This is a rush transcript from "The First 100 Days," January 27, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS HOST: Breaking tonight, President Trump keeping up the rapid pace this Friday. I'm Martha MacCallum and it is day eight of "The First 100."
The president signing executive orders today. One directing a temporary halt to immigration from countries with a history of terrorism, another focusing on military readiness and national security at the White House.
The president had its first official one-on-one meeting with a foreign leader, paying respect to America's historic, quote, "special relationship" with the United Kingdom.
Here's the president with UK Prime Minister Theresa May.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am a people person. I think you are also Theresa. I can often tell how I get along with somebody very early and I believe we are going to have a fantastic relationship.
THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There will be times when we disagree on issues on which we disagree. The point of the special relationship is that we are able to have that open and frank discussion. We are at a moment now when we can build an even stronger special relationship.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: The news conference coming one day after Mexico's president canceled his scheduled face-to-face with President Trump and tomorrow another move that will provoke controversy. Mr. Trump had to speak by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Here now at a potentially historic 72 hours in American international relations Chris Wallace, anchor of "Fox News Sunday."
Good evening, Chris. Good to see you.
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST: Good to be with you, Martha.
MACCALLUM: So there is so much to talk about. And, you know, we heard this morning that the president did end up speaking with the president of Mexico, Pena Nieto and that they had a phone conversation but they are not going to discuss the details of that with regards to the wall.
What do you make of all this, Chris?
WALLACE: What I make is that there's a big difference between being a candidate out on the stump giving a line about we are going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it and getting big cheers and apparently getting millions of votes, and saying that when you're the president of the United States. And not only having the executive order that called for the wall, but then having one of your top officials saying, well, maybe we will have a 20 percent tax on any export coming from Mexico into this country.
He put Mexico in a position. If you're going to have a real negotiation, you both have something to negotiate about. You're going to have some negotiating room. But what the president and his team did this week was put Pena Nieto in such a difficult position where it was almost the point of national honor that he was forced to cancel the visit. And it's going to be very hard for them to both climb down from the position they put themselves in and try to work out a deal.
MACCALLUM: But, you know, do you think this is just President Trump doing things the way he does? And that he's talked about bilateral agreements with every country and, you know, he is approaching this, it would appear, as a CEO in many ways. You know, laying out a very strong marker and then sort of eventually, we would imagine, sort of backing off and finding some areas of compromise.
WALLACE: Yes. But the difference is that if you are in a deal with a contractor or somebody who owns some land in Atlantic City, that's a close conversation.
When you are doing this on the international front, everybody hears about it and when they saw what President Trump was saying and doing, it just makes it almost impossible for Pena Nieto to negotiate with Donald Trump now.
He got blasted just by inviting him last spring during the campaign to come to Mexico City to have a conversation. Now, he was forced to give a speech to the Mexican people on Wednesday night saying that he was not going to pay for the wall and then to cancel it on Thursday. And you've got his political opponents, the socialist's party already saying in effect that if he makes any kind of a deal with President Trump, he'll be selling the Mexican people out.
It was very instructed today, that news conference that you pointed to between Donald Trump and Theresa May, the British prime minister. Big difference there. That was the good Donald Trump. That's, frankly, the Trump that I've seen in private-- quiet, courteous, sober, good sense of humor. You know, you talk about those special relationships between Britain and the United States. At one point, Theresa May called on a British reporter who asked a really terrible question. One bad thing after another to President Trump and he said of all the reporters, that's when you have to call for?
There goes the relationship. You know, that's the kind of the way that, I think, that a president has to go, particularly in the beginning on the international stage. The kind of luster that a lot of American voters find so attracted and it may work with domestic groups.
I think that's a much more sensitive situation when you're dealing with foreign leaders and international sensibilities.
MACCALLUM: And you're watching the two of them up there. There's a lot of comparisons made between Reagan and Thatcher. Let's put this quote up from Newt Gingrich earlier today. He says this, "The inaugural address represented a direct threat to the value system of the left, in this head- on challenge to power and ideology, Trump resembles Thatcher more than Reagan."
So he makes the comparison that Margaret Thatcher is the one who looks more like Trump at this point.
Your thoughts?
WALLACE: Well, first of all, I wouldn't make the Trump-May comparison to Reagan-Thatcher. I covered that back in the 80s. And they were united in fighting the Cold War, in trying to defeat the Soviet Union and eventually to win that conflict taking on various Soviet leaders.
I mean, Theresa May and Donald Trump are talking about trade -- a trade deal. It's not quite the same high-stakes. But I think Speaker Gingrich makes a good point about how Trump represents as direct and almost systematic threat to the power elites in this country as Margaret Thatcher did to the power elites in Britain.
At that time, the left was ruling the country, the trade unions were ruling the country. She took them on and she defeated them.
And what you're talking about here with Donald Trump, we'll see if it happens, if it's nearly as successful as Margaret Thatcher was, but as that same kind of direct threat to a lot of the corridors of power here in Washington and also the financial corridors in Wall Street.
MACCALLUM: And they certainly see eye to eye on the bigger issue in many ways of shutting down your borders. So we will see where that goes and where their discussion goes.
Chris, thank you very much. Great to see you tonight.
WALLACE: Thanks, Martha.
MACCALLUM: So don't miss Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday."
This week, Kellyanne Conway and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin will be in the hot seat with Chris. Catch it on "Fox News Sunday" at 2:00 and 10:00 right here on Fox News Channel.
So the fight over sanctuary cities is heating up as state officials vow to offer safe spaces for illegal immigrants in defiance of President Trump's executive order. Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales joins me on that followed by reaction from Maureen Maloney, who lost her son to an undocumented immigrant.
Plus, tough talk to Mexico reaches a boiling point with the media now saying President Trump has gone too far. A fair and balanced debate on that, coming up.
And we take a look at the week that was all of President Trump's big moves, the promises that he had made and the impact on our country when Chris Stirewalt, Mercedes Schlapp and Austan Goolsbee join us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the president issued his executive order, he just put an exclamation point for me on that issue and it really isn't -- it's really was a no-brainer. It's a $52,000 a year issue for Miami-Dade. And so we now, we will go back to our 2014 policy that we will honor the detention request regardless of the fact that the government says that they will pay for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: So is that a sign of things to come? That was Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez explaining why his county plans to comply with federal immigration detention request now.
President Trump applauding that decision. He wrote this on Twitter, quote, "Miami-Dade Mayor drops sanctuary policy. Right decision. Strong!"
But not all so called sanctuary cities are going to fall in line. Several mayors are vowing to defy the president's executive order. I'm joined now by one of them, Mayor Javier Gonzales of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Mayor, thank you for being here tonight. Good to have you with us.
JAVIER GONZALES, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO MAYOR: It's good to be with you. Thanks for having me.
MACCALLUM: So you saw the decision that was made by the Miami-Dade mayor. And really when he explained it, it was based on financials. You know, he said if we are going to have to detain people and process them, then we need that money from the federal government and we don't want to lose any federal money that we may be getting so we are going to change our tune.
GONZALES: Well, look, this is a conversation that we've been having for many years in terms of absence of an immigration system that actually is working. What is it that cities need to do to make sure that they have communities that are safe?
And I will tell you in Santa Fe, we are a safe community. The word community also does not discriminate against individuals because of status. And I firmly believe that we are on the right side of the federal laws when it comes to participation in any type of federal efforts to try and round up families that are living here peacefully and disrupting those families because we have the immigration system that's appropriate.
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: What about those who aren't, because you know what comes up here again and again -- excuse me, Mr. Mayor, is that Donald Trump's first priority, President Trump's first priority is to get criminal, illegal aliens out. People who have committed offences. People like the man who killed Kate Steinle.
So the first wave of all of this is to do just that. Why would you have any problem with that? Don't you want criminal, illegal aliens out of your city?
GONZALES: Absolutely. In fact, for the past 20 years, we have worked alongside with federal officials to go after those criminals. We continuously work with ICE, to make sure that any individuals that want to commit violent crimes that they are caught and they are detained and they are deported.
What we need to do is focus on protecting our border security.
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: So when you bring in someone for a potential criminal offense -- I'm sorry, when you bring someone in for a potential criminal offense, who has been picked up, you don't -- do you ask them about their documentation? Do you follow up with them about their status?
GONZALES: If we pick up an individual who has committed a crime against our city, a violent crime, absolutely. We do everything we need to do to make sure not only that they are detained, that if we need to work with ICE, we worked with ICE and that they are deported back to their countries where they come from.
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: All right. Well, let me ask one more question because --
(CROSSTALK)
GONZALES: What we don't do is we don't use local law enforcement resources to go out there and round up families that are living peacefully and --
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: All right. We're about to speak to a mom who lost her son to someone who was here illegally, but he had never committed a crime before he killed her son with his pickup truck. And her argument is, why is he even here? My son would be alive today -- she is about to tell us and we will get her own words -- if this man was never even in this country and he was here illegally.
What do you say to her?
GONZALES: I'm the father of two daughters. It's heartbreaking whenever individuals lose their children or their family members to anybody. What I would say is that we need to collectively ask the president and the Congress to reform a broken immigration system so that people come out of the shadows so that we are able to make sure that there's access to documentation whether it's in the form of work permits or visas, and recognize what law-enforcement has said that if people are out of the shadows and they are fully participating, then crime can actually be confronted and minimize.
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: We have to leave it there. We're out of time.
(CROSSTALK)
GONZALES: Absence of any type of reform to an immigration system, we're not going to be able to address the safety of our community.
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: You're not going to do anything on your own. I get it. I get it.
Mayor, thank you very much. Good to have you here.
And as I just mentioned--
GONZALES: Thank you.
MACCALLUM: --our next guest is outraged by her city's plan to act in defiance of the president's executive order.
Back in 2011, Maureen Maloney's 23-year-old, Matthew, was riding on his motorcycle, when a drunk driver rolled through a stop sign, hit him, and dragged him to his death.
The killer, Nicolas Guaman, was an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador.
I'm joined now by Maureen Maloney, the mother of Matthew Denice.
Maureen, thank you very much for being here.
MAUREEN MALONEY, MOTHER OF MATTHEW DENICE: Thank you for having me.
MACCALLUM: I want to play a sound bite from the mayor of Boston and get your reaction. Let's roll back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTY WALSH, D-MAYOR OF BOSTON: I want to say directly to anyone who feels threatened today or vulnerable, you are safe in Boston. We will do everything lawful in our power to protect you. If necessary, we will use city hall itself to shelter and protect anyone who is targeted unjustly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: He went on to say that they could sleep in his office if they wanted to, Maureen. What do you say?
MALONEY: Well, does that offer extend to our veterans and our homeless people, too? You know, that's a whole different question, but I'm infuriated and I'm appalled at what Mayor Walsh is saying in his defiance of President Trump's executive order.
You know, my son should still be alive. Every person that is killed by an illegal alien was a preventable death.
MACCALLUM: You know, when you listen to -- we just listen to the mayor from Santa Fe and you just heard the mayor in Boston, and they talk a lot about the fact that we are a country of immigrants. That we should be open arms, that we shouldn't be kicking people out, that we don't want to separate families, what goes through your mind, Maureen?
MALONEY: Right. We are a country of legal immigrants. And I have members in my family that are legal immigrants. My grandparents came here legally. That's the defining word there. Legally.
I open -- I welcome legal immigrants with open arms and I don't blame them for wanting to come here for a better life. But when you come here illegally and you break our laws, we cannot tolerate that.
MACCALLUM: And I know you feel that your family --
(CROSSTALK)
MALONEY: Every illegal alien --
MACCALLUM: Your family was separated, wasn't it?
MALONEY: My family has been permanently separated. I don't have the option of calling my son or texting my son or Skyping my son. You know, there are no visitation hours in heaven. I get to go to a grave site to visit my son.
MACCALLUM: Powerful story, Maureen. And our heart goes out to you. And we thank you so much for being with us tonight. Your feelings were shared by many and I appreciate you being here. Many thanks.
MALONEY: Thank you. Thank you very much.
So President Trump's posture with Mexico has come under heavy fire from some surprising editorial pages across the country. So has the White House taken the tough talk with Mexico too far? We'll have a fair and balanced debate on that with Congressman Sean Duffy and Julie Roginsky coming up straight ahead.
Plus, fresh tensions tonight to an already confrontational relationship between Mr. Trump and the media. As one of the president's top advisors takes on the press in a big way. We'll talk about it coming up next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've seen major newspapers, two cable networks that used the word "liar" and my question to you, does that make you want to rethink entirely how this administration will deal with the media.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACCALLUM: Developing tonight on day eight of the Trump presidency, tensions with Mexico. After an abruptly canceled meeting, President Trump and the Mexican president did have a lengthy phone call first thing this morning.
About an hour after President Trump tweeted this, quote, "Mexico has taken advantage of the U.S. for long enough. Massive trade deficits and a little help on the very weak border must change now."
White House counsel Kellyanne Conway echoing her bosses messaging, summing up President Trump's thoughts on the Mexican president's recently cancelled trip. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLYANNE CONWAY, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISOR: If he's not going to come here to discuss funding the wall, maybe we shouldn't have the meeting now. We have a $60 billion trade deficit with Mexico, Brian. NAFTA is a great example of trade deals that are inequitable to United States and her workers, and her interest and her allies and that has to stop. We've spent billions of dollars defending the borders of other nations. It's high time we do that here in the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Trace Gallagher here with the latest on how this tough talk is affecting our ties with Mexico.
Hey, Trace.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Martha. We should note, the criticism of the Trump administration's handling of the wall issue is coming from across the ideological spectrum as well as the editorial boards of three of the country's largest newspapers -- The New York Times, Washington Post, and our corporate cousin, The Wall Street Journal, which called it, quote, "amateur hour."
The main point of contention isn't the wall itself, but rather Trump's vow to make Mexico pay for the wall.
Yesterday, the administration floated the idea of imposing a 20 percent tax on all Mexican imports, then later walked it back. The Washington Post argues that a tax on Mexican imports would simply drive up the cost of goods coming north, meaning that ultimately American consumers and businesses would end up paying for the wall.
Studies also showed that because of improving trade between the U.S. and Mexico in recent years wages in Mexico have gone up, giving Mexican citizens more incentive to stay south of the Rio Grande. Despite canceling a meeting next week with President Trump, Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto has shown he certainly hasn't shut down any diplomatic channels.
But Mexican opposition lawmakers aren't nearly as restrained, accusing President Trump of, quote, "hostile actions." In its editorial, The Wall Street Journal writes about Trump saying, quote, "He is already learning that nations can't be bullied like G.O.P. candidates or CEOs. They have their own nationalist political dynamics and when attacked, they pushed back." "Mr. Trump said as a candidate, that he treat America's friends better than Mr. Obama did, but his first move has been to treat Mexico like Mr. Obama treated Israel."
And conservative columnist and Fox News contributor Jonah Goldberg writes in The National Review that we should by all means build the wall, but making Mexico pay for it is a, quote, "punitive and gratuitous act of humiliation."
Martha?
MACCALLUM: Thanks, Trace.
So joining me with more, Republican Representative Sean Duffy, who was one of President Trump's earliest supporters in Congress and Julie Roginsky is Fox News contributor and Democratic analyst.
Welcome to both of you. Good to have you here.
JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good to see you.
MACCALLUM: So, Congressman Duffy, let me start with you on this. You hear what the editorials are saying out there. What's your reaction?
REP. SEAN DUFF, R-WISCONSIN: Well, first, I want to say that it's refreshing that we are seeing editorial pages that's at least buy into the idea that we should build a wall. That it's in our interest to secure our border as Americans to decide who comes in and out of our country.
But I share some of the concern. I mean, we don't want to engage in a trade war with Mexico. They are a great trading partner. And I'm going to leave it to Mr. Trump, President Trump, to figure out how do we actually get Mexico, if they are going to pay for it, how do we do it. In a 20 percent tariff, may not make a lot of sense. Maybe there is going to be a fee on remittances from the U.S.-Mexican workers back to Mexico. Maybe there's going to be a visa security fee. There's number of ways that you can do it, but still engages positively in our trade relationship with Mexico.
But the key is we have to buy into border security. And one of the thing, Martha, we have a lot of people who say the border is secure. There's not a problem right now. Crossing of the border is down at historic levels. Well, there were 60,000 unaccompanied minors who came across the border in 2016. This border is not secure and it's our job to secure it and keep America safe.
MACCALLUM: A lot of them from Central America.
Julie, what's your take? You know, there's a lot of, you know, this may be just Donald Trump -- President Donald Trump's way of starting the negotiation. I mean, we've seen how he works before. He lays down an extremely strong marker and then this morning, we see that, you know, after he tweeted another very strong tweet, what he got was a phone call from the president of Mexico. So maybe he's getting somewhere.
JULIE ROGINSKY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I'd be curious to hear the content of that phone call because what you're doing is taking an ally and let's not make the mistake that Mexico was anything other than an ally of ours. I think Congressman Duffy would agree with that.
And humiliating them in a very public way. That's no way to start a negotiation. That's no way to deal with our allies and our friends, especially laid up the fact that we are bending over backwards to potentially, as Kellyanne Conway said today, lift sanctions from Russia, which is not our ally.
So on the one hand, we are punishing the people in the country that have been partners with us both in trade, both as neighbors and we're seem to be rewarding people in countries that have wished us and our national interest ill. That is no way to start a negotiation.
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: But we know that President Trump does not like this $60 billion trade deficit. That he wants to see that number more favorable and that he wants to enter into bilateral trade arrangements with each country basically.
So Representative Duffy, you know, when you look at what Congress seems to be pushing and maybe you can tell us if this is what your understanding is as a member of Congress is this 20 percent tax to come back in. And wouldn't that have a pretty big impact on American makers of car parts, who would then be bringing that product back into the country and American companies would end up paying that 20 percent tax.
DUFFY: Well, this has been looked at for all of country that imports goods into the U.S., not just Mexico. And it's being floated not just buy the House, but the Senate and also we're discussing that with President Trump. So that's a broader discussion on tax reform that will hopefully keep more jobs in America and sends less companies to leave and sends job overseas.
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: What I'm asking is -- let me ask you one more time, just with regards to Mexico and I understand it is a broader question and other countries would pay that 20 percent as well.
But if the 20 percent happens, is this a way that the administration might find to make -- put the burden on U.S. companies to pay for the wall, essentially, or to pay a big chunk of what's paid for the wall. And does that give President Pena Nieto a little big of face-saving room to say, look, we are all sharing this cost here?
DUFFY: Well, so -- I think to allow your -- negotiate an adversary to save face is an important part of negotiating. But, again, I think it's clear to your question, we are not isolating Mexico by themselves. This would be a tax that applies to all foreign countries on their imports.
But, again, Mr. Trump could then say if this was applied, then Mexico is -- because of the tax, paying for the wall themselves.
But one other thing, too, on the wall, Martha, I don't know, in my community, I'm in rural Wisconsin, we have hundreds of thousands of meth that's come into our community, that's coming across the southern border.
So, again, however -- and I'm less concerned about how we pay for it. I think this is an American issue. Our security is an American problem, not a Mexican problem. Let's come together as Americans secure -- and President Trump can figure out a way after that if he can get Mexico to pay for it.
MACCALLUM: All right. Sorry, we are out of time. Thank you very much. Julie and Congressman Duffy, great to see you both.
ROGINSKY: Thanks.
MACCALLUM: So a milestone for the Trump White House. One week now under their belt and what a week this was, right?
We have executive orders, new policies, pretty heated back and forth with the media that we're going to talk about. Chris Stirewalt, Mercedes Schlapp, and Austan Goolsbee will be here with their grades for the week.
Plus, President Trump's ongoing battle with the media at reaching a fevered pitch as one of his top aides tells the press to keep their mouth shut and listen.
Mollie Hemingway and Ari Fleischer standing by with more on that. Right after this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The media, much of the media, not all of it, is very, very. Honestly, it's fake news. It's fake. They make things up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACCALLUM: President Trump's ongoing war with the media has traveled with him from the campaign trail to the West Wing. And now some of his top advisors are getting in on the action.
While House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon had these words for The New York Times, quote, "The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and listen for a while. I want you to quote this," he said. "The media here is the opposition party, not the Democratic party. You're the opposition party. The media is the opposition party," says Steve Bannon.
Here now is our intermediate complex segment is Ari Fleischer, former White House Press Secretary, and Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at The Federalist. Welcome to both of you. Good to have you here.
So, Mollie, there's been a lot of, you know, sort of outrage over this comment, but you say that in a way, it was taken somewhat - somewhat out of context to some extent. What do you mean?
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, THE FEDERALIST: Well, more than that, I think is just was not that controversial what he said. It mirrors a lot of what public editors said and the aftermath of the 2016 election.
It's absolutely true that the media didn't do a good job of covering this race, they misread the fundamentals, they got it wrong and pretty much every way it's possible to get the raise wrong more on things other than poll numbers than the actual poll numbers.
And in response, they didn't really reflect and try to change how they recovering things. They didn't think we need to do a better job covering the country, we don't have good handle on it. They didn't make short-term changes like focusing on facts instead of pushing narratives.
They didn't -- they've given no indication that they're making long-term changes like doing a better job with hiring or story promotion. So, the reaction is a bit much given that this is really just the fact of the matter, the media are in opposition to Trump and both sides like fighting with each other.
MACCALLUM: And I think that's backed up by the fact that you see so much focus on some of these more trivial stories that are being put out there then you do on the policy and exactly what's happening at the White House in terms of what's being put.
Let's put up a full-screen quote here from David Remnick, an editor of the New Yorker who had this to say. He said "We need to back up and do our work ferociously and furiously. If you weren't energize by that prospect of the journalist you should be a certified public accountant," he writes.
But you know, Ari, one of the questions is, where was this fervor to be a great journalist when it came to issues like Benghazi or IRS or Hillary Clinton's e-mail server? So suddenly they've woken up after eight years?
ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'll tell you where it was, it was on the pillow that they put underneath Barack Obama. Remember Saturday Night Live talked about that when he ran against Hillary. And they never got their hands off of that pillow. They always used the prop of the president.
Look, the press coverage of Barack Obama was soft for eight years and all of a sudden the press now is finding its way. Steve Bannon was right and I'll give you an example. Today's USA Today has a headline that says "Florida City caves to President Trump on sanctuary cities." Cave? Why is the headline of Florida City to enforce the law victory for Trump? But they make it a "cave" because the press prefers position of sanctuary cities and Trump is wrong. The bias is ongoing.
MACCALLUM: So, Mollie, you know, what's in the future? Where does this all go? I mean, does it continue or is there any sort of self-reflection on the part of some media outlets to say look, you know what, there is a voice out there that's happening, people are stirring in the nation, this is what prompted this election, and we need to go listen to them.
HEMINGWAY: I'm a bit worried on both sides because we have an administration that is playing fast and loose with the facts, but we don't have a media that can be taken seriously to hold back administration accountable. Precisely because they didn't do a good job for the last eight years.
FLEISCHER: Yes.
HEMINGWAY: What would be great is really to see some change and good faith efforts on the part of the press. They're doing a very good job of whipping one side of the country into a frenzy, but the rest of the country has largely tuned them out. That's not healthy.
The power of the press is predicated in large part on them not behaving in such an overtly partisan way. And so, I would hope that more reporters, and there are a few that are doing a good job with this, would calm down, stop pushing stories that turn out to be false, which is happening at an alarming rate.
Whether it's about Statement Department management resigning versus resigning. Or any of the stories coming out of the transition, and start being people that we can trust and trust to hold accountable the Trump administration.
MACCALLUM: Ari, what would advise speak to the White House on this whole issue.
FLEISCHER: My advice for the White House is to keep your foot on the gas. They're right. They should make the case. The press has brought this on itself. The only thing I objected there were two words on what Steve Bannon said. He told the press they should shut up.
I don't think it's a good idea for the government to be telling the First Amendment press corps to shut up or not shut up. Just make your case. Make your case and that will speak for itself.
But I love the fact that the Trump administration is pushing back from the president on down. They should and the media has earned it.
MACCALLUM: Thank you very much. Mollie and Ari, great to see you both.
So, from battles with the media as we were just disgusting to the wall. And executive order as President Trump had a very busy week. So, coming up, Fox's Chris Stirewalt, Mercedes Schlapp, and Austan Goolsbee to see how he did.
Plus, earlier today, tens of thousands marched in the capitol in the march for life. And the White House took a very prominent role. As did Baltimore Ravens star Benjamin Watson he joins us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACCALLUM: Every 44 years, ever since the land mark Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade, the annual March for Life has taken place in the nation's capital. Now with a pro-life president back in the White House, marchers were feeling hopeful and with good reason.
Earlier today, Mike Pence became the first ever Vice President to speak at the March for Life. And senior advisor to President Trump, Kellyanne Conway was also there in force. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, UNITED STATES VICE PRESIDENT: Life is winning in America because of all of you. So, I urge you to press on, but as it is written, let your gentleness be evident to all.
CONWAY: Why are we here? What does it mean to stand together, to be part of this incredible movement? To face criticism, ridicule, laws and lawmakers that diminish and erode our most basic right? It means to protect and to promote the most precious gift in the world, the gift of life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACCALLUM: Earlier, we had the pleasure of talking to another one of the speakers, Ben Watson is a Baltimore Ravens player and motivational speaker. Ben, thank you so much for being with us today. Tell me a little bit about what your message was to the crowd.
BENJAMIN WATSON, BALTIMORE RAVENS PLAYER: Well, first of all, it was a -- it was a great day. I've never been to March for Life before. And to see that crowd coming out to support of life was really encouraging to me.
And my message was simply that we as a country are divided when it comes to this, but it's important for us to reach out love and kindness to people who may not agree with us on this topic. But it's also important to always speak to justice and truth.
There is a truth and the truth is that, these laws are important. The pre- born are important and also the mothers who are having these children are important. And lastly, my challenge was to men.
You know, as men, we a lot of times have encourage women to get abortions. We've been the reason why many of them have done this. And so my challenge was to men, including myself to stand up for these women and also to stand for the pre-born because it's important. They truly are our more precious gifts.
MACCALLUM: A strong message. And I know that Mike Pence, the Vice President was there today as well. Give me a sense of because we saw a big crowd for the protests that happened right after the inauguration.
WATSON: Yes.
MACCALLUM: So, characterized if you could for our audience what this crowd was like. What you felt out there.
WATSON: Well, I thought this crowd was very energetic, it was a little bit cold out here, but everybody was excited. They stood for a while. But everybody was kind. I was amongst the crowd. Actually when Vice President Pence came, I hadn't gotten back yet. So, they wouldn't let any of us go back. Secret Service was locking it down.
So I had a great opportunity to speak with kids, even young men and women who came all the way from North Dakota to the march. But everybody was really excited and they were here because there is a sense of energy, but also the purpose for them being here, standing for those who are voiceless and who have no way to stand up for themselves.
MACCALLUM: How do you feel about the fact this march which happens every year for the last 44 years, tends to get very little coverage and a lot of media outlets and yet, we saw the march that happened last week, the march for women, that was, you know, wallpapered all over television?
WATSON: Yes, yes. Well, we shouldn't be surprised. You know, a lot of times when these things happen, especially when there is a spiritual component of it, the reason why I stand for life is because I believe God created life. And we live in a world that is anti-God in a lot of ways.
So we can't be surprised when certain things get more play than others. But that can't deter us from the truth. One of the things that I said was that we have to stand firm on truth no matter if people like it or not. Or if it gets on the air or not. It doesn't change what's important. It doesn't change what is true.
MACCALLUM: You know, your thoughts on President Trump, who at one point in his life, you know, said he was pro-choice and now says he is pro-life. A lot of people go through that transformation. What do you think?
WATSON: You know, well, I'm excited. Obviously, I hope for any administration that they care about life. No matter who is office my hope is that the administration takes care of not only life of the pre-born, but those who are here and those who are struggling is important as well.
So, I know President Trump has gone through some transformations, many people do that in their personal lives. I take him at his word where he is now. But my biggest thing is getting to people, getting to the citizens and understanding that it's a heart issue when comes to life.
Whether the administration promotes laws and regulations or reduces others that promote life is great. That's another thing. But the important thing is that the citizens of our country look at each other and take care of each other and whole life in high esteem.
MACCALLUM: Ben, thank you so much. Great to have you with us, Ben Watson.
WATSON: Thank you, Martha. Thank you.
MACCALLUM: So, the president's first week is now in the books and what grade did he get? Our powerful panel of professors, Chris Stirewalt, Mercedes Schlapp, and Austan Goolsbee here next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACCALLUM: So, today, marks the end of a stunningly active first week in the Oval Office for President Donald Trump. We saw a rush of executive orders, policy, media slug fests. And many was saying new direction for this country.
So we wanted to grade President Trump's first week in the White House with our first report segment. So, let's bring in the professors here. And they here. Chris Stirewalt, Fox News political editor, Mercedes Schlapp, former spokesperson for President George W. Bush and a Fox News contributor as well. Austan Goolsbee as President Obama's chief economist.
So, Professor Goolsbee, let's start with you. Let's see, I'm thinking if I want to guess what you are going to give him. But laid it on me. What's the grade for the week?
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER BARACK OBAMA CHIEF ECONOMIST: Look, with first week likes that, who needs enemies? I mean, he announced several executive orders, but he also contradicted himself multiple times. He seem to announced an anger of 20 percent tariff on Mexico only to be followed a few hours later by saying, no, no, no I didn't mean it.
He got engaged in battles over crowd size, went to the CIA. I mean, it was-- it was a week unlike any other that we've seen, I would grade at the worst opening week that a president had in modern memory.
MACCALLUM: All right. So what is that grade?
GOOLSBEE: Low.
MACCALLUM: Low. I just want to--
(CROSSTALK)
GOOLSBEE: I'll give him the incomplete.
MACCALLUM: The incomplete. OK. Well, there is some room for improvement I guess. Let me go to you, Mercedes. Your thoughts on how the week went and what really stands out to you. Because when you look forward from here, we are going to look back at this first week and say here's what lasted, what mattered.
MERCEDES SCHLAPP, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, clearly, I think I might be an easy grader, but I think Donald Trump gets an A. It's very clear that critics thought he was going to be all talk in the campaign. What we have seen with Donald Trump is that he's an all action President.
He's made it a point to move his agenda forward aggressively. I think when you look at executive orders, he's actually talking to a wide variety of constituencies. One being, for example, the pro-life community when he reinstated the Mexico City policy.
He spoke to union leaders when he withdrew from the TPP, he spoke to corporate leaders as well. Talking about what do we need to do to ensure that we have less regulation and help to grow the economy in the United States.
And so, I think what you're finding with Donald Trump is that he wants to deliver. He wants to be true to his word. And I think what you're finding is that, over 65 percent of Americans are saying you know what, we agree with this America's first agenda.
MACCALLUM: Yes, I think you make a great point, Mercedes. And Chris, I want to get your thought on this. Because he has gone straight to his constituencies. The unions, corporate leaders who he knows he can make deals with in terms of more manufacturing in this country.
And even the rank and file of the intelligence agencies who in the end, you know, I mean, you're never going to get every single person, but seem to have supported him and said that they're not going to miss some of those leaders that they had very much.
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS DIGITAL POLITICS EDITOR: Well, you know, we'll see. Much of what Trump did could be a tremendous true. You have the making-- if you look at it through one gaze you have the makings of a tremendously successful presidency.
Donald Trump successfully dividing Democrats by playing to union labor interests and other things, on things like infrastructure spending, et cetera, et cetera, where you see ways where a weakened Democratic Party could be divided and Trump might get his way on a number of things in the United States Senate.
But then you also have another narrative and that other narrative is distracted, distracted, distracted, distracted. When Trump is focused, when Trump is doing the things and sticking on the issues that are useful and helpful for him, then he is doing really well.
When he gets distracted by the sides of his crowds or fighting about the illegal vote count, where these things that take them him off topic, not so hot. And you can see there and there, the possibility for a presidency that gets hopelessly derailed. So, we don't know yet, but we certainly see the makings of both potential outcomes there.
MACCALLUM: So, Austan, you know, Chris brings up this issue of, you know, some of the sideshows that are going on here. And you know, there's a lot of focus on those sideshows and a lot of venues, especially in the media.
But the people out in the country, are focused on things that actually affect them, that matter to them. So, while many people want to keep pushing these story lines and in many ways Donald Trump has been helping him by putting them out there, is it really in there and will it matter?
GOOLSBEE: Well, Donald Trump is the source of why we are paying attention to those things. He cannot let them go. I actually agree that there could be two different versions of Trump that could go one way or another.
The one thing I would observe is if Donald Trump is nothing like Donald Trump, then he will probably succeed. That is, if he could stay focused without impulse control problems, if he could not let either his ego or his anger get in the way of making his policy and if he can decide on clear details, I think he could be effective at pushing his agenda.
I don't agree with that agenda, but I think he could be effective. I just haven't seen it from this week, at least, that there is any evidence that he can do that. I actually think the evidence was quite the opposite, that it wasn't the Democrats being divided, it was the Republicans being divided. The Democrats are absolutely--
(CROSSTALK)
MACCALLUM: But in the end, you know, Austan, you look at -- you look at the agenda, you look at everything that got done. I mean, there's a lot of things that at least started. The files are open on health care, on all of these issues in just a couple of days.
SCHLAPP: Yes.
MACCALLUM: Mercedes, I want to get your thoughts on the relationship with Mexico's president. You know, we know that that dialogue reopened earlier today.
SCHLAPP: Right. I think, Martha, it's a bit of a game of posturing. I think what you're saying is the fact it's something that Donald Trump even talks about in his book "The Art of the Deal," is that you set the standard high.
And I think for Donald Trump, he really wants to push out this idea of this active saying look, we're going to move forward and build this wall. And yes, somehow we're going to have Mexico pay for it.
Now of course, the Republicans are split, Martha, on the issues of the tariffs. They don't want to move forward on the 20 percent tariff, so it's interesting to see how this is going to play out between congressional Republicans--
MACCALLUM: OK.
SCHLAPP: -- and the president on this issue of Mexico. I think it's important to understand that what we have seen, the United States have gone a trade surplus in 1993 to a trade deficit today after NAFTA.
So, at the end, I think that Donald Trump is saying it's a one-sided deal, we got to fix it and we got to do what's going to benefit the American worker.
MACCALLUM: All right. Thank you so much, Chris Stirewalt, great having you all here. Mercedes Schlapp, Austan Goolsbee, we'll see you guys next time. Thanks a million.
SCHALPP: Thank you.
STIREWALT: Bye.
MACCALLUM: So, Newt Gingrich writes that while Prime Minister Theresa May is being compared to Margaret Thatcher, he said it's really President Trump who echoes her. So, you decide.
He's a quote of the day for you from Britain's Prime Minister Thatcher back in 1984. "I came to office with one deliberate intent, to change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society. From a give it to me to a do- it-yourself nation. A get up and go instead of a sit back and wait for it Britain."
So, there you have it. That's why they called her the iron lady.
Send me your thoughts at facebook.com/marthamaccallum or leave a message at Twitter using the hash tag First 100.
Thanks for being here, everybody. Have a great night.
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