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History will not be kind to Joe Biden: Jonah Goldberg

Special panel, Bill Bennet, Mara Liasson, Jonah Goldberg, discuss Republicans call for President Biden's removal from office on 'Special Report'

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," September 2, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BAIER: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell saying there is not going to be an impeachment, the president is not going to resign. But there`s a number of Republicans calling for that. If you look at Republicans calling for removal, resignation, 46 Republicans, impeachment 11, raising the 25th Amendment because of the decisions over Afghanistan, there you see three.

Meantime, "The Wall Street Journal" about the Afghanistan impact on elections. At home Bidenites hope Afghanistan will be in rearview mirror long before the midterm elections. Swing district Democrats can immunize themselves by criticizing the administration over the execution of the withdrawal. All Democrats will benefit from their association with a president who, however inelegantly, is ending unpopular wars rather than starting new ones. These hopes are not completely unfounded, and Republicans who want to ride the Afghanistan issue back into power may be disappointed. History, however, always punishing failure."

Let`s bring in our panel, former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio, and Jonah Goldberg, editor in chief of "The Dispatch." Jonah, what about that analysis from "Wall Street Journal" and the lasting impact of the decisions in Afghanistan?

JONAH GOLDBERG, "THE DISPATCH": Yes, I certainly think that history is going to be brutal on Joe Biden for what he has done here. And I think that if the story goes away the way it did after the fall of Saigon to a certain extent, the "Journal" might be right on that, that Americans don`t generally vote on foreign policy.

The problem with this vanishing into the rearview window theory is that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and the facts on the ground in Afghanistan in effect get a vote. And if we see ongoing executions, brutalities, if there are terrorist attacks that can be linked back to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, it keeps it a live issue in the way that the North Vietnamese taking over South Vietnam wasn`t.

I should add one cultural point -- the very thought that there could still be POWs and MIAs in Vietnam had a profound cultural half-life in this country for a half century. And we are going to be probably hearing stories about Americans and American allies left in Afghanistan for a long time, and I think that is going to have not only just a shameful impact on our reputation around the world, but it is also going to be part of our culture and part of the conversation for a long time to come.

BAIER: I think you are right. The shelf life of that, especially with Americans on the ground, plus the thousands of Afghans who helped America, and the Taliban perhaps reverting to the Taliban we know so well, at least the atrocities that we`re hearing already from the BBC and others, Mara. The tough part is that the administration really can`t get us a firm number on any of this. It seems like we are out of State, out of the Pentagon, out of the White House, we cannot get a number.

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Yes, a number of how many Afghan allies are SIV candidates and want to leave, how many Americans are still there, green card holders, legal residents who are there and want to leave. Yes, that number is pretty important, because the bigger it is, the more problem it is for the administration, because they`ve got to get those people out. They`ve said they would. They said that somehow there is a way to get them out even without American boots on the ground there. So we`ll see what happens.

But I think in terms of what impact had has on the next election, that depends on all those things Jonah just listed. Maybe Afghanistan will fade from the headlines, but if there are stories of atrocities, stories of people being trapped, and Republicans will call them hostages, not being allowed to leave by the Taliban, that`s going to be a real problem. But I think in general, we have learned that Americans don`t really care that much about Afghanistan.

BAIER: Bill?

BILL BENNETT, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY: Well, but they do care about those stories and about those people. The numbers matter, the data matters, those individual stories have a resonance. Here is this man who helped Joe Biden and others when his helicopter was in trouble or went down in the snow. And now he is writing him directly saying help me get out. And the president seems powerless to do it.

Look, Mitch McConnell is right. Impeachment here is deserved, but the currency of impeachment I think has been cheapened over the last few years. But he is not going to be impeached because of the House. I think it may be better in the long run for him to stay and to listen to the cries of these folks, these people, and to understand what a lot of us believe, that this was the most disgraceful act of foreign policy I believe a president has ever done. I don`t know if it`s the most consequential. Maybe, that depends. But disgraceful, yes. I don`t think there is a parallel, and I have been looking through the history the last three days.

BAIER: You mentioned that interpreter who was among the people who saved Senator Biden and the other two senators, Senator Kerry and Senator Hagel, he spoke to FOX & FRIENDS this morning, Mohammed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED INTERPRETER WHO HELPED RESCUE BIDEN: They left me and my family and other people behind. That`s what is scary. We are under great risk.

Hello, President. Do not leave. Do not forget me and my family at the moment in Afghanistan. It is a very hard and horrifying situation. There is no way to escape from here to another area. Do not leave me and my family behind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: It`s tough to listen to, Jonah. And we, again, can`t get the numbers of the people since the last flight went out who have gotten out. And we don`t have those numbers either, either Americans or Afghan allies.

GOLDBERG: Yes. And it does appear that we were at least misled by the tone and tenure of President Biden`s remarks about this. He made it seem that a big chunk of those 120,000 odd people who were evacuated from Afghanistan were, in fact, Afghans and SIVs. And it turns out it is looking like the numbers are much smaller.

I think Mara raises an important point here when we are talking about the rearview mirror of history and how much shelf life this is going to have. The fall of Saigon, and Joe Biden has been committed to this analogy. He talked about this with Richard Holbrooke, which Holbrooke talks about in his memoirs, that he thinks Nixon and Kissinger got away with abandoning Vietnam, we can get away with abandoning Afghanistan.

The thing is that if, in fact, the Taliban takes hostages, not just the ones the Republicans call hostages, but literally rounds up these people and says open up the spigots of aid for these kinds of things, then you are not looking at a Vietnam analogy. You`re look at an Iran analogy. And Jimmy Carter`s presidency was mortally wounded by the hostage crisis, and we could have a much bigger one on our hands. We just don`t know because we don`t know the numbers of who is there and whether they can get out or not yet.

BAIER: Yes, and we are going to follow it every day. We`re not going to turn the page on that.

We are going to talk about the California gubernatorial recall next. But as we head to break, I want you to listen to Charles Krauthammer, our late colleague, talking about then Vice President Biden in 2012.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: The vice president has been over the last 30 years holds the American record for wrong on the most issues in foreign affairs ever. And the list starts with the nuclear freeze in the early 80s against Thatcher and Reagan and Kohl, which was one of the fathers of the era. He is the Herbert Hoover of American foreign policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM, (D) CALIFORNIA: We have major candidates on the other side of this recall that have two things in common. One is they all supported Donald Trump. And, number two, none of them condemned that hate. In fact, many of them defended Donald Trump, including the leading candidate, Larry Elder.

LARRY ELDER, (R) CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: They are going to outspend us, but we still believe that so many people are angry about the crime, about the homelessness, about the outrageous cost of living. About the way he ignored science while his own kids were enjoying in person education, and the fact that for the very first time in this state`s 170 year history, people are leaving and they`re taking their taxpayer dollars with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in California could be in trouble. The recall is September 14th. Here`s how it works. We`ll put up the poll numbers. You have to vote no if you want to keep Gavin Newsom in. In other words, don`t recall him. Rights now, that`s where these latest recall numbers, the average of recent polls stands. But there are some thoughts that maybe it`s going to be tighter than that.

Once you get to yes, he should be recalled, then you have the GOP candidates, and there they are, John Cox, Larry Elder, who seems to be leading among these, Kevin Faulconer, and Caitlyn Jenner. And the ballot itself is fairly complex. You`ve got first the yes and no, and then it`s the other candidates, and really the other candidates could win with 25 percent of the vote depending. There is a lot of candidates listed.

We`re back with our panel. Mara, you saw that big sign behind Gavin Newsom, vote no because it`s a little confusing. Some Democrats say yes, we are going to vote yes.

LIASSON: Yes, we want to keep Newsom. Yes. Look. Putting aside whether Gavin Newsom is going to win or not, the polls have shown lately a tiny bit of advantage for him better than they were doing about a week or two ago. But the whole recall process is amazing. As you said, Gavin Newsom can lose his job if he gets 49.9 percent of the vote, and Larry Elder could become the governor if he gets something like 25 percent of the vote.

So it`s this tool that was part of the California progressivism that was going to give populist -- give the people the chance to recall their governor, but it`s turned into this minoritarian tool, where you can get rid of the governor if he gets a hair under 50, and you can elect a new governor with a tiny, tiny sliver of the vote. So that`s why a lot of people are talking about even after this is all over, California needs to reform its recall process.

BAIER: Yes. Bill, your thoughts?

BENNETT: I think he`s going down. And they do a lot of goofy things in California, Mara. I know you already know that.

(LAUGHTER)

BENNETT: I recall Prop 16, which -- that`s the don`t count race, don`t take race into account in college admissions and other things. The people who wanted to get rid of the colorblindness provision outspent by five to one the people who wanted to keep it. But it won with California voters. So they do a lot of goofy things out there. But most of the goofy things are done by the people in charge, not by the voters. So I predict he`s out and Larry Elder is in, my former colleague in Salem Radio.

BAIER: We`ll see, and we`re going to follow it very closely.

I want to play this one soundbite, and it`s just happening. The president talking to Jewish leaders. The Tree of Live Synagogue in Pittsburgh is where that shooting happened. Here`s what he said, and I will tell you why I`m playing it after that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I remember spending time at the, you know, -- going to the -- you know, the Tree of Life Synagogue, speaking with -- just, it just is amazing these things are happening, happening in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Now, we have no record that he has ever gone to the Tree of Life Synagogue. The "New York Post" first pointed this out. Peter Doocy says he doesn`t recall anything like that. The White House has not responded to us. Jonah, these are things that happen, that clearly was suggesting that he went there and talked to folks.

GOLDBERG: Yes, I think there is a temptation to chalk this up to the idea that he is lost it, he`s old, and all that kind of thing, and I understand those kinds of arguments. But this is the kind of thing Joe Biden has done for 40 years. In this he was very much like Bill Clinton who was just create stories about things that he did and places he had been that he never was when he was in his 40s. And Joe Biden is very much like that. He is a crowd pleaser. He likes to say things to audiences and make connections with the audiences.

And so maybe he went to the Tree of Life Synagogue. Maybe he didn`t. But this doesn`t shock me because this is the real Joe Biden, a guy who says what he wants to say regardless of whether the facts are with him.

BAIER: Yes. And we`ll follow up and continue to. Thought we`d bring that up.

All right, panel, when we come back, tomorrow`s headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Finally tonight, a look at tomorrow`s headlines with the panel, a little lightning round. Mara?

LIASSON: Mine is abortion politics return to voters. State by state battles begin. I think if Roe is truly on the way out, all of a sudden it`s not about the Supreme Court anymore. It`s about actual voters and their state legislatures.

BAIER: Bill?

BENNETT: Yes. President Biden will not be impeached, but despite efforts to ignore the calls of the suffering and oppressed in Afghanistan, once he hears those calls, maybe he will have the decency to resign.

BAIER: Jonah?

GOLDBERG: Struggling to find a winning message on Afghanistan, Joe Biden borrows a page from the Obama administration and now boasts he created or saved over 1 million refugees.

BAIER: All right, thanks, guys.

Next Thursday on SPECIAL REPORT, special announcement, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will be our guests. What questions do you have about COVID-19 as the school year gets underway? Tweet your video questions to @BretBaier, hashtag "COVID questions." Tomorrow on SPECIAL REPORT, a special interview as well, Markwayne Mullin, whose whereabouts were interesting.

That`s it for SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and unafraid. FOX NEWS PRIMETIME hosted by Tammy Bruce this week starts right now.

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