'Special Report' on All-Star Panel on Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal, mosque attack

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ISIS claims responsibility for Afghanistan mosque attack

'Special Report' panel discusses frustrations over president's Afghanistan withdrawal

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report" October 8, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today's report has the unemployment rate down 4.8 percent, a significant improvement from when I took office and a sign that our recovery is moving forward even in the face of a COVID pandemic. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The smallest job gains in nearly a year. Gas prices are at a seven-year high. Inflation is up. The president is struggling to get the rest of his Build Back Better agenda passed through Congress. Do you see a need at this point to course correct? 

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I certainly don't see things as starkly as you do. We've created an average of $500,000 a month. We are at a faster rate of economic growth, a lower rate of unemployment than in quite some time. That's progress. That's moving exactly in the right direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

BAIER: Well, it's not exactly in the right direction, if you look at the estimates about the jobs numbers. If you take a look at the estimates for September jobs report, 194,000 jobs added, 500,000 was the estimate. Yes, the employment rate is down 4.8 percent. It was scheduled to be 5.1 percent, but a lot of people still out of the market, the jobs market. And there is concern from Republicans that this administration is doing exactly the wrong thing. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

SEN. RICK SCOTT, (R-FL): Joe Biden is killing this economy. And by the way, that vaccine mandate, what's it going to do? More people are going to get fired, unemployment will go up so people lose their job. And on top of that we will have fewer supplies, which means higher inflation. Joe Biden has no concept, the Democrats have no concept of how an economy works. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

BAIER: What about this? Let's bring in our panel, Bill McGurn, columnist for "The Wall Street Journal," Charles Lane, opinion writer for "The Washington Post," and "Washington Post" columnist Marc Thiessen. 

Marc, your thoughts on this report and where the administration stands on the economy? 

MARC THIESSEN, COLUMNIST, "WASHINGTON POST": Yes. Only a president who considers our Afghan withdrawal an extraordinary success could try and sell this jobs report as good news. The president said the trend is positive. No, it isn't. Just look at the objective numbers. In July the economy created over a million jobs. Then in August, it created 366,000 jobs. And then now it created 194,000 jobs, which is way below the 500,000 job expectation. He said the unemployment rate went down to 4.8 percent, first time it's been below five percent. That's because more than 180,000 people left the workforce last month. 

So the idea that this is an extraordinary success is a fantasy, and a president who, once again, is making statements that are directly contrary to the lived reality of Americans. 

BAIER: Chuck, at the same time, a lot of Americans are feeling prices going up. If you look at the price of oil, for example, the U.S. crude oil price topped at $80 a barrel, the highest since 2014, oil benchmark jumping more than two percent today. Trading at $80.09. That's eventually going to be felt across the board, and people are feeling it in different places when it comes to inflation. 

CHARLES LANE, OPINION WRITER, "WASHINGTON POST": One of the things that would have been a bright spot in this report was that nominal wages continue to grow. But, of course, higher privacies undercut that.

I would just say in response, a couple of points to what Marc said. Yes, this jobs report underperformed. But there were a couple of things going on. One was the Delta variant causing a lot of schools to be disrupted. And government employment actually is the weak spot in this report, not the private sector, which created 350,000 jobs, give or take. And also hurricane Ida in the Gulf. So I think there were a couple of anomalies that I don't think can you really blame on President Biden for causing that. 

I think longer term, Bret, the jobs problem here is kind of a labor shortage. There is now an all-time record, 1.5 job opening per unemployed worker. And we really have to get our arms around that as a country if we're really going to finally put the crisis behind us. 

BAIER: It's a massive problem. Just talking to small businesses, restaurants, all kinds of places around the country. They cannot, Bill, get people to work. 

BILL MCGURN, COLUMNIST, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Right. And look, you can't judge an economy on a single jobs report. But when you combine this with inflation, look, everyone can feel it. My wife goes to the grocery store, comes back with one bag of groceries, it's over 60 bucks. My daughter goes to the gas pump, everyone is feeling it. And what are we talking about? What is the big issue? Two bills of spending that are more than $4 trillion. And we're going to pretend that this is going to have no effect on jobs? No effect on inflation? I think Joe Biden is in danger of heading for Jimmy Carter territory with stagflation, a stagnant economy with higher inflation. And I think it's a real danger. 

BAIER: Listen, and you have to add in the choices when it comes to oil and gas and what has happened in the administration up until now on that front. And we can talk about all of that another day. 

But I do want to focus on this. The speech that Chuck Schumer gave, Marc, after he gets this deal raise the debt ceiling to December, he punts the deal. If you look at the video, or the picture of Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, behind Schumer, really with his head in his hands, shaking his head. Eventually he just shakes his head, says something, gets up and walks away. There was a lot of pushback especially for the 11 Republicans who voted with Democrats who do this to get it to December. There you see Manchin walking away. 

THIESSEN: Yes, I just don't understand the Democrats' strategy here. So they have two senators they need to get their agenda through. They need them for the reconciliation bill and for everything else. And Joe Manchin's number one priority has been restoring civility and bipartisan in Washington. And so the Republicans make a concession and allow them to increase the debt limit temporarily so they can get their ducks in order, and Chuck Schumer brings out the fire thrower, flame thrower. Joe Manchin looks at him and he walks away in disgust. They are pushing Joe Manchin away. It's the same thing with Sinema the other day when she was being followed into the bathroom and Joe Biden says that's part of the process. They should be courting these people. They literally have their agenda, the fate of the Biden domestic agenda in their hands. They should be trying to do things they want, not offend them. 

BAIER: Yes. And, Chuck, quickly, there's nothing to say that Mitch McConnell couldn't say to Joe Manchin, hey, listen, we don't think that was a good deal either. You would be welcomed in our party. He is not going to do it. He says he wants to be a Democrat the rest of his life. But Sinema, the same way. They're one vote away from it being Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. 

LANE: Well, what's striking to me about this is the different strategies of Manchin management, you might call going on here. McConnell let it be known that he cut this deal on the debt ceiling to ease Joe Manchin's predicament over the filibuster, to save him from a tough problem there. And on the other hand, you have Chuck Schumer alienating him. It does seem that one is trying to catch -- believes that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and Manchin, I think, was dramatic in the way he responded. 

BAIER: I agree. We'll see where this goes, and we'll follow it. 

Up next, the Friday lightning round. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Any loss is an enormous tragedy, and our heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones. 

YLVA JOHANSSON, EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: On this terrorist threat from Afghanistan, I must say that my assessment is that the alert level is not high enough. 

REP. MIKE WALTZ, (R-FL): We are on a road to another 9/11, unfortunately, with what Biden has done in Afghanistan, that we are far less safe. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

BAIER: A mosque attack in Afghanistan as there are still Americans and allies of America trying to get out of that country. We are back with the panel. Bill, it's off the front pages, but it is still a huge store, Jennifer Griffin digging into that effort that's continuing every day today. 

MCGURN: Yes, I congratulate Jennifer because I think the Biden administration, the cynical bet was that once reporters are out there and U.S. troops are out of there, no one would know what's going on in Afghanistan. And we see everyone could have anticipated this. This is unfolding exactly how you would expect the Taliban to behave. And the most shameful thing is we still don't have from the administration a number of how many Americans they left behind, or even how many Americans they think they left behind, not to mention the thousands of Afghans who were by our side and loyal to us during the war. 

BAIER: Yes. Chuck, it is tough get those numbers. We were at about 100 Americans for a long time. And others have come out, and still they are estimate estimating 100. Well, obviously it was more than that at the beginning.

LANE: There's also a real problem with Afghans who worked with the United States or its affiliated organizations who have been having a terrible time getting documents that they need to leave the country, either by land or by air. That mosque attack by the Islamic State is a horrific event and shows, by the way, that the people who worked with us and who were left behind are just not under threat from the Taliban, who, by the way, are kind of acting with some restraint, but they also face the threat from the Islamic State. 

BAIER: Marc, I want to turn topics to this disparity between the coverage Biden gets and the coverage Trump got from a media that even when they are getting ripped on do things a lot differently. 

THIESSEN: No, they do. Just imagine if Donald Trump had had the series of self-inflicted wounds that the president -- this president has had from Afghanistan to the southern border. To the drone strike taking out innocent civilians, to having his COVID booster plan overturned by an FDA panel to being the first president in American history to go to Capitol Hill and ask his own party not to vote for his -- one of his top pieces of legislation. This is an administration that has had the longest string of self-inflicted wounds I have seen in my lifetime, and they don't get raked over the coals for it like the Trump administration did. 

BAIER: Yes. All right, quick lightning round. Bill, winner and loser? 

MCGURN: The winner, I think, is Kyrsten Sinema who has made all her critics and people harassing her look very small, including Joe Biden who refused to really condemn these people following her into the bathroom, and Bernie Sanders who refused to sign a condemnation unless it included criticism of her position. 

And I think the loser of the week, very unfairly, are these ordinary moms and dads trying to get accountability from their public schools. And the National School Board Association asked if they might be considered domestic terrorists, and Merrick Garland said, well, we will have the FBI take a look at them. 

BAIER: All right, winner and loser, Chuck. 

LANE: Well, my winner, the other guys on the panel may not like it, is Janet Yellen for getting her global tax, corporate minimum tax through. That is definitely a victory for her. 

My losers are the two people who are on trial and convicted of bribery and other charges in the Varsity Blues case. That's Gamal Abdelaziz and John Wilson. They say they are going to appeal. But my gosh, that was an awful scandal, and there's still more trials to come. 

BAIER: Marc, I owe you a winner and loser, believe it or not. We are running out of time. 

THIESSEN: Don't worry. 

BAIER: I'm going to put it on Twitter. How about that? 

When we come back, "Notable Quotables.". Thanks, guys. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

BAIER: It's Friday, time for "Notable Quotables." 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The job of the Justice Department is to address criminal conduct. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are attempting to intimidate them. You are attempting to silence them. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I was at the Justice Department, it was focused on going after MS-13. Now, apparently, it's going after parents of 13-year- olds. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The school board and everyone else has come out and said it's not taught. It's racist. It's a dog whistle. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Bill and Hillary Clinton had a son, it would be Terry McAuliffe, and Joe Biden would be his uncle. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can gather for Christmas or just too soon to tell. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just too soon to tell. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kids who are bullied on Instagram, the bullying following them home. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard so many people say they are afraid to get vaccines because they would have to get on a subway and they are afraid of being assaulted. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need a build back better plan right now. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need solutions, the build back better plan. 

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think they are appropriate tactics, but it happens to everybody. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks to Secretary John Kerry, millions of Americans think that the president is now on a day pass from a nursing home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was almost 5 million a day between DOD and DHS. 

BAIER: To not? 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To not build the border wall. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of like Geico. It's so easy a caveman can do it. 

BIDEN: To oppose these investments is to be complicit in America's decline. 

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: The majority didn't have a plan to prevent default, so we stepped forward. [opening bell] 

BIDEN: FOX News. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

BAIER: Twenty-five years, and that was one week. 

By the way, Marc Thiessen chose for his winner Joe Manchin for walking out of that speech with Chuck Schumer, and his loser, Attorney General Merrick Garland for everything dealing with the parents of school students. 

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