Sources: Biden would immediately push for tax hikes if elected

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Sources: Biden would immediately push for tax hikes if elected

Fox Business Network senior correspondent Charlie Gasparino has the scoop on 'Your World'

Oct. 23, 2020 – This is a rush transcript from “Your World with Neil Cavuto” October 23, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Thank you, Bill, very much.

The scene right now in The Villages in Florida, where we're about to hear later on today from the president of the United States. He's expected to be there in about a half-hour, maybe 45 minutes or so.

We will be following that, just as we did earlier today, when the former vice president was discussing how he felt about the economy and the ongoing fight against COVID-19 in this country in Wilmington, Delaware.

You're looking, meanwhile, at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. This is the final stretch, as they say. And both men plan to be busy. It is certainly pretty obvious right now, when it comes to campaign travels, the president will be a lot busier, all of this after a debate that both sides claim they won, but it was certainly very substantive.

So, now who gets the most juice from that?

Welcome, everybody. Happy Friday to you. I'm Neil Cavuto.

And for the president and the guy who wants to be president, they put it all on the line last night. We're examining some of the less discussed issues from that debate and how it could be possible that Joe Biden might have created a sort of Gerald Ford 1976 issue for himself by making a proclamation about fossil fuels.

More on that in just a second.

What we can expect to hear from the president in Florida with John Roberts right now.

Hey, John.

JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is certainly going to be on the agenda this afternoon here at The Villages.

We're about an hour northwest of Orlando. This is Sumter County, which President Trump won by 39 points over Hillary Clinton back in 2016. You can bet that the president is going to bring up a lot of those points that he was hammering Joe Biden on last night at that debate.

Now, for us, as correspondents covering these political campaigns, the last debate is kind of the time when we all breathe a bit of a sigh of relief, because the finish line is in sight. But as the president has pointed out so many times, with all of this mail-in voting, and all of these deadlines being extended now as to when these ballots can be counted, we don't really know where the finish line is going to be.

The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, just a short time ago asking the crowd here at The Villages what they thought of the debate last night and who they thought won it. Surprise, surprise, they thought President Trump did pretty well last night. The president himself thought that he did well.

Here he is in the Oval Office talking about last night and his performance in the previous debate on September 29. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I thought I did great. There are certain groups of very aggressive people that loved the first debate.

But I think this was better. This is obviously a more popular way of doing it. And, no, I think I wanted to play by the rules. They felt very strongly about it. It's two different styles. I'm able to do different styles, if you had to.

But this seemed to be much more popular.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Now, we should point out that, here in the Sunshine State, Joe Biden does lead in the RealClearPolitics average of polls by about one-and- a-half points. But that's well within the margin of error.

But the Biden campaign, with a preemptive strike before the president gets here in a statement, saying -- quote -- "News this week that Florida lost that additional 28,000 jobs in September, which brought this year's job losses in Florida to over 775,000, is just another difficult reminder that Florida families are hurting due to President Trump's failure to get this virus under control."

That's something that the president obviously is going to be talking about today, too.

We should point out as well that, before leaving the White House today, the president announced another big normalization of relations deal, this one between Trump and Sudan, and the president promising that more are to come, including potentially in the not-too-distant future Saudi Arabia.

Here's the president today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We will have them, along with some other countries that you will be hearing about coming, probably simultaneously. And then, ultimately, we're going to have a big reunion at the end, where everybody's here and everybody's going to be signed.

And we expect that Saudi Arabia will be one of those countries, and highly respected, the king and the crown prince. They're all just highly respected in the Middle East, and Mohammed from UAE highly, very highly respected, a warrior. He's really a great warrior.

So, they will all come together. We're going to have a big, beautiful party at the end. OK? And you will be there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: I mean, there's no question that all of these deals with the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and others to come are big deals.

But if he puts something together with Saudi Arabia, that would be truly spectacular.

We should point out too that in the 24 hours surrounding the debate, the Trump campaign raised $26 million. That's a new one-day record. And, Neil, it's money that they really needed, because the campaign wallet was getting a little bit thin. So, I think the president will be happy to have that for the past -- for the last 12 days in his campaign -- Neil.

CAVUTO: That is not a bad haul.

Thank you very much, my friend, John Roberts in the very hot and sticky Villages in Florida right now.

In the meantime, much has been said about how Joe Biden portrayed energy and what he liked and what he didn't like in last night's debate. And the fact of the matter is, he's dialing some things back almost within minutes of the debate itself, which is a sign the campaign is a little bit worried, and he had to clarify himself.

Peter Doocy with a lot more on that following the former vice president -- Peter.

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, good afternoon.

Joe Biden just wrapped up a speech at this theater in Wilmington. It was just for a small group of reporters socially distanced inside. No members of the public were invited. And he kept the focus on COVID-19, as the Trump campaign is promoting this exchange from last night about energy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Would he close down the oil industry?

KRISTEN WELKER, MODERATOR: It falls...

TRUMP: Would you close down the oil industry?

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: By the way, I have a transition from the oil industry, yes.

TRUMP: Oh, that's a big statement.

BIDEN: I will transition. It is a big statement.

TRUMP: That's a big statement.

BIDEN: Because I would stop...

WELKER: Why would you do that?

BIDEN: Because the oil industry pollutes significantly.

TRUMP: Oh, I see. OK.

BIDEN: Here's the deal...

TRUMP: That's maybe the biggest statement. In terms of business, that's the biggest statement.

WELKER: OK.

TRUMP: Because, basically, what he's saying is...

WELKER: We have one final question, Mr. President.

TRUMP: He is going to destroy the oil industry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY: So, even though Joe Biden offered up an explanation about why he would close down the oil industry, now he says that's not what he really meant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Eventually, we're going to have to go to all, but we're not going to get rid of fossil fuels. We're getting rid of the subsidies for fossil fuels. But we're not getting rid of fossil fuels for a long time.

It will not be gone until probably 2050.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY: Biden's got Barack Obama on the trail for him tomorrow in Florida.

But last night in Nashville, he sought distance from the former president.

Biden was challenged about his record on immigration reform and why comprehensive immigration reform never got done from '08 to '16. And he said that, next time, if he gets an opportunity, he would be the president and not the vice president -- Neil.

CAVUTO: You know, Peter, for the former vice president to come out within minutes of the debate leaving the facility last night to clarify his position, and for Kamala Harris to echo that, and talk about Joe Biden not being against fracking, they're worried, clearly, that this had a very different take to people who were watching that debate.

How worried are they?

DOOCY: Well, they were confident enough last night, at least the candidate was, to challenge Donald Trump. And when Donald Trump said, you have called to ban all fracking, Biden said, no, I didn't. Show me the tape.

So, now the president's Twitter feed with 80 something-million followers has a montage of different times that Joe Biden said on tape that he would ban fracking. Pennsylvania is a state, based on the most precious commodity that the campaign has, which is time, that the Biden team is spending the most of their remaining days and effort in, at least based on what we know so far.

And so it seems like there might be some concern, but, again, today, they did not do any further cleanup. They just tried to stick it to Trump on COVID.

CAVUTO: All right, thank you, my friend, very, very much.

As the president pounced on those remarks last night, he was clearly reaching out to states that have a great deal of fracking or depend on fossil fuels. He said, will you remember about that, Texas? Will you remember that, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma?

By extension, it could apply to Wisconsin and, to a lesser degree, Minnesota, all old states that do benefit from this technology.

It's a good point now to bring in Lee Carter, GOP pollster extraordinaire.

Lee, I'm of a certain age to remember -- you're way too young, before you were born, no doubt...

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: ... where Gerald Ford stumbled into something in the 1976 debate with Jimmy Carter, and he was talking about Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. Only, he said there was no such domination.

I want to go back in time to that moment many say Gerald Ford lost the race. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERALD FORD, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.

QUESTION: I'm sorry. Could I just follow. Did I understand you to say sir, that the Russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: All right, well, even there, that was an incredulous response from the moderators, were they just said, let me just see if we have this right.

And it was an opportunity for him to explain himself. Last night, it was a little bit different. It's a little apples and oranges, I grant you, Lee.

But by going so far as to say, "I would transition from the oil industry,"

the president was quite right to seize on it and say, did you hear that, Pennsylvania? Did you hear that, Oklahoma, Texas, et cetera?

How much of a gaffe do you think this was, or, to hear the Biden camp talk about it, oh, just semantics?

What do you think?

LEE CARTER, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: I think it's a big deal, not just because we're talking about oil and energy. I think it's a big deal because it represents a problem that Biden in a much broader context, the first being a lot of people don't know how far left Joe Biden is.

And with as many as 10 percent of people still undecided about their vote, this is really important to them. They don't know where he stands. So when he does something like this, it becomes confusing.

The second thing I really think that is at play here is, the attack that Donald Trump launched on Joe Biden last night, which was a very, very powerful one, which is, you're a typical politician, you're going to -- you have been around for 47 years, what have you done, you can't overpromise here.

So, this is another sort of representation of that. I also think this is a bigger issue Because, when you think about the impact on the economy of something like this, there's a lot of people out there who are going to vote for Trump no matter what because of the economy.

And there's a lot of undecideds that know that Trump might be better on the economy, but are just not willing to give Joe Biden a chance. This is the kind of thing that could push them over the edge for Donald Trump. So, I think that this is a bigger gaffe than just because of the issue itself. I think it's because of what it represents.

CAVUTO: Yes, we're going to be talking to Oklahoma Senator James Lankford on that, obviously a state that benefits from fracking and all the rest.

And on the issue of fracking, I mean, the -- it's always been like threading the needle to understand Joe Biden's position on this. He has since sort of clarified it to say, I'm against it on federal land. You want to do it on private lands, that's another matter.

But it's never been that clear. And this issue that Republicans charge of, you're anti-fracking, that's born of comments he's made in the past.

This is from Biden about a year ago. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration?

BIDEN: No, we would work it out. We would make sure it's eliminated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: All right, make sure it's eliminated. That's pretty blunt. That's pretty clear.

Now, again, there were no nuances to federal vs. private land. So I think it's the kind of issue that could bubble up in these crucial states where fracking has been a huge boon for them, Pennsylvania probably most important.

What do you think of that, the fallout in those states? Or are they attuned to other things, like COVID, and the economy, whatever?

CARTER: Well, I think that it's inextricably linked to the economy for those swing states that this impacts most.

When you think about Pennsylvania, this is a huge issue in Pennsylvania.

And it is within 4.5, five points right now in Pennsylvania. And that's within the margin of error. These are kinds of swings, these are the kinds of moves that can have a big impact, because, ultimately, for a lot of people in Pennsylvania, this isn't just about fracking.

This is about their economy. This is about jobs. This is about opportunity.

This is about pride. This is about a number of different things. This is also about what kind of an administration is at play. This is, how far left are you willing to go?

What are you -- what do you really stand for? And about 30 percent of Americans right now feel like they really understand what Joe Biden is going to do if he's in office. And that's a big problem. When you have an issue like this, you don't know where he stands, he seems to be flip- flopping at the last minute, you're not sure about it, what else is at play?

What else do you not understand? And so I think that this is a problem for him. And it's not, again, just because of the fracking. It's because of what it represents on so many different levels.

CAVUTO: Yes, I was speaking earlier on FOX Business, Lee, which, if you don't get, you should demand.

And he's the -- as you know, the fracking founder, if you will, almost, a multibillionaire energy giant, big supporter of the president's.

But he said, of this anti-fossil fuel stance of Joe Biden, that this ticket will eventually lead to $6 gasoline. And he said he's absolutely convinced that this is a clear, anti-traditional energy ticket.

Is that the perception people have, or is it too in the weeds?

CARTER: I think a lot of people think that it is going to mean more expensive things.

I also think that the other thing is, he promised that this was going to be an end -- we're going to have an end to it by 2025. Those are the kinds of promises that people are tired of politicians making and not be being able to deliver on.

Most people know -- when I tested this last night with voters, they were saying, like, that's just not even possible. How can you promise that?

Again, it's an issue that -- of trust.

Can this politician be trusted with his promises to deliver to the American people? And I think Donald Trump framed him in a very interesting way at the same time last night, as, you're a typical politician. You have been around forever. What have you done?

And I think that people have questions about it today as a result of an issue like this. I think, overall, right, I think last night, Donald Trump did a very interesting job of framing Joe Biden in a very different way than he had up until now, this idea of, 47 years, what have you done? What have you done for the American people?

Why are you just going to do these kinds of things now is a really important question that people are wrestling with.

Now, this isn't going to change Biden supporters. But it is those people who are undecided, those people who are just not sure, can I vote for Donald Trump, it's the kind of thing that could tip them to vote for Trump.

CAVUTO: All right, Lee, thank you very much.

And, as you point out, it's these battleground states and making a difference in the states, in particular when it comes to fracking and oil, where views like that can certainly change the election math a little more than, what, 10 or 11 days before the big day.

Thank you on that, Lee.

By the way, we're waiting for the president. He's going to be in The Villages in Florida.

Also closing out right now was an off week, the first off week we have had for the markets, after three successive weeks, the president now arriving in Florida, no doubt going to pound some of the themes he was pouncing on last night regarding energy, regarding how we get it and from where we get it.

And it must be a big worry for the Biden folks, because they have been since clarifying it again and again.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: Well, I guess the Senate's found a way to ask nicely, rather than demand that Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

They have a voluntary agreement, both men have, to go ahead and acknowledge Lindsey Graham's request to appear before that committee. It will be after the November election. We will keep you posted on that.

And keeping you posted on a president who is about to speak in Florida, but championing, he says, an environment where taxes could go lower if he stays in the White House, just the opposite if the other guy gets into the White House. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Success is going to bring us together. We are on the road to success, but I'm cutting taxes, and he wants to raise everybody's taxes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: What do you make of that, Charlie Gasparino?

You have been exploring this and just the impact, keeping the politics out of it, of taxes going up or taxes going down, and that you go beyond just who's being targeted. Joe Biden likes to think the rich crowd, your crowd, but you have been arguing that it's a much bigger crowd, right?

CHARLIE GASPARINO, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It could be.

Let's just be real clear here. Joe Biden is going to raise taxes massively, if elected, particularly if he gets the Senate turning Democrat. His people are telling me that it's like on the agenda the minute he becomes president. January 20, when he's sworn into office, or whenever he's inaugurated, he will be trying to raise taxes.

He believes he's up against the clock, because there's apparently some debt ceiling negotiation that's -- that comes into play in July or in the summer sometime. So, he has a certain amount of months to put together legislation to raise taxes.

He also wants to raise them fast, because he wants to do a massive infrastructure spending plan. He thinks he needs to raise the taxes to pay for some of that. So, this is going to happen. It's going to happen soon if he's elected.

He does not care about the pandemic. He thinks that's besides the point. He believes his spending plan will offset any of the sort of drag on the economy the tax increases will cause. He's saying the tax increases will occur on companies, on investors, on private equity firms, and on really rich people.

The flaw in the argument, Neil, is -- as you know, is that I haven't met a company out there, when you increase their costs, they don't pass it down to the consumer. It's the same thing here.

If you're going to ratchet up massively taxes on small businesses, which file as individuals, and a lot of them make more than $400,000 a year, which is the Biden cutoff for not raising taxes -- he says anything below that is not -- anybody making below that is not getting a tax increase.

Well, guess what? Those small businesses will cut back. They will cut back in hiring. They will cut back in wages to their workers, who are not rich people. They are working-class people. Corporations, the same way. They do it as well.

So, that's, I think, the flaw in his plan. And I think the other flaw in his plan -- and too bad it's -- we're only talking about this now in a major way. It should have been spoken about more in the first debate, quite honestly, is that it's a 180 from what Trump has done.

And President Trump, before COVID, had a pretty good record on the economy.

I mean, I would disagree with him on trade policy. I think he screwed up on that. That took a point off -- the trade wars took a point off GDP. But it still was a very good economy, where unemployment was low, where wages were rising.

In terms of addressing the pandemic recession, he did a decent job. We're not in a Great Depression. So, what -- the Biden stuff is a 180 from all that, and it's massive regulations.

And let me tell you something, Neil. I don't care what it -- what you say.

If you increase regulations on companies, they cut back. And that's what he's doing, not just on energy companies. You have heard the debate on fracking, what he plans to do, but on just about every company in America.

And I will tell you, his people are telling me, day one, walking in the office, the plan is to start the ball -- put the legislative ball in motion, or whatever the cliche is, to get those tax increases.

CAVUTO: No matter the economic environment?

GASPARINO: Yes.

CAVUTO: So, in other words, if things are as slow and bad as the former vice president said they are, it doesn't matter?

Because even Barack Obama wanted to raise the top rate, but he waited a while, because it was dicey, obviously, coming in. And it was dicey for quite a while.

So, I'm wondering, hook or crook, he would do it? If he got in, he would push those increases that he's outlined?

GASPARINO: Well, let me just tell you what they're telling me now. I mean, obviously, things could change dramatically worse, and maybe he backs off.

CAVUTO: Right. Right.

GASPARINO: They are telling me now, day one, it doesn't matter if we're still in a pandemic and the economy is still slow because of that.

He wants to raise taxes.

CAVUTO: Right.

GASPARINO: The other part, Neil, is, he thinks the spending side is going to counteract that.

I don't know if I agree with that, but...

CAVUTO: Will offset it.

That's the Goldman Sachs -- that's the Goldman Sachs feel, that it's stimulative and all that. I don't know.

GASPARINO: Yes.

CAVUTO: We will see, my friend.

Thank you very much.

By the way, the bullseye is still on your back for those taxes. Sorry about that.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Charlie Gasparino on all of that.

Well, on Monday, a lot is going to be going on, certainly politically, in all this, but that's the day the Senate has chosen to go ahead and try to vote, full Senate vote on Amy Barrett.

Here's the thing, though. No Democrat will participate. How's that going to go?

After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: Florida is hot. And I'm not talking the weather. I'm talking to the president set to speak at The Villages there in a few minutes from now. He will be in Pensacola later tonight.

And then don't forget Barack Obama campaigning for Joe Biden later on in Miami for tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, it will be a busy week for Judge Amy Barrett.

By this time on Monday, she could well be on her way to taking a seat on the highest court in the land. That's when the Senate is going to vote.

It's going to be a little weird, though, because, much like it was handled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, not a single Democrat there for the process of voting on her.

Not a single Democrat will be voting in the full Senate on Monday.

Chad Pergram with, I guess, this historic anomaly here. Have we ever had anything like this, Chad?

CHAD PERGRAM, FOX NEWS CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it got a little bit weird in the Senate today.

You had this weird situation where Senate Democrats moved the Senate into what we call a secret session, a closed session. You don't have that happen very much. This was a protest over how Senate Republicans are fast-tracking the confirmation process for Amy Coney Barrett.

We haven't had a closed session of the Senate in 10 years. In fact, the Senate used to conduct most of its business in closed session back in the 1790s. But Amy Coney Barrett is on track to be confirmed on Monday night.

Here is the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): So, the good news is this.

In about 72 hours, I anticipate we will have a third new associate justice of the Supreme Court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: Two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, oppose forging ahead with the confirmation so close to the election. They voted against starting the debate today.

Now, the other issue here on Capitol Hill is that there is still no coronavirus deal, still.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Now, the clock is ticking, though. As you know, the elections is 12 days away or whatever it is, and it's going to be very hard to get it done.

We just can't leap the final hurdles on policy disagreements.

QUESTION: Have you come to an agreement on state and local funding?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: That kind of tells you where they are right now.

They just don't have an agreement. They're still so far apart. There are chasms.

And keep in mind that the secretary of the Treasury, who has been negotiating with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also Steve Mnuchin, the secretary of the Treasury, the president, and Senate Republicans, they have not all been aligned. They have not been on the same page. That's been the problem trying to get this deal -- back to you, Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, Chad, thank you very much, my friend, Chad Pergram on all of that.

I want to go to Oklahoma Senator James Lankford right now, who joins us on not only the Amy Barrett vote, but, of course, what's going to happen on stimulus, if anything.

Senator, thank you for taking the time.

First of all, on Judge Barrett, the Democrats are claiming that the way Republicans are handling this is breaking all sorts of rules, quorum rules, all these other rules. Has it? Is it?

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK): No. It certainly is not breaking the rules on this.

She moved from nomination to the beginning of her confirmation about the same length of time as about eight other judges in my lifetime. The length of time that she's had from the point of her nomination to the final closure of her nomination and confirmation is about the same length of time that Ruth Bader Ginsburg even had or Justice Souter had, or so many others.

So the length of time is certainly not the issue. And they try to make a big deal and say, it's so close to the election, and Abraham Lincoln passed this by, until you actually go and look at the history. The Senate wasn't even in session during that time period, if you go back in the 1800s.

That's the reason things weren't done that close to the elections, because the Senate wasn't even in session. We have a year-round Senate now. It's very different.

So, no, there -- this is not violating any historical precedent at all. And it's certainly not the fastest ever, as I have heard multiple Democrats say this is the fastest it's ever moved. It's not even close to the fastest. In fact, Abraham Lincoln moved one of his nominees in one day, from the time that he was appointed to the time that he was confirmed.

So, it's certainly not the fastest ever, and it's absolutely not breaking historical precedent.

CAVUTO: Let me ask you, Senator, being from Oklahoma.

And you heard what Joe Biden was saying about not only fracking, but eventually phasing out the oil industry. He's since tried to dial that back, oh, it's not going to happen immediately, but the dye had been cast.

And I wonder, for states like yours, of course, oil-rich, fracking-rich, and other vulnerable states, if Joe Biden had his way, that this is something that maybe changed the debate, certainly in some of these battleground states.

LANKFORD: I think it should wake people up.

I think it was a slip of the tongue for Joe Biden to actually say what he was thinking. He's tried to be very disciplined in the general election time period to say, I'm opposed to fracking on federal lands, but I'm OK with everything else. We're just going to manage it.

And he was at -- towards the end of the debate, he was clearly tired, and I think he actually said what he was thinking: Yes, we're going to ban it.

We're not only going to ban fracking. It's a good one step past that. We're actually going to get rid of oil entirely. And we're going to work on fossil fuels to be out. And he said, we're going to -- we're going to work this out. And he tried to recover it.

But he said what he's been thinking. And, quite frankly, everyone that has any energy in their state needs to stop and hesitate and to say, you might have thought twice about this before, but you may need to really consider, if you're in trucking, if you're in energy, if you're in all those hotels around all those locations, if you're in restaurants, all that production of the economy that really occurs around energy production in that country is at risk.

CAVUTO: Harold Hamm, I wouldn't call him the father of fracking, but, of course, a very successful oil billionaire, and took fracking, obviously, to the next level.

He said that, if a Biden administration were to come to be, there would be so many restrictions and so many cuts and constant swipes from Washington for the oil industry, he wouldn't be surprised if gas prices jumped to $6 a gallon, and that the oil industry itself would be forced into massive layoffs and the like.

Do you think he's overstating that?

LANKFORD: I'm not sure he's overstating it.

But I would -- I would tell you, I would think the first casualty is actually our energy independence. We would go back to being dependent on the Middle East for our oil and gas and for our basic operations.

If you can't do additional drilling, if you can't produce your own energy, now we are dependent on someone else. And if they decide they're going to raise the price, or they're going to cut us off, or we have a dispute with the Middle East, then it changes the dynamics.

It changes our military focus. It changes our economic focus, and certainly changes our economic stability and independence as a nation. When we became energy-independent a few years ago, that was a game-changer for all of our international strategy. And we cannot go back to that again.

CAVUTO: Senator, if I can go back to stimulus, if you don't mind, it looks like it's going nowhere fast.

I mean, we keep getting these teases that Republicans, Democrats, Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and Nancy Pelosi are getting closer to ironing out their differences, but that it's a moot point in the Senate, where you are, that Mitch McConnell's made it clear right now that that's a pretty expensive piece of potential legislation, so nothing happens.

At a minimum, nothing happens certainly before Election Day. Do you agree with that?

LANKFORD: Yes, I don't think anything happens before Election Day, because there's not even time to get it written and to be able to actually do a vote between now and then. We're so close to the election.

A piece of legislation like this, as you know well, is a long piece of legislation. That can't even be written, proofed, prepped and set up for a vote in this short of a time period.

Saying all that, the focus that we have had among Senate Republicans is, there is desperate need that's out there. And we should meet that need. But we want to focus on the common ground areas that we can all see; 92 percent of America is working now, 92 percent.

So, let's target what we're doing towards that 8 percent that is not working right now, and try to determine what we need to do for schools, what we need to do for testing, what we need to do for vaccines, what we need to do for small businesses that need a second round of paycheck protection, because they're not going to survive this year, for nonprofits that are providing for human needs so well all across the country, and for unemployment benefits for those individuals that are long-term unemployed, to make sure we're providing that need.

But that's not a multitrillion-dollar package to do that and what the House wants to do. That's a targeted package to say, let's find the areas that we know need to be done. Let's do those, including things like the liability protections that universities and businesses across the country have said, we really need this to be able to operate day to day.

CAVUTO: All right, Senator Lankford, thank you very, very much. We will see what happens next week.

I have a feeling it's going to be a slightly busy week, as all these weeks lately have been.

Yesterday, you saw -- and the big fuss over this Tony Bobulinski, and a lot of people just wondering, who else is going to talk to him?

What if I told you quite a few, quite a few?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, the president has arrived at The Villages in Florida right now.

He's going to be busy in Florida. He's going to be in Pensacola later tonight. We already know that Barack Obama plans to do some campaigning on behalf of Joe Biden in Miami tomorrow.

So, Florida is front and center, with polls showing the race has tightened up considerably here.

The president will no doubt be seizing on some things that came up in the debate yesterday, including some faux pas -- at least, we're told, it sounds that way -- about Joe Biden and his plans for energy and maybe eventually phasing out the oil and gas industry as we know it.

Let's go to Florida right now and the president of the United States.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Thank you.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And hello, Florida. Hello, Florida. It's great to be with you and back at The Villages. I like The Villages.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Turn the mic up.

It's great to be with you. It's something I have wanted to do. I was here four years ago in some little ballroom that held about 400 people. And I said, I want to be with The Villages, everybody. I said, get a field or do something.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Just go out and get a field. Go out and get a field. And that's what they did. They got a lot of people here.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

And I see you driving around in those beautiful golf carts, the most beautiful carts. I want to get one. I'm going to get a golf cart like that.

But you have the best. And you're always fighting for me, and I'm always fighting for you. And I appreciate it.

That's why we're here.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And we had an exciting night last night with sleepy Joe.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: But I'm always here to protect you and love, cherish, defend our nation's seniors. And not all of you are seniors.

I see a lot of people that are very young in this group.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I see a lot of people that are young at heart, right? We're young at heart, all of us.

And the timeless values that make this nation the greatest nation anywhere in the world. Eleven days from now, we're going to win the state of Florida. We're going to win for more years in the White House.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I think Joe Biden proved last night that he's not capable of being president of the United States.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Come on, Gabe (ph).

The country saw firsthand that this election is a choice between a Trump recovery and I will call it, because that's what's happening, it's a Trump super recovery, and a Biden depression, because you will have a depression.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Who has 401(k)s in this group, anybody?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: If he got in, wave bye-bye to your 401(k), because it's going down the tubes.

It's a choice between optimism, patriotic vision for American success, or Joe Biden's dark, dismal, gloomy -- do you hear what he said last night about darkness, darkness? Always darkness.

But it's a gloomy vision. We're about the American dream, all about the American dream, greatest country in the world.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Joe Biden is totally controlled by the radical socialist left.

This country will never be a socialist country, never.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: One of the most stunning moments last night was when Joe Biden admitted that he wants to abolish the oil industry. That wasn't too good.

Did you see him this morning?

This morning, I didn't really mean that. I didn't mean that. That was the last question. They talked about that. And I said, whoa, this is the big point of the evening. Remember? I said well, you want to get rid of oil and gas? Is that -- yes, we want to phase it out.

I said, thank you. Texas, are you watching? Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Ohio, are you watching? Now they're going around. Kamala -- Kamala is going around saying, no, no, no, we want to keep it. This woman is a super radical left. She's against fracking.

If they get into, they will end your energy independence. We have energy independence right now. They will end it very quickly. Now they're going around trying to make -- that was one of the -- well, we're going to have to see how it works out. But that could be one of the worst mistakes made in presidential debate history.

We're going to see. We hope it is.

This is perhaps the most shocking admission ever made during a debate, where he goes in and he says no fracking. But he's been saying it. No fracking. He got the nomination. All of a sudden, he's fracking. No fossil fuels and no gas-powered cars.

Ultimately, let's not have cars. Let's get rid of airplanes. How about that senator from Hawaii, where she went along with the Green New Deal?

(BOOING)

TRUMP: And she said, yes, I'm in favor of it, said, yes, but you're not allowed to use airplanes under the Green New Deal. And she's in Hawaii. She said, well, I don't know what to tell you.

And then she says, maybe we can build a bridge to Hawaii instead. She's a beauty, isn't she? She's great.

Biden's plan would be, in America, seniors have no air conditioning during the summer, no heat during the winter, and no electricity during peak hours. It's true. He wants wind. He wants wind.

When the wind doesn't blow, let's watch the president tonight darling on television. I'm sorry. We can't. The wind is not blowing tonight.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Last night, Biden pledged to institute the most horrible and dangerous immigration policy ever in this country, catch and release. He wants to bring it back. Took me two years to get rid of it. That's where you catch a criminal. Could be a rapist. Could be a murderer, a real criminal.

And you just release the criminal and say, please come back in four years.

Did you see what he said last night? He said no, and then they come back for court. I said, no, they don't come back, Joe, 1 percent.

He said they come back. No, I said, Joe, you don't know anything about it.

They don't come back. This is a very bad policy, Joe. They don't come back.

They need Perry Mason, but they don't get Perry Mason. They just don't come back.

Criminals and rapists and even murderers are set free. And they're set free into our country. It's ended now. It was very hard to get ended. What I had to do to end it, I will not tell you.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I will not tell the people of The Villages. I won't tell the people of The Villages.

By the way, you love it here, right?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I don't know. It's a popular -- it's an incredible, popular place. I see it so much. It's incredible, the love, the spirit.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: So, do you love the people that developed it? I think so, right?

Right?

It's nice to have somebody. But that was the same love as you had for the...

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: No, no, know somebody did a good job. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Look at this guy. Look. Beautiful. Look, it's Uncle Sam. Come here, Uncle Sam. Look at this guy.

Look, this is a hell of a day. Mr. Congressman, how are you? When are you getting married? Are you getting married soon, please? Don't lose her, Congressman. You will be very depressed.

Biden says America is nothing more than an idea, right? He also said -- didn't he say Antifa is just an idea too? So he's saying -- only at The Villages can you say this.

No, he said America was an idea. But come to think of it, he said Antifa is an idea too, right? Well, America is not an idea. It's a great country, OK?

It's a great country.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And America is our home. It's a nation. And it's a nation that has borders, you know?

When you have borders, you have a nation. You take away the borders -- they want to take away the borders. They want to take down the wall. The wall is now 400-plus-miles long. How about that?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And it goes very high and very low. Goes down deep, for two reasons.

To hold it up is one. That's a good reason, but also for the tunnels.

And Arizona's very happy. We just got back, Pam, some numbers from Arizona, very good. Numbers from Florida, I don't want to talk about it. Look at all the fake news back there. I want to talk about it.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: I don't want to talk about it.

Look at all those people. There's the great John Roberts, who is, generally speaking, very good, John, generally, but he has bad moments.

Hello, John. You having a good time? He is a good guy. John is good. John is good. They're not all fake, just about 85 percent of them.

But isn't it amazing? Some day, I would like to make a speech without any press, without any press.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: One little mistake, and they try and take you out. And I do this four times a day. It's crazy.

So, we're going on a tour for the next 10 days. Can you believe it? We're down to 10, 11 days. And we will be doing two or three of these, and then four of these. And then we're going to end up five or six of these a day.

Do you believe that? Is this any kind of a life? Is this a life?

Who can do that? Who can do that? You think sleepy Joe can do that? I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think he can do it. I knew there was a reason I wanted to be at The Villages. It was a hard thing.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: This was very hard. They said they have no field that's large enough. I said, do they have a polo field someplace? Let's get a polo...

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Look at that equipment. Look at those helicopters. How good are they?

Everything is good -- $2.5 trillion, we should have good helicopters, huh?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: But if Biden wins, your borders will be gone, and your country will be gone, frankly.

Look, this is not a man that's capable. When I meet with these heads of state, one thing I can tell you, they're sharp. They're sharp. They're not off. They're sharp. This is not a man that can handle the job.

He leaves his house this morning, gets up. And I'm going to talk about it.

All he talks about is COVID, COVID, COVID, because they want to scare people. And we have done so well with it. Now it's 99.8 percent.

I mean, you look at what's going on. And we're rounding the turn. We're rounding the corner. We're rounding the corner beautifully.

But Joe Biden was very disrespectful last night to President Barack Hussein Obama. You saw that, Barack Hussein Obama. Remember, Rush Limbaugh would always do that. He would do Barack Hussein Obama.

And Rush is doing OK. You know, Rush is great, isn't he? Do we love Rush?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: He's got such guts. He's going through a lot, but he's got courage like few people have. He always has had courage.

At last night's debate, though, he was very disrespectful, really disrespectful, what he said, that he, Joe, was vice president, not president, blaming Obama, when trying to make excuses for their failed immigration policies, right?

You saw that. I wasn't the president. It was him, because we talked about cages, right? I said, Joe, you built the cages. You remember, they tried to say cages for children. And they said, Trump built cages.

And they found there was a little problem. There was a picture of The New York Times, the failing New York Times. It's -- if you take a look at what its unfunded liability is, check it out sometime. It's definitely failing.

It's only a question of when.

But you take a look at the failing New York Times, and they had a picture of a cage. And they thought that I built it. And it said, cage. And then somebody called me. They said, sir, that was built. One of the people that helped build it -- that was built in 2014. I said, 2014, I didn't happen to be president.

It was built under Obama/sleepy Joe Biden. And so did you notice when I kept saying, why did you build the cages, Joe? Why did you -- and he just kept talking. He didn't want any part of it. But they started it.

If you want jobs, safety and borders, you have to vote for the party of Abraham Lincoln, Honest Abe.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Vote Republican.

And I'm voting early tomorrow in Florida. Do you believe it? I'm coming to vote.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I came down here to vote.

I actually came down to see The Villages. And, tomorrow morning, I'm voting here, as opposed to sending it in, you know, those mail-in.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I like being able to vote. I'm old-fashioned, I guess. I like to get on line, and if I have to stand there for two hours. Maybe they will move you up a little bit.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: But I like to vote. So I'm coming. I'm going to be voting here tomorrow.

And I urge every one of you to go and vote. And I don't think I have to urge too many. How many people here have already voted?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: That's incredible. Thank you.

Look at you. How many people here have voted for President Trump?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: How many people here have voted for sleepy Joe Biden, please?

(BOOING)

TRUMP: I don't see any hands. I tend to believe them.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Sleepy Joe, no, he's not the guy.

For 47 years, Joe Biden sent American jobs to China and other nations, while the Bidens vacuumed up -- look, did you see what's going on with his son? I mean, he goes into a country. The guy leaves with, like, volumes of money -- vacuumed up millions of dollars all over the globe.

Last night, Joe lied straight to the American people. He claimed that he had never taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life, ever. No, I mean, he goes -- and think of it.

His son, without a job, his son, without a job, knows nothing about energy.

Have you -- these young people in front, do you know anything about energy?

No. She said no. She knows more than Hunter.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Remember, where's Hunter? Where is he? By the way, where the hell is Hunter? Where's Hunter?

Remember the T-shirt? I said one time, where's Hunter? The next day, they had a T-shirt, "Where's Hunter?"

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: There he is.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Hunter, you gained weight.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: But you look even better. You still look better.

Anyway, no, but think of it. He gets lined up with this Ukrainian energy company, not the highest reputation, $183,000 a month to be on the board, right? Gets a $3 million up-front payment. Then that's only first nation.

Then he goes -- he has no knowledge of energy whatsoever. Anybody in this audience knows more. They then go to China. Let's go to China. He gets $1.5 billion to manage, meaning millions of dollars a year in fees.

He then goes to Russia. He gets $3.5 million from the mayor of Moscow's wife, $3.5 million. And Obama was in charge of all of that stuff. Then they stole the Crimea. They stole the submarine port, Russia. And Russia takes it. And he's in charge of Russia.

But he got $3.5 million. So what's going on with that? So, he was in charge of Ukraine, China, Russia. That was sort of a responsibility of the vice president. And he got money from all of them. And he got it from his son.

And his son made no money for years. And, all of a sudden, he's making all this money.

They're corrupt politicians, OK? You say what you want. And then you see the notes, and you see the gentleman that got up yesterday, and you see what he had to say. And he's a legitimate person. But you see the notes, and you see that Joe gets 10 percent of everything, right?

And, Pam, he got 50 percent of something. And then the guy has a deal in China where he wants to get $10 million a year, $10 million a year, for introductory purposes. In other words, he's going to introduce people.

You know who he's going to introduce? His father. That's who he is going to introduce.

No, it's a bad -- it's a bad deal. It's a bad deal. It's corrupt as hell. I don't care what you say.

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