Fight for GOP nomination getting increasingly personal

close

Video

Fight for GOP nomination getting increasingly personal

GOP candidates back away from pledge to support eventually nominee

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," March 30, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Jedediah Bila, Juan Williams, Eric Bolling, and Greg Gutfeld. It is 5 o'clock in New York City and this is "The Five."

They stood in front of the cameras and told the American people they would support the nominee no matter who it was going to be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'll be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party.

GOV. JOHN KASICH, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a Republican, George. Whoever the nominee is I'm going to get behind him. Plain and simple.

SEN. TED CRUZ, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I pledged at the outset, I will support the Republican nominee, whoever it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will support the nominee of the party?

TRUMP: Yes. I will.

KASICH: I will support whoever is the Republican nominee for president.

CRUZ: I promise I would support the Republican nominee. And I am someone who keeps his word.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

PERINO: But now after wars over wives, so-called lies, and just about everything else this campaign season, all three Republicans left in the race are somewhat backing away from that promises.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: No.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: You don't?

TRUMP: No. We'll see who it is.

COOPER: The pledge you took is no longer void.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Whoever the Republican nominee is, you say you will no longer guarantee.

TRUMP: I have been treated very unfairly.

CRUZ: I'm not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and attacks my family. I think that is going beyond the line. I think our wives, I think our kids should be off-limits. They don't belong in the attacks.

KASICH: If the nominee is someone that I think is really hurting the country and dividing the country, I can't stand behind them.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

PERINO: All right. So what a difference just a few months makes. Jedediah, there is no doubt this campaign has been a turbulent one.

JEDEDIAH BILA, GUEST CO-HOST: Yes.

PERINO: To say the least. Emotions riding high. All three candidates actually believe or say that they will be the nominee.

BILA: Yeah.

PERINO: They plan to be the nominee. So the question is a little difficult for them to answer at this point.

BILA: I mean, I would have never made this pledge. I thought it was kind of ridiculous, only because you will never know what will come up with a candidate. You can unearth anything. Look at what Donald Trump has done. You may have supported him in the beginning. Maybe a lot of people now are saying well, I don't agree with what he is doing now, or Ted Cruz for that matter. You'll never know what's going to come up. So I always say the answer to that is I have allegiance to my principles. I don't have allegiance to a party or a person, who I can't be responsible for what they may or may not say. The problem here is they look like a bunch of liars now. So everyone sitting there is saying well, you said you would support the person no matter who it was. And now, all of a sudden, there's a but clause at the end of it. So politicians, these are smart people. Ted Cruz is a smart guy. They should think ahead of time and just say, you know what, let me think how I'll answer this question. Because if I say yes, absolutely and then say oh, but, I will look like a liar.

PERINO: There is a practical point. It is one thing, Juan, to have to raise your hand in front of international television or live on TV, to say you will support the nominee. But it is another when you talk with the RNC and you have to sign -- I don't know if the DNC does the same, but the Republican National Committee, since 2012, all of those candidates signed a pledge saying that they would support the nominee or they're working for the party. Because in exchange, that's how you get access to the data and information that the RNC has. I don't know, but does the Democrats do the same?

JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Something similar. In fact, Bernie Sanders got in trouble earlier because he had access to data. That thing was leaked. But I might say what strikes me here is their grievances, Jedediah. They have grievances. So they could argue that things have changed. Donald Trump makes the case that he has been treated unfairly by the RNC.

PERINO: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: Right? Ted Cruz says Donald Trump said nasty things about my wife. I'm not sure what John Kasich's complaint is.

(CROSSTALK)

BILA: That he's not winning.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: But in the case of Trump and Cruz, I could say well, maybe things changed a little bit, Jedediah.

BILA: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: I wouldn't say they are liars. I would say that they backed away from the pledge. I mean, it is very clear now you have a fractured party. There is no question.

PERINO: Well, there is a real question, Eric, for Republican voters now that you see it in the polls. People saying maybe a traditional GOP voter and you're thinking I don't know if I can vote for him or you're a reenergized Republican voter or a new voter to the party and saying I can't wait to vote for this guy for president. But no matter other becomes the RNC nominee -- sorry, the GOP nominee, they're going to need every Republican vote that they can get. So trying to consolidate at this point would make sense. I don't know if they'll do it.

ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: So this whole pledge came about because the theory was that they were afraid Donald Trump was not going to be the nominee. But the spoiler by running a third party, diluting the Republican vote, and have Hillary Clinton walk in. So they decided it would be Jeb or Rubio. No one saw the Trump nomination. Now everyone is saying wow, I'm not sure I can handle this, Trump's grievances that he doesn't feel he is being treated. But then when you hear all the horse trading and all these rules are rules, 1237, but then maybe rules can be changed at the convention. You made a mistake by saying RNC nominee. But that was actually right. It is not a GOP nominee. It is an RNC nominee. And they will tell you -- the RNC will tell you there are two RNC delegates who said the misconception is that the voters had a say who the nominee is. No. The RNC delegates are the ones who have the say in the nominee. And that's really was the distaste. That's where a lot of the distaste is coming from.

PERINO: But is anybody saying, if they don't get to 1237, they won't get the nominee?

BOLLING: That's what these meetings were all about, if they can change. And in fact, they can change the rules at the convention. They can.

(CROSSTALK)

BILA: What about if he doesn't get appropriate number, the 1237? Then you know that's.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: And the characterization. We've had that discussion three times now. So we'll move on. And ask Greg for your opinion on the pledge.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Well, it's funny. Because you know The Five -- what we're doing is we're pointing out this fractured strife among the Republican Party. But us pointing that out is like Charlie Sheen pointing out the drug habit. We as a show are facing internal strife. From a microlevel to a macrolevel, you can look at conservative websites like Breitbart, how much that has fallen apart since the Trump nomination. You can look at The Five on any given day. We have tension over this nomination, over this candidate. You can look at our network as a whole, which is -- don't look at me.

(LAUGHTER)

GUTFELD: We are having networks issues within the family of anchors over this stuff. You can look at the party. So in every area where there is conservatism, there is strife. And I just remember the good old days where we could unite against the hatred for Obama.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLLING: It will be back.

GUTFELD: It will be back. But somehow Trump has shattered that. And now, we're sitting here. We are grappling (ph) with this internal strife. And we have no way to get out of this. So when we're talking about the convention, or when we're talking about how do we improve this, we actually have to talk amongst ourselves as conservatives, as Republicans. Can we express our grievances honestly about how we feel about this so we can move beyond? So we can unite. I'm not talking like an encounter group, but I'm saying we all have to be honest with each other. Instead of saying you're stupid for supporting Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: You're hitting on -- I think this is the most unique time in the history of American politics. You're hitting on it exactly. We've gone from I don't like that candidate, I don't like what he represents, I'm not going to vote for him. Here's why. To If you like him, you're an idiot, you're a jerk, you're I don't know helping him become the nominee. And people are so angry. Everything becomes personal.

GUTFELD: Yeah.

BOLLING: It's never been this personal before. At least not in my history.

GUTFELD: I agree. I have friends who I won't mention, Robert Davi, who texts me in caps every day angry over something that I might say about Trump. It is this weird thing where he says why do you hate Trump. I go like I don't hate Trump. It is not hate. I don't think it is his fault. I don't think he even knew this was going to happen. You know, I thought he was doing it as a protest vote. And then it just happened. And so we are all sitting here. And I agree with you, Eric. I think that everybody is mad at each other over this. And unless people can get beyond this, it will end up like Breitbart.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: Can you imagine what this convention will be like?

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: It hasn't been completely and definitely.

GUTFELD: Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: It will be ugly. And people have to put away I guess their emotions and they have to function on reason.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Reason and logic have not really been part of the conversation. I mean, you bring up a fact then you are also called every name in the book by their supporters.

BILA: There's candidate worship though. If I say something critical of Ted. I criticize everyone. I don't have a dog in this fight. If I criticize Ted Cruz, then all the Ted Cruz people on Twitter rush at me. That's candidate worship. If I criticize Donald Trump, you get the candidate worship from the Trump folks. And I will just remind everyone what you didn't like about President Obama. What's the candidate worship that went along with him, that no matter what he did, his backers came out to defend him? But if he did something wrong, or he was hypocritical, there was this notion that he was bigger. Remember, we were pointing out the ridiculousness of the columns when he campaigned. That he was larger than life. And larger than the fact that he works for us, not the other way around. These are just people. They're just men. And they're flawed and we're here to criticize them. And I think a lot of folks on the right have forgotten how to do that with a civility and the decency that they often criticize the left for not having.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: I just want to come back to this. One, I thought what you said was terrific. That's the most honest discussion I've heard of this anywhere. And the fact is you know, there is tension all over about this. I will say this. I think that two things. One is, it is personal. It is very personal.

GUTFELD: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: If I start making fun of Eric's wife, you better believe Eric would take it personally, right?

GUTFELD: Right.

WILLIAMS: He would say dude, back off.

PERINO: You might be sitting on 48th street.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: So I think it is very personal.

BOLLING: By her.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: So it has become intensely personal. And I think that's why you see them saying, I'm not going to back this guy. And the second thing is, when you ask voters in polls, you know, it is not like they say, he is my second choice. He's my third choice. They say no way Jose. I'll never vote for the other guy.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: Obviously, you want to build a wall around Jose.

WILLIAMS: Thank you. Juan prefers Jose.

GUTFELD: The thing with Cruz about being upset about what Trump did with this retweet. I think to me, I don't buy it. Because he was OK with it with other people. He said Trump was terrific. Remember that tweet?

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Carly Fiorina in that debate after he said she was ugly.

BOLLING: He was OK with a lot of stuff.

PERINO: I'm not disagreeing with that.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Women and their looks, and attacking them for their looks. He did stick up for Carly in that regard.

BOLLING: But see them slag it out, no matter what level they choose it, whether low level that is going on, low level rhetoric, gutter rhetoric that's going on, or a higher level, more sophisticated debate is one thing. But when the fans, the people, the supporters start slugging it out with each other makes no sense. And you're right. That's where we are. Everyone in the stands are fighting while they're on the playing field as well. It's crazy.

WILLIAMS: It is personal crazy.

GUTFELD: If you were critical of -- it is like a team sport. I liken Trump to the Oakland Raiders. I loved the Oakland Raiders in the '70s. Because of not how they won, but how they played.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: I hated them.

GUTFELD: I loved them. You had Ted Hendricks. These were greedy people. If you said you didn't like the Oakland Raiders, the Oakland Raider fan would take it personally. And if you say that to any team. And I think that what happens when you say you don't like Ted Cruz, the Cruz fans take it personally. The Trump fans, they get pissed. They come after you. It is now you have to find a way to criticize somebody in a way that isn't personal or isn't perceived as personal. I don't know if it is possible.

WILLIAMS: I don't think it is possible at this point.

PERINO: We got to run.

WILLIAMS: I will make one last thing.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: That's all right. But I will make one last point, which is to say the Republican brand, when you have Trump saying some of these things and then Cruz going back and Jedediah saying you guys are a liar, I think it hurts.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: All right. Donald Trump, he defends his campaign manager that was charged with battery yesterday. And while his opponents are calling him to fire his aide, Trump says he is the actual victim. That's next on The Five.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIAMS: His campaign manager has been charged with battery, but Donald Trump is standing by Corey Lewandowski and discrediting former Breitbart reporter who filed a case against him. Last night, he kicked off a town hall appearance with a dramatic reading of Michelle Fields' claim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: In hen own words exactly, I was jolted backwards. She was not -- I mean, she's standing there. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm. Tightly. And yanked me down. She was not yanked down. She didn't have any expression. I almost fell to the ground. She didn't almost fall to the ground. By the way, she was grabbing me. Am I supposed to press charges against her? So my arm is just killing me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: He says the tape of the incident proves his aide's innocence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And I'm very glad that we were able to produce the tape. Because I don't see anything. I see virtually nothing. And we're going to destroy a man's life over this?

If you saw on the tape something different, would you have fired Corey? If he threw her to the ground, I would have fired him immediately. Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Trump's opponents have all weighed in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: It shouldn't be complicated that the members of the campaign staff should not be physically assaulting the press. I mean, that should not be a complicated decision.

KASICH: You want to give people the benefit of the doubt. When you see things that are pretty clear, from what I understand, the video is clear. Of course, I would fire him.

HILLARY CLINTON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think there have been a lot of rhetoric as well as behavior coming from Donald Trump's campaign that is concerning to many people including many women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Dana, I'm going to ask you again. Given your experience in politics, dealing with difficult crisis situations...

PERINO: I never dealt with anything like this.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: The entire financial crisis.

WILLIAMS: No, no, no.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: Well, what do you think?

PERINO: Here is the thing. The police disagree with Donald Trump. OK. And there is going to be a court date. So there is that. The decision to further mock her and to smear her more than she already had been, I think is a fool hardy one. If you are already doing badly with women in general for the general election and increasingly worse with Republican women, according to the polls, then you would think that you might want to say, you could have apologized initially. But the further mocking I think is a question. We just talked about this. The A block was so beautiful. Let's not take things personally. This is actually taking it from a presidential level to taking on one young woman when they could have actually -- they could have handled it very differently. But once they decide to go after somebody, they keep going. Like the reporter -- the disabled reporter that they made fun of. They said oh, no, we didn't. Then it was proven that he did. And if it is constantly going after people who they think are weaker than them and trying to destroy them. I don't like it.

WILLIAMS: But the other side of the story, Eric, is Trump says I'm being loyal to a top aide. Are you going to destroy a man's life over this?

BOLLING: So I think right before we came to air, I think Florida prosecutors office said they don't even have the case yet. And so right now, the police have charged Corey Lewandowski. Florida may not actually go ahead and prosecute the case. The jury is out on that. If you look at the tape, we heard both sides of the story for literally weeks. I think this happened March 8th. For weeks, we have heard both sides. If you look at the tape, it looks like neither side is completely accurate. It looks like Corey may have -- I don't know for a fact but may have touch Michelle Fields. On Michelle's side, she said she almost fell down, almost dragged down to the ground. It doesn't look like that to me. It is just an observation. I could be wrong. So the question is what is the legal and political fallout of it? Legally, I think everyone is hanging their head on Corey saying he didn't touch her after the fact. I'm not sure that will play in the case, it may or it may not. Legally, that is for the prosecutors office. I would be surprised.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: The politics are vastly bigger. What do you think?

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: I think the candidates who are not Donald Trump are smart to go after and play up big, as Dana's point out, the women's vote. He is doing very well with women in the GOP race. He is number one. He is beating Cruz and Kasich. In a general election, not so much.

WILLIAMS: Not so much.

BOLLING: So the candidates are smart to play it up. Look, Donald Trump at some point has to say, do I want to continue to defend or do I want this just to go away and let the courts take over?

WILLIAMS: Well, Hillary Clinton, she doesn't have to dither about this. She says, hey, this is a culture. I think somebody else is in this, too. I think Alice Stewart.

PERINO: Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: There's a culture in the Trump campaign that leads these kinds of instance, Hillary Clinton, as you just saw in that bite also says, you know, something is wrong over there. Something smells.

(CROSSTALK)

BILA: Yeah. Well, that's the problem. It fits in to that story so well with him saying people are going to riot, if you know I'm not the guy or whatever his initial remark was. My issue, I understand what he's saying about loyalty. But you're being loyal to a guy who lied. He says he didn't touch her. You're being loyal to a guy that who went on Twitter and tried to smear Michelle Fields' reputation. This is not a noble guy that you're being loyal to. I'm sorry, but he has not presented himself well to me. I was not there. I don't know the force that was applied to her arm, the tape shows. I agree with you, Eric. You can interpret it a number of ways. But regardless, I really have to question Donald Trump and why he would want to be loyal to a guy that has portrayed himself to the rest of the world like this. I think this guy, Corey, is a huge liability for him. If he has political smart and he has some chops, you know what, this isn't good and fire this guy. This does not help you, Donald. When you are viewed as a guy who is anti-woman, you've been labeled, you have these issues with female voters clearly, this does not help you to have this front and central. Get rid of this guy and get to the issues. That will be my advice.

WILLIAMS: Well, I don't know. I think a lot of Trump supporters would say that they admire the fact that he is loyal to the guy and not backing down. So< Greg, what struck me in this is that Ben Shapiro was the Michelle Fields' editor at Breitbart, he didn't just say Lewandowski lied. He said Trump lied.

GUTFELD: Well, again, it is one of those things that instinctively takes sides. If I see this tape again, I'm going to throw up.

(LAUGHTER)

GUTFELD: It is like the (inaudible) film.

BOLLING: Right.

GUTFELD: It is like Oliver Stone is going to turn this into a movie and there will be a second grabber. A good tweet by Ross Douthat from the New York Time, which kind of summarizes, it is not about the jerk. What he says is Trump's handling of this is a blue print for turning a minor airspace issue with China into thermonuclear war. He is supposed to be a deal maker, he is supposed to be able to smooth things out. That's what we're looking from him right now. We want him to do this. And loyalty without that context is just stubbornness. You know, it has to be tethered to something. It could have been a spring shower and now it is a category 5 hurricane. He is supposed to be the deal maker.

WILLIAMS: So how does it play out?

GUTFELD: I don't know. If I knew.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLLING: Every cable news show will play it, continue to play it, until it just becomes its usefulness goes away. In the meantime, Florida decides whether or not they want to prosecute.

WILLIAMS: I come back to something that Dana and Jedediah said. They both tapped into this as an issue for American women. It is not going to help with the women. And I think Trump is out today on something else, on abortion.

PERINO: Yes, but we have to go. They're yelling.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: I can't hear them yelling. If you want me to go, I'll go. Love is supposed to conquer all. But can it really conquer ISIS? The founder of Facebook thinks so. Up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: After every terror attack comes that naive response to evil, this Time it is from Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg who says to fight Islamic terrorists, we must create a world where everyone feels cared for and loved. And who would be against that? Oh yeah, Islamic terrorists, you butthead.

Look, it is fine to say this tripe as long as there are others who are at work right now killing terrorists. Naive pacifism is the barnacle of the boat of vigilance. It depends on the commitment of others to kill. If we all thought like Zuck, we'd be... screwed.

My solution? The math of terror is simple. They work 24/7 and must only succeed once. Free from the duties of building and preserving civilization, their world is more agile than ours. For a peaceful America, fighting terror is like a whale trying to swat a hummingbird. They are free to act, and we just react. But the only thing as agile as terror is our creative innovation unleashed in the marketplace.

What has solved history's great horrors, from tyrants to disease to poverty, is American ingenuity. Terror like everything else evolves, picking soft targets as others harden. So the solution is an innovative private industry that hardens everything. In this changing world, as old jobs disappear, terror control provides the West with new meaningful work based on turning sitting ducks into well-armed lions. A chain of vocational schools that saves civilization from heathens. Maybe Zuckerberg should start it. After all, you can't update your status when you're dead.

Jedediah, is Zuck right? All you need is love?

BILA: Wouldn't that be great?

GUTFELD: It would.

BILA: I want to live in the utopia this guy lives in. Rainbows -- your unicorns are there.

GUTFELD: I know.

BILA: You can ride around. Pots of gold for everyone.

GUTFELD: They're in shorty robes.

BILA: Bernie Sanders could be paying for everyone's stuff on -- I don't know -- Eric's money or something. I don't know, no. I just got a dirty look from him.

No, I think it's -- I think it's interesting that people can go through life and think this way. That somehow you can combat evil; people who seek to destroy; people who are attaching bombs to children and to women and seeking to just blow up people for the sake of it, and say, "Well, if you're just kind to them, it will all go away." It's fascinating.

And if you look back in our history, if we had had this ideology, we wouldn't be here. None of us would be sitting here right now.

GUTFELD: No. Love doesn't...

BILA: America would not exist. It's like -- it's fascinating.

GUTFELD: Love doesn't conquer all. In fact, Juan, what is "love" spelled backwards? "Evol."

BOLLING: "Evol."

GUTFELD: "Evol."

WILLIAMS: Is that right? Oh, yes. Well, I think you're wrong. I really do.

BILA: Really?

WILLIAMS: I really do. I think...

BILA: What, you have a unicorn for me and a rainbow?

WILLIAMS: I love unicorns and rainbows. That's why I delight in his cup. I don't -- I want to drink from that cup one day.

GUTFELD: You can.

WILLIAMS: What I'm just saying, I think that in fact, you know, that horrible shooting we had down in South Carolina, I think one of the most amazing things that happened was that church, that the people didn't react by, "Oh, we're going to go after white people." No, I think...

GUTFELD: Juan, that wasn't radical Islam. That wasn't radical Islam. You're talking about the church killing.

WILLIAMS: No, it wasn't radical Islam.

GUTFELD: Everybody was disgusted by what happened. But there were radical Islamists who cheered the beheadings.

WILLIAMS: Right.

GUTFELD: Love doesn't conquer that.

WILLIAMS: I think that -- I think that you have to realize that, if you go after people specifically and just say it's all about the violence and not about winning over hearts and minds, it's not a winning effort.

BOLLING: So this is exactly -- the pope actually started this, as well. He said we need to conquer ISIS with love. Mark Zuckerberg and the pope, frankly, are wrong on this. This is an extension of President Obama's "Let's not tick off the terrorists by saying 'Islamic terrorism' or by keeping Gitmo open." It doesn't work; they don't care, as evidenced by last week or the week before. ISIS among killing a group of people, slaughtered four nuns. I mean, if no one -- nuns have more love than anyone on the planet, and they want to kill them, too. So love? I think bullets are going to work a little bit better. Bullets and bombs over...

GUTFELD: Yes.

BOLLING: ... love.

GUTFELD: Kill them not just with kindness but with guns.

Why are -- why are people who are so smart in business so naive in this world? Is it just because you can only be an expert in one thing?

PERINO: You're talking about Mark Zuckerberg?

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Who created Facebook, and now he's a gazillionaire?

GUTFELD: Yes, and that wasn't created out of love. That was out of envy. He was looking to get -- well, anyway, go ahead.

PERINO: I don't know that story. OK, you'll have to tell me.

GUTFELD: Watch "The Social Network."

PERINO: Here's the thing. I think that the best way to show love would be to snuff out the evil...

GUTFELD: Yes. Yes.

PERINO: ... and so that people in the Muslim world that are not radicalized can live peaceful lives and take care of their children. I mean, that's what -- they want that for their children just as much as we do. And the only way to actually provide that to them is to snuff out the evil that exists. And you can't do -- you're not going to love the jihadi out of his ambition (ph).

GUTFELD: No. You're not. No.

BILA: Aw.

GUTFELD: Smother him with kisses and a pillow.

President Obama has a new rationale for why we should overlook the terror threat and be open to taking in more Muslim refugees. Hear that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BILA: President Obama is renewing his push to bring thousands of Syria refugees to America. He did so today at an Easter prayer breakfast by urging Americans not to give into fear following recent Muslim terror attacks overseas. Instead he says, be open to welcoming those who are most in need of help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was struck last week by an image of Pope Francis washing the feet of refugees. Different faiths, different countries. And what a powerful reminder of our obligations. If, in fact, we're not afraid and if, in fact, we hope and if, in fact, we believe, there's something that we have to -- we have to give.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BILA: But there are very serious risks involved in taking in more migrants. Here's the president's former military intelligence chief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. MICHAEL FLYNN (RET.), FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: Immigration is a national issue. We know that the Islamic State has decided and has the intention to infiltrate the immigrants that they are pouring into Europe. And that the potential that some of that will come into this country. We know for a fact that they have said, "We are going to infiltrate into these immigration populations."

So knowing that, what we have to be really, really precise about is the individuals that are coming from select areas of the world. We have to be much better at how we vet them in order to bring the right kinds of people in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BILA: Juan, how does this -- help me out here. How does this make sense, given the information that they have? You just heard what he said. It's been shown that we can't really figure out who these people are. That the matter of checking them is not -- is imperfect. So given that, how is this a good idea right now?

WILLIAMS: Well, if you're talking about Syrian refugees, people coming out of Syria.

BILA: The screening process.

WILLIAMS: Yes, but it's a two-year process. I don't know that it's so -- we're only talking, I think, it's like 100 people so far, although president says he wants to bring in 10,000.

But I get the point. I get the point from General Flynn. I get your point, and I get FBI Director Comey's point that we can't vouch for the system being flawless.

So the question is, if one person gets in, are you willing to take that risk? And I think that, in terms of what we've seen from Germany. I think they've taken a million, what we've seen. And we've seen problems. You can have the argument.

But ultimately, I think we have to say, "You know what? That Statue of Liberty means something."

BILA: What do you think most people think when they hear this, Eric?

BOLLING: I think most are deathly afraid of President Obama not learning a lesson from Angela Merkel in Germany, who did take in 1.1 million refugees, now saying, "What did we do here?" I mean, they're clearly crossing borders. They're being radicalized. Do you really want radicalization happening here?

Juan, the numbers aren't 10,000. President Obama said 65,000 is what he said, up to hundreds of thousands. And it's an 18-month vetting process, which I have a hunch wouldn't even be the case.

It's smart to take a breath, find out what's going on, who we're bringing over. Comey, was it? No, I'm sorry. It was Morrell? Who was that?

PERINO: Flynn.

BOLLING: Flynn is right. ISIS has said, "We will infiltrate the refugee programs around the globe." Stop, just stop.

BILA: Dana, smart for Republican candidates to go after him on this?

PERINO: Well, I think -- I think that President Obama is missing the mood of the country. There was a Morning Consult poll that came out on Tuesday morning that shows that 50 percent of all Americans support a temporary ban on Muslims traveling to the United States; 71 percent of Republican voters but 34 percent of likely Democratic voters and 50 percent of independents. So that's one thing.

What you don't hear President Obama say is that there would be a new strategy or a new policy in terms of helping to deal with the fact that we have a refugee crisis in the first place.

And my recommendation would be you try to solve a refugee problem at its source. They don't want to be refugees. They want to be able to live peacefully in their home country where they were born, and that's where they want to have their families. But they were forced out because of the violence. If you solve that problem, then you can try to rebuild, and then they can be -- they don't have to be refugees any more.

BILA: Gregory.

GUTFELD: I am -- I am so tired of President Obama telling us not to give into fear. It's insulting to assume that we are actually scared. We are not scared. We're actually smart. We read the papers. We watch the news. We realize there are separate trains now for women in Germany to keep them away from men who are groping them. In this new age of terror, immigration is no longer the soft social issue, talking about openness; it's a national security issue. That's it.

BOLLING: Moving on.

BILA: All right. Well, coming up, Tebow, J. Lo and a "Wheel of Fortune" wizard. Coming up next in "The Fastest Seven." Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLLING: Welcome back. Time for...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAPHIC: Fastest 7

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLLING: ... "Fastest Six and a Half or So on Television." Three stirring stories, seven snappy minutes, one suasive [SIC] host.

First up, Tim Tebow's days on the gridiron maybe over, but the former NFL star quarterback could -- no, not so star -- quarterback could try to tackle another field one day. Politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about this election cycle? Have you thought about politics? You'd be such a good role model for these kids.

TIM TEBOW, FORMER NFL QUARTERBACK: Well, thank you. It's been crazy, hasn't it? It's been a whirlwind, watching everything. But, you know, I don't know, in this time in my life, but you know, anyway that I can...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're saying there's hope. There's a chance.

TEBOW: You know what? There's a chance you could make a difference in some day on some things, then that would be intriguing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLLING: OK, Juan, you're a football fan and a politics fan. Your thoughts on Tebow running for something?

WILLIAMS: Well, you know, he did an ad that I saw for Focus on the Family. It was a pro-life ad, and I thought it was effective. He is very effective with young people, especially, because they look up to him. He won the Heisman. When did he win the Heisman? Like, you know, seven years, something like that. So I mean, he's a hero to a lot of people, and his faith, his example, I think, is pretty strong.

Could he win? I don't know. Because guess what? A lot of times athletes, they think, "Oh, it's going to be easy in politics." There's a long road, strewn with...

BOLLING: I think it depends where he runs, Jedediah.

BILA: That's true. I mean, he's young. He's charismatic; he's adorable. No one's going to argue that.

I don't know why he would want to do it, why he would want to get into the dirty business of politics. But if he feels called to it, I think he would be successful. And definitely, young people would be excited about it.

BOLLING: Greg.

GUTFELD: He can't spell "four." It's f-o-u-r. Got to get that hat fixed.

You know, I'm assuming he's a Republican and he's going to run as a Republican, and I'm always interested in that. Athletes are almost always conservative. And I realize it's because they share a simple equation, which is effort plus time equals reward, which is exactly the equation for free-market capitalism. It's exactly how you win the game.

BOLLING: What do you think, Dana? Tebow as -- I don't know, senator? Congressman?

PERINO: Can I admit something? That I spent the entire -- I misread this earlier today. I spent the entire day thinking that Peyton Manning had decided to consider running for office, and which I thought made a lot of since. Because, you know, he would -- he's finished his career.

BOLLING: Yes.

PERINO: John Elway thought about it. He's in Denver. So...

GUTFELD: In that case.

PERINO: ... if Tim Tebow wants to run, I think that's great.

BOLLING: Stay right there, because you've got the first one on this one. A lot of celebrities have joined the "Late, Late Show" host James Corden to join "Carpool Karaoke." J. Lo is the latest to ride shotgun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER LOPEZ, SINGER/ACTRESS: (SINGING "LOVE DON'T COST A THING," "JENNY FROM THE BLOCK")

JAMES CORDEN, HOST, "LATE, LATE SHOW": Who's the most famous person that's in that phone?

LOPEZ: I don't know.

CORDEN: Leonardo Di Caprio. Hey, baby, I feel (ph) like I need to cut loose. Any suggestions?

LOPEZ: I'm not going to let you send that.

CORDEN: Gone.

No. What did he say?

LOPEZ: He said, "You mean tonight, Boo-boo? Club-wise?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLLING: Love those. Love those.

PERINO: I think that the stars must enjoy that so much. Because it's not that high pressure, but they can just absolutely be themselves. And everyone seems to have a lot of fun. I could never do it.

BOLLING: Don't you -- are you going to -- do you not like this?

GUTFELD: No. She owes -- she owes me money.

BOLLING: J. Lo?

GUTFELD: She -- we shot her for "Stuff" magazine in about 2000, 2001. And she left with a diamond pedant in her belly button, and I didn't have the guts to ask for it back during the shoot, because she's standing there with Benny Medina, and she's like, looks great. And then she's like, "Oh, that was a great photo shoot." And she walks away with the -- I think it was a 15 grand belly button ring in her belly button.

BOLLING: Wow.

BILA: Wow!

BOLLING: Are you a fan of this?

BILA: I love her. I'm a big fan of "Jenny from the Block." And they asked her if it's true; he asked if she ensured her butt, and she said no. And she should, because that is a good booty. That is the best booty I have ever seen.

GUTFELD: You haven't seen mine.

BOLLING: Juan.

BILA: I don't want to see yours.

BOLLING: You want to weigh in?

BILA: That's a scary visual. Everyone at home is crying now.

WILLIAMS: I think you're worried for me. I have the last...

BOLLING: You brought that up.

WILLIAMS: Oh, no, no. I won't say a word. You know me. I'm a man of discretion.

But I will say this. I like "Comedians in Cars" better than this, although Jedidiah tells me should I see Adele with James Corden. You think that...

BILA: That's amazing, yes. These are great. These are, like, my favorites.

BOLLING: By the way, they said something like every 13 minutes of this thing takes, like, an hour and a half to film.

BILA: Oh, I'm sure.

BOLLING: Finally, a present to you, a man who could be the greatest "Wheel of Fortune" player ever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT SAJAK, HOST, "WHEEL OF FORTUNE": Go. Robert.

ROBERT SANTOLI, "WHEEL OF FORTUNE" CONTESTANT: "Port and starboard."

SAJAK: Yes. That's it.

Robert, what took you so long?

SANTOLI: "Oh, what a night."

SAJAK: Yes. That's it.

Robert?

SANTOLI: "H."

SAJAK: Yes, let them come up. Then you can, I guess, tell us what's there.

SANTOLI: "Three wishes."

SAJAK: Yes, that's it.

Things. Ten seconds. Good luck.

SANTOLI: Goofy pictures.

SAJAK: You got it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLLING: Holy smokes. Robert Santoli blew viewers away Friday after solving the first puzzle with only one letter on the board. He went on to solve a string of others, racking up more than 76 grand in cash.

PERINO: I'm a huge "Wheel of Fortune" fan. I've been watching it since I was a kid. It's Jasper's favorite show. He likes the "ding-ding," and he watches the entire thing.

I didn't know what -- he knew what the general topics were going to be, so he studied a lot. He must have a really good eye -- like eye memory type of thing so he could recognize it right away.

BOLLING: Greg, do you think our friend Pat Sajak cheated and slipped him the answers?

GUTFELD: I think -- I think Sajak was off on the side, going like this, holding the thing. And also, I hear that the letters are made in China.

I have an idea for a game show where all the terms have to do with legal advice. And it could be called "Liz [SIC] Wiehl of Fortune."

BILA: Oh, wow.

BOLLING: Lis.

GUTFELD: Lis Wiehl?

BILA: Lis Wiehl, though.

GUTFELD: We don't talk any more.

BOLLING: Jedediah, did you see that cartoon that's running around the Internet where President Obama is playing "Wheel of Fortune"? Every letter except for one is in "Islamic terrorist." And he can't get it.

BILA: I haven't seen that, but I like that. My mom was amazing growing up. She used to get these. You could have a seven-letter word with six letters in there, and I would be like -- my middle name. Thank you.

PERINO: I probably would buy too many vowels.

BOLLING: Final thought on this.

WILLIAMS: You know, I thought the guy was a genius, but then I did what, you know, Dana did. And realized that he was told it was a nautical theme. And he went back and looked at previous "Wheel of Fortunes" and had it.

GUTFELD: I think he should be arrested.

BOLLING: "One More Thing" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: It's time now for "One More Thing." Sorry, I thought you were going first. But it is actually me that is going. Supposed to introduce the wonderful Juan Williams.

GUTFELD: There you go.

WILLIAMS: You're very kind.

So it was 35 years ago today that Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley. Six shots. The last one, the sixth shot, hit the car, ricocheted and then hit the president under his left arm, landed near the president's heart.

It was an incredible day in Washington. James Brady, the press secretary, shot in the head. He died in 2014. D.C. Police Officer Thomas Delahanty shot in the neck, still alive to this day. And Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, he was putting his body over the president. He took a bullet in the abdomen. He's still alive.

Hinckley, who was then just 25 years old and said he was doing this to impress the actress, Jodie Foster. He is still alive. Last year in 2015 he sought release, full release from the asylum, St. Elizabeth, in Washington. Not granted. Good idea.

PERINO: Were you covering...

WILLIAMS: I was an editorial writer at the time. I remember the "Washington Post" just shut down. It was like, wow. What is -- we thought the president was in serious trouble.

PERINO: All right. Greg, you are next.

GUTFELD: Time for something new.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Greg's Hygiene Tips

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Love that squeaky little noise. It's a shorty robe, by the way.

You know, when you're taking a bath it's important that you make sure that the tub fits you and it's not too small. We have a picture of Alec Baldwin at a spa over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(POLAR BEAR SITTING ON TINY TUB)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: He had actually gone there to get some soak, a big soak out there. But the -- you see the tub is too small for his large girth. They actually had to send a helicopter in to pull him out and air drop him to a larger tub of water.

PERINO: That's really good advice.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Great tips. Thank you for that.

I could -- I could have had your graphic of "I Hate These People" today.

GUTFELD: All right.

PERINO: Because I read about this woman. She is such a jerk to a cab driver. She took the taxi 150 miles to her Pennsylvania home from New York.

GUTFELD: Yes.

PERINO: Stiffed him $600 on the fare. Said she would go upstairs and get cash. She never came back. She's finally at least been arrested. The driver is Rahman Atiqur. He was really cool about it. He waited. He took her all that way. But she tried to stiff him for that money. She says she's good for it, and I home that is true, but don't ever do that.

GUTFELD: Not very nice.

PERINO: Eric.

BOLLING: Very quickly. "The O'Reilly Factor" tonight going to deep dive into the Corey Lewandowski/Michelle Fields thing and a bunch of other 2016 news.

Now, this is for Nate Fredman (ph) and Ron Mitchell, two producers on "The O'Reilly Factor." Check this out. Harrison Ford -- can you put the picture up? -- is auctioning off the Han Solo leather jacket that he wore in the "Star Wars" movie. And the proceeds are going to go to call awareness or create awareness for epilepsy. Harrison Ford's daughter apparently has epilepsy. Right now $33,000 is the current bid, and there are 12 days left. And you can go down there somewhere to figure out where to donate.

PERINO: All right. Jedediah.

BILA: I have my next installment of "Greg Gutfeld's Furry Friends." And we have the Santa Barbara zoo has a baby giraffe that was just born. Look how adorable. Unnamed as of yet. Already 191 pounds, outweighing Greg, and six feet tall. Also, you know, taller than him already. So you know.

GUTFELD: Looks a lot like me.

BILA: But it's beautiful, a beautiful baby. So it does look like -- you do tend to look like the animals.

PERINO: You're getting an "A-plus" on your "One More Thing."

BILA: Thank you.

PERINO: Set your DVRs so you never miss an episode of "The Five." That is it for us. "Special Report" is up next.

Content and Programming Copyright 2016 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2016 Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.