'Special Report' All-Star panel on whereabouts of VP Harris amid conflict in Afghanistan

This is a rush transcript of "Special Report with Bret Baier" on August 19, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your top military advisers warned against withdrawing on this timeline. They wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops. 

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  No, they didn't. It was split. That wasn't true. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your military advisers did not tell you, no, we should keep 2,500 troops, it's been a stable situation for the last few years. We can do that, we can continue to do that. 

BIDEN:  No. No one said that to me that I can recall. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there a breakdown of those numbers, the 7,000, saying this is U.S., this is Afghan? 

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY:  I do not have -- I do not have a breakdown. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many American citizens remain in Afghanistan? 

KIRBY:  I don't know.

SUSAN WILD, (D-PA) HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE:  We deserve answers. We intend to get answers. The House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to conduct hearings as early as next week. I have an awful lot of questions. I know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle do as well. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  Democrats and Republicans have concern as we are getting new images right now from the U.S. military of military members, personnel on the ground helping refugees in various different ways. And this continues. And, obviously, the military is great at doing a lot of things if they are able to do it. Right now, they are not able to leave the Kabul airport to get other people to that airport to get them on planes and get them out. But those planes are leaving every date. Some of them are 60 percent full, as they did today. 

Let's bring in our panel, Byron York, chief political correspondent of "The Washington Examiner," Juan Williams is a FOX News analyst, and Bill McGurn, columnist for "The Wall Street Journal." Byron, your thoughts on what have you heard from the administration and what's happening? 

BYRON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER": 

Well, this is just a terrible, terrible situation. We're not flying as many people out as we have the capacity to do. We don't know how many Americans there are outside of Kabul -- of the Kabul airport throughout Afghanistan. 

We can't go get them because we don't control anything outside of the airport. 

The president, the Defense Department, the State Department, and the intelligence community are all pointing fingers at one another. And the worst thing of all is that we are dependent on the good graces of the Taliban. It sounds crazy to say it. We are dependent on the good graces of the Taliban to do anything there. So it's a very, very bad situation. 

BAIER:  Just earlier in this show, I asked John Kirby about that because, in fact, the British are -- did do this and have been doing this. 

Paratroopers have been going out, collecting British citizens in shelter in place -- different places throughout Kabul. Here is that -- I asked Kirby about it. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  Why is it left to the Americans outside of that ring to get their on their own? Why can't we send vehicles to go get them? 

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY:  We have not seen any great impediments to the safe passage that the Taliban have agreed to facilitate. 

Americans are getting through those checkpoints, and they are getting onto the base -- on the airfield. And they are being flown out of Kabul. I won't speak to potential future operations that may or may not be conducted. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  Juan, what do you think? Anecdotally we hear tough times getting through Taliban checkpoints. 

JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST:  Well, I think if you or I were there I'd be concerned. I don't think there is any question if our loved one was there you have got to worry. You can't trust the Taliban, in my opinion. 

But I think that what we're talking about here is the evacuation, and there is no question it could have been done better. It's been badly handled on so many levels. But I don't think that no matter how the evacuation was handled, that the big picture, which is could the Afghan government have held, could the Afghan military have held its own and not folded? I don't think those things would have turned out much differently. 

If you'll recall, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo wanted out by May 1st. 

Biden wants out by August 15th. I think in either case, those big picture items, the brass tacks of this would have been much the same. I think that's why that poll that Jacqui Heinrich mentioned is so true. Two-thirds of the American people say this war was not worth fighting, majorities of both Democrats and Republicans. So, when you look at it in those terms, I think we can quickly say, yes, once American troops and the Americans are out, I think this is all going to be forgotten. 

BAIER:  But, Bill, the big picture is not that we wanted to get out of a war. The big picture is how we got out of the where. Now we have this "Wall Street Journal" report about two dozen Kabul embassy officials sending a memo to the secretary of state, saying that they are seeing the Taliban on the move. And this thing is going to collapse very quickly the second that American troops leave. That seems like a warning. Now, it's not before they leave, but it is a warning that the things are happening quickly. 

BILL MCGURN, COLUMNIST, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL":  Yes. Look, the Biden administration is maintaining two contradictory things. One is Joe Biden says that we would have this chaos with any retreat, and that we saw it. 

And then he says no one told him about it beforehand. We're likely to find a lot more of these kinds of warnings. 

I push back on the larger picture. For some reason, we have had three presidents that have concluded they don't want to fight in Afghanistan. Our combat role was largely done. And it seems to me that the definition of failure we have that because in 20 years we didn't transform Afghanistan into Belgium, a functioning democracy where rights are largely respected, means that it's a failure. 

Afghanistan was, A, a lot better for people even under the corrupt Afghan government, certainly better for women, certainly strategically better for us, unlikely to give safe haven to Al-Qaeda. And again, it would have required a minimal presence to do it. This was a catastrophe, it seems to me, pretty obvious, willed by Joe Biden. He made the decision. He came in advocating that he is the smartest guy in foreign policy, knows all the stuff. And I think he overruled some of his own advisers and so forth. He wanted out. He wanted out by 9/11 to have an anniversary, and that's what we have. And now, now that they have screwed up so largely, they want to present this as inevitable. 

BAIER:  But just think about what we are seeing, the images not just at the airport. You are going to see a Taliban flag flying over the U.S. embassy in Kabul on the 9/11 anniversary, the 20th anniversary of 9/11. You have billions and billions of dollars of U.S. military equipment, Humvees, Blackhawk helicopters. Big armored vehicles that are now in the hands of the Taliban, which, John Kirby cannot say to me today whether they consider them an enemy or not. 

Just got word, Byron, from the State Department that the U.S. will not charge for evacuation flights, saying in these unique circumstances we have no intention of seeking any reimbursements from those fleeing Afghanistan. 

So they have that going for them if they can get to the airport. 

YORK:  Yes, if they can get through the Taliban checkpoints to get to the airport. Now, this report in the "Wall Street Journal" in which the State Department basically predicted an instantaneous collapse of the Afghan government, the thing that it seems to me that that report means is that it would require a lot of planning ahead of time to get people out, get people out, have a whole process going before you finally leave, you take the military out. 

Now, President Biden said he couldn't do that because the Afghan government didn't want it because it would -- the optics would be bad and there would be a crisis of confidence. I want to learn more about that. I think that's a real possibility here. But if you have people on the ground, U.S. 

government officials on the ground saying -- in Afghanistan saying, look, there is going to be instantaneous collapse in this place, the decision makers have to take that seriously. 

BAIER:  I want to play this one soundbite, last person in the room, this is Vice President Harris. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden always said that he wants you to be the last person in the room. 

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  Yes. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Particularly for big decisions, just as he was for President Obama. He just made a really big decision -- Afghanistan. 

HARRIS:  Yes. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you the last person in the room? 

HARRIS:  Yes. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you feel comfortable? 

HARRIS:  I do. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  "The New York Post," "Where's Kamala? Last person in the room, Harris silent six days amid Afghan pullout chaos." Ten seconds, Juan. Where is she? 

JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST:  I this think she is pretty invisible. But I think that's way most vice presidents are. And if you'll recall, Biden was that for Obama in terms of going after bin Laden. He even objected to it. So, you know. 

BAIER:  That's right. That's exactly right. Panel, stand by. When we come back, tomorrow's headlines with you all. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER:  Finally tonight, a look at tomorrow's headlines with the panel. 

Bill, first to you. 

MCGURN:  Joe Biden planned to use the coming 9/11 anniversary to present himself as the president who ended America's forever wars. Instead, he has handed 9/11 to the Taliban who will now use every anniversary to celebrate their victory over the United States. 

BAIER:  Juan? 

WILLIAMS: Tomorrow's headline, 20,000 Mississippi children quarantined, and right now it's Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, school children all being quarantined as we try to get the schools back open. It's a crisis. 

BAIER:  All right, quickly, Byron? 

YORK:  Biden to Congress -- please overlook Afghanistan and pass my $3.5 trillion spending bill. Remember, infrastructure? I don't either. 

BAIER:  All right, we'll follow that, too. 

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for this SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and still unafraid. FOX NEWS PRIMETIME hosted this week by Will Cain just a couple seconds late, starts right now. Hey, Will. 

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