Transcripts For FBC After The Bell 20240712

Most to them and their families. Well look at one of the crucial demographics for President Trumps chances of reelection. Stay tune, we have fox Business Team coverage, Jackie Deangelis in our new york newsroom, blake burman standing by at the white house which is where we begin. Blake. Reporter connell there was another phone call between treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin and speaker of the house nancy pelosi to go over at least the hopes of trying to put together another covid relief package. We can tell you it lasted about an hour. They exchanged language on proposals. Were told there is expected to be another phone call tomorrow. This is the readout afterward at least from the side of the speaker of the house that they continue to say there are big gaps that remain. Deputy chief of staff for nancy pelosi tweeting the following saying, quote, one major area of disagreement continues to be that the white house lacks an understanding of the need for a National Strategic testing plan. They say the speaker believes we must reopen our economy and schools safely and soon and scientists agree we must have a strategic testing plan. Perhaps the biggest gap, connell, happens to be how much to give moneywise to state and local governments. Here was mnuchin who spoke today at the milkin institutes virtual conference. Listen here. Of the. Weve compromised significantly but let me just emphasize, there are money issues. There is also policy issues. The bill that the house passed is close to 1600 pages. The important is in the details. Reporter that was something nancy pelosi said in the recent days, money issues, essentially priority issues. Mnuchin today also echoed something that Mitch Mcconnell said in the recent days as treasury secretary said that he believes in getting something done being able to execute on it before the upcoming election right now, in mnuchins words, will be quote, unquote difficult. Back here at the white house, connell if there was a camera on the other side of the building you would see marine one on the south lawn. President trump is expected to leave the white house here shortly. He has a Campaign Event here tonight in iowa. Back to you. Connell interesting that iowa is still on the president s Campaign Travel list. Blake burman on the north lawn. Jackie deangelis with the recap of the day on wall street for us. Jackie . Reporter good afternoon, connell, to you. Stocks started the session ever so slightly higher but gave the gains back as blake was talking about there will be no stimulus deal until the end. Year. Nancy pelosi digging in her heels that the amount and guts of the proposed deal is long way off where she wants to be. Steve mnuchin acknowledging this may not happen before the election. S p 500, nasdaq were down second day in a row, constantly watching big tech and momentum stocks. They were leading average as little bit lower. Apple with a slight gain there. Amazon was down on day two of the prime day event after enthusiasm on day one. You have investors out there digesting earnings from the big banks too. They have been mixed. So weve got goldman sachs, bank of america, ubs, pnc are beating on earnings. Goldman sachs blowing away earnings and revenue estimates on the trading surge that they saw. But wells fargo, missing earnings forecasts on higher costs. Bank of america missing revenue estimates on lower interest rates. So we have a lot of problems here that investors are trying to weigh. There is also this revived nagging worry of a second wave of the coronavirus and concerns over the delivery timeline of a vaccine. After j j and eli lilly paused because of safety concerns, adding to these losses today. Connell jackie, thank you. Analysis from James Freeman, wall street journal. Lets take the issues one at a time, james. I think the stimulus talks, on and on we go. I think moderate democrats worried about their reelection in a month would like to see nancy pelosi get to some version of yes of 1. 8 trillion or more but i guess not to be. Were not getting this before the election, are we . I think not. The speaker seemed to make clear with spirited conversation with wolf blitzer of all people on cnn she doesnt want the president to get credit for delivering more relief. So i think the consensus now is probably more or less accurate. That she wants to deny this assistance until after the election. That may end up being a benefit to taxpayers assuming that they huge spending freeforall. Connell that is the argument that many, or some republicans have made. I think some other republicans including the president seem to be willing to give in at that, at that higher number. The other issue that jackie brought up i ask you about before, getting to the campaign a little bit is the second wave potentially of the virus. That is something weighing on investors minds, not only Health Concerns but as we talked about for months, idea of some cities, whether new york or others might have to go into another shutdown. What do you think the odds of that happening on some sort of a broad basis across the country are from the way you look at it . Too high for what i would like but they are declining. I think there is a growing realization, again i wish people would get to it more quickly but there is a realization that lockdowns are counterproductive. They destroy societies. It is a very blunt instrument. It is not even clear that they actually save lives. You have looked at lockdown areas have had very high levels of mortality in places that have been more open, that havent. So it is a mixed picture but i would hope that the evidence of the destruction on lockdowns coupled with declining fatality rates. Even though we see more cases in a lot of places around the world, fatality rates are declining. That is good news. Im hopeful that politicians finally are getting the idea that you have to allow life to go on, even as you seek to protect the vulnerable. Connell that is what theyre doing here in florida. Governor ron desantis made that decision a few weeks ago. We have not seen another spike in the virus, although there have been isolated stories of cases popping up here and there. Not an overall spike statewide. It is a discussion were having with voters. Well talk about this a little more later on in the show. Weve been talking about voters what worries them. What theyre concerned about what theyre motivated to vote by. Those who voted for the president and turned against him bring up his response to the virus, whereas those who are still in his camp you will hear in a moment they also do. They like it. They like the fact he was pushing to reopen. He made a speech today at economic clubs, i dont know if you saw it around the country. That was part of his argument, the economic argument, resonates, but im not sure it is cutting through in the campaign. What do you think . He is in a race against time. You have basically the battle lines politically have been drawn for a while. Trump is the reopen, revival candidate and biden is the shutdown candidate. What you have seen is people gradually coming to the view that shutdowns dont work but, maybe not that is fast enough for the president s reelection. Well find out. When they think about economics they will come to the conclusion the best stimulus plan is to per swayed, encourage, motivate governors in places like new york, new jersey, california, illinois, to open up, allow society to thrive. Protect the vulnerable. I dont think we need a whole lot of new policy. We were 3 1 2 unemployment in february. We obviously, after the shutdowns caused all that unemmoment in the spring weve come a lot of the way back but the economy was clicking before the virus. So just get everything back to [inaudible] a reopened economy is really are the stimulus we need. Connell right. You know, whats interesting, again in speaking to voters about this, im not sure what your perspective is on it, if it was that simple, the whole phrase, i brought this up yesterday, you know its the economy stupid, that is how people are going to vote then the president s chances for reelection would probably look better than they currently do in the numbers we look at whereas im not sure that you might not see a significant, but you might, you might see a significant number of people who agree with the president on a lot of policy issues, especially Economic Issues but still dont vote for him because theyre not comfortable with him. Again they go back to, they dont like the way he handled the coronavirus response. Dismissive at first and the like. I wonder if this is finally the election where it is not about the economy, what do you think . Well i think there are certainly a lot of people who are frightened and it has been a rough year. I think, he is, the president , he is not really in this sense some ways he is not battling biden but battling a news media. I think people in our industry have done extremely poor job of putting covid risks in perspective instead of detailing how low the risk is for most people, especially young people, there is kind of an obsession with finding in our vast country of hundreds of millions of people a young, or middleaged person with an adverse event but the fact is even the president at 74 had very good odds of pulling through it. He eventually did. I dont think most people or many people realize because they, the reporting doesnt include the context of other risks in our lives. I think thats one of the props with the lockdowns is, and, dr. Fauci and others made this very clear, they never did the calculation on what are you destroying, how are you hurting people when you turn off society . There was a kind of a tunnel vision approach on addressing covid risk and nothing else. There are other problems in society. Connell thoughtful perspective as always. James, good to talk to you about these issues. Well see you soon, James Freeman at the journal. We have to move on to a fox business alert word has come in to us from the first ladys office, first lady medical medical has were melania trump, tested negative for covid19. But son barron trump has tested positive for covid19. He is a stronger teenager, no symptoms. Positive test for barron trump with no symptoms as the first lady has a negative test. On all of this. This is just breaking. All week in florida, weve watched campaigns both trump and biden fighting over the most important voting bloc here in this state, reliably show up every single election. Talking about Senior Citizens. President trump we will strongly protect medicare and Social Security and we will as you protect patients with preexisting conditions. Anybody who qualifies for medicare but lives in a state like your governor that doesnt allow for 800,000 people to have it will automatically be enrolled. Connell our team has been making its way around in the fort myers area, reliably republican lee county. Now we did see some cracks in the president s support among retirees which could really hurt him come november 3rd. His success with the 65 and over crowd was a big reason florida went red, but now a mixed bag at best. When it comes to trump handling of health care or medicare or Social Security, how do you think he is doing with our seniors . I think he is going to take care of seniors just fine. Health care for all. Yeah, whether it comes that far or not, certainly expansion where we are now. Greater coverage for more americans. This whole thing about republicans saying they want to protect preexisting conditions. It is hogwash. I think if biden becomes president it will be socialized medicine issue. Connell polling numbers do show that joe biden has a slight lead among florida seniors. Most of that attributed to the questions we talked about a moment ago surrounding the president s handling of coronavirus. It was perfect. I dont see how he could have done anything else. The fact that trump doesnt wear a mask most of the time, whenever you see him, gave a bad example. I think some much it was out of his hands but he did the best he could. Connell it is that last point, plus continued emphasis on the economy. The trump team hopes will help the president win the state again. So important for the Trump Campaign. Well have more on that with the chairman of the Republican Party here in florida. He will join us live. That is coming up next plus one billion dollar industry here in this state, it has been hit so hard by the pandemic. Talking about the fishing industry. Well check in with a local Business Owner about that later on in the hour. Your journey requires Liberty Mutual. They customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Wow. That will save me lots of money. This games boring. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Metastatic Breast Cancer is relentless, but im relentless too. Because every day matters. And having more of them is possible with verzenio, the only one of its kind proven to help you live significantly longer when taken with fulvestrant, regardless of menopausal status. And its the only one of its kind you can take every day. Verzenio fulvestrant is approved for women with hr , her2 metastatic Breast Cancer whose disease has progressed after hormonal treatment. Diarrhea is common, may be severe, or cause dehydration or infection. 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Isnt that what you just did . Service stand back, im gonna show ya how doug and limu roll, ya you know you got to live it if you wanna wi. [ music stops ] time out only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Connell fox business alert. After we come back, after the bell earnings from United Airlines. Jackie deangelis back with us, looking through the numbers just out. What do we see, jackie. Reporter hey connell, headline numbers 2. 49 billion own revenue. Shy of expectations. Earnings per share with a loss of 8. 16. It was a 63cent miss. The loss was steeper than when investors were expecting. I want to compare this to last year. You can have a sense of perspective. Revenue was over 11 billion. Earnings per share was a positive 4. 07. You can see how the pandemic impacted airlines. Interesting that United Airlines was a little bit higher at the close following along with the transports today, setting a new or at least in record territory bucking the trend of stocks generally speaking. The one headline im seeing that is interesting is united saying it is shifting from just surviving in the covid19 pandemic to trying to listen to achieve the rebound. At some point this will end, people start to travel more. The company is trying to look forward to that. Back to you. Connell really puts it in perspective. That is lot of money to loose in the quarter. Tough times for airlines. Remind everyone the president is on his way out, heading to the state of iowa. He has a rally there he has been speaking in the last few minutes to reporters gathered along the white house. You guys no the drill. Once that happened. We cant take it live. It has to be reracked. Well play it back for you. First Lady Melania Trump tested negative for covid19 where as trumps son barron tested positive or was asymptomatic. The president comments on that and other issues. Well bring you the comments as soon as we have them ready. New numbers showing almost two million floridians returned mailin ballots in this years election already. Registered democrats nearly doubling the up on democrats sending ballots now. State senator joe grader joins us now. A look at the numbers, joe, look at number of issues with you. Any concern on your end whether that signals there is lot of enthusiasm on other side . I think we knew democrats would vote more by mail . Exactly right. We knew they would be ahead with absentee voters. All they have done cannibalized voters early election day voters to vote by absentee. You number you want to voter registration. We beat them 205,000. After Andrew Gillum they would have million new voters. Soros groups coming in, trying to increase their voter registration. In reality we beat them in 205,000 in a state where 2018 the top two races were decided by 11,000 votes with u. S. Senator rick scott and 33,000 votes governor ron desantis. I would rather have a bigger pool to draw from. This is what the race is all about. This is not a persuasion campaign this is turnout campaign. Why were so optimistic about florida is because were literally a welloiled machine. We have 205,000 additional voters to work with. Connell all right. So youre trying to turn out the voters that put the president over the top last time. Weve been hear in some other swing states talking to people trying to get to the bottom what motivates them. Seems to me when the conversation is on the economy, a choice between two candidates. The president is in the best position. However every now and then you run into a voter, listen to the voter in the fort myers area where they make the opposite argument. Try to convince this voter this is what we heard yesterday speaking to voters. Take a quick listen. I can tell you last election i voted for trump because i thought he would make good changes, and the changes he has made is not for me but for the wealthy. That is why im going to vote for biden. Connell all right. Joe, that is a guy says the economy is the big issue, you cant afford to lose many voters in a close state. What is your counter . I think connell i had a feeling it was going to happen. Joe had a shaky shot to begin with. That is the reality of covid broadcasting as we say, going in and out with the skype shots. Somebody on the phone on the side of the road in florida. Making argument to voters that you lost bringing them back in the next three weeks will be a challenge for this president. The way he probably will do it, try to, keep the focus on the economy. The other thing, i was going to talk to joe about this, dem brasks, Senior Citizens, his polling down there, especially people in the miami area, will they come back . That is some of the things well look into. Taking aim at mickey mouse and company, senator Elizabeth Warren slamming disneys move to lay off 30,000 workers. Demanding more info to executives it decided to pay dividends and buy back stock before the pandemic. She calls the move shortsighted. Incomparable design makes it beautiful. State of the Art Technology makes it brilliant. The visionary lexus nx. Lease the 2021 nx 300 for 359 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing. At your lexus dealer. This was the theater i came to quite often. The support weve had over the last few months has been amazing. I have a soft spot for local places. Its not just a work environment. Everyone here is family. Gonna go ahead and support him, get my hair cut, leave a big tip. If we focus on our local communities, we can find a way to get through this together. Thank you. If you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. Get out and about and support our local community. We thought for sure that we were done. And this town said not today. Connell fox business alert. As promised President Trump speaking to reporters moments ago before making his way to iowa. Very brief remarks. Lets listen. [cheering] see you tomorrow night on nbc. Connell man, we missed that. Didnt we . It is funny. The president comes out all the time, you usually see, five, six, seven, eight minutes more, giveandtake with reporters. There he is, walking, greeting some supporters there on the south lawn of the white house. Looks like some of the supporters are wearing masks. The president , not wearing a mask. Secret Service Agents on the scene as you see there are. The president is going to iowa tonight, where he will hold a rally. I mentioned to blake burman. It was interesting eye was added to the president sot a place yod think may be in play. Maybe polling shows it close to republican incumbent. He will go there to shore things up. This president will hit every battleground state you can think of if it is any way close, if you think he can over the next few weeks. The campaign is saying a rally or twoaday. Get to another story getting a lot of attention today, it involves former Vice President bidens son, hundredter biden. Under fire for a report that appeared first in the New York Post. About potentially incriminating emails that had been sent back and forth with officials in ukraine. Now one of the reasons it is getting a lot of attention, facebook and twitter have restricted access to the story, restricted their users from circulating and sending links to the article around. So with that, live to Hillary Vaughn with some more details. Hillary. Reporter connell, facebook and twitter really taking unprecedented steps to not only censor this New York Post article from their platforms but also silence users, banning them from sharing this article from the New York Post, reports on details obtained from emails found on a laptop allegedly from a board member of burisma to hunter biden, thanking him for the opportunity to meet with his father, then Vice President joe biden in 2015. Facebook spokesperson andy stone in a rare move announced on twitter, after this article went live theyre taking steps to proactively limit the articles spread on their site in an effort to stop misinformation from going viral but before factcheckers determined it was false. He tweeted this. I will intentionally not link to the New York Post i want to be clear this story is eligible to be fact checked by facebooks third party factchecking partners. Meantime were reducing its distribution on the platform. Twitter then this afternoon banned users tweeting a link to the article. It stopped them from dming it to other users on twitter. Tried to do it myself to tweet the article or dm it. This is what i got in response a note classifying the content potentially harmful. Twitter is explaining their move like this. In line with our hacked materials policy as well as our approach to blocking urls, we are taking action to block any links to or images of the material in question on twitter. But the move is again calling into question the political motivations in some of the most powerful social Media Companies in the world. It is catching the attention from lawmakers on capitol hill. Senator hawley fired off a letter to Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg today. He is asking the federal Elections Commission if there were any Campaign Finance or election laws violated through what he says is coordination to intervene on behalf of the Biden Campaign by these social media platforms. Connell . Connell hillary. Thank you, Hillary Vaughn. This story well follow all the different angles. Meantime a new kind of black friday. Walmart announcing a way to avoid crowds on the shopping holiday, announcing three days of deals online and in stores. Theyre talking about a black friday deal for days. First event is november 4th. Second event, november 11th . And wraps up november 25th which is the day before thanksgiving. Walmart offering stores on the true black friday which falls on november 27th. Pandemic bringing devastating losses to the winner industry. The winter months it could be worse than now. Well speak to one fisherman later on in the hour. As we continue live from florida. President trump bets on his economic message in final to the finish. New polls show that joe biden might be establishing an advantage with crucial voting bloc. Whichever party gets elected, if biden gets elected he will be my president. If trump gets elected he is my president. Now, that dream. 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Serious allergic reactions like low blood pressure, trouble breathing, throat tightness, face, lip or tongue swelling, rash, itching or hives have happened. Tell your doctor about dental problems, as severe jaw bone problems may happen. Or new or unusual pain in your hip, groin, or thigh, as unusual thigh bone fractures have occurred. Speak to your doctor before stopping, skipping or delaying prolia®, aspine and other bone fractures have occurred. Prolia® can cause serious side effects, like low blood calcium, serious infections, which could need hospitalization, skin problems, and severe bone, joint, or muscle pain. Are you ready . Ask your doctor about prolia® fda approved for 10 years. Connell win hearts and minds, saw President Trump briefly a few minutes ago leaving the white house headed to iowa where he will hold a Campaign Rally this evening with the 2020 president ial race into the final stretch. Well look at air force one on its way out. Garrett tenney is live in des moines as they wait for the president. Garrett . Reporter connell, iowa is one of a number of several key swing states President Trump wants to hold on to in november. Remember he flipped the Hawkeye State in 2016 winning it by nine points. Recent polls suggest he is in a dead, tight, next and neck race with joe biden. For comparison if you look back at this point in the campaign, 2016, 20 days out from the election, candidate trump was leading Hillary Clinton by three points. Earlier this month the Trump Campaign canceled tv ad reservations to air in iowa the final weeks before the election. Campaign spokesman tim murtagh said an indication how extremely confident they are in chances in the state t also highlights these inperson rallies like today in des moines is a major part for the president s strategy to win here again. Local officials are expecting 10,000 people are expected to attend tonights rally. It is held outdoors on the tarmac behind us as each person arrives, having temperature checked and mask told to wear it. The president is expected to address the crowd at 7 00 p. M. Eastern. Connell Garrett Tenney in des moines, iowa, waiting for the president. We mentioned this when he left, during the commercial break, made remarks on his son. News came in to us first Lady Melania Trump tested negative for coronavirus but trumps son barron had a positive test although he was asymptomatic. Here is what the president said when asked about his son barron. Take a listen. Barron is fine. Amy is doing a fantastic job. Were heading out to iowa, big rally a lot of people. Connell barrons fine he said. We want to get that on, president usually speaks longer when he leaves on the south line. That is all he said before getting on marine one. To the other big story of not only the day or the week, day three of Supreme Court nomination hearings, judge Amy Coney Barrett continuing to answer questions from the members of the Senate Judiciary committee reiterating no one is above the law. Would you agree, first, that nobody is above the law, not the president , not you, not me, is that correct . I agree no one is above the law. Connell all right. Here to break it down for us is Shannon Bream, who covered the Supreme Court for so many years. Thanks for taking a few minutes today, shannon. What stood out about the hearings today . Connell for this nominee it probably felt a little bit like groundhog day, she faced same questions she faced yesterday primarily by the democrats she is being rushed through by the confirmation process, calling it illegitimate so she can take a seat on the Supreme Court to strike down obamacare to make sure anything election related she can make sure she hands the president the election in 2020. You can imagine there is a lot of pushback on that. She has been very deferential, very polite, also very firm saying i have a mind of my own. I think for myself. She clerked for justice scalia, repeatedly asked do you agree with his decision on that or would rule the same way . She said i think for myself. If i am confirmed, i will be justice barrett, not justice scalia. I have made no deals with the president. I havent discussed this case with him or anyone else on his staff. Yet it is the thing democrats keep combing back to. They know the aca and peoples worries about health care. That is top polling concern from voters year to year, including this year along with coronavirus. They know what theyre doing, even if they dont get the potential justice to Say Something or give away something previous nominees sat here also done the same thing and not telegraphed what they were going to do, including the woman she replaced justice ginsburg, they will use the hearings to make political points as both parties do during an election year. Much of the same today, connell. We had some technical difficulties here. They had to stop the hearings a couple times because the audio going out. In normal hearing it is inconvenience. Here it brings everything to a grinding halt because senators are doing this remotely or via zoom or skype, if they cant participate, the hearing cant continue. Connell sounds like our interview with the chairman of the Republican Party of florida a few minutes ago. Everybody is going through these things in this day and age trying to skype in. By the way, real quick, shannon, if you look at it, not own lynch the way she handled things the last few days, reality, numbers and politics in washington, seems hard to believe there would be anything that would slow down this nomination process at this point, that fair . We think about with the last one of these with brett kavanaugh, he was relatively smooth sailing. There were not huge landmines. It was after initial round of hearings that the letter showed you up from Christine Blasey ford that showed up. Then we went back into the hearings. You remember how contentious that got. Nobody expects anything like that with judge barrett but the next couple of weeks are critical because of this very fasttracked timeline the republicans have to get her out of the committee on to the floor, voted through before november 3rd. It is ambitious. They think they can do it. Really any delay at this point would make it tough to get done. Connell all good points. Thank you, Shannon Bream there in washington on the Supreme Court. Meantime back here in florida, a game delayed because of covid. Football match between the number 10 ranked university of Florida Gators and lsu tigers scheduled to take place on saturday in the swamp where the gators play, now postponed. They will play instead on december 12th after testing revealed at least 24 positive results on the team. Well be right back this was the theater i came to quite often. The support weve had over the last few months has been amazing. Its not just a work environment. Everyone here is family. If you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. We thought for sure that we were done. And this town said not today. So youre a small and thisbor a big one. T today. You were thriving, but then. Oh. Ah. Okay. Plan, pivot. How do you bounce back . You dont, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. Powered by the largest gig Speed Network in america. But is it secure . Sure its secure. And even if the power goes down, your connection doesnt. So how do i do this . You dont do this. We do this, together. Bounce forward, with comcast business. President trump the choice facing america is simple. It is the choice between historic prosperity under my proamerican policies or very crippling poverty and a steep depression under the radical left. That is what you will have is a depression. I will deliver optimism, opportunity and growth. They will deliver pessimism, stagnation, decline and very high taxes. Simply put, its a choice between a socialist nightmare and the american dream. Connell all right. That was earlier today. The president saying he was presenting a simple choice to the American People underscoring what he sees is the prosperity and opportunity under his leadership, also painted a bleak picture what he thinks the future would look like if his democratic rival joe biden would be elected. Both candidates have been out on the road in the battleground states, less than three weeks out to the election. Were joined by republican congressman Francis Rooney represents the area of florida where were talking from. Congressman. Good to have you back on the show. We played the sound bite of the president s economic message, im asking you can the president make the last few weeks about that, if so, what are his chances winning florida and winning reelection . I think if the president can focus the discussion on the economy and on Free Enterprise and business and how our economy is historically grown he will do better. There are a lot of collateral issues out there. Covid being one, that distract from that message. But at the end of the day Free Enterprise an capitalism is what has driven our country to greatness for 230 something years. Im very concerned to hear a lot of people, particularly on the democratic side, question capitalism. Connell i want to ask you one quick question about your own plans and future before moving on to talk about the issues because i do think it is interesting youre not running for reelection as a republican. Every time people come up, is he out of step or uncomfortable in the current Republican Party led by the president. Are you . First of all i didnt, you dont go into politics at 66 expecting to make a career out of it. I ran to do some specific things, to get money for the everglades Restoration Projects, to fight to ban offshore drilling and thanks to a variety of people including speaker pelosi, weve got all that done. We got two billion dollars for the everglades Restoration Projects which is a whole lot more than the 30 million a year they had gotten for the last 20 years. Speaker pelosi got the offshore drilling ban passed. Fortunately President Trump realized how important that was to florida and extended moratorium in the eastern gulf for 10 years. Connell we were talking about and are you comfortable, supporting the president for reelection . Well, you know, i think the president s done a lot of great things, that most republican was do. There are a few things he has done i dont agree with. Ive been pretty vocal about that. I voted against some things. I worry about the expansion of the executive branch. I worry about executive orders, emergency declarations and things like that that are continuation what obama did and previous president s did. I worry about the unknit unitary president president. I think congress is relegated to a rub i dont want to say a rubberstamp a second voice versus an equal voice because of the power of the executive. Connell are you going to vote for him . Well i probably will because of his economic policies but theres a lot of things that, that bother me about him, okay . I mean im a globalist, former diplomat. Worked around the world. Multinational business. And i dont think we can roll up the carpet behind us and isolate ourselves from the world. On the other hand i have to say the president has raised the curtain on china a way that his predecessors did not and we need to keep that up. Evidently Vice President biden feels the same way . Weeing worry to wake up some day, well find out china took over taiwan. It will not be a pretty warning. Connell youre point is both parties are on the same page or different pages in terms of the approach to that . Like to me both parties realize how china has manipulated the wto, has become hegemonic. That we have problems and we need to deal with reorienting supply chains to protect american interests. Im glad to see all of that on all sides. Connell all right. One final quick question i was going to ask you, congressman, you mentioned in reference to your history in business, former ceo of Rooney Holdings Investment Firm based in the naples area i believe, what do you make of this recovery from covid, where we are right now in the economy . Well i would rather see a more National Strategy about testing, tracing. I think that has been a failure we havent had a National Strategy. The companies that put a National Strategy in place have done better, with the exemption of spain. Spain doesnt seem to do very well. We very got to lock this thing down. We have to trace people that get infected. We have to limit contact. We have to wear masks and distance. Connell congressman, thank you. Good to talk to you again. Congressman Francis Rooney in the naples area. Were up here in cape coral, fort myers area, were having a nice week of weather, if nothing else. Tense times in the election. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me on. 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The pandemic has brought boat rental and fishing demand to new lows, negatively impacting a huge sector of the local economy here in florida, and were joined by captain gene. He is the owner of dallas fishing charters, and thats located out in naples. There he is, good to see you, gene. All right. We try, when were on the road in these areas, to check in with as many local businesses as we can just to get your story. Howd you get through covid . How bad was it in the spring, and where are you now . Well, now its pretty nice. Were back to not normal, but almost normal. But the spring was awful. February, march and april, which is the height of our season, was disastrous. We were never shut down, but no one was coming. All the folks were going home, and we just lost the height of the season which is three months which is february, march and april, our three biggest months of the year, basically we were closed. We didnt do anything. People that had all the boats booked, we had three boats, just canceled, and, you know, rightfully so. But then may was slow, but then june, july and august things started to ping again, and now, of course pick up again and now, of course, september and october are slow times of the year anyway. But what our big concern now is whats going to happen this season. You know, a lot of the folks, grandma and grandpa are here, and they bring the grandkids, mom and dad bring the kids, and we dont know whether their theyre all going to be coming to florida this winter. The phones have been rigging, i anticipate a normal not a normal, but hope any a healthy season. Connell ive heard anecdotally that what some people are looking at, you know, were down from new york, and people in that area that normally come down for the winter, not so much themselves, if, you know, maybe theyre older e people or retired, they come down here to florida, theyre worried if the cuds, even if their grown children or whatever come back from the holidays, then they would have to go back to work can and quarantine for 14 days. I wonder how thatll impack your demand, but you think things are still picking up . I think so. I dont think i dont hear so much about the quarantine if they come down and go back. My wife just was up in ohio, my son was up in maine whale watching, and there was no quarantine there just recently, within the past few weeks. Congress right. But i would imagine if there was a quarantine, certainly that would be very, very difficult. You come down here for two weeks or a week around christmas, which is our busiest two weeks of the year, and have to go home and quarantine for two weeks, thatd be pretty sad. Connell yeah, exactly. Yeah, talking about states like new york, but youre light, theres more states up there than just new york. What about yourself . You need government money . Weve been doing so many stories on these stimulus talks. Did you take it last time when the ppp came out, and are you pushing for it this time . Yes, i did take it last time with ppp, it was wonderful. The federal government gave us 31,000, then they did the emergency Disaster Relief loan which was wonderful. The state of florida did a bridge loan, no interest for one year. But unfortunately, those two loans have to be paid a back. The federal loan, you know, it was great term, 3. 75 , 30year am to have. But still, it has to be paid back. Connell right. The ppp money it did not. Connell right, that was a different structure. We wish you all the best. Beautiful area. Hopefully, people will be coming down more. Gene, thank you. We will have more to come from this state tomorrow. You know, the cubanamerican community in south florida, that might be the place for President Trump to make up for any lost ground that he has whether its Senior Citizens that they were talking about earlier or other groups that supported him four years ago. Were going to to take you to Little Havana tomorrow in miami. The president is hoping especially his economic message hits home there. So that could be very important because especially if you lose support in other areas, maybe if youre President Trump, you pick it up there. Again, hes headed out to iowa tonight. Joe bidens been going back and forth as well. We thank you for joining us from here in southwest florida, and we will see you tomorrow as this tour of the key swing state of florida continues for us in miami. Have a great night, everybody. Lou good evening, everybody. We begin tonight with a bombshell report in the New York Post today are e vealing neverbeforeseen emails that have been buried for some reason for some time by the fbi. Its a further expose of joe and Hunter Bidens alleged corruption. The information reported today shows joe biden lying about having no knowledge or interactions with the Ukrainian Gas Company burisma. It is a company that clearly hired his son hunter solely because of his washington connections. The department of justice and