Former President Carter slams media's treatment of President Trump

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Gutfeld: Carter defends Trump against media

The former president points out that whether you like Trump or not, it's impossible for one man to be everything his haters say he is.

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," October 23, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Hello. I'm Greg Gutfeld with Kimberly Guilfoyle, Juan Williams, Jesse Watters, and she has poppy seed for lunch, Dana Perino -- "The Five."

Well, this is awkward. In an interview with the New York Times, a paper, Dana.

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Oh.

GUTFELD: Jimmy Carter says the media has been more brutal on Donald Trump than any president in recent memory. Carter is 93, so that covers a lot of ground. But don't take his word for it. Harvard, no fan of Trump either, analyzed news coverage of his first 100 days and found that the president received unsparing coverage without a single topic where coverage was more good than bad.

But you've got to give Jimmy credit for saying what will tick off the strident chords in his party and media. Carter nails the loudest critics for questioning Trump's sanity, which will no doubt cause them to question Carter's sanity too. But the side benefit of being an old fogey: You don't care. You can say what you want, which usually means the truth. At 93, it's not like you need any more friends or a job recommendation or an invitation to Brian Stelter's book party. If it upsets the crybaby news network, that's life.

The point Carter is making, that whether you like Trump or not, it's impossible for one man to be everything his haters say he is. Instead, it reflects the irrational emotion on their side not actual facts or deeds. Even Carter admits Trump's actions may lead to progress on immigration and even offered to help him with North Korea.

So J.C. is saying not his pals want to hear, but what America should hear: That Trump may not have been your choice for president, but he's your president. Talk about a reasonable Democrat. He may be the last one left.

(LAUGHTER)

GUTFELD: All right, Juan. It's hard to argue with a progressive icon. You must be crushed. Crushed I tell you. You might not even want to comment at this point.

JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: You know, I'm tempted. I'm tempted because.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Give into temptation, says Jesse. You know, I think this is really about Jimmy Carter seducing Donald Trump. I think that Donald Trump is a guy who needs friends and Jimmy Carter is the guy who needs a legacy because I think if there's one guy here -- first of all, let me just say, can you audience believe that Greg Gutfeld just gave a monologue praising Jimmy Carter?

GUTFELD: First time ever.

WILLIAMS: All right. So that's the point I think -- I think the point is that Jimmy Carter sees himself going back to North Korea because that's where he went in '94, I think, when that nuke deal got negotiated under President Clinton. And, of course, that nuke deal didn't hold, but he feels that he can go back in, he can play a role here in which the entire world -- I think he might get a Nobel peace prize if he was able to calm down that guy.

GUTFELD: Yeah. And Jesse, you know what else he said? No Russian collusion.

JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: Yes. And we have to believe everything Carter says now. The first time Carter and I agree on anything. And we have to believe Harvard, too.

PERINO: He also said Obama was a failure.

GUTFELD: Did he?

WILLIAMS: Yeah.

PERINO: Basically.

(CROSSTALK) WATTERS: Keep talking, Carter.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Harvard said in the first 100 days, worst coverage ever historically, and it was 80 percent negative. If it wasn't for Fox News, it would have been even higher at 90. We were the only one who had it 50/50. Media research center said this summer, president got savage, 91 percent negative coverage by the network nightly news cast. And it's not just the tilt or the slant. It's the commentary. They've called the president of the United States a white supremacist, a bigot, a sexual assaulter, a homophobe. You name it, they can say it. On the policy front I can see now you had a tough summer with Charlotte, or the failure of Obamacare repeal. That negative coverage is fair. But let's say tax cuts get passed, that's a historic achievement for a Republican president. Will the press cover that favorably like they would maybe if Obamacare was passed by President Obama Democratic congress? Of course not, and that's where the bias lies. So I think at this point, the assumption when the president does anything is he's either evil, dumb, or his lying, and that's the truth.

GUTFELD: You can't be all three, Kimberly.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Some people try.

GUTFELD: I'm 2 out of 3, figure out which one.

GUILFOYLE: Fun for you. So this is basically an audition. You know it was. It's I want to go like speed dating but for job search. He's like put me in, coach, North Korea. Juan, I concur with your statement, and you concur with Greg, and with me, and with Jesse.

WILLIAMS: No, no, not Jesse, but with you two.

(CROSSTALK)

GUILFOYLE: I like it when you're selective. Madam Perino?

PERINO: I'm in. But I also think it told us something else -- how the Democratic Party has moved so far left from Jimmy Carter because he did say that NFL players should stand. He's just going to go ahead and say it. So Jesse is thinking, wait, this is my kind of Democrat.

WATTERS: Farther left than Jimmy Carter? Where are we, Democrats?

GUILFOYLE: He's a waters world guy now.

PERINO: That's right.

GUTFELD: Do you believe he's going to get a role in this administration?

PERINO: No.

GUTFELD: No.

PERINO: Well, if President Trump could find a way for him to be constructed, I mean, perhaps. But I think it is beyond sending Jimmy Carter to try to work out some sort of diplomatic deal at this point. I mean.

GUTFELD: So Dennis Rodman.

PERINO: Just today, the Pentagon is saying that we're readying the possibility of B-52 bombers to be ready to go. I think it's like 1994, great effort. A for effort. It didn't work. I think things have moved on so much further than that.

GUTFELD: A lot of the media attacks on Trump, they blame it on the fact that he tweets and stuff, but he has a response to that. He says that it wasn't for social media, you know, he would have no platform, I guess. Go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I doubt I'd be here if it weren't for social media to be honest with you, because there is a fake media out there, I get treated very unfairly by the media, and I have a tremendous platform. Somebody says something about me, I may be able to go bing, bing, bing, and I take care of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: You know, Kimberly, perfect example of this was last week with the Uranium story, which was like floating away, but the media was forced to cover it because he tweeted about it. Of course, they'd just cover his tweets, but it's still.

GUILFOYLE: Right. But he has to actually interject it. If he doesn't tweet, they're not going to cover it. So he's part of that whole process as he said of keeping the press honest because otherwise they're not going to give him a fair shake as to the list of his accomplishment. And the problem is because it doesn't fit their narrative. You know, it's like trying on the prom dress. Woo, this is the wrong size.

PERINO: Too short.

GUILFOYLE: Yeah, exactly.

GUTFELD: I never had that problem.

(LAUGHTER) GUILFOYLE: too tight?

(LAUGHTER) GUTFELD: Very progressive prom. But it does lend itself to a volatile relationship, Juan. But it's something that maybe this is the new normal, as I like to coin.

GUILFOYLE: Didn't you ban them?

GUTFELD: Yes, I did.

WILLIAMS: But you what was interesting to me in all this is that when we think about President Trump, and I think -- contrary to you, I think that in fact he's having a very difficult time as president of the United States, and I think he's divided the country, and I think his poll numbers suggest that. But what was striking to me, and this is what I want to say to Jesse is, I read this material and it said Trump's coverage has been pretty negative. But it also said almost half the time all news coverage of the country is about one man, Donald Trump. And secondly, most of the voices who are commenting on Donald Trump are not wacky lefties me. No, they're Republicans.

WATTERS: Well, I'm glad you called yourself a wacky lefty.

(CROSSTALK) GUTFELD: But this is actually a good point.

WATTERS: That's because people on the networks will book conservative haters of Donald Trump.

WILLIAMS: But they're Republicans. So they're fellow Republicans.

WATTERS: Republicans for those networks shows on Sunday where they don't have a lot of respect from the grassroots. And they've always disliked Trump from the primary. That's why they get a lot of press coverage because they're the first ones to criticize the president.

WILLIAMS: So you think it's Republicans.

WATTERS: I think networks book people they want to hear from and it happens to be people that hate Trump.

GUTFELD: It's kind of like, you know, when a network will find a Democrat that agrees with you.

(LAUGHTER)

PERINO: Juan, are you available?

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: When people -- if I'm out and about and people complained about Juan. I'm like, wait, this guy is pro-education reform. He likes capitalism.

GUILFOYLE: Yeah.

PERINO: He believes in personal responsibility. I mean, you could do worse.

WATTERS: what a complement.

(LAUGHTER) GUILFOYLE: Great writer.

WILLIAMS: There you go. You're so kind.

GUILFOYLE: . historian.

GUTFELD: All right. I'm getting sick. This article from the Wall Street Journal this morning landed on my desk. Landed on my desk. The producer came over and said you better talk about this. Anyway, Scott Adams wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal called the power of the presidential tweet. And the argument behind this I think is that he's using humor, and humor is a very important part of persuasion, and things that are funny are easier to remember.

PERINO: Right. OK. So I totally agree with that, but I go back -- some of the things other people thought were very funny, I just personally didn't think were funny. That's OK. I like corny jokes, but that's not my thing. But like the nicknames, the name calling, I didn't think it was funny. I didn't like it. But I've heard it -- I saw people cracking up. They loved it. And actually when he called Kim Jong-un rocket man, I thought that was funny.

GUTFELD: Yeah.

WATTERS: Little rocket man.

GUILFOYLE: And then little.

PERINO: He added little.

WATTERS: Yeah, little.

GUILFOYLE: Jesse loves those.

WATTERS: I do.

GUILFOYLE: Names for example.

GUTFELD: Scott Adams calls it the linguistic kill shot because when you label somebody with that, it's hard to unlabeled them. So when you say crooked Hillary, it's like it took over almost as.

GUILFOYLE: Persona.

GUTFELD: . persona.

GUILFOYLE: . of the campaign.

PERINO: Jimmy Kimmel, maybe he should have tried to be funnier when he was making his points about the Obamacare changes.

WATTERS: He's no Jon Stewart.

GUILFOYLE: He needs a nickname, I guess at this point.

WATTERS: Little Kimmel? No, we like Jimmy. In case I ever have to sell a book.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK) GUILFOYLE: I want to be nice to Jimmy Kimmel. I want to be nice. Roger Goodell to go to Super Bowl parties. I mean.

WATTERS: I'm a realist.

GUILFOYLE: . shameless.

WILLIAMS: You know, I think -- actually, you know, I was thinking about what Scott Adams said, and I agree about humor. I think it's extremely effective as a tool of persuasion. And in Donald Trump's case, I think if there is one area where I would say Donald Trump is a genius, it is at this naming of people.

GUTFELD: Right.

WILLIAMS: But it's not a nice thing. I think it's almost like schoolyard bullying. And it can be diminishing. I mean it's like, oh, you know, you're the short guy, you're the tall guy.

GUTFELD: Little Marco.

PERINO: Low energy Jeb was devastating.

WILLIAMS: Yes. But it's devastating because of what.

GUTFELD: You can't remove it. You can't remove it.

PERINO: The crooked Hillary.

WILLIAMS: Yeah. But I don't know that I would say, oh, yes, to any young person -- that's a good thing to do. Boy, what a talent to have.

GUILFOYLE: I like when he goes, sad.

(CROSSTALK) PERINO: Every once in a while, it's not just on twitter where he's funny. He has these little asides. So even he's doing a teleprompter speech, there are points where he'll repeat something, and that's like really bad and it's funny.

WILLIAMS: You know what, before you go, I want to say what struck me about Jimmy Carter's thing also was the negative relationship he's had with Barack Obama. Mrs. Carter said Michelle Obama did not invite her to a meeting of presidential wives on mental health, and she has been in the forefront of mental health efforts across this country. And I thought, wow, that was kind of mean.

(CROSSTALK) GUTFELD: You just don't know how relationships work out, even among allies.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Somebody asked him, hey, do you have President Obama's email. Jimmy Carter said no.

WATTERS: Well, President Obama was famous for not calling any of the other former presidents for any advice when he was in office.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: And Clinton would call. And then, Obama thought he had it all figured out.

GUILFOYLE: All right.

GUTFELD: All right. You know what? I figured out that we have to go to a break. Smooth little transition there.

(CROSSTALK) GUILFOYLE: There's your friend.

GUTFELD: Where? Oh, what do you mean?

GUILFOYLE: Go.

(LAUGHTER) GUTFELD: Congresswoman Frederica Wilson demands an apology from General John Kelly, after calling him a puppet and labeling herself a rock star, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUILFOYLE: All right. Democratic congresswoman, Frederica Wilson, continues to politicize the death of fallen service members, and still lashing out at chief of staff and Gold Star father John Kelly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: John Kelly is almost, I guess, you could say he was a puppet of the president, and what he was trying to do was divert the attention away from the president onto me. And he basically just lied on me. Not only does he owe me an apology, but he owes an apology to the American people because when he lied on me, he lied to them. And I don't think that's fair. And I think it's wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUILFOYLE: In a new tweet, the president called her, wacky, and the gift that keeps on giving for the Republican Party because she's a, quote, disaster, for Dems. Jesse, nice hat.

WATTERS: Thank you. Well, your assessment of the congresswoman attire, I would leave that alone. Do I like the sequence? I'll let you know at the end of the show. I don't want to attack a grieving widow. She can grieve however she wants to. She's pregnant. She just lost her husband. I do know that this episode is not bringing any closure to her. I can imagine it's not bringing any closure to the memory of Sergeant Johnson. And I think what's happened now -- I can only imagine she has network TV people calling her all the time now. And I don't know where she's getting advice from. But the president now, does he want to make more calls to widows? I would think now anytime he makes a call, is it going to be recorded? Is someone going to be snooping? Is going to be exploited for political purposes?

GUILFOYLE: But they'll be witnesses. That's for sure.

WATTERS: Exactly. John Kelly has obviously felt a lot of pain throughout this episode. I know everybody is grieving. I know the media has been acting like vultures throughout this. I'm sure they've been banging on her door. Not only is one interview the family members, I didn't see a lot of Benghazi family members on ABC News. Members of Kate Steinle's family on ABC News. Never saw border agents Ramos on ABC News. So they're very selective with who they use. I just think Congressman Wilson, what's the purpose of going public with this condolence call?

GUILFOYLE: Right.

WATTERS: Was it to make herself into a rock star? Was it to hurt Donald Trump? And I found some video, maybe we can play it tomorrow, of the same congresswoman saying on the floor that these FBI agents who were gunned down in a very fierce battle, knew they were going to put their lives on the line and still did it. And she had trouble pronouncing the name of one of the FBI agents. So, you know, for her to go around and turn around and say that Donald Trump did the same thing I think is completely unfair.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: She also tweeted.

GUILFOYLE: Pull that for today.

WATTERS: Yeah, we can pull it. I didn't want to pull it during your segment because I know how Kimberly rolls. But, I'm very afraid of her. But she also tweeted something also very discouraging. She said Niger is President Donald Trump's Benghazi. He needs to own it. I thought Benghazi was.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: . tragedy that was being exploited as a conspiracy to hurt Hillary and Obama. OK. So, she just needs to get her story straight before she.

WILLIAMS: Well, I think -- I have such a strongly different view on this one. But I would start with this, Jesse. First and foremost.

GUILFOYLE: Your hair?

WILLIAMS: Well, let me just say, you're right about this, Kimberly. It's a serious topic right now in Washington. People don't know what happened in Niger. And a lot of people are thinking, where we there? Remember last week, you asked, I think, Jennifer Griffin. A lot of people don't know -- why are we there. What's going on? How long have we been there?

WATTERS: Yes.

WILLIAMS: And there's questions about what happened to La David Johnson's body. Why was it left there, etcetera. All of these questions. So that's an ongoing issue. That's a real news story.

WATTERS: I want to find those answers too.

WILLIAMS: OK, fine. So, the second thing to say though, and this is about Frederica Wilson, the congresswoman from Florida, Donald Trump's chief of staff Kelly, is that Kelly was wrong on two scores. First of all, clearly, the president did say that your husband knew what he was getting into. And it did cause the window and the mother to get upset and cry. That's just not good. And then, secondly, here comes Kelly calling Frederica Wilson an empty barrel and saying that she took credit for something that she didn't do, which was to raise funding for a new FBI headquarters in Miramar, Florida. Turns out there's a video, and the video shows that she did no such thing.

WATTERS: Well, I saw the transcript of what she said, and she was tooting her own horn.

WILLIAMS: I don't care about that.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: . what Kelly said. And so, Kelly comes across as having becoming an enabler for Trump and just covering for him.

(CROSSTALK) GUILFOYLE: . his moral authority because he was privy to it, and recipient of the conversation, and also has every right to participate in a conversation not only as chief of staff but as a Gold Star parent.

WATTERS: That's a good point, but so does she, the congresswoman, because she was in the car with the grieving family and they've played it on the speaker phone.

PERINO: I do think there was another way for the congresswoman to express this. And that would have been to privately call the White House and ask to speak to General Kelly and tell him I just want to let you know the widow was upset when the president said this. And I think it would be good for you to tell the president that, so that in the future, he has more information because he's going to make more of these calls. Those are important phone calls to grieving people. We wouldn't be talking about any of this if there had been some judgment on her not to decide to go public immediately. If that call was not returned or not taken, then maybe you go decide to go to the public. But there's another way to do it. Plus, remember, that these children are going to grow up and be able to read all of this.

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

PERINO: OK. So, like, let's just stop it.

GUILFOYLE: I love when you do that.

PERINO: OK. Greg?

GUTFELD: I don't really want to talk about this. I feel.

GUILFOYLE: Next.

(CROSSTALK) GUTFELD: No, I am good. I'm tired of picking at this scab. You know, we should, as a show we can't, because our producers pick this stories, but we should resist the inclination to pick aside all the time. Because when you weigh down one side with an opinion, then the other side needs to create an opposite weight. If I say this, and I go this, and Juan will say this and I will say this, but then Jesse, and then Juan. And this thing just never ends, even though we hate doing it because we actually do hate doing this. We don't like this story. No one is coming out of this looking very good, and it's sad that we're having this conversation. And believe me, there are other stories out there. A lot of other stories out there that we could do.

But anyway, I also think Jesse made a really good point about this idea of Trump's Benghazi. First of all, it was an ambush versus a terror attack. And we're not playing the ambush on a movie. We're blaming it on ISIS. But this is the first time, as Jesse points out, that they're actually admitting Benghazi exists and that it actually matters. But it reveals that they're seeing Niger as a shameless political albatross to hang around Trump's neck, rather than trying to figure out what happened to four slain heroes. With Benghazi, it was a terror attack that was blamed on a video.

GUILFOYLE: All right. Thank you for that. Next, a new twist in the Russia Collusion probe. Robert Mueller now reportedly looking into a family member of one of Hillary Clinton's top aides. Coming up. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PERINO: Special Counsel Robert Mueller isn't just looking into the Trump campaign ties to Russia. Guess what? He's now reportedly investigating the brother of Hillary Clinton's former campaign chair John Podesta. Tony Podesta and his Democratic lobbying firm are now in the cross hairs following an inquiry into the finances of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort. There's a federal criminal inquiry now into whether Podesta's firm violated the foreign agents registration act. Meanwhile, the president just addressed whether he's been advised to meet with Mueller himself in the Russian probe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't know. I mean, nobody's asked me to do that. There is no collusion. I can tell you that. Everybody is saying that. You know, you have senate meetings, you have senate hearings, and nobody has asked us to do interviews anywhere. They have found no collusion. In fact, the other side even admits it. They come out of these hearings whether it's senate, or whether it's the house, and they say is a collusion. Everyone looks like there's no collusion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: So Kimberly, the firm, the Podesta group is being looked at because Paul Manafort is accused of not registering under this act.

GUILFOYLE: Yeah.

PERINO: So seems like this is a problem in Washington. The Podesta group was also getting paid by a Kremlin backed group of Ukrainian fighters. And they also just happened to not actually register under this act. So now they're saying they're trying to register, make sure they're fully compliant, but now they're muddied into these waters too.

GUILFOYLE: Well, right. And so, you can't treat them differently. That's hypocritical. It's a double standard. And the time frame is 2012 to 2014, and there are some crossovers there. So, OK, let's do a full Russia collusion investigation there. I mean, if that's what you want to do, let's just take a look at all of it because they're both trying to go back to fully comply and register properly to comport with the law and that act to try to clean it up. But, obviously, they're also looking at Manafort with something else. He might have some other information to be able to give them. He may have some other financial misdealing that they're trying to hook him on. But the whole headline, you know, towards the end of the OCR, and Trump, and collusion, and everyone that was working with him, just really awful. You know, if you go back and look at what was said, and the damage done, and the things that were printed that were outright lies.

PERINO: Juan, do you think this looks bad for the people that are close to the Clintons?

WILLIAMS: No. I mean, I think this story gets the story (ph), because this does not involve John Podesta, who was the Clinton campaign chair. It's his brother. So he's not under any investigation. It's all about...

GUILFOYLE: It's their firm.

WILLIAMS: I know. It's John's firm. John Podesta owns the...

PERINO: Tony Podesta.

WILLIAMS: Tony runs the Podesta Group.

GUILFOYLE: Right.

WILLIAMS: And he's one of six firms that Paul Manafort brought in to help with this Ukrainian front for the Russian government.

PERINO: Maybe.

WILLIAMS: Right. And then he didn't register under this act that you were talking about, Dana, but then substantively or retroactively tried to register which is legal. But nonetheless, I think it's caught the attention of Bob Mueller.

Because what was going on there would seem to be that the U.S. -- U.S. lobbyists were not only making a ton of money. I mean, this was big money. That's why you had six people feeding at the trough. But this is another example of how Russia gets involved in American government.

PERINO: And The Hill newspaper also, Greg, today said that the Russians were trying to find a way to mess with Hillary Clinton all the way back in 2009. That's when she was, you know, hitting the reset button.

GUTFELD: Yes, they're gremlins, the Russians.

PERINO: They're gremlins?

GUTFELD: Like little gremlins. Gremlins from the Kremlin.

I'm all for finding out about the collusion stuff, because I would want to know. But I think we're coming down that road, that it was just basically Russians being Russians.

This is a hotel flashlight, you know, that exposes the blemishes of bias in the media. If the media -- in the media landscape, if you salivate over collusion but you dismiss these stories, that's the exposure. That's what this story shows.

GUILFOYLE: Like a black light?

GUTFELD: A black light. It shows the bias.

And the same thing goes for the uranium story. If you don't care about the uranium story but you still are, you know, crazed over collusion, that's your bias.

The problem with this story, not as juicy, because two sentences in, it's a little kind of tedious. The lessons about corruption is if you want to get away with it, make it boring. You know, don't steal diamonds. Steal influence.

PERINO: It's the -- it's called, Jesse, the Foreign Agents Registration Act. It's a mouthful.

WATTERS: I'm asleep. What did you say?

PERINO: FARA.

WATTERS: No, right. Exactly. I'm not salivating, as you said, to have anybody go to jail. I think the probe is bogus from the beginning.

And obviously, Mueller is looking to nail somebody to the wall on a tiny deal, so you better make sure your taxes are in order. You better make sure your filings are in order.

But I'm kind of with Kimberly. Like, do we -- do we want Hillary now thrown in jail? A part of me says no. Like, she's too old. She's a grandmother now. I don't want to see Bill Clinton behind bars. It's getting where we're criminalizing politics.

But if you want to play hardball, and start knocking down Donald Trump's door and start, you know, putting him under oath and saying this: "20 years ago you did this deal," you know what? I say, game on. Investigate the swamp.

You have every appropriations thing under the microscope...

PERINO: Well...

WATTERS: ... every donor, every fund-raiser, every lobbyist. You know, make sure the whole swamp is put under oath, because the whole thing reeks. And it has a funny way of boomeranging on Democrats.

Now, Samantha Power said now she unmasked hundreds of people. But wait a second. Many people were unmasked under her name, she says. She didn't do it.

Loretta Lynch is now in the crosshairs. Comey may have illegally leaked. So -- Susan Rice story hasn't been corroborated. So, you know, when all the dust settles, it's funny who's actually -- may be criminal.

PERINO: Especially when you look at P.R. firms and lobbying firms in D.C. Who were more than willing to take money from the Russians. Let's think about that.

All right. The Kate Steinle murder trial began today in San Francisco. The details straight ahead on "The Five."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: A jury began hearing opening statements this morning in the case that set off a national debate on immigration, specifically on sanctuary cities.

The Kate Steinle murder suspect went to trial today. Jose Zarate is an illegal immigrant who was deported five times before he allegedly killed 32-year-old Steinle in 2015. He was let back into the country by San Francisco, which grants safe haven to illegals.

Short after Kate was gunned down down, I flew across the country to confront the city's board of supervisors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: The city of San Francisco let this guy out. Even though the feds said hold him. I'm here to find out why you guys did that. Because this sanctuary city policy that you guys still support is costing lives.

You know what Kate said? Her last words. Look at the picture, guys. You guys aren't even looking. Look at the picture. You afraid? I know it's tough. Her last words were "Help me." Help me. Why aren't you guys helping her?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: All right. So Kimberly, you're familiar with the politics of San Francisco.

GUILFOYLE: Intimately.

WATTERS: You could see more Kate Steinles; yet the board would not do anything about sanctuary city policies.

GUILFOYLE: There's such a -- you know, with all due respect, but such a built-in, baked-in liberal bias. And you know, I saw it firsthand, not only as first lady but as, you know, a prosecutor and assistant district attorney in San Francisco just in the course. Even trying to get a true identification of an individual. They would fight you tooth and nail. No one was complying with ICE detainers. Extremely frustrating. See a revolving door of people coming in and going back out again. In county jail for two or three days, and then being released back out. You know, just criminal recidivism abounds.

And so this was just such a senseless, you know, loss of life that could have been prevented just by administrations and officials and bureaucracies following the law, adhering to the law that's on the books. But it seems that public safety fell to second place at the expense of a really proactive policy on immigration as it relates to illegal criminal aliens.

WATTERS: And Kimberly makes the point, Greg, that it was a preventable tragedy. And the media still does not want to touch this story. You have a beautiful young woman. You have Trump involved in the story, the city of San Francisco, political corruption. This guy was deported five times. He was a felon. You would think this would be on the news constantly.

GUTFELD: Especially, too, when you think about, if you look on a different issue like gun control and the way the media has been spending a lot of time clamoring for more laws. We need more laws. There's suddenly law and order about gun control.

And this case has proved that, you how, you had existing laws that weren't enforced. And if you had enforced the laws, she would have been alive. So how can you ignore that fact while clamoring for more laws for guns, arguably laws that wouldn't have stopped anything?

But here -- here is law. Consistently, you should say, "Boy, they should enforce this law, because this law is on the books." If you're going to feel strongly about gun control, how can you not feel strongly about this? Because it's still about law and order.

The one interesting thing that I'm wondering is how this is going to pan out. Because I've been reading up on this, about whether they find out that this was an accident. And if they -- and how is that going to play out if they find out -- because they talk about the bullet. The bullet has kind of a dent in it, which means that it was ricocheted. So what does that mean? I mean, does that mean that it wasn't -- that it's not...

GUILFOYLE: Guess what? It doesn't matter. Because the law will not provide an excuse for that, to say, "I didn't intend to kill you. It ricocheted."

"I was shooting it. I purposely discharged it." And they transfer intent.

WATTERS: Right, because I think this was a weapon that was stolen...

GUILFOYLE: Correct.

WATTERS: ... from a law enforcement officer's car. And this illegal immigrant...

GUILFOYLE: That's what the judge said. The judge says that is immaterial as to where the gun originally came from. It's just how the gun was used. What was its intended purpose? The gun was discharging...

WILLIAMS: And the other part -- the other part is you can't consider immigration status. That's not the issue here.

The issue is whether or not -- he's charged with second-degree murder, Jesse. Right? And then the -- his lawyers are saying this was an accident. The gun was stolen from a U.S. Bureau of Land Management agent, from his car. We don't know how Zarate got the gun.

But now the focus is on, so was this involuntary manslaughter or an accident, in which case he should be acquitted? Or maybe even is it a matter of mental illness or drug use, in which case you have a whole 'nother set of issues.

But to me, you guys are complaining about so-called liberal media. I think mainstream media, let's say -- let's put it that way. Mainstream media not covering it. And I think, boy, as I recall, it was conservative media attacking immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, who made this a cause celebre, because they said, "Well, we're going to hold this up, and we're going to attack those immigrants." And I just don't see it as that.

WATTERS: We're not attacking immigrants, Juan. We're saying that the city of San Francisco...

GUILFOYLE: Attacking criminals.

WATTERS: ... should never have allowed him in the city, because he had five felonies. He should have been deported.

WILLIAMS: I think the federal government sent him there.

WATTERS: Excuse me?

WILLIAMS: The federal government had arrested him. He had served some time. They then sent him to San Francisco.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: He was deported five times, and he kept getting arrested in San Francisco; and they never told ICE about him.

WILLIAMS: They sent him back to San Francisco on a marijuana charge, as I understand it.

GUILFOYLE: Well, now it's going to be a -- sanctuary city.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: He had numerous charges, one of which was marijuana. He also had a harder narcotics problem.

PERINO: The only thing I would add, so there's six men and six women in the jury. And it's interesting to me that this is how juries usually end up. Just a range of people from a flight attendant, software engineer, a nurse, a marketing accountant, and a health economist. So these people, it's a jury of his peers that will decide his fate, guilty or innocent, and then I guess the judge probably decides the sentencing, Kimberly.

GUTFELD: Not -- that is not his peers. That's a funny thing about -- is that a jury of his peers?

PERINO: That's how our system is. They say the trial will last four to six weeks.

GUTFELD: Peers would be illegal aliens.

GUILFOYLE: Change of venue.

WATTERS: That's right. You can find plenty of those in San Francisco.

PERINO: Wait. That's going to be their next point.

GUTFELD: Yes, exactly.

PERINO: They're going to file a lawsuit, that that's not their peers.

GUTFELD: Yes, that's true.

WATTERS: I wouldn't be surprised.

GUILFOYLE: They'll appeal it on that, and lack of change of venue, that it was improper. He was unable to get a fair trial due to the media coverage there.

WATTERS: All right.

GUILFOYLE: Wait for it.

WATTERS: On a lighter note, it is the biggest concert of the year. The Super Bowl LII halftime show headliner has been selected. The reveal and our thoughts up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIAMS: Cool song.

So the rumors are true. Justin Timberlake confirming he will headline this year's halftime at Super Bowl LII in a very creative announcement alongside his pal, Jimmy Fallon.

GUILFOYLE: Interesting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, MUSICIAN: Excuse me, sir. Do you have the time?

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, NBC'S "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON": I was going to ask you, sir. Do you have the time?

TIMBERLAKE: I do have the time.

FALLON: You do halftime?

TIMBERLAKE: I do have time.

FALLON: You do halftime?

TIMBERLAKE: I do halftime.

FALLON: You do halftime?

TIMBERLAKE: I do halftime!

FALLON: You're doing the halftime show at the Super Bowl? Yes, you doing halftime! You're doing the halftime!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Yes. Justin swears this time, though, there won't be a mal -- a wardrobe malfunction. You may remember, his first halftime duo with Janet Jackson caused quite a storm a decade ago.

So I think this will be his third time. He was there with 'N Sync. Then Janet Jackson. So three times.

GUTFELD: I can't think of anything I'm less interested in then who is at the halftime. I don't care. I don't care about Justin Timberlake. I don't care about Super Bowl halftime. I believe that's when it all started to fall apart, was when they took a sport and they turned it into a spectacle.

They felt that they -- they felt compelled to take something that people want to watch for entertainment; and they turned it into something celebrity driven. And I would just sit there and I'd go, "This is so not fun." And it used to be fun. Now -- and then so it's no surprise that it turned into politics.

GUILFOYLE: What if there's kneeling?

GUTFELD: I know. That's what they...

GUILFOYLE: During the song or performance.

GUTFELD: If he doesn't go out and kneel, he's going to get a lot of crap for it.

You're supposed to be watching football for the sport. It's not to enlighten you. It's not Occupy Wall Street; it's NFL. I'm done with it. Done.

WILLIAMS: Dana, so one of the things that people are talking about is, in fact, that Janet Jackson has never been invited back. And the rumor is that she is banned from Super Bowl halftimes. Although the league says that's not true. But she was disinvited from a Grammy appearance and the like. And people say, well how come she gets all this blame but not the guy?

PERINO: Well, isn't it typical?

GUILFOYLE: Yes, I think it's unfair but not surprising.

PERINO: I will say that I think Broncos fans are really going to enjoy when they're cheering on their team at the Super Bowl, and they watch Justin Timberlake. It's going to be great.

WILLIAMS: In Minneapolis, because you are a Broncos fan.

WATTERS: Do you realize how bad they Broncos are, Dana?

PERINO: Now, they're really -- they're coming back, and Juan has got the colors on today to prove it.

WILLIAMS: There you go. You never know.

GUILFOYLE: Channeling a little Elway.

WILLIAMS: A little Elway. A little Dana Perino right here.

So you're a real fan. You love this sport, but here comes now Greg saying, "You know, it's become too political." I mean, wasn't it Beyonce with the fist and the black leather? And seemed to be delivering a message there. What do you think?

WATTERS: Only non-football fans care about the halftime show. That's when all the people get up and they get excited.

PERINO: They're at their party.

WATTERS: The people who actually don't watch football, they are there for the commercials and for the halftime show.

I could -- I could care less about the halftime show.

GUILFOYLE: You like the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

WATTERS: I'm going to be watching my Eagles at the Super Bowl. So I'm probably going to be taking a bathroom break, probably restocking all my snacks.

GUILFOYLE: Wings.

WATTERS: And wings.

PERINO: Probably getting beaten up.

WATTERS: No, no. So...

WILLIAMS: Excuse me. You want reality? The reality is, your children, I think you have...

WATTERS: Wait, you're a Redskins fan. Right?

WILLIAMS: I'm a Washington football team fan.

WATTERS: Oh! You don't even say the name of your own team, Juan?

GUILFOYLE: Where have you been?

WATTERS: We have a game tonight. You want to play a solo wager?

WILLIAMS: No, because I think that -- I think your Eagles should win.

WATTERS: I'll take that.

WILLIAMS: All right. Kimberly...

GUILFOYLE: Yes. Come to me again.

WILLIAMS: A moment ago you just said that Janet Jackson, you think, came out on the bad end of this deal.

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

WATTERS: And even Timberlake says she got 90 percent of the blame...

GUILFOYLE: Right.

WATTERS: He only got 10 percent.

GUILFOYLE: Listen, we can do a dramatic reenactment here, and I'll show you that he is equally culpable.

WILLIAMS: No, I think -- I think we'll avoid this.

WATTERS: Who's Timberlake?

GUILFOYLE: No, but it's true.

WILLIAMS: Right.

GUILFOYLE: The two of them did the performance together. They both knew, but yet, he's back again. Very unfair. Sad!

WILLIAMS: Go.

GUILFOYLE: Yes.

WILLIAMS: All right. "One More Thing" up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: It's time for "One More Thing." Let's do this.

GUILFOYLE: All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Greg's Shoppers News.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: There's nothing better than shopping for pigs and pugs. As you'll see here, a woman was shopping in Florida. She was shocking up on her pork and she also had a -- over here, she found a pug in aisle nine, which is pugs. Aisle eight is pigs. Aisle nine is pugs.

GUILFOYLE: How did she had room to buy anything? The whole thing's full.

GUTFELD: I don't know. And then she realized she forgot her purse and just left them there.

GUILFOYLE: Maybe they ate it.

GUTFELD: Yes. Anyway.

GUILFOYLE: That was cute.

GUTFELD: It was.

Juan.

WILLIAMS: Oh, OK. I was fascinated. I had so many questions about that.

Anyway, I wanted to give a shout out to B and C Magazine. That's the broadcasting and cable news people. Last week, hey had their 15th Annual Hispanic Television Summit here in New York and invited me on a panel to discuss modern media and young Hispanics.

I was joined by fellow journalists from Buzzfeed, ABC News and CNN. Everybody's ratings are up these days, from broadcast to cable to social media. But the biggest jump: Hispanic news consumption. So it was fascinating to hear about the strides Hispanic media is making and the industry's interest in them.

GUILFOYLE: Didn't I do this with you last year?

WILLIAMS: Yes, you did.

GUILFOYLE: And they didn't ask me back?

GUTFELD: Let's roll this along.

Dana.

PERINO: All right. So Jesse is going to love this one. So French President Emmanuel Macron. He had -- his dog made quite a splash at the Elysee Palace. So they're at a meeting. They have a dog named Nemo. And all of a sudden, the dog actually took a leak on the fireplace.

WATTERS: That's what we call "wee-wee."

WILLIAMS: That was great.

PERINO: He's a rescue. They rescued him in August. And so they were still working on the palace training.

GUTFELD: Is rescue what used to be a pound dog?

PERINO: Yes.

GUTFELD: OK.

GUILFOYLE: Something like that.

GUTFELD: Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: OK. Thank you so much. OK, this is super, super, super cute.

So a 9-year-old sends the president $3 and gets a letter back in return. Eli'sha was very concerned -- Davies, from Tennessee -- because he heard from his parents that President Trump was only going to take a salary of $1. And he is like, "How is this going to be?" Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELI'SHA DAVIES, SENT $3 TO TRUMP: How is he going to eat or drink or, you know, pay if he needs to pay for his bills -- water bill or anything?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUILFOYLE: So back in January, Eli'sha sent him the three bucks. He got the letter back -- he was very excited -- including the $3. Oh, my God. To make a difference in his community and to think big and dream even bigger. So he reinvested.

PERINO: My friend runs the correspondence office.

GUILFOYLE: Oh, wow.

PERINO: Does a good job.

WILLIAMS: A good job.

PERINO: I didn't name her. I didn't drop her name.

GUTFELD: Oh, you're really important.

GUILFOYLE: Drop it like it's hot.

GUTFELD: I have people -- I know people that do important stuff, too.

PERINO: Like what?

GUTFELD: Jesse. Jesse is important.

WATTERS: We'll see.

So all of the five former presidents living were raising money for the hurricane relief over the weekend. And there they were. They raised, I think, over $33 million, which was quite incredible. But there was a funny moment during President Clinton's speech between W. and Obama. Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It can be a new beginning if we just do what we ought to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUILFOYLE: I mean, something's not right.

WATTERS: There goes W. cracking a joke. Obama's laughing, and he's looking to see if Obama is -- there he is. Peeking. Did he find it funny? Yes, he did.

GUTFELD: There's something on Bill's back. That's what it is.

PERINO: Obama is trying not to laugh.

A "kick me" sign?

GUTFELD: Yes, exactly. Well, I was -- yes.

PERINO: Or something.

GUTFELD: We'll just leave it at that.

Set your DVRs. Never miss an episode of "The Five." "Special Report" is up next.

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