(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats and the beatings and imprisonments of the last few days.

I think it's important for us to make sure that we let the Iranian people know that we are watching what's happening, that they are not alone in this process.

QUESTION: Were you influenced at all by John McCain and Lindsey Graham accusing you of being timid and weak?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: What do you think?

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, "SPECIAL REPORT" HOST: The president stepped up his rhetoric on the situation inside Iran today. And while it would appear the massive protests were largely squelched by Iranian authorities, we did receive some tweets, yes messages on Twitter from a trusted source inside Iran over the last eight hours.

Among them, these - "Yesterday we saw a ten-year-old die from tear gas in the face. Could not film because militia everywhere.

All hospitals surrounded by militia to check why people going in. If gun or baton injury, they arrest you and beat you.

Traveling through Tehran now is worse than Baghdad. Any moment you can be beaten or arrested. The people have lost all faith in this government. Iran can never be the same as before again."

Again, that's from a trusted source inside Iran according to our foreign desk.

What about all of this? Let's bring in the panel, Fred Barnes, executive editor of the "Weekly Standard," Juan Williams, news analyst for National Public Radio, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer.

Charles, was what the president said today at the news conference enough now?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: It had two parts. The use of the emotive words "appalled," "outraged" was new and right. But the policy of engagement remains unchanged.

Major asked him about hotdog diplomacy, meaning the administration weeks ago had said U.S. embassies around the world will be open on the fourth of July welcoming for the first time in decades Iranian diplomats as a way to symbolizing opening and negotiation.

To do that at a time when the regime is shooting people from rooftops is bizarre. I mean, remember, even the senior Bush, the president who was the most hyperrealist and unsentimental, sent his national security advisor Brent Scowcroft to China after Tiananmen, after the massacre, but at least they waited six months.

This would be the welcoming of Iranians into American embassies to celebrate U.S. independence ten days after the shooting on the streets. That, I think, is disturbing in and of itself.

But secondly, the president speaks about all of these events in an odd way. He says there is a debate happening in Iran about its future. You know, when one senator yields to another in the Congress, that's a debate. Even, if you like, when you're having dueling demonstrations in Tehran, you could call that a debate. But when you have demonstrators out in the street being shot from rooftops, that is not a debate. That's a massacre or a revolution. And the president refuses to understand or to acknowledge that what's at stake here is the legitimacy of a regime and not just elections.

BAIER: Juan, the president was pressed six times in these questions today. And at times he appeared a little defensive, and he did try to insist that he has been consistent in his tone on Iran. What about that?

JUAN WILLIAMS, NEWS ANALYST, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: I think he was back on his heels for much of the press conference. I think the press got much more aggressive with him, and specifically on Iran and the tone.

Now, his response was that he had been consistent. I think he has not been consistent. I think what you are seeing though, from the president, is an attempt to be consistent in these terms, that as the events in Iran have escalated, in other words, as the repressive regime has become more violent, and, of course, as the pictures of Neda that have galvanized world attention -

BAIER: The girl who was killed on the streets of -

WILLIAMS: Yes, and bled to death there, just horrible. if those pictures have galvanized world attention and made it very clear the extent to which its government is willing to use violence against its own people.

And I think he is saying, you know what, as these events have ratcheted up, my language and the tone have ratcheted up.

But if you would stick precisely to the wording, Bret, you would say no, clearly he has not been consistent.

But I will say this, that people from Dick Lugar to Henry Kissinger have said that what he has done in terms of moderating his tone is exactly right. You do not need here an aggressive American president inserting himself in. President Obama has said he doesn't want to be perceived as meddling.

I think that's a fair statement. So he doesn't want to go about cowboy diplomacy, Charles says hotdog diplomacy. It would be cowboy diplomacy before we know the outcome of this, before we know what we're dealing, to suddenly insert yourself and open up the U.S. and Britain to charges of being the great Satan.

BAIER: Fred?

FRED BARNES, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE WEEKLY STANDARD": You know, I just don't understand what this stuff is about "insert yourself." All I have been looking for, and I think Charles and millions of Americans is to choose sides. And he came pretty close to that today. He said the demonstrators were on the right side of history.

And when you use strong language, words like "outrageous" and "appalling" and "condemn," that's good. He changed his tune and his tone and his actual words greatly.

Juan, he should have said, rather than do the thing that we see politicians do all the time, say something that - or deny something that is obvious to the entire world. Obviously he changed his language from the days after the election to the last few days. He has gotten a lot tougher.

Why not just say what you said? Why couldn't he say that? Look, events have shown me that things are worse than I thought in the beginning, and that's why I'm using words like "condemn" and "appall" and "outrageous" and so on.

But he didn't say that. He said I haven't changed at all. I have been completely consistent, when everyone who can tie their shoes in the entire world knows that's not true.

BAIER: Although he did at the end there say - he was pressed whether he changed his rhetoric based on what Senators McCain and Graham had said -

BARNES: You know what the answer to that is?

BAIER: What do you think?

BARNES: Yes.

The good part is it is the tough words that will get the coverage around the world.

WILLIAMS: Why do you think he changed in terms of what McCain and Graham had to say? Why didn't you say -

BARNES: That was a part of the whole thing that was leading him to get stronger, the events in Iran, what they were saying, including what some Democrats were saying.

Look, he said the right things today, but it did take him a while to get there.

WILLIAMS: Just let me say this, Charles. I just think we didn't know as Americans whether or not this was a fraudulent election. And what he said today was based on the response of the Iranian people and the kind of debate taking place among the Iranian elites, we now know something wrong took place.

KRAUTHAMMER: We knew it was a fraud on day one. And the reason he spoke up is because for an American president to wait until day 11 to condemn the violence in the streets and suppression of popular expression a week after the president of France is doing it is disgraceful.