This is a rush transcript of "Special Report with Bret Baier" on March 10, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Our analysis is going to be done by our economic experts. They continue to convey that they believe the impact will be temporary, transitory.

We do anticipate that gas prices and energy prices will go up. We also believe it will be temporary and not long-lasting.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO, (R-WY) SENATE ENERGY COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER: Joe Biden truly is the president of high prices. People are having to change the way that they eat, that they drive, and that they live. The decisions they make in their lives are being dramatically impacted by all of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: High inflation numbers today, if you look at those numbers, 7.9 percent overall, year over year price increases. Take a look at gasoline, electricity, used cars, and trucks. Obviously, we have heard from the administration it would be transitory before. This is the statement officially, "Today's inflation report is a reminder that Americans' budgets are being stretched by price increases and families are starting to feel the impacts of Putin's price hike. A large contributory inflation this month was an increase in gas and energy prices as markets reacted to Putin's aggressive actions."

But, Steve Rattner, formerly with the Obama administration, "Well, no. These are February numbers, and only include small Russian effect. This is Biden's inflation and he needs to own it."

With that, let's bring in our panel, national political correspondent of National Public Radio Mara Liasson, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, and Kimberley Strassel, a member of the editorial board at "The Wall Street Journal."

Steve Rattner tweeting that out was kind of interesting today, Kimberley. But the administration clearly is trying to do hashtag "Putin price hike" to link on to all of this.

KIMBERLEY STRASSEL, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes, they finally have something that they think they can blame it on. But I think the problem is they can maybe do that for a little bit for some of the energy prices, gas prices, obviously. We have seen a hike in that since Russia invaded the Ukraine.

But what was really notable about these numbers is that if you strip out some of the more volatile sectors like energy and food, the numbers are still eye-popping for everything else. And you certainly can't blame Vladimir Putin for rising restaurant prices or rising furniture prices. That's one problem.

Also, it's become pretty clear that inflation is now becoming part of the psychology of business owners, and that's always a very dangerous moment what you get to, because it suggests that you could have prices continue to really go up.

BAIER: Mara, that one word really tweaked everybody, "transitory," because we heard transitory for inflation for weeks on end from this administration. And then they conceded that well, no, it's not. Now it is again.

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Transitory, how long? People want to know next week, are their paychecks going to go less far? It's really a problem. For Steve Rattner, I guess who has now become the Republican's favorite Democratic economist to say that Biden owns it, of course he owns it. Inflation defeats presidents. And it might not be Biden's fault. Inflation has a lot of causes -- the pandemic, labor shortage, all sorts of things. But it certainly is his problem.

And all he can do, there is very little presidents can do against inflation. He can show empathy, as he did in that one quote that you just put on the screen, with people who are having their paychecks pinched. It's not a great idea to try to convince people that it's going to go away soon or things really aren't so bad.

BAIER: I'm not sure Steve Rattner is alone. Larry Summers, Joe Manchin, you can go through a whole bunch of Democrats who have been saying the same thing.

LIASSON: Yes, that's true, although he recently said, Joe Manchin said he would be happy to pay 10 cents more per gallon at the pump if it helps Ukraine. So that's the message that the White House wants.

BAIER: Ari, you have been in the White House at that podium saying things that try to mold the message. Is "Putin price hike" going to work for this White House?

(LAUGHTER)

ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: "Putin price hike" will only work if you believe in Biden's calendar. And Biden's calendar goes something like this -- January, March, February, April, May. The idea that what we all saw and know with our own eyes that took place before the invasion of Ukraine is only attributable now, the gas price hikes are only attributable to Putin's invasion is nonsense. It's a reversal of time.

And so it's what politicians say when they are in trouble. They reach for anything that they can get their hands on. But the problem is something like this is so tangible and real in the lives of the American people that they have felt it for so long, it doesn't matter what any politician says. The public feels the truth because they live the truth.

So, I totally dismiss it. It was a big mistake for Jen to use that same word, "transitory," as you picked up. And one legislative from the podium is if you said something once that was a special word and had an impact, like "transitory," and it flopped, it failed, don't repeat it.

BAIER: Yes. Speaking of the truth, we are trying to get to the truth of what is happening on the ground in Ukraine. You heard from Senator Warner from Senate Intel that he believes Russia is losing. The Director of National Intelligence today in a hearing said this about the Russian troops.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AVRIL HAINES, DIRECTOR FOR NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: We assess Moscow underestimated the strength of Ukraine's resistance and the degree of internal military challenges we are observing in the Russian military, which include an ill-constructed plan, morale issues, and considerable logistical challenges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: The challenge now, Kimberley is to get Putin to an off ramp. How does this stop without increasing what we have to put into Ukraine?

STRASSEL: Yes, that's what these negotiations have been. But that's why these negotiations are a bit depressing, right? Because what Putin is demanding, which is essentially to take ground and have a puppet government, is exactly what Zelenskyy says he is never going to do.

And I think the real risk and fear and why you now hear people talking about the worry, for instance, of chemical weapons, is that if Putin doesn't have that off ramp, the other option is desperation and to double down on a lot of these strategies and tactics that led to the bombing of that maternity ward. And so that -- we can celebrate to some degree the fact that Russia is losing, but there are also real risks out of that as well, too.

BAIER: Right. Meantime Vice President Harris traveled to Poland today. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States and Poland are united in what we have done and are prepared to do to help Ukraine and the people of Ukraine. Full stop.

NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Why is she there? Why did you send the vice president of the United States to Poland without an announcement, without something that she is going to say that we're going to do, without any action? We don't need photo-ops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Mara, this is obviously in the midst of MiG-29 back and forth, whether Poland wants to -- Poland definitely wanted to, but the U.S. says not. But why not send Vice President Harris with a deliverable.

LIASSON: The deliverable, because the U.S. has been split about what the deliverable should be. Some people think we should allow Poland to give the U.S. its MiG-29s, fighter jets that presumably Ukrainian pilots know how to fly, and then the U.S. would somehow transfer them. But there are a lot of people, and have you interviewed them, who think that is an escalatory move, and that Ukraine would do just as well with tons and tons more anti- aircraft weapons, which they have been using very well. Although the Ukrainian president is asking for planes.

So U.S. is split. Poland doesn't want to be responsible for handing over the MiGs to Ukraine. Poland is in extremely vulnerable position. But the U.S. thinks it's a bad idea.

BAIER: Having covered the Pentagon before, there's always nuance here. The Poles, those planes are old. They wanted new F-16s from the U.S. as well. So there's all kinds of things factoring in here. Panel, thank you very much.

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