Wisconsin recall aftermath

This is a rush transcript from "Fox News Watch," June 9, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Watch the latest video at FoxNews.com

JON SCOTT, HOST OF "FOX NEWS WATCH": On "Fox News Watch" --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT WALKER, (R), GOVERNOR OF WISCONSIN: Now is the time to move forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: Despite the efforts of Democrats and their supporters --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(HONKING)

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SCOTT: -- Scott Walker wins the recall election and keeps his job as Wisconsin governor. But many in the liberal press are in denial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED SCHULTZ, HOST OF "THE ED SHOW": It's disappointing, I know if this is going to be the result. It is not the end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: And recall supporters, somewhat delusional.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Democracy died tonight

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You're very emotional.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very emotional because we had a lot of invested in this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: Bill Clinton making news as Mr. Obama's numero-uno surrogate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't have any problem extending all of it now.

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SCOTT: But is it the news the Obama campaign was hoping for?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: He's a double agent.

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SCOTT: The New York Times publishes stories based on high-level leaks, details which could put our nation at risk, and Congress wants it to stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED SENATOR: And there's been just a cascade of leaks coming out of the intelligence community over the last several weeks and it's our clear intention to put a stop to this.

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SCOTT: Who's behind the leaks and should the press play along?

Barbara Walters, the grand dame at ABC, gets a prized with Syria's al-Assad, and gets caught paying back the favor to one of his former aides. What's wrong with that?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

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SCOTT: Pomp and celebration in London for Queen Elizabeth II as her loyal subjects honor her jubilee. But did one cable news network go overboard on the coverage?

(on camera): On the panel, writer and Fox News contributor Judy Miller; radio talk show host, Monica Crowley; Jim Pinkerton, contributing editor, The American Conservative magazine; and host of the Alan Colmes radio talk show, Alan Colmes.

I'm Jon Scott. "Fox News Watch" is on right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL MADDOW, HOST OF "THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW": NBC News has been characterizing the race as too close to call.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST OF "HANNITY": The Wisconsin recall elections are too close to call.

SCHULTZ: It's awful close, and there's a lot of absentee ballots yet still out.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF "CAVUTO": All Wisconsin polls are closed, and now we can officially report on Fox that it's too close to call.

MATT LAUER, CO-HOST "THE TODAY SHOW": Wisconsin's Scott Walker becomes the first governor in American history to survive a recall vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: Turned out to be not that close. Scott Walker wins governor of Wisconsin again, winning the special recall election, called by opponents of his policies and supported by unions and some in the liberal media. Here is one reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: This is not going to be an easy night for many broadcasters, who are liberal. This is not going to be an easy night for this broadcaster. To say that I'm shocked and stunned is pretty much an understatement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: So there you had Ed Schultz from MSNBC.

Was his reaction typical, Jim?

JIM PINKERTON, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE MAGAZINE: I think the media sort of had four reactions overall. One was, it was clearly bad news for liberals -- and you could see on Schultz's face. And they had to process that. Second of all, they couldn't get too negative and down beat. That would undercut President Obama's momentum. And they had that exit poll would take -- even if the exit poll was discredited and proven wrong, it still would say -- afterwards would say, of course, Obama won the exit poll vote. The third story line, this is all the Koch brother's fault. And the fourth story line, what got into Bill Clinton, or has he gotten too old? In which Politico even talked about.

SCOTT: One of the story lines, too, Judy, was why did this recall election ever make it in the first place. Walker hadn't committed a crime, he wasn't -- he hadn't been convicted with a sex offense or caught in office, you know, with his pants down.

JUDY MILLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Right, right, and that was --I'll add number five to Jim's list of four, which is you know it's really hard to recall a governor and it's only happened twice in recent American history, 1921 and 2003. And therefore, this was always a long shot. As opposed to the obvious story, which was this was a huge setback for Democrats and for liberal union people in particular.

SCOTT: The money spent was often cited by those who, you know, lost the Walker recall election. They say, oh, he outspent us seven or eight to one. When you add it up, all the spending for all the candidates, it was really a lot closer than that.

ALAN COLMES, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, 7-1, 7.5-1 is what I read. And also it came from out of state. Much of Walker's money came from out of state as opposed to Barrett. So that was another thing. So the Republicans -- why you are laughing and smiling at me as I said that.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: It came from out of state. This wasn't a local election to Republicans. It was a mass national election. And you know the media missed so much here. They missed Walker, why did he leave Marquette? They missed the John Doe investigation. If there were a liberal running, you would have the media focus. They barely talked about it during this campaign. I'd like to know why.

SCOTT: Monica?

MONICA CROWLEY: Actually, a closer examination of the money poured into the Wisconsin recall shows it was 2-1, Walker advantage, not 7-1, when you add in all the money spent by unions and so on. I find is incredibly rich that the left, which had no problem with Barack Obama raising $770 million in the last election cycle and raising a lot this time, too, suddenly had a problem with the money raised on the right.

I do think that there were some in the press who raised the bigger question. It wasn't necessarily unions versus Scott Walker. This race was really about the two paths that America faces. Are we going down the road of European-style socialism -- sort of statist --

(LAUGHTER)

-- statist orientation that the unions represent or are we going to try it get America back on track in terms of economic liberty. And voters in Wisconsin chose economic liberty.

SCOTT: One of the exit polls, after people in Wisconsin voted on Tuesday, asked this--Do you think that recall elections are appropriate anytime? They got 27 percent, yes; misconduct, 60 percent; never, 10 percent. So, 70 percent of those who were polled didn't think this election really needed to be held.

PINKERTON: Right. I think that was probably Walker's key argument. Even -- a big part of his message. Even if you disagree with me on the union business, you still agree, don't you, that I should have four years. You elected me and so on. And obviously, the voters responded to that. Walker won a larger margin in the recall than he won in 2010. This led to further paradoxes of coverage. Jim Treacher (ph), who's a made-up name for a blogger for the Daily Caller, said, Obama got a 53 percent and got a, quote, "mandate." Walker got 53 percent and, quote, "survived."

(LAUGHTER)

COLMES: Republicans had no problem with the recall election getting Gray Davis out of office for a big Hollywood star, Arnold Schwarzenegger. All of a sudden, recalls are bad. He shouldn't do it. What did he do it? There wasn't enough reason to do it. But, they didn't have that argument when it was Gray Davis in California, did they?

SCOTT: Let's talk about the presidential race. The other big story of the week, Bill Clinton, and is he or is he not a Barack Obama supporter? He said that Mitt Romney had a sterling business record and was qualified for the presidency. And he talked about extending the Bush-era tax cuts and thought it was the reasonable thing to do. But then he backed away from that and even issued an apology on the tax cut question. And Charles Krauthammer called him a double agent.

(LAUGHTER)

He is?

MILLER: Well, I think it's yet another bit of bad news for President Obama recently. When Bill Clinton gets out there and makes your opponent look worthy and noble, and you look kind of like, who is this guy? Oh, yes, he's the president. No, I think that Bill Clinton's so powerful in Democratic circles that, even in the press conference on Friday, President Obama still had to pay homage to Bill Clinton by framing the economic choice the nation faces, citing Clinton. I think that's an amazing tribute to the powers of the man.

PINKERTON: Somebody can write a book about how much Bill Clinton hates Barack Obama. Oh, wait, Ed Klein already wrote that.

(LAUGHTER)

MILLER: It hasn't been covered by --

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: Do you believe the stuff in the book? Do you really believe all the stuff of Ed Klein?

CROWLEY: You know what's interesting about the Clinton maneuver, though, Clinton has been passive-aggressive when it comes to big rivals. And in this case with Barack Obama, because he loathes him so much --

(LAUGHTER)

-- He's doubling down on aggressiveness rather than the passiveness.

(CROSSTALK)

CROWLEY: He's saying that the U.S. economy is already in recession. And that's, to me, the biggest dagger through Obama's heart

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: -- divide and conquer. Divide and conquer. Bill Clinton never said the tax cuts could be permanent. The media got it totally wrong. They went with the headline that CNBC, where CNBC said U.S. already in recession, extend tax cuts says Bill Clinton, totally ignoring that he said they never should be permanent. And then he went back and said we should not have the tax --

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: We're going to have to -- we're going to have to --

(CROSSTALK)

PINKERTON: He did say sterling record for Romney.

COLMES: He didn't totally attack the guy.

SCOTT: We're going keep arguing about this during the break.

(LAUGHTER)

Next, Congress wants to plug the leaks to papers like The New York Times.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: I don't think it's an accident that you have three stories within about 45 days that paint the Obama administration as being effective in the war on terror at our national security detriment.

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ANNOUNCER: Members of Congress calling for a high-level investigation into what they call high-level leaks from the Obama White House. Secret details of covert operations ending up on pages of The New York Times. Is this just good reporting or part of an agenda to build up our president's image? And where is the media concern about our nation's security? Answers next, on "News Watch."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.: There's been a disturbing stream of articles in the media. And common among them is that they cite leaked classified or highly sensitive information in what appears to be a broader administration effort to paint a portrait of the president of the United States as a strong leader on national security issues.

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SCOTT: Senator John McCain expressing concerns there over high-level leaks to The New York Times. His concerns and others launching the House Intelligence Committee to formally investigate the recent leak of sensitive information about the covert drone and cyber wars against terrorism by the Obama administration. The president responded to those claims on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive.

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SCOTT: We talked a little about this last week, Monica. The suggestion from Senator McCain is that the president or the president's people are trying to burnish his image as a warrior and a protector of the nation by releasing classified information.

CROWLEY: Yes. And note that was not a full-on aisle denial. He just called it offensive. He didn't say it doesn't come from my White House.

Look, the politicizing of national security from this administration over the last couple of years has been totally, totally outrageous. It was bad enough when the released ex post facto details of the Usama bin Laden raid. But in this case, to leak sensitive details about an ongoing operation with regard to the United States' number-one enemy, number-one state-based enemy, Iran, is so appalling and so irresponsible. And the idea that somehow they're going to investigate leaks that came from them is -- how

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: Alan, you're moaning and groaning. But why doesn't the president, when he's asked that question, why doesn't he just say, no, we didn't do it.

COLMES: He just said it's offensive that there would even be the notion that this would be the place. What more do you want from the guy? He didn't say the words.

And you would believe him if he denied it? If he denied it, you would say, OK, fine, no further questions.

MILLER: How about the world no, Alan? How about the word no?

(LAUGHTER)

COLMES: Fine. But if he denied it, you wouldn't believe him anyway.

MILLER: That's not true. That's --

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: It is ridiculous.

CROWLEY: But the problem here is that these leaks imperiled not just ongoing policy, and not just covert operations that are happening now, but endangering --

COLMES: Do you think the president supports the leaks?

CROWLEY: -- endangering American life.

COLMES: Do you think he supports the leaks?

CROWLEY: I would like to see the commander-in-chief do a full-on denial. And there's a reason why he couldn't --

COLMES: He says there will be accountability. There will be a price to pay if anybody did it. It's offensive even to suggest it. What more do you want? He'll never say the words you'll want him to say.

SCOTT: The leaks -- obviously, the media like to get information like this, Jim. You're constantly telling us information wants to be free.

Are the media concerned about what happened here?

MILLER: The media should be concerned, because where this leads is to leak investigations and the drying up of sources. I still have to remind everybody that when the 9/11 Commission looked at how we had suffered the worst attack, the worst attack in our history, in which 3000 Americans died, it concluded the reason was too much secrecy in government, not enough communication between agencies and to the public. And that remains the bottom line. We need information. Not all. Yes, yes, there is some danger of leaking classified information. But every administration leaks some information to make itself look good. It's always going to happen.

PINKERTON: Judy there's a bit of a distinction between two silos in the government; say the FBI and the CIA, communicating back and forth. And both silos are the White House communicating with The New York Times, and therefore with the Iranians and so on.

Look, I said last week, and still my opinion, that these leaks came from the Oval Office. I said that last week, and I'll stand by that.

I think the president is going to be in the awkward position of investigating who in his administration --

(CROSSTALK)

PINKERTON: He's obviously not going to want to do it. But what is very telling is Dianne Feinstein -- those three Republicans plus her up there. She's a Democrat. She's very respected. She's an expert on intelligence. If she thinks it's serious, bordering on potentially criminal, then the Obama White House has a real problem.

COLMES: By the way, he doesn't need to burnish his national security creds. Because he's already proven through his policies getting all these al-Qaeda people, getting bin Laden. He's already proven this.

(CROSSTALK)

CROWLEY: Clearly, he has to; because he can't run on the economy so that's the only thing he has --

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: Oh, I see, so do you grant to me he doesn't have to --

(CROSSTALK)

CROWLEY: There's a very interesting dynamic because, during the Bush years, the Bush White House begged newspapers like The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, not to splash these state secrets on page one. Those newspapers went and did it anyway. Now you have an administration that's actually leaking to The New York Times and they're more than happy to help the president out by doing exactly that.

COLMES: The Times, by the way, said the leak did not come --

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: Wait a minute. But that's another problem. You don't -- once you have news organizations saying it wasn't him, it wasn't her, it wasn't the third party, it's going to be really easy to identify who it was. And you know, I'm for -- yes, it's true I'm sensitive about this because I went to jail to protect a source. I know what happens when a leak investigation starts. It's a huge distraction for an administration that's facing enormous challenges and problems, and for the media. And this does not end well.

SCOTT: And there's just this nugget from a Fox News poll out on Friday. The pollsters asked members of the public, who do most members of the media want to win the election-- Obama, 58 percent; Mitt Romney, 21 percent; unsure, 13 percent.

More "News Watch" ahead.

But first, if you see something that you feel shows evidence of media bias, e-mail us at newswatch@FOXnews.com.

Up next, did the matron of ABC News mess up?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA WALTERS, CO-HOST "THE VIEW": Now, sir, much of the world regards you as a dictator and a tyrant. What do you say to that?

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ANNOUNCER: Barbara Walters gets a big interview with Syria's al-Assad. Then she tries to get his former aide a job at CNN. How did the media react to that deal?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

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ANNOUNCER: And Q.E. II's jubilee celebration gets world attention. But did one cable news network go overboard on the coverage? Find out next, on "News Watch."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCOTT: ABC's Barbara Walters pulled off a real coup, getting an interview with Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, in September. A very timely booking, considering the escalating conflicts and reports of civilian massacres in that country. However, earlier this week, the London newspaper, The Telegraph, printed a series of chummy e-mails between Walters and a former press aide to al-Assad. Sharazad Ja'afari, daughter of the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, and a one-time press aide to Assad, helped Walters land that interview with the Syrian president. And once the e-mails were made public, the media took aim. The suggestion, according to The New York Times, Ja'afari -- I'm sorry. According to the London Telegraph, Ja'afari asked Walters if she could assist her in getting work. In January, Walters wrote saying she had contacted CNN'S Piers Morgan on her behalf, and to say how terrific you are, and attached the resume. Appropriate?

MILLER: Not appropriate. And much to Barbara Walter's credit, she owned up immediately and she said she made a mistake, that she was sorry. She apologized. A great reporter and great anchor over many, many years. She shouldn't have done it and she knows it.

SCOTT: So, Jim, she also wrote to a former ABC news executive, Richard Wald (ph), now at the Columbia Journalism School, and tried to get his support.

PINKERTON: Right. This is a window into the world of celebrity get, as in how you get access to whomever fill-in-the-blank person that is it, who is famous at the moment. The interview by itself, by the way, back last year, was not exactly the toughest interview ever, as when Assad said, "I have nothing to do with people getting murdered here." And she sat and listened to them. But now we know how it works, how the game is played.

CROWLEY: That they get chummy with aides. This is not every journalist, just some journalists, who might get chummy with some aides and then exploit the relationship and then want to return the favor. But you have to ask the question, if somebody on the right had done this --

COLMES: Oh, come on.

CROWLEY: -- they would so be fired.

(LAUGHTER)

I'm just saying.

(LAUGHTER)

COLMES: Oh, yes, it's always the four little --

(CROSSTALK)

CROWLEY: Just saying.

(LAUGHTER)

SCOTT: Let's move on to the other controversy of the week. The U.S. media joined the British in celebrating Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, 60 years on the throne. There was the massive flotilla on the Thames and ride through London in a horse-drawn carriage and a mega concert outside Buckingham Palace. The queen and her family always an attraction to the U.S. press.

But, Alan, were you glued to the tube --

(LAUGHTER)

COLMES: It made me want to watch the gardening channel.

(LAUGHTER)

I could -- it would be hard for me to care less about this. I really honestly -- and according to the ratings of those who did cover it, a lot of people are with me on that. It's ridiculous.

(LAUGHTER)

SCOTT: We have to take one more break.

When we come back, should the head of a network news operation attend a candidate's fundraiser?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCOTT: President Obama was in Los Angeles Wednesday raising cash for his reelection campaign. Our first gay president, as Newsweek dubbed him after his pro-gay marriage revelation, found a representative crowd at the LGBT gala in Beverly Hills. According to the L.A. Times, the audience of 600 was made up of the who's who of gay Hollywood and supporters of the gay community. Ellen DeGeneres M.C.'ed the event. Cher and her son, Chaz, were there. So was Les Moonves president and CEO of CBS. L.A. Times quotes the CBS chief as saying, "Mr. Obama has shown great leadership on the issue of gay marriage." Though he heads a new division, Moonves says, "Ultimately, journalism has changed. Partisanship is very much a part of journalism now." He hastened to add that despite his presence, "I run a news division. I have given no money to any candidates."

The question we have is why would the guy who oversees the news division attend the fundraising event for any candidate?

That's a wrap on "News Watch" for this week.

Thanks to Judy Miller, Jim Pinkerton, Monica Crowley and Alan Colmes.

I'm Jon Scott. Thanks for joining us today. Keep it here on Fox News channel. We'll see you next week for another edition of "Fox News Watch."

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