Obama: ISIS offensive includes no plans for US ground troops

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," September 8, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

ERIC BOLLING, THE FIVE HOST: This is a Fox News Alert. Some huge news breaking in the NFL, the Baltimore Ravens have terminated running back Ray Rice's contract after new video emerge on Rice brutally knocking out his then fiancee Janay Palmer inside an Atlantic City elevator. The League quickly file lawsuit, suspending the former star indefinitely. This all comes on the heels of the first NFL Sunday of the season and hours before a Monday Night Football doubleheader. We're gonna have more on that, later on the show. But first, President Obama was the inaugural guess for the Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, where the issue of confronting ISIS was front and center. Obama says he is ready to go on the offensive, but again stress that does not include boots on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The next phase is now to start going on small offense. We have to get an Iraqi government in place, and I'm optimistic that next week we should be able to get that done. And I will then meet with congressional leaders on Tuesday, on Wednesday. I'll make a speech and describe what our game plans are gonna be going forward. But this is not gonna be an announcement about the U.S. Ground Troops. This is not the equivalent of the Iraq war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLLING: Well, despite that pledge, more than 1100 troops are already on the ground in Iraq, and 148 air strikes have been launched against ISIS militants. Even with this show of force, President Obama, still contents ISIS is not a threat to the U.S. Former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell thinks differently. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We have not seen any immediate intelligence about threats to the homeland from ISIL.

MIKE MORELL, FORMER CIA DEPUTY DIRECTOR: There's no credible information on September 10th, 2011, that al Qaeda was gonna hit us. The threat from ISIS is exactly what France (ph) said it was, it is them directing an American citizen, or a Canadian, or a West European to come here and conduct a small scale attack, that could happen tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLLING: All right. So, Bob, first, ISIS was JV, this is President Obama's thought process, he's told us they're JV. Then he's degrade ISIS, then he's gonna make them a manageable problem. Then they're blood -- they're not HV, they're blood thirsty animals that we're not gonna destroy. President, oh, he's lost, he's circling the forest, he keeps seeing the same tree over and over again. What should we expect from Wednesday, anything new?

BOB BECKEL, THE FIVE HOST: Well, I think, first of all, I think he has reassessed his evaluation, as I have, of the threat of ISIS, from on that is allowed to be done by a president. Secondly, I think that we're seeing some very big news this weekend with the Arab League joining into this effort. I think he's gonna announce on Wednesday a full scale bombing of a -- the Syrian targets for ISIS. And I suspect that the bombing in Iraq will continue and be built (ph). What he was talking about next week is that Maliki will be gone, and there will be a new president, and there will be a status enforced agreement sign. And I think that what we're seeing here is that -- that the world is gathering around here, and he's gathering around, and they're gonna it to ISIS, and I believe will be non-threatening in a matter of weeks.

BOLLING: OK. K.G., President Obama said they are JV, now he says he's -- they're clearly not. Here's an -- let's assess this. Here his dilemma, if he wants to go beg in a really, really, kind of, temped down ISIS and take care of this, this problem he's having, he needs to go into Syria. But if he does that, he's gonna look like he is pro war, pro-Iraq war, everything he campaigned against in 2008.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, THE FIVE HOST: Should that matter?

BOLLING: You tell me?

GUILFOYLE: Should it matter, honestly? Don't we elect presidents to be great thinkers? That they'd be forward thinking to make the tough choices to do what's right in the best interest of National Security and in this country. He shouldn't be worried about the optics, about the polling or whether it's going to go back on a promise he made. That shouldn't matter when a job needs to be done, and unless he is willing to commit the military muscle to get this done, he's not gonna be able to eradicate and destroy them. And if he does not do that, then he will have failed, and that will be his legacy instead.

BOLLING: Dana, President Obama said no boots on the ground. He literally looked into the camera, looked into -- gazed into Chuck Todd's eyes and said no boots on the ground. Eleven hundred boots on the ground -- 1,100 military personnel there unaware, or there now. Who are they kidding?

DANA PERINO, THE FIVE HOST: Well, I think he will try to draw a very strong distinction, he needs to, to be very definitive about what -- and honest with the American people about what does it mean when you have 1,100 troops. He will draw the distinction that that is an invasion of a country like 100,000 troops in the Iraq war of March 2003.

GUILFOYLE: They just like happen (ph).

PERINO: I could write that speech today.

GUILFOYLE: You could.

PERINO: But there are several things that he's also said that he's not going to do in telegraphing. In fact, at the White House over the weekend when they previewed the speech, told Jonathan Karl of ABC News and maybe others, but he -- I thought he's reporting that there will -- don't expect anything in there about Syrian air strikes. I actually agree with Senator - - Former Senator Joe Lieberman who wrote on Friday in the Wall Street Journal that President Obama does not need congressional approval in order to strike in Syria. I've actually held that position for the last two years when the red line was first crossed on chemical weapons. In addition, the United States policy is that we do not recognize Assad as a leader of Syria. So I think that that actually is something -- I don't know if he'll discuss that on Wednesday, but he might walk all the way up to it.

But my last point of what they're talking what they wont do, the White House is leaking that they're planning a three-year plan, that this effort against ISIS will be a three-year plan. Now, setting a date certain is exactly one of the reasons we're in this problem to begin with, because that's they knew when we were leaving, they would wait for a safe haven. I just think it's more important for the White House to talk about what is on the table, maybe also what they have been doing. I predict that they will probably declassify a couple of news nuggets, to talk about things that the president has authorized in the last year or so that we did not know beforehand, because they're gonna need some sort of news for the speech. Otherwise, it sounds extremely defensive when they say that don't expect this, don't expect that, and the president is going to defend himself in the speech. That's what their soul purpose of the speech, that what they said over the weekend. I hope that's not true.

GUILFOYLE: And then try again.

BOLLING: Josh Earnest kept using this term, buy in. He wants congress to buy in. Which to me, Brian, sounds like with or without congressional approval, we're gonna do what we're gonna do.

BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Bob, you're the money guy, you should know what it means by buy in. He's gonna say I want $550 million for the operation which shows you he's not studying Bush 41, who he says he idolizes on foreign policy, who got, he said, everybody else to pay for the war. We owed nothing after the Persian Gulf War in '93, because -- as much more obvious to the world that you got a four semantic ways topper sell. Having said that, he says he is gonna use boots on the ground, the Free Syrian Army. You know, the doctors, the lawyers and the dentists, those are the one he said, it's far so (ph) to believe that they were gonna, actually, be a force that we can arm. Now we're counting on them and the Arab League, Bob, I hope they're in, but they screwed us when they came to Libya. Remember they said go into Libya, you got to help us, you got to get rid of Gaddafi. And then they just disappeared. So somehow, we have to get leverage on Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar to write the checks, provide the bodies to go in there, and they got to be Sunni bodies.

GUILFOYLE: You can't trust that Qatar.

BECKEL: I understand. Let's keep in mind that the threat here is much more significant, as far as I concern, than Kuwait was. I was...

PERINO: Libya.

BECKEL: ...Libya was. The other thing is, the complexity of the Syrian issue is, you're actually going into a civil war into a civil war. In other words, you're trying to break up the ISIS part of the Free Syrian Army, and the Free Syrian Army and then let them move forward, and that's very complicated.

BOLLING: Why is that complicated?

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: Let me ask my question. So we know the territory that ISIS holds within Syria and within Iraq, that's pretty -- fairly well defined. In fact, you can see ISIS headquarters from Turkey, you can see it. So you have an idea where they are, but the issue is you're flying over sovereign air space. And for some reason, as Dana points out, look, Assad was a bad guy. Obama drew the red line, chemical weapons -- they found chemical weapon, allegedly, so they were gonna go.

PERINO: Against his people.

BOLLING: Right, against his own people. And then it weren't gonna go. Who are we -- are we worried about offending Assad. KILMEADE: No, he's got air defense. We're gonna blow it up first.

BOLLING: Brian, do you gonna tell right now that we couldn't escalate this attacks into Syria without loosing any of our people.

KILMEADE: I hope not. I just say we got to take it out like we did in Libya. We had to take it out first, and then we store the air pump. BECKEL: They've got very sophisticated ground to air missiles.

KILMEADE: Russians gave it them.

BECKEL: Yeah, the Russians gave it to them. And I think the answer is, Obama needs money for sure to -- from congress, but the war powers act is very clear. The president of the United States can make this move without...

GUILFOYLE: Absolutely, and I said that too.

PERINO: But you know what actually makes it more -- make that's more politically difficult for the president and also from a communication standpoint is the fact that he did not utilize that authority when Assad crossed the red line and he said I'm going to ask congress. And that was then his excuse for not acting. Now he could do it, and I would still support if he decided to do it on his own, I would support it. I'm just saying he put himself on a little bit of a pitfall (ph).

BOLLING: Let me get to this, guys. In addition to lacking a cogent -- a cogent strategy to defeat ISIS terror threat, the president also seems to be suffering from a little bit of amnesia about his proclamations regarding the group. Listen to his answer when Chuck Todd confronts him for calling ISIS JV.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK TODD, AMERICAN JOURNALIST: Long way, long way from when you described them as a JV team. Was that intelligence or your misjudgment?

OBAMA: No, keep in mind, I wasn't specifically referring to ISIL. I said that regionally there were a whole series of organizations that were focused primarily locally, more focused on homeland. Because I think a lot of us when we think about terrorism, the model is Osama bin Laden, and 911. And the point that I was...

TODD: You don't believe this people?

OBAMA: Not yet, but they can evolve and I was very specific at that time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLLING: Dana, take this because my head is going to explode. Really, you weren't talking about ISIS when you call, really, honestly?

PERINO: Look, don't take it from me. The fact checker (inaudible) at the Washington Post looked into this, because the White House has been saying, that's not what the president meant -- four Pinocchios, saying yes, he did, he clearly did. Politifacts said the same thing. Peter Wehner of Commentary Magazine has been following this very closely and he's to shown, it's actually -- it's just in black and white. Yes. That is exactly what he was referring to. Maybe he didn't mean to, maybe it was a bad choice of words. I think the White House instead of digging this hole even deeper, that they should have just said, bad choice of words, moving on. Instead they make it worse.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: If ever there was a time where you say, I made a mistake.

PERINO: Just do it, and it was easy.

BECKEL: And I under estimated this, and so do some people in the community almost didn't but we have to reevaluate and we have to say that this is certainly not a JV team and we have to (inaudible) get on board and take them on.

(CROSSTALK)

KILMEADE: Here is the question that was asked by David Remnick who wrote a fiery biography on this. He says even in the period that you have been on vacation, President Obama in the last couple weeks in Iraq, in Syria, and of course in al-Qaeda is resurging. Yes, David, but I think the analogy we use around here sometimes I think is accurate, is that the JV team puts on a L.A. uniform, that doesn't him Kobe Bryant. So he's talking about the spread in the exact same reason. So he's nailed.

GUILFOYLE: There's no way around it.

PERINO: And don't forget that Katherine Harris report of about ten days ago, where she broke the story that the source that revealed about what's in the president's daily briefing, going back to January that ISIS was a growing threat. You have testimony on Capitol Hill, in open this wasn't in closed session from Bret McGuirk, more information about ISIS as a growing threat. And you have --so all of a sudden, you start to realize that if the president says what we say around here is that they're JV, and now trying to convince himself and that the American that wasn't what he meant is absolutely disturbing.

GUILFOYLE: But you leave credibility.

PERINO: However, it does also tell us something that the White House knows they're in big trouble. Remember -- for this comment -- they don't have to be. They could get out of it very quickly, but remember Benghazi? About two years ago this Thursday, President Obama doesn't call it a terrorist attack, but then convinces Candy Crowley in the debate, to help him out of that question with Romney and then when they blamed the video -- and everyone (ph) is try to blame the video, they said no we didn't. And then they try do that, when the e-mails come out and show yes, they were blaming the videos, Jay Carney, the press secretary at that time says no we weren't. It's actually very disturbing.

BOLLING: It's almost like that we don't have video and we can't look back we're not paying attention.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: We're not paying attention but...

GUILFOYLE: And by the way a great special by Bret Baier, I watched it. It was outstanding.

BECKEL: Just we don't have (inaudible) about these things. If there is ever a place in the world where things evolve and change quickly, it's in the Middle East. And I will say this, I don't think anybody really had a notion that there would be a split as clearly as there was between people who were taking on Assad and ISIS. And this is something that Obama was given intelligence on. He made the mistake of suggesting that the most powerful group within this group was now forming themselves into a military operation and he never should have done that.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: You said there is no way if they could have anticipated this, and I said, well, then tell the American public that get to anticipate it...

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: But I don't think it...

BOLLING: And our views have changed about it. Not that we never said that.

PERINO: But I would like to see a little more digging from the media to the administration and not just at the White House, but at the Intelligence Community, at the Pentagon, asking that why are we in a crisis mode know...

GUILFOYLE: If we knew this.

PERINO: It's in our investment, our Intel community is so poor, and that we're not spending our money well enough to have the intelligence that we need because that was the whole point of revamping intelligence after 9/11.

KILMEADE: I have one thing to add, which you brought up the status of force agreement, done, the change in Iraq regime, done, when the president wants to get something done, he got it done. Can you imagine if he had that focus in 2011? I want the status of force agreement that leaves 10,000 there. I need that now, you're done. That's what he would have done. Al-Maliki is out and we have an agreement.

BOLLING: I've to go, guys. Guess what, there's even more things that President Obama said in that interview that we're going to remind him, he may not exactly have said in the past. All right, coming up next, we're got breaking NFL news, the league changes its mind about Baltimore Raven Ray Rice after new video surfaces of him knocking out his then fiancee in an elevator. And later, remember Ward Churchill, a former professor who said America deserve what we got in 9/11? Megyn Kelly got an exclusive interview with this lunatic and she's going to join us, sit down right here at the table, we'll talk about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KILMEADE: Back by now, we have all seen the video of NFL Star Ray Rice dragging his unconscious fiancee, now wife out of an elevator. But today, we witness what went on for the first time, inside of that and so apparently, to the league and his team. The Baltimore Ravens since have terminated Rice's contract. That happen earlier after the tape emerge showing the running back's knock out punch to his now wife Janay Palmer. The February incident initially got Rice a two game us pension, but now, the league has suspended indefinitely. So he's done for the year. He will not get it (inaudible) for the team, he was not on the active roster at the time of kick off, so he's not going to get his $4 million. First off, Kimberly, big change from a two-game suspension even though domestic abuse was concluded, to see it changed everything.

GUILFOYLE: Yeah. But why did it have to change everything. How do you think she got out of that elevator? I mean, she's dragged on the ground unconscious. What do you think happened in the elevator? She had to get an injury and sustain serious sick trauma to the head to be knocked out unconscious like that. So this to me as former prosecutor, this can be domestic violence cases, it's something that you...

(CROSSTALK)

KILMEADE: But you will got off, right?

GUILFOYLE: To begin with -- fine that doesn't mean that he's not guilty of the crime. That is called -- he had a day in court. He had a good lawyer. The jury didn't see it that way. So that doesn't mean that he was innocent. We see the proof now.

BOLLING: Kimberly, no one say he's innocent. I'm just saying that -- even though domestic was a charge, two games suspension seeing it, made it...

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: The Ravens says you can't play, and the NFL says you're not eligible for it. So let's just go through the various levels. As far as law enforcement goes, they were going to prosecute, they had the video, but because Janay Rice didn't want to press charges, they said they're going to back it off and they have said, home supervision only. So you can't really pin this on law enforcement. Look, the Baltimore Ravens, they've saw the video for the first time and they did the right thing, immediately cut him, come one you're done. The league said -- they said, they had not seen it before, they said once we saw it, we're going from a two game suspension to an indefinite suspension, probably, he will never play again in the NFL. Two problem here tough, you have the coach who came out after this happened who said, hey, he was a good guy or a nice kind of guy or something like that and maybe kids should look up to John Harbaugh. John Harbaugh, which maybe kids should look up to the suspension that he got after doing something wrong. That was really, really way too early to do that, but the big one right here, guys. What's the players association going to do now? Are they going to defend to this nut job? Are they going to come out and say, hey, he should be able to play football again?

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: That is a union.

BECKEL: Right, but part of the problem, of course is that for too long, both the NFL and the players union have overlooked domestic violence. There's been charge after charge and this is the first one that's gotten into serious consequence but that's because we have video tape. My view is that this guy should never put on a NFL uniform again.

KILMEADE: And you know we have another one just around the corner on the 49ers, it was actually his brother's team, Ray McDonald, he is still in uniform, because he's got to play out to the courses. And Dana, your reaction to the league, who by the way just to qualify and tell the whole story, the commissioner came out and said I blew it, I should never gave him a two game suspension prior to the video, it should be six, the second time you're out for good. I'm sorry, I was wrong, which is very rare to hear these days. So having said that, what was it about the video that changed everything. Even though we knew domestic violence took place and analogically conclude, there was violence in that room.

PERINO: I just think that, you know, you do the right thing regardless. They should have done the right thing from the beginning, that's Kimberly's point, not just from a legal standpoint, but if you're the owner and is going to be the ultimate reason, are you only doing it because now there is a video? Obviously was there something that happened, and I -- all of my instincts say, there is something strange about the video it was released. Who did it? Why is it released now? The NFL says they didn't see it, but why did TMZ hold it?

BOLLING: That's a good question, we don't know the details yet, but I will say, the Revel Hotel, evidently is closing, and maybe they just empty everything, it's gone. So they just went in there and that may have been some, you know, disgruntled employee said, look what I have here, hey TMZ, here his, and then they paid for part of it and maybe they -- he came back...

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: I don't know, I think there is something very fishy about that whole situation with the video, and I think if they had it originally, they should have released the whole thing.

BECKEL: TMZ, you mean?

KILMEADE: We don't know, and that's interesting. TMZ, did they really sophisticate it...

PERINO: Or did the NFL try to get the full video?

GUILFOYLE: And if they had it why didn't they show it, so many times it's very problematic.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: Evidence with the NFL...

GUILFOYLE: Both the NFL saw the aftermath which is her being dragged out of an elevator. I find it hard to believe that he would said, this is a situation having a concern for the victim, who is still in a relationship, in fact married to the perpetrator now, why would you not want full disclosure to let them know what they're dealing with.

BECKEL: The (inaudible) defended Rice, so it indicates...

(CROSSTALK)

GUILFOYLE: It doesn't matter, nevertheless, he is somebody who is still working for the NFL, still playing in the league, the whole thing has become very transparent, because it was in the public eye, that the problem with these cases, the women don't want to come forward, they don't want to prosecute, the cases flood out, because they are financially dependent with you know, the person...

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: Well, guess what, now she has got a guy, she got a husband who beats the crap out of her in an elevator, and he doesn't have an income.

GUILFOYLE: And who's contract is...

KILMEADE: Let's see where we go from here. This is pretty much on Charlie's words, but Ray McDonald, who is the next one on deck, I'm sure he's gonna be dealt with severely. All right, 24 minutes now after the hour, coming up straight ahead, former radical Professor Ward Churchill has stunned American through this comments about 9/11 years ago, remember that? And be prepared to be stunned now when you hear what he had to say to our own Megyn Kelly in her exclusive sit down airing tonight. Megyn is here live to preview it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: Thursday will be the 13th anniversary of 9/11. Megyn Kelly is airing an exclusive interview tonight with a former professor who once said the victims of the attack got what they deserved. You remember ward Churchill, how does he feel now.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MEGYN KELLY, THE KELLY FILE HOST: You knew yourself poured salt in the wounds of the victims of 9/11 and their families. So how can you claim the moral high ground when it comes to causing pain, causing destruction when you, at their most vulnerable moment did the same thing to them?

WARD CHURCHILL, FORMER UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO PROFESSOR: Which is exactly the point again, this is done day in and day out...

(CROSSTALK)

KELLY: You're pointing it to somebody else. I'm talking about you, professor, take responsibility for your own actions.

CHURCHILL: My responsibility was to do exactly do what I did, which is show you what it feels like. If you're too dense to get it, OK.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PERINO: And then there was this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: Do you believe the United States ought to be bombed?

CHURCHILL: I think the United States by it's own rules is subject to being bombed.

KELLY: You can't answer the question?

CHURCHILL: Yeah, I have answered the question. I say the United States should comply with law...

KELLY: Yes or no, do we deserve to be bombed?

CHURCHILL: ...if it does not comply law, it opens itself to which bombing that is, it open itself up to be having done to it everything it does to anyone else.

KELLY: Why can't you just answer honestly, yes or no, do we deserve to be bombed? Just say it if you think it's true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: Megyn Kelly is with us now. It's a big treat to have you. Did he answer that question?

KELLY: Yes, that and many more.

PERINO: Can you tell us what he said?

KELLY: So the last time I was on the set with you guys was the day I had done Ayres. We were to air Bill Ayres. And you asked me about it, and I said in a word, riveting. And I think it was.

PERINO: I agree.

KELLY: I mean, I think the viewer response agreed. This is equally riveting. I actually went back to my staff after it was over, and I said, "What do you think?" And they said, "We think it's better than the Bill Ayres exchange."

Because this guy, I just let him talk, and you have a window not into just how Ward Churchill feels, but this is a window into the far, far left of America. I mean the radical left of America.

And the thing that's so amazing about Ward Churchill is he was a professor at the University of Colorado for decades. It's not like this weird thing where he got a year in. For decades, a tenured respected professor. And in doing research for this segment, I realized he is not alone. There are professors at several major universities in this country that feel the as Ward Churchill does about the United States of America, about how anything bad that happens to us as civilians is the chicken coming home to roost, as Reverend Wright and Ward Churchill famously put it.

And it's a window into how these people feel when it comes to our foreign policy, our interventionalist policies, and with respect to ISIS, what they think we should do with them. I asked him whether he thinks we have any moral high ground when it comes to this group that beheads Americans, and you'll hear what he had to say.

BOLLING: Megyn, I watched Bill Ayres. It was riveting. I loved it. And at some point you look at him and you go OK, so he really believes that stuff. And you kind of give people credit for believing when they really truly believe it deep down.

I watched -- I watched some of this and I wanted to strangle that guy. Did you have that different feeling, listening to Bill Ayers and this joker, who probably come from about the same place on the left? Did you have a different feeling?

KELLY: I felt anger when he talked about the 9/11 victims and how, in his mind, they arguably -- he'll sort of couch it a little now -- deserved it. Because he claims they were little Eichmanns, which is -- he was one of the worst Nazi war criminals, for our viewers. I mean, one of the worst.

And by the way, he and I get into it on Eichmann big time, because no one's ever challenged him on what Adolf Eichmann actually did, and you won't be surprised to learn he was one of the worst Nazis ever. He claims he was just a technocrat; he was a paper pusher. That is disproved in this interview.

So I got angry when he was talking about that, but as between Churchill and Ayers, Churchill, I think, is a better human being.

BOLLING: You do?

KELLY: Ayers actually bombed the United States of America. He took human lives into his own hands. He and his wife, who's a terrible person if you ask me.

But Churchill is just -- he's an anarchist. He sees the world in this way, and he is not alone. He's not the only one. He hurt people with his words and views, but he didn't try to physically hurt people.

BECKEL: That's not -- that's not -- I think one of the advantages of this is that you do expose those people who have ever right in the world to say what they want to say...

KELLY: Correct.

BECKEL: ... as long as they don't go through with it. But -- and it may be painful for the families, or it is obviously. For Eric, it's painful. But it's a good idea, I think, for people to recognize that it is a practiced political forum in this country. It is not one or two single people. It is larger than that. It's larger than the campus. I have known these people for a long time. And they have every right in the world to say it.

KELLY: Right.

BECKEL: The difference is; they don't have any right to fulfill their destiny...

KILMEADE: Besides aging horribly, Ward Churchill, I was wondering if he'd changed at all from when he was on the scene a few years ago? Has anything changed, given that he's technically out of a job? He kept suing. He kept -- didn't get his appeals?

KELLY: No, so he -- he won with the jury. He -- the University of Colorado. Just to let our viewers know, we outlined this tonight. He wrote this crazy essay on 9/11 while the towers were still smoldering, blaming the victims, saying the chickens had come home to roost. That was so incendiary.

Then, nobody fluttered an eyelid. The University of Colorado was fine with it. Everyone was fine with it. He wrote a book saying the same stuff. No one pushed back. It wasn't until 2005 when he went to give a speech in Hamilton College in New York that one of the students who was the son of a victim started to object. It became a national news story. Bill O'Reilly made it a big story.

And the University of Colorado came out and said, "Oh, we're shocked, it's terrible. We can't fire him for free speech, but he did all of this other stuff." He was railroaded out of that university for free speech and the jury rightfully sided with him. So even though he won with the jury, he lost overall. Wait until you hear what he is doing now.

GUILFOYLE: Megan, do you think he bears any responsibility for his inflammatory rhetoric? The things that he says? Yes, he didn't personally commit physical acts, but he might motivate others to do so, and certainly, it's emotionally injurious...

KELLY: I asked him about that, right? You heard that in the clip, "What about the pain that you cause? You have so much empathy for the civilians that you claim and in some instances has killed, so inadvertently, which he disputes. Where's your sympathy for the 9/11 victims, for your fellow Americans? And why do you live in this country." And you'll hear all of that.

KILMEADE: And then he leaves the country. Is that the way it ends? Don't give it away.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: To get him a ticket, please go to Kayak.com.

BECKEL: There was also -- as bad as these anarchists is, look at the white supremacists.

BOLLING: Fair enough, but you know what the difference between the anarchists and the white supremacists is?

BECKEL: That was a pretty quick answer.

BOLLING: You know what the difference is, Bob? The white supremacists aren't teaching our kids across liberal academia everywhere.

KELLY: That is a big point here. You're right, because let me tell you, it -- and I asked him about this. I'm going to air them in two parts: part one tonight and part two tomorrow night. I asked him about the response in the academic community and whether this was out there, people knew about it. Wait until you hear how he described it. It was out there; it was celebrated. He was celebrated.

So the hypocrisy when the community turned on him, just because suddenly, once the alumni and the donors got wind of what he was saying they were ticked, but these academics were fine with it. And doing the research, wait until you hear the lists of other universities that have professors that see the world just as Ward Churchill does. And you should know before you send your kid to these places...

BOLLING: Absolutely.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Expose them all.

BOLLING: Top to bottom.

BECKEL: And also the University of Colorado, Boulder, but that's not the point. I would suggest that the white supremacists impact much more on kids who are not very smart in high schools, and that's where they were. If you want to talk about...

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: No, but they -- the classroom, they have a captive audience. They want grades. They listen. They look up to the...

PERINO: Can we do that as a segment tomorrow?

GUILFOYLE: That's like a bizarre, perverse response to Ward Churchill.

BECKEL: I'm not giving you a defense. That's what irritates me.

PERINO: Megyn, I'm so glad you could finally get the authentic "Five" experience.

KELLY: Thanks for having me. Hopefully I'm over this by 9.

PERINO: Watch part one of her exclusive interview. It airs tonight at 9 p.m.

And next, does President Obama regret going golfing after addressing America on the beheading of a U.S. journalist? His answer is up ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUILFOYLE: President Obama took a lot of heat for going golfing directly after announcing the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley. Well, he's finally now admitting it wasn't a good idea, but regrets the optics of it, not the golf.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made the statement on Foley and you went and golfed. Do you want that back?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, it is always a challenge when you're supposed to be on vacation. Because you're followed everywhere, and part of what I would love is a vacation from the press. I should have anticipated the optics. You know, that's part of the job. But part of this job is also the theater. It's not something that -- that always comes naturally to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUILFOYLE: I want him so well to get it. I want him so much to not blame the bless, the media, take ownership of it. It was a bad idea six minutes later, you know, on the back nine, you know. Why are we still going over this and he's still trying to massage it?

PERINO: I don't know. I -- I'm really deeply disappointed in that decision. But not just because it was a decision that was bad optics but because I think it conveyed a feeling across America when he really could have been in a position of rallying the nation to a call to action to deal with the threats.

GUILFOYLE: And also to the international community and to our allies, to the Europeans, also to the UAE, to say, "Listen, we got this; let's do this" and to the enemies, "We're coming from you -- you know, for you in the united front."

BOLLING: OK. So they expect us, President Obama expects us to believe that a sitting president, six years in, doesn't anticipate the optics on everything he does? That's simply laughable. They do it; they consider the optics of everything they do, from pictures under JFK's photograph, photo ops under JFK, the photo op at Stonehenge; everything that do is all about the optics.

That leaves three possibilities. Either he thinks we're stupid; either he's stupid; or he simply doesn't care. Now, I know he's not stupid, and I know we're not stupid, so it's down to he just doesn't care. He went golfing on the heels -- six minutes after he delivers a speech on Foley being beheaded with the parents still -- with the parents of Foley still crying. The man does not care. When you see that smile on his face in the golf cart right there, that is not a guy that...

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: That wasn't...

BOLLING: Bob, that picture was taken. He knew very well that there are Americans who are being beheaded in the desert, and we have pictures of them.

BECKEL: As Kimberly said I was defending last time, and I had a chance to say I wasn't defending, let me just say this: you're suggesting here that he doesn't care about this guy being beheaded.

BOLLING: No, I didn't say that. Stop doing that. I'm saying he doesn't care about the optics of him golfing when people are being beheaded. That is a big difference from what...

BECKEL: He said that he was wrong on the optics. Now what more do you ask him to do? You want him to go out and self -- flagellate himself?

KILMEADE: I would say this. I would say the word "optics" should not even be in a sentence; should not even be in his mind. Say "You know what? I realize how that looked. It's not how I felt. I shouldn't have went to it. I felt obligated to those three other guys."

What everyone to say I couldn't picture personally, speaking to the parents like he did, saying that he had to hold back tears like he did, being on the golf course 15 minutes later. So people want to know, "Human being, Mr. President? How could you do that? I don't care how it looks, how could you want to, let alone how could you" -- here we are, three weeks later, "The more I thought about it, I was dumb. I was in automatic mode. I was sitting there just thinking, 'Do this and go back,' and as I started golfing, and it hit me I should not be here." It's always like that.

GUILFOYLE: He's blaming everybody is making him look bad.

BOLLING: He was not mad about golfing.

GUILFOYLE: Right.

BOLLING: He was mad that the press took the picture, and the picture got out, and we're talking about it.

Can I tell you what he's looking at right now? He's looking at 864. You saw President Bush and you saw Clinton today having a great time as ex- presidents. In 864 days, President Obama will join that club, and he can't wait for the day to be part of that club.

KILMEADE: But they went out working, and so did President Bush. They worked until the end. They knew. They saw the end in sight, and I'm not saying nobody thought about their legacy, but they were working to the close.

(CROSSTALK)

KILMEADE: Bill Clinton never went -- he never went home. He didn't say good-bye to...

BECKEL: Are you suggesting Obama is not working?

KILMEADE: I'm saying right now if he's looking towards the finish line now, that is crazy, because his legacy, the rest of his life, is going to be determined on what he does and doesn't do.

GUILFOYLE: Well, he's got a lot to fix. Here's the problem, Bob. He says, "You know, it's really tough when you're supposed to be on vacation." I don't care. You're the president of the United States.

PERINO: He just shouldn't have said that.

GUILFOYLE: If you can get some time off once in a while, great. This isn't the time to do it. Man up, quit having a pity party for yourself all the time. It's very frustrating and it's such an emotional disconnect to the American people. And guess who's responsible for it? He built it. He's the one doing it, no one else. It's not the president's fault.

BECKEL: Look, it sometimes feels -- to be honest with you, it feels to me sometimes as every other American is given the right, the assumption of innocence before guilty; that we have a tendency to do that, most of you do...

GUILFOYLE: The facts speak for themselves. He's on the golf course six minutes later, and it's not believable.

PERINO: Two days in a row.

GUILFOYLE: All right. Coming up on "The Five," some breaking news across the pond involving Will and Kate. I'm going to have that for you in "One More Thing." Please stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECKEL: Yesterday, the Arab League agreed to take urgent measures to combat radical Muslim terror groups like ISIS, but not everyone in the Muslim world thinks Islamic terrorists should be confronted. Radical Muslim leader Achem (ph) Choudary argues terror is part of the Islam -- is part of Islam, excuse me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACHEM (PH) CHOUDARY, RADICAL MUSLIM LEADER: Muslim must know that that's mentioned in the Koran. In fact, if you look at chapter eight, verse 16, you shall prepare as much as you can deeds of war to terrorize the enemy. So terrorizing the enemy is, in fact, part of Islam. I mean, this is something that we must embrace and understand, as far as the jurisprudence on jihadists concern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECKEL: All right. Well, this is crazy, man. I want to go right by this, take us out of the insane asylum. What about the Arab League guy? This is an important step, isn't it, Eric?

BOLLING: Terror -- I'm going to quote Mr. Choudary, Imam Choudary: "Terrorizing the enemy is part of imam [SIC]."

GUILFOYLE: Islam.

BOLLING: Is part of Islam. I'm sorry. Remember that.

BECKEL: OK, that's fine. Remember the Arab League. Did you talk about that?

BOLLING: Yes, but I just want to point out that this -- I just said that terrorizing the enemy, and everyone's the enemy, apparently.

BECKEL: OK. Let me ask Dana: what do you think about the Arab League? Is that a...

PERINO: Certainly significant. And follow-through will be important.

GUILFOYLE: Right.

PERINO: Resources and sustainability. They're not going to be able to fade into the background or into the shadows, if they really want to have an impact. And I think, though, it does show you that -- that the war between the Sunnis and the Shias that is heating up in the Middle East, if we can get them to buy in and to fight on our behalf, that would be great. But I don't want to rely on that.

BECKEL: No, you don't rely on it. But the thing they can provide us with, I would assume, would be good intelligence, at least.

GUILFOYLE: I would like their money. I would like them to provide intelligence. I would like them to provide any kind of support that they can so it's not on our shoulders. But I will never one day of my life count on it and expect it. If it happens, gravy.

KILMEADE: And why it's important to hear that imam is that so many people believe exactly what he believes.

PERINO: That's how the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) scandal happened.

KILMEADE: Right, and that's why ISIS happened, and that's what they're doing.

BECKEL: You want to count on the...

PERINO: Arab League?

BECKEL: ... Arab League?

KILMEADE: Absolutely. Let's see the money.

BECKEL: Or do the usual, let's get the funny guy and put him on.

KILMEADE: I'm not sure what that means.

GUILFOYLE: Oh, boy.

KILMEADE: We give the Saudis so much military hardware...

BECKEL: Right.

KILMEADE: ... Qatar, so much military hardware. UAE. Use it. You bombed in Libya without telling us. Surprise us and bomb ISIS.

BECKEL: You know what?

BOLLING: Can we get CAIR now? CAIR now to say -- push back on Imam Choudary now, finally?

GUILFOYLE: Make a statement against it?

BOLLING: The fact that Islam and terror shouldn't go hand in hand, like he just said.

BECKEL: I think CAIR should respond to whole lots of things.

PERINO: We need to -- we need another hour of this.

BECKEL: Yes. "One More Thing..."

PERINO: But you're on "Special Report."

BECKEL: ... is up next. Keep it on the air.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLLING: Time for "One More Thing." Dana is up first.

PERINO: There was exciting news today announced by presidents Clinton and Bush. I think we have a photograph. Down in Washington, D.C., they announced a new scholarship program. It's called the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program. They're going to accept applicants. This is a great program. If you know someone who could be a future leader, they have to have ten years practical experience, but this is a program that's sort of like an executive MBA but all about leadership. You don't have to want to run for president necessarily but a really great program. So if you know people, you can go to "The Five's" Facebook page. Bob, you're not eligible.

BECKEL: Why?

PERINO: You're not eligible.

KILMEADE: It's your knees. Your knees aren't good.

PERINO: Anyway, you can find more on our Facebook page.

BOLLING: Very good. K.G., you're up.

GUILFOYLE: OK. You've probably heard this news today, but I just can't get enough. All right. So here we go, a new baby is on the way. The duchess is pregnant. There you see her with Will. So let's listen to the sound of the happy prince.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM, DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE: She's feeling OK. She's been -- it's been a tricky few days. We're obviously immensely thrilled. It's great news. Early days. We're hoping things settle down and she feels a bit better, but it's important to focus on the big news, and the big international and domestic news.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUILFOYLE: And this is why you can never miss "The Five," because our very own Dana Perino on the New Year's Eve show predicted this.

PERINO: I did. I said this would happen this year, and so I want some sort of a prize.

BOLLING: I've got to go very quickly. If you think your dog is cool, here's one of the coolest dogs ever. Here's George, who apparently loves the NFL. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Football?

(DOG BARKING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLLING: He did it last year, but this is the first game this year and apparently if you see that.

PERINO: He's so excited.

BOLLING: Not nearly as excited until football is on.

OK, Bob, you're up.

GUILFOYLE: Because he wants the ball.

BECKEL: Our favorite place to eat spaghetti is Olive Garden. And Olive Garden has always had some big, big promotions. Well, here's a new promotion. Everybody get in line. For 100 bucks you can eat all the spaghetti you want for...

GUILFOYLE: A year.

BECKEL: A year and it goes on just with unlimited pasta, salad, bread.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: Eric is in line to get this. And you get all you can eat. Everything you can eat. Shove it in. Olive Garden. Then...

GUILFOYLE: Will you buy me one?

BECKEL: Sure.

KILMEADE: I've got to tell you, we have the worst horror story. We've been waiting. End with a positive one. Derek Jeter is calling it quits. It doesn't look like the Yankees heading into the post season, so they had Derek Jeter Day at Yankee Stadium. Reggie, Winfield, Cal Ripken, Michael Jordan, Joe Torre. A plethora of people. Great speech, great time. There will not be another guy like this. Appreciate who he is and what he's done.

BOLLING: Great man, great baseball leader. Captain, great leader.

KILMEADE: Absolutely.

BOLLING: All right. Some good news. You never have to miss another minute of this show. You can now watch Fox News live anytime from your computer, smart phone or tablet. Just type in FOXNewsgo.com or download the Fox app. That's it for us. "Special Report" is on deck.

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