Are Democrats ready to hear President Trump's call for unity?

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Are Democrats ready to hear President Trump's call for unity?

President Trump to use State of the Union Address to urge unity amid divided government; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Star panel.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," February 5, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think the point that the president will make tonight is when we work together we can do great things. And we have a choice to make. We can either work together and fix big problems that America is facing, or we can ignore them and do nothing.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY, SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: The American people are less interested in beltway melodrama and more interested in that classic question -- am I better off now than I was two years ago?

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., SENATE MINORITY LEADER: It seems every year the president wakes up and discovers the desire for unity on the morning of the State of the Union.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, HOST: About two hours away from the State of the Union address. What about this speech and what it means? What could happen? Let's bring in our panel, Matthew Continetti, editor in chief of the "Washington Free Beacon," Kimberley Strassel, a member of the editorial board at the "Wall Street Journal," and joining me here at the White House, Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters.

Jeff, we heard from administration officials, Sarah, others, saying this is about unity. It's interesting context in what we have seen here in Washington. But there is going to be an effort to reach across the aisle, I guess.

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: For sure. He's going to reach across the aisle on issues such as infrastructure, perhaps on drugs, drug pricing. But this whole talk about unity which the administration has been saying for a few days, is undermined a little bit by the fact that on the same day of his State of the Union address the president has been tweeting about immigration, tweeting about the wall, in a way that Democrats certainly would not see as unifying or something that they can get behind.

BAIER: Kimberley, thoughts?

KIMBERLEY STRASSEL, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, look, there had to be a strategic decision. Going into this State of the Union, are you going to take the bipartisan approach, or are you going to be combative and aggressive? That's what the president was throughout most of the shutdown -- combative, aggressive. It didn't necessarily work out. And, in fact, he looked his absolute best at the end when he was the one saying, look, let's go back to that bipartisan deal on immigration. Let's all get together. You get what you want. I do. And then it was the Democrats who looked more petty and not willing to stand and work together.

So I do think at least from a strategic standpoint this makes a lot of sense. Are Democrats willing to be open to that at the moment? That's less clear.

BAIER: So when you listen to some Democrats, there are cracks in the border security call. Take a listen to some expecting maybe compromise tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KATIE HILL, D-CALIF.: We do need to get past the semantics and really come to this compromise. And I know that that means that the hardliners and both sides are going to not be happy and they're probably not going to vote for it. But I believe that most people are somewhere in the middle.

REP. MAX ROSE, D-N.Y.: I completely agree that most people are somewhere in the middle. We should be looking for the most effective, cost effective thing to do that also upholds our values.

REP. STENY HOYER, D-MD, HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: I think that that's going to be on the table. And I think the conferees will have to come to an agreement on that, and I think they will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Matthew, your thoughts?

MONICA CROWLEY, COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON TIMES": It all depends on what the meaning of the word "wall" is. And if the conference can give some amount of funds for barrier fencing, building new structures. Remember, there is this misconception, which I hope the president tries to correct in his speech tonight, that he is calling for a wall from sea to shining sea. That's not what's actually being discussed. He wants several hundred miles of new walls or new fencing. If there is some measure that gets us closer to that, the president should accept it.

This is not just a State of the Union, Bret. It's the launch of the 2020 presidential campaign, and I think that's why the president is focused on a message of bipartisan, trying to recapture the political center, which I think he held in 2016.

BAIER: Remember, the State of the Union addresses typically look at what has been accomplished up until now or over the past year, what the hopes and dreams are, and then weave in some stories of personal -- people who were invited to kind of mend the policy in politics. Here's the president over the past couple of years on trade and this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We will work to fix bad trade deals and negotiate new ones.

We have also made history by finalizing an agreement to replace the horrible NAFTA with a brand new U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement called the USMCA, a whole different world.

We never really had a trade deal with China, and now we're going to have a great trade deal with China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: We obviously don't know about what's going to transpire with China, but it seems like it's heading in a positive direction. Maybe a President Xi meeting on the back end of this North Korea summit, which is probably going to be announced tonight. Is it fair to say that he has changed the dynamic in Washington when it came to looking to how he is dealing with trade?

MASON: Absolutely.

BAIER: I mean dramatically.

MASON: Sure, absolutely. He believes he has got a really story to tell on trade, and part of that is the Canada, Mexico trade agreement. But looking forward, it's the issue you just brought up, which is China. Just last week there was a meeting here between Chinese officials and U.S. officials, including the president, to talk about a big deal. He has been speaking very positively about it, I imagine we'll hear that again tonight.

But I think the White House and the president, according to my sources, are still going to be very, shall I say, strict with China. Sorry I couldn't come up with that word. On issues --

BAIER: You mean the Lighthizers?

STRASSEL: Yes, on intellectual property, on technology transfer, those types of things. So there may be a positive spin that he is giving, and he may give that tonight, but there are still some major underlying challenges between China and U.S. on trade.

BAIER: But how far Washington has come. The attacks the critics at the beginning were saying you can't do any of this. And now they are saying for the most part you have to go further than you may stop.

MASON: That's true. And the fact the administration officials will say hey, the fact that we are even talking shows that something is happening. And that's -- this is something that presidents, and President Trump would like to emphasize this, presidents past have tried to do and have not achieved.

BAIER: Kimberley, what about that?

STRASSEL: Well, let's hope he does achieve it. He'd better hope he does achieve it, because Matthew just mentioned 2020 election. Here's one of the tough realities for the president is that he is not going to get any major new legislation through over the next two years that's going to help the economy. Democrats will block it in the House. He doesn't have the firepower he did in terms of deregulation. He has done most of the big things. It's small around the edges now.

He needs this trade deal to make the economy go, to give it a further boost, because it's going to be the economy that's going to play an enormous role and whether or not he has got a shot at reelection. So this is not just a question of hope we can. This is a question of must get done for this White House if it wants to even contemplate a 2020 reelection.

BAIER: Matthew, this speech will be broken down to domestic and foreign policy. There is obviously a big story to tell on foreign policy. We heard from the commander of CENTCOM today about not only about not hearing beforehand about the specific order to pull troops out of Syria, but the threat of ISIS gaining strength again if left unchecked. The president is committed, it seems, to bring troops home, though.

CONTINETTI: He is. And like he has changed the conversation on China, on trade, on immigration, he is changing the conversation on foreign policy, too, repudiating the more interventionist policies of his two predecessors.

But the president needs to one, worry, Bret, about ISIS being resurgent if we leave too precipitously. He doesn't want a Benghazi happening in the midst of his reelection campaign, just like it did in the midst of President Obama's. And why did Benghazi happen? Among the reasons was that we looked away from the Middle East. And without the continual pressure of the U.S. forces, ISIS and its affiliates will resurface.

BAIER: Finally, he likes to point to polls, good ones. Rasmussen is out at 48 percent. He's pointing to that. There are many other polls that have him lower in public approval. But this moment, this pomp and circumstance, walking down the House chamber, having everyone stand up, this is a big moment for any president.

MASON: It's a huge moment for any president. And it's why they delayed the State of the Union address. The president and the White House did consider choosing another location during the shutdown when House Speaker Pelosi essentially uninvited him. But then he decided I really want that pomp and circumstance. I want that moment. And he'll have lots and lots of eyeballs, and that's because he is doing the speech there tonight.

BAIER: Yes. Kimberley, final word. I've got 15 seconds.

STRASSEL: I am looking forward to the theatrics, all the people dressed in white. We'll see the looks on everyone's faces. That for me is always the really favorite part of the State of the Union.

BAIER: Kimberley, Matthew, Jeff, thank you very much. We'll have full coverage tonight. Don't leave anyplace. We have a great show coming up in Martha's show, and she will have the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

But thank you for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for the ”Special Report,” fair, balanced, and unafraid. "The Story" hosted by Martha MacCallum starts after a short break. And then we have the two of us back again at 8:55 p.m. Eastern time for our full State of the Union address coverage. You don't want to miss it here on Fox News Channel. Goodnight from the White House.
 
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