no, actually, i let people leap over me, which isn't that hard to do. >> dana: exactly. >> greg: stop it! that is at perez. coverage of the vice presidential debate with bret baier and martha maccallum begins in just a few seconds. ♪ >> bret: welcome to the home of the utah jazz in salt lake city. this is a special two hour preview of the vice presidential debate, good evening i am bret baier. >> good evening i am martha maccallum and 26 days away from the presidential election and tonight we get a first look at the brand-new fox poll's on the elections. the coronavirus, and the economy. >> bret: the big one head-to-head, joe biden up ten points, doubling his lead from last month. >> martha: president trump is

shifting gears on yesterday's decision to stop negotiations on a pre-election virus tumulus package in late this afternoon national intelligence said he provided almost 1,000 pages of documents to the u.s. attorney investigating the origins of the trunk collusion probe. we have gillian turner on the developments in the durum probe, peter doocy in salt lake city. listen how to tonight's debate will be different from any other. >> bret: we began with chief white house correspondent john robert starting us off at the latest of the president's health, good evening, john. >> we should point out the resident tweeted a new video moments ago in which he called contracting coronavirus "a blessing from god" a blessing in disguise because he has this new regeneron drug, which the president promised he will get approved quickly and make available free of charge. now to tonight's debate, vice president mike pence is needing to have a big night

tonight because the new fox news poll finds more voters think that joe biden won the first presidential debate last tuesday them president trump. 44% of people saying they thought speed biden compared to president trump and the president will be watching tonight's debate as he got back to work for the first time in the west wing. speak with the marines stationed in front of the west wing indicating president trump was back at the oval office today for the first time since returning from walter reed. the president receiving a briefing on the hurricane and coronavirus relief. in a statement, the white house physician saying the president has been fever free for more than four days, symptom-free for over 24 hours. dr. sean connolly sang president trump now has detectable levels of antibodies, suggesting his immune system is responding to the infection and regeneron which makes that in about a cocktail he was given on friday saying the antibodies could be from their drug. >> he is doing rather well and

actually we for the residents and i can tell you he's fully engaged and feeling great. >> the white house response to the coronavirus will be a major topic in the vice presidential debate. mike pence has been the point person leading with a coronavirus task force. our new fox news poll finds coronavirus tied with the economy has voters top issue. 68% of people who say coronavirus as they are top issue indicate they will vote for biden compared to 29% for president trump. tonight mike pence expected to contrast how the white house responded in the early days of the pandemic with white democrats were saying. >> kamala harris, joe biden, nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, they all wanted to keep our borders open between china, the epicenter of the viral outbreak. the pc response of, well it is

racist and xenophobic to literay shut down the epicenter of the deadly viral outbreak. >> terrorism and isis expected to be a factor tonight. among the vice president's guests, the parents of kayla mueller who was captured, tortured and killed by isis. two man believed to be involved in mueller's death, isis "beatles" brought to the united states to face justice. after plugging the plug for relief, president trump urged house speaker nancy pelosi to do it in pieces tweeting "if i said a stand-alone bill for stimulus checks $1200, they will go out to the great people immediately. i am ready to sign right now. are you listening, nancy? the house speaker was, in fact listening and said this: >> he is suggesting rebounding from a terrible mistake that he made yesterday and the republicans ie going down the drain with him on

that. >> the president also suggesting the money unspent from the first coronavirus relief bill could be reallocated towards paycheck protection, enhanced unemployment insurance benefits, even support for the airlines, but that would take legislation to do nancy pelosi last month was unwilling to entertain the skinny bill for the coronavirus relief. so it is unclear whether she would support a proposal like that. again, bret, the video, the president tweeted calling his infection with the coronavirus "a blessing from god" because he discovered this new drug regeneron which made him feel good almost instantaneously, bret. >> bret: we will see that video momentarily on fox. john roberts on the lawn, thanks. >> martha: the stocks rally on a hopes of a covid bill and picked up 531 points on the best day since july. s&p 500 up and asked deck

finished by 210. >> bret: heading to tonight's debate, senator harris has higher approval numbers than vice president pence. harris 53% favorable and 43% unfavored, 47 and 48 respective. >> martha: this will be a delay unlike any other from a physical standpoint for the coronavirus but that does not mean the stakes are not extremely high here and of course peter doocy life in salt lake city with a look ahead tonight. hi, peter. >> tonight's debate in salt lake city will be contact free. >> we don't expect to have interaction except the words they hear on the debate stage. >> harris the former prosecutor know democrats have sky high expectations for the showdown with mike pence telling donors last month me he has a good debater. i'm so concerned, like i can only disappoint. v9 circled on his calendar since august. >> joe biden and the democratic party have been overtaken by a radical left.

and so we will talk about that. i'm looking forward to that debate more than i can tell you. >> democrat with the right wing group. responding to covid-19. >> it should be about health care in terms of mike pence being the head of the task force. the coronavirus, really? what level of success does he have to offer? >> they will pin harris as a radical record. even bernie sanders, so you have a stark contrast here come a wide ideologically between these two folks. >> significant steps to protect pence and harris from covid-19 but it is not clear if the set up will be enough to make joe biden comfortable in the same room with donald trump next week. >> well, i think if he still has covid, we shouldn't have a debate. >> he has been pledging to follow the advice of experts all week. >> and i'm going to continue to

listen to the scientists. i'm looking forward to have an opportunity to a town hall meeting if that occurs. >> the trump campaign final scouting report on kamala harris, in mock debates with pence. >> i know kamala, she is smart, articulate and she is very tough. she is a great debater. prosecutor's debate. that is what you do everyday in a courtroom. >> biden has been studying tapes too. >> he is a skilled debater, and he gets a lot of credit because he speaks in complete sentences unlike donald trump. >> masks are mandatory for everybody in the room except the debaters and the moderator. and tonight "new york times" with epidemiology talking about the plexiglass on stage saying "is only effective if vice president and kamala harris are spitting at each other. but it is still there as the debate organizers borrow the barrier. you might see checking out at

the grocery store, bret and martha. >> martha: peter thank you very much. >> bret: major developments tonight in the investigation of the war john trump collusion probe. the director of national intelligence is promising full cooperation and is backing that up tonight, correspondent gillian turner tells us how. >> good evening to you both come up bret and martha, the director of national intelligence john ratcliffe with his office provided nearly 1,000 pages of documentation to the department of justice to help with their ongoing investigation into the origins of the 2016 russia probe. now ratcliffe said these documents were provided in response to john durham. and the u.s. attorney leading the trump administration counter probe. in a statement tonight, ratcliffe said both he and i will support the doj with the classification consistent with their investigation. as you can see tensions tonight between the obama administration and trump administration

intelligence communities is ratcheting up fast. newly released documents from operation crossfire hurricane with a political storm in washington. former cia director john brennan is taking aim at director of national intelligence john ratcliffe after he transmitted documents including handwritten notes to the house intelligence committee. >> he is appalling, his selective process location to advance the political entrance of donald trump. these are my notes from the 2016 period when i briefed president obama and the rest of the national security council team about what the russians were up to and i was giving examples of the type of access that they had to rush and information. >> former until chief duked it out on twitter. former acting tweeting proof, biden with the powers of government to attack donald trump's campaign and then

transition from a former cia director replying, you are a expletive, really. and i see you don't like to be exposed and so you resort to name-calling. president trump tweeted he wants to see more. and fully authorized a total declassification of all documents to the single greatest political crime in american history, the russian hoax. likewise hillary clinton email scandal. that alteration came a year and a half ago when he gave the attorney general permission to declassify any documents relating to crossfire hurricane. is this political drama unfolds, alleys of president trump over on the capitol hill, more themselves leaving their own inquiry into the origins of the russian probe are ratcheting pressure on christopher wray and cia director gina haspel accusing them both of blocking the release of more documents in this probe. bret and martha. >> bret: jillian, thank you we

will discuss the twitter feud with acting dni chief richard grenell and a bit, but first white house white house chief of staff, mark meadows. thank you very much for your time. we want to talk about the last story with you, but first about the president. we will see this twitter video in just a bit. he is obviously projecting that he's doing well. you expect him to be out on the trail soon? >> well, i do. he actually has been in the oval office most of the afternoon. that video was taken just a few hours ago on the south lawn. annie keeps telling everyone, telling me privately, that he feels better than he did 20 years ago. and so, we are just very, very thankful to the doctors, to the american people, for their well wishes, and for hopefully, this groundbreaking drug that has made such a difference in the president's recovery. and so he has put in a full day. he is still in the oval office. i just left there to come out and be with you and the viewers.

>> martha: so mark meadows, can you give us a sense of what a person has to do to go into the oval office to speak with him? i understand you were in there today. there was a lot of blowback for him being back in the oval office and around people since he still has the virus. so did you wear full ppe when you went and they are? >> you may see lines from a mass that i had earlier, we have goggles, full pp and we are keeping the access into the oval very limited. but it may be limited in terms of direct contact with personnel and people that support him but it is not limited in terms of the amount of phone calls that he is getting done because he's been constantly on the phone with steven mnuchin, leader mcconnell as it relates to the stimulus and where we are and how we can best make sure that the american people can get he help. >> bret: i want to ask you

about the stimulus but first, there is a lot of talk about when he first contracted the virus. and there are a lot of things we still don't know. we are listening to the physicians and all the statements put out, but we don't know when the last negative test was. will we? >> we don't normally get into the testing protocol for the president. obviously, the doctor has already spoken about that and it was a positive test on last thursday evening when he was confirmed to have the coronavirus. obviously, the doctor here, the white house doctor, kicked into gear to make sure he was protected and had the medical treatment that was proper. i can tell you that from our standpoint, i think the doctor put out today, you know, there was no antibodies with the amount of review the other night

would indicate that we caught it at a very, very early stage. and we are very thankful he is where he is at. and we are looking forward to hopefully having not only a healthy president, but a healthy america as we advance the prospects of some of these therapeutics coming down. i can tell you two of them were put in for emergency use authorization today. the president has been very clear. he wants to make sure that those get approved as quickly and as safely as possible, but then they are given free to everyone so the american people can have the same kind of treatment that he just received at walter reed. >> martha: i know everybody wants to make sure that those treatments are widely available. i think there is a plan to get that underway. i want to go back around this one more time because it was put out today that the gold star family at the event at the white house on september 27 have been told that they may have been exposed to the coronavirus when they were there. that is why it is so important

to know when his case was active in the places that he went during that time. also, while the other people at the white house who have since been seen as positive. can you answer that? >> when you look at that and you do contact tracing, what you do is you go back according to cdc 48 hours prior to either symptoms or a positive test. we have done all of that. and that is to try to make sure we can mitigate the risk of anybody that has come in contact with it. the good news about the actual incubation period mack is that we know that generally did incubation period mack is about 5-7 days and it can be longer. that is why we tell people to quarantine between 10-14 days. part of the contact tracing, we have done all the contact tracing to go back to make sure anybody that was at risk has been contacted. i met with the cdc and our own

medical white house staff, actually yesterday, to verify not only has that been done, but indeed, it has been accomplished. >> bret: there is a lot of questions about the ending of the negotiations on the next stimulus on coronavirus. the president sending out that tweet before the markets closed. the dow jones took a major drop. then you have the house speaker come out and say this about that decision. take a listen. >> i wouldn't go anywhere near the white house. it is one of the most dangerous places on the contrary. i said yesterday to my colleagues, i said, there are those who say a steroid test has an impact on people's thinking. i don't know, but there are those health care providers that say that. >> went on to say it may have been the steroids that made negotiations. what is the truth behind ending stimulus negotiations and

tweeting out these single deals are possible? >> anybody who negotiated with nancy pelosi more than a month realizes that cutting off the deal has nothing to do with steroids. it has more to do with the person who looks in the mirror when she gets up in the morning. and so i can tell you, as we look at this, we believe that we have a number of things that we agree upon. a broad base of support to get a deal. but yet, she was continuing to stick to $2.2 million or $2.2 trillion deal. secretary dominic secretary mnuchin offered $1.6 trillion but willing to go to $1.7 trillion but she would rather have zero and that kind of number. i can tell you may be perhaps the best way to do it is take all of the things we agree upon, start building those back in passing those out. leader mcconnell, i know is willing to look at a separate bill for airlines and ppp.

if we can look at some of those and start to add to it. but at the same time, if she thinks that she can come back with something that is closer to where secretary mnuchin has come up to, i am sure the president is more than willing to look at a counter proposal. but today, she hasn't really been doing that over the last several weeks. she's been having a lot of conversation. it has been secretary mnuchin that has been given, not speaker pelosi. >> martha: chief of staff mark meadows, good as always. good to have you here, sir. >> great to be with both of you, thank you. >> bret: we received a twitter message from president trump. take a listen. >> perhaps you recognize me. it is your favorite president. and i'm standing in front of the oval office at the white house, which is always an exciting place to be. i got back a day ago from walter reed medical center. i spent four days there. i didn't have to. i could have stayed at the

white house, but the doctor said because you are president, let's do it. i said fine. you tell me what to do. i'm going to listen. these are great professionals. they have done a fantastic job and by the way, not just at walter reed but all over the country we have the greatest doctors, nurses, the greatest first responders, law enforcement, incredible, firefighters, everybody. they are great. we have great people. this is a great country. but i spent four days there, and i went in and i was not feeling so hot. within a short period of time, they gave me the general on, it is called regeneron. in other things too, but i think this was the key. they gave me regenerate on and it was like unbelievable. i felt good immediately. i felt as good three days ago as i do now. and so i just want to say we have regeneron and a very similar drug from eli lilly and they are coming out and we are trying to get them on an emergency basis.

we have authorized it, i have authorized it. and if you are in the hospital and feeling really bad, i think we are going to work it so you get them and get them for free. especially if you are a senior, we will get you in there quick. we have hundreds of thousands of doses that are just about ready. i have emergency use authorization all set. and we have to get it signed now. and you will get better. you are going to get better really fast. this is thing that nobody thought of a few months ago. the jobs that the scientists, the labs come everybody up done is incredible. in addition to that, you have other drugs that help a lot but i view these they call them therapeutic, but it just made me better. okay? so i want to get these things done. so we have to get them done. we have to get them approved and i want to get them to the hospital where people are feeling badly. that is much more important than the vaccine. but on the vaccines, we have many companies don't let

companies in final stages, johnson & johnson, motorola, pfizer, but many of them. we have a great vaccine shortly and we should have it before the election and before the politics gets involved and that is okay. they want to play their games but it will be after the election. but we did it. nobody else would have been able to do it. the fda has acted as quickly as they have ever acted in history. there has never been a time and no president has push them like i have push them either, to be honest with you. but the fda is approving things in a matter of weeks that used to take a matter of years. so we have these drugs, eli lilly, and the others that are so good, but they are, in my opinion, remember this, they are therapeutic and i guess they are therapeutic. some people don't know how to define their fee i view it different, for me it is a cure come a short 2024 hours later i went to get out of the hospital. that is what i want for

everybody. i want everybody to be given the same treatment as your president because i feel great. i feel perfect. so i think this was the blessing from god that i caught it. this was a blessing in disguise. i caught it. i heard about this drug and i said let me take it. it was my suggestion. let me take it. and it was incredible the way it worked. incredible. and i think if i didn't catch it, we would be looking like that and a number of other drugs. they did a fantastic job. i want to give to you what i got. and i will make it free. you will not pay for it. it wasn't your fault that this happened. it was china's fault. china is going to pay a big price what they've done to this country. china is going to pay a big price with a pen to the world. this was china's fold. and just remember that. we will get you the drug and it will be free. we will get it into the hospitals as soon as we can and

you will see amazing things happen. we have our military doing the distribution. it is called logistics. and they deliver hundreds of thousands of troops in a matter of days. this is easy stuff to them. our generals are ready, waiting for the emergency use authorization, and the drug companies have just made a lot of it. so hopefully, this is going to be not just a therapeutic. it will be much more than a therapeutic purity will get better, better fast, just like . so a blessing in disguise, good luck. >> bret: president trump. >> martha: it looks like he's feeling quite well, in fact, right? >> bret: else at the rose garden on the south lawn saying he wants to get regeneron. not approved by the fda fda yet but on its way and available for everyone who has covid and sayig he feels like a million dollars. >> martha: that drug is a

monocle in monocle in a body drugged a synthetic in a body that you that i if you have groa virus and then your body respons to it and builds the antibody. he says he requested it from the doctors and even though it wasn't approved by the fda, they want to make it free for everybody. he says that china will pay a big price for what has happened with the coronavirus that come with a on that limit this tape, what he said to come in tonight to the debate. obviously senator harris wants to focus on covid-19. vice president pence being the head of the task force will talk about what they have done, what they are doing, but we will probably put the focus elsewhere. >> martha: the military is preparing to distribute this. and those in the country would get up for free. that is sort of his pitch before the big debate tonight. and all of that, coming up we will speak with the former acting director of the national intelligence, richard grenell about this stack of documents

released from the dean night. >> bret: a little bit later chris coons but we will set the stage look a little different side than the first presidential debate. >> here in the debate hole for the vice presidential debate getting ready, you can see the difference in the plexiglass between candidates and the three desks, vice president pence stae left and senator harris stage right and susan page, the moderator in the middle. there are additional precautions in the hall, the tests, the masts and over my shoulder, surrounded by plexiglass, that is new. they are being extra careful with covid-19 out of this big debate wednesday night. our show continues after this. ♪ (driver vo) when i started this commute,

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♪ >> martha: all right, we are back in salt lake city. we want to bring in the ambassador to germany and former acting director of national intelligence ric grenell. glad to have you with us tonight. the news this evening is about these 1,000 documents that john ratcliffe the director of national intelligence has now released to the durum investigation. and it is getting a ton of attention and john brennan is pushing back saying released to him this effort to get hillary's campaign to sort of loop the trump campaign into this russian

conspiracy theory. john brennan said that there is nothing to that but just letting the president know what they were picking up on russian intel. what do you say do all that? >> well, john brennan is so certain, why doesn't he come down on the side of transparency? look, we've had a lot of people, susan rice, james comey, brennan a whole bunch of people scrambling and doing what they can to not have transparency. transparency is not political, martha. transparency is to be our friend. i will give you it is very unique to have transparency in washington though. washington wants to hold information. that is what they have done. what john brennan needs to understand from the information from career intelligence officials from the very beginning was pushed aside and classified away because it didn't fit the narrative that the obama administration, the obama/biden administration, susan rice, james comey, all

they wanted to spoon-feed to the american people. this is just the facts. anyone who wants to disagree but that should come down on the side of transparency and say, let's look at all the documents. see how this started. see what kind of individuals were briefed, what kind of career intelligence official statements we were dealing with that were pushed aside. let's have a whole transparent look at the situation. i think that after so many years of hearing washington politicians and the insiders spoon-feed the american people miss information, we need to go back to the beginning and be transparent. what are you afraid of? >> bret: speaking of transparency, you were acting dni and this dni is doing the same following the president's orders to declassify documents. rick, there was a lot of frustration, not just democrats blowing this off and saying it is 28 days before an election but also republicans up on the hill who said the fbi and cia

have been slow walking things. they don't know where the durham report is and 28 days from the election, there is a lot of frustration. >> i take the point but let's remove the 28 days. the most important part of this is not the election. the most important part is making sure that our government, u.s. government, the greatest country in the whole world does not weaponize the power that they have, individuals weaponize it against their political enemies. i have spent 11 years at the state department. when these types of things happen, we condemn them. we called out opposition parties and other countries who try to do things like this. this was not a peaceful transition of power. they went after canada tromped. they went after newly elected donald trump. the president-elect, his entire team. it is pretty clear. i go back to the fact that there is a lot of foot dragging from washington, d.c., types. it is not a republican versus

democrat issue. this is a washington versus the rest of america issue. we have to clean up washington. i see what you saw from president trump just now on the covid issue. as the classic president trump that we hired. here is somebody who doesn't talk about filing some sort of piece of legislation or cosponsoring a bill which is what joe biden talks about he did when asked about his accomplishments. this is president trump stating, you know what, experience this drug. it is amazing. i will get it through the fda make sure everybody gets it for free who has covid. that is an amazing outside perspective. he is a man of action. he is not a man of cosigning pieces of legislation. >> martha: there is obviously a big war of words between prior heads of the cia and the dni. here is michael hayden, the former cia director talking about transparency and trust and truth, which you just talked about but here is his version.

>> truth is really important, but especially intelligence. president trump doesn't care about facts. president trump doesn't care about the truth. he doesn't listen. tromped gets another turn from i think many alliances will be gone. and america will be over. and that is a real problem. >> martha: he came after you and called you pretty nasty name, ric. what do you have to say to the former director? >> look, i'm not going to get into the name calling. that is silly. we are the greatest country in the world. we can have policy disagreements, but let's talk about facts and policy discussions. here is a man who attacked me with really shameless words. all because i was trying to be transparent to share information. he can talk about facts, and he can talk about wanting to see facts, but his whole tirade

against me is because i was calling for more transparency. again, go back to the fact this is the washington game to pretend you know something on public television, and then when you go into the of the house where you are under oath in front of lawyers, you say something completely different which is what susan rice and samantha power in the whole team did. so i think we can settle this. practical people outside of washington, they just viewed this as all washington talk. what they would say is, let's just see the transcripts. let's go back to the facts and look at it. the american people are smart enough to know when they see something, they can come to their own conclusion. but that is just not the way washington works. they like to spoon-feed the american people. >> bret: we have heard from the trump campaign a lot of pushback on poles here are the polls have come out today, ric have seen joe biden increasing his leg not just nationally but key battleground states. considering that an understanding skepticism from

the trump campaign from polls, what does vice president pence have to do tonight quickly if you could? >> i think vice president pence has to talk about kamala harris as one of the most radical senators we have ever seen come around. she is the queen of the cancel culture. she has said she compares immigration officials, ice officials to the kkk. this is somebody who is a real radical. what vice president pence needs to do is ask for a question and demand an answer in the american people will see how radical she is. >> bret: ric grenell, we appreciate your time outside of the hall. speak to other headlines tonight with health officials opening a field hospital at the state fairgrounds near milwaukee as the surge in covid cases overwhelms hospitals there. a new fox poll 73% of those surveyed believe the coronavirus is only somewhat were not at all under control. >> bret: hurricane delta has

made landfall south of cancun along the northeastern coast of mexico's yucatan peninsula. it is expected to move to the gulf of mexico and grow considerably stronger. residents along the coast preparing for the hurricane to hit the area friday. >> martha: the justice department has an field charged against two state militants of britain accused of a gruesome campaign committee tortured beheading ex of violence against western hostages and they captured in syria including for americans. >> bret: for minneapolis derek showman released from prison after posting $1 million bond, he had been jailed in segregation at the state's maximum security prison awaiting next spring's trial in the deatf george floyd. he is charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. speed to the south carolina senate raised tightening and the political report rating this race a top dog.

incumbent lindsey graham considered a heavy favorite against challenger jamie harrison. we went to the senate races are interesting. the latest fox news poll the voters say they will mail in their ballots rate significantly for the democratic ticket 68/27, and in person voters go for the tromped/pence nine-point spread. >> martha: with four weeks to go until election day some states have issues with ballots and the senior correspondent eric shawn joins us from new york. >> people are not only voting now for the president but more than 5 million pilots reported so far. but in some places, they are already counting their votes. in maryland, the numbers are being tallied up but like other states cannot be released until after the polls close on election day. some states will move up the counting process predilections say that would give him a jump start to get the election results sooner.

at least 17 states now start counting at some point before november 3rd. but other states like the key battleground pennsylvania want to get a head start too. >> we need the legislature to pass the law to allow counties to mail in absentee ballots to start counting them sooner. >> in new jersey, taking place predominantly by males, the federal judge found in favor of the state to start counting ten days before election day. handing the trump campaign a defeat in court. this comes as a garden state mail carrier arrested for allegedly discarding mail in dumpsters, including 99 general election ballots being mailed to the voters in west orange, new jersey. the official say 2,000 piece of mail recovered and put back into the system. ohio started mailing 2 million absentee ballots, double the 2016 numbers. in franklin county, some voters received absentee ballots meant for others in different towns.

officials blame the mix up on a scanner. >> bret: has for the new jersey mayor -- mail carrier, second one accused of wrongdoing after pled guilty to mail an election fraud in july. he had allegedly altered eight absentee ballots with party registration from democrat to republican on some but tonight, there is no apparent evidence that new jersey case is directly connected at all to the electi election. bret and martha, bac back to yo. >> bret: eric thank you. >> martha: let's hear from one of the members of the joe biden team, senator chris coons in delaware, senator, good to have you with us this evening. thanks for being here. >> great to be on with you tonight. >> martha: it is great to have you with us as always, thank you, senator. the last debate was pretty raw. what do you expect tonight? >> well and expect it will be a little bit more orderly. i was in cleveland, and i've never seen anything like that.

frankly, tonight i think we will see vice president pence who by the way a radio and television commentator and talk show host delivering a more measured defense of the trump administration record. and we will see my colleague senator kamala harris of california, explaining and advocating how a biden/harris to bring us together to get us through the pandemic and build back on the economy. i do think vice president pence who is the chair of the coronavirus task force will have a hard time answering questions about how successful that task force has been when the president and first lady in 18 members of the senior team in the white house have recently been infected. >> bret: senator, thank you for being here but i want to talk more about what you think tonight and the back and forth, understand you met with judge amy coney barrett today. tell us about that and where you are on that process.

are the new polls suggest that people okay and the polls that say go ahead and confirm her? >> we did not meet in person but spoke by phone. that is another reminder how the pandemic has handled so much. we are now just 27 days from a presidential election where more than half of the states are already voting. there is no precedent for considering the nominee for the supreme court this close to an election where voting has already started. i talked with judge barrett about some of her writings, some of her opinions, some law review articles and i asked her questions about judicial philosophy and about how being a former clerk and a follower of justice for leah's view of textualism and regionalism, how that would impact real americans live. i spoke earlier today with delaware in cary from middletown who owns a submittal business

and her daughter has pre-existing conditions. she is anxious about the affordable care act. as you know on the docket for the supreme court a week after the election. and i asked judge barrett whether she stood by previous comments she has made criticizing chief justice roberts for upholding the constitutionality of the affordable care act. if the court strikes down the aca, that will take away protection from half of all americans. that is something that judge barrett would not speak too specifically, but i really do think is on the docket and on the ballot. >> martha: so where they any thing that set off alarm bells for you? you when i have the apa before and have different this case is before the court now then the one that overall looked at it with justice roberts. but in terms of other things you said were alarming, what were those? >> judge barrett would not make specific comments about separability and how she would

apply that in this case, but what i was pressing her on was her view of precedent. whether the court should overturn long, settle cases that we have come to rely on that are critical in areas like voting rights or labor rights or reproductive rights or lgbqt rights. she would not make specific commitments, but i did press her on repeatedly stating that we should be willing to overturn long, settled cases. >> bret: senator, you know -- you know the judges don't answer these questions and this kind of preconfirmation hearing back and forth. they just don't. one of the things, the questions and i don't mean to interrupt you but one of the questions that joe biden and kamala harris has not answered whether they would increase the number of supreme court justices on the court were whether they would be for killing the filibuster. why don't the candidates who are running as opposed to judge barrett answer those important questions about changes to our government?

>> well, bret the question i did ask of judge barrett that are appropriate or her judicial philosophy, whether she has someone believes in a living constitution, regionalism, and what that would mean for the real lives of daily middle america in terms of things like health care. but the questions that you raise are ones where if you heard former vice president biden's remarks in gettysburg yesterday where he talked about bringing the country together, about trying to restore bipartisanship. it seems clear to me that what joe biden given his record, given his platform in his view of the country, what he would prefer to do with possible is what i hope to do in the senate if reelected. and if we are in the majority. and that is to work across the aisle, to deliver real solutions to the problems in front of us. if our democracy works, we won't need to take more extreme measures and change the rules of the senate. but if we are not able to get partners who will work with us to solve issues right in front

of us like prescription drug prices or the opioid crisis or like getting out of this pandemic or building back better after this recession, frankly, largely caused by president trump's mishandling of the pandemic. if we don't have good partners for this, then there may be other changes on the horizon. but that is not something we need to consider yet. my hope is we will be able to work together in the interest of bringing this economy together after the selection. >> martha: senator, thank you. those hearings for amy coney barrett began on october 12th. and we will check back in with you then. thank you very much, senator. >> bret: thanks, senator. the panel previews tonight's debate. >> martha: the state capitol building right here in salt lake city. we are here in beautiful salt lake city, utah in front of the states capital as we get ready for a very big night tonight. the vice presidential debate between senator harris and vice president pence.

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a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/try and never go to the post office again. ♪ >> martha: we have every expectation that mike pence will be compelling on the debate stae tonight but senator harris will make the case for a different vision for the country,

different direction and for competent capable leadership. >> vice president pence is ready. he is prepared to prosecute the case against the california radical extremists of kamala harris. and you know, we know that he is going to talk about and ask the tough questions on kamala. >> bret: for the prebattle for the vice presidential debate tonight. in the meantime we heard from the democratic nominee joe bideo president trump's statement in the rose garden that he thinks it's a gift that god gave him covid so that he can help others. here is joe biden moments ago respond. > martha: it's coming. >> bret: okay, it's coming. it's not there yet. let's bring in the panel. and momentarily, mo elleithee executive director of politics.

kristen soltis anderson and tom bevan, real clear politics cofounder and president. let's see. there was a little delay. now the gremlins are allowing to play the sound bite. here we go. >> i think it is a tragedy that the president deals with covid like it is something not to worry about. and 210,000 people have died. >> bret: he starts off by saying i need to think before i speak on this one. and then you can hear the rest. maybe they didn't want us to hear it because it didn't sound great. we finally played it, mo, your thoughts on this with the president said earlier. >> mo: look, this is the

issue. covid is the issue in this campaign. it is the number one issue on the minds of the voters. the president had an opportunity to turn around his flighting numbers on it. and he didn't seize the opportunity. to come out and say it was a gift because it would help him help people, but at the same time, bl there saying don't worry about it. don't be afraid of it. down playing the virus and exposing people around him while he is still completely contagious. the two don't match. and that, to me, the president's numbers have not moved. he dramatically needs to change the race if he's going to turn the race around. the clock is ticking. and he's not doing anything to help his case right now. >> martha: kristen, do you agree with the president's approach to his hospitalization and being a diagnosed with

covid? >> kristen: the president has had poor numbers on covid-19 handling in polls over the months. the voters initially gave him the benefit of the doubt but let them by his handling of the virus peer that has led to really having a tough standing in the polls as the narrative shipped back to talk about the economy and to be really focused. they do not care what your campaign strategy is or what your messaging strategy is. you can't turn the page and pretend the virus is going away, no big deal and it is dramatically interrupting americans lives. this is a moment president trump said look, i have seen this face to face and it has come to my front door. this is what i will do instead of wait for a vaccine to help us get through that. we have not heard that from the president, and that is another missed opportunity for him. >> bret: tom, sorry, quickly, what are your thoughts? >> tom: i would just say for the debate. mike pence has to be sharp tonight. yesterday the three things,

defend the trump administration's record, right? he has to press kamala harris and be aggressive but respectf respectful. >> bret: you were aggressive and yet respectful and we made the commercial. thank you. sorry for the short talk there. when we come back hour to have the special debate preview. it can feel like you're living in a different world. you should definitely talk to your doctor and ask about fanapt. ok. fanapt is approved for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults. in clinical trials, fanapt significantly improved symptoms of schizophrenia compared to placebo. cynthia, are you ok? i feel like everyone's out to get me. fanapt may change your heart rhythm which could elevate risk of sudden death. your doctor will consider this when deciding among treatments and may prescribe another medication

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(four girls vo) the polls! voted! (grandma vo) go out and vote! it's so important! (man at poll vo) woo! (grandma vo) it's the most important thing you can do! >> tonight republican incumbent mike pence will try to convince you he should keep the job. democratic challenger kamala harris will make