'Special Report' All-Star Panel on Zelenskyy's speech to Congress.

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Putin's ambitions will grow with the territory he seizes: Matthew Continetti

'Special Report' All-Star panel previews Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's speech to Congress.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," March 15, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Close the airspace. Please stop the bombing. How many more cruise missiles have to fall on our cities until you make this happen?

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ, (D-NJ) SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: I'm sure that he's going to use the opportunity to call upon Congress to do even more to give him some type of air defense systems, which I think we should, and to continue to rally the world through it.

SEN. JAMES RISCH, (R-ID): SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: These people are going through the same thing we went through in 1776. Can you imagine if we were standing in those shoes how badly we would want the help of a nation like the United States of America, the moral compass for the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: A preview of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's address virtually to Congress tomorrow morning. Let's bring in our panel, former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio, and Matthew Continetti, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Bill, you heard Senator Manchin earlier in the show refer to the $13.6 billion that has been signed by President Biden, passed by Congress, signed by President Biden. But, obviously, Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy is going to ask for more. He'll probably be thankful and express gratitude but going to ask for more for Ukraine.

BILL BENNETT, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY: Yes, he is going to ask for a no-fly zone. And we should have a no-fly zone. But we can't have a no-fly zone, because we disabled ourselves. The $13 billion is fine. But we also see that that country is being mowed down by the Russians.

I was part of the Reagan administration. Star Wars was a big deal for Ronald Reagan, and it was an even bigger deal for Gorbachev. Gorbachev was terrified that we would develop it. Well, people made fun of it. Joe Biden opposed it, Democrats opposed it, Republicans didn't make it a priority. And so it became very little. Donald Trump tried to suggest the space force. That, too, was made fun of.

So now we face the situation where the Russians have more missiles and warheads than we do, and they can protect 70 percent of their citizenry and we cannot. And this is why we cannot have a no-fly zone there. I wish we could. If we had followed through, we could have such a no-fly zone. Joe Biden has been opposed to this since 1982, and, again, another responsibility.

BAIER: Mara, do you think that Zelenskyy is going to be successful? He was in parliament. He was with the E.U. and, frankly you can't get 27 nations at the E.U. to agree on anything. But after the speaking to the E.U. nations, they stepped up on sanctions.

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Yes.

BAIER: Can he move lawmakers differently with this speech tomorrow?

LIASSON: I think he can. I don't know if he can get everything he wants. But don't forget, Ukraine showed Europe what it means to be a European. And he has been remarkably successful. I think that he, if he asks for more sanctions, he can get more sanctions. If he asks for more money, he can get more money. If he asks for more defensive weapons. More antitank weapons, more anti-tank weapons. He can get those things. Maybe he can get a humanitarian airlift.

But I don't think he can get a no-fly zone because the United States and European leaders feel that that's the same thing as going to war with Russia. But I think he can get more because the U.S. Congress is in a mood to give him more. We haven't really seen this before. There is bipartisan support for giving whatever we can to the Ukrainians.

BAIER: Matthew, a lot of questions about what Putin's ultimate goal is and what is the stopping point? What does he need to get to hit this -- it's a clichAc, but to hit the off ramp and to stop doing what he's doing? We have been covering Ukraine for a long time. I did an interview back in 2016 with then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and we talked about Putin's vision, his goals. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETRO POROSHENKO, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: He is extremely unpredictable. And the easiest information is that he wants to keep the Soviet style empire. From our understanding, this is an aggression, this is and annexation. From the Russian and Putin understanding, this just he wants to keep the Soviet style empire, of Russian empire, which he cannot imagine Russian empire without Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Interesting, 2016, and it's basically the same vision right now. Matthew?

MATTHEW CONTINETTI, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Putin is a man driven by idea, Bret, and that idea is being the czar of all Russias. So not necessarily reconstituting the old Soviet Union but reconstituting the old Russian empire. And that means Ukraine.

But this is where it gets dicey, because if Putin is not stopped in Ukraine, if he is not bogged down in an endless quagmire there, he is going to turn to some of the other parts of the old Russian empire. That includes the Baltic states, and that includes NATO -- that includes Poland, all of which are members of NATO.

So in America's interest to stop him here, to bog him down here and give everything we can to the Ukrainians to make this war as costly for Putin as possible in the hopes eventually that he might lose it and even lose his own power at home, because, otherwise, his ambitions will only grow with the territory he seizes.

BAIER: Bill, we have talked a lot about gas prices as they are very high across the country. The price of oil took a dip today. But there is this effort about Venezuelan oil and Iranian oil, Saudi Arabia. Here's the transportation secretary talking about the long-term vision for the Biden administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: The deal would reportedly not even touch Iran's ballistic missile program. So Iran lobs missiles towards our --

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Of course, the long-term solution for this is energy independence and a shift to renewable energy here in this country. There are lots of things that are way more under our control than the dynamics of global oil markets at a time when an oil producing country is going to war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Senator McConnell talking about the Iran deal at the beginning there, but Transportation Secretary Buttigieg saying what, that this can happen now, this move, Bill?

BENNETT: No, it can't happen now. And if you are unhappy, and if inflation is hurting your family big time, or if you are a trucker, you are paying twice as much, just wait 20 years and we'll be OK. We'll be fine. We'll make the transition. This won't do. And the alternative of going after this dirty oil, this oil from these dictators, is impossible.

We can do it here. We were doing it here for heaven's sake. And fine, make the transition, but don't make the transition at a time when people are suffering so badly, so deeply. Joe Biden thinks the American people are not only out of money but out of memory that they think this is all Putin. They know who started this. They know who is responsible. I'll use the word again.

BAIER: Mara, this is interesting messaging from the administration. It seems like they are trying a number of different things here.

LIASSON: Inflation defeats presidents. And even if it isn't Joe Biden's fault, it is his problem. There is inflation all over the world. Gas prices, energy prices are up all over the world. All of that isn't Joe Biden's fault. But he is the party in power, and he is going to pay a political price for it.

They did try to make a shift. Democrats felt that maybe the ban on Russian oil and gas could help them kind of shift the politics around, inflation at the pump, Putin's price hike. But it's going to be tough. And polls show people say even if prices go up, they are still in favor of this oil and gas ban. Sure, that's what they say now, but three, four, five, six, seven months from now, we don't know if they will be as willing to sacrifice.

BAIER: Yes. They also say in the Real Clear Politics average of polls the direction of the country, Matthew, right direction 29, wrong direction 63.

CONTINETTI: Bret, the world has changed, but Joe Biden needs to change his policies. That includes his energy policies, that includes his defense policies, and it also includes his social spending policies, which combined with our lax monetary policy over the past few years have created this inflation. He needs to reverse course.

BAIER: Panel, thank you very much.

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