Transcripts For FOXNEWSW On The Record With Greta Van Suster

Day. Dont forget to tell your mom. So to the mother of my mom amy and my mother pat in florida, enjoy mothers day. Thats it for this special report. Fair, balanced, and unprejudiced. Im greta van susteren. This is on the record. And now the New York Times calling it a circus and taking a swipe at fox news. Ill go off the record about that. Also, chaos in the classroom. A teacher breaking up this fight and now shes out of a job. Then, a satanic cult. College students worshipping satan. Plus, Union Members serious. Why are they turning to president obama. I want to thank walmart. So why is president obama at walmart . On the record starts right now. Breaking news today about the House Select Committee and the Benghazi Committee in addition to trey gowdy, who are they . Joining us, john, alexander, and byron. Can you describe is there a way to describe all six . Do they fit into a category or a box . Not completely. I think boehner wanted to pick a mix of people who have been involved in the benghazi investigation and some members have been deep into it for quite a while now and some other ones who are bringing fresh eyes to it. Trey gowdy has been very involved in it. And martha roby has looked into the military aspect. Others have experienced investigators but havent been big on gaubenghazi. Boehner did not want to go over a ground thats been gone over before. He wanted fresh eyes. Is it a smart group or a smart collection or any duds that should have been put on . It seems like they are aware of these charges from democrats and its going to be a political ploy or a witch hunt. Even those not involved, like susan brooks. Shes the one freshman that has not looked into the benghazi investigation and she brings a fresh set of eyes. Of course, i cant miss, john, how many are lawyers. Some of them have been, as i say, a real lawyer, meaning that theyve actually tried cases and are not some have had legal experiences. There are a lot of lawyers on this. Whether they are lawyers or not, they are known as dog in questionsers and john boehner said i want to get to the facts. They are very worried if. You go back to the morning of benghazi, the political story was about how inappropriate it was for mitt romney to issue a statement criticizing the state departments apology for the video while it was ongoing in egypt and then later we found out that these deaths occurred and it was about how awful it was. The story is about how the republicans are criticizing it and they want to keep the focus on the administration not telling the truth. Is trey gowdy really the chairman now or is Speaker Boehner pulling the strings behind the kucurtain . Trey gowdy is loved by so many people on the right where he really takes charge and has to be careful of not overstepping his bounds and not raising his voice because democrats will jump all over him. What are the democrats going to do . Because they dont have to decide quite yet. The house is going to be in recess next week. Its going to be a while. They can appoint members later if they choose. You know, for a while there it looked like they were going to boycott. Remember, there was a select Committee Formed by republicans in 2006 to investigate the response to katrina. Nancy pelosi said it was a sham and democrats boycotted that select committee. This time i think there are a lot of people who want to boycott and then there are others who are getting the edge now who said, well, you know, we democrats need a voice on this committee. We need several voices on the committee. We cant just let them run wild and they look at Elijah Cummings and i think they feel cummings was able to score points at various times and want to be able to do that on this committee. I thought, alexander, the demands that democrats are making, they want to be able to question witnesses and subpoena witnesses, that seems fine. There is some suggestion that they want to have an input on the republican subpoena. Thats not fine. But right now they are sort of doing a dance and trying to figure out they are trying to work it out. What is the overall strategy for the democrats . The new idea is that they may appoint one democrat to the committee of sort of the protest appointment. They would still have a role, as you said, in deciding who to subpoena and it would be a protest because there would be empty seats and thats a product that the democrats dont feel the makeup of this committee is not fair. How would it not be fair . The republicans should have one extra, not two extras. They are the Majority Party and dont have as many bomb throwers. Thats the charges that because they have two extra speaker pelosi, when she was speaker, she had three extras. They all say you had more than we did. Looking at the other committees that have investigated this, though, there have been at least democrats have charged a selective release of information, you know release it all. Exactly. They want to be there so they can make sure that happens. Good. Lets release it. Panel, stand by. House democrats divided over whether to boycott or take part in the select committee. Nancy pelosi is calling the probe a stunt and slamming chairman trey gowdy. I think the chairman has already called it an investigation. Its an investigation. I thought it was or a trial. He called it a trial. He called it a ill true. Does that tell you everything you need to know . What does he say here . Then the objective chairman of the speaker says, i dont i dont want this to be a circus. I said your chairman is saying something that looks captionlike. Peter king joins us. Good evening, sir. Lead lead lead leader pelosi doesnt like the idea of chairman gowdy being the choice. Is he a good choice . He was a career prosecutor and hes tried cases, been in the arena, knows how to get evidence from witnesses. He knows how to be fair. So trey gowdy is an excellent choice and i think nancy pelosi sounds sort of desperate. Im trying to figure out what her objections are. Theres going to be a lot of pressure on trey gowdy, a lot of responsibility because republicans dont get the benefit of the doubt and the overstatement or misstatement that he pounced on by the democrats and by the media, i think trey is going to do an outstanding job and go after the truth and going to find us. Can he win the respect of the democrats on the committee . I mean, is that still open for him . I mean, as polarized as the city is, they are not going to agree with them ultimately, but will they at least think that they are fair . I would hope so but it depends on what they put on the committee. If they put five partisan people in there with an agenda to block the probe, you know, to not allow the facts to come out or just to protect democrats, then its going to be difficult. But if they put openminded people on there, for instance, if theres a house equivalent of joe lieberman, people like that, for instance, willing to put the country before politics, yes, it can be done. Theres a good number of good democrats. Its up to nancy pelosi. I think it would help her to have restrained people on the committee because trey gowdy is going to run the hearings. What do you think leader pelosis strategy is . I dont think she understands what its all about. She says republicans dont understand it and the American People dont care about it. The more i listen to nancy pelosi, the less i think she knows about benghazi. I think her objection is that its going to hurt secretary clinton and shes acting in the partisan way that shes accusing john boehner of acting. I can tell you, john boehner has handled this incredibly with incredible restraint because for months and months, other republicans have been pushing john to set up a select committee. He didnt want to do it. He did not want to take that route unless he had to. Once he saw that it did go into the white house, once he saw that you had to have the subpoena power and assemble all of the information that four other committees had to assemble and use that to go forward, he thought the only way that can be done effectively was through a committee and appointing all of the members on the committee, susan brooks, she was a United States attorney, mike pompeo, we can go through the whole list. Peter actually searched in the legislature with president obama. These are very, very respectful people. Not all of them may be household names but within the republican circles, really looked upon as being really solid, solid players. Congressman, thank you, sir. Thank you, greta. Okay. Lets go off the record for a minute. The New York Times Editorial Board really went to town jumping all over the House Committee on benghazi calling it a accusing of turning into a scandal and even frothing. They took a swipe at fox news and as for the Editorial Board, they want the investigation shut down. Arguing all has been told. But then the editorial having to embarrassingly tiptoe around the obvious, the new email. Remember that, the one that was ordered to produce. Well, the white house had been hiding it from congress for 19 months. They want to bury the irs scandal. Really . Dormant . Last night right here on the record we learned that tea party donors get ten times more often than nontea party members. Its not their friends getting audited. Ten times more often. Bottom line, the old New York Times putting the governments feet to the fire, they may want to walk to joe Abrahams Abraham says the white house is the most secretive white house thats tha shes ever been involved in covering. Thats the Obama White House. Well, shes right. By the way, i agree with the board on this. Other important issues, like jobs, since the rest of us can multitask, congress and the president can, too. Get to work. Thats my off the record tonight. So, byron, you know what i think. I think Jill Abrahamson is right in this case. If you look at the reaction that the white house had to the release of the ben rhodes email, the white house said we didnt release it because it wasnt about benghazi because it didnt pass the lab test. Let me say one thing. It was released as part of a court order and the court order was because there was a request for benghazi information. Exactly. Freedom of information act request. And you should talk to the state department about why it wasnt released. Basically, the state department and white house is pointing the finger at each other saying no one had any real responsibility to do this. That does not build confidence and thats the one single reason that tips Speaker Boehner over the line into pointing a select committee. Why is the Editorial Board, though, so opposed to at least getting to the bottom of the facts. Maybe at the end nothing was suspicious. Theres enough suspicious information that has not been answered. Why is the Editorial Board so calling it a circus and well, byron mentioned there are two different issues that were dealing with here. One is the white house is as transparent as president obama pledged to be on the campaign trail and the answer is no. The benghazi issue as big of an issue as republicans believe it is, as they charged, was that email the smoking gun . And i dont know that we have an answer there. So why they cant hammer the white house on this issue of transparency, theres not as clear of a connection or an issue here in benghazi and thats what the New York Times Editorial Board was getting at. Maybe i look too much like a lawyer, john. Therefor there are four unsolved murders. These four murders are political. To me its like you want to get to the bottom and find out what happened and figure out how it can be prevented in the future and we start getting sort of slippery responses and no responses or incomplete we dont even know where the president i get suspicious. And why did jay carney lie about this if theres nothing to hide . He said the white house made one style list stick change and we know now for a fact that they put this video front and center as the reason for this attack when we know thats not the case. I think the reason that the New York Times Editorial Board is attacking republicans for investigating this, they know ultimately it goes back to Hillary Clinton. A day before when the bodies were brought home, she was talking about this video. When the back and forth is going on, people said we need because the state Department Leadership has concerns about messaging and policy consequences of a bad line going out. So i think that this will go back to hillary. On the issue of ben rhodes memo being the smoking gun, i dont think it is the smoking gun. I think the fact that it was withheld for so long raises a lot of questions. I agree. And its not just the talking points afterwards. We have to remember the dangerous lack of preparation at the state Department Prior to at the embassy and diplomatic facilities, prior to this attack, the investigation, the state department that built a firewall around Hillary Clinton and the very top of the state department. I still cant figure out that 5 55 p. M. Email on the night of september 11th as this was going down, theres an email that says this is a terrorist attack and suddenly we get a video and that makes no sense to me when the email mentions nothing about the email. It made me a little more suspicious. Panel, stay with us. Senator scott getting slammed from a congressman for being a black republican. Youre going to hear the shocking verbal attacks up next. Also, a teacher hitting a student with a broom stick. The violent brawl was caught on camera. That is coming up. [ male announcer ] staples has everything you need to get your clients attention. From brochures to business cards to banners. Everything. Except your clients attention. Thousands of products added every day to staples. Com, even bullhorns. How much . [ male announcer ] staples. Make more happen. Trwith secure wifie for your business. It also comes with public wifi for your customers. Not so with internet from the phone company. I would email the phone company to inquire as to why they have shortchanged these customers. But that would require wifi. Switch to comcast Business Internet and get two Wifi Networks included. Comcast business built for business. Do you think democratic congressman James Clyburn would be proud. Senator tim scott could make history in november. Senator scott is poised to become the first africanamerican to win a statewide election since reconstruction. But listen to this. Representative clyburn says, if you Call Congress with a pigmentation that he has, who votes against the interest and aspiration of the people in south carolina, i guess thats progress. Joining us, reverend michael fauk ner. Nice to see you, sir. Its always a pleasure, greta. And id like to say at the outset, ive never heard tim scout take a swipe back at the representative clyburn and certainly not that vicious. Why is congressman clyburn saying this . I think its despicable that congressman clyburn would use the injustices of racism that have happened in our country and may still be happening as political cover to activate their base. They are still doing the same thing. And they are attacking black republicans and honorable people like tim scott in an effort to galvanize their base and take attention away from some of the dysfunction in the administration. You know, its not just representative clyburn. Bloomberg news Editorial Board member whose name is Francis Wilkinson attacked senator tim scott as an affirmative action token. I guess its wrong to be republican africanamerican and succeed. Thats probably one of the worst crimes that you can commit. Absolutely. And they accuse him of voting, of not voting according to the color of his skin. Hello, the last i heard the constitutional swearing in, it was to the eallegiance of the United States of america and to our constitution, not to an ethnic or religious group. Thats unconstitutional. Thats against american values. Thats against our democracy. Tim scott represents the people of the state of south carolina. He is an honorable United States senator. And for clyburn to attack him solely on the basis of the fact that he will not or does not adhere to the democratic ideals of how they think this country should be run and how, quote unquote black people should be acting, who appointed senator clyburn or representative clyburn as the official of who is black and who is not . Even that remark about the africanamericans are supposed to act a certain way is itself an expression of racism. But, you know, what i cant get is like why why cant you disagree with someone, disagree with congressman clyburn and senator scott and embrace his success and how he is a role model for many, just as congressman clyburn is a role model for many and instead of rip him apart, tear him apart. I cant help but feel bad for senator scott because he certainly takes a lot of income in. Right. We should be proud of senator scott. But you know, when i was coming up, greta, we applauded in the 60s, we applauded the success of any black person that we saw that was advancing the cause of democracy, the cause of our people. We applauded those successes. And now it seems that people like representative clyburn are using those the suffering and the struggle that we had to get here as a way of exploiting their continued political gain. And that is deplorable to me to use the history of some of the problems that weve had in this country because people have suffered under racism. But to bring this up and to say that to imply that senator scott is not loyal to his people because he disagrees with what the democrats are saying or how they feel like he should be voting is crazy.