'Special Report' All-Star Panel on inflation, Build Back Better

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Consumers cut back on spending as Biden under pressure amid economic recovery

'Special Report' panel weighs in on rising prices as inflation continues to plague the nation

This is a rush transcript of "Special Report with Bret Baier" on December 15, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BRET BAIER, HOST: Let's bring in our panel, Leslie Marshall, Democratic strategist, Ben Domenech, publisher of "The Federalist," and Amy Walter, publisher and editor in chief of the "Cook Political Report."

Amy, I want to start with you. When you see the numbers, they are stark. They are just right in your face.

AMY WALTER, NATIONAL EDITOR, "COOK POLITICAL REPORT": Look, I hear this not just from the data that I'm seeing but I actually hear it from voters that I have been listening to, sitting in a lot of focus groups with voters who consider themselves to be Democrats. And they raise the issue about rising prices continually, whether it's filling up their car, whether it's paying for groceries.

And so we know this. In politics, the most important thing for the White House to get under control is the economy, and obviously in this case that's inflation. This right now is eating up so much not just of the president's approval ratings, it's bringing them down, it's raising frustration among voters. But it's also making it harder for some of the Democrats on the Hill or really specifically, one of those Democrats, Joe Manchin to go along with the plan, the Build Back Better plan, though I suspect, Bret, that by the time we get to 2022, the pressure is going to be pretty significant on him to give the president a win.

BAIER: But why, Ben? I get he is a Democrat. He doesn't want to hurt the president of his party. But he also doesn't want to spend trillions of dollars. He has said that time and time again. It's like they are not listening to him. This is from "Politico" tonight. "The talks between Biden and Manchin have been going very poorly. They are far apart, the source said. Though Manchin and Biden created a warm rapport this year and collaborated on several prominent pieces of legislation, the plodding pace in the talks between the two Joes is straining their friendly relationship. Frustration among White House aides with Manchin is high and growing. And while Biden likes Manchin personally, he too has grown tired of the elongated talks and will soon push him to make a decision and support the legislation, according to two White House sources."

Manchin, it does not seem, is going to support that. And there are real questions whether he is not alone as moderate Democrats concerned about the inflation numbers, Ben.

BEN DOMENECH, PUBLISHER, "THE FEDERALIST": Indeed. He is at the center of the conversation, but he certainly is not standing alone in terms of his views of this legislation as being dubious when it comes to solving the many problems that are affecting our economy.

And I think to that "Politico" report, rapport doesn't cover a multitude of what Manchin views it seems within this approach. He has had a list of bullet points since the beginning, really, that hasn't changed all that much in terms of how much he wants this legislation to shift in certain directions.

And while I understand and agree that, as Amy said, that there's going to be enormous pressure in the coming year for him to budge on this, give Democrats and the White House a win, the truth is that the White House hasn't been making a very strong case to the American people. Those numbers that you showed from this FOX Business poll show 22 percent think that Biden policies are actually helping the situation when it comes to rising prices and inflation. And Democrats on the Hill and the president have just not done a good John of selling the American people on this plan. If they did, the pressure on Manchin would be much higher. As it is, though, I think he is going to be able to push through on this and continue to hold the line.

BAIER: Leslie, there are other Democrats pushing back on other things. Here are two governors about the mandates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. PHIL MURPHY, (D) NEW JERSEY: We don't have it on there for just the fun of it, sadly. It's on there for a reason. It is my fervent hope that we can lift it at some point responsibly, sooner than later, but we have got to do it responsibly.

GOV. ROY COOPER, (D) NORTH CAROLINA: Right now, the vaccines are where we need to concentrate, where we need to use our influence over this process is to push those vaccinations. I don't expect any statewide mandates at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: They are not alone. You have Colorado, you have Michigan, kind of pushing back on some of administration policy.

LESLIE MARSHALL, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Absolutely. Look, every governor wants to run their state with the least amount of interference from the federal government, regardless if there is a "D" or an "R" next to the name of the one sitting in the Oval Office.

Here in my state of California, however, and we have seen state by state, Bret, when we say we are going to entrust the responsibility of the American people, sadly there are a lot of American people who not only won't get vaccinated, and that's why many of them don't want a mandate. They don't want to be told what to do. But they also don't want to wear masks, they also don't want to socially distance. And we can't get this virus behind us, we can't help our healthcare workers who are overburdened every time we have a new wave and a new variant. We are lucky this time this variant isn't like Delta. We don't know what the next variant or variants down the road will bring.

So my brother lives in Hawaii and he is opposite of me politically. And he said they are squeezing me, Les. They are squeezing me. He will not get the vaccine unless he is lying down and forced to for his job. But I understand. Look, I can't stand putting my mask on, but I do it because it's not just about me. And I'm not a child in the aisle at Target stomping my feet because I can't get my Wonder Woman action figure. This is something we are all supposed to be doing for the greater good.

DOMENECH: Leslie.

MARSHALL: For the greater good, and the federal government, the president has a responsibility for the severity of Americans, and that includes when we have a pandemic.

BAIER: And obviously some of these governors are feeling the public. Quickly, Ben.

DOMENECH: You can't compare people who are resistant on this to children stamping their feet in toy stores when you have barely over half of the people of Georgia, a state that Joe Biden won by the way, who are not -- who are vaccinated. That's not going to be the way to convince them to go along with your plans.

BAIER: All right, I wanted to talk about this "New York Times" piece, Biden should not run again. He should say he won't. But we will have plenty of time to do it. Panel, thank you so much.

We wanted to get this next story in. When we come back, new documents just released today on John F. Kennedy's assassination.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Finally tonight, we are getting new information into one of this country's darkest moments. We are learning about the government's efforts to look into the killing of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Here is correspondent Mark Meredith at the National Archives.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unbelievably, that vibrant life had vanished.

MARK MEREDITH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Fifty-eight years after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, newly released documents show just how far the government went to investigate his murder. In October, President Biden ordered the release of nearly 1,500 once top secret documents, writing "The need to protect records concerning the assassination has only grown weaker with the passage of time."

The files posted on the National Archives website today contains thousands of cables, handwritten notes, and reports prepared by the FBI, CIA, and others. There's a CIA memo from May, 1964, that details a person in Australia claiming to have proof iron curtain countries were paying to have JFK killed. Australian officials later told the CIA they thought it was a crank call.

Another classified document reveals the government looking into rumors the shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, was in Mexico months before the attack meeting with suspicious characters. Investigators thinks the tipster imagined the whole thing.

In 1964, the Warren Commission determined Oswald acted alone, but over the decades polls have consistently found a majority of Americans believe he had help.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: The government is to blame for that skepticism, that suspicion, because the government to this day continues to hide thousands of assassination records.

MEREDITH: Efforts to release the assassination files date back to the early 1990s, but delays have occurred several times over national security concerns.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MEREDITH (on camera): The Biden administration is giving the intelligence community one more year to decide if some documents will need to remain classified, leaving some to believe it's possible the public may never get the whole story about what the government uncovered. Bret?

BAIER: We'll keep looking. Mark Meredith at the National Archives. Mark, thanks.

Tomorrow on SPECIAL REPORT, we will look at the latest brave Americans to be awarded the Medal of Honor, taking a look at that.

That's it for this SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and still unafraid. Here's "FOX NEWS PRIMETIME" with Will Cain. Will?


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