'Special Report' All-Star panel on Biden's plan to address spike in crime

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'Special Report' All-Star panel discuss Biden's plan to address spike in crime

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report" June 21, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There has been actually a rise in
crime over the last five years, but really the last 18 months. And so it's
an opportunity for the president to speak to what he's going to do to help
address that. And as we have seen around the country, it is a concern of
many Americans, Republicans, but also Democrats, too. Not necessarily
through a partisan lens.

MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT, (D) CHICAGO: We are seeing a downward trajectory
where other cities are continuing to see a climb. I'm the first to tell
you, that's cold comfort to a single person who has been shot, a single
person who has been killed.

ANTHONY NAPOLITANO, (I) CHICAGO ALDERMAN: Politicians won't blame families
for raising their kids. The gangs are raising their kids right now. We have
over 117,000 gang members. That's your problem. That is your absolute
problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Crime wave through some big cities across the country, and it's
very tangible. You can see the stats, and take a look at them. Chicago up
five percent, 18 percent shootings, and Chicago obviously had huge numbers
to begin with. Los Angeles, New York, look at Portland, up 533 percent in
homicides, 126 percent in shooting incidents in Portland, Oregon. As we get
word that the president is going to speak about crime across the country
later this week.

So let's bring in our panel, a little expanded tonight, FOX News senior
political analyst Brit Hume, Ben Domenech, publisher of "The Federalist,"
Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio,
and Trey Gowdy, former Congressman from South Carolina. Brit, it's a big
issue always whenever law and order becomes an issue politically. But the
fact that President Biden is going to address this directly, obviously it's
raised to a different level.

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It does, Bret. And he is
wise to try to at least say something about it. What he will actually do or
propose doing about it remains to be seen, obviously. But this has always
been a potent issue politically. And if you look around the country, the
statistics you showed just now speak for themselves, but you've got stores
closing in San Francisco because they can't do anything about the
shoplifting. You've got the riot squad quitting in Portland. You've got
those awful scenes of violence in the streets of New York.

People notice this stuff, and they don't like it, and they never have. So
if this is still the situation or something like it when these midterms
roll around, the gravity that the party of the White House also faces in
the president's first midterm is likely to be very heavy indeed. And the
president needs to do something.

BAIER: Mara, we have pointed out before, as a candidate Joe Biden was not
for defund the police, but the Democratic Party, at least a wing of it, did
talk about it a lot and still talks about it, about repurposing dollars. So
that becomes an issue.

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: 
Right. It becomes an issue, and it certainly is featured in a lot of these
Democratic autopsies about why they didn't do better down ballot in 2020,
and a lot of them have said the defund police slogan became something that
Republicans used to tar a very wide swath of the Democratic parties, even
candidates that weren't for defunding the police. But I think Joe Biden has
a long memory, and he knows what the issue of crime has done to Democratic
politicians in the past, and it sounds like is he going to try to get out
ahead of that.

Two things are true. One, there is a spike in crime for a variety of
reasons. But, two, this is an issue that the Republican Party thinks is
really a good thing for them politically. Of course, a spike in crime is
bad for everybody. But they are pushing this, and it's going to be
interesting to see what the president says later this week when he talks
about this and how he can help his party get removed from that label of
wanting to defund the police.

BAIER: It was three years ago today we lost our colleague Dr. Charles
Krauthammer, and we often on this show go back and look at things that he
said over the time on the panel that seemed to fit now, and we found one
today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: There is a reason that these
murder rates are going up. That is because we are having a slow-motion
police strike where police are either not going into the neighborhoods or
pulling away in a dangerous incident or confrontation, because it used to
be if you were a police officer in a confrontation, your one thought would
be how do I escape alive? How do I protect the people? And now he has to
think, how is this going to look on video? How will I be treated tonight in
the evening news? And how will I be ultimately treated by the legal system?
And once you have to add that factor, the policeman is defenseless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: We miss his voice every day. But Trey, he's hitting a note that's
cogent today.

TREY GOWDY, FORMER SOUTH CAROLINA REPRESENTATIVE: Yes, Bret, Dr.
Krauthammer is right again. And then you add to that the calls to defund
the police, and then the thought wing of the Democrat Party, if that's the
right phraseology, some of them even said they wanted to eliminate the
police and hire social workers. You have these so-called progressive
prosecutors who have never met anyone that they think ought to be in jail.
And then you have got both political parties, both of them have minimized
acts the violence on their side. You add to that a media that can't tell
the difference between an arsonist and a peaceful protester, it is the most
natural and probable consequence in the world. You are going to see a spike
in crime when you have seen a spike in lawlessness.

BAIER: Ben?

BEN DOMENECH, PUBLISHER, "THE FEDERALIST": Well, Dr. Krauthammer's words
are obviously still true today. But I think that one of the big things that
we have to appreciate about this moment is that smart Democrats are looking
at the poll numbers that they are seeing among Hispanic voters across the
country, and they are seeing a real backlash against not just the defund
the police rhetoric, but also Black Lives Matter, the rhetoric of
antiracism, et cetera, things that are not viewed within the Hispanic
community as appealing to their interests, particularly when it comes to
education.

We have seen across the country this backlash against teachers unions that
I think conservatives would be very wise to seize upon in these midterms to
really push back against the dominant political power of teachers unions
and their ownership of so many Democratic politicians. This is something
that I think is a huge opportunity for Republicans. Whether they are able
to actually seize upon it, whether they are able to build upon it is really
going to be up to them. And I think that that really is an open question
going into these midterms, but it is going to be based on all of these
issues of crime, education, and this type of racial politics that I think
has become so toxic in recent years.

BAIER: You are speaking about polls -- go ahead, Brit.

HUME: Just one more thing, Bret. Let's not forget the lawlessness we are
seeing along the border, which we are covering very well. I'm not sure how
much other media is, but I think it's penetrated the public. The
president's ratings on immigration are very poor. So even if he begins to
get some kind of a handle on this urban lawlessness, this situation down at
the border, I think, is politically toxic. And we hear now from the White
House or from reporting from the White House that they are about to stop
deporting people who come here illegally even as Kamala Harris is telling
them not to come.

BAIER: Speaking of polls, one of the pieces of legislation that will come
forward this week up in the Senate is this voting rights bill. And in a
Monmouth poll, the latest Monmouth poll, do you support or oppose requiring
voters to show a photo I.D. in order to vote? Eighty percent support a
voter I.D. Mara, it seems like this issue, this issue alone is pretty much
closed.

LIASSON: Yes, voter I.D. has bipartisan support. That's why when Joe
Manchin floated his alternative to H.R.-1 it was very stripped down and
just had a couple key features, 15 days of early voting, voting I.D.,
national holiday for Election Day. Democrats pretty much embraced it. So
voter I.D. is, I agree, a closed case. But there are a lot of other things
the Democrats feel very strongly about, like partisan control of vote
counting which are embedded in some of these new state laws around the
country.

So yes, on that, voter I.D. maybe you could start building some kind of
compromise, at least inside the Democratic Party. You will never get 10
Republicans for any kind of voting rights law. But on that one there is a
consensus.

BAIER: But, Trey, there was a lot of talk about Jim Crow relived in some
of these bills, and the voter I.D. was a big problem for some progressives.
It doesn't seem like it's a problem for Americans if you trust this poll.

GOWDY: Yes, Bret. That was a long, long time ago, like maybe seven to 10
days ago, when not only were they opposing voter I.D., they went to the
Supreme Court to oppose voter I.D. And so I always ask the rhetorical
question, what is your issue with proving that you are who you are? The
problem with that poll, Bret, is all 18 percent that are opposed to voter
I.D. are on the Democrat side of the House and the Senate. That's the
problem with the polling. They are not going to support it.

BAIER: All right, I want to turn really quickly to the economy, and we're
looking at inflation in May year over year. All items up five percent. You
see the breakdown, food, energy, used cars. People are feeling it, Ben.
Does this in this moment have an effect on the negotiations up on Capitol
Hill with infrastructure and these big ticket items?

DOMENECH: I feel like the politicians are not paying attention to this,
and it is the simmering sort of boil underneath all of it. Americans are
very aware of these increases when it comes to canned goods, when it comes
to gas, when it comes to all these different things that you need to buy in
order to live. Your average American is very aware of these cost
fluctuations and the fact that their grocery bill is turning out to be a
lot higher than it used to be. Unfortunately, I think Capitol Hill is not
paying attention to this. It's another reason why I think Republicans,
mindful of the midterms, need to be stressing this as a negative outcome of
what has been the approach of the Biden administration to this point.

BAIER: Brit, quickly, it's not just the inflation but also workers and
trying to get them to work. American Airlines canceling some 300 flights
over the weekend. Brit?

DOMENECH: It's an absolutely abhorrent.

BAIER: Brit, final word?

HUME: Inflation is almost as toxic as crime. And if people feel that the
gains that they are making from an economy that now seems on the verge of
really blooming are being eaten up by inflation, that is politically very
dangerous indeed.

BAIER: All right, panel, stand by, if you would. When we come back,
tomorrow's headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Finally tonight, a look at tomorrow's headlines with the panel.
Trey?

GOWDY: New York and Chicago rush to hire psychologists and social workers
as violent crime surges in both cities.

BAIER: All right, Brit?

(LAUGHTER)

HUME: Outgoing New York Mayor de Blasio proposes that henceforth all
juries in his cities must include one prison inmate in the interest of
diversity and inclusion.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: All right, Ben?

DOMENECH: Catholic bishops remind Joe Biden that good manners and
politeness is not the measure of a good Christian.

BAIER: OK, heavy. Mara?

LIASSON: That's provocative.

Mine is Joe Manchin still center of political universe. I can't think of a
time when we've had one single senator who has been the key to everything -
- infrastructure, voting rights, the filibuster. He has been called the
last New Deal Democrat, and he is the most important guy in the Senate.

BAIER: My headline for tomorrow -- Brit Hume's birthday. Happy birthday,
Brit.

(LAUGHTER)

HUME: Thank you, Bret.

BAIER: All right, panel, thank you.

Tomorrow on SPECIAL REPORT, why is Attorney General Merrick Garland
avoiding questions from the media? Is he? We will take a look at all of
that. Plus, my interview with Elliott Abrams, former assistant secretary of
state, about the new relationship in Iran and Israel and what that means
for the U.S. and the prospects for that nuclear deal that the Biden
administration is trying to restart.

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for this SPECIAL
REPORT, fair, balanced, and still unafraid. FOX NEWS PRIMETIME this week is
hosted by Will Cain. It starts in 14 second. If you have a headline for
tomorrow, Will, I'm willing to give it a shot.

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