directed at the corrupt news med media in the country. stay with the fox news channel and bret baier takes over coverage and goes live right now. we'll see you tomorrow night withy, very special opening monologue for the media. see you then. >> bret: this is "special report." i am bret baier in washington. president trump continues to speak at this rally in arizona. we are going to keep listening. >> president trump: your borders will be left wide open for everybody to come in and enjoy our country. [boos] >> president trump: obamacare is a disaster. and think, think, we were just one vote away from victory after seven years of everybody proclaiming "repeal and replace." one vote away.

one, one vote away. we were one vote away. think of it. seven years! the republicans, and again, you have some great senators. but we were one vote away from repealing. [chanting "drain the swamp"] >> president trump: but you know? they all said "mr. president, your speech was so good last night, please, mr. president, don't mention any names." so i won't. i won't.

no, i won't. one vote away. i won't mention any names. very presidential. and nobody wants me to talk about your other senator, who is weak on borders, weak on crime. so i won't talk about him. [boos] >> president trump: nobody wants me to talk about him. nobody knows who the hell he is. and now, see, i haven't mentioned any names. now, everybody is happy. but we are going to get rid of obamacare. i will never stop. one vote. i will never stop. we are going to get rid of

obamacare. every day we are keeping our promises. and that includes our promises to our great, great veterans. it was veteran here? it's getting better. getting really good. and remember, i'm only here for less than eight months. when they talk about obamacare, it was years. when they talk about hillary clinton -- she spent eight years trying to get -- [boos] >> president trump: eight years trying to get health care.

well, it's obvious that we won the state of arizona. do you agree with that? it's pretty obvious. and we won it by a lot and i hear we are winning it by even more right now. if you think about it, the clintons -- they spent eight years and they weren't able to get health care. other administration spent all of their time and they went able to get it. obama, what he did to get it, including the guy -- gruber, gruber got fired yesterday. he got fired because he defrauded somebody or something. something very bad happened. check it out. something happened. gruber, who lied about obamacar obamacare -- who called everybody fools for believing it, obamacare is gone. it's a disaster. it's gone. premiums in other states are going up in numbers that are even higher than the state of

arizona. insurance companies are fleeing and it's gone. i really believe the republicans and maybe we will get a couple of senators, i think they're going to lose their race on the democratic side, maybe. we will get it fixed. one vote. speak to your senator, please. speak to your senator. we are reforming the va to ensure our veterans have the care they so richly deserve. including choice. choice. choice. in other words, if you've got to wait for seven days and you are not feeling well, you go see a doctor and you pay for your doctor. isn't that good? and we've got legislation approved. that everyone said was impossible. it's called va accountability. if someone treats our veterans

badly, we can fire them. we say you are fired, get out of here. everybody said you couldn't get it. they've been trying to get that passed for 40 years. great legislation. you never hear those liars back there saying trump hasn't gotten legislation? i think we've got more in a short period of time -- i think we've gotten more than everybody including harry truman, who was number one. they will tell you we've got none. so we've got va accountability, people treating their veterans badly or not doing their job. isn't that bad? we've also obtained historic increase in defense spending to deter conflict we believe in peace through strength.

we are building up our military like never before. thousands and thousands of brave americans have paid the ultimate price for our freedom. now, it's up to us to preserve and protect their legacy. last night, as you know, i laid out my vision for an honorable and enduring outcome in a very tough place. a place where our country has failed. afghanistan. this is a place where terrorists are trained. we have people that are not exactly united states fans. can i say that? and i will tell you that what we are going to do with our incredible military -- they're going to make unbelievable sacrifices -- and they've already made, in some cases, the ultimate sacrifice -- we are

fighting for them. our war fighters deserve the tools they need in the trust to fight into win. fight and to win. and you see what's going on in north korea. all of a sudden, i don't know, who knows? i can tell you what i said -- that's not strong enough. some people said it was too strong. it's not strong enough. but, kim jong un, i respect the fact that i believe he is starting to respect us. i respect that fact very much. and maybe, probably not, but maybe something positive can come about. they won't tell you that. maybe something positive can come about.

every american deserves a government that protects them. honors them. it defends them and fights for them. by the way, speaking of that, you have three congressmen in the audience. and your governor who met me at the plane. he is now inside. he said i want to spend my time outside on security. i said that's a great idea, governor. but not that many people showed up so i don't think it should be much of a problem. but you have a hell of a governor. governer ducey. we have three congressmen, friend of mine who has been so great to me. trent frank. where is he? get over here. congressman paul.

andy. get up here, fellas. [cheers and applause] >> president trump: thank you, fellas. thank you. congressmen. never let them go, folks. don't ever lose them. thank you, fellas. in washington, we are taking power out of the hands of donors and special interests and putting that power back into the hands of the people that voted

for us. okay? for us. the same failed voices in washington are the same people who gave us one terrible trade deal after another. who gave us one foreign policy disaster after another. who sacrificed our sovereignty, our wealth, and our jobs. we don't need advice. from the washington, d.c., swamp. [boos] >> president trump: we need, right now, to drain the swamp. that's what's happening, too, believe me. washington is full of people who are only looking out for themselves. but i don't come to washington -- i've had a great life. i've had great success. i've enjoyed my life. most people think i'm crazy to have done this.

and i think they are right. but i enjoy it because we've made so much -- i don't believe that any president -- i don't believe that any president has accomplished as much as this president in the first six or seven months. i really don't believe it. including a great supreme court justice, just as neil gorsuch. i came to washington for you. your dreams are my dreams. your hopes are my hopes. and your future is what i am fighting for each and every day. it is so important. our agenda is the pro-worker

agenda. we have accomplished historic amounts in a short period of time. we have signed more than 50 pieces of legislation. they said we signed none. none. we've signed 50. appointed justice neil gorsuch. nominated 31 federal judges with many more on the way. so important, we have aggressively canceled job killing regulations. we are unleashing job creating american energy like we've never unleashed before. we've ended the war on beautiful, clean coal and it's just been announced that a second, brand-new coal mine where they are going to take out

clean coal -- meaning they are taking out cold, they are going to clean it, it's opening in the state of pennsylvania. the second one. and the state of west virginia, which was way behind and lagging was now -- in terms of gdp increase -- second last quarter to the state of texas. how about that? west virginia. and they have a great governor in west virginia. governor jim justice, who just quit the democrats and joined the republican party. in the proud to tradition of american great leaders, george washington -- please,

don't take a step down. please! does anyone want george washington's statute? no, is that sad? to lincoln and teddy roosevelt, i see they want to take teddy roosevelt's down too. they are trying to figure out why. they don't know. they are trying to take away our culture. they are trying to take away our history and our weak leaders -- they do it overnight. these things have been there for 150 years paid 100 years. you go back to a university and it is gone. weak, weak people. we are going to protect the american industry and the american worker. no longer will we allow other countries to close our factories, steal our jobs, and drain our wealth.

we are building our future with american hands. american labor. american iron, aluminum, and steel. we will buy american and we will hire american. i immediately withdrew the united states from the disastrous trans-pacific partnership. it would have been a disaster. and you know that one of the worst deals that anyone in history has ever been into, we have begun for marine renegotir nafta. i must be honest and i've been talking about nafta for a long

time, and i am sorry it's taken six months but we have to give notice -- you have to see this -- we have to give notice and after you give notice, you have to wait a long time. anyway, we started two days ago. personally, i don't think we can make a deal. we have been so badly taken advantage of. they have made such great deals. both of the countries but in particular, mexico, i don't think we can make a deal. i think we will end up probably terminating nafta at some point. but! i told you from the first day, we will renegotiate nafta or we will terminate nafta. i personally don't think you can make a deal without a termination but we will see what happens. okay? you are in good hands, i can tell you. we are unleashing american energy and i withdrew the united states from the job

killing paris claimant climate. people have no idea how bad that was for this country. great for other countries. we were like the lapdog. great for other countries. our country was still behind. since i took the oath of office, we have added far more than 1 million jobs in the private sector. unemployment is at right now at almost a 17 year low. wages are rising. the stock market is at its all-time high in history. economic growth has surged to 2.6%. remember everyone said you won't bring it up to 1%? you won't bring it up to 1.2%. we just started. those regulations that we've gotten rid of -- we are going to have some regulation, but it's

going to be sensible regulation. those regulations are unleashing our economy. we have a gdp -- shocking about two weeks ago. it was announced for the quarter, 2.6%. remember i said we will try to hit 3%? we are already at 2.6%. i might have to increase my offer. and so many of those people -- you know, the economic council, when it got a little sheet with the lies from the media, they said all, we will take a pass -- not all of them but some of them did. i remember the ones that then. people are now calling me. people that have been like "we will take a pass." don, can we get together for lunch? these people just don't get it. they are calling and saying how

about getting together privately? why should they be on a council? that's the way it is, folks. to bring more jobs, industry to our shores. we are committed to passing the first major tax reform in over 30 years. now, we need the help of congress, please. okay? we need the help of congress. we really could use some democrat help. we are giving you the biggest tax cut in the history of our country. the democrats are going to find a way to obstruct. if they do, remember, they are stopping you from getting a massive tax cut. just remember that, okay? the crushing business tax is a massive self-inflicted economic wound. we have one of the highest

business tax rates out of anywhere in the world. pushing tax and wealth out of our country. that's why we are going to lower the tax on american business, to bring back those companies, bring them back to america. we want more products stamped with the letters "made in the usa." we also want every day americans to be able to keep more of their own money. for the democratic senators, especially the ones where i won back their states by 20 or 30 points, i hope you are going to come over to our side. again, when you have 52 republicans, if you lose 2, that's the end. it's hard to get 51 out of 52. i hope some of the democrats that are going to lose their election will come over and give

everybody a big, beautiful tax cut. it's going to be great for the economy. it's time to pass the tax cut for the middle class families. we will make america the best place in the world to hire, grow, and start a business again. we want to lift our people from welfare to work, from dependence to independence and from poverty to prosperity. we are going to do an infrastructure bill. we will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, waterways, all across our beautiful land. our most incredible buildings, our most beautiful works of art are just waiting to be brought to life. american hands will build this future. american energy will power this future. we have become an energy

exporter for the first time ever. just recently. american workers will bring this future to life. we are the nation that dug out the panama canal. won two world wars, put a man on the moon, and defeated communism. we can do anything. we can build anything. and we can dream anything. it's time to remember what our brave soldiers never forgot. americans share one flag, one home, one glorious destiny. according to the same law, raise

our children with the same values and we are all made by the same almighty god. [applause] >> president trump: as long as we remember these truths, as long as we have enough strength and courage in our souls, there is no challenge too great, no task too large, no dream beyond our reach. we are americans in the future belongs to us. the future belongs to all of you. this is our moment. this is our chance. this is our opportunity to recapture our dynasty like never before. to rebuild our future. to deliver justice for every forgotten man and woman and child in america. freedom will prevail. our values will endure.

our citizens will prosper. arizona will thrive and our beloved nation will succeed like never, ever before. two americans young and old, near and far, in cities small and large, we say these words again tonight -- we will make america strong again. we will make america wealthy again. we will make america proud again. we will make america safe again. and we will make america great again. thank you, arizona. god bless you. thank you. thank you. >> bret: president donald j. trump, the 45th president of the

united states speaking largely extemporaneously for about an hour and 15 minutes in front of a very friendly crowd in phoenix, arizona. he spent about 30 minutes castigating the media about the coverage in charlottesville. how many times he spoke out against racism, bigotry, neo-nazis and the kkk. he did not talk about the statements of people on both sides of that marching. but he opened the whole speech at that long tick tock his own words. the president did not mention arizona's two sitting senators by name but he criticized them nonetheless. talking about senator john mccain's boat, coming back to just one vote short. then he talked about senator jeff flake but not by name. the president ticked through a list of what has become familiar, big successes. those things he he has said before.

his southern border wall, he said if we have to close down our government, we are building our wall. a budget and debt ceiling debate, on trade -- as nafta is being renegotiated, trump said "we will probably end up terminating nafta. "the north american free trade agreement. he said we will make america strong, and safe, and great again. with that, let's get some analysis from our panel. john roberts. katie pavlich. matt schlapp. all right, you hear the speech as a lot. >> that was as good as anything i'd heard on the campaign trail. here we are. eight months into his presidency. clearly had something he wanted to get off of his chest.

he had a clear win last night with his speech about the new policy in afghanistan. some people complained about a lack of detail but i think that was deliberate for the president. now he has completely changed the subject and a lot of what you will see tomorrow is the fact that when he was counting what he said about charlottesville, he left out the part that that was the most controversial. there is going to go around on both sides. find people on both sides of that argument as well. i thought it was interesting, a couple of things. he made policy tonight. saying shut down government. in order to get the wall built. and we also saw a nod towards the midterm elections next year. the president said if democrats don't give you tax reform, they have stood in the way of you getting a big tax cut. that's an argument because the

democrats of course are trying to flip a lot of seats in california and win back what they need to take back the house. >> bret: for his supporters, this is president trump, candidate trump, trump being trump. however, for people in the administration, there's some concern, isn't there? they could have had the speech last night last a few days, at least, before overtaking it by an event like this. >> this is how president trump likes to strum the cords of the message. he's the one driving the message. for most -- certainly republicans at the national level, if you have a good speech, getting some pretty good feedback on an important issue, you want to play for a couple days. that's just not the way he plays the game. you know what we are not talking about? we are not talking about a special counsel. everything else. it's interesting how he keeps

flooding the zone with really interesting news coverage. >> obviously it was a campaign rally but i think this was his attempt at some kind of unity by going out in front of a major audience. to defend himself and his remarks. i think he's got staff that's probably not happy but i feel like he needed to defend his words and himself and most important link, something was important -- personally, they are attacking my supporters as if they are racist and they are not. generally speaking, the american people, whether you are a trump supporter or not, accusing them of racism for simply disagreeing with them. if you disagree with taking down a confederate statue, you are a racist or neo-nazi or white supremacist. adding to that personal level is important but in terms of him getting its message out, he's going to get the last word whether it's a distraction to his agenda or not.

>> bret: i've set on the panel before, washington new york, seen through a different prism. does the scorecard a little differently perhaps in middle america in arizona? what did you see tonight? does this work for him? >> it does and it doesn't. he played all his greatest hits. obviously the crowd waited outside, he filled the place, 19,000 people. the base is still there. they want to see the show he puts o but to katie's point, he started off with these unifying scenes. but then he goes off track, re-litigating charlottesville. if he's gonna cover any ground, i'm not sure he made any of that ground up tonight. he was talking to his base, his supporters about his agenda. i don't know if he is bringing anybody back to him were

converting anybody. >> bret: does the media bashing work? >> yeah, it always has for him. it went so far as to almost think it's becoming dangerous. he should go as far as he did. he went pretty far today. one of the other things that was interesting tonight i thought he was about to call an audible -- i could see john kelly in the back going no, no. he started winding up on joe arpaio. he basically said the arpaio, you're going to have a nice christmas because a part is coming down. a pardon is coming down. >> was sheriff joe convicted for doing his job? he should have had a jury but you know what? i will make a prediction. i think he's going to be just fine. okay? i won't do it tonight because i

don't want to cause any controversy. sheriff joe can feel good. >> bret: joe can feel good, that's essentially saying the prediction is coming true. >> check is in the mail. i think we can probably expect in the next few days or so. please don't do it, not appropriate, a lot of people were saying to pardon him at a political rally would just be the wrong thing for president to do. >> bret: he was convicted of corruption in court, criminal contempt in court. but he could still be fined or spend a little bit of time in jail. the president all but said don't worry, joe, i'm giving you would get out of jail free card. >> i know the president mentioned he doesn't want to cause controversy. there's been a lot of talk on the national level about this being a controversial pardon. joe arpaio was a sheriff for 24 years. he is wildly popular until just

few years ago. people in that state believe the federal government came in and distinctly singled him out for enforcing immigration law. in a state like arizona, as the president pointed out a little bit tonight, illegal immigration is a very serious issue. it affects every single sector of the arizona economy. how people live. the job market. community safety. of course he's going to get some applause there. if we look at the country joe arpaio is still respected for the job he did as sheriff. >> just a classic trump moment. there were other moments, he was openly trolling his own staff. >> bret: "they told me not to say this." >> but one vote! he had a couple of moments, he thrives on the sort of thing. thumbing his nose at conventions. he even joked at one point they said it was going to be presidential. he knows he's not going to be

presidential. it's just trump doing what trump does. the question is whether it gets him anywhere. >> bret: that moment where he said they told me not to say it but mad dog mattis is going to be my secretary of defense. and everyone in his staff said no! >> don't mention any names. so i won't. i won't. no, i won't. one vote away. i won't mention any names. very presidential, isn't it? nobody wants me to talk about your other senator, weak on borders, weak on crime. so i won't talk about it.

nobody wants me to talk about him. nobody knows who the hell he is. >> bret: data senator jeff flake, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is defending directly and actually spending money with ads, internet ads right now, against his potential primary opponent. >> these are political -- he supports his republican incumbents. republican national committee has laws that govern what it does in these primaries. supporting incumbents. donald trump does, he supports people who support his agenda and he goes after people who don't and as a strong republican but a conservative first, what john mccain did on health care is about one of the worst acts of political cowardice. even though he is a great man. political cowardice i've ever seen. there's a huge outcry he's sick. we should pray for his recovery but a lot of us are tired of him

being in the senate. >> bret: you are looking live here. outside the hall. some teargas has been fired by the authorities they are. the police putting on their gas masks. the protest at the beginning of this rally -- they were pretty tame. you're the president mentioned that. pretty small numbers. we don't know the numbers out there right now but we do know that jonathan hunt, our chief correspondent is out there. paint a picture for us, jonathan. >> this has suddenly turned into a very different scene out here. there were thousands of protesters on the street directly outside the convention. it had been extremely peaceful. it is not so right now. i can tell you where you are looking at directly is right opposite the interest to the convention center. police are firing some smoke canisters to disperse the crowd right now. the area where the trouble appeared to begin, i can tell you was where there was a group

of antifa activists that i saw earlier, clad in black uniforms and their masks. i do not know that that is the particular group that the police moved into disperse but that's in the area where they were. the smoke is now billowing across the street in front of the convention center here. i assume for the moment, bret, all of those attending the rally will be held inside for the moment. we've not seen large numbers come out. a lot of the protesters are dispersing now. those who did indeed come here for peaceful protest. as the smoke thickens, it's hard to see what is going on in the epicenter but certainly the police have gone in with the rifles that fired the smoke canisters. they have fired them on at least i would say four or five occasions that i've heard, bret. this has turned into a very

different scene than what we saw for many hours when it was an entirely peaceful protest by thousands of antitrust activists. >> bret: we want to cover this responsibly. you want to give a sense of what the scene is and what the authorities are doing but as we've done many times in these events, sometimes in the focus on it, it fuels some of the reaction to it. it seems like, jonathan, they were prepared for something big. there is a lot of authority and police presence on the street already? >> yeah, absolutely, bret. the phoenix police department, every one of them told me earlier -- they were on duty, on the streets were on call. they were expecting a large crowd. it was, indeed, a large crowd. difficult for me to estimate without seeing an aerial view of it, bret, it was certainly in

the thousands. the convention capacity is about 19,000. that was certainly close to capacity without trump supporters but there are many thousands out here on the streets protesting donald trump as well. the protests were organized last week by social media. the police were able to monitor that. there were 4,000 who said they were attending. just one of those rallies, according to the organizer's facebook page. i would say at least that showed up here. the police were here in numbers. fully equipped. obviously every police force around the country has learned from the presidential campaign and the kind of protests we saw then. this is a larger crowd than any protests crowd i saw on the campaign trail. we covered many of these protests out here in the west but this has been the largest crowd. it has thinned out very rapidly. we are down, i would estimate

not more than 100. it would be fair to say that most of these protesters, the vast majority come over peaceful in nature and got out of here as soon as it became a little bit ugly with those smoke canisters fired by the police for whatever reason they felt they had to. again, i cannot say what sparked that move by the police. it was certainly in the area where we had previously seen a small group of around 50 antifa protesters clad in the black outfits as we have seen. >> bret: we watch this unfold. the police deploying teargas. we have our chief white house correspondent john roberts. the president is out of that area. >> >> we saw many, many times in the campaign trail, outside of

whatever facility the president was about to speak at -- there would be some words exchanged between protesters in there in the valley but it's when the rally got out that everyone -- it's when we saw trouble. in chicago, the rally the president canceled, when we saw people file out. the most notably was in san jose. when some of the protesters violently attacked people who were simply trying to lead the trump rally and get back to their cars. we have seen a number of times. it looks like in this particular case, the crowd that is remaining a smaller than some of that we saw on the campaign trail. this is always the biggest problem for police. when the two sides meet after coming out of a charged rally. particularly in the heat, voicing their opposition with whatever's going on inside. that's when tempers get heated. >> according to social media,

police are warning protesters to leave or get gas -- teargas, if you will, taking some people throwing things at police officers. we just saw a local affiliate reporter with his own gas mask on, preparing for this. let's keep talking about this event. one of the things president did here is not only the media kind of bashing but deployed in his old political base, also he went after these groups. like antifa. at one point he screamed "antifa!" , saying he was coming after their supporters. >> on the question of the media, it's sensitive because all of us interact with the media who are involved in politics and i try to talk about these issues.

but for decades, conservatives tried to explain to people if there was a liberal tilt to the media, they felt like they didn't get a fair case. if you look at that harvard study on the coverage of donald trump, it's overwhelmingly negative. there's nothing that's been like this. leave it to donald trump, a marketing genius, to turn it into content of fake news. we've been trying to win this argument for 50 years. he is winning this idea that actually, you don't always get a fair shake with every reporter in every news outlet. >> bret: sure, a fair shake is one thing but enemies of the people, that's another. >> i didn't hear that tonight. i've heard it before. i think it's too far and i think people sate the media, it's not the media. it's monolithic. the liberal bent in the media, there's a lot of -- thank god in today's 21st century america, is a great diversity in america and

we are finding the american people have the ability to choose what they want to listen to. they are moving away from those great old names of media. it's those great old names own fault for that. >> bret: live in phoenix, just outside the area where president trump just spoke to a big crowd of friendly supporters. outside, it's not so friendly. protesters police and authorities are dealing with. let's listen to that media sound bite from the president, bring in a couple of other folks. >> the very dishonest media, those people right up there with all the cameras. they don't want to report that i spoke out forcefully against hatred, bigotry, antiviolence and strongly condemned the neo-nazis, white supremacists, and the kkk. he didn't say it fast enough. he didn't do it on time.

why did it take a day? he must be a racist. >> bret: let's bring in, as we look at lived there in phoenix, howard kurtz and jane allowed them -- how are your thoughts tonight as we continue to cover the last 3? >> the longest attack on any president, may be shadowing donald trump's own record. many conservative commentators were critical of his charlottesville remarks. it's fine for him to say that the media have distorted his message after the violence in charlottesville. he kept saying that his words were ignored. at that not true. many of the phrases he read were reported and played again on television. more importantly, he got a lot of praise from the mainstream media for the afghanistan speech last night. this changed the subject back to charlottesville.

it's starting to fade a little bit for another 48 hours at least. i was a little surprised the president was relitigating it. i know his supporters along with that but the afghanistan story and immigration in arizona, and seem to be a stronger card for him to play right now then going back to charlottesville. >> bret: doctor, your thoughts? >> you want to unite the country? bash the old media. his base, everyone sitting there tonight, bret, everyone felt the same. they love to say finally, a voice after all these years -- conservatives have quietly complained along the sidelines. people feel like they have a voice in the president. that's why he dedicated so much time to that. there is a psychological component at play here that's really important. in almost a veiled way, he said those of you who notice how bad the media are, you are onto something. you are the smart people out

there. the other message, if you are smart, take a look at the media. you know what? this antifa attack right afterwards? totally looks like the president was clairvoyant the whole time. >> bret: sure, but you are not seen the racial tensions are based on the media, are you? >> i'm saying the media for many years has stirred up identity politics and racial tensions. absolutely. they have not been straightforward in a lot of cases, bret. at least conservatives would contend they don't feel like they got the real story on the violence that we are seeing before our eyes right now. conservatives see this and they want someone to call these people out and they feel like that's with the president did in all likelihood tonight. >> bret: we should point out is not teargas, it's smoke canisters, we are told by police in phoenix. it's a smaller crowd there. howard, we look to see what comes out of this outside of this speech.

another element in the wheelhouse of the president tonight -- they may not have known about it as he took the stage. you had espn removing this announcer, robert lee, from a game in virginia because his name was robert lee. he's an asian american. espn putting out a statement "we collectively made the decision with robert to switch games after the tragic events in charlottesville were unfolding simply because of the coincidence of his name. at that moment it felt right to all parties. we regret that who calls the play-by-play for a football game has become an issue." >> bret, it almost seems like a parody. this was not just political correctness, its political idiocy and journalism malpractice to boot him. i'm surprised they are defending this overreaction. you played football for years without a helmet, would anybody

when they see the sky, robert lee, think he was in any way a descendant of the latest civil war general? at such an overreaction, oversensitivity by a network, moving too much into politics on the liberal side. i really can't believe that espn did this, benching the sky. it had nothing to do with the problems in charlottesville. the university of virginia game he's calling. >> bret: gina, the president talked about the statues. he didn't reference this. but he didn't hit on that political correctness kind of theme. gina. >> when i first saw this story about the naming of the sky, because his name is robert lee, my second thought was after i realized it wasn't a chose, they still teach history enough that people know who that was in our

history books? bret, the only people paying attention to this narrative live on the coast. they are in the bubble. middle america is watching this story and just shaking their head and this is -- case in point, may be the that broke the camel's back. to say that this narrative that has taken over the russian clues and story of a we don't hear about that anymore, this is the new one, it's completely out of control. america is not paying attention to this or taking it seriously. >> bret: howard, dr. gina, we continue to look at live pictures. we're getting word that the crowd is the dispersing. i think jonathan hunt is still with us. jonathan? >> bret, it's certainly much calmer now banned and was 20 minutes or so ago. there are some hard-core protesters. they number in the couple of hundreds.

you can see for from our vantae point. they are being pushed back by the police. they are being pushed west of the convention center, away from it. a line of police in riot gear. we've seen this time and time again, when these kind of incidents happen. they form a line and they push them slowly back. yard by yard, bit by bit until they get further away from this side. what we saw earlier, some flash bang and smoke being fired to aid in the dispersal of that crowd they did not at any point used teargas. i've been in teargas too many times. i can tell you that was not teargas. just smoke. they have not gone to the heavier measures that they have at their disposal. certainly they have that option to use teargas if they want to. they've not gone to that at this

point. it does come up the moment, look much comber. there is a hard-core group, about 50 of the antifa activists clad in their back uniforms. black masks. the v for vendetta style masks that we've seen them wear so often. they are the hard-core. over in that region where they were staging the major police action has been happening. as i say, right now, it looks as if things have calmed down. it can always flare up again. certainly police at the moment here in phoenix seem to have a grip on this thing and the crowd has thinned out for several thousands to just a couple of hundred at this point, bret. >> bret: thank you, keep us in the situation. we are going to get off these pictures. as it disperses, we will get some final thoughts with the panel. matt, watching twitter and social media, obviously people come down on both sides. based on where they were going

in. some people saying uniting the country and uniting the base is not the same thing. they're saying this speaks to something they haven't heard in this country. which is a plainspoken president. >> yeah, let's make it really clear. donald trump and his presidency -- it's a lot about what happened during eight years of the runway rule of barack obama. we never saw president, certainly not a president my lifetime lifetime, use his executive authority -- to the extent he did. come cut out congress. i would give him credit for this politically, barack obama got his agenda in. one way, by hook or by crook. pen or by phone, whatever it took. because there was no bipartisan consensus on any big question, there was a massive reaction in this country. a part of this country -- they

want to fight. i don't want to see it turn violent. i hate seeing video like we've just been watching but there's no question, totally legitimate to push back and say now it is about our agenda and we want to get our agenda in. a lot of it is going to help our country. >> bret: president trump on the agenda. >> timed out tonight to send a message. we are fully and totally committed to fighting for our agenda and we will not stop until the job is done. >> bret: john, that is what the president says. that's what he said to that crowd but "the new york times" headline -- threatening the g.o.p. agenda, it seems like a different message from this white house. about the white house that they have with their own parties and the majority leader. it's become in the administration tonight, i asked about that.

the icy chill between the president and mitch mcconnell. and i said well, there's an ebb and flow to all relationships. not quite in marital counseling just yet or divorce courts. this prism expects that the relationship at some point will begin to turn around. the president and no question is very frustrated. he wanted to get obamacare done in the worst way and the reason he wanted to get it done -- it wasn't so much about health care but about that big pot of nearly $1 trillion he wants to put towards tax reform. if you can't get that, his tax reform plan won't be what it wants. >> bret: final thoughts. tom and katie. >> i will elaborate on what matt said. the last 40 years, he has change the ph balance of the republican party on trade, foreign policy, a lot of different issues. that's where the divide is in the country. we are seeing it exacerbated by these two small groups battling it out. fueled by the media.

i don't think that's where most of the country -- they don't of multi-with either of these groups. >> republicans on capitol hill need to realize that the voters are going to blame them. they're not going to blame president trump. mitch mcconnell's numbers in kentucky, jeff flake, it's very clear who he was speaking about. they are fed up with washington, d.c. election cycle after election cycle. they voted president trump in. rnc is going full throttle behind his agenda. if they are going to get anything through, republican senators and house members are going to be the ones paying for it. not the white house. >> bret: we will see. finally tonight, one of our favorites. one of the original hires here at news announced today that he is retiring and we are really going to miss him. if you have ever seen any campaign coverage ever on fox news channel, you knew him. >> in greenville,

north carolina, in, where are we? hubert. >> >> bret: fox sent carl camern everywhere. he was one of fnc's originals, coming from w and are in new hampshire. >> an upbeat celebration. >> bret: covering capitol hill. >> he was chief white house correspondent. but he was best known by two words. campaign carl. covering all aspects of campaign across the country. breaking big stories. >> george w. bush sat down for his final network interview before the residential election. hey, governor, what a big surprise. >> bret: being in the fight. i often traveled to the same places on campaign trails and worked alongside carl for 20 years. sedate fares with bad food. conventions with fallen balloons

and getting the scoop from party nominees. >> carl cameron, who is a nice guy at -- >> bret: he is a really nice guy who wrote us all an email today saying "after nearly 22 amazing challenging wonderful years, i'm retiring from fox news. i will always be immensely grateful for the relationships, experiences, and many lessons over the last two decades." fox news president of news, the car heart and soul of our political journalism for the entire existence of fox news. incredibly sad to see him go but we understand his desire to retire and embark on a new chapter after a storied and stellar career. from all of us, campaign carl, we will miss you. good luck. >> we salute you. enjoy your retirement. don't be a strangerer. that's it for this late night edition of the special report. fair, balanced and unafraid.

join us every weekday at 6:00 p.m. for coverage of the day's news on special report. we have you covered overnight. if anything breaks you can see it here on the fox news channel. >> welcome to ha"hannity." this is a fox news alert. the vice president mike pence will take to the stage and we'll get a "fox news" correspondent and karen is with us and welcome to a real news network and you see the vice president walking on stage. real quick, what will we see tonight? >> we'll see the positive things the president has done and