Ready, set, Joe? Biden set to enter 2020 presidential race

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Ready, set, Joe? Biden set to enter 2020 presidential race

Will former Vice President Joe Biden seize frontrunner status? Reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," April 23, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe Congress should take the steps towards impeachment.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, D-MINN, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The impeachment proceedings are up to the House. They are going to have to make that decision.

PETE BUTTIGIEG, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think he has made it pretty clear that he deserves impeachment. I'm also going to leave it to the House and Senate to figure that out.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS.: Every person in the Senate and the House, they should take that vote and live with it for the rest of their lives.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to see about that investigation. We'll see where it goes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, HOST: "Impeachment" the word of the day for the town hall with the 2020 candidates, as you look at a list, a ever-growing of people getting into the 2020 race. It is a lot easier, it seems, for them to say, sure, go ahead and impeach President Trump, than it is for House Democrats to get to that conclusion and the logistical hurdles ahead.

As you look at the polls new out today, Monmouth poll, has Joe Biden is in the lead and you see Bernie Sanders in second. Pete Buttigieg, they mayor, look at that, less that one percent to eight percent just in a short time. And then if you look at Iowa, obviously the first stop the Iowa caucuses, Joe Biden also leading there, the margin a little bit smaller, and Buttigieg, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor in third.

With that, let's bring in our panel tonight, Charles Hurt, opinion editor for "The Washington Times," Leslie Marshall, Democrat strategist, and Jonah Goldberg, senior editor at "National Review." Jonah, we've had this kind of launch, non-launch for Joe Biden. He was going to go Wednesday, now it's Thursday. We don't have a lot of details on what it looks like, but he's clearly still leading in some of these big pools.

JONAH GOLDBERG, SENIOR EDITOR, "NATIONAL REVIEW": He is. And I think he is well-positioned. I don't usually give a lot advice to Democrats, but if I were him, I would come out, I would announce and immediately take dead aim at Bernie Sanders and say this is a two-person race. I'm the grown up. I'm a liberal, but I'm not a socialist. The party will go down in flames if we pursue Bernie's path. It will make everybody else look small. He is basically the only guy in a position who can do that.

And I think that one of the things we see is that a lot of the Democratic primary people, they think that basically Democratic Twitter is the actual Democratic electorate, and it's not. And he is one of the only people who is positioned to actually reach out to the traditional Democratic voter.

BAIER: Leslie, you do wonder, though, about the launch or decision to launch and what transpired there. All we are told is that something will happen Thursday, a video launch, and then there's a Monday event in Pittsburgh. I don't know what happens between Thursday and Monday, but it's interesting.

LESLIE MARSHALL, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Originally it was supposed to be Wednesday, tomorrow, as you know. And one of the reasons they delayed it, I'm being told, is Charlottesville. A lot of people thought at first that might be a good place for the former vice president to announce, but then there was some kickback, people felt it was disrespectful, they decided not to do it, and that delayed them some.

There is a "Time" magazine piece where they have people that are already leaking within the campaign, saying it is very disorganized for a launch, that is a problem that he will have to get on track. But I and other Democrats are not worried yet. He is still leading in almost every poll, and he hasnŸ_Tt yet announced.

BAIER: Charlie, a lot of that has to do with name recognition, a lot of that has to do with eight years as vice president, and you wonder how Joe Biden is going to compete with a pretty energetic and obviously voluminous candidate spread on the Democratic side.

CHARLES HURT, OPINION EDITOR, "WASHINGTON TIMES": Yes, and of course the problem for Joe Biden both in the Democratic Party and as a general election candidate is the fact that he has been around Washington for 45 years. He has been part of a problem for a for a very, very long time. And so he has -- he is going to struggle to come up with whatever new message it is that he has go that now it is going to change everything.

And of course when I look at the field I can't think of a single person who has actually run for president as many times as he has over the past -- since he has been in Washington. And all of that while, as you point out, the name recognition is very, very good, and it helps them very much. And I think Jonah is right, he is in a position to face off against somebody like Bernie Sanders and show the difference between the two of them. The problem still remains that he has been around here for a very long time, and it's a mess.

BAIER: It doesn't seem like President Trump has settled on a nickname yet. He had one percent Joe for past races, then he had sleepy Joe. We don't know where he will end up.

Jonah, voting rights for prisoners came up last night in the town halls and seemed to be a little bit of a separation. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should people convicted of sexual assault, the Boston Marathon bomber, should they be able to vote?

BUTTIGIEG: While incarcerated?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BUTTIGIEG: No, I don't think so.

SANDERS: I do believe that even if they are in jail, they are paying their price to society, but that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy.

HARRIS: I think we should have that conversation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Is this an issue that Iowa and New Hampshire cares about?

GOLDBERG: It is a "Saturday Night Live" skit. Buttigieg gave the exact right answer, and Bernie Sanders' position I find utterly baffling. Look, when you go to this thing called prison, you have lots of rights that are curtailed. The freedom of assembly, freedom of speech all sorts of things. One of the others ones happens to be freedom to vote. It is another thing entirely when you pay back your debt to society about whether or not you should have your voting rights restored. But the idea that Bernie Sanders is getting out like free candy these Willie Horton type issues where he wants the worst terrorists in America to be able to vote, it's bizarre to me.

BAIER: Leslie, it's one thing to be talking about Medicare for all and the details of that and then the Green New Deal and how you're going to pay for it, but it seems that that, prisoners voting, Electoral College, seem on the outskirts.

MARSHALL: Definitely. In dark corners, if you will, Democrats like myself are saying, why are they even making this an issue? Mayor Pete got it right. When somebody commits a crime, and I think most Democrats feel this way, they lose their rights as a free individual. Now, when they get out of prison, if they get those rights restored that's a whole other conversation. We've seen that. There are people left and right that can agree to that. And this is a can of worms that a Democrat doesn't need to open because we have so many other areas. The only good thing about this, Bret, is this is one area where they all did not agree on this issue.

BAIER: All right, finally, you have William Weld on the Republican side throwing his name in the hat, an uphill battle obviously. Now you have potentially the Maryland governor. Take a listen to Larry Hogan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. LARRY HOGAN, R-MD: I think it goes way beyond what the DNC did back in 2016. I think they have taken way more steps to try to stack the deck in favor of the president. I think it was wrong what the DNC did, but this is much worse.

To change the rules and to insist 100 percent royalty to the dear leader, it just didn't sound very much like the Republican Party that I grew up in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have the right to jump in and lose. That's fine. They will lose horribly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Charlie, you don't go to politics in New Hampshire unless you are really thinking about it.

HURT: I think that is right. And by the way, I think it is a great thing. I think anybody wants to get in and stir the pot is great. But the bottom line remains, the president remains one of the most popular Republicans among Republicans in recent times, and he's going to be the nominee. With Bernie Sanders, I'm calling it the 50-state strategy to make sure that even Massachusetts votes for Republicans. With crazy ideas like letting the Boston Marathon bomber's vote, a guy like President Trump is in a good position I think to win reelection.

BAIER: By the way, Alex Jones agrees with you behind the gate here with his microphone. Panel, stand by. Next up, a grim outlook for Medicare and Social Security.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SEEMA VERMA, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: Health care spending in America is on an unsustainable path. The Medicare Trustees reported that the Medicare hospital insurance trust fund is projected to be depleted by 2026.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you take Social Security, it's 25 percent of the federal budget, and it's growing faster than the GDP. You add in Medicare and Medicaid and now you're up to about 55 percent, 55 percent of the entire federal budget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: We saw some disturbing numbers from the Trustees report. As you heard Medicare seven years from now depleted in the hospital insurance pond. That happens then Medicare Part A will only be able to cover 89 percent of the cost for hospital stays and related services, and that will go down to 77 percent in 2046. On Social Security, total costs projected to exceed its total income including interests for the first time since 1982. The bottom line is something has to be done to save these programs if we are going to. We are back with a panel. Charlie?

HURT: Yes. This is a slow-rolling catastrophe, and it's not something that we haven't known for a long time. Obviously, people like Paul Ryan have been talking about it for a long time. President Trump obviously ran in 2016 vowing not to touch these programs. Obviously, that was a smart move back then, but the fact remains that they are going consultants and something has to be done about it.

The one good thing I think that has happened is that it's going to be a lot easier to fix these programs with a very good economy like the one we have right now than if we were facing this catastrophe and had a bad economy.

BAIER: Leslie, it doesn't seem like anybody is taking this baton.

MARSHALL: They knew about this at least a year ago. Maybe we have some better numbers today. But look, you have baby boomers that are going to enter the system, more people, and you have people with a double whammy right now, because you have some individuals, my mom is one of them, who rely largely on their Social Security to live. How on earth are they going to make up any kind of a gap with Medicare if they can't afford any secondary insurance beyond what they are already paying? This is something where the left and right, Democrats and Republicans, not only can work together but they have to, and they have to do it before it's on the brink of insolvency.

BAIER: But the difference is pretty stark. The White House reaction is this report is grim, but Medicare for all is not the answer.

GOLDBERG: And they are right. The thing is the Trump administration has basically ignored the problem with entitlements while the Democrats are proposing things to make them much, much worse. The simple fact is that we live in an economy where Social Security was created when we had something like over a dozen workers for every retiree. Most people died at 61, they didn't get benefits until they were 65. Now it's two-to-one per retiree. We're having a massive wealth transfer from young people to old people. It is not sustainable. It has got to be ripped up from the ground and figured out. You have to grandfather in the people who are recipients now but then fix it for the coming generation. That is nowhere on the horizon for what the Democrats are proposing, and the Republicans are just ignoring it.

BAIER: Charlie, Medicare for all seems to be a litmus test for a lot of Democrats running this year.

HURT: Yes, and unfortunately the idea of Medicare for all on top of the problems that we're facing right now is the typical government answer, more centralized governance from Washington. That is the whole problem in the first place. Making Medicare, expanding it massively, isn't going to fix it. It's going to break it.

BAIER: Panel, thank you.

Just moments ago, the president tweeted, "You mean the stock market hit an all-time record high today and they are actually talking impeachment? Will I ever be given credit for anything by the fake news media or radical liberal Dems? No collusion!" We obviously lead with that news tonight on the newscast tonight. The president is welcome. We're here a lot of Tuesdays down here on the North Lawn. Any time.

When we come back, one brave police officer confronts a situation that could really stink things up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Nothing like a sunset at the White House.

Finally tonight, Police Officer Ron Kaszas in South Bend, Indiana, managed to pull off quite the rescue for one lucky skunk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I bet you this will go viral.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not in the car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at those South Bend police officers. They are always doing something good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: The skunk had a cup on its head, in case you didn't see that. There you go.

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That is it for the “Special Report,” fair, balanced, and still unafraid. "The Story" hosted by Martha MacCallum starts right now.

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