REPORT-WI-01
Video; Obamacare Debate; Obama Letter to Americans; Foggy Bottom Farewell;
Tragedy Narrowly Averted; Istanbul Terror Attack; NYC ID Card Controversy;
Consumer Electronics Show Held in Las Vegas; Trump Comments on Julian
Assange Criticized; President Obama Reflects on His Legacy - Part 2>
Emanuel, Kevin Corke, James Rosen, Jennifer Griffin, John Huddy, David Lee
Miller, Adam Housley>
World Affairs; Air Force; Terrorism; Middle East; Immigration; Business;
Technology; Politics>
Conspiracy theories aside, Turkish officials say he is likely from the Uighur community in Turkey, the ethnic group of Chinese Muslims living in central and eastern Asia. Turkish police detained several people from that community during a raid this morning outside Istanbul.
Authorities also believe he was the sole shooter, though someone inside the club, possibly a lookout, may have helped him. Police are also not ruling out the possibility the gun man may have already left the country.
KAYNAK: We don't disregard that possibility, but I surmise we will get a result from operations across the country since security is tightened at the airports.
HUDDY: Turkish police say they have arrested 36 people since Sunday's massacre including 20 suspected ISIS militants from Central Asia yesterday in the Turkish city of Ismir. That's where a car bomb exploded outside the city's courthouse today killing two people. Though officials say it may have been the work of Kurdish militants.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUDDY: Yet more violence in a country already dealing with battles on several fronts. Turkey's deputy prime minister also added that these attacks will not stop his country from being active in the wars in Iraq and Syria -- Bret.
BAIER: John Huddy in our Middle East newsroom. John -- thank you.
Back here in the U.S., a fight is under way in New York City to preserve the records of about a million city residents who used a municipal program to get an ID Card. Those fighting to preserve the records say it is a matter of national security. Others say it has the potential to give the Trump administration an opening to deport people living in the city illegally.
Correspondent David Lee Miller takes a look at both sides of this issue from New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, and three.
DAVID LEE MILLER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Sara Coalridge (ph) is one of nearly a million New York City residents who have applied for a municipal ID Card.
SARA COALRIDGE, NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT: I just think as a British citizen living in the U.S., it is good to have a (inaudible) form of ID.
MILLER: While Coalridge has the proper visa to enter and remain in the U.S. most applicants for a New York City ID are undocumented immigrants.
Critics say obtaining a card is too easy. Acceptable documents needed by applicants can include an expired foreign passport and proof of a 15 day homeless shelter residents.
The program was created under the administration of Democratic mayor Bill de Blasio to help people who have no other recognized form of identification. A provision of the two-year-old law permits the city to purge all I.D. card data and documents at the start of this year. The delete option was designed to prevent a future Republican administration from using the information to deport undocumented immigrants. Two Republican state lawmakers have gone to court demanding the city not destroy the I.D. cards documentation. They say the issue has nothing to do with immigration but criminal activity.
RON CASTORINA, (R) NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY: You can't allow people with a scantily vetted I.D. card to open up bank accounts where they could perhaps finance terrorism, engage in all types of fraud.
MILLER: According to city records, since the I.D. program got underway, there have been 102 cases of likely fraud related to obtaining the cards. Mayor de Blasio is optimistic. The city's right to delete applicant documentation will be upheld in court.
BILL DE BLASIO, (D) NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: We are very confident in our position. Our city law is abundantly clear. It went unchallenged for two years. It is quite clear about the timelines, the methodology, and the need to protect people's confidentiality.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MILLER: New York's deputy commissioner for counterterrorism testified today that the city's municipal ideas are of little use to those who want to commit acts of terror. He told the court that terrorists recently arrested have more widely accepted forms of identification. Bret?
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: David Lee, thank you.
President-elect Trump called out another automaker on Twitter today for building its products in Mexico, but so far the company is standing its ground. He tweeted, quote, "Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. No way. Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax." The Japanese automaker responded in part, writing, quote, "Toyota has been part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 60 years. Production volume or employment in the U.S. will not decrease as a result of our new plant in Guanajuato, Mexico." The threat is similar to those targeted at Ford and General Motors on Twitter.
A mixed day on Wall Street with two industries retreating. The Dow industry felt 43 points, the S&P 500 dropped nearly two, while the NASDAQ closed up 11.
The annual Consumer Electronics Show is back in Las Vegas, and like all the years before, some of the innovations seen at this show is pretty incredible. Tonight senior correspondent Adam Housley gives us a sneak peak at some of the coolest technology that may be coming our way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAM HOUSLEY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: You might call it "gadgetopia" as the world converges on Sin City for the International Consumer Electronics Shows." And 3500 exhibits pitching some 20,000 new products all trying to wow a worldwide audience of tech savvy buyers. From paper-thin TVs to Internet-connected cars, virtually everything here gives us a glimpse of what will be every day technology in the years to come.
MICHAEL GORMAN, ENGADGET, EDITOR IN CHIEF: It is a glimpse of the future at CS. Bigger and badder, this is always the case at CS. Voice control is huge, AI, it's kind of all of these things are coming together.
HOUSLEY: Bigger, smaller, smarter, and safer are the key words here. This fits in your wallet and charges your phone. One, a tad larger, charges your laptop, and this is the drive I.D. which makes smartphones inoperable in the car.
JESSE HOGGARD, CELLCONTROL VP OF MARKETING: A lot of the other options in the marketplace can't stop Facebook. They can't stop Snapchat. The can't stop Twitter. We can do that. We can prevent access to those apps.
HOUSLEY: One stand out is virtual reality, which has moved well outside the world of gaming and entertainment.
KEVIN CORNISH, MOTH FLAME VR FOUNDER: The greatest thing about VR is it allows people to connect with each other in ways that have never been possible.
HOUSLEY: And when it comes to music, innovations like Blocks puts a recording studio in your hands, and even vinyl has managed to go high tech with Crosby adapting 45s to work right along with the jukebox straight out of "Happy Days."
CHRIS BLACK, SOUND LEISURE DIRECTOR: It's the best of both worlds, really. You've got everything that looks cool, sounds cool, and you've then got -- get your phone off and stream whatever you want through it. So what else do you want?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOUSLEY: And drones are everywhere, all shapes, sizes, prices, including this one. The coolest one we found, the hover camera passport, 13 mega pixel pictures, 4K video. And when you want to go, you just walk up, grab it, fold it up. And then Bret, in this case, on my scooter, I am riding off in the sunset. Back to you.
(LAUGHTER)
BAIER: Does he look like he is having fun or what? I'm going to have to get one of those hovercraft things. Thank you, Adam.
A major plan of attack that did nothing to change the actual vote tally. The intel community is more confident though about Russia's actions before the U.S. election. The all-star panel weighs in on all of this and what we learned from today's hearing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES CLAPPER, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR: They did not change any vote tallies or anything of that sort. Certainly the intelligence community can't gauge the impact it had on the choices the electorate made. There is no way for us to gauge that. This was a multifaceted campaign, so the hacking was only one part of it. And it also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does that continue?
CLAPPER: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: The national intelligence director on Capitol Hill today in front of the Senate Armed Services committee. That intel report is complete. It's been briefed to President Obama. It will be briefed to president- elect Trump tomorrow. An unclassified version will be released next week.
Meantime, there was some pushback on the president-elect tweets about one certain person, Julian Assange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLAIRE MCCASKILL, (D) SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: The notion that the soon-elected leader of this country would put Julian Assange on a pedestal, no matter whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, there should be howls. And mark my word, if the roles were reversed, there would be howls from the Republican side of the aisle. Thank you Mr. Chairman.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: Thank you for that nonpartisan comment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: That got some laughs. The president-elect was not laughing on tweeter. "The dishonest media likes saying that I am in agreement with Julian Assange. Wrong. I simply state what he states. It is for the people," continuing, "to make up their minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against intelligence when, in fact, I am a big fan."
That's where we will start with our panel, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at "The Federalist," A.B. Stoddard, associate editor at "Real Clear Politics," and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer. Charles?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well, I think the big mistake he made was to quote Assange, and he sort of had to walk it back. He never admits error, but it is a mistake to quote somebody who clearly is an enemy of the United States, who we know has endangered the lives of people, particularly in Afghanistan and abroad who worked with us and risked their lives. Their lives are now at risk as a result of what Assange has done. So I'm not sure bringing him in is a good idea.
Look, there is no question that the Obama administration has trumped up this issue that it ignored for eight-and-a-half years, particularly the last year and a half, as a way to introduce some doubt in the minds of the electorate about the legitimacy of the Trump victory. But that may be true, but nonetheless, I think it is a mistake for Trump to play into this. He should simply stay out and let it play out. Republicans and Democrats want to know the extent of this as a way to prevent it in the future. I don't think, in the end, it really harms Trump. But the attention he has given it has put in the focus on it to the extent that people are going to ask, why is he so defensive about it?
BAIER: Mollie, what was striking was the Republicans on this committee and what they were saying about Russia, the threat from Russia, the perception about that. Clearly there is some difference in the approach between the president-elect and senior Republicans on Capitol Hill.
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, "THE FEDERALIST": In one sense. In another sense, there's actually a lot of agreements. There is agreement that Russians are meddling in the election and they are going to try and meddle in the way we do things.
BAIER: Let me interrupt you. We want to make clear every time we say it that it is not actually affecting the vote tally in the election, but the lead up to the election and hacking around it.
HEMINGWAY: Right. And it is good to point that out because in fact a new poll showed that over half of Democrats actually believe that Russians did hack into the voting totals and affected the vote totals, which is not true.
But Russians want to undermine our confidence in our institution, and that's why this whole debate is so interesting because you have people on both sides actually playing into that. One of the worst things you can do is actually decrease confidence in how our elections are being done. So President Obama, who has had eight years of failure, or failed at the reset, who mocked Mitt Romney and other critics for saying Russia was serious threat, now that he's heading out, now he wants to bring down the hammer down on Russia, and we're worried about president-elect Trump being too political in his posture towards Russia? It looks very much also like the other side is having trouble.
BAIER: A.B., when president-elect Trump gets this briefing tomorrow, listening to those officials today and their confidence and they are sticking by that assessment, how do you think this place?
A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Well, that is really the problem for the Republicans on Capitol Hill. What you heard in the last couple days of sort of this final, public break, where they don't want to actually be critical of the things that Trump says about Putin or even the he is knocking the intelligence community. He has picked an official fight with them that started two weeks ago, sort of the day before he nominated Rex Tillerson for secretary of state. And he has really put them in an untenable situation.
So while they are upset with him on several issues that they are staying silent about, his refusal to divest, his crony capitalism deal of the day where he picks on a company and makes them keep jobs here or whatever, this is the one thing where he has pushed them into a corner.
So what you heard them say today both on the record and background is tomorrow he has got to come out and say something that is judicious and measured and presidential after this meeting. You can be skeptical of the intelligence, but the antagonism with which he has treated this community on this issue is really over-the-top, and they are expecting some kind of response that is a change tomorrow.
BAIER: Isn't the nuance, though, which we obviously don't get in 140 characters, Charles, that he has a problem with the leadership of intelligence. The John Brennans, the Clappers, who have been caught in several instances over the years not essentially being forthright about different things and looking, at least, like they are political, and that the problem is at the leadership level and not the men and women of the intelligence community who are doing the work to try to keep the country safe.
KRAUTHAMMER: That is a perfectly legitimate distinction, and we have been on the panel and elsewhere critical of a lot of the leaders who have been appointed by Obama, and they have politicized intelligence, and we know about that as a matter of fact.
But nonetheless, the way it has been interpreted, if you are going to use Twitter, then you have to be aware that you can't be subtle and your message can be misunderstood. But I do think on one issue, which is the idea he is going to reorganize or cut back their powers or get his revenge by looking again at how the DNI, the director of national intelligence, how the office -- it's a ridiculous issue. He's a new administration. The DNI was and invention of the 9/11 Commission. It has been 15 years. It is worth a look. Has it worked, has it not? And the administration ought to come in and to question every agency, and intelligence is no exception. It's not sacred on that count.
BAIER: To you point, Sean Spicer, incoming White House press secretary, addressing this "Wall Street Journal" article, very detailed about tearing up essentially and reworking, restructuring the intelligence community. Listen. OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN SPICER, SENIOR TRUMP TRANSITION AIDE: These reports are false. All transition activities are for information gathering purposes and all discussions are tentative, but I want to reiterate, there is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure. It is 100 percent false.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Mollie?
HEMINGWAY: It seems the Trump administration wanted to walk back that we're hearing that they might revamp these agencies. That is actually disappointing to me because I think we do need to revamp these agencies. We do have a problem with a highly political intelligence mechanism in our government, and it needs major reform. And this is a problem that goes back. It's not just this administration. It goes back decades. You look at how "Foreign Policy" magazine, which is no conservative publication, said in 2013 that there was a huge problem with politicization of these intelligence agencies.
Every other country knew that Syria was using chemical weapons, and our people didn't put it out there because they were worried because they know President Obama had made that one of his redlines and they didn't want to publicly go against him. Listening to what DNI Clapper said today, and in 2013 he lied in front of Congress when he asked if we were collecting data on hundreds of millions of Americans. He said we weren't doing it. That was false. And Senator Wyden, to whom he told this, knew it was false. So we are listening to perjurer's, we have all these problems with all this politicization. I really hope that the administration does look at the problems we have and think about what we need to do to reform this so we can trust what our intelligence agencies are saying.
BAIER: I want to go to the other panel after the break. Quickly, the DNI coming in who Donald Trump wants is the former senator from Indiana Dan Coats. Interesting, A.B., that Ben Sasse, current senator, who has obviously been no big fan of the president-elect in the campaign, tweeted this, "There are many reasons to love the choice of Dan Coats for DNI including that he is steely eyed about the fact that Putin is no friend."
STODDARD: Right. This is a very comforting picked for Republicans at the end of a long couple of days, and Dan Coats obviously has everyone's respect on both sides of the aisle.
BAIER: Next up, we will discuss how President Obama is viewing the legacy he is leaving behind.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Even as we have suffered terrible attacks here at home, from Boston to Orlando, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland these past eight years.
What I can say with confidence is that we have done works. That I can prove.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: The president putting out a memo today and talking yesterday about success, he says, on the terror front, on the economic front, on a lot of fronts. We're back with our panel. Mollie, what about this?
HEMINGWAY: Obama is absolutely delusional about what his own legacy is. His legacy can be summed up in three words, which is President Donald Trump. Americans did not vote for Donald Trump because they thought Obama's presidency was a success. They voted for him because they think it has been a tremendous failure. This farewell tour that he's going on where he is saying that he hasn't had any scandals in eight years when everything from their actual body trails from Benghazi and ATF, lying about the Iran deal, the IRS targeting political enemies. This is just delusional.
BAIER: A.B.
STODDARD: I do think the victory tour is really lengthy and no one is really listening. I think that Democrats who really love Obama personally are going to miss him. I don't know they are going to be hanging onto every word of his speech in Chicago next week or reading these memos.
The one thing I do hear in his comments that I think is defensible is that anyone who came in that economic free fall, and because we are not Venezuela, comes up and says, hey, we came out of a hole. When he says I have proof that everything is great, that's not true. But he feels defensive about starting with the recession. The rest about terrorism when Americans are so afraid and we've had attacks here on our soil is not convincing. The health care law is a complete mess, and he knows it, and contributed to Hillary's loss. So I think it is going to fall on a lot of deaf ears.
BAIER: Speaking of health care, the president-elect tweeting "Democrats led by head clown Chuck Schumer know how bad Obamacare is, what a mess they're in, and instead of working to fix it they do the typical political thing and blame. The fact is Obamacare was a lie from the beginning keep your doctor, keep your plan." Here is vice president Obama responding essentially to that on PBS.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) VICE PRESIDENT: Grow up, Donald. Grow up. Time to be an adult. You're president. You got to do something. Show us what you have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Charles?
KRAUTHAMMER: Joe Biden unleashed. It's a pity he will be gone because it would be interesting and fun to watch.
I think the Republicans are taking on a big task. The minute they do anything on Obamacare, and that will be within a few weeks, they own it. They are going to own the entire health care system. People are not going to distinguish as they did not in the Obama years between what did you change and what was unchanged in the health care system. It is a gestalt, the idea of how it is working. It is working terribly. Obamacare is collapsing and it would on its own. But it will continue to, but now it will all be attributed to the Republicans. They better have something ready to go to substitute or at least a patchwork to get them between a and b, because otherwise they are going to suffer politically on healthcare the way that Obama and Democrats have continually for eight years.
BAIER: Mollie, this farewell address on Tuesday, what do you think it will be?
HEMINGWAY: I think it will be much of what we have seen for the last eight years with President Obama being one of his best fans, but also it will a time for everybody to go ahead and close out and think about what they like about President Obama and be looking for to the next era.
BAIER: Quickly, A.B.?
STODDARD: I think he's going to say the same thing he said at his year end presser and in this memo that everything is great and he has proof. And like I said, a few devoted Democrats will watch this and that's probably it.
BAIER: Something tells me we will get more from you at some point to the farewell address.
A note about this particular day when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BAIER: Finally, tonight, we usually take a moment on this day to say thank you for viewing SPECIAL REPORT. On this day, eight years ago, I took over the anchor chair on this show from my mentor and friend, Brit Hume. Here was a look at that day. Eight years goes fast. I looked a little different. I think that might be the same tie, I'm not sure. I did not plan that tonight. But it is the same tie. Yes.
What has not changed is the commitment of SPECIAL REPORT staff and the correspondents who makes this show but it is. They are the people who make SPECIAL REPORT special. Thank you for watching. Thank you for making is number one in every one of those eight years. And as a start year nine, I promise you 2017 will be one to watch.
Thanks for inviting us into your home every night. That is it for this SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and still unafraid. "Tucker Carlson Tonight" starts right now. Tucker is moving to 9:00 p.m. Congratulations, Tucker. And Martha MacCallum headed to 7:00 p.m. See, 2017 is already one to watch.
END
(Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2017 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2017 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.)
