'Special Report' All-Star Panel on if Biden is up for the job

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'Is Biden up for the job?': Bill McGurn

All-Star panel discusses President Biden domestic and foreign policy on 'Special Report'

This is a rush transcript of "Special Report with Bret Baier" on September 3, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. KENNETH MCKENZIE, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: There's a lot of heart break associated with this departure. We did not get everyone out that we wanted to get out. 

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ninety percent of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave. 

REP. BUDDY CARTER, (R-GA): It starts with Joe Biden and it ends with Joe Biden. And I'm telling you, he should be impeached. 

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: There isn't going to be any impeachment, but I think they have a good chance of having a very bad election next year. 

BIDEN: When Congress returns this month, I'm going to press for their action on my build back better plan. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are coming in with a much weaker jobs report Dagen, a much weaker jobs report. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is terrible news for what it means for the real economy. 

BIDEN: I know people were looking, and I was hoping for a higher number. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL: So the week starting with the Afghan drawdown and still questions about whether Americans and Afghan partners are actually able to get out of the country, and ending with a disappointing jobs report.

With that, let's bring in our panel, Byron York, chief political correspondent of "The Washington Examiner," Charles Lane, opinion writer for "The Washington Post," and Bill McGurn, columnist for "The Wall Street Journal." Gentlemen, welcome. 

So, Byron, obviously President Biden is not responsible for hurricane Ida, but really a double punch this week in terms of hammering Louisiana and then the Newark, New Jersey area. The president will certainly be graded on the government's response. 

BYRON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER": He will, and it will come on top of all the other issues that you were referring to this week. And in general, President Biden is facing the consequences of his own actions. On Afghanistan, he chose to do it the way that he did. And now we're facing the issue not only of some U.S. citizens apparently still stranded in Afghanistan. We're facing the question of who the U.S. actually did evacuate, more than 100,000 people who may or may not have been vetted very well, getting stories now that the U.S. is kind of trying to find out who it just brought out of Afghanistan. 

Now, on COVID, the president told us during the campaign that he knew how to handle this. He had a plan, which at the time was just masks and social distancing and waiting for a vaccine. But now that you have the Delta variant, his administration has sowed confusion about the vaccine, and he specifically bungled this question of whether a booster shot is going to be needed, and, if so, when. 

And then on the economic effects of it, the president today tried to make it sound like it was really OK. But, in fact, you have not only the effects of COVID, you have inflation, and the president's main solution is to push this $3.5 trillion spending bill that not everybody in his own party supports. So, on all of that, he is facing the consequences of his own actions. 

EMANUEL: Picking up on that point, The $3.5 trillion spending package, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, which sometimes feels like the most powerful guy in town, says not so fast, we should pump the brakes on that. Chuck, are we looking at an all-out war on the democratic side? 

CHARLES LANE, OPINION WRITER, "WASHINGTON POST": I don't know about all-out war, but it certainly, maybe a switch the cliche here, it's kind of a Gordian knot. You have moderates and progressives in the party who just really don't see eye to eye on the need for that second piece. And in the middle is the already baked, so to speak, $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan. So something has got to give in the Democratic Party by September 27th when Nancy Pelosi has promised a vote to the House moderates on that issue. 

And honestly, I think that the Manchin thing, of all the things that happened this week, must have really come as a kind of a just when it rains it pours moment for the president, because in the middle of all of his other troubles, a member of his own party really complicated his domestic agenda. And they are going to either have to meet his demands, whatever they may be, or see that whole thing go down in flames. 

EMANUEL: So you have got progressives saying we are not going to do the bipartisan compromise until we gets the $3.5 trillion. Manchin pumping the brakes on that. Bill, your thoughts? 

BILL MCGURN, COLUMNIST, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes. No, I agree with Charles. Look, I was in the White House when Katrina hit. We had Iraq and all sorts of things. It is the kind of thing when there's bad news it does seem to come in droves. 

And also, look, it's not just that the policies have not worked out, especially on Afghanistan. On Afghanistan, the American people watched their president and commander-in-chief tell them falsehoods about we're going to stay until every last person gets out there. So there's a lot of questions about the president's honestly and whether he is up to the job in addition to whether he picked the right policies. 

So that makes your, then that makes people reluctant to stand by you when you need them. So we'll see. I think with all these things going on in the economy, the problem is you can pull out one thread and the whole thing unravels. 

EMANUEL: OK, then you have got Congressman Markwayne Mullin from the great state of Oklahoma going to Afghanistan, saying he was just trying to help. 

Let's take a listen to this clip. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Do you think we are going to get these people out? 

REP. MARKWAYNE MULLIN, (R-OK): We're going to get some, but there's going to be some that's going to die because of the failure from President Biden. 

I promise you that. At some point, they are going to lose patients and aren't going to let us keep drive past these checkpoints and paying them off -- sorry, taxes. That's what they call it, tax. And when I say that blood is on his hands, that means the President Biden's hands, I mean that with everything in my heart. It's his fault. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL: I have talked to members of Congress, the Senate who all say they are all getting bombarded by requests from people to help get people out. 

This congressman went there, even though leadership said don't go. Byron, your thoughts? 

Well, I think this is kind of odd freelance mission that Congressman Mullin went on is a product of the confusion and chaos in the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan. As you said, members of Congress are getting a lot of calls, can you help this person? Can you help that person? So it's not crazy to think that they would try to help somebody. 

But, at the same time, the State Department and the Defense Department were just struggling minute by minute trying to get people on planes and out of there. Then there was this terrible, deadly attack. So I think that Mullin's act was basically a product. It would not have happened if the withdrawal had been a more organized affair. 

EMANUEL: Chuck, is there intense pressure on the State Department to come up with a number of Americans and Afghan partners who have gotten out since the U.S. military went wheels up? 

LANE: Yes, there is, and they are struggling to do that. For some reasons that are understandable and some others that are probably the result of their own fault. 

I have to say I think what Congressman Mullin, I honestly couldn't understand what he was trying to explain, what the story or the situation exactly was. It was kind of a tangled narrative he was putting forth there. 

And one -- and one is led to conclude that he really shouldn't have done it. His own minority leader in the House said don't go. And he pressed ahead with something that was, perhaps well-intentioned, perhaps political, but certainly not well-advised. 

EMANUEL: Bill, you made a reference to bad news coming in a wave. Do you sense that any senior officials will be asked to leave to basically stop the bleeding? 

MCGURN: No, I don't see that. I don't see any signs of this yet. Look, I think the congressman's trip is not what's needed when you are in the midst of this chaos. However, I agree with Byron. It is a function that the commander-in-chief didn't do his job, that he told us we are going to get people out. Look, the American people wanted out of Afghanistan, but they don't like humiliation. They don't like defeat. They don't like to be driven out. And they don't like to leave people behind enemy lines. One of the things no one is talking about is those people are hostages, and they are going to hold Biden's policies going forward hostage. Can you do anything tough to the Taliban now when they have all these Americans? 

We have to leave it there, gentlemen. Thanks so much. Have a great weekend. 

When we come back, "Notable Quotables." 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

EMANUEL: It's Friday. That means it's time for "Notable Quotables."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think people should, those who call him sleepy Joe should apologize to him? 

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think we are looking for allowing the president to continue to address multiple crises at a time. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now what we are seeing in Texas is frankly chaos. Patients are scared. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my first time in my 40 years that I ever saw something like this. I thought Katrina was bad. This is the worst one. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We did not know that the heavens would literally open up and bring Niagara Falls level water to the streets of New York. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is tough stuff. War is hard. It's vicious. It's brutal. It's unforgiving. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They died with their brothers and their sisters right next to them, doing exactly what they all wanted to do. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The war is over, but the heartbreak continues. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The parade of horribles are about to unfold. We are leaving thousands of Afghan allies behind who fought bravely with us. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not forget me and my family at the moment in Afghanistan. It is a very hard and horrifying situation.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Couldn't this have been done in a more orderly manner? I respectfully disagree. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The White House needs to get some oranges and get tougher with the Taliban. 

PSAKI: We're clearly need to -- sorry, that was aggressive bug. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL: Quite a week. Next week on SPECIAL REPORT, we will speak with the education secretary and surgeon general and take some of your questions. 

That's coming up Thursday. Coming up on FOX NEWS SUNDAY, Congressman Michael McCaul and Dr. Ashish Jha. 

Thank you for watching SPECIAL REPORT. FOX NEWS PRIMETIME hosted by Tammy Bruce starts right now. Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend and great show, Tammy. 

TAMMY BRUCE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you, sir. Nice to see you, Mike. 

And good evening, everyone, and welcome to FOX NEWS PRIMETIME.

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