Media slam Obama's post-Paris attacks speech
President faces criticism for G20 press conference
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," November 17, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Guilfoyle along with Juan Williams, Eric Bolling, Dana Perino and Jesse Watters. It is 5 o'clock in New York City and this is "The Five."
We begin with a Fox News alert. Breaking News out of Germany, officials and residents on alert after bomb threats force the evacuation of two stadiums. The soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands canceled earlier today. After security officials received quote, "mounting information about possible attacks." For the latest developments, we bring in Fox's Rick Leventhal who is live in Paris. Rick, I understand that police are now saying that they have found no explosives.
RICK LEVENTHAL, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Right Kimberly, this turned out to be an apparent false alarm, no explosives found, no arrest made, but a stunning example of just how on edge France and all of Europe is now in the wake of the Friday the 13th terror attacks here in Paris. It started of course with suicide bombers blowing themselves up outside the Stade de France while a soccer game was under way. Today, in Hanover, Germany there was supposed to be a friendly soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands, the Germany -- the German chancellor was scheduled to attend, and at times the government would not vow to terrorism. But 90 minutes before kickoff, the stadium was evacuated and the match canceled because of what the police chief called credible specific information about an explosion that would go off inside the venue. A second stadium where a concert was scheduled in same town was also evacuated as a precaution. The police chief said they get tips like this all the time and he admits they gotten more since the Paris attacks and says it's difficult to judge just how genuine they are, but clearly, they didn't want to take any chances, especially considering that at least two terror suspects directly connected to Friday's attacks here in Paris are still on the loose tonight. Kimberly.
GUILFOYLE: All right Rick, thank you for that update. We will check back with you later in the evening for any other developments.
Now meanwhile, the entire world remains on edge in the wake of the Paris attacks, fearing that the next one could happen on their own soil. President Obama remains defiant and is sticking to his strategy and he's facing an onslaught of criticism for his speech at the G20 summit in Turkey yesterday, where he outlined his non-strategy for dealing with ISIS. Even members of the mainstream media found themselves disagreeing with him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK TODD, NBC NEWS: I was struck by how defensive he was. How much he's paying attention to his political critics. He answered about six or seven specific charges or ideas that various critics of him, presidential candidate critics or otherwise have made, and he used them as straw man. I was surprised by his tone. I was surprised by the defensiveness.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN: He said something that was pretty incredible, according to many of the military experts here and around the world who I have spoken to, that our strategy is working. People do not believe that to be the case. The only strategy that's working is the strategy that he tends to dismiss and that's the ground troop's strategy.
ROGER COHEN, THE NEW YORK TIMES: It's all very well to say the strategy is working, but it doesn't look like it's working when 130 people have just been killed at random in clubs and restaurants and the streets of Paris. And it seems to me that after this, we got it wrong. We said that ISIS was a regional threat. It's not. It's a global threat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: You know you're failing as the commander-in-chief, on the most important single individual in terms of affecting global security, national security, when you even have the mainstream media calling you out. Christiane Amanpour going fail -- epic fail to President Obama -- Bolling.
ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: Christiane Amanpour on CNN says it was incredible the way he delivered that speech. The Washington Post called him petulant. Chuck Todd at NBC says he was defensive. Meanwhile, today, President Obama gave an interview. I believe it was today, to GQ. He's named man of the year for GQ.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLLING: Fashioning himself as Aaron Rodgers. He said, "I'm calm in the pocket when things are going on around me." He also said, "He's got a good temperament, not too high, not too low." Hey, President Obama, guess what, Americans are dying.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
BOLLING: Time to get on it. Time to say, my strategy, instead of defending your strategy, losing 30 to nothing, and it's the fourth quarter. Time to get on and change your strategy, recheck that its strategy is working line and come back with something, I don't know. Rephrase and say, we need to retool and really attack ISIS. That would be helpful.
JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Americans are dying?
BOLLING: Yeah. An American died in that attack.
WILLIAMS: Oh, one American. I see.
GUILFOYLE: Oh, my God, Juan.
BOLLING: I know Juan.
GUILFOYLE: You can't minimize it.
BOLLING: How many beheadings do we have to see? Remember.
GUILFOYLE: Unbelievable.
(CROSSTALK)
GUILFOYLE: James -- yeah, James Foley, Steven Stoloff, yeah.
WILLIAMS: But I'm so, curious, Americans are dying. I think you're way, way -- you talk about hype.
GUILFOYLE: Oh, my God.
WILLIAMS: This is what Obama is talking about.
BOLLING: OK.
WILLIAMS: And people start popping out.
GUILFOYLE: You know what? You know what, Juan? We're popping off because blood is blood. I don't sit there and say American blood is or more than lives of other people.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
GUILFOYLE: Or Christians that are being beheaded or children that are being crucified.
WILLIAMS: Yes, I'm sure.
GUILFOYLE: Does that matter to you?
WILLIAMS: Oh yes, of course --
GUILFOYLE: Because our president is not acting, does he matters?
WILLIAMS: Is that why you're so concerned about what's going on in Africa.
GUILFOYLE: I am.
WILLIAMS: With Boko Haram?
GUILFOYLE: I am very concerned about that.
WILLIAMS: I must have missed that part. I missed that.
GUILFOYLE: You know what, because they've declared allegiance to ISIS.
WILLIAMS: I see.
GUILFOYLE: In case you have noticed.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, but I.
GUILFOYLE: And this is part of the ever-increasing caliphate.
WILLIAMS: How cool. How cool is this, Kimberly.
GUILFOYLE: And to complete eradication of borders throughout the world.
WILLIAMS: So Kimberly wants us to send troops into Africa now?
GUILFOYLE: I'm telling you that I have the will to do whatever it takes.
WILLIAMS: Thank you.
GUILFOYLE: And I am not seeing a president that shares that passion. Jesse?
JESSE WATTERS, GUEST HOST: Well, I'm actually surprised, Obama usually golf's and flies to fundraisers after terrorist attacks. This time, I think he release five guys from GITMO and then showed up late to a moment of silence for the victims. I'm just surprised that sending James Taylor over last time didn't really help.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
WATTERS: I mean, maybe Obama's got some great hashtag up his sleeve, I'm not really sure. You know, when you have Bill Maher in France being tougher on terrorism than the president of the United States, you're in a lot of trouble. And I think Obama has been so distracted fighting the war on cops, he forgot that there was a war on terror. Juan, let's figure out something. Obama is lying to us. And that's why he got so testy with the press, because the press usually just shines his shoes. He says we have ISIS contained. No, we don't. He says we have a strategy. No, we don't. He said it's a setback. No, it's not, because you have to be winning to have a setback. The reality on the ground is we have lawyers picking targets, not generals. And Obama is now saying, "Oh, you know what, we still need a political solution." Like these savages are going to get in front of a table together and like hammer out the constitution. It's crazy. You're in silence, Juan.
GUILFOYLE: He can't -- he can't decide about.
WILLIAMS: I think you're reading talking points from somebody because I don't think it's real.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: I think.
WATTERS: What's not real about what I've said, Juan? Name one thing.
WILLIAMS: I'll name a big thing. You said there's no strategy. No strategy.
WATTERS: He admitted he had no strategy just a few months ago, Juan.
WILLIAMS: Are you kidding me? No, what he said yesterday, and by the way, to everybody it was a press conference, not a speech. What he said was.
GUILFOYLE: Oh, my God...
WILLIAMS: He believes that he has a strategy. The problem with the strategy, Jesse, one, the problem with his response at the press conference was. It did not connect with the kind of anger and emotion that we all feel in America.
GUILFOYLE: There was no conscience.
WILLIAMS: In the sense of threat. And the need for a leader to stand up and say, I'm going to take care of this threat for you the American. That's where he fails. But he did not fail in terms of not having a strategy. It's very clear.
WATTERS: What's the strategy, Juan?
WILLIAMS: Well, he just -- for example.
GUILFOYLE: I'm gonna get Dana.
WATTERS: Name the strategy.
WILLIAMS: I will lay it out for you.
WATTERS: OK.
WILLIAMS: All -- we've been bombing ISIS since 2014, OK?
WATTERS: Did that work?
BOLLING: Can I just.
WILLIAMS: No, let me finish. No. He asked me.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Give me -- I'll let you.
BOLLING: This is very important, you're bombing, OK?
WILLIAMS: I'll just lay out the strategy. You said he didn't have a strategy.
BOLLING: Juan, here's your bombing strategy.
WILLIAMS: Go ahead.
BOLLING: You can you move on to your other points.
GUILFOYLE: I'm -- I know -- Dana?
BOLLING: Under bombing, we've hit ISIS. We've bombed eight on average, eight bombings sorties per day, up until about three months ago that we increased to 15 per day. Thursday and Friday, the day of the Paris attack. We hit them 15 times, 15. Saturday, the day after the attack, 16. So the strategy went from 15 to 16. Meanwhile, in Kosovo, we literally sent hundreds of sorties and in gulf war, desert storm, thousands of sorties.
GUILFOYLE: So what that saying?
BOLLING: We want to win those.
GUILFOYLE: Right.
BOLLING: We don't seem to want to win this.
WILLIAMS: I'm gonna tell you in here.
GUILFOYLE: President Obama is like tickling ISIS. That what's happening here, it's a non-starter -- Dana.
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Well, the trip the president is on right now was scheduled for a long time, the G20. It confirmed my theory that any time a president goes overseas, no matter what president it is, he has a domestic policy crisis back home on some level. This one is actually an international crisis for him in terms of communications because, what I think people felt is that he did not rise to the occasion. It wasn't just matching the anger, is that the world -- he's at the G20 summit where arguably, that would be the perfect place to rally your allies and to set - - and to say OK. Are we all in this or what? And instead, he goes out and he gets -- he's more angry at anyone who might criticize him than republicans. I mean, I'm sorry, than ISIS. And so he's -- I think failing to rise to occasion, over and over again. And that's where the frustration is because we're sitting here saying OK, we are, with our own eyes, we cover this every day. We don't see the strategy working. I think he does have a strategy, I think it's a failing one. And your point about you have to be winning something to have a setback, I think that proves it. We are losing. So people say, OK, fine.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah.
PERINO: We accept that, let's figure out a way to do something better. I just want to read one other thing that he said that I -- we didn't talk about yesterday, I think it's important. In the press conference yesterday, he said, "What I'm not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of American leadership or America winning." And I think that the world was saying no, that's exactly what the leader of the free world is supposed to do. We want America to win. I think that's why President Hollande is coming to Washington, D.C. next week to ask President Obama to change the strategy.
WILLIAMS: Let me finish my point. I think what he's talking about there is posturing. It's coming off as bellicose and oh, I'm the tough guy and I can do it and I'm stronger. I don't think that that's effective. And the rest of the strategy, Jesse, by the way.
WATTERS: OK.
WILLIAMS: Most Americans -- I think in the poll, a Reuter's poll came out 65 percent of Americans oppose even sending in special operations forces.
WATTERS: OK.
WILLIAMS: He's done that.
WATTERS: OK.
GUILFOYLE: Right. OK.
WILLIAMS: In addition, he has built this coalition, this international coalition.
WATTERS: OK.
WILLIAMS: To put. Everybody is praising Hollande for his very bellicose speech, France is at war. He wasn't sending and striking military efforts before this. England isn't sending in anything.
WATTERS: Right.
WILLIAMS: They're all trying to catch up with the U.S. now.
WATTERS: Juan, we want a president.
GUILFOYLE: Very quick.
WATTERS: Not the acts tough, but it is tough -- number one. And the polls didn't want us going into Iraq during the surge, the Bush did it anyway and it was effective, OK? And the cornerstone of Obama's strategy, he had to get rid of, because they spent a half a billion dollars training the rebels and they trained five.
WILLIAMS: Oh, you shouldn't try that.
GUILFOYLE: All right. I got to hit this. As the chart from the global terrorism database shows, ISIS is certainly on the rise, Juan. Sorry to tell you. And it's grown faster than any other global terror organization, faster than the Taliban, Boko Haram and al-Qaeda in Iraq -- huge problem. Former intelligence and defense officials have been sounding this alarm to the president about America's ISIS strategy for quite some time, but will President Obama listen?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GEN. MICHAEL FLYNN, FORMER DEFENSE INTEL AGENCY DIRECTOR: The president to stand there and say that our strategy is working, against this vicious vile enemy is absurd. It's absolutely absurd. And I -- I just -- I'm stunned at his press conference today, and the way he characterized this, this brutal attack, this brutal 9/11-style attack in Paris as a setback.
GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER NSA & CIA DIRECTOR: I would tell him, Charlie, that what we're doing right now, in Syria and Iraq against ISIS is under- resourced, and overregulated. We need to commit more to the fight, and we need to loosen our rules of engagement.
MICHAEL MORELL, FORMER CIA DEPUTY DIRECTOR: I think it's now crystal clear to us that our strategy, our policy, vis-a-vis ISIS is not working and it's time to look at something else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: All right, Dana, I'll begin with you and we'll take it around.
PERINO: Well, I think, if I were -- if you're at the White House right now, I think that one of the things that they have to realize is that they're facing a situation where they do not have public opinion on their side necessarily and they're losing ground, especially, that's another point, when the president is away, it's harder to communicate back here at home. I think that the evidence shows that they are saying to him, we are willing to help you change the strategy. And I think that the Congress would be willing to help him as well.
GUILFOYLE: I agree. The will is there from everybody else and now we need the president to step up. Not just with words, but words do matter to the American public to hear what he's strategy is, but then to actually effectuate positive changes and see some results -- Bolling.
BOLLING: So here's a strategy, here's an alternate strategy -- one that President Obama or anyone could -- is willing to -- should at least take a look at. Hit the truck. You hit every single truck that's on that highway that goes from Syria to Iran. Hit every single one of them. Stay off that highway if you're not supposed to be there. Hit the oil fields. Take the oil -- level out, level out all the oil fields. Hit Raqqa, level Raqqa, avoid hospitals and schools and see what happens. There's a strategy. But as -- was it Hayden who points out with the rules of engagement?
GUILFOYLE: Rules of engagement. You do modify.
BOLLING: You got to eliminate those. You have to lift that. You have to say this is war. But in order to do that, you have to declare war on ISIS and President Obama doesn't want to do it. But if he does, then he can do these things and you may have civilian casualties, sorry, it's war.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah, there you go. All right, this is your chance.
WILLIAMS: Oh, thank you, madam. But I would say, listen. If you want to do that, if you want to engage in that kind of attack, that Russia is doing it right now. France is doing it, but they've had some caution about civilian casualties, because you don't want to somehow generate additional angry terrorists to come and do bad things. You have to have a sustainable strategy.
BOLLING: Angry strategists.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, in other word.
BOLLING: You worry about the terrorists feelings and make them pissed off.
WILLIAMS: No, no. no.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: No, which I'm talking about is a sustainable strategy that would solve this problem.
BOLLING: Juan, they hate us.
WILLIAMS: Rather than -- yeah, that's fine.
BOLLING: They despise us.
WILLIAMS: No, no, no.
BOLLING: They won't despise us more if we kill them.
WILLIAMS: You are a little possessed with us, us, us. I'm saying.
GUILFOYLE: Oh, my God.
WILLIAMS: Let's solve the problem.
GUILFOYLE: Really fast, Jesse.
WILLIAMS: Rather than engaging in cowboy strategy.
GUILFOYLE: You're good?
WILLIAMS: I'm good.
GUILFOYLE: OK, but we're going to give the president an A, an A in self- love and adoration of weather and cumulus clouds.
All right, coming up, in the aftermath of the ISIS terror attacks in Paris, the list of governors opposed to Syrian refugees in the U.S. is growing, but President Obama remains defiant about the plan. More on the heated debate, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLLING: A growing number of governors are saying no way to plans to resettle up to 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. At least 30 governors now oppose the plan, but President Obama remains defiant. Yesterday, he slammed republicans for the opposition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: When I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who is fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection, when they were fleeing political persecution, that's shameful. That's not American. That's not who we are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: And Rush Limbaugh points out that the president is taking a tougher stance against the critics than he's -- he is against terrorists. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: If you were looking for the president of the United States to provide the world confidence in leadership, that ISIS and other groups like it could be dealt with and taken out, this was not the speech for you, because none of that was said. He was tougher and more critical on republicans than he was on ISIS in this speech. What you got from this president was you're a bigot if you think we should stop helping these refugees.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: K.G., who seemed more mad, the GOP or ISIS?
GUILFOYLE: President Obama?
BOLLING: Yeah.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah, you didn't need any cue cards on that. It was very clear. He showed emotion, elevated passion, anger, disgust about Americans.
BOLLING: Yeah.
GUILFOYLE: About republicans. About people that want to protect national security and do some relevant meaningful background checks. Especially when he should be heeding caution from people like Mike McCaul from Homeland Security saying, saying that we are lacking the wherewithal to do this in an effective way. Why not take a pause. What's the big rush when on the flip side there's so much to lose if you're wrong?
BOLLING: Your thoughts on his different demeanor towards the GOP and the Syrian -- or the ISIS?
PERINO: What bothers me a lot is when he -- so he's saying that republicans are shameful. There also, there are now democrats also saying, well, can we just like take a moment here, sir, because we just want to be sure that we're responding to our constituents, and that we're being cautious and smart. But I think it's actually shameful is the fact that he is calling out people, as his moral inferiors, when it is actually his own belief in his self-esteem that makes him think he's so much better than everyone else, but where was he three years ago, when he allowed Assad to take -- go from a protest to a civil war. Where was he on the red line comment? Where was he on no fly zone? Where was he when all of the Yazidis were being kidnapped? Over and over again, you could look to all the things that President Obama did not do that actually led to the moment. This should not have caught the administration by surprise. Anybody who knows anything and there are plenty of people in the government who do and retelling them that the refugee crisis was going to explode, they did nothing. And now, he has the gall to say that he's so much better than all of us because he wants to let in to the United States, 10,000 Syrian refugees? I find that actually shameful.
BOLLING: Jesse, let's stay on the refugee.
GUILFOYLE: Exactly.
BOLLING: Debate that's been going on, so heated over the last couple of days. There are 50,000 homeless veterans in America.
WATTERS: Right.
BOLLING: There are somewhere around 6 million unemployed veterans in America. Now the resettlement camp, the one down in New Orleans, just said, they've lost track of some of the refugees that have come in. We're going to spend a lot of resources tracking these people.
WATTERS: Yeah. We're broke and what's the president wants to take care of the Syrian refugees more than the people at the VA? It's ridiculous. You have the barbarians at the gate right now and president is like yeah, yeah, come on in. I mean, the point is, is that Obama has imported dangerous thing into this country since he got there. He's imported socialism here. He's imported Ebola into America.
(LAUGHTER)
WATTERS: He's imported illegal aliens.
WILLIAMS: Oh, my God.
WATTERS: Remember he brought.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: I know, but he brought them in. People are saying, "I don't want them here." Obama says, "Bring in the Ebola people."
(CROSSTALK)
GUILFOYLE: Wait, Jesse.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: He has his way. You know what else he wants? The GITMO detainees in here too. You can't vet these people.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: I was with you until Ebola.
BOLLING: Wait a minute. I jump off on the Ebola.
GUILFOYLE: Can I just strike the Ebola from the record?
WILLIAMS: Wait a minute. Hold on. Is that guy on your side?
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: This is ridiculous.
BOLLING: We are a philanthropic society. America is our philanthropic.
WILLIAMS: Philanthropic?
BOLLING: We give -- we're generous. We give $40 billion in foreign aid per year, Juan.
WILLIAMS: Yeah.
BOLLING: Including any Ebola scare.
WILLIAMS: Oh, what does that have to do with this?
BOLLING: Or earthquake.
WILLIAMS: What is this? And you guys.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLLING: Claiming that we are.
WILLIAMS: You are in the lead. Let me just -- let me try to bring us back to the issue we're discussing in this segment.
BOLLING: America has changed, if you don't accept these Syrian refugees.
WILLIAMS: Of course it changed. One of our principles is we, are a nation of immigrants. And we accept people, and we don't discriminate against people who are Muslims. And we say, oh, you will take the Christians, not the Muslims. The fact is the United States -- I think just since 9/11 -- since 2011, we've accepted about 20,000 immigrants, but since 9/11, 745,000. None of them, not one of them arrested on a charges of terrorism.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Let me finish this point.
BOLLING: Yes.
WILLIAMS: I just think it's really important, that you not say no to refugees.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah, but you want is an argument.
WILLIAMS: While you are saying yes to people who have French and Belgian passport who could come into this country, they're the ones that were stopped in Paris.
GUILFOYLE: Yes, we're checking all of it, Juan. No one is trying to play favorites here. By the way, there is an argument to be made with respect to Christians that are being persecuted, that (inaudible) circumstances exist. They're the ones being beheaded.
WILLIAMS: You know sometimes I think you guys don't pay attention. GUILFOYLE: No.
WILLIAMS: It takes almost two years for any Syrian refugee to get into this country and then they.
GUILFOYLE: Incorrect. They're trying to (inaudible) and expedite in fact.
WILLIAMS: No, but they haven't done it.
GUILFOYLE: Incorrect.
WILLIAMS: You are lying.
GUILFOYLE: Incorrect.
WILLIAMS: You are lying.
GUILFOYLE: And we actually.
WILLIAMS: Out of fear.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: It would lead to you a discriminatory action that you will regret.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLLING: We break that up?
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: First of all, Juan, three people in Europe already have been detained, posing as Syrian refugees by authorities related to this attack. Number two, the FBI -- the guy himself, the director says.
GUILFOYLE: Comey.
WATTERS: We can attack these guys. And Obama's record of vetting people is great.
BOLLING: Obama?
WATTERS: All those Syrian rebels we vetted, half of them gave their weapons to al-Qaeda, the other half couldn't fight. And now you want to have them bring in again?
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: Well, this is I would say, I was been watching the communications on this and trying to read the tea leaves, seem ahead, it's moved very fast, from when the president spoke at the press conference yesterday, there were about 12 states that had said they didn't want to take refugees. By the time we got to today, it's up to 32. So this is my advice to point out.
WILLIAMS: How many republicans?
PERINO: Well, the republicans have their own.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: No, please.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: But let me just say this.
BOLLING: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: No. Senator Kean and Governor Hassan in New Hampshire have been.
PERINO: What does that tell you about the governor in New Hampshire?
WILLIAMS: She's running for office.
PERINO: She's running for office and she knows that her constituents are talking about. My point is politically, that the White House needs to figure out how to be for what's going to happen. So they -- I think that they will end up with a pause at least.
BOLLING: All right. We're gonna leave it right there. Directly ahead, it's the tale of two leaders, President Obama and French president Hollande, one common enemy, but two vastly different strategies to fight ISIS. Details on that and a live update from Paris, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: The terror attacks in Paris have shined a spotlight on two key world leaders, President Obama and Hollande. And their approaches to handling ISIS could not be more different. President Obama is sticking to his strategy, while the French president vows to fight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Always understood that this would be a long-term campaign. There will be setbacks and there will be successes. The terrible events in Paris were obviously a terrible and sickening setback. Even as we grieve with our French friends, however, we can't lose sight that there has been progress being made.
FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): France is at war. We are not in a civilization war. These killers are not belonging to any civilization. We are at war against terrorism. The jihadist terrorism that is threatening the entire world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: Bill Hemmer, co-host of "America's Newsroom," joins us from Paris.
Thank you for staying up for us, Bill.
BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: You bet, Dana.
PERINO: I wanted to ask you about the trip that President Hollande has just announced. He will be coming to Washington, D.C., next week to meet with President Obama. What do you think he's going to ask him?
HEMMER: Probably for military support. And I can tell you, based on what we understand, is that the U.S. shared a lot of targets, about 36 hours ago, of ISIS on the ground in eastern Syria. That's one thing.
The other thing we know is that the cooperation level between intelligence communities and the military, that has increased greatly, as well. And that is on the ground now. Eastern Syria, western Iraq.
The Russians report, Dana, that they have flown 2,300 sorties in 48 hours. Wow. When was the last time you were able to report that?
Tonight, the French say they have 10 fighter jets in the air over Syria. By the end of the weekend, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier will be in the eastern Mediterranean. That will bring their total to 36 fighter jets that can work around the skies of Syria and Iraq.
The French military is behind on this operation, but they are clearly and quickly catching up.
PERINO: All right. Eric Bolling.
BOLLING: Hey, Hemmer, you point out 2,300 sorties by the French. Meanwhile, today, Secretary of State John Kerry...
HEMMER: Russians.
BOLLING: OK, by the Russians, fine. And the French are also attacking.
Meanwhile, our side, the Americans, John Kerry today in Paris, no less, says -- he suggested there was a, quote, "rationale" to the terror attack on the "Charlie Hebdo" office in Paris.
And somehow, Bill, I'm just wondering, does that send a signal to the French where we are on this war on terror, if he says there's a rationale to slaughter innocent journalists?
HEMMER: Yes, I won't interpret his comments. I don't know what he was thinking. I don't know what his intent was, specifically.
But I know this, Eric. A 20-year-old college student going to a concert on a Friday night is not asking to be killed. And a 43-year-old father of three or four that goes to a sidewalk restaurant 300 yards to my right is not asking to be killed.
And if you take a walk down that -- that lonely street here, on this grim night in Paris, you will see for yourself how easy targets that these terrorists picked out on Friday night to just drive their car up, get out and open fire. This was, as Ray Kelly, the former commissioner of New York City, said earlier today, this was an easy shot for all of them.
PERINO: All right. Juan Williams.
WILLIAMS: Bill, you know, it's interesting to me that, with Hollande coming to the United States, and he's potentially not only going to see President Obama, but asked the U.N. Security Council to look at this issue.
But he is not asking NATO. He's not saying this was an attack on a NATO country requiring a response from NATO. Can you tell me why?
HEMMER: No, but I can tell you this. Yesterday he made it clear, he wants help from Vladimir Putin. He wants help from Barack Obama. He's already got it from Putin. So when he's at the White House next Tuesday, what will he get in return?
Juan, I think it was quite clear yesterday, the president staked out a strategy and repeated it. That it will be, it will take some time -- it's all right, everything is cool, just a little dust-up over to the left. He is asking Vladimir Putin for more help. He's gotten it already.
And after the White House next Tuesday, he will be in Moscow at the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin, asking him for more, as well.
PERINO: I actually think, Juan, that the reason that Hollande didn't ask for NATO help is they think that the United States won't actually be there to help them so that they're going to ask for other help to do it themselves.
All right. Kimberly.
GUILFOYLE: All right. Hi, Bill. So I'm wondering now, in light of these events, what kind of increased security are you seeing there on the ground in Paris? Because you made reference to what we have seen as soft or easy targets, where people really were just easy prey for ISIS to kill them.
HEMMER: A lot more cops. Everywhere. Carrying guns. Two, three, five at a time. They float around Republic Square where we are at all hours of the day. They work in different shifts. Sometimes they -- they have a stronger presence than others. But they -- they are everywhere.
What we can't see, Kimberly, are the hundreds of raids that have been carried out throughout France over the past 48 hours. More than 300 at last tally. And those raids we do expect to continue.
The interior minister said yesterday this is just the start. And based on the reporting we're getting hour by hour, he's exactly right here in France.
PERINO: All right. Jesse, last question.
WATTERS: All right, Bill. So the war drums beating in France. How ferocious do you think the French are going to be in this attack? Because traditionally, they've put down these rebellions in Indochina and Algeria pretty viciously. Do they have the capacity to really root out these guys? Are you hearing about ground forces in Syria? What are you hearing?
HEMMER: Nothing about ground forces, Jesse. But I think this is the important distinction about what happened here Friday night. The script flipped entirely upside-down. These were civilians. These were innocent people. These were college students that I mentioned. They're not combatants. And that gives the French a real concern for their own safety.
They have the feeling now that anyone can be a victim, because the terrorism is so random, and it's from here. A suicide bomber, in Paris France? Going back to 9/11, people talked about it on the side, but is it really going to happen? Well, they tried. They sure as hell tried in that stadium on Friday night.
And you get that palpable sense of what is next here? What could possibly come? When you have between eight and 10,000 French people that are on a file called an "S" file -- "S" stands for security. It doesn't mean they're guilty of anything; it doesn't mean they've committed a crime. But they're being watched by the government, 8,000 to 10,000. Maybe they sent a tweet or sent an email that raised alarms among the security people here in France. It may sound Orwellian. But if you listen to President Hollande, he is willing to go as far as necessary to get this country back on a safety and security footing soon.
WATTERS: Got it.
PERINO: All right, Bill, thank you so much.
Up next, just hours after the deadly Paris terror attacks, the Obama administration vows to continue another fight, what they call the real global threat: climate change. Details when "The Five" returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: In the wake of the deadly Paris terrorist attacks, a big U.N. climate change conference will be taking place in that very city in less than two weeks. But even the ISIS slaughter of 129 people isn't derailing the tone-deaf Obama administration from what they still consider to be the real threat to humanity: global warming. Secretary John Kerry explains.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We will not change our course or cancel our plans, including our plans to come together in Paris later this month for the U.N. climate conference. And President Obama told me today how much he looks forward to being here and being part of that important moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: Yes. So it's like the University of Missouri protesters are running our foreign policy. You've had the biggest attack, I think, almost in Europe since World War II, and Kerry is talking about the weather -- Dana.
PERINO: Well, this meeting has been planned for a long time.
WATTERS: Right.
PERINO: And I think that they will go through with it.
WATTERS: Thank goodness.
PERINO: I think where they fall short is where they say it is the biggest global threat, because that is hard -- people with common sense would go, it can't possibly be when you're looking at what just happened.
The other thing that is unfortunate about this is that America has made significant progress in lowering emissions, partly because the economy has been stalled, but also because there's been a lot of ingenuity. And we've done more a lot more on natural gas.
So America is doing its part. We go -- we seem to be going to Paris with our hat in hand, begging people not to beat us up any more about climate change.
WATTERS: That's right. Eric, when ISIS hears John Kerry say something like this, they're probably happy, because they're thinking, "Thank God the world's focusing on defeating climate change, instead of defeating us."
BOLLING: Well, not the world, just us.
WATTERS: Just us?
BOLLING: The Russians have a different focus.
WATTERS: They're not the climate change country.
BOLLING: The French have a different focus right now, too.
He has to go. It's a conference that's been planned forever. And he's going to go. But the question is what happens after. Does he come out and say -- God forbid he comes out and blames anything that's going on with ISIS on climate change.
Bernie Sanders did it at the Democratic debate, which was a joke, and he's being destroyed for doing it. Hillary kind of danced around it. Hopefully, he doesn't, either. There's a real enemy here, and it's not the climate right now. And it's ISIS. They're beheading Americans and killing other people. Let's focus on that.
WATTERS: Juan, how many people has climate change killed?
WILLIAMS: I don't know. I know...
WATTERS: Then why is it such a threat?
WILLIAMS: I don't think there's any question it's a threat.
WATTERS: Really?
WILLIAMS: I think the legitimate argument at this table is how can you look long-term in terms of the threat posed by global warming, which would be, you know, if there's a shortage of water, if there's a shortage of land, if there's political instability...
WATTERS: Right.
WILLIAMS: ... that then generates more tensions in the world and more possibilities for terrorist activity, if not actual military state-to-state conflicts.
WATTERS: Juan -- Juan, you know what happens when the earth gets a little warmer? You know what I do?
WILLIAMS: No.
WATTERS: I go from, like, SPF 15 to SPF 30.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
WATTERS: You know what happens when the world gets a little more dangerous? People die.
WILLIAMS: Oh, I see.
WATTERS: I don't think people care about what's going to happen in 100 years.
WILLIAMS: People are starving; people act in horrific manners.
PERINO: People are starving now, because they don't have electricity.
WILLIAMS: You're acting like a spoiled rich kid, you know. But I'm telling you, it's a real issue.
GUILFOYLE: That's not nice.
WILLIAMS: But I do think that it's right the president and the rest of the world leaders do not act as if they are intimidated and go ahead with their conference.
GUILFOYLE: I'm sorry. I'm so confused.
WATTERS: Don't you hope it snows on this climate conference?
GUILFOYLE: I've seen the light. ISIS is hungry and has no jobs. This is the problem. Somebody call the job fair truck. I mean, this is crazy.
WATTERS: I don't know what Juan is smoking.
GUILFOYLE: We don't know. We don't know. But try and steer clear of the cloud.
Yes, it's not good. Because ISIS is laughing, like, "There goes President Obama again with John Kerry, with their head the clouds." That's it.
PERINO: The other thing is I thought Bjorn Lomborg in The Wall Street Journal today had an excellent point, that we are -- I know you love it when I cite my reading.
WATTERS: Yes.
PERINO: But I like to give credit where credit is due, and he writes extensively about this on his blog.
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
PERINO: But in his piece, what he says is that these world leaders are gambling the world economy on climate change, when you have so many people that are in poverty and starvation. Partly because they don't have access to electricity. We should be trying to help them and not decrease our economic output.
WATTERS: That's right. And you recycled that newspaper.
PERINO: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: Send a taco truck to Syria.
WATTERS: Up next, Hollywood bad boy, Charlie Sheen makes a stunning revelation: he's HIV positive. The troubled actor explains why he's coming forward and what it means for his future, when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Troubled Hollywood actor Charlie Sheen making a stunning revelation: he's HIV positive. The former "Two and a Half Men" star revealing the news to the world this morning on the "Today Show."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE SHEEN, ACTOR: I'm here to admit that I am, in fact, HIV positive. It's a hard three letters to absorb. You know? It's a turning point in one's life. I have to put a stop to this, this, this, onslaught, this barrage of attacks and of, of, of sub-truths.
MATT LAUER, CO-HOST, NBC'S "THE TODAY SHOW": For years you have been trying to keep this secret.
SHEEN: Yes.
LAUER: And you have said that you have been the victim of betrayal and extortion. Are you still paying some of these people?
SHEEN: Not after today, I'm not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Kimberly, this is an interesting question. Bree Olson, his former wife, told Howard Stern that he didn't tell her. As I understand it...
GUILFOYLE: Well, she was one of his love goddesses.
WILLIAMS: OK. But I understand that in 35 states, it's illegal for someone who's HIV positive to have sex with someone else without telling them that they are HIV positive.
GUILFOYLE: Right. Well, there's two paths, right? There's the potential criminal prosecution, and then there is also a civil track. And there's six women so far that have come forward that say they intend to sue him civilly and what you need there is negligence, essentially. That you have HIV and that you infected someone else. There isn't an intent, you know requirement. With -- and you can sue for emotional, negligent infliction of emotional stress.
On the criminal level, there's felony and misdemeanor charges. Misdemeanor charges, again, do not require an intent to infect. However, felony does require knowledge, and an intention to do so.
So I think he's in big trouble on a number of potential misdemeanor charges and then, of course, as well in terms of the civil lawsuit.
WILLIAMS: Well, you're going to go into more detail on this, on O'Reilly tonight. So don't miss that.
But Eric, you know, I was curious about the idea he says he's paid millions -- millions...
GUILFOYLE: To keep it quiet.
WILLIAMS: ... to shush people up, right? Why was he paying that money?
BOLLING: Well, probably because they were going to sue him if he didn't.
GUILFOYLE: They were going to go public.
BOLLING: But the idea that he went public on his own is kind of wacky. Probably the same people advising Charlie Sheen are advising President Obama's ISIS strategy.
GUILFOYLE: So he, like, outed himself.
WATTERS: Great point.
WILLIAMS: Sometimes you really amuse me.
You know, Dana, I've got to tell you, I was looking at that this morning. I thought, man, either he's jittery, or he's looked slippery. Something is going on with this guy. He did not look right.
PERINO: Well, they called him a troubled actor. We called him a troubled actor. I think he'd call himself that. I mean, he's had years of reckless behavior.
What I found very fascinating is the PR strategy: to know that the National Enquirer is going to out you, so you decide that you're going to do this big piece on "The Today Show." I don't think he helped himself in that interview. And I hope that all of the women that he was with are OK.
GUILFOYLE: Are OK.
WILLIAMS: What about this, Dana? He says he's going to have a cure. He's coming up with a cure.
PERINO: Well, that would be terrific.
WILLIAMS: Jesse, you know, I was curious. Charlie Sheen has no TV projects, right?
WATTERS: Yes.
WILLIAMS: No movie projects.
WATTERS: All right.
WILLIAMS: So I don't get it. Why are we so fascinated with Charlie? Is it just this is celebrity...
WATTERS: Because he's a warlock. We love Sheen. Remember, he went on that crazy tour...
GUILFOYLE: Hashtag winning.
WATTERS: ... across the country and spoke gibberish.
Listen, I mean, the guy smokes crack. He sleeps with strippers, porn stars, escorts and groupies. I'd be surprised if he didn't have HIV.
Maybe that's what he meant when he said he had tiger blood running through his veins. I have no idea, but this is not winning for Charlie Sheen. You can now beat HIV if you have cash. That's how Magic Johnson beat it. So I'm sure he has money.
BOLLING: You can beat AIDS. You can't beat HIV.
WATTERS: Well, you can put it to bed. This guy is going to be here for a while unless he O.D.s on drugs. I think he'll be fine and, you know, on TV for many more years to come.
WILLIAMS: All right. "One More Thing" coming right at you. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: All right. It's time now for "One More Thing" -- Eric Bolling.
BOLLING: OK, so I was going to show you a monkey riding a dog herding sheep at a football game. But since Secretary of State Kerry made those comments, we had to show you the comments. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KERRY: There's something different about what happened from "Charlie Hebdo," and I think everybody would feel that. There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of -- not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow, and say, "OK, they're really angry because of this or that."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLING: No, Secretary Kerry, everyone won't feel that way. I, for one, disagree and probably millions of Americans would agree with me on that one.
PERINO: Hear, hear.
GUILFOYLE: All right. I'm going to call myself. So last night I had the pleasure to attend the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children's fundraiser. It's an organization that I hold very close to my heart. I'm on the Children's Council, and it does some of the toughest cases that are referred to them in New York.
And originally, this agency was founded, because there was no child abuse protection agency, only one for animals in New York City. And it's the nation's oldest.
A frightening statistic, really quick: 246 cases a day of child abuse are reported in just New York City alone. That's how compelling and mysterious this problem is.
So some of the pictures there were the individuals. My good friend, Deborah Norville, who in fact, was the emcee for the evening and is also on the board. We also had Dr. Mary Polito, who's the executive director and does incredible training throughout the country about child abuse and reclaiming lives for children to bring them back from the despair of abuse and reuniting families to be able to live together.
And Karen Sorba, who raised over $500,000. She is a professional benefit auctioneer. That's her right there, and she crushed it on behalf of the kids. That's how you do it.
BOLLING: Good job.
GUILFOYLE: Thank you.
BOLLING: Well done.
GUILFOYLE: Juan.
WILLIAMS: So last night in D.C., I was the host emcee for the 27th Annual Thurgood Marshall College Fund dinner, "Developing Minds... Defining Dreams." They raised about $5 million...
PERINO: Wow.
WILLIAMS: ... the biggest nonpolitical dinner held in Washington, D.C., held in support of historically black colleges and universities.
And John Brennan, head of CIA, was honored with the National Hero Award, specifically for Brennan's efforts in bringing diversity to the CIA in terms of language, culture, as well as different ethnic and racial groups so that we can have the best intelligence agency in the world.
GUILFOYLE: Juan, thank you for that -- Dana.
PERINO: All right. Last week, Hillary Clinton pledged $30 billion to coal -- coal country. She wants to aid coal country while she's actually voting and campaigning to destroy coal country. This is actually stunning.
Think -- listen to this: coal production nationwide down 15 percent since 2008. Fifty thousand coal jobs lost between 2008 and 2012 in Appalachia, Utah, Colorado. There are more statistics. This is the best point by "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board today: "So here we have the progressive policy arc made clear. First destroy coal jobs to please affluent liberals over climate change. Then tax all Americans more to buy the support of the workers who had those jobs. How about not destroying those jobs in the first place?"
GUILFOYLE: Jesse. Fast.
WATTERS: Possibly the biggest moment in TV history this weekend, 8 p.m., Saturday night.
WILLIAMS: All right.
WATTERS: "Watters' World," the show, will be premiering. I'll be out asking silly questions at the beach and talking about politicians in studio. Stay tuned.
GUILFOYLE: That's it for us. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.
BOLLING: Popping the collar.
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