Michael Bloomberg qualifies for Alabama presidential primary

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Michael Bloomberg qualifies for Alabama presidential primary

How will former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg impact the 2020 race? Reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars.

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: I'm not concerned about anything. The testimony has all been fine. For the most part I never even heard of these people. I have no idea who they are. They're some very fine people. You have some never-Trumpers. It seems that nobody has any first-hand knowledge. There is no first-hand knowledge. And all that matters is one thing, the transcript. And the transcript is perfect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, HOST: The president talking about the transcript of the phone call with the Ukrainian president. Since then, there have been a lot of transcripts out from behind closed doors, one of them today from Lieutenant Colonel Vindman who says he was reporting concerns to the NSC lawyer. "I made a judgment call. I thought this was wrong. My experience has always suggested that if there is -- if you feel like something is wrong, it is your duty to report it to your seniors, and that's what I did."

In the meantime, as far as other people testifying, the Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, acting chief of staff, I should say, did not show up today. The statement for the White House, "While Mick is immune from compulsion, making subpoena unenforceable, the subpoena is also independently unenforceable based on a lack of reasonable notice. The committee knows that no court in the country will enforce a subpoena on less than 15 hours notice."

With that, let's bring in our panel. Here in New York, former CIA analyst Buck Sexton, Mary Anne Marsh, former senior advisor to Senator John Kerry, and Jason Riley, "Wall Street Journal" columnist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. OK, Jason, these transcripts tell a story in and of themselves, but it's all setting up really to the public hearings next week.

JASON RILEY, "WALL STREET JOURNAL" COLUMNIST: Yes, and I'm glad we are getting some public hearings. I don't think it's going to make the process any more fair, but if you are going to try an overturn an election, at least let's make it public. And so I'm glad that they are doing that.

But when I watch President Trump out there responding to these reports, Bret, he's starting to look like Leslie Nielsen in "Naked Gun" standing in front of that burning building and saying, move on, move on, nothing to see here. It's not going to cut it just saying it's all a witch hunt, it's all a hoax, there's nothing here to see. The Democrats are --

BAIER: You mean you are saying that the call is not perfect and he should acknowledge that, or something?

RILEY: What I'm saying is this impeachment thing is real, and the Democrats are steadily and methodically putting out a narrative, and he needs a counternarrative. This is going to be won or lost, public opinion, and he needs a counternarrative. And just saying there is nothing to see here, there is nothing here, is not going to cut it.

BAIER: Here's what Rush Limbaugh says about the Democrats' moving targets on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: The target is moving. Now they are moving after the idea that Trump engaged in bribery, the withholding of aid until Ukraine did what he wants. And then they are going to go obstruction, that Trump is preventing the House from finding out what he did. In truth, the whole thing is imploding on Schiff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Obviously, that's Rush Limbaugh, Mary Anne, but you also have the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley talking to CBS in which she says, so what are you going to impeach him on? You're going to impeach a president for asking for a favor that didn't happen and giving money that wasn't withheld?

MARY ANNE MARSH, FORMER SEN. JOHN KERRY SENIOR ADVISER: That's not true. The fact is --

BAIER: Eventually they got the money.

MARSH: But it was withheld. Congress had already approved it. It was withheld, and there is a clear sentence in that call, even though we don't have the full transcript, we only have a summary, he has promised to put out another version this afternoon at some point, we need the full transcript. But he did withhold Congressionally approved money. It was on hold. Members of Congress went to him and said release it, why are you holding it, and there was a condition placed on that. So to Rush Limbaugh's point, bribery is another word for quid pro quo. It's just a simple word. And that's what happened here.

BAIER: So again, even though at the end of the line, by September 11th, first of all, the Ukrainians don't know all the way along since July 25th that it's withheld at all, according to the Ukrainians and everybody involved in these transcripts. And then the money is released on September 11th, and the Ukrainian president says I didn't have a problem with it, I didn't feel any pleasure. I'm just saying that that's what Republicans are saying.

MARSH: They are saying that. But Zelensky clearly had a problem. He was begging for military aid. He was begging for the Javelin missiles. He was begging for those things. And it was always conditioned on his doing something, either investigating the Bidens, or if he did investigate them, do it publicly, which he came very close to doing.

BAIER: Democrats are making this case, they are going to make it publicly, Buck. Do they have the votes to get through the House first and then take this trial to the Senate?

BUCK SEXTON, FORMER CIA ANALYST: Democrats are going to impeach President Trump no matter what information comes out, no matter what we find out. And this is my assessment but I think this is where it's all heading. They're not going to pull back on this at all.

By the way, it's a good thing they weren't asking for the Javelin missiles during the Obama administration because they were explicitly denied those, which was the single most useful thing that could've been done to push back on Russian aggression. So while we are sitting here talking about what Trump may have delayed in funding, he was also willing to make a decision about assisting the Ukrainian military that President Obama and his NSC explicitly refused to do because it was going to anger the Russians, they didn't want to take that additional step. So I think if we're looking at a policy matter here, that shouldn't be left out of the discussion.

As to where this is going to go now with impeachment, let's just understand that during the Mueller probe, there was always the promise, Bret, of revelation. There was going to be the day, the issue, the smoking gun, it was going to happen, and never happened. Here it seems that the plan is just repetition, just keep talking about this call, the call, the call, have all these other people come in and give their perception of the call oir what somebody said about it one point in time to another person. I just don't think that's going to cut it with people who aren't already overtaken with animus to the president. So I actually disagree with people who think that they are winning this battle with the president when it comes to public opinion. I think that this is actually more anemic than they had anticipated.

BAIER: Democrats say -- go ahead.

MARSH: I just want to say one thing about that. If we actually had the full unredacted Mueller report with the grand jury testimony and everything behind it, which we still don't have even though a judge said it should be released, and if we had the actual transcript of the call, not an edited summary, I think we have a lot --

BAIER: But you would also have some people saying that even if you insert the words in the ellipses or whatever is left out, that it still has the same overall meaning, according to some of the testimony behind closed doors. We'll see if that's the case. They say they want to put out every exact word.

MARSH: They should.

SEXTON: I think it's interesting that we have just also had a discussion this about not knowing who the whistleblower is even though it has been reported all over the place. So on the issue, for example, brought up about the Mueller report, it's we don't know about. But on all these people that are taking shot at this president's administration from behind the cloak of anonymity, it's how dare you try to know. In fact, even journalists are pretending -- the same journalists who will break the espionage act when they think the public has a right to know, they in this case say you could go to prison if you talk about who the whistleblower. I talked about the whistleblower. I don't think I'm going to prison.

BAIER: I will say that there have been reports that had the wrong name.

SEXTON: That's a different issue. That's a responsibility issue.

RILEY: This speaks to the problem of the press changing its standards to go after Trump. The public has no faith in the media anymore, or it has diminished greatly under this president. But yes, people are saying why not name the whistleblower? If you can change your rules to cover President Trump, why can't you change your rules on reporting who the whistleblower is. So that's where the mainstream media I think has done itself no favors in how it's covered this president under different standards.

BAIER: This will not be the last panel on this topic.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: Next up, the Friday Lightning Round. Michael Bloomberg is in, Bernie Sanders gets radical on immigration, Winners and Losers, and Candidate Casino, all of it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN: I don't think that big money ought to be able to buy the election.

PETE BUTTIGIEG: There has been something like 25 people now running for president. So as a campaign I think our focus has to be on our message.

ANDREW YANG, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will say if he does decide to get in at this late date, it's going to be tough.

KLOBUCHAR: I don't think any of them has said, well, I got in the race because I think the rest of the candidates aren't good enough. And that is -- maybe he hasn't said it himself, but that's basically what they've been saying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Mike Bloomberg is officially in an Alabama, as far as we know. The deadline was tonight, five minutes beforehand. He got on that ballot, at least that determination will be made. The team, his team says "We now need to finish the job and ensure that Trump is defeated, but Mike is increasingly concerned that the current field of candidates are not well positioned to do it." Is he?

RILEY: I don't think so. I think that this mostly will help Elizabeth Warren and hurt Joe Biden. I think it will hurt his fundraising, particularly where he's already struggling, and I think it will hurt the moderate voters. Mike Bloomberg will pick away. But more importantly, none of these guys have the black support that Joe Biden has, including Mike Bloomberg. And blacks play an outsized roll both in the primary process and in the general election. They might have cost Hillary the election. It's hard to see people who didn't turn out for Hillary turning out for Mike Bloomberg.

BAIER: But Bloomberg probably hurts Biden exponentially, right?

MARSH: No question, and probably Buttigieg as well. And he's the personification of Elizabeth Warren's message, and she put him on this billionaire calculator today as proof of that. But I think he's making the wrong bet here, which is the Democratic Party isn't looking for a billionaire nominee. He assumes he can pick up the Biden, Buttigieg support. It's not transferable. And he assumes he'll get support from Moms Demand Action and other things that he funded. Presidential campaigns just don't work that way.

BAIER: I want to turn to Bernie Sanders' immigration plan. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: We are going to pass a complete overhaul of our broken immigration system.

TRUMP: Republicans will always stand with the heroes of ICE, Border Patrol, and law enforcement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: So basically he says that illegal immigrants will be able to utilize Medicare for all, college for all, universal school meals, the Embrace Act by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. There is a whole list of things here, Buck. How does that play?

SEXTON: This is where the Democratic Party, I think, has gone furthest to the left of any of the issues that are major in the campaign right now. The American people just flatly aren't with candidates like Sanders as well as all the candidates who are on stage who said that they would vote for Medicare for all for illegal aliens in this country. When you talk about not enforcing the law, decriminalizing at the border, all the different areas of immigration policy being turned upside down. It may play well with the left wing base, but the fact of the matter this is going to be a huge liability in the general.

RILEY: And he wants to raise middle class taxes to pay for free health care for illegal immigrants. This is not where the country is.

BAIER: Let's take a trip down to Candidate Casino. OK, you get $100 in chips. You have to bet them. Democratic field, here we go, Mary Anne.

MARSH: It's $100 on Elizabeth Warren. She's the only --

BAIER: One hundred, you are going with a black chip.

MARSH: Go big or go home. She's the only one who is operating on all cylinders right now.

BAIER: I'd like to say that's our first black chip. OK, Buck?

SEXTON: I was almost going to go in on Warren too just to go big as well, but I think I went $70 -- what did I do? Actually I can't remember here. I think it was $70 on Warren, $20 on Biden, $10 on Buttigieg. I just don't think Biden is a real frontrunner, but I think to hedge my bets.

RILEY: I'm not as convinced it will be Warren, but right now I think she has the momentum. I think Bernie is treading water. Biden is just barely hanging on. And Biden's real nightmare scenario is if Sanders gets out and endorses Warren, and I think the pressure is going to increase to do that.

BAIER: No chips on Bloomberg. OK, quickly, Winners and Losers. Winner first?

RILEY: My winner is Mark Zuckerberg for continuing to resist pressure from Democrats to investigate or fact check their political opponents on Facebook. I hope he keeps it up. My loser is the awful and unnecessary rerecording of John Legend and Kelly Clarkson's "Baby, It's Cold Outside," to make it more politically correct. More of Me Too overreach is all this is.

BAIER: Winner and loser?

MARSH: Winner is Democrats, the big wins in Kentucky and Virginia makes a huge difference in momentum going to 2020. The loser, Donald Trump because of the big wins in Kentucky and Virginia. Also the testimony this week, I would add to it that WikiLeaks trial, and it's the first time really that he hasn't been able to control media cycles since he got in the race in 2015.

BAIER: I don't know. The economy had a pretty good week. Buck, winner and loser?

SEXTON: Winner, Project Veritas, James O'Keefe, big story this week. Some networks didn't want to cover it for reasons that maybe discuss another time, but it was very interesting to see that a major network wouldn't go with what was essentially ironclad for purposes of journalism, the story of Jeffrey Epstein. And the loser, of course, in this case is the other side of that coin, which would be ABC News, did not look good in the response they had about why they wouldn't go with this story about some of the most rich, powerful, connected people in the world involved in or around somebody who was a pedophile. That's something I think has really shaken journalism to its foundation for some people.

BAIER: I don't think that's going away anytime soon. Thank you very much. Panel, we appreciate it. Have a great weekend.

When we come back, "Notable Quotables."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: It is Friday. You know what that means -- "Notable Quotables."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nita and four of my grandchildren are burnt and shot up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The violence and disregard for human life displayed by these criminal organizations is as barbaric and gruesome as any terrorist organization we see around the globe.

TRUMP: We also now know the name of the whistleblower. I stay tonight to the media, do your job and print his name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most important facts are largely not contested.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Republicans are really struggling to defend the president. OK, great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not struggling on anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They contradict themselves. They turn themselves into pretzels.

TRUMP: They just fell in love with Nats baseball. That's all they wanted to talk about. That and impeachment. I like Nats baseball much more.

WARREN: We can have Medicare for all without raising taxes but one penny on middle-class families.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you say I should be $100 billion, OK, then I'm starting to do a little math about what I have left over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It must suck to be that dumb!

TRUMP: There is nobody I would rather run against than little Michael.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not conceding this race by any stretch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to say thank you to our union families that helped make the selection happened.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mission accomplished last night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're pro-God and pro-America, and pro-gun, and pro duck hunting, that's all I want.

TRUMP: I always wanted to be the strong silent type, but it never worked out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Another wild week covering Washington.

This weekend, watch FOX News Sunday. Chris Wallace will speak to two members of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Will Hurd and Democrat Sean Maloney. Check your local listings.

Thanks for inviting us in your home tonight. That is it for this SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and unafraid. "The Story" hosted by Martha MacCallum just down the hall starts right now. Hey, Martha.

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