This is a rush transcript of “Your World” on November 3, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: We’re waiting to hear from the president too.
This will be his first opportunity to respond to yesterday’s twin debacles in Virginia and, of course, in New Jersey, where it remains tight as a tick in the governor’s race there. We will have more than that in just a second.
This, of course, announcement is meant to talk about the vaccine that is now available and given the go-ahead by the CDC, as it was by the FDA, to use on kids as young as 5 years old. That would be about 29 million eligible children across the country.
The president is going to talk up the need to get vaccinated. But, of course, what’s going to be closely scrutinized is whether he comments on yesterday’s election developments.
Speaking of them, and before I get into some other particulars here, we’re getting some reconstituted numbers, if you will, out of the Garden State. There was apparently a sign, if we can show this guys, in Hudson County, a very strong Democratic area, where there was a double count going on.
It is now since been addressed, bringing Governor Murphy’s total down by a little bit less than 11,000 votes and affecting his opponent, Ciattarelli, by reducing his by close to 3,000. Upshot is, it essentially put them back in a position where they’re almost at a tie again, but that double-counting in Hudson County has been addressed. We’re told that there are anywhere from 150,000 to 175,000 other votes that have yet to be tabulated.
There is no automatic recount in the Garden State. But given the closest of this, whoever comes up at the short end of the stick, will likely demand and petition for a recount and likely get that recount petition accepted.
So, this is something that could drag on a while here until we have an official count on all of this.
But in case you think any of this was going to change behavior on Capitol Hill or that big spending plan the Democrats are still cooking up, but we got a strong signal from Nancy Pelosi, don’t count on it. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Does it change the agenda for the House?
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: All right, that was pretty short and to the point. No, no changes in the policy.
In fact, we are now seeing things rapidly move forward. Now, the Build Back Better plan, as it’s known, is already a text in the vicinity of about 2, 135 pages. So it sets the stage for I guess what they call markup.
Aishah Hasnie knows all of this far better than I, can update us from Capitol Hill, where all this stands, a day after that Democratic drubbing.
Aishah, where does this thing stand?
AISHAH HASNIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Neil.
Well, it looks like the pressure could be felt pretty intensely here on Capitol Hill. So Democrats are pushing forward with the social spending plan. As you mentioned, the House Rules Committee is about to meet in about 15 minutes to mark up this amended social spending bill. As you said, it’s more than 2,000 pages’ long.
We’re currently going through it right now to see what’s in it. So it’s looking more and more likely that there will be a vote in the House this week. It doesn’t look like there’s going to be that CBO score beforehand, as some of the moderates have asked for.
Look, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Pelosi, as you saw in that clip there, didn’t think that the election last night was going to have an impact on this social spending bill or the timeline of it. And she didn’t at all today talk about the strategy for House Democrats either.
Several Democrats, though, have talked to us on camera, and they have expressed that they are worried about the midterms at least, as Republicans are getting ready for a takeover.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): I’m worried not just in Virginia. I’m worried across the country.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): And as one who will be running for reelection in 2022, I need results that I can show the American people.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): There’s many that are going to lose their races based upon walking off a cliff from Nancy Pelosi pushing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HASNIE: Yes, it looks like Democrats not listening to Minority leader McCarthy there.
They felt the added pressure today to fix the gridlock on Capitol Hill and pass something, really anything, which has now also reignited this feud between moderates and progressives.
So, one moderate Democrat telling our Chad Pergram this morning, hopefully, progressives will get the wakeup call, while a progressive group through the blame on moderates even before the race was called last night.
Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal pushing back today on this idea that Terry McAuliffe may have won if progressives weren’t holding the infrastructure bill hostage to get the president’s massive social spending bill through.
Meanwhile, Senator Joe Manchin is using the Virginia loss as a warning to his party to slow down. He’s been saying that Americans are worried about the rising costs and about inflation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): People are concerned. They are very much so.
And for us to go down the path that we have been going in, they were trying to accelerate it, and it has been slowed down. I think that we need to take our time and do it right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HASNIE: OK, so again, it doesn’t look like anyone’s listening to Manchin at this hour, as House Democrats move forward — Neil.
CAVUTO: Aishah, very quickly.
The president will be speaking soon this vaccine thing, but I did want to ask you a quick question on procedure here. If they go through with this markup without a CBO sort of account of this, isn’t that going to tick off the moderates?
HASNIE: Well, that’s what the moderates have been complaining about, right?
In the last couple of — 48 hours or so, you have heard people like Senator Manchin say, this is so necessarily important so that people, the Americans at home — it looks like we’re going to go to breaking news.
CAVUTO: All right, thank you, Aishah.
Now the president.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Get my mask here.
Today is a great day for American parents, American families, and American children. We’ve taken a giant step forward to further accelerate our path out of this pandemic.
After months of rigorous and independent scientific review, the Food and Drug Administration — the FDA — authorized and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the CDC — recommended the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 through 11.
For parents all over this country, this is a day of relief and celebration. After almost 18 months of anxious worrying every time that children — your child had a sniffle or started to cough, well, you can now protect them from this horrible virus, because that would always worry that it was coming along.
Twenty-eight million more young Americans are now eligible for the protection of a vaccine, and my administration is ready — we’re ready from day one, today — organized, and have a plan for this vaccination’s launch.
As soon as next week, we will have enough vaccine in enough places, and parents will be able to schedule appointments to get their kids their first shot.
And we’ve already secured enough vaccine supply for every single child in America ages 5 through 11.
And weeks ago, we asked states and pharmacies to put together their detailed plan to start placing their orders for these specially formulated vaccines for young children.
We started packing and shipping these orders last week, as soon as FDA authorized the vaccine.
And we’ve already sent millions of doses — excuse me — millions of doses, and millions more to come by next week. These doses will be available at approximately — excuse me — I beg your pardon — I swallowed wrong — will be available in approximately 20,000 locations around the country.
These include places that parents know and trust: their local pharmacies, their pediatricians, family doctors, and children’s hospitals.
Many of the vaccine sites will offer times on nights and weekends so parents can take their children to get vaccinated after work and after school.
We’ve also been working with governors, mayors, and local school leaders to bring vaccines to schools.
As of today, more than 6,000 school clinics have already been planned in school districts around the country.
These efforts will also ensure equity that — is the center of our children’s vaccination program, as has been — as it has been the — the vaccination program for adults.
We’re making vaccines available at hundreds of community health centers, rural health clinics, and thousands of pharmacies and schools in our hardest-hit communities.
And we’re sending out mobile units to reach where the people are.
The bottom line is: We’ve been planning and preparing for months to vaccinate our children.
Our program will be ramping up this week and more doses shipped out each day so that we have fully — we are fully up and running by next week.
Now, I know that many parents have been anxiously waiting for this day, but I also know that some families might have questions. So, trusted messengers — like your pediatricians, family doctors — will be able to answer your questions, talk to parents about the importance of getting their kids vaccinated, and put your mind at ease.
We’ll also be raising awareness and encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated, from our level.
Just when we’ve been doing — that’s what we’ve been doing since day one of my administration. And we’re going to do everything we can to make these vaccines easily available and raise awareness of the importance of getting vaccinated.
So, parents of children ages five and older, please get them vaccinated. Because here’s the deal: Children make up one quarter of the cases in this country. And while rare, children can get very sick from COVID-19. And some can end up — few — but end up hospitalized. But they don’t have to.
This vaccine is safe and effective. So, get your children vaccinated to protect themselves, to protect others, and to stop the spread, and to help us beat this pandemic.
Today, I also want to speak to America’s seniors. While everyone is at risk of getting COVID-19, the evidence is overwhelming that older Americans are still, by far, the most vulnerable to getting the sickest.
And boosters — boosters add an important layer of protection. Booster shots are free and effective, and every senior should get one. It’s important.
Seniors are eligible to get your booster shot six months after you’ve been fully vaccinated. So, six months. If you got your second shot before May the 1st, you are eligible to get the booster right now.
And I’ve made it clear: We have ample supply of boosters.
And thanks to our planning and preparation, our booster program is off to a very strong start. Over 20 million Americans have now received a booster.
In fact, in just six weeks, we’ve already gotten boosters to about half the eligible seniors who received the Pfizer vaccine. Nearly half of the eligible seniors in just six weeks.
It took nearly 11 weeks to get half of all seniors their first shot for that — when that program was launched back in December of 2020, just during the prior administration. So, as a — this is a strong pace.
To our seniors: If you’re eligible, get your booster now.
I will conclude with this: Vaccines for children ages 5 to 11 and boosters, provide additional protection for seniors and others are two major steps forward that are going to accelerate our path out of this pandemic.
And this brings — and this brings me to where we are and where we’re going to go from here: Since early September, cases and hospitalizations are down now more than 50 percent. And over the past two weeks, cases and hospitalizations are falling in approximately 40 states.
A year ago, we had no vaccines. Just this week, we hit an important milestone: 80 percent of adults have at least one shot. That’s four out of every five adults.
And for our seniors, over 95 percent have gotten at least one shot.
Overall, 193 million Americans are fully vaccinated, up from just 2 million the day I was sworn in. Over 20 million have enhanced protections from boosters. And we’re now down from 100 to about 60 million unvaccinated Americans 12 years and older.
And I’m proud to say, Black and brown adults and Native Americans have gotten vaccinated at the same rate as white adults.
And one more thing. Our vaccination program is not only helping to save lives and beat the pandemic, it’s helping our economy recovery and helping us grow.
In the three months before I came to office, the economy was stagnant and creating only 60,000 jobs a month.
Since I’ve taken office, it’s now averaging 600,000 new jobs every month. That’s the average.
And one more thing. Vaccinating our children will help us keep our schools open — keep our kids in the classroom, learning and socializing with their classmates and teachers.
I think every reporter in this room who has a child understands the difference of a child going to school and having to learn from home. It matters. It matters in terms of their not just physical health, their mental health.
You know, during this pandemic, we’ve seen just how important being in school is for our families and for our country.
A year ago, we were heading into a Thanksgiving where public health were — experts were advising against traveling or gathering with family and friends.
Last Thanksgiving, for the first time, it was just four of us — my wife and I, our daughter and her — and my son-in-law. Later this month, our tables and our hearts are going to be filled, thanks to the vaccines.
We’ve made incredible progress over these past nine months, but we have to keep going. The pandemic is not yes — behind us — yet behind us, but we’re getting there.
So, please — please do your part. If you know someone who is not vaccinated, encourage them to get vaccinated.
And folks — folks who haven’t gotten vaccinated yet, please get vaccinated. It’s easy. It’s accessible. And it’s free. Get vaccinated. You can do this.
May God bless you all.
And I will take a few questions.
QUESTION: Mr. President, on the outcome on Virginia…
QUESTION: Mr. President, a quick one…
BIDEN: I will start all the way at the end.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Appreciate it.
BIDEN: Well, you’re not all the way at the end, but that’s OK. You’re up.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: As leader of the Democratic Party, how much responsibility do you take for the dismal results in Virginia and beyond last night?
BIDEN: Well, look, yesterday reminded me of — that one of the scared rights we have is to be able to go out and cast our votes. And remember that we all have an obligation to accept the legitimacy of these elections.
I was talking to Terry to congratulate him today. He got 600,000 more votes than any Democrat ever has gotten. We brought out every Democrat about there was. More votes than ever has been cast for a Democratic incumbent — I mean, not incumbent — a Democrat running for governor. And no governor in Virginia has ever won when he is of the same — where he or she is the same party as the sitting president.
What I do know is — I do know that people want us to get things done. They want us to get things done. And that’s why I’m continuing to push very hard for the Democratic Party to move along and pass my infrastructure bill and my Build Back Better bill.
I think if we — look, think about what we — what we’re talking about here. People are upset and uncertain about a lot of things — from COVID, to school, to jobs, to a whole range of things, and the cost of a gallon of gasoline.
And so, if I’m able to pass — sign into law my Build Back Better initiative, I’m in a position where you’re going to see a lot of those things ameliorated quickly and swiftly. And so that has to be done.
QUESTION: Mr. President — Mr. President, given what you’ve said, do you take some responsibility? And do you think that Terry McAuliffe would have won if your agenda had passed before Election Day?
BIDEN: Well, I think we should have — it should have passed before Election Day. But I’m not sure that I would be able to have changed the number of very conservative folks who turned out in the red districts who were Trump voters. But maybe. Maybe.
QUESTION: You won the state by 10 points, Mr. President.
BIDEN: No, I know we did. But I — we also — I was running against Donald Trump.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. I have a…
QUESTION: Mr. President…
QUESTION: What should Democrats possibly do differently to avoid similar losses in November, especially as Republicans are now successfully running on culture-war issues and false claims about critical race theory?
BIDEN: Well, I think we should produce for the American people. Look, one of the things that is important to understand: If — if they pass my legislation, we’re going to be able to reduce the price — people are going to see a reduction in the price of the drugs they — they have to get because Medicare will be able to negotiate and lower the price of drugs.
If they pass my legislation, you’re going to see that nobody — and some of you who have children in day care or children in childcare, you’re paying up to $14,000 a year if you live here. You will never have to pay that much money if you live in Washington, or wherever you live. No more than 17 — 7 percent of your income. They’re going to see that they’ll get tax breaks — I mean, genuine tax breaks.
(RINGING)
If that’s Trump, then tell him I’m busy.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: But, Mr. President…
BIDEN: That was bad — bad joke.
But anyway, but the — but the point is that we have to move and make it clear that what we’ve done is increasing their…
Look, people — people need a little breathing room. They’re overwhelmed. And what happened was — I think we have to just produce results for them to change their standard of living and give them a little more breathing room.
QUESTION: My question is…
QUESTION: Mr. President…
QUESTION: Can you just — what’s your message, though, for Democratic voters, especially Black voters who see Republicans running on race, education — lying about critical race theory — and they’re worried that Democrats don’t have an effective way to push back on that?
BIDEN: Well, I think that the whole answer is just to speak the truth, lay out where we are.
Look, I’m convinced that if you look at everything from my view on criminal justice system, to my view on equal opportunity, to my view on economic issues, and all the things that I have and what I’ve been pushing in legislation — each of the elements are overwhelmingly popular. We have to speak to them though. We have to speak them and explain them.
Look, I just think people are at a point — and it’s understandable — where there’s a whole lot of confusion. Everything from, Are you going to ever get COVID under control? ; to Are my kids going to be in school? Are they going to be able to stay in school? ; to Whether or not I’m going to get a tax break that allows me to be able to pay for the needs of my kids and my family?
And they’re all things that we’re — that we’re going to — that I’m running on — that we’ll run on. And I think we’ll do fine.
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Mr. President, right here. Right here, Mr. President. Mr. President…
BIDEN: This ought to be good.
DOOCY: I think so, too.
About the way forward, Mr. President: As you were leaving for your overseas trip, there were reports that were surfacing that your administration is planning to pay illegal immigrants who are separated from their families at the border up to $450,000 each, possibly a million dollars per family. Do you think that that might incentivize more people to come over illegally?
BIDEN: If you guys keep sending that garbage out, yeah. But it’s not true.
DOOCY: So, this is a garbage report?
BIDEN: Yeah.
DOOCY: OK. So, you…
BIDEN: Four hundred and fifty — $450,000. Is that what you’re saying?
DOOCY: That was separated from a family member at the border under the last administration.
BIDEN: That’s not going to happen.
DOOCY: OK. And then just a follow-up, because you mentioned Trump a couple times. When you went to try to help Terry McAuliffe in — a couple weeks ago, before you left, you mentioned Trump 24 times.
Do you still think that voters really want to hear you talking about Trump more than the issues affecting them every day?
BIDEN: Well, the reason I mentioned Trump — I didn’t count the times — is because the issues he supports are affecting their lives every day, and they’re a negative impact on their lives, in my view.
Thank you all very much.
QUESTION: A year before the midterm elections, sir, is the Democratic Party too woke? Is…
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: … Democrats on getting that bill passed?
CAVUTO: All right, you have been listening to the president.
He made a little bit of news there. I’m not talking about the COVID push right now to get vaccinated — to get children vaccinated. About 29 million would be eligible as young as 5 now, with the CDC and FDA writing off on this, approving it for parents. It’s up to them, the president says, but he hopes that they would do that.
But the big news there in the end with our own Peter Doocy was this story that was out there for some time, and it had not been disputed for a number of days by the White House, that it was considering a plan to pay families for up $450,000 each if they’re separated or had been separated at the border.
The president seemed to make clear there was nothing to that. Why only now to clarify it in response to Peter’s question is anyone’s guess, but saying that there was nothing to that.
In the meantime, discussing what some people have interpreted as obsession with Donald Trump and constantly mentioning him. He only says he mentions that in the context of events going on here, but was not aware of any particular number, I think, as Peter said, a couple of dozen times at one single event.
But what is very clear from the president’s reflection yesterday’s double debacle for Democrats in a race still too close to call in the bluest of blue states in New Jersey is that he might be taking some of the responsibility for that, has no way of knowing whether the failure to get a spending package through or at least something that had a popular appeal, the bipartisan infrastructure-only package through, whether that could have made a difference.
He doesn’t hazard to guess.
Let’s go to what David Spunt at the White House of how it’s handling this day-after impact of these races, because, best I can tell, David, they’re full speed ahead at pushing this through. And that is even without a CBO score. So nothing’s changed on their part.
DAVID SPUNT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Nothing’s changed on their part, Neil. That’s exactly right.
And the White House hoped to have something done before President Biden went overseas to meet with people in Scotland, to meet with world leaders to talk the climate.
As far as the fallout from the Virginia gubernatorial race last night, many conservatives criticized Terry McAuliffe, who wanted to get his old job back, for repeatedly mentioning the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump. They said that he was doing it too much.
As you heard in Peter’s question right there. President Biden mentioned Donald Trump 24 times on the campaign trail. That’s what we were able to count. Biden also said to another reporter, the president said the reason he did so was because he wanted to show the juxtaposition between McAuliffe’s policies and Youngkin’s policies, trying to tie Youngkin to Trump.
Ultimately, that did not work. Glenn Youngkin will be the next governor of Virginia. It was also pointed out to the president — and this is notable, Neil, for our viewers — that President Biden, Joe Biden — candidate Biden, I should say, at the time a year ago beat then-President Donald Trump by 10 points in Virginia.
The reason Biden said that happened is because he said just a few minutes ago, well, I was running against Donald Trump.
So, right there, it shows that is something the White House focused on, was Donald Trump. As far as this legislation is concerned, it was on Monday when Senator Joe Manchin held this news conference, rare news conference, when the president was overseas, saying he just cannot get on board with this spending package right now.
That’s what the White House is going to focus on. They hoped to have something not only before Scotland, but also before this election, hoping that that could propel Terry McAuliffe to victory, but, ultimately, it did not — Neil.
CAVUTO: All right, David Perdue, thank you very, very much.
I want to go to Kim Strassel right now.
And, Kim, looking at this from The Wall Street Journal editorial board perspective you offer as well, being a great contributor, what I recognize here is no presidential pivot. Now, I know this isn’t a midterm election, but it has grown to take up the importance of one. And it reminded me of how Bill Clinton addressed a shellacking at the hands of Republicans when, in the middle of the Gingrich and Republican Revolution, better than 60 seats were lost by Democrats, and he pivoted big time.
This is what he said at that time:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The era of big government is over.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: We must go forward as one America, one nation working together to meet the challenges we face together. Self-reliance and teamwork are not opposing virtues. We must have both.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: All right, that was a major league pivot at that time. In fact, he recognized, if you think about, Kim, the reality that was now a whole parade toward less government.
And, in fact, he then got to the head of that parade to lead it himself with the welfare to work and all of that. Now, I know that’s a midterm election. This is sort of an off-year election ahead of the midterm election. But is there a sense here that President Biden missed an opportunity to do just that, to seize the moment, and then lead on that moment?
KIM STRASSEL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, absolutely.
But, Neil, I would go farther and say that he missed that opportunity back when he was inaugurated and when he started, because that’s when he did the pivot. I mean, remember, he ran on COVID and on bringing the country together.
And in the first couple of months, he had his big win. He got his recovery package through. Then he had a bunch of bipartisan senators sit down, go to work together, come up with a bill which passed 69 votes in the Senate for infrastructure. I mean, we have both been around a long time, Neil. How often does that happen?
All you had to do was put it through the House, where there was majority support for it, take that victory. Imagine what things would have looked like in the months running up to this election if that is what Biden had done.
He didn’t. He also now today has failed to do it again. And I just don’t see that as a White House that is reading that very clear signs that came out of these races yesterday.
CAVUTO: You know, the number two House leader, Steny Hoyer, is on the wires saying, “I think so,” when asked if he’s confident that both bills can pass on. I’m talking about the bipartisan infrastructure plan and this far bigger spending package that we’re told now totals over 2, 135 pages.
So they’re going full speed ahead with all of this. So there’s no pivot, no change in plans or policy. But I’m sure they have got to be risking losing moderates who at least wanted to wait until the Congressional Budget Office scored these. They’re not doing that.
I’m wondering if they’re masochists here.
(LAUGHTER)
STRASSEL: The remarkable thing, I keep seeing all these people saying, what does this mean for Joe Biden’s agenda? That’s already changed dramatically. It changed this morning.
I mean, right now, we have Democrats, they’re in a fight with each other. One side is saying, what happened on Tuesday happened because we didn’t move faster. That’s Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, the president. You just heard him.
Then you have Joe Manchin this morning saying, no, the message out of Virginia is, we need to slow down. We need to take our time with this. We need to do it the right way. We need to hold hearings and figure out what’s going on.
So, in a way, Neil, that’s all that matters, because he’s the guy that makes the call. And he has taken the message of Virginia to be one that they need to slow this down. So, Nancy Pelosi can jam this through the House. But Joe Manchin has made clear it’s not getting jammed through the Senate. It’s going to run on his timeline. The things he’s laying out are clearly going to take a long time.
And he’s also made clear that whatever they’re sending him is not what’s going to be in the final bill. So that bill in the House, that’s not the legislation. Joe’s agenda has already changed.
CAVUTO: All right, it is wild.
Kim Strassel, thank you very, very much of The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
We are also talking about all of this in the wake of these stunning election gains, not only in Virginia, but this race that’s still too close to call in New Jersey.
Bill Hemmer following both of those developments and the count that keeps coming in, albeit slowly, in New Jersey.
What do you have, my friend?
BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I know you love your home state, but we got to buy them some calculators, OK?
(LAUGHTER)
HEMMER: It’s just dragging out right here.
And there’s very little new vote to speak of. Here’s your difference right now as of 4:30 Eastern time, Neil, 16, 600 votes roughly between Murphy and Ciattarelli. This popped up a moment ago, just like in the past 30 minutes, I would say. We saw it jump couple hundred, then a couple hundred just a moment ago, too.
So that may change yet again. But what are we waiting on? Why can we not make a call? We can’t make a call because Ciattarelli has made this thing super tight in New Jersey. And nobody really considered that to be the case.
What are we waiting on right now? This is Philadelphia down here in the southwest. It’s New York up here in the northeast. This is Camden, New Jersey. Murphy’s going to win the county, Neil. But we expect right now at least 15, 16 percent of the votes still outstanding. And two-thirds of that vote, we think, was cast today on election — or was cast on Election Day.
Yes. It’s been a long night, as I’m sure you can tell.
Up here in Essex is where you find Newark, just a short drive from us here in New York City, a heavily Democratic county, but we believe in Essex, like we have been saying for hours, 25 percent of the vote outstanding in Essex yet to be counted.
Why is that? We can’t say. We don’t know. Is there an issue? Not confirmed. But, I mean, Neil, it goes back to the calculator question, Neil. We need to send a few their way here.
Also, down in Union County, you find Summit, Westfield, New Jersey here, we think 12 percent of the vote is outstanding in Union County as well. To summarize those three places, they are blue counties, and in all likelihood, up to about 60 percent, maybe a little more than that vote, could go for Murphy over Ciattarelli, which would certainly be good news for the Democrat.
We can’t conclude that just yet. It’s just based on some of their projections we’re looking inside. This is up here in the north in Passaic County, New Jersey. Had a couple of votes come in. I think this is interesting, Neil, and I will tell you why.
Had a few votes take in just a few moments ago here. Murphy, just look at the raw vote here. We did this a bit earlier today. I think it’s — I think it’s fascinating, right? He’s at 53,000. Ciattarelli is at 51, 500.
Now I’m going to show you what came in four years ago, when Murphy won over Guadagno, OK? he was at 56,000. You see there, for the Republican, it was at 36,000. So come back to 2021 and just watch this number, do the math in your head. Well, he increases voter turnout in one county by 15,000 votes, in a blue county too, and made it very, very competitive.
And I think you can — clear that off — you can do that, Neil, all over the state of New Jersey. Republicans came out to vote. And that was pretty evidence. You come down to the shore and you look at the percentages in Monmouth County, this is — that’s where you want to be.
I mean, you can even argue Ocean County, Monmouth County, that he overperformed in these heavily Republican areas of the state. But we will see whether or not he can turn the trick, ultimately — Neil, .
CAVUTO: Amazing, just amazing.
And I will pick up that calculator. But, in New Jersey, we just use our fingers. I don’t know what it is.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: All right, thank you, my friend, very, very much, Bill Hemmer on all of that.
So, Alexis McAdams joins us right now in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Alexis, this count, obviously, could go on a while here. And, obviously, while there is no automatic recount rule in New Jersey, whoever is on the shorter end of that voting stick is almost certainly going to demand one, right?
ALEXIS MCADAMS, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, that’s right. And we’re waiting to get more information that as those votes just continue to trickle in here.
And what a tight race it is. A lot of the people we talk to out here who did vote in this race said they just did not expect it to be so close. And voters in New Jersey say that came out to specifically vote on two main issues, how they handled the COVID-19 pandemic, the governor, who’s Governor Murphy, and also just figuring out a couple other things.
But as those results show right now, half of the Garden State does want to replace Democratic Governor Phil Murphy. So let’s get to it. These early results showing right now Governor Murphy ahead by 16,000 votes, those numbers just in, after the two candidates traded spots for first place throughout the day here.
Now, Governor Murphy faced Jack Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman and New Jersey native. Roughly 89 percent of the votes have now been counted, but the remaining votes are expected to heavily favor Democrats.
In the last few weeks, Governor Murphy, who’s been considered a shoo-in, in this race, has tried to rally support, bringing in Senator Bernie Sanders, former President Barack Obama and even first lady Jill Biden. Murphy held the lead early in the night, but as those results continued to pour in from other counties, Ciattarelli taking the lead for a short time there.
In New Jersey, registered Democrats do outnumber for registered Republicans by more than a million. The main issues driving voters out to the poll, as I mentioned, high taxes and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACK CIATTARELLI (R), NEW JERSEY GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Fix the state of New Jersey and make this state someplace where everyone feels confident they can live, work, retire, start a business, raise a family.
GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): For almost four years now, our focus has not been on trying to do more for those who already have much, but to do much for those in the middle and at the bottom, so that they have more opportunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCADAMS: And, as you see, it’s taking a little bit of time here in New Jersey to keep counting up those ballots in all of these different counties.
There are still tens of thousands of ballots that still need to be counted in the New Jersey governor’s race. And here in the state, there is no automatic recount, as you mentioned, Neil, so either side could ask for one. So we will continue to monitor that — back to you.
CAVUTO: Wow, just incredible.
Alexis, thank you very, very much.
Well, it is an anomaly in New Jersey, hard as it is to believe, not that a Democratic incumbent governor is having trouble in a blue state and defying earlier polls that indicate he would have no such trouble, but that Murphy is going against history.
Democratic governors have a devil of the time generally getting reelected. It goes back to 1977. Brendan Byrne was the last Democrat reelected, I’m not saying without a problem. But that was then, very different right now.
Tom Kean is among the very successful Republican governors who have been reelected. He really started it all when he barely beat, but he did beat, Jim Florio. It seems like just yesterday.
Governor Kean kind enough to join us right now.
Governor, what do you make of what’s happening here, the closeness of this race?
FMR. GOV. TOM KEAN (R-NJ): Well, it’s a bit surprising, although you saw the trend line moving for a long time…
CAVUTO: Right.
KEAN: … because Ciattarelli started way behind and Murphy started way ahead.
And slowly, in fits and starts, Ciattarelli has been closing that gap. And my own feeling is that, if the election were a week ago or two weeks ago, that Ciattarelli would have would have lost by a good margin. If it had been held next week, I think he would have won.
So the trend line was moving very much in his direction. And it’s a it’s a great year for the Republicans in New Jersey, led by Ciattarelli, who deserves a lot of credit for the kind of campaign he ran.
CAVUTO: All right, now, of course, the precincts and counties and municipalities we’re waiting on, Governor, are in Democratic strongholds, hence the feeling that the governor will just eke this one out.
What do you think of that?
KEAN: Well, that may be true.
It’s hard to — you can’t say it’s definitely going to be true yet. But it could be true. But, in the meantime, the Democrats have lost legislative seats. They have lost local seats. It’s been a — it’s been a good night for the Republicans. And there will be a national trend.
CAVUTO: They lost a big seat.
Right now, the New Jersey Senate president, Steve Sweeney, who you know well, he’s been there, what, forever, what, 30 years, he’s trailing to a conservative truck driver who spent all of 153 bucks to do it.
What do you make of that?
KEAN: Yes, that’s the sign of a major trend line. It really is.
CAVUTO: Yes.
KEAN: And it’s incredible.
And I understand what’s happening in Virginia, and that’s — Republicans are celebrating that. But to have it happen in New Jersey is pretty special. And that’s a — this is a very blue state. And to have it turn around like this is, I’d say, a very good sign for the Republicans and a very bad sign for the Democrats.
CAVUTO: What do you think made it difficult for the governor? Was it the economy? Was it his handling of the COVID situation and the business crackdowns? What? What do you think did it?
KEAN: Well, first of all, you got to give Ciattarelli credit. I mean, he was a good, good candidate. And the more people got to know him, the more they liked him.
Secondly, New Jersey is a Democratic state, but it’s a moderate Democratic state. And it had — always in the past has elected moderate Democratic governors. Governor Murphy is most liberal governor the state’s ever elected. And he’s done very liberal things.
The state isn’t quite ready for some of that. They’d like a little more moderation, I think, and they reacted badly to some of the things I think that Murphy did, talking about he wanted to make New Jersey California.
Well, New Jersey doesn’t want to be California.
CAVUTO: Yes, they’re very stubborn that way, aren’t they?
Governor, I’d be curious to get your take on the official Democratic Party reaction to all of this. It’s full speed ahead with these twin spending measures. And moderates are ticked off about it. They have already started the so-called markup process, better than 2, 300 pages’ long with just the big spending bill.
Moderates are already telling our Chad Pergram on Capitol Hill that they resent putting the social spending on the floor without a complete Congressional Budget Office score.
One of them told Chad: “We resent it. This is only strengthening our resolve.”
So, I don’t see any pivoting going on there. And I don’t see any conceding on the part of progressives to rein it in. What do you make of this party food fight?
KEAN: Well, certainly, the liberal part of the Democratic Party feels that this is their salvation to go right ahead and do every bit of the spending.
I think most of the country would like it slowed down a bit, not that they’re against all of it, but they want to look at it carefully. Is it going to cause inflation? Is all of this necessary? What does it mean when you spend this much on so many things? And what does it mean for our future, our taxes and the future of our families?
And I think to slow it down, do it right is probably the best thing to do. I mean, we can do it, fine, but do it fully following the procedures that you should follow. Don’t just rush it through for political reasons.
And the political reasons are probably inaccurate at this point, it seems to have — seem to be, if you look at the country.
CAVUTO: You know — and I mean this with great respect, Governor, but you’re a bit of a political dinosaur in this day and age, because you were able to work in a bipartisan fashion and get big things done.
It was one reason why you were named the co-chair of the 9/11 Commission to get to the bottom of the horrors of 9/11, because both sides trusted you would come up with that.
New Jersey has since become, much like the nation, a very polarized state, and I’m just wondering whether you see any of that changing, and especially the way the Democrats are responding in Washington so far, not really doing the kinds of things you saw Bill Clinton do, for example, after getting humbled in his first midterm.
What do you think?
KEAN: Well, it’s got to change.
And we have got to start talking to each other again. I mean, there’s no excuse, really, for, at this point, particularly given this Republican victory, not to take both parties into consideration, not to do things calculatedly in a slow and deliberate way.
And there’s particularly no point not talking to each other. In this country, you, our neighbors, political people in Congress, they have got to start talking to each other. Most people are well-motivated. And my experience was that, if you talk to the other party and reason with them, you can get an agreement.
I did that again and again in New Jersey, and I did it with the 9/11 Commission. We were unanimous and one of the strongest recommendations of a major reform the government. And it worked. So I think — I hope this may – – this election maybe some sign to both sides to, let’s talk a bit. Let’s reason together.
Let’s recognize that we’re not badly motivated and a lot of people in both parties are well-intentioned. And so let’s talk to each other and see if we can come up with some compromises. The country wouldn’t have been formed without a compromise. So let’s think about compromise again. It’s not a dirty word.
CAVUTO: No, it is not.
Always good catching up with you, Governor. Thank you for taking the time.
I hope you took no offense to the dinosaur remark. I was just hearkening to another era.
(LAUGHTER)
KEAN: No, no. There’s some quite nice dinosaurs.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: There we go. Yes, there are nice dinosaurs.
Thank you, Governor. Very good, Governor Tom Kean.
By the way, before we go to a quick break, we’re going to be talking to the former Virginia Democratic Governor Wilder on this whole situation. He did sort of telegraph that sometimes a race isn’t appearing as it appears in the polls.
What he makes of what’s coming up right now and how the state could go forward. Doug Wilder on all of that — after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, well, if the markets were rattled by any of this unsettling election news, I don’t know if they’re Democrats or Republicans, they just like money. They’re never red or blue. I just say they like green.
And we have the Dow at a record. We had the S&P at a record. We had the Nasdaq at a record.
There are other market-moving developments, including the Federal Reserve indicating today that it’s finally going to begin this process of tapering. It’s been buying a ton of Treasury securities, mortgage-backed securities, all that gooky stuff, if you will, to the tune of about $120 billion every month.
It was the first sign by the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, the chairman, to say, we’re going to start slicing that a little bit, $10 to $15 billion in the next couple of months, beginning next month, and slowly unwind those positions.
That was not a surprise to the markets. They liked it. Didn’t seem rattled by all these developments on Capitol Hill.
But Phil Wegmann of RealClearPolitics, I wonder, in a weird way, why that might be good news for markets, because it delays the big spending, if it happens at all. But, more importantly, it delays the big tax hikes, if they happen at all. What do you think?
PHILIP WEGMANN, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Well, I think that the markets are responding to the fact that nothing is changing.
I have watched your show long enough to know that markets like a little bit of certainty. And I think that that’s where I will leave it here, because Wall Street is responding to what we have seen throughout the year, which is that Democrats continue to fight amongst each other and that, so far, they have not been able to pass a new agenda that would require the taxes that you just mentioned.
CAVUTO: You know, I got to wonder whether this thing’s on life support, though, Phil, because you have moderates who are really ticked off, like a huge, are you kidding me, reaction to the party still pressing a markup on a bill that hasn’t been scored by the CBO.
And I’m told that might happen. That scoring or the pricing of it is important to a lot of moderates. No less than Joe Manchin has said he needs that before he can act on that and decide whether he’s going to vote for it.
But they seem diametrically opposed. This looks like a bomb just exploding on them.
WEGMANN: And isn’t that so interesting that President Biden in that press conference talks about the need to return to work, to pass his agenda, and, meanwhile, you have Manchin, who says, no, we need to slow down and take a look at this?
Well, a couple of weeks ago, you had progressives who were saying the same thing. They were saying, don’t rush this. We want to see a legislative text. We want to know what’s in this bill.
Obviously, their calls for a slow and steady approach were so that they could get more spending, more programs in the final package. But this really does show you how you have got a party that is fighting amongst itself.
Republicans are not the boogeymen here. Instead, they’re off to the sidelines. And it is Joe Biden who is going to his own party and pleading with them, just like he did last week, to give him something. He said very clearly that he thought his presidency, as well as their majorities in both the House and the Senate, could be on the line.
And yet they still didn’t deliver. We will see if they can by the end of the year.
CAVUTO: Phil, there’s a thought among some Democrats, had they at least had a vote on the infrastructure-only package back in August, when they had that moment, and then, of course, the two big badgers were paired, and that didn’t happen, that it would have been a very different off-year election yesterday.
Do you agree with that?
WEGMANN: It’s hard to say.
I was at the McAuliffe victory party last night, which turned from jubilation to a little bit of depression. And some of the folks that I talked to were saying, well, this is because progressives wouldn’t take half-the-loaf. They instead waited to try and get the whole thing.
Other folks who were there were saying, no, I mean, we have been waiting for some time for the provisions that are going to be in this bill. And I heard from a president of a local SEIU union there, who said, I’m fine with taking a little bit more time.
I think the thing that Washington, D.C., is realizing now, and the White House is especially aware of this, if they weren’t before, it’s that Republicans are motivated. They showed up in Virginia. They won there. And if Vice President Harris is correct, like she warned just a week ago that what could happen in Virginia could have reverberations in 2022 and then 2024 and beyond, Democrats are starting to realize this might be our last chance, because, next year, everyone is going to be off campaigning.
So the hope is, pass something, pass anything, so that Democrats aren’t empty-handed.
CAVUTO: All right, we will see what happens, Phil Wegmann with RealClearPolitics.
Want to go to Doug Wilder right now, the former Virginia governor, back with us.
And when he was here a few days ago, he was telegraphing this concern about our obsession in the media with following polls and everything else.
And, sure enough, you’re right about that, Governor. Good to have you.
I guess I want to first ask you about what you think, in retrospect, Glenn Youngkin did right. How did he win it?
FMR. GOV. DOUG WILDER (D-VA): Well, first of all, he said to me he listened to me.
But what I think he did right…
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: And he still won. And he still won.
WILDER: He — very good, Neil.
(LAUGHTER)
WILDER: What I think he really did was listen to the people.
And one of the things that you and I spoke of, as you pointed out, we suggested that there may have been an opportunity for Democrats to recognize that they need to pay attention to the people.
In addition into the sweep — and none of us saw this, what some would call a bloodbath, coming, but you got to understand now that the legislature has been changed. The control of the House of Delegates has been changed. The speakership is gone.
CAVUTO: Right. Good point.
WILDER: And three legislative members, three black members lost in black districts.
So, a lot took place. And a lot of that loss was occasioned because many of the people of Virginia have thought that the elected officials don’t listen to them. So, I think what Glenn did was listen to the people, respond, and he went to all of the areas.
And, additionally, he didn’t bring in the surrogates. He didn’t have the people. And he has said to me that he took a chapter or two from my book. And I think Virginians, as well as people across the country, are sick and tired of people telling them how to vote, rather than telling them why they should vote for them.
CAVUTO: What do you think of the official Democratic, for want of a better term, Governor, party reaction by going full throttle, still go through with these big spending plans, that that was not an issue in Virginia, it wasn’t an issue in New Jersey?
It’s an easy win if they get it done. So they’re going to try to get it done. The moderates are annoyed they’re sort of ramming it down their throats. What do you think of what they’re doing here?
WILDER: I don’t think much of it, because I don’t think you should and could rush through spending at the levels that they’re speaking of spending.
Whether it takes the moderate approach, that’s a ton of money. Whether you’re taking the progressive approach, that still a ton of money. Whatever is coming through is going to be a ton of money. And who’s going to pay for it? How is it going to be paid? How’s it going to be repaid? And who is already affected in many areas?
Glenn Youngkin took a page by saying the budget that he introduces is going to be containing language and monies for historically black colleges and universities. Democrats haven’t said that, haven’t done that. You hear Winsome Sears coming on in her acceptance speech saying that’s going to be one of the first things that they’re committing to.
People are listening to that. And they want to hear that. So we’re talking about what? Money. And you and I have had this discussion many times. Money is the key word in politics. You can’t describe a single thing relative to what’s going on politically that doesn’t involve money.
So, I have some concerns about this rush to judgment in terms of spending the monies that the Democrats are talking about spending now.
CAVUTO: You know, Governor, you mentioned these three African-American legislators, I guess, in the House of Delegates who lost their seats in strong Democratic thresholds.
WILDER: Yes.
CAVUTO: And the early numbers on Youngkin is that he picked up about 15 percent of the African-American vote.
WILDER: Yes.
CAVUTO: But that has been steadily climbing over the years for Republicans.
Now, someone might look at that and say, all right, well, 15 percent is far from even a significant plurality, but it’s unprecedented. And it’s something that’s been going on, as well as in New Jersey, again, numbers that you might look at, at first glance and say, no big deal, but, but they’re double in New Jersey than what they had.
What is going on with that vote? And is it a sign that Democrats have taken it for granted?
WILDER: Well, the last thing you said is absolutely right.
I have said that I think Democrats have and continue to take it for granted. It’s not just a question as to what votes Youngkin may have picked up. The real question is, look how many people did not vote, did not choose to vote because they felt no need to vote.
One thing that a lot of people forget, the leader of the party was supposedly Ralph Northam. Also, when you hear that Terry McAuliffe says, I have got to come back and lead again, Terry McAuliffe ran for governor three times in Virginia, and never, ever got 50 percent of the vote.
Think of that.
CAVUTO: Wow.
WILDER: So where does your leadership come from? What is that mantle that you wear?
And who bestowed that upon you, to the extent that you are going to run against the three black people or two black people, particularly, the two black women and the one black man, and to say that these are the same people that you can’t win without their — people who supported them and put them in office?
So, it’s a combination of people not being energized and then those who are coming are in lesser numbers.
CAVUTO: Well put.
Douglas Wilder, always great catching up with you. We ought to make this a regular feature.
Governor Wilder, great seeing you again.
(LAUGHTER)
WILDER: Always good, Neil. And I hope you continue to do better.
Thank you very much.
CAVUTO: Thank you very, very much.
All right, I want to go to a Chad Pergram on what we were mentioning going on, on Capitol Hill, because I don’t see any pivoting going on here, Chad. Actually, I see some digging in. What’s happening?
CHAD PERGRAM, FOX NEWS CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, here in the past hour, the House of Representatives has released 2, 135 pages of bill text there before the House Rules Committee, which is the gateway to the House floor.
This tees up potentially a vote on the social spending bill tomorrow, along with the infrastructure bill. However, the moderate Democrats the Blue Dog Democrats, are not happy about this. There are about five who say we want a full price tag from the Congressional Budget Office.
In fact, I had one source say to me — quote — “We resent it. This is only strengthening our resolve, the fact that the House is going to forge ahead and potentially vote on this bill with an unofficial score from the Congressional Budget Office.”
The House can vote without a score, but the Senate cannot, Neil.
CAVUTO: So, this difference between the two sides, the moderates and the progressives, that has not eased. If anything, it sounds like things have gotten worse.
PERGRAM: And it does come down to the math.
Right now, the Democrats have a three-vote margin. It’ll be a little smaller today, because they will swear in a Republican who was elected. That’s already been announced tomorrow, Mike Carey from Ohio.
CAVUTO: All right.
PERGRAM: So, if they move this bill tomorrow, it comes down to the math.
CAVUTO: Incredible.
All right, Chad Pergram, thank you very, very much.
Just leaving you with the New Jersey race still tight as a tick here. They’re counting ballots. Of course, they had some double-counting going on in Union County, but it is far from resolved, that contest.
We stay on it. We always are.
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