'Special Report' All-Star panel on US investigation into COVID origins, VP Harris on immigration

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VP Harris tells Guatemalans 'do not come' to US border, urges corruption fight

Fox News correspondent Bryan Llenas has the details from Guatemala City on 'Special Report'

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," June 7, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BAIER: The administration launching its own review through the intelligence agencies but calling for the WHO to do a second round when China says no thank you, we're done doing anything about the origins of the virus.

Meantime, digging into Dr. Anthony Fauci's emails more, you have this doctor, Kristian Andersen, who writes January 31st, "The unusual features of this virus make up a really small part of the genome, less than 0.1 percent. So one has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features potentially look engineered." The scientist has since deactivated her -- his, I should say, Twitter account. And it just brings up all kinds of questions about this.

Let's bring in our panel, Ben Domenech, publisher of "The Federalist," Juan Williams, FOX News political analyst, and Byron York, chief political correspondent of "The Washington Examiner." Ben, the story continues to go, and they continue to get asked about it, and now are hopeful that the WHO is going to do round two.

BEN DOMENECH, PUBLISHER, "THE FEDERALIST": This morning I had the opportunity to interview Congressman Mike Gallagher, who I think people are probably familiar with because he started to do these whiteboard videos tracking all the different questions that he has regarding the origination of this virus. He is a congressman from Wisconsin, and I think a leading voice on foreign policy and national security.

And I hope that people will listen to it because he raises all these different questions that are clearly left unanswered currently that need to be driven down. We owe it not just to ourselves but to the world to find out where this came from, to find out why it was released in the way that it was.

And while Dr. Anthony Fauci might like to pretend that reports like yours, that he dismissed, are indicative of some kind of conspiracy theory about a weapon released against their own population, the reality is that there are increasing indications that this came from this lab in this way, and that deserves to be run down and we deserve to know the answer, not just for ourselves but for future pandemics which may emerge in similar ways and that we have to be prepared for, and prepared for the idea that the WHO will not necessarily be the most open actor when it comes to admitting what really went on.

BAIER: Secretary of State Tony Blinken up on Capitol Hill, virtually, answering questions, a lot of them about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I can't put a percentage on it. I think there are two possible scenarios. One is the one you just described, that it emerged from the laboratory. The other is that it was naturally occurring.

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: I think we made a persistent mistake here looking at the sequence and trying to derive all our conclusions from the sequence. We're 18 months into this, and we have a lot of other evidence that points that it could have come out of the lab. When you look at it through a scientific mosaic, you focus on a sequence. When you look at through a national security mosaic, you start to incorporate the other evidence that comes into play, including the behavior of the host government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Juan, that's the circumstantial evidence that administration officials were pointing to, that China was doing everything it could to hide things at the beginning.

JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, and I think that's why we want to know what's going on, and I think that's why President Biden has authorized the intelligence agencies to go take a look and why he is pressuring the WHO.

Now, on that level, I don't think there is any question. I agree with Ben. I think in terms of the possibility of future pandemics, we need to know as much as we can know to protect ourselves, to protect the world. But I think in terms of what's going on with Dr. Fauci, I think this is, it's regrettable in my opinion because I think it's evidence of our broken politics at the moment, Bret. I think that what we've got is a situation where, as we heard from President Trump at the rally Saturday night, he just goes after Dr. Fauci. And in large part I think it's to distract from or rewrite history --

DOMENECH: Juan, you mentioned me, so I have to say this. That is not a fair -- that is not a fair characterization of what Dr. Fauci's role is in this. He has done his best job to try to hide the level of engagement that he had with the funding for gain of function research, which clearly --

WILLIAMS: I don't think so, Ben.

DOMENECH: -- is something that is at the center of this conversation. I disagree with you.

WILLIAMS: Ben, I think that --

DOMENECH: I think Congressman Gallagher disagrees with you, Republicans disagree with you.

WILLIAMS: I understand. But Ben, I think --

BAIER: Let me just interrupt you for a second. They say that they did not fund directly gain of function research. However, you're right, it's like a bank shot to a different organization that funds this lab. And then they trust that they are going to do they say what they are going to do, and they end up doing gain of function research. Go ahead, Juan.

WILLIAMS: I was just going to say that I think you get a lot of these emails cherrypicked. I don't think it then leads to you evidence that would either back up the idea that Fauci was making donations through the government that would fund gain of function research, or that there is any evidence that this virus was ever engineered as a bioweapon, or that there is evidence even at this point of a lab leak.

BAIER: Two things. Sorry to interrupt. Sorry to interrupt. Byron, I'm going to bring you in a second. I just want to ask you two stats while I have you, Juan. One is that one of the communities that is really not getting vaccinations is the black community. CDC put out a stat, 23 percent black Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 19 percent fully vaccinated. And the other stat is this Gallup poll, and that says that 71 percent of Democrats say that people, even if they're healthy, should stay home as much as possible. I just want you to digest those two things for us as far as stats coming out?

WILLIAMS: Well, this is really interesting. Let's go first with the racial stuff. Clearly, what you have is a lower rate of vaccinations among blacks in specific, but people of color in general, than whites. But I think that there was a better correlation in terms of people of lower level of education, lower income. I think that if you looked at that, it wouldn't matter what race you were looking at, you would see lower rates of vaccination.

And also I think now there's questions about whether the country will meet President Biden's goal of 70 percent vaccinated by July 4th. So some people are saying well it could be the minorities, but it's also the case that if you look at states like Oklahoma, like Wyoming, Utah, huge white populations, very low vaccination rates. And that's really what's driving the failure to meet the July 4th deadline.

And in part now, I think you are starting to see that become politicized with people saying these are states that did not vote for Joe Biden but voted for Donald Trump and are clearly not open to getting the vaccination at the level the rest of the country is.

BAIER: OK. Byron?

BYRON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER": Well, in this story we have the White House and the intelligence community investigation origins of this virus. Maybe there is some sort of giant international in fact, but it really cries out for congressional investigation.

Now, Nancy Pelosi created a select committee on coronavirus last year under Chairman James Clyburn. I'm not sure what's really going on there. I think what might happen here, if Congress actually tries to look in it, it might devolve into something like the Trump-Russia matter, which, if you remember in the beginning, there was agreement between the parties that Russia's actions needed to be investigated. Both sides wanted to investigate what Russia did. It fell apart when Democrats focused more on getting Trump than looking at what Russia did.

In this case, there is a bipartisan need. The whole country needs to know what China did, what the WHO did. Now, it will bring Dr. Fauci and other figures in our government into it, but a big investigation into what China did is absolutely necessary, and it should be in Congress where people can learn more about it as it goes on.

BAIER: All right, stand by, panel. Up next, Vice President Harris and her immigration diplomacy to Guatemala and Mexico.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would in fact make sure that there is -- we immediately surge to the border all those people seeking asylum. They deserve to be heard. That's who we are. We are a nation that says if you want to flee and you're fleeing oppression, you should come.

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous track to the United States-Mexico border, do not come. We, as one of our priorities, will discourage illegal migration. And I believe if you come to our border, you will be turned back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Vice President Harris in Guatemala continuing her trip, as the White House says, to the roots of the crisis on the border. Back with the panel. Ben, your thoughts? Obviously, different messaging there, a bit of a dichotomy.

(LAUGHTER)

DOMENECH: A bit of a dichotomy? Maybe if she would know what was going to happen at the border if she had actually visited it. That's a genius idea. I went up and down the border many times when I was a Senate staffer for John Cornyn, the senator from Texas. And you could actually see, you could learn what was going on there. She has not done that thing for some reason that she won't say to us.

But also, in addition to that, you have to contrast the don't come here rhetoric and the way that it's covered in our media, our legacy media, because there's so many different headlines can you find, one in particular "The Washington Post" which compared Donald Trump's saying don't come here rhetoric to a remnant of Nazi Germany or some kind of racism from America, versus the way that they cover this kind of rhetoric, which is apparently totally fine. Just don't come here, that kind of thing.

That's not going to work, and it's not going to solve the problem. It's not going to solve the crisis. Kamala Harris knows this. And she is trying to do the best that she can when it comes to spin as opposed to actually solving anything here.

BAIER: A lot of focus on what the vice president said in Guatemala, but not so much focus on what the Guatemalan president said. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEJANDRO GIAMMATTEI, GUATEMALAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The message changed to we are going to reunite families and we're going to reunite children. The very next day the coyotes were here organizing groups of children to take them to the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would like coyotes to be prosecuted in the United States under federal law?

GIAMMATTEI: That's correct. And we ask the U.S. to broaden our extradition treaty.

Here the penalty for being a coyote is five or six years in prison. It's a joke.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did she give you any indication that she is open to that idea?

GIAMMATTEI: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we will see whether she follows through on that?

GIAMMATTEI: I guess so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Juan, he says the message changed, and then the coyotes sprung into action.

WILLIAMS: Yes, I think that's an important point that the coyotes are telling people, yes, give us your kids or come with us and we will get you in there. Biden is not going to turn you away at the border. Clearly, it was important that she deliver that message.

I think the bigger message too, by the way, is that she wants to strengthen institutions in those countries so that you don't have people fleeing out of fear of violence, a sense of hopelessness because the corruption and the cartels are so vicious that they're killing off economic opportunity. That's why people are coming here.

BAIER: They need jobs.

WILLIAMS: Yes, exactly.

BAIER: Byron, quickly?

YORK: This shows the complete absurd contradiction in messages from the United States in which the vice president goes to the Guatemala says do not come. Alejandro Mayorkas at DHS has said the same thing. And then the U.S. government is working 24/7 to accommodate and resettle those who do cross illegally into the United States. And what you just saw was the Guatemalan president sort of gave the lie to the whole thing and he said yes, you, the Biden administration, are making this happen.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Finally tonight, a look at tomorrow's headlines tonight with the panel. Byron, first to you.

YORK: Well, a lot of times I do jokey headlines, but this is really, really serious. Biden originally set a goal of 1 million vaccinations a day. Then he quickly said that was too low. Now the real rate is even lower and going down.

BAIER: Ben?

DOMENECH: The public demands replacement of the White House press corps with the first 50 names in the Boston phonebook. It's a much better way to actually get some real questions asked compared to the people who are actually there.

BAIER: Plus the accents are much better. OK, Juan, bring it home here.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: I think you can expect a headline tomorrow, Bret, that reads Democrats call for Joe Manchin to join Jeff Bezos on a trip to outer space.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: It seems that way. It does seem that way.

(LAUGHTER)

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

Tomorrow on SPECIAL REPORT, Vice President Harris visits Mexico. We will take you there. She is talking about the immigration crisis again. We are there live with Bryan Llenas on the ground.

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for this SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and still unafraid. FOX NEWS PRIMETIME hosted this week by Tammy Bruce starts right now. Hey, Tammy.

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