The politics of Trump's tariff and immigration policies
President Trump vows tariffs on Mexico over migrant influx; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars.
This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," June 5, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: They're actually going to have to step up. And if they don't, tariffs will go on. And if they go high, the companies are going to move back into the United States. That's all. It's very simple.
ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR, MEXICAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I am optimistic. I think that we're going to reach an agreement. We will reach an arrangement.
CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., SENATE MINORITY LEADER: The president has continued the tough talk on tariffs with Mexico. He responded to my statement on the floor with a tweet last night. But ultimately, I continue to believe that he'll back off. That has been his M.O.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: That's not what the president says. He says in a tweet, "Can you imagine crying Chuck Schumer saying out loud for all to hear that I am bluffing with respect to putting tariffs on Mexico? What a creep. He would have our country fail with drugs and immigration than give Republicans a win. But he gave Mexico bad advice. No bluff."
Meantime, this is also not a bluff, and this is the numbers just in the past few weeks, along the southern border.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN SANDERS, ACTING CUSTOMS AND BORDER PATROL COMMISSIONER: We are in a full-blown emergency, and I cannot say this stronger. The system is broken. This ongoing crisis has placed a tremendous strain on our limited resources and operational effectiveness. To address these unprecedented numbers of family units and unaccompanied children, up to 60 percent of our agents are being pulled away from law enforcement operations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: And just take a look at this chart, quickly, southwest border apprehensions. This is actually up from this point. I think it's up to 144,000 in May. But you look at May, 2019, versus 2018. Different scenario.
Let's bring in our panel, Matthew Continetti, editor in chief of the "Washington Free Beacon," Amy Walter, national editor for the "Cook Political Report," and Guy Benson, political editor at Townhall.com and the host of "The Guy Benson Show" on FOX News Radio. Guy, you had the Senate Majority Leader on tonight. He's obviously saying that his caucus is not for the threat of tariffs, but does he have the votes to push back against the president?
GUY BENSON, POLITICAL EDITOR, TOWNHALL.COM: I asked him if they had a veto proof majority. There were some reports in "The Washington Post" and elsewhere that they were maybe moving toward that type of number. He didn't give me a specific answer yes or no on that. But in a piece of quintessentially McConnell-esque understatement, he said, quote, there's a lack of enthusiasm among Senate Republicans for this policy.
And he did -- and this is sort of fighting words by McConnell's standards, he referred to these tariffs as a tax increase on working class people. And I think that is a sense of where the caucus is for the most part.
BAIER: We should point out, this meeting is still going on. The foreign minister is meeting with the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, after meeting with Vice President Pence and a team that did not include the trade negotiator Lighthizer who has not been, we're told, supportive of this move. Do you think that Mexico is going to move the ball somehow to convince the U.S. that they're doing something, enough?
AMY WALTER, NATIONAL EDITOR, "COOK POLITICAL REPORT": They could. It's unclear what they could do, though. Whether they can become a third party sanctuary or safe state --
BAIER: In other words, immigrant goes in there, that's the safe country, not the U.S.?
WALTER: That's right. That's right. That's going to be very hard to do because that's also international law that designates whether you are a safe enough country for asylum seekers to come into. But if it is simply going to be we're go doing do more on the southern border to prevent, what does that mean? How much money is that? What can the president say once he comes out of these meetings to have assurance or give assurance that the Mexicans are trying to do that?
But if those numbers continue to spike, even after the Mexicans have given assurance, then what does he do? And I think that's the real question here, which is at what point the president said he's going to shut the border down at one point when he was frustrated with the number of illegal immigrants coming in and asylum seekers. He didn't do that. Now he's says he's going to put tariffs. He may not do that if he feels like he's getting what he needs from Mexico. If it continues to rise, what is the third that he says he's going to do? And if he backs down yet again, what kind of message is that going to send?
BAIER: He's pushing the envelope to try to get something done. Clearly the administration says it's time to do something. We went from crisis where Democrats said it was not a crisis, then they said yes, it is a crisis. Now we're at full-blown emergency. You're running out of descriptors.
MATTHEW CONTINETTI, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "WASHINGTON FREE BEACON": And so I think that's when tariff man turns to his favorite weapon. You listen to Donald Trump describe this tariff threat, it's all upside. He is saying even if the tariffs go into effect and they're ratcheted up by the end of the summer, by October to 25 percent, then he said the jobs will come back here. And you talk to the Senate Republicans, and you hear only downside. The economic consequences, especially from those Republicans senators from border states. They're worried about the effect it might have on their state economies, so this is the classic divergence between Trump's philosophy and the philosophy of Republicans in Washington D.C.
BAIER: But you sense a real difference in the support for China trade pushback, and Mexico.
CONTINETTI: Absolutely. I think there's a bipartisan consensus that China is the emerging threat to the United States in the 21st century, and our trade relationship has been flawed with China for decades. And so there you have both parties supporting an aggressive approach to Chinese trade as well as security issues.
Mexico, it's a little bit different. They're our largest trading partner. The import-export distinction is sometimes hard to draw, because as I think Senator Toomey said earlier in the program, some parts are assembled here, then they go there, then they come back. These supply chains are crucial to maintaining an American economy that looks to be weakening.
BAIER: Here's the president on the Chinese Foreign Minister spokesperson on the situation with China.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: China wants to make a deal, I have no doubt about it. And every signal is they want to, and at the right time probably that will happen. But right now they're paying many billions of dollars to the United States. We never got that before from China. And we haven't even started. It's relative peanuts compared to the numbers that we're talking about.
GENG SHUANG, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Achieving a mutually beneficial and win-win agreement on the basis of mutual respect, equality, and good faith, is not only in the interest of both China and U.S. but also to the general expectation of the international community. Adding tariffs will not make the U.S. great again, but hurt the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: We don't often talk about what it is doing to China, and we're going to get into that this week. But you look at the Dow today, guy, and there's not a lot of jitters about Mexico or China. Second day in a row, big gains, in part because the Fed said I'm your back stop.
BENSON: Right. And so the Fed news I think was part of the reason why we saw the numbers that we just saw in that line heading the direction that it was.
I think that there are some concerns about where this might go. But there is I think the big question, to Amy's point before, is this something that the president is actually going to follow-through on this time, at least on the Mexico side of things. Matt is right that there's a consensus on China. That's clearly not the case with Mexico and this new gambit.
I will say, though, talking to Republicans, while many of them are calling out this proposed remedy as something that they can't support, almost universally they're pointing to the other charts we were looked at, the crisis at the border, it is more acute and more real than ever, and they totally back the president on that point.
BAIER: But quickly, for the politics, pure politics, some senator who is up for reelection, Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, the people of South Carolina look at this issue and say what, we stand with the president?
WALTER: Yes, we stand with the president, which is why Lindsey Graham or Thom Tillis who is up in North Carolina, or Senator John Cornyn who is up for reelection in Texas. That is the most important thing. You think about your primary and standing with the president who has a 90 percent approval rating among Republicans.
BAIER: OK, seconds ago from the president. "Immigration discussions at the White House with the representatives in Mexico have ended for the day. Progress is being made, but not nearly enough. Border arrests for May, 133,000 because of Mexico and the Democrats in Congress refusing to budge on immigration reform. Further talks with Mexico will resume tomorrow with the understanding that if no agreement is reached, tariffs at five percent level will begin Monday with monthly increases as per schedule. The higher the tariffs go, the higher the number of companies that will move back to the USA." President Trump, five hours ahead, tweeting, maybe tuning in.
Next up, abortion and the flip-flop on the campaign trail.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you commit to abolishing the Hyde Amendment which hurts poor women and women of color?
JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes. And by the way, ACLU member, I got a near perfect voting record my entire career. I can't state.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the issue of abortion, one of our producers is putting out to me this morning his continued support for the Hyde Amendment, which is obviously four decades old, but it says you can't use federal funds to fund abortions. And he is not opposed to that.
JESS MCINTOSH, NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA: That is deeply troubling and puts him completely out of step with most Democrats, most Americans, and absolutely the rest of the field.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: As we're getting closer to the first debate in the Democratic primary, we're entering the pinata stage, where the first frontrunner, Joe Biden, is getting hit from all sides. This time today on abortion and his support for the Hyde Amendment, Bernie Sanders says "There is no middle ground on women's rights. Abortion is a constitutional right. Under my Medicare for all plan, we will repeal the Hyde Amendment," again providing federal funds to fund abortions.
Back to the panel. It seems, Amy, that there's a constant stream of things, and some of them Joe Biden clearly stepped in this week.
WALTER: And there are things that he has gone back and apologized for, said now that we are moving -- that was 20 years ago, that was 30 years ago. Now here's where I am on this issue. For the Hyde Amendment is one of the few where he's saying I'm not budging from this position that I took back in the 70s and 80s yet. And I think you're exactly right to put the emphasis on yet.
This is a really, really important issue in a Democratic primary. It always would be. You put that on top of what has been happening in many of these conservative states, restricting access to abortion, and this is -- and also the emphasis and focus on poorer women, women who do not have access to healthcare, that is going to be a very, very difficult issue for him to have to justify defending as he goes through this Democratic primary.
BAIER: This is going to be a big issue. FOX poll two, if you look at Democrats and Republicans on the issue of abortion, are you more pro-life or pro-choice, and you see the split obviously. But independents interesting on how that splits. Matthew, what about Biden on this issue?
CONTINETTI: This is a Biden test because even though Democrats, of course, oppose the Hyde Amendment and taxpayer funding of abortion, the public at large actually supports Hyde Amendment. They oppose taxpayer funding for abortion. This is revealed in polls by Marist on the abortion issue every year including this one. So here's Biden's conflict between appealing to the Democratic base, which has moved left on this question and others, and a general election candidacy where support for the Hyde Amendment would not harm him.
BAIER: I said it was a tough week. We mentioned earlier the accusation of plagiarism. And this is the climate change plan he rolls out, the Biden.com plan has this sentence, and there are five others that match this exactly. "Widely available, cost-effective, rapidly scalable solution to reduce carbon emissions." You can say that's not a big deal. There's five of them in that. And then "The Washington Post," the Biden campaign acknowledged lifting language from other groups on its education policy in a specific sentence that they followed up about that. This obviously harkens back to 1988. It's, some people say, a problem, or at least that lack of sensitivity to this issue for him.
BENSON: In this case I think, this year, you could chock it up to lazy staff work perhaps. But it's that context from his first presidential run that's certainly there's the echo here. A plagiarism problem back then. Has he not learned his lesson? Is going to have more sloppiness himself or from his staff if they enter a general election scenario where Trump is going to be ready with every knife drawn. Those are I think some of the questions that his rivals are trying to get asked.
BAIER: And if you're up against Elizabeth Warren, who is policy, policy, policy, at a debate, does Biden have the stuff to back up the details?
WALTER: This is where these debates are going to become so important, because Joe Biden's lead right now is based almost entirely on the fact that not only do people know him and they think, on the Democratic side, know him, think fondly of him, but that they think that he is the best candidate, the best positioned to beat Donald Trump. And you've seen poll after poll where he's leading Donald Trump in these key battleground states. As soon as he starts to no longer looks as strong, then I think that support starts to go away, and I don't know where it goes to.
BAIER: We will follow it. When we come back, powerful remembrances of D- Day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: Finally tonight, honoring those who served on D-Day. Today U.S. Army Rangers climbed the cliffs of Normandy's Pointe du Hoc to honor the men who scaled those cliffs 75 years ago tomorrow. In 1944 rangers made the climb to destroy Nazi guns at the top of the cliffs to make way for allied troops landing on those beaches.
And veteran Tom Rice joined parachutists on their jump over Normandy today, 75 years after he jumped as a member of the U.S. army. Rice, who is now 97 years old, said his jump in 1944 was the worst he ever had. Today, after six months of training, again, at 97, Rice had a much better experience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM RICE, VETERAN: A beautiful jump, a beautiful flight. Everything was perfect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: That was beautiful. Sir, thank you for your service.
Thank you for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for the “Special Report.” Fair, balanced, and still unafraid. "The Story" hosted by Martha MacCallum in Normandy, starts right now.
Martha?
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