Judge blocks Trump plan to roll back Dreamers program

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Judge blocks Trump plan to roll back Dreamers program

The 'Special Report' All-Star panel weighs in.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," January 10, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We want to see something happen with DACA. It's been spoken of for years. And children are now adults in many cases.

HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY KIRSTJEN NIELSEN: We are very disappointed by the decision, but what we heard yesterday at the meeting was we are all committing to finding a deal. So a permanent solution is actually to the benefit of all the current DACA recipients, and that's what we'll pursue.

SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHARLES SCHUMER, D-N.Y.: The ruling last night and no diminishes the urgency of resolving the DACA issue. On this we agree with the White House who says the ruling doesn't do anything to reduce Congress' obligation to address this problem now.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: A U.S. district judge ruling last night that the administration overstepped its bounds in rolling back DACA, saying that those children had to leave the U.S. eventually if Congress didn't weigh in. The president tweeting, "It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our court system is when the opposing side in a case such as DACA always runs to the ninth circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts." We will see where it goes. Just moments ago the president was in that signing we told you about on the drug interdiction, and he said something at the end that caught everybody's ears.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to this, and it's a step, and it feels like a very giant step but unfortunately it's not going to be a giant step because no matter what you do, this is something that keeps pouring in. And we are going to find the answer. There is an answer. I think I actually know the answer. But I'm not sure the country and ready for it yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: A little shrouded in mystery there. The White House hasn't clarified. Was he talking about a wall? Is the country ready for a wall, or something else? We don't know. We're trying to get clarification.

Let's bring in the panel: Byron York, chief political correspondent of Washington Examiner; A.B. Stoddard, associate editor at Real Clear Politics and host of "No Labels" Radio on Sirius XM; and Charles Hurt, opinion editor for The Washington Times.

The reason I mentioned the wall is because he was asked at this appearance with the Norwegian prime minister whether that was essential in any DACA deal, and he said absolutely.

BYRON YORK, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Absolutely, and we got clarity on this because we didn't have clarity yesterday. In that 55-minute meeting with members of Congress, the president seemed to be kind of all over the place, and there was this moment where Senator Feinstein said why don't we just do DACA now, legalize everybody, and maybe you can get what you want after that. And the president seemed agreeable to that.

But I think if you look at the transcript of that whole meeting, look at what he says. When the president says I want to do DACA, he means to legalize the DACA recipients and to build a wall and to get rid of chain migration, and get rid of the visa lottery.

BAIER: I mentioned that yesterday, saying that in his mind that DACA, the legislation, means all of that.

YORK: It's shorthand for that whole package.

BAIER: A.B., where are we on the negotiations, really?

A.B. STODDARD, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: The problem is the president did not make himself clear. It certainly scared the majority leader of the House into interrupting and saying "I think what you mean to say is," in other words that sounded convincing.

So the president has jumped off the ship before on many issues and changed positions. Then he tweeted last night right after your show that it would include a wall. He was confusing again today. In a 12 minute on camera, no questions, appearance, and then he had to clarify with the question at the presser today later this afternoon. So he's now made it clear but that that's a deal breaker. These negotiations are very intense. There is serious heavy lifting, bipartisan heavy lifting going on.

Will a wall be part of it? There are too many border state Republicans opposed to a wall. There are too many fiscal conservatives who were just promised that they would take care of spending cuts after a deficit funded tax cut package. There is no bipartisan consensus for a while. You're not going to get nine Senate Democrats to vote in the Senate to get them to the 60 vote threshold.

BAIER: I know, but are you going to get them to vote for border security and not call it a wall? Is that what it is?

STODDARD: He has to define what border security is. Visa reform, there's lots of border security. It doesn't mean a physical wall. That's the problem for president Trump. He needs to define what he can call a wall but isn't actually a physical wall that's so expensive.

BAIER: But he seems like he's there. It's Congress that I don't think is there on the semantics.

CHARLES HURT, THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Yes. And I think the big thing that a lot of people are missing about yesterday's meeting is, the big thing for a year now Democrats have refused to negotiate, refused to come to the table. And we can argue about whether they've been invited to the table or not, but they have refused to participate in any of us legislation.

What Donald Trump did yesterday in that optic way that he's very good at is he sat them down at a table and began negotiations on immigration and dealing with DACA. If at the end of the day they refused to go along with the DACA legalization thing because it contains a wall element or because it contains an end to chain migration, he made it very clear he is going to campaign against them on those issues and he feels very confident that he will win on those issues. And that to me is the most important thing out of that. And I think it puts real pressure on Democrats to actually sort of try to figure out ways they can give.

BAIER: Not only that, but he talked about the military, funding the military, right in front of Democrats who said let's punt this, and he said we have to fund the military. Everybody should agree on that, right?

YORK: Yes. And Steny Hoyer gave him a little lecture about domestic spending as well. But we haven't really gotten into the details of talking about what a wall really is. How long it is. Is it an actual wall? Is it a double fence that might conform with what was passed in 2006 when people like Charles Schumer voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006. Or could you pass a down payment for the wall and then after you get started authorize a user fee model where you impose charges on visas and border crossing and, bingo, Mexico pays for the wall. You have a dedicated revenue stream for a while. There's a lot of thinking going on that we are not hearing about right now.

BAIER: And he's saying the country's not ready for a wall yet, but we are going to get something. A.B., I want to turn to offshore drilling. take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY SARAH SANDERS: Our goal certainly isn't to cross Governor Scott. We have a great relationship with him. We are going to continue working with him on a number of issues. We will continue those conversations with him, and hopefully all come to an agreement.

INTERIOR SECRETARY RYAN ZINKE: Florida is obviously unique. The president has tasked me to develop an energy policy offshore but also take in consideration the local and state interests for Floridians. We are not drilling off the coast of Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BAIER: So Florida is off the list. New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, says New York doesn't want drilling off our coast either. Where do we sign up for a waiver, Secretary of the Interior Zinke? What about this?

STODDARD: It doesn't matter what party they're people in Delaware, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, none of them want this. So what it seems like is just like the travel ban, another unvented policy that is announced, and when someone comes, every sibling in the family know that if there's a new mandate and you wiggle out of it the other siblings are going to run to your parents and try to wiggle out of it too. So now he's going to face a lot of pressure from other people saying tell us why is Florida is so unique and our state is not?

BAIER: Two things that someone may say. One, elections have consequences. Two, all of this is going to be challenged in the courts and it really doesn't matter because it's going to be challenged for a long time before anybody's going to put a rig in the water anyplace.

HURT: All of that is true. But the other thing is that forever the federal government has been dictating were states or where people can drill and where they cannot drill, whether it be ANWR or off the shore, the coast of Virginia. The idea that we're going to flip that around and say actually the federal government is going to stop banning it everywhere and saying with input from local you can drill where you want to drill, that I think probably a positive step. Obviously you can't give a waiver to Florida and not give it to New York if New York wants it. That puts them in a bad position. But if the end result is that if Virginia wants to drill off its coast, the federal government, I don't think that's a particularly bad place to wind up.

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