Moral order on Cuomo is out of place for the media: Bill Bennett
'Special Report' All-Star panel reacts to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's sexual harassment probe finding
This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," August 4, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even lifelong Republicans tell me they look at Cuomo and they're like, God, there is a leader.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see a spectacular political leader emerging from this in Andrew Cuomo.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor Cuomo I think is one of the heroes on the frontlines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You spoke to National Guard troops today in a stirring speech that, if I wasn't listening carefully, I thought you were sending soldiers off to war.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think all this national attention may have emboldened him?
CHARLOTTE BENNETT, FORMER CUOMO AIDE: Absolutely. I think he felt like he was untouchable from a lot of ways.
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BREAM: Let's bring in our panel, former education secretary Bill Bennett, Amy Walter, national editor for the "Cook Political Report," and Bill McGurn, columnist for "The Wall Street Journal." Let's start there, Amy. A lot of folks in the media, listen, it feels like a pattern that we saw them so amped up over Michael Avenatti, we saw them so enthralled by Governor Cuomo, and now they have some really difficult news to digest.
AMY WALTER, NATIONAL EDITOR, "COOK POLITICAL REPORT": Well, right, the contrast is what I think many folks were looking at especially, from the clips that you showed there, was the contrast that they wanted to have between then President Trump and White House and the difficulty on messaging and being focused on COVID, versus what looked like at the time New York doing it well.
Of course, we came to find out that New York actually wasn't doing it particularly well, especially when it came to nursing homes. And that seemed to be sort of the tip of the iceberg here, or maybe where -- I will mix metaphors -- where the dam broke, so to speak. Once that investigation started, and then you started to hear these allegations about sexual harassment, it all sort of snowballed at once. And I do think that the hubris was a big piece of what made this more challenging for Cuomo, because he seemed to be absorbed in all of it.
BREAM: Bill Bennett, from what we have heard every time he has been confronted, and yesterday with this very thorough investigative report that he authorized by the attorney general, is that he doesn't intend to go anywhere. We can have a number of Democrats step forward and say it's time for him to resign, he has got to go. But they know, probably, as he does, he doesn't intend to do it. So short of impeachment by the state lawmakers, the state level folks up there, I think he feels pretty insulated.
BILL BENNETT, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY: Yes. He may follow the Bill Clinton, Governor Northam of Virginia book.
I want to talk about the media, too, but somewhat different way. With all due respect, the New York-ization of the media, all of the cable, all of the networks are in New York. The rest of us out here in America are not all that interested, even though I was born and bred in New York City, this is not the most important thing in the country, and we are getting saturation coverage of this.
Now, what he did was at least offensive, unwanted, maybe criminal. But, again, another point about the media, it's all about the unwanted sexual advances, not about what Amy was talking about -- deaths. Nobody was raped, nobody died on the sexual advances, but a lot of people died in nursing homes. The moral order here is out of place, and the media is not helping us get it in the right place.
BREAM: The DOJ said it's not going to look into nursing home deaths or policy under the Cuomo administration, so that avenue -- there are others continuing, but that avenue with the DOJ is now closed. Our good, good friend and colleague, Janice Dean, lost both of her in-laws within a couple of weeks, she says directly because of those nursing home policies. Here's what she's saying about the defense the governor is mounting on these kinds of allegations.
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JANICE DEAN, FOX NEWS: Go in front of these women who were abused by him, assaulted, and saying it's because they don't understand what I'm trying to do, like I have always been this way. It's so disgusting. It's every day that he is still in power I have to shake my head and say New Yorkers wake up. This guy is -- he should no longer be the governor of New York.
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BREAM: So Bill McGurn, we get a bit of the same sense of, hey, these women don't understand, this is just how I am. Also with respect to the criticism of him on COVID policy, like people don't understand what I'm doing. I'm ahead of the curve, I'm doing the right thing. You get the sense of hubris from him on either of these very hot topics.
BILL MCGURN, COLUMNIST, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes, Shannon, do you know what a shark is? A shark is basically teeth and cartilage covered by a little bit of skin. And everything that's in his way it decides, is it smaller and more vulnerable, and if it is, I'm going to eat it. That's been Andrew Cuomo's politics.
He doesn't have many friends in Albany. But what he does have, the New York governor is very powerful, has a huge say in the distribution of money, and I think he is counting on that power to get people to come over to his side. There's a lot of federal funds coming into Albany, and if you hope to get it, I think he is trying to imply you better play ball with me, stand up for me. That's his calculation.
I think if he believes that he will be impeached and convicted, he will leave on his own accord, but not until then. He will want to go out under his own power if he has to go out, but if he thinks he can brazen it through, if he thinks, for example, that there won't be enough votes to convict in the New York State Senate, I think he will stay there. And he will follow, as Bill said, the Ralph Northam book or something. Andrew Cuomo is a fighter, and he is not going to -- he is not going to go down unless he has to. And it's one thing for the fellow Democrats, it's easy to call for someone to step down. Let's see if they will back it up by voting for impeachment and so forth. They want him to step down because that takes all the decisions off their plate. It makes it a lot easier for them.
BREAM: Yes. So, very quickly, I just want to get a yes or no from each of you. Given the power dynamic in New York that Bill has described, do you think they will actually impeach him? Bill McGurn, start with you, yes or no.
MCGURN: I don't think it will get to that. I think if he thinks if there is an impeachment, he will leave. So no.
BREAM: Bill Bennett?
BENNETT: I don't think so.
BREAM: All right, Amy?
WALTER: I think he is headed that way. And that is very different from where we were in Virginia where there was also a lieutenant governor who was equally scandal-tarred. That's not the case here in New York.
BREAM: And the number three in Virginia, the attorney general there as well, had the all stepped aside, it would have left a Republican running Virginia, which Democrats were clearly not in favor of doing.
All right, panel, stick around. Up next traditional Democrats versus progressives as we look ahead to the midterm elections.
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REP. CORI BUSH, (D-MO): Activists are in Congress, so expect, expect for things to be different than what maybe people are used to.
REP. PATRICK MCHENRY, (R-NC): They may be activists, but they are not informed. They are not policymakers.
BUSH: We will continue to bring the same energy as we continue on. So be looking for that.
MCHENRY: If you want to go make a difference, go legislate.
BUSH: We are servant leaders. We first serve because we love our communities.
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BREAM: We are back now with our panel to talk about the progressive wing of the Democratic Party versus the establishment, and everything in between. OK, let's start here. First of all, one of the things that the more progressive squad backed wing of the party has really backed is this extension on a ban on evictions. The Supreme Court has already gotten involved in this, and I want to note this from "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board says the eviction ban has to end sometime, saying "Five justices this summer let the eviction ban stand until expired. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh's caveat was the policy couldn't be continued without, quote, "clear and specific congressional authorization via new legislation." Obviously, that didn't happen. "Mr. Biden may be bending under progressive pressure to reinstate the ban. This would be strikingly lawless, as the White House has admitted."
So Bill McGurn, how much pressure is the White House under to do the bidding of the far left progressive part of the party?
MCGURN: Well, I think they are under a lot of pressure not just on this but on everything from all the other bills that they are considering to the Hyde amendment and so forth. The progressives may not be the numerical majority in the Democratic caucus, but they are driving the train. It's Bernie Sanders reconciliation ideas that are going to get put through. And look, we have had moderate Democrats mentioned before, that the progressives takes on crime and so forth almost cost the election. Nancy Pelosi can only spare a few seats.
And what is most instructive about the case you mentioned about the evictions, continuing this, Joe Biden is continuing it even after he admitted he doesn't really have the constitutional authority to do that. And one reason that Nancy Pelosi and so forth want him to do it is I think they are not sure they have the votes, or they don't want to go on record.
That's one of the things about the progressive experiment, they really don't want to put it to the legislative test and go out there and have votes. They would much rather have executive orders and so forth. And I think that speaks to the deep down fears that a lot of this stuff is not that popular.
BREAM: And Bill Bennet, this gets to the left's argument during the Trump administration was that he was busting up norms, that he was getting things done through executive orders, which the opposing party is always going to have that criticism of the president in power. But they kept talking about how he was going to eviscerate the way things worked and the checks and balances and the various duties and obligations and privileges of each of the branches, and, yet, here what we continue to see from the far left is to say, as Bill McGurn pointed out, OK, if we can't get it done legislatively, let's go through the executive branch or some other back door.
BENNETT: Yes, and they are having trouble getting it done legislatively. It is interesting, because as Bill says, the energy is certainly on the left, and the agenda is being set by the left. But they can't get a lot of it through. Part of this is 50-50 in the Senate and a very close House, but part of it also I think is a lot of these moderate Democrats who are quiet.
The main thing about AOC and crowd is that they're noisy. They make a lot of noise, so they get a lot of media. Here I am again on the media. The moderate Biden people don't make a lot of noise. But some of these folks, a lot of them I think are coming to their senses, and they're saying, wait a minute, what did we buy here exactly? We thought we were buying a moderate left, centrist Democrat, not this guy who has been pushing for all this.
And watch the legislative. I would be interested to hear what Amy has to say about this, this election primary result in Cleveland where the very progressive and very popular Nina Turner lost to Shontel Brown, who is much more the establishment candidate. Is this is a harbinger of things to come? And if it's not, just wait and see what happens if Democrat governors and progressives try to lock down the country because of Delta, and moderate Democrats in the middle say, wait a minute, we tried that before. It's not going to happen. Then you will see this fisher turn into a crater, a breaking part of a crater.
BREAM: And Democrats clearly have some internal concerns. I want to read something from "Politico." Is says "during a closed-door lunch last week with some of his most vulnerable incumbents, House Democrats campaign chief delivered a blunt warning if the midterms were held now, they would lose the majority. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat out of New York, followed that bleak forecast, which was confirmed by multiple people familiar with the conversation, with new polling that showed Democrats falling behind Republicans by a half dozen points on a generic ballot in battleground districts." So, Amy, your response to that conversation internally and to the Shontel Brown win?
WALTER: Yes, we will start with Ohio. And look, it's never a great idea if you are a candidate running outwardly as a Bernie Sanders candidate, endorsed candidate. You bring Bernie Sanders into the district the last few days of the campaign in a district that not only did Joe Biden win the primary, but Hillary Clinton won overwhelmingly in 2016. This is a working class, primarily African-American district where Joe Biden is very popular, where Hillary Clinton was very popular. Being the candidate who has shown distaste for both of them publicly wasn't a great look in a district like that.
I also think you do see a very big difference between the outsiders on the left and the outsiders on the right. The success that many in the Tea Party or now we could call the Trump wing of the party have had in beating the establishment candidates has been much higher. They have a much higher batting average than those on the left going against the more establishment types. I think that there is a misreading by many that while the energy, and Bill made this point, the energy may be on the left and with those candidates and the attention that they are getting, they are not necessarily where the party is. That's the bet that Joe Biden made in 2020, and it still is one that's working today.
BREAM: And one of the reminders that Twitter is not the real world. We all have to remember that.
OK, when we come back, tomorrow's headlines.
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BREAM: Finally tonight, a look at tomorrow's headlines. Bill Bennett, kick us off?
BENNETT: OK, the secretary of education, very important job, by the way, announced that everybody will be back in school five days a week. Fine. Except the little kids will be wearing masks. Wait for the parents with pitchforks and torches and mask-less. When I was the secretary of education, even though I was a conservative Catholic, we taught that the earth revolves around the sun, like it or not.
BREAM: All right, Amy, up next.
WALTER: It's going to say this -- the new Delta variant plus fears of inflation are taking a poll on President Biden's approval ratings. We've had three polls out in these last few days, all showing a slight dip in his overall approval rating, and a bigger dip in approval of his handling of COVID and the economy.
BREAM: Super quick from you, Bill.
MCGURN: Taliban setting up Joe Biden for an embarrassing 9/11. That anniversary is likely to find the Taliban saying see, we told you the Americans didn't have the stomach for the long haul, and we were right.
BREAM: Thank you, Bill.
That's it for SPECIAL REPORT. On to Ben Domenech now for PRIMETIME.
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