'Special Report' All-Star Panel on Biden and Russia

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Biden gave green light to Putin, abandoning Ukrainian allies: Hewitt

'Special Report' panel breaks down President Biden's Wednesday news conference.

This is a rush transcript of "Special Report with Bret Baier" on January 19, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BAIER: Let's turn now to our panel bringing them in early, Syndicated Radio Host Hugh Hewitt, Leslie Marshall, Democratic strategist and former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.

Just a few moments ago, Ben Sasse, Republican senator put out this press release about the president's press conference. He said it was an absolute train wreck that will have serious consequences. President Biden basically gave Putin a green light to invade Ukraine by yammering about the supposed insignificance of a minor incursion. He projected weakness, not strength. If that wasn't bad enough, he undermined trust in our elections here at home. This isn't hard. If you're the president of the United States you affirm public trust in our elections. Sadly, both the current president and the former president repeatedly pathetically equivocate and he goes on.

Back with the panel, Hugh. There were a number of things to take from that. First of all, the fact that the president did a news conference that was almost two hours, breaking the record of news conferences by President Trump and President Obama, by 20 plus minutes. And he did take a lot of questions. But there were a lot of significant moments in that news conference.

HUGH HEWITT, SYNDICATED RADIO HOST: There was, as Senator Sasse said, a train wreck. Now, we will be talking about the domestic political fallout from this for a long time. I think he could dump below 30 percent of the result.

But the key takeaway is he gave a green light to Vladimir Putin to have an incursion of some sort. So, President Biden has thoroughly abandon our Ukrainian allies today, as he did our Afghanistan allies in August and September.

It is on a par with a speech that not many people remember Dean Acheson in 1950, did not include Korea in our world of security perimeter, and the North Korean invaded the South Koreans, it's been a legendary mistake.

I think this press conference is going to go down in national security infamy for that wildly phrased invitation of Vladimir Putin to come on down and take part of Ukraine.

BAIER: Leslie, there were about three different bites of the apple to go back at that and kind of clarify it. What did you take from the news conference?

LESLIE MARSHALL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CONTRIBUTOR: I'm not going to lie, I cringed when I heard the, it depends if it's a small invasion or a large invasion. Obviously, there should be no invasion.

But let's make no mistake, whether it's the President of the United States or any leader of any nation ally to ours, or otherwise, Vladimir Putin is going to do what he is going to do and President Biden in saying that he thinks he's going to do this. You know, I don't -- I don't think he's inaccurate.

But we have to look historically, right? We have a couple of choices here. We have -- Ukraine has the backing of the United States and the majority of the international community, we have the power to help them financially as we should and with weapons as we should. And we have the power along with our allies to really cripple Russia to a large degree economically.

Of course, there's the other way and I am certainly as a liberal and a pacifist, not a war maverick. But when Saddam Hussein in Iraq invaded Kuwait, we pounced. And some people like that option.

But Russia pretty much knows we're not going to do that. And the international community isn't going to do that either.

BAIER: Ari, I would like to know from your past experience as White House Press Secretary when you maybe heard Biden say, OK, we'll go another 20 minutes. What did you think?

ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Staff (PH) cringed. I kind of wished at that moment the camera would have panned over to the staff.

You never want that when you're the White House staff. You want a discipline constructive news conference that you can control.

You know, I don't think the length is going to matter. Some people who follow Washington's inside baseball will care about it. But the big thing is what he said, not how long he said it and he made three crucial mistakes.

You've already talked about one of them, the green light for a minor of incursion, but then he went on Bret, and he explained the reason why was because you have the NATO on the same page.

No, America leads. That's what you do in a foreign crisis. You don't wait for 28 nations all to have identical positions and you're held down by the lowest common denominator. America should lead but President Biden wasn't strong enough to do that.

The other two crucial things he did just terribly wrong. For one, he questioned the legitimacy of the upcoming '22 election. And he doubled down, he reinforced his accusations that Republicans who aren't with him on a certain way about how to vote, whether it should be 10 or 15 days early, are the descendants to Bull Connor, George Wallace, and Jefferson Davis. He doesn't understand how deeply divisively he is wronged people.

BAIER: And that's an interesting point about how his clarification of that speech in Atlanta and how he sees it about what he said, versus how people perceived it, in his words, Hugh.

HUGH HEWITT, SYNDICATED RADIO HOST: Well, he made three attempts at by my count, it might have been four or five to try and tell us what he said when we all heard what he said.

He eventually ended up blaming Mitch McConnell for what he said. But then he went back and said it again at the end of that, that chaotic -- I mean, it was a chaotic, desperate press conference.

That will not be -- and people read the transcript of that for decades, and they will not find a theme. But what Ari nailed is the three takeaways -- are the takeaways.

The one I want to emphasize, Bret, is he also said no matter how hard they tried to make it for minorities to vote. That is slander, as equal to the slander as the one that he launched in Atlanta.

And Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republicans who are outraged are still outraged tonight.

BAIER: All right, I'm going to play the sound bite about Build Back Better, where he said, basically, the big effort is over, they're going to try to chop it up. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: COVID-19 has created a lot of economic complications, including rapid price increases across the world economy.

If price increases are what you're worried about, the best answer is my Build Back Better plan. I think we can break the package up, get as much as we can now, and come back and fight for the rest later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Leslie, the chances to that?

LESLIE MARSHALL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR (on camera): I think there are chances of part of it passing. And I think if they do the same thing with voting rights, that would be the same because when you look at Senator Joe Manchin, for example, there are definitely things in there that he likes and things that he doesn't.

So, instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, have you take it and break it up. If you also look at polls and what to Americans, the majority of Americans, whether the Democratic-Republican support, I think it's a smarter way to go than just shelve it completely.

Remember, the economy is number one on all voter's minds. Inflation scares, rightly so Americans. And if you are saying an economist are agreeing with the president, top economist, Nobel Prize-winning economist are saying Build Back Better will help small businesses, will help our economy, will help infuse more money into the economy, then I think it's worth the effort to take the pieces that they know that can pass from this legislation to help the American people and to help the economy.

BAIER: Yes. Ari, what about this construct about what are Republicans for? You know, obviously, Republicans can answer that. They can answer that they're for strict border security. Cleaning up the border, they're for no crime in a big American cities. They're for getting inflation down. They're for lower taxes and taking regulations off from businesses that they can succeed.

And then, for -- the president to say repeatedly that Republicans have done everything to stop every effort. There were 19 Senate Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill, 13 House Republicans. What about that construct?

FLEISCHER: You know, as I heard Joe Biden say that, I think he earnestly believes in his heart, that he is trying -- that he's trying to be bipartisan. That he really is a man who can reach across the aisle, as he sits there and insults the very people he says that he's trying to reach across the aisle with. He doesn't understand just how disparaging he comes across.

And Bret, you could add to that very good list that you just cited, beginning with the border, that Republicans also are for energy independence, we're going to increase our ability domestically to produce energy for this country. We're going to stand up to China. That's another one that's on the list for Republicans. There's a full agenda.

And it's easy for Joe Biden to see if he'd only open his eyes to see it, instead of disparaging the people that he says won't work with him. He won't work with them. And he's the president. He's the one whose job is to work with them.

BAIER: Well, there is more to digest from this news conference. Panel, we'll see a little bit later on the show.

Meantime, breaking news just happening right now from the Supreme Court. Electing not to help former President Trump. We'll explain that after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

We're back with our panel, Hugh Hewitt, Leslie Marshall, Ari Fleischer. Whenever that happens, Ari, you know something has transpired that they really need to clean it up as the secretary of state is actually in Ukraine currently and meeting with the Russians tomorrow.

ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Bret, this is not and can never considered a minor mistake about a minor matter. This is about war and peace. This is about Joe Biden with his judgment and his experience, his 40 years in Washington, his knowledge of foreign relations. And he bungled this? How many briefings has he sat through to go over what our position is when his staff is telling the world an invasion is imminent? He should be razor sharp and ready on these issues. You can't have a clean-up on an issue this fundamental. Putin already heard what he wanted to hear. Joe Biden already said it. He can't unsay it.

BAIER: Leslie?

LESLIE MARSHALL, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I'm not going to totally disagree with Ari on this, but I do think when you screw up, you have your people go out and say look, we screwed up. And I like your clean up on aisle four analogy there, Bret.

But let's be clear. Vladimir Putin doesn't need Joe Biden to tell him what he thinks he is going to do or any other leader. Vladimir Putin has already made up his mind what he is going to do. I think the rest of the world is nail-biting and watching when and how big an invasion to Ukraine this will be. Our allies, starting with Finland all the way down, have agreed with the president in his position, which there will be catastrophic economic consequences for Russia to do this.

BAIER: OK, Hugh, last comment on this. There are other things to digest in this news conference.

HUGH HEWITT, SYNDICATED RADIO HOST: Well, minor incursion -- he could have talked for four hours, Bret, and "minor incursion" will be the take away, because it's a new category of aggression. If the People's Republic of China lurches at Taiwan, is that a minor aggression? If Putin wants a part of Alaska, is that a minor incursion if he only goes for the Aleutians. It's a revolutionary sort of mistake, and the fact that Jen Psaki came out and drew a circle around it so quickly underscores that he could still be talking. He might be still talking, for all we know, to himself. But that minor incursion, along with the idea that Republicans are purposely trying to make it harder for minorities to vote, those are the takeaways, and they are going to leave a mark a long time.

BAIER: Right. Was it a minor incursion when Russia went into Crimea in 2014? Does that qualify? I see here where you are going. Ari, what else struck you from this news conference?

FLEISCHER: Well, I think if he were a liberal Democrat, the president may have been successful in a holding pattern where you your support no longer erodes. There were feisty moments by Joe Biden that bases of parties will enjoy. The problem Joe Biden has is he is cratering among independents, and he certainly has lost Republicans. So it's that damage among independents.

And I guess it's just the calculation of the White House in an off-year election cycle they have got to run toward the base, which shows that Peter Doocy's question about why are you governing from the left was a very valid question. Joe Biden rejected it.

BAIER: We have a soundbite, Mitch versus Joe. Mitch McConnell, who is going to come on this show tomorrow and talk about Republican plans and where things stand up on Capitol Hill. But President Biden referencing all of this. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: This midterm election will be a report card on the performance of this entire Democratic government.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think report cards look pretty good, if that's where we're at. Mitch has been very clear. He will do anything to prevent Biden from being a success. I get on with Mitch. I actually like Mitch McConnell. But he has one straightforward objective -- make sure that there is nothing I do that makes me look good in the mind, in his mind, with the public at large.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Leslie, I guess my question is, is that each party can say this at certain times. The last time when Democrats used the filibuster to block Senator Tim Scott's police reform bill that was working along bipartisan ways until Democrats really didn't want that success to happen. So it does go both ways with both parties here.

MARSHALL: Oh, I would agree with you there, Bret. And this is one of my biggest, as a voter, not just as a Democrat, problems is the hypocrisy. Mitt Romney a year ago, this video of him saying he supports a talking filibuster. Today he seems to have forgotten that. Mitch McConnell seems to have forgotten that in 2017 the votes changed from 60 to 50, that threshold, so he could get three Supreme Court justices through.

Joe Biden, the president is being honest with what he says. We heard Mitch McConnell say during the Obama administration it was his job to say no and to stop and prevent and to block and obstruct everything Obama tried to do. There is no difference now with Joe Biden as president and Mitch McConnell hoping to be Senate majority leader after the midterms.

BAIER: All right, panel, thanks so much. Nice, quick analysis of that news conference just before the show. I appreciate it. We should point out, the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki will be on AMERICA'S NEWSROOM with Dana and Bill tomorrow.

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