Questions still surround Las Vegas concert attack
Trace Gallagher updates status of the investigation into Stephen Paddock.
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," October 3, 2017. 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 Kimberly Guilfoyle, Juan Williams, Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is "The Five."
The Las Vegas Police Department just wrapping up a press conference, the sheriff saying they still don't have a motive but the investigation is very much ongoing. They have collected 19 firearms along with explosives, several thousand rounds of ammunition, and electronic devices, including several pounds of ammonium nitrate found in his car. The sheriff clearly getting frustrated over video and images have been leaks. One of those videos you see here. It shows the outside of Stephen Paddock's room that is now a crime scene. There also still lots of questions over suspicious financial transactions of Paddocks. Let's go to Trace Gallagher with the very latest on the investigation. Trace, the sheriff said that he couldn't tell us all that he knows, but you can bet that he probably know something, does that mean that they have more information than they're letting on at the moment?
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS: Well, it certainly means that the sheriff is deeper into this investigation than we were 24 hours ago today. He really was very forthright in a lot of the stuff that he kind of said to us. I mean, fascinating information about cameras inside the room, he said there were cameras both set up inside the hotel room and outside the room, even a camera set up on a hotel service card, though we don't know that was inside or outside. The camera outside clearly meant to be able to give him a warning if police were coming down the halls. It's unclear if the cameras inside the room were actually set up to get him shooting or get the actual firing on the crowd below. So the sheriff did not talk about that. But he did talk about the fact that over the course of the four days that Stephen Paddock was inside that room, that room service did go in that room a number of times, apparently nothing set off alarm bells.
We should also note that the sheriff was unhappy -- you talk about videos, the sheriff was very unhappy about the pictures being released about the weapons. We're talking about the rifles on the floor after the attack. The sheriff did confirm that at least one of those weapons and we have heard many more were actually equipped with something called the bump stop which does something -- it replaces the shoulder rest, and what it does is it means that the weapon still fires one shot at a time, but the bump stop means that it's just kind of automatically holds the trigger, meaning the weapons can fire between 300 to 700 or 800 rounds per minute. This went on for 9 to 11 minutes. You can imagine the thousands and thousands of rounds he fired off, and the sheriff saying if they haven't gotten there sooner he had enough weaponry to go on for a lot longer than that.
He also makes some very informative decisions on the houses, that the house in Reno we now have learned, they found five guns, they found rifles, and they also found what he pointed as a plethora of ammunition in that house. You add to that the Mesquite house, they found 19 weapons there, explosives, and they have pulled out a whole bunch of electronics and computer hard drives. That's critical to this investigation because, remember, the hard drive is where they will get all their information on who Stephen Paddock was having conversations with in the days and weeks leading up to this. And we should finally let you know that the sheriff has kind of back into the whole question of the girlfriend. The girlfriend, remember, he said was in Tokyo. Well, now it's confirmed the girlfriend was in the Philippines. They have talked to her. They are actively in the process of bringing her back here. The sheriff did say she is a person of interest. They will be fully investigating, and he intimated that he believes that she knows a lot more than she is letting on. And finally, you've talked earlier about the thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars that were sent from the shooter over to the Philippines. We have not confirmed that as well. It's unclear exactly who that money was intended for, but now you can see where the girlfriend is fully back a mesh in this investigation as it goes forward.
PERINO: Trace, as always, super comprehensive. But we yet still have more questions for you. We're going to take it around the table here. Here, Kimberly Guilfoyle will kick us off.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: All right. So, Trace, you know, we talked about the large number of ammunition, weapons, that he build two sniper nests, and it's just very puzzling and disturbing to me that nobody noticed anything and thought that was suspicious, carrying that level of equipment, that much ammunition, making noise that kind of set those two platforms off. It's just -- a lot of people have so many questions in this case. And then when you see law enforcement allude to they're saying that they're holding back, that they're not going to tell us. I mean, especially it seems with this case, there's seems -- there's much more to this picture than we're being told.
GALLAGHER: I think you're right, Kimberly. But in defense of Las Vegas metro police, they've been pretty forthright. I mean, they've given us as much information without trying to compromise the investigation. They have given us a great deal of information as this thing has kind of set forward. I will tell you though that it has brought up your concern about how in the world did he get -- I mean, where's he's talking about a ten suitcases of ammunition. How do you get that much ammunition, 23 guns inside of the hotel room? And someone brought up, well, do we change security? Do we have these baggage -- bags go through some kind of a security apparatus like they do in Israel? And that's an open question. I mean, I think the answer to that is probably not because it would still be -- you know, make it a difficult situation, the security apparatus here in Vegas, the millions of people who come here year, it would really be hard to actually nail that down, but it brings up a very good point. As for the guns themselves being set up, Kimberly, and being aimed out the window, I mean, you know, 23 weapons inside there, dozens of other weapons at the house. He bought dozens of weapons legally in Nevada and Utah over the course of the past few years. And one has to ask, this woman who lived with him in these houses where they had explosives. They had ammonium nitrate in his car. Ammonium nitrate used -- was what Tim McVeigh used in the Oklahoma City bombing. So if you're that woman and you live with this man and he has all of this firepower, you have to ask yourself did she know more than she is letting on? And I think the answer for Las Vegas metro police is, yeah, I think she did, Kimberly.
PERINO: Greg?
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Trace, this is very difficult. Cable news moves way faster than an investigation, and it's like no matter what we ask you, I don't know if we'll get an answer to it. But the thing -- one piece of this is that like -- they said there were no links to terror before they analyze his personal electronic devices. Isn't that kind of premature? I mean, I'm inclined to think it's not terror related, but if you don't look at his personal electronic devices, when you say that, that seems really premature.
GALLAGHER: And, you know, it is a fair point, Greg. But what they're talking about when they say no links to terrorism they're talking about his social media footprint. And right now, this guy social media footprint it's just nonexistent. He was a guy who did not have a Facebook account. So, you know, we know a lot about him personally, we know that his family says that he had no religious or political affiliation, that there were no ties to terrorism. You know, he didn't make any of these outlandish comments, so that's what they were going by. Do they believe that there might be something that could take them down a different road? Well, the sheriff said sure, as they kind of look at all of this stuff. But they were saying in the early going there were no automatic ties to terrorism.
And if you look back at the shootings we have had over the past several years, every time we get a name, we match it with the social footprint, and within hours, we know right away that yes, there is something that indicates there was some outside force playing into this, and in this case, we simply didn't. And the bigger question, Greg, was this his primary target? Did he plan to have a more elaborate attack? I mean, you throw in the ammonium nitrate, right, as a bomb, you throw in the explosives up in the Mesquite house, and that the reporting now that he may have rented condos downtown in Las Vegas that oversaw a different concert that was held a week ago. Was he planning for a different venue, or was he planning on this venue but a much more elaborate attack? That might be in those communications that were brought out in the various homes. But I think as, you know, we try not to get ahead of our skis in this investigation. We get a lot of information, a lot of it is wrong. And so we try, at least, to the best of our knowledge to rely on our sources, two sources for every piece of information, and then we're relying on the sheriff when he starts to confirm stuff. Greg.
PERINO: That's why we love you, Trace. We're going to go to Jesse Watters next.
WATTERS: Yeah. Something about this still doesn't add up to me. They were very quick, as Greg noted, to rule out everything. They ruled out the accomplice, they ruled out ISIS. They ruled out, what, no political affiliation. Yet, did they interview anybody that the girlfriend talked to in the Philippines? I don't think so. They haven't done a full interview ever yet. They haven't you say, you know, he does no media footprint, he has electronic devices in his house. They haven't scrubbed those either. The guns haven't been fully traced. So I think there was a lot to put out in the beginning to rule everything out, which worries me because now I feel like we're back tracking especially after you look at all of the money that was wired overseas.
Now, the father was a suicidal psychopath who was on the FBI's most wanted list and he was highly intelligent because he was a bank robber and he was on the land for quite some time, right. There's also, maybe this guy just got to bad DNA from his dad. He's also a psychopath. He's very methodical. Something click he looked unbalanced. That seems right now, if you take out all of the other stuff they ruled out, to me at least, that seems like the only thing, as complex as this is that you can really hang your hat on.
GALLAGHER: Well, just for clarification, Jesse, they haven't really ruled out a lot of things. So they say that they haven't had the information or the evidence to lead them down this road. So when you say they're reeling things out, may be the phrasing is they just don't have enough evidence to take in that direction right now. So when it comes to the girlfriend, they said earlier, they said -- you know, the morning after the shooting that there's no evidence to suggest she was a part of this at all. We don't think she's any longer a person of interest. And you're exactly right, they came back six hours later saying you know what, she is a person of interest, and yes, we are interviewing her, and yes we want to find out what she was doing in the Philippines at this very time. And today, he even took a day step forward saying, yeah, not only what was she in the Philippines, but we are actively trying to bring her back because we believe that there's more to this whole story than we first thought about. Maybe they know more about these electronics they're pulling out of the home.
But I think, you know, in fairness, they're not really ruling out all of these things. What they're trying to do is they're trying to take piece by piece the investigation, take the weapons, take the explosives, take the people that have talked to them and the family, and see if they can put this puzzle together trying to come up with some kind of a motivation, which right now, he's said at the top of his news conference, they simply do not have a motive for why he would do that. Will they find one? The sheriff said yes, we will find a motive. Do they have one right now? Not that he told us, Jesse.
PERINO: Let's get to Juan Williams.
JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Hi, Trace. So I'm curious too about the gunman. And one thing that I was reading about today in the papers was that, recently, he'd been involved in gambling transactions that tip the $10,000 mark, so that required some government notification. It also said that he was an investor in commercial -- I think, actually, residential real estate in Dallas. And finally, that -- what was so interesting to me is that he had worked for both of the IRS and Lockheed Martin. So then the thought occurred to me, well, could it be that he had some financial difficulties? Is that possible that his gambling was not going well because he's often described as a professional gambler.
GALLAGHER: It's very possible, Juan, and there's two prongs in that investigation. First of all, you talk about the financial difficulties. Well, look, you run it down and yeah, he was a letter carrier, he was a mailman in his early career, worked for the IRS, worked for Lockheed Martin, and yes, he invested in real estate. We know he has a home in Mesquite, Texas. We know he has a home in Mesquite, Nevada, as well as Reno, and in Central Florida, as well. So these are all properties that he owned. He didn't have renters. So clearly, he had enough financial ability to pay for these homes without having them rented out. We also know that in fact he was sending tens of thousands of dollars overseas to the Philippines, so he had enough liquid finances to be able to do that.
Was he gambling? Sure, it's on the record. You have to notify the government. We know that in recent weeks he has played exorbitant bets, 10, 20, 30 thousand dollars. You have to get the bets on record. We don't know whether he won or lost. His brother would often say, look, he would call him and say, yeah, I made this much money in gambling. I did very well in gambling. He considered himself a professional gambler. That's how he made his living. But he also had a lot of investments. Was he broke? We don't know because we don't know if he won or lost the bets. But all indications are that he was still fairly liquid, was still doing pretty well, no foreclosure notices on his plane his homes, and he was sending tens of thousands of dollars in cash, so all signs point to the fact that financially, he did not seem destitute.
PERINO: One last question for Greg.
GUTFELD: Yeah. I was going to say that when I think about the money being sent to the Philippines, that doesn't say who it's going to, and so I think the assumption was that it is going to this woman, but she could just very easily be a cover. He could be sending money to a foreign group. I mean, we know what's going on in the Philippines right now. I mean, there's a possibility that he could be doing that.
WILLIAMS: He could be simply trying to hide money from the IRS.
GALLAGHER: It could be. But remember, there was no escape plan here. So you're trying to hide money from the IRS, you know, there was no way out of this. He did not leave himself an escape plan. It's not like he was saying OK, I'm going to shoot as many people as I can. I'm going haul out the back door and go to the Philippines. I think the mentality here was different. He was sending this money for some reason, and we don't know exactly what the reason is. But to think that he was trying to shelter it in some capacity, I don't think there's any indication of that so far. But we don't have the electronics. We don't have the computer hard drive that they are now mulling over and actively looking at to find out exactly what his motivation is for doing all of this stuff. The gambling, the money overseas, the looking at different condominiums in downtown Las Vegas over a different concert, the ammonium nitrate in the car, there are so many different aspects and facets to this investigation that we don't have answers for. We're just kind of going step-by-step with the metro police department.
PERINO: All right. Trace Gallagher, thank you so much. Late night comedy gets serious, taking on gun control following the Las Vegas massacre. Greg's monologue is next. Don't miss it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: So last night, guess what the late-nighters had to say?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
JAMES CORDEN, CBS: Now I come from a place where we don't have shootings in this frequency, so it's hard for me to fathom.
SETH MYERS, NBC: Is that the best plan? Do you see -- for dealing with gun violence when there's a shooting, we just pray for a miracle?
TREVOR NOAH, COMEDY CENTRAL: Sorry that we live in a world where there are people who will put a gun before your lives.
STEPHEN COLBERT, CBS: Congress can be heroes by doing literally anything. Universal background checks, or come up with a better answer. And force Obama's executive order to deny mentally ill gun purchases. Or a better answer. Reinstate the assault weapons ban or come up with a better answer, anything but nothing. Doing nothing is cowardice.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
GUTFELD: I tried to come up with a similar montage about the 4,300 shooting victims in Chicago last year. No luck. And here I thought this was about guns.
But last night was all about unison. People claim gun control talk is being silenced. This is silence?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Look, I don't blame them at all. In the circles that they run in, such outrage is required. And they mean it. So what do they have in mind, specifically, besides do something, do anything? Colbert, at least he has suggestions. But would they have stopped this fiend? But I get to it. I'd throw the kitchen sink at terrorism -- a sentiment mocked many times by these very same people. But unlike them, I'm a little flexible. Sure, let's ban "bump stocks." It would make me feel better, though I'm not sure it would help because I think people will make their own. You can make your own guns now.
But should that matter? According to Reason Magazine, from 1992 to 2014, the number of U.S. civilian firearms had increased by 50 percent, while the murder rate has dropped by more than half. Think about that. That's amazing. So more guns doesn't equal more deaths. But still, the media focuses on the gun, especially early on before all is known. Why is that? My theory is if you focus on a weapon allows you to spread some blame onto people that you already dislike: gun owners, Republicans, Trump voters. Sometimes it feels like a class thing. Remember that CBS lawyer saying she had no sympathy for the victims because they were gun-loving "Rethuglicans"? She got fired, and for what? Saying what she thought her friends wanted to hear.
So Juan, there's no question when you watch the late-night comedians, their sentiment is heartfelt, but when you listen to them, the suggestion, I don't believe could have stopped this guy. For example, he wasn't mentally ill. He has no criminal record, so the background checks -- it sounds like he modify the gun, which is illegal. So, in this case, in a lot of these cases, I believe these culprits are so thorough and think things out so comprehensively, that they are unstoppable. These are the people that get through. Does that make sense or what?
WILLIAMS: No, absolutely, it make sense. And, you know, I'm struck by -- I was thinking about this because you and I argue over guns.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: And I was looking at the polling numbers, and what struck me on the polling numbers was that Republicans generally think that whatever you do, it's not going to make that big a difference. It's not going to stop the next case.
GUTFELD: Right.
WILLIAMS: And I think the way for people like you and me to have a conversation is to think in terms of what's realistic, what could be done.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: I don't know if it would stop this guy, because it seems like this guy put a lot of planning into it. But what would stop the next one, OK? And so, what I came away with from looking at the polling numbers was that it's almost universal, like 90 percent of Americans think we should have background checks, private and public sales of guns. People think we shouldn't allow military style weaponry to be sold. That should be limited, right? People also think that if you've got a mental issue and it's known to the government, that they should give that information to ATF, so they won't sell you a gun.
GUTFELD: Right.
WILLIAMS: So there are these steps, but guess what, Greg? I mean, you know, when people think about the politics here, I think Republicans are so locked in with the NRA. NRA is big Trump backer. They're big backers of the Republican Party in general that people think, you know, you can't get to by the NRA. You can't make the case. Right now, the big bill in congress right now is about silencers.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: And when Steve Scalise, the congressman, was shot, they pulled it back for the moment. Now they pulled it back again after this one. But, gee, why would Republicans be doing that at a moment when so many people in the country are concerned about gun violence, but that's where we are.
GUTFELD: I guess the suppressor argument had nothing to do with this, because it would not have had an effect as far as I can tell. A lot of these things sound good, but they don't have an effect, Jesse, and the more you read about it, it's kind of amazing when you see places that have very strict gun control, like Chicago or Baltimore. It doesn't do a bit of good.
WATTERS: I don't like being lectured about guns by the party that hatch that and furious one, so that's one thing. The other thing, the silencer bill, that's fake news. That was never going to be on the table this week. That was a lie. But there's common sense constitutional gun-control reform, I'm all ears. Let me hear it. But, as a matter of fact, of all of the shootings, mass shooting since 2012, none of them would have been stopped by new proposed gun laws, and that was fact-checked by the Washington Post. No Pinocchio's on that. That includes the Tennessee shooting. That includes San Bernardino. That includes Dylan Roof. So I'm still open to what you're talking about, these little slide stops, and the bump stops, and you can buy a kit to make a semiauto a machine gun for $50, and you can watch the video. Maybe you look at something like that. But, you also mentioned in the monologue -- it's a great monologue, that as gun ownerships rate in America have increased, the homicide rate has decreased, and Chicago is a great example of it. Stringent gun laws and a dozen people get shot every weekend. So criminals will always find a way to commit crimes. That's why they're criminals. Look, machine guns are illegals, I have a machine gun. Drugs are illegal, people use drugs. Prostitution is illegal, people still buy prostitutes. When there's tragedy politicians come over and act like they have to do something. And a lot of times what they do is just useless. So let's just get together, wait the facts to come in, we'll decide what we need to do, and then we'll take a vote on it in congress.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Let me just respond very quickly. I just think that when you have -- I think it's like 12,000 people a year die from gun violence in the country.
WATTERS: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: I think if that was anything else, and Greg is always concern, he says number one threat is terror, if the terrorists were killing 12,000 people a year in the United States, we would impose some very strict.
WATTERS: I would say to that we save about 200,000 lives a year in this country, so it's off balance.
WILLIAMS: That's not a rational argument because you don't know what you're arguing.
WATTERS: Of course I do. Listen, if you live -- you made a great point last night, if you live out in the suburbs or in a farm or something like that. And you have a lot of property out there, you have a small business, you have wife, you have some daughters. When you call 911, do you know how long that's going to take for them to get out there, Juan?
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: Most Americans don't live in cities, Juan.
WILLIAMS: Yes, they do. But let me just say, most Americans live in cities, and secondly.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: In the red states, there are a lot of people out there that want's to feel safe. And when they hear you talk about taking guns.
WILLIAMS: No, no, no.
WATTERS: . and making these regulations, they don't like it.
GUTFELD: OK. There's an interesting thing here, I was talking to John Lot this morning, who is an expert on guns and testified before congress, and he testified before the parliament of Australia on guns. This may be the first machine gun act, even though it wasn't a machine gun but it was a conversion. Meanwhile, in France, you've had four such examples in 2015, and they have the tightest gun-control laws, Kimberly, but they have had four machine gun attacks in there. So, the ban, even there don't work. And there's machine gun in the 70's as well in England. So my point is this that this stuff has been happening in places where they have a very strict gun control.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah, absolutely. And it's important to actually look at the fact, the information versus, kind of, the hysteria because every time we see like this automatic reflex, like knee-jerk reaction to right away say, we've got to have more gun laws, or we have to have more background checks. Well, he did all the background checks. He passed those. He was able to purchase these guns and also get some that are illegal. So there wasn't a lack of a ban in this situation that could have prevented this horrific tragedy. So -- but the left wants to right away say, well, let's see what we can do and chip away, and eventually, you know, erosion of the second amendment rights.
The second amendment constitutional right should prevail. And yes, we should do a better job of understanding and figuring out how we can prevent these shootings, not just by the weaponry used, but by the person who is pulling the trigger. What motivates, what feeds their darkness? What is it? Is it jihad? Is it mental illness? Are we doing enough about that in terms of identifying people who might have problems? Are we seeing and saying something as everyone has been encouraged to across this country to try to prevent these things, do not be afraid to get involved. Don't be on the sidelines of life. When you are the best possible eyes and ears out there for law enforcement and those that would try to, you know, combat against the terror attacks in the United States.
WILLIAMS: I was just thinking though that in Scotland, after the kids were killed there, and also in Australia, after they had a mass shooting, they impose limits to reduce the easy availability, easy access to guns. You don't buy that at all?
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: It didn't work. It didn't work. So let's check out Australia, the illegal gun market is unbelievable. And they make their own guns. The biker gangs.
WILLIAMS: But they haven't had another kind of mass shooting.
GUTFELD: But they have an influx of gun crime. It's gone up. And in England, when they had their buyback, they only had one year in which homicides actually went down.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: Dana, I got to get you in here.
PERINO: Well, I'll just say that man always tries to believe, especially in America, you can legislate things away. And there's nothing that the government can do to make people do the right thing.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
PERINO: This actually goes much deeper than that. And part of the thing about Kimberly saying like if you see something, say something. We've seen this time and again with many of these other cases, like the neighbors in the San Bernardino case. They're like, oh, we don't want to say anything. Also, I imagine that we'll probably hear from people who work at the Mandalay Bay, like, you know, in Vegas -- what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, and nobody says anything.
GUILFOYLE: Or he was a high roller, we did not want to interfere.
PERINO: This is so unimaginable that you couldn't do it. But I just think that we tend to believe that we can do more than what God can do, and we can't legislate our way to morality.
WATTERS: And one last thing.
GUILFOYLE: Or into someone's heart.
WATTERS: Well, exactly. Juan, I'm not a big gun guy. You know, I don't own a gun. But -- and if someone's insane, I don't want them buying a weapon. If they're crazy, obviously, I want background checks.
WILLIAMS: All right.
WATTERS: So I think we can agree on that.
GUTFELD: All right, let's move on. Agreement here on ""The Five"."
Coming up, President Trump visited storm-ravaged Puerto Rico today, getting a first-hand look at the devastation. Was his visit enough to silence his critics? Probably not.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: President Trump and the first lady got a firsthand look at the devastation and Puerto Rico today and praised the recovery efforts and met with the residents of the island in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You've never seen anything like that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Not like Maria. And we had never been in anything like that. But Maria was the best (ph).
TRUMP: Did you feel safe in the house during the hurricane?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, since it's concrete, we were safe. Yes.
TRUMP: Not a lot of movements that you could feel? Vibration movement?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No.
TRUMP: In the meantime, here you are, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. Exactly.
TRUMP: We're going to help you out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: The president also said this about the island's woes, suggesting Puerto Rico has given the U.S. budget a hit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack. Because we've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico, and that's fine. We've saved a lot of lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: OK, does everyone get that he was making a joke? We all get it.
PERINO: I think he was making...
GUILFOYLE: Not Juan. OK, Dana.
PERINO: I mean, there certainly are budget impacts. There will be, and the government will help figure that out. But I do think that he was joking on that.
I think there's nothing like a firsthand visit from a president, both for him because now he has seen firsthand the devastation. He's met people. He's seen, looks them in the eye. And he says to them, "We're going to help you out." And he will be held accountable for that, and I think that he will come tough.
GUILFOYLE: All right, fantastic.
So Greg, he got a very warm welcome...
GUTFELD: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: ... and the first lady did, and just you know, handing out at a church, helping out to hand out supplies, people seeing him in person. You saw all the iPhones out and recording. So it's a bit of a boost.
And I think he's trying to make a little bit of levity in light of a very, you know, tragic situation with the devastation that's gone on in Puerto Rico.
GUTFELD: Let's be honest. If Las Vegas had not happened, instead of "Republicans are evil over gun control," it would have been "Trump is evil over Puerto Rico." Again...
GUILFOYLE: Well, they're still doing that.
GUTFELD: Let's use -- yes, let's use the few factual experience of three - - three impeccable responses. The constant that was variable in three responses, whether it was Florida, or Houston, or Puerto Rico, was Donald Trump.
The third disaster is the only different variable because of the location. It is far away. It is surrounded by water, and the infrastructure is suffering, and it is -- it's practically bankrupt. It might even be bankrupt.
I thought it was interesting, and we didn't get to it because of the tragedies, I think the mayor expected, when she went after Donald Trump, for him her to see her as a woman and a minority, not her occupation, and he refused to and went after her occupation. So who's the bigot? I think that this is a guy that saw her for her job and called her out on it.
America acted swiftly. The issues on the other end were multiple. The location, its infrastructure, and local leadership. She tried to pull a Negan (ph) on him. And Trump wasn't going to lie there. He had the facts on his side. He responded, and I think he -- I think, you know, now it looks like it's going to be -- everything is going to work out.
GUILFOYLE: OK. That was interesting.
GUTFELD: Interesting?
GUILFOYLE: Yes, with the Negan (ph) analogy. I like that.
OK, so, Jesse, what do you make of this? How did it work out, you know, for the president? Do you think that these are now steps that are going in the right direction, you know, even if incremental, eventually progressing forward?
WATTERS: I think it was a great visit. The joke -- I think he gives the enemies a little bit of ammunition. Because that's the online headline that's going to come out on the left or on the news.
But that's fine. He can't hold a joke back. I know the guy. You know, he's always got to be funny. It's fine. I wasn't offended by it. I don't think anyone in Puerto Rico was offended.
When he came in, people were laughing and cheering, and he got great reception.
So much a fake news coming out of Puerto Rico, Kimberly.
GUILFOYLE: Is there, Jesse?
WATTERS: Krugman says there's cholera breaking out. That didn't happen.
The San Juan mayor, she's saying there's no help, there's no help. She is standing behind, like, pallets of bottled water. It's ridiculous.
You've also had Bernie call President Trump racist for, you know, not saving Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, he saved a lot of blacks and Hispanics in Houston and Miami, as well. So that's just bogus.
Your friend, Navarro over at CNN, said this...
GUILFOYLE: Your friend?
WATTERS: He loves mentioning this woman. "If you flee devastation and come to mainland, people of Puerto Rico, hope you settle in a swing state. Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania. Register to vote and don't forget." So she's out there campaigning off this tragedy.
GUILFOYLE: Nice friend, Greg.
WATTERS: They anticipated this. They had naval ships off the coast. They had a hospital ship. They had FEMA there. They had aircraft assets, a million hot meals, a million bottles of water. To say that this was not well-handled is a lie.
There's bad roads in Puerto Rico. There's crumbling infrastructure. There's no communication. There's no energy.
GUILFOYLE: How about a nuclear generator?
WATTERS: And the local politicians, you know, it's not known to be the most...
GUILFOYLE: Isn't it, Dana? On second, a nuclear...
WATTERS: Are you interrupting me?
GUILFOYLE: Very long. Very long. It's very watery, flowing like a river. Howe about in that water, one of the, you know, nuclear submarines with a generator on it to power the rest of it?
WATTERS: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: I'm all for that. Light up Puerto Rico.
WILLIAMS: Well, so I have -- I have a different view of this, because it seems to me that when the Puerto Rican -- when the hurricane happened -- Maria, I think, right?
PERINO: Yes.
WILLIAMS: That there was a slow response from President Trump. And people point out he was busy fighting with the NFL players and all the rest. And then realized, gee, you know, we have a problem, and to his credit, did away with the Jones Act, put additional military forces in place and the like.
But then -- and this is what upsets me more. I mean even -- I think what you guys said is largely right about infrastructure and the difficulty of the location -- is that then he gets involved with this fight with the mayor. And the mayor today said very clearly she didn't try to say anything nasty about the president or his response. That she, in fact, quoted the lieutenant general, Jeffrey Buchanan, who was leading the response effort and said, "We don't have enough equipment. We don't have enough troops to help at this moment." And that reengaged the president.
Now he goes down there today and he says, "Hey, only 16 people died in Puerto Rico. Nothing like the thousands that died in Katrina."
You think, "What? Oh, my gosh."
GUTFELD: He keeps score.
GUILFOYLE: Next, one CNN reporter's stunning remarks on the victims of the Las Vegas massacre. Right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: Even in times of a national tragedy, the liberal media won't let up on President Trump. It's unreal. They're now attacking him for going to visit survivors of Sunday's deadly massacre. And even more despicable, stereotyping the victims as Trump voters. Here's CNN reporter Jeff Zeleny.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Of course, Las Vegas is a town that he connected to and then -- and knows well. His name is emblazoned on the top of a hotel there, as well. He campaigned there a lot. So this is something that I am not surprised at all to see him go there, visiting early.
Something else, I think, to keep in mind: A lot of these country music supporters were likely Trump supporters, and this is something that, of course, is hitting the tapestry of all Americans. And there are going to be victims from across the country here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: So the president's visiting a city with his hotel in it, and just because the victims were maybe country music fans?
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: Is that what he's saying?
GUTFELD: Yes, you know, unintentionally, this is kind of interesting what he just did. Is he suggesting that maybe they're being targeted for that? That this could have been like a Scalise shooting, that they were targeted because they -- maybe this was -- he's basically saying a country music festival is like a Trump rally. And I mean, he -- he probably didn't mean that, but by -- by linking it to Trump, he kind of did that. It's kind of interesting.
Like, he's basically saying, "Could the killer have been liberal?" Is what he's saying. I'm sorry. But if he's going to -- look, CNN it does this. CNN will find any link, whether it's, you know, Charlottesville, they will find a link. You could find a link from that.
WATTERS: He's been a reporter for a very long time, Dana.
PERINO: Yes. I took it a little bit differently. I think what was happening was he was doing a live shot, and they get the word from the White House that the president is going to go to Vegas on Wednesday, so he's in a live shot, trying to explain why the present would actually go and do that. And he's make -- I don't think that he intended to make some derogatory correlation or that he was only going because it was in Vegas or because they were....
GUTFELD: I just wonder if he hasn't -- I feel like he's said stuff like this before. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.
WATTERS: Juan, what do you think?
GUTFELD: Research.
WILLIAMS: Well, it seems to me that he was trying to build a case for why the president is going so quickly there and didn't go so quickly elsewhere. And I think that's all it was.
But, you know, it touches on such a sore point at this moment. I mean, KI would have stayed away from. But I think there are lots of people who do think that the country music fans are, in fact, big people who are always talking Second Amendment and the like, and that this tragedy befell them. And then they said, "Oh, my gosh."
WATTERS: But that's not why the president would visit them quickly. Kimberly, right?
GUILFOYLE: Yes. Thank you, Jesse. No, the point is the president would go to Las Vegas, because it was the worst mass shooting...
PERINO: Right.
GUILFOYLE: ... in American history. Is everybody like -- can we wake up and take the smelling salts, and realize that that's the situation? And stop trying to politicize it.
And these are wonderful people, all from different, diverse backgrounds. So what if they like country music? Fantastic.
PERINO: And they were also from all different states.
GUILFOYLE: All different states, some from Canada, et cetera. And an hour before that, they were singing "God Bless America" in unison. So, you know, God bless them and we pray, and you know, rest their souls, and for their families.
WATTERS: All right, coming up, the country music world it pays tribute to the victims of the Las Vegas massacre. Some beautiful performances and words spoken in Nashville last night. We're going to show you, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: The country music community gathering together in a very touching vigil in Nashville last night. Keith Urban led the evening with a beautiful performance and told the crowd a personal story of how he was affected by the massacre.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH URBAN, COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER: Our 9-year-old, as I was driving her to school this morning, said to me down, "Dad, you seem quiet."
And I said, "Yes, I'm really -- It's a lot of people killed last night."
And she said, "Did you know any of them?"
And I said, "Not that I know of."
And then she said, "Well, then, why are you so sad?"
I said, "Well, first of all, these were innocent people. Horrifically taken. And secondly, they're like family." It's the one thing about country music that's always been at the center of it, and that it is community. It's about community. And so I did know those people in that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: It's about community. Kimberly.
GUILFOYLE: I think it's so true, and it was a very -- I think a special moment. And you see the way country music and country music fans can really come together, and people from all different backgrounds, you know, that can really get along and enjoy music and embrace that and sing together, and sing "God Bless America."
I think that this was a very special tribute, and I appreciated the words that he had to say. I found them soothing, especially in light of everything that's happened.
WILLIAMS: Jesse, Nashville is the home of country music, and they had their own little gun violence last week. And one person was killed at a church. Others wounded. You take it to be a special moment for Nashville?
WATTERS: Well, yes, I mean, it's a special moment for a national -- country music and the whole country. Dana is kind of waking me up to country music as I've been a member of ""The Five"."
PERINO: You're loving it.
WATTERS: And I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but I do know that it is like a family, like he said. And I'm sure that country music feels like they were attacked, and they were a target.
And I think it's going to be great to see everybody come together and rally as a result of this. There's going to be great songs written about this. It's going to bring the communities closer together. And if there's a silver lining, that might be it.
WILLIAMS: Well, I think I've heard a ton of country music about heartbreak, Dana.
PERINO: Well, yes, indeed. And but there's also a lot about family and togetherness and being a good neighbor. And also beer. And things like fun and happiness.
GUILFOYLE: Horses.
PERINO: And that's why ...
GUILFOYLE: Trucks.
PERINO: That's why they're super popular, because people in country music do love to band together.
I was a country music DJ in college, and every concert that I go to, like the Garth Brooks one at Yankee Stadium last summer, everyone knows all the words. Maybe that's the case at every other concert. I don't go to a ton of other types of concerts. But I think it was wonderful that Vince Gill and Amy Grant led that, because they're sort of the, I think, spiritually, people look to them in Nashville as a couple that they turn to in times like this.
GUILFOYLE: So nice.
WILLIAMS: Greg, nothing scurrilous here. Try to be nice.
GUTFELD: No, I am. I'm actually going to say today I like country music. I've tried.
PERINO: You've written some.
GUTFELD: I've written country music songs, and a lot of my good friends are country music musicians.
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
GUTFELD: So...
PERINO: John Rich was here because of your connection.
GUTFELD: Well, I was harassing him, texting him.
GUILFOYLE: And then he's, like, stick with that.
GUTFELD: He finally said yes.
GUILFOYLE: And you held that on him.
GUTFELD: Yes. It was either him or Larry Gatlin.
WILLIAMS: Well, it was pretty good.
Some final thoughts, coming up in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: All right. That is it for us on ""The Five." Stay tuned throughout the evening for updates on the investigation in Las Vegas.
Recovering Congressman Steve Scalise appears on "The Story" tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern with his thoughts on the renewed push for gun control in America. Brit Hume sits down with Tucker at 8, and Sean Hannity hosts live from Las Vegas at 9.
And of course, don't miss your very own "Special Report." It's up next. Thanks for being here.
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