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Published October 20, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," October 19, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: This is a Fox News alert, two major developments following the deaths of four U.S. soldiers in Niger, details on the Pentagon's new investigation into the attack in a moment. But first, chief of staff John Kelly issuing an emotional defense at the White House this afternoon, following backlash over the president's outreach to Gold Star families. As some of you may know, General Kelly's own son was killed in Afghanistan while serving in the marines. He rarely speaks about losing a child to war. But today, he issued a sobering message to those politicizing the deaths of the brave servicemen who died fighting for their country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KELLY, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: He called four people the other day and expressed his condolences in the best way that he could. And he said to me, what do I say? I said to him, sir, there's nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families. But let me tell you what I tell them. Let me tell you what my best friend told me because he was my casualty officer. He said, Kel, he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent. He knew what the possibilities were because we're at war. And when he died, in the four cases we're talking about Niger, my son case in Afghanistan, when he died he was surrounded by the best men on this earth, his friends. That's what the president tried to say to four families the other day.
I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning, broken-hearted, at what I saw and member of congress doing. A member of congress who listened in on the phone call from the president of the United States to a young wife, and in his way tried to express that opinion. That he was a brave man, a fallen hero. He knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted, there's no reason to enlist, he enlisted. And he was where he wanted to be, exactly where he wanted to be with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken. That was the message. That was the message that was transmitted. It stuns me that a member of congress would have listened in on that conversation. Absolutely stuns me. And I thought at least that was sacred. Life, the dignity of life, was sacred. That's gone. Religion, that seems to be gone as well. Gold Star families, I think that left in the convention over the summer.
I just thought the selfless devotion that brings a man or woman to die on the battlefield, I just thought that that might be sacred. I still hope, as you write your stories, and I appeal to America that let's not let this maybe last thing that is sacred in our society. A young man, young woman going out and giving his or her life for our country. Let's try to somehow keep that sacred. But it eroded a great deal yesterday by the selfish behavior of a member of congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: Powerful statement, and indeed a powerful moment that we witnessed there. Something very personal to General Kelly, not only sacrifice he's made for this country but paying the ultimate price in losing his son. Really remarkable and very credible defense, Dana, of the president of the United States, and a conversation that the president believed he was having private, you know, with a grieving family member to express, you know, his sympathies and his appreciation for the service given.
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: So earlier this week, I talked about how commanders in chief, they're asked to do things that would crush most of us, because they make decisions that put people in harm's way, people who had signed up voluntarily, we don't have a draft here. People join the military because they think it would be a great way to serve their country. Good way to learn and to become leaders like General John Kelly has proven to be. And grief is uniquely personal. So is the consoling part of grief. So if you're in that position and you have to figure out a way that you have the responsibility to reach out in some way as we've said all week, it could be a letter, it could a phone call, whatever it is, that is very private moment. And I wish that none of this had ever happened all week. I think we all know why we are here at this moment. Frederica Wilson, the congresswoman who is at the subject of this issue, she has just told Politico that General Kelly is trying to keep his job. He will say anything. There are other people who heard what I heard. General Kelly doesn't need this job.
GUILFOYLE: No.
PERINO: He is a public servant and he deserves a lot of respect from all of us. And what I love about what he did today is to just help us remember that this isn't about commanders in chief and who did what to what. This is about the Gold Star families, their grief, and our focus should be on them.
GUILFOYLE: Absolutely. And Greg, it was a powerful moment, you know, you feel good that he's in the position he's in.
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Well, I'm hoping that his amazing words would end this horrible news cycle, because anybody who gets near this story just doesn't look good except for him. I mean, when you take politics and you add to it humans, they become vultures. And now we're trudging out poor families as if they haven't suffered enough. I mean, he was clearly directing this at Frederica Wilson, no colorful hat is going to hide her shame after that -- after that thing. But this thing has snowballed into this ghoulish political theater, in part because of the media, because we have no interest in stopping this snowball. So we just keep adding on. We love picking at the scabs, you know. And this is a scab. And we keep picking at it. And so, that helps, that encourages people to call up these families and make this a story. There's no longer a no-go zone in the media. We will go anywhere. Wherever the story takes us. The controversy is disgusting. No one walks away from this feeling good. And I just wish that maybe the best thing that General Kelly did, which was beautiful what he did, was that he put a period at the end of this sentence, but it sounds like Frederica wants to keep talking.
PERINO: Well, I think that he probably won't even respond to that. He doesn't need to. It was classless. On what he did today was right.
GUILFOYLE: Yeah, absolutely. Jesse, what do you make of this, this new development that she's now, kind of, doubled down and now is going after making a personal attack against General Kelly? I mean, she's the one that really -- her behavior is shameful.
JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: It is. I mean, I think America is in good hands with John Kelly as the White House chief of staff. People said Kimmel was the conscience of the nation. When I heard Kelly talk today that what's really he reminded me of. He looked like an adult lecturing children out there. And he's a huge asset. Trump should deploy him much more. Reince Priebus couldn't never pulled this off. So my hat is off to General Kelly. Now to be fair and balance, totally unnecessary for the president the other day to come out and say, well, I make calls, some other presidents don't call. Those calls are so hard to make. We've seen the president say how hard they are to make. He told me personally how hard they are to make.
And it goes back to, I believe, John Kelly told the president, that President Obama never called him when his son died in combat in Afghanistan. But I don't want to pick that wound any more. And I think that's over. I think the president knows that President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, all have a very special bond with the men that serve our country and their families as well. And that it doesn't need to be questioned, but I think President Trump has a need to contrast himself with past presidents of both parties, Republican and Democrat, in almost all of the time it serves him very well and in this case it didn't.
But this congresswoman totally disrespected the sanctity of this call. This is a solemn moment between the commander in chief and a grieving family. It's a private moment. It's an extremely personal moment. And to snoop in that call, where the president was saying how brave Sergeant Johnson was knowing that he would put his life at risk to serve the country, yet still did that. And he did it in his Trump's blunt way, I'm sure, and she completely mischaracterized it, totally disrespectful, and I doubt her sincerity about defending military families, because her voting record, she's voted against giving widows money for burial rights. She voted against funding the V.A. veterans benefits. She does not have her money where her mouth is.
GUILFOYLE: Yes.
WATTERS: And I think this whole story, like Greg said, needs to stop.
GUILFOYLE: OK. Juan, we'll get your thoughts and reflections on Kelly's comments and then the latest development.
JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Well, it seems to me the news was that General Kelly confirmed what Frederica Wilson had said, which is that Donald Trump said to this grieving widow this is what your man signed up for. He knew what he was getting into. That is not the most sympathetic, empathetic, caring thing to say to a woman -- let me finish, come on, everybody else had a chance.
GUILFOYLE: Go ahead.
WILLIAMS: So he today confirmed what Frederica Wilson overheard, and it wasn't snooping, guys. She was in a car, as the car, the entourage is going ahead with the family in it to the funeral. And she overhears the conversation of the president of the United States. You can imagine everybody in the car gets quiet, the president of the United States is on the phone with the widow. But initially, it was said, oh, no, he never said that. Oh, OK. Well then, you know, Frederica Wilson, maybe it is political. Who knows? But then he suggested, oh, Frederica Wilson better watch herself, and maybe the thought was there's a tape. He taped the phone call. No, it turns out he didn't. I don't know. But given what was said today by General Kelly, General Kelly said, he used that kind of language in advising the president about what to say.
GUTFELD: But she reframed it as callous when it wasn't callous, right, Juan?
WILLIAMS: I don't know if it was callous or not.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: He's the commander in chief, insensitive call to a grieving family? It was like, hey, he got what he deserves. He got what he signed up for. Come on, that's crazy.
WILLIAMS: I don't say that.
WATTERS: You just did.
GUILFOYLE: It's being politically opportunist.
WILLIAMS: What he said was something that I think, you know, to the ears of a grieving family, is not what you want -- it doesn't work for someone who has just lost their loved one.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: What was heard that this young man had his wife name, his children's name tattooed on his chest, he was an upstanding young guy, a real addition to our community. We can be proud as Americans.
PERINO: Can I add something.
WILLIAMS: . and that's just not fair.
GUTFELD: You can only say that you corrupt what the meaning of it. If you corrupt the meaning of what he's saying then that's true, but you're corrupting it. I'm sorry.
PERINO: I was going to say I've actually been there for -- not all of them, but I was there for a significant number of meetings that President Bush had with families of the fallen. What's interesting is that often the family members become the consolers to the commander in chief. And it is true -- and I've heard it myself, you sometimes will have a mom or a dad say, he was doing exactly what he wanted to do. He knew that he was serving his country and that there was danger involved, but he would have done it again. Or you go to Walter Reed, where you have the wounded, the first thing they say to the president when they come in, I want to get back there with my guys, I want to go back and fight again, because that's the kind of leaders that we have trained in our military. So I think that what the president was trying to convey was that he was a hero and that you should be proud of him, and I'm sorry that it happened to you.
WILLIAMS: I appreciate that. But I don't think.
PERINO: It's impossible for me to believe.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Here's the context.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: But it is true you can take it the wrong way.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Here is the real context. The context is the president had not called any of the families of the four men who died in Niger.
PERINO: True.
WILLIAMS: So the press corps when he's out there says to him, Mr. President, how come you haven't put out a statement or called these folks. Then we learn, oh, there was a statement prepared but it wasn't released. And now people are curious, why didn't you call. And that's when he said, oh, that Obama, he doesn't call everybody. And people are like, what? Where did that come from? From what we know, Obama was extremely careful on this front in terms of relating to the military to people who had died. So then there's a bunch of back and forth, who called, who didn't call, did General Kelly get a call.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Was General Kelly seated at a table, his wife seated at a table with the president with other Gold Star families. We learn all of this. And then the question, what was true, that Frederica Wilson, President Trump, did he say it, didn't he say it? Today we learned he did say it.
GUILFOYLE: I think what you're dealing -- if I can just get in, since I want to give my opinion on this real quick, thanks. He said, tried to comfort a grieving family that had an unbearable loss. And I think it's pretty disgusting that anyone would try to manufacture some kind of political opportunity out of this, and assume that the president would speak disrespectfully to someone who has lost a loved one, most important person in their life. I don't believe that. I don't think people actually really believe that. I think you want to see it in the way that is beneficial to the left that can't give the president credit for anything. And will even take a situation like this and try and besmirch it and cheapen it. And that's why I admire what General Kelly said because he stood up to these people and said shame on you. And she then went ahead and insulted General Kelly, who is also a Gold Star parent. How about that. More on The Five next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: Back now, the investigation into the Niger attack. Earlier today, Defense Secretary Mattis addressing the controversy surrounding the time line of events.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES MATTIS, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We honor our troops, every one of them. Every life is critical. These young people look past the hot political rhetoric and sign up, volunteer for the armed forces. They're part of the 1 percent that are willing to do so. One point I would make, having seen some of the news reports, the U.S. military does not leave its troops behind. And I would just ask that you not question the action to the troops who were caught in the firefight and question whether or not they did everything they could. I would also ask you don't confuse your need for accurate information with our ability to provide it immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: Let's bring in Jennifer Griffin. She's live at the Pentagon. Jennifer, what have we learned today? I talked to you at 2:00, and do we know anything more?
JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS: Well, Dana, I think the most important thing is that not only Defense Secretary Mattis, but also Lt. General Frank McKenzie, just came to the briefing room. And they are pushing back very hard on this narrative that evolved in the last few days that somehow the U.S. troops there on the ground left a fallen comrade behind. The question mark that remains is why did it take 48 hours to find the body of Sergeant La David Johnson. That is a mystery. That at this point they are trying to sort through the facts, that's why they have sent a team to Niger to interview witnesses.
But what we learned today and in the last few hours from General McKenzie is that there were French troops, Niger troops, as well as U.S. troops on the ground during that entire 48-hour period. They had a beacon, we understand, that was pinging in those first hours after the gunfight occurred once Sergeant Johnson got separated from his teammates. And in the chaos, somehow he got separated, and that pinging beacon, if you will, that special operators sometimes have on them, they weren't sure whether he was a hostage, whether he was involved in some sort of evasion operation.
And so they didn't want to put out any statements in those initial hours, and even in the first two days, because they didn't want to jeopardize his life. They eventually found him. They recovered the body. And that's where we are at this point. The investigation is ongoing. There's frustration on Capitol Hill. We've heard from Senator McCain today, bipartisan frustration that they haven't been briefed enough. But from what I can tell you, talking to Pentagon officials, and Africa officials, the problem with operating in Africa, the distances are great, the communications are difficult, and they don't always have surveillance and drones up above when these troops go out to engage in these remote areas.
PERINO: Something that Secretary Mattis also said today, Jennifer, was that local tribal officials actually did help recover Lt. Johnson's body and help get it back to the United States. And that's remarkable and shows cooperation. We're going to take it around the table here starting with Jesse?
WATTERS: Hey, Jennifer. So a lot of Americans are wondering today why are we in Niger? I didn't even know we had troops there. And you look at President Obama authorized the soldiers going there, several years ago. But explain what the mission is, is it primarily training, counter terror, who are our allies, and who are the bad guys?
GRIFFIN: Well, it's a great question. And this mission was authorized about three years ago. Remember, the French troops went in to Mali when ISIS and these al Qaeda linked groups, and remember ISIS and al Qaeda are really overlapping groups in this sub Saharan Africa, because on one day they change their shirts and call themselves ISIS. On another day they're al Qaeda. But the French troops three years ago, went in when ISIS have taken over northern part of Mali, they had traditional ties to that area. And after that, there was a realization that as ISIS was being pushed out of the Middle East, out of Syria and Iraq that they were popping up in these African countries. So we have green berets, Special Forces on the ground in Niger working with local forces as they do in many African countries to try and stop these ISIS affiliates, these al Qaeda affiliates, these jihadists from popping up and taking over ungoverned spaces. That's why they're there. There are about 100 green berets there. There about 800 U.S. troops all together. They've set up drone bases. In fact, they're two drone bases in Niger. It's a very important mission.
PERINO: Greg Gutfeld.
GUTFELD: Jennifer, I want to ask an obvious question but I'm not, the Niger or Niger, but I'll leave that for later. Just a couple of comments. Number one, we're talking about confusion in the fog of this thing. Remember, look at Vegas, that's in our country, in a casino surrounded by thousands of people.
PERINO: And cameras.
GUTFELD: . and we still don't know what the hell went on in Vegas. And we're in Niger and we don't know what's going on. So give it time. I think we're seeing a narrative being constructed now, that it's the Trump administration is stonewalling, and I get the sense that it's a Benghazi payback. It's an albatross to be tied around Trump's neck the way Benghazi was around Obama. But my question is -- you brought up drones and technology, and this is always my thing, is that why aren't drones sent ahead? And it seems in these certain situations a drone upfront -- I assume that was already happening and that would be a question here is why there isn't a drone set in front to see -- because they can see everything.
GUILFOYLE: They don't allow it there.
GUTFELD: Really?
GRIFFIN: Well, no, that's not totally true. They don't allow necessarily armed drones.
GUTFELD: Right.
GRIFFIN: But the problem with drones and this is -- you ask any commander in the field, there just aren't enough of them. There aren't enough every time a soldier steps out of the wire. We would become a very, very cautious military, if we had to have a drone up above every time a soldier went on a mission. And so, there's some places it's more feasible, they're setting up drone bases in Niger for that reason. But this was seen as a very routine operation. They had done 29 of these missions in the last six months to no avail. And you've heard Secretary Mattis say today, this was not an intelligence failure because they had deemed that they did not believe there was going to be any hostile contact. So they'll be looking into why did they not know about this group that was operating up there.
PERINO: All right. Kimberly?
GUILFOYLE: Yeah. So Jennifer, it just seems there's a lot of discussion today. And I know, Dana, you had a conversation with General Jack Keane saying that he really believed that this is going to promote discussion and talk about a broader strategy, and perhaps change in how we operate in northern Africa.
GRIFFIN: Well, I don't believe that we should take from this one incident that we need to change the strategy in Africa. We have troops operating all across Africa because you have so many ungoverned spaces. And again, as ISIS gets pushed out of Syria and Iraq, you've seen Raqqa fall of late, you've seen Mosul fall, and ISIS controls only 3 percent of Iraq now, they're going to start going to ungoverned spaces. That's why the U.S. military is going to be lying in wait in Africa when they try to move south and move into those areas.
PERINO: Juan Williams?
WILLIAMS: All right, Jen, so we have a situation here where Senator McCain is saying that the administration is not being forth coming with information. And he's, as you know, head of the armed services, very powerful man, and he's complaining loudly. Part of the complaint has to do with not only the absence of drones, but the absence of air cover. We are not allowed to employ offensive air cover that would have protected these troops. We had to call on the French. Is this the heart and soul of the issue at this moment?
GRIFFIN: Well, I'm not sure if that's really the heart of the issue. I would say if listening to Secretary Mattis today, he said that those French fighter jets were armed. So this notion that you can't fly anything armed up above once an incident like this takes place, I'm not sure if that's true. The question about armed drones, that's another question. So that is something that they will go back and look at. But I don't really think this is about the air cover there. I really think this is about logistics and just the difficulty of time and space. This is a very remote area where they were operating.
PERINO: And a reminder that ISIS, or radical Islamic terrorism is just a global threat that we have to address everywhere and kill it out. All right. Jennifer Griffin, thank you so much. And we have more on The Five after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: In 2008 Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize in economics. Isn't it time he gets another?
Remember what he said way back on Election Day? Quote, "It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump. And markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover? A first-pass answer is never." That's pretty awesome for a garden gnome.
But he's no garden gnome. He's a Nobel Prize-winning economist. A garden gnome could run circles around this bearded butthead. And every time he gets it wrong, he gets a raise. So he must be loaded now, as the stock market broke 23,000 and filings for unemployment benefits plunged to the lowest level since 1973.
So will Paulie admit how wrong he was? I doubt it. Look at him. Put simply, so many would rather see the economy crash than admit Trump's made it great. Just like those who'd rather ignore the defeat of ISIS than admit Trump's direct approach worked. Or that his straight talk on North Korea has finally gotten China to act.
But the Krugmans of the world see Trump behind every rainy day. After all, just weeks ago, Krugman blamed Trump for a nonexistent cholera outbreak in Puerto Rico. He deserves another prize for that, too. Or a pink slip.
Bottom line: So many in the media have made a mint out of picking at wounds. Stories about kneeling, oppression, division, phone calls. But turn off that noise for a minute and ask yourself: Has America changed much since the election as the economy grows and ISIS dies? Yes, it got better.
You know, I was thinking, you know, he is so wrong. Krugman is so wrong he deserves another -- another Nobel Prize, Dana. So me and Sean created an application video to the Nobel committee for Krugman, featuring his greatest comments. Roll it!
GUILFOYLE: Oh, my God.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL KRUGMAN, ECONOMIST: If we discovered that, you know, space aliens were planning to attack, and we needed a massive buildup to counter the space alien threat, and really inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months.
SEAN O'ROURKE, PRODUCER (voice-over): "By 2005 or so it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's."
"Cholera in a U.S. territory among U.S. citizens in the 21st Century. Heck of a job, Trumpy."
"OK, cholera not confirmed. Conjunctivitis, yes."
"I, and those of like mind, have been right about everything."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Dana...
PERINO: Well done, Brian, our College Association...
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: And Sean O'Rourke.
PERINO: ... work with the video.
I have one thing to say.
GUTFELD: Sure.
PERINO: You know what he said last week about tax reform?
GUTFELD: What?
PERINO: All lies. So, take this segment, re: Krugman, you decide.
GUTFELD: He's -- he's going to get promoted over this. And he will get another prize.
You know, Juan, the Dow has reached a new 1,000-point milestone five times since Trump's been elected. It's hit a new high 51 times. You have to, you must be, looking at your 40(k), and you're saying, "Thank God for Trump." You really are.
WILLIAMS: Why? Why not? I don't know. Thank God for America and capitalism. I plan to sail away any day. Absolutely.
You guys, I don't think you'd have a show, you know?
GUTFELD: You are the star.
WILLIAMS: You'd just, like, slap each other on the back.
GUILFOYLE: We'd just go, "Yes."
WILLIAMS: But the thing that I didn't like about your otherwise brilliant talking point was you said Trump gets all the credit. And I think to myself, "Wait a second. Greg is such a smart guy."
I would say, you know what Krugman is wrong about? Krugman and a lot of people said Trump gets elected, it destabilizes the economy. Markets don't like instability. The markets will go down.
To the contrary, Trump gets elected, people say, "Hey, wait a minute, guess what?" says my stockbroker. This guy is going to go after regulations. He's going to cut taxes. You better get in now." OK, the market goes up. Krugman wrong.
GUTFELD: "But." Let's end there.
WILLIAMS: But why -- why, then, do you say Trump gets credit when, in fact, the credit would be Trump has not destabilized the market because he hasn't done anything. He hasn't cut taxes. He hasn't done tax reform. And he -- you know? So people are saying, like, "Well, smooth sailing. We can keep the Obama policies? Fantastic."
GUTFELD: But you know what? He hasn't built a wall yet, yet we're watching immigration go down. It's all about, he is...
GUILFOYLE: The wall.
GUTFELD: He is the wall.
WILLIAMS: Halloween is coming.
WATTERS: Krugman is like a bad weatherman. Every day he comes out on television...
GUILFOYLE: Sounding like that.
WATTERS: ... and he says, "You know what? It's going to be clear skies and sunny." And every day it's pouring rain.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: Yet he still has a job, and everybody still listens to him.
But that's why the media hires people like Krugman. Once you're right in the mainstream media, no one cares about your track record. They'd rather you be left and wrong than right and right. And they've been wrong about Trump from the jump.
They said he wasn't going to win the primary. They said he was only in it to sell hats and to boost "The Apprentice" ratings. And they said he wasn't going to win the general. Then they said, after he won the general, he was going to leave office and give it to Pence.
So I don't know why we listen to these people any more. They said he was going to cause World War III. They said we'd never see 3 percent GDP growth. They said he'd never defeat ISIS. They said everything, and it was wrong.
GUTFELD: Yes. You know, Kimberly, he accused...
GUILFOYLE: And they said it was impossible for him to win the Electoral College.
GUTFELD: He basically accused Trump of causing cholera, and then goes, "Oh, well, conjunctivitis." Shouldn't The New York Times immediately have just got all of his stuff in a cardboard box and sent him on the street?
GUILFOYLE: Exactly.
PERINO: Or a dictionary.
GUTFELD: Yes.
GUILFOYLE: Or, like, pink eye ointment or something. Yes.
Look, but this is no surprise. Again, they can't admit the truth and cover the facts and give credit where credit is due. So, you know, this is one thing after the next as it relates to President Trump. They're not going to give him any credit. Why would they do that? They're already baked in, in terms of their mindset, their opinion of him.
And just be fair. Be fair, be honest. And don't always be looking to go and put the nail in, and try to just like, "OK, this is my story. This is what I'm staying with, and how can we tie this and make this a story about how bad President Trump is?"
GUTFELD: Amen.
Coming up, it's the Russian scandal Democrats won't talk about. A Senate investigation under way of a controversial deal with Russia brokered by Hillary Clinton. The stunning details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: The Senate Judiciary Committee is stepping up its probe into a Russian nuclear bribery case. It's suspected the FBI may have had evidence of Russian bribery before the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton approved a uranium deal. That deal greatly expanded Russia's power in America's nuclear industry.
Chairman Chuck Grassley asked that a former FBI informant with knowledge of this testify. But his attorney, Victoria Toensing, said he was blocked by Obama's Justice Department from speaking out about it. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICTORIA TOENSING, ATTORNEY FOR FORMER FBI INFORMANT: When he started working for the FBI in 2009, they had him sign what's called an NDA, a nondisclosure agreement. They never gave him a copy of it. And when he went public in 2016, way after all this case stuff was done, the Justice Department under Loretta Lynch called him and threatened him with his freedom if he violated the NDA. Now I've never heard of an NDA that had a criminal penalty for violation. But they won't show him a copy of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: President Trump blasted the media for ignoring these new details. He tweeted, quote, "Uranium deal to Russia with Clinton help and Obama administration knowledge is the biggest story that the fake media doesn't want to follow," end quote.
Kimberly, what do you make of this?
GUILFOYLE: Yes, I mean, this is disturbing. There was so much emphasis put on this and so much, you know, horrible press, that just made it look like President Trump might as well have been a plant from Russia to come over and be president of this country. And yet there were other real stories with actual evidence and facts that were covered up, that weren't properly investigated, that lies were told about.
And then now we find there's actually a complete factual thread to show that there was serious injustice going on, and it was just like doing business as usual. And yet now, nothing has come out. Nothing has come out in these investigations against President Trump or to prove collusion on behalf of his team.
WILLIAMS: Well, you know, Jesse, it's so interesting. Right now what we know is that the Clinton Foundation got $145 million from individuals who were apparently pushing this uranium deal. That would lead you think to think, "Huh, something is fishy here."
WATTERS: Yes, more than fishy, Juan. I mean, imagine if the Trump campaign...
GUILFOYLE: Right.
WATTERS: ... $145 million from the Russians? God, I mean, MSNBC would be going crazy.
But the media only cares if there's a Russian story when it involves Trump. This one lands right in the Clintons' lap. They're giving a lot of money to the Clintons and bribing American energy officials right on the eve of this uranium deal.
Hillary signs off on the deal. Eric Holder signs off on the deal. Meanwhile, Eric Holder's own FBI, run by Comey and Miller at the time -- Mueller, were aware of this investigation into the bribery and extortion scheme. And they sat on it and did nothing. And they tried to silence some one that wanted to come out and talk about it.
I also saw this, the Associated Press reported more than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary while she was secretary of state donated to her foundation. So she's playing the access game. Now it looks like she's playing the influence game.
There's some charges that they could bring up her, besides the racketeering. You have anti-corruption laws, a slew of them that you could throw at this case. And I'm waiting. Do you think they're going to do anything about it? Knowing Hillary, probably not.
WILLIAMS: So Dana, I think the audience is probably thinking is this just like politics as sport, as jousting, so the Republicans are now saying, "Oh, look, Democrats, we think you got involved with the Russians, too"?
PERINO: Well, I don't think so. And probably because Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, he's on the Energy And Natural Resources Committee. So he wrote a letter to the Obama administration in 2010, saying, "I'm concerned about this." It's the whole Cypius (ph) deal. This is where the committee of the government looks at whether or not to approve these deals.
And he sends another -- he basically is rebuffed. He sends another letter in 2011, nothing. May of 2015. There is actually, I think, a case to be made that it's possible the Obama administration was either just not paying attention, either didn't know what was going on, or was deliberately stalling a member of Congress. And he's asked the attorney general to turn over these documents, so maybe they'll get more information.
WILLIAMS: Gregory.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WILLIAMS: You have any uranium on you?
GUTFELD: No, I don't. Oh uranium. I could check.
No. This story is actually well-documented. The New York Times did a piece on it in 2015.
WILLIAMS: Right.
GUTFELD: So everybody -- I mean, we should look back at FOX and see if we covered this. I think we did. But, I mean, it's out there.
The real hypocrisy is the same people who are saying we can't trust the Russians now had no problem selling uranium to them back then. And the other part of this story is we sold them uranium. I mean, were we out of bubonic plague? I mean, do we have a question, like, that maybe starting at point one, is don't sell Russians uranium? That's -- it's so weird. I think the Trump Russia story was now a misdirection. A complete misdirection.
WATTERS: Could be.
WILLIAMS: See? This is what I was talking about.
Anyway, next -- this is great -- Will Farrell's clever idea to help us break our addiction to our devices. Stay with us.
GUTFELD: Oh, it's such a great joke.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: Stop using your phone at the dinner table. That's what a new ad campaign featuring Will Farrell wants you to do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's wrong, sweetheart?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I miss daddy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know. We all miss him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I miss him more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I miss him the most.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I miss him more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I miss him so much more.
WILL FERRELL, ACTOR: Hey, everyone shut up. This filter makes me look like a cat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's nice to all be sitting down together. Who can tell me something they did today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I drew a horsey.
FERRELL: Good for you, son. Anyone have a charger? I'm at, like, 2 percent.
GRAPHIC: #DeviceFreeDinner
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUILFOYLE: That's so funny.
WATTERS: Pretty good. And true. Right, Kimberly?
GUILFOYLE: And how about all those filters? Why would you want to look like a cat anyway?
WATTERS: I don't know. Juan, is it a problem?
WILLIAMS: It's a huge problem. So I mean, I would like to get to know my grandkids. But when we go to Sunday dinner, they are -- their parents, you know, my daughter and her husband, put them on the devices, because they quiet down and then the adults can talk. But then the little guys, they're like in their own world. And I think, "What's going on?"
The other part of this is, around here at FOX News, if one of these young people want to talk to me, guess what? They don't call me. They send texts.
PERINO: They think it's rude to call.
WILLIAMS: I don't know why.
WATTERS: Texting is a lot easier.
WILLIAMS: But they -- it turns out, according to the survey, that they don't want to talk. They prefer communicating by texting.
WATTERS: Do you want to talk to people?
PERINO: Do I want to talk to them? All I want people to do is turn their -- all their sound effects off on their phone.
GUILFOYLE: Who doesn't do that? You know what I mean?
PERINO: "Ding, ding, ding. Choo-choo!"
WATTERS: I'm blowing up, come on.
Gutfeld. You don't like kids anyway.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: You especially don't like talking to them.
GUTFELD: Yes, you know what a huge problem is? Rape. A public service announcement from a Hollywood star concerning daily behavior, somehow that doesn't hold any power for me. Yes, tell kids not to use their phones. But also tell your producers to stop molesting women.
PERINO: OK.
WILLIAMS: Wow.
WATTERS: Did not think the conversation was going to go in that direction but good point.
PERINO: That's why you watch "The Five." You never know.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
WATTERS: All right. "One More Thing" is up next.
GUTFELD: They should not be doing this...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUILFOYLE: All right. It's time now for "One More Thing" -- Greg.
GUTFELD: All right, it's time for...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: I hate these people!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: All right, I wear glasses. The reason why I wear glasses is because I can't see. I'm like 24/100. That's, like, legally blind. So if you've been at a party and somebody comes up to you and says, "I love your glasses. Can I try them on?"
Now, do you ever go up to some guy who's on crutches and go, "Ooh, those are stylish crutches. Let me take them from you and try them on."
And then -- and then the person puts them on. He goes, "How do I look?" I can't see, because you took my damn glasses!
GUILFOYLE: How are your glasses?
PERINO: I will never ask.
GUILFOYLE: Dana, can you help out?
PERINO: Loud and clear. All right. We have an update from the CIA. This is Lulu. She was training to be a bomb dog. She was doing a good job. She was in the training program, but she apparently lost interest in searching for explosives, even with food and play, like totally unhappy.
So guess what? She gets an upgrade. She has to leave the CIA; she doesn't get the job. But she got adopted by her handler, and now she gets to play with the kids and with the squirrels and other dogs. That's a dog named Harry. So the CIA is going to try again. They have a new black lab named Harry, also named Harry, and he's going to give it a shot. There he is.
GUILFOYLE: All righty. Well, you've got to choose what you want to do in life. OK, Juan.
WILLIAMS: I love these people! Check this out. Forbes is out with the highest paid celebrities. And the No. 1 is going to shock you.
No. 5 is soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, with $93 million.
Number 4, the rapper Drake, $94 million.
Number 3, the queen of Hogwarts and Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling with $95 million.
Number 2, Beyonce, $105 million.
And -- da-da, da-da -- No. 1, P. Diddy, raking in a cool $130 million last year.
WATTERS: Wow.
GUTFELD: So you love capitalists?
WILLIAMS: I -- I told you that earlier.
By the way, whose glasses did you borrow?
GUTFELD: Barbara's.
WILLIAMS: I forgot. You borrowed somebody's glasses.
GUTFELD: Barbara's.
WILLIAMS: Oh, my God.
Anyway, P. Diddy, was 22 last year, No. 1 this year.
WATTERS: Diddy needs a tax cut, right, Juan?
WILLIAMS: What does he do?
WATTERS: He sells vodka now.
WILLIAMS: I had no idea.
GUTFELD: That's such a great question.
GUILFOYLE: He also -- he's a producer, as well, so he has a lot of, like, revenue streams coming in. He also has clothing lines, like multi-faceted capitalist.
OK, Jesse.
WATTERS: All right, a lot of people are down on the NFL players for taking a knee. Eagles defensive end Chris Long, taking a stand, donating the rest of his salary for the year to charity.
He's donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to improve education in the three cities he's hailed from: St. Louis, Boston and Philadelphia. Here's the pledge and what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS LONG, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES DEFENSIVE END: By joining me in this pledge, we can make a difference for youth and, ultimately, in our communities. Because I believe that investing in education is the best game plan for a better tomorrow, for everyone in America.
WATTERS: Pledge 10 for tomorrow. There you go. Nice job.
GUILFOYLE: OK. So my "One More Thing" is just a testament to how amazing the servicemen and women are that serve this country faithfully. Rob Jones, 32-year-old Marine veteran, lost both of his legs after being wounded by a land mine in Afghanistan in 2010. Nothing has stopped him. He's embarked on a mission to run 31 marathons in 31 cities over 31 days.
PERINO: That's amazing.
GUILFOYLE: God bless him. He wants to raise $1 million.
If you could kindly set your DVR, never miss an episode of "The Five." "Special Report" is next.
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