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'Special Report' All-Star panel on condo collapse, rise in crime, infrastructure
Published June 29, 2021
This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," June 28, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
BRET BAIER, HOST: Now we'll turn to our panel. Let's bring this our panel, Byron York, chief political correspondent of "The Washington Examiner," Juan Williams, FOX News political analyst, Trey Gowdy, former Congressman from South Carolina. I want to talk to you guys in the next segment about the infrastructure stuff and the back and forth here in Washington, but, Trey, just react to this, not only on a human and tragic scale, but also from a government and what comes next scale on this condo collapse.
TREY GOWDY, FORMER SOUTH CAROLINA REPRESENTATIVE: Yes, Bret, I cannot imagine anything worse than waiting to find out what happened to a loved one. So I just cannot imagine. So, my thoughts are with anyone who does not know what happened to their loved one. It's one of the core -- we are going to talk about crime later on. This is one of the core functions of state and local government. So I think people have a right when they move into a condo to expect that condo not to collapse. So, look, I'm sure they will get us all the answers and who failed to inspect and whether or not something was passed off that should not have been passed off. But in 2021, we don't need to have buildings collapsing in the United States.
BAIER: Period. Juan?
JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: I just want to pick up on what Trey said and offer some sense of empathy there. It's unbelievable what's been going on, and I think that the first responders on the scene, to continue that effort and just the belief to have hope is awesome. But from a are journalistic point of view, Bret, I think that already people are trying to look into exactly where is the building code here? Was there money exchanging hands? Because they say there was an inspection ton in 2018 that revealed flaws. Well, if that's the case, why didn't the condo board -- why didn't the local government act? Where is the action here? You can't just have buildings collapsing and somebody said it's like a third world country, you see this kind of stuff happening elsewhere. It should not be happening in the USA.
BAIER: Byron?
BYRON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER": Well, it's extremely important to find out exactly what happened here. Obviously, that part of Florida, other parts of Florida, the rest of the coast of the United States is dotted with similar buildings. And we have to know what was going on. Was it a landfill problem, a reinforced concrete problem, some sort of structural engineering problem? Obviously, everybody in that part of Florida is very worried about this. And so while some officials deal obviously with the enormous human problem of people waiting to find out what happened with their loved ones, there is a bigger problem, which is we have got to find out what happened.
BAIER: Yes. Well, we will head back down for any details. But it looks like that news conference is just continuing in Spanish and English. Again, 11 confirmed dead, 151 missing, and our thoughts and prayers are with those families, and we just mentioned.
Up next, America's crime crisis worsens, and we'll talk about the policy and politics up here in Washington.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Will President Biden sign the bipartisan deal if it's not tied to a reconciliation package later?
JARED BERNSTEIN, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: The president has been unequivocal about the following point, which answers your question. He intends to sign both of those bills.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Which is not unequivocal, nor an answer to my question. We're back with the panel.
Trey, the reason there was a statement put out Saturday is because it was confusing on Friday whether he would sign one without the second one.
GOWDY: I think confusing is being generous, Bret. But, look, progressives are sitting there looking at roads and bridges and airports and saying we could have gotten that with Trump. We didn't elect you to give you what we could have gotten with President Trump. They want the AOC, Bernie Sanders stuff. And they haven't been to West Virginia, so they don't realize that Biden actually didn't carry a single solitary county in West Virginia, and Joe Manchin ain't voting for all of that.
So, look, welcome to what the Tea Party and the Freedom Caucus, welcome to that on the left. That's the fight they are having right now.
BAIER: Speaking of which, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Here you go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, (D-NY): For me, it's not as much about a price tag, although I do think that there is a level where we do go too small. But I think it's really about what impact are we making? We really need to understand that this is our one big shot, not just in terms of family, child care, Medicare, but on climate change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: So, Juan, is the president trying to tiptoe through the tulips here, not anger the progressives, but get a deal, but maybe not get the other deal? Is that possible?
WILLIAMS: Yes. I think this is a high wire act because, look, we live in polarized political times. This is a rare bipartisan deal, real compromise. And you just have to say, Biden had a slip there, he almost slipped off the wire. He was right to correct himself, even seemed very apologetic. So that's what it is going to take. It's going to be necessary for them.
But, right now you have more path to failure than success, Bret. You stop and think about it, Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, he doesn't want to give a Democratic president a win in his first two years. And then you have the Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing who think that you have got to throw everything in there and let's just push it through. I don't think that's going to happen. It may not happen, but right now you have this bipartisan deal up on the wire. Everyone is pushing against it. But it's a real deal, and I never thought it would get this far.
BAIER: It's interest, Manchin always comes up, the Democratic senator from West Virginia. But there is Kyrsten Sinema, there is Warner from Virginia. There is Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire. There is Jacky Rosen from Nevada. There's a lot of different senators who have expressed concerns over different elements of this. Byron?
YORK: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who we just heard from, also said in addition to a bridge, you also need a babysitter, which is the best illustration of the differences between Republicans and Democrats in how they define infrastructure. That's the key conflict here.
I think President Biden just said the quiet out loud. The plan was to have him be Mr. Bipartisan while Nancy Pelosi plays tough, partisan hardball. Certainly, she does that. After all, she held up a COVID relief bill for months last year they worst part of the pandemic. She would certainly be happy to hold up this bipartisan bill in order to get the so-called human infrastructure bill that Democrats want. I don't think it's been any secret what Schumer and Pelosi are planning, but Biden just said the quiet part out loud.
BAIER: We're condensing panels because of the breaking news, but talking about crime spike, homicides in major cities. New York up 12 percent, Oakland 82 percent, Portland, 533 percent. Other crime increases major cities, hate crimes, carjackings, rape, auto theft, arson. This is real. It's not a hype, Trey.
GOWDY: Crime prevention, public safety is a preeminent function of government. So if you want to see government failing at galactic level, look at our crime rate.
BAIER: Juan, last word.
WILLIAMS: Well, I think crime is rising in terms of murders, but we have to be very careful here. That's the one area, and it's related to the guns. That's why in the latest FOX poll you get 57 percent of Americans think the easy access to the guns is a threat to the stability of the whole country. But it's not a crimewave in that wave. It's a murder wave.
BAIER: Byron, I will give you the last word. There is a lot of concern about police departments and where that stands.
YORK: Every time there is a crimewave people talk about one thing -- increasing police departments. Democrats need to talk about that more. There was a "Washington Post" story that said Democrats are starting to talk about this. And then it quoted one who said Democrats need to be open, but they talked anonymously, wouldn't say who they were.
BAIER: We'll follow this. Panel, thanks for rolling with the punches. We'll tell you what we are working on tomorrow's SPECIAL REPORT when we come back.
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