Harold Ford: Racist posts on Sen. Scott may reignite social media debate

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Harold Ford: Racist posts on Sen. Scott may reignite social media debate

'Special Report' panel discuss racist insults directed at the GOP senator on social media

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," April 29, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: We have to come together to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the people they serve, to root out systemic racism in our criminal justice system.

SEN. TIM SCOTT, (R-SC): America is not a racist country.

BIDEN: I'd like to meet those who have ideas that are different, they think are better.

SCOTT: Three months in, the actions of the president and his party are pulling us further and further apart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, GUEST HOST: President Joe Biden and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott with the address to a joint session of Congress and the Republican response from last night.

Let's bring in our panel now to talk about this, Harold Ford Jr., former Tennessee Congressman and CEO of Empowerment and Inclusion Capital is with us, along with Morgan Ortagus, former State Department spokesperson, and Bill McGurn, columnist for "The Wall Street Journal."

Harold, let me start with you here. I have seen a lot of addresses to Congress and a lot of responses from both sides of the aisle, but I have never seen someone so vilified on the basis of race as Senator Tim Scott was last night. What does that say about the left and the tolerance of competing ideas?

HAROLD FORD JR., FORMER TENNESSEE REPRESENTATIVE: Well, first off, thanks for having me on. I would agree. I thought both speeches last night sent a signal to the world that America's politics, the best of our politics when we are debating ideas and putting forward ideas is a good thing. I thought that President Biden laid out an economic plan and a plan to defeat China. I thought that Senator Scott laid out a very personal story, very moving story, and one that I think you could organize around.

To your question, social media has become a place where awful things are said and oftentimes are repeated. It is unfortunate. We have all been victimized by it, or targets of it, oftentimes for things we didn't do, didn't say, or didn't have hang on our walls. But we deal with it. Senator Scott is a grown-up. He is an adult. And it's unfortunate that he had to deal with what he had to deal with, but I think it will reignite the debate around social media company's responsibility and how they should measure what's right and what's wrong. I'm not sure I know the answer to it, but I have to say, I'm glad they took it down.

ROBERTS: Leftists, and I guess we could call them activists, Morgan, for lack of a better term, really sort of prove to the point that Tim Scott was making about race last night, that there's no room for differing ideas. And if there are, they are going to nail you on the issue of race.

MORGAN ORTAGUS, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: Yes, and Tim Scott addressed that this morning actually on FOX & FRIENDS. He said they weren't going after my policies. They were going after my race. And I thought Tim Scott had some really beautiful and very poignant lines in his remarks last night. He talked about using the painful past in order to stifle debate now. And really, I think what we all need to follow, and the GOP could certainly follow, is his emphasis on common sense and on common ground.

Tim Scott really rose to the occasion last night. I think he offered the country, many people who were in the middle and thought that they had voted for a centrist or thought they had voted for a moderate, they are now learning that they didn't. I think Tim Scott really provided a tone and a way for those people to feel that they can think differently than maybe what they are being told in the mainstream. But the only thing I would say about Twitter, it's good to remember that about 22 percent of Americans are on Twitter. Last I read come, about 80 percent of the active users are affluent millennials. So, take that for what you will.

ROBERTS: Bill, just before the speech last night, I got a fundraising email from Tim Scott who said that Democrats are trying to divide this nation on the basis of race. He as a black conservative is going to destroy that narrative. You've got to wonder, are Democrats afraid of this guy?

BILL MCGURN, COLUMNIST, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": I think they are terrified of him. As someone who has written a couple of State of the Unions, usually they are forgettable speeches unless you've made a gaffe in the middle of them. I thought President Biden gave a very serviceable speech defending his policy agenda. It had some high moments, and so forth.

But I think the clear star of the evening was Tim Scott. And I don't think the issue is twitter suppressing some of these things. I think the issue is what Senator Scott said, that on the left there is this kind of tolerance for treatment of an African American who might be a Republican conservative. Have we heard the leftwing groups come out and denounce the kind of language that was used against him? Have we heard Black Lives Matter, for example? I don't think we have.

And I think he also very powerfully, he said America is not a racist country. OK, I think most of us know that, but so many of our leaders are afraid to say it. And I think he said it, and then he said we still have work to go. And when Kamala Harris was asked about it this morning, I think she said the same thing. And I think it's because Tim Scott spoke the way he did.

ROBERTS: It's interesting, Bill, just to that point. One of the tweets about Tim Scott, calling him "Uncle Tim" was because he said America is not a racist country. Kamala Harris, as you pointed out, said exactly the same thing this morning. I didn't see anybody tweet the same thing about her.

A couple of big-ticket items in terms of policy last night. President Biden unveiling the American Families Plan as well as infrastructure. Senator Scott pushing back against that. Let's listen to both of them here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: This is the largest jobs plan since World War II. It creates jobs to upgrade our transportation infrastructure, jobs modernizing our roads, bridges, highways.

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): Less than six percent of the president's plan goes to roads and bridges. It's a liberal wish list of big government waste.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: It really is a progressive wish list, and Harold Ford Jr., I'm wondering, in the speech last night there was a little bone that he threw kind of to Republicans on drug pricing, but where was the outreach on a broader basis to other side? President Trump used to always get something in there for Democrats.

FORD: Well, I think there was a lot here. Infrastructure has never been a divisive partisan issue, and unfortunately it has become that. Broadband, which I would hope that all of us, Democrat, Republicans alike, can recognize is the electricity of the 21st century. Questions around human infrastructure, that's a debate they are going to have to have in the Senate. It appears that the Republican senators who believe that at least $700 billion of $2.25 trillion is where we ought to be.

So we're starting at $700 billion and we'll debate and negotiate somewhere in between. We all know elections have outcomes, but I would be -- or I should say have consequences. But it would be unfair -- look, most black Americans, and for that matter, most white Americans believe that we are not a racist country. But I think most good people realize that we are still dealing with some of the effects of some of those decisions that have been made of the years. The greatest thing about our country, among them is that we have the ability to always be better and make it better. That's what I heard in Joe Biden. That's what I heard in Tim Scott. And that's what I heard in Kamala Harris this morning as well.

ROBERTS: Thirty seconds, Morgan, to wrap up this segment. There does seem to be plenty of room for common ground between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of infrastructure depending how it's defined.

ORTAGUS: I think that is wishful thinking, John. I think what this administration has done really well is have very big platitudes about coming together, about being bipartisan, and then pursing incredibly far left spending policies. We are talking about raising taxes by $3 trillion in order to pay for $6 trillion of spending. So the platitudes are great. The communication team is doing a great job because they are selling Joe Biden, the moderate, when it's the most far left, most progressive agenda since FDR. And they are quite proud of that.

ROBERTS: All right, stay with us, because we'll be right back.

Coming up next, the Mike Pence book deal, will that see the light of day or not. And Hunter Biden is invited to speak to college students.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL ALTMAN, TULANE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: When I read this email, to be honest, I laughed out loud because I thought that it was so funny that Tulane would think Hunter Biden of all people would have any credibility as an expert on fake news when he is such a big beneficiary of it.

HUNTER BIDEN, PRESIDENT BIDEN'S SON: There could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me. It could be that I was hacked. It could be that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you didn't drop off the laptop to be repaired in Delaware?

H. BIDEN: Not that I remember at all, at all. So, we'll see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: As we mentioned earlier, Hunter Biden has been invited by Tulane University to be a guest speaker at a course that will occur this fall on media polarization and fake news.

And we are back with our panel. Bill McGurn, start us off here. Other than notoriety and name recognition, what reason would there be to have Hunter Biden talk about media polarization and fake news?

MCGURN: Well, add to his other credentials in either energy or Ukraine or China. He didn't have much background for that, either. Look, Tulane is a private university. They can invite who they want and who they don't want. It's an odd pick, and I think a lot of people would look around and say Hunter Biden as far as I know is still under federal investigation. Is that really the kind of person you want to have delivering a lecture?

ROBERTS: Harold Ford Jr., if you had a person with Hunter Biden's pedigree, except he had an "R" beside his name as opposed to a "D" do you think that Tulane would want him to speak?

FORD: I don't know, but maybe they should. Look, I'm never going to give up on believing that just because I have a policy difference with someone that I can't learn something from them or even like them. The cancel culture has gotten completely out of control, and we all ought to be careful here. Just because it's someone we don't like, we shouldn't give a little more leniency to those who may want to cancel them.

Even this notion with Vice President Pence, the book publishing company. People who have an issue with someone who has a strong point of view that is different than yours if you are a student, go invite someone with a different point of view or even your own point of view to make the case. We have gotten to a point in our nation where we're all wimps, where we don't want to hear the other side.

I think about one of the great videos I saw in the 60s at Oxford between William Buckley and James Baldwin, who had very different opinions on the issue of race. But they were able to sit and have a robust, lively, illuminating debate about the issue. We have to get back to that if we are going to learn and grow and be the functioning democracy and the envy of the world as a democracy. Shame on anyone who would say that someone's voice should be silenced.

ROBERTS: Yes, Harold Ford Jr., you mentioned the Mike Pence book. We should just give a little bit of detail for the benefit of folks at home. Employees at Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Mike Pence's new book, saying that, quote, "By choosing to publish Mike Pence, Simon & Schuster is generating wealth for a central figure of a presidency that unequivocally advocated for racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Blackness, xenophobia, misogyny, ableism, islamophobia, antisemitism, and violence. This is not a difference of opinion. This is legitimizing bigotry." Morgan, you want to jump in here, either one of these topics?

ORTAGUS: Yes, so there's about 216 employees that signed a letter from what we have seen publicly. And so that represents about 14.5 percent of the company. So essentially, 85 percent of Simon & Schuster did not sign this letter and did not complain. So once again, you are hearing a very, very vocal minority that would like to do exactly what Harold Ford Jr. just talked about, which is to silence debate and silence opinion.

Obviously, the government should never tell Simon & Schuster or any other book publisher what they should say. But this is why I think that you will continue to see more and more conservative outlets, whether it's publishing books, whether it's podcasts, whether it's things like FOX News, for consumers to have choices where they can listen and hear other ideas and other debates.

So you've got, once again, less than 15 percent of the company that is causing a huge ruckus. And I think it's good for Simon & Schuster, for there CEO, that they said no, we are not going to silence Mike Pence. He was the vice president of the United States. We are going to let him write. We are going to let him speak.

ROBERTS: In fact, here is what the CEO of Simon & Schuster said, quote, "We come to work each day to publish, not cancel, which is the most extreme decision a publisher can make and one that runs counter to the very core of our mission to publish a diversity of voices and perspectives." Bill, give us your thoughts?

MCGURN: Yes, I agree entirely. They have to decide who is running the company.

I would say I just want to clarify one thing. I don't think it is such a fastball comparison between Vice President Pence and what is happening to him and Hunter Biden. I think they are a little bit more subtle, big differences between the two men. Again, Tulane is a private university. It can make its own decisions. But as Simon & Schuster showed, the bosses have to decide who is going to run the place, because if they give in, they are going to face a lot more calls.

ROBERTS: We should mention as well that Simon & Schuster did cancel Josh Hawley's book over what happened at the Capitol building on January the 6th. Hang with us, because when we come back, tomorrow's headlines right here on SPECIAL REPORT. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Finally, tonight, we gaze into the SPECIAL REPORT crystal ball for our prognostication of tomorrow's headlines. Morgan, start us off.

ORTAGUS: Well, this week John Kerry has once again been in the news, and that is because he reportedly, according to "The New York Times," leaked classified information on Israeli strikes in Syria to Zarif, the chief propagandists, otherwise known as the foreign minister of Iran. The two of them have had a very close relationship over the past few years. So my headline, John Kerry grudgingly crosses Zarif off birthday party invite list.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: Bill, what is your headline for tomorrow?

MCGURN: Well, delivering the out of power party's rebuttal to a president's address to a joint session of Congress has always been considered one of Washington's worst jobs. The poor soul stuck with the job usually comes out looking very diminished compared to the president. But Tim Scott changed that Wednesday night with a speech that in power and eloquence was every match the president.

ROBERTS: And so, the headline will be tomorrow?

MCGURN: Tim Scott soars.

ROBERTS: He violated Dana Perino's role of every time you are asked to do the response, say no thanks. But he did, I think, a very credible job of it.

MCGURN: Go hide.

ROBERTS: Harold Ford, your headline for tomorrow?

FORD: The COVID trend line is positive. Death, hospitalizations, infections are all down, and vaccinations are going up. So as a result, one of the results, Commissioner Roger Goodell hugs and welcomes next generation of NFL stars starting tonight. Go NFL.

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