'Special Report' All-Star panel on Biden's infrastructure bill, state voting laws

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Bret Baier: It sounds like the infrastructure bill isn't happening

'Special Report' All-Star panel discuss Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., views on the infrastructure and the latest Supreme Court ruling

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Brett Baier," July 1, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: If the reconciliation bill they are envisioning on the progressive side is $4 trillion to $6 trillion, you're not going with that?

SEN. JOE MANCHIN, (D-WV): I don't think I could ever get there to that, not unless we just throw caution to the wind on the tax code and care less. Are we competing in the global market, and are we being fair -- if you just throw that out the window. That seems to me totally out of the ballpark.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Senator Joe Manchin talking about what possibly could be reconciliation bill after a bipartisan infrastructure bill. But he's not getting to $4 trillion to $6 trillion, wouldn't get to the number, about $1 trillion is what we hear on Capitol Hill from moderate Democrats.

What about all of that? Let's bring in our panel, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at "The Federalist," Jonathan Swan, national political reporter for "Axios," and Trey Gowdy, former Congressman from South Carolina.

Jonathan, the White House had kind of a muddled week on messaging on this, had to walk back over the weekend where the president is or isn't. When you listen to Manchin there and also saying he is not for adjusting the filibuster even down from 60 votes to 55, what is the plan of attack here from the White House point of view?

JONATHAN SWAN, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "AXIOS": It's really hard. Everything has to go almost beyond perfectly for them to get these two bills through. And when I talk to White House officials and people close to the White House who are advising the White House, when you have honest conversations with them that are not on the record for public consumption, they're pretty bearish about the reconciliation package. It's just hard to imagine a package that gets through the Senate with Joe Manchin, you just spoke to him, with his vote that can then be signed off on by the most progressive members of Nancy Pelosi's House. It's just a really big gap between the House progressives and Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. And I don't know what kind of political magic can bridge that gap, and nor do the people I talk to.

BAIER: Meantime, Mollie, the progressive side, the Democrats, are throwing down these gauntlets every day -- this will not happen, this will not happen if both are not passed together.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE FEDERALIST": Yes, and I think Senator Manchin showed how he is able to be elected as a Democrat in such a Republican state with his moderation and his approach there. People are not making it easy for Joe Biden to have success here, but he's part of the reason why he's not having success. His campaign and his inauguration were all about how he was going to be a unifier, how he was going to bring people together. And as Senator Manchin was talking tonight about how important it is to get a few people from another party on your side when you're passing legislation, Joe Biden should not have so much trouble doing this. He finally, in fact, did get people for the infrastructure bill, immediately sabotaged it. Nancy Pelosi isn't helping because of her ultimatums as well, but it really gives lie to this idea that Joe Biden was somehow a moderate or a unifier when he can't even get something is widely liked as an infrastructure bill passed.

BAIER: Trey, this sounds like it's not happening.

TREY GOWDY, FORMER SOUTH CAROLINA REPRESENTATIVE: Yes, Bret. I like to take a step back and look at the political reality. Joe Manchin represents a state where Joe Biden did not win a single, solitary county. Let that sink in for a second. Joe Biden did not win a single county in West Virginia, and Nancy Pelosi would not win a neighborhood other than the philosophy department at West Virginia University. So Joe Manchin is not going to vote for what the Squad wants. And for people who like representative government and representatives who actually vote like their state wants, they should love Joe Manchin, because it's a ruby red state.

BAIER: All right, meantime, the Supreme Court coming in with this big ruling on Arizona. Let's take a listen to the Arizona attorney general and the president on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK BRNOVICH, (R) ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL: This is all about protecting the integrity of elections and making sure that states have the ability to conduct the time, place, and manner of their elections the way they want. What we've seen from the left, even with HR-1 and S-1 is an attempt to nationalize elections.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is critical that we make a distinction between voter suppression and suspension. The ability of a state legislative body to come along and vote, their legislature vote to change who was declared the winner I find to be somewhat astounding. But the Supreme Court rule did not rule that way today, to the best of my knowledge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: So quickly around the horn, Jonathan, Mollie, Trey, about the implication of this ruling and what it means broadly beyond Arizona. Jonathan?

SWAN: It's just going to be much harder for Democrats to challenge these Republican voting laws at the state level, makes it very hard to see how, for example, all these lawsuits in Georgia are going to ultimately succeed. And the Democrats don't really have many options here, because there's a lot of talk about HR-1 and S-1, these bills at the federal level. They are just fantasy. They're not going to become reality. There's nowhere near the votes required. So, litigation is really the only option, and this is a huge, huge blow to their litigation strategy.

BAIER: Mollie?

HEMINGWAY: The Voting Rights Act was passed at a time when the country really did have two deal with Jim Crow. The Biden administration and other people on the left have been trying to say that now, which is a time when people are able to vote more easily than they ever have been in history, is also Jim Crow. This ruling really shows how that language is inappropriate and dangerous and wrong. Alito provided guidance for when you can bring -- when you can bring a claim under the Voting Rights Act, and that guidance was really needed because we were seeing different courts rule things different ways. But it makes it clear that ballot harvesting -- bans on ballot harvesting, are not a violation of the Voting Rights Act, and that's important for the secret ballot.

BAIER: Kagan's dissent was blistering. Trey?

GOWDY: Yes, you know, Bret, about a month ago, Democrats thought that voter I.D. laws were racist. They've changed their mind. Who knows, in another week they may actually think you have to vote in your precinct, which is what the Supreme Court said. You have to vote in your precinct, and someone that cares about you has to harvest your ballot. I don't think that's that revolutionary.

BAIER: When we come back, tomorrow's headlines. Keep it here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Finally, tonight, a lightning look at tomorrow's headlines. Mollie?

HEMINGWAY: A Pew study confirms that Donald Trump made major gains with Hispanic voters, getting nearly 40 percent of the vote and exceeding what Romney, McCain, and even George W. Bush in 2000 got. The working class, multiracial coalition of the Republican Party is real.

BAIER: Jonathan?

SWAN: Fresh leaks from the vice president's office.

BAIER: That's a short one, but true. Trey?

GOWDY: Alexander Hamilton no longer worried the judicial branch will be too weak.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: All right, panel, thank you very much.

And thank you for inviting us into your home tonight. That is it for this SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and still unafraid. And we made it. FOX NEWS PRIMETIME hosted by Jesse Watters, starts right now. Hey, Jesse.

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