response credited with preventing more deaths. thank you for your service. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that's it for this "special report," fair, balanced and unafraid, "the story," hosted by martha maccallum starts right now. hi, martha. >> martha: hey there, brad. a big election tomorrow in north carolina. so important to the president that he will be there tonight to try to pull republican dan bishop over the finish line. the vice president has taken the stage there as you can see and we are going to go take some of the slide when the president is up there and he begins speaking. he will likely talk about a number of hot stories tonight: perhaps on congress to act now that they are back from their recess on, among other things, usmca, the trade agreement with mexico and canada that is actually a far bigger piece of business in terms of trade than china is with the united states. so that will be front and center. also, guns very much in a conversation tonight after four

mass killings with the lives of more than 50 people in just the month of august alone. in the battle for the democratic nomination of course front and center, another debate from them coming up this week but first, our top story tonight, it went from an invitation to camp david to this on the status of negotiations with the taliban. here's president trump on this earlier today. >> their dad. if they're dead. as far as i'm concerned, they're dead. we had a meeting scheduled. it was my idea and it was my idea to terminated. i didn't discuss it with anybody else. when i heard, very simply, that they killed one of our soldiers and 12 other innocent people, i said, there's no way i meeting on that basis. there's no way i meeting. >> bret: so now what? now will violence escalated after the president pulled the plug on those negotiations that he wanted to hold at camp david, very controversial decision, and that following a bomb attack that killed an american soldier

on thursday produces, he said, the turnaround in that plan. all of this is we are ready to my feet 18 year anniversary of the horrible day when 3,000 of our own were killed on u.s. full soil on september 11th. senator lindsey graham and general jack keane and david pretorius all very much want us to keep a strong presence in afghanistan and essentially made the argument that filter to the president that there would be no negotiating with the terrorists who enabled al qaeda on september 11th. tonight, the inside story from one of those men, general david pretorius, former cia director who ran u.s. central command and and -- i spoke to the general, who oversaw the successful surge in iraq, and the surge in afghanistan, about president trump's decision to walk away. >> look, a number of us, as was

noted, expressed reservations. i know that there were reservations elsewhere in the department of defense and in uniform. the taliban certainly hadn't slowed down the violence whatsoever. very great reservations about whether they would do what they said they would do, which is to keep al qaeda and now the islamic state from establishing a sanctuary in afghanistan again as they had a sanctuary, when the taliban run the country when the attacks for 9/11 were planned in an afghanistan sanctuary. >> bret: so there was a plan -- the president wanted to -- wants to get out of afghanistan, he's made that clear. he has also said that he wants to spend a lot less money on the effort in afghanistan. and it looks like to achieve that goal, the planet was undertaken was to try to make the taliban somewhat of an ally in fending off these 20 different terrorist groups that are active in the region and there was some determination that they were on board with that. however, they consider the

current afghan government to be completely -- to have absolutely no court ability with them. so it's hard to figure out how this was all going to work. it seems like a real stretch. >> again, there were a lot of reasons for caution. keep in mind they refused to reduce the level of violence, even as we were negotiating with them in good faith. they have refused to actually negotiate with the actual democratically elected government with elections coming up, which they also did not want to see. so real questions about whether they would honor the constitution and all the other elements that have been established over the last 18 or so years. >> bret: what you make with the difference of opinions, there's always difference of opinions on these things within administrations but it seems as though the secretary of state was more on the side of carrying out what the president said he wanted to achieve and that john bolton, the national security advisor, was very much against this plan and seems to agree with you and the others, who i mentioned at the

introduction. >> again, i don't know what took place in these final meetings with the president decided against having these stomach this particular meeting with the telegram. >> martha: would you ever recommend at camp david meeting, by the way? >> i think the symbolism would've been a bit troubling. lesser member that was where the decision was made to invade delavan in the wake of 9/11 attacks. so i think as you reflect on that, certainly again, i think the president very much made the right call. >> martha: so in terms of the expenditure, the cost, right, because there are a lot of people in the united states and you addressed this in the editorial recently who feel that all of these years later after 9/11, it 18 years of fighting this fight, trillions of dollars, that enough is enough, that we need to move our focus elsewhere, that perhaps the places we need to be concerned about are in africa and other parts of the globe. >> asia, china. >> martha: exactly. what do you say to them? >> i say those are

understandable desires and reasons. we had those when we left iraq and iraq was a much more stable situation at that time, sadly undone by the very prime minister we helped during the search to reduce the violence by some 85 or 90%. but that was questionable. this would be, i think, indefensible, again, unless there are some real ironclad verification measures in the agreement. >> martha: how many troops do you believe -- 8600 is the number that has been discussed. so if you wanted to lower the profile but still have the kind of presence that you think will be effective there, what is not number in your mind? >> we are mostly in and advise and assist, train and equip role. even if you keep what we currently have, which is less than 15,000, that's a very small number in the overall cost -- >> martha: leave them there indefinitely. he would leave that number or something in the neighborhood there indefinitely? >> again, the mission still matters. they went for a reason to

nationality islamic state was moved in as well which was trying to exploit the situation, cannot reestablish the sanctuary. we kept tens of thousands of troops on korean soil. they are not being shot at and they are not casualties. >> martha: general mattis was pointing that out. >> many more tens of thousands in europe that have been there since the end of world war ii. we are there because we have valid missions and those missions are continuing. what i am arguing for is turning a sustainable sustained commitment. this should be one in which the expenditure and blood and treasure is something, however tragic every loss certainly is, is sufficiently reduced that is something we can sustain for good period of time. i've also noticed that the fight against islamist extremists is a generational struggle, not the fight of a few decades or a few years. and you have to therefore have the sustainability of a mission. you have to have the determination -- by the way, i can assure you that the forces

we are facing there, the taliban and many of the others, certainly aren't going to back down if they think there is an end date for the united states contribution. >> martha: so would you say, based on what the president said today, that it's your understanding that he has changed his mind about this -- that now he sees things more the way that perhaps john bolton sees it and you see it and general jack keane sees it? >> very hard to say but let's remember a couple of years ago when he put out his first statement on then-policy on afghanistan, it was conditions-based. >> martha: would you say there was a rush to a deal that he wanted a moment after it seemed like the taliban sort of figured out that he wanted to have a moment like the ones we've seen at camp david in the past and they didn't want to sign up for that at all. you think that motivation is justified? >> is an understandable desire to reduce our forces. and again, i very much

appreciate that. the question is how far can you reduce without really putting vulnerabilities into the situation from which there would be a very difficult recovery. again, what happened in iraq when we left? the country went back to suny-she of violence. isis was able to reestablish itself going to syria, coming back in and we ended up putting many more troops back in there that otherwise -- >> martha: ended up with an isis caliphate. if you said in your piece you think this would be even worse. maybe afghanistan would have a worse outcome than what we saw with isis. >> as i mentioned earlier, iraq was much more stable. the violence was down and continue to go down in the three years after the surge, so that was very arguable. this i think is much less so. >> martha: before i let you go, you said you don't speak directly to the president about this but you've been on the circle of people. if you could say something directly to him what would you say?

>> i guess -- i say this slightly tongue-in-cheek. be very, very careful of declaring victory, especially in the middle east and central asia. i think i might also offer there are no purely military solutions to be sure for the issue that we see in the middle east and central asia. there are also no purely different medic solutions. ultimately these always have to be dealt with through a comprehensive civil military campaign. we have to do it in a way that is sustainable in terms of the cost in terms of blood and treasure and we do indeed have to do it recognizing that the overall context is one in which the rise of china and the importance of the asia pacific is much greater indeed than it was after the 9/11 attacks. >> martha: a lot. general, thank you very much. good to see you. >> good to be with you, martha. >> martha: interesting that he was clearly raising alarm bells about his concerns about china and we look forward to talking with him more in the future. as you can see the president walking around taking the

applause for a moment here, let's bring in correspondent at large geraldo rivera, who has covered the war in afghanistan since it began in 2001, including from the front lines. good to see you tonight. what did you make of this idea to meet with the taliban at camp david? >> it reminded me a lot of the vietnam war negotiations. we said we were seeking peace with honor but what we were really seeking was a way out of a war that has lasted a decade and taken 58,000 lives. afghanistan hasn't been that bloodied for us, but we are frustrated, the president desperately wants to save money and fulfill his campaign promises to end these foreign adventures, but the taliban, their child-killing, women have been killing dope-dealing, religious extremists. they hate the west, the united states and specifically, they hate the judeo-christian world. i think the president was maybe looking for a moment. i don't mind at camp david was the location.

you don't negotiate with your friends, you negotiate with your enemies. if these indeed were sincere negotiations that was the perfect location, but i don't believe that they would have an ultimately happy ending. there's a reason we've been there for 18 years. i think general petraeus, everything he said, i agree with 100%, wholeheartedly. he's the greatest soldier of our generation, is with him when he had two stars, three stars, four stars and what he said about a sustainable force that stays in afghanistan to help prop up that government, the taliban don't even recognize the government of afghanistan. what they want is a religious theocracy. they want to set women's rights back a million years. what they are, they are cavemen with cell phones. they are vicious. they blew up the buddhas, for goodness sake. they eradicated the culture of their own country. they are low down and not to be

trusted. >> martha: and they believe it's a sham government and the thinking is they would overrun the government in short order if they had -- if they knew that the united states was no longer a presence. they are going through just the hello's and the introductions are from the president at the moment. want to ask about something else that you are quite active on on twitter about this whole idea of the latest sort of round of impeachment material that democrats seem to want to dig into when they get back to work. jerry nadler and his judiciary committee are going to start digging into the hotel issue for president trump. your thoughts on that? >> well, they are fulfilling the promise -- the democrats are fulfilling the promise they made. the president warned that if the democrats won back the house and the 2018 midterm elections, the last active which is going to be played out in north carolina tomorrow, that's why the president is down there, if they won, that they would be investigations, investigations about investigations.

it doesn't matter -- whenever the scandal du jour is. adam schiff and jerry nadler remind me of two at old high school athletes at age 16 desperate to put on their letter jackets and get back into the fray to show they are still relevant. they've been out of the spotlight now for some weeks and months and they are desperate to reclaim center stage from the man who is now occupying it, president trump, martha. >> martha: thank you. we are watching president trump in the early moments are, thanks for being here. i just want to bring in a momen moment, customs and border patrol acting commissioner, good to have you with us tonight. a couple of things i want to ask about what the first one i want to get to is this issue of what's unfolding in the bahamas and earlier today people who were there said that they were being asked for documentation, 100 some people were taken off about because they didn't have the proper documentation to go to the united states and then you came out and said we will

accept anyone on humanitarian reasons that needs to come here with the exception of those who have a criminal background, and on the president came out and spoke and he said this, watch. >> we have to be very careful. everybody needs totally proper documentation. the bahamas has some tremendous problems with people going to the bahamas that weren't supposed to be there. i don't want to allow people that weren't supposed to be in the bahamas to come into the united states. >> martha: so which is it? >> first of all, thanks for teeing this up and giving an opportunity to clarify. we are both saying the same thing. let me make sure the american people know. what the president said was absolutely correct and in context i said the same thing earlier today. our rules, our requirements are what they are, is that we do require individuals to have documents to legally enter this country.

that hasn't changed, that requirement is no different. now, what we will do, if they do make their way to our borders, because the humanitarian mission right now, we will use discretion on a case-by-case basis, but make no mistake, with the president said, i echo the exact same thing earlier today. if people think that they are going to take advantage of this crisis and through fraud gain entry into this country that are otherwise are inadmissible -- >> martha: how are you going to handle that? it's quite clear to everybody but there are a lot of people who have absolutely nothing left. we look at their homes in pieces, so in this case, it is not unlikely that someone does not have their papers, that they don't have a passport. if they can prove in some way that they live in those devastated areas, will that be enough? >> absolutely. martha, these procedures have been in place for a very long time and right now the bahamas -- what we've established is there's areas in freeport and nassau where they are actually there so we are going to do our best to get

those people without documents to nassau so they can get the documents, but make no mistake, when they land here in the united states, the cbp officers are experts at this and we are going to use our same vetting techniques and same biographical data to make sure that people that are coming in here are not bad people and if they are, we are going to apply the same procedures we do every day, and turn them into our cro they will be extradited removal as we do. make no mistake. >> martha: with regard to the defense, "the washington post" gave this three pinocchios, only 64 miles of fence and there have been built during the term presidency, far short of a thousand miles he pledged and far short of the 450 to 529 that he now pledges. the new construction so far replaced older fences and barriers they have the three pinocchio ruling. what you say to that? >> i say that's hogwash.

if you ask the experts on the border, 65 miles of new wall and it's not just a new wall, it's a new wall system. integrated technology, lighting, access roads. that's a game changer. 65 miles is a lot of new wall that they are building. every new mile, i've been saying this, every new mile of wall makes this country more safe and gives operational capacity to the border patrol agents to do their job. 65 miles is nothing to sneeze at. in addition, right now we are working with the army corps of engineers. the department of secretary of defense just approved 3.6 billion so we're getting additional contracts we are going to build simultaneously in multiple areas, strategic locations on the southwest border. i'm confident by the end of 2020 we are going to get to that 450-500 miles of new border wall. >> martha: you announced today that border crossings were down by 22%, so that obviously is an

improvement. to whom do you attribute that? >> the president of united states, clearly. and this administration. while congress has gone off on vacation, this continued to fail to do their jobs, to pass meaningful legislation, this president and this administration has continued to develop within the current legal framework, initiatives, policies and negotiations with our partners that absolutely directly resulted in the drastic reduction of these numbers. 22% from last month but in the last 90 days since may, we are looking at a 57% reduction in the last 90 days, it's unbelievable. the government of mexico, they absolutely have stepped up and have helped out with the reduction of these numbers. >> martha: basically under pressure from president trump, right? that was clearly something that he worked very hard on. so what's your estimate for how much wall will be billed over the next 12 months, for example? >> so over the next 12 months -- again, there's a lot that goes into that, how much difficulty

they run into the terrain at their building, but again, by the end of 2020, i feel pretty confident we are going to get to that 450-500 miles of new wall of the southwest border. >> martha: we will save the tape and see how it goes over that time. mark morgan, thank you very much, customs and border patrol acting director with us this evening, and president trump, as we said, is in north carolina this evening. he is there primarily to try to weigh in on the bishop-mccready congressional race, which is the last of the 2018 midterm races. it was determined there was fraud involved in a prior race and they had to redo and it's going to take place tomorrow. this is an area, a state that president trump won by about 11% in his election in 2016, but some of these areas have become not givens for republicans, a

district that used to be very solidly republican, one that he wants to make sure it stays that way tonight in support of his party. let's listen in a bit here to the president and see what he's talking about tonight in fayetteville. >> president trump: in 72 years. so i always say i'm sorry i didn't make it in historic, but you know what, it's going to be historic very soon. and here in north carolina, over 230,000 more people now have jobs in small business formation has skyrocketed by more than 25%. [scattered applause] but the radical democrats want to dismantle, demolish, and destroy everything that you've gained, and they will do it and it won't take that long. [boos] and that's why we need dan bishop and greg murphy. we need them.

we need them going down to congress and helping, but they can do it. it's also why many former years -- it's like a plant, we change things. keep america great. if we change things, but it's got to grow, it's got to develop those roots and once it does, it's going to be very hard for them to destroy what we've done. very hard. and that's really why i consider this election -- look, we had a very, very special day in 2016. [scattered applause] that was a very special day. a very special time. it was an incredible day, an incredible month, an incredible year, and i don't know that you can ever compare anything to it, but i can say this, 2020 is essentially just as important, because they'll try and take it away, whether it has to do with

religion, our evangelicals are here tonight and they are all over the place. [scattered applause] and what we've done for them and for religion is so important. at the other side, i don't think they are big believers. they are not big believers in religion, that i can tell you. you listen to some of them. they're trying. for trying to put little statements. they're not working too well. though statements are a little bit sort of not too good -- what is the world to make word we want to use her? little -- no. no, there pushing a little hard and it's not working. to stop the far left you must vote in tomorrow's special election. get your votes in early. who voted early? that's good, but the big thing is tomorrow, tomorrow is the election and jill get out to protect your family. you must defeat open borders and

you have a democrat named dan mccready and he wants open borders. if he wants sanctuary cities. it is not going to protect her second amendment. you know north carolina is a very big second amendment sites. and dan bishop, these guys, they're going to protect your second amendment. but one of the biggest issues in this election is in fact century cities. they force prisons and jails two to lease criminal aliens directly enter neighborhoods. >> martha: president trump talking to the crowd there comes on a busy day back in d.c., the

polarizing issue democrats demanding swift action. >> two people in washington can make sure the background checks bill passes. donald trump and mitch mcconnell. it is totally up to them. totally up to them and it is on their shoulders. >> martha: you see that from senator schumer. here's president trump on that today. >> we are dealing with democrats, were dealing with republicans. were talking about a lot of different things having to do with come as you call it, gun control, but we are talking about a lot of different things, but at the same time we have to protect our second amendment very strongly and we will always do that. >> martha: americans are doubtful. a new poll shows less than a quarter of voters believe that congress will pass anything to make any significant gun-control legislation over the next year. here now democratic senator chris coons of delaware who has been working with the white house and senate

republicans on a bipartisan solution to this issue. we also have senator tom tillis of north carolina in the wings, we hope to have him up with us in a few moments as well. senator, good evening to you. you heard the president just moments ago talking to the folks in north carolina saying he is with them on the second amendment, so what is your understanding of what can be done? is there a middle ground, what you hope to accomplish her? pickled is a number of us have been working together over the august recess when the senate has been out of session to try and identify a package of bills that we could move forward that would enjoy broad bipartisan support. senator pat tilly, republican of pennsylvania, and i introduced the bill called the next knicke notification act. all it says, but what it says is that state law-enforcement should be properly notified if a person prohibited by law from owning a weapon, someone was a convicted felon, or has been adjudicated mentally ill, goes into a federally licensed

firearms dealer and was in the background check form and tries to get a gun. that's the law. in about a dozen states it's not the law. in more than 30 states, this would simply make it a national standard that state law-enforcement is properly notified. i think this falls under the heading of less stomach let's enforce the laws we have more thoroughly. we also had a great hearing on the judiciary committee chaired by senator lindsey graham of south carolina earlier this year to consider something called emergency risk protection orders, or so-called "red flag laws." that's the sort of thing that rick scott, now republican senator from florida, signed into law after the parkland shooting. i'd welcome the chance to talk with both republican and democratic senders over the last few weeks about how we can move forward with background checks, better notice to law enforcement, or folks were primitive or trying to get guns and with ways we could invest more in mental health. i think there is an opportunity here for the president to lead.

>> martha: 67% according to the fox news poll favor banning assault lessons atomic weapons, it doesn't sound like you're one of them. >> i would welcome a chance to talk more broadly about how we handle weapons of war. what i'm on getting things done that i think are practically reasonable in the current political environment. i cannot have another month go by where we have more mass shootings as we did in dayton and el paso and odessa and just the last few weeks, were 50 americans were killed and do nothing. the senator and i have a very, i think i'm a reasonable bipartisan bill, i would like to see it get a vote. i'd like to see a spot on back on tracks and i do think we should take up the bill that came over from the house six months ago, it is a bipartisan bill. >> martha: so you do support the senate taking up that bill. senator mcconnell has said he's not going to bring anything before the senate that will not get the president's signature, so that doesn't sound like the house bill is moving anywhere quickly on your side.

>> well, that's senator mcconnell's position. i think if we put things on the floor and take a series of votes, what may well emerge from it is clarity about what can pass the senate. the clip that you showed earlier, senator schumer speaking, i think frankly aligns with what senator mcconnell is saying, which is if president trump takes a clear stance about what he will sign, that will motivate the senate to act, and i do think this is a chance to show leadership on making our country safer. >> martha: there was a piece this morning in "the new york post" that was an excerpt from a book that is written by andrew pollack, who has been a frequent guest on one show. his daughter meadow was killed in parkland, florida. i really hope that everyone reads his book. the shorter version appeared in a post today. talked about the unbelievable record that this young man

that's a killer, that he had everywhere along the way, the middle school teacher said this. his record suggests that his reign of terror at the middle school began halfway through his seventh grade year in february of 2013. for the next calendar year, he was suspended every other day. it goes on to say why did the school allow him to remain enrolled despite his daily deranged behavior for a full year not by negligence, but by policy? there was an attempt at the high school to mainstream him, to bring him back in from this special school with these teachers fought so hard to get him put in. what should we do when we know people are trouble and yet the same system seems to push them back into the mainstream? >> that's right. martha, that excerpt and that story highlights that there are cases where people are demonstrably troubled, mentally ill, they are publicly threatening to use violence and

yet their families, their teachers, their community, local law enforcement has not been able to find ways to prevent them from committing mass acts of violence, because they don't have the tools. it respecting the amendment, applying due process to remove guns from them or their family, that's exactly with these emergency risk protection orders would do. that is now the law in my state. it is now the law in florida. we had a good hearing several months ago, a bipartisan hearing, one of those rare constructive hearings in washington or on the judiciary committee, republicans and democrats agreed this is the sort of thing we should take up and pass on the senate. my hope as it would enjoy the president's support as well. >> martha: here we are, school has started again. every time this happens, and i pray that it doesn't happen in any school this year, but we all know that the likelihood that it will is better than not. what have we done to harden our schools, to put more armed guards at our schools?

it feels like that's the conversation when it happens and then it just sort of disappears because nobody wants to talk about actually putting somebody there who can defend these children. >> martha, one of the things that has happened in my home state, an entrepreneur i know has come up with kevlar applications that make it easier for teachers in the classroom, whether it's through whiteboards at the front of the classroom or through clipboards, or through backpacks that students have, to have more readily available individual ballistic protection. i don't support the idea of arming all teachers and requiring teachers -- >> martha: no one strong but arming teachers. talk about arming a guard or two guards, former police officers at every school in america. would you be in favor of that? >> yes. i do think that we should be investing more in making our schools safer and i do think appropriately trained law enforcement officers do provide a critical additional protection for our schools.

frankly, as we've got a whole new generation of kids going to school, going through active shooter drills, i think all of us as parents need to do more to invest in public health, mental health, to invest in solutions in our schools, and to invest in forcing the law so folks we know shouldn't have guns can't readily get access to. >> martha: all of those kids are not going to school anymore, who were killed at parkland -- >> that's right. >> martha: it could have been prevented. those teachers did speak up. they did the right thing, that vice principal at his middle school and when they found out he had gone and killed all those children, they said he couldn't believe the eight he had been mainstreamed into that school given how hard they had worked to prevent that. nancy pelosi says we are going to make this issue too hot for him, for the president, too hot to handle, some of the gun violence prevention groups that have made it on and -- to save the bill is not passed, mitch mcconnell and the

republicans in the senate have hell to pay. is she in the mood to compromise on this thing? does she actually want to pass anything? >> i can't speak for nancy pelosi but i will tell you six months ago the house passed abroad back background check b. a majority of republicans, majority of gun owners support strengthening background checks. what i try to do with senator toomey's find one reasonable bipartisan contribution to this debate that is widely embraced and is something that i think we should take up and pass. >> martha: senator, thank you very much. good to see you tonight. >> thank you, martha. >> martha: president trump revving up the crowd in north carolina as elizabeth warren is climbing in the polls. will he address that tonight? we will go back there to north carolina when we come back. ♪ what does it take, to call yourself an explorer? traveling to the darkest depths

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you know, baker, i can help you with -- with that. oh, no, it's fine. thanks, though. a man should cut his own lawn. [ lawnmower engine rattling ] [ engine starts ]

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revving up the crowd. going against fake news and supporting president trump next to him there. he hopes to win in that district. his district, the president won that district by 11% back in 2016 and the president is there tonight because he wants that district to stay republican. this is a house special election, the state overall the president trump beat hillary clinton by three percentage points in 2016, if he can hang onto that edge with voters there. let's bring in for a moment and then will go back and forth maturely kirk and richard fowled fox news contributor. charlie, i don't know how much you know about bishop, how do you think is going to do that tomorrow i do think that mccree or bishop will be the winner in the end here? >> i think bishop will win and i think the president's visit a good thing for him.

he made a great point, north carolina is going to be kind of a harbinger in state of things to come in 2,020. if bishop doesn't win this, i think will be somewhat of a letdown for republicans and conservatives and trump supporter's. north carolina is a critical state president trump to win heading into 2,020. it's really hard to do the electoral map without north carolina being part of that and i think bishop is going to win and there's a lot of attention in the special elections and sometimes these special elections mean not too much, sometimes they can be really helpful leading indicators heading into either midterm or general elections and you can see the president is drawing a huge crowd here and a lot of enthusiasm, i think is going to bring it across the finish line. >> martha: richard, what you make of this particular race and what it says about the larger picture in america right now? >> i think where charlie is right is these elections do have real impact, how the 20 oh 20 election is going to look. i think the president who campaigned in a of the voters of north carolina, they wanted a dealmaker, they wanted the guy who was the art of the deal and

here's the guy who they actually realize he's not the art of the deal, he went to north korea and he doesn't have a deal. the truth of the matter is north korea is still a nuclear state. he said he was going to deal with the afghanistan situation and we don't have a deal yet they are either so the president continues to grow in popularity amongst republicans, for the republican party every day it gets smaller and smaller and smaller as more folks walk out on this president because they know he's not the dealmaker. >> martha: charlie, i would imagine you would disagree with that. >> yeah, just a little bit. richard, i have a lot of respect for you but with all due respect isis is completely and totally destroyed. we are in much better place in north korea than we were when president obama left office and i don't think we should ever be afraid to talk to our adversaries. it's something that ronald reagan did so effectively to the lead up of the destruction of the soviet union and president trump is not afraid to talk to anyone. the world is in a much more stable, better place thanks to the president, a strong america, a rebuilt military and honestly our allies respect us and our

enemies fear is once again. if you want to talk specifically about north carolina to north carolina has enjoyed a robust economy, manufacturing jobs coming up -- coming back. unemployment is at record low levels and something that i know that you're very passionate about, the lowest ever black unemployment rate. what a great level of accomplishment that we are able to talk about thanks to president trump's pro-growth policies. that's a deal and one to take and we need more art of the deal to get him reelected. >> martha: hang on one second, the president just brought in another person in north carolina, another politician, i believe, up to the stage. i want to put up on the screen the latest abc "washington post" poll on elizabeth warren. let's take a look at that. you've got biden on the left-hand side there at 29%. that's the july number. here we go. over the september number he has dropped to 27. you go down to warren. she was at 11% in july.

she's popped up to 17%. harris i think is interesting too. she lost 6% of the ball. pete buttigieg can't get out of the 4% range but he still hanging in there at number five in a still very crowded field. richard, what's your assessment of what's going on here? >> i think the field is going to shift and move, that's with the primary is all about what you look at that same pole, the head-to-head against donald trump, all five of those candidates beat the president by almost ten, psalm 11, some 12 points. like i said, he is not the art of the deal, there's a low african-american employment rate but that's not the number you want to look at. look at the labor participation rate. take a city like detroit. in detroit the labor participation is only 56%. that means half of the population is not even in the labor market. >> martha: what was it a few years ago, richard? >> the point of the matter is when you go around and you took this number of black on employment, you should get to the root and figure out that what's happening in urban areas across this country is that yes, people are going back to work,

but there's also -- there are also folks that aren't in the labor market that are returning to the labor market and that's was problematic. now we also know after the last jobs report that wages are now flat. wage growth is now flat in this country under donald trump leadership. >> martha: it has been rising for the past two years. it may be going through a flat period. i don't have a crystal ball, i don't know it's going to happen next but seem to me -- just stay with me for a second year, richard, why is it impossible to sort of point out the things that actually are positive developments? why do you have to put a negative spin on what actually was good news. i'm sure you could find a million things other than that to say about president trump and -- which is fine. if the things you just pointed to comment labor force participation and on employment, and wage growth, those are all pretty tough things for whoever the democratic nominee is to speak out against i think. >> absolutely. listen, there's no question, i will give donald trump credit for some of the economic growth,

but if you're going to give them credit for the economic growth, and also to give them credit for the economic instability that was created by this two-year trade war with china which is now having a real impact on american households. the cbo found that american households lose up to $500 per household per year under donald trump's trade war and instead of talking about intellectual property, which is a real conversation, we are having a tit for tat with china over the price of soybeans versus the price of washing machines. >> martha: i think the intellectual property issue is the basis of the whole reason -- both >> and we still haven't found a solution to it. >> martha: charlie, what you say to that number? clearly the tensions over trade are putting a bit of a damper on president trump's economic revival. >> look, i just want to say thank you, richard, for complement and the president of the united states. never heard you do that before, thank you. secondly, -- i haven't heard it, but thank you for saying it. >> martha: i was just talking about the facts.

go ahead. >> we are taught what economic conflict with china, there is going to be pain. i think the farmers of the country understand that with china dumping their products, whether it be steel, many of the other products that they've been dumping over the last ten or 20 years, that there's going to be some pain associated with it. however, you look at the bigger picture, ten, 20, 30 years down the road, a short-term price increase on a couple select items so we can have a recalibration with these unfair trade deals that were negotiated with china, i think the farmers of the country and the middle-class workers that got donald trump elected totally and completely support that in the polls reinforce that. they show that donald trump is equally, if not more supported, as you said, richard, by republican voters in the states that really matter, north carolina, ohio, michigan, wisconsin. i will push back a little bit. you say the republican party shrinking him i don't see evidence of that. i see more voter legislation stomach registration then republicans. >> have to object. i have two objects there. let me say why. look at senator susan collins

from maine. she released and offered a couple weeks ago indicating she is a republican member -- cast one of the deciding votes in the kavanaugh decision and she said very clearly that she won't even vote for donald trump in this upcoming election and she's a member of your party. the truth of the matter is there a republican party -- here we go. >> martha: she's from maine. she's from maine. >> the argument i'm making here is that republicans all across this country are shifting away from this president. the reason he has to go campaign in this red state -- >> martha: i want to talk about democrats for a moment. richard, do you think what you're seeing in these numbers is an emergence because of elizabeth warren? she had a very successful rally of her own over the weekend. do you see -- look into the tea leaves a little bit here. do you see her emerging as the potential leader in this race? >> i think it's too early to tell but here's what you see happening in the democratic party.

two fields of thought. one thought as you nominate a centrist like joe biden and convince progressives to vote for a centrist. the other school of thought is the elizabeth warren school of thought which says you nominate a progressive and convince centrists that she's the best choice for the party. it clearly seems the parties moving in my that direction. if we are seeing a dip in the poll numbers it had to have matchups versus elizabeth warren. that argument might be palatable to the american people. >> martha: we will leave it there for right now. standby, we are going to come back. quick break, president trump promising the crowds moment ago that he is about to get back to business, so we are going to go back to see what some of the issues are that are being discussed tonight in north carolina. a lot of politics going on. we've seen a number of the candidates coming on the stage before north carolina dignitaries, quick break, we will be right back. ♪ it's been broken. and put back together. this is also hal's heart. and this is hal's relief, knowing he's covered.

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him all the way and they want to turn off the cameras, they go crazy. but with the farmers, you know that. if you ever that? the ten women. what you think president trump? we love him. i would like to put you on television, i tell you that. they can't turn those cameras fast enough but they say to the farmers, he voted for president trump, are you happy. and every one of them said he did things that nobody has ever done before. they've been talking to. i asked, i said, what's the amount they took out of our

farmers? 16 billion in the year before 12. and i said we've got to make that up and we made it up. who would do that? nobody would do that. first of all, china has taken advantage of our country for decades. i guarantee you one thing, none of these democrats, whether it's pocahontas or sleepy joe, none of them would be able to do a thing about unless were going ta

good deal or a fair deal for our country, let's face it, we cannot go back to a situation. we are getting hundreds of billions of dollars to china, become standard fare. not going to happen. we can't do it. and we have many other countries also, but we will worry about them a little bit later. plenty of others. plenty of others, they have taken advantage of our country like you wouldn't believe it. i've been saying this for many

years. i was saying this when i was a private citizen, they take our jobs, they make our product, they sell the product into our country with no tax, no nothing, so we end up with close factories, no jobs, no taxes, no nothing. and these other countries gain -- as an example, mexico, i must say, they really helped us at the border. the democrats will not do anything about these horrible open loopholes, which would be so good. so we are doing it a different way and mexico is now patrolling with 27,000 troops. i've never had to troops to our border. and you saw the numbers today were down approximately 57%. but our country could fix it so easy if the democrats would sit with me for 15 minutes, but they don't want to do that because they want to have open borders.

they want to have drugs pouring into our country. you have to have a wall and you have to stop it and when you look at what's happening with human trafficking, and it's mostly women, they trafficking in women and they pour through our borders -- well, every inch of wall that we put up is vital and were putting up miles and miles and we intend, by next year, at the end of the year, to have anywhere between 40500 miles of wall built, and this is serious wall, this is the real deal. serious wall. [crowd chanting] and i want to thank our new secretary of defense mark esper

for the job he's done, and he views it really as a national security threat and you have to. what can be much more threatening than people that want to pour across our borders, and we have the worst laws. we have the weakest laws in the history of any country. you can do anything to stop them. you have a program, catch and release. you catch them and then you have to release them. then you have to go back to court the next three, four, five, six years and nobody shows up. the democrats want fix it so we are stopping them so we don't even have to worry about the court. we ended the last administration's cruel war on american energy. the united states is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world.

>> president trump: and for all of these crazy people, but they are not so crazy. they know what they're doing, that talk about russia, russia, russia. russia is not too happy about that. their primary source of income is oil and gas. now, we are bigger then russia, bigger than saudi arabia. we are bigger than everybody, and we are doing great. so they are not exactly happy. [cheers and applause] the russian hoax is a pure hoax. you saw that with comey the other day. yet, every leading democratic running for president pledges to ban the energy that drives our economy and wage, if you look at what's going on, your way of life is under assault by these people i mean, i go out and sometimes i'll be at these huge audience, and i wish we could have been at a larger arena than this. we tried. i was even willing to stand out

in the rain. >> martha: all right, that's that's president trump. that's "the story" on monday, september 9th, 2019. tucker is up next. >> tucker: president trump, speaking to supporters in north carolina tonight. special election for two of north carolina's. welcome to tucker carlson. we'll be back. here he is. >> president trump: a lot. but i do. you know, we had a different location, as you all know. and, we said, let's do this one. it's bigger. we put screens outside for all of the people that have screens and loudspeakers and everything. it's really amazing what's going on out there.