Questions surround COVID-19 vaccine distribution amid optimism
Moderna reports its vaccine is 94.5% effective; Fox News correspondent Laura Ingle joins 'Special Report' with the latest
This is a rush transcript from “Special Report” November 16, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Good evening, I'm Bret Baier. Breaking tonight, renewed optimism about another possible coronavirus vaccine as infection rates continue to skyrocket across the U.S.
But drug maker Moderna says its formula is almost 95 percent effective.
President Trump reminding Americans this is happening on his watch.
Investors were thrilled with today's news. The Dow gaining 471 to close at a record high for the first time since February recouping its pandemic losses. The S&P 500 was up 42, the NASDAQ jumped 95.
However, the latest case numbers indicate a million new infections in just the past week. Many state and local governments are now instituting new guidelines to try to curb the spread. All of this occurs against the backdrop of the president's ongoing efforts to challenge the results of the election.
Tonight, newly uncounted ballots are found during the ongoing recount in Georgia, and it appears those ballots will overwhelmingly benefit the president more on that count in just a minute.
President-elect Joe Biden meantime saying this afternoon, the consequences of President Trump's reluctance to coordinate on a transition will be "more people dying".
Chief White House correspondent John Roberts starts us off tonight live from the North Lawn. Good evening, John.
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Bret, good evening to you. All indications are at the moment that the president's challenge to the election result is far from over. His campaign still his legal action going in a number of states and as you mentioned, a new development tonight in the Georgia hand recount is giving the Trump campaign new hope in the Peach State.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Another week began with no sign of a resolution in sight for the
2020 election. President Trump tweeting this morning, I won the election.
The president is under increasing pressure from members of his own party to allow Joe Biden to at least begin a transition, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson.
GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR): I expect Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States and it is very important that Joe Biden have access to the intelligence briefings to make sure that he is prepared during times of transition.
ROBERTS: Ohio Governor Mike DeWine saying much the same thing, prompting a Twitter rocket from the president. "Who will be running for governor of the great state of Ohio? Will be hotly contested".
But even the president's own national security adviser Robert O'Brien appearing to acknowledge the inevitability of a Biden presidency.
ROBERT O'BRIEN, UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: If the Biden- Harris ticket is determined to be the winner and it's -- you know, obviously, things look that way now. We'll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council.
ROBERTS: O'Brien with the caveat though that he and other White House staff would like to see another four years for President Trump.
While it comes too late for Election Day, President Trump today saying I told you so with the news Moderna's coronavirus vaccine showed near 95 percent efficacy. The president tweeting, for those great "historians", please remember that these great discoveries which will end the China plague, all took place on my watch.
A potentially significant development in the state of Georgia. In Floyd County, the recount discovered some 2,600 ballots that had not been originally counted. According to some estimates, that could narrow Joe Biden's lead by some 800 votes.
President Trump not happy with the recap, complaining signatures on mail-in ballots are not being verified. Tweeting, Georgia won't let us look at the all-important signature match. Without that, the recount is meaningless.
Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger responding, not true.
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, there's no truth to that. First off, we have signature match.
ROBERTS: The Trump campaign also rejecting reports it has withdrawn parts of its lawsuit in Pennsylvania. That campaign saying it's simply restructured its arguments after a Third Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in another case.
Communications Director Tim Murtaugh saying, the fundamentals of our case have not changed. We are still making the strong argument that 682,479 ballots were counted in secret.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: President Trump has made it clear on Twitter that he is in no mood to concede as for how long this will go on. There are two significant deadlines in the future. One is December 8th when all outstanding state issues must be resolved. The other is December the 14th when the electors cast their ballot for the President of the United States, Bret.
BAIER: John Roberts live in the North Lawn. John, thank you.
President-elect Biden says we are headed into what he calls a very dark winter because of coronavirus. He's encouraging Americans to buy into a national strategy to deal with the pandemic and is encouraging President Trump to participate in the transition.
Correspondent Peter Doocy is with the Biden team tonight in Wilmington, Delaware.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Most Americans who want a
COVID-19 vaccine will get it when Joe Biden is president.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The vaccines' important but it's of little use until you're vaccinated.
DOOCY: And the Trump administration's delayed transition means Biden is flying blind about what he can do.
BIDEN: The sooner we have access to the administration's distribution plan, the sooner this transition would be smoothly move forward.
DOOCY: Biden believes lives are on the line.
BIDEN: More people may die if we don't coordinate.
DOOCY: There's apparently a less dire need for the classified presidential daily briefing.
BIDEN: The good news here is my colleague is still on the Intelligence Committee so she gets the intelligence briefings, I don't anymore.
DOOCY: As progressives try to influence the president-elect's plans, they want to move past this talking point.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Nobody I know who's running for office talks about defunding the police.
DOOCY: Some do, just with an asterisk.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): Defunding the police is not up to Congress. Defunding the police is up to city and states.
DOOCY: Senator Bernie Sanders is pitching himself as a Biden Labor Secretary, Barack Obama is not interested.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No Cabinet position for you?
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- some things I would not be doing because Michelle would leave me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
OBAMA: She'd be like, what? You're doing what?
DOOCY: As millions of families make difficult decisions about how to safely celebrate Thanksgiving, if at all. The president-elect and the future first lady are signaling the whole family won't be invited.
BIDEN: We've narrowed down which family members.
DOOCY: The president-elect stresses the importance of wearing masks and during a brief Q&A today, sympathized with one reporter who had a hard time taking hers off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mask is stuck in my earring.
BIDEN: Thank God I don't have an earring.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOOCY: As the president-elect begins hiring Democrats to fill out his administration, the New York Post is reporting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is telling Democrats not to leave the house for jobs at the White House, so they don't endanger their majority there. But it sounds like that is what Democratic Congressman Cedric Richmond from a safe Democratic district in Louisiana is preparing to do.
Bloomberg just posted an item; he will join the Biden administration in some sort of a senior role. We called his office, they didn't want to comment, instead directing us to a press conference tomorrow morning that is being billed as an update on the future of his seat, Bret.
BAIER: Peter Doocy with the Biden campaign in Wilmington. Peter, thank you.
You'll get one of these questions one of these days.
The U.S. has now topped 11 million COVID-19 cases and the daily totals are growing at alarming rates. Mayors and governors are instituting as we said, a variety of measures to try to stop the spread.
Meanwhile, many Americans are struggling to make ends meet in this environment. Correspondent Casey Stegall has all of it tonight from Arlington, Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY STEGALL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: The pandemics physical and financial toll on American households is growing. Tens of thousands lined up at this food bank in Dallas over the weekend for assistance.
While in New Mexico, people prepare for the two weeks stay at home order and Chicago 30 days which begins today.
Three of Brian Johnson's family members, including his uncle have died from the virus.
BRIAN JOHNSON, VICTIM'S RELATIVE: It took about 30 or 35 days before it even actually killed him. And so, we knew that it was coming but it's just he was doing his best to hold on.
STEGALL: Chicago joins a long list of other cities and states where new restrictions are being implemented. In Washington State, indoor dining has been suspended and gyms have closed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It means feeding my family is going to get a little harder.
STEGALL: Governor Jay Inslee also banned more than one household from gathering indoors together ahead of Thanksgiving.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's hard on the business owners. I think pulling back might be necessary.
STEGALL: Starting tomorrow, New Jersey will limit indoor gatherings to less than 10 people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have got to get back in front of this virus.
STEGALL: North Dakota now one of more than 20 states reporting record hospitalizations.
Critical care beds are in short supply, prompting Governor Doug Burgum to issue a statewide mask mandate. Capacity is also being scaled back at restaurants, bars and other venues.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STEGALL: California Governor Gavin Newsom apologized earlier today for attending a party a few weeks back in Napa, California that appeared to be in violation of the state's health COVID guidelines. The Democrat says he should have walked away from the crowded table, Bret.
BAIER: Casey Stegall in Arlington, Texas. Casey, thanks.
Michigan's governor is closing schools, suspending sports and stopping indoor dining and that is not going over well in all corners of her state.
Correspondent Garrett Tenney is live tonight in New Buffalo, Michigan with the latest. Good evening, Garrett.
GARRETT TENNEY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bret, these new restrictions aren't as sweeping as the ones Governor Whitmer enacted earlier this year, but they could still be devastating for small businesses, particularly restaurants like Rosie's. The owner to Paula Hatfield says the only thing they kept Rosie's from going under earlier this year was federal stimulus money.
And this time around, state officials are enacting these new restrictions without any plans to help restaurants like hers survive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA HATFIELD, OWNER, ROSIE'S RESTAURANT: I say it's important to save lives, but it's also they need to help save businesses if they're going to save lives. That's how I feel. They need to come up with a plan to help us keep going.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TENNEY: Statewide, more than 40 percent of restaurants will shut down due to the new restrictions costing around 250,000 jobs over the holiday season according to the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association. But even businesses that are allowed to continue operating as normal will be affected by these restrictions.
Just across the street from Rosie's is the retail shop Custom Imports. The first thing its owner Dee Dee Duhn did this morning was cancel the order she had made for products to sell over the holidays, because so much of her business relies on foot traffic from people coming by after going out to eat at restaurants that will now be limited to take out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEE DEE DUHN, OWNER CUSTOM IMPORTS: I almost felt alone and lost. It's like no, you can't do that. You can't do that. How is it going to help? What about what are you thinking? Why aren't you thinking about the small business? Don't you understand? Did you ever have to make a living in a small business?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TENNEY: In response to the new restrictions, White House coronavirus advisor Scott Atlas tweeted, the only way this stops, is if people rise up.
You get what you accept. He later clarified he was not talking about violence and was urging people to protest peacefully.
Today, Governor Whitmer said she was shocked by the tweet which comes about a month after the FBI arrested more than a dozen individuals links to a plot to kidnap her over the tight restrictions she put in place earlier this year, including ones that her own husband tried to work around by dropping her name in an attempt to get his boat in the water during those lockdowns, Bret.
BAIER: Garrett Tenney in Michigan. Garrett, thanks. More on this with the panel.
Let's look at the economic ramifications of all of these closings and the big reaction today on Wall Street to the encouraging vaccine news. Fox Business Correspondent Jackie DeAngelis is in New York with details. Good evening, Jackie.
JACKIE DEANGELIS, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CORRESPONDENT: Good evening to you, Bret. Well, the Dow Jones Industrial Average notching at 470-point gain today, seeing its first record close since February. This after Moderna said that it's COVID-19 vaccine is 94.5 percent effective.
Now, the markets are excited that there are multiple vaccines in play. And they're also enthusiastic about the efficacy rates, but widespread distribution isn't likely to be seen till next year and the country needs to get through right now.
As we're seeing a spike in new cases and hospitalizations in parts of the country, there's even more pressure on Congress to pass a COVID relief bill to help struggling businesses.
Add to this, the recent disappointing consumer sentiment number and the approaching holiday season, there's a real concern that usual economic bump that we see at that time might not materialize because of all the recent lockdown measures that you've noted, people being unable to shop or simply spend because of a lack of income.
Over the weekend, Senator Chuck Schumer said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We need a large strong COVID bill to deal with our problems. We have heard for months. Every time we get close to a deal, Senator McConnell says no. He has become the doctor know of COVID just like he has been the doctor know of all the bills in the Senate over the last several years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEANGELIS: Well, Senator Mitch McConnell on the floor commenting on the coronavirus today saying, "There is no time to waste, the numbers are troubling."
Now, when it comes to Wall Street, Bret, it has a short memory. Today's announcement will be old news tomorrow and investors will be wanting to hear that progress has been made on a stimulus package, back to you.
BAIER: All right, Jackie. Thank you. Vice President Pence says he had a two-hour call with the Coronavirus Task Force to talk about the distribution of an eventual vaccine. Tonight, we want to examine what that distribution might look like. Here's senior correspondent Laura Ingle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really important milestone in the fight against the pandemic.
LAURA INGLE, FOX NEWS CHANNEL SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Moderna is the second company in the last week to come forward with promising COVID-19 vaccine results. After drug maker Pfizer released findings that their vaccine contender has shown a 90 percent efficacy rate. Moderna CEO, says they're just waiting on approval.
STEPHANE BANCEL, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MODERNA: Every American who wants a vaccine that is of 18 years of age or above, can get access to a vaccine.
INGLE: Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines will require two doses each, spaced several weeks apart. Once the Food and Drug Administration signs off, the Centers for Disease Control will then have the task of prioritizing who will get the vaccines first.
CDC officials have said the vaccine will initially be distributed to front line health care workers and vulnerable populations, with shipments going to large hospitals, and pharmacies.
Moderna expects to have about 20 million doses earmarked for the U.S. by the end of 2020. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, expect to have about 50 million doses globally by year's end.
A key advantage to Moderna's vaccine is that it does not require the ultra- cold storage that Pfizer's vaccine does, making it more flexible and easier to distribute.
ALEX AZAR, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Going to your local chain or community pharmacist and getting vaccinated. The Pfizer one's going to be really good for big institutional vaccinations, say a whole hospital setting, several nursing homes at once.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
INGLE: Some experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci are embracing the idea of multiple vaccines to meet global demand. And while this is welcome news, Dr. Fauci has said there is still much unknown about these vaccines, including, how long the protection lasts? Bret.
BAIER: Laura, thank you.
Up next, just how quickly, plans to bring American troops home from the Middle East are getting underway. We'll explain.
Then, they are already going negative in a big way in Georgia with control of the U.S. Senate hanging in the balance.
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SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA): We heard Schumer just last week, say that if we take Georgia, we change America. They want total control.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: We're learning new details tonight about a U.S. troop drawdown in the Middle East before the president leaves office on January 20th.
National Security correspondent Jennifer Griffin has the very latest tonight from the Pentagon. Good evening, Jennifer.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Bret. The Pentagon has issued planning orders to prepare to draw down troops in Afghanistan and Iraq before inauguration day.
The number of troops in Afghanistan will go to 2,500 from the current level of 4,500, but not to zero as many had feared. In Iraq, the Pentagon plans to remove 500 troops bringing the number of troops there to about 2,500.
President Trump campaigned to finish the endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon firings last week, I'm told, were in part to remove those the president perceived as slowing his desire to bring troops home and declare the war's over.
The Senate majority leader warned a hasty withdrawal would be similar to America's humiliating departure from Saigon in 1975.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): A rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan now would hurt our allies and delight, delight the people who wish us harm. The new acting defense secretary Chris Miller, a former Green Beret, spent the last week getting his footing at the Pentagon, few think he is actually calling the shots.
In his first memo to the force, there were contradictions, "This war isn't over. We are on the verge of defeating al-Qaeda and its associates, but we must avoid our past strategic error of failing to see the fight through to the finish."
A few lines later, the memo read, "All wars must end. Ending wars requires compromise in partnership. We met the challenge; we gave it our all. Now, it's time to come home."
The Pentagon must worry about forced protection as it draws down. The Taliban have not negotiated with the Afghan government since President Trump abruptly announced he wanted all U.S. troops home by Christmas. Bret?
BAIER: Jennifer Griffin at the Pentagon. Jennifer, thanks.
A federal judge in New York has ruled, the Homeland Security Department's suspension of the DACA program is invalid. DACA is the system that shields young immigrants from deportation.
The judge ruled Saturday that acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, who suspended that program in July assumed his position unlawfully. A DHS spokesperson tells Fox News, it is reviewing the ruling, but has no comment right now.
We'll back to Georgia. The negative ads are blanketing the airwaves already in Georgia where the two Senate runoffs in early January will decide the balance of power in the U.S. Senate for the next two years.
Correspondent Jonathan Serrie in Atlanta tonight shows us what Georgians are seeing and hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
JONATHAN SERRIE, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Armed with opposition research, the GOP is trying to block Democrats from regaining control of the Senate.
In a $1 million ad buy, Senator Kelly Loeffler attempts to link her Democratic opponent to radical anti-American elements.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rafael Warnock called police thugs, gangsters, hosted a rally for communist dictator Fidel Castro.
SERRIE: Reverend Warnock, says he was a youth pastor at the New York church that hosted Castro in 1995 and had nothing to do with planning the visit.
Now, pastor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic church in Atlanta, Warnock says he's about bringing Americans together.
RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D), SENATORIAL CANDIDATE OF GEORGIA: I'm proud of my country, and what makes me love America is that in spite of whatever challenges we have, there's always be a path to re-address our concerns, to make the country better.
SERRIE: Warnock is campaigning with fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff, who's challenging Georgia's other Republican senator, David Perdue. If Democrats win both seats, they gain a voting majority in the Senate.
JON OSSOFF (D), SENATORIAL CANDIDATE OF GEORGIA: That's why it's so important to win these two senate races so that the incoming presidential administration can govern, can lead, can enact the solutions necessary to contain this virus, and invest in economic recovery.
SERRIE: But Perdue, says Georgia's Republican senators are the last line of defense against a liberal socialist agenda.
PERDUE: We heard Schumer just last week say that if we take Georgia, we change America. we heard AOC say, we have -- they have to have these two seats because they don't want to negotiate, they want total control.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SERRIE: Senator Perdue has declined an invitation to debate Ossoff ahead of the January 5th runoff. The Atlanta Press Club, says it will proceed with the debate. And according to policy, represent Perdue with an empty podium.
Bret?
BAIER: Jonathan Serrie in Atlanta. Jonathan, thanks. Up next, the violence after a pro-Trump rally in Washington over the weekend. Look at what's being said and not said about all of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move it --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, hey, hey, hey.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No! No! No! No!.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: This is a Fox News alert. Jewish groups are challenging Governor Andrew Cuomo's executive orders in New York, limiting attendance at religious services. They're asking the Supreme Court to intervene, contending they have been targeted.
The New York Jewish group citing the also pending emergency requests from the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, and they note they have similar and additional concerns. Their request goes to Justice Stephen Breyer. He can decide a loan or refer this case to the full court. We'll follow that.
The FBI says hate crimes in the U.S. rose to the highest level in more than a decade. The bureau also reporting the highest number of hate-motivated killings since it began collecting that data in the early 1990s, there were just over 7,300 hate crimes reported last year, up about 200 from the year before.
Republicans are pressuring Democrats tonight to condemn violence against Trump supporters following Saturday's pro-Trump rally in Washington.
Correspondent Rich Edson shows us what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
RICH EDSON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hours of taunting and shouting turned violent. Trump supporters and anti-Trump groups, some looking for a confrontation, found each Saturday in downtown Washington after a day of mostly peaceful events.
Police say a person was stabbed, another threw fireworks at Trump supporters seated outdoors at a restaurant. There was shouting through bullhorns, harassment, tearing down Black Lives Matter posters, a man in a Trump shirt thrown to the ground, and outbreaks of fighting throughout downtown Washington. A spokesperson for President-elect Biden says he continues to denounce all acts of violence and publicly condemned, quote, "repugnant displays of white supremacy that were made in Washington D.C., this weekend." The president's supporters, meanwhile, focused on violence from leftwing groups.
TIM MURTAUGH, TRUMP 2020 COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: It's Antifa thugs sucker punching people, coldcocking them from behind. And I certainly hope that the D.C. police and the DOJ, perhaps, are looking at that evidence.
EDSON: Yet pro-Trump groups like the Proud Boys were marching through downtown Washington, shouting at Antifa before the main march even started, and were involved in the evening's fights. D.C. police say there was very little property damage, and that they arrested more than 20 on gun and weapons charges, assaulting officers, aggravated assault, among other charges.
PETER NEWSHAM, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE CHIEF: The size of a crowd is really not the issue with regards. It's how the folks in the crowds behave.
I was very impressed with the way that much of our police department was able to prevent more conflicts than we did have.
EDSON: The day began with tens of thousands of Trump supporters gathering at Freedom Plaza near the White House. President Trump personally greeted the crowd, driving his motorcade around the plaza. The crowd then marched up Pennsylvania Avenue about a mile-and-a-half to the Supreme Court.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
EDSON: There were several anti-Trump protesters along that parade route there, holding signs and heckling the crowd, but for the most part the conversations there were heated, but no physical violence that we could see along that marching route. Bret?
BAIER: Rich Edson right in the middle of it over the weekend. Rich, thank you.
The Trump supporters rallying in Washington over the weekend are upset about what the president contends are voting irregularities and widespread fraud, in his words, that cost him the election. But tonight, the president's legal options in a number of states are narrowing as time goes on. Tonight chief correspondent Jonathan Hunt in Las Vegas has an update on the investigations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has the registrar had the opportunity to review the election results?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And where there any errors that were noted in those results?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
JONATHAN HUNT, FOX NEWS CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: As President-elect Biden's winning margins are confirmed by election officials around the country, President Trump refuses to concede and continues to question the results.
LAURENCE TRIBE, HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR: I think his overall effort is dangerous, even though we know it's going to fail.
HUNT: The Trump team has seen many of its legal challenges to the vote counts dismissed in court, and just today, lawsuits fell apart in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin. But the president's lawyers are focusing now on voting machines and software, in particular, those made by a company called Dominion.
SIDNEY POWELL, TRUMP ATTORNEY: Even their own manual explains how votes can be wiped away.
HUNT: The Trump team argues glitches, deliberate or otherwise, in the Dominion software changed vote tallies in both Michigan and Georgia, although the software was used in only two counties that had problems in those states. And according to election officials, Dominion's software was not the issue in either of those counties. The company itself issued a detailed denial of the Trump theories and cited a DHS-reviewed that said in part, quote, "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." Nevertheless, President Trump and his lead lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, persist.
RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: I can prove that they did it in Michigan. I can prove it with witnesses. We're investigating the rest. In every one of those states, though, we have more than enough illegal ballots already documented to overturn the results in that state.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HUNT: Democrats and many legal scholars argue that claims like those with little or no evidence to back them are dangerous because they threaten to undermine the entire process of our election system. Bret?
BAIER: Jonathan, thank you.
Up next, hard drugs now legal in one U.S. state, we'll tell you where and how that's happening when we come back.
First, here's what some of our FOX affiliates around the country are covering tonight. FOX 4 in Dallas, on the final day for plaintiffs to file claims against the Boy Scouts of America for sexual abuse, "The New York Times" reports the scouts already face about 82,000 claims reported over the past year. That is said to be only a fraction of the overall cases.
FOX 59 in Indianapolis says the NCAA says it wants to hold the entire men's basketball tournament in one city next spring. It's considering using Indianapolis, which is the scheduled site for the Final Four in 2021. March Madness of course was canceled earlier this year because of the coronavirus.
And this is a live look at Orlando from our affiliate FOX 35. One of the big stories there tonight, the SpaceX capsule carrying four NASA astronauts is closing in on the International Space Station. The crew was launched Sunday atop a Falcon 9 rocket. It is the first full-fledged taxi flight for NASA by a private company.
That's tonight's live look outside the beltway from SPECIAL REPORT. We'll be right back.
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BAIER: One of the other big results from this month's election is playing out in Oregon. Voters there took a major step in decriminalizing hard drugs for personal use. As correspondent Dan Springer reports, it was just one of several actions in several states to end up making it easier for Americans to take once-illegal drugs legally.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
DAN SPRINGER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: On November 3rd, voters in Mississippi and South Dakota approved medical marijuana. New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana, and Arizona legalized recreational pot, making it the law in 15 states. Oregon and Washington, D.C., said yes to legal psychedelic mushrooms to treat anxiety and depression. And Oregon became the first state to decriminalize all hard drugs, including cocaine, meth, and heroin for personal use.
HAVEN WHEELOCK, OREGON MEASURE 110 PETITIONER: Drug users are part of our community and part of our fabric of our society and that they deserve to be treated with dignity.
SPRINGER: The National Drug Policy Alliance pumped $4.5 million into Oregon's Measure 110 and called the win the biggest blow to the war on drugs today. The nation's first drug czar who campaigned to make drug abuse socially unacceptable, says the war is not lost.
BILL BENNETT, FORMER U.S. DRUG CONTROL POLICY DIRECTOR: The history of America shows hardening and then softening. We get tough on drugs and then we loosen up, and then we reap the consequences.
SPRINGER: Oregon ranks amongst the highest states for the most drug abuse in the country according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Now the state will divert tens of millions of dollars in marijuana tax revenue from schools, cities, police, and drug prevention programs to fund centers that will provide assessments of users. Actual treatment, though, is not required.
KEVIN SABET, SMART APPROACHES TO MARIJUANA: It also allows a 15-year-old to use heroin without their parents knowing if they got caught.
STEVE HAWKINS, MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT: The public believes that for small amounts of drug possession, there has to be a better way.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
SPRINGER: Police are still determining whether the new law would in fact prevent them from notifying the parents of minors caught with hard drugs, but critics say there's no doubt that stripping away jail time as one of the consequences will lead to more drug abuse among teens and many more lives ruined. Bret?
BAIER: Dan, thank you.
Up next, the panel on the election challenge and the encouraging vaccine news.
First, beyond our borders tonight. A political crisis in Peru appears on the verge of resolution. Congress has cleared the way for an elder statesman and consensus candidate to become the country's third president in a week -- in one week. The first was kicked out of office, the second quit Sunday, so it should be interesting to look there.
Italian scientists report an explosion on the top of Stromboli volcano near the coast of Sicily. What was described as a high-intensity event was captured by surveillance cameras both thermal and visual. The eruption lasted about four minutes.
Just some of the other stories beyond our borders tonight. We'll be right back.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. COLLEEN KELLEY, EMORY UNIVERSITY: I don't think anyone expected to have to have two vaccines with greater than 90 percent efficacy for a respiratory virus. This is just historic and amazing. It is a great and wonderful day for science.
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Getting the vaccine, and a vaccination, though, are two different things. Everyone on our call today, in our Zoom today, agreed that the sooner we have access to the administration's distribution plan, the sooner this transition would be smoothly move forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: All this on a day when Moderna announces another vaccine in phase three with an effectiveness of 95 percent blocking out COVID-19, as the cases around the country continue to skyrocket. Really no place in the country is exempt. If you look at the numbers, 11,163,000 roughly, U.S.
deaths now at 246,953. Hospitalizations again on the rise, November 15th, almost 70,000.
But this success, as I mentioned on Moderna, the president tweeting out "Another vaccine just announced, this time by Moderna, 95 percent effective. For those great "historians," please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China plague, all took place on my watch."
With that, let's bring in our panel, Kimberley Strassel, a member of the editorial board at "The Wall Street Journal," Julie Pace is the Washington Bureau Chief for the Associated Press, and Chris Stirewalt is politics editor here at FOX News.
OK, Julie, this news about the vaccine is significant. And really the question comes about how fast it gets out, and when does it get out, in this it administration or the next.
JULIE PACE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Absolutely it's great news, obviously for everybody here. And it looks like what we are talking about is both of these vaccines could get emergency authorization is potentially some people starting to get a vaccine by the end of the year into January, obviously in the Trump administration, but the bulk of Americans getting the vaccine under the Biden administration. And that's why you heard Biden really try to emphasize today this idea of needing to read in on the distribution plan, because this is a distribution plan that will happen under two presidencies, one president who knows the plan right now, and an incoming president who really is in the dark right now.
BAIER: Kimberley, you've had New York Governor Andrew Cuomo essentially say that he wants anything to happen under a Biden administration because he doesn't trust the Trump administration, even though this whole effort to get to this point was launched by coordinating inside the Trump administration.
KIMBERLEY STRASSEL, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yes, I think a lot of Democrats are going to see them changing their view on the virus and on the vaccine as you get into a Biden presidency. And that's really unfortunate that this has become so politicized and they've made it about Donald Trump, because one thing, Bret, that I think gets forgotten here is that what you are actually seeing is this extraordinary triumph of a philosophy, which is a public-private partnership. The federal government understanding that it's not the place you go to for innovation, and turning to America's incredible entrepreneurs and innovators out there, and that's why we are where we are.
And I think that that's going to be an interesting question in a potential Biden administration, is do you continue with that kind of philosophy? Do you continue with some of the progress of the FDA becoming a little bit less risk-averse to speed these things up, or do you revert to more traditional Democratic policies of government running everything? That could be bad in a virus context.
BAIER: Chris, there is this balance between the economy and where things are, and we've been dealing with this for months and months, but different states are now taking increased action as these spikes are happening, and there are small businesses wondering what the next administration is going to look like, what the state governors are going to do in the coming months. It's a dangerous time.
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS POLITICAL EDITOR: It is a dangerous time, and you hear somebody like Mike DeWine, Republican governor of Ohio, trying to figure out how to talk about this without offending Trump and getting Trumped too angry, because you can't say that you're going to work with Joe Biden, because that would admit that Joe Biden is president, and dah-dah- dah.
The reality about the vaccine, and this is the great thing for everybody, you can do things, people can do things before set periods of time if you know that there is relief. The problem that we've had since March is it's Groundhog Day. It's we're getting better, no, we're getting worse. No, we may lock back down, we're not sure. You can be more aggressive in terms of the restrictions if people say -- and thank God come summer time we will be in large distribution of the vaccine and people can deal with that psychologically and economically a lot better if they can plan for an end.
BAIER: Kimberley, meantime talking but the election challenges, some of these are making their way through courts and getting tossed out by judges in various states. Others are talked about. One of them is this challenge about the Dominion software and the use of this machinery. Here is Sidney Powell in a response to what her allegations are.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNEY POWELL, TRUMP ATTORNEY: President Trump won by not just hundreds of thousands of votes, but by millions of votes that were shifted by this software that was designed expressly for that purpose. We have sworn witness testimony of why the software was designed. It was designed to rig elections.
ALEX HALDERMAN, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: There is absolutely no evidence, none, to support claims that Dominion or any other voting machine company has switched millions of votes. This kind of pure speculation is irresponsible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Kimberley, where are you here? Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, they say they have hard evidence on this Dominion software stuff. The company itself has put out a very harsh response. You just heard that I.T. expert we just talked to. Where are you?
STRASSEL: Well, look, you can have all the affidavits you want, you can file all the lawsuits you want, you can have everybody also disagree with all of that. All that really matters in the end is whether or not you get a judge who says yes, who feels that there is compelling enough position or evidence put in front of him or her to allow some sort of inspection or some sort of look at these things beyond a basic recount. And that's where we've got to look this week and next as some of these suits, we're going to find out if judges are going to be open to any of that.
You see that in particular the Trump campaign increasingly saying, hey, we want to be able to look at some of these ballots and signatures and see if they really matched. This is the crucial point here where you're going to see if any of this is really going to proceed. But they'll have to convince the judges first.
BAIER: The Republican secretary of state, Julie, in Georgia is pushing back, saying there are some Republicans pressuring him to somehow invalidate legal votes. And that's one of the stories that's popping this evening.
PACE: It's of pretty extraordinary thing that a Republican secretary of state is saying that members of his own party are pushing for something like invalidating legal votes. No matter what political party you are in, you should want legal votes to count.
BAIER: All right, panel, we'll continue to follow all of this every day.
Thanks.
When we come back, a big won for one of our own.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: Finally tonight, we send heartfelt congratulations to congressional correspondent Chad Pergram for being awarded the Joan S. Barone Award for excellence in journalism by the Radio and Television Correspondents'
Association for his coverage of Congress that really only Chad can do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's called ping-pong. Let's say the Senate has a bill and pings it over to the house.
This is the capitol crypts, two levels below the capitol rotunda floor. It looks like a jail, but it isn't.
Capitol Hill might not have the same glitz as Hollywood, but the stars of the show come through the back doors here, too.
Congresswoman Lowey -- can you come over and talk to us here for a minute?
What's the news? What's the news?
And besides, how do you move the Washington Monument?
Chad Pergram, FOX News.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(LAUGHTER)
BAIER: Chad has about every detail there is about Congress. We are very lucky to have him. Congratulations.
Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That is it for the SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and still unafraid. "THE STORY" hosted by Martha MacCallum up in New York starts right now.
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