Print
Close
Will the Florida recount affect the GOP?
Published November 16, 2018
This is a rush transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," November 16, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, ANCHOR: All right, forget about Florida. Did you hear about Georgia?
We are just getting word right now that the Democratic gubernatorial nominee and former House Democratic leader Stacey Abrams will be delivering brief remarks sometime this hour, maybe in the next hour, 5 p.m. Eastern time, her first since Election Day, that every vote is counted, that she's not going down without a fight.
She's going to be highlighting how much her campaign has done in the speech.
Hard to tell exactly what this will be about.
Steve Harrigan in Atlanta with the very, very latest.
Hey, Steve.
STEVE HARRIGAN, FOX NEWS: Neil, we are very likely to find out something within the next couple of hours here in Atlanta.
It's just not clear what that's going to be. Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate who trails by about 50,000 votes, is scheduled to speak in one hour's time from. Now, will it be a concession speech? It doesn't sound like at this point.
Or will it be an extreme legal challenge to this entire vote? Will the Abrams campaign, as they have discussed, issue a legal challenge, saying this vote in Georgia was so corrupt and so irregular, it affected the outcome, basically asking a judge to overthrow the vote and have an entire revote with the same candidates?
That would be a very high bar, a tough thing to achieve. They have talked about it. We don't know whether they're going to demand that or not.
As it stands right now, the Republican, Brian Kemp, in the next few hours, he could actually be certified as the winner this election. He stands at 50.2 percent of the vote. That would have to go below 50 percent for a runoff vote in December. Abrams would need 17,000 votes.
The tone here is changing. It's getting worse each day. The latest from Kemp saying that Abrams's behavior, not conceding, is -- quote -- "a ridiculous temper tantrum."
So we could see news in the coming hours, and tempers here growing shorter -- Neil, back to you.
CAVUTO: Steve Harrigan, thank you very, very much.
And then there is Florida. Did you see this from today? All right, what was interesting is, they're going back and forth, reports that they're busy at work, a hand recount is on. But let's say it's not going smoothly.
Peter Doocy in Lauderdale, Florida, with more on that.
Hey, Peter.
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS: Neil, workers have spent most of today looking at a big projector, trying to decipher what is on ballots that got spit out by machines, because they have too much ink on them.
In some cases, that is because somebody voted for both the Senate candidates, Bill Nelson and Rick Scott. In some cases, it's because people drew their own bubbles or squiggles on a ballot. In others, though, in most of them, people just left the Senate side blank.
And that means nobody gets the credit. And that is making it very tough for Bill Nelson to catch up to Rick Scott. He is nearly 13,000 votes behind. And even if he got all the contested ones today here in Broward, Nelson would only had about 500 to his total.
And this is the place where his lawyers have been hoping to find thousands of fresh Nelson votes. Nelson's team, though, not giving up the fight. His team just announced a fund-raising appeal asking for cash to help keep up with the deep-pocketed Scott campaign.
But Rick Scott is now accusing Nelson, the Democrat, of just battling this election out in court to alter election laws ahead of the 2020 presidential race. Nelson and the Democrat for governor, Andrew Gillum, are both banking, though, on having about 5,000 people turn out by 5:00 p.m. tomorrow.
Those are the ones that may have been notified late that signature mismatch on their ballots would invalidate their votes if it's not fixed. But, again, they would need a lot more ballots on their side next to their name to make up the difference -- Neil.
CAVUTO: All right, Peter, thank you very much, Peter Doocy.
Let's get the read right now from Joni Ernst. She's watching this very, very closely, the Iowa senator just chosen this week by her colleagues to be the GOP Conference vice chair, a very prominent role, to put it mildly.
And keep in mind, it was little more than a few years ago she made it to the Senate.
Senator, it's very good to have you.
SEN. JONI ERNST, R-IOWA: Thank you so much. Great to be with you, Neil.
CAVUTO: Same here. Congratulations.
ERNST: Oh, I appreciate it.
CAVUTO: What do you make, Senator, of what's going on in Florida?
What we do know, it won't change the fact that Republicans will still control the Senate. But it's a reminder, especially with a couple of seats that flipped the other way, that it might be roughly by the same numbers. Does that concern you, bother you, or you just move on?
ERNST: I think we are well situated in Florida.
And I think that Senator Nelson has served his country very well in the United States Senate. However, the folks of Florida have spoken. And I believe that Rick Scott will be make a wonderful new senator for the state of Florida. I think they should move on.
CAVUTO: Are you worried for 2020 that we might run into this all over again in Florida, that, surprising as this may sound, that they have not corrected problems that were in place 18 years ago?
ERNST: Well, I served as a commissioner of elections at the county level in the state of Iowa when I served as county auditor.
And, of course, we know that you need to have people of integrity that are running elections. And so if problems haven't been corrected, that responsibility falls directly on that commissioner of elections.
And, certainly, if we see that there are problems, then either the problems need to be corrected, or the person in charge of those elections needs to go.
CAVUTO: Any advice for Senator Nelson?
ERNST: I would say, Senator Nelson, leave a great legacy and leave a positive reflection of your time in the United States Senate. It is -- it's time to say goodbye and thank you to the great folks of Florida.
CAVUTO: Senator, it's interesting how the midterms are sort of being recalibrated and re-thought of more than a week after the fact.
It is possible, when all is said and done, Democrats could pick up about 36, maybe as many as 38 seats. Does that constitute a blue wave to you?
ERNST: That is not a blue wave. That is blue trickle, at most.
And if you look back at Presidents Clinton and Obama during their midterm elections, they lost far more seats than President Trump has. He is much closer to President Reagan in seats that were lost in the House. So, no, it is not a blue wave.
And the fact that we are picking up seats in the United States Senate speaks very highly, not only of our Senate members and the quality candidates that we put forward, but also of the Trump administration and understanding that the policies we have in place are working for the American people.
CAVUTO: You know what's so weird? I know you used the Reagan analogy. And you're right. Ronald Reagan lost more seats. Of course, we were in the depths of a recession that was looking intractable.
I think people on the left and right would readily agree the economy is substantially better now, one of the more dramatic recoveries we have seen in history, and yet not a tangible benefit in the House to the degree you would think.
What do you think limited Republican gains?
ERNST: Well, I do think that our messaging is very important. And we shouldn't just talk at the voters. We shouldn't just talk at our constituents. We need to connect with them. And we need to understand what their concerns and their issues are.
And then, how do we reflect our public policy based on their concerns and do it in a conservative manner? We need to message that and we need to make sure that that connection exists. That's why it's going to be really important to message our priorities coming up for 2020.
CAVUTO: You know, the rap against your party, Senator, fairly or not -- and maybe just your leadership position will change the approach -- but that suburban women are a problem for Republicans, and that it was a problem again in the midterms, and especially a lot of the key states, where seats on the House side flipped.
Does it concern you?
ERNST: Well, it does concern me, but, again, the policies that we are putting in place that will help suburban women, we need to make sure that we are communicating those clearly. And I don't feel that we did that adequately in this last election cycle.
My home state of Iowa, for example, we did lose two of our Republican congressional seats. We saw those flip. And we attribute that considerably to those suburban women.
So, when it comes to health care, and the actual advances that we have made, whether it is working on pharmaceutical costs, whether it is doubling the child tax credit, whatever that might be, we need to make sure that women know about those initiatives, know that we are working for them, and really making sure that we are hearing what their concerns are.
They want to know that they have been heard. And I feel, if they have been heard, and we're acting on that, then we will do very well in 2020.
CAVUTO: Senator, your state no stranger to the pressure that's building on the trade front...
ERNST: Yes.
CAVUTO: ... and the freeze that exists between ourselves and the Chinese. There was talk today that the president is ready to at least put in motion something that will indicate more constructive talks when he meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week.
If there is no formal construct of a deal -- it doesn't have to be a deal - - I had one Wall Street pro tell me all bets are off for the markets and our economy, and this thing could drag on a year or more.
What do you think?
ERNST: Mm-hmm.
Well, I think we do need to have a very carefully constructed outline of what we would like to see and accomplish moving forward with the Chinese. And I am very glad that the president will be meeting with President Xi Jinping.
And moving forward, we need them to move forward. Now, my folks back home, my farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, they all understand why the president is doing what he's doing.
But, of course, I had one farmer, he eloquently stated it: I understand why the president is doing it. I just don't understand why previous presidents didn't do it sooner.
CAVUTO: All right, Senator, very good catching up. And congratulations again on your appointment.
ERNST: Thank you.
CAVUTO: We will be watching very closely.
Have a wonderful weekend.
ERNST: Happy Thanksgiving, Neil. Thank you.
CAVUTO: To you as well, Senator.
By the way, just the talk of that idea that we could put sort of the hatchet down between ourselves and the Chinese and maybe start the beginnings of progress on the trade front level, let alone, no deal, was enough to lift stocks today.
Still an awful week, continuing this concern here that we're still not out of the woods, not for technology, not for most of the sectors that make up the S&P 500. So there is that.
More after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, now, exactly closure, but shall we say raised eyebrows here that President Trump saying today that he has indeed answered written questions from special counsel Robert Mueller.
Rich Edson at the White House with more on that.
Hey, Rich.
RICH EDSON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey. Good afternoon, Neil.
And the president speaking about this an Oval Office bill-signing this afternoon. He says that he believes that Robert Mueller's investigation will soon conclude. He says he has finished answering his questions, and that he did so himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: and It didn't take very long to do them and they were my answers. I don't need lawyers to do that.
Now, you need lawyers for submittal. You need lawyers to go over some of the answers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
EDSON: Yesterday, the president had tweeted that: "Mueller and his gang of Democrat thugs have destroyed people and are a disgrace to the nation."
He was asked this afternoon what prompted that Twitter outburst. He says nothing specifically, only the continuation of this investigation, which the president says should have never happened.
The White House, after a court ruling, has also temporarily reinstated the White House pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta. He's back here at the White House. The administration had revoked his pass after Acosta refused to give up the microphone at a presidential press conference last week.
The president says the White House will develop new rules for press conferences, focusing on decorum. CNN sued to get Acosta's pass back. FOX News and others filed legal briefs in support of CNN -- back to you.
CAVUTO: All right, Rich, thank you very much.
So, what's going on here with Bob Mueller's office?
And is it a sign that the investigation could be wrapping up?
Former Whitewater independent counsel Robert Ray.
What do you think, Robert?
ROBERT RAY, FORMER INDEPENDENT COUNSEL: I think that's right.
I mean, I don't think the president would be speaking the way he is speaking unless he has had some indication through his lawyers that we're getting to the end.
CAVUTO: And part of that, answering these questions?
RAY: Correct.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: ... in written form.
RAY: Right, which would -- you would expect to be the last significant thing that would occur before you could wrap up the investigation.
CAVUTO: As a former prosecutor, does the written form make a difference to you?
RAY: No, presumably, the written form is still under oath.
CAVUTO: OK.
RAY: And, ordinarily, as a criminal defense lawyer, I would be counseling a client nothing under oath, if you can avoid it.
I suspect, in the background, what was lurking was, if you don't submit at least written answers under oath, then you will face a subpoena. And I think there's been probably some negotiations behind the scenes about sort of working all that.
I mean, otherwise, the president could just save his answers and use them to respond to whatever report Bob Mueller submits to the Justice Department and presumably ultimately to the Congress.
CAVUTO: So how do you think he's answering -- first of all, the questions alone would tell you where Mueller might be going, right?
RAY: I suppose that's right. But I think the other way to look at it, of course, is, it's just a wrap-up and that there's really no intention to pursue things further, once the president's answers are included as a part of the report, right?
(CROSSTALK)
RAY: Yes.
CAVUTO: Understood. I'm sorry.
But if the questions have very little to do with Russian collusion, let's say, and more to do with business dealings and the like, wouldn't begin to raise issues at the White House, oh, this has veered off-track?
RAY: Well, he may not have agreed to respond to those kinds of questions. I mean, I don't know what the questions are.
I suspect the questions don't have anything to do with obstruction of justice, because he, I think, indicated early on he had no intention to respond in that way.
He obviously also has said, since it veers off from the mandate of the investigation, he doesn't intend to have any responses with regard to questions involving the Trump Organization and his activities prior to the campaign run for president.
I suspect that they're probably limited to what -- what would be the heart of the mandate, which would be the origins of the -- of the Russia investigation and matters related to the campaign, and whether or not there were any meetings with Russian officials, and whether or not he knew about certain things and what he didn't know, and those sorts of things.
I would think all of those things would be fair game and would be within the mandate set by the deputy attorney general.
CAVUTO: So let's say the president were your client. He's giving these written responses. How would you coach, advise, aid?
RAY: Well, the president says that he wrote the responses.
And the first piece of advice you give any client is, make sure you understand that the responses that you are giving are just as if you were in a grand jury proceeding sworn under oath, under penalty of prosecution for perjury.
So, whatever you say, make sure that what you say is the truth.
CAVUTO: And short and tight to the point.
RAY: Right.
And I think there's room there to be artfully and usefully vague.
It's not that...
CAVUTO: I like that, artfully and usefully vague.
RAY: It's not quite the same thing as being pressed in a proceeding before a prosecutor before a grand jury.
CAVUTO: What do you think about this?
Much has been said, and you and I have chatted about this, that this investigation might have veered off course. If you think of the indictments and the guilty pleas and all, most have involved things having nothing to do with Russia, everything to do with business transactions, some going back many years.
Is it your feeling that this could go the same way, that whatever Mueller comes up with might have in the end very little to do with Russia?
RAY: I think it will have very little to do with Russia collusion, which is to say there will be an awful lot of Democrats who will be sorely disappointed that there wasn't the Holy Grail at the end of all of this.
There will be a report, I imagine a fair amount of great public pressure to see that report is released to Congress. I suspect much more will be discussed about what the president's efforts were in terms of trying to orchestrate some degree of control over the investigation, whether it be the firing of Jim Comey or other things related to that, but...
CAVUTO: What about the firing of Jeff Sessions?
RAY: Right.
CAVUTO: Would that come up too?
RAY: Well, sure it would.
But, I mean, at the end of the day, does anybody really think that that amounts to obstruction justice that would be a prosecutable case? I mean, I don't. I don't really, truly believe that any responsible prosecutor would come to that conclusion.
CAVUTO: Well, while I have you, what do you think of Matt Whitaker, the acting A.G.?
RAY: I think his appointment was lawful.
I think the Office of Legal Counsel is correct. The Office of Legal Counsel has a great bipartisan reputation. It has for many years. And only recently, because it involves the Trump administration, are Democratic critics suggesting that there's something wrong about the president's own Office of Legal Counsel opining on the legality and constitutionality of the president's action.
But, look, it's an issue that the Constitution doesn't answer. The Congress attempted to fill that void with the Vacancies Act. The president acted pursuant to the Vacancies Act. He sought the opinion, as he appropriately should, by the White House counsel to the Office of Legal Counsel.
He did all the things that you would expect a responsible president to do. And he filled the position temporarily, pending a permanent appointment with the advice and consent of the Senate. I don't see there's any constitutional problem with that.
I don't see that there's any legal problem with that.
CAVUTO: Robert Ray, thank you, the former Whitewater independent counsel.
All right, we have a lot more coming up, including what's happening at the corner of Wall and Broad today. I told you stocks ended up on the day, down on the week. It was a horrific week.
But everything seemed to be pegged to promising China talks. I keep repeating myself, maybe at the risk of overdoing it, that this whole issue of trade or whether we get things back on track with China will dominate the picture. The better they look, the better for stocks. The worse they look, the worst for stocks.
Could it change everything if these two strike a deal next week?
After this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We will have a great relationship with China. Hopefully, we will make a deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: All right, the president being low-key about these rumors that were swirling that, when he meets with Xi Jinping next week in -- I think in Argentina, I think, for the G20, that they might have the makings of the deal, or at least a truce.
That reversed what had been a 200-point slide yesterday turning into 200- point gain. Just the hints of that reinforced today or hinted at today by the president lifted stocks yet again.
Let's go to market watchers Jonas Max Ferris, Dan Geltrude.
Dan, it is a reminder, as if we needed it, that the prospects for a deal with China are very much market-moving events, right?
DANIEL GELTRUDE, GELTRUDE & COMPANY: Absolutely.
It's really important for us to get a deal. Look, based upon Jamie Dimon's comments today, about 2019 is going to be the year for growth.
CAVUTO: You're talking the J.P. Morgan Chase head.
GELTRUDE: Yes.
CAVUTO: In whose company Warren Buffett invested $4 billion.
GELTRUDE: Right.
And I think that's what -- what he's indicating there is, is that if there's going to be global growth, there has to be a deal between the United States and China.
CAVUTO: Right.
GELTRUDE: I think that's where we're going to end up going. They have to make a deal. And Trump has 2020 on his mind too. He's got to make a deal if he's going to continue to rely on the economy to be his calling card for reelection.
CAVUTO: What do you think, Jonas?
JONAS MAX FERRIS, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I don't think he minds dragging out the deal part of this a long time. It could go for months and months. I think...
CAVUTO: Didn't the midterms change his perspective, or no?
FERRIS: I don't think he was playing this for the midterms like that. I just think he likes being in this deal mode and he wants to get more out of China.
And I do think he has a lot of control with it over like 200-point swings with the market, which we have seen a lot of. I just don't think you're going -- it's not a 2,000-point swing event. I think it's actually -- it's more downside for foreign markets than ours, and maybe a little more upside for our markets than theirs.
CAVUTO: So let's say we score a deal or even the construct of a deal. How would the market deal with that?
FERRIS: I think it would -- it has more upside than downside, this deal.
I think ultimately interest rates and tech stocks are what's the bigger the drivers that could lead to 1,000-point moves. But I definitely think if he -- if he pulls something off next week and it looks even slightly better in our favor, it could be a few hundred points.
I just don't think it's like super big, super big news.
CAVUTO: You know what is interesting, Dan? All the businesses and sectors that would benefit, we found not only those who are multinationals that have exposure abroad, do business with China, Boeing, Caterpillar, et cetera, but chip makers, everyone else, even food, Hormel.
It cut a broad swathe. If we get something that looks like we're on the way to a deal, what does the market do with that?
GELTRUDE: Well, I agree with Jonas on that.
I think that you will have upside. It is not going to be super upside. And you want to know why, Neil? It seems that the market has a very short attention span. It seems that the market is chasing the shiny objects.
CAVUTO: Right.
GELTRUDE: We get some news on Brexit not so positive, bang, market's down.
(CROSSTALK)
GELTRUDE: The president makes a comment -- the president makes a comment about China, market swings up.
So it's a little bit disconcerting that the market would have a short attention span on major issues.
CAVUTO: Well, that's a very good point.
You know, Jonas, one other thing I think of too is -- and this is where the midterms could make a difference -- we have already seen Congressman Pascrell of New Jersey, who is going to have a very key role on trade within the House Ways and Means Committee, the subcommittee on that, who's already said, you know, that deal you scored with Mexico and Canada, it has to go by us, by me. And I'm not a fan.
And I'm wondering how that plays into the whole China deal stuff.
FERRIS: You know, Neil, with all these deals, they might get pinched as to what they want the deal to be.
And there's also a little bit of a risk of it -- this sounds really crazy - - but it going to well. There's been almost too much winning by America. I know this sounds nuts, because Trump's like, we're going to win, you will get sick of winning.
But the bottom line is, our interest rates started to get too high. Our -- our dollar got too strong. And that's one of the big hurt -- on those stocks you were just showing, it's as much that as it would be any tariff problems.
CAVUTO: You put the two together.
FERRIS: And if we somehow come out the winner, and everybody else loses, it's going to be too much money coming into this country. And it's going to be hard for these exporters to sell, just on dollar problems.
So you want to -- you want to have a trade with this country, but you don't want to beat them down so much, that you're the only victor either, because that's not great for anybody in some ways. We want everybody to have a fair trade situation.
CAVUTO: Well, saving face at the end is the key.
GELTRUDE: The tricky part, Neil, with China is this. The real sticking point is the theft of intellectual property and technology.
How do we get around allowing China to save face, essentially not admit they're doing it, and still make a deal and have something...
CAVUTO: Not putting their faces in the dirt, right?
GELTRUDE: And still have something in place to stop them from doing it going forward?
That, to me, is where it gets tricky.
CAVUTO: Understood.
Dan and Jonas, thank you very, very much. You always have a good read on things.
Going to take a break, guys? Is that what we're planning?
No, we're going to go to Kristina Partsinevelos here. I thought I had gone over that. We're always doing things that I can't share with you, America.
But this concerns turkey, some tainted turkeys at that, that hopefully is limited, but it does seem to be spreading.
Kristina, what's going on?
KRISTINA PARTSINEVELOS, FOX NEWS BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's time, I guess, we all have to check our freezers, because your meat may be tainted.
There are salmonella outbreaks that have been going on for a year. And now you can finally link it one -- to one company. That would be Jennie-O Turkey. There's a recall of 91,000 pounds, actually over 91,000 pounds, of ground turkey beef.
This has been an ongoing problem. However, some -- several consumer advocacy groups are criticizing the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food and safety, because they're saying you're not telling us who the brands are, where this tainted salmonella turkey is coming from.
The department has rebutted and said, hey, we don't know where the source is just yet, so it would be reckless for us to bring up any other brands.
But there you have one brand there. In terms of just this year, in 2018, according to the CDC, you're seeing 164 people who have been sick because of salmonella all across the country, 63 hospitalized, and including one death as well.
Overall, just in the past year, and we're seeing on an annual basis, the CDC is saying that there's 1.2 million cases of salmonella outbreak. So it's affecting a lot of Americans, especially around the holiday time.
So if you're concerned about the symptoms, what are they? Diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps that you will receive roughly about 12 to 72 hours when you come in contact. And last but not least, really quickly, how to avoid it.
Thaw your turkey in the fridge, not the counter. Don't wash the turkey before you cook it. Don't put the stuffing -- this is a big one -- don't stuff the turkey. Try to cook your stuffing in another pan. And make sure to reheat your leftovers, Neil. CAVUTO: Good reminders, all.
All right, Kristina, thank you very, very much.
In the meantime, we have got the latest on that caravan. Forget about the legal clashes. It's sort of an upping of the ante. We will explore.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, Stacey Abrams, the Georgia gubernatorial candidate, is going to address reporters in less than half-an-hour.
Now, we don't know whether she's going to concede to race with Republican Brian Kemp or keep the battle going. But we will tell you after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, the caravan has arrived, we told you, in Tijuana, right at the U.S.-Mexico border. But all has not been going down that well.
William La Jeunesse with the latest from Tijuana -- William.
WILLIAM LA JEUNESSE, FOX NEWS: Well, Neil, that is the bridge into the United States. That's where migrants who go to -- the caravan migrants want to go.
Problem is, reality is setting in. For those who have arrived, they're realizing they're kind of between a rock and a hard spot. Let me explain why.
The doors in the United States are closing. The border here in San Diego substantially secure. The idea that you can cross anywhere on the border and still claim asylum, no longer the case. If you do claim asylum, you have got a long wait, five weeks, up to four months.
Also, a lot don't have any money left -- left to go home. They're stuck in a city that's not prepared to give them food and shelter. The shelters that do exist our full. And the shelter that was provided for them is inadequate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's difficult, because we don't have restrooms. The kitchen is short.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LA JEUNESSE: So, remember -- remember when the caravan left Honduras?
Well, the policy of the administration then was catch and release. That is no longer the case. Also, the U.S. is now only taking a limited number of asylum cases a day. Today, that is 30.
The existing list when the caravan arrived here was 1,050 people. That means a five-week to, again, maybe a five-month wait, if everyone claims asylum. Well, the sign is for these people, get in line with everyone else.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAURICIO PALAFOX, MIGRANT: That person, he need to say, sign your name, and then, where are you coming from? And you need to wait for your number. One number, that's 10 persons.
CARLOS GONZALEZ, MIGRANT: I want to just get my number, if they let you -- they let me give -- give it me to me, I wait. I don't know how long am I waiting for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LA JEUNESSE: Yes, see, the idea, Neil, is, some of these guys are going to clearly get impatient, also because they're not going to qualify for asylum.
They told me they're going to jump the fence. And as for that violent incident the other day, they were rained down with rocks. People in the community didn't want them there. And the longer this goes on, there will be more tension, incidents potentially like that one -- Neil.
CAVUTO: All right, William, thank you very, very much, William La Jeunesse.
When you hear about asylum and who's seeking asylum and what covers asylum, who would know better than former acting ICE director Thomas Homan?
Director, very good to have you.
THOMAS HOMAN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see you, Neil.
CAVUTO: Could you help me with that, Tom?
What is asylum? What grants you asylum?
HOMAN: I'm glad you asked, so the American people can understand.
You can claim political asylum if you're in fear of persecution of your home country for your political beliefs, your race or religion or being part of a specific social group.
Poverty, wanting a better life in the United States, unfortunately, it doesn't qualify for politically asylum. So, that's why right now the latest numbers on Central Americans claiming asylum in the United States, 91 percent lose their case when they get in front of an immigration judge, if they show up.
So, it's just people that are in dire straits taking advantage of a low threshold in the system to get their foot in the door, because once -- the initial interview they do at a port of entry is by what they call refugee asylum officer from the CIS.
The threshold is so low, because they want to make sure that they don't send anybody back to be persecuted. That's what need to be fixed and that's what we asked Congress to fix. Raise that threshold, because once it gets to an immigration judge, 90 percent lose.
We have got to close that gap. But, again, 90 percent of these people, based on the current data, will lose their case. They will be ordered to go home.
CAVUTO: All right, so, here's the situation. Many escaping from Honduras are escaping what they say is gang violence that threatens their lives. Another group from Nicaragua, this harsh political crackdown that has targeted families, we're told. And they take their families and others with them to escape that.
So, it has to be a life-and-death provable issue, right?
HOMAN: Well, gang violence and domestic violence, attorney general changed that.
Under the Obama administration, he had -- kind of added those two things to asylum criteria. And Attorney General Sessions stuck with the rule of law, the way the law was written, and says, no, that was abuse of the system, we're going back to the way the law was written.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: In other words, to your point -- I just want to be clear, because I have always wondered, because asylum is a broad -- just escaping poverty, especially in the case of Mexico, where it grants up to 2,000 to 3,000 of caravan participants residence in Mexico and citizenship in Mexico, can't we then argue, all right, well, Mexico has already offered this to you, why are you here?
HOMAN: Bingo.
I mean, if they're really escaping fear of persecution in Honduras, they're two countries away. And Mexico has offered asylum to many of these people. About 2,000 have accepted.
So the first question that asylum officers should ask, if you're escaping fear and persecution under the rules of asylum in Honduras, why didn't you take the offer in Mexico?
And I have said this for weeks. So this isn't so much about escaping real true fear and persecution. This is about getting to the United States to join a family members that is here illegally or to get a job.
And your own video clips on FOX shows these -- some of Honduran caravans are carrying the Honduran flag. I have never seen people that are supposedly persecuted by the country carrying the flag of the very country that's persecuting them. It's just -- it's ridiculous.
CAVUTO: No, no, it does raise eyebrows.
I wanted you to react. This is the first time I have had to talk to you since California Senator Kamala Harris referred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, as you know, to the Ku Klux Klan.
She said -- quoting here -- that "Certain communities the agency as a domestic terrorist group that deliberately uses fear and intimidation to specifically target immigrants coming from Mexico and Central America based on their racial or ethnic background."
What did you think of that?
HOMAN: I think -- I think her comment was disgusting.
For her to vilify the men and women, the 20,000 men and women that strap a gun to their hip every day, leave the security of their homes to enforce a law that Congress enacted -- she's a member of Congress.
So, she don't like what ICE does, change the law. Or you know what? Strap a gun on your hip, put a Kevlar vest on, and go arrest somebody that doesn't want to be arrested that's a significant criminal alien that you let out of your sanctuary jail in California that you support the sanctuary policies.
Look, the men and women of ICE aren't making this up. They're doing their jobs. They are protecting the homeland. They're enforcing the laws that Congress enacted.
And to vilify them, call them names, it's just ridiculous. She ought to go -- I said last night she ought to go walk the wall of the National Law Enforcement Memorial of the hundreds of Border Patrol agents, ICE agents that gave the ultimate sacrifice and lost their lives, and apologize to them and apologize for the families of these men and women that died serving their country.
CAVUTO: Tom, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the rumors. I know you have addressed them. So add my name to the list.
That the president is thinking of firing his homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen. And on every single list I have looked up, you're on it. You're on top of it. Are you interested if that ever came to pass?
HOMAN: Look, I really don't want to speculate on what the present may or may not do, but I will say this.
Kirstjen Nielsen is working hard. And she's done a lot. I have worked with her for months before I retired. She -- I was up on the Hill many times with her trying to get these loopholes by Congress.
When someone steps up to the plate to be the secretary of homeland security, they have given their life up. She's working 24/7 and 365.
I just wish people would recognize that and salute her for the sacrifices she's making.
CAVUTO: Well, no doubt.
I guess what I'm saying is, the president is still frustrated so many are getting in. And if it happens that he fires her, he obviously would see in someone like you someone who would slow or stop that process.
Could you?
HOMAN: I would rather not speculate on what the president can and cannot do, Neil.
As a guy that had done 34 years being committed to this country and this job, I want to support the secretary who is currently in place.
CAVUTO: All right, well, I tried, OK, Thomas? So, enough.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Seriously, very good having you again. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, sir.
HOMAN: And thank you for what you do every day, getting the story out to the American people, Neil. I appreciate it.
CAVUTO: I appreciate it back.
All right, lots coming up. What exactly are we going to hear from the Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate?
After this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, we're waiting for Stacey Abrams, right, the Georgia gubernatorial candidate. She's going to say something at the top of the hour.
We're also waiting on this ongoing recount going on in Florida.
University of Memphis Law Professor Steven Mulroy on all of this.
Steven, in the Georgia situation, she's behind enough that it would be difficult for to catch up to or get the votes under 50 percent for Kemp that would require a runoff. So what do you suspect? What will she say?
STEVEN MULROY, UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS: Well, either one of two things, I think.
Either she will concede, or she will indicate that she will be filing a lawsuit to suggest that there were illegalities and improprieties, other problems with the election, such that the election could be challenged, and that it would have been enough to make a difference in the outcome.
In this particular case, as you have already pointed out, the votes still yet to be counted, provisional absentee or whatever, wouldn't be enough to bring it down to a traditional runoff. So she'd have to file some sort of litigation, maybe focusing on the controversies that we have seen in the last few weeks, with Brian Kemp changing registration, not allowing people to be registered because their signatures didn't quite match, that kind of thing.
CAVUTO: So, in Florida, if I can switch there, Steven, where there are 4,000 ballots that have to be checked because they were thrown out, and the signatures didn't match and all that, leaving aside that you get all 4,000 counted, they all go Senator Nelson's way, it still wouldn't make up the difference.
But how do you rectify that?
MULROY: Well, what the judge did in that case was to give people until Saturday...
CAVUTO: Right.
MULROY: ... to cure the deficiency by showing up and showing that their signature does in fact match, redoing the signature, confirming that they are in fact the person in question.
That's how you cure that. You're right, though, that the 4,000 wouldn't be enough to make up the difference for Senator Bill Nelson. But what might make up the difference is, there are a lot of so called undervotes, where the machine didn't pick up a vote, and overvotes.
CAVUTO: Right.
MULROY: And it might be the case that there are enough of those to make the difference for Bill Nelson once they do that manual looking at each ballot kind of count.
CAVUTO: Now, could that all be done by the 20th, when they want this all signed, sealed, certified, and done?
MULROY: That's what's supposed to happen. This is Florida, so who knows what will happen, but that's the idea.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: All right, Professor, I always learn a lot. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
MULROY: Thank you.
CAVUTO: All right, pondering that Georgia race and the race to see who will lead the Democrats in the House. It's not a gimme, Nancy Pelosi -- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARCIA FUDGE (D), OHIO: Talked about the growing support that I have and why I'm considering a bid to run for speaker. You know, she was -- to her credit, she wanted to know what my concerns were. We discussed them, and we had a very open and frank conversation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: All right, that's Democratic Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who just could be running to challenge Nancy Pelosi for speaker of the House.
Let's get a read on this from Bre Payton from The Federalist.
Bre, if she were to run -- it sounds like she is -- what are her chances?
BRE PAYTON, THE FEDERALIST: Her chances -- I mean, the results are kind of mixed.
Huffington Post a few hours ago released what they are reporting is soon to be a letter was signed by 17 different Democratic congressmen who say that they would support Fudge over Pelosi in a potential speaker bid.
That letter has yet to be released as of this moment, so we don't totally know how the math is going to stack up, and if and when that letter is released. I think that it's been interesting to see the Congressional Black Caucus say that they're going to endorse Pelosi over Fudge, even though Fudge used to be chair of Congressional Black Caucus.
I think that that doesn't bode well for Fudge's chances in this ultimate face-off. So, I mean, we will have to see how this all shakes out.
I think the meeting today between the two shows that I think Democrats are trying to kind of close rank and close opposition and get all their ducks in a row behind Nancy Pelosi. So we will have to see what happens.
CAVUTO: A lot would depend on whether -- whoever gets it on the first vote, right? You need 218 votes to do it, right?
PAYTON: Yes. So we will have to see what happens going forward.
Ultimately, if she -- if Nancy Pelosi is kind of able to win over a couple of those individuals over to her side, then she would be able to secure that on the first vote.
So, we will just have to see how strong her support is, although it has been interesting after November to see all of these really young Democrats, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other individuals like her, juxtaposed with Nancy Pelosi.
I mean, it's just been kind of an interesting, weird conglomerate, and to see that going forward. It'll be interesting to see if Democrats can pull off pushing down -- pushing down dissent and being able to just keep everyone in line, like they have been.
CAVUTO: We will know soon.
Bre, thank you very, very much.
PAYTON: Thank you.
CAVUTO: All right, the latest on those California wildfires right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, the Palm Beach County supervisor is talking right now about these tabulating votes that's going on right now in her county.
Let's listen.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
SUSAN BUCHER, PALM BEACH COUNTY SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS: ... situation might have been interesting.
We never had any kind of difficulty. I'm proud of Palm Beach County. And we will continue to count our votes, as we're supposed to.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
BUCHER: We're going to run those -- we can't run -- the canvassing board, as you know, wants to go home. So we're going to add those vote totals in when they're all here tomorrow in the morning.
So we don't have those numbers yet, but we will have them.
QUESTION: What is going on right here?
BUCHER: Right here, they're duplicating ballots.
When we run ballots through the machines, they get damaged. And so these are still the machine recount ballots that we gleaned the unders and overs that are required for hand recount, but some of the ballots were damaged. They require to be duplicated. We will run them back through the machines, then add them back to our vote totals.
But they don't have the unders and overs for the hand recount, so we will conclude that as well.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
BUCHER: We are still obligated to complete each one of the recounts by Florida statue, irregardless of the deadline.
QUESTION: How long do you think it will take you to finish all the recounts?
BUCHER: A very long time.
We have to run all of the ballots through our scanner -- I mean, our tabulator. It's 871. It took us almost five days initially to run the ballots through. We do not envision working 24/7.
So here's the good news. You all can clear out tonight, because we're going to close. And we're going to go home. We're going to start working some reasonable business hours. We worked the 24/7 to try and make the machine recount.
As you know, we, unfortunately, didn't make it. We gave it everything we had. I am proud of the team that I assembled, SOE workers, and also county workers. And I think we did the very best we could under the circumstances.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) normal hours?
BUCHER: Yes, we will, somewhat normal hours.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
BUCHER: We hope to be done sometime into December.
We're very optimistic that, if we don't run our machines like we did 24/7, I think they will operate very well. We still have technicians here from our company. And the machines have been working really well.
I just think that we can't operate them 24/7, because it doesn't work out well. And we look very much forward to assembling new equipment for our next election cycle.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
BUCHER: We discussed with Judge Warner yesterday that, if we have any difficulty with our high-speed tabulators, that there would be consideration to set up our precinct scanners.
And our precinct scanners actually have the ability to conduct separate elections. As you know, our high-speed tabulator can only conduct one election at a time.
We got a little bit of pushback from the secretaries, so I think we would hear very strongly if we made that determination.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
BUCHER: Well, we will turn in the very difficult...
CAVUTO: All right, no sense of urgency there.
You're listening to Palm Beach County. They're going to work just regular hours, no rush to get this all counted up. Forget about the urgency to get a senator in place in Washington and all of that.
What she's saying is that the count is going on with these machines, but they're a long way from getting that done. The state proceeded with a hand recount of all ballots, including in Palm Beach County. But the mess goes on.
It would seem to be very difficult for Mr. Nelson to reverse that gap.
"The Five" is now.
Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/will-the-florida-recount-affect-the-gop