'Special Report' All-Star Panel on Biden crises, DNC disarray

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Ari Fleischer: Biden unable to identify what is a crisis and what's not

'Special Report' All-Star panel discusses the numerous of challenges facing the White House.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," January 31, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've had a crisis. We have come out, we've been stronger. And I think that's where we are again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know what to do on all of these things. The president is ignoring the needs of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got a way to go on that in my view, but we are moving. And so I think it's all about making sure we have the same standards we're applying across the board.

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When we, in particular, face crises, we come together, regardless of party affiliation, to do the work that must be done. So I would ask that in this coming year, we work together to ensure that all Americans who are eligible to vote actually have meaningful access to the ballot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: Let's bring in our panel, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio, and syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt. Great to have you all with us there.

You just heard the president and vice president talking about how to come together during issues of crisis. Ari, they have got several hotspots that they are dealing. The president has talked about this in terms of messaging. He wants to get out there, he wants to be with more people, see them face to face to sell what he has got on the table. Your expertise was in messaging with the White House. How are they doing?

ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, they are doing terribly. And it begins with their failure to recognize what is a crisis and what is not a crisis. They consider the fact that we have a healthy, vibrant democracy in which we just shattered all turnout records in the 2020 election as a crisis of democracy in which the vote is being suppressed when the vote is surging. And the only issues we are debating, really, are whether we have 10 days or 15 days of early voting, and if you pick 10 over 15, you are Jim Crow 2.0, and that's a crisis to them.

While the southern border, where people are just flowing into the United States of America illegally because the Biden administration has let down its guard, it doesn't enforce the law at the border, it actually is open- minded about letting people come here illegally, which is why we have even more people coming illegally, that to them is not a crisis.

So, they are never going to get their job right when they misidentify what is and is not a crisis.

BREAM: We got a little bit of back and forth on the crime issue, which is showing up in major cities across the country. Here's a bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE GAMALDI, FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE: Jen Psaki has the nerve to laugh when we talk about violent crime. It just boggles the mind what this administration is focusing on.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: If those facts are uncomfortable, I'm sorry for people who feel they need to be critical, but the president has been a long-time advocate of addressing crime. He has never been for defunding the police.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: And Mara, the White House press secretary getting a little backlash for seeming to be a little bit flippant when talking about the issue of being soft on crime, that accusation, and now the White House is seemingly now on defense again on some issue that, listen, our polling at FOX News and elsewhere shows it is one of the top if not the top issue of concern for many Americans right now, crime.

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Yes, there is no doubt that crime, COVID, inflation, those are the things that people really care. But she is right, the president has never been for defunding the police. He has pushed back against that from the beginning. But enough Democrats were for it that that was a problem for them in the last election.

But yes, crime is something that is local. The president can't do much about it. But it's definitely at the top of people's list. And it also makes them feel generally unsafe, as does COVID, and inflation is also anxiety-producing because you don't know how far your paycheck is going to go. So these are all things that are problems for the White House. And they at least have to show they care and they get it, even if they can't fix them overnight.

BREAM: And to add to those, we'll pull up some ABC/Ipsos polling. And it does talk about crime and COVID, but also immigration. And approval for the president, Hugh, is tough there. He's upside down 30 points on immigration. On crime, the same thing. COVID is 50-49, on approve-disapprove. So he's got multiple topics where Americans are feeling rattled.

HUGH HEWITT, SYNDICATED RADIO HOST: President Biden is in a deep hole, Shannon, and it's getting deeper, and he won't stop digging. He's flailing around, and he's failing as a president.

Two numbers to remember, in 2010 that was the first election to follow President Obama's election, House Democrats lost 63 seats. In 2018, the first election to follow President Trump's election, the Republicans lost 43 seats. So this is traditionally the worst yearly of a president, one term or two. And redistricting is underway, and our friends over at "The Cook Political Report" keep a scorecard. Republicans have added two-and-a- half seats despite just the most amazing, almost Salvador Dali maps that came out of New York and Illinois that are the height of partisan gerrymandering. And I salute them, I salute partisan gerrymandering.

But Republicans are going to take back the House. So if Joe Biden is going to get out of that hole, he needs it a reset. This afternoon the post leaked -- the White House leaked to the "The Washington Post" that Secretary Becerra is just not doing his job very well at HHS. So I think the reshuffle is going to start there and include Zients and Fauci and Walensky. We are going to have some name changes on the doors pretty soon, I think.

BREAM: Ari, what about that? Because we know the governors are in town this weekend, all kinds of events, the president and the vice president. But a lot of folks seem to hint that Secretary Becerra was missing from those big events this weekend.

FLEISCHER: Well, they don't have to hint it. They can observe it. He was missing. He has been missing since the day he got appointed. It's just baffling to me that a politician, a congressman, who understands the power of communication when the biggest issue in the country is under your auspices as secretary of HHS, Health and Health Services, and he doesn't speak to the public. So that is a legitimate change they need.

But, if I'm the Biden administration, I would not change their people involved in COVID for the simple reason that it will just make conservatives say see, we were right all along, and it will upset liberals who love Fauci. There is no political upside for them doing that. They are stuck with the people they have. They are stuck with that team. And anything they do to change it would be a sign of such weakness they won't mollify anybody. They will antagonize everybody.

BREAM: Mara, do you suspect there will be any changes, whether it's in messaging or personnel as an effort to stave off what Hugh talked about historically is going to be a bad midterm for Democrats?

LIASSON: Yes. Messaging, yes. The president himself has talked about that. He wants to get out of the -- in the country more. He said he is going to invite people into the White House who have different perspectives. There's always criticism that the White House is too insular.

Personnel changes, I don't really see how personnel changes really help you. He said that he is happy with his team. I don't see any top White House officials being ditched. These are people who Biden has worked with for many, many years. But he has got to get a hold of the two things that the public cares about the most -- COVID and inflation. After that, yes, crime and immigration are important, too.

And that's going to be hard to do. I think that only maybe one or two presidents have ever improved their approval rating after February of an election year. Ari might remember that statistic better. But it's really hard to do. He's pushing against a lot of historical forces.

BREAM: He certainly is. Hugh, you will kick us off for our next panel. If you guys will stick around, we will talk about Democrats in disarray as the midterms approach.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to win in 2022. That's where the DNC comes in, that's where all of you who support the DNC, all of you allow them, give them the wherewithal to go out and make the case, the advertisements, and all the things we are doing. We have no let people know what we have done.

JAIME HARRISON, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIR: There is one party that is fighting for them, who wants to make sure that we take care of childcare and healthcare and eldercare, the things that people are struggling with. And you got one party that all they are doing is blocking things.

REP. JAMES CLYBURN, (D-SC) HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP: I know what it is to lose an election. And I know what it is to come back from an election. Jaime Harrison is just what we need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: All right, it's all about what's going on inside the DNC. We are back with our panel to discuss that. NBC News reports this, that "DNC Chair Jaime Harrison has considered early exit amid White House tensions," go on to say that he "is frustrated, isolated, trapped in a job he long thought he wanted -- a dynamic driven by escalating tensions with the White House over his role. Harrison has been frustrated enough to consider an escape route to depart before the midterms." Hugh, what do you think is going on at the DNC?

HEWITT: I think lots of people want to escape from the DNC and from the White House and from especially Congress, so many retirements. Shannon, in a nutshell, it's desperate on the Democratic side. And that does not upset me at all. They don't have an answer to the crime issue and the COVID breakdown. They don't have initiative that they are going to get through. They don't even have an idea how to make the Supreme Court nomination that is pending into a story. They are desperate for a story. They would love there to be controversy over whether it's Judge Brown Jackson or Justice Kruger in California or Judge Childs. There isn't going to be any controversy. I think the over/under is 65 votes. They don't have an answer. They don't have an initiative. They don't have an exit strategy to stop red wave that is building, and I don't know how they can come up with one.

BREAM: The Gallup polling has not been good for Democrats, recently, especially when it comes to self-identifying with party affiliation. A piece in the "New York Times" this weekend says "The poll shows just how much trouble Democrats are in. When Joe Biden took over from Donald Trump a year ago, Democrats held a 49 to 40 advantage in that Gallup poll party identification. From nine points up to five points down in less than a year, it is one of the most dramatic reversal of party fortune that Gallup has ever recorded." Ari?

FLEISCHER: Yes, and earlier Hugh talked about the two midterm elections that were massive sweeps, 1994, Bill Clinton's first midterm election, in 2010, Barack Obama's midterm election, which the Democrats suffered massive losses. And the problem that the Democrats have now is they are on identical trajectory, and I don't see anything stopping it.

The only move that I would make if I were Joe Biden is on crime, I would start going after those liberal D.A.'s who are changing the laws, not prosecuting people for what used to be felonies, reduced it to misdemeanors, which invited more crime. Joe Biden should go after the Manhattan D.A. He should go after the Portland D.A., the Seattle D.A., the San Francisco and Los Angeles D.A. That would be a smart move that would at least sandy signal to centrist that maybe Joe Biden has some sensibility left.

But he's too far in with the left, and that's what explains, Shannon, so much of that Gallup poll that you cited. And the polling numbers in November when you really vote, look like they are going to be blow out because things are so bad in America, and Joe Biden is getting the blame for much of what he has created.

BREAM: Well, I want to put this up. So far we've got 29 House Democrats who are either retiring or not running for House and maybe running for a different office. What do you think is driving that, Mara? Is it the idea that there may be, as President Obama once called it, a shellacking? What's dividing them, or some of these folks have been there a long time for not coming back?

LIASSON: Some people are old. They're committee chairman. They don't want to go into the minority. There's no doubt that a lot of House Democrats, the majority of them probably, are expecting to lose the House in the fall. But the average loss of a president in their first midterm, I think, is 27 seats. So this is something that happens every two years. Donald Trump lost the House in 2018.

And the only question I think among political operatives now is how big are the Democratic losses going to be? And, yes, every single day they wake up to some new depressing metric about party I.D. or congressional -- generic congressional ballot. So everything becomes another reason for Republicans to start measuring the drapes.

But we have got almost a year to go. A lot of things can happen. And especially, I would watch COVID and inflation, see if those two things improve. That's what the president and his party really need.

BREAM: I think we all know nine to 10 months in politics is an eternity.

But meantime, to circle back around to where we started with the DNC, by the way, the chairman, Jaime Harrison, tweets this out, says "To unnamed sources, if you expect me to go away or roll into a ball and whimper, you picked the wrong one. The focus is upending the party of fraud, fear, and fascism. You have the mission. Now get with the program." Hugh?

HEWITT: That's temperate. That's exactly what I like to see the DNC chair pushing. I'm sure he checked that with Ari's successor at the White House, calling everyone fascist who disagree with him. That is, in fact, a reflection of how far gone the Democratic Party is on messaging. They have lost the ability to communicate. But hey, nobody knows who Mr. Harrison is, period, beyond the beltway. And, b, when they do hear about him, they are going to find he's calling them a fascist. It's not a winning recipe.

BREAM: All right, Hugh and panel, thank you very much. When we come back, a SPECIAL REPORT salute.

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