2020 Democrats appeal to progressive wing of party

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2020 Democrats appeal to progressive wing of party

Could a move to the left upset Democratic chances in 2020? Insight and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," January 28, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF.: I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

HOWARD SCHULTZ, FORMER STARBUCKS CEO: I am seriously thinking of running for president. I will run as a centrist independent.

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, D-N.Y.: This is going to be a very different campaign. My vote is not for sale. My character, my integrity is not for sale.

SEN. SHERROD BROWN, D-OHIO: I would love to see this presidential race, whether I'm in it or not. and I honestly don't know yet, as my wife and I talk about it.

GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER, D-COLO.: There's no announcement, but we hope in the next few weeks to get to that point.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: Get in the pool, come on, it's warm. There's lots of them. So far declared candidates on the Democratic side, John Delaney, Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, Julian Castro, and Kamala Harris. And then the exploratory committees, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand and Pete -- tell me -- Buttigieg, the South Bend mayor. But this of course means there are many out yet to say that they are getting in, and there may be more than pictured here.

Let's start there with the 2020 race and bring in our panel: Chris Stirewalt is politics editor here at Fox News; Katie Pavlich, is news editor at Townhall.com, and Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters. OK, Chris, the big announcement this weekend, Kamala Harris, and this 20,000 plus turnout. It was pretty impressive to see.

CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS POLITICAL EDITOR: She stuck the landing, and particularly given the fact that she slow rolled it. She announced an announcement of an announcement of an announcement, and I thought that she had probably used up a lot of the oxygen. But, as other people have observed, that was Obama-esque, to get a crowd of that size and that much energy. And by the way, a huge selling point for her is going to have to be I can go crowd for crowd with Donald Trump. As Donald Trump does his rallies, I can do it too, I can generate that kind of energy.

BAIER: Jeff, do you agree?

JEFF MASON, REUTERS: Yes, and early. It's hard to forget that we are actually -- it's just January still of 2019. We are a far ways away from getting to the Iowa caucuses, from getting to the point where voters will actually make some decisions. And to get that many people now at this point in the process, it's a feather in her cap.

BAIER: She benefits from California moving up in the primary process. It is all starting earlier. The debates, we are told, are going to start in June of this year. That's a different ballgame. She obviously comes with a lot of history, a lot of past as attorney general, as a prosecutor, but relatively not a lot of experience up on Capitol Hill.

KATIE PAVLICH, TOWNHALL.COM: Right. She spent most of her political courier outside of Washington, D.C., which, based on what she said during her speech about being for the people, delivering things to people at home, at their tables, that's something that will benefit her, not being part of the D.C. swamp, so to speak. She can't be accused of being part of the establishment, which will help her with a left wing of her party.

However, that being said, when you listen to what she did say, I think Democrats have to be very careful, not just Kamala Harris, about having a deplorable moment like Hillary Clinton did. She talked about this is not who we are. And that is a very fine line to walk and it comes to trying to get not primary voters but eventually to run against Donald Trump, whose fans are not just Republicans. He has a lot of independent voters, a lot of working-class people who voted for him in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. And so if she's going to try and court those voters to get back in places like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, she can't accuse them of racism or not being on the same moral page as the Democrats are right now.

BAIER: Meantime, the former Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, essentially dipping his toe in the water as an independent. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Every American deserves the right to have access to quality health care, but what the Democrats are proposing is something that is as false as the wall, and that is free health care for all, which the country cannot afford.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: The left was up in arms about some of that. Donald Trump, the president, took to Twitter to say "Howard Schultz doesn't have the guts to run for president. Watched them on "60 Minutes" last night, and I agree with him that he is not the smartest person. Besides, America already has that. I only hope Starbucks is still paying me their rent in Trump Tower!" Jeff, he just has a way with the tweets, to stir the pot.

MASON: He does. I've been to that Starbucks in Trump Tower.

(LAUGHTER)

MASON: I'm pretty sure he's probably still getting that rent. But broadly, the fact that the president is tweeting about him at the end of the day elevates him. And it's a way of staying in the conversation. It's a way of saying this person might actually be a player. It's interesting to me that the president is watching that so closely. And it's certainly something if he does decide to run as an independent that would be helpful to President Trump.

BAIER: Right. And Michael Bloomberg, former New York mayor, possible Democratic candidate, said he's not going to run as an independent, sent out a letter to that, saying "I have never been a partisan guy. It's no secret that I've looked at an independent run in the past. In fact, I faced exactly the same decision now facing others who are considering it," I think pointing to Schultz. "The data is very clear and very consistent. Given the strong pull of partisanship, the realities of the Electoral College system, there is no way an independent can win. That is truer today than ever before. In 2020 the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up reelecting the present. That's a risk I refused to run in 2016 and we can't afford to run it now. We must remain united and must not allow any candidate to divide or fracture us. The stakes couldn't be higher." Strong letter to follow to Howard.

STIREWALT: The amount of freak out. Howard Schultz is a political nonentity. He is an unknown person. He is less well known -- Katie Pavlich has higher name identification, probably substantially --

PAVLICH: I'm running for president.

STIREWALT: She is running for president, so there is that, of Arizona. But he is an unknown. Yes, he has money, yes, he says he's going to get on the ballot, but so what? The degree of freak out among Democrats today, I think they were over caffeinated, but as the total spasm that went through Democrats talking about this. Calm down, people. It's very early, don't worry so much. But you can tell the Democrats are very jittery about something like this happening.

PAVLICH: Michael Bloomberg has found out in the past that the only thing in the middle really is roadkill, and that's exactly what he's looking at in terms of his own bid. And Schultz can go for it, but we live in a time where people want to know what Democrats and Republicans are going to do for their families, and they are not really interested in someone who makes them feel good about being civil.

BAIER: But you know what, there is this large center part of the country. Clearly people at least say they want Washington to work in a bipartisan way. But when it comes to elections, Jeff, you've got to play to the bases it seems at the beginning, at least that's how the parties have operated in recent history.

MASON: Certainly, at the beginning when you're working to get the nomination. So if you're a Democrat you're going to be moving to the left. If you're a Republican you're probably going to be moving to the right. Apparently Schultz sees a pathway in the center, but it is historically very unlikely that he has a chance of ever becoming president of the United States if that's the pathway he tries to go.

BAIER: We thought we would start there with 2020. We have a lot of these panels ahead in coming months.

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