Trump administration sanctions five Iranian officials who control Iran's elections
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This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," February 20, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes, they go like, why did you block me? Because you're being very rude.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: You don't need to block people on my behalf, OK?
GUTFELD: Yes!
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}WATTERS: Any snotty people, I blocked them.
GUTFELD: I going to have them.
PERINO: No one would have your insults, you just --
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GUTFELD: I would never -- you know who I wouldn't block under any situation?
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: I feel it, you know.
WATTERS: Who?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GUTFELD: A guy, a special guy named Bret Baier. Hi, Bret.
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: You know, muting is an option. Muting, that's good.
GUTFELD: Yes.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BAIER: All right. Thanks, Greg.
Good evening. Welcome to Washington, I'm Bret Baier. "BREAKING TONIGHT", we're following two major stories. Former Trump advisor Roger Stone, facing 40 months in prison tonight. That sentence was handed down today by a federal judge, following rejection earlier this month of a recommendation for a much longer penalty and the subsequent torrent of criticism against both the president and his attorney general.
And Democratic presidential candidates are trying to catch their breath and lick their wounds after a debate that turned into a proverbial circular firing squad last night in Las Vegas.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}We start there. Correspondent Peter Doocy recaps that event that even one of the participants remarked today was a big victory for the man they're trying to defeat. Good evening, Peter.
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTER: Good evening, Bret. Six Democrats walked into the Paris casino last night, and the candidate who may have benefited the most may have been the billionaire from New York, just the one who's staying up the strip in a building with his name on it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But the real winner in the debate last night was Donald Trump.
DOOCY: Michael Bloomberg's debate debut was bruising.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'd like to talk about who were running against a billionaire who calls women fat, broads, and horse face lesbians. And know, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DOOCY: Warren said today, her strategy was deliberate.
WARREN: He thought he could walls on that stage because everybody else off and become the Democratic nominee.
DOOCY: And she brought some burns for other rivals too.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}WARREN: Mayor Buttigieg really has a slogan that was thought up by his consultants to paper over a thin version of a plan. It's not a plan. It's PowerPoint.
PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm more of a Microsoft Word guy.
WARREN: And Amy's plan is even less. It's like a Post-It note, insert plan here.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I must say, I take personal offense since Post-It notes were invented in my state, so --
DOOCY: But Klobuchar and Buttigieg weren't laughing for long.
KLOBUCHAR: I wish everyone is was as perfect as you, Pete. But let me tell you what it's like to be in the arena.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BUTTIGIEG: If winning a race for Senate in Minnesota translated directly to becoming president, I would have grown up under the presidency of Walter Mondale.
DOOCY: At one point you said, you wished everybody could be as perfect as Pete. Did you mean it?
KLOBUCHAR: I would meant it. Yes, as a sarcastically.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DOOCY: At stage left, Michael Bloomberg eventually launched an attack on the front runner.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mr. Bloomberg.
BLOOMBERG: What a wonderful country we have. The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses. What I miss here?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}SANDERS: Where is your home? Which tax -- which tax haven do you have your home?
(CROSSTALK)
BLOOMBERG: New York. New York City, thank you very much, and I pay all my taxes.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DOOCY: Sanders is the only contender arguing the delegate leader by the convention should win even if they haven't clinched.
CHUCK TODD, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NBC NEWS: Thank you, guys.
SANDERS: The person who has the most votes should become the nominee.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TODD: Five noes and a yes.
DOOCY: That's what the Bloomberg campaign is trying to block.
BLOOMBERG: If we choose a candidate who appeals to a small base like Senator Sanders, it will be a fatal error.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DOOCY: But Bloomberg's warning is unwelcome by the candidates, his campaign insists, let's drop out to help Bloomberg stop Sanders: Biden, Klobuchar, and Buttigieg.
BUTTIGIEG: Well, if he thinks there's got to be one alternative to Bernie Sanders, I suppose we could find common ground on that, but then maybe he should step aside for the person who's got the most delegates right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DOOCY: Bloomberg isn't likely to step aside because his campaign just revealed he's already invested $409 million of his own dollars in this campaign. President Trump, says if last night's debate doesn't knock Bloomberg out, nothing will. And the president added that it's not so easy to do what he did last cycle. Bret?
BAIER: Peter Doocy in Las Vegas. Peter, thanks.
President Trump just landed in Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. We have a live look of Air Force One there. He is -- he's about ready to depart there. He'll have a rally in Colorado tonight.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Trump saying today, he wants to see Roger Stone exonerated through the system. The longtime Trump confidant was sentenced to three years and four months in prison today, but he is still awaiting a judge's decision on a request for a new trial.
Chief White House correspondent John Roberts has the latest tonight on that and other things. Good evening, John.
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good evening to you, Bret.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Trump -- or the speculation has been swirling for weeks now that President Trump may move to pardon his old friend Roger Stone. The President did nothing today but heightened that speculation. But he also indicated that it wouldn't happen right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free him off.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ROBERTS: Roger Stone walked out of federal court today a free man for the moment after District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to 40 months in prison. A gag order still in place don't said nothing as he ran a gauntlet of cameras.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pardon Roger Stone!
ROBERTS: In Las Vegas, hours later, President Trump had plenty to say that Stone was treated unfairly and deserves the new trial he is asking for.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to see it play out to its fullest because Roger has a very good chance of exoneration, in my opinion.
ROBERTS: The president insisted Stone was never part of his campaign and dismissed Stone's actions as Roger being Roger.
TRUMP: Roger is definitely a character. Everybody sort of knows Roger. Everybody knows him and most people like him. Some people probably don't. But I do and I always have.
He's a little different. But those are sometimes the most interesting.
ROBERTS: Judge Jackson appeared to disagree with President Trump, pulling no punches with Stone, saying, "This is not campaign hijinks. This is not Roger just being Roger. He lied to Congress. He lied to our elected representatives."
The sentence was less than half of what prosecutors had initially recommended, seven to nine years. And right line with what a revised DOJ recommendation suggested was fair.
Judge Jackson, an Obama appointee also dismissed President Trump's claim that this was a partisan witch hunt, saying Stone was not standing up for the president. He was prosecuted for covering up for the president.
The next step is whether Judge Jackson will order a retrial. Stone is alleging political bias on the part of the jury for a women in his initial court case and got back up today from the president.
TRUMP: Does a woman who was an anti-Trump person, totally.
ROBERTS: But the judge today praise the jury, saying, they "Serve with integrity under difficult circumstances."
Also in question, whether President Trump will pardon Stone if he doesn't get a retrial. For the moment, the president is holding fire.
TRUMP: I'm going to watch the process. I'm going to watch it very closely and at some point, I'll make a determination.
ROBERTS: Democrats fired a shot across the president's bow. A warning of what might lie ahead if he pardons Stone. Adam Schiff, tweeting, "to pardon Stone when his crimes were committed to protect Trump would be a breathtaking act of corruption."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Judge Jackson today said that Stone's utter disrespect for the rule of law was worthy as punishment. She described him in open court as a bare-knuckle brawler who engages in political dirty tricks.
But she also said that the DOJ's initial sentencing recommendation of seven to nine years was greater than was necessary. Bret?
BAIER: John, there's a report tonight. New York Times report Russia-backs Trump's reelection and he fears Democrats will exploit its support. Saying, a classified briefing the lawmakers angered the president who complained the Democrats would weaponize the disclosure.
ROBERTS: Right.
BAIER: In the 2020 election. This is about backing the reelection effort. What do we know about this and how it affects the DNA choice that was made?
ROBERTS: Yes. And that the -- somebody from the ODNI was the one who gave the briefing to lawmakers about that Russian interference. And that the president in the Oval Office chewed out Joe Maguire who was the director of National Intelligence until Rick Grenell took over the job today.
I am told that this briefing did not in any way affect the potential for Maguire to become the permanent Director of National Intelligence. That it was well-known around the White House and around the House of Congress that Maguire was never up for the permanent position.
I'm also told by somebody who was with the president yesterday and spoke to him about Maguire that the president didn't seem to have any lingering hard feelings about all of this.
But he does welcome, Rick Grenell, in that new position over in Virginia. Bret.
BAIER: All right, John, thank you. We'll have more on Rick Grenell and his position a little later in the show. We're going to bring in our panel early. Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen. Susan Page, Washington bureau chief in USA Today. And Byron York, chief political correspondent of the Washington Examiner.
We should point out, the Washington Post first reported the Oval Office confrontation apparently between President Trump and the DNI McGuire. Let's start there and this story and what we make of it, it's breaking.
Byron, you've talked to some people up on Capitol Hill.
BYRON YORK, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, there's really two aspects to the story. There's whatever the president did, angrily or not, and upon hearing the story. And then, there is what the briefing actually consisted of.
And apparently, a lot of people from the director of National Intelligence Office, went to Capitol Hill, a lot of staff or a lot of people's -- Republicans. Some of Republicans felt it was kind of designed to leak.
And they tell reportedly, they tell the lawmakers that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election.
What you don't see in any of these published accounts is what Russia is doing.
BAIER: Yes.
YORK: There is -- there no details at all about that. And members, and anyone who is in the briefing, it was a classified briefing, they're not allowed to talk about it. But Republicans apparently were deeply skeptical.
I mean, you could have a race between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders who spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union. And they wonder, would Russia really, really prefer Trump over Sanders.
So, it's -- everything is very murky about what actually took place.
BAIER: Yes, and we're careful about this story. We have our reporting about what John just said, Susan, it is assumed, I think, that Russia was going to try to interfere in the 2020 election. They did, According to Jim Mattis, who told me in 2018, attempt to have an input in that election. What do you make of this?
SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: Well, we have, I think, established through with our intelligence agencies that they tried to meddle last time around, I think, probably not a surprise.
BAIER: But by the way, the president's leaving Air Force One as you're talking here. Go ahead.
PAGE: Unrelated though, to what I'm saying.
BAIER: Yes. Right.
PAGE: That's not really connected. Now, we've established that they meddled in 2016 and instead -- and on behalf of President Trump. So, I think not a big surprise that they're continuing. In fact, we've had repeated warnings that they have not stopped their effort. Russia has stopped its efforts to meddle in our election.
But there is -- there are few subjects on which President Trump is more sensitive than this one. Because it's one of those controversies that goes to questions about how he won the White House the first time around.
BAIER: Yes. And he's very sensitive to that. Obviously, after 2-1/2 years of the effort on Russia.
MARC THIESSEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.
BAIER: And the impeachment effort. As we're looking, he's in Colorado. He'll be doing a big campaign-style rally. Also, Colorado senator, we should point out, Cory Gardner up for reelection there.
THIESSEN: Sure.
BAIER: So, he'll be at that rally as well, Mark.
THIESSEN: I mean, that he's absolutely right to be worried and upset because it's like, here we go again. And one, when the DNI came out with -- the intelligence committee came out with its report on the 2016 election that it said that the Russians interfered on behalf of Trump or supported Trump.
But they said that their goal was to undermine confidence in our democratic process. It worked like a charm. We spent 2-1/2 years chasing this conspiracy theory that Donald Trump colluded with Russia, millions of dollars, cloud hanging over his presidency lead to impeachment, and this whole saga. And so, of course, the Russians are going to try it again.
Why not? It worked the first time. So, even if they -- whether they want to impact the election in favor of Trump or in favor of Bernie, what they want to do is reduce confidence and cause chaos in our Democracy. And it worked perfectly first time. And then, they want to try it again.
BAIER: Susan, what about the criticism? And we're going to talk about Rick Grenell later and have a piece about him, but he's a loyalist for President Trump. He was a German ambassador. The president is entitled to have who he wants in these positions.
PAGE: You know, I think the criticism is not that he's a loyalist for that he's only a loyalist. He's a loyalist without the kind of background in intelligence matters that the previous people who have held that particular job have had.
Of course, the president's entitled to have wherever he wants, but it's a question of what qualifications does he bring to this job, other than being loyal to President Trump?
BAIER: I mean, Porter Goss didn't have a lot of Intel.
PAGE: (INAUDIBLE)
BAIER: Yes, he was on the House Committee, but --
(CROSSTALK)
THIESSEN: John Brennan was a loyalist to Barack Obama. Did they want to call John Brennan an Obama loyalist? He certainly wasn't, still is.
BAIER: He was in the Intel community, to Susan's point. Go ahead.
YORK: Prior actually to being ambassador to Germany, Grenell's biggest connection was with John Bolton. He had been Bolton's spokesman at the --
(CROSSTALK)
BAIER: It all comes full circle.
YORK: There you go.
BAIER: It all comes full circle or over.
YORK: At the United Nations with a lot of Republicans have been urging the president to clean out not only the National Security Council but the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Not sure that Grenell is actually going to do that. But that's going to be the hope for many Republicans.
BAIER: All right. Well, while we have the president here on the tarmac, let's talk about what he said today about Roger Stone. He says that he's going to stay out of this process. He's going to let it go forward, kind of tipped his hat a little bit, Marc about the potential of pardon.
THIESSEN: Sure.
BAIER: But said that he believes that Stone could get exonerated if this retrial is ordered by the judge.
THIESSEN: I think he got Barr's message to some extent. I wish he wouldn't say that he got pardon me, than what -- I wish he wouldn't say, I'm staying out of it, isn't just, stay out of it.
BAIER: Stay off it, yes.
THIESSEN: That'll be a lot better. Especially because today, what was it -- where did he give this statement? At a speech that was in front of a group of people who had benefited from criminal justice reform.
His message of the day was, I've helping African Americans restart their lives, people who have -- who have given them a second chance. And he completely stepped on that message. The media doesn't want to cover a bunch of African Americans saying good things about Donald Trump and how Donald Trump started their -- restarted their lives. They want to cover Roger Stone.
BAIER: And they did -- they did say a lot of that. There were a lot of speeches about that. Yes.
THIESSEN: Yes, but they want to cover Roger Stone. And so, why is Donald Trump helping them focus on Roger stone, instead of focus on criminal justice reform and what he's doing for African Americans?
BAIER: What about to some story, Susan?
PAGE: Who wants to take my bet -- I would take the side that Roger Stone will not spend the day in prison. Will anyone take that bet?
BAIER: One day?
PAGE: Not, not -- let's say not overnight.
BAIER: Because the judge re-orders the trial and it falls apart, or because of the pardon.
PAGE: Yes, because for a possibly the legal process works out, but if that doesn't, I think he does have (INAUDIBLE).
(CROSSTALK)
YORK: What is extraordinary about this is this 40 months sentence. Remember the recommendation that got everybody so agitated was 87 to 108 months.
BAIER: Which was the original prosecutor's recommendation that our Attorney General Barr stepped in and said, oh, this is too high.
YORK: Exactly.
BAIER: And Washington blew its lid.
YORK: Crazy. And the Justice Department said, look, these seven to nine years is too much. Maybe three to four years is about right. Not -- they weren't saying Roger Stone should not go to jail, they were saying this was a draconian sentence recommendation.
And now the judge has come out and basically said, what the Justice Department, you know, caught holy hell for recommending.
BAIER: We should point out, though, that the prosecutors today, which is a new set of prosecutors.
THIESSEN: Yes.
BAIER: The four resigned, they send it a new set. They come in with stiff sentence as well. And then, the judge sides really with Attorney General Barr with the three years, four months.
YORK: Our judge -- the judge actually said that the prosecutors were doing the right thing, they should recommend this, but it was up to the judge --
(CROSSTALK)
BAIER: To make the decision.
YORK: To judge what the Senate should be.
BAIER: Great.
THIESSEN: One, Barr was vindicated. Two, Trump should have stayed out of it, and then he would have gotten the result without having tainted Barr or caused all of this chaos.
PAGE: Well, maybe Barr should have stayed out of it too because maybe the - -
(CROSSTALK)
THIESSEN: No, that's his job. That's his job.
PAGE: Maybe the judge -- the attorney general is not customarily way into revisit sentencing recommendations.
THIESSEN: You know --
PAGE: But it -- maybe this is what the judge would (INAUDIBLE).
(CROSSTALK)
THIESSEN: You know what, there has been so much politicized prosecution in this -- in this case. I understand why Barr is trying to rein some of this. And the FBI sent false information to the FISA court, lied doctored information.
I understand why Barr is not -- he's putting his finger on the scale and fixing things when he thinks people are going the wrong way.
YORK: And remember the amphibious military operation to arrest Roger Stone.
THIESSEN: Yes.
BAIER: Right, with another network outside. Well, thanks. We're going to talk about the debate. We'll do that in the second panel at the bottom of the show.
All right. The U.S. is tightening the economic screws on Iran even harder tonight. Another round of sanctions is seeking to bring the Iranian regime to heal amid its continued defiance of the U.S. in the West, over matters both nuclear and electoral.
Here is State Department correspondent Rich Edson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICH EDSON, FOX NEWS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Tomorrow, voters in Iran will select members for their nation's parliament. However, their choices are limited. Iran's government has already rejected about 7,000 candidates. And now the State Department is sanctioning five Iranian officials who control Iran's elections.
BRIAN HOOK, STATE DEPARTMENT SPECIAL ENVOY FOR IRAN: The Iranian people know that tomorrow's election is political theatre. It is a Republic in name only, when the government disqualifies half of the candidates running for office.
EDSON: Attempting to drive up turn out tomorrow, Iran supreme leader told citizens this week that it was a religious duty to vote. State Department officials say the election outcome is irrelevant to Iran's stance towards the United States since the Ayatollah is ultimately in charge.
Iran's leaders say they refuse to negotiate until the United States drops sanctions. Instead, the Trump administration says officials are working on more measures against Iran.
HOOK: The president said he will not pay for a meeting. And so, he has said repeatedly that there will not be sanctions relief for a meeting.
EDSON: Iranian officials are, however, meeting with members of Congress. Iran's Foreign Minister met this weekend with Senator Chris Murphy. President Trump has accused Murphy and former Secretary of State John Kerry of violating a federal law in their discussions with Iranian officials.
JOHN KERRY, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: I didn't negotiate with anybody. I did what every senator and secretaries of state in history have done which is continue to go to conferences abroad or have meetings in order to be well informed.
EDSON: The president has suggested Kerry and Murphy have violated the Logan Act. It prohibits unauthorized Americans from conducting foreign policy.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Saudi Arabia, meeting with senior leaders like King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss countering Iran. Pompeo also tour to Saudi airbase that houses about 2,500 U.S. troops, there to respond to threats from Iran.
The Pentagon sent more troops and equipment to Saudi Arabia over the summer after officials blamed Iran for an attack on a Saudi oil facility.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
EDSON: Some U.S. forces have returned home from the region. The Pentagon says about 800 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne are back at Fort Bragg North Carolina. The U.S. sent them to the Middle East after the attack on the U.S. Embassy around the New Year. Bret.
BAIER: Rich Edson, live at the State Department. Rich, thanks.
Up next, domestic terrorism and racial hatred combined for a deadly overnight in Germany. We'll take you there.
First, here is with some of our Fox affiliates around the country are covering tonight. Fox 11 in Los Angeles, where the University of Southern California will phase in free tuition for students from families with an annual income of $80,000 or less.
USC's president, says she wants to make an undergraduate education possible to students from all walks of life.
Fox Five in New York as women's lingerie company, Victoria's Secret, has been beset by falling sales numbers.
And this is a live look at Charlotte, North Carolina from our affiliate Fox 46. One of the big stories there tonight, residents prepare for winter weather. Cruisers salting the roads, making other preparations. Many schools announced closings already.
Elsewhere in the south, more heavy rain is expected. Nearly 10 inches of rain falling this month in parts of Mississippi. We've seen that severe flooding there, it will continue.
That's tonight's live look "OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY" from SPECIAL REPORT. We'll be right back.
ANNOUNCER: This program is brought to you by Jaguar, the art of performance.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: The personal information of millions of tourists, celebrities, CEOs, government officials, who have stayed at MGM resorts hotels, has been posted online by hackers.
Hackers published full names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mails, dates of birth of more than 10.6 million guests of the hospitality company earlier this week.
Meantime, the U.S. and British governments are blaming Russia for cyberattacks on the former Soviet State of Georgia. Those assaults include a major strike that knocked out thousands of state private and media web sites and broadcast systems last year.
The hacks believed to be from Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU. It is the same organization blamed by the Justice Department for attempting to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, says the slaughter of nine people in a Frankfort suburb overnight, exposes what she calls the poison of racism in that country.
A man who had posted a manifesto calling for the complete extermination of many races or cultures open fire in several locations before being found dead at his home.
Senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GREG PALKOT, FOX NEWS SENIOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Extreme right terrorist violence in Germany, part of a disturbing trend. Two cafes in the town of Hanau, a suburb of Frankfurt, frequented by Turkish, Kurdish, and other immigrants, attacked by a gunman last night. Leaving nine dead, six injured, one seriously.
KADIR KOSE, EYEWITNESS (through translator): I heard gunshots then I ran out. The doors were open and people were running out.
PALKOT: Police track the assailant to his home nearby, where they found him shot dead along with this 72-year-old mother, and apparent killing suicide.
CLAUS KAMINSKY, MAYOR OF HANAU, GERMANY (through translator): The last hours are among the saddest this city has experienced in peacetime.
PALKOT: Police say they found a written manifesto, a video, and online material indicating the 43-year-old man identified as Tobias R, was motivated by far-right beliefs. Apparently, acting alone.
PETER FRANK, GERMAN FEDERAL PROSECUTOR (through translator): The suspected perpetrator had posted messages which display a deeply racist disposition.
PALKOT: Extreme right racist terrorism is a growing problem in Germany. This is the third deadly attack in a year. Please say the number of far- right followers was up one-third last year.
ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY (through translator): Racism is a poison. Hatred is a poison. And this poison exists in our society, and it's to blame for far too many crimes.
PALKOT: Still, it was Chancellor Merkel's decision to allow some million immigrants into Germany in 2015 from Syria and elsewhere, which in part, triggered the latest wave of extremism. That has hurt her politically.
Her reaction arousing haunting echoes of Germany's Nazi past.
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKEY (through translator): May God rest the souls of our expatriate citizens who lost their lives in yesterday's heinous attack.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PALKOT: A German authorities are pledging a thorough investigation and perhaps more measures like bands on hate groups to try to deal with this wave of violence. Bret.
BAIER: Greg Palkot in London. Greg, thanks.
Up next, hundreds of sick passengers, two deaths, as cruise ships become a focal point in the coronavirus crisis.
First, "BEYOND OUR BORDERS" tonight. Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, says military police raided the home of his uncle earlier today. Guaido calls the search another act of persecution by a cowardly dictatorship referring to disputed President Nicolas Maduro.
Hundreds of people opposed to new euthanasia laws in Portugal protested outside the parliament building there today. Lawmakers voted to allow physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill people. Portugal's president is said to be reluctant and could issue a veto.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is praising the FBI for sharing information that helps thwart a terror attack by adherence of the Islamic State group in St. Petersburg during the New Year holidays.
In December, Russian agents announced the detention of two Russian men who confessed to plotting the terror attacks in St. Petersburg.
Just some of the other stories "BEYOND OUR BORDERS" tonight. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: Two elderly passengers taken off a cruise ship under quarantine for coronavirus have died. This comes as Chinese officials express guarded optimism over another reduction in the infection rate in that country. Correspondent Jonathan Serrie has tonight's update from home of the CDC in Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN SERRIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Today, international health officials announced the first coronavirus deaths involving passengers from the Diamond Princess, a Japanese man and woman in their 80s who had been hospitalized since last week. More than 600 passengers from the cruise ship have tested positive for COVID-19, accounting for more than half of all cases outside China.
TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: The number of cases in the rest of the world is very small compared to what we have in China. But that may not stay the same for long.
SERRIE: The process of screening passengers as they leave the ship could last through Friday. Those who test positive are isolated at local hospitals.
RENEE SMITH, DIAMOND PRINCESS PASSENGER: They told us that they would test us every 48 hours. And once we have received two consecutive negatives, then we can be released from hospital.
SERRIE: In Cambodia, health officials have cleared the remaining passengers from the Westerdam to return to their home countries after all 781 tested negative for COVID-19. The group had been held for further evaluation when one passenger became sick with coronavirus after she had already left the country.
This afternoon, most of the remaining U.S. travelers evacuated from Wuhan, China, on State Department flights were released from quarantine sites at three U.S. military bases. One evacuee who tested positive for COVID-19 is still under care at a Texas hospital.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SERRIE: Officials in China today expressed confidence as they reported continued declines in new cases, but they have adopted stricter guidelines for counting cases, and international health officials say it's too early to tell whether the outbreak has peaked. Bret?
BAIER: Jonathan, thanks.
Renewed coronavirus fears hit stocks again today. The Dow lost 128, the S&P 500 fell 13, the Nasdaq dropped 66.
The Trump administration is releasing a flurry of new antidrug policies and practices tonight. Those come amid an effort to rein in a familiar problem that this seeing a resurgence -- crystal meth. Correspondent Steve Harrigan shows how they are cracking down on that problem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN HARRIGAN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Drug enforcement agents unveiled today one of the largest methamphetamine busts in U.S. history, more than 1,300 pounds seized in a lab near the Atlanta airport where it was being cooked into enough doses for 2.3 million people from raw materials smuggled in from Mexico.
ROBERT MURPHY, DEA SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: It's a staggering amount of drugs. I know we often display drugs, but I want you to understand the gravity of how much we seized at one place, a staggering amount.
HARRIGAN: The estimated street value of the hall is $6 million. It marks an initial success for Operation Crystal Shield, which aims to smash meth distributors in eight major U.S. cities, including Atlanta.
UTTAM DHILLON, DEA ACTING ADMINISTRATOR: Our goal is to disrupt them and destroy them in these eight cities. When they move to other cities, we will follow them and we will do the same thing there.
HARRIGAN: There are still four times more opioid overdoses in the U.S. than from methamphetamine, but meth seizures in the past year are up more than 147 percent, while meth production has dropped dramatically in the U.S., while moving to Mexico where precursor chemicals are still readily available. The purity of the product is now close to 100 percent. Agents say it is a near perfect drug for the cartels to push -- addictive, profitable, and most of all, entirely synthetic.
DHILLON: It is not seasonal. It's a 24/7 operation if they want it to be.
HARRIGAN: There are now an estimated 1 million methamphetamine addicts in the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIGAN: Unlike opioids, there are no drugs to wean methamphetamine addicts. The only way out is behavioral change. Bret?
BAIER: Steve, thank you.
When we come back, the president's pick to be the nation's top intelligence chief. Who is Richard Grenell, and why are so many people adamantly opposed to this selection? We'll take a look.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: As we told you last night in reference to earlier tonight, President Trump has selected his current ambassador to Germany as his next acting Director of National Intelligence, likely a temporary move before another nomination. But still there is already serious opposition to this, not only to Ric Grenell, but how the president is putting him in the job. Correspondent Doug McKelway explains tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD GRENELL, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO GERMANY: It makes my job so much easier.
DOUG MCKELWAY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell praising President Trump's tweets while other aides plead for a halt. The president, who values loyalty, has picked Grenell to be acting Director of National Intelligence. The openly gay Grenell becomes at least the 29th Trump cabinet member to hold an acting position, allowing him to bypass the ruthless grilling that would surely come in a Senate confirmation. It's adding to his list of political enemies at home and abroad. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Intel Committee, Mark Warner, tweeting "Grenell is a man without any intelligence experience." Obama U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power tweeting Grenell has politicized every issue he has touched. She writes "His appointment would be a travesty."
In Germany, "Der Spiegel" interviewed 30 sources and concluded Grenell is superficial, a vain, narcissistic person who dishes out aggressively, but can barely handle criticism. Grenell is also known for a snarky, some say sexist, tongue, apologizing for comments like "Hillary is starting to look like Madeline Albright," Rachel Maddow should "put on a necklace." He wondered aloud if Callista Gingrich's "hair snaps on."
To supporters, Grenell is like his boss -- abrasively draining the swamp, even if it extends across the Atlantic, bluntly telling allies the U.S. is no longer there NATO piggy bank.
GRENELL: Those days are coming to an end. And I get it that that is not as comfortable, and we are asking them to do more, and they've got to change the status quo.
MCKELWAY: While heading national intelligence, Grenell will retain his ambassadorship. On Tuesday he hinted that the purpose of this dual role is U.S. concern over Germany's interest in China's 5G network, Huawei.
GRENELL: Germans know, and the German intel services know, this means your data and individual's data immediately goes to the Communist Party.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCKELWAY: There was a time when government officials scoffed at placing a gay man in a key intelligence position for fear that he would be subject to blackmail. Those days are long gone. Grenell was ahead of the curve, announcing to his evangelical parents in 1999 that he was an openly gay Christian. Bret?
BAIER: Doug, thank you.
Next up, the panel on last night's debate, the presidential race going forward. Keep it here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm the only one on this stage that has actually gotten anything done on health care.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're not going to throw out capitalism. We tried that -- other countries tried that. It was called communism, and it just didn't work.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe in Democratic Socialism for working people, not billionaires.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think you look at Donald Trump and say we need someone richer in the White House.
PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm used to senators telling mayors that senators are more important than mayors, but this is the arena, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: It was quite a debate last night in Las Vegas. At the same time the debate was going on, the president was holding a rally, we are watching the rally here in Colorado tonight. Right now, Vice President Pence is speaking. But he was at -- the president was -- last night in Arizona getting kind of a play-by-play as the debate was happening. He's how he portrayed it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There have never been rallies like that. Sleepy Joe Biden the other day had 68 people.
And now they have a new member of the crew, Mini Mike. Mini Mike.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: "No Boxes," we call him "No Boxes." And I hear he is getting pounded tonight.
The DNC is going to take it away from Bernie again, and that's OK because we don't care who the hell it is, we're going to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: And we just had a pool report that as he was getting off, he was talking to people on the tarmac in Colorado asking them how they thought Michael Bloomberg did in the debate last night.
We're back with our panel, "Washington Post" columnist Marc Thiessen, Susan Page, Washington bureau chief at "USA Today," and Byron York, chief political correspondent of the "Washington Examiner." Susan, there's been a lot of talk about Bloomberg and coming out on this debate and seeming like he was not prepared for some of these big moments.
SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "USA TODAY": It's 11 years since he's been on the debate stage, I think, and it showed. He was rusty, he was humorless, he wasn't prepared for the most obvious attacks, for the most obvious questions on things like stop and frisk in the NDAs that women have signed with his company to avoid disclosing allegations of a hostile workplace. So that was his -- what is it, he has spent $400 million so far. He's acquired a lot of really talented people. Why haven't they given him better advice? Why wasn't he better prepared?
BAIER: Here is Bloomberg kind of struggling with the common man, reaching the common man.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: Fortunately, I make a lot of money, and we do business all around the world, and we are preparing -- the number of pages will probably be thousands of pages. I can't go to TurboTax.
PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We shouldn't have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down, and another candidate who wants to buy this party out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Byron?
BRYON YORK, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "WASHINGTON EXAMINER": It was just a few hours before the debate that Bloomberg strategists were suggesting that Biden, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar should all just drop out of the race and just leave it to Mike. He will take care of everything.
BAIER: I think it's chutzpah.
YORK: Looks kind of ridiculous.
But actually the other part of that memo was if these candidates don't drop out of the race, if it remains this multicandidate race, then Bernie Sanders can win the nomination. And indeed, in national polling, just checked, Real Clear Politics average, Sanders has a 10-point lead in the national polls. It's hard to see how he is not going to do well in Nevada, and he'll do well probably throughout Super Tuesday. So Bloomberg actually was raising this real concern that if the field continues as it is, it looks very good for Bernie Sanders.
BAIER: And it's hard to see, Mark, how any of these other candidates drop out trying to be the alternative to Bernie Sanders. Peter Doocy caught up with Amy Klobuchar after the debate, and she had her own firing squad between Mayor Pete that she took some hits on. Here's what she had to say.
That's Bernie Sanders with his hands up. That's not Amy Klobuchar.
(LAUGHTER)
BAIER: Let's try that again, Amy Klobuchar, a debate slugfest, how about that?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: FOX viewers are turning in, moderate Republicans, independents, people that I have brought with me in past elections. And I think they looked at that slugfest and they said wait a minute, I want to see someone that is going to be able to be a contrast to Donald Trump. That is me.
I'm not sure that was good for our party. I'm hoping the next debate will be a little less that and a little more how we take on Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Marc?
MARC THIESSEN, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: The more he spends, the more he muddles the middle lane and helps Bernie Sanders. But I think Bloomberg has a bigger problem than simply a bad debate performance. He has a fundamental problem. What do the Democrats need to do to beat Donald Trump? They need to do three things. They need to energize African-American voters who turned out for Barack Obama but didn't turn out for Hillary Clinton. Second, they need to win back blue-collar voters who voted twice for Obama but then they voted for Trump. And third, they need to hold onto suburban women who defected in the 2018 election.
Mike Bloomberg is alienating all three of those groups. His stop-and-frisk comments make it very, very hard for him to win over African-Americans. He said the other day a video came out of him talking about how farmers and factory workers don't have enough gray matter for the information economy. That is not going to help win back the blue-collar vote. And then all the things we heard about in the debate about women, that takes away the Democrats' advantage over Trump with suburban women. So he has a fundamental problem with his candidacy that's going to make it very hard for him to be a successful nominee.
BAIER: Meantime, these polls that are coming out are really tracking for the president. The Gallup poll again is at 49 percent on job approval, which is the highest it has been in that poll. It matches the last time they tracked. Quinnipiac out with approval ratings in swing states for the president, 50 percent in Wisconsin, you see 44 in Pennsylvania, Michigan.
Wisconsin is interesting, Pennsylvania and Michigan on the head-to-heads match the other states. Wisconsin, the president lines up pretty well against every single candidate, Susan. And you have to look at this for Democrats who are holding their convention in Milwaukee and say this is maybe why the red alert is going off about Wisconsin.
PAGE: There's a lot of concern about -- Democrats are concerned the president has had a good period of time here on several fronts, especially since he was acquitted in the impeachment trial, there's no question about that. And you see the economy chugging along. That has been very helpful for him.
But the Democratic race isn't done yet, and I think sometimes we tend to jump the gun when it comes to wanting it to be over and sorted out. Bernie Sanders is 10 points up in the national average, but he's only at 27 percent. He has had a lot of trouble getting over a third of the Democratic vote. That leaves a lot of Democrats who are either undecided or backing somebody else. There is some time for this to sort out in a way that is different from the direction it seems to be going now.
BAIER: But, Byron, 38 percent of the delegates will be chosen at Super Tuesday. Beyond that you'd have to clear the other lane to get a consensus candidate who doesn't split that vote.
YORK: Right. And Bloomberg is not going to be that person. To build on what Marc was saying, the way you appeal to these groups that Bloomberg is not appealing to right now is you offer some sort of vision for the country. And Obama obviously did it, Bill Clinton did it, Democrats like that sort of thing. And when closing statements came around last night and it was time to offer some sort of vision, Bloomberg said, look, this is a management job, and I am a manager, and I can just manage this. He offered absolutely nothing in the way of vision and nothing to actually inspire voters, as a matter of fact saying "Bloomberg" and "inspire voters" in the same sentences is kind of odd.
(LAUGHTER)
BAIER: All right, here is Bloomberg versus Bernie on socialism, and this will be a battle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLOOMBERG: The best-known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses. What did I miss here.
SANDERS: You missed I work in Washington, house one --
BLOOMBERG: That's the first problem.
SANDERS: Live in Burlington, house two --
BLOOMBERG: House two.
SANDERS: -- and like thousands of other Vermonters I do have a summer cabin. Forgive me for that. Where is your home? Which tax haven do you have your home?
BLOOMBERG: New York City, thank you very much, and I pay all my taxes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: And that battle is going to continue. Panel, thank you.
When we come back, a message of hope in the snow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: Finally tonight, a message of hope. Michelle Schambach was diagnosed with a fast-growing brain tumor. She's from Guatemala, and her doctor recommended she travel to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio to receive her treatment. Outside the hospital, her daughter Marie saw snow for the first time, so she went down not to play in the snow but to write a message to her mom. She wrote "Mom, Be Brave" outside Michell's window to raise her spirits. And she did.
Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for this SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and unafraid. "The Story" guest-hosted by my friend Ed Henry starts right now. Hey, Ed.
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