'Special Report' All-Star panel on consequences of US troop drawdown in Afghanistan

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Experts warn of consequences of US troop drawdown in Afghanistan

'Special Report' All-Star panel express concern for future after withdrawal from the country after decades

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," July 5, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Our mission in Afghanistan continues. We continue to execute a safe, orderly drawdown in accordance with the president's guidance for U.S. forces to be out of Afghanistan by the end of August.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL, (R-TX) HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: When we fully withdraw, the devastation and the killings of women, the humanitarian crisis, fleeing across the border into Pakistan, President Biden is going to own these ugly images. Our vital interests are ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and we are going to give them a save haven as the Taliban takes over that nation, and that vacuum is going to be filled by terrorists. And I've concerned that we will be going back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE EMANUEL, GUEST HOST: The view from the top Republican on House Foreign Affairs and from the Pentagon. Let's bring in our panel, former education secretary Bill Bennett, Harold Ford Jr., former Tennessee Congressman, CEO of Empowerment and Inclusion Capital, and Trey Gowdy, former Congressman from South Carolina. Gentlemen, welcome. Bill, your thoughts on the situation in Afghanistan, U.S. troops coming out. What are your concerns?

BILL BENNETT, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY: I will be bipartisan here. It's a disaster. It will be on President Biden's watch, but I'm sorry to say President Trump was encouraging it, too. Geopolitically it's terrible. This is South Asia. We will have no major base in South Asia. The Bagram Air Force base is a substantial place. We do a lot of monitoring from there.

And by the way, the Belt and Road strategy of China across Asia into Europe goes right through Afghanistan. We have now made it a lot easier.

Plus, consider those women, what's going to happen to them. Are they going to be able to go to school? And I hope we have gotten out as many people who helped us as possible.

Finally, not just the moral victory but in some ways a real victory for the Taliban. We cheered when they outwaited the Soviets. The Soviets left and we applauded. Now we're leaving. Admiral Kirby's comments from the Pentagon sounded to me an awful lot like Saigon. Very sorry to stay this, but I think this is a dreadful and huge mistake.

EMANUEL: There is a lot of concern about the interpreters, the drivers who have helped U.S. forces over the past 20 years. Here's that concern from a New Jersey Democrat. Let's play the clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKIE SHERRILL, (D-NJ) HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: These are interpreters and drivers, people who warned our American troops of threats. We have to get them home. It is incumbent upon us for our allies, but also for any future endeavors we have to protect democracy. If our allies can't trust to us to have their backs like these Afghans have had our back for an almost 20-year war, then we are not going to be able to project our values, our democratic values across the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL: Harold, will the bureaucracy get the friendly Afghans out of the country who have helped us? And your thoughts on the withdrawal from Afghanistan?

HAROLD FORD JR., FORMER TENNESSEE REPRESENTATIVE: First of all, Happy Fourth of July and happy Independence Day. I share the frame that Secretary Bennett has drawn. And Congresswoman Sherrill, I think she's right. We as a nation have to show our commitment to the families, to the individuals and families of those translators and intel gatherers. We should provide safe haven, if not even refuge here in the U.S.

But let's take a step back for one moment. I think it's hard to argue that we have not objectively done everything we possibly can to bring a different security framework to Afghanistan. I have traveled to Afghanistan several times, including a few times with then Senator Biden and Senator Graham and the late Senator McCain. I'm proud of the progress we've made there, but I do think some of the things that Secretary Bennett has raised have to be considered. And my sense is that they have.

And I hope that the White House -- what I have not heard from the administration consisting of what Secretary Bennett has raised is whether or not a red line has been drawn on the part of this administration, saying if our national security interests are threatened, if the Taliban, who, again, is in some ways a rogue group of terrorists. And I might add, there were 83 people shot in Chicago over the weekend and 13 killed. We have rogue crazy everywhere. But if a red line is crossed and our security interests are threatened in Afghanistan, I hope that the administration and trust that the administration will be ready to go back in. They allowed a red line to be crossed in the past administration under Mr. Obama. The question is will they not allow it this time if the Afghans are threatened.

EMANUEL: Trey Gowdy, your thoughts.

TREY GOWDY, FORMER SOUTH CAROLINA REPRESENTATIVE: Mike, it's the old adage. We are welcome to stop fighting, but that doesn't mean the war is over. And both Congressman Ford and Dr. Bennett raised really good points. We need 750 people to protect our embassy in the airport, and you tell me that the country is thriving and safe for translators and Afghan women? I mean, 750 soldiers to protect our embassy? My fear and heartbreak is explaining to the American sons and daughters who lost their lives and their limbs and part of their youth in that country, what was it for? What was it for?

EMANUEL: We'll have to leave it there, gentlemen. Up next, the backlash over comments by some about the Fourth of July.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've long said that America is unique. Unlike every other nation on earth, we were founded based on an idea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The newly independent free nation still held hundreds of thousands of black people in slavery.

JON MEACHAM, BIDEN ADVISER: I hate to say it because of the way the decade turned out, but I think we are in the 1850s in America.

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, ACTOR: Let's admit that this last year's trip around the sun was also another head-scratcher. Let's also remember that we are babies, as a country, and we're going to go through growing pains. We are going through growing pains.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL: That 1850s reference right before the Civil War. And we're back with our panel, Bill, Harold, and Trey. Bill, your thoughts, is Independence Day controversial?

BENNETT: Yes, it turns out to be. By the way, Matthew McConaughey, I love his support of the University of Texas, but he's ridiculous. Puberty, we is he talking about? We have lived longer under a single document than any nation in the world. Yes, we're young, but we are mature in ways other nations aren't.

Yes, I was in North Carolina for the Fourth. It was wonderful celebrations. But yet these dissenting voices saying we are a bad place, structural racism, systemic white privilege everywhere now. That's not what most people think. And if you went around the country yesterday you saw that.

But the elites think otherwise, so you get these dissident members of Congress, these people on the left wing of the Democratic Party, and there is a popular uprising against them. But the major media, the big media, the Googles, the Facebooks, the Twitters, Hollywood, the universities, all of them are in agreement on this. Unifying symbols are no longer unifying symbols. I saw the "New York Times" said maybe the flag can't be the unifying symbol anymore since it has been captured by the Trump people. This is insanity, and there is a fight on, there's a cultural divide, a cultural civil war. McConaughey is right about that reference. There's a cultural civil war of enormous magnitude going on right now, and we have to win it.

EMANUEL: Harold, your thoughts?

FORD: I'm not bothered by how people choose to celebrate the Fourth. I don't know of anyone who doesn't celebrate the Fourth. I've tried to instill in my children the basics of our nation, which is we are great, we are young, and we strive to be more perfect every single day. And I hope that all of us try to do that. The rhythm and energy of our country is always moving forward and always trying to seek higher ground. And that's what we all should be striving for.

EMANUEL: Trey, bring us home on this Independence Day controversy.

GOWDY: The truth doesn't change. But I celebrate the fact that I live in a country that acknowledges there is a truth and is in pursuit of a more perfect union. The truth is Harold Ford and I have been intrinsically equal from the day we are born, for all of time. I celebrate a country that values truth and wants to pursue a more perfect whine. That is worth celebrating, flaws and all.

EMANUEL: Amen to that. So we had a cabinet secretary and two members of Congress, and you guys still kept it tight. Thank you so much.

When we come back, tomorrow's headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

EMANUEL: Finally tonight, the panel gives us a look at tomorrow's headlines tonight. Bill Bennett, please lead us off.

BENNETT: Right. For the first time, 35 percent of Americans age 18 to 24 have no pride or not pride at all in being American, 35 percent say they are proud or very proud, and another 30 percent aren't sure where they are. That's a record low in terms of pride in America for the young generation. We have work to do. I say that not just as a former secretary of education, but as a father and now a grandfather. We've a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of fixing to do.

EMANUEL: Harold Ford, Jr., you're up.

FORD: I agree with Secretary Bennett, and I might add U.S. women beat Mexico four-nothing tonight. The women should teach the men how to play soccer.

But my headline is Phoenix and Milwaukee, the first in a long time, a LeBron-less and Steph-less final. I'm looking for a seven-game series. Go NBA.

EMANUEL: You have a pick?

FORD: I like Chris Paul. I wouldn't mind seeing him win one, but I like the Bucks. So no real dog in the fight. I just want seven-games.

EMANUEL: All right, Trey Gowdy?

GOWDY: Republican National Committee buys airtime for Congresswoman Cori Bush so she can address the nation and talk for as long as she wants to.

EMANUEL: Gentlemen, sorry we had to cut it a little short with the breaking news out of Florida, but thanks so much for your time and your analysis.

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