Roger Stone asks for new trial following allegations of juror bias
Judge schedules phone hearing; former federal prosecutor Katie Cherkasky weighs in.
This is a rush transcript from "Your World," February 17, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, ANCHOR: All right, this Presidents Day, think Vegas, baby, because the battle for Nevada is on. Five days to go before the caucus, several candidates are crisscrossing that state.
The president set to hold a big rally in Vegas on Friday. This is getting to be a pattern, isn't it? All this and concerns that the Nevada caucus could be a repeat of Iowa. They claim, no, it won't be. Is there a disaster in the making with some, well, smart apps? We will see.
Welcome, everybody. Happy Monday to you. I'm Neil Cavuto.
To Ellison Barber now in Henderson, Nevada, where they are bracing for, well, what they hope to avoid, caucus chaos.
What's the latest?
ELLISON BARBER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Neil.
Yes, there's -- without a doubt the cloud of Iowa is hanging over this state, but candidates they are proceeding as normal. They are on the ground. They are meeting with as many people as they can, trying to make sure that their supporters not only get out and caucus Saturday, but also go out and vote early.
Senator Elizabeth warren is holding a rally inside this building behind me to try and get her voters to do exactly that. We have seen all of the front-runners in Nevada in the last few days going to rallies, meeting with supporters at campaign offices, trying to get them to go out and knock on as many doors as they can.
Senator Bernie Sanders actually walked with some of his supporters to a polling location on the first day, when early voting began. Nevada Democrats say that over 18,000 people voted on the first day of early voting. As you mentioned, Nevada is an incredibly important state for a number of reasons.
One, it is the first test of how these candidates will do among a more diverse electorate. But also there's the situation of what happened in Iowa, New Hampshire had a primary. We have not seen caucuses since Iowa.
This is the first state where those will be taking place.
And there is some pressure as to whether or not any of the issues that occurred in Iowa will happen again here. Party officials say absolutely not, that they are ready for this. They had plans to use the same results recording app that was used in Iowa, but they got rid of that app and changed course after the issues in Iowa.
And they say they are now using technology that is off-the-shelf technology, not technology that has been newly developed, for people to electronically record the results, technology that Google has created and they have overseen. And they have run through it with all of them, as well as backup paper records.
The real test, of course, will be Saturday, but for now party officials say that they are ready. I did speak to a couple people that are involved in different caucuses over the weekend. And for the most part, they seem pretty optimistic here that things will be OK.
But, as you mentioned, there's still certainly some fears and, without a doubt, pressure that would happen in Iowa doesn't happen again. And party officials say they're doing everything they can to avoid that.
And we will see soon -- Neil.
CAVUTO: All right, Ellison, thank you very, very much.
In the meantime, if the Sanders camp is it all worried about these latest reports that Michael Bloomberg is thinking of Hillary Clinton as a potential running mate, well, the senator's wife, Jane, put that tension convention to rest with me on my Saturday show this past weekend.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANE SANDERS, WIFE OF BERNIE SANDERS: Mayor Bloomberg can choose whoever he wants for running mate. But he's not going to get there.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: OK. There's a pushed effort to find an alternative to your husband. What do you make of that?
J. SANDERS: Well, I think it's pretty obvious. I think that he's running a campaign that's not me, us.
It's about getting the working class a fair shake, being able to provide Medicare for all, affordable health care, affordable education, and the Green New Deal. There are the powers that be and the status quo that don't want him to do those things.
They're using lots of other reasons why they don't support him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: What she's saying is, the trend is, well, the friend of her husband.
To New York Post's Sohrab Ahmari. We have got Republican strategist Boyd Matheson, Democratic strategist Wendi Wallace.
Wendi, what do you make of what she's saying? If this is supposed to intimidate, a potential Bloomberg-Hillary Clinton is supposed to make us bow in awe, she's not bowing and she's not in awe. What do you make of it?
WENDI WALLACE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, first of all, thank you for having me on, Neil.
CAVUTO: Same.
WALLACE: I think it is extremely, extremely early to be discussing V.P. picks, and even earlier for someone who has no delegates at all right now.
I think what is the focus for all the Democratic candidates in this primary is about making sure that voters have affordable health care and making sure that there is funding for education, making sure that those kitchen table issues that keep people up at night are really being addressed.
And that's how Democrats won governorships in really red states like Kentucky and Kansas. And that's really where the focus is.
CAVUTO: You know, Sohrab, all of this occurs within the same roughly 24-to-48 hour period we get this drip, drip, almost PEZ dispenser-like release of embarrassing tapes of Michael Bloomberg from years ago, this one in particular that might be deemed as rattling farmers. I want you to respond to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I could teach anybody, even people in this room, so no offense intended, to be a farmer.
You -- it's a processing. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. Then we have 300 -- you could learn that. Then you have 300 years of the industrial society. You put the piece of metal on the lathe, you turn on the crank, and the direction of the arrow, and you can have a job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: Did he just sacrifice the gain he's been making with that and the other comments he's made?
SOHRAB AHMARI, THE NEW YORK POST: You know, I think that's so typical of a technocratic elitist that dismisses one of the most important line of work as far as the material well-being of any people goes.
And I think that, combined with talk of potentially Hillary as a running mate, just drives the message that this is a campaign that's out of touch.
Look, I'm no fan of Bernie Sanders. I'm a conservative Catholic. but Bernie has a message, a vision of the good society.
I may disagree with much of it, but it's an idea. And so does President Trump. And then you have this kind of technocratic middle, the likes of Mayor Bloomberg. And Hillary would represent the return of that as well.
And it's just so insulting.
The fact that he's not campaigning in any of the early states, he's not shaking hands, he's not bothering with any of that, and just is rolling in with vast amounts of money, it should offend anyone, whether right or left, your democratic sensibility.
CAVUTO: Well, he's good at numbers, maybe, and he's pursuing that.
And the numbers, Boyd Matheson, seem to indicate to him he's got to do everything possible to avoid Bernie Sanders winning on a first ballot. When I raised that with Jane Sanders this past weekend, she was more or less saying, in the past, we have had nominees get to a convention, not necessarily with a majority of the delegates, or, in this case, the 1,991 you would need to be nominated, but darn close.
In other words, most should cinch it. What do you think of that argument?
BOYD MATHESON, GOP STRATEGIST: Yes, I think it's going to be a real challenge, given the number of campaigns that are out there and that they're -- because the social media, you don't have to get out as early.
It used to be there were only one or two tickets out of Iowa, one or two tickets out of New Hampshire, possibly. But now we're going to see that really continue on all the way to convention, where people don't have that motivation. They can hang around. Maybe somebody stumbles. Maybe someone has a bad gaffe or some old reports come up, and they're able to hang through.
I think the bigger test is going to be, what do you do for those people who are more, as was mentioned, those center-left folks? Where do they really fit, those that are more in that pragmatic category, maybe more the Amy Klobuchar types of folks?
It's clear, though, that Hillary Clinton is not the answer. Even amongst those Americans who dislike President Trump, over half of those folks think it would be worse if Hillary were in office. And so that doesn't really help any kind of momentum.
And I actually think Bloomberg's biggest challenge is, he's not connecting with the people individually. You have to actually invite people to do something, which is what Bernie Sanders does better than anyone. He invites them to be part of a movement.
CAVUTO: Well, Wendi, let me ask you about that.
I mean, if this is all about trying to get someone not to be chosen on a first ballot, the superdelegates enter on a second ballot, who were universally behind Hillary Clinton at the time, there is a strategy to seeing if lightning strikes twice and those same superdelegates now emboldened with a Hillary Clinton potentially on a Bloomberg ticket, it might go that way, or is that a leap?
WALLACE: I think that that is a very large leap, in fact.
CAVUTO: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: I think what it will really boil down to is that -- whether or not they're able to connect with voters on a base level, right, whether or not the voters feel like this is a person who gets up and goes to work every single day on their behalf and will fight for them.
And any of these Democratic nominees represent that. And there's really no need to bring Hillary Clinton into the conversation.
CAVUTO: All right, I was foolish to even try to lead with it.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Guys, thank you very, very much. You did a great job. And I do appreciate it.
AHMARI: Thanks, Neil.
CAVUTO: To hear a lot of Democrats tell it, this is not the Trump jobs boom. It is the Obama jobs boom.
Just ask Barack Obama himself -- what the former president had to say today that's got some Republicans fuming today.
We compare spreadsheets. You decide who is spreading the sheet.
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, when the good news is really good, no doubt a president would love to talk about it.
This one certainly likes to talk about the economy, jobs every chance he can get, especially with the unemployment rate at the lowest we have seen since man walked on the moon for the first time.
Now his predecessor is saying, not so fast.
President Barack Obama tweeting: "Eleven years ago today, near the bottom of the worst recession in the generations, I signed the Recovery Act, paving the way for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in American history."
So can Democrats claim credit, or at least some credit, for the jobs created under this president?
Economist Steve Moore is with us, RealClearPolitics' Susan Crabtree.
Steve, you seem to be on board with that. So, what do you think?
(LAUGHTER)
STEPHEN MOORE, FORMER DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Yes, and Jimmy Carter was responsible for the Reagan boom too.
(LAUGHTER)
MOORE: I mean, it's rather ridiculous.
Don't forget, Neil, about two months before the election, it was Barack Obama, remember, who famously said, Trump -- Trump's going to try to bring back these manufacturing and construction and mining jobs. How is he going to do that, with a magic wand?
And, of course, here we are three years later with a million-and-a-half more of these blue-collar jobs.
One other point. When I was on the campaign in 2016, and we would go to states like Michigan and Pennsylvania and Iowa and West Virginia and Kentucky, and when you would ask people -- I would always ask people, how's that Obama recovery going for you? And you know what, Neil, people would say? What recovery are you talking about?
Because it was a good economy if you lived in Silicon Valley or Hollywood or Wall Street or in Washington, D.C., but in the rest of the country, not so much; 36 percent of the American people rated the economy good or great during the Obama presidency. Today, almost 70 percent rate the economy as good or great.
CAVUTO: Well, I mean, numbers can be funny things. And I get that. I know where Steve's coming from.
But, Susan, the fact of the matter is, it wasn't as if Donald Trump inherited a depression, or -- we had gone from in the early days of the Obama administration losing a million jobs a month to gaining.
In the last three years of his administration, to hear the Obama folks tell it, eclipse the three years of job gains under this president. We could play fast, loose with the numbers on either side, by the way. I'm not meaning to disparage Steve at all.
But this notion that maybe both men can take a bow, what do you think?
SUSAN CRABTREE, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Yes, I think that's actually right.
The Democrats right now are very desperate to put the brakes on Trump's momentum, obvious momentum, with the economy and strength in the economy. I mean, you had a Gallup poll out, recent Gallup poll out saying 90 percent of Americans, a record high, are happy with their personal lives, including their financial personal wealth, and their prospects, and 61 percent are -- feel like they're better off and more satisfied than they were three years ago.
That's basically the definition of a winning candidacy for president. Are you better off than you were three years ago? That's what Reagan said. And it did well for him.
What I'm -- what you do need to -- when you break down the numbers, you do have to give President Obama some credit. The last three years of his presidency, he produced 8.1 million jobs, new jobs. Now, in the first three years of Trump's presidency, you have 6.1 million jobs.
Those are the estimates. And so you do have a slower recovery going on now.
But the issue is, I think, is, he's building on an already stable economy.
So this is like more growth. And people are already satisfied, and you're over that recession.
CAVUTO: No, I think you raise a good point. I think it's a tip of the hat to both presidents in that regard.
And I think, Steve, your old boss, I mean, he can look at this and say, I have taken what many viewed to full employment and made it fuller. And all demographic groups, all groups of Americans, from whites, to Hispanics, African-Americans, women, are looking at record low unemployment levels.
And Americans in a Gallup poll seem to give this present the tip on that one. Where do you think this goes? Like, when people sort of crunch it down, how -- what will be the winning argument?
MOORE: Well, here we are three years into the Trump presidency. Again, I worked on the campaign, Neil.
I mean, it's rather rich for people like Barack Obama and all these economists at Harvard and Yale and Princeton, who basically said -- and you remember this, Neil. Remember? They said, if Barack Obama is elected -- I mean, if Donald Trump is elected president, he's going to cause the second Great Depression.
We're going to have a -- he's going to destroy the stock market and so on.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: Well, I think Paul Krugman said that. I don't think Barack Obama did. Right.
MOORE: No, but they all said it. Krugman, of course, was the most wrong of all.
But my point is, so here we are three years later, and the same people who said Trump was going to destroy the economy, now that we have the best economy in 50 years, say, oh, well, Obama deserves the credit.
I just think that's -- it's hard to square with the facts.
The other thing, Susan, the problem your analysis on the jobs is the big boost that has happened under Trump has been what's happening with wages and income. So, in three years, median household income has gone up over more than $4,000 under Trump, whereas, in eight years under Obama, they went up only $1,000.
So the middle class is just seeing a huge, huge increase.
CAVUTO: Real wage growth is a little north of 3 percent, vs. a little a under 3 percent. But you're right, guys.
(CROSSTALK)
MOORE: No, no, but the -- the incomes, the median incomes, that's because more people are working.
CAVUTO: Right.
MOORE: If you look at family incomes, those are growing four times faster than they did under Obama. That's the reason people are shopping more and feeling good about things.
CAVUTO: I'm just stepping back and looking at overall wage growth.
But, guys, I want to thank you both very, very much. I wish we had more time.
Blessedly, we don't.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: All right, in the meantime, a growing chorus -- that was a joke, by the way.
A growing chorus of ex-Justice Department employees are demanding the attorney general, Bill Barr, to go. What's weird is, the case it involves is the Roger Stone case, where there was bias on the part of the foreperson for that case.
Not a peep about that -- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, more than 1,000 ex-Justice Department employees are demanding Attorney General Bill Barr resign over his handling of the Roger Stone case.
Where is the outrage, though, over reports of a juror, a foreperson, no less, with bias in that trial, hiding the fact that she was a Democratic operative with clear biases against the president? Should she have even been on the jury in the first place?
Not much talk about that.
Former federal prosecutor Katie Cherkasky on the implications of all of this.
I guess -- and you know the legal process far better than I -- that there are Republicans who are saying, you know what? Just throw out the whole case. Where does this go, this particular aspect, with the jury foreperson having clear biases and a record of social media attacks on the president and those around him, including Roger Stone?
KATIE CHERKASKY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Sure.
Well, that really boils down to what she disclosed during the trial, whether she actually committed a fraud in the voir dire process, or whether she was honest and the attorneys took their risks on who sat on that jury.
So, yes, it's possible that there could be cause for a new trial altogether. But that comes down to how the voir dire, how the jury selection process took place, what was disclosed, and how the attorneys decided to seat that panel.
CAVUTO: All right, we get different reports that this Tomeka Hart, Juror number 1261, the jury foreperson, did, in fact, share statements that she had made about the president. I don't know about the ones that called him a white supremacist racist who supported him were shared, but nevertheless did.
And let's say they did allow her on because she might have similarly said, yes, but I can be a neutral observer here. Would that fly? And, ultimately, is that even her fault? They went ahead and both sides approved her to join the jury pool.
CHERKASKY: Exactly.
And that's really up to the attorneys and the lawyering that's involved there. So, it depends on what questions they asked, whether they hit on the right topics, and whether they made calculations that were in their client's favor.
And, ultimately, here, that might have played out the wrong way. But if she was honest and disclosed that information, then that's probably not going to invalidate the trial.
CAVUTO: Does it make a difference if she had said anything critical about Roger Stone himself, and that a judge looking at this could say, you know what, maybe this is too much?
Now, it wouldn't -- I don't know if it would be the same judge here, Amy Berman Jackson, who would rule on this whole sentencing issue, but does it change at least that debate?
CHERKASKY: It changes it, to the extent that she falsely disclosed information, because in any jury selection process, you're going to be asked questions about what knowledge you have of the case, of the individual people involved, whether that's impacted you.
And if she denied ever knowing about the case or the circumstances or ever making public comments about it, then that could be a huge issue. But, again, it comes down to what questions were asked, what the attorneys decided to prioritize in making their final selections there.
CAVUTO: Let me ask, Katie, is it unusual for the Justice Department or those who are in the top places in the Justice Department, hearing about a recommendation, a prison sentence of up to nine years, to intervene?
I have heard that sometimes, yes, quietly, silently, they do. But what made it different here is that the president intervened or -- he might be perfectly free to do so. But it elevated this entire matter. What do you think?
CHERKASKY: I think that A.G. Barr's decision to intervene was irrespective of the president's opinion it.
I don't think the president did himself any favors by offering the opinion, but I think that Barr's decision to intervene with this extreme agreement sentence recommendation was appropriate. And that does happen in certain cases.
So the question you really have here is, did these prosecutors really run this recommendation all the way up the flagpole to the DOJ before they offered that?
And, again, these are just recommendations from the prosecutors. These are just DOJ employees offering their opinion of the case. And from what it looks like, they're claiming that Barr's interaction or interference was political.
But, really, it seems that the first offering of the sentence recommendation was more political than anything else.
CAVUTO: You think it was a setup on their part?
CHERKASKY: I think it very well could have been a calculated decision to offer this very extreme sentence recommendation, in my opinion and in A.G.
Barr's opinion, and then have the reaction that they did to claim some conspiracy.
But I really don't see it that way.
CAVUTO: OK.
CHERKASKY: I don't think that A.G. Barr was acting because the president asked him to. I think he was acting independently, as he shared.
CAVUTO: The palace intrigue continues.
Katie, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
CHERKASKY: Thanks, Neil.
CAVUTO: All right.
You think Michael Bloomberg is alienating farmers with comments from years ago, you should hear what he's saying about Bernie Sanders supporters, like, now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: Uh-oh. Now Apple is citing a coronavirus issue, that it could impact its own revenue target.
Markets closed today. It could have an effect tomorrow, when they're back open.
More after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT,, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's vitally important for those of us who hold different views to be able to engage in a civil discourse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: That's considered nasty?
Anyway, the Bloomberg campaign is hitting back at Bernie Sanders in a new ad, calling out the 2020 Democrat for his supporters' behavior. Is that necessarily a winning strategy?
The Hill media reporter Joe Concha on all of that.
Joe, good to have you.
What do you think?
JOE CONCHA, THE HILL: I think that Michael Bloomberg is already outspending Bernie Sanders at an enormous rate, Neil.
When you look at the numbers, he spent four times as much as Bernie already, 10 times as much as Biden, 20 times as much as Klobuchar. And this is a guy who jumped in, obviously, very late into this race, hasn't even been on one debate stage yet, hasn't done really one major interview yet, has done some campaigning, but not much.
But he's letting his money deal with the talking at this point. And he has an advantage here, being the eighth richest person in the country, that none of these other candidates have. And that's why you see him jumping up in the polls the way he has, Neil.
CAVUTO: I'm just wondering, though, whether this latest stuff -- it's too early to tell, because I don't believe they have done post-tape polling of some of the embarrassing comments we have heard out of the mayor that go back years.
But I'm wondering if there's any effect to that, because a lot has happened since then, obviously even this talk that he wants to put Hillary Clinton or reportedly Hillary Clinton on a ticket with him. But what do you make of all that and how this is sorting out?
CONCHA: The Hillary Clinton story is pretty interesting, because, if they're even considering that, at last check, in 2016, she lost Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the first Democrat to do that since the 1980s.
Those are very key states.
She didn't even obviously campaign in Wisconsin. The last poll I saw on her likability was Gallup, and she was a 36 percent. So here you have this divisive figure that's 0-2 in presidential campaigns that about one-third of the country likes, and you want to bring her on board, a fellow New Yorker, so it doesn't even give you any sort of electoral advantage?
Yes, that story doesn't make any sense to me at all whatsoever, Neil.
CAVUTO: You know what doesn't make sense to me, Joe, is where I'm sensing that the party is, the Democratic Party, and by that, even the way the media follows it.
I mean, there's concern that Bernie Sanders, admirable, impressive though he is, could never win a general election, hence the concern on the part of more moderate members in the party to do everything they can to avoid him getting the nomination.
And then the concern about Michael Bloomberg, that he's buying his way there. So they're not really copacetic on him. That is what is bedeviling, where their mind-set is.
CONCHA: I don't know what or who the Democratic Party is right now, Neil, right? I mean, what's the bumper sticker?
With Trump, I know what the bumper sticker is and was, right? Make America great again. Build that wall. Lower taxes. Whatever. It's easy to kind of absorb and understand.
With the Democratic Party, look, if all of them are basically be running on raising taxes, I'm old enough to remember Walter Mondale in 1984. He literally said, I will raise taxes. He won exactly one state.
CAVUTO: Right.
CONCHA: But, in the end, does the Democratic Party, whatever it is now, you're telling me that the guy they loath more than anything in the world that sits in the White House right now, who is the New York-based white billionaire, that they're going to then nominate the New York-based white billionaire, the woke party?
That's who they're going to back? I don't know. Maybe he's seen as the safest choice. But, right now -- I thought he was a formidable candidate going into this because of his record in New York. He left with something like a 60-something percent approval rating in terms of the way New Yorkers look at his term.
And then, obviously, he's been extremely successful in business. But, boy, I mean, between farmers and women and African-Americans, all these tapes that are being unearthed, there's not going to be too many people left to insult by the time we get to Super Tuesday.
CAVUTO: One of the things Jane Sanders, Bernie Sanders' wife, had relayed to me when I spoke with her over the weekend, Joe, was this idea, look, we're the leader here.
Technically, Pete Buttigieg is, but so early, saying, that we won Iowa, we won New Hampshire, we're going to win in Nevada, and her sense was, we will arrive in Milwaukee, the convention site, even if we don't have a majority of the delegates, we will have by far the most delegates.
I'm paraphrasing here. I don't want to misquote her.
CONCHA: Sure.
CAVUTO: What do you make of that argument? Because, in the past, the Democrat who arrives there with the most delegates usually goes on to win.
In this case, though, the party will do everything, as it stands now, in its power to avoid that.
CONCHA: It seems that way, right? You're seeing establishment figures, those like James Carville, it's the economy, stupid, from '92, saying that, this will be end of days if Bernie Sanders gets elected.
CAVUTO: Right. Right.
CONCHA: And I just don't think -- or at least is nominated.
Yes, the party, the establishment -- we saw it in 2016, we're seeing it again -- certainly does not want him to be the nominee, because, in the end, I go back to bumper stickers.
For President Trump, he speaks in broad strokes. And it's a very easy contrast to make, capitalism, socialism, who you got? And I have a feeling that, in the end, given the way the economy is going right now, that capitalism will win out on that bumper sticker.
CAVUTO: Joe, very good. I think if -- even remembering in 1984, though, I didn't even think you were born.
But I will play along.
CONCHA: Yes, you know?
CAVUTO: OK.
CONCHA: Four years old. It was fuzzy. The 49ers won the Super Bowl, and Mondale and taxes. That's all I remember.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: There you go. There you go again.
All right, Joe Concha, thank you very, very much.
Meanwhile, on to this quarantine situation for evacuating Americans, off the ship and now in, well, deeper ship.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: Well, 14 of the American evacuees from that cruise ship quarantined off Japan have tested positive for the coronavirus, and now in isolation at, at least two U.S. Air Force bases in the United States.
FOX News correspondent Claudia Cowan now live outside Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, California.
CLAUDIA COWAN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Neil.
Certainly a sense of relief for some 340 Americans who are finally off of that toxic cruise ship, but also more anxiety, amid confirmation now from the U.S. State Department that at least 14 of these evacuees have tested positive for this coronavirus.
It wasn't discovered that they were infected until after the whole group had boarded buses in Japan and headed to the airport, escorted by Japanese health workers in full hazmat gear.
Those patients were kept in an isolated section on the aircraft and are now being treated in Omaha at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
For everyone else, another two-week quarantine begins today on base here at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, where a second charter flight landed early this morning.
Cheryl and Paul Molesky of Syracuse, who shared their experiences on board the ship, say they are ready to put this nightmare vacation behind them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're exhausted, but we're on the plane. And that's a good feeling. Pretty miserable wearing these masks. So -- and everybody had to go the bathroom on the bus.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five hours on the bus waiting to get off the bus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, it's crazy, crazy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COWAN: And then a nine-plus-hour flight on a plane with patients who might be contagious. It's the very reason some passengers decided not to take these charter flights back to the U.S.
Their original two-week quarantine in Japan is set to end any day now. But it could be a few more weeks before they are given the all-clear to return home.
And other countries, including Canada and Hong Kong, are also chartering flights to evacuate their citizen passengers off the Diamond Princess, which has been called a hot spot for the coronavirus.
Back here at Travis Air Force Base, the cruise ship evacuees will be housed in a different location than the several hundred Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan, China, earlier this month.
Neil, their 14-day quarantine is set to end this week -- back to you.
CAVUTO: Claudia, thank you very much.
And, by the way, as Claudia was reporting, not everyone was keen on leaving that ship. One man I talked to on my weekend show, "Cavuto Live," was actually reluctant to leave at all. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: The government has indicated we have got a plane coming to get you guys out of there. And you're not keen on it. Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
I tweeted days ago that I wanted the U.S. government to stay out of it. Our greatest desire at this point is to maintain the quarantine that the Japanese health officials have established, and then get a test for the virus after the end of that quarantine, so we can establish with relative certainty that we are not infected and could be even free to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: All right, another advantage for Mr. Smith and his wife there, they're in a big suite. They're not in one of these really tiny rooms. They have a big balcony. They can move around. They have a little bit more freedom and flexibility.
And they'd much rather that than the unknown of going to the United States, being re-quarantined. They just didn't want to put up with it.
From what we understand, he remains or they remain on that ship and have not taken the U.S. up on that offer to be flown back home.
Meanwhile, the National Institute of Health Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the director there, Dr. Anthony Fauci, with us now,
Doctor, did they make a mistake? Do you think that couple made a mistake by not taking the U.S. on the offer to come back home?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You know, I don't want to judge whether they made a mistake or not.
But I could tell you, if I were in their shoes, I would want to get on a plane and get back here. Clearly, on the ship, there was transmission of infection. Whether or not it was post the quarantine process or not is unclear.
But I think that the thing that we felt strongly about is that we wanted to get our people off that ship as safely and as comfortably as possible back to the United States to complete their 14-day quarantine and, for those who are infected, to be shipped, as several of them were, to Nebraska to be able to be taken care of, under the conditions of experienced people.
So my choice certainly would have been to get off the boat, to get on the plane and to come back home.
CAVUTO: You know, Doctor, I guess there's always the reinfection to worry about, small the possibility may be.
There's a report coming out of Taipei, via The Taiwan News, sir, that says it is possible to get infected by the coronavirus a second time, and it could lead to death from heart failure in some cases, with much more dangerous and provocative symptoms.
I mean, in the rare possibilities of getting reacquainted with the disease, how, first of all, of a threat, how much of a threat is that?
FAUCI: Well...
CAVUTO: And are they right that, the second time around, it could be much more dangerous?
FAUCI: You know, I think we really need to take that with a grain of salt.
There are a lot of reports that are coming out that are not peer-reviewed, that they are just trying to get information out as quickly as possible, and then, on reexamination, it turns out that, under scrutiny, it may not be the case.
So, I don't want to pass any judgment on that, but I would be really be careful that we don't draw any conclusions based on a single report that's not peer-reviewed by scientific evaluation.
CAVUTO: Doctor, also, people cling to the slightest bit of good news we get out of China.
Many were making a significant deal out of reports this morning that the number of new cases in China had hit a three-week low. What does that mean to you? Or are people getting ahead of themselves here?
FAUCI: Well, a couple of days in a row of a count in a difficult situation to actually accurately count, to me, I'm a bit skeptical.
I hope that it is correct that we're seeing a trend in the number of cases that are coming down. But until I see a consistent trend, day after day after day, I wouldn't jump to any positive conclusions. I hope they're right. But I'm not absolutely convinced.
So let's just wait and see what happens.
CAVUTO: Wise words, all.
Doctor, thank you very much for taking the time. I appreciate it.
FAUCI: Good to be with you.
CAVUTO: All right, in the meantime, Nevada might be next up, but something tells me Joe Biden is looking to another state -- after this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK TODD, NBC NEWS: South Carolina is it, isn't it? I mean, you have to win that?
JOSEPH BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think you have to do really well in that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: South Carolina is it, isn't it? I mean, you have to win that?
BIDEN: Well, I think you have to do really well in that.
Bill Clinton lost his first eight, 10, 12 primaries and caucuses before he won one. I don't plan on taking that long. But we're just getting into the meat of getting to the number of delegates you need to be able to win this election.
And I'm confident we're going to be in good shape.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: That's Joe Biden brushing off early primary losses, saying his focus is on other states.
A poll shows that his lead, for example, in South Carolina, where he's placing some big bets, is at least not as big as it was.
What does his campaign look like from here?
Pollster John Zogby joins me right now.
John, good to have you.
JOHN ZOGBY, FOUNDER, ZOGBY STRATEGIES: Thanks, Neil.
CAVUTO: Other candidates have come back, defied those who were prematurely burying them, Bill Clinton, to the former vice president's point, among those in recent times.
What do you think of his argument, just let me show my stuff in states more friendly to me?
ZOGBY: Well, he's got to win somewhere.
And that was the major argument that he had going into this campaign, the fact that he was the guy to beat Donald Trump. And now he's had really two devastating losses. He didn't come in second place or bunched up in a third place. It was fourth and fifth, Iowa, New Hampshire.
Beating expectations is fine for Iowa, New Hampshire. He's got to win South Carolina. That was his firewall. That is the African-American support, 60,
61 percent of the vote that he needs.
And that's slipping right now.
CAVUTO: When you say it's slipping, I mean, that I know, sometimes, it's based on what people perceive, that Lyndon Johnson won New Hampshire in 1968, but it was barely. And Eugene McCarthy was a strong number two.
The next thing we know, Lyndon Johnson is stepping out of the race. I'm not comparing the two, other than to say it's about expectations. And the expectations, I guess, to your point, have been very high for the former vice president in this state.
What would be a disappointment, in your eyes, John?
ZOGBY: Well, I think he's got to win the African-American vote in South Carolina by 12, 15 points.
And I'm not just saying that arbitrarily. That will be enough for him to actually win. But the thing is that we're seeing already a division among younger African-Americans and older African-Americans. Older African- Americans over the age of 45 or so, he is soaring, but under 45 or so, he's just barely hanging on against Bernie Sanders and, surprisingly, Tom Steyer as well.
CAVUTO: So it's got to be double digits?
ZOGBY: It has to be double digits. This is his firewall.
And he's got to prove that he's not flaming out.
CAVUTO: All right, we will watch it closely. Thank you very much, John.
ZOGBY: Thank you.
CAVUTO: The Houston Astros apology tour, is it working?
After this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm really sorry about the choices that were made by my team, by the organization, and by me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to say again how sorry our team is for what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to say that the whole Astros organization and the team feel bad about what happened in 2017.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: All right, did those series of apologies work?
Let's ask Doug Eldridge, who follow this stuff very well, the sports agent, DLE Agency, an encyclopedia on this stuff.
What do you think, Doug? Did it work?
DOUG ELDRIDGE, DLE AGENCY: Look, Neil, from a traditional public relations standpoint, you have to remember MLB is now a multibillion-dollar entity.
Last year, they did $10.7 billion in revenue for the 17th consecutive year that they saw record growth.
So when we talk about this, we're not talking about a general public relations issue. This is most assuredly a crisis communications issue, given all the considerations involved.
In that sense, no, it was a colossal failure, the Thursday rollout, and the 72 hours that followed. Ironically, this is both good and bad for baseball. OK? We're still six weeks out from opening day. NFL is over. We're still a couple of weeks away from March Madness. This is a slow time in the sports year, yet there's interest and discussion around baseball. OK?
On the bad side, there's a lot at stake. I mentioned the revenue a moment ago. Secondly, we have already seen the first lawsuit by a pitcher who was essentially shown the door because he gave up four runs, four hits and three walks in just 29 pitches, which is crazy.
And now you're even possibly going to see increased punishment against opposing pitchers that might pick off an Astros batter. So, ostensibly, an opposing pitcher could get punished more for hitting an Astros batter than a potentially an Astro could have for this whole cheating scandal.
So, there's a little bit of a paradoxical effect.
CAVUTO: Now, what happens to the title they won? That was the year they beat the Dodgers, right?
ELDRIDGE: Right.
CAVUTO: I mean, they're not going to do anything as abrupt as take the title away, right?
ELDRIDGE: Well, that would be unprecedented in MLB context.
CAVUTO: Right.
ELDRIDGE: But if you look at other sports, for example, Lance Armstrong won seven consecutive Tour de France titles, OK?
When he was ultimately banned from cycling for life, the Tour de France essentially erased his name. Now, they never rotated up number two or number three or number four. And there's a very good reason for that, because it was really pervasive at the time.
But, by way of analogy, there's not really an apples-for-apples comparison within MLB. That would be unprecedented. So I definitely don't foresee that happening.
CAVUTO: So where does this go? I mean, apology tour is felt or not felt.
It seems to me like everything goes back, the baseball season starts, and bygones are bygones, slips are slips, lies are lies, deceit is deceit.
What?
ELDRIDGE: I think it hinges on one thing, and that is whether or not more evidence surfaces.
That would be the difference in a ballpoint pen scraping over that beautiful blue dress shirt you're wearing today, vs. leaving the cap off of a felt tip and having an ink spot that bleeds and ruins the shirt altogether.
What's my point? The point is, right now, it's contained, and eventually they're going to move on to spring games. Then we're going to see opening day and fanfare and pageantry and excitement at the ballpark.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: But how do you know it's contained? How do you know it's really contained?
ELDRIDGE: We don't.
And that's where you're waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. I think baseball -- Major League Baseball tried to get out in front of it.
But let's be honest, Neil. By any objective metric or measurement, they didn't. Not only were they reactive and responsive, as opposed to proactive. There was no narrative control. And now you have an absolute echo chamber on social media rampant with conspiracy theories, even to the possibility of a buzzer that was worn underneath the jersey and theories about why he did it or didn't the jersey torn off.
CAVUTO: Right. Right.
ELDRIDGE: Who knows?
The problem is if MLB can't get into games very quickly, and, in so doing, put the cap on the felt tip pen, by way of analogy that I referenced. Then they can save the shirt, scrub the stain, save the shirt, and move forward with baseball, because their bottom line has supported 17 straight years of growth.
They're playing with the big B's now.
CAVUTO: All right.
ELDRIDGE: They're at $10.7 billion. It's in their best interest to put the cap back on and move forward.
CAVUTO: Or just throw the shirt out.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: We will see what happens.
Doug, you're the best, my friend. thank you very, very much.
ELDRIDGE: Good to see you, sir.
CAVUTO: He's so good, he makes me an idiot, understand.
All right, by the way, just to update you on this Apple situation, markets closed today. They reopen tomorrow. Apple among the first prominent U.S.
companies to say, this China stuff, it's going to affect revenue, there's no denying it now.
Is that the start of something else that's bigger? We will see tomorrow.
"The Five" now.
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