Cited in the book as well and other things, we are going to talk to him about. This on a day when the president announced a new list of potential nominees for Supreme Court vacancies should he be reelected. We have fox team coverage, peter doocy in michigan with what joe biden is saying today about the woodward book but first, Kristin Fisher is live on the north lawn with a very busy day at the white house. Good evening. Indeed, good evening, bret. President trump is calling Bob Woodwards new book a political hit job. But woodward says that the president granted him 18 on the record interviews and there are tapes. President trump telling author bob woodward he understood the severity of the coronavirus early on but had a reason to say publicly that it was under control. I think, to be honest i wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because i dont want to create a panic. His new book shows the president realizing covid19 was more dangerous than the common seasonal flu. Is a very tricky situation. It goes through air, bob, thats always tougher than the touch. The touch things, but the air, you just breathe the air, thats how its past. So thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. Its also more deadly than your you know, then even your strenuous flus. People dont realize we lose 25,000, 35 euros this is more deadly, 5 versus 1 and less than 1 , so this is deadly stuff. But publicly President Trump ejected an air of calm, saying things were under control. If you have the flu, you recuperate, you get better, and they are recuperating. Earlier today the president defended his public stance. I dont want people to be frightened. I dont want to create panic, as you say, and certainly im not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy. We want to show confidence, we want to show strength. Administration Officials Say the president took action early in the pandemic with travel restrictions with china in late january. I didnt get the sense he was distorting anything. In my discussions with them, they were always straightforward about the concerns that we had. But democrats quick to pounce on the president as being deceptive. There is proof that donald trump lied and people died. This report is totally believable. If we all know President Trump puts himself first, but this time, the consequences were deadly. While the white house scrambled to contain the political fallout from the books revelations, the president turned to a favorite topic of his base, judicial nominations. Apart from matters of war and peace, the nomination of a Supreme Court justice is the most important decision an american president can make. The president updating his list of possible Supreme Court candidates with 20 new names, among them three g. O. P. Senators, tom cotton, ted cruz, and josh hawley. News that the white house would have preferred to focus on today, a member of the Norwegian Parliament has nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing his work on the historic peace deal between israel and the United Arab Emirates and that peace deal is going to be signed here at the white house next week. Bret. Bret thank you. As we mentioned, National Security advisor here on air in just a little bit. Joe biden sang President Trumps date mess of the start of the Coronavirus Crisis may have led to the death of tens of thousands of americans. The democratic residential nominee condemning the president based on the accusations in the woodward book. He made the comments during a Campaign Event in michigan aimed at highlighting bidens plans to keep american jobs in america. Corresponded peter doocy reports tonight. Joe biden was late to his event so he could get caught up on Bob Woodwards new reporting about President Trump. He failed to do his job on purpose. It was a lifeanddeath betrayal of the American People. Hes blaming what he calls early in action on covid19 for exaggerating economic problems that came with the pandemic. This is a recession created by Donald Trumps negligence and he is unfit for this job as a consequence of it. He also touched on the human soul. How many families are missing loved ones at their dinner table tonight because of his failures . Its beyond despicable. Its a dereliction of duty, its a disgrace. At one point biden read from a printed list of covid19 statistics but appears to have exaggerated here. Military covid deaths, 6,114. Because Seven Members of the u. S. Military have died from covid according to the defense department. Still, biden tried to contrast himself withdrawn. Donald trump and i have a pretty different philosophy when it comes to giving our word. If mine means something. The backdrop today, six american cars right off the assembly line. As they say in parts of my state, i got rung up on general motors. Hiring more American Workers in a biden administration. Make it in michigan, make it in america, invest in our communities and the workers in places like [indiscernible]. Thats what this is about. The Biden Campaign asked invited guests to stay away from events if they have any symptoms of covid19, but today the democratic nominee stopped himself multiple times to cough. We are going to hear a lot more about this. Still, he assured michigans Governor Gretchen Whitmer he is careful to follow all the states covid regulations. Socially distance, im allowed to take my mask off they tell me, but i promise i will put it back on. Late this afternoon, the Biden Campaign explained that mixup with the number that the former vp gave of military covid deaths versus the actual number from the pentagon, they say he just misspoke, he has all the statistics on a car that he carries around in his pocket. Bret. Bret peter doocy, thank you. The Trump Administration plans to reduce american troop strength in iraq by onethird, just in time for the president ial election. National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports tonight from the pentagon. Its the first time u. S. Forces have been withdrawn from iraq since 2016. Today the president and the pentagon, are announcing a drawdown of troops in iraq, Just Announced from 5,200 to 3,000. The general commander of the middle east made it official. This reduced footprint allows us to continue advising and assisting our iraqi partners in rooting out the final remnants of isis in iraq and ensuring its enduring defeat. In recent months, u. S. Forces have left a number of iraqi bases where they have been increasingly under attack by iranianbacked proxy forces. The uptick comes in the wake of President Trump ordering the assassination of the powerful iranian general in baghdad. Iran responded by launching Ballistic Missiles against u. S. Troops in iraq days later. In march, to go american troops in a British Army Medic were killed in a rocket attack. U. S. Military responded with air strikes. In North Carolina last night, President Trump weighed in. We kept america out of new wars and we are bringing our troops back home. We are bringing them back home. From all these faraway places. [cheers and applause] weve spent hundreds of billions of dollars and what do we get out of it . The u. S. Still has about 60,000 troops deployed in the middle east and operates about 800 military bases in 70 countries around the world. Bret. Bret Jennifer Griffin of the pentagon, thank you. Robert obrien is cited in the bob woodward book. We want to talk about that but also other issues. He joins us tonight from the white house. Thank you very much, welcome back to special report. Thanks, good to be with you. Bret is a quote in this book about the threat, generally 20th in the oval office, your quoted to say to the president this will be the biggest National Security threat you face in your presidency. This will be the roughest thing you face. It is not true . It is true. One of our oval intelligence briefs and it was something we were concerned about. Our job is to look around the corner and see threats that may be the ic or other folks arent seeing, it was a threat we saw and we conveyed it to the president. Either way, he took very prompt action. Within 48 hours of that warning and at the time there were no deaths in the u. S. , very few cases. He banned travel from china within 48 hours of us giving that advice and there were very few people that thought that was a good idea at the time other than the president , so i give him a lot of credit. Bret the actions are one thing, he often talks about those but what he saying about woodward behind the scenes in these interviews is different than what he saying publicly about it. Do you see a disparity there . I dont see a disparity. We saw the threat of the pandemic im not a Public Health professional or a doctor. We thought that this would be could potentially be a widespread pandemic. Ive seen this in a prior administration, the Bush Administration when we saw sars, swine flu, avian flu come out of china and we know the communist parties, their first reaction is to cover it up, so we had a gut feel that the chinese communists would cover this up the same way the soviets did with chernobyl so we saw a real threat. We didnt know at the time and the w. H. O. Was saying that there was no human to human transmission of the time. We were the chinese were downplaying it, we didnt know how it would play out as a virus. It turned out to be resilient and nasty, but at the time, we saw the threat of a pandemic, the president took extraordinary action but at the same time, he didnt want to panic folks and that the Public Health professionals and the w. H. O. And others were downplaying the threat. I think he just took the right approach, he was calm, resolute, he was confident and in the month of february he got the vaccine going, the therapeutics program, the ventilator Program Going and weve done things that havent been done since world war ii in this country. Bret on february 7th, he says china is working very hard. Late last night he had a very good talk with president xi, this is him on february 7th and he goes on to talk about how its passed through the air, the coronavirus. I guess there are multiple times where he talks about its going to go down to zero, we could play a montage after february 7th where he says its going to wash away, the covid coronavirus and your critics, the president s critics are saying because of that tens of thousands of people died instead of having action that could have warned them. Thats what theyre saying. What they are saying is flatly wrong. Its not true. The president saved thousands and thousands of lives. January 30 and announced on january 31 that were banning travel from china. Second, the biggest Industrial Program to create ventilators. At the start of this, bret, folks were saying that the doctors were going to make terrible decisions give young people ventilators and take old people often are leaders in that sort of thing, that never happened. The stockpile of ventilators we inherited was diminished, we rebuilt the stockpile, make sure that every american who needed one had one and weve given out over 16,000 ventilators around the world, so thats what we are standing up in february. So it was saving lives. Same with ppe production in the United States, same with vaccine production. We are going to have a vaccine well within a year of this virus taking hold here, which has never happened before. So the president took extraordinary action to save peoples lives, but at the time that he made those statements, we were being told by many people, by the w. H. O. , by the chinese themselves turned out not to be true, by Public Health professionals here, that there wasnt [indiscernible], that the virus would go away with warm weather. All of those things were being told to us. Its turned out they werent true unfortunately but the president was taking action notwithstanding with the establishment and the general opinion of this virus was. He was taking action to prepare for the worse and he saved thousands of lives as a result. Bret a couple more things about the book and a couple more topics, but why did the president sit down with bob woodward 18 times . Hes got 20 hours of tape. Listen, the president has been able to make his case to the American People. Hes answered more questions probably than any president in history, at least any president in my lifetime. He spends a lot of time with the press, spends a lot of time with the press, whether its walking to the chopper or air force one or the briefing room, and he gives a lot of oneonone time. And is willing to take the hard tough questions from journalists or probably opposed to him so i think the president made a decision that he was willing to go into the lions ring with bob woodward, the toughest Investigative Reporter of all time and i think look, he felt confident making the decision that Bob Woodwards put together i havent read the book, hes put together a book that wasnt kind towards the president , thats really a shame. Bret he concludes the book saying that the president does not fit, so i think you can get that judgment. If you are quoted in the book a couple of times, but the president tells woodward about a weapons system. He says i built a Nuclear Weapons system nobodys ever had in this country. We have stuff that you havent seen, even seen or heard about, we have stuff that putin and president xi have never heard about before. What we have is incredible. It says that National Security officials were surprised that he talked about that since a lot of it is classified, what is he talking about . Are not going to get into what hes talking about what you can rest assured that the men and women will manufacture our weapons and who have always had us on the cutting edge, whether it was back in the old days of the f117 nighthawk to the b2 bomber, the f22, f35. We are always on the cutting edge and weve got something out there that our adversaries dont know about. If the president didnt talk about any specific weapons system, but you can rest assured that we can protect the United States of america against any foe, any threat thats out there because of the excellent manufacturing that we do here, the research and development that we do here in the fine men and women, servicemen and women who manned those platforms. Bret speaking about that, after the atlantic piece, the president on monday said this about military leadership. Sorry, i think that sound bite here you go, lets listen. Im not saying the military is in love with me. The soldiers are. The top people in the pentagon probably are because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those Wonderful Companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make Everything Else stay happy. Many of these leaders have sons and daughters who have gone to combat or may be in combat right now, so i can assure the American People that the Senior Leaders would only recommend sending our troops to combat when its required for National Security and a last resort. Spoon obviously the army chief of staff, do believe that the Senior Leadership wants to send people to war . Look, i think the point that the president was making was a very similar point that Dwight Eisenhower made in his address as president when he talked about the militaryindustrial complex and hes been lionized and lauded across the political spectrum. The president just made a similar point. Of the troops love the president , the president has supported the troops. Hes increased the Defense Budget from those terrible days that we had under obamabiden when literally the troops didnt have the ammunition on the readiness and the tools necessary to defend themselves. Thats been turned around. And like ronald reagan, the first president since reagan who hasnt started a war so the present would like to get our troops, soldiers, sailors and airmen and marines home, we want to shift those burdens to our partners and allies and bring those troops home and i think he was making that point, hes got a great relationship with the chairman of the joint chiefs, the other Senior Leaders in the pentagon. Uniformed leaders in the pentagon and ive seen that up close and personal. I know they have terminus affection for him. Bret he often with World Leaders talks about how much they are buying from the Defense Industrial complex and what weapons theyre buying and how much theyre paying, so just an interesting thing that raised eyebrows. I want to ask about this we want our partners to burden share. We cant the american taxpayer cant afford to defend the entire free world as it has, so we want our allies and our partners to spend some of their own money. Some of them are very wealthy countries like germany and the gulf arab states, so we want them to buy the equipment that they need to defend themselves, we will be there sidebyside with them, but it cant all be up to the american taxpayer. Bret the uae israel signing is next week. Will there be other arabisraeli delegations that make that decision before election day . None of this is driven by election day politics. These are very hard negotiations to go through. If you saw since the uae israel ideal, that was a signal deal, the first time in 25 years without such a deal and i was lucky enough to be on the first commercial flight from the airport to Abu Dhabi International airport last week and it was a very Emotional Experience for the people on the plane and for the hosts that received us. And since time, [indiscernible], muslim majority country has said that they are going to recognize israel and move their embassy to jerusalem. I think youre going to see other countries do it, but they are complex difficult negotiations. I dont know if we will get it done by a certain people we are hard on it. Bret the news of the Nobel Peace Prize nomination not getting through today, but youre happy about that, as is the president im sure. Ive always said that the president came into office, known as a dealmaker, is going to leave office known as a peacemaker. When you look at what hes done in afghanistan, negotiating the ceasefire between the turks and the kurds, normalizing relations between the uae and israel, between kosovo and serbia, i think theres more to come. Hes got a pretty impressive record. I dont know if anyone else has a record similar, so he should get the prize. I dont know what the committee will do or not. If bret the withdrawal of troops from iraq and the same thing of afghanistan, nothing to do with election day . The president campaigned on ending the forever wars he also campaigned on burden sharing, so one of the things that is the untold story of iraq, and i saw your piece earlier, Jennifer Griffins piece, we now have 1800 nato troops working sidebyside with our troops on train and assist in countering isis. I think the number of nato troops is going to go up. Our european allies are in iraq, i think that allows us to draw down in the same thing in afghanistan, so we need to resolve these conflicts, we need to do it in a manner that preserves the way of life of the afghan people, the iranian part of that is by ending conflicts with peace agreements and part of that is by getting our allies to step up and no one has more success anathema president. Bret there is an investigation, whistleblower complaint alleging the dhs suppressed intel reports on Russian Election interference. The complaint itself refers back to you, saying that this specifically instruction specifically originated from you. Is that true . This has to do with the former undersecretary, acting secretary of homeland security. Ive never even heard of this guy. I dont know who he is and its hearsay. He says he heard it from somebody else and in polite society, thats the sort of thing that used to be frowned on. Now it gets news converge. Its totally false. I dont think is anybody thats been tougher than i have been on the president. Of ive been writing for russia for years and years, well developed reputational. We take in extorting, extraordinary acts, the support of venezuela, we sanction more russians than any administration in history, but i will tell you one thing, china is a serious threat to our elections. Iran is a serious threat to the free and Fair Elections here and i certainly want reporting on not just what russia is doing but what china is doing, iran and what other bad actors are doing but ive never heard of this guy, its absurd. Bret National Security advisor robert obrien, we appreciate your time today. Great to be with you, thank you. Bret special report continues with a lot of other news, including why the Justice Department is involved in a lawsuit, next. New advil dual action with acetaminophen fights pain in two ways. Advil targets pain at the source. While acetaminophen blocks pain signals. 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That date was actually february 7th, we will correct that. The Justice Department is coming to the president s defense on a lawsuit brought by a woman who has accused him of raping her, and accusation the president has vigorously denied. David spunt has more. Good evening, david. From the moment he came into office here at the department of justice, attorney general bill barr faced a lot of criticism. People said he was represented in the personal interests over the interest of the country, the American People and we are specifically talking in this case about a woman, a writer in new york. She came forward last year and said then Businessman Donald Trump sexually assaulted her inside a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in new york in the mid1990s. She is now suing the present for defamation in new York State Court but now the u. S. Department of justice wants to get involved and represent the president in federal court. The president has denied the charges multiple times. A total false accusation and i dont know anything about her. According to the doj, because he deny the allegations as president as he did there arent other times, President Trump can be subject to representation by the Justice Department. The attorney general, bill barr, in a News Conference today in chicago cited a law called the westfall act. Listen. This was a normal application of the law. The law is clear. It is done frequently and the little tempest thats going on is largely because of the bizarre political environment in which we live. But many legal experts, including our own fox news analyst judge andrew napolitano, see bright red flags. The president has found an attorney general willing to stoop to great depths in order to protect him and to insulate him from paying legal bills. The attorney general has grossly misused the assets of the Justice Department. She herself reacting to news from the doj tweeting to donald j. Trump, sir, i and my attorney are ready, so is every woman who has ever been silenc silenced. So is every american citizen who has been trampled by bill barr in the doj. Bring it. If if doj successfully takes over the case and e. G. And carol would win the case and be awarded damages in a civil case, the money, the reward would not come from Donald Trumps personal account, it would come from the american taxpayer. Bret. Bret we will follow this. David, thank you. Up next, the latest on the prospects for a coronavirus vaccine. Heres what some of our affiliates on the country are covering. Fox 12 in portland as oregons governor says wildfires raging across the Pacific Northwest could bring the greatest loss of human life and property of any fires in his states history. Firefighters are struggling to contain and douse the blaze, blazes that have spanned 50 Miles Per Hour wind gusts in that area. A live look live look at olinda from fox 35. One of the big stories there, Florida Governor ron desantis vetoes a bill that would have raised the age were buying Tobacco Products to 21. Saying he rejected the measure because it would have also banned of the sale of flavored Nicotine Products used in vaping. Thats a live look outside the beltway from special report. We will be right back. These days, businesses are adapting to new ways of working. And innovation is at the heart of it. Verizon 5g ultra wideband is the fastest 5g in the world, with speeds up to 25 times todays 4g networks. Its massive capacity and ultralow lag time is already available in parts of select cities around the country. Which means businesses both large and small can innovate like never before. That includes temperature scan, and sanitizing everythingfe. And all of our staff wearing gloves and masks. Not that mask. This mask. Thats the visionworks difference. Visionworks. See the difference. Everything we have, weve earned. The unmistakable lexus is. Get zero percent financing on the 2020 is 300. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Bret two of the president s top experts on the Coronavirus Response are promising no shortcuts in the approval process for coronavirus vaccine. That testimony coming as a leading drug manufacturer halts testing on a potential vaccine after one participant falls ill. Mike emanuel has specifics tonight. Im ready to roll up my sleeve as soon as they say its safe and effective. The director of the National Institutes of health, dr. Francis collins and u. S. Surgeon general on capitol hill trying to build Public Confidence in the covid19 vaccine process. There will be no shortcuts. This vaccine will be safe, it will be effective, or it wont get moved along. And when a vaccine is either approved or authorized by the fda, in my family will be online to line to get it. The hearing taking places the final phase of trials from astrazeneca paused due to an unexplained illness in one participant. That means science is leading the process. There are ways however that we have adopted in warp speed to move quickly while retaining those most rigorous scientific standards and i think you would want us to do that. People are dying. Astrazeneca called the pause routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials. While it has investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials. Dr. Anthony fauci told fox has john roberts this means the system works and its not the end of this trial. The single episode of a severe adverse event is important enough to cause a pause in the trial, but very likely they will now cautiously continue after they do the appropriate investigation. What is most important is that that vaccine is safe. But former president ial candidates asked whether electionyear politics was President Trump eager for a vaccine by election day is having an impact on the timeline. Science and science alone will be the way in which this decision is made. Otherwise i will have no part of it. Senator Elizabeth Warren also taking a swipe at the president. Congress is lying to itself and to the public if it pretends that the president cares about anything other than his own political survival when it comes to vaccine development. I just hope americans will choose to take the information they need from scientists and physicians and not from politicians. While congress is winding down, much of its work ahead of the election, chairman Lamar Alexander announced another covid hearing two weeks from today. Its expected to include dr. Fauci, the fda commissioner and other top Public Health experts. Bret thank you. Wall street had a big rebound, the dow gained 440, the s p 500 recovered 67, the nasdaq picked up 294. Overseas, iran is building a facility for making advanced centrifuges after what it calls sabotage of another site. If there are increasing concerns from experts around the world about irans ability to make a nuclear weapon. Senior Foreign Affairs correspondent greg palkot has the story. Iran continues to build its nuclear cloud, nothing is constructing a larger more modern, more competency facility at its nuclear site. The manufacturer of uranium and Enrichment Center fuses. Days after another plant was destroyed in july after an explosion and fire, possibly as early sabotage. Its not backing down. The Nuclear Program has become a program thats all about National Prestige and the regime [indiscernible] for stage and lets make, this is a machine that wants Nuclear Weapons come hell or high water. The [indiscernible] says iran has enough material to construct two bombs and to build the first one in just three and a half months. Secretary of state pompeo referring to the deal, the jcpoa, which the Trump Administration quit in 2018 and its european participant, or e3, tweeted you irans uranium stoce is more than set by the jcpoa. The other nations must wake up to the reality that the nuclear deal is history and join us in opposing strong sanctions. Pressure and competence of talks are the only path forward. So far the u. S. Hasnt had luck getting other countries to go along with socalled snapback sanctions aimed to be put in place with if iran pilots nuclear deal. Set to expire in october, its up to washingtons unilateral sanctions to get the pressure on a stilldefiant tehran. Iranians are going to continue with their Nuclear Program at least until what they see happens with the american election. And thats a wild card. Whoever is the winner in november to face a dangerous challenge in iran that most say will take more talking and pressure to resolve. Bret. Bret greg palkot in london, thanks. Tonight at 11 00 p. M. , Shannon Bream has an exclusive interview with secretary of state mike pompeo. Dont want to miss that. Up next, controversial new diversity rules for the oscars. Veterans like liz and mike. An army family who is always at the ready. So when they got a little surprise. Two . They didnt panic. They got a bigger car for their soontobebigger family. After shopping around for insurance, they called usaa who helped find the right coverage for them and even some muchneeded savings. That was the easy part. Usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it easy. Can it help with snoring . Ive never heard snoring. Sleep numberexactly. Rt bed. Usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it no problem. And done. Save 50 on the sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus zero percent interest for 24 months. Ends monday. Bret there are big changes ahead for hollywoods most prestigious award, and critics are howling about Political Correctness run amok. National correspondent william la jeunesse explains tonight from los angeles. After years of preaching about diversity, the Academy Awards is adopting a quota system for best picture. We have the oscars so white controversy and i think they are to please everyone, but how many rules can you put in place . To ensure a more equitable representation of people of color and other minority groups, nominees in 2024 and beyond must meet at least two of these requirements. One of the four lead actors must be a racial minority, black, asian, hispanic, middle eastern, native american, or pacific islander. At least 30 of all secondary roles must be a woman or racial minority, lgbtq, or an actor with a disability. The main story line must focus on an underrepresented group and at least two Senior Executives must be from a minority group. Thats the irony and the hypocrisy, right . Because you have these people behind the scenes in highlevel positions and they are making these roles, but they are not to be insulting, but they are old white men. Under the new rules, majority of last years best picture nominees would likely not qualify. According to a ucla study, hollywood has made progress. If last year, 44 of liberals went to women, 28 to actors of color. Officials for the academy say the rules are flexible. Studios are free to make any film they want, just dont expect to win and oscar for best picture. Bret. Bret william, thanks. Up next, the panel on the woodward book and reaction. First, beyond our borders tonight, a bombing in afghanistans capital targets the convoy of the countrys first Vice President. He suffered minor injuries in the attack that killed ten people and wounded at least 31, including several of the Vice President s bodyguards. The Vice President of afghanistan. India and china meantime accuse each other of making provocative military moves, firing warning shots along their disputed border, despite talks on ending the escalating tensions. The Nuclear Armed rivals have engaged in a tense standoff since may. Just some of the other stories beyond our borders tonight. We will be right back. Tada did you know Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need . Given my unique lifestyle, thatd be perfect let me grab a pen and some paper. Know what . Im gonna switch now. Just need my desk. My chair. And my phone. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down. Because i dont want to create a panic. The president never downplay the virus. Once again, the president expressed calm. The president was serious about this. Because the last thing we can show is panic. Or excitement or fear, or anything else. We had to take care of the dash we had to take care of the situation we were given. Bret the president today and also talking to bob woodward for 18 different sitdown interviews, or phone calls. Bob woodward the journalist has some 20 hours of tape apparently, hes going to show some of that on 60 minutes this weekend. Lets bring in our panel, former tennessee congressman harold ford, jr. , currently chairman of [indiscernible]. At mollie hemingway, Senior Editor of the federalist. Tom bevan, real clear politics cofounder and president. If i asked the National Security advisor why the president would sit down with bob woodward knowing that this book was going to come out 50 some days ahead of the election. He said its just part of what the president wants to do, talking straight. I just read byron yorks excellent book which just came out yesterday on one of the big themes and that is looking at how President Trump thinks that if he talks to people he can win them over and its a pattern where he keeps talking to people who seek his destruction, but this is something that weve already known. In general i think people should be ready for this type of supposed bombshell to drop every couple of days, because we are in the closing days the last couple months of an election and people are interested in fighting President Trump. Im not sure this is such a big deal. We all knew that President Trump office was serious, he closed the border, created a task force, declare to Public Health emergency and we already knew in march he was asked why are you so optimistic about it or why are you downplaying it . He says i dont want to cause panic. I think that in fact there were criticism to be had against President Trump, its that he didnt do enough to stop those people who try to panic everything to shut down and you know, everyone said it was going to be two weeks that we needed to have a lockdown, we are now in many months of it and think we know now its a much less serious threat than we thought at the time, but there is still criticism to be had about whether trump and other politicians did enough to stop the panic that the media were inducing. Bret dr. Anthony fauci asked today what john roberts about this disparity as it sounds on the tapes with bob woodward and what the president set at the time publicly. Take a listen to fauci. I may not be tuned into the right thing that theyre talking about, but i didnt really see any discrepancies between what he told us on what we told him and what he ultimately came up publicly and said. Im a small frame and the big picture of what goes on. Bret fauci also disputed a couple of the quotes that woodward are treated to him. Harold, how big a deal do you think this book is . I dont know. A couple things are not in dispute. First, the National Security advisor told the president that this was going to be the biggest threat he faced his deputy National Security advisor said this moment was on par. This is back in january. This is on par with the pandemic over a hundred years ago. Hundred 90,000 people have died. These things are not in dispute. I dont disagree that the president probably did not want to panic the country, but i think part of that motivation for not wanting to panic the country was to not not wanting to panic the economy. And thinking about his own reelection, i will put my own editorial on that. If i think this presidency, or whether or not this presidency will continue wont necessarily handle all of the things [indiscernible] in this book. A tough week, but what it will hinge on is how we move and how we proceed from here. I thought biden to the right thing of responding as he did, but i thought he did a better thing about being in michigan, talking about Building Back better, talking about making the economy more durable and stronger and resilient for Everyday Americans and all americans because of the end of the day, thats whats going to win. President trump has proven one bad article, one bed interview, one bad set of words anywhere is probably not going to doom his presidency. Bret you just have to go back to 2016 to see the end of that sentence. Meantime today, the president , tom, rolls out his possible Supreme Court nominees, should he win reelection. Any vacancies, and the nonjudges in this list obviously caught everybodys eyes. They include the texas senator ted cruz, arkansas senator tom cotton, missouri senator josh hawley, the Kentucky Attorney general, who was just featured in the rnc. And then you see the former solicitor generals [indiscernible] and francisco. Obviously this woodward news is like a tsunami of happening, but for conservatives, this is a big list to look at. It is, and its you know, on the list of accomplishments for conservatives and trump supporters, judges rank right up there. Its obviously smart of trump to put this out there the woodward news will probably hurt from politically in the short term. Weather changes the outcome of this election means to be seen, but the president being on tape, one thing he did is just hand the democrats joe biden just raised 364 million last month and just handed the democrats a club which they will beat him with over the head in these swing states for the remaining 57 days. So, you know, that may be the longest lasting effect from what we learned today. Bret you know, the unnamed sources have pushed back on stories is one thing. When you have the president on tape as much as bob woodward does, it is a different animal. I was reading through one of the stories with some of the quotes on their and while they were characterized as being bad quotes, i think they actually do sound like things donald trump would say and understood by people who dont hate him, they dont come off horrible at all. Bret we will see what comes from all of this. If panel, thank you very much. 55 days to go. When we come back, standing for something, writing and style. [ engine rumbling ] [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] uh, you know theres a 30minute limit, right . Tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, theres progressive. Always have been. And always will be. Never letting anything get in my way. Not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. And certainly not arthritis. New voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. And it can help you too. 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Learn more at tempurpedic. Com bret finally tonight, being fearless. During the 2017 collegiate Rugby National championship, Robert Taylor broke his neck. If he was told he would never walk or move his hands again and against all odds, he did not give up and he stood on his own for the first time in more than three years monday. Congratulations. As kids across the country go back to school, one boy made the entrance on his first day, 6yearold liam who has autism had not been coping well lately, so police in freeport texas drove him to school in their Autism Awareness humvee before his first day of classes. Some Police Officers doing some great things. Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight, thats it for this addition of a special report. It has been a newsy day. The story starts now. Martha thanks, good to see you tonight. Good evening everybody, im Martha Maccallum and this is a the story in america tonight, its a complicated one. If 55 days ahead of this president ial election, the gloves are definitely off. Tonight, the president pushing back on a new book by bob woodward, this time there is no debate over what were said, the conversations were recorded in some of them were released today. The president and chief of staff mark meadows is here to respond to those in other stories tonight in just a moment. Also well you talk to Deroy Murdock on Kamala Harris saying that she is proud of jacob blake who, by the way, aside from the other