Putin looks desperate: Howard Kurtz
The 'Special Report' All-Star panel sounds off on President Biden's speech on Russia as its war in Ukraine continues.
This is a rush transcript of "Special Report with Bret Baier" on September 21, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
BAIER: Reaction to President Biden at the United Nations talking about Russia. Meantime, that nuclear threat that we have been referencing from Vladimir Putin, other senators reacting to it, Senator Mitt Romney with ah statement, "If Russia uses nuclear weapons, peaceful and responsible nations would be forced to turn back the clock for those aligned with a nuclear terror state."
Meantime, Russia is recruiting people, trying to get them, and it's not really recruiting. Breaking Russian airlines order to stop selling tickets to Russian men 18 to 65. Flights from Moscow to the capital of Georgia, Turkey, Armenia which do not require visas for Russians, for September 21st were unavailable within minutes of Putin's announcement, according to Russia's top planning websites, essentially getting men those ages into the military to Ukraine.
Let's bring in our panel, Juan Williams is a FOX News analyst, FOX News media analyst and host of FOX's MEDIA BUZZ, Howard Kurtz, and Mollie Hemingway, editor in chief at "The Federalist." Mollie, we have been hearing about how Ukraine is making -- having success, all the weapons and money going in from the U.S. You hear General Kellogg. That is not where the American people are as far as U.S. getting involved in the war. Where do you see it tonight with these new threats and where Putin is?
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "THE FEDERALIST": We are in a very serious situation. The speech that Biden gave at the U.N. today reminds me that at the beginning of this conflict Biden said he was going to unite the world against Russia. He has completely failed to do that outside of western Europe. Obviously, China and Russia are fairly well allied. You've got countries in Africa and the Middle East. And then even the countries in Europe are not really doing that much. And polling does show that Americans do not want us to be doing so much more than these wealthy European countries.
But what Putin said is that he is mobilizing forces. That's an escalation. And he reminded people of his ace in the hole, that he has 6,500 nuclear warheads. So we need to be taking this very soberly, very seriously, and thinking about ways to do escalate the situation, unless we want that to happen.
BAIER: Here is national security council coordinator John Kirby.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: He doesn't have a whole lot of sympathetic ears in Russia or elsewhere around the world, that's clear. And I think it's also increasingly clear to Mr. Putin that he's not doing well in Ukraine. Why else would you call up a mobilization now of 300,000 and some odd troops?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Howie?
HOWARD KURTZ, FOX NEWS HOST: President Biden gave a strongly delivered speech, I'll have to say that. But increasingly, Vladimir Putin looks desperate. His military has failed, is retreating. Biden had to respond to the nuclear threats, to the latest evidence of atrocities, and also to this annexation plan.
But what really has changed as a result of this speech? Russia is a member of the Security Council, can veto any enforcement action. And the crippling sanctions haven't crippled Moscow. And not to jump ahead, but in a media footnote, reaction to the president's U.N. speech was completely obliterated on MSNBC, to a lesser extent on CNN, when seconds later New York's attorney general announced a civil suit against Donald Trump and his company.
BAIER: Yes, we'll talk about that in a second. Juan, your thoughts. I want to get your thoughts about the speech, but also the president didn't talk about some things, didn't really talk about Taiwan and China, didn't talk about Iran and the protests that are ongoing. He's put out some statements and that sort of thing. Your thoughts?
JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: I think he gave a strong, steadyhanded speech with regard to the success of U.S. policy and the success in holding the western allies, to Mollie's point about there are other countries that really are more towards the Russian side of this. But the important thing for the moment with winter approaching and reliance on Russian gas and oil being such a critical issue for the western allies is that they remain solid with U.S. policy, and Putin is very clearly losing.
The reason strong and steady is so important here is because of the nuclear threat. I don't think we saw any half-stepping, backstepping, skittishness from the president of the United States. To the contrary, I think he was making it very clear the United States remains committed to supporting Ukraine as it's being invaded by its neighbor. And when you think about the fact that Putin is talking about 300,000, not a general call -- this is really the armed force reserve now being called up -- I think it's a signal of Putin saying I'm losing, I don't know how I'm going to lose. I don't want to lose. But I've got do something right now.
The estimates are that more than 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, much more have been wounded. I don't think there is any question he would not be taking these steps that we are seeing if he was not aware that he is losing.
BAIER: Mollie?
HEMINGWAY: It's true that there have been these setbacks. And people keep saying this is evidence that he is losing, or this is proof that he is losing. But these actions that he is taking, mobilizing troops, instituting a draft, reminding people of nuclear weapons is also evidence that he is unwilling to lose. And so we need to think very seriously. Again, is this where we want to be putting our resources? We have an economic crisis right now. We have energy situations that are going to be very bad and they're going to get very bad in Europe. We do not have unlimited money, and the American people have already been saying they are not entirely sure that we should be the only ones really investing so heavily here.
We have other issues in China. We have other -- there are many other important parts of the world. And so we don't need this kind of schoolyard posturing that we see from people, like senators or senators who become presidents. We need people who are very serious and understand that we do not want a nuclear conflict here. We need to end this as quickly as possible and as favorably as possible to the Ukrainian people.
BAIER: OK, let's turn to that story you just mentioned. Here is the New York attorney general and the former U.S. attorney general reacting to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LETITIA JAMES, (D) NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: Statements of financial condition were greatly exaggerated, grossly inflated, objectively false, therefore, fraudulent. And as a result of that, we are seeking relief, and Mr. Trump, the Trump Organization, his family, they should all be held accountable.
WILLIAM BARR, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: It's hard for me not to conclude it's a political hit job. This is a woman who campaigned for office saying -- promising she was going to go after Trump. What persuades me that this is overreach is that she went after the children. She just says they conspired. She has no evidence that they played a role in this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: This is a civil case. It's about 300 pages long, Howie. It goes deep into the Trump business. Thoughts?
KURTZ: The reason that Letitia James is bringing a civil suit is that the Manhattan D.A. looked at much of the same evidence and decided not to bring criminal charges. So she gets up there as a Democratic attorney general who did, in fact, campaign that she would go after Trump, and she is accusing Donald Trump and his adult children and the company of all kinds of crimes that she can't prosecute.
Now, maybe she has the goods. But as she went through the details of the evaluations and appraisals, it's incredibly complicated stuff. Every real estate company tries within legal bounds to make its balance sheet look better. Trump side is going to come back with own experts and they're going to say, no, this is all perfectly reasonable. This will be fought out in the courts for a long time.
BAIER: And quickly, Juan, the people who are hurt are the banks that he took --
KURTZ: Big banks.
BAIER: The big banks?
WILLIAMS: No. In fact, that's his defense, that the banks made money.
BAIER: Right. But I'm saying there are criminal referrals to the IRS. There are criminal referrals that she will make, but is it there?
WILLIAMS: You know what? She is on the line. It's not a one-way street. If she loses, she looks like she has got egg on her face.
BAIER: We are going to follow it. Panel, thanks, as always.
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