CBS News
Transcript: Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Al Schmidt on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Oct. 27, 2024
The following is a transcript of an interview with Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Al Schmidt on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 27, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the top election officials in two battleground states. Arizona, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes joins us from Phoenix, and Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Al Schmidt joins us from Harrisburg. Welcome, and I appreciate the two of you having this conversation in a bipartisan manner. You are in non partisan roles as the top election officials in your states. So very quick question to both of you. Secretary Fontes, first, will you commit to certifying the election results even if the winner is of the opposite political party?
SECRETARY OF STATE ADRIAN FONTES: Yes, without question, that’s our duty, and I believe all of my colleagues across the country would do the same?
MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary Schmidt?
SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH AL SCHMIDT: Absolutely without any hesitation whatsoever.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Now that we’ve set the table on the very basics here, I want to ask you about some of the recent news. The FBI director said this past week, it is incomprehensible and unacceptable that election workers have to be worried about their security. But here we are, and we know the Department of Justice, just this past week, did indict individuals for making threats to workers in both of your states. Secretary Fontes, one of my CBS colleagues is reporting Maricopa County is significantly increasing security and using drones, using fencing and other measures. I’ve read news organizations say there are going to be snipers on top of tabulation centers. First of all, is that true? That seems extraordinary, and is that based on specific threat intelligence?
SEC. FONTES: Well, first and foremost, the authority and jurisdiction over the specific tabulation centers are within the counties. My office provides support for all of them, and frankly, we don’t get into the specifics when it comes to our safety and security protocols, particularly the source or frequency or nature of any of the specific threats. We are in the kind of a circumstance right now where we’re taking whatever precautions are necessary to ensure not just the security of the vote, but of all of our employees, our workers at the polls, at our tabulation centers, and of course, keeping first and foremost in mind the safety and security of our voters.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Can you say, at a minimum, whether that’s increased from what you had to do in 2020?
SEC. FONTES: It’s absolutely, completely different from 2020. In fact, I remember in 2018 our greatest security threat was a rattlesnake in the parking lot at the Pinnacle Peak precinct. So this is a radically different set of circumstances that we are dealing with, but we are prepared, and we’re going to have a secure election.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Secreatary Schmidt, what have you had to do in the Commonwealth?
SEC. SCHMIDT: As part of the lessons learned from the experience of 2020, the Shapiro administration organized an election threat task force that I lead made up of federal, state and local partners in law enforcement and election administration, so that if any of the ugliness returns that we experienced in 2020. Everyone will be ready. In 2020 it was, as Secretary Fontes said, so different than before, and many of us had to scramble to figure out when threats were incoming, where do we refer them to, and and all the rest of that. Now we have open lines of communication. Everybody is very clear about what everyone else’s responsibilities are, so we’ll be prepared. Should, again, any of that ugliness return.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary Schmidt, you heard me discuss with Senator Vance, the specific intelligence that the ODNI and the FBI revealed on Friday about a fake video made by Russia to trick people into believing that ballots were being destroyed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. How concerned are you about what US intelligence has uncovered, and why do you think they’re targeting your state?
SEC. SCHMIDT: Well, I’m, I’m very concerned, and it’s and it’s clear that bad faith foreign actors are seeking to undermine confidence in our election results, and it’s no surprise that they’ve targeted several of the so-called battleground states and Pennsylvania. The video that you’re referring to from Bucks County, to anyone who has years of experience in election administration, was conspicuously fake. But if you don’t, it’s so easy for people to be sort of deceived by by others trying to undermine confidence in our system of government. So it’s important that that our counties remain vigilant, that our Commonwealth remains vigilant, and our federal partners remain vigilant, and to call out any of these sort of efforts to deceive our voters.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary Fontes another specific warning from US intelligence was some of the mind hacking, the lies being sown in the minds of potential voters. And one specific thing that US intelligence says Russian influence actors are doing, are posting allegations about the possibility of “illegals,” undocumented people, voting in this country. You are a border state. We have heard a number of Republican officials, including on this program, try to argue that this is a real concern. Elon Musk is arguing that and amplifying that, what are you doing in Arizona to make sure that non-citizens are not voting in federal elections, which is already against the law?
SEC. FONTES: Well, first and foremost, if and when something like that happens, it is absolutely vanishingly rare. No system is perfect, and I’ll admit that right off the top. But the allegation that this is something that might turn an election or is something much bigger than it is, that’s the nonsense that we are dealing with. And unfortunately, we still have candidates, elected officials and folks with large megaphones lying. They are directly lying to the American public, and they are basically playing the role of useful idiots. Now we know for sure two foreign enemies who want to sow distrust in our democracy. They want us to be losing that civic faith that we have in one another as Americans and dividing us further. Again, the source for a lot of this information and misinformation, I should say, is coming from outside of the United States. It gets amplified by folks in America who are helping those folks, and that’s just bad, and it’s bad for our democracy. It’s bad for business, it’s bad for the law and education and science and everything else. So what I encourage folks to do is stop being a Russian puppet. Look to the folks who are actually doing the work, ask them what’s actually happening, and go with the truth, instead of amplifying lies from foreign adversaries.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary Schmidt, what are you doing to make sure that non citizens are not able to vote which is already against the law?
SEC. SCHMIDT: Well, Margaret, I was a Republican Election Commissioner in Philadelphia County for 10 years. And I assure you, and I assure your viewers, and I assure voters that I care as much about election integrity as anyone possibly could. I investigated hundreds of allegations of vote voter fraud over that time, whether it involved double voting or allegations of people voting for dead people or non-citizens, and what that research showed time and time again was how incredibly rare it was that it occurred and how easy it is to catch whenever there are incidents of it. There are safeguards in the system from tooth detail to make sure that that voter fraud in the few instances it does occur, is identified, investigated and responsibly prosecuted.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary Schmidt on Friday, the Lancaster County district attorney did report incidents of voter registration fraud among a group of about 2500 ballots. What can you tell us at this point about how many of those ballots were actually fraudulent and what happens next? Who’s behind it?
SEC. SCHMIDT: The county reached out to us right away, as soon as they became aware of it for guidance. As far as we can see, the county is is pursuing this investigation responsibly. The county hasn’t concluded that investigation, so I can’t speak to the number of cases yet. We will be relying on them to make that determination and be supportive of our county partners. As part of our commitment, I visited 67 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties to sit down with them and make sure that if there are additional resources, they need additional equipment, or anything else like that, we provide that to them so that we have a free, fair, safe and secure election in 2024 just as we had in 2020.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And it was notable in my interview with Senator Vance that he said he was confident in Pennsylvania, but when I asked about litigation, he raised the possibility of non-citizen voting and said they would be open to litigation if that were to happen.
SEC. SCHMIDT: Well, the good thing about our judicial system, which is really where our disputes should be settled, is it is always something of a “put up or shut up” moment when it comes to providing actual evidence of actual problems, and that when people are involved in litigation and lawsuits, they have to present that evidence. And I think that’s why, time and time again, in many dozens of cases, in 2020 every one of those cases upheld that our elections were accurate and were not susceptible to any sort of widespread voter fraud or anything like that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary Fontes. 95% of all ballots cast in battleground states will be recorded on paper; however, President Trump said this on Joe Rogan’s podcast about a conversation he just had with Elon Musk.
[JOE ROGAN DONALD TRUMP INTERVIEW SOT]
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He said to me that unless you have paper ballots, it can never be an honest election. That’s a big statement.
JOE ROGAN: It’s a big statement.
DONALD TRUMP 10:22
We should go to paper ballots. You’re done by nine o’clock in the evening. Right now, we have the sophisticated machine that goes up to heaven. It goes all over the place and down and around, and they say we’ll need two weeks to figure out who the hell won the election.
[END SOT]
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, do you want to set the record straight? And how long will it take you in Arizona to know the results?
SEC. FONTES: Well first, I’m glad that Mr. Trump agrees with the security of Arizona’s elections, where we have 100% paper ballots, and have had so in Arizona for several decades. Number two, it’s going to take us as long as it has always taken us, while we have more voters, and in many cases and counties, a lot more voters. The time that it takes us to process our ballots is based on doing it right the first time, not doing it quickly for news cycles or for the sake of political satisfaction. We will have official results in about 10 to 13 days. But everybody knows that the networks and the newspapers will make their prognostications whenever they see fit based on their math, and that’s just the way it works. We’re perfectly confident that we’re going to have what we need when we need it, which is when it happens and it will be accurate.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary Schmidt, how quickly will you know the results in Pennsylvania?
SEC. SCHMIDT: Pennsylvania is at something of a unique disadvantage in that our counties cannot begin processing mail in ballot envelopes until 7am on election morning. Plenty of other states red and blue alike allow that process to begin days, if not weeks, in advance. But a couple things have changed since 2020. Counties have acquired additional equipment that assist with the processing of those ballots and ballot envelopes. They have a lot more experience than they had in 2020. Which is the first time any of us encountered in Pennsylvania, mail ballot voting in a large scale. And also the percentage of voters, while it’s still widely embraced, the percentage of voters voting by mail has decreased since 2020 during that peak COVID environment. So there are several factors that will, I think, contribute to knowing results earlier, even though the law hasn’t changed. But as Secretary font has said, it always comes down to, and has always, ever come down to how close an election is before you know who won and who lost.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Exactly. And as our, Anthony Salvanto, our CBS Elections and Surveys Director, was telling us, this is a tight one. So, we will be watching what’s happening in your states very carefully. Thank you for level setting with all of us. We’ll be back in a moment.
NEW YORK — Timothée Chalamet made a surprise appearance Sunday at his own look-alike contest in Manhattan.
At least one person was arrested after a large crowd formed and police broke up the event in Washington Square Park.
Chalamet posed for photos with his doppelgängers, some of whom came dressed as his characters from the movies “Wonka” and “Dune.”
The look-alike contest was one of several such competitions hosted by the YouTube personality Anthony Po, and it promised $50 for the winner. As word spread on social media, thousands of people RSVP’d.
From “a silly joke” to “pandemonium”
Stefan Jeremiah / AP
Minutes after the competition started — and before Chalamet arrived — police ordered the group to disperse from the park. Organizers were hit with a $500 fine for an “unpermitted costume contest,” and police said one person was issued a summons for disorderly conduct.
“It started off as a silly joke and now it’s turned pandemonium,” Paige Nguyen, a producer for the YouTube creator, told The Associated Press.
The group relocated to another park, and the audience eventually crowned Miles Mitchell, a Staten Island college senior, as the winner.
“I’m excited and I’m also overwhelmed,” Mitchell said. “There were so many good look-alikes. It was really a toss-up.”
The contestants were asked to demonstrate their French skills, about their romantic plans with Kylie Jenner, and what they would do to make the world a better place.
WESTON – A small group of loyal customers gathered in Weston Saturday morning to thank a pharmacist who is relocating as Walgreens closes the location where he served the community for almost three decades.
The celebration was led by an 11-year-old boy who shocked the pharmacist by presenting him with thousands of dollars that he raised as a thank you gift.
Weston Walgreens closing
In the midst of corporate cutbacks at Walgreens, the location on Boston Post Road is closing permanently. So a small group came out to thank the pharmacist at the store.
“It’s humbling. I can’t believe it. It’s amazing,” said veteran pharmacist Bob Hesselberg, who has worked at the store for nearly 30 years. “I don’t want to retire, even though I am 75. I don’t want to retire. I’m not ready for it.”
Hesselberg is moving on to a store in Waltham. The sendoff was led by 11-year-old Aarav Khanna, whose school bus routinely drops him off right across from the Walgreens location.
“I’ve seen the amount of kindness and hard work he puts into his job,” Khanna said.
CBS Boston
Money raised for pharmacist
Khanna got the idea to raise money for Hesselberg as a going away present. And the total grew quickly. Thanks to the community, Kanna was able to present Hesselberg with a check for $6,000 on Saturday, leaving the pharmacist in shock.
During the Saturday celebration, a young girl gave a handmade card to Hesselberg, who people in the community call “Pharmacist Bob.”
“You walk in, he not only greets you by name, but he wants to know how your family is, and how is that medication you had last time, and how are you doing? And he means it,” customer Carol Ott said.
The Weston Walgreens closes in the middle of November. Hesselberg hopes some customers will follow him to Waltham, but he worries about some of the older residents driving that distance, especially since the chain won’t be doing home delivery anymore.
“I’m gonna miss everybody. And I’m very grateful for all of this. And thank you so much,” Hesselberg told the crowd.
CBS News
Harris tells Philadelphia church election will “decide the fate of our nation for generations to come”
Vice President Kamala Harris is back in Philadelphia Sunday as the countdown to election day nears one week.
Harris, who spent several days in the Delaware Valley over the past week, spoke at the Church of Christian Compassion in Philadelphia on Sunday morning and will hold a campaign rally in the city later in the night.
“In just nine days we have the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come,” she told the congregation.
Several minutes into her speech, some shouting broke out in the crowd. Harris paused during the disruption. “That’s why we fight for our democracy. Every voice is important,” she said while the outburst was quieted.
Harris went on to encourage the Philadelphia church to lean on faith in the days leading up to the election, and urged worshippers to use their feet to get to the polls.
“Here in Pennsylvania, right now each of us has an opportunity to make a difference. Because in this moment we do face a real question. What kind of country to we we want to live in,” she said. “The great thing about living in a democracy is we the people have the choice to answer that question. So let us answer not just with our words, but with our works.”
On Wednesday, Oct. 23, Harris visited the Famous 4th Street Deli in Philadelphia’s Queen Village neighborhood before attending a town hall in Delaware County. Earlier in the week, the vice president sat down with former Congresswoman Liz Cheney in Chester County in the first of three moderated conversations in battleground states.
During that conversation, Harris appealed to Republican voters who are on the fence about voting for former President Donald Trump, and claimed he used the presidency as a way to “demean and to divide” Americans.
“I think people are exhausted with that, rightly,” Harris said. “And it does not lead to the strength of our nation to tell American people that we must be suspicious of one another, distrust one another.”
On Monday, Harris will harness the star power of some of her biggest supporters during a benefit concert at Temple University’s Liacouras Center, according to multiple sources.
Twenty-time Grammy winner Bruce Springsteen will headline a concert and a rally with former President Barack Obama as part of the Harris campaign’s effort to mobilize voters in the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election.
Speaking to CBS News Philadelphia’s Joe Holden, Harris said she’s “honored” to have Obama’s support on the campaign trail. “And people like Bruce Springsteen, to have their support, and of course he is an American icon, I think it just shows the breadth and depth of the support that we have,” Harris said.
When asked if any other big name supporters are planning to turn out for the event Monday, Harris said with a laugh, “I have nothing to report at this moment. Stay tuned, however.”
Earlier this month, Springsteen endorsed Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Timothée Chalamet surprises crowd at NYC look-alike contest, as police break up event
11-year-old stuns pharmacist at shuttering Massachusetts Walgreens with $6,000 gift
Harris tells Philadelphia church election will “decide the fate of our nation for generations to come”
Timothée Chalamet surprises crowd at NYC look-alike contest, as police break up event
11-year-old stuns pharmacist at shuttering Massachusetts Walgreens with $6,000 gift