(stirring music)

- Well there may be a real breakthrough,

a final breakthrough of the Saudis

coming to peace with Israel.

And that I think has greatprophetic significance.

We're gonna bring you thatreport from Chris Mitchell

later on in the program.

But first of all, the final showdown.

President Trump and JoeBiden are facing off tonight

in their last debate.

Will the president badgerBiden about his son, Hunter?

We hope not.

And will Biden fight back?

And adding to the drama,

the stunning news that Iran

has been intimidating American voters.

Iran.

Heather Sells has that story.

(dramatic music)

- [Heather] US intelligenceofficials announced

in a rare news conferenceWednesday evening

that Russia and Iran have obtained access

to some voter registration information,

with Iran using it to tryto sway Democratic voters

in four battleground states.

- We have already seenIran sending spoofed emails

designed to intimidatevoters, incite social unrest,

and damage President Trump.

- [Heather] Ratcliffe andFBI Director Chris Ray

warned that the US will impose costs

on any foreign country thatinterferes in the election.

The president,

still on the campaigntrail Wednesday night,

appealing to his base in a keyswing state, North Carolina.

- If you want your childrento grow up in a free nation

where they can speak their mindsand practice their religion

and live by their values,

then you must defeat sleepyJoe Biden and the radical left.

- [Heather] The Vice President has been

out of sight all week.

Aides say he's been preparingfor tonight's debate.

In his place Wednesday, President Obama,

in one of the most important

battleground states, Pennsylvania.

- Joe, will get thispandemic under control

with a plan to make testingfree and widely available.

To get a vaccine toevery American cost free.

- [Heather] The Coronavirusone of the six topics

on the agenda for tonight'sdebate in Nashville.

In addition to COVID-19,

the subjects includeAmerican families, race,

climate change, nationalsecurity, and leadership.

But there's a new twist.

A rule that mutes eachcandidate for two minutes

while the other speaks ofthe beginning of each topic.

Many will be watching to see

how Biden handles theP\resident's expected attacks

on his son, Hunter,

over criticisms of internationalinfluence peddling.

Biden finally answered thequestions in an interview,

dismissing them as politics.

- It's a last ditch effort

in this desperate campaignto smear me and my family.

- There's also questions about

whether Biden will commitany self-imposed stumbles,

and if the President can build momentum.

Most polls show Biden with a solid lead.

And the Vice Presidentis flooding the airwaves

with three times as muchcash as the President.

But the Biden team warns that the race

is still neck-and-neck inthe battleground states,

and both sides remember howthe polls turned out in 2016.

Heather Sells, CBN News.

- Well our chief politicalanalyst David Brody

is with us now.

And David, what do youthink they're gonna gain?

So many people have already voted.

Are they gonna change any minds?

- There's very fewfolks that are out there

that are probably gonnachange their minds,

but Pat, this is a base election.

And I think that's the key.

It's all about energy and enthusiasm.

And my sources,

and these are multiplesources that are on the ground

saying that this feels,on the ground at least,

very much like 2016 with Trump,

and they could possibly be done in 2020.

Why is that?

Because the ground gamethat the Trump campaign has

is besting the Biden campaign.

It's not even close.

Now, what you are seeing visually

is a lot of Biden ads on television,

not much Trump, not manyTrump ads on television.

So the question then becomes,

what's going to be more effective?

Those ads on television,or an actual ground game,

kind of an old school ground game

that the Trump campaignhas mastered at this point.

That's what we're about to find out.

- Well you know,

one of the big mistakes insports is to think you are ahead

and then you sit on your leadand you stop being aggressive.

I mean, Biden had justbeen like hiding out.

Are they afraid of something he might say?

- Absolutely, Pat.

And look, you're right.

I think the sports analogy is right on.

This is basically a political version

of the prevent defense, you know.

You're up by three touchdowns,at least you think you are,

and so you play back ondefense and let the other team

basically not score a touchdown on ya,

but just march it down the field.

But the Trump campaign has beenmarching it down the field,

and we're starting to see these polls,

especially in the battleground states,

get closer and closer.

So on the debate stage tonight,

the question becomes willBiden make a big gaffe?

There's more of an opportunity for that,

as you know, Pat,

because they're gonnamute Donald Trump's mic.

You know, they've been trying to mute him,

the media and social media has been trying

to mute him all along.

This is, I get,

apparently this is the onlyway you can mute Donald Trump,

by literally clipping his mic.

But you know what?

That actually may be goodbecause Pat, let's be honest.

If it were, if we wereinjecting Trump supporters

with truth serum,

they would all say you knowwhat, a little less mute,

a little more muting ofTrump at certain times

might not actually be a bad thing.

And I think tonight Trump's gonna be muted

about 12 minutes of the90 minute debate overall.

And that means Biden's gonna talk more,

which means more opportunity for a gaffe.

- You know,

Trump's getting advicethat he should stay off

that Bidens thing and that andconcentrate on foreign policy

and on taxes and on thedifferences about those key areas.

What do you think?

Is he gonna go after Biden?

He probably shouldn't, should he?

- Yeah, but you know he's going to.

He's gonna go after theHunter Biden thing tonight.

As a matter of fact,

I have some campaign sourcestelling me exactly that.

No, you can expect thatthe President to go after

Joe Biden on the HunterBiden issue, and here's why.

Because the campaign believes this isn't

a Hunter Biden issue.

They believe it's a Joe Biden issue.

They believe that this is aJoe Biden corruption issue

in terms of potentiallytaking some money off the top,

if you will,

from some of Hunter Biden's dealings.

And a potential coverup.

Joe Biden said he didn'tknow anything at all

about some of these business dealings

that Hunter Biden was doing.

And now we're starting to get

a trickle, trickle, trickle,that, well wait a minute.

Joe Biden might not have been upfront.

So is there a potential coverup there?

I think you're gonna seethe President go after him

on corruption and coverup tonight.

And Pat, here's the key thing.

Will Trump be able to basically take that,

that corruption and coverupand Joe Biden mantra,

and weave it into this narrative

of how Joe Biden's been in DC for 47 years

and is the quintessential insider?

If he can take both ofthose, merge them together,

that's a winning debate performance.

We'll see what happens.

- Well, one last question.

The Biden team has put outan email saying they're tied

in key states and that Trumpcould still win a niche.

Are they trying to scare people,

or are they really serious about that?

- Well, I think it's both, honestly.

I think the race is tightening.

I don't think there'sa question about that.

They also don't want to see a replay

of what happened toHillary Clinton in 2016.

Remember in 2016, they, theClinton campaign, got greedy.

They started to go into states

that they thought theycould win and pile on

for a landslide.

They ended up not goingto Wisconsin, a key state,

and lost there.

And so I think there's a sensethat from the Biden campaign

that they've gotta say,

they've gotta tamp downexpectations and say,

"We're in a close race,"

because they want thatvoter turnout to happen.

I will tell you though thatthe polls are tightening,

and some of my sources are telling me

that the Trump campaignlooks very good in Florida,

in North Carolina, even Arizona.

What they're gonna need,

the Trump campaign is gonna need in 2020,

is to win one, at least one,

of those three big rust belt states:

Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.

They're gonna need one of them.

And if Florida goessouth on election night,

it may be good night nursefor the Trump campaign.

- (laughing) Thanks David.

Well, I understand Trump's ahead in Ohio.

If he takes them.

But they sent Obama into Pennsylvania.

But again,

you've got some people in Philadelphia

who might wanna vote for Trump.

We would say it's an interesting thing.

But you can watch the debate tonight

across CBN News platforms.

And I think it will bevery, very interesting.

Well in other news,

experts say they helpedignite an opioid epidemic.

I have been following that Sackler family.

He went around tellingdoctors that they needed

to alleviate pain, thatthe big thing was pain.

They should not have pain,

that their patients should not have pain.

And the answer wassomething called OxyContin.

- And boy oh boy,

it has led to an opioid crisis in America,

where millions of peoplehave become addicted

to these painkillers.

And now the makers of OxyContin

are part of a huge legal settlement.

John Jessup has that story.

(dramatic music)

- That's right, Pat.

Drug maker Purdue Pharma will plead guilty

to three federal felony counts,

part of a legal $8 millionsettlement with the government.

$8 billion dollar, rather.

The deal does not release

any of the company's executives or owners,

members of the wealthy Sackler family,

from criminal liability.

And the Sacklers will lose allcontrol over their company.

- The agreed resolution,if approved by the court,

will require that the company be dissolved

and no longer exist in its present form.

- While advocacy groups saythe deal doesn't go far enough,

the agreement does givethe Trump administration

an example of actionon the addiction crisis

which the President promisedearly on in his term.

Well did President Trump really call

fallen American soldierssuckers and losers

during a trip to France in 2018?

Dale Hurd takes a look at the story

behind that reportedclaim, which he points out,

comes from a magazine that's published

multiple anti-Trump articles.

(dramatic music)

- [Dale] This Joe Bidenad will be targeting

NFL football fans duringgames this weekend.

It features a US militaryveteran repeating a claim

that president Trumpcalled dead US soldiers

losers and suckers.

- [Man In Ad] My friends,they are not suckers.

- [Dale] But did the president say it?

This controversy pits unnamedsources who say he did

against eyewitnesses who havesaid publicly that he did not.

It's based on a story in the Atlantic,

and the claim against thePresident has become a staple

at Biden and Harris rallies.

- If you put your life onthe line for the nation,

you're a loser, a sucker.

He calls them losers are suckers.

- Suckers and losers.

- Losers and suckers.

- [Dale] The president calledthe allegation against him

a disgrace.

- Who would say a thing like that?

Only an animal wouldsay a thing like that.

There's nobody that has more respect for,

not only our military,

but for people that gavetheir lives in the military.

- [Dale] The claim isbased on anonymous sources.

The writer of the Atlantic piece,

Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg,

told MSNBC the sources wereafraid to come forward publicly.

- There's a fear on a kindof a superficial level,

of a Twitter mob.

There's also real fear of personal safety,

fear for your family.

- [Dale] But five peoplewho were with the President

at the time say theAtlantic story is false.

Senior Advisor Stephen Miller,

Deputy CommunicationsDirector Dan Scavino,

former White House Aide Jordan Karem,

and former Press Secretary Sarah Sanders,

who called the Atlantic story, "Total BS."

Even former NationalSecurity Advisor John Bolton,

who's not on the best of terms with Trump,

said of the report,

- That was simply false.

I don't know who told the author that,

but that was false.

- [Dale] Conservative mediacritic Tim Graham says

the article can't be trusted.

- They're looking forwhatever source will give them

the thesis they want.

And if they can't get themfrom people on the record,

they will use them off the record.

And the problem withthe anonymous sources is

you really have zero idea of who they are.

- [Dale] There are otherreasons for concern.

The magazine endorsed HillaryClinton for president in 2016,

while calling Trump ademagogue, a xenophobe,

a sexist, a know-nothing, and a liar.

The Atlantic's majorityowner Laurene Powell Jobs

has reportedly donated over $1.2 million

to Democratic candidatesand groups since 2019.

Records also showedJobs contributed $2,800

to Joe Biden's primary campaign,

and over $600,000 tothe Biden Victory Fund.

She also reportedly gavethe maximum allowed donation

to more than 60 otherDemocratic politicians

since the start of last year,

while apparently givingnothing to Republicans.

We asked the Atlantic if it had ever run

an anonymously sourced storythat attacked Barack Obama

or Hillary Clinton.

The magazine did not respond.

Meanwhile, support for the President

among members of themilitary is down from 2016.

Whatever the reason for it,

the Atlantic article certainlyhasn't helped the president.

Dale Hurd, CBN News.

- Pat, more and more politics seems like

a blood sport these days.

- I tell you what, I believein freedom of the press,

but I believe when a richwoman uses a publication

as a campaign tool,

that becomes an in-kind contribution,

which violates the federal election laws.

And I really think the Justice Department

should look into this.

But this is shocking tothink that would come out

with uncorroboratedsources by a publication

that's owned by somebodywho was a major donor

to the Democratic Party,

who also at the same time,

gave lavishly to not only them,

but who excoriated Trumpin the last election

as being a homophobe, sexist and all the,

xenophobe and all those other terms.

I mean, this is terrible.

But for Biden to pick itup as if it is credible

is just outrageous.

But that's the kind ofstuff we're living with,

and we've got to call him out on it.

But I honestly believe thatthis has passed the limit

of journalistic First Amendment freedom

and become an in-kindcontribution by a rich woman

against a candidate she doesn't like.

And I do think the FederalElection Commission

should get into it andsee what they can do.

Okay, Terry.

- Well, so many critical issuesare surrounding our nation

right now.

And for the past month,

we've been praying for our country

in the days leading up to the election.

If you haven't joined us yet,

we invite you to pleasecall our toll free number.

It's 1-800-700-7000,

or you can go to prayforamerica.com.

You can also text pray to 71777,

and we're going to send you a sticker

that you can use on your carand the window of your home

reminding people to pray forAmerica and even a postcard.

Still time to send it outto family and friends,

reminding them to pray as well.

But Pat, let's take a moment here.

- I think we should.

You know, we talk about an election.

We talk about all these issues.

We talk about fighting.

We talk about nasty ads.

We talk about all of this.

But really, it's in God's hand.

God is in charge.

You know, I rest me in the thought

that You are in charge of things.

And I believe that we need to ask God.

I do believe that theprayers that were prayed

at that recall,

the prayers that have beenprayed by Franklin Graham

and his people,

the prayers that we've allbeen praying for this nation

will be heard by Godand He will answer them.

And so we're going to pray,

and I'll ask you to join us right now.

We'll just join hands.

Father, we pray together for this nation,

Lord that You would heal our land.

That's what You promised ifwe would call on Your name

and turn from our wicked ways.

Now Lord we know we're a sinful nation.

Isaiah said,

"I'm a sinful man andI'm living in the midst

of a sinful people.

But mine eyes have seen the Lord."

And Lord we ask that Youwill forgive our sins

and You'll come and heal our land.

Lord take charge.

This is Your country.

It was dedicated to You.

It doesn't belong to Satan.

And we break the hold ofSatan over this nation,

and we speak words ofhealing and words of faith.

Bless this nation we pray,

and cause us to live alife that will be worthy

of Your blessing.

In Jesus' name, amen.

- [Terry] Amen.

- And amen.

Okay.