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now or never, just five weeks until election day. ohio senator j.d. vance and minnesota governor tim walz about to come face-to-face for the first and only time. stakes could not be higher. major crises have broken out here at home and abroad. good evening everybody, i'm margaret brennan. >> and i'm bret baier coming to you live from fox news headquarters in new york -- martha maccallum -- the debate moments away. you can see it all right here live on fox. tonight the two candidates to get out on the national stage in the middle of a turbulent and consequential new cycle. >> here in the united states americans reeling from the impacts of hurricane helene. dockworkers kicking off a large-scale strike along the eastern seaboard. and overseas, the middle east on the verge of an all-out war. >> we are tracking any and all developments tonight after iran unleashed a barrage of missiles

in all parts of israel and all of that hanging over the debate stage tonight. we have an all-star lineup of guests here with us tonight for analysis, but first we go to senior correspondent live in israel with the latest on the ground. >> reporter: good evening. with this peers escalation and unprecedented missile attack, leaders are promising a punishing retaliation. defense minister said iran has not learned whoever attacks israel pays a heavy price. it was 180 plus missiles that were fired and did the 12 minute trip from iran to hear. when they arrived they lit up the air sky with air defenses, not just the iron don't but the arrow missile systems and david slaying as well. most of the missiles were intercepted, some came down in south and central israel however most of the damage caused was from shrapnel from previously intercepted rockets crashing down. in fact, we heard in the west bank a palestinian man was

killed as the shrapnel came crashing down. overall the second direct attack on israel was effective at scaring people and effective at galvanizing the israeli leadership with a cause to respond. also in the old city near tel aviv, there was a mass shooting. two attackers, at least one m-16 style rifle, and a knife. seven people are dead, several injured, the attackers themselves were killed and tonight there is smoke rising over beirut, fresh air strikes. >> thank you. former president trump and vice president harris reacting to iran's attack on israel earlier today. watch this. >> i condemn this attack unequivocally. i am clear-eyed. iran is a destabilizing dangerous force in the middle east >> a short time ago iran launched 181 ballistic missiles at israel. they are very close to global catastrophe. we have a nonexistent president and a nonexistent vice president

who should be in charge but nobody knows what's going on. >> martha: without we bring in fox news senior political analyst, great to have you with us tonight as always. obviously a very important day today that these candidates are going to have to confront and talk about head on. >> i think that's right. each candidate will try to make the others running mate the focus. no doubt tim walz will be focused as much as he can be on trump and j.d. vance will be focused as much as he can be on harris. it will be interesting to hear how these two candidates speak about these foreign policy issues. you might expect in the normal situation for there to be a full-throated defense of israel. kamala harris seemed to be making such a defense today. it will be interesting to see if walz echoes that. it will also be interesting to see whether j.d. vance is as strong in defending israel,

because donald trump, apart from saying continually that it would never have happened had he been president, has been less than full-throated about what he would do and willie he -- whether he fully supports israel. all of that will be interesting. >> bret: the background to this, this out up, it's all about expectations, there are all these articles how democrats are worried and panicked about the minnesota governor and how he was going to do, whether minnesota nice would translate. this is a guy who's run for governor, a congressman before that. he's been around the block with debates. >> oh, yeah. he's a seasoned politician. he will be able to say what he wants to say tonight and j.d. vance has been do some extent underestimated. it wasn't so long ago people were talking about whether trump might dump vance off the ticket. vance started going out and being on the sunday shows and being interviewed widely and you've seen he's done well so i expect both men will be well prepared and will handle themselves effectively.

it will be interesting to see who people believe. >> bret: standby a few would. >> martha: let's bring in the rest of our panel, dana perino, harold ford, laura ingram and jesse watters, great to have all of you with us tonight. something was brought up at the top of this, whether or not each of these candidates will be forceful on defending israel, because there's been so much negative pushback against netanyahu and against israel. we have all of those uncommitted voters, so this will be tricky territory in some ways for walz. >> definitely for walz, and an opportunity for vance. we've been talking a lot about pennsylvania. if it all comes down to pennsylvania, it's so tied in every poll, but in 2004 george w. bush won a larger percentage of the american jewish vote than he had in the past and mitt -- that made a difference for him. in this situation, when we talk

to a voter last week in pennsylvania and he said i've always voted for democrats but this year i'm a single-issue voter and that issue for me is israel and so i do think that walz has a more difficult time on that tonight but j.d. vance has an opportunity an opportunity to process -- that advantage. >> bret: interesting to see how much the focus on the main nominees of the focus or how much they focus on each other. they both have vulnerabilities that have been exposed on the campaign trail. >> are to be with you. i would agree. to dana's point, which builds on yours, i'm going to be looking to see as they go after the other, meaning he will go after trump, the other will go after harris, how cheerful are they as they do it. not so much contentious, how optimistic are they about the future and outlining with some specificity. neither of the candidates have specifics about the economy or specifics about israel or specifics about really anything.

i think there are some openings on abortion and ukraine, but i think the country will take the temperature tonight to say these are two men who could be president of the united states if god forbid something happens. we've seen an unbelievable three months with joe biden so i think the measure of the man will be taken tonight. so how they perform i think will be important and the substance in some ways will be secondary because it's not their campaigns, they are serving at the pleasure of the person at the top of the ticket. >> martha: americans have a lot on their mind. they look at the middle east, the port situation, and they are still looking for missing people, hundreds of missing people potentially after helene. so i think they are looking for some strength and some vision here. >> i think confidence, maybe being a little more proactive, not quite so reactive back as we've seen. even nbc did a big report earlier today about people still desperately seeking water and basic supplies that they were not really positioned as they should have been in anticipating

where the storm i track. so you can't predict everything about a natural disaster but some questions remain. i do think it's interesting that biden and trump are both saying we must avoid on all-out war. i think trump is incredibly supportive of israel. might take issue with something said there, the abraham accords, obviously moving the embassy to jerusalem, but i think he and biden are actually speaking to the desire for peace at a time where the world is very chaotic, but where israel has the absolute right to defend itself and decapitate that hezbollah leadership as it did so brilliantly. >> bret: you think about all the things going on at once, it comes other consequential time. >> if i were j.d. vance i would say the ports are closed, the border is open, north carolina is underwater, missiles are flying, biden and harris are in hiding. if they talk about cats, no, this is much more important in any of that.

if the moderators try that, stop, that's trivial. stay focused on the issues. these people are hurting you. biden and harris are hurting you, the american people. permission to make an analogy? this election is so easy, we've both eaten at two restaurants. we've eaten that trump's restaurant, food was good, prices were fare. we've eaten a biden's restaurant, food was terrible, prices were high. now they put kamala's name on joe's restaurant and say it's totally different. the menu is the same, the prices are still high, the american people have a simple decision. you've eaten at both places, go with your gut. >> you know, the polls, you mentioned it, they are so tight, each one of the swing states, it fluctuates day today two or three points. we don't have a full sense if the former president is undercounted. he has been in the past, 2020 and 2016, but you are talking within two points within each of the seven states.

>> that's why i don't think this debate will make a huge amount of difference. when you've looked at any fluctuations, it's been on the democratic side. you look at any situation with democrats, like 90% so glad biden is no longer the nominee. but then we are on what, day 73, when they've done very little talking. i believe it was one of laura's producers that told me today that tim walz in the cnn interview said 700 words total. that's it. so then they wonder why people -- in "the new york times" piece talking to independent voters saying we don't know anything about them, we don't know what they believe, and i think that walz's position is even harder tonight because he has to not only defend his own record and vance will present them on that, he has to defend biden's record, which is very hard to do when 65% of the country thinks we are on the wrong track, and he has to remember kamala's position today on issues she might have had a different position on

before, and she's never articulated herself why she's change those positions, so now he's going to be onto the -- on the hook to do that. >> a tall order. he has to be himself and two other people and defend the team essentially. what about for vance, he has to be on his team as well and seek in some ways to reach across to voters who, aren't that many of them, but voters who don't feel sure yet and maybe are looking to learn a bit more about him, his personality, and if they like him. >> voters have heard a lot about j.d. vance. one of the things that's a polling shows is that whether he's aligned with project 2025 or not, he seems to be the person most identified on this ticket as being that person. we've heard things about cats and dogs and things he said about women. it will be interesting to hear how he projects and frankly how he talks about these issues. i wasn't suggesting that the substance will be critical and that foreign policy and those issues won't be critical.

i think americans are going to want to measure these guys. we don't know them. we've only heard about them and i think your point about the restaurants and so forth, i think people will look at these guys tonight and say who can be president? at the end of the day, that's the job if god forbid something happens to the president. that's what i will be most interested in seeing. >> let's bring in sean hannity. he's live in the spin room. what do you think tonight? >> by the way, everyone is making brilliant comments tonight and i think everybody has brought up good points so we all should be looking forward tonight. i may be wrong here, historically vice presidential debates are not that impactful in terms of an election, but i think there's a huge opportunity for this to be a very consequential debate tonight. in as much as i think that j.d. vance has an opportunity to prosecute the case as jesse really simplified it perfectly, that this is a choice election,

this is an inflection point for the country and if j.d. vance can prosecute that case and stick to the basics of the economy, immigration, law and order, energy at america's role in the world, especially in light of 181 ballistic missiles fired by iran into israel today, this could be more impactful than people think. if you go back to where kamala started and how they've been hiding from the media, we still don't have an answer why did she cosponsor the green new deal with bernie sanders, why did kamala harris, you know, say that she wants to eliminate private health insurance and have government health care for all? why did she want to decriminalize illegal immigration and offer free housing, food and health care and education, and a path toward citizenship, which is amnesty, and of course 11 and a million unvented harris biden illegals, dozens of americans murdered. we should not be talking about

cats and dogs, we should be talking about murdered americans, people raped by harris biden illegals, other victims of violent crime, the cost to the american people. if it becomes about her and fracking, i think that's impactful towards the important state of pennsylvania. i think the storm that dana mentioned is another big issue. i think they've been very slow in their response and not as compassionate as democrats like to portray themselves. i think tonight could be a very impactful night. if j.d. vance comes out and prosecutes more of the case against kamala then tim walz, although he has his own issues with feminine hygiene products in bathrooms and sex affirming care without parental consent and building 30-foot ladder factories to get over 25-foot walls, this could be a big night tonight. i think it could be bigger than people think.

>> our latest fox news power rankings obviously have the top issues as immigration, the economy, the economy leading by far. abortion is third. vice president harris leads by 17 points on the issue of abortion. expect that to be part of this. do you think that's a vulnerability for how j.d. vance answers those questions? >> look, i can't tell j.d. how to answer. i know how i would answer that question, and actually his, you know, very red state of ohio is a great case and point for him to make. i mean here's a red state that this vote went to the people of ohio and they overwhelmingly supported abortion rights for women. that is what moving roe v wade back to the states represents. donald trump has been very clear, he believes in the supreme court decision in terms of pretty much codifying the abortion pill and it's widespread availability in the country in that decision. and certainly he's been very

clear that the states ought to decide and certainly has been clear that, you know, abortion, kind of like bill and hillary clinton should be, legal, rare and he might add the word early. i think if j.d. vance answers the question that way, i think that will solve that problem pretty quickly. one of the things he will have to watch out for his there's been a lot of demagoguery on abortion. they've tried to blame the border crisis on donald trump, they've tried to blame inflation on donald trump, they've tried to tight donald trump to project 2025 which he said he knows nothing about. i don't know anything about it. maybe somebody on the panel can tell me what it's about because i've never read it and i don't know the people involved. so if those opportunities come up, he has to make sure he corrects the record. but more importantly i would stay focused on those bread-and-butter issues. jesse laid it out perfectly, law related out perfectly, you all laid it out perfectly, this is a choice election of all choice of

elections and i don't think we've ever had a more radical extreme ticket to run for president and vice president in the history of the country. if j.d. can expose that tonight, that will be a huge plus for the trump campaign in my view and make it consequential. >> bret: we will check in and just a bit, thank you. anticipation is building is the countdown to this debate continues. we will have more on the vp candidates, maybe having butterflies right now, about 27 minutes away from the big night. we will take you there and of course back and forth to the spin room, next we believe at newday usa we have a noble purpose. our purpose is not just closing a loan. we want to do whatever is best for the individual service person. we want to be known as america's mortgage company for veterans and active duty service people, and they and their families. we're the ones that are there to help them. people are doing hard, arduous, difficult, dangerous things.

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learn how abbvie could help you save. ♪ ♪ minutes away from the vice presidential debate and you will see it here on fox. senator j.d. vance has been anticipating this moment to try to challenge minnesota governor walz about his liberal record. >> reporter: we are getting a little bit more information about how j.d. vance has been prepping. i just spoke with senior advisor to the campaign and he told me that it's kind of like football. they've been watching a lot of tape, a lot of debate tape of governor walz that previous debate seeped on, they are also raising the bar saying he's a very good debater, don't listen to all of this stuff about how he's nervous or worried about what he's going to look in front of kamala harris. they think this is just the expectation game they are playing. they expect iran to be the first

question tonight. would not preview an answer that senator vance is preparing for but they said he will be ready and they also say that the debate tonight's consequential. they won't say how he's feeling tonight, the senator, but they say he's ready. i'm also told the former president trump will be watching the debate tonight. he did not give j.d. vance any advice. gave him some encouragement but apparently he will be not live tweeting but rather live true thing the debate, something interesting to look out for as we watch this to pay. >> thank you, we will be watching. >> let's go to jackie in the spin room with more on to moses preparations. >> reporter: you know, i can't help but notice a bit of an effort to try to downplay the importance of this debate. the top democratic surrogates are not here. the campaign did not brief the press ahead of time, there are

no new adds or messaging rollouts, and broadly there is sort of a sense of their want to get it over with. the dnc chair acknowledged that these reports that walz's nervous saying who would not be. it might be a classic play to lower expectations but a minnesota state lawmaker kind of fact that up saying that in private walz has a tendency to be defensive, shutdown conversation when he's dressed, so his demeanor tonight could be a challenge as he tries to come off as this dad in plaid. broadly though the campaign has kept him out of the spotlight since the dnc. he's done only one joint interview with the vice president where he squirmed under questioning about his represent -- misrepresentation of his military service. today campaign ignored our questions, newly unearthed falsehoods misstating when he was in china. he claimed he was there during the tiananmen square massacre when reports from that time indicate he was actually in a proskow. they are hoping to turn the

focus to trump, you get it over with and we will see if he can do it. >> thank you jackie. >> let's bring in kelly and carl conte -- kellyanne conway and jessica tarlov. this is the first time these two will be head-to-head facing each other that but they've been talking about each other on the campaign trail for months. >> to moses record is a joke. he's been one of the most far left radicals in the entire united states government. at any level. >> i just have to say it, you know it, you feel it, these guys are creepy and yes weird as hack. >> the closest tamils has come to combat is when he let rioters burn minneapolis. >> it's obvious to us that donald trump and j.d. vance do not share our values. >> kelly and, put your advisor had on. the elevator pitch, what does -- what do the senators have to do? >> senator vance has to make sure everyone knows that what's

happening in israel isn't a coincidence, it's causation. i can think of few issues where the trump and biden-harris record is as different as on iran. trump imposed and enforced sanctions, he brought their energy production down to zero, they were struggling to do deals. biden and harris come in, second week they revoke the designation of terrorist further who these. iran is stockpiling billions of dollars funding terrorists because of it. biden-harris have us back in the nuclear deal. it's not clear to me walz is thought much about iran or israel in a long time. but i think j.d. has to show america that this is a bright line distinction. just in the last week, look at how fraught the issues are. hurricane helene, what's going out in iran in israel. what voters ask themselves is simple and this is what tamils us to prove, that he is someone who has managed crises before.

people will want to look at what he did after george floyd was murdered, at how he handled the pandemic, and that will be the best moment for us to understand how he would handle it if he came in. we need a president in command of these serious issues at home and abroad. >> all right, jessica, i do think the first question should be about iran and i think one of the things that i would want to ask is to j.d. vance and to walz, do you support a cease-fire, because that's what we heard from president biden, he wants an immediate cease-fire. if you don't support a cease-fire, to you approve of what was said yesterday, that we should say finish the job to israel. >> i think both of those things can be true. the cease-fire is an aspirational goal that i think everybody is working towards. j.d. vance is talked about that, donald trump earlier tonight was echoing a more peaceful goal, but president biden and

vice president harris -- harris have stood firmly behind israel and what they are doing right now. our missiles are flying into lebanon, they are the ones taking out the leaders, they are firing off of our aircraft carriers. this has been a strong show of support for our deeply personal and close ally in the region and i expect both candidates to talk about it, but the issue will be for j.d. vance that he is the isolationist on the stage and he's the man who voted against the aid package for israel as well as against the aid package for ukraine, something else that's incredibly important to america in supporting our allies. so i expect a good back-and-forth on that, very healthy, but the cease-fire, we know that it's a long-term goal. but we also know we need to stand by our ally at this moment and i think president biden emphasized that. >> i bet it will be the first question tonight. 12 interceptors fired from u.s. navy destroyers, one of them bombed 24 years ago almost

to this week. pretty amazing. >> just moments away now from tonight's vice presidential debate. we will check in with pete live out watch party in nashville. don't go away before that. we will be right back

♪ ♪ >> martha: just moments away from the vice presidential debate and pete, where is he, in a bar in nashville of course, talking to voters to see what they are looking for tonight. tough assignment. high pete. >> reporter: you know what guys, why not. let's up a party and watch the vice presidential debate and let's do it with tomi lahren, clay travis and morgan ortagus

as well on fox nation. there's a lot at stake tonight, we've had a conversation. we will talk to voters here in middle tennessee, republicans, conservatives fired up about what j.d. vance as an opportunity to litigate tonight. tim walz hasn't been out there much, hasn't answered many questions. we know the moderators usually come down on one side but can j.d. vance flip that into forcing tim walz to answer questions he hasn't answered that much of? our job here at fox nation is to get the pulse of the people immediately. we will be watching you guys afterwards as well but folks can turn on their second screen on fox nation and we will be having a beer, talking about what's up, what's down, who won and who lost. >> we will see you later, final thoughts from our panel as we are minutes away from the start of this debate. brit hume joins us remotely. last debate a bc, the moderators came into focus, they were part of the story and obviously the

former president felt that they tipped the scales they are, that it was three against one. tonight you have norah o'donnell and margaret brennan. i expected to be a different operation. what do you think? >> i'm not sure. one of the things i think that brings ups these continuing performances by main street media elites is that they read each other and they hear from each other and say value each other and if there's criticism from coming outside the mainstream media, is there certainly was in the wake of the abc debate, i'm not sure they ever see it or hear it or care about it. i'm not sure that will -- to the abc anchors tonight -- cbs anchors, excuse me. >> martha: one of the things that we will be watching for his whether or not j.d. vance can stick it and pivot, you know, if he has some of this jobless cat lady come at him at some point this evening. what does he do with it?

>> the haitian food, stay away from that. i think the compassionate point is like what is compassion, what is joy? most people watch, they are doing other things, they catch a few minutes here or there but i think j.d. vance will likely say what is joy? having more money in your pocket, feeling safe on the streets, feeling like the world will be, okay,, that there's hope and optimism for the future. i think for the women voters out there that are critical, and they are losing women, the trump vance ticket, they have to think about every word they are saying to resonate with the female voices out there. right now i think a lot of americans are worried about a lot of different things. they want real leadership, they don't want just talking points. >> that may be why jd's wife was on the prep team. >> she's really smart. >> absolutely. >> we talk a lot, at least we talk a lot, about kamala harris and the lack of interviews she's done. obviously doing more things we think but not a lot. tim walz has done fewer.

he hasn't done anything besides the one dual interview that dana mentioned before. so america maybe meeting tim walz, besides the dnc speech, for the first time. >> totally, which again, the resetting of issues, the tragedy in israel, to today with the attack from the iranian's, these questions will get asked first and i think there are big differences between the candidates on ukraine, on what america's role should be in the world, and hopefully because of this reset they will have an opportunity to talk about substance. i just hope they don't go after one another. say i differ with you and leo your point. talk about how you guys may govern. >> are you really hopeful for that? >> oh harold. >> i'm an american. i remember when debates used to happen between candidates and they would have to lay out what they would you for the country. i'm praying we get that. >> one of the things we will see tonight's open mics. we haven't seen that through the course of this so we will hear them go at each other a bit. with regard to the union,

communications on the union issue is pretty tricky because you've got support for union workers and then you have americans who may see the price of everything go up between now and christmas. >> not to mention the small business owners who want to try to get their products out so they can sell them and that has a trickle down effect. and you have the secretary of commerce two days ago saying she's not focused on this. and so if i were j.d. vance i would say so what would a kamala harris cabinet look like, what would change? do you agree with the secretary, governor, is that what you guys would be for? i think the more that vance could say we would be the change, you know where he is, i'm going to tell you more about me and i'm going to try to accentuate the positives. "the new york times" has this big piece today about independent voters. north carolina, black independent caregiver, this is her biggest concern. not being able to live a relaxing calm happy life if i

reach 60 plus. i feel like i will run out of money. and so when laura talks about that anxiety and people can't sleep at night, if one of them can help their candidate be the person that can help people rest easy at night, i think they will do very well. >> speaking of resting easy, j.d. vance will be talking to women and independence but really going to be also talking to the number 1 viewer, former president trump, who is on truth social realtime with this debate. >> i remember after the last debate we all thought that donald trump could have done a better job tagging harris with specifics. he's good with the broad strokes, she's a communist, but where janie needs to come in, he needs to tell a story. and so what happened was, donald trump basically left joe biden with a vaccine, recovering economy, secure border, no inflation, no wars. biden-harris blew the whole thing up.

so when walz comes out and says this, that and as the fuzzy values thing, it's not about fuzzy values, it's about results. bring it back to results every single time and he wins. >> i also thank it's about the question of strength. especially given what we are facing right now, laura, with these big issues, the hurricane, reports, iran. >> biden said today that he's not spoken to benjamin netanyahu. how do you not speak to the prime minister of israel? he said our people are talking to their people and their staff. again, being president isn't just showing up for the big events, it's actually bringing people together and saying, and dana you saw this in the white house, i saw this years ago, getting the players at the table and saying what do you need, what have you got, how far can you budge. >> looking them in the eye. you have the technology to do this. >> to have the players at the

table. >> our navy ships shut down these missiles so we were there with them. i hear you but at the same time -- >> people need to see biden and harris not to show up at fema and red sum talking points but be really engaged on what's going on on the ground and i think trump has that edge. >> twenty seconds, what does each man have to do? >> each man has to identify the flaws in the other. not the other vice presidential candidate, but in their running mates. i think that's what these things are always about because there's not a lot of history of vice presidential candidates making that big difference on election day, and there's even less of vice presidential debates. but each candidate can score some points for the person that they are running with, and that's what this is about. >> two vice presidential candidate set to battle it out in the big apple moments from now. tim walz and j.d. vance. standby.