Updated

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report" February 8, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR (on camera): Hi, Jesse. (INAUDIBLE) Geraldo
snowman.

All right, as we wait new official guidance from the CDC, one major school
district inches closer to a deal on reopening amid the coronavirus
pandemic. We'll bring you there.

Plus, he has long supported reopening schools. I'll speak live with Dr.
Anthony Fauci about how he believes it can be done safely.

And rules for thee but not for me, some lawmakers crying foul now at House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi amid tightened security on Capitol Hill.

This is SPECIAL REPORT.

Good evening. Welcome to Washington, I'm Bret Baier.

Chicago schools could gradually start to reopen for in-person learning this
week under what the Chicago mayor is calling a tentative agreement with the
teachers' union there on COVID-19 safety protocols and more vaccinations
for teachers.

The deal if approved by members of the union, would avert a possible strike
in the nation's third largest school district. Chicago is only one of many
communities across the country fighting to get students back inside
schools.

I will speak in just a few minutes with the Director of National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, but we begin with
Senior Correspondent Mike Tobin in Chicago. Good evening, Mike.

MIKE TOBIN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Good evening, Bret
from a snowy Chicago. After almost a year with students board with class on
a computer, some of them not logging on. Grade slipping, depression on the
rise, there may be a pathway back to the classroom. But as we see across
the nation when dealing with labor and a pandemic, nothing is easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOBIN (voice over): At long last, Chicago's mayor announces a breakthrough
that could mean public school students start phasing back to in-person
study this week.

LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), MAYOR CHICAGO: I am confident that the measures that we
have and will put in place will make our schools even safer than they
already are.

TOBIN: But the Chicago teachers union was quick to tamp the optimism,
tweeting there is no agreement yet between the union and the Board of
Education. What we have is a framework.

A vote by the rank and file to ratify that framework could come as early as
Tuesday. But the deal says no member of the CTU will be required to return
to the classroom without an opportunity to be vaccinated. It also creates
thresholds to shut down in-person learning if the virus surges.

In Philadelphia, 2,000 educators didn't show up for in-person instruction
Monday at the urging of the president of the Teachers Federation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because they refuse to risk their lives in order to sit
in school buildings that are unsafe.

TOBIN: San Francisco also announced a tentative deal that hit a snag when
the city attorney said the agreement was progress but not enough. And he
will file a motion to an existing lawsuit compelling the school district to
meet state requirements for reopening.

The director of the CDC who said a safe return to class does not require a
vaccine, says transmission happens outside of an environment where safety
protocols are followed like schools.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, CDC: The data from school suggests that
there's very little transmission that is happening within the schools,
especially when there's masking and distancing occurring.

TOBIN: Across the nation, three of the largest 10 school districts are
still close. The three that are open are in Florida. The other large
districts from New York to Houston are partially open.

In New York, the mayor announced that middle schools will be reopening late
this month for about 62,000 students, their teachers prioritized for
vaccinations.

BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: We talked about the city coming back
strong, so much of it depends on our public schools and our public schools
have done amazing work throughout this crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TOBIN (on camera): The phased in return of Chicago students could start
with Pre-K and special education kids this week.

Then in March, you'll see kindergarten all the way through eighth grade. No
timeline for a return of high school students, Bret.

BAIER: Mike Tobin live in a snowy Chicago. Mike, thanks.

To talk more about schools and vaccines, let's bring in the government's
top public health expert, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Dr. Fauci, thanks for being
here.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS
DISEASES (on camera): Good to be with you, Bret.

BAIER: You just heard Mike's report, there's obviously a lot of concern
from parents, from teachers, from communities about getting kids back to
school. Can these communities do it safely now, even though the teachers
are not vaccinated?

FAUCI: You know, I think as what you heard, Dr. Walensky say that this can
be done, provided that the capability of keeping the children and the
teachers safe. Namely: wearing of masks, having the resources to be able to
arrange the classes, so that you have appropriate spacing. Those kinds of
things that are common public health issues can be done.

But obviously, you have a lot of serious discussions going on between the
teachers' union and the officials of the city in the states that you just
mentioned. So, it's not an easy problem to solve.

Obviously, we want to get teachers vaccinated, they are essential personnel
as far as we're concerned, it would be important to get them vaccinated.

But there are situations where you likely can still get children back to
school provided you do it in a safe environment, these are the masking and
other public health measures.

BAIER: And just to be clear, you're not speaking in a personal capacity,
you're speaking as the job that you do, right?

I mean, we had the White House come out and say that the CDC director
saying almost exactly what you said, was speaking in a personal capacity,
not an official guidance. But this is going to be the official guidance, is
it not?

FAUCI: Well, I -- you know, the official guidance, Bret, is coming out
literally imminently, very likely this before the end of this week. So, I
think it would be important, rather than trying to get different opinions
of it, let's see what the guidance shows and then we could all discuss
about the various aspects of the guidance. But it will be coming out, I'm
almost certain before the end of the week.

BAIER: Where are we on this virus right now? And we know what we know about
getting the effort to the vaccines, getting them out and about, but
fighting the virus. What are the numbers you're seeing? What are you
looking at right now?

FAUCI: Well, Bret, we've been through a very terrible period over the last
month as you know. We had situations where we were up to 300,000 400,000
new cases per day, up to 4,000 deaths per day, hospitals almost being
overrun.

The good news now is that what we're seeing numerically is that there's
been a plateauing, and a coming down of numbers of cases, a rather
significant diminution. We hope we continue to go in that direction, that's
the good news.

The somewhat challenging news is that we have variants, namely mutations
that have occurred that were dominant in places like the U.K. that are now
here in the United States. And from the data that we get from our British
colleagues, is that this virus tends to transmit more readily from person
to person, which means that we're going to have to double down on a public
health measures.

The good news is that the vaccine that we have that we're distributing now,
even though the supply has not yet completely met the demand, the vaccine
is effective against that variant that is predominant in the U.K.

So, we have a task ahead of us. We've got to do two things simultaneously.
We've got to adhere to the public health measures, masking, physical
distancing, avoiding congregate settings.

At the same time, to the extent possible, we get as many people vaccinated
as quickly as we possibly can, that will help contain the outbreak and also
help to contain the spread of these variants which are of concerned here in
the United States and in other countries.

BAIER: Dr. Fauci, I want to bring you back to February of last year, this
is the Whitehouse Task Force, you're talking there about the status of this
virus at that point, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAUCI: We can't rely on a vaccine over the next several months to a year.
However, if this virus, which we have every reason to believe it is quite
conceivable that it will happen, we'll go beyond just a season and come
back and recycle next year. If that's the case, we hope to have a vaccine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Well, I just want to get your thoughts about looking back at that
piece of tape and what you were thinking then and what you're thinking now?

FAUCI: Well, I mean, I think what happened was even the beyond expectations
in a positive way. When I was asked back then, because we had started
working on the vaccine literally in January, I guess a month before that
tape, Bret. And I was asked, when do I think we'd have a vaccine that might
be available. And I said anywhere from 12 to 18 months.

Fortunately for us, because of a variety of circumstances, we were able to
show that we have a vaccine that's both highly efficacious 94 to 95 percent
with a very good safety profile.

So, I had said back in the tape that you just showed that we would really
need a vaccine if we were going to get a handle on this.

And fortunately for us now, we do have a vaccine. The question is, we've
got to get enough doses out to get as many people vaccinated as possible.

BAIER: I just want to do a quick lightning round here. Do we know now if
you have COVID -- have had COVID, how long your protection lasts? We know
that you can get it again, but do we know -- do we have any studies about
the numbers now?

FAUCI: No, we don't, Bret. It really varies from person to person. It
likely will be at least six months or more, but we don't know the complete
durability of that. We will know the durability of protection against with
regard to the vaccine if we follow individuals long enough.

But everyone is obviously asking that question, if I got infected in
February, how long am I going to be protected against reinfection against
the same virus?

In the end, the fact is, Bret, we don't have a definitive answer to that
question. Although, we can surmise that it is likely several months, at
least.

BAIER: Last thing, I watched the Super Bowl last night. Kudos to the NFL,
they got the season through and it was exciting to watch. But is there
going to be a time when we're going to be no masks? When is that time, if
you had to guess? Go in to a sports game, going to a theater, going to a
concert without a mask?

FAUCI: You know, Bret, that will really be dependent upon how we get the
level of virus in the community down.

If we can get -- and I have used this as an estimate, it's not definitive,
that if we can get 70-85 percent of the population vaccinated and get to
what we would hope would be to a degree of herd immunity, which really is
an umbrella or a -- or a veil of protection against the community with a
level of virus is so low, it's not a threat at all.

Then at that point, you could start thinking in terms of not having to have
a uniform wearing a mask, but we're certainly not near there yet.

When do I think that would occur? You know, it's very difficult to predict,
Bret. But if everything falls into the right place, and we get this under
control, it is conceivable that you might be able to pull back a bit on
some of the public health measures as we get into the late fall of this
year.

But there's no guarantee of that, because if we don't get the overwhelming
majority of the population vaccinated, there's still going to be a
considerable amount of virus in the community. And as long as that's the
case, Bret, people are going to have to wear masks.

BAIER: Yes. And you know, because of what we're doing with coronavirus, we
haven't heard a lot about the seasonal flu. We lose 30,000-60,000 people
from the flu, is that going down dramatically?

FAUCI: Extraordinarily dramatically, Bret. And in fact, that is a very good
testimony to the efficacy of wearing masks, avoiding congregate settings
and keeping distance, because we did that during this late fall early
winter and the level of Influenza in the community is remarkably low,
regarding comparisons to other years.

Our Australian colleagues had the same experience during their winter,
which is essentially our summer. When I was talking to my colleagues in
Australia, they were saying Tony, we don't have hardly any flu this year
and we think it's due to the fact that people are wearing masks, keeping
their distance and avoiding congregate settings, those to show you that
those types of public health measures actually work.

BAIER: Dr. Fauci, we appreciate your time. You're welcome back anytime.

FAUCI: Thank you, Bret. Good to be with you.

BAIER: President Biden continuing to push his nearly $2 trillion COVID
relief plan without bipartisan support, but is not the only thing on his
agenda that's raising some eyebrows among Republicans especially.

White House Correspondent Peter Doocy looks at the administration's other
plans while the president still has to answer questions about his
predecessor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): President Biden
says he's not following the ins and outs of the Trump impeachment trial.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll let the Senate work that
out.

DOOCY: Instead, his focus is COVID-19, touring in Arizona vaccination site
today virtually.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm on in.

DOOCY: And supporting a Democratic relief proposal for federal payments up
to $3,600 per child for qualifying families.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This proposal is emergency funding
as I understand it.

DOOCY: What about raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour by 2025? The
Congressional Budget Office now projects that could cost 1.4 million jobs
in 2025 alone, but the White House still wants it in the stimulus.

PSAKI: There is a parliamentarian who will make decisions about what can
end up in a final package.

DOOCY: Even though Biden himself was skeptical about raising the wage like
that Friday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But that may not be in your American Rescue Plan --

BIDEN: No, I put it in, but I don't think it's going to survive.

DOOCY: Immigration policy may soon change too, as DHS reportedly prepares
to tell ICE agents not to prioritize deporting illegal immigrants convicted
of simple assault or DUI.

PSAKI: Nobody is saying that DUIs or assault are acceptable behavior. We're
talking about the prioritization of who is going to be deported from the
country.

DOOCY: It's been 19 days since 11,000 people planning on working on the
Keystone XL pipeline found out the project was cancelled by Biden executive
order.

ADAM STOUT, LAID-OFF KEYSTONE PIPELINE WORKER: My wife and I, we have a
daughter in college and how do we pay for that? How do we add to
retirement, provide health care?

DOOCY: Climate czar John Kerry promised union workers like Stout (PH) can
have green jobs instead.

JOHN KERRY, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: They can be the people
who go to work to make the solar panels.

DOOCY: But union boss, Richard Trumka, who still supports Biden's general
ideas thinks he should have had those green jobs lined up already.

RICHARD TRUMKA, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR AND CONGRESS OF
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS: I wish he had pair that more carefully with the
thing that he did second by saying, here's where we're creating jobs.

DOOCY: When do they get their green job?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president and many Democrats
and Republicans in Congress believe that investment and infrastructure --
building infrastructure, that's in our national interest that boost U.S.
economy, creates good-paying union jobs here in America and advances our
climate and clean energy goals are something that we can certainly work on
doing together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY (on camera): President Biden is addressing climate change with an all
of government approach. Every Cabinet agency is supposed to be using their
authority to improve the environment. But despite all the eyeballs on this,
people losing jobs, the feds determine are not environmentally friendly.
Still, have not been told when their promise, green jobs will be ready.
Bret.

BAIER: Good questioning at the briefing today. Peter Doocy, live on the
North Lawn. Peter, thanks.

Record highs across Wall Street across the board. The Dow gaining 238
today. The S&P 500 rose 29. The NASDAQ finished up 131.

Up next, just minutes ago, former President Trump's counsel says Trump --
the former president is pleased by one part of the upcoming impeachment
trial. Find out what that is after the break.

First, here is what some of our Fox affiliates around the country are
covering tonight. Fox 2 in St. Louis, where more than 100 inmates at the
St. Louis Justice Center broke out of their cells over the weekend said
fires caused flooding and threw things out a fourth-floor windows. One
officer was injured, and it took officers nearly eight hours to restore
order there.

Fox 6 in Birmingham, Alabama, where workers at an Amazon fulfillment center
have begun voting to unionize. If that motion succeeds, the union would be
the first one for Amazon employees in the U.S.

And this is a live look at Sacramento from our affiliate Fox 40, the big
story there tonight. With just more than a month until the deadline, the
campaign to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom has nearly reached the
number of signatures required to qualify for a statewide ballot. The
campaign says they have 1.4 million names with 1.5 million needed.

That's is tonight's live look "OUTSIDE OF THE BELTWAY" from SPECIAL REPORT.
We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Texas Republican Congressman Ron Wright has died at the age of 67.
Wright had been battling cancer was admitted to the hospital two weeks ago
after contracting coronavirus.

Wright was first elected in 2018 to represent the 6th congressional
district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Alabama Senator Richard Shelby will not run for re-election in 2022. The
Republican is the fourth most senior member in the Senate who was first
elected as a Democrat to the Senate in 1986.

Shelby became a Republican following the 1994 election. Shelby's
announcement follows decisions by three other Republican senators not to
run again. As of now, Republicans will have to defend 20 Senate seats in
2022 compared to the Democrat's 14.

Just within the last hour, lawyers for former President Donald Trump were
saying the former president is pleased that there was bipartisan support on
how to structure the upcoming impeachment trial.

His counsel believes the process will, "provide us with an opportunity to
explain to senators why it is absurd and unconstitutional to hold an
impeachment trial against a private citizen."

The House impeachment managers say the former president merits conviction
and should be disqualified from holding any office in the future.

Chief congressional correspondent Mike Emanuel has an impeachment preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): All parties have agreed to a structure that will
ensure a fair and honest Senate impeachment trial of the former president.
Each side will have ample time to make their arguments.

MIKE EMANUEL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-
over): The second impeachment trial is expected to begin with debate over
whether it's even constitutional, and then a simple majority vote.

Then, 16 hours for House managers to make their case, 16 hours for the
president's defense.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I'm pleased that leader Schumer and I were
able to reach an agreement on a fair process, an estimated timeline.

EMANUEL: The Trump legal team writing in a brief submitted today, the trial
is going to be political theater, blaming Nancy Pelosi. "The Speaker of the
House and her allies have tried to callously harness the chaos of the
moment for their own political gain."

EMANUEL (on camera): So, what's the approach of the former president's
legal team in mounting his defense?

JASON MILLER, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN: What we're really
seeing here from the Democrats is cancel-culture on a constitutional level.

EMANUEL (voice-over): On the other side, the House impeachment manager's
brief concludes, "The House will establish a trial that President Trump
merits conviction and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of
honor, trust, or profit under the United States."

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): This is an open and shut case.

EMANUEL: Republicans know prominent Democrats have used harsh rhetoric too.
Such as California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, urging supporters in 2018
to confront Trump Cabinet members.

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): Tell them they are not welcome. I didn't say go
and fight, I didn't say anybody was going to have any violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL (on camera): The wild card is witnesses. If the impeachment
managers want to call witnesses or subpoena documents and the Senate
supports it, that could stretch this trial out for a long time. Bret?

BAIER: OK, Mike, thank you. Let's get some insight now into the impeachment
trial this week. Senior political analyst Brit Hume joins us. Good evening,
Brit.

(CROSSTALK)

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS CHANNEL SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST (on camera): Hi, Bret.

BAIER: There's a sense on Capitol Hill that not only Republicans but
Democrats may want to move this thing quickly.

HUME: Well, I don't think. It may be the case that Democrats are waking up
to the possibility that this impeachment trial will not brew down to their
political credit because much of the country will not really see the point
in trying to convict a man and remove him when he's already gone.

Apart from that, the case that Trump incited the mob by what he said on the
day of the riot seems a little weak in light of the fact that the president
explicitly encouraged these protesters to go to Capitol Hill and protest,
as he put it peacefully and patriotically.

I think the case would be better made if, as Trey Gowdy has suggested, our
new contributor, that if they made the case that his failure to act when
the riot started might be grounds, or in my view, all the stuff he pumped
into the -- into the brains of his supporters about the election being
stolen, which clearly animated a lot of them to come to Washington might be
a better ground.

But nonetheless, clearly, they want to get it over with and we probably
will only see a trial of a matter of a few days judging by the schedule
that Mike just articulated.

BAIER: Right. This is just one count and it's the incite count. You know,
Georgia officials have opened up an investigation into what he did on the
phone call with the Georgia secretary of state down there, other avenues.
But this is just that one count.

HUME: Right.

BAIER: As far as the political impact, if as expected, just looking at the
numbers he is acquitted, what do you think it means for the future of the
Trump political force?

HUME: Well, if history has any guide and we have recent history on this,
Bret, I mean he was impeached once before, there was a trial. He was
acquitted. Nancy Pelosi, I can remember, obviously, thinking this was going
to be a stain that was going to last and affect the outcome of the upcoming
election.

The thing dropped out of sight. It was never mentioned in the fall campaign
by politicians in either party that I'm aware of. It was certainly not any
-- mentioned by either presidential candidate, it just dropped like a
stone.

So, I don't think there is any good reason to believe that this will leave
a lasting mark, unless that, you know, he were -- if he were convicted, and
the -- and the vote succeeded to bar him thereafter from higher -- from,
you know, federal office. That obviously would affect his political career.
But if he's not convicted, I don't -- I think this thing just disappears in
a matter of -- probably a matter of months.

BAIER: I wanted to ask you this while I had you. Over the weekend, former
Secretary of State George Shultz died at the age of 100. I had the
opportunity to interview him for my book about Reagan, Three Days in
Moscow, and was fascinated to hear his stories.

And I just wanted to get your thoughts on really someone who was
instrumental in the Reagan years and really in foreign policy overall.

HUME: Right. Bret, he was one of the most consequential Cabinet officers
and public officials of our time. Up -- leading up and through the Reagan
administration and beyond. He was very smart, very self-confident, very
public-spirited, a very decent honorable man, set a great example. And you
know, I think, you know, for years to come, historians will look at him
with and give him great credit for the service he performed. He was a fine
man.

BAIER: Brit, as always, thank you.

HUME: Thank you, Bret.

BAIER: Coming up, rule breaker. Why several Republicans are saying House
Speaker Pelosi is not following her own rules. Rules that have cost at
least two lawmakers 5,000 bucks apiece.

Also ahead, why thousands of National Guard troops in our nation's capital
did not get involved after protesters scuffle with police in Washington,
D.C. here over the weekend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER:  Washington, D.C., police got in skirmishes with members of Antifa
over the weekend as demonstrators threatened to burn down the city while
the city has thousands of National Guard troops still in town following the
inauguration. Correspondent David Spunt tells us why they did not get
involved.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DAVID SPUNT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  Scuffles on the streets of
Washington, D.C., Saturday night hours after a peaceful way to Our Black
History Month, took a turn. Those on the ground spotted what appears to be
an Antifa antifascist flag, carried by a group dressed in black. The group
stopped in front of restaurants for a brief moment, yelling "No KKK, no
fascist USA." Authorities say the group marched north from a popular
tourist area.

The city has been on the edge for months after a summer of clashes between
protesters and the police. Following the January 6th riot on Capitol Hill,
D.C. Muriel Bowser announced more than 20,000 National Guard troops would
watch over the nation's capital during the inauguration.

MURIEL BOWSER, (D) MAYOR OF WASHINGTON, D.C.:  I'm sad about it. I'm
committed to making sure that we get our city back.

SPUNT:  There are still approximately 6,200 troops on the ground. But a
source with the National Guard tells FOX News they were not involved in
Saturday night's incident because it did not happen near the Capitol or on
other federal property. Mayor Bowser silent on the unrest. FOX News reached
out for comment but has yet to receive one. D.C. Congressional Delegate
Eleanor Holmes Norton declined to comment.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SPUNT (on camera):  A spokesperson for D.C. police tells FOX News there
were no injuries or arrests. Bret?

BAIER:  David, thank you.

Multiple Republicans are calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be fined
for reportedly bypassing magnetometers installed at the Capitol following
the January 6th riot. Just last week Republicans Louie Gohmert and Andrew
Clyde was fined $5,000 for doing the same thing. Speaker Pelosi is not
commenting on the incident. The acting House sergeant of arms says it has
not received any official report from Capitol police about that incident.

The Biden administration is reversing yet another move made during the
Trump administration, this time removing terror designation for Iran backed
Houthi rebels in Yemen. State Department correspondent Rich Edson has our
report.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

RICH EDSON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched
armed drones into Saudi Arabia this weekend. The Saudi government says its
military intercepted them in a failed attack targeting civilians only two
days after the State Department moved to strike the Houthis from an
international terrorism list.

NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON:  We can and will continue to keep
up the pressure on the Houthi leadership, just as we take these steps that
have received bipartisan, strong bipartisan support to ensure that we are
not worsening the humanitarian suffering of the people of Yemen.

EDSON:  Last month the outgoing administration labeled the Houthi a foreign
terrorist organization, triggering automatic sanctions. Eight groups say
that designation hampered their work addressing what the U.N. calls the
worst humanitarian crisis on the planet. Saudi Arabia has been fighting for
several years in the Yemeni civil war to try to prevent an Iranian proxy
from controlling an entire country on its southern border. Some Republicans
oppose the State Department ending Houthi's three week say on the U.S. the
terrorism list. Senator Tom Cotton calls it a foolish gesture of goodwill,
adding, quote, "The Biden administration is repeating the deadly errors of
the Obama administration by appeasing Iran and refusing to call terrorists
by their name."

The administration has frozen arms sales to Saudi Arabia and is reviewing
weapons contracts for the United Arab Emirates.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

EDSON (on camera):  The administration has also announced it is suspending
U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's offensive operations in Yemen, though
officials say the U.S. will continue to assist in defending Saudi Arabia
and countering terrorist groups in Yemen. Bret?

BAIER:  Rich Edson at the State Department. Rich, thank you.

Up next, a look at the big field of mayoral candidates in the big apple.
First, Beyond Our Borders tonight. The race is on to rescue dozens of
people in India after a glacier broke off, sending a wall of water and
debris rushing down a mountain. Twenty-six people have died there so far,
at least 165 are missing tonight, including 37 power plant workers trapped
in a tunnel. Crews are using excavators to dig sludge from the tunnel where
the workers are trapped.

Police fired a watercannon at hundreds of protesters in Burma's capital,
who are demanding the military hand power back to elected officials as
demonstrations against last week's coup intensify, spread to more parts of
that country. Today for the first time state media made reference to the
protests, claiming they were endangering the country's stability.

Just some of the other stories Beyond Our Borders tonight. We'll be right
back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER:  Breaking tonight, the U.S. Supreme Court has granted temporary
relief to another group of California houses of worship, churches,
synagogues, mosques, allowing them to conduct indoor services with some
limits. Two pastors had sued over the state's restrictions on in-person
church services. The high court's latest emergency order follows a similar
one Friday when by six to three vote the justices said the state could not
impose sweeping bans on indoor worship but could cap it at 25 percent of
the building's capacity. The court said the state of California could
continue its ban on singing and chanting indoors.

Trying to run the city that never sleeps is not an easy job, but it is a
post more than 40 people want. Correspondent Aishah Hasnie looks at the
crowded race to be the next mayor of New York City and what one of them
could inherit.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  We will rise up again.

AISHAH HASNIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  From a former police officer to a
former presidential candidate, even a reality TV star, 41 people and
counting are running for mayor of New York City, all with an eye on urban
flight and what's ailing the big apple.

KATHRYN WYLDE, PARTNERSHIP FOR NEW YORK CITY:  The biggest issue the next
mayor is going to face is a lot of confidence in the trajectory of the
city.

HASNIE:  Since COVID first hit New York City, 70,000 people have left,
resulting in a $34 billion loss of income according to data analytics
company Unacast. Experts like Kathryn Wylde with the Partnership for New
York point to quality-of-life issues like coronavirus, high unemployment,
rising gun violence, racial injustice, school closures, and a $4 billion
budget deficit. So why would so many people want this job?

DOUG MUZZIO, BARUCH COLLEGE PROFESSOR:  I think it's the attraction of the
office, just the power of the bloody pulpit.

HASNIE:  To stand out from such a path, public affairs professor Doug
Muzzio says a candidate needs three things.

MUZZIO:  Money, organization, and message.

HASNIE:  Name recognition doesn't hurt either. Former 2020 Democrat
presidential candidate Andrew Yang has that in spades.

MUZZIO:  The only disadvantages is he has never run anything.

HASNIE:  But most importantly, Muzzio says the candidate must have a
visionary plan to fix the city's problems because if things don't get
better, some experts worry residents who left may never come back.

WYLDE:  The welcome mat is out in Florida, Texas, Tennessee, across the
country. We can't, as our mayor has been want to do, say we don't need you.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, (D) NEW YORK CITY:  I am not going to beg anybody to
live in the greatest city in the world.

WYLDE:  That's going to hurt New York if we don't change our tune.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HASNIE:  The good news is both experts believe the big apple will bounce
back. How long that will take may depend on part on who's in charge. The
primary, June 22nd. Bret?

BAIER:  Aishah, thank you.

Up next, the panel joins me to talk COVID relief, impeachment trial, and
the curious case of Keystone XL pipeline.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD TRUMKA, AFL-CIO PRESIDENT:  I wish he hadn't done that on the first
day, because the Laborers International was right. It did and will cost
jobs in the process. He has also promised to create jobs, good union jobs,
and be the best present union that we've ever had, and I believe he will do
that as well.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY:  The president and many Democrats
and Republicans in Congress believe that investment in infrastructure,
building infrastructure, that's in our national interest. And the boost to
the U.S. economy creates good paying union jobs here in America and
advances our climate and clean energy is something we can certainly work on
doing together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO, asked about the Keystone XL pipeline,
wishing President Biden hadn't done that day one. More than 11,000 people
have lost their jobs, and maybe more, and their promised energy jobs, new
clean energy jobs that aren't available yet.

Let's bring in our panel, Harold Ford Jr., former Tennessee Congressman,
CEO of Empowerment and Inclusion Capital, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor
at "The Federalist," and former South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy,
after a stint last week at prime time live. Trey, let me start with you.
What about this energy back and forth, and the jobs that they say are
coming but people deal with the job loss right now?

GOWDY:  Well, here is a crazy idea, Bret. Why don't you kill Keystone
pipeline after you create the infrastructure jobs? That way 11,000 people
aren't out of work. The moral for me is political bases are very needy. He
thought the highest priority, the reason he was elected president, was to
kill a pipeline, not COVID, not political rhetoric, but to kill a pipeline.
Political bases are very needy groups.

BAIER:  Harold?

HAROLD FORD JR. (D) FORMER TENNESSEE REPRESENTATIVE:  Well, I find myself -
- thanks for having me on. I find myself agreeing with Trey there that I
would have probably waited on the Keystone pipeline. It had already been
approved. I will remind everyone, as I've said on this show before, the
richest man in the world, he isn't digging or drilling for oil and gas.
He's building electric cars. I think the new president is onto something in
trying to figure out how we transform to a different and clean energy
economy. In fact, President Trump's outgoing head of the World Bank, David
Malpass, who came into the job believing that climate friendly policies
were the wrong path, is leaving that job having put the World Bank and
urging America to get even more so on that path.

I think what the president is trying to do, I probably he would have
waited. Again, as I said, I share Trey's thinking about this. I might have
waited on that. I would have moved a little different direction, but I like
the thrust of what he is doing, and I sincerely hope this $1.9 trillion
relief package is something that he doesn't relent on and he continues to
push.

BAIER:  Mollie, it was newsy that Trumka came out and said what he said,
obviously an ally of President Biden.

HEMINGWAY:  Yes. Let me first of all say that the pipeline should not have
been killed. It was a wonderful thing that was helping provide energy
independence for the country, which isn't just good for domestic jobs. It's
also good for national security. And President Biden was pretty honest
about a lot of what he wanted to do with the economy. He was not honest
about what he was going to do in terms of getting rid of that pipeline and
destroying so many jobs without a plan in place in any way for what those
jobs could be.

But it seems like if President Biden were trying to kill the economy he
would be doing exactly what he is doing, whether it's this pipeline thing,
whether it's raising taxes, getting rid of the Trump tax cuts, whether it's
the $15 minimum wage that he wants to put forth, which is totally something
that large corporations can handle but absolutely destroys small
businesses. And then more than anything, his refusal to take on the
teachers union as they keep on holding children hostage and making sure
that schools cannot be reopened. Not having the courage to take that on
shows that the economic doldrums that could be in play might be here for
some time.

BAIER:  Dr. Fauci is saying those guidelines, CDC guidelines, are coming up
this week imminently. We'll see where that goes beyond the personal
capacity of the CDC director on that issue of schools.

The other thing that is raising eyebrows in D.C., Trey, is immigration
policy. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COTTON, (R-AR):  Now the Biden administration is saying they are
not going to deport criminal illegal aliens for serious and violent
felonies like assault. Joe Biden and the Democrats are putting American
workers last and illegal aliens first.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY:  Nobody is saying that DUIs or
assault are unacceptable behavior, and those arrested for such activity
should be tried and sentenced as appropriate by local law enforcement. But
we are talking about the prioritization of who is going to be deported from
the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER:  Yes, for border states, that is a big issue, Trey.

GOWDY:  I think they are on the wrong side of it, Bret. Good luck sitting
down with the parents of a kid killed by a drunk driver and explaining how
removing drunk drivers was not a priority. And domestic violence, you
really want to explain to someone that if you commit an act of domestic
violence, you should remain on a path to citizenship? You should be a path
back to wherever you came from, but you should not remain in this country.
I think he is making a big mistake letting people who break our laws again
once they've come here unlawfully continue to remain here.

BAIER:  Quickly, Harold, is this giving an issue to Republicans getting
ready for 2022?

FORD:  It's early. It could. Again, I tend to agree. This may be a little
strange, Trey and I agree twice here. I think this might not be -- as much
as I understand what the president maybe trying to do, with some
constituencies it's probably not the right thing. I think the larger effort
here has to be comprehensive immigration reform, and hopefully that is
where he is headed.

BAIER:  All right, panel, stand by. When we come back, tomorrow's headlines
tonight, plus a quick tape rewind.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER:  Finally tonight, a look at tomorrow's headlines tonight with the
panel. Mollie, you're up.

HEMINGWAY:  My headline for tomorrow is that impeachment is dead on
arrival. Whether you're looking at the constitutional questions or the
questions on the merits, it looks like impeachment trial is not going to
end in a conviction for President Trump. And a reminder that the Senate
majority leader himself less than a year ago was on the steps of the
Supreme Court violently threatening Justices Gorsuch up Kavanaugh to rule a
certain way on a case they were hearing at the moment he gave the speech,
and he was not even censored by his own body.

BAIER:  Trey, you got a headline?

GOWDY:  In a trial about hot rhetoric, false allegations, and overall bad
judgment, House Democrats decide Eric Swalwell is the best person to make
the case on their behalf.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER:  All right, Harold, your headline?

FORD:  Mine's a little lighter. Brady worth $100 million for 2021-22 CBO
estimates say.

BAIER:  I was going to play the tape, but I'm not going to play the tape.
Two of the three of the panelists shows Kansas City big win, but then one
anchor on the show said Tom Brady will win. I said by six. I was off by a
few. He is the GOAT of the NFL, really any team sport. Thank you, panel.

Thank you for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for this -- 

END

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