'Special Report' All-Star Panel on potential Russian invasion of Ukraine

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US says Russia might be preparing operation in Ukraine

'Special Report' panel weighs in on the growing concern over Russia-Ukraine border tensions.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," January 14, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: We have information that they have prepositioned a group of operatives to conduct what we call a false flag operation, an operation designed to look like an attack on them or their people -- or Russian speaking people in Ukraine.

JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: At this point, we are ready either way. If Russia wants to continue on the path of diplomacy, we are ready to continue on it. If Russia wants to move forward with a military escalation, we are ready to respond.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: A major cyberattack in Ukraine today believed to be at the hands of the Russians. Meantime, if you talk to intel folks or Defense officials, privately they'll tonight they feel more confident that Russia is going into Ukraine. Here is how "The New York Times" writes it, "Russian President Vladimir Putin's extraordinary new demands and threats following his military buildup on the borders of Ukraine has brought NATO back to basics -- continuing Russian power and imperium. The more the discussion evoked the Cold War with its firm dividing line through Europe and its competing Russian and western systems and spheres of influence, the more it reminded European and American allies of NATO's purpose."

We'll start there with our panel, Byron York, chief political correspondent of "The Washington Examiner," Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at "The Federalist," and Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters.

Jeff, let me start with you. I think we heard from the national security adviser, we heard from the Pentagon, and there are more and more words suggesting that Russia is increasingly aggressive.

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "REUTERS": Absolutely, and the evidence of that is beyond rhetorical. It's also the amount of troops that are along the Russia-Ukraine border. And the president of Russia appears not to have made up his mind, at least that's what the United States is saying, but he certainly seems to be leaning that direction.

This country is ready, the administration is ready. I think it is one of the biggest foreign policy challenges that President Biden will face, perhaps in the same scale as the drawdown from Afghanistan in terms of foreign policy challenges. But they have laid out and made very clear both to the public and directly to the Russians what they will do in terms of economic sanctions if that is in fact what Putin decides to do.

BAIER: Here is General Keith Kellogg on what he calls a Russian stress test.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. KEITH KELLOGG (RET), FORMER PENCE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We are just doing a lot of talks, and the talks have gone nowhere. And the president has not engaged Vladimir Putin the way he should. They are not positioned -- they, the Russians, are not positioned to all of Ukraine, but they are positioned to take the eastern portion. And he has to make that hard decision, and he has to let Putin know how seriously we are. Right now, Putin doesn't believe Biden. I think he is preparing to go, and I think he will go within the next month.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Mollie, your thoughts?

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE FEDERALIST": Well, the question is very complex, and the situation is one where you need to be honest. The question isn't really whether we are going to use our military to defend Ukraine, or whether NATO will use its military to defend Ukraine, or whether we are going to be honest with them about how we are not going to be doing that.

That does not mean that there aren't things that we can do. It's really also interesting to note that weakness can be provocative. Every time that Putin has made an incursion, it has been at a time of unique American weakness, whether that was when George W. Bush got embroiled in the Middle East, whether that was when Obama was doing his apology tour. This is where we saw incursions of Georgia and Crimea.

And now once again we are dealing with this again, and it's very interesting that the one president of the last four presidents who didn't have this with Putin was the one who was not doing the foreign policy that much of the establishment supports. But Ukrainians did have us be honest with them so that they can make really good decisions about how they are going to handle what does appear to be a very serious threat there, and a likely incursion.

BAIER: Byron, I talked yesterday on the panel giving a list of what had happened in the previous four days for the Biden administration and President Biden in what has been a very bad week. Take a listen to a compilation here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARSHA BLACKBURN, (R-TN): I think maybe it's the Democrat Party that's in crisis. They are staring at decades' high inflation.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: How profoundly, profoundly unpresidential.

SEN. DICK DURBIN, (D-IL) SENATE MAJORITY WHIP: Perhaps the president went a little too far in his rhetoric.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, (R-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: It was such a divisive speech. Stacey Abrams couldn't even be with him.

MARTY WALSH, LABOR SECRETARY: It's disappointing the rout ruled against workers to keep him protected in America.

BIDEN: Omicron variant is causing millions of cases and record hospitalizations.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN, (D-WV): We need changes to make the Senate work better, not getting rid of the Senate filibuster.

BIDEN: Anyway, I hope we can get this done, but I'm not sure.

This is all about fixing the problem. I ran for president to unite the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Uniting the country, really came back to that speech in Atlanta that really got panned from even within his own party. And that comparison of opponents to the legislation to segregationists and racists, here's Jen Psaki addressing that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think everybody listening to that speech who is speaking on the level, as my mother would say, would note that he was not comparing them as humans. He was comparing the choice to those figures in history and where they are going to position themselves as they determine whether they are going to support the fundamental right to vote or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: And John McCormack tweeting, our friend, "Hate it when I accidently compare my dear friends to George Wallace, Bull Connor, Jeff Davis, and my friends immediately express outrage, and it takes me three days to explain I didn't really mean what I obviously said." Byron?

(LAUGHTER)

BYRON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER": Well, it was an outrageous speech. It was a self-inflicted wound. But I think it may show the degree to which Biden is trying to appeal to a small part of his base that would listen to that and say, yes, let's hear some more of that. These are the people who are very angry at Joe Biden for not getting a voting bill done. They are very angry at Joe Biden for not going off and spending $5, $6, $7 trillion on a new social spending bill.

Now Biden is talking about maybe pivoting to some sort of police reform order next week in which he would introduce new restrictions on police, which, amidst a crime wave in some of our cities, seems kind of crazy. But, again, it's an appeal to this base that is so angry at him. And I think what you'll see on Thursday, which marks the first anniversary of Biden's presidency, you will see him trying to do that and trying to remind people that, hey, we really did pass a couple of huge spending billings, more than $3 trillion in spending, and that's not nothing.

BAIER: Yes, and he talked the infrastructure bill today, touting that and what's coming as far as the projects to come. We should note is if is he turning to police reform, as we believe he is, Jeff, the big police reform bill that was proposed by Senator Tim Scott, Republican from South Carolina, was filibustered by Democrats, that nasty filibuster, last time around.

MASON: It was, indeed. And that is sort of the narrative of the week for this White House. As much as they don't want to accept that, it's been rough. They, obviously, looking back over the last year, which we are all beginning to do as the president gets close to his one year anniversary in office, they have had some successes, and they are proud of the fact that they have gotten a big chunk of the United States vaccinated. But the pandemic rages, continues to rage. They had a couple legislative wins with the American rescue plan and with the infrastructure bill. But many of the other things, including the police reform act that you are referring to, Bret, did not make it over the threshold. And with the midterm elections coming up in about 10 months, the time get more legislative wins for Democrats and for this president is dwindling.

BAIER: Yes, "National Review," Mollie, writes it this way, "Looking back at Biden's first year in office, his two biggest legislative accomplishments were a sweeping $1.9 trillion social welfare and COVID relief plan, and $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure law. In both cases the outcomes were within reach. However, his failures pursued the exact opposite approach. Instead of setting achievable goals, he set unrealistic expectations, and in a number of cases picked battles that he knew in advance he would lose." Thoughts?

HEMINGWAY: I'm not sure. It seems that President Biden is taking much of the blame for what is pretty standard Democratic policy positions. All of these things that he has been pushing are supported by basically every single Democrat in the House and nearly every single Democrat in the Senate. And so I think that the media are always demonizing Republicans, but they don't deal with the chaos and confusion that's happening in the Democratic Party where the policies that work really well to get you elected in San Francisco and New York and in these gerrymandered districts that they have are not appealing to the rest of the country. And the rest of the country is giving Joe Biden poor performance ratings because the policies are not appealing to the American people. They are not moderate or unifying, as he promised.

BAIER: Let's do a quick Winners and Losers. Byron, first to you.

YORK: It's an all Senate edition. Loser is Senator Charles Schumer, the majority leader, zero for two in implementing his party's top priorities. The two winners are Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, the two Democratic senators who showed who is really in charge in the last few days. Sinema getting extra points for dunking on the president when he is on the way to the Capitol.

BAIER: Jeff, winner or loser?

MASON: The filibuster wins, lives to survive another day. Prince Andrew of Britain loses. He has been stripped of his royal and military titles as he faces sexual misconduct charges.

BAIER: Mollie, winner and loser?

HEMINGWAY: Winner is Glenn Youngkin, the incoming governor of Virginia who announced that he will rescind the mask mandate for children, which has no scientific basis. And my loser is Ron Klain, White House chief of staff, who publicly admitted on Twitter many months ago that they did this authoritarian vaccine mandate as a workaround, and when the Supreme Court overturned it this week, they cited, one of the justices cited that tweet as one reason why.

BAIER: And when you get quoted in the ruling against your side, that's not a great thing. Panel, thanks so much. Have a great weekend.
 

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