The politics of President Trump's latest tariff threat

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The politics of President Trump's latest tariff threat

President Trump announces tariffs on Mexico over migrant influx; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," May 31, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR, MEXICAN PRESIDENT: We will not fall for any provocation. We will act prudently. We will act with the respect for the authorities of the United States, with a respect for President Donald Trump.

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are asking Mexico to enforce their own laws to help stop the people coming in from Central America. We have seen a massive influx of people coming from that region. And they have certainly the ability and the legal authority in which to deal with. And we are simply asking them to do that.

OBRADOR: We have to help so the migrants do not enter the United States illegally, but we also have to do it respecting human rights.

SANDERS: The president has the legal authority to do this though IEEPA. In fact, that gives him much broader authority than he's even taken on this front.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, HOST: The new president of Mexico and obviously the White House press secretary talking about this threat for tariffs. This is how it's structured. If Mexico doesn't help with the illegal immigration problem, U.S. tariffs on Mexico start June 10th, five percent, then they continue to increase July 1st, August 1st, September 1st, October 1st. That is a lot at 25 percent. President Trump tweeting "Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades. Because of the Dems, our Immigration Laws are BAD. Mexico makes a FORTUNE from the U.S., have for decades, they can easily fix this problem. Time for them to finally do what must be done! In order not to pay Tariffs, if they start rising, companies will leave Mexico, which has taken 30% of our Auto Industry, and come back home to the USA. Mexico must take back their country from the drug lords and cartels. The Tariff is about stopping drugs as well as illegals!"

We will begin there with our panel, Marc Thiessen, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at "The Federalist," and Charles Lane, opinion writer for "The Washington Post." Marc?

MARC THIESSEN, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: So President Trump is right to be frustrated. Anyone who looked at that video of the 1,000 people streaming through the fence, who sees that video and says we don't need a wall, a wall wouldn't work, is out of their minds. I understand that tariffs are a blunt instrument and they're not the right tool necessarily for dealing with this problem. But to the people who say that, I say, OK, fine, give him the tools he needs. On May 1st President Trump made an emergency request for $4.5 billion in emergency border funding. It did not include a request for money for the wall, $3.3 million for humanitarian help on the border, and Congress has done nothing. So if you don't want him to use the blunt instrument of tariffs, give him the tools he needs to secure the border. But if you won't do that, stop complaining about the tariffs.

BAIER: The Dow obviously took a big hit today. If you look at where the announcement and the previous close and where it was today, it's not just Democrats shaky about this. Chuck Grassley released a statement saying "Trade policy, border security policy are separate issues. This is a misuse of presidential tariffs authority and counter to Congressional intent." It goes on, Chuck. He and Joni Ernst, both Iowa Republicans, pushed back hard against the president today.

CHARLES LANE, OPINION WRITER, "WASHINGTON POST": Corn is a major product of Iowa and a major export to Mexico specifically. So it's no accident that the two Republicans from Iowa along with John Cornyn and Rob Portman and a couple others were very concerned about this. Look, the bigger picture worry that I think the Republicans are reflecting is the spillover effect of this on to the other trade relationships that the U.S. is trying to deal with.

So the USMCA, the new trade agreement the president just finished negotiating with Mexico and Canada was all of a sudden on a pretty good track. The Canadians and the Mexicans were prepping the ratification of that. It was going forward. The Republicans in the Senate were for it, and they had Nancy Pelosi almost isolated as the one person in the whole hemisphere who was against it. Then suddenly this comes up and it creates the impression with trading partners that the president has the whole authority to undo trade deals because of separate issues, and that undercuts the whole process.

A final point on that, I think the Chinese are watching this very closely, because they are going to be able to say in their defense, see, we are dealing with somebody who even if we struck a deal with him, the hardliners in China, would come and unravel it for other some other reason.

BAIER: Mollie, some of the analysis today, and it was all over the place, but was that this is the shiny thing to take the attention off of Robert Mueller. But clearly it is a crisis on the border. No matter what your party is, what your ideology is, it is a major crisis.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE FEDERALIST": First of all, it is absurd to think this is a shiny thing to take away from Mueller when the Mueller investigation ended with not a single indictment of any American for treasonous collusion with Russia which was the thing that was hampering the administration for years and did affect ability to do foreign policy or trade agreements.

But this is something that is very important. I totally agree that ideally the Constitution sees border security and tariffs as something that Congress should be doing. And it is very frustrating to not be able to compare a Congressional plan with this presidential plan because there just isn't something coming out of Congress. It seems like there is a lot of in keeping the status quo the way it is, whether that's the Mexican leadership or our own Congressional leadership. Nobody seems to be coming up with anything other than the president with this tariff plan to deal with what is objectively a very serious crisis.

BAIER: Two lawmakers on this. Senator Ron Johnson first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON JOHNSON, R-WIS.: I completely understand President Trump's frustration about, first of all, Mexico's lack of cooperation and Congress's failure to act. If you're coming from Central America, and you're claiming asylum, you really out to be claiming that in the first safe country, and that is Mexico. But they've completely rejected that. Hopefully this move by President Trump will bring them to their senses and they will cooperate with us.

REP. RO KHANNA, D-CALIF.: This is a policy that is going to lead to stagflation, higher prices for Americans for food and also less jobs as American manufacturers are intertwined with Mexico.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Marc, how much do you think farmers, the middle of America, is on board with this? They say China, we've got to stand up to them. But when you get down the road and it's push comes to shove, how long does that loyalty last?

THIESSEN: There is a big difference between Mexico and China, which on Mexico we're divided about the tariffs. On China, everybody is united, Republicans and Democrats. Chuck Schumer tweeted out, stay tough with China. So this is -- there's a united front on China.

The problem is that the Mexican tariffs undermine the Chinese tariffs, because if you think about this, a tariff is a tax, right. So when we put 25 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, it's a 25 percent tax on American businesses and American families. The only other country that produces the same stuff as China is Mexico. So if you are a family or a business, if you don't want to buy the Chinese tariffs, you go buy Mexican products. But if we put a 25 percent tariff on Mexican products, there's no other country that produces that stuff. So it actually squeezes the consumers, the farmers, the American manufacturers and businesses. So you really can't fight a two-front war on tariffs. If China is the priority, then we should stick with the China tariffs. And Trump's goal is to get people to move. His stated goal is for people to move their manufacturing out of China. Where are they going to go? They're going to go to Vietnam, they're going to go Mexico, other countries like that. That undermines his objective.

BAIER: Which is the point of the new NAFTA, the USMCA.

Really quickly, you mentioned the Mueller fallout, and we're coming to the end of the week here, and the Attorney General Bill Barr did this really interesting interview on CBS. And I just want to get your thoughts about that.

HEMINGWAY: It was fascinating, the questions and the answers. And I think it really shows that he is unmoved by all the bullying he is getting from media and other figures who he seems to be very interested in upholding the rule of law, and he is unmoved by criticism that he is being partisan.

BAIER: That interview was quite telling, wasn't it?

LANE: I think he is unmoved. It shows. It's like the proverbial water off the duck's back, and he is getting a lot of heat now from the people you'd expect to give him heat for, quote-unquote, doubling down.

BAIER: Next up, the Friday lightning round. North Korea, a 2020 slap down, and this week's Winners and Losers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: This is a Fox News alert. Breaking news out of Virginia Beach. You're looking live at a press conference there. at least 11 dead, six hospitalized after a shooting by a Virginia Public Works worker who is now in custody, we're told. Again, 11 dead. The Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer saying, quote, this is the most devastating day in the history of Virginia Beach. We're going to listen in to this news conference ongoing.

JAMES CERVERA, VIRGINIA BEACH POLICE CHIEF: The size of this incident, the intensity. I've got officers, we have firefighters who entered the building to assist victims. We have EMS rescue personnel, we have numerous law enforcement officers who went through that building. It's a huge scene, but understand the intensity of this scene. So as more information comes out as to how this unfolded, you will be given the appropriate information when the time is due.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does the 11 include the suspect? The 11 deceased, does it include the suspect?

CERVERA: No. We have 11 victims, and the suspect who is also deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, you have been here a long time, you've been chief a long time. And I can tell because you and I have known each other a long time. So I want you, if you would, I know it's tough, to tell us about this.

CERVERA: There is no way to describe an incident such as this. No chief of police anywhere in the country, no mayor, no city manager, no assistant city manager, no fire chief, no rescue chief ever wants to have to stand up and give information such as this. I think at this particular point I want to give the utmost respect and dignity to the victims and to their families, because they are going to be forever changed based on this particular incident.

The other piece that I think everyone has to remember, we have a number of forensic techs and detectives who are working through the scene, and just understand the intensity of what that scene is.

(INAUDIBLE)

CERVERA: The officer was shot, and he was basically saved by his bulletproof vest. So he was treated, and I have not had a chance to have a conversation with him. But that will happen tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chief, the city is shaken. What are your words to the people of Virginia Beach?

CERVERA: I can tell you this, the fact that the suspect was immediately confronted, the fact that the suspect is deceased, means that our citizens can rest easy tonight. We do not have someone who is out in the community to do more harm. And also to the citizens of our city really understand when this particular violent, violent act occurred, police, fire, rescue immediately responded to the scene and did that professional thing they do, because that's what they do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know what offices were in that building?

CERVERA: I'm sorry?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know what offices were in that building?

CERVERA: Public works, public utilities. It's the operations building of the city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, can you say were all of the victims city employees?

CERVERA: I'm going to have to hold off on identifying who the exact victims were.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I could make a statement.

CERVERA: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chief, were any city employees injured?

CERVERA: Yes.

AARON ROUSE, VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL: I'm Councilman Aaron Rouse. This day will not define Virginia Beach. We are the citizens will define in our response to this day in Virginia Beach. We will determine going forward today how we respond to our city. We will come together. We will show the strength of our city. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much. We will let you know the next briefing will at approximately 9:30. We will keep you updated on the exact time and location as we get closer.

BAIER: Virginia Beach, Virginia, 11 dead at a municipal building complex there. A shooter we thought was in custody also killed. So 12 dead, six wounded in nearby hospitals after the shooting that happened this afternoon. We don't have details on what motivated this shooter, what exactly happened. We do have reporting from Virginia Beach, a woman who works in the public works building where the shooting occurred said she and about 20 coworkers barricaded themselves in the offices with desks and said they could hear gunshots as police officers were screaming, as you heard the police chief there, one of them shot, but did not suffer a wound or get killed because of a bulletproof vest. And that police chief looking to talk to that officer later this evening.

Virginia Beach, Virginia, 11 dead, including one more, 12, the shooter. Breaking that we'll continue to follow here on FOX. We will take a quick break and be back with some final thoughts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: This is a Fox News alert. Continuing our coverage from Virginia Beach, Virginia, where 12 people are dead, 11 victims, one shooter in a shooting this afternoon. Originally police had tweeted out that they had an active shooter and that multiple people were wounded. This announcement that 11 were actually killed came at this press conference with the chief of police in Virginia Beach Jim Cervera. It is believed that the suspect is dead, was a current long-term employee of the public utilities, the shooting happening in a massive municipal complex there with several buildings.

The Virginia Governor Ralph Northam says his team was monitoring the situation, had been in contact with the mayor of the Virginia Beach, Bobby Dyer, who had called this day the most devastating day in the history of Virginia Beach. The governor saying "I have been in communication with the city of Virginia Beach mayor and the chief. My administration stands ready assist law enforcement and first responders in any way."

The hospital spokesman says at least six people are in the hospital dealing with wounds from this shooting as well, and that the city councilmember, one of them was in the area, said she saw people outside and first thought it was an accident, but then there were the gunshots, and you heard the description earlier of people being barricaded inside that building.

This is one of the biggest mass shootings we have seen in quite some time with multiple fatalities. We don't have any details about the suspect who is deceased, only that the chief of police said there will be more updates tonight and that he was not going to identify the specific people who were killed as they had not been notified. But Virginia Beach, Virginia, tonight dealing with tremendous pain and trauma from a shooting, 11 dead, six hospitalized. We have continuing coverage on Fox News.

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. Unfortunately, that's how we have to end this “Special Report,” fair, balanced, and still unafraid.

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