Top moments and key takeaways from first Democratic presidential debates

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Top moments and key takeaways from first Democratic presidential debates

Reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Star panel.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," June 28, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You also worked with them to oppose bussing. And there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me.

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I respect Senator Harris. But we all know that 30 seconds to 60 seconds on a campaign debate exchange can't do justice to a lifetime committed to civil rights. I never, never, never, ever opposed voluntary bussing.

HARRIS: Listen, I have a great deal of respect for Joe Biden, but this is one issue on which we disagree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, HOST: Its cleanup on aisle four for Vice President Biden today after what a lot of pundits looked at as a pretty dismal performance. But it was that one exchange that really, really struck a chord. And Kamala Harris, the senator from California, was prepared for it. It was planned. Her team tweeted out a picture of her. "There was a little girl in California who was bussed to school. That little girl was me. #DemDebate." That was from last night.

If you look at the bullet points as far as searching, the searches for buses spiked 3,100 percent. Harris' name, 500 percent the second half of the debate. And then she became the top trending search topic in all of Google and the U.S. Twitter kind of matched those numbers as well.

Let's bring in our panel, Marc Thiessen, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Susan Ferrechio, Chief Congressional Correspondent for the "Washington Examiner," and Charles Lane, opinion writer for "The Washington Post." OK, Marc, game changer last night?

MARC THIESSEN, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: It was pretty bad for Joe Biden, no question. And the issue wasn't really his civil rights record. It was his inability to parry the attack from Kamala Harris which he should've known was coming. It was completely predictable. Biden is out of touch with his party, but the reason why he's leading the pack is because he's perceived as the most electable candidate. But last night he didn't looked very electable. He looked old, he looked tired, he looked unprepared.

Can he recover from that? Yes. There's 11 more debates and its six months to the Iowa caucuses. And if you think back to 1984 there was the famous first debate with Reagan and Walter Mondale where Reagan looked very confused and not on top of the facts, and he was already president. And in the next debate he came through with his famous line, I'm not going to take advantage of my opponent's youth and inexperience, and turned the whole thing around. So Biden didn't have a line like that. He needs a line like that.

BAIER: There were some lackluster lines from Joe Biden. Here is -- asked what's the first thing you do, first thing in the Oval Office as president of the United States, down the row.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ending gun violence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Climate change.

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, D-N.Y., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Passing a family bill of rights.

HARRIS: Passing a middle-class, working families tax cut.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A political revolution.

JOE BIDEN: The first thing I would do is make sure that we defeat Donald Trump.

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG, D-IND., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've got to fix our democracy before it's too late.

ANDREW YANG, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would pass a $1,000 freedom dividend for every American adult.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would do a collaborative approach to climate change.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My first call is the prime minister of New Zealand, and I would tell her, girlfriend, you are so on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: That last one was something, but the question was, what's the first thing you do as president. Joe Biden's answer was to defeat Donald Trump. You are president. You've just done that.

SUSAN FERRECHIO, "WASHINGTON EXAMINER": I don't know whose answer was worse, his or Williamson's answer. Both were just ridiculous. I think this was a real wakeup call for Joe Biden. He's been atop of the pole. He's got that foothold there for weeks not just nationally but in the key early voting states.

BAIER: We'll put up the RCP average.

FERRECHIO: He's winning. He's winning. I think he went into this debate seeking status quo. I'm the dignified frontrunner, I'm going to take on Donald Trump, to the point where he says that's what he's going to do. But this is a wakeup call. These people are scrapping to take him out, and he's going to have to do better.

BAIER: Chuck?

CHARLES LANE, OPINION WRITER, "WASHINGTON POST": It's interesting how the level of debacle has grown over the last 24 hours worth of conversation because I was following the discussions right after and on Twitter and everything, and the initial take was, well, he took a little bit of a jab from Kamala Harris, but he responded OK. He should be fine. And now here we are talking about he is dead.

BAIER: I do not think he's dead. He just had a really bad night.

LANE: He's 25 points ahead of Kamala Harris, and in he main reason for that is electability, number one, and number two support from African- American voters who are a key block in the Democratic primary. And the reason Kamala Harris pulled that very effective fast one and Joe Biden last night is that she wants to break into that group. And in a funny way, it was a little bit indicative of her desperation that though she is a candidate of color herself, she hasn't been able to break through, neither has the other black candidate in the race, Cory Booker. So I just want to inject a little note of caution. Biden was lackluster last night.

BAIER: Of course. And the other thing is we're super early. There were debates where Scott Walker was going to be the guy.

LANE: President Giuliani.

BAIER: Tim Pawlenty.

LANE: Yes, Tim Pawlenty.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: I want to talk about this immigration issue and specifically the raise your hands issue of illegal immigrants getting health care insurance coverage. Last night, and then Democrats in the past.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Raise your hand if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants.

(APPLAUSE)

BARACK OBAMA, D-FORMER PRESIDENT: There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This too is false.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., SENATE MINORITY LEADER: People who enter the United States without our permission our illegal aliens, and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who entered the U.S. legally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: It is something, Marc, to watch that "you lie" moment with Joe Wilson from South Carolina in the State of the Union address in 2009, to the evolution of the raising of the hands. Vice President Biden was sitting behind President Obama at that State of the Union, and now he's raising his hand.

THIESSEN: Joe Wilson was ahead of his time. He's kind of been vindicated. If you watch that debate, the biggest loser in that debate other than Joe Biden was the American taxpayer, because if you look through what they propose -- I just did a back of the envelope calculation. Medicare for all, $32 trillion. Student loan forgiveness, $1.6 trillion. Free college $840 billion. Federal job guarantee, $6.8 trillion. It goes on and on and on.

And then you add to that, the proposal which everybody raised their hand and says I support decriminalization of illegal immigrants, everybody except Senator Bennet. And I also support free health care for illegal immigrants. Open borders and socialism are a path to national suicide, and the Democratic Party is going to campaign on that going into 2020.

BAIER: You saw the -- by the way, it was an address to Congress, not a State of the Union address back in 2009. But you saw the president tweet right away about everybody raising their hand. Our friend Ari Fleischer said this today in a tweet, "If crossing the border illegally is no longer illegal as several Ds advocate, why do we make people who get off airplanes go through customs? If it's fair to let people in without going through customs on the southern border, then everyone everywhere should be allowed in." Isn't this issue, Chuck, going to really frame the 2020 race when it comes to the Trump campaign?

LANE: Right now, Gallup is showing that 23 percent of the public generally say immigration is their most important issue, and that's the highest it's been in some time. So there is great focus in the public on this issue. And I am amazed -- I was amazed last night and the night before at the way the Democratic Party as your tape recording of Barack Obama shows, has zoomed to a new position to the left on this issue. I think they are taking a huge gamble by devoting so much of their air time, their energy, their compassion to a group of people who, though undoubtedly sympathetic, are not American citizens, and therefore a lot of voters are going to say don't have the first claim on public resources. I think it is a huge political gamble.

BAIER: Especially, Susan, when you're dealing with the V.A. that still has trouble for our veterans who have served to get health care, when you're talking about poor communities that some people don't have health care. It's really an issue that doesn't play well in many different states.

FERRECHIO: The Democratic Party has come under tremendous pressure to move further to the left on this issue from groups over the years, from their base of voters and wanting the win over the Hispanic vote, this is all part of why they shifted to the left. And the other reason is the nature of immigration has tremendously changed over the past few years. No longer is it just single males trying to get into the country. It's families. And it's because of the asylum laws. It all started in 2014. And now here's what you hear Democrats saying, its' the children, the children, the children. We need to deal with unaccompanied minors and children coming with families who are then separated. That has driven this debate to the left.

BAIER: I will say the Hispanic-Latino population is not monolithic, on this issue especially.

THIESSEN: Sure. And immigrants generally are actually some of the most hostile people to illegal immigration because most of those people waited in line to get into the country and went through customs and went through the immigration process and followed the law.

But keep in mind also that this is a force multiplier for all the spending that the Democrats have proposed, because if Medicare for all costs $32 trillion, that's for Americans. If you turn the country into a magnet for illegal immigrants to come in for all the free stuff, they are going to want free college, they're going to want free child care, they're going to want all the free stuff as well. All those things are going to go up.

BAIER: Quickly.

LANE: Very quickly I just want to point out, we already fund a lot of those things for people who are undocumented through Medicaid and other local government programs. It's not as if they aren't receiving health care at the public's expense.

BAIER: On the books. Next up, the Friday Lightning Round. We'll talk about the G20 plus Winners and Losers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: I think there might be some media out there. What do you think? Think there might be a couple of cameras. It's possible. Get rid of them. Fake news. Fake news.

Great term, isn't it? You don't have that problem in Russia. We have it. You don't have that problem.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: Yes, yes we have. We have the same.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, will you tell Russia not to meddle in the 2020 election?

TRUMP: Yes, of course I will. Don't meddle in the election. Please don't. Don't meddle in the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: The president with Vladimir Putin raising some brows, as you can imagine, back here in Washington among the media who covered the president. We're back with the panel. He's at the G20 summit. Susan?

FERRECHIO: I think the media asked him whether he would make Putin declare that he wouldn't meddle in the election. It's a ridiculous thing to ask for the president. He trolled them right back on it. But that is going to fuel impeachment talk on Capitol Hill. A lot of people who believe he colluded with Russia, and this would just be more evidence for that.

BAIER: One of them, former president Jimmy Carter who said today, Chuck, that the president, that he lost the election and was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf. When asked if he believed that President Trump is an illegitimate president, he said I can't retract what I just said.

LANE: Jimmy Carter is, I don't know, how old is he now? I don't take those statements too seriously.

BAIER: He's 94, I think.

LANE: Ninety-four. I would say that the president today, the outrageous thing that he did was to indulge in this lighthearted banter about getting rid of journalists with the president of a country where journalists are murdered for reporting, and one recently was just arrested by the police for reporting honestly, not just on what Putin does, but local government corruption and that sort of thing. That was a bad moment.

BAIER: And the Russian media were in there. The U.S. media were not as of that point, Russian TV put that out. OK, in a few minutes, a couple of hours, he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a big meeting for this president at this time.

THIESSEN: A bigger meeting for Xi Jinping because the tariffs are hurting China a lot more than they are hurting the United States. Donald Trump is in a very strong position to negotiate here. The U.S. economy is booming, 3.1 percent growth. Our biggest problem is that we have 1.6 million more unfilled jobs and we have people to fill them. China's economy is contracting, the tariffs are hurting them. So Trump sees our economic strength against their relative economic weakness as a force multiplier for them.

BAIER: We'll have all that coverage through the weekend and wrap up on Monday. Winners and Losers, winner first.

LANE: My winner, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, John Roberts, who held together a five-four majority to pull the federal courts out of the partisan gerrymandering business. It's been one of the things he strongly wanted to have accomplished and pull that off this week.

My loser this week, I'm going to pick Bernie Sanders. In a weird way, Bernie is a victim of his own success. The party has adopted so much of his agenda over the last few years that he no longer stands out the way he did one on one with Hillary, and I think he looked a little lost in that second debate.

BAIER: He's the original. Susan?

FERRECHIO: My winner was Kamala Harris. She is trailing Biden by double digits. And if she wants to get out of that second tier, she had to take a swing and she had to be successful, and she pulled it off. Now she can use that to build momentum for herself and to build her war chest.

BAIER: Loser?

FERRECHIO: My losers were the House Progressive Caucus which is most of the House Democratic Caucus. They are not used to losing, but they lost this week big on a border funding bill that had to go for the more moderate version.

BAIER: Winner and loser?

THIESSEN: My winner is Donald Trump because Democrats embraced open borders and free health care for illegal immigrants, and that's a gift to Trump's campaign. My loser, sadly, is Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. Women's national team who refuses to put her hand over her heart during the national anthem. She's a great athlete. I respect her political views and her right to hold them, and I even support the push for gender equality. But she's playing for team USA. You cannot insult the stars and stripes while wearing the stars and stripes.

BAIER: She did score both goals today against France, but point taken. Winner and Losers, thank you, panel.

When we come back, "Notable Quotables."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: This is a Fox News alert. President Trump just tweeting out that as he gets ready to meet with the Chinese President Xi Jinping, he says "After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea with President Moon. While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the border, the DMZ, just to shake his hand and say hello."

Right now, there is no plan to have any meeting at the DMZ. This is a tweet, and the president suggesting that ahead of his meeting with the Chinese president, so we will follow this development to see if it all comes together.

Finally tonight, "Notable Quotables."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We proudly say we count.

TRUMP: I have no idea who this woman is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to take it off or anything?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do. I just wanted you all to see it.

SANDERS: All student that would be canceled in six months.

JERROLD NADLER, D-N.Y., HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I issued a subpoena yesterday to Mr. Mueller.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rapinoe sends it in low. Goal, U.S.!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not going to the -- White House.

TRUMP: Everybody was saying I'm a warmonger. And now they say I'm a dove.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT: Hola, Miami.

(MUSIC)

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, D-MINN., PRESIDENT CANDIDATE: There's three woman up here who have fought pretty hard for a woman's right to choose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to take a quick break. We are going to get this technical situation fixed.

TRUMP: Don't meddle in the election.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Harris?

HARRIS: America does not want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we're going to put food on their table.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Girlfriend, you are so on, because the United States of America is going to be the best place in the world for a child to grow up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pass the torch.

BIDEN: My time is up. I'm sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: One week, covering this place. Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for the “Special Report.” Fair, balanced, and unafraid. Here's Martha.

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