'Special Report' All-Stars on political fallout from controversial rhetoric

Published July 18, 2019

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," July 18, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!

REP. ILHAN OMAR, D-MINN.: Nothing this president says should be taken to heart. Dissent is patriotic. Here in the United States, disagreement is welcome, debate is welcomed, and especially in the people's house, all of our voices are uplifted and heard.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: I was not happy with it. I disagree with it. But again, I didn't say that. They did.

REP. ALEXANDRA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: This is not just about threats to individual members of Congress, but it is about creating a volatile environment in this country through violent rhetoric.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, R-CALIF., HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: The president did not join in. The president moved on. He moved on about a speech about a country and the things that are building it aright.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, HOST: The president's rally in North Carolina, a specific chant there, "Send her back," getting a lot of attention here in Washington and throughout of the U.S. The candidates weighing in on the Democratic side, one of them Kamala Harris, tweeting "It's vile. It's cowardly. It's xenophobic. It's racist. It defiles the office of the president. And I won't share it here. It's time to get from out of office and unite the country."

Where are we on this, and what's the next step in the big political picture? Let's bring in our panel, Byron York, chief political correspondent for the "Washington Examiner," Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at "The Federalist," and Mo Elleithee, executive director of the Georgetown Institute of Politics. Mollie?

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE FEDERALIST": Well, I was heartened to hear President Trump say that he did not support this chant, because it's an important American value that all legal immigrants who are citizens are entitled to the same due process that other citizens are. And so it's good to hear that and have that come from someone prominent, particularly after his tweets this weekend.

I also think the circus around this is pretty instructive. It was two years ago that a prominent Trump aide was basically asked for his papers over a policy disagreement, Seb Gorka, by prominent Democrats, Jerry Nadler, Dick Durbin, and I don't remember anybody freaking out about it. I think that disparity in how the media treat different things like this is part of what's happening when people are very frustrated with how the squad is treated in the media, that there rhetoric is kind of papered over or ignored, and then when Donald Trump highlights it, then they rush to defend these things even when it's hurtful -- it's hurtful to hear "Send her back." It's also hurtful to hear some of the anti-Semitic or some of the pro-terrorist, pro-terrorism type sentiment from these other people.

BAIER: Mo, what about that? When we do these stories, it often focuses on the president's tweets or rhetoric. We don't go backwards and often show all of the things that have been said and done by the squad, and talked about by them. Maybe we should every time, just to be balanced equally, but what's your take on all of this?

MO ELLEITHEE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GEORGETOWN INSTITUTE OF POLITICS: I do remember Representative Omar getting a lot of blowback for a lot of her comments, by a lot of prominent Democrats.

BAIER: But not by the House. They didn't vote --

ELLEITHEE: A lot of prominent Democrats in the House, people who are committee chairs. I'm a Democrat. I spoke out against a lot of her previous --

HEMINGWAY: They declined to vote against it.

BAIER: What I'm saying is they conceded -- they water down the resolution.

ELLEITHEE: But you can't say it didn't get coverage. You can't say it didn't get noticed. And you can say it didn't get condemned by a lot of people.

Look, I just think the past few days have been one of the lowlights of this presidency, this administration. I'm a person who often gets told to go back to where I came from. When people say that to me, they usually mean Arizona where I grew up. Whereas a lot of my white friends don't get that. Even when they are making these same exact points that I am making when I sit here on this set, they don't get told that.

And so being told go back where you came from, allowing for chant -- and yes, I'm glad the president said something today. I wish he had said something yesterday. He paused for 13 full seconds to let that chant go on. He could have what John McCain bravely did back when he dealt with similar xenophobic comments.

BAIER: He said to the woman, no, ma'am, that's not true.

ELLEITHEE: That's right. When she said something about Barack Obama, he took to the floor of the Senate to defend Huma Abedin. Seven years ago today, took to the floor of the United States Senate to defend her against charges that she was disloyal to this country.

And the last point I would make is this president made some very tough comments about the United States when he was running for president. He had every right to do so. In his inaugural address, he talked of American carnage. No one said you should leave if you don't love it.

HEMINGWAY: He's been called a traitor for years. This is the type of rhetoric that people have been accustomed to. You bring up John McCain, who was called a racist, again, by prominent Democrats. There is a disparity here in how we treat these things. Tough rhetoric is unfortunate, but when you hear it -- the media make a huge deal about it.

ELLEITHEE: I just believe that everyone has a right to dissent. Everyone has a right to criticize. No one told him he should leave the country when he criticized --

HEMINGWAY: He was called a traitor.

BAIER: All right, I'm going to move on. Byron, weigh in.

BRYON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "WASHINGTON EXAMINER": I think four days into this, despite this --

BAIER: We are actually five. We've five full days of Washington oxygen.

YORK: Exactly. Despite this argument here I think we are moving from the outrage phase to a more strategic phase. The president actually began dialing back this yesterday. Before the rally he tweeted yesterday of the squad, they are entitled to their opinion, they are Americans. I'm entitled to my opinion, and I just think they're leftwing cranks. That was a clear difference than what the president was doing yesterday before the rally. Clearly, a lot of Republicans want him to dial it back as well.

And I think what we are seeing is some Democrats would like to dial it back too. Jim Clyburn today said we've just got to stop paying attention to this. They passed a bill to gradually increase the federal minimum wage. That's totally gotten disappeared in all of this. So I think we've finally moved, after five days, into a much more strategic phase.

Obviously, Republicans would like to make the squad the living logo of the Democratic Party, and they're going to have a lot of opportunity to do that in the next few months I'm sure.

BAIER: They have over the past four days. Here is Rush Limbaugh, his take today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: The way these women are setting it up, they are setting it up just like Obama did. You can't criticize us. We are women of color. You cannot criticize us. Any criticism of us is an attack on our minority status. And they are saying this to Pelosi and other Democrats as well as to the Republicans. All the while, the people who support this are being portrayed as the enemies of America, and they are racist and they're bigots and they're homophobes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: I guess the story politically, is there a concern in the Democratic Party that the four congresswomen potentially could be the face of the party, number one, number two, that take that the president is dealing with a good economy, he was dealing with the Democratic Party was at least talking at each other in the midst of this, and kind of changed the dynamic.

ELLEITHEE: So one, yes, I think the Democratic Party was focused on the internal squabble on the Hill amongst Democrats, and now that's not the case.

But at the end of the day, purely politically speaking, the squad will not be the face of the Democratic Party come next spring when the Democratic Party has a nominee. The nominee then will become the face of the Democratic Party. And if he keeps talking -- if the president keeps talking about the squad and whomever the Democratic nominee is, is out there talking about him, that's going to change the dynamic entirely.

BAIER: I don't want to miss this, and that's the exchange between Elijah Cummings and the acting Homeland Security Secretary today about the border situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS, D-MD, CHAIRMAN, HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: I guess you feel like you don't agree, right? Is that what you're saying?

KEVIN MCALEENAN, ACTING HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We're doing our level best to --

CUMMINGS: What does that mean? What does that mean when a child is sitting in their own feces, can't take a shower? Come on, man! None of us have our children in that position. They are human beings!

MCALEENAN: I would welcome the opportunity to travel with you to the border and to see our men and women and how hard they are working to care for children, holding children that are not their own, brought across by smugglers, putting formula in baby bottles together.

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OH: The chairman just called it a deficit -- he accused you and your agents and your agency of a deficit of empathy. Do you want to respond to that, Mr. Secretary?

MCALEENAN: I just wonder why would an agency, if they have a deficit of empathy, create a border search trauma and rescue team to try to protect people that are making this dangerous crossing? These are predominantly Latino Border Patrol agents. They have children of their own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: So this story obviously is not going away. It's a huge crisis on the border. Mollie, your take -- we will continue to follow it here, but this was a fiery hearing.

HEMINGWAY: It is a fiery hearing. And it's also somewhat appalling to see the institution that is responsible for protecting borders and passing the laws that incentivize or don't incentivize illegal crossings behaving this way. They have the power to do something. And it's not just the Democrats who are currently in control now. It was the Republicans a few years ago, and it goes back decades. And this grandstanding, maybe it makes people feel better, but there are real people being harmed by our laws, by the loopholes, and by our lack of enforcement of our borders.

BAIER: We have many times to talk about that, and we will continue to.

Next up, the U.S. takes down an Iranian drone threatening U.S. warship in the Strait of Hormuz, heightened tensions as Iran feels the economic pinch, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I want to apprise everyone of an incident in the Strait of Hormuz today involving USS Boxer and Navy amphibious assault ship. The Boxer took action against an Iranian drone which had closed into a very, very near distance, approximately 1,000 yards, ignoring multiple calls to stand down, and was threatening the safety of the ship and the ship's crew. The drone was immediately destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: The president making that statement today to reporters. This dealt with the USS Boxer amphibious ship, and, as was mentioned, the Boxer dealt with an Iranian drone. It used -- it didn't shoot it down. It used this new anti-drone jamming device called a light marine air defense integrated system, basically jamming and taking down the Iranian drone with electronics, and you can see it there. It's on top of the ship, those drums there. It does indicate a different level of tension that we've seen increase in recent weeks. And this is all going back to the economic sanctions that Iran is feeling on the ground. We are back with the panel. Byron?

YORK: This was clearly a test for American forces. This was Iran pressing and pushing and jabbing to see how far they could go. They usually use armed drones. I don't know if this one was armed or not, but the Boxer has 2,000 U.S. Marines on it in addition to its crew. This is a serious matter for us. So I think clearly the United States had to show -- defend itself. And it also was not really an escalation in the sense that they shot down our drone, we shot down their drone. The president made a big deal after the Iranians shot down a U.S. drone, apparently without the kind of provocation we saw in this latest incident, of not responding in a way that would kill Iranians. So it's a test, the U.S. defended itself, and it's still tense.

BAIER: I heard Michael O'Hanlon on Shep's show today say that this is Iran, they have to go to the edge, they have to make the world that shipping potentially is threatened so oil jacks up so that they get something from the Europeans or someone in this negotiation. But if they go too far, they'll get the back end of the U.S. military.

ELLEITHEE: Look, I think there's truth to that. I think what happened today -- the facts are still coming in. I'm not one to second-guess the military, and if U.S. troops were in harm's way, if this was an armed drone, and they were in our space, then we have every right to respond.

But I do have concerns about the general trajectory and escalation of tensions in the region, and what at least still appears, still appears to be a somewhat erratic U.S. policy towards Iran where we're negotiating or we're not, and a lot of the negotiations, while this administration attacks the Obama Iran deal, many of the negotiations are headed right back in that same direction. I just wonder where we're headed.

BAIER: Maybe, with ballistic missiles added and a deal that says no nuclear weapons.

ELLEITHEE: Perhaps.

BAIER: Perhaps.

ELLEITHEE: Perhaps. But there could have been ways to add that onto a deal as opposed to blow the whole thing up and escalate tension.

BAIER: I'm not sure they have. I think it still might be there.

HEMINGWAY: If a drone is encroaching in our space, we are going to shoot it down, and that's understandable, and Iran needs to know that it's not going to go well for them if they further -- if they are belligerent in this way. I think we also need to be aware of what's in our interest, and getting roped into another decades-long failed war in the Middle East is not in our interest.

These sanctions, the pressure, they do seem to be working. But they don't seem to be working at the goal of not having Iran develop nuclear capabilities. So I think we should be open to exploring how to achieve that actual goal of ours. I don't think war is our goal. I think constraining Iran from that might be good if we need to tinker with the sanctions or we need to otherwise provide some relief, we should look into that.

BAIER: They clearly are having an effect, Byron. Quickly, they've added new sanctions today on two Iranian leaders backing militias. They're --

YORK: They are absolutely working. I do think right now we are waiting to see with the Europeans are going to do. And if the Europeans, who cannot, I think, deal with a belligerent Iran at this level, if they are no longer covering for Iran, then we win.

BAIER: Yes. We'll follow it. Thank you, panel.

When we come back, a surprise homecoming.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Finally tonight, a heartwarming homecoming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Love these. Cole Wisnewski (ph) came home early from Afghanistan to surprise his two younger brothers and his sister in Georgia yesterday. Wisnewski's (ph) siblings thought he would be home in October. The soldier got a surprise himself when his parents gave him his newly-restored jeep. Wisnewski (ph) bought the vehicle before he was deployed and his parents worked on it all the time while he was away, totally restored. That's a great story. We can show the stories again and again and again, and we may.

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for the “Special Report,” fair, balanced, and unafraid.

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