trying to protect mine everybody is i
think i'm better
to a point that i feel better than i did
uh you know i jokingly said 20 years ago
i feel perfect
i'm the leader and i can't be like biden
where i hang out in a basement every day
sure
if i wanted to hang out in a basement i
wouldn't catch it but i meet a lot of
people and i have to i'm the president
of the country i can't hang around in a
basement
fox news alert president trump outraged
over next week's plans for a virtual
debate just announced in the last hour
by the commission on presidential
debates
joe biden announces he will be there
former democratic presidential candidate
pete budej
helped kamala harris prepare for last
night's debate he's also the author of
the new book
called trust and he joins us right now
from salt lake mayor pete good morning
to you
morning thanks for having me on you bet
uh so and there's your book right there
so what do you make of the president
saying if it's gonna be virtual
it's not worth my time well it's too bad
i don't know why the president's afraid
to participate in a debate you know all
of us have had to get used to
uh virtual formats right i mean uh
parents are are
uh you know having to deal with
e-learning uh which uh in some cases uh
you know is uh
not what uh uh what we're used to well
it's always not what we're used to i
mean we're having to take meetings over
zoom
uh it's not something i think most of us
enjoy but it's a safety measure and i
think part of why the us
is falling behind uh is badly behind the
rest of the developed world
on dealing with the pandemic is because
every time there's been a choice between
doing something in a way that's more
safe
or less safe this president seems to
push for less safe i think it's also
probably a reflection of the weakness of
his campaign
you know when you see campaigns getting
the kind of bad news that
he's been getting through through this
month a lot of times you'll see these
kinds of
increased arguments over rules uh
withdrawing from
from opportunities a little bit of
flailing there and it's too bad because
i think you know
the more the american people can hear
two candidates side by side
even if it's virtual sure the better of
course the only reason we're here in the
first place is that the president of the
united states
is still contagious as far as we know
right uh with a deadly
a deadly disease which reflects the
overall problem and and uh you know i
don't know why
you would want to be in a room with
other people if you were
contagious with a deadly disease and you
care about sure
but maybe the president doesn't care
about other people well and the camp
in the campaign mayor pete had said by
then he could have
had a couple of negative tests we don't
know at that point it's all speculation
but let's talk a little bit about the
debate last night you prepared kamala
hair she seemed very well prepared i
understand
you in practicing where you played mike
pence
you threw every curve ball you could at
her
to get her ready how did you get that
fly to land on his head
i'll tell you that was the one thing
that we weren't prepared for and you
know
i was in the hall so i don't even see it
and it goes to show the difference
between the you know the experience or
the energy
where you're in the hall and what gets
the most attention on tv i don't know
right
uh i don't know who said that fly in uh
i hope the fly's okay
the fly has a twitter account now people
talking sure
uh mayor pete one thing that uh people
are buzzing about today
is why wouldn't she answer the question
see what you did there i know it
uh why wouldn't she answer the question
will uh
biden harris uh move to pack the court
so i think what you're seeing is is an
effort to use that to distract from a
much more
immediate issue in front of us uh look
the american people believe that the
winner of this election
should choose the next supreme court
justice and uh senator harris and joe
biden and for that matter i
agree with the majority of the american
people that that'd be the right thing to
do i mean remember
we're not just talking about an election
coming up we're talking about an
election underway something like
5 million americans have already voted
and uh you know there are real
consequences to this i mean the the
affordable care act case
is hitting the course uh the court in a
matter of weeks if it gets struck down
pre-existing coverage gone right we just
saw
uh two conservative justices justices
leto and thomas i believe right uh a
document where between alliance you can
tell that
they want to overturn marriage equality
uh you know you had senator cruz on
before
i think his book is about the difference
that one vote can make
on the supreme court my marriage exists
by one vote on the supreme court
we've got some really important
immediate things at stake
right now in a debate coming before the
senate in a matter of
days and we want to make sure that
efforts to distract from that don't
succeed
because this is one of the most
important things that americans are
voting on
when they're voting on who the next
president is going to be sure we've had
a number of guests
from both side of the aisle this morning
talking about what they thought their
representative how well they did what do
you think kamala harris was particularly
effective at last night well i thought
she was terrific
you know she was able to repeatedly hold
vice president pence and donald trump
accountable for their failures to
protect the american people from the
coronavirus the fact that
you know the vp is in charge of the task
force and we're doing the worst
of any country in the developed world i
also appreciated that she
stood up for american troops you know
that the president united states
uh uh calling those who served suckers
and losers uh saying he didn't didn't
understand what's in it for them while
he was standing on the
the hallowed ground of section six but
mayor peter you know the president
anyone who served knows what
section 60 means sure indeed the way he
talked about
the uh you know folks like john mccain i
i
hated to interrupt you but you know the
president has denied that particular
story
right but we know he's lying because you
know even in the middle of his time i
don't know he's lying he said i never
called
well because part of his denial was he
said i never called john mccain a loser
and anybody with twitter can go and see
where he did so
uh to believe that he was lying in that
part of his sentence but not another
part i remember this is a guy
who back when he was a wealthy young man
in new york
born to privilege thought to himself i'm
going to let some sucker go to vietnam
in my place and pretended to be disabled
i mean if you really believe the
president now on this kind of stuff
i got a bridge to sell you all right um
do you think
it's it has been an effective strategy
and i know
uh your side says that uh biden harris
is ahead in the polls
uh for uh mr biden and uh senator harris
not to really speak to the press i know
when you were running for president
uh you know you would talk to all the
reporters every day
you think this is an effective strategy
going forward
well of course they are doing press uh
they're doing it in a way that that's
consistent with safety and consistent
with the campaign strategy obviously
it's a winning strategy in the sense
that
our campaign is winning uh and i think
uh you know the really remarkable thing
happening now
is how many republicans are uh coming to
endorse joe biden i mean i think
we're up to two former chairs of the rnc
now
uh you know folks like cindy mccain
really laying out the fact that
you know you can either be a john mccain
republican or you can be a joe biden uh
sorry you could be a donald trump
republican right you got to pick
one or the other so you know in terms of
the coalition that's growing the
democrats the independents and a
remarkable number of republicans
all coming together saying they want joe
biden to be the next president i'd say
this strategy is working pretty well
okay we're not taking anything for
granted
pushing hard you'll see the president
and uh the vice president
joe biden and kamala harris traveling to
swing states
and and campaigning safely because they
respect the health and safety of those
around them but
campaigning in person as much as they
safely can uh to make sure we take no
vote for granted
all right mayor put a pete butterjudge
once upon a time the mayor of south bend
indiana ran for president sir thank you
very much for joining us here on fox and
friends today a real pleasure
sure thing great to be with you thanks