent upon that. And going into the next administration, which I'm confident will be the Biden administration, we need to not lose the next 68 days. But rather to make progress along the way and there's all of the things that have been discussed, the transition period, the stonewalling by the current administration hopefully that will change in the next few days.

But (AUDIO GAP) directly relates to the economy and going forward, Mr.

Ford, Congresswoman Ford was so correct. It's what do we do with a Democratic president, Democratic House and a slim Republican majority in the Senate. Can we really deal with this pandemic and get the economy going? The answer in my mind is yes. If we follow what Biden has laid out.

Can we rebuild the infrastructure? Yes. Can we deal with climate change?

Yes. All of those programs have been laid out by Biden during the campaign and then the days since the election. If we do that in coordination with the Republicans, no, we're not going to get everything we want on the Democratic side, we understand that. But we know that these are critical issues that we need to move forward on.

And by the way, could someday please tell me just what among any of those issues is socialism? None of them. Not one of them. But they are critical issues in which we must address. The critical problems facing not only our country but this entire world.

SCOTT: Well, you can perhaps expect a tweet from AOC. She didn't much care for some criticism that she got from Joe Manchin of Virginia on that score.

Congressman John Garamendi, we appreciate it. Thank you.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

SCOTT: And The Story continues right after this.

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SCOTT: And that is The Story of Friday, November 13th, 2020. But as always, The Story continues. I will see you again tomorrow for Fox Report weekend at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Have a great night

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