people will see tonight? >> dana: i think it will be more than that. i think over 100 million will wachl. the most watched presidential debate in history. >> bill: see you in two hours. >> ♪ >> bill: welcome back. our coverage continuous. i will bill hemmer live in cleveland, ohio. we're are waiting for president trump ready to touch down in cleveland. he will face off with joe biden in the same room for the first time. the first of 3 presidential debates hours away. there is no shortage of drama. in these covid times there will be no handshake between the candidates. chris wallace will handle those duties. the crowd is capped at 100 people indoors. it's what is happening behind-the-scenes that has

everyone talking. both campaigns will join me live in cleveland. ted cruz ready to tee off to the supreme court battle. first trump campaign advisor steve courtez. good afternoon to you. thanks for your time? >> good afternoon. >> bill: what do you consider victory? >> victory will be a chance for the american people to see who joe biden is. he has been hidden away? they can't hide. for 90 minutes in front of a massive audience, he has a record of economic failure. we contrast that to president trump. somebody who can boast of being an incredible job creator and an entrepreneur president.

>> bill: when the category comes up with the trump record that's what he will say? >> yes, it's the most compelling case the president has to make. it's the number 1 concern on american's minds. >> bill: today the ear pieces. what is the truth? does the trump campaign believe that the biden campaign refused an ear check? >> that's correct. they agreed. this is typical of joe biden. he was for nafta before he was against nafta. now it's ear pieces. >> bill: his campaign said it never happened. >> that's incorrect. >> bill: and breaking news were requested? >> yes, we said no. the commander-in-chief can't stand on his two feet for 90

minutes and handle a debate? we are not taking breaking news. >> bill: how long has this negotiation gone on? >> it's been on-going for months. >> bill: on the break issue? >> i mean in general. on the break issue i don't know when that was first proffered. >> bill: his campaign says that's not true? >> again wrong. >> bill: pennsylvania "new york times" has you down 9 points. joe biden heads there tomorrow. can you come back in pennsylvania? >> i think we will win pennsylvania. we don't make all of our decisions on terms of polls. some polls show us much tighter in pennsylvania. one that was accurate in 2016 shows us down only two. in pennsylvania joe biden spent half century in the washington

swamp that exported american jobs all over the world and to china. pennsylvania lost 136,000 manufacturing jobs just to china. joe biden was one of the principle architects of those terrible trade deals that allowed china to abuse american workers. we have seen the opposite under president trump. i think if we make that case tonight and over the next 5 weeks. we will carry pennsylvania. >> bill: you have your internal polls. i am certain you have seen them. would you concede right now at this state of the race you are behind? >> no, i would say this. nor would i say we are ahead. >> bill: a tie? >> basically. the battleground states are toss ups. the latest nbc news polls show

us up 4. it's a jump ball from here. i am not saying we are way ahead. i like our momentum. what matters more than the raw number is the momentum. it's coming our way. the main reason it's coming our way is because the economy is roaring back to life in this country. that's the data on the ground. today we got a consumer confidence number that is off the charts. the consumer is back. people are growing in confidence. >> bill: we will see what we get tonight. a reaction from the biden team in a moment here. first jackie live in cleveland. good afternoon to you. welcome to cleveland. >> good afternoon, bill. the biden campaign is accusing the trump team of fabricating that request from joe biden for 30 minute breaking news call

figure an attempt to drastic from the issues. team biden said that never happened and dismissing claims that the biden first agreed and then refused to submit to an ear check. >> it is completely absurd. of course he is not wearing ear pieces and we never asked for breaking news. if we are playing that game, then the trump team asked that chris wallace never mentioned number of covid deaths during the debate. >> the trump campaign called that a light. the back and forth comes amid silence from the commission on presidential debates not saying whether requests were made by either party. the biden campaign is trying to turn the focus back to the issues releasing biden and

harris's tax returns along with their spouses. senator harris reacted to that last night. >> the first thing i said, did you say $750.00? [laughing] i could not believe it. >> it marks 22 years of financial disclosures for biden and 15 for harris. setting up biden for a likely dig at the president tonight who has released none. >> bill: thanks. the democratic congressman from ohio. what do you consider victory tonight? >> i think looking like the commander-in-chief. looking confident on the issues. there has been a smear campaign to make him not look capable.

once he crosses that threshold his campaign will take off. they will see an articulate and smart individual. >> bill: one of the six category the trump and biden records. how does joe biden frame a 47 year career in washington, d.c. and say this is what i have done? >> pulling ourselves out of this economic collapse in 2008 and 2009 and 2010. he's taking care of families and communities. that's been his record throughout his entire time in the united states. >> bill: president trump would say you were in office since the age of 29. you are part of ohio. warren, ohio, trumble county. you saw so many democratic blue

voters cross over in 2016. why should they come back? >> i think a lot of those voters didn't like hillary clinton. if we are going to be honest and not necessarily a vote for trump but against clinton. they watched the president for 4 years. we had between 300,000 and 800,000 jobs outsourced under the trump presidency. >> bill: it wasn't the trump presidency? >> it sure was. >> bill: we will say you sold all of the jobs down the river. >> trump promised to fix that and raise taxes on the top 1%. he cut taxes. he promised to expand healthcare. he has two bills that kick 20 million people off their healthcare and trying to get rid of preexisting conscience. -- conditions. look at

do you want four more years of this? how he dealt with the economy, dealt with the coronavirus. >> the trade deal with mexico and canada. certainly that will help people in your district. >> i voted for that. the u.s. mexican trade agreement but i tell you it's not going to bring back jobs. the only way were going to bring back jobs is to reinvest in the united states united states, outcompete china, outcompete europe and that's what the deal, how do we dominate the electric vehicle market and the battery market and the charging stations market and cut the workers and on the deal? we have to get wages up for people. we need health care to people, bread-and-butter stuff coming infrastructure. where is the package? >> bill: president trump won here by eight points in 2006. what is the state of the race in ohio? >> i think biden is slightly up in ohio. if he crosses that threshold tonight and people see him for who he is, ohio was going to turn blue. i don't think there's any

question. we see democratic biden signs in republican neighborhoods, suburban cincinnati, suburban columbus that haven't put a republican sign-up in -- democratic sign-up in decades. white working-class voters appreciate his stance on natural gas, appreciate his stance on manufacturing and infrastructu infrastructure. those were people who more or less voted against hillary clinton. they're going to come back and vote for joe biden. ohio was going to go blue. i'm making that production. >> bill: a lot of it is what tonight is about. much more ahead this hour on the big debate day. karl rove, donna brazile, katie pavlich. later with the preview of what you can expect but first republican senator ted cruz meeting today with president trump's supreme court nominee on the hill. he joins me live. coverage continues in cleveland, ohio. >> i think president trump made a terrific selection in nominating judge barrett.

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>> pleased to welcome judge barrett to begin the process of advising consent in the senate. we'll be visiting with members interested in talking to her. glad to have her here and glad to get the process started. >> bill: that was about five hours ago. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell welcoming supreme court nominee amy coney barrett of the hill as republican senators begin their meetings with her fury hearings to start in about two weeks. republican senator ted cruz of texas is my guest. he just met with judge barrett. he's also the author of a brand-new book that's out today called "one vote away, how a single supreme court seat can change history." senator, thank you for your time. i have a couple things to go through. the meeting, how would you characterize it? how did he go? >> it was a very good meeting. she is very impressive, calm,

cool, implacabl impeccable cred. first in her class at notre dame law school. she was a clerk for antonin scalia. she's been a law professor for 20 years and one of the most highly respected federal appellate judges in the country. i was very impressed with the meeting. i think she's eminently qualified to serve on the court and i believe the senate is going to act swiftly and confirm her before the end of the month. >> bill: she was just there in 2017, three short years ago. seems like a lifetime in covid. some of your democratic colleagues if they are not going to take a meeting with her. you call it scorched-earth warfare. what you expect from these hearings? >> unfortunately i expect to see senate democrats try to turn it into a political circus, much as they did with justice kavanaugh's hearings. there far left base, even before

this vacancy they were angry. they were enraged. when the supreme court vacancy happened, to borrow a line from the movie spinal tap, now it goes to 11. they are field with fury. i expect them to attack her, attack her family, go after her personally. i hope they don't. i hope they show some decency and restraint but i think their bases demanding that they try to attack her. >> bill: with the kavanaugh hearing, it was personal. we watched it before our eyes. some people think it will be more about obamacare in roe vs. wade. we'll see how it plays out. before we get to that. tomorrow you have a major hearing in the judiciary committee with james comey. lindsey graham subpoenaed him. i shouldn't call it a subpoena that he will appear. this is only a few days after the ag bill barr trickled out

more information about who was the source for the steele dossier. what are the american people going to learn from this hearing, sir? >> i am hopeful we will have some greater visibility to the politicization and abuse of power in the obama justice department and the obama fbi. we've seen how they weaponize law enforcement and used it to target their political enemies. i think it was disgraceful how they went after general michael flynn, and we now know that was directed from the very highest levels from barack obama and joe biden as active participants in the decision-making in the oval office. james comey was right there advising obama and biden personally. up to this point, all the other players in the fbi thin julie said not my decision. someone else's decision, even while we lawyer at the fbi falsified fraudulent documents to submit to a federal court.

i hope we have some answers and some real accountability. because comey bears direct responsibility for the politicization of law enforcement. >> bill: let's see what we get from that hearing. the book "one vote away." >> the book came out today. it focuses on the supreme court obviously. before i was in the senate, i was a supreme court litigator. my job was to argue cases in front of the supreme court. what the book does, every chapter focuses on a different constitutional liberty. there is a chapter on free speech, a chapter on religious liberty, a chapter on the second amendment, chapter on u.s. sovereignty, a chapter on democracy and elections, talking about bush versus gore. we could easily see a reprise of that in december. each of the cases tells war stories about the landmark cases of the court, many of which i helped litigate. it takes viewers behind the scenes, behind the curtains to

get to know the justices, to understand the internal decision-making. what is stunning, on issue after issue, the landmark cases are 5-41 after the other after the other. we are one vote away from losing our fundamental liberties or preserving our fundamental liberties. it's what makes this supreme court nomination right now so critically important. the book was released today, it's being sold on amazon, barnes & noble barnes & noble, anywhere you get books. i've got to tell you the first day it popped up to number five on the amazon best seller list so i would encourage folks if you want to learn more about the court, if you want to learn more about this fight, what's happening, you don't have to be a lawyer to find it interesting and insightful and really understand what the stakes are at the court but also in november in the presidential election. >> bill: thank you, senator. good luck with the book "one vote away." meanwhile, michael flynn back in court today. there are develop it's on that story as comey gets ready to

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>> bill: president trump setto w moments. air force one is in the air and we will see them take a motorcade to the location where the debate hall is and then we will get ready for what is a five and a half hour countdown to the political moment of his campaign. i want to dig deeper into

battleground ohio, the original swing state. one key county in northeastern ohio, ashtabula. on the border of pennsylvania. president trump flipped that county in 2016 after it voted for every democratic presidential candidate going back to 1988. that's where connell mcshane is taking the pulse of the land from fox business. geneva on the lake. what are you finding out? >> you to full place. good afternoon right along lake erie. not only did the presidents of that last time around from blue to red but he did it in a big way. 60-40 is a big flip from one county to another, especially from control of one party to another. earlier today we spent some time in lake county in willoughby, the president won it four years ago. we talked to voters there and even though he's been trailing from the statewide polling in ohio this time around we have found he still maintains strong support in these areas he won in

2016. take a listen. >> i think that shia trump voters only shy and total poll. people don't want to maybe announce themselves as a proud trump supporter but there are going to be a lot of people who come out to support. >> will i will say about these voters, is true when you speak to them, they have different opinions. every single one has one thing in common. they say that they will be watching the debate where you are in cleveland tonight. they'll be watching it very closely. >> bill: as will be. denny and no one tell you they are open to changing their mind based on the debate tonight? >> not many. they are mostly dug in. i had an interesting conversation with a young mother. she was telling me she voted last time around for hillary clinton and this time she's thinking and leaning towards actually voting for the president. her basic reasoning was she

doesn't think joe biden's quote-unquote up to the job. but she had the door open a little bit. she said she wants to hear from biden in person, see him on the debate stage. if he has a really strong night, big performance this evening, then maybe she'll go back to the democrats, the party she has voted for in the past. that was one example. what a lot of people are dug in. >> bill: that's why we're watching. good deal, thank you. there was three counties. you can ask karl rove this. ashtabula, trumbull, mahoning. the election can sit on large part on those three parts of the country. as i mentioned, we are five and a half hours away. president trump and joe biden getting ready. they are in the air as we speak. i will speak with the previously mentioned karl rove, donna brazile, and katie pavlich about what both candidates face on tonight's big stage. come on back.

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>> bill: a live look here in cleveland, ohio. hours before the first debate of 2020. president trump about to land here in the buckeye state. chief white house correspondent john roberts reports live from here in cleveland. good afternoon to you. >> phil, good afternoon. just before you went to commercial break, air force one flew over the debate hall behind me. the president should be on the ground momentarily at cleveland hopkins airport just southwest of the city. the president's strategy tonight is going to be to draw a sharp contrast between himself and joe biden over policy. at campaign events across the country, the president likes to say he spent the last four years undoing the bad policies of the

previous eight. the president also expected to try to link biden with the bernie sander bernie sanders-alexandria ocasio -cortez wing of the democratic party, portraying biden as an empty vessel for socialism. in addition to the policy attacks and expect in personal attacks, there's a lot of gamesmanship going on today. trump campaign official saying that in negotiations for debate rules, the trump campaign proposed having a third party examine the ears of both of the candidates for mission impossible style transceivers. the trump campaign says the biden campaign initially agreed but today rejected the idea. the biden campaign pushing back on this claim of ear checks as well as any word that they had asked for two breaks. the deputy campaign manager saying the claim is absurd. biden is not wearing an earpiece and they never asked for breaks. the biden campaign also firing back that the trump campaign asked chris wallace not to bring

up the number of americans who've died from coronavirus on the screen. the response from tim murtaugh, campaign communications director, said it's a lie and it never happened. the height of playing politics with a public health crisis. biden is trying to distract from the fact that he won't take a drug test, won't trickle and need multiple breaks during a 90-minute debate. it's a bit of a sideshow. what's really going to matter is what happens on the debate stage between 9:00 and 10:30 tonight, not earpieces and bathroom breaks. >> bill: we can only wait. 84,000,004 years ago. nice to see you, john roberts and cleveland. ♪

>> bill: that sets the stage and we are ready for kick off. less than six hours away, the first debate here in cleveland. here's a look at the topics that chris wallace plans to talk about tonight. the trump and biden records, the u.s. supreme court, covid-19, the economy, race and violence in american cities, and the integrity of our national election. i want to bring in our terrific trio, president george bush's former white house deputy chief of staff, karl rove. former dnc chair, donna brazile, townhall.com editor katie pavlich. fox news contributors. good afternoon. >> we are fired up. >> talk about the style.

you have your earpieces in. i talked to rudy giuliani earlier today and he was saying that the longest session that they've had is tuna half hours. it was not a mack truck on mock debate. question and answers. the president things it's a mistake to over prepare. before i let them go at it, what about his style compared to joe biden who has put a lid on his campaign ten days in the month of september, apparently getting ready for tonight. >> on the issue of the president not wanting to over pair, that's what he's done. he wants to be genuine, he doesn't want to be a scripted politician. he wants to hang out to the outsider status. in terms of joe biden, he should be good at this by now. he's been in the senate for four decades, used to giving speeches on the senate floor, debating

and committees, asking and answering questions. we haven't seen very much of that on the campaign trail up until now. it's going to be interesting to see if he is really preparing over the past ten days or if there were other things that he was doing with his time. the expectation for joe biden has been set low at times from the trump campaign. that may be a mistake. the bottom line is joe biden has a lot of experience. his style is to present himself as a statesman with all the experience and the one who's better equipped for the job. >> bill: air force one on the ground. karl, thinking about 2012. that's the last time we saw joe biden one-on-one. what do you take away from eight years ago that you might be able to apply to tonight based on the experience? >> he was a senator for decades. the senate is first and foremost is speaking and debating society. he's got that experience. he did well in the debates earlier this year and you're right. ten or 12 people on the stage is

not the same as mano a mano but it ended with one-on-one with bernie sanders and i think he did an adequate job. granted, little big bit different. biden dominated the night. i love this talk about raising expectations and lowering expectations. you don't want to lower the expectations for your opponent but let's remember the american people have not seen much of joe biden since he won the democratic nomination. they saw him briefly at the convention. it's going to be the first unscripted 90 minutes that they're going to see him. the one thing that i'm seeing in the polling that i'm looking at, battleground states, he does to have a very strong, firm, deep image. he was obama's vice president. he has been around for a long time. it doesn't matter what the pundits say are the expectations. the american people are going to make a judgment about the fitness of both. >> bill: you're right about the one-on-one with sanders in early march. that was the point where biden

looked like the eventual winner anyway. i would argue sanders held back that night. >> i agree. i don't know if donald trump is going to do that. can i say one thing about over preparation? this is a real concern. one of the issues ronald reagan may not have done well in the first 1984 debate was that he complained they were trying to stuff too much in him, too much adam and he got overwhelmed. there's a limit to how much information we can absorb and process and people get to a limit. they call a halt. in 2,00 2004 you might rumor george w. bush spent the afternoon of the debate with his buddy fishing. outside st. louis. he'd had enough. >> bill: event holding back. >> of course. donald trump is no longer in the bubble. he can't pick his favorite reporters to ask easy questions. it's clear he's no longer the outsider. he's presided over the worst handling of a public health

pandemic in over a century which has led to the worst economy. he's going to have to bring his a-game. joe biden will also have to bring his a-game. joe biden is going to have to not only talk to the audience in the room with the audience at home. there are more people watching then perko. tell the american people what you want them to hear. don't try to fact-check donald trump. you'll stay in confession for the rest of your life. get out of the confession booth. >> president trump is going into this with the advantage given he did give chris wallace a one hour interview recently and joe biden has refused to sit down for tough questioning from people who maybe have some intricate and tough questions to ask the president about his record. in terms of style, the president is competent in the things he's done in the past four years and doesn't feel like he needs to over prepare with talking points and memos. he feels like you can look at his record and say this is what my administration has done and this is what we plan to do and

this is why i have change things as president, unlike joe biden who has been here for so long and done very little. stay when i saw the piece. trump, not biden is the one underestimated. fish when you turn back the hands of time, do you grade way. >> everyone said we have these accomplished governors, bright young stars in the senate. we've got the guy who is the apprentice. what happened? he cleaned the floor with them. again, one-on-one debates are a lot different then being cavalcade's like that. we saw how he handled that with hillary clinton where he was aggressive, dominating, domineering, and fearless. he's going to need some of that tonight. katie touched on the important things. here's what i've done. more importantly, here's what i intend to do.

he's got to find time to say here's how it contrasts with biden. answering the questions from the press have given him a great deal of opportunity for him to say here's what i've done. he needs to pivot back on why is biden -- >> bill: i have one minute and three talkers. where is this race at this time tomorrow? >> it's been steady and i guarantee it will tighten up. here's the one thing joe biden can do tonight that donald trump cannot do. that is talk to us, speak to our hearts and our heads and stop lying to us. that's what joe biden can do. he's capable of doing that, joe biden will score in the race will remain the same. >> bill: wears the campaign tomorrow? >> i would not underestimate 100 million americans tuning in. i wouldn't underestimate the number of people who are willing to change their minds when they see these candidates come out to the american people. especially for the president who feels like his record has not been reported fairly. he can tell people directly what he has done or what he thinks he

has done for them moving forwa forward. >> the quality of each one's presentation is going to matter a lot. we don't trust our politicians. the idea that the guy who told us he was at the top of his class in law school and plagiarized speeches of a labour party leader, it's not going to be a -- >> bill: that was the way back machine. >> the $750 question. >> bill: thank you, donna, karl, katie. in a moment, i will talk to a man who's played a major role on debate teams for ten national presidential campaigns. bob barnett will join me next. people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes

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>> bill: live look, cleveland hopkins international airport. president trump is just landed. the site of tonight's debate is behind me, 25 minute drive away. we expect the president to get a walk-through of the debate stage here at the cleveland clinic. president trump says he's been getting ready for tonight's debate with rudy giuliani and chris christie, familiar sparring partners from four years ago. joe biden has been practicing with former white house counsel bob bauer. my next guest has helped democratic candidates get ready for every election since 1976, though he's not working with biden's team this year. it's a real pleasure to have robert barnett.

robert, how are you doing? wish that you were here in cleveland but in the year 2020. welcome to the program. it's a combat sport. when you talk about getting people ready, ferraro, dukakis, clinton, lieberman, john edwards, barack obama, tim kaine, hillary clinton, the key is to figure out how best to prep your candidate. it seems kind of broad. give me a specific example about how you use that tool to get your candidates ready. >> of course. the key is designing a process that fits your candidate. not that fits you or the other advisors. in 1984, the late anna wexler and i were given the job of running the prep sessions for geraldine ferraro, we had a candidate who was a three term congresswoman from queens who hadn't been involved in many of the issues likely to come up.

you design one process. in 1992 when we were working with then governor bill clinton it was a whole different thing. he was steeped in policy and had done multiple primary debates. for each one, you design a different system. when you say it's a combat sport, i want to tell you what i mean. when i played george herbert walker bush, i would hit her hard and she didn't like it. she would walk over to my podium and slugged me in the arm. i left those debates black and blue all up and down my right arm. it can be a combat sport in rehearsals. >> bill: do you think that they move the needle? >> they can matter. in 1976, research shows that the vice presidential debate between walter mondale and bob dole made of two or 3% difference in the general election. 1982 i don't think anybody has any doubt that bill clinton's and those debates with george

herbert walker bush and ross perot made a difference. in 2016, hillary clinton, by every scientific poll and i'm going to disagree with my friend karl rove, won all three of those debates overwhelmingly but she didn't win the electoral college so didn't move the needle enough. they can matter. they often don't matter. >> bill: yeah. the first couple coming down on air force one. robert, you counseled many democrats. if you are to counsel joe biden tonight, what would you tell him? >> these two candidates will be debating on completely different playing fields. donald trump will be talking about the scourge of immigration as he sees it. people coming to your neighborhood. socialism. bernie sanders and aoc. i hope and trust joe biden will be talking about the pandemic, the terrible devastation this economy has taken, the racial

injustice, and climate change and other such issues. bill, we have very interesting dynamic this time that rarely occurs. literally the last week or so, two major things have intruded on the public discussion in this election. >> bill: the supreme court is one of them. >> the supreme court in "the new york times" article on the tax returns and the other. chris wallace, despite having laid out the topics, i think will be compelled because he's a very good debate moderator and interviewer, to raise those two things. new and unexpected things will be part of the debate tonight that weren't part of what we thought about literally a week ago. >> bill: okay, we'll see how it goes. robert barnett, thank you, sir. thanks for joining us today. new developments in the case against michael flynn, what happened in court a short time ago. coming up. attention veterans,

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♪ >> this is the flynn story, still happening as we speak, five hours and counting now. at one moment, judge sullivan asked if attorney michael flynn, sidney powell discussed in the flynn issue with the president and she confirmed a few weeks ago they had some discussion about it but the attorney of the president not to pardon general flynn. part of this is so relevant because you have a hearing tomorrow morning in the senate judiciary committee that features james comey. we will have live coverage of that when it gets underway tomorrow in washington, d.c. in the meantime all the action is here in cleveland, ohio, where just about five hours away from the main event, it is arguably the event of the election season thus far. we will get things kicked off at

9:00 eastern, run for 90 minutes and get full analysis on the fox news channel. i will be on the broadcast stations for all the affiliates. in the meantime, enjoy the day come enjoy the evening, we will see where this brace is this time tomorrow. so long. ♪ >> neil: the scene in cleveland, ohio, big debate tonight. a lot of people going, is it an aqua smirk indeed, it is. everything on the line. we could get upwards of 100 million americans watching this in the global audience that will be checking in as well. it is that big. more than 35 days ahead of the election, both crucial. both candidates have an opportunity to prepare for this. we know for the president, rudy giuliani and chris christie have been prepping the president and alternating, playing roles acting as joe biden. as for the former vi