WATCH: Bret Baier on the Dems Replacing Biden in 2024: “More Likely Than Ever Before”
Bret Baier, Chief Political Anchor for Fox News & Anchor of Special Report with Bret Baier, weeknights at 6pm, and author of the upcoming book To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment (Out October 10rd 2023) joined the Guy Benson Show to discuss the new impeachment inquiry into Biden made by House Republicans, as well as Biden lying about his 9/11 appearances and the state of the 2024 presidential election on both sides of the isle.
Watch the full interview below:
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Full Transcript:
Guy Benson: Brett Baier is with us. He is the Chief Political Anchor here at Fox News. As I mentioned, he hosts Special Report. He’s got multiple bestselling books, including a new one coming out. You can preorder it to rescue the Constitution, George Washington and the fragile American experiment. When does that come out?
Bret Baier: October 10th.
Guy Benson: Okay, so we’re counting down.
Bret Baier: Thanks for the plug. Yeah, it’s it is a really great encapsulation of the founding Fathers. And, you know, I’ve done these presidential books for a while, and the last one was on Grant as president. This one focuses on George Washington, but there are so many other characters. And I just think at this time, it’s really, really a great read.
Guy Benson: Salient. Relevant. Yeah. So we were rescuing the Republic in the last one. Now, rescuing the Constitution. A lot of.
Bret Baier: Rescuing to do big.
Guy Benson: Rescues. So that’s October 10th. You can preorder now. And also, I just found out minutes ago that you have inked a brand new deal, a contract extension here at Fox for years to come. So, God willing, we’ll be working together for years to come. Congratulations. Thank you.
Bret Baier: Very much.
Guy Benson: Very well-deserved.
Bret Baier: I love my job and it’s different every day. And it’s a lot of fun working with you and a really great team.
Guy Benson: Let’s dive into some of the news of the day. The speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, kind of surprising people, at least in the way that he did this. He came out today and announced that he is endorsing and creating this impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Here’s the conclusion of what he said earlier. Cut 32.
Speaker McCarthy: I do not make this decision likely. And regardless of your party or who you voted for, these facts should concern all Americans. The American people deserve to know that the public offices are not for sale and that the federal government is not being used to cover up the actions of a politically associated family. Now, I would encourage the president and his team to fully cooperate with this investigation in the interests of transparency. We are committed to getting the answers for the American public. Nothing more, nothing less. We will go wherever the evidence takes us.
Guy Benson: Okay. So he referenced some of the facts and evidence, and he laid out quite a lot, actually, that the Republicans have uncovered in the course of related investigations, not with that I-word attached to them, but the Judiciary Committee, the Oversight committee, they found a lot just starting with the reaction to this brat. It seems like a lot of people in the press and the Democrats certainly are saying, oh, there’s no evidence. It’s actually a lot of evidence. It may not be directly at the doorstep of Joe Biden, all of it yet, but it’s crept closer and closer. And if you didn’t listen to the entire statement from McCarthy and just saw a headline, you might think, oh, there’s nothing there. At least in my estimation. We have learned a fair amount in recent months and it’s barely been covered.
Bret Baier: Exactly. I mean, we’ve covered it, but there’s there’s not been a lot of coverage. In fact, there have been journalists on shows not like this, but other shows saying there’s just no evidence and even confronted with, well, there’s some evidence, maybe it’s circumstantial.
Guy Benson: Philip Bump of The Washington Post who got up and.
Bret Baier: Left that exchange is really quite something. Yeah, because, you know, our job is to ask questions. Listen, there are questions. There are more questions. There are whistleblowers. There are text messages that indicate anthrax. There are bank records. They haven’t you know, I don’t think gotten all the dots all the way to then-Vice President Biden. But, boy, the dots are closing in. And so there are a lot of people that think there is much to inquire about. It’s when you put that other word in front of it that I think it just becomes this thought process that are we as a country going to go back and forth depending on the party and impeach the other guy. And that’s what critics look at this process. But as far as the substance there is there there.
Guy Benson: Yes, exactly. And I think whether you want to quibble about if this would have been best held in the province of these other committees and don’t use the word impeachment, would that politically be safer or less explosive for the moment? I’m open to that argument. But I also think especially many Trump supporters out there will have exactly zero. I guess they will not be swayed at all. They will have zero sympathy for the argument that this could cheapen the impeachment process. They said that’s exactly what you guys have already done, certainly with the first one last time against President Trump. People were saying at the time, if you go forward with that impeachment round one against Trump, then it’ll be a tit for tat next time. Here we are in the trouble. Say, yeah, that we told you so. Yeah.
Bret Baier: Look at what led to that first impeachment. The phone call. And Zelensky had said I didn’t feel pressured. You know, all of this stuff.
Guy Benson: Was about Burisma and about the firing of the prosecutor. I mean, it’s it’s the same universe of facts just on the other foot, which is bizarre.
Bret Baier: Bizarre. It’s bizarre. It’s a bizarro world. Superman. The bizarro version. I think you’re right. And these are two very unique characters in politics in President Biden and former President Trump. And they cross in this unique way. I think that broadly it’s very serious to start an impeachment inquiry. I also think that because Speaker McCarthy needs to get a hat tip to the House Freedom Caucus and to the people on the right up on the Hill that this fits into, Hey, I’m going to do this now. Yeah.
Guy Benson: And by the way, just for the record, I said on this program, I wrote at the time, I thought that the first impeachment against President Trump was wrongheaded. They shouldn’t have gone that direction. I thought he did behave badly and deserved some sort of reprimand based on what he was saying on that phone call. But also having followed very closely the evidence mounting against the Biden family and Burisma and the fired prosecutor and the clearly false denials and the changing stories that we’ve gotten from the White House and the stonewalling, this is an absolutely real scandal that whether you want to say it, it’s worthy of an impeachment word yet. I don’t know. But it is it’s very, very serious. You’ve been doing this a while, Brad. Yeah. And so I just.
Bret Baier: We evolution, just that sentence. He never talked about his son’s business and then he never was involved in the business and, you know, like, okay, yes, he went to some dinners, but he talked about the weather. I mean, it just became tougher and tougher to believe what was coming out.
Guy Benson: Yep. And then maybe he was involved in the business because he’s seeing Hunter about Ukraine stuff from his secret pseudonym emails. I mean, again, it the more we learn, the worse it looks for them. And the total refusal to even talk about it from the White House I think becomes less tenable, but only if the media writ large decides it is, because as long as they can put it off in the Fox and New York Post ghetto, they’ll do it. It’ll take other journalists having to ask some questions, have some curiosity, some appetite. I don’t know if that’ll happen. To the point that you just raised, though, McCarthy is in a bit of a bind because the Republican base wants political blood. They want revenge from the last impeachments. They’ve been clamoring for an impeachment here against Biden for a while. Freedom Caucus is recalcitrant on some budget related votes upcoming. McCarthy initially had said he would only bring this if there was a vote in favor of starting this in the House. And now he’s done it himself unilaterally because maybe he didn’t have the votes. A lot of moving parts here politically kind of behind the scenes.
Bret Baier: Yeah, definitely. And, you know, every move in Washington has three moves that happen behind the scenes to make that move. But this one is pretty clear to somebody who looks at McCarthy’s situation, who has a very slim majority dealing with very tenuous budget issues. There’s a big part of his caucus that wants the numbers to come down, not just the traditional Washington cut, which is a decrease in the increase in spending.
Guy Benson: Right.
Bret Baier: That’s not cut. That’s how usually Congress deals with what they call a decrease is just to slow the increase and they want to cut, cut. And that’s tougher to get past Senate Republicans. It’s tougher.
Guy Benson: Maybe to get out of the House to.
Bret Baier: Get at all House. And so I think, you know, it’s going to be delicate to avoid a government shutdown October 1st. And, you know, politically, you know, there’s some guys on the right that say that’s okay, you know, this is what we’re fighting for. But a lot of Republicans going back to districts say it’s just tough to defend.
Guy Benson: Right. And so maybe this is a sop to some of the hardliners saying, okay, you’re getting your way on this thing over here. We’re starting the I-word inquiry. At least follow the evidence. But can you cut me some slack over here because we’re a few weeks away. I have no idea if that’s going to actually work. But the speaker may have started thinking about some of those calculations. And we saw what he said this morning. We played you a sound bite of that. But I want to get your reaction to something that I spent the opening segment talking about today. We did the whole show on 911 yesterday, almost nothing but the remembrance. And I mentioned kind of in passing that President Biden for the first time wasn’t at any of the major memorials president had always been at one of. Since 2002. And I didn’t jump down his throat. I didn’t pound the table saying this is an outrage and disgrace is spitting in the eye of the families and all that. Because I know some people said that and a lot of people feel that way, especially given what happened in Afghanistan. But I said there’s a way to frame this, to say he was doing important things abroad, especially with India. The timing is still a little bit off to me, but nevertheless. And then he showed up in Alaska and made up a story about what he was doing the day after 911. And like Hillary Clinton actually lived the thing that he said he did and used the exact same phrase, gates of hell. I wonder if he sort of just took that as his own at some point or if he was misremembering, he was thinking about a later date that he went to ground zero. At least from where I sit, if you’re going to be the first president not to show up when you do actually finally say something about 911, you better get every single thing right. And yet again, he did not.
Bret Baier: Yeah, it’s becoming a problem. I mean, it’s the misremembering events in his life is a problem. And talking at some of these events where he’s extends to extemporaneous is a problem. And notice he’s not doing a lot of interviews. He’s not doing a lot of one on ones. You know, we’ve asked every week since he won the South Carolina primary as candidate Joe Biden. It’s been a while for for an interview. We thought we were going to have one for the Super Bowl, what Fox held. But that is no dice.
Guy Benson: So and by the way, they were delighted when you had a really, I think, tough and fair hour long interview with Donald Trump. Trump sat down for it. I think he made some self-inflicted wounds in that interview, but he did it. Yeah. And the Democrats are circulating some of the clips. Look at this. Look at that. And their guy, the sitting president, won’t even give you 10 minutes.
Bret Baier: Yeah. They also circulated clips of Governor DeSantis when he sat down for an hour or so. Yes, you’re right. And I think it’s going to be an issue, which is why these poll numbers are reflecting that not only with independents and Republicans, but with Democrats concerned about his possibilities.
Guy Benson: So my dad and I have a bet and I have not talked about this publicly yet, but we’ve bet each other a nice bottle of wine.
Bret Baier: Nice.
Guy Benson: That Joe Biden will not be the Democratic nominee for president next year. My dad, that’s his bet. My bet is that he will be.
Bret Baier: I added that question to candidate casino. Oh, and Hugh Hewitt was the only guy who put 90 on. No.
Guy Benson: Okay.
Bret Baier: And ten on Yes by 11 with Hewitt. Everybody else kind of couched it with 6040.
Guy Benson: They’re running out of time. To some extent, the Democrats are, if they want to go in a different direction. Also, there’s no clear alternative either. If there was someone just sort of right there waiting in the wings where everyone said, okay, we understand if we have to break glass emergency, there is the person, Michelle Obama.
Bret Baier: But that’s she doesn’t want she doesn’t.
Guy Benson: Want anything to do.
Bret Baier: With it. It’s just the whisper campaign.
Guy Benson: Right. That’s been going on for many, many years. She’s like, No, thank you. I like my money over here. Thank you very much in my privacy. So there isn’t a clear alternative at all. He’s the incumbent. He doesn’t seem to want to go anywhere. So for that reason, I think it’ll probably still be him. But. The more you see this type of thing and some of the moments in Vietnam and the polls being hammered by the media about his age. I don’t know. My dad might end up with a nice bottle of wine here. What do you think? The dynamic looks like. Not to make a prediction, but what’s the calculation that would have to be made and when? Yeah.
Bret Baier: So first of all, I think it’s more possible now than it ever was before.
Guy Benson: I agree, if that makes sense.
Bret Baier: So because of all of these incidents, because of all of this stuff, I think it becomes a little bit more likely. Now, how would it happen, you know? Does he go to South Carolina, win the primary and say, you know what? I’ve done my duty and step aside. I mean, for whom? And then?
Guy Benson: And then how do you rehearse campaigns from that point? Like you’re in the middle of the primaries already.
Bret Baier: Yeah. And you, you know, ballots. You have all kinds of questions about all that.
Guy Benson: And he’s proud, He’s ornery. He’s he feels like he’s always been underestimated and sneered at and.
Bret Baier: Feels like he’s the only one that can beat Donald Trump.
Guy Benson: Those are the reasons why I’m still feeling pretty good about my bet, but I don’t know. I’m less convinced of it. And then relatedly, last question, Brett. It’s a tough one because I’m starting to get it more and more, and I’ve been, at least in recent months, very eager to say absolutely not. But the question is, is the Republican primary over? And I’ve been saying absolutely not for all these reasons, but. The reasons that then come up are like, Oh, well, when this happens, or maybe after that happens or maybe when this these things keep coming and going and Trump’s lead is either right there or growing. I know there have been zero votes yet and there won’t be any until January. It’s a long time, but there have been things that could like seismic events that could change things, and they haven’t. So. Is there a time when people will start to look around and just kind of say, all right, maybe this thing is over? I’m not rooting for that. But my analysis is like, we’re moving in that direction.
Bret Baier: Yeah. Polls are polls and we do see shifts in them, but not seismic shifts. And this is a seismic lead for the former president. Now, anecdotally, he doesn’t have that big of an operation on the ground in Iowa. Right. It’s not as big as Desantis’s operation. It’s not as big as some other operations as far as get out the vote. But does that matter? I don’t think so.
Guy Benson: The lead is small. It could matter if the lead is 30 points, doesn’t matter.
Bret Baier: So right now, if you had to do candidate casino and you had to put your house up on it. TRUMP Yeah.
Guy Benson: And I would be voting not for that. Yeah, but if I’m betting I’m betting on what I think is I don’t know how else you could see it. I’d say it’s like 9010, 80, 20, maybe at best proposition. I guess we’ll see. We might talk about one or more of these topics tonight on the panel hosted by Bret Beyer on Special Report on the 6 p.m. hour Fox News Channel. As always. Brat, congratulations on the book. Coming out to Rescue the Constitution October 10th. Available now for preorder and congratulations again on the New deal. Thrilled.
Bret Baier: Thank you.
Guy Benson: We’ll be right back.
