Byron York: Is Biden going to live up to 'toughness' he promised?
'Special Report' All-Star panel discusses Wuhan lab leak theory and what to expect from Biden-Putin summit
This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," June 15, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: I think they're holding to this hypothesis tightly. Now, why would that be?
Sometimes scientists, when they get -- they bite into a bone on a hypothesis, it's hard for them to move on.
I guess if I'm disappointed about anything about the early scientific community, is that there seemed to be lack of openness to pursue both hypotheses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: Let's bring in our panel, Kimberley Strassel, a member of the editorial board at "The Wall Street Journal," Harold Ford Jr., former Tennessee Congressman and CEO of Empowerment and Inclusion Capital. Great to have you both tonight. So Kimberley, let's start there. There are so many questions about the origins of COVID, but why certain theories were pursued and were outright discounted from the beginning. And we're hearing from the former CDC director there, and still more questions now about a new investigation.
I talked to Dr. Marty Makary, our viewers will recognize and know him, about this today, and he said it's kind of a waste of time and money to do another WHO investigation. So where do we go from here?
KIMBERLEY STRASSEL, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes, it's remarkable thing. The statement that came out of the G-7, and they said well, we are looking to the WHO to again do an investigation. This is the same WHO that completely struck out the first time. And you have to ask yourself why that happened. And it was because part of their investigatory team included scientists who had clear conflicts of interest because they had been involved with the funding of the Wuhan Institute that is under suspicion.
And so it's not entirely clear why they think there is going to be a different result this time, especially because China is simply refusing to give access to the lab and to key data and reports.
BREAM: I'm going to play a little bit of back and forth inside the beltway from a number of political faces and names you will recognize about this potential leak theory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe that the virus came from a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute?
MIKE POMPEO, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I do.
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The WHO, you are right. The first study that they put out was highly deficient. The leaders of the G-7 had come together insisting that China cooperate with the so-called phase two study by the WHO to really get to the bottom of what happened. But that is -- that's not enough.
REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL, (R-TX): And I'm all for working with our NATO allies and G-7 partners, but President Trump talked about America first, and I think it's important we see concrete actions come out of these summits and not just pleasantries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: So, Harold, where does the U.S. go from here on these concrete actions, on holding China accountable and using any potential leverage to get answers?
HAROLD FORD JR., FORMER TENNESSEE REPRESENTATIVE: Well, first, good to be with you.
I think a few things. I think that the idea, the notion that we are going to find our way into China and be able to conduct an investigation is probably not going to happen. I would agree with experts who say that. I think, two, we have to assume that if they don't allow us in, that the worst case is probably the actual case. And, three, we ought to maybe reach out, and perhaps this is part of the conversation with our G-7 partners and NATO partners, maybe the U.S. considers leading an effort to create a fund a new world organization focused on finding pathogens and understanding pathogens better, a new WHO, for lack of a better term, and perhaps we can be the lead funder of it.
There's no question economic and -- financial and economic and, for that matter, military sanctions and exercises ought to be considered in the region to send a message to China that their lack of cooperation around this is unacceptable. And, again, the reason I'm most interested in this, and I would hope that all of us would be, and there may be some politics for some, but I listened to Kimberley's comments, I didn't sense that at all. I think the real issue here is trying to understand this virus, because we will face another health challenge like this, and it's incumbent upon health experts to understand better how to help not only America but the rest of the world to respond to a global pandemic, which you can expect another, I think, in the coming years, if not sooner.
BREAM: So a challenging relationship with China. But now Byron York, joins us, chief political correspondent of "The Washington Examiner," to talk about this look ahead now to President Biden about to sit down face-to-face with President Putin. Both of them had a lot to say about each other. How do you think this meeting goes? We have been told that the Biden administration put together a group of advisers, people to give health and information, including people from the Trump administration to the president before he goes into this meeting.
BYRON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER": Well, if you listen to Joe Biden and other Democrats, the last four years they talked about how tough they would be with Vladimir Putin, how tough they would be with Russia compared to President Donald Trump who, they said, was Putin's lapdog. So now there's a chance. So far, we have seen a really mixed record of the Biden administration with Russia. A few new sanctions, but, also, a go ahead for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is considered a really big geopolitical victory for the Kremlin in which President Biden overruled the top people in his own State Department to do.
So the question is going to come out of this meeting. First of all, I don't think there is going to be any big what they call deliverables, big agreements or anything like that. What's going to come out of this meeting is, is it just all talk, or is the United States actually going to live up to the toughness that Joe Biden promised in the campaign?
BREAM: Kimberley, Peter Doocy reported at the top of the show that they were really downplaying any expectations of any deliverables, as Byron mentioned there. So how does this meeting then play out publicly? They are not going to have a press conference together afterwards. I guess we'll get readouts from both sides. But what does the Biden administration need to be able to point to to say that this was a successful meeting?
STRASSEL: Well, they are probably going to talk about cybersecurity and make it sound as though they got tough on that and question of Russian interference in hotspots in the world, et cetera. But without a press conference there, we're going to have to take their word for it in terms of what happened.
And I think Byron makes a really excellent point that the meeting really doesn't matter as much as the actions. And so far, what we have seen from the Biden administration, in particular on Nord Stream 2 is that defensive posture, one that seems to be catering to Putin's interests rather than doubling down on sanctions and penalties, and rallying the rest of the free world to take a stand against some of Putin's more aggressive moves, especially into neighboring country.
BREAM: That's it for now. But, with that in mind, when we come back, we're going to talk about your predictions for tomorrow's headlines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BREAM: Finally tonight, a look at tomorrow's headlines. And Harold, we'll have you kick us off.
FORD: Sure. The meeting between Biden and Putin with how the late great Howard Cosell described all the Ali-Frazier battles -- drama on the grandest scale.
BREAM: It will be. Kimberley?
STRASSEL: Mine is progressives kill bipartisan infrastructure talks. We have had these 10 senators who came up with a $1.2 trillion framework, but now you have liberal senators rebelling, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren. It sounds as if they can't spend $4 trillion or $5 trillion they don't want anything at all.
BREAM: It's starting to feel like you have to have the "Beautiful Mind" diagram with the yarns and the connections, all of these different groups trying to get something done. We will track what the headline is on that tomorrow. Byron, we'll wrap with you.
YORK: Mine is, Jon Stewart backs off remark supporting lab leak theory, just kidding says comedian. He stirred up a lot of controversy with what he said on Colbert about -- in support of the lab leak hypothesis.
BREAM: Yes. I'm trying to decide how much of that was tongue in cheek. All right, panel, thank you so much.
Tomorrow on SPECIAL REPORT, complete coverage of that summit between President Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Thanks so much for watching SPECIAL REPORT. I'm Shannon Bream in Washington. Please join me midnight eastern for FOX NEWS AT NIGHT. We'll look into a string of college campus hate crimes hoaxes with a professor who literally wrote a book on that trend.
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