Trump campaign alleges mishandling of ballots, other irregularities

This is a rush transcript from “The Story with Martha MacCallum” November 12, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Hey there, Bret, good to see you tonight. Good evening everybody. I'm Martha MacCallum and this is "The Story" tonight. As COVID-19 ramps up nationwide, we got hotspots over most of the country. The potential for a new national lockdown is now in the works and the backlash to that is also firing up, after this suggestion from an advisor to President-Elect Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, BIDEN COVID-19 ADVISOR: We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for our individual workers, for our losses to small companies to medium size companies or city states, county governments, we can do all of that. If we did that, then we could lockdown for 4 to 6 weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Already Governors and Mayors from New York to Chicago are cracking down on businesses that were just starting to get out of the woods. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): "Bars and restaurants are one of the identified spreaders. So they will close at 10:00 o'clock. Gyms have to close at 10:00 o'clock. No more than 10 in a private residence for a party".

MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D-IL), CHICAGO: In response to this clear second surge. We have already undertaken a number of measures, including instituting a curfew for nonessential business operations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So as governors another states like Mississippi say that they would not comply with a lockdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TATE REEVES (R-MS): But we are not going to participate in a nationwide lockdown. This notion that one of his - one of his advisors has said that all we really need is about a six-week national lockdown and we can slow down the spread of this virus is totally and completely beyond reasonableness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: And there is resistance to this idea out there. Take a look at this new Gallup Poll, just 40 percent of Republicans say that they would follow that advice down from 74 percent in the spring. 87 percent of Democrats say they would do so now and that is down 4 percent from the last peaks in March and April. So, in moment we will speak with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who has clashed with Dr. Fauci on the effectiveness of lockdowns.

And then later in the hour, Kayleigh McEnany on the President's Election battles in multiple states, we will get you caught up on that, but we begin tonight with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Secretary Azar, thank you very much for being here tonight. Good to have you.

ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Glad to be with you Martha, thanks for having me.

MACCALLUM: So, what's your opinion on that suggestion from Dr. Osterholm that what we need in this obvious second surge is, is a six-week total lockdown across the country to snuff it out?

AZAR: Well, Martha, I got a lot of respect for Dr. Osterholm. But I do think we should be driven by science and data and the facts here and they simply do not support the notion of locking down the country, sheltering in place. You know, it's important the American people know the facts and the simple facts are that our colleges are not mechanisms for major spread of the disease. Our kids in K-12 are not mechanisms of majors, but we are not seeing those as settings for major spreaders of the disease. Our normal workplaces are not settings for major spread of disease. Air travel is not a setting for that. Health care work - our health care setting, going to the doctor has not been a major factor of disease. What we are seeing is the cause of this--

MACCALLUM: So, what is - where is it coming from?

AZAR: Here and in Europe is, its indoor gatherings as we've gotten cold weather. We go in our houses with friends and neighbors and we are not protecting ourselves by watching our distance and wearing our face coverings or getting into other indoor settings where we are not doing those things. That's what's driving this.

MACCALLUM: So, do you agree with the 10 percent rule that is being put in place in New York now? And do you think that people shouldn't gather in groups more than ten for Thanksgiving?

AZAR: Well, I'm not going to get into second guessing governors and mayors about their interventions like that. But I will say our CDC guidance which is up on coronavirus.gov gives you advice about that risk continuum. And the more people you have over the more you're at risk, ok. If you have more people together that are not household members, you're getting at risk and you got to be extra careful then about distance and wearing face coverings.

But we've got real practical suggestions. Open your window if you can to increase ventilation. If you've got a ceiling fan, turn it so that it points upwards so advance upwards. Use single serving things for the food.

The most important thing is if--

MACCALLUM: Sure.

AZAR: Even if we sacrifice this year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we want to make sure that everyone in your family is available next year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, you can celebrate fully.

MACCALLUM: Let me ask you this. That's for sure. Let me ask you this. Are we still seeing the same demographics affected? Is it still mostly the elderly and people who have serious comorbidities, because from the numbers that I am seeing, that has not changed in this really tremendous resurgence that we've seen across the country?

AZAR: That's Right, Martha. The elderly and those who have comorbid conditions are the ones who are most likely to be hospitalized and unfortunately those most likely to die from this. The rate of mortality of those under the age of 70 is less than 1 percent and as you get lower, it becomes quite rare. We don't want or see anyone die what's important though is if you're 18 years old and you're carrying this disease, you can give it to that grandfather, that great grandmother, that household gathering and how tragic that would be. You wouldn't want that in your conscious. So, we ask people, please be careful.

MACCALLUM: Absolutely not, absolutely not. With regard to this lockdown idea, so why isn't the guidance to ask, you know older people to stay home, to lockdown for - until they can get a vaccine, which seems like a pretty practical timeframe at this point or people with comorbidities, to go at it that way, to protect those populations instead of shutting down some of these places that have just had a chance to reopen?

AZAR: Well, we do ask those who are most vulnerable to look out for themselves, to really stay extra careful and avoid settings, especially where they can be put at risk. But you know, Martha, we have some key tools in our - just that are - in our toolbox here, just wearing a face covering it works. We put out data from CDC just the other day that if two individuals are wearing face coverings at 1 meter apart, they reduce the spread of the virus by over 70 percent. You now have data showing we don't just protect from spreading the disease by wearing a mask, but also you protect yourself from receiving the disease by wearing the mask.

MACCALLUM: So, when will we get to a point you know we've heard - when will this - what's the FDA process like right now on this Pfizer vaccine? How long is it going to take for the FDA to approve it and get it in the pipeline?

AZAR: So, Martha, we really had a historic week thanks to President Trump and his support of operation warp speed, which I pulled together earlier this year, this whole government approach. Pfizer announced this data on Monday over 90 percent effectiveness of this vaccine and then later that day we approved Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibodies to treat individuals who are test positive to help keep them out of the hospital.

Last night what Derrida (ph) said they have reached a critical milestone within days they have data for us on their vaccine. This afternoon we had announced a historic partnership with pharmacies around the country to make sure that any COVID vaccine is accessible to people who are rural, underserved areas, the convenience of your local pharmacy. The Pfizer vaccine, once they submit an application to the FDA, obviously FDA will review that as quickly as possible.

But they're going to make sure we don't cut any corners. We want to make sure any vaccine is safe and effective. We believe though that by the end of December we will be in a position to vaccinate our most vulnerable people. And by the end of January all of our senior citizens, all of our health care workers and all of our emergency first responders and that by the end of March to early April have enough vaccine for any American who wants it.

MACCALLUM: All right, Secretary Azar, thank you. Good to have you here tonight. We certainly hope that all of those timelines can get rolling, because everybody is - I think there is so much fatigue and I think so many people are finding this second wave, you know, really stretching their ability to cope with it all. Thank you very much. Good to have you here tonight.

AZAR: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: All right. Let's bring in Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Senator, great to have you with us. You know just - starting on that note, are you shocked at how red the entire country is when you look at that heat map and how widespread this is in the second wave?

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): You know, I think that when you're looking at the incidents, it's important to know that yes, we have 4 times more cases of COVID than we had in the spring, but we have half as many deaths, so the interesting thing is when you look at the mortality, mortality is down to about 88 percent lower than it was in the spring.

So there is some good news here. A lot of good things were happening, we are doing better at treating a virus, but we are also doing a better job at, you know - I think there's evidence that there's rising immunity and people are doing a better job fighting this off and there's much more a symptom medic cases then there was in the spring.

MACCALLUM: So I want to play something for you in terms of the political side of this whole equation. Because we did get this virus that was just announced in the days following the election and I just want to play Dr.

Fauci shortly before the election at the end of October and then what he had to say this morning, very different tone from him in these two sound bites. Listen for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: I think it will be easily by the end of

2021 and perhaps even into the next year before we start having some semblances of normality.

FAUCI: Health is really on the way. You know, if you think about it metaphorically, you know, the cavalry is coming here. Vaccines are going to have a major positive impact. If we could just hang in there, do the public health measures that we are talking about, we are going to get this under control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: I mean that's a pretty diametrically opposed statement and in feel, in every way from Dr. Fauci, Senator.

PAUL: You know, I've always said that I want to believe that he is well intentioned, but I think he is biased in the sense that he believes in government solutions he believes that some missions in lockdown are fine.

He's not too worried about individual liberties. But he also tends to gloss over the science, because we've had this debate back and forth about immunity and I've been saying all along that I think the children have some sort of pre-existing immunity. The tests are now backing me up on this.

So, there was an article in science just in the last two weeks saying that kids have antibodies to coronavirus colds and that there's cross reactivity that seems to be protecting them. But the other thing is that we have 11 million people in our country who have already had COVID. We should tell them to celebrate, we should tell them to throw away their masks, go to restaurant, live again, because these people are now immune. But Dr. Fauci doesn't want to admit to any of that.

Dr. Fauci is like oh, woe, is me until the election occurs and now maybe he will be changing his attitude. But the bottom line is there's a great deal of optimism that we should have out there not just with the vaccine, but with the immunity that kids may have pre-existing and with the immunity the

11 million people got from having the disease.

MACCALLUM: Yes. You know but they are not treated any differently. You know, nobody treats it like there's an antibody that is actually valid, Dr.

Paul, I mean it's really interesting to me. And there's even a suggestion that all of those folks should probably consider getting immunized as well.

PAUL: You know and I'm not against them ultimately being immunized. I've had it and I may someday take the vaccine but I'm going to let the vulnerable people, the people over 80, the people over 70, the people who have diseases, you know, kids don't need it first in line either. The death rate for kids is less than the seasonal flu for this. So kids can wait a long time or until there's plenty of vaccine, let's vaccinate the vulnerable. But let's don't ignore that those of us who have it have immunity. When they test to see whether the vaccine makes antibodies, they use the people who had the disease as a positive control--

MACCALLUM: Exactly.

PAUL: --to say what is it looks like to somebody who gets natural immunity.

MACCALLUM: Yes. So, if there was no immunity there would be no vaccine theory at all.

PAUL: Exactly.

MACCALLUM: So, you know, in terms of the lockdown, what you hear from this gentleman, Dr. Osterholm, who is going to be on Joe Biden's task force, President-Elect task force. He says maybe a six-week lockdown nationally would be a good idea. What do you think?

PAUL: You know, it scares me to death because - but I think it's consistent with our philosophy. In the free society, individuals make their decisions based on risk and they will make their choices on how they choose to whether they drive a car, whether they go to a restaurant, whether they wear a mask. These would be individual decisions but in authoritarianism, the central authority tells you what to do and when to do it. So, these are the same people who also believe in socialism and command-and-control economy where the government dictates all of your economic behaviors. So, it's not much of a stretch to believe that they would also dictate your personal behavior as well.

MACCALLUM: All right. Senator Rand Paul, thank you very much. Good to have you here tonight, sir. So still ahead tonight, Kayleigh McEnany on the President's pursuit of legal action in multiple states. Where does the White House stand on that process tonight? And General Jack Keane on the shakeup at the Pentagon and reports that there could be a coming troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Jack Keane, General Jack Keane will weigh in on all of that, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: There are some big questions tonight about a major leadership shakeup that is underway at the Pentagon weeks before inauguration day.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper and three other top defense department leaders are now out, and they have been replaced by 5 officials who have long been loyal to President Trump, led by the new Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.

"The New York Times" notes that the President has "elevated officials who have pushed for more aggressive actions against Iran and for an imminent withdrawal of all-American forces from Afghanistan over the objections of the military", they write. Also pointing out so far there is no evidence that the appointees harbor a secret agenda or have arrived with an action plan.

Joining me now, retired Four-Star General Jack Keane, Chairman of the Institute for the Study of War and a Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst.

General, I can't think of a better person to talk to about all of this. And I wanted to know when I heard all of this what your reaction is, does it concern you?

GEN. JACK KEANE, INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR: No, not much at all to be honest with you, Martha. I mean this is another one of the stories that just gets completely out of hand and the story - we've got even our own Pentagon reporters hyping the story, which is, kind of, sad to see. What do we really have here? We have a president who is completely within his authority to remove a cabinet official, in this case Secretary Esper, who by the way I provided some advice to myself. And he did that, as I understand it because he didn't believe the Secretary Esper, not any particularly one thing but a whole series of things was executing the President's agenda.

So, it's certainly within his right to do that and he's put in some acting people here and Acting Secretary of Defense and an acting policy person, a couple of other people resigned. And it looks to me that they are custodians. If the president is going to have another term, I would imagine he would do what he's done before and that is send the actual principles up to get confirmed and I doubt they would be these people, to be frank about it.

So, I don't know why everyone is so concerned about it. I guess people think because these individuals may have had some alarming agendas that they were supporting in the past, that somehow that would now become the President's agenda. That doesn't make any sense. I mean, Martha in terms

of--

MACCALLUM: Let me say this - go ahead.

KEANE: Go ahead. And in terms of the--

MACCALLUM: I just want to play this, this is from. Yes, that's - let me play this and then I will get you're--

KEANE: Sure.

MACCALLUM: ...reaction to this. This is Colonel Doug Macgregor, let's watch this. This is a flashback sound bite from him, September.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUGLAS MACGREGOR, SR ADVISOR TO ACTING SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: He's got to get out of Afghanistan. That has to happen as soon as possible. Talking to the Taliban is unnecessary. They are not going to honor any agreements.

It's time to get our forces out, get the embassy out. The nations in the region have an interest in the place, they want to have to deal with it, let them deal with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So, you know Lindsey Graham and others react strongly to that.

They don't want to see a troop withdrawal. I think that we need troops in Afghanistan in order to keep the Taliban in check and to have a presence in that part of the world. Do you think this signals that we are going to see a withdrawal by Christmas, which the President tweeted about not that long ago?

KEANE: Why do we care what Colonel retired Macgregor thinks, who is nothing only than an advisor to the new acting guy who is the Secretary of Defense, why are we so invested in him I mean, what he is espousing there and also to pull out of North Korea and pull of Europe that he doesn't seen alliance that's worth anything, I mean, President Trump didn't appoint him. Why are we transferring what Macgregor thinks to a possibility of what the president is thinking? I know for a fact that they've gone through a deliberate process again today with the total National Security Team in place to discuss our troop commitments.

There's no change in any of those plans. We are committed with modest forces in Iraq, we are committed with modest forces in Syria and we are committed to a time team - a time place withdrawal out of Afghanistan based on the conditions that are established there. And to pull out precipitously as Macgregor suggests would undermine the peace process with President Trump had a hand in playing. He would be defeating his own purposes. We are hyping this thing Martha.

MACCALLUM: Yes, right.

KEANE: We are hyping it.

MACCALLUM: Yes. All right, General Jack Keane. I think a lot of people hope you're right about that and so we really appreciate you coming on tonight.

Good to speak with you as always, General.

KEANE: Yes. Thanks.

MACCALLUM: Thank you, sir. Up next, to look at who is in the running to replace Mike Pompeo at the State Department when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: There appears to be another GOP victory in the house to report tonight after Congressman Max Rose, a moderate Democrat from New York's 11th District to never mention in any of his advertising that he was a Democrat, has now lost his seat, it appears to Republican Nicole Malliotakis. New York 11 is one of the many districts that supported President Trump in 2016 but flipped to Democrats in the 2018 midterms and now it appears that that seat has flipped back again by a 15-point margin.

Malliotakis becomes the 16th Republican woman to be elected to Congress in 2020, a big story as we watch this Congress come together for the next session.

So this week in Washington, of course there's endless speculation over who the President-Elect would appoint in various positions in his cabinet. The Former VP will need to walk up a bit of a tight rope, appeasing the progressives who voted for him and Republicans who might still have control of the senate.

Beginning tonight, we are going to take an in-depth look at some of the names being floated for each of these posts, their history, what you could expect from them in that job and the policies they are most likely to recommend to the President. Correspondent Rich Edson kicks us off tonight with a look at the top contenders for Secretary of State.

RICH EDSON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Martha. It is among the most coveted positions in a presidential administration, leading American foreign policy. There are several contenders President-Elect Joe Biden is expected to consider for Secretary of State, among them, Former Obama National Security Advisor and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice.

Biden also considered her as a potential Vice Presidential pick. Rice may have a more difficult senate confirmation go as Republicans have accused her of misleading the public about the 2012 Benghazi attacks. Rice has said at the time that she was sharing information that the intelligence community gave her. Also in contention, Senator Chris Coons, the fellow Delaware Democrat is friends with Biden and serves on the foreign relations committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): But if asked, I would be honored to serve. Joe was someone who has long been a leader in foreign policy. I've served on the foreign relations committee a decade and there's a lot of hard work for us to do to reengage with the world and restore our place of leadership on the world stage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EDSON: There's also Ambassador William Burns, a career diplomat who served as ambassador to Russia and Jordan and also in State Department leadership.

He's the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Antony Blinken, he's worked as Biden's top foreign policy advisor and served in the Obama administration as deputy national security visor and deputy secretary of state.

There are other Democrats floated from Capitol Hill like Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy. To those who also worked in the Obama administration, like former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power among others.

Biden is already moving forward speaking to foreign leaders. His transition team says he stressed international coordination to address COVID, the global economy, security and climate change.

Also important for this decision, it's unclear who will run the confirmation process. Control of the Senate is up to two special elections in Georgia scheduled for the first week in January. Martha?

MACCALLUM: All right, Rich Edson, thank you very much, Rich.

Joining me now, Kiron Skinner, former director of policy planning at the Department of State under Secretary Pompeo and a Fox News contributor.

Kiron, great to have you with us tonight.

So, when you listen to Rich's piece, would you think is the front runner, who jumps out in your mind as the one who's probably confirmable and somebody Joe Biden would want at that spot?

KIRON SKINNER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think Senator Coons among all of them is the one who is the most bipartisan. He's known as a senator who has worked across the aisle, prominently in the foreign policy arena and served as a legislator alongside Biden, so I think there is a good chance that he could be confirmed with perhaps no problem and that's the major consideration, as you know.

In terms of the other --

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: Yes, absolutely.

SKINNER: -- they all -- they bring something to the table that's important.

For example, Tony Blinken. He has a long history with Biden as well as a former national security advisor to him when he was vice president for President Obama. He served in the second-highest position at the State Department, so he knows the building. The State Department needs to be rebuilt in terms of bringing more diversity in the foreign service and in the civil service ranks.

Susan Rice is enormously talented and has served in many foreign policy positions and addressing hot spots around the world from a very young age and has a strong relationship with the vice president. They spent many hours together on difficult decisions in the situation room and I think those are lifelong bonding experiences.

You mentioned Ambassador William Burns, and he is someone who knows the State Department perhaps better than anyone else in the clip you just played and he comes -- he has come -- he came up through the ranks and then went on to the very prestigious position of heading the Carnegie Endowment in Washington.

So, he's all of these colleagues and their colleagues and friends, they know each other well, they know the vice president well. This will be the first time in the 21st century I think, around U.S. foreign policy that we have on inauguration day a president who will have a foreign policy team that could be up and running really day one, because Biden, as you know, has been on the scene for nearly 50 years.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

SKINNER: So, he's picking among friends for this position.

MACCALLUM: Sure. I mean, the Susan rice option is interesting. I wonder if she would face a tougher time in a Senate confirmation setting. She was a national security advisor, U.N. ambassador. Neither one of those put you through the Senate confirmation process. Kiron, quickly, before I let you go, what do you think about that?

SKINNER: I think, you know, 2012 should not be held over her head for the rest of her life and everyone who served for a long time in the policy arena has had some stumbles along the way and I think she can make her case, she can talk about it, but I would not say that she should be disqualified because of the past. That means there's almost no one who would be good. If we put a complete microscope on every single person.

MACCALLUM: Yes. Good point. Kiron, thank you very much. Good to have you here tonight. We'll see who he picks. Thanks for weighing in.

SKINNER: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: Kayleigh McEnany with an update on President Trump's fight against alleged voter fraud in multiple states. She's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: So this hour President-elect Biden continues full steam ahead with his transition and the Trump campaign is litigating at least 15 lawsuits across three states alleging a slew of problems including mishandling ballots and unfair treatment of poll workers.

This as the president made several new accusations on Twitter today citing a report that a most three million votes cast for him nationwide were deleted and that Republican poll watchers were not allowed in the counting rooms in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Both tweets were flagged by Twitter as disputed.

Here now White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany who is here tonight in her capacity as a Trump campaign advisor. kayleigh, good to have you with us. I know you've been busy.

You know, but before we start, there is some pushback about you wearing these two hats. You know, folks say look, she's being paid with White House taxpayer dollars to be the press secretary and now you're over in this other position. What do you say to them about that? How do you answer those criticisms?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, first, I'm cleared by White House counsel, the Hatch Act, some may not understand this but it says this, that you separate your political role in your White House role.

You do not lose first amendment rights when you come into government, the same rights that allow the press to have freedom of press allow me to have the right to political speech.

So, so long as I separate the two, I'm actually complying with the Hatch Act that and notably the same critics were criticizing others in the administration for engaging in political speech on government property. I have chosen to separate the two in compliance with the Hatch Act.

MACCALLUM: OK. Just wanted to ask you that up top. Now let's talk about the mood at the White House and from the president tonight. I was listening to Jonathan Swan earlier talking about reporting that he has done that indicates that there is sort of a split look at this, that the president wants to keep fighting because he wants people to feel that their vote counts, but that there may be an increasing acceptance that this -- that it looks difficult for things to end with this going his way. Where does it stand really tonight?

MCENANY: Well, where it stands is this. Our Pennsylvania filing that was just put through, really, it's significant because it would affect tens of thousands of votes potentially in Pennsylvania and what it says is this, that in some Democrat counties, seven in particular, voters were given an opportunity to correct their ballot.

They were notified in advance, hey, your ballot, your mail-in ballot isn't right, come and cast a new ballot whereas in the other 60 countries, voters weren't given that advantage. That's a real equal protection violation and likewise we believe that the counting process, the Pennsylvania legislature constitutionally decides how these elections work and they say you need a signature, you need an address, you need a date.

I mean, we know in Philadelphia and two other counties those ballots were actually counted without those legislative requirements.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

MCENANY: So we believe it could affect a lot and we deserve to look at this because everyone in this country deserves to vote and deserves the right and same amount of enfranchisement.

MACCALLUM: So that is a decision that went your way in Pennsylvania today and do you believe that that would nudge the Supreme Court to get involved?

MCENANY: Yes, I think it certainly could. You know, the case you're referring to today was a Pennsylvania state court decision and it was significant. The secretary of state, who has put out anti-Trump tweet, was basically rebuked and they said no, article one section four of the Constitution matters and in fact the legislature gets to say this, not a politically motivated secretary of state.

And Martha, this has implications for elections to come. We have to fight these principles because when we have a number of allegations, these people deserve to be heard, President Trump will fight for them and the Constitution should work as the founders intended it to.

MACCALLUM: Yes. I think you're right -- I think that people -- everyone accepts skepticism about what this looks like. There is something like 70 percent of Republicans think that there's not a free and fair election and that's a very disturbing number I think for any American to look at and when you look at some of these instances, we need to get this right.

So, you know, back to my question that I asked you earlier, is that the focus of the president right now, to make sure that this is fixed for the future, or does he honestly believe tonight that he still has a shot at changing enough votes out there that would allow him to keep the White House?

MCENANY: He certainly believes he still has a shot of this. It's two part.

I think both of these things that you said are true but when you look at the overall number of mail-in ballots in this country that are rejected nationwide, it is 1 percent. That is the average, that's what it was in 2016.

And the data we are getting out of some of these states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, is the rejection rate was .4 percent, .6 percent much lower than that, so we want to take a look and say hey, what went on here? Where you counting votes that didn't have signatures? We have affidavits and we want answers and we certainly think the vote totals could change. The president is still fighting for a second term here and this litigation will shed some light and pull back the curtain to some of the things that were going on.

MACCALLUM: All right. Let's put up this statement by the election council, which is a DHS group that just put out a statement tonight about this 2020 election and take a look at what they had to say on the screen here.

They call it the most -- the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history, there's no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.

And in the introduction, we talked about the president tweeting about millions of votes that were deleted. What do you say in light of their assessment at the Department of Homeland Security?

MCENANY: Well, first, I would say there certainly were software issues when you look at what happened on two counties in Michigan, and it's important we look at that and we have transparency and have observers who get a look at that and that's mentioned in our lawsuit.

But the real argument that we are making here and I encourage everyone to go look at the complaints that we filed in Pennsylvania and in Michigan and they are simply saying let's put a pause, let's look at this, let's make sure that a voter and a Republican county was able to cure their ballot in the same way a voter in Democrat county was.

Let's ask why were Republican poll watchers kept a football field away in some instances while 620,000 votes were tabulated in Philadelphia. Let's get to the bottom of this in a factual way, in a truthful way and be very careful on the information we are putting forward, which is what we've done. And I think if people read our lawsuit, they will understand what we were doing is just asking for transparency and we have to ask why Democrats aren't willing to provide that for us at this moment.

MACCALLUM: Yes, I mean -- I want to pull up this from Ron Klain. It's getting a lot of attention on Twitter back in 2014. The chief of staff that was chosen by President-elect Biden, he showed a graph and then at the bottom, you know, about voter fraud it said agreeing with the Rasmussen poll, 60 percent of Americans think elections are rigged for incumbents.

The focus of this piece was gerrymandering and he says that is because they are.

You know, the fact that -- in my mind when you look at this, it always feels like the side that -- when it doesn't go their way, they believe that there is massive fraud in the elections. And you know, I think back to a statement that you made about President Obama, you said that you called him a hero because he wanted to, he wanted Hillary Clinton to move on, to accept the consequences of the election and to see that peaceful transition of power. So, what do you say to people who look at that and see a bit of a double standard in the way that each side looks at these things?

MCENANY: Well, Hillary Clinton didn't provide hundreds of pages of affidavits of people saying that they were bullied, called the c word.

Republican poll observers racially harassed, pushed in some cases out of sight.

This has been going on a long time in Detroit in Philadelphia and it's taken a president like President Trump to say forgotten men and women, forgot no longer. I'm going to stand up for these poll observers who did not deserve to be treated in that matter and who deserve their legal right to observe the vote count.

MACCALLUM: Well, you know, we agree with every element of not wanting people to be able to cast a vote that is not legal. I think most people are so careful about the way that they vote and to see and hear these stories.

I heard them myself about people who, you know, walked in to vote and were told you already voted in a mail-in situation.

So, I think pursuing this is good for transparency and it's good for the election system overall. And we thank you for being here tonight, Kayleigh.

Kayleigh McEnany. Good to speak with you.

MCENANY: Thank you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: You bet. So, coming up, legendary talk show host Maury Povich on his latest endeavor as executive producer of a stunning new World War II film. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: As the nation honors our heroes this week, a new film embodies some of the feats of four servicemen that they endured during World War II.

Based on a true story, these four soldiers were sent on a suicide mission in Italy during the final days of the war.

In moments, long-time TV show host turned executive producer Maury Povich.

But first a look at "Recon."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are patrols, snipers, landmines. But we went on anyway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something's coming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get ready. Do not move.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is he saying?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I say he's a friend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guide us up the mountain and show us where the Germans are, see?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a bad feeling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You always got a bad feeling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Maury Povich joins me now, executive producer of "Recon" --

MAURY POVICH, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, RECON: Wow.

MACCALLUM: -- and the longest-running daytime talk show host. Maury, great to have you with us tonight.

POVICH: Martha --

MACCALLUM: This is an area of history that I love.

POVICH: Yes.

MACCALLUM: So, thanks for being here.

POVICH: It's good to be with you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: What made you want to tell this story, Maury?

POVICH: Well, I think more than anything else it's about -- it doesn't matter whether it's World War II or Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan, these are four young kids. They are drafted. You know, these are not volunteers, these are drafted. They are young teenagers. They are in their early 20s and they have to go on this mission.

They don't know whether they're coming back and all of the emotion that soldiers feel come out in this movie whether it be fear, whether it be danger, whether it be the unknown, and this Italian peasant that leads them up this mountain, they don't know whether they are for -- that he's for the Americans or he's for the Germans.

And this unknown play is a big part in the movie and it's a great -- it's a great look at what soldiers have to go through day after day when they are put in harm's way.

MACCALLUM: I was just watching that shot of them going over that bridge.

It's beautifully shot and you know, I know it's based on a book that also got a lot of attention.

POVICH: Yes.

MACCALLUM: So, you know, what drew you to executive producing?

POVICH: Well, I will tell you, the writing director Robert Port and I have known each other. He was president of my production company for many years.

We produced an academy award-winning short documentary in 2003 called "Twin Towers" about a New York fireman and New York policeman who were brothers, who both rushed to the scene of the "Twin Towers" and both of them died unfortunately that day. And it won an academy award.

So, Robert has been a terrific writer, director for many, many years. And this is his first feature film and you can see it on iTunes, PlayStation, Google Play, and all your favorite digital video on-demand services.

MACCALLUM: Well, it looks amazing. I watched the trailer --

POVICH: Yes.

MACCALLUM: -- and I'm really excited to download it --

POVICH: Thanks.

MACCALLUM: -- and watch the movie, Maury, so you are a legend.

POVICH: I think --

MACCALLUM: Great to have you with us tonight.

POVICH: Thank you, Martha. Say hi to my good golfing buddy Bret, will you?

MACCALLUM: I will do that. I absolutely will. You know, he can't wait to get back --

POVICH: OK.

MACCALLUM: -- out there after the long election. Thanks, Maury.

POVICH: I bet. Thank you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: Good to see you tonight.

POVICH: Nice to see you.

MACCALLUM: So, in this week's episode of the Untold Story podcast I spoke with a 95-year-old World War II veteran Frank Sisson who shared his incredible stories of marching with General Patton. He was in the Battle of the Bulge, and he was there helping to liberate the Dachau concentration camp. He is such a remarkable man and that conversation is available on FoxNewsPodcast.com or wherever you listen.

More of The Story after this, don't miss that podcast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: That is The Story of Thursday, November 12th, 2020. But as always, The Story continues so we'll see you back here tomorrow night at seven p.m. Have a great night, everybody. Thanks for being with us tonight.

We'll see you back here tomorrow. Good night.

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