FAA suspends flights for Boeing 737 Max planes following fatal crashes

Published March 13, 2019

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," March 13, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: We're going to be issuing an emergency order prohibition to ground all flights of the 737 MAX 8 and the 737 MAX 9, and planes associated with that line.

SEN. DICK DURBIN, D-ILL, SENATE MINORITY WHIP: I think they ought to each be inspected to determine whether or not there's something we should be wary of and concerned about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, HOST: The U.S. was the last to do it, but President Trump making that emergency declaration today, grounding, as you heard, all the 737 MAX planes from Boeing. The company took a hit in the stock market but bounced back. The airlines quickly pointed out that they don't have too many in service. Southwest saying they had eight planes in their daily flights, American Airlines, 24 operating 85 flights, United Airlines, nine planes, roughly 40 flights per day. But the Boeing CEO releasing a statement saying this is an abundance of caution. Obviously, a lot of concern about safety.

Let's bring in our panel, start there, Tom Bevan, Real Clear Politics co- founder and president, national security analyst Morgan Ortagus, and Mo Elleithee, executive director of the Georgetown Institute of Politics.

There was some criticism early on that the U.S. was late to the game here after Canada said they are going to ground the planes as well. Some people pointed to the defense secretary being a former CEO of Boeing. However, this move today clearly cautionary.

TOM BEVAN, REAL CLEAR POLITICS CO-FOUNDER: Yes, I think it was the right move. It contains the problem at least for the time being, and to have a another accident, as unlikely as that might have been, would've been catastrophic for the airline industry, will be on Boeing. But this is potentially a big deal for Boeing. Doug McKelway mentioned in his piece, there are 5,111 jets, MAX 8 and MAX 9 jets that have been ordered, but only 370 there. That's about $5 billion in revenue for Boeing. So they need to rectify this problem as quickly as they can.

BAIER: Morgan?

MORGAN ORTAGUS, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: This is a classic case of geopolitical risk and how this affects global companies, what happens halfway across the world affects your company's headquarters. Boeing isn't new to this. They had to -- in 2013 they had to take down the dream- liners, remember, when the batteries were catching on fire, and Boeing recovered from that, which is why I think you saw the stock recover from it today. As you pointed out, there was just not a lot in service.

So I think what we are releasing seeing here is a failure of Boeing to really address this quickly right away. But I think the FAA has some culpability here too. The acting administrator said yesterday that they weren't prepared to down the airliner, and today we got a completely different story. We need to know what happened from yesterday to today.

BAIER: That's exactly right, and we will continue to ask those questions. On the business side, this is one of the biggest companies in the U.S. as far as producing things.

MO ELLEITHEE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GEORGETOWN INSTITUTE OF POLITICS: Yes. And this was absolutely the right call by the president. Boeing is going to have a lot of questions it has to answer. And I also agree on the point about the FAA, that this has sort of put a spotlight on the FAA in a way that it might not want to be. Not only did they change their tune, but this administration has given it some budget cuts, has cut back some staff. They still don't have a permanent director. The Ethiopian government sent the black box to Europe, not to the United States, for review. That's a pretty significant call.

And so I think the president made the right decision. It should have been sooner. And the FAA needs about as much scrutiny as Boeing does.

BAIER: And we'll follow this story. The other big story out of Washington today, the Paul Manafort sentencing finally came down. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN DOWNING, MANAFORT ATTORNEY: I think the judge showed that she is incredibly hostile towards Mr. Manafort and exhibited a level of callousness that I have not seen in a white collar case in over 15 years of prosecutions.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: I think the judicial system worked, and I don't have a beef with this sentence.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, D-CONN: Paul Manafort caught a break. This overall sense is exceedingly lenient.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, D-CALIF.: I think seven is substantial, and certainly an adequate sentence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: So that is not tied to the Russia collusion, the investigation by the special counsel. Obviously, this was brought by the special counsel. But in addition to the federal chargers and heading to prison, now he faces an indictment in New York that is largely seen as pardon proof.

ORTAGUS: I don't think there is any defense of Paul Manafort here, and I don't really care how he was called. He was caught for illegal activity that seems to have taken place over decades. And when someone like that is brought to justice, I think it is a good day for America and a good day for everyone.

There is a lot of talk as it relates to the Russia aspect that he was briefing the U.S. embassy in Ukraine on his activities. And really I think what his lawyers are throwing out here is just a lot of red herrings. It is not the embassy's objective to police foreign registration, and that is really what he is getting in trouble for here. So he clearly continues to have his day in court, especially at a state level, and his problems are not going away.

BAIER: And that's tied to real estate. Tome?

BEVAN: Look, I agree. Nobody is going to shed a tear for Paul Manafort. He was a corrupt guy had spent decades doing criminal behavior. But if the standard is now we are going to prosecute people FARA violations and we're going to drain the swamp, let's do it, because there are 50 or 100 Paul Manaforts running around Washington doing the exact same thing. And so if that is the new standard, let's go ahead and drain the swamp.

BAIER: What about this question of a pardon, the president saying today I have not even given it a thought. I do feel badly for Paul Manafort.

ELLEITHEE: I think this is the concern that a lot people have. Even staunch supporters of the president are urging him not to do it, if for no other reason than the political optics look bad, if for no other reason.

And back to your earlier point, Bret, I think that is absolutely right and why the state charges are going to be so important to see how that plays out, because of the president can't do anything. He can pardon him on all the federal stuff but he can't touch the state stuff. And Paul Manafort has some bad stuff there, too.

BAIER: In the meantime, Lisa Page, former FBI attorney, seeing this testimony. John Ratcliffe, representative, saying "Lisa Page confirmed to me under oath that the FBI was ordered by the Obama DOJ not to consider charging Hillary Clinton for gross negligence in the handling of classified information." Getting this testimony, Tom, is significant. It seems to open up a lot of other questions.

BEVAN: It is -- yes. This testimony happened last summer. Why are we just seeing it now? President Trump tweets out, there's more to come, more to come. He has the power to declassify all this stuff and make it available, be transparent. All he has to do is use his power. He could do it today. He could do it tomorrow. He could do it right now. So I don't understand why it's taking so long for all this stuff to come to light. The American public, this has been going on for a long, long time, and we need to know as much as we can.

BAIER: Remember, for those at home, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, they had all those texts back and forth. She testified under oath, and that's what this is coming from.

ORTAGUS: When the story of the history is written of all of this, Lisa Page is going to be such a fascinating and integral character in this. Look at the number of people, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, all of these people. She is giving Congressional testimony to counter them, to contradict them. And they are all in trouble multiple times over, some of them from your interviews with them, Bret, for not completely telling the truth. So pay attention to Lisa Page. She is taking down some of the biggest names in the FBI.

BAIER: Is this fair to say that this shows, Mo, two tiers of justice? Is this the beginning of saying it wasn't fair the other way, either?

ELLEITHEE: I don't think -- if what she says is true, I don't think this is the first time that prosecutors have gone to law enforcement and said I'm not sure what you have got gets us enough to prosecute. That happens all the time in the justice system. So I don't know. Based on what I have read, whether it is that or something more. I would suspect more of the former.

What we have seen from Lisa Page is plenty of testimony now that says there really wasn't any bias by the FBI. That there was some folks out there that were out to get Donald Trump and there were folks there that were out to get Hillary Clinton. Maybe not out to get, but certainly had opinions on it. She said, we've got these opinions. We do our job. And I think that is worth noting.

ORTAGUS: If I may follow up on that quickly, is what it does show as it relates to the FISA investigation that the Senate Judiciary Committee is still looking at, what we're seeing is perhaps the FBI was not truthful in that FISA report, and that's what I think her statement, that's where it bears weight to me today.

BAIER: I do think we're going to see a lot more of this angle, especially from the Judiciary Committee and the Senate and elsewhere.

Next up, President Trump takes on the California's governor over the death penalty.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM, D-CALIF.: I cannot sign off on executing hundreds and hundreds of human beings knowing, knowing that among them will be innocent human beings. I did this with a heavy heart, with deep appreciation for the emotions that drives this issue. And I did it with the victims in mind.

MICHELE HANISEE, ASSOCIATION OF DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEYS: The victims are distressed and heartbroken, and prosecutors are indignant that the verdicts handed out by jurors from our communities are being completely disregarded based upon a decision by a single man, even if that man is the governor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Governor Gavin Newsom in California essentially ending the death penalty in that state after a referendum was on the ballot in November, 2016, asking this question. It was called California proposition 62 about repealing the death penalty, yes, repeal it, there you see, no, don't repeal it. The president getting in this, tweeting today, "Defying voters, the governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers. Friends and family of the always forgotten victims are not thrilled, and neither am I!" Just so you know, the death penalty in America, the yellow states on this map, these are states with the death penalty. The greenish are states with a gubernatorial moratorium, and the others are states without the death penalty. And there you see the breakdown. We're back with the panel. Quickly, Mo, interesting move by Governor Newsom?

ELLEITHEE: Yes. Look, it ultimately doesn't change very much in California, which has been under a court ordered moratorium since I think 2006. So there hasn't been an execution there. But it does send a message.

And I thought the governor's approach was interesting. It was not, I have the death penalty. It was one of empathy for the victims while also saying, we cannot have a system that could, that could end up, as is statistically showng, execute innocent individuals. And I think that is something that a lot of people can understand.

ORTAGUS: That is true, but I think there is a legislative process for all of this that if you are morally opposed to the death penalty that you can go without undoing jury decisions that were offered by the American people, by the people in California. That is inherently not democratic. So I think that is the problem. You look at the victims, as Mo mentioned today, I didn't hear a lot of understanding in the victim's voices. I heard a lot of angry.

BAIER: Two things. One, it goes against this referendum just the last election, not the midterms, but the one before. Two, does this play now into presidential politics with the president getting in this game as well?

BEVAN: Yes, I'm sure it does. But this to me was phony. He stood up there and said I cannot execute 737 people, I can't do that. To Mo's point, California hasn't executed anyone in 12 years. So he was offering a solution in search of a problem, not to mention it violated the will of the voters from the referendum. And he stood up there and said this is my right as governor, my right as governor. I found it to be just totally political and potentially, if he is thinking about running for president at some point in the future, but I think it will be injected into the 2020 discussion.

BAIER: We shall see. Panel, thank you.

When we come back, a hearty congratulations on a special reveal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Finally tonight, some exciting book news to report at Fox News. First of all, congratulations to our colleague Janice Dean whose new book "Mostly Sunny" made "The New York Times" bestseller list in its first week on the shelves, a big deal for any author. And Janice caught that moment that she found out on camera today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I made "The New York Times" list.

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: Congrats. That is a really big moment. I'm happy for Janice. This honestly could not happen to a nicer person. She really is that great, and the book is a fantastic, optimistic read about life.

Tonight, I also have some big book news as well. I can unveil reveal the cover of my next book in the presidential three days series, "Three Days at the Brink, FDR's Gamble to Win World War II." It tells the story of a secret meeting that essentially won the war, a now forgotten conference in Tehran where President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin plotted the war's end game, including the D-Day invasion. We have all kinds of new nuggets from that meeting, and then bounce back from that to how FDR got to that point, much like we did in the Eisenhower and Reagan three days book before this. "Three Days at the Brink" will be out in October. I'm excited about that.

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for the “Special Report,” fair, balanced, and still unafraid.

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