Gutfeld calls out Hollywood for meddling in Ga. election
Celebrities meddling in US elections?
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," June 20, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Hi, I'm Greg Gutfeld with Kimberly Guilfoyle, Juan Williams, Jesse Watters, and -- Dana Perino -- "The Five."
Polls are closed in Georgia. We await results.
(LAUGHTER)
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Oh my God!
GUTFELD: The special Congressional election in the sixth district is supposed to be a referendum on Trump. The Democratic choice, Jon Ossoff, rolled in the cash. It was impressive. Until you realize that donations came from 7,000 Californians and only 800 from his own district. And that tells you who is behind him: People who don't even live there. Just like Ossoff. Celebrities like Alyssa Milano, Chelsea Handler, George Takei -- they are all over this election.
So as the media obsesses over Putin's failed meddling in our elections, how is this not similar? Here you have one state meddling in another. How is California not Russia and Georgia not America? The only difference are the celebrities who are way more obnoxious than Putin.
I get it, California, Georgia, they're in same country. But still, you have aristocratic outsiders instructing the rubes on how to vote, undermining an election thousands of miles away. Talk about interference, obstruction.
So, why would these interlopers do that? It's an emotional thing. The Trump election was humiliating, it was painful. So this election offers celebrities their psychotherapy. They are using the district as a giant valium to soothe their bruised egos. Now, that emotion is missing on the other side. Here's why: If you ask Trump voters in October, what would you prefer to win the election with Trump and lose the seat in Georgia or lose to Hillary and still have that seat, I think you know the answer.
So no matter what happens tonight, who wins or loses, it's only because of Donald Trump winning. That still has to hurt and will still need more therapy.
All right, you got Hollywood, California, rich liberals. Jesse, also New York millionaires from the East colluding to steal an election.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Oh my God!
JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: Yes. So, you're saying that carpetbaggers colluding with San Francisco to hack -- democracy.
(LAUGHTER)
GUTFELD: Exactly.
WATTERS: This is exactly what happened. This guy is a puppet, he parachutes in with daddy's money, he is obviously a carpetbagger. He's handsome, he's got a nice head of hair, but he's a Pelosi Democrat. He voted for the Iran deal, it's for ObamaCare, but you know, he had lobbyists in his spare time. His business did deals with Al Jazeera, he gets a lot of his money from Hollywood, a lot of it from the bay area. Barely any of it from Georgia.
GUTFELD: Uh-hm.
WATTERS: So, you know, the Democrats said they want money out of politics, but they are literally buying a Congressional district.
GUILFOYLE: Trying.
WATTERS: Listen, this is not necessarily Trump country here. He only won the district by one percent, Romney won it by 23 percent. I don't think a special election --
GUTFELD: Just because you are on TV right now, Karen Handel.
(LAUGHTER)
GUTFELD: So, go ahead.
WATTERS: I don't think a special election is going to determine who is going to win the midterm elections. But as of now, Democrats 0 and four and special elections.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: They need this tonight. And results so far is not looking good.
GUTFELD: Yes. You know, but it is tight. Some show her up, some show her down. Kimberly, this is pure collusion, to subvert an election. I'm going to keep saying it.
GUILFOYLE: And there's actual effects to prove it, that's the thing. And yes, look, when you think about it, you know, I used to live in San Francisco for a benefited most election dollars when, you know, Mike is running for office there. But why are the people from San Francisco, California dumping all of this money trying to buy a seat?
GUTFELD: Right.
GUILFOYLE: Can you imagine if it was the other way around?
GUTFELD: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: And how about the fact that he doesn't even live in his district?
GUTFELD: I know.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. How about that? Like two hours walk, you know, somebody times it.
GUTFELD: He has an uber though, Kimberly.
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Is that what it is? From the lobbyist back home. The problem is, is that people needs to care about something like this, and say, we don't want someone who doesn't live in the district, who doesn't, you know, represent us just coming in to take a seat for no reason. To me that doesn't make any sense that he could be successful. I guess is he doing in the polling up until this point when the guy, they just kind of picked amount of obscurity with very little background whatsoever and said, "he will do."
GUTFELD: Yes. Just like a few other people I know, Juan. Doesn't this smack of a bunch of elitists putting their noses and other people's lives, Mr. Williams?
JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: No. I was curious about what you said because it starks me. Wait a minute, the Supreme Court has said, you can give money and that's free speech, and you have a situation here where you have foreign money, hacking, buying of U.S. officials, inviting charges of treason or people who are, you know, not faithful to the American flag --
GUTFELD: Are you buying --
WILLIAMS: No, I am saying, that's like Californians putting money into a Georgia race.
GUILFOYLE: Ninety seven percent of the money from outside the district.
WILLIAMS: Yes. Well, it seems to me that there's one situation where you have people who are concerned about undermining sanctions against Russia, trying to weaken Americans result, that's very different than the Hollywood elites saying that hey, this is a very red district and we think it's time to use it as a stage to show that there is opposition to Trump.
GUTFELD: I think you actually agreed with me in the sense that you just admit it, it's a red district being invaded by blue people, Dana. The blue are invading the red. Okay. Let's say they raise enough money and they win here. If they do this in every election, say in 2018, get a bunch of celebrity millionaires, right? You could get like, ten millionaires, put all of their money, and they could just win all of the elections, and the whole country could be run by left-wing millionaires.
PERINO: That would be a lot of money.
GUTFELD: It would be a couple of billion.
PERINO: And it would bankrupt them, so then, would that be beneficial? So, if one were thinking in one's way, one might have said, how is this any different than what happened in the Scott Brown special election when he was New Hampshire, but really running in Massachusetts, and then all that national money went into that special election. And the whole issue was about ObamaCare.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: This election actually, this special tonight, ObamaCare, or the replacement of it really became a big issue. The interesting thing for this also is that, the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is like the outside money group for Republicans that Paul Ryan runs, they'd done a whole bunched of money into there, and that's not coming from Georgia either. The other problem for --
GUTFELD: They had too.
PERINO: -- Democrats is that while these suburbs -- they had to -- part of the reason is, too, the Democrats had one person that they wanted to have as her sacrificial lamb in this, and that was awesome and then he actually did fairly well out of that. The Republicans in the primary for this one special election have 15 candidates.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: So, that's why he actually got all that attention. Because remember, three months ago, there was the special to see if he would go in. The demographics are changing in these suburban districts, and so that is why you see, if you look at the map, President Trump's electoral map, it's a beautiful map. It's read almost all across the country because that is the rural areas.
GUTFELD: Right.
PERINO: Suburban America is changing a little bit. So in the long run, I don't think there's a lot of lessons to be learned out of this special, but in the long run the Democrats and the Republicans are going to be fighting over those people. But putting somebody like Ossoff up, it surprises me that they gave him so much money because they care so little about principle. Because these people in California were Bernie Sanders supporters.
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
GUTFELD: Uh-hm.
PERINO: And he is actually a very conservative Democrat. Basically he's running as a Republican.
GUTFELD: Yes. That will change.
PERINO: Yes. Exactly. But he's not going to win. She is going to win by a hair.
GUTFELD: Are you sure? You think so?
PERINO: I think she will win by a hair, maybe a little bit more.
GUTFELD: I will be laughing my ass off.
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: But you know who's district this is in the Congressional is this by the way?
GUILFOYLE: It will take a while.
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: Hey, hey, hey.
WATTERS: No, fact (INAUDIBLE)
GUTFELD: Oh my God!
GUILFOYLE: Bannon thought me everything I know. Yes.
WILLIAMS: You know whose district is this in the fictional world?
GUTFELD: No.
WILLIAMS: This is Frank Underwood's district.
GUTFELD: Oh!
WILLIAMS: Yes. It is. And what Dana was saying about the diversity district is really striking to me because it's not only that it's becoming more diverse, larger Hispanic population more so than black, but it's the most educated district in the country that's been a Republican district. That is 56 percent college educated. The reason the Democrats want this is, they see an opportunity that peel away some of the Republicans who are anti-Trump concerned about the health care bill and the like. But specifically because upper educated whites, suburban whites, are the targets for Democrats from here on out heading towards 2018.
GUTFELD: I just got what -- the South Carolina went to the Republicans?
GUILFOYLE: Norman, yes.
GUTFELD: Ralph Norman?
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
GUTFELD: It's great to hear the name Ralph.
WATTERS: You like that name?
GUTFELD: You don't hear it much anymore.
GUILFOYLE: Ralph Norman like a guy with two first names going to Congress.
GUTFELD: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
This is some interesting tape from a debate between Karen Handel and Jon Ossoff about where he lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like to know, who is exactly who are you going to vote for in this election?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that the question? Okay. Well, I think Secretary Handel is referring to my residence which is a matter that I have addressed transparently throughout this campaign. I grew up in the sixth Congressional district. I was born and raised in Georgia. Unlike Secretary Handel who was born and raised in Washington, D.C.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
WATTERS: Is he old enough to run for Congress? He looks like my son. Seriously. Yes. I mean, the guy lives a two hour walk away. I think -- living at his dad's house or something like that. But then he's got engaged to a woman in the district right when he started running. I mean, speak about Frank Underwood, who knows what is really going on.
GUTFELD: You're terrible.
WATTERS: I am sure they are very much in love, but it's very, the whole thing is kind of strange. I mean, what's with these Democrats and these residency issues.
PERINO: What's going on?
GUTFELD: You know, John Lochte wrote a piece for FOXNews.com today and he makes a great point that if government expands, there is more at stake.
PERINO: These are all national.
GUTFELD: So now everything is a national election. For $30 million for one Congressional seat in Georgia because government has invaded all of our lives. Government -- taken over health care. So, that makes people want to vote for more government or vote for a liberal. So, it's now changing.
PERINO: And that is why I think that the House Republicans don't have a lot to worry about for 2018, I actually think that they will be able to keep the House. And I'm going to make a prediction here that you guys might have to hold me to next year. I think that the way the Senate map is for the 2018 elections. I believe that the Senate Republicans will actually pick up a seat or two, and they are not going to lose -- they are not going to backtrack.
GUTFELD: Wow!
PERINO: And partly that is because if you look at a state like Missouri, President Trump has great support in Missouri.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: And Claire McCaskill, the Democratic senator, she is running for reelection, she gets very close to Hillary Clinton. Trump's voters are very engaged and I think that she will have a hard time.
WATTERS: I'm just proud if she wins tonight, she didn't even body slam a reporter.
(LAUGHTER)
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: I thought that's a big a compliment.
GUTFELD: Yes. That is a lesson that we could all learn.
WILLIAMS: You know, Price won this district last time with 52 percent of the vote. Right? I think Handel is, you know, you guys are saying, Handel is looking good right now.
GUTFELD: It's tight.
WILLIAMS: But the idea is, let's say she wins by one or two or loses by one or two. But there's going to be all of these great hee haw about it. But the fact is --
GUILFOYLE: Oh, hee haw!
PERINO: -- we'll never talk about it again.
GUILFOYLE: What do you mean by hee haw?
GUTFELD: You had to bring up hee haw.
WILLIAMS: Yes, that's exactly right. But the Democrats are going to make a big deal if Ossoff wins and the Republicans if Handel wins, and I actually --
GUTFELD: I don't know. Can you imagine Hollywood liberals carried as much about National Security or job growth or the economy as they do about --
PERINO: Cyber security.
GUTFELD: Yes. Cyber security. As they do about a seat in Georgia? Something to think about.
PERINO: They must have money to burn.
GUTFELD: I think they do or they need a hobby. I guess, you know?
GUILFOYLE: A lot of money in San Francisco.
GUTFELD: Yes. All right, next. Will the Trump administration take action against North Korea for the death of American Otto Warmbier? Senator McCain and others are calling it murder. So, how should the U.S. respond? That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: Welcome back. A funeral date is set for the American student who was sent home unconscious by North Korea last week. A public service will be held for Otto Warmbier on Thursday, at his hometown high school in Ohio. The 22-year-old died yesterday from injuries suffered while brutalized by Kim Jong-un's regime. President Trump addressed the tragedy again today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. DONALD TRUMP (R), UNITED STATES: It's a total disgrace what happened to Otto. That should never, ever be allowed to happen. And frankly, if he were brought home sooner, I think the result would have been a lot different. He should have been brought home that same day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: Senator John McCain calls it murder. But will North Korea face the consequences for Otto's death? Take a look at what the President tweeted today, quote, "While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi and China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know that China tried."
So, Greg, in this situation last night, I said this was a murder. This was a homicide committed by North Korea. Kim Jong-un and his regime should be held accountable for the murder, the heinous murder of an American, a United States citizen.
GUTFELD: Yes. I think right now that tweet is interesting to me. I think we're going to see the beginning of the gas lighting of North Korea. He should tweet tomorrow, "We are changing the executive order against assassination." And then with a little happy face emoticon, and a hashtag, to just say nothing more. It's refreshing at least to me to be the unpredictable force in this equation. You know, for so long we were the ones that's been solving for X. You know, trying to figure out the crazy people. Now it's their turn to find out what we are going to do next. I think we should target the countries that are doing business with North Korea.
GUILFOYLE: Absolutely.
GUTFELD: And make sure they are not making any money and possibly losing money. And just to mess with them on all counts. Do whatever we can to make their lives hell. It is like, take it back to the neighborhood metaphor. You know? If there's a creep in your neighborhood, you tell your kids to stay away from them. That's what you do. And we are the parent here, we got to tell these other countries, you stay away from him. Or else.
GUILFOYLE: Well, there has to be sanctions. There should be sanctions, there should be repercussions. I'm confident that the President and his administration will do something about this, Dana. And there's also some about restricting travel to North Korea. Some of these --
GUTFELD: By the way, why isn't that -- isn't restricted should not be already?
PERINO: There is like travel warnings from the State Department like severe travel warnings, like you shouldn't go, and that we can't guarantee what would happen to you if you go there, things like that. But there's not a ban. But I guess that there could be. I'm sorry, did you have a question?
GUILFOYLE: No, I was in a pure reaction to that --
PERINO: Okay.
GUILFOYLE: But what are the precautions should be economic and otherwise?
PERINO: Well, I think the economic things -- you would hope that it would work. This is a regime that is willing to starve its own people. So, I don't know if we have any more intelligence, because it's difficult to get intelligence there from North Korea because it's such an opaque society, but I do think obviously that is one way to do it. And I think one of the things President Trump was doing in his tweet today was try to say that China, because they are meeting with -- the US are meeting with the Chinese tomorrow that, you know, like, I know you tried, but you have to do something else.
WATTERS: Yes.
PERINO: And so, setting up that meeting that it's more successful. Interesting to me was Senator McCain. This is the man who obviously knows what it's like to be held by enemies.
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
PERINO: And tortured, and thankfully he came back to us and has been able to live a full life and give so much to his country through public service. But the fact that he is saying murder, I think that President Trump can utilize Senator McCain's expertise and his support in order to try to push something. But then where do you go from there? I don't think a surgical strike is actually possible on the nuclear weapons when they have weapons aimed at Seoul, South Korea, and what are the consequences of that.
The containment strategy hasn't been worked that well. We had the six party talks. It's basically now come down to the United States and North Korea unless the Chinese decide to do something quite dramatic. And I hope that they will, but I'm skeptical.
GUILFOYLE: Okay. And yes, you think that they should. Okay. Jesse, your thoughts?
WATTERS: Yes. Strategic patients is officially over. I think Trump came in here to do some things with the world, and do them quickly. Because he's tired of things I think just getting worse and worse and worse, and I think that's why the American people elected him. I think the tweet basically tells the Chinese premiere, you know what, you tried but it's getting near the end and you better throw a Hail Mary here. Because I'm going to start doing something and we are going to have to act without you.
PERINO: Uh-hm.
WATTERS: Or just to tell the Chinese, you know what, we have other options. We don't have to go through you, we can use other leverages of power. I think McCain's statement was incredibly strong and persuasive to the President.
GUILFOYLE: Good for him.
WATTERS: I think that is going to add pressure to the President. I think his national security team is going to pressure him. And I think he feels lot of the emotion from the American people who are absolutely outraged by this. I think you can slap sanctions on Chinese companies to do business with North Korea. You can institute a full travel ban on North Korea, electronic warfare is obviously on the table, some of our fighter jets buzz the DMZ --
GUILFOYLE: Support kinetic activity --
WATTERS: Exactly. So, I think there are a range of things we could do short of all-out war.
GUILFOYLE: Juan, your reflections and what do you think should be permissible here? What should be on the table?
WILLIAMS: Well, anything could be on the table. I thought that what Senator McCain said, the murder charge, is also reflected now what you are reading, Gordon Chang who is quite an expert in this area, said basically, you know, there has got to be a severe cause for harming an American citizen. So what is President Trump going to do? Now, today at the White House, lots of discussion about the fact that Trump said, he was willing to meet with Kim Jong-un. People were saying, well, if he still willing to meet with this man, who has basically, in the words of Senator McCain, murdered an American citizen?
WATTERS: Not anymore.
WILLIAMS: Well, that's the question. It was not a complete answer, Jesse. Nobody was not ruled out.
WATTERS: Probably -- off the table.
WILLIAMS: Well, but it wasn't ruled out. And so, the question is, what is he willing to do? I'll tell you what he was willing to do today, he was willing to try to slander President Obama and said, oh, if this kid had come home earlier, oh, the kid might --
WATTERS: It is not a slander.
WILLIAMS: It is a slander. What happened was, ten Americans, ten released from North Korea during President Obama's tenure.
WATTERS: Well, he went after Bergdahl pretty strongly who was a deserter and maybe they should have put this -- President of North Korea to get him back.
WILLIAMS: But that is such a political blasphemy against the President of the United States. To say that President Obama --
WATTERS: I didn't say the father, Obama said it.
WILLIAMS: No, no, no. I am talking about what President Trump said today. I thought it was rude and clearly the father is an emotional distress.
GUILFOYLE: He has every right to say that.
(CROSSTALK)
GUILFOYLE: He has every right to say that.
WILLIAMS: But it's not true, and it's clear that President Obama -- and I think every administration --
GUILFOYLE: He didn't say President Obama, why do you attribute that he's only referring to that versus the fact --
WILLIAMS: If he had come home earlier --
GUILFOYLE: You know how I took it? I took it that North Korea should have released him in time so we should have had proper medical care instead of waiting until he was in a complete coma.
WILLIAMS: North Korea, you're saying North Korea.
GUILFOYLE: They should have release, and we should have done more.
WILLIAMS: But that is fine. But that's not the way it came across, Kimberly. But let me tell you. There were 17 Americans detained over the course of the last ten years in North Korea. Three of them still there. And so, we have got to figure out how to get him out of there right now. That's the priority.
GUTFELD: You know, Rodman, we haven't heard from him. I think he left North Korea, he's in China I think for now. I wonder if he gave any of this a second thought while he was there. Because while he was there, you know, Otto's parents are like going through hell, and he has got his little pot coin shirt on trying to bring basketball to North Korea. I wonder if he had even a thought about this at all.
GUILFOYLE: Right. Well, he left with a t-shirt that said Ambassador Rodman.
GUTFELD: Yes. I guess he is the winner in all this.
GUILFOYLE: Terrible. Okay. Well, something needs to be done. We're going to keep a close eye on this. And ahead, new tensions flare with Russia as we try to take out ISIS in Syria. The latest on that escalating conflict when "The Five" returns. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: Today, the U.S. military shot down an armed Iranian made drown in Southern Syria after it, quote, "displayed hostile intent" according to the Pentagon. This comes despite the treat from Russia that it will now target American aircraft in Western Syria. The warning issued after we shot down one of a Bashar Assad warplanes that dropped bombs near U.S. jet fighters yesterday.
That incident prompted Russia to fly one of its fighter jets dangerously close to ours, coming within five feet of our spy plane in the Baltic Sea. So, Greg, things are heating up. So, Putin has basically said, if you fly West of the Euphrates --
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: We are coming after you. So, is that saber rattling or do you think he means it?
GUTFELD: It's like a bar fight in those old Western movies. You don't even know who you're hitting. And the fact is, both Russia and the United States share a common goal. Can we just wait? Can we just wait until we eradicate ISIS, and then you can start maneuvering over the land? But right now, they are doing all the maneuvering now, they are trying to figure out what is going to be -- what are they keep going to control after ISIS is gone.
WATTERS: Right.
GUTFELD: ISIS isn't gone yet, and if we turn on each other because we have disagreements over Syria, then ISIS is going to be there longer and they're going to win. So, can we just wait, kill the savages first, and then we will have the bar fight?
PERINO: But Kimberly, what we haven't actually talked about is another country, and that is basically Iran, that is sitting back and really hoping that Russia can do its dirty work in helping them preserve Syria and recreate the Persian Empire in their mind, this is what they want.
GUILFOYLE: Okay. Well, Fantasy Island, everybody enjoys it. They would like to do that. I don't think they're going to be able to do that, and I tell you what. I think that this is a little bit of a blister on the part of Russia. Because they've really gotten a lot of what they wanted to achieve there. They wanted to stabilize Assad. They have him there. They really don't care what happens in the Eastern part of Syria.
They were able to establish an air base and have a military presence there. That's what they care about. They've been able to accomplish those goals. Those were their big ticket items. So, do you think they are going to try to jeopardize all of that by starting to just like shoot down U.S. planes? Not a chance.
PERINO: But, Jesse, that's coming pretty close.
GUILFOYLE: This is for the Russian --
PERINO: There's two U.S. officials say that the armed Russian fighter jets buzzed a U.S. air reconnaissance aircraft coming within 5 feet of the aircraft. That's two U.S. officials, so basically to me that's pretty risky. Im mean five feet, as Greg pointed out in the break, is my height. That's not a lot.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: I wasn't going to say it. Thankfully Greg said it. You know, Russia is playing both sides right now. It's a proxy war who's going to dominate the Middle East. Is it going to be the America and Saudi Arabia or is it going to be Russia and Iran? But what the Russians are doing, they're playing both sides. They're going to say, you know, I'm helping America to fight ISIS but at the same time they're helping Syria and Iran fight America. So they're talking out of two sides of their mouth.
All we care about is defeating ISIS, but there's going to be this big power vacuum so everyone is just trying to claim territory after we defeat them. And are we going to let the Iranians to slide in or the Syrians and the Russians slide in because it creates like you said before, this regional kind of trade route were these pipelines go through and business goes through and they have the access to the Mediterranean and it squeezes out the Kurds and it squeezes out the Saudis.
So, you know, it just looks like, you know, everybody who voted for Donald Trump to kind of get out of this stuff and all of a sudden it looks like we're getting in the middle of this stuff again. So hopefully we can stay out of this region because it just like it's such a mess.
PERINO: But the problems come to his desk.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: Why can't we let radical Islam be somebody else's problem for once? After we get rid of ISIS, if you want to go in and deal with that stuff, deal with it, it's your problem.
PERINO: Well apparently maybe because they -- involving (ph) also Iran --
GUTFELD: I mean after we kill ISIS.
PERINO: And Iran is becoming a nuclear weaponized country.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: Juan, Congress is getting itchy because they are wanting to have some sort of a say in terms of the troop levels in Afghanistan or what were the strategy in Syria and ISIS and so, where do you think that goes in the next months?
WILLIAMS: Well, I mean, if Jesse is concerned about, you know, Trump said we were going to get out of this, now there's more of it, look at Afghanistan where we don't have a strategy. Everybody acknowledges and yet we're putting more forces on the ground. It's kind of crazy. But the problem here in Syria --
WATTERS: We're trying to win.
WILLIAMS: Well, we don't have a strategy. Let's say what it is. Remember Trump said he was coming into office, he wasn't going to tell what his strategy was.
WATTERS: You don't always tell the enemy what the strategy is --
WILLIAMS: Yes, yes, but maybe he was bluffing you Jesse and he didn't have a strategy. That's the point.
WATTERS: I didn't buy that.
WILLIAMS: But the bigger point to me is will Trump stand up to Putin? Because Putin says right now, we're not going to even talk to the U.S. about defense --
WATTERS: He just shut down a Syrian jet.
WILLIAMS: Yes, that's right. So in the aftermath now --
WATTERS: If he's colluding with the Russians why is he shooting on their proxy's jets?
WILLIAMS: I didn't say he was colluding with the Russians.
WATTERS: You say he's not going to stand up --
WILLIAMS: The question is does he stand up now that Putin is threatening to shoot anything that comes into that area of Syria, including American --
PERINO: I would reverse that question though. I mean, is Putin really that stupid?
WILLIAMS: Well, that's it.
PERINO: And that crazy that he thinks that he could actually do that and not have massive retaliation against him?
WILLIAMS: Right.
WATTERS: If anyone is bluffing it is Putin.
GUILFOYLE: He's not and he won't. I stand by my first statement.
WILLIAMNS: I think he knows that the U.S. military is strong enough to win that fight, but the question is, is he willing to make a statement and test Trump's hand and say, Trump, are you really willing to do this? And of course the whole world -- I mean, this is a threat to both and then you've got Afghanistan going -- I mean it seems to me like, boy, there is a lot of stuff here out of control by a guy who came into office saying I'm going to solve this right away, no problem.
GUTFELD: Yes, there were no problems before, right?
WILLIAMS: There was a problem before but now there's much.
GUILFOYLE: Iran didn't do so well with the missile strike --
GUTFELD: Oh no, yes, there was still ISIS before that. I wonder how that happened.
WILLIAMS: You know what also strikes me is I see that our allies are pulling way. Australia said they're not doing anything more. That's scary.
PERINO: All right, well there's a lot to figure out there. We've got more, a lot more. A lot of Americans, you know, they don't trust the media. We've got another example to illustrate why, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: We have an update for the Georgia special election Congress seat here. Karen Handel, the Republican, up 52 percent over Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff at 48 percent with 39 percent of the precincts reporting. So it's very, very good news for Miss Handel who, you know, is facing a really big challenge there with a lot of out-of-state money coming in. A lot of Hollywood money coming in.
And the Democrats really looking to make a point here tonight with an upset victory but it looks like Karen is hanging on so far. Up by four points with just under 50 percent of precincts reporting.
GUTFELD: And they have us on TV, did you notice that?
WILLIAMS: I did.
WATTERS: That's right, Fox News.
GUILFOYLE: That's exciting (ph).
WATTERS: Should the mainstream media stop complaining and do their job? I think you know the answer. Here's the latest example of why so many Americans don't trust and should not trust what they're hearing on other networks like CNN. Here's their White House reporter Jim Acosta.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House press secretary is getting to a point, Brooke, where he's just kind of useless. You know, if you can't come out and answer the questions and they're just not going to do this on camera or audio, why are even having these briefings or these gaggles in the first place? That's the White House behind me. The White House. And it's just -- it's bizarre. I don't know what world we're living in right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: White House press secretary Sean Spicer responded today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think that we have done a very good job of not just providing opportunities here at a daily briefing, but also making ourselves available as a staff almost 20 to 24 hours a day when it comes down to it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: So the correspondent Jim Acosta, Kimberly, was the person that President Trump called fake news, very fake news. Strategically.
GUILFOYLE: But he's answered his questions at other briefings.
WATTERS: Yes, he almost picks on him every single time. Strategically, if the fake news media is the enemy, does it make sense to feed that enemy on camera on a nightly and daily basis so they can just take that and treat you with that?
GUILFOYLE: Well, I see it a different way. I think that if you have something to share and you are in the White House, you have an obligation to talk and discuss with the media what's going on. But then you have, I think the best solution would be to have -- Dana and I talked about this and points that you have to be able to put forward and proper some things to give them to be able to talk about -- talk about your accomplishments.
I wouldn't be always be on defense. You would come forward with programs or ideas, things that you have to actually give them something to write about, to talk about, and to investigate. Otherwise, they'd think you're playing catch up every day and they're taking -- making shots at them but they've already been very public and transparent saying they're re-working their communications strategy and their team. So, maybe for a second they might not have as many briefings.
And President Trump is somebody that tries things, you know, he does things by a different playbook. He's not afraid to take chances or to make changes and approach things in a different way. And I think we can give him the opportunity to do that, to continue the relationship with the press, and driving forward, you know, his agenda that he promised the American people. I think it can be done in a better way and I think they're trying to do that.
WATTERS: The relationship between the press and the president, pretty bad Juan. A lot has to do with CNN. I mean they've broken scoops like the president likes two scoops of ice cream. The president, is he afraid of stairs.
PERINO: That was "Time" magazine.
WATTERS: You know, they were involved with the fake Russian dossier. You know, the other day they had to retract a story about, you know, that Jim Comey was going to come out and say that, you know, the president was under investigation. You know, there's been a whole lot of this fake news story coming out of CNN. Do you understand sometimes the animosity coming from the White House towards an outlet like CNN?
WILLIAMS: No.
WATTERS: Why not?
WILLIAMS: Well, for what Kimberly said, I mean, it seems to me you would handle a more professional manner to make your point. But the idea of a briefing, it just seems so essential and elemental to me. In fact, I think what's going on here is the White House had considered doing away with the daily briefing. Just doing away with it and they got resistance, tremendous resistance including from Fox News to say, no, that's not kosher, you can't do that.
And now they've simply tried to I think slowly, steadily, eliminated by saying, oh, you can't have pictures or you can't have sound or only certain people are admitted in the gaggle and the like. I just think it's not the way to do business in a democracy and I know that the president and many of his supporters feel that there is an unlimited amount of criticism directed at him specifically you mentioned CNN.
But I just don't care who else is doing it. The press is not the enemy of the American people. And Donald Trump is not and should not see himself as some authoritarian figure who is going to trample our first amendment rights.
WATTERS: Well, I don't think he's trampling anyone's rights. I just think that 90 percent of the news media coverage about the president has been negative. That's where the enemy line comes in. Dana, when they don't give the briefing on camera, is that to punish the media for negative reporting or is that because they don't want to put someone out there that's just going to get annihilated on live television.
PERINO: Well, you know, I talked to Sean about it. I think that the White House benefits from having a daily presence on television to drive their story. But I also think the media is missing a huge story and that's because they're so much of a hyper focus on the White House that there's an entire big federal government out there and there are not reporters every day -- you would see reports out of the things that are happening at transportation, with labor, or EPA. Well, sometimes, a little bit of EPA.
You can even find any story about Rick Perry at the Department of Energy that there's all sorts of things happening across the federal government, happening very quietly, and the media isn't focusing on it because they're so hyper focused on the White House itself. So, if the media wants to actually broaden out and do its duty to citizens and cover the federal government, get out of the briefing room and go see some of those other places.
WATTERS: Bannon said that they weren't doing on camera briefings with Spicer anymore because Spicer had gotten fatter.
GUTFELD: Yes. He said -- he kind of said he looked fat, but it was P-H-A- T. You know what the media is acting like?
WATTERS: Yes.
GUTFELD: They're acting like an ex who hasn't figured out that the president has moved on. They have the greatest opportunity of their career and he's basically testing their relevance. He's the most transparent leader I think I've ever seen. He's doing it without them. He's doing it on twitter.
I mean, if you want to know how the president thinks about anything, just go on twitter. And that frustrates them. He dumped to them for twitter. That's his new girlfriend. They are the ex and they're just like,, why don't you look at me? You know, I'm here. That's what this is.
WATTERS: That's right. Well, there's a lot of fish in the sea.
(LAUGHTER)
WATTERS: Directly ahead, Americans on both sides of the aisle actually agree on about President Trump, we'll tell you when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: A CBS News poll out today shows the president's job approval rating at 36 percent. That's down five points from April. But here's something interesting, the same poll shows majority of Republicans, Democrats as well as independents all agree Trump has received more criticism than recent presidents. What do you think, Dana?
PERINO: Well, I think that he has and he also, unlike other presidents, like 43, would try to ignore it, right, and so he wouldn't talk about it. President Trump is very open about talking about how that he feels like he's being treated unfairly and his supporters hear that and so actually I think even Democrats would say, yes, that's true, because they're part of the criticism.
The thing I would say to the White House is I wouldn't worry about the daily tracking poll for the next four months. I would just focus relentlessly on trying to get a legislative win which I think they will be able to have him sign a legislation on health care before Labor Day, and then they'll be on their way to working on tax reform. If he can actually sign a couple of bills before say October 1st, because the debt ceiling done, I think they'll see those approval numbers go up and obsessing about it right now until you have legislative wins is probably like a dog chasing its tail.
WILLIAMS: Well, Jesse, you have a situation now where part of the decline in the president's ratings is among Republicans that you know, it was 83 percent in April and now it's down around 72 percent. Why are Republicans all of a sudden starting to decline in terms of support in President Trump?
PERINO: Kind of what I just said.
WATTERS: I think what Dana touched on as he hasn't been able to drive through any legislative accomplishments the way that people expected to with the large majorities that they have. I don't put a ton of stock in these CBS polls because CBS predicted Hillary would win handily, predicted that Trump would lose North Carolina, that Trump would lose Pennsylvania, and that Trump would lose Wisconsin. He won all three.
I also don't understand, you know, Trump's approval rating is kind of in the high 30s if you're going to believe the poll. But consumer confidence is way up. Consumer optimism on home sales, on wages, on the markets, things are on the right track, all almost at record highs. I don't see how that jives with his personal approval numbers. It doesn't make sense to me.
WILLIAMS: Yes, Kimberly, part of your answer mean --
GUILFOYLE: Well, I'll tell you why, 97 percent of his coverage is negative. So here's (Inaudible) hear, Russia, Russia, Russia. Oh wait, did I say about Russia?
WILLIAMS: Right, I was going to mention that to you --
GUILFOYLE: That's what I'm saying.
WILLIAMS: -- because a third of the Americans say that his approach to the Russia investigation is hurting him. Only 20 percent of Republicans agree with the chair of the Republican Party that they should stop Bob Mueller's investigation. Do you think that's the problem?
GUILFOYLE: Well, the problem is we are where we are right now and they're going to see this through to its end. It's unfortunate because then he can't discuss all the positive things that have been happening with increased values in 401K and the stock market and jobs, and we're not hearing about that because there is a flood in the media, the mainstream media about negative stories, 97 percent, and there really isn't much air or oxygen left for other accomplishments.
So that's why I think you tie this into the communications department as well who really need to get those stories out there and put forward the president's agenda so the people actually have a clear understanding of what else is going on besides this whole Russia story that so far there has been no evidence or proffered.
WILLIAMS: So Greg, you know, the president hasn't had a press conference since February and right now, you have in these polls Americans saying, yes, we agree Russia interfered in the election. Well there's a question that Trump never answers on his tweets and you say he's got the tweets, but I don't -- I never hear him answer those type of questions. GUTFELD: I just want to -- I'm just looking at the results in Georgia. It looks like Jon is getting his "Ossoff" "Handel" to him.
(LAUGHTER)
WATTERS: Well said.
GUTFELD: Ossoff, Handel.
GUILFOYLE: Thank God you got that in,.
GUTFELD: All right, to Jesse point, does popularity actually matter?
PERINO: No.
GUTFELD: Could you not like Trump it'd be okay with what he's doing if you focus on the economy and that is popularity? You're going to vote for them. You will go like, yes, I don't like the guy, he's kind of rude but you know what --
GUILFOYLE: Jobs,
GUTFELD: -- jobs, my 401K is doing pretty good. Unemployment is down. ISIS is gone. Russia, North Korea, they're all stepping back.
WILLIAMS: Yes, right.
GUTFELD: He maybe, but no -- but I'm saying this could happen--
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: I mean, unemployment is down right now. ISIS is being cornered and is being annihilated. They aren't taking any prisoners, Juan. You're not going to see these guys in Gitmo. Their heads will be up stakes (ph).
WILLIAMS: Yes, I see Gitmo is closed, is that right? I must have missed that.
GUTFELD: Well that was Obama's promise. Trump would expand it and make it a chain and put a "T" on it.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
WILLAMNS: "One More Thing" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: This is a Fox News Alert. I look great.
(LAUGHTER)
In a crushing, humiliating, soul destroying defeat for Hollywood with 75 percent in, you know, we have Karen Handel 52 to 48 percent over Jon Ossoff in the sixth district of Georgia. I feel very bad for Lena Dunham right now. I am crying for George Takei. Dana, will the Democrats blame Russia?
PERINO: Well, actually they will probably blame Russia but they will also blame the rain. That was something they said. They had early voting for months --
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: And there was a lot of rain today and especially into Caleb County, and you knew that the Democrats were in trouble when they were early on complaining that oh, you know what, the rain really dampened our turnout. No, what dampened the turnout is that you are running in a district that is not ready for you yet and that it was faked. And hello everybody and we love that you are watching us, that's great.
I would say most valuable player should go to the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is the third-party entity that raised a lot of money for these candidates and also a lot to Republicans, unity in the primary and immediately afterwards will prevent a lot of heartburn and wasting a lot of money like this.
GUTFELD: It just crushes all those people that focus -- they've never even been to Georgia.
WATTERS: This is a big defeat for Jane Fonda, Samuel L. Jackson and Chelsea Handler. Think about the millions of dollars --
GUILFOYLE: And Alyssa Milano.
WATTERS: I mean, her support, Alyssa (ph), and she's bankrupt too. Now, she's even more bankrupt.
GUILFOYLE: -- donate.
WATTERS: Millions of dollars on this race went nowhere.
GUILFOYLE: It goes to show you, you can't come in and buy Georgia, the voters came out, their voice, they wanted to have somebody who represented their state, their district and it looks like they got what they wanted.
WILLIAMS: Just to calm you down in your moment of great exuberance, let me just remind you that Price won this with 62 percent. She's going to win, you know, with 52, let's say 51. I don't even know she's going to win because remember Election Day and so we'll see who takes in more --
WATTERS: What happened to the resistance, Juan?
GUTFELD: All right. Set your DVR. Never miss an episode. "Hannity" up next.
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