This is a rush transcript from "The Five," September 10, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Eric Bolling. Welcome, everybody.
At 9 p.m. tonight, the president will address the nation.
The Syrian news is breaking fast and furiously. In the last 24 hours alone, Russia has seized the peacekeeper role from the Nobel Peace Prize winner President Obama. Assad has agreed to turn over chemical weapons. And all this is going to happen if and only if President Obama promises to reject the use of force.
Russia had called for U.N. Security Council meeting to draft a peace resolution. That was supposed to be happening right now. But the Russians have pulled that request. It's getting very confusing.
So, let's look at how we got here starting with the president's evolution on Syria.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.
The world is watching. If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable.
After careful deliberation, I have decided that the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets.
I didn't set a red line. The world set a red line.
My credibility is not on the line. The international community's credibility is on the line.
INTERVIEWER: Can you accept the Russian/Syrian proposal?
OBAMA: Well, we don't know the details of it yet. But I think that it is a potentially positive development.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
BOLLING: All right, Bob. He has evolved.
BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: What was your question?
BOLLING: President Obama has evolved. It looks like a week ago he was definitely -- it was go time. Now, it looks like maybe he'd be willing to sit down --
BECKEL: Oh, that's what you said. Evolved.
BOLLING: Evolved.
BECKEL: OK. Clearly, it's evolved. I mean -- but these situations develop. As they move along, things change.
Russians are doing this. Is it a good thing they're doing it? Yes. Is it something that I would feel comfortable saying that it's going to find itself taking weapons out of Assad's arsenal? Not completely.
And more than that, what happens here if we don't use force, if this guy does not get punished for using them, that means Hussein and Hitler are still alive and well and the chemical weapon history as well as Assad.
BOLLING: Ands, Bob brings a very good point. The two things on the table at the Security Council right now are the censuring of Bashar al- Assad and the use of military force. On the one side, the French and U.S. want Bashar al Assad censured. And they want the ability to use force. On the other side, the Russians and international community want the exact opposite.
How do we -- how do we fix this? How do we get there?
ANDREA TANTAROS, CO-HOST: Well, when John Kerry goes to Geneva, let's hope he stands firm and is able to negotiate something with the Russians.
I'm skeptical of that. What we've seen from this White House, what we saw yesterday morning, was basically a brain fart foreign policy idea that's now somehow an idea of brilliance. That Vladimir Putin uses an opening to jump on so that he could continue to control the Middle East as he always has. Now, he can follow in the footsteps and let Assad follow in the footsteps of the other tyrants that have used long game diplomacy to draw this process out.
Eric, the Russians are playing chess and we are playing go fish. Go fish. Someone, fish for a foreign policy answer.
And I think tonight, President Obama is going to spin this as a win, basically say he looked Assad in the eyes and Assad blinked. He's going to give a lot of tough talk.
But I think we are getting played so badly that there's no way they're going to get rid of these weapons. They might do a little bit for PR purposes. But they're never going to get rid of all of them.
BECKEL: Did you say Putin controlled the Middle East?
TANTAROS: Yes, he does.
BECKEL: Oh, my God.
TANTAROS: The Russians have extreme power.
BECKEL: The Russians have had no power in the Middle East since the1973 war.
BOLLING: Let's stay what's going on.
Dana, all day long we heard that we were close to a deal. Now, within the last hour or so, it looks like we may not be as a close.
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: With the Russians and Assad? Or with Congress?
BOLLING: No, no, I'm sorry . With the Russians and Assad, keep Congress out of this discussion at least for a moment.
PERINO: So, I think the White House would rather be lucky than good. Sometimes that works for you in politics. But basically what's just happened is that President Putin through President Obama a lifeline. He tried to reach for it. And then the Russians yanked it back.
Now, tonight, President Obama reportedly is going to call for a diplomatic pause. In a live primetime Oval Office address, he's basically going to accomplish what he could have done in a one sentence statement rather than having us whip sawed back and forth.
So, now, you have the president -- the international community, that's more Greg will say academic speak, we must negotiate now with Assad. Before the United States policy was that Assad must go. So does he -- he doesn't have to go anymore? And we're supposed to trust President Putin? Who basically wants more influence in the Middle East?
You have Assad, we're supposed to trust? He just two days ago said to Charlie Rose he didn't have chemical weapons. Now, they're saying they would turn things over?
We're putting our trust in people who have proven to us that we cannot trust them. Just a month ago, President Putin could not even do the one diplomatic thing that President Obama asked for, which was not to give immunity to Richard Snowden and he did it. And we're supposed to trust them.
BOLLING: Ed Snowden.
Greg?
PERINO: Ed Snowden. Sorry.
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: I mean, what do you expect? We sent Shaggy from Scooby-Doo to fight Boris Badenov.
Remember when Obama said -- told Medvedev that he'd have more flexibility after the election? He's right. He's become Putin's Nadia Comaneci.
And you look at Russia -- Russia is now America's pawnbroker. They have Robert Kraft's Super Bowl ring from the New England Patriots. They have Edward Snowden, our whistle blower. They now have our foreign policy.
Is it possible we could hock Detroit to them? Because maybe they might be able to do something.
But there's a big story here. Number one, Russia going to pick up chemical weapons, that's like dad taking the car keys from his son for a week. In a few days, he'll get it back.
It says something, though. It says that Bob was right. That Syria did it, because Russia and Syria are agreeing about the stockpile, but not the rebels' chemicals. They're not saying, here, take these. But you also have to take these -- which means the rebels don't have chemical weapons. They weren't able to use them.
So, what we've learned from all of this is that Syria did commit this attack. That changes a lot. It changes my mind about a lot of things. It should change -- it should maybe strengthen our resolve about what do you do about this, because you can no longer say, well, maybe it was the rebels.
In fact, now the argument will be that it was Assad's military doing it without his OK.
BECKEL: Brilliant, brilliant.
BOLLING: But before we get into who did it, because it's very important who did it, let's take a look at where the Obama administration has been over the last couple of weeks with respect to Russia. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: Because of the guaranteed Russian obstructionism of any action through the U.N. Security Council, the U.N. cannot galvanize the world to act as it should.
CHUCK HAGEL, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: There's no secret that the Assad regime has had chemical weapons, significant stockpiles of chemical weapons.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From a particular country?
HAGEL: Well, the Russians supply them.
SUSAN RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: A week after the August 21st gas attack, the United Kingdom presented a resolution that included a referral of war crimes in Syria to the International Criminal Court. But again, the Russians opposed it. As they have every form of accountability in Syria.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
BOLLING: See, my problem here is the Obama administration put themselves in a box. They trashed the Russians for the better part of the last two weeks. Now, with the Syrians saying we will negotiate with the Russian plan, Obama has to sit down. The administration has to make peace with the Russians over what to do in Syria. How can you possibly do that after laying this out the way they have?
BECKEL: Everything they said was absolutely true. The reason that they could not move something through the Security Council was the Russians were going to veto it.
Now, the Russians now grab hold of this initiative. I don't blame them. I'd grab it, too. And now, they will make some peace at the National Security Council, only after they play this dog out a little bit more.
But the idea somehow this is an evolution on thinking about the Soviet Union is ridiculous. What they said about the Soviet Union was true then, it'll be true now, it will be true in the future.
BOLLING: But Dana's right. Dana's right. President Putin gave President Obama a lifeline. He let him out of the corner he painted himself in where President Obama's only option was to go attack Syria. He offered him -- he made a resolution that could at least allow the president the option of not attacking Syria.
BECKEL: But doesn't -- doesn't that admit you have them?
BOLLING: Yes. But then they walked away from the table.
BECKEL: They walked away --
TANTAROS: It would make us happy if we could trust Vladimir Putin. Now, we put the man who blocked every effort to try and broker a deal in the diplomatic driver's seat. He's yet again embarrassed the United States of America by backing out of this U.N. meeting. And I think we're going to have a stalemate for a long time. Putin lives for this.
BOLLING: Didn't he back out because President Obama and the group said that -- and the French said they couldn't say they would not attack Syria given this resolution?
BECKEL: Sure.
TANTAROS: Right. Who's going to blink? Who is going to blink next?
BECKEL: There's going to be some diplomatic words that will be used. But the idea somehow you're going to not be able to say you've got to punish -- you've got to have the ability to punish Assad.
BOLLING: And my stance would be you shouldn't be there anyway. So, this is an easy one. You know what?
BECKEL: Who shouldn't be there?
BOLLING: The Americans shouldn't bomb. It's not our war.
Greg, am I wrong here saying, look --
BECKEL: You certainly were wrong about the terrorists using their weapons against themselves. You guys --
TANTAROS: Wait a minute.
BECKEL: You guys should own up to that.
TANTAROS: Hold on a second.
(CROSSTALK)
TANTAROS: No, there was more -- there was more than one instance of chemical weapons being used. And, Bob, we know for a fact that the al Qaeda group al Nusra has WMD and has used WMD.
Did we know for sure every single chemical attack used against the Syrian people was Assad? No. And the same time that surfaced, there was video of these rebels that were moderates blowing the brains out of Christians in the country.
BECKE: They were not moderates. Whoever said that was the Free Syrian Army? That was not the Free Syrian Army.
GUTFELD: I think this is all -- this is a completely brilliant strategy executed by Hillary. Starting with Benghazi.
The Benghazi debacle to create false confidence in Syria. So that they would use chemical weapons which would allow us to bring Russia to the table for finally the reset button.
BOLLING: Dana, take a listen to Nancy Pelosi --
GUTFELD: Nothing soaked in there.
BOLLING: We'll roll that around. Can we listen to Nancy Pelosi trying to give President Obama credit on all this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), CALIFORNIA: What the initiative from the Russians has done is said to the president -- has given the president a victory, because it has taken -- it has recognized that for 2 1/2 years the president has used and attempted diplomacy to try to have a political solution to what is happening in Syria.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: Your thoughts, Dana?
PERINO: Got to hand it to her. I mean, that's loyalty. Basically she just was on the twister map playing a game with herself. I guess that you could expect that they are going to try to say, yes, of course. This is all because of this.
Reality doesn't work that way. If that was the case, that President Obama had this grand strategy, he put America's reputation on the line for10 days, threatening that he was going to use military strikes, only to say, aha. See? I knew he was going to back down. And I knew we would have a diplomatic solution.
I am very troubled about what this says tonight to the Free Syrian Army and other people who would fight -- that are fighting for freedom and all sorts of other countries. I think this angers and confuses our allies. They're not in a position to be able to necessarily say that out loud.
Perhaps this is the right -- everybody got to the right solution at the end, which is no military strike, unless you were going to strike initially. I don't know who would believe that anymore in the future.
Apparently, President Obama was very, very tough in his talk with Senate Republicans today at the luncheon that he went to. That sounded like, you know, he was in command. Things were going to move forward.
An hour, two hours later, he's calling for a diplomatic pause. Putin is canceling the meeting at the U.N.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLLING: Go ahead.
BECKEL: Very quickly. The idea the United States foreign policy is in a shatters, as if these people get up in the morning, and three weeks from now, this is not going to matter one bit. They care about the United States for one reason, economic cooperation from the United States, in any of our allies and anybody else.
The idea they sit around like we do and think, oh, my God, look, tatters --
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: It doesn't matter what we think, Bob. When it comes to Assad, the policy of the United States has been that he should not be there. That was -- that has been President Obama's position.
BECKEL: Right.
PERINO: Now, he's gassed his own people, if that's true. So, he's gassed his own people. He gets to stay there. Putin gets to control him. Iran gets a free pass the way of send every weapon they want to Hezbollah and al Qaeda.
And are we -- what is our position then?
BECKEL: Well, it hasn't changed any, though, has it?
PERINO: But it actually has changed.
TANTAROS: It has.
PERINO: If he gets to stay, if he gives up our chemical weapons then our position --
BECKEL: But we weren't going to take him out anyway.
(CROSSTALK)
TANTAROS: Can we just point out? It's changed in the last 24 hours. John Kerry floated this idea thinking out loud again. Then said, "But will never happen."
Now, if this is true, if what the White House just said is true, that they've been working on this for years, clearly that failed, because John Kerry said, but that'll never happen. That's not realistic.
They have changed their position even as recently as a couple hours ago. This whole thing has been I need more evidence. Wait, hold on. I'm not going to get involved. I am going to get involved. I'm going to go to Congress. I'm not going to go to Congress. We are a laughingstock.
BECKEL: Oh, come on.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLLING: I really want to get this in. I think this is really important. I'm about to blow your mind, folks. I've been reading a biography written about the chairman and CEO of FOX News, Roger Ailes.
While reading page 123 (ph) --
GUTFELD: What a coincidence.
BOLLING: -- the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Keep in mind this quote is from about a year ago. Mr. Ailes says, quote, "Putin is angry. He thinks the United States doesn't take him seriously or treat Russia as a major player. OK, that's fine. That's how he feels.
If I were president I'd get in a room with him and say, `Look -- look at the slaughter going on in Syria. You can stop it. Do it and I'll see to it that you get all the credit. I'll tell the world it was you who saved the innocent children from Syria -- in Syria from slaughter. You'll be an international hero. You'll go down in history.' Hell, Putin would go to bed thinking that's not a bad offer.
There will still be plenty of other issues I'd have with Russia. Instead of looking for one huge deal that settles everything, you take a piece of the problem and solve it.
Give an incentive for good behavior. Show the other guy his self- interest. Everybody has an ego. Everybody needs dignity.
And what does it cost? You get what you want and you give up nothing."
Bob, how many lives may have been saved if President Obama just went to Putin when Roger Ailes suggested?
BECKEL: Well, I mean, it's, Roger's --
BOLLING: A year ago?
BECKEL: I know. It was very prescient and I'll give you that. But I mean, what he's saying here is the same thing anybody in the diplomacy business will say, is that if you can get your enemy to sit down and get them part of something, and get them on your side at least for one issue, then that's probably a good thing.
How many lives would have been saved? I'm not sure that Putin a year ago would have for a minute come on and done anything with Assad. I think it took this bombing of some suburbs of Damascus for it to happen.
BOLLING: Ands?
TANTAROS: I don't think this at all prevents Assad -- even though I doubt he's actually going to do anything about these weapons. Like I said, they'll probably make it look like he's doing something. You can move these weapons very, very easily. It's going to take a long time to actually get inspectors on the ground. It's going to be a stalemate. They'll drag it out.
And, Eric, it still doesn't prevent Assad from using other more traditional ways to oppress and to hurt and to kill his people. So, I still don't know what the game plan is after this.
BOLLING: Your thoughts?
PERINO: You remember about a year ago or so, the administration did a speech in our foreign policy we're going to make a pivot to Asia. That is actually -- they're not able to follow through on that. The Middle East is going to be something that they have to focus on, because meanwhile in Egypt, we still have the discussion of whether or not to continue to fund them.
There's so many other things that are happening in the Middle East that are going to take up their time. I don't think they'll be able to make that pivot that they promised.
BECKEL: In the end, it surely is about Israel. In terms of our commitment to Israel. It needs to be secure. We need to stay there to do that.
BOLLING: Greg, your thoughts?
GUTFELD: Two points. If Putin thinks Obama doesn't respect him, join the club. The fact is Obama is only excited around real star power. That is Beyonce, and Jay-Z, maybe if Putin could twerk.
But the bigger point is the president doesn't buy into exceptionalism. And now, neither do we because we follow our leaders.
Basically, he's not a leader. He's a helium balloon. He can try to dictate answers and the world doesn't listen.
BOLLING: All right. we have to leave it there. A year ago, folks. A year ago.
Important programming note: "The Five" will be right back here live at11:00 tonight reacting to President Obama's speech. Be sure to stay with FOX throughout the night for the best political coverage on the planet.
Up next, Ed Henry is going to join us from the White House with a preview on what we can expect from President Obama tonight.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: OK. Welcome back. I'm not sure what the producer was thinking with that song, but we'll talk to him later.
All right. Once again we are less than four hours away from the president's primetime address to the nation on Syria. For a preview of what we can expect here tonight, let's go to the one, the only Ed Henry, FOX News chief White House correspondent.
Ed, what in the world is going on?
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good to see you, Dana.
Obviously this speech I'm told by senior officials has been drafted, redrafted. You've been through this process before. Events have been changing very rapidly over the last 24 to 36 hours. So, what I'm told is the president is going to basically tonight tell the American people that he's calling for a so-called diplomatic pause in these votes that are coming up on Capitol Hill. A two pronged strategy, if you will.
On one track, he's not saying call off the votes on Capitol Hill. He's saying delay them, keep the option of military force being authorized on the table. Keep that stick out there against Assad and Syria, but also offer this carrot of potential diplomatic breakthrough where Secretary of State John Kerry, we're now told, is going to Geneva on Thursday in order to meet with Russian officials to see if this potential deal to avert military action is for real.
Now, we should admit the political reality, though, it is very convenient for the president to call for this pause because he was likely to lose this vote in the House if it were held today or tomorrow or later this week. The Senate was also very touch and go. So, that helps him politically.
But they also believe from a substantive standpoint in the White House that this will be smart to give Secretary Kerry a chance to move forward.
But this is not even a deal that's been reached yet. And, today, you had the House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi claiming it's a victory for the president that the Russians have come forward and maybe Assad is backpedaling.
And Secretary Kerry had this to say on the Hill. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KERRY: But make no mistake, make no mistake about why this idea has any potential legs at all. And why it is that the Russians have reached out to the Syrians and why the Syrians have initially suggested they might be interested. A lot of people say that nothing focuses the mind like the prospect of a hanging.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: They're clearly trying to say it was the threat of U.S. military action that has gotten Assad to backpedal. But, of course, if Assad in the end does not backpedal in this Russian plan or proposal, whatever you want to call it turns out to be a mirage, those could be embarrassing words, guys.
PERINO: All right. Ed, let me ask you this. So, the purpose of an Oval Office address is to persuade the nation or a momentous occasion or get them to back something. Was there ever a consideration the White House would have postponed this speech? I remember President Bush postponed the surge speech a couple of times while they worked through things.
I don't think they would have suffered any more embarrassment than they have the past week if they would have kicked it to another night, to call an Oval Office address, primetime, play that card which you don't have many of in a second term -- did they talk at all about putting it off?
HENRY: They have not, because they wanted to move forward because I think they realize credibility is on the line. You've heard about American credibility being on the line because of the whole red line comment. It's also on the line because the president has been pushing so hard for these votes in Congress.
So, if all the sudden they want this pause, he's got to explain to the American people which one is it? Remember, it was only ten days ago that the president basically had the finger on the trigger and was about to launch U.S. military action, then pulled back and said I want to go to capitol hill. Then, it appeared he didn't have the votes. So, now, they're saying let's have a pause.
He's got to say something to the American people to say where are we in this debate? What are the stakes? And, frankly, what's next in all this, Dana.
PERINO: OK. Bob's next -- Bob.
BECKEL: Ed, our brilliant foreign policy analyst, Mr. Gutfeld, came up a very good point here today which is that by stating they were going into this agreement, the Syrians have essentially admitted they have stockpiles of chemical weapons, something Assad himself said he didn't have. Given that -- let's assume this thing falls apart with the Russians-- does it seem to you that Obama could then go in and strike without having Congress?
HENRY: He could at that point, but then does he really have the mandate to do it when he himself was standing in the Rose Garden a few hundred yards behind me suggesting that he had to go to Congress because he wanted the nation to be unified on this?
When you look at the public polls and you look at the clear divide on Capitol Hill, if he were just to move forward on his own, could he do that?
You also have to wonder about how much time, when you say maybe this will fall apart in days or a couple weeks, this could go on for even longer, because as John Kerry himself said a couple of weeks ago and you played it in the open, you know, the U.N. could take a long, long time. So, Putin may just be slowing things down, guys.
BOLLING: Hey, Ed, 70 percent of the American people say they're not in favor of the strike. Tonight, when we watch President Obama speak -- will he be speaking -- please don't say all three. Will he be speaking to the American people, will he be speaking to Congress, or will he be speaking directly to Vladimir Putin?
BECKEL: Or to Assad.
HENRY: I think all three. No, honestly, I think I can pick one and I think it's the American people.
Look, he's already been making his case in phone calls to members of Congress. He's already done these interviews with media folks to sort of get out there. But I think this is not about talking directly to Putin or Assad. It's about talking to the American people, explaining the stakes, number one.
But number two, what is the strategy? That has been one of the criticisms not just from Republicans, but some of his fellow Democrats. And, frankly, that's what's cut the most for this president, is that here he is in his fifth year in office, struggling to get his legacy items on the domestic front like immigration.
Meanwhile, this has just consumed him completely on the national security front. And his fellow Democrats have been running from him.
PERINO: Andrea?
TANTAROS: Hey, Ed, what is to -- what's to prevent Assad from using other means to persecute his people? There's other -- maybe not chemical weapons, but there's even worse human rights offenses that he could commit.
And we know from history, we've asked other dictators like Moammar Gadhafi to turn over his weapons only to then find weapons years later.
Has the White House expressed any strategy on what would happen if Assad were to act against his people maybe not using WMD?
HENRY: No. No, because the honest answer frankly to your question is, there's nothing to prevent Assad from using other things besides chemical weapons. Let's not forget he'd already killed 120,000 people of his own people before these chemical weapons attacks.
What the White House says privately is that they believe when you have Putin and others trying to get Assad to the table now, if he were to do something else rash, that would blow up in his face and might actually force some sort of U.N. action.
The other last point I'd make we've got to pay attention to, let's not forget the U.S. policy over the last two years has been getting Assad out of power. Then they said, well, wait, this is not about regime change, number one. Number two, you now have Putin trying to get Assad to the table.
Who's at the table? Assad. That means maybe the U.S. policy of getting him out is not going to work. And that, in fact, Putin may be saving Assad here, telling him to try to get rid of the chemical weapon. But keep him in power, guys.
PERINO: Exactly.
Greg, bringing up the rear.
GUTFELD: As I always do, Dana.
Ed, you mentioned how the Syrian issue has consumed President Obama. My theory is that it's not consuming him at all. That it's consuming us while he attends to the other things as you mentioned -- immigration and perhaps I think some climate change stuff. What do you think about that theory or conspiracy?
HENRY: I don't think that's true. I mean, I think if you just look at his face, look at his graying hair in recent days and weeks, he's been grappling with this. He's been struggling with this. Look at the news conferences last week where he was trying to shift it and say, look, this was not my red line. This was the world's red line.
He knows that, yes, he's working on those other issues as well. But he's had countless hours in that Situation Room inside the White House with his national security team. His critics may not think he's made the right decision. But he's been in there grappling with it.
And at the end of the day he knows his legacy is as much on the line with how this plays out in Syria as it is on immigration or climate change or anything else.
PERINO: Thank you, Ed.
HENRY: Thank you.
PERINO: You will be penalized because "at the end of the day" is a banned phrase. We are not allowed to use it on "The Five".
HENRY: I'm sorry.
PERINO: We'll send you a list for the next time you're on.
HENRY: All right. Thank you.
PERINO: OK, thanks so much.
We're going to be watching at 9:00 p.m. The address will be followed by a special edition of "ON THE RECORD" at 10:00 p.m. And then, believe it or not, we are back, "The Five", will break down the president's remarks at11:00 p.m.
GUTFELD: Why?
PERINO: It's going to be live.
President Obama made another trip to the Hill today to win over lawmakers skeptical about the strike. We've been talking about that. It's an uphill battle. And Greg is going to talk about it.
GUTFELD: Am I?
PERINO: No, Andrea. Andrea next.
GUTFELD: Don't scare me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TANTAROS: President Obama made another big push on Capitol Hill today to win support for a strike on Syria. He knows he's got his work cut out for him, and he still hasn't ruled out acting on his own.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC NEWS: Any confidence you're going to get the votes?
OBAMA: You know, I wouldn't say I'm confident.
GUTHRIE: Would you act without Congress? The answer could be yes, no, or I haven't decided.
OBAMA: I think it's fair to say that I haven't decided.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TANTAROS: A recent "A.P." survey shows an overwhelming majority of lawmakers in the House don't support a strike by 6-1. And a "Washington Post" survey shows that a fourth of senators are in favor of this.
So, Dana, right now a group of senators, Michael Emanuel's reporting on this, McCain, Graham, Ayotte, Schumer, Chambliss, Levin, and some others are getting together to put together a resolution that will be able to give senators the ability to vote in favor of diplomacy but also still keep that military option on the table. They don't believe that Putin's serious.
So, this basically says, Putin put up or shut up, or Assad, I should say.
PERINO: And in three hours President Obama is going to give a live, primetime Oval Office address saying we need a diplomatic pause. And he doesn't want the congressional vote.
TANTAROS: Right.
PERINO: I don't understand. What are they doing? It really is driving me crazy.
Besides, President Obama has maintained the entire time that he has the -- and I agree with him. He has the ability to do a strike if he feels it necessary. I understand he wants Congress's support along the way. I think that that's smart policy and politics.
But you can't jerk the Congress around like this. He's had members of his own party have to make a very tough public announcement that they are going to support him. And he's given political cover to those Republicans who have said -- come out and made the tough decision to say they're not going to support him. This is totally messed up.
TANTAROS: So, if you're a member of Congress, Eric, that has followed the president and said, OK, I support you on what you're doing. Now, the president as Dana points out is saying, well, I don't know if I'm serious about that.
Wouldn't you be pretty angry right about now?
BOLLING: I'm not sure if I'd be angry. First of all, can we just clarify I would never be the member of Congress that would say, yes, let's go strike Syria, under any circumstances unless an American interest was under threat. So, in my view of the world right now is they can vote whatever they want. President Obama is not going to call for a House vote knowing he's not going to get it. He may get a Senate resolution. He may go with the Senate.
My guess is the House is completely out of play.
TANTAROS: Greg, does anyone really care what Congress does? I don't mean to pooh-pooh what Congress does. If Russia and Assad don't really care about what the White House is doing, a congressional resolution I'm guessing isn't exactly going to get their attention.
GUTFELD: Yes. First off, when he says it's fair that I haven't decided, if ambivalence was on the periodic table, the symbol would be Obama's head.
But we have so many moving parts. We have the president. We have his minions like Kerry and Clinton. You got Congress. And now, you got Putin who's like that neighbor that walks across the street to tell you you're mowing your lawn incorrectly.
What's missing on this bus is a driver. So, the Congress, none of this stuff matters. It's the driver. Where is he?
TANTAROS: It's like the Knight Rider car.
GUTFELD: It is. But at least that car could talk. It was an articulate car.
TANTAROS: It had a consistent message, it would give Michael Knight when he was in trouble.
GUTFELD: That was a hope and change car.
TANTAROS: Bob, what happens if they pass this resolution? Putin has said, yes, I'll go along with this as long as military action is on the table. Kerry is about to head off to Geneva to meet with Lavrov. Let's say they broker a deal. Military use gets taken off the table.
BECKEL: Mm-hmm.
TANTAROS: Then what? What happened to that big stick, by the way?
BECKEL: First of all, what is a periodic table?
PERINO: What?
BECKEL: What's a periodic table?
PERINO: You know in chemistry class?
BECKEL: OK, sorry, I didn't get that. I didn't get to the chemistry class. Listen --
GUTFELD: You know chemistry, Bob. You just know a different kind.
BECKEL: Right. The ones in trailers out back. That's right, the ones that blow up a lot.
Listen, I never thought they should have called for Congress to do this vote without having a vote count, at least have some idea where they were and they didn't. I think this gives them a pause now to be able to have an excuse to be able to go in and bomb if they want without getting congressional support. I hope they do, because I still make the point Assad deserves to be punished for what he's done.
PERINO: Agreed.
TANTAROS: By the way, Greg was referring to male/female chemistry. I also think the White House knew this vote would pass. So this gives him a bit of an out, too, to have these members go ahead with something else.
Straight ahead on "The Five," a stunning attack on the streets of New York City in broad daylight. A white victim is dead in an apartment hate crime. The story --
GUTFELD: Apparent. An apparent hate crime. Not apartment hate crime.
TANTAROS: An apparent crime, he didn't die in his apartment. But he passed away. So, it's serious.
It's a national story. The media has been silenced. But we want to make sure you know about it because another big crime in the Big Apple just happened. We'll tell you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: So I want to tell you about a man named Jeffrey Babbitt. He doesn't twerk. He's not an MMA fighter. He didn't snark on Twitter. He was 62 years old. He lived with and took care of his 93-year-old mother who has Alzheimer's.
The man was obsessed with train and comic books. He was a train conductor. He probably was never cool but most likely always harmless. His neighbors described him as gentle. Described. That's past tense.
Yes, if you were to Google Jeffrey's name he'd come up with only one hit. The one that killed him.
Lashawn Marten, a cowardly fiend claimed he was going to punch the first white guy he saw. Jeffrey ticked both those boxes, so he hit Jeffrey, a sweet old man caring for his mother. He died at the hospital. Now she, his mother, has no one.
This might be the first time you've heard about this story, maybe because it's a local story. But what's a local story in the Internet age? That's a B.S. dodge. Ignored when there's a story the press wants to tell.
Jeffrey should be a national story, but his death is not fashionable. His face will never be seen on a shirt worn by a big star. Hell, I'd have to do a monologue on Jeffrey every day for a year to strike a balance.
But his death is a reminder of evil and the cowardice that fuels it. Despite progress, we live in an unforgiving chaos. The least we can do is condemn such acts, as well as the pathetic media concerned with evil that only fits their narrative.
You want to talk about crime? Sure. Let's talk about crime. But let's talk about all of it. Giving less than half the story is worse than no story at all.
So, this is yet to be judged as a hate crime. But I'm guessing when somebody is walking through Union Square in New York City saying I'm going to hit the first white man I see, I would call that a hate crime, Dana.
PERINO: I would imagine if anybody heard him, they probably just looked away and hoped that it would dissipate and that they wouldn't have to get involved.
GUTFELD: Yes.
BECKEL: Two people came to his aid and he beat them, too.
GUTFELD: Yes, two people tried to jump in.
BOLLING: But then, again, you would think if someone stood up and said Allahu Akbar with a gun and blow away 13 or 14 people, depending on your perspective, you would probably call that a jihad as well.
GUTFELD: That's a good point. That's a good point.
Bob, if we're going to discuss violence, shouldn't we cover it all?
BECKEL: Listen. From my standpoint, I spend an awful lot of time talking about during the civil rights days white people who were beating up and committing hate crimes against blacks. In this case, I think it's very clear as you could possibly be. If somebody makes an announcement I'm out here to kill a white person because I hate white people and he proceeds to do it, then there's absolutely no question the definition of that is a hate crime.
And I wish there was another example of when some people like Al Sharpton and others could stand up and say this is just not acceptable.
GUTFELD: Good point.
Andrea?
TANTAROS: Well, I have another example if they don't want to jump up to this one. Just today in The New York Post, there's a story about a bus rider in Manhattan who had his face bashed in, Greg. A white man by a black man who called him a cracker and then punched him in the face. They are saying this is a hate attack.
And an officer said this -- a few months ago you wouldn't have a problem stopping somebody. But now we can't do that because of the stop and frisk prohibit -- now, we're going to have to second guess yourself. This is from a cop.
So, thanks for that, lunatics.
GUTFELD: All right. Coming up, the Ohio man who confessed via YouTube to killing another man while driving drunk -- these are upbeat stories today -- made his first court appearance today. We're going to tell you what the family of the victim is now saying about this widely known video confession. It's up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECKEL: His drunk-driving confession has gone viral on the Internet. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW CORDLE: My name is Matthew Cordle. And on June 22nd, 2013, I hit and killed Vincent Canzani. By releasing this video, I know exactly what it means and hand the prosecution everything they need to put me away for a very long time. But I'm willing to take that sentence for just one reason, and that reason is so I can pass this message on to you. I'm begging you, please don't drink and drive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECKEL: Today, 22-year-old Matthew Cordle appeared in court after being charged with vehicular homicide. He turned himself in for the hit- and-run death of 51-year-old Vincent Canzani, on June 22, in Ohio. He'll be arraigned tomorrow.
Some people are asking if his confession was contrite to get a lenient sentence, his daughter being one of them (ph).
Eric, you want me to pass you, you thought it was too depressing.
Dana, how about you?
PERINO: This is what I would have done. I think that I would have -- if he wanted to do this, I would say, you don't get any makeup, no back lighting, no nice music that makes you -- that evokes sympathy. It's like a political ad and I think it's -- to make it more real, he should have had do it in the raw.
BECKEL: In the raw.
GUTFELD: Naked? That's weird.
PERINO: No. I mean with none of the accoutrements.
GUTFELD: This helps -- to me, this helped two people, the business that are doing these testimonials, which I think is about telling the truth, and also him. But he does say in this video, he's going away to prison for a long, long time and he wants -- and he accepts full responsibility.
So you can't fault him for accepting responsibility. However, it is very clean and very professional and it's meant to make him look likeable and sympathetic. That plays into what the victim's family is saying.
BECKEL: Andrea?
TANTAROS: I think it all depends on the judge. If I were the judge, I would say I would prefer your confession here in court. You have turned my court into a theater going out as theater and I would be lenient at all.
BECKEL: I align myself with Andrea just said and also to say that once again, this guy was drunk. He's twice the legal limit and he went the wrong way on a super highway. That's all you need to know.
"One More Thing" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLLING: All righty. Time for "One More Thing."
Andrea is going to hit it off.
TANTAROS: OK. So, a couple of weeks ago I was kindly invited by Judy Albert and her group of Republican women down in Jacksonville, Florida, to speak, and they gifted me this cool nightlight of "The Five."
Check it out, everybody. Papa's Band of Munchkins in Kissimmee, Florida, at papasbandofmunckins.com, made this cute little night light that actually I can doze off and I can dream of all of you guys, which I actually do have dreams of "The Five." But now I can dream of you guys and if I look at this picture --
PERINO: Nightmares of my five.
GUTFELD: It looks like a cemetery of dead hosts.
TANTAROS: See, I'm taking you off my nightlight tray. That is absolutely but you know what? I won't need this tonight because we have a show at 11:00 p.m.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: What?
BOLLING: Dana, you're up.
PERINO: Speaking of 11 p.m., I don't think I have been up past1030 p.m. in many moons, many, many moons.
GUTFELD: And you ate that pack of pop rocks.
PERINO: Because I just embraced the fact that I need more sleep. In fact, there was a study, of course, in "The Daily Mail," of course, it was academic study, that women need more sleep because they multitask and use so much more of their brain power. So, women just embrace it. Just admit that you need more sleep.
GUTFELD: They need to rest their mouth.
BOLLING: They have to use their brain power a lot more.
Anyway, I'm sorry. Bob, you're up.
BECKEL: This is a sad but important day. Congress today honored the Birmingham Church bombing victims with the congressional medal, the gold medal, which is awarded every year to people who are distinguished Americans, and these four little girls were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963, became a code date for the civil rights movement.
Denise McNair, age 11, Carole Robertson, age 14, Addie Mae Collins, age 14, and Cynthia Wesley, age 14.
They're at peace now but because of them the civil rights movement really got energize and we thank you all posthumously for your wonderful, wonderful contributions.
BOLLING: Gregory, you're up.
GUTFELD: Well done, Bob.
All right. It's time for Greg's "nothing to see here" news. These are news stories that the media ignores because that's been its assumptions.
This one is global warming. Yes, it's finally dead. According to a new study, there's been a 60 percent increase amount of ocean covered with ice compared this time last year.
BOLLING: Increase.
GUTFELD: That's -- increase -- a million square miles more ice. A leaked report seen by The Mail on Sunday has led scientists to the fact that the country will be cooling until the middle of the century. That means all predictions, computer forecast have been wrong. Thank you.
BOLLING: Bob?
TANTAROS: Thank you.
BECKEL: That's Daily Mail.
GUTFELD: No, I'm sorry. That's from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
BECKEL: Same thing.
BOLLING: Before we go, tomorrow's 9/11 folks, very important day in a lot of our livens, but also 2 million bikers to D.C. tomorrow will ride on D.C. They weren't allowed a permit -- that's very interesting. The way I understand it the million Muslim march was allowed the permit. So, a lot of -- maybe politics going on there.
But they still will ride. Tomorrow, 2 million bikers?
GUTFELD: Really? Two million?
BOLLING: Whatever it is. Hopefully, anyway, 9/11 tomorrow.
Thanks for watching. Don't forget tonight, special 11 p.m. live edition of "The Five," following the president's primetime address. We'll see you then.
"Special Report" on deck. And we'll see you tonight at 11 o'clock.
GUTFELD: We're wearing pajamas.
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