Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 'Green New Deal' seen as 2020 litmus test

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 'Green New Deal' seen as 2020 litmus test

Democrats unveil bold plan to combat climate change; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," February 8, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JOHN ROBERTS, HOST: Let's bring in our panel tonight, correspondent Ellison Barber who is following all of the developments from Richmond tonight, Matthew Continetti, the editor in chief of the "Washington Free Beacon," Charles Lane, opinion writer for "The Washington Post," and Marc Thiessen, fellow at the America Enterprise Institute.

Let's lead off tonight with the new allegations against the lieutenant governor of Virginia, Justin Fairfax. A woman named Meredith Watson claims that Fairfax raped her at Duke University back in 2000, that she has emails, Facebook posts, and friends who will back this up. A statement from a law firm representing her out of Montclair, New Jersey, says "At this time Ms. Watson is reluctantly coming forward out of a strong sense of civic duty in her belief that those seeking or serving in public office should be of the highest character. She has no interest in becoming a media personality or reliving the trauma that has greatly affected her life. Similarly, she is not seeking any financial damages. On behalf of our client we have notified Justin Fairfax through his attorneys that Ms. Watson hopes he will resign from public office."

Ellison, what is your read on the ground there in Richmond tonight about all of this?

ELLISON BARBER, CORRESPONDENT: Chaotic is really the best way to describe it at this point, John. We had this situation where so far there have just been so many names, so many different scandals that at times it is just overwhelming. Yesterday there were new names, new scandals, peripheral scandals coming out related to all of this, and really the mood at times has been just how on earth do you follow along with all of this.

But by today, some of the pressure, particularly on the elected officials, particularly on Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax to resign seemed to be subsiding. You had a lot of Democrats saying that the governor needed to step down, but they were holding off on calling for that when it comes to the lieutenant governor. Instead, they were saying we think these allegations from the first woman, Dr. Vanessa Tyson, we think those are credible, they should be looked into. We need an investigation to gather the facts.

Now, in the last hour and a half with this latest accuser, you have a complete reversal where tons of people from outside are now saying, he's got to go, he's got to go now. He's buckling down, but that just changed everything with the second accuser.

ROBERTS: Some of those people include Terry McAuliffe, Cory Booker, Don Beyer, Abigail Spanberger, Elaine Luria, Jennifer Wexton, Gerry Connolly, who are all saying resign. We remember back to Kavanaugh, and there was a real caution on the Republican side, do not rush to judgment here. Where are we with this?

MARC THIESSEN, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Well, don't rush to judgment. My God, the Democrats unleashed this monster of character assassination against Brett Kavanaugh and all of a sudden they're calling for due process? It's ridiculous. The monster that they unleashed is coming back to devour them. They said in the Kavanaugh case accusations along are enough, and now they can't turn around and call for due process. On the other --

ROBERTS: But there are a lot of people who aren't, including all the ones I named. They're saying he's got to go.

THIESSEN: But this is the thing, that there is more evidence in this case. You pointed out with the new accuser, here's corroboration at the time, she told people about it. This new Dr. Tyson who accused him, the first accuser, she knew where it happened, when it happened. If you read through the details of what happened to her, it's searing. And she's a respected professor. This is a person who commands some respect. And the Democrats --

ROBERTS: But Christine Blasey Ford was a respected professor as well, and yet, Republicans said don't believe a thing that she says. Fairfax says in a statement "I deny this latest unsubstantiated allegation. It is demonstrably false. I have never forced myself on anyone." He's demanding a full investigation. What should happen here, Charles?

CHARLES LANE, OPINION WRITER, "WASHINGTON POST": He may try to ride this out. As desperate as his situation appears, he does have a strong base of support in the state. He looks terrible now because he's in the middle of this storm, but we are forgetting it was just a few days ago when it looked like Ralph Northam might be forced to step down, Justin Fairfax is being hailed as this sort of this shining, young star in Virginia politics. He has a strong support in the black community. He is the top African- American public official in the state. And I wouldn't underestimate his ability to mount a counterattack.

What this shows, generally though, is something that I felt was true from the very beginning of the Me Too movement. It is going to be very, very hard for any political party to be consistent about applying these principles, because at a certain point, your party interests will clash with the consistent holding to account of your officials. And I think that is part of what is happening with the Virginia Democrats.

ROBERTS: Matthew, there are so many echoes and parallels here with the Judge Kavanaugh case, including Justin Fairfax's statement where he says "I have passed to full field background checks by the FBI and run for office in two highly contested elections office with nothing like the being raised before."

MATTHEW CONTINETTI, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "WASHINGTON FREE BEACON: But will we see the additional parallel of a rallying effect, right. Republicans rallied to Brett Kavanaugh, they believed his story, and there were political ramifications of that belief --

ROBERTS: At the moment Democrats by and large are running for the exists.

CONTINETTI: They're doing the opposite, which creates a political problem for the Democrats, John, because not only does Virginia have statewide elections this year, you have the 2020 election coming up. What 2020 Democrat is going to want to appear at a rally with the governor, the lieutenant governor, or the attorney general? This is a big problem not just for the Virginia Democratic Party but the national Democratic Party.

THIESSEN: I disagree there is a parallel. Brett Kavanaugh denied that he was even at the event. Fairfax admits there was sexual contact with the victims. They have in details that details Christine Blasey Ford couldn't remember where it happened, when it happened, how she got home. There's detailed allegations. So this whole concept of the accusation is enough, the Democrats are not being consistent, and they need to be.

ROBERTS: Let's go back to Richmond and Ellison Barber. What do we expect is going to happen in the next 24 to 48 hours?

BARBER: There is no way to predict it, but I can tell you what I am going to be looking for, and one thing is going to be does the lieutenant governor reverse course. The other one is going to be, do more women come out? The statement that we have tonight from the law firm representing Meredith Watson very clearly says, and I'm going to read it to you with, "Ms. Watson was upset to learn Mr. Fairfax raped at least one other woman after he attacked her." The lieutenant governor of course is denying this entire statement, but that implies that there could be more women coming forward. Moving forward, that is going to be the question, is how many more Democrats speak out, and do other women come forward as well?

ROBERTS: In the meantime, the governor of Virginia sent a letter out to the workers and Commonwealth of the State of Virginia, saying "I am deeply sorry for causing this distraction for your important work. You have placed your trust in me to lead Virginia forward, and I plan to do that." Charles and Matthew, he is not going anywhere, at least not at the moment.

LANE: It all started with him and a blackface photo and a photo of Klansman in his yearbook. That hasn't been run to ground. We don't know all the facts on that yet, but he has brazened it out thus far, and --

CONTINETTI: It started with his abortion comments. So we have abortion, race, and sex all converging in Virginia.

LANE: And the ultimate irony would be that ends up being the lone survivor out of the whole thing.

ROBERTS: Stay there. We will be right back with the lightning ramp, with the Green New Deal, the acting attorney general getting testy on Capitol Hill, and this week's Winners and Losers. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the challenges is out there and I think the green generation is ready to politically fight for it.

REP. ALEXANDRA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: Climate change and environmental challenges are one of the biggest existential threats to our way of life.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, R-CALIF., HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Her own Speaker is calling it a green dream, so I think there's challenges to it even in her own conference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Rolling out the new green deal. We're back with our panel, and our thanks Ellison Barber who has now gone back to work on the big story there in Richmond.

When we look at this, this Green New Deal is not just something we're going to be talking about for the next few weeks. We are going to be talking about this for the next two years.

THIESSEN: Absolutely. Look, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the greatest thing that ever happened to Donald Trump and the Republican Party. She is going to make the Democrats unelectable in 2020 by going down this path. The Democrats want to take your car, they want to take your house, they want to take your health insurance, they want to take away your air travel, and they even want to take your hamburgers. That is the platform on which they are going to be running in 2020. Republicans are going to wrap this around the Democrats necks like an albatross and ride it into the next election.

ROBERTS: Kimberley Strassel had an interesting op-ed today in which she said "Every Democrat in Washington will get to go on the record in favor of abolishing air travel, outlawing steaks, forcing all American homeowners to retrofit their houses, putting every miner, oil rigger, livestock rancher, and gas-station attendant out of a job, and spending trillions and trillions of more tax dollars. It's a GOP dream." Is it, Charles?

LANE: I think that is a little overstated for the following reasons. It is true by putting all of these specifics out there at least in the form of this resolution, they have hung their hats on something pretty controversial. But the reason they fastened on this phrase, "Green New Deal," is that those two phrases, "Green," and "New Deal," poll pretty well. If they had managed to stick to the vague generality of, you know what, we're going to have a big environmental program, they might have done better out of it. But they now going to have to defend a lot of hard to defend things.

ROBERTS: Matthew, "Green," and "New Deal" probably do poll well, but how does no airplanes and you can't have any more steaks, and Mazie Hirono saying she supports it, but how is she going to get from Hawaii back to Washington?

CONTINETTI: Popular in the abstract and unpopular in the specifics.

I was struck by two things. One is, I think it's intellectually dishonest, because you have these grand plans but you forswear nuclear power. There is no way we can even begin to make a huge dent in our carbon missions without embracing nuclear.

And the second thing, John, was there's a sentence in Ocasio-Cortez's document where she writes we're going to guarantee economic security to people unable or unwilling to work. That would overturn the entirety of the American welfare state, beginning with the New Deal. We have always provided for people who are incapable of working. She wants to say, no, it doesn't matter whether you are capable or not. If you don't want to work, we'll take care of you anyway. This is a radical plan.

ROBERTS: Let's change to the Whitaker hearing today, which was quite contentious, to say the least. One particularly memorable moment, watch this exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERROLD NADLER, D-N.Y.: Have you been ever been asked to approve any request or action to be taken by the special counsel?

MATTHEW WHITAKER, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: Mr. Chairman, I see that you're five minutes is up, and so --

(LAUGHTER)

WHITAKER: I am here voluntarily. We have agreed to five-minute rounds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Nobody was quite sure if he was joking or not.

THIESSEN: What struck me about today's hearing was the start contrast with President Trump's State of the Union address. So in the State of the Union address he was extremely conciliatory, he asked Democrats to reject the politics of revenge, resistance, and retribution, and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise, and common good. Today, 47 million Americans watched that. Today millions of Americans watched this appalling partisan display and embrace of revenge, resistance, and retribution.

ROBERTS: But Democrats definitely had a lot of questions they wanted to get to him on the way out of the door.

LANE: I don't know how seriously to take the president when he's calling for conciliation. He's done a little partisanship and insulting himself over the years. But, yes, this was an opportunity to get at Mr. Whitaker before the door hit him on the back on his way out. And I didn't think he acquitted himself super.

ROBERTS: It's Friday, Winners and Losers. Matthew, why don't you start us off.

CONTINETTI: My winner is Pope Francis. This is most significant event of the week and it's the most under covered. The Pope became the first pontiff to give a mass on the Arabian Peninsula. This is a world historical event. And he also did something for religious toleration and I think actually for promoting less violent form of Islam as well.

ROBERTS: Loser?

CONTINETTI: My loser is my beloved home state of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is turning all of Tom Wolfe's novels into far-fetched fiction because the reality is even crazier.

ROBERTS: Marc, winners and losers?

THIESSEN: My winner is, in response to you just a second ago, is President Trump because he delivered a highly effective State of the Union address that was designed unusually for Donald Trump to reach beyond his core base to people in the center, and it worked -- 76 percent of viewers approved of his address, including 72 percent who approved of his ideas of immigration.

Loser is Nancy Pelosi because she is the one responsible for containing the Ocasio-Cortez contagion. Ocasio-Cortez is going to be making her life miserable by bringing full socialism to the front of the Democratic agenda.

ROBERTS: Charles, 40 seconds.

LANE: My winner is John Roberts. Not you.

(LAUGHTER)

LANE: The chief justice of the United States who positioned himself both as somebody who has the controlling fifth vote on the court and maintaining its legitimacy and respect for precedent.

My loser, Elizabeth Warren. In politics, if you are explaining you're losing. If you're explaining why you wrote American Indian for your race in 1986 and then didn't really come forth about it later on, you are really losing, so that's why I picked her.

ROBERTS: And the big rollout coming this weekend as well. There I am, always the bridesmaid, never the bride when it comes to John Roberts.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: When we come back, "Notable Quotables." Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: And finally tonight, "Notable Quotables."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have seen many things good and bad, and much change.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The history of blackface in this country is the history of racism in this country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is no country for creepy old men. But this is no country at all without due process.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS.: This was about 30 years ago. And I am not a tribal citizen.

REP. BETO O'ROURKE, D-TX, FORMER SENATE CANDIDATE: If I can play some role in helping the country to do that, by God I'm going to do it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, by God when are you going to know the answer?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We also have more women serving in Congress than at any time before.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: America will never be a socialist country.

CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., SENATE MINORITY LEADER: The president's speech was like 90-minute performance of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

STACEY ABRAMS, D-GA, FORMER GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: The state of our union will always be strong.

REP. ALEXANDRA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: I think it is a green dream. It is. It is.

MIKE HUCKABEE, R-ARK., FORMER GOVERNOR: What are you going to do, ground all the airlines, the buses, the cars?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would be pretty hard for Hawaii.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a little bit tired of listening to things that are pie in the sky that we never are going to pass.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The dynasty continues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Chairman, I see that your five minutes is up.

TRUMP: Today is Judah's 81st birthday.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: They wouldn't do that for me, Judah.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: And all that happened in the course of just six days in the history of these United States.

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. Good night from Washington. And make sure to tune in this Sunday to see "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace. His guests include acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. "The Story" hosted by Martha MacCallum starts right now. Hi, Martha.

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