This is a rush transcript from "The Five," July 27, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MONICA CROWLEY, CO-HOST: OK. Welcome back to "The Five."
So, Bolling, you wanted to follow up, clarify something you said earlier?
ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: Yes. In our last discussion about immigration, Bob had mentioned something about do you think everyone is out there illegal mowing lawns. I didn't say they're illegal -- everyone is illegal --
BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: I know you didn't. And you know what?
BOLLING: I simply meant to say there's a big group of cash -- there's a cash black market business going on.
BECKEL: It was me trying to catch you, and I did.
(LAUGHTER)
BECKEL: I know exactly what you meant.
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: You're a bad man, Bob.
BECKEL: No, no. I just thought, well, I'm outnumbered. So, I apologize, too.
CROWLEY: Let's share the love. That was beautiful.
OK. Let's go to what I think is a particularly horrifying story that came out this week. A group of atheists accurately called American Atheists have decided to sue New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, as well as the states of New Jersey and the city of New York, over this ground zero cross.
Now, this cross was found literally within 24, 36 hours after the attacks on 9/11. It's two pieces of the beam of one of the World Trade Center towers. There you can see it. Perfectly-shaped cross -- and it's stood on the site of ground zero for the last 10 years.
Well, this group, American Atheists, is now suing to prevent this cross from being displayed at the 9/11 memorial.
Bolling, you were there on 9/11, at ground zero, working on Wall Street. Your thoughts?
BOLLING: No, I watched the second plane flying to the tower. I saw the towers come down. I saw friends, I saw people -- I saw people jumping out of windows. It was a horrible scene.
But I did also see -- I saw George Bush get up on the wreckage and say, they'll hear you, they'll hear you loud and clear. The people who took down these buildings will hear you loud and clear.
When that cross emerged, it was kind of like the symbol of hope. And that whole area was devastated. And then we saw that. And it was like, there's hope. Someone is going to look down and take care of this area.
And they have.
And now, the atheists want to yank that. I'm outraged. I'm outraged to the anti-God agenda.
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: That's the way it fell.
BOLLING: It happened to be standing like that. Everyone just said, wow.
You know, honestly, the teddy bears and the flowers around that thing.
CROWLEY: This is such a sacred symbol on sacred ground, right?
ANDREA TANTAROS, CO-HOST: Absolutely. Look, I guess that's what happens when you don't believe in god, you have all this extra time because you're not praying, and you use it for unproductive things, like suing about this. The fact of the matter is the atheists are upset because it's the only religious symbol they say. There's no other religious symbol around. That's not because it's not allowed to have another religious symbol around. I mean, I just think this is absolutely ridiculous. The atheists in New York City need to find something better to do with their time.
CROWLEY: Greg, don't you think that ground zero represents a battle in this war? And the war was brought to us on 9/11 by Islamic terrorists acting in the name of their faith, but we can't up a symbol of Christianity or Judaism or anything else?
GUTFELD: The thing is, I think we established, it wasn't even a created symbol. It was an accidental symbol, so the argument that we created this cross is a bit weird.
The other thing, too, I have no quarrel with atheism. I think the eternal question we all face in the loneliest parts of our night is whether there's a god or not, and people come to this decision of their own. However, this is a really really stupid battle to fight. And I don't see these guys going to military cemeteries and going, hey, these white crosses -- let's get rid of these white crosses. They're too scared to do that.
BECKEL: Let me let you sleep better tonight. There is a god. But this raises a bigger point. I know this is going to get me in some trouble and I know you don't like me saying this, but we're all going to remember 9/11. But it was 10 years ago. In the meantime we have had the Patriot Act -- I know we're talking about it later -- which has taken away a lot of our rights. We've closed down a lot of our buildings. We have dogs everywhere, 15 different new agencies to spy on everybody else. At some point we got to get back to living our lives. I know it's sensitive to you, Eric, and I know you had friends that died there, but we can't keep going back to 9/11 --
TANTAROS: Bob says this because he barely remembers what happened yesterday let alone ten years ago.
BECKEL: No, no. I don't diminish it at all. I'm just saying we can't keep living our lives --
CROWLEY: But Bob, we have war memorials everywhere as testaments to Americans who lost their lives in the course of war, whether in service or as civilians. This memorial means so much to the survivors who lost loved ones that --
BECKEL: We don't close down the mall in Washington, which happens to be where I live, and close the doors to the Supreme Court.
BOLLING: Paraphrasing you, getting over the World Trade Center, 9/11, what does that have to do with allowing these people to put a cross up there? I mean this is anti-God. By the way, God is one every single -- here's a $5 bill with "In God we Trust."
BECKEL: We all think it's a dumb idea. I just wanted to raise a bigger point, that's all.
CROWLEY: By the way, we should be libertarian on this question. We don't care what faith you practice, and if you choose not to believe, that's fine, too. And therefore these atheists shouldn't care about that cross.
TANTAROS: Don't silence someone else.
GUTFELD: Nobody was complaining either. They claim people would be offended, but nobody wrote any letters.
CROWLEY: Exactly.
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