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This is a rush transcript of "Special Report" on October 22, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ROY COOPER, (D) NORTH CAROLINA: Do you have plans to visit the southern border.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have been there before, and I haven't -- I know it well. I guess I should go down, but the whole point of it is I haven't had a whole hell of a lot of time to get down.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There has been reporting that he did dry through the border when he was on the campaign trail in 2008. He does not need a visit to the border to know what a mess was left by the last administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: The White House saying he drove past the border during the 2008 campaign, and saying even though he said that maybe he should go down, that he didn't really mean, the president didn't in that town hall, that he would go down. Town hall needed to be cleaned up today by the White House press secretary in a couple of different points.

Meantime Gallup, the approval analysis for Gallup says that the Biden's average third quarter job approval rating is down eight points from his second quarter 53 percent, 11 points from his first quarter rating of 56 percent. This 11-point decline is larger than any prior president registered between first and third quarters, although it is similar to those for the last three Democratic presidents, Barack Obama, Clinton, and Carter.

So let's bring in our panel, Ben Domenech, publisher of "The Federalist," Harold Ford Jr., former Tennessee Congressman, CEO of Empowerment and Inclusion Capital, and Jason Riley, "Wall Street Journal" columnist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Jason, there were a number of incidents that the White House had to clarify. We pointed them out here. The border, the situation about gas prices, and maybe most importantly, about Taiwan.

JASON RILEY, COLUMNIST, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes, there are a number of issues going on here. I would add to that, Bret, the spending debate going on in Congress right now. And I think Joe Biden's problem is that he is trying to present as a Democrat versus Republican issue when, in reality, particularly with regard to this spending bill, it's a Democrat versus Democrat problem. He can't get his own ducks in a row. And you have a debate going on between progressives in the Democratic Party and more moderates in the Democratic Party on how to spin this spending bill that they want to unleash.

And it frankly boils down to their ambitions being greater than their actual mandate, that the American people did not elect a progressive president to pursue a progressive agenda, and Biden is trying to slip one by the American people.

BAIER: "The Washington Post," Harold, writes it this way about that town hall, "President Biden had one central message for disappointed progressives at his CNN town hall last night -- please be patient. The problem with Biden's promises to come back to progressive priorities is that his razor thin Democratic majorities in the House and Senate won't be any bigger and Republicans won't be any more inclined to go along, which is why progressives have been urging him for months to fight to get rid of the filibuster," something he said he might actually be for now.

HAROLD FORD JR., FORMER TENNESSEE REPRESENTATIVE: Well, thanks for having me on. This is -- I think Jason nailed it with the frame. Progressives didn't and don't have a massive majority in the House or even a comfortable majority in the House, for that matter, the Senate. I think when we elected President Biden, the country did, they were electing someone they thought would bring a level of stability and maturity and experience to decision- making and to the White House. And to Jason's point, the president has spent most of his time trying to referee disputes between and amongst his own party members.

I have said for some time, Democrats take the victory. Give the country what they have asked for, which is an infrastructure bill. Demonstrate that you can govern and lead and then come back and do the other things, which I think at some point President Biden is going to have to say to Democrats in a forthright way. I hope he doesn't have to say in a forthright way with an outcome in Virginia that is detrimental to my party. Terry McAuliffe has asked for Democrats to give us this victory and give us a chance to lead and to govern in the lead majority, which is the way you actually enact policy.

BAIER: Yes.

FORD: Until they do that, I think it's going to be hard for my party.

BAIER: I don't see how it's going to get done before that Virginia election, but we'll see. They may try to put the pedal to the metal, but it seems like there are really big sticking points. I mentioned the filibuster change and the evolution of the president, how he has talked about it. Take a listen to that evolution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm trying to bring the country together, and I don't want the debate to only be about whether or not we have a filibuster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it's a relic of Jim Crow, it's been used to fight against civil rights legislation historically, why protect it?

BIDEN: There's no reason to protect it other than you are going to throw the entire Congress into chaos and nothing will get done. Nothing at all will get done. And there's a lot the stake.

I also think we are going to have to move to the point where we fundamentally alter the filibuster. That remains to be seen exactly what that means in terms of fundamentally altering it, whether or not we just end the filibuster straight up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: That's quite an evolution, Ben.

BEN DOMENECH, PUBLISHER, "THE FEDERALIST": How different your attitude is when you move from the Senate to the White House toward the filibuster, an essential defense of American representative politics or just a nuisance to be wiped away.

Look, I think that what Harold said is correct in the sense that progressives don't have a majority here. They don't even have anything close to it. And yet, what this represents, what this massive spending package represents at this point is an attempt to try to satisfy virtually every progressive priority even in ways that are sloppy and don't make sense from fiscal policy perspectives.

If you add a smaller policy package, you might be able to have something that was more permanent, more longstanding. Instead you are likely to end up, if anything ends up passing at all, with a package that is more easily swept away potentially by a future Republican majority.

And I think that Democrats are really waking up to the fact that, while individual parts of this plan may test well when they are polled and when they are asked of the American people, as a whole, this plan is not something that the American people are all that excited about, and they don't really believe it's going to satisfy the problems that they see every day when this comes to inflation, when it comes to their pocketbook, and certainly when it comes to the increasingly controversial issues related to education, which are so key in this Virginia race.

BAIER: Jason, I only have a few seconds here, but I was struck by the gas answer from President Biden last night at that town hall and that essentially his hands are tied and that gas prices are going up into next year, saying that a lot depends on OPEC and Saudi Arabia. Republicans would point out that a lot happened in the previous administration to free the U.S. from foreign oil, and that we're back in the place we were before that.

RILEY: You're right. And what Biden isn't telling you that his progressives are happy with high energy costs to the extent that it pushes people towards renewables, towards green new deal type policies, and so forth. They have no problem with fossil fuel energy prices going up. But the American people do, the voters do. And, again, Joe Biden was not elected to transition us off fossil fuel even if that's what the progressives want.

BAIER: Which is a big contention in that last debate.

I got run. Up next, the Friday lightning round, Virginia's governor's race, the China menace, plus Winners and Losers, if we can fit it all in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRY MCAULIFFE, (D) VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Elections are always close. We need people to get out and vote. I cannot tell you how important it is.

GLENN YOUNGKIN, (R) VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE: What we see on the other side is sun setting on Terry McAuliffe's 43-year political career.

MCAULIFFE: My opponent a Donald Trump wannabe.

YOUNGKIN: Terry McAuliffe when he was governor saw the states grow around us grow 120 percent faster economically.

MCAULIFFE: When I took office the last time our state was in chaos. I worked with everybody, built a robust economy.

YOUNGKIN: The first thing I will do as governor is declare Virginia open for business. We won't have lockdowns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Democratic strategist James Carville said this week he is scared to death about this race in Virginia from a Democratic point of view. If you look at the RCP average, Real Clear Politics, it is very tight, 48.8 to 47. The recent Monmouth poll just out this week had it at a dead heat at 46. We're back with the panel. Ben, your thoughts?

DOMENECH: Virginia should scare every Democrat because Terry McAuliffe's approach has been to nationalize this, to bring in all these different national figures to back him up, and to try to make this an election where Glenn Youngkin is viewed as a stocking horse for Donald Trump. Youngkin's approach has been to localize it and to make it primarily about the education issue. And in that same Monmouth that you've talked about, we have seen Youngkin creep up and up and up steadily over several months to the point where he actually has an advantage.

The idea that a Republican could win in the commonwealth of Virginia on the education issue should absolutely terrify Democrats going into next year's midterms.

BAIER: Harold?

FORD: I think Ben nailed it there, too. I wouldn't count Terry McAuliffe out. He is the best retail politician in the party. He will nationalize this race, as a lot of governor's races are. He's got President Obama coming in, reminding Virginians that they voted Democrat over the last few cycles, and we'll have to see. It's a jump ball there, but I wouldn't count Terry McAuliffe out by any stretch.

BAIER: I want to turn just really quickly to China and what the president said about Taiwan, defending Taiwan. The White House had to then walk that back and say the policy hasn't changed. China jumped all over it. It seems like sometimes the China policy for this administration is a little ambiguous. Jason?

RILEY: Well, Biden is right. We need a presence in that part of the world. We're essentially in a cold war battle with China right now, not only militarily, but also economically. Trump administration liked to talk about it. The left called it bluster. But now that Biden's office are taking it seriously, I applaud them. But anyone who is paying attention knew that this was an issue.

BAIER: All right, Winners and Losers. Ben, really quick.

DOMENECH: Two sides of the coin, Loudoun County parents versus the Loudoun County school board. The revelations of what that superintendent of that school board hid about what they knew about a bathroom sexual assault coming clear this week, an incredible story that is terrifying parents across the country.

BAIER: Harold, winner and loser?

FORD: My winner is a little different but serious to me. Tom brady at 44 years old is leading the NFL in passing yards. And my loser could be the Brooklyn Nets if Kyrie Irving does not play because he won't get vaccinated.

BAIER: We can always catch you in the sports winners and losers. All right, Jason, bring it home, winner and loser?

RILEY: My winner is former secretary of state Condi Rice for talking about Critical Race Theory in schools and saying that black children are not helped by making white children feel guilty for being white. Amen to that.

My loser is the New York City political class which is removing a statue of Thomas Jefferson from city hall. So we're now erecting statues of George Floyd and taking down statues of Thomas Jefferson. The world has gone mad, Bret.

BAIER: They took down a statue of Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco. Yes, the world has gone mad. OK, thank you all.

When we come back, "Notable Quotables."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: It's Friday, and you know what that means "Notable Quotables."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The world lost one of the greatest leaders that we have ever witnessed.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R-SC): The Joe Biden greatest hit list, you can now put on the list nuclear arms race with China.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Freedom. I have the freedom to kill you with my COVID. No, I mean, come on, freedom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know where my old friend became such a toy totalitarian.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators found what appear to be human remains such as a backpack and notebook belonging to Brian Laundrie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Justice Department supports and defends the First Amendment right of parents to complain as vociferously as they wish.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Bannon will comply with our investigation or he will face the consequences.

BIDEN: All of a sudden hear bam, bam, bam, this banging on my door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And remember, we winnowed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are talking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're talking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This donkey on donkey fighting here is something to watch.

BAIER: So your biggest issue is truck drivers and warehouse space?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have tightened capacity, labor shortages.

BIDEN: The cost of Build Back Better bill in terms of adding to the deficit is zero, zero, zero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Attorney General, who buys Hunter Biden's art?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what he is doing is brining everybody into this commonwealth of Virginia who has nothing to do with Virginia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm ready to go. I have got more energy today than the day I was born.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: One week. Monday on SPECIAL REPORT, Democrats flood the zone over the weekend in the Virginia governor's race. As you know, we've been covering this race really closely. Will all of that work as we close in on Election Day 2021?

This weekend on it FOX NEWS SUNDAY, Virginia Senator Mark Warner will appear as well as Democrat Congressman Ro Khanna of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The CDC director will be with Chris Wallace. I will be there as well on the panel.

Please remember, if you are so inclined, to pick up my new book, "To Rescue the Republic, Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876." It is available wherever you buy books. I have an event in Dallas tonight, and then I am back to D.C. starting all next week. My thanks to the crews and staff in New York, Los Angeles, and here in Dallas for hosting me over the past two weeks. It's been a good ride. Thank you very much, everybody.

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for the SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and still unafraid. "FOX NEWS PRIMETIME" hosted this week by Will Cain, who is right down the road, and we did not meet up for that drink, but I owe you one, Will, it starts right now.


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