'Special Report' All-Star Panel on Biden's voting rights speech

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Former education chief on filibuster: 'This is not the Biden I knew'

'Special Report' panel reacts to President Biden's Georgia speech on eliminating filibuster.

This is a rush transcript of "Special Report with Bret Baier" on January 12, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BRET BAIER: We're going to bring in our panel early tonight. Guy Benson political editor at Townhall.com, hosted The Guy Benson Show on Fox radio. Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief at USA Today and former Education Secretary Bill Bennett.

Bill, you heard Senator McConnell's speech in reaction to President Biden's speech, your thoughts?

BILL BENNETT, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY: Yes, well, shock I think and that's what a lot of people are experiencing. The Joe Biden I knew and I knew him pretty well. He was the chairman of the committee that confirmed me as the first drugs czar. And this is not the Joe Biden, that I -- that I knew.

What's the right movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The Manchurian Candidate? I don't think anybody satisfactorily explained what has happened to Joe Biden.

But to start to call your opposition, you know, Jefferson Davis to talk about segregationist, not only does Biden have his own problem in that regard, given his history, but these are awful things to say, and McConnell was right to respond. As we used to say, how far can you go? And how far can Biden go in all of this?

BAIER: Susan, it is noticeable the tonal change from President Biden in the last two speeches, January 6th, and then, the one in Atlanta, much more aggressive, much more fiery. And obviously, this one raised a lot of eyebrows when comparing anybody who opposes this legislation, which by the way, includes several Democrats we believe, to some of those historical figures.

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: Well, I think on both these issue, on the issue of January 6, and what happened, and on voting rights, the president has very strong views. And I think his audience with that speech yesterday was not Mitch McConnell. I don't even really think it was Joe Manchin and Senator Sinema. I think his audience were the most loyal base Democratic voters who have been upset that he hasn't made voting rights a higher priority in his administration, and who wanted to hear him give a very tough speech about it.

So, he did that I think for that audience, not for the audience that was on the Senate floor today.

BAIER: Yes, one person, Guy, who didn't hear it in person was Stacey Abrams, who -- it's her issue, it's her state. She's running for governor, progressive, who chose not to be there saying there was a scheduling issue.

But again, if the president's coming to your state, you usually figure out the schedule. You wonder not about the tone, but about the votes. And so far, the votes aren't there.

GUY BENSON, POLITICAL EDITOR, TOWNHALL.COM: They're not. I think the scheduling conflict is hard to believe for Stacey Abrams, for the reasons that you outlined.

The votes are not there, so, this was just a profession of impotent political rage by the president performing as Susan says for his base.

But words have meaning and he's the president. And two of the least excitable senators in Washington are Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney. And both of them have come to the floor in the last 24 hours or so and absolutely lit up Joe Biden for saying what he said.

Bill asked who is this Joe Biden, it's the same Joe Biden that told a Black audience in 2012 that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan might re-enslave them if they won the election. He sometimes has this streak.

And Bret, I went back earlier today and I re-watched part of President Biden's -- then President-elect Biden's victory speech after he won the election. Part of what he said was this, "We are not enemies. We are Americans. This is the time to heal in America. What is our mandate, meaning him for after his election, I believe that it is this, he said, Americans have called on us to marshal the forces of decency. They want us to cooperate. That's the choice I'll make."

That's how he campaigned. That's what he said when he won. And here he is screaming about racism and segregation, and enemies of the country. It's disgusting.

BAIER: All right, just before the show at the White House, we heard from the chief economic adviser, Brian Deese about inflation and it's a big problem, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEESE: We've seen a number of unanticipated outcomes, when it comes to prices, what we have -- what we have said consistently -- focused consistently is that this is a global phenomenon, it is connected to the pandemic.

Certainly, the supply chain challenges that have evolved over the course of time through the Delta variant and over the course of the fall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Has been an evolution from transitory to inflation is here. If you look at the year over year prices, Bill, they're significant and the numbers we got today continue to say it's not going to leave, overall up seven percent. But gasoline 49 percent. Used cars 37.3 percent, food at home 6.5 percent.

Your thoughts on on inflation and how this administration is dealing with it?

BENNETT: Well, unanticipated Mr. Deese says, but it was anticipated by a lot of people, maybe not by Mr. Deese.

Look, this is class warfare at it's worse. The millionaires who bankroll the, you know, the Democrat Party and there are more millionaires who are Democrats now than Republicans. Seven percent doesn't bother them. But for people living on a tight budget, you bet.

And by the way, this connection between that and the empty shelves, when you can't buy the goods that you want that you used to buy, sometimes you have to pay more for a different product. And that added to inflation.

Well, you know, the price of gasoline, talking about a self-inflicted wound, we had the XL pipeline, we had all sorts of things canceled by Biden, and, you know, what can I say? What was the poll number you gave, Bret?

BAIER: Yes, it's at 33 percent.

BENNETT: 32, 33 percent?

BAIER: Yes, let's put up that poll.

BENNETT: Yes, yes.

BAIER: Quinnipiac University. The overall approval number 33 percent, disapprove at 53 percent. Among independents, Susan, approval, 25 percent. 18 to 34, approval, 24 percent. And just 43 percent of Democrats approve of Biden's performance.

Those are -- those are as bad as they get, and they've been pretty bad polled numbers.

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: And they're related, I think, to inflation, which people are reminded of every time they go to the grocery store or buy a tank of gas, it's due to COVID. The difficulty, the failure to get COVID under control.

The feeling that we're heading into all these problems with sending kids to school and reopening businesses, I think all of that happened has combined to create a big political problem for President Biden.

He's going to be finishing his first year in office with not -- an approval rating that is really underwater, and a real concern to those who -- those who support him as well as those who oppose him.

BAIER: We'll talk a little bit more about that later on with the panel. Thank you very much.
 

BAIER: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman talking about the talks in Geneva with Russia which essentially ended with agreeing to more talks. "Axios" writes it this way, "Russia talks may have bought time on Ukraine invasion. Between the lines, it's unclear how Russia, which has massed more than 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine, will be able to climb down from its red lines and avert a devastating war."

We are back with the panel, Guy, Susan, and Bill. Guy, we are not getting much nuance from these talks. Russia is still where Russia is along the border with Ukraine.

GUY BENSON, POLITICAL EDITOR, TOWNHALL.COM: Yes, and when we talked about this on the panel Monday, Bret, we were discussing carrots and sticks, and it seems like so far after one round of talks the carrots haven't done much or impressed the Russians. And the question is, does Putin view the sticks as credible and painful enough to deter him? Maybe we will discover that in the coming weeks or months or whenever these next talks are going to be.

One political note briefly, Bret, that I had to take note of this week. There are reports that the Biden administration, the State Department deployed some officials to Capitol Hill earlier in the week to lobby Senate Democrats against a Ted Cruz sanctions bill on that Nord Stream 2 pipeline that Putin, of course, wants very badly. The administration might say we need space in time to let diplomacy work, that's premature. But I do wonder how that type of action might have been interpreted or covered under the previous administration given some of the narratives that were out there.

BAIER: Yes, exactly. Ted Cruz tweeted, Susan. He said, "Protect American interests, defend our allies, sanction Putin's pipeline now." Here is Senator Bob Menendez on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ, (D-NJ) SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: I don't think that sanctions at Nord Stream 2 at this point in time achieves that goal. But if we have the mother of all sanctions levied against him personally and Russia, which is what my legislation will do, then ultimately that is a real deterrent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Susan?

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "USA TODAY": Well, there is an argument that senior administration officials have made to reporters this week that one should wait until Russia invades before levying that very serious sanction against it. Not that they wouldn't do it ever, but they think it's not the moment to do it until they have got action, military action by Russia to sanction against.

This has just been a big dilemma. We don't know what Putin's intentions are, or if he desires to have a way to step down. Maybe he is making these nonnegotiable demands that we say are out of the question rejected so that he has a pretext to invade. And we presumably will find out pretty quickly because a window for invasion is right upon us.

BAIER: Whatever Putin's motives are, or his end goal here, Bill, it's not good for the U.S., right?

BILL BENNETT, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY: No, it isn't. But we can fix that. Putin and Russia, it's a third world country with nuclear weapons. And we gave them this opportunity with the Nord Stream pipeline, let the oil flow in the United States, and Russia will be in very bad shape.

I don't believe we should let a few Ukrainians or a few hundred Ukrainians die before we hit the ultimate sanctions button. Put it all on them. Let's remember that this is really not a significant country anymore in terms of world power. There are really only two now, China and the United States. This petty bully has got to be stopped in his tracks. And a terrible mistake we made in approving that pipeline early on. Why did we do that? I don't know if it makes the top five of Biden's mistakes, but it was a big one.

BAIER: Talking earlier about the evolution of the media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, there has also been an evolution in how the president talks about his opponents on the other side of the aisle. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will always seek to work together with them.

The power of unity, sit down and find ways to work together.

We'll do it by keeping the faith and doing it together.

Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Guy, it's pretty striking.

BENSON: It really is, and at the top of the show, Peter Doocy's report quoted the president as saying that he has the laser focus on the economy and COVID. Then he flew down to Georgia and gave that shockingly dishonest and demagogic speech on the filibuster and voting rights filled with lies. That is not exactly a laser focus on the thing he claims he is focused on. The American people can tell. He has a 33 percent approval rating in Quinnipiac. Maybe he should change things up a bit.

BAIER: Susan, I only have a few seconds, but did that speech in Atlanta and this really firm focus on the voting rights legislation, do you think it moved any needles with Sinema, Manchin, any of those other concerned moderate Democrats?

PAGE: No, I don't think it did. I think there is no realistic path ahead for the administration and the Democrats to get that voting rights legislation through Congress in the foreseeable future. And that speech did not change that reality.

BAIER: Panel, we appreciate it. Thank you.

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